Summoning Ritual (1)
“Heeheehee!”
A hand shot out, only to be severed at the wrist.
“Kyah…!”
Aiming for my throat, the creature lunged, but I smashed its teeth with the pommel of my sword.
A sticky swamp lake. The brutal skirmish unfolded on its surface.
‘Impressive.’
Dalen thought as he swiftly decapitated another wraith with a flick of his sword.
This place was treacherous; a single misstep could mean sinking forever into the ten-meter-deep sludge.
Being able to move across the lake as if it were solid ground was an incredible advantage for a warrior wielding a cold weapon.
Splash!
Girls darted across the swamp, leaving only shallow footprints.
Swoosh—
In front of them, I landed with a splash, treating the swamp as if it were solid earth.
A unique skill, unlike ordinary ones, recreated through a domain.
It had no concept of mastery, allowing its user to wield it as if they had perfected it from the start.
With a bit more skill, I felt I could perform similar feats not just on water, but in mid-air.
Normally, this was a skill acquired late in the game, offering endless possibilities to explore.
Slash!
Three creatures were caught mid-swing on my blade. There was no room for preparation.
Dalen applied more force, and the sword regained its momentum.
“Heeheehee!”
“Hyah, heehee!”
After slicing through three, five more were upon me, leaving no room to swing my sword.
But that wasn’t a problem. If I couldn’t use the sword, I simply wouldn’t.
Fwoosh!
In an instant, flames enveloped my arms from fingertips to elbows.
Crack!
As my arms blurred, the five charging wraiths were flung back as if yanked by strings.
Skulls caved in, necks snapped.
Shattered ribs pierced through their backs, sending blood and entrails flying.
Splash! Splash!
The onslaught paused, but there was no time to rest.
I kicked the sword back into the air with my foot, catching it as I leapt.
Whoosh—
Suspended high in the air, I looked down.
A dozen swamp wraiths surged toward where I had just stood.
Crash!
“Kyah!”
Despite tearing at each other, the creatures showed no intention of restraining their aggression.
After the first strike wiped out a hundred, the wraiths hesitated only briefly.
The moment Dalen stepped toward the core, they charged again with reckless abandon.
“Heehee, grrr!”
“Heeheehee!”
They abandoned even the idea of retreating to the spirit realm, relying solely on sheer numbers to overwhelm.
For every two I felled, four more clambered over their fallen kin.
‘As expected.’
For the wraiths, protecting the core was their absolute priority.
And for Dalen, their relentless assault was actually advantageous.
Swoosh—
At the end of my thoughts, I spun in the air and landed back on the water’s surface.
A massive ripple spread from beneath my feet.
The first step of my unique skill, ‘Tread,’ converted a significant portion of released mana into physical force.
Sss…
A destructive aura gathered on the blade.
Simultaneously, my senses expanded, surveying the entire lake.
The wraiths that had spread out to hunt were now mostly returning to the lake where the core was.
Despite cutting down two and crushing four, more wraiths kept coming, outnumbering those I had defeated.
But now, it was over.
In their attempt to capture Dalen, the wraiths had formed a dense encirclement, disregarding their own safety.
The impenetrable barrier was something even Dalen couldn’t break through with brute force alone.
But if I chose to break it rather than escape, it was a perfect opportunity to annihilate all the enemies at once.
Fwoosh—
A bright holy flame joined the swirling destructive aura.
Rumble…
A thunderous roar filled my mind, engulfing the entire blade, as the same thunder echoed from the dark clouds above.
Since the dragon’s blood began flowing through my veins, I could easily combine the holy flame with the crushing sword of Lafantella.
On top of that, the power of the first domain, “Thunderstrike.”
Based on the first step of the unique skill, Tread, which surged from beneath my feet.
I poured all my strength into a single sword strike.
Crack!
Even my body, strengthened by dragon’s blood, groaned ominously.
A feat impossible with the body’s natural limits.
Without the mystical body from Bourbon, this level of power was still quite a strain.
‘But to face a demon like Kalkas, I need a trump card like this.’
A demon ranked among the top under the evil god.
In the midst of battle with such a demon, there would be no time to explore new powers.
Practicing a secret move in advance was a step toward victory.
“Hee…?”
That was the end of my thoughts. A flash of light shot from the descending sword tip.
Boom!
The sticky surface of the lake split apart, and the storm of holy flames engulfed the mass of wraiths.
There was no bloodshed.
The holy flames consumed and incinerated the shattered bodies of the wraiths without leaving a trace.
“Kii…?”
Amidst the thick mist rising from the evaporated section of the lake, a few surviving wraiths scrambled toward the core.
Cleaning up the remaining wraiths was easy.
After Dalen’s final strike, they could no longer hide in the spirit realm.
‘I didn’t know the holy flame had this ability.’
The storm of holy flames that swept through nearly a third of the lake left a lingering aura of divine power over the area.
As a result, the wraiths’ ability to traverse the spirit realm was temporarily sealed.
How divine power interfered with the wraiths’ abilities was still unknown.
Given my intention to acquire as many possibilities as possible, continuing research on divine power and miracles seemed wise.
‘It’ll be necessary later.’
At some point in the impending apocalypse.
Though I couldn’t pinpoint the exact time, Dalen was certain he would set foot there at least once.
‘In hell, there’s no more effective strategy than divine power.’
Hell.
The stronghold of five evil gods and hundreds of demons.
A world where all negative possibilities had become reality, occupying a corner of the fantasy world.
Even beyond the monitor, it was a place rarely visited. That meant it was that dangerous and difficult to access.
‘It’s not a problem to worry about right now.’
Dalen shook his head lightly. He tossed aside the corpse of a wraith with a hole in its chest.
Thud! Splat—
With a flick of his fingers, an axe rose from somewhere in the swamp, flying toward him.
As it spun through the air, it splattered muck from the depths of the swamp everywhere.
”…”
Sheathing his sword, Dalen wiped the grime from his face.
He approached the massive flesh at the center of the lake.
Thump. Thump.
The rhythmic pulsing grew clearer as he drew closer.
A massive fig-shaped mass of flesh, fifty meters in diameter. Beneath its thin skin, pipe-like veins pulsed slowly.
Dozens of mouths high above inhaled and exhaled deeply.
It was absorbing the remnants expelled from hell, wandering the labyrinth.
Watching this part of the ecosystem, where wraiths were remade from the absorbed waste, Dalen slowly raised his axe.
Slice!
A light cut. The tough, thick skin of the core was only scratched.
Dalen applied more force and cut again. Considering the contents inside, careful control of strength was necessary.
How many times did he repeat this?
Rip…
The skin, tougher than that of most monsters, tore away.
Splash!
From deep within, a watery liquid gushed out like a waterfall.
Gush…
Having anticipated this, Dalen stepped aside to avoid it.
Half-melted bones and limp flesh, various monster body parts, poured out with the liquid for a while.
By the time the flow had reduced to a trickle, Dalen stepped into the torn opening of the flesh.
[…Wow.]
The demon gasped. It was an impressive sight.
The flesh, swollen several times larger than usual. Inside was the belly of the core.
Monsters, half-melted, gaped and flailed their limbs, tightly bound by tough flesh and tendrils.
From the Frogmen to the myriad of monsters inhabiting the third level of the labyrinth, all were being slowly digested alive in this place.
The stench was suffocating, not just a strong odor but a toxic gas potent enough to cause blisters on the skin of an ordinary person.
Dalen squinted slightly as he looked up.
At the top of the massive stomach, a gaping hole in the fleshy ceiling suggested something had once been there.
“They did take the Wraith Core.”
That hole should have housed the Wraith Core.
The faint traces of gunpowder residue in the empty cavity indicated that the rebels had somehow extracted the core.
“The hundreds of creatures being digested alive must be their attempt to fill that hole again.”
Creating a new Wraith Core required a significant amount of nutrients.
Typically, the core was crafted by extracting the lingering thoughts from the remnants of hell and refining them over a long period.
The agonized thoughts of countless lives rotting away could potentially regenerate at least a part of the core.
The wraiths had been capturing rather than killing their prey to let them die slowly within the stomach of the mother.
Squelch. Squelch.
Dalen moved through the dozen or so stomachs, probing the thick gastric juices with the tip of his spear.
Most of what he found were monsters. Creatures like the Frogmen that lived in groups, or solitary predators like the Eyeball Turtles and Fileroon Eels.
After searching for a while, he also discovered human forms among them. Five agents and four rebels.
“They’re still breathing.”
The agents were unharmed. It made sense, as they had likely been thrown into the stomach not long ago, still under sedation.
In contrast, the rebels, who had been rotting in the stomach for days, were in a horrific state.
Their corroded ribs exposed half-melted lungs desperately gasping for air, and their skin had completely peeled away from their skulls.
Fortunately, one of them was still alive. Judging by his decaying bones and muscles, he had once been a formidable warrior.
Dalen moved the agents and the rebel out of the mother. Then he revived the rebel.
Crackle!
“Ugh, cough…”
The rebel awoke with a groan, jolted by a mild electric shock. Dalen crouched in front of his tattered face.
“Betrayal… The elders betrayed us…”
“Yeah, I can tell you got double-crossed just by looking at you.”
He drew a hand axe. The rebel didn’t have much time left, so the interrogation needed to be quick and to the point.
Dalen placed the axe on one of the few remaining fingers and asked, “The rebel elders. What are they planning to do with the Wraith Core?”