Chapter 134
Chapter 134
As the strange and bone-chilling funeral march echoed, the bodies of the corpses began to change.
Stronger, sturdier.
And more perfect. The momentum itself had shifted. I felt it with my entire body that the corpses were getting stronger by the second.
The level of resentment they harbored was changing.
“The sky.”
Dark smoke billowed from the countless pipes attached to the massive pipe organ, covering the sky.
Great eyeballs appeared in the blackened sky. They were eyes with pupils like snakes, torn long and vertically. Inside the vertically slit pupils, dense fangs were packed.
It was as if the pupils were not eyes, but the mouths of beasts.
— Ahahahaha! Kihehehe! K-Keuk, heuk! Ahahahaha!
Along with the sound of laughter from the sky, the sound of grinding teeth echoed.
Slowly, centered around the massive organ, thick veins began to stretch across the earth. These veins were so dense near the organ that they completely covered the ground.
With a thud, thud, dozens of massive tombstones fell from the sky and slammed firmly into the ground. Then, the dead corpses rose to their feet once again, breathing out fury toward the living.
The sight was enough to make even veteran soldiers, who had experienced countless atrocities, lose their courage.
“Yes, it has to be at least this much to be called the core of an Erosion Core.”
The core of the Erosion Core that died at my hands in Jaun Valley must be feeling damn wronged. That guy probably had this much power too.
I handed the crown to Han Sang-ah.
“Why are you giving this to me?”
Instead of an answer, I pointed to the tombstones driven into the earth.
“Use the crown to deal with those. They are amplifying the organ’s performance. Jung Oh-hoon, you support Han Sang-ah here.”
“Then, what about you?”
I gestured toward the organ with my chin.
“I have to go play with that. Ah, and lend me your shoes for a bit.”
I'm lending the crown in return. Think of it as an exchange.
“Got it.”
I had to hinder the organ's performance. The level at which it strengthened the undead was incredible. The corpses affected by that performance had become at least five times stronger.
As I stood up wearing the shoes I received from Han Sang-ah, Ramin spoke.
“I will go with you along with the elite troops.”
You're going to accompany me? I looked at Ramin with a suspicious expression and replied.
“Don't be ridiculous. If you get close to that organ, you'll die.”
From here, the organ’s performance didn't affect the living soldiers. However, the closer they got, the vibrations of that sound would affect the soldiers.
Probably, their heads would explode, and they’d die.
“You guys destroy the tombstones too. Give up on the castle walls anyway since they’re smashed.”
Still, thanks to my strategy working out, we had secured a fairly large number of heads. It was approximately one million.
Of course, if they died, that one million would become undead. But since there were priests to bless the dead so they wouldn't turn into undead, the damage wouldn't be too great.
“However, this is necessary.”
Ramin said so, then carefully took out a small box, placed it on the floor, and knelt before it.
It was a box decorated with white ivory, ebony, and gold. I let out a small exclamation of admiration.
“That’s incredible.”
“You’re right, it’s a box that looks expensive.”
While Ramin knelt and prayed before the box, Jung Oh-hoon whispered from the side. I glanced at the guy at those words.
“I'm saying the contents, not the box, are incredible.”
I felt an immense power from the object contained in that box. Ramin carefully opened the lid.
“...It’s a nail.”
A single rusty nail was inside the box. Jung Oh-hoon wore a slightly disappointed expression. However, I couldn't help but give a completely different assessment.
My god. Is this the kind of nail used when your savior was stuffed onto a cross? For this level of power, it would have to be of that grade. Where on earth did this thing come from?
“It chooses its owner. For now, only I, who inherited the blood of a saint, am permitted to dare touch it.”
Ramin looked at me with a firm expression.
“Without this, we cannot eliminate Parhel, one of the high priests of Valea.”
So, you're asking to go together. I stared silently at the rusty nail inside the box.
“Permission?”
As I took a step toward the box, the nail immediately began to tremble violently. Ramin looked at me with a panicked expression.
“It does not welcome your approach.”
Instead of an answer, I brought my hand toward the nail. At that moment, a hole was punched into my hand with a thud. It was a wound that looked exactly as if I had been pierced by a nail.
“....”
“Any more than that is dangerous! That was a warning just now. Next time, it will aim for your heart!”
Blood dripped from my hand.
A tool picking its person? These are the types of equipment I hate the most. Added to that, Parhel was a strong lich. If I accompanied Ramin, I would have to fight Parhel while protecting him, and I didn't want to do that.
Why increase the difficulty of an already hard fight? Unless there’s some kind of reward falling my way.
“Try to pull another trick on me. Just once. More. You piece of rusty nail.”
A sword tempered with demon blood, a pen made from an angel's feather, a cloth that covered the remains of a saint.
Those things also rejected me at first. But eventually, they were all held in my hand and used in the way I wanted. The method was simple.
“Try to act up one more time. Then I'll burn you all up, leaving nothing behind.”
I stared at the nail inside the box while flaring up the Paradoxical Flame on my bleeding hand.
The vibration of the nail, which had been acting up savagely, slowly subsided. I reached out and grabbed the rusty nail. This time, it didn't do anything insolent like before.
“As expected, physical therapy is effective in cases like this.”
Having picked up the nail, I tucked it into my sleeve and looked at Jung Oh-hoon and Han Sang-ah.
“Once you've destroyed all the tombstones, the two of you may join me.”
If it was Han Sang-ah and Jung Oh-hoon, they would be able to endure the approach once the tombstones amplifying the organ's power were all destroyed.
After finishing the conversation and jumping off the castle wall, I landed on the ground and began a straight sprint toward the massive organ visible in the distance, swinging my spear fiercely.
“Ah, this is truly great.”
This wasn't Earth. And it was wide. Taking a huge step and leaping toward the sky, I struck the ground hard with my spear as I fell from the air. The ground exploded, and shattered corpses soared into the sky.
“Everyone, get lost!”
I felt like running immensely today. Every time I put strength into my legs, the earth wrapped in veins exploded, and corpses flew.
Right now, I wasn't dealing with the corpses. I was just running, and they were blowing up on their own.
“No need to worry about repairs either.”
Honestly, there was no reason to care about casualties. This wasn't Earth, and it was a place where I didn't have to think about the aftermath once it collapsed.
Parhel had said she couldn't exert her full power in the cave. In truth, I couldn't fight with my full power on Earth either.
“Because once all of this is over, I have to keep living on Earth!”
I reached out toward a corpse in front of me and struck its stomach, and with an explosive sound, the corpse was sent flying at an incredible speed, colliding with a bunch of other corpses and sending them flying in all directions like bowling pins.
Sprinting without rest like that, I finally arrived before the massive organ in question.
“Hey, crawl out.”
Don't go making excuses later after the organ is all smashed up. At that moment, the organ was played at an incredible speed, emitting a destructive sound wave.
The spreading sound wave swept the surroundings. The corpses couldn't endure that destructive performance and blew up while standing.
“Don't pull any tricks.”
The blue trajectories wrapping around my body vibrated, mitigating the waves pouring toward me. While everything around me blew up from being unable to endure the sound wave, the veins covering the earth fluttered like sea anemones and tried to wrap around my legs.
At that moment, the blue trajectories activated and sliced all the veins apart.
“A man in a hurry has no charm.”
The girl revealed herself from between the covered veins. It was Parhel. She was in a state where she had wrapped her body with the veins covering the earth instead of clothes.
The squirming veins were connected by piercing Parhel’s skin. The veins moved in lumps, injecting something into Parhel’s body. It was likely the emotions like fear or despair of the people fighting on the battlefield.
“What’s the use of trying to look good to a corpse.”
“How mean.”
A performance stand rose from the floor.
It was an organ console with eight hand keyboards and four foot keyboards.
“Do you like music?”
Parhel naturally sat on that console and asked the question while placing her hands on the keys. When I tried to rush in and attack, blood vessels that immediately rose from the ground created a net-like encirclement to hinder my attack.
“I tend to like it more than you think.”
Parhel burst into laughter. The blood vessels protruding from behind her back became tangled into tentacle forms and pressed the hand and foot keyboards on the organ console.
Speed was added to the howling performance of the massive organ that had been echoing leisurely.
“....”
I wiped a thin trail of blood flowing from the corner of my mouth with the back of my hand. Bones protruding from the floor instantly formed a castle wall, and soldiers fashioned from lumps of meat took their places atop that wall.
As if responding to the performance flowing from the organ, a fortress was erected before my eyes in an instant, and the troops guarding that fortress revealed themselves one by one.
“Yes, well. It has to be at least this much to be called a lich.”
The pinnacle of necromancers.
A lich could be called a one-man legion. One had to be deeply versed in the business of handling corpses and vengeful spirits to become a lich.
“It is my castle. I am the queen. You will die here. Since I have decided so, the only thing left is to wait for it to be fulfilled.”
The lumps of meat positioned on the castle walls made of piled bones aimed arrows at me and floated magic circles in the air.
If I crossed that wall, powerful undead capable of handling a decent knight alone would be waiting for me.
“We are powerful and persistent. Moreover, we keep coming back to life. If someone asks you, the dead, if you know the concept of infinity, tell them about my army.”
Parhel, positioned beyond the castle wall, lifted her hand slightly.
“Then let’s begin. Make this queen laugh, clown.”
Parhel, who had created a castle guarded by a vast army of undead in a short time, lifted her hand.
Did that tiny lich just call herself a queen and call me a clown?
Fine, well, I'll play along. I bowed slightly and said.
“Then, this is the first joke I've prepared today. I don't know if you'll like it or not.”
As soon as the words ended, the Paradoxical Flame that spread from my body covered this area, including the castle and Parhel.
“What on earth is this. Huh? Hmm?”
Soon, Parhel looked around with a noticeably panicked expression.
“Welcome to a world without perspective.”
What the Paradoxical Flame was burning was the sense of perspective. Now, in this area, one couldn't tell how close or how far an opponent was.
Even if they were far away, it was no different from being right in front of one's nose, and even if they were right in front, one couldn't tell the difference from being far away.
If I were to use an art metaphor, wouldn't it be similar to us fighting inside a Picasso painting right now?
“Have you ever fought in a state like this?”
“....”
There was no way she had. If she had, she wouldn't be this panicked. I'm fine. That's why I created this situation.
Even if perspective disappeared, it was on a different level from having one eye closed.
A world that was all too familiar to me, but one the opponent was unfamiliar with.