Infiltration Mission (4)
“It was just a coincidence.”
Dalen stood before the altar deep within the tomb, gazing at the soul jar and the ashen corpse beneath it. Memories of the past flooded back to him.
A horde of demons had invaded through a rift, overwhelming the paladin order with sheer numbers. Dalen, a mercenary hired by the order, had managed to escape with a handful of survivors into the ancient ruins below.
The demons pursued them relentlessly, breaking through every trap the ruins had to offer, as if driven by an insatiable need to kill every last one of them.
In the endless chase, the number of survivors dwindled. Paladins were torn apart by demon claws and fangs, and mercenaries were crushed by traps meant for the demons.
The journey, filled with screams and curses, ended at the king’s tomb at the bottom of the ruins. Of the dozen or so survivors, only one reached that place—Dalen’s character.
“There was nowhere left to run. This was where I made my last stand.”
In the king’s tomb, Dalen’s character faced the demon once more. Unlike the one-sided pursuit before, a fierce battle ensued. The demon had weakened, having smashed through the ruins’ traps and fought the tomb’s guardian.
The demon, stripped of its sacrificial power and cursed by the dying guardian, was a shadow of its former self. Meanwhile, Dalen’s character had endured to the brink of the apocalypse, becoming something of a hero.
After nearly an hour of a nail-biting boss fight, Dalen, from behind his monitor, finally gained the upper hand.
But then…
“Just when I thought I’d won, the demon absorbed the soul jar.”
It was a twist of fate. The demon, battered by Dalen’s sword, fell onto the altar, crushing the soul jar with its body.
The demon absorbed the souls within, healing all its wounds instantly. Before the rejuvenated demon, Dalen’s character had no chance to escape and was killed.
[Intruder—]
A deep, resonant voice echoed through the tomb, pulling Dalen from his thoughts. A foreboding sensation tingled at the edge of his senses. He frowned, looking toward the center of the tomb.
In the middle of the tomb, a dark energy gathered around a simple stone coffin. The black aura animated the skeleton within, wrapping its limbs in a robe-like mist.
A staff floated up from the coffin, landing in the skeleton’s grasp. With a resonant hum of alien magic, flames flared in its empty eye sockets.
The skeletal mage glared at Dalen, its jaw opening wide.
“I am Kashan Horahak, the guardian of the king!”
Thud—
The staff struck the ground, sending a fierce wind that swept away centuries of dust. At the center of the storm, the guardian shouted.
“Intruder of the supreme king’s tomb! By the name of the guardian, I command you to return to whence you came…”
“Cough! Damn, this dust, you bastard.”
[…?]
“You think just because you don’t have lungs, you can do this? Selfish skeleton.”
Dalen waved the dust away with his sword. The skeletal mage looked momentarily dumbfounded, while the demon beside him wore an expression of existential despair.
Then, a flash of light.
A hand axe, spinning like a disc of light, ricocheted off. Dalen raised an eyebrow.
Blocked? Really? Even with the bluff, and it worked?
On closer inspection, it wasn’t a complete block. The guardian staggered back a few steps, clutching its collarbone.
Crack. A web of fractures spread, bone dust falling from the deeply gouged clavicle.
The guardian groaned.
“Ah, so you’re not one to be reasoned with.”
The flames in its eye sockets flickered ominously. It raised its staff.
“The price for disturbing the king’s rest. May the curse of death lead you to a painful eternal rest!”
The voice, laden with alien power, echoed through the tomb. A sinister energy surged from all directions.
Goosebumps prickled Dalen’s skin. His eyes, sharp enough to pierce the darkness of night and see the mysteries of the world, discerned the essence of the spell woven into the guardian’s words.
“A curse.”
A spell so advanced it bordered on incantationless magic.
Dalen kicked up his holy sword, catching it as the wave of curses crashed over him.
Sizzle—
The sigil of the curse shield flared brightly. Dragon blood coursed through his veins, warming his muscles.
Curses that filled his lungs with sand, that let beetles devour his eyes from the inside, that grew maggots in his intestines, and stopped his heart for no reason.
Faced with curses that would kill an ordinary person dozens of times over, Dalen’s mind burned with clarity.
His judgment was swift.
This was like fighting the witch of ashes.
A race to see if he would fall to the wave of curses or if he could split the skeleton in two first.
“Quick and decisive.”
His senses and intelligence stats operated at peak efficiency.
In the elongated moment, Dalen discarded his shield.
A meat shield was meaningless now.
The curse targeting his very existence couldn’t be blocked with a shield.
Crunch!
His foot dug into the stone floor, the ground trembling with his superhuman strength.
Whoosh—
Energy exploded from his shoulder, enveloping his arm and hand.
A grin.
The skeletal mage, building layers of dark defenses, clattered its jaw in a mocking laugh.
Then it happened.
“Slurp! Slurp! Munch, munch!”
Suddenly, a ravenous sound came from below.
The noise was so voracious it disrupted even Dalen’s heightened focus.
[…]
”…”
Dalen looked down. The meat shield he had just discarded was devouring something with wild abandon.
Its eyes half-crazed, drool dripping from its mouth.
And Dalen felt a sudden lightness in his body. What?
“Mm, munch, munch!”
With each bite the demon took, the curses enveloping Dalen’s body melted away.
His muscles regained their strength, and the maggots burrowing into his intestines vanished before they could burn in dragon blood.
Only then did Dalen see it.
The chains of Halman, wrapped around the demon’s core, encircling its body.
The corrupted relic glowed with a soft purple light.
“No, I didn’t mean to eat it…”
The demon, realizing Dalen’s gaze, hastily wiped its drool and knelt.
Eating during a battle was a crime that would earn a beating from its battle-crazed master.
But what could it do? The cursed relic had suddenly fed it something delicious. How could it resist?
Even as it felt wronged, the demon clasped its hands together in a pleading gesture.
And then came an unexpected response.
“Good job. Keep eating.”
“I’ll never eat during a battle again… Huh? What?”
“Keep eating.”
The demon was stunned. Had its master gone mad? Or had the curses driven him insane?
But the demon quickly nodded.
In times like this, it was best to just nod. A truth learned from years of beatings.
Leaving the demon nodding furiously, Dalen turned his gaze back to the guardian.
“How is this possible?”
The skeletal mage looked at him in disbelief. Dalen chuckled and grabbed the demon by the scruff with his left hand.
With the meat shield leading the way, he walked steadily toward the skeletal mage.
The guardian involuntarily stepped back. It had chosen curses as a last resort, but if even that failed, what could it do?
With the guardian just a few steps away, Dalen grinned.
He spoke.
“Let’s try that again.”
“You, you…!”
The guardian raised its staff again. Dalen swung his sword lightly.
For a while, the sound of cracking bones echoed through the tomb.
“Urgh. Ugh…”
With a resounding belch, the immortal demon sprawled out lazily.
“I can’t eat another bite…”
The demon gently rubbed its protruding belly, eyelids drooping heavily. Dallon, who had been holding the demon by the scruff, chuckled softly. He nudged the shattered bone fragments with his foot.
The guardian’s body had been formidable, its bones tougher than most steel. Even after Dallon’s sword had split its skull in two, the creature refused to die, continuing to move and hurl curses.
It wasn’t until Dallon had hacked the bones into pieces that the guardian’s movements finally ceased.
“Of course, if I’d used the power of the domain, it would’ve ended much quicker.”
The tomb deep within the ruins wasn’t spacious. Using lightning in such a confined space risked destroying the soul vessel with the backlash. And using the flame armor from his martial arts would mean relinquishing his holy sword, which was unthinkable against a curse-wielder.
“My stomach… feels like it’s going to burst…”
“Stop whining.”
Dallon carried the demon over to the altar. A mysterious energy shimmered like a mirage above it. It was a type of magic, but different from the pure magic winds. The energy, resembling a glowing white cloud, rose from the altar, was drawn into the mouth of the soul vessel, and then cycled back into the altar.
“They’ve somehow processed souls.”
By tapping into the domain’s power, Dallon could roughly discern the nature of the energy. It was a single soul and magic, crafted from the combination of hundreds of souls. How exactly it was done remained a mystery, likely the result of soul altar techniques. That was as much as he could surmise.
Dallon lifted the demon onto the altar and shoved it into the vessel.
“What is this—ugh!”
The vessel shattered, and the misty energy erupted from the altar. Dallon stepped back as the white cloud burst into hundreds of pieces, spreading in all directions.
Then, suddenly, the scattered fragments halted. The white energy seemed to gaze intently at the demon before converging upon it.
“What is this! Aaaah!”
The demon writhed and screamed atop the altar, but the white cloud did not relent. Enveloped by the cloud, the demon began to absorb the energy. Unbeknownst to Dallon, this was the fragmented souls seeking a vessel to call home, willingly throwing themselves into the demon.
Thanks to the chains of Halman binding the souls, Dallon could sense the demon’s growing power.
Ignoring the demon’s frantic thrashing, Dallon turned his attention to retrieving the corpse.
[You have recovered the body of the hero who played tag with the demon. You inherit their abilities.]
[Inheritance Reward: Strength +1, Dexterity +2, Perception +1, Blade of Leredonara (B), Fragment of the Seeker’s Left Eye]
His hand, which had been absorbing the light, trembled slightly.
”…B-grade?”