Chapter 790: The Prophet of Yorta (4)

Whoosh…!!

The ash-gray giant shattered the thick ice barrier and rose. Its skin, shriveled like a mummy in the cold, contrasted with its dazzling, unfaded armor. Only the grotesquely distorted face visible inside its helmet proved that it was not alive and moving.

“D-damn it…! What the hell is a Guardian Spirit Beast?!”

“Why is a monster like that trapped in a prison like this?!”

Even without knowing what a Guardian Spirit Beast was, no one failed to feel its overwhelming pressure and chilling cold. With faces contorted in fear, they kept their distance, glancing around frantically for an escape route.

Among the prisoners retreating from the ice barrier, Lennok looked up at the giant, his arms crossed.

“The corpse of a Guardian Spirit Beast that died long ago…”

Lennok watched the Frost Lord, who was glaring at them, trailing frozen breath, and fell into thought. Its armored form and human-like skeleton. While its body measured several meters, its appearance was remarkably similar to a human.

‘A humanoid form. And a spirit beast with considerable intelligence at that. This is the first time I’ve seen this type.’

Strictly speaking, the only Guardian Spirit Beasts Lennok had seen directly were the ones he himself had created. Yet, when Tatiana had explained Guardian Spirit Beasts, she hadn’t given the impression of them being humanoid. Was this deceased Guardian Spirit Beast, the Frost Lord, unique, or had many such spirit beasts existed long ago? Either way, it was a question for which there was no immediate answer.

More than that, Lennok focused on the meaning of the words left by the Chronicle’s author.

The Demolding Curse.

He couldn’t overlook the fact that the curse mentioned by the Ascendant’s Codex was the very death the Frost Lord had met.

‘It was called that – the complete consumption and annihilation of one’s essence by a higher predator.’

Recalling the conversation he’d had in the Codex’s consciousness space, Lennok slowly began to draw up his magic. From the moment he realized the Frost Lord had consumed the entire 5th underground level and blocked this space, combat was inevitable. If he was lucky, he might even obtain data on the Demolding Curse here.

Creak…!!

He wrapped mana threads around his fingertips, hooked them onto scattered gravestones nearby, and pulled.

Crack!!

Following his gesture, the surrounding gravestones were torn from the ground, wrapped in mana threads, and dragged behind Lennok.

“P-prophet!!”

The giant man asked, his face etched with urgency.

“Are you planning to fight that?”

“It’s not alive, but it’s a combat-capable type. It seems to wield widespread and powerful cold.”

Thump, thump!!

Lennok replied, watching the Frost Lord advance with heavy, stomping steps.

“If it can freeze the entire 5th underground level just by breathing, the range of its effect must be immense.”

“What…?”

Bang!!

Lennok, who had gathered dozens of gravestones he’d pulled from the ground with mana threads, murmured.

“Rather than pointlessly keeping our distance, it would be better to finish it quickly in a short fight.”

“No, that’s not what I meant!”

The giant man hastily shook his head and asked.

“We have to escape! How in the world do you plan to fight something like that?!”

“I don’t know about you, but I still have business with that Guardian Spirit Beast.”

Lennok turned his gaze towards the giant man. A strange gleam flickered beyond his obsidian mask, making the giant man flinch.

“If you want to live, run. I won’t stop you.”

“…Can you win?”

“It’s not entirely out of the question.”

Lennok chuckled at the giant man’s trembling murmur.

“More importantly, can you really afford to chat so leisurely there?”

Thump!

At that moment, the Frost Lord, slowly advancing towards them, stopped abruptly. As the Guardian Spirit Beast, its shriveled face looking down at the ground, opened its mouth wide and inhaled, cold winds from all directions were sucked in at tremendous speed.

Whoosh…!!

It felt as if the surrounding atmospheric pressure momentarily shifted just from its intake of breath.

The moment the giant man, instinctively sensing what was about to happen, threw himself sideways with all his might, and Lennok raised a finger wrapped in mana threads—

[Gwoooooooh!!!!]

An immense storm of cold erupted from the Frost Lord’s mouth.

Kwoooooosh!!!

The Guardian Spirit Beast spewed forth a fierce gale, scattering intensely cold, frosty radiance as if firing a laser. All the gravestones embedded in the ground were ripped out, and the prisoners’ corpses buried within were scattered like toys.

“Uwaaaaaaah!!”

The remaining prisoners screamed desperately as they fled madly. A fierce gale powerful enough to overturn the entire garden and more. Fleeing desperately, the most they could do was avoid being swept away by the frozen storm spewed by the Frost Lord. Was that one of the monsters trapped in the Memorial Tower’s underground, and the very entity that turned this place into a demonic realm?

A monster that not only froze the entire prison with its breath but also moved perfectly even in death, coveting the vitality of the living. It was not an opponent one could face head-on and defeat. To confront that thing head-on, in one’s right mind, was nothing short of madness.

But as the giant man, frantically fleeing, turned his gaze, he saw the Prophet, cloaked in a shadow robe, standing unharmed, and his eyes widened.

Dozens of gravestones Lennok had already pulled out using mana threads. The moment the Frost Lord spewed its storm, Lennok had re-embedded the gravestones he’d pulled out, using them for support to withstand being swept away by the storm.

Other prisoners, apparently noticing the scene belatedly, spat out all sorts of harsh curses.

“Crazy bastard. Are you just itching to die?!”

“Enough. If he’s the Prophet, he’ll know whether he lives or dies. Why should I care?!”

“Look at that. It’s starting…!!”

Turning their gazes at someone’s unthinking shout, the prisoners watched the battle unfold in earnest, their mouths agape.

The armored ash-gray giant, the Frost Lord’s form, seemed to sway violently, then vanished from its spot.

Whoosh!

The giant’s form descended at tremendous speed, slamming into the spot where Lennok had stood. The impact shook the Memorial Tower’s stairwell section, causing the ground to tremble.

Kwooooong!!

Immediately after, Lennok’s vanished form appeared on the Frost Lord’s shoulder. As he pulled on mana threads, the giant’s neck bent backward, slamming its head into the ground.

Thud-thud-thud-thud!!

Even amidst that, the Guardian Spirit Beast responded by slamming both its arms into the ground as if swimming, using the recoil to push its body up. Lennok, too, connected hundreds of mana threads to restrict the giant’s movement, and further reinforced his hold by hooking threads onto the surrounding gravestones.

Thump, thump, Kwooooong!!

The Frost Lord, continuously unleashing shockwaves and surging forward, and Lennok, reading its movements beforehand and trying to bind it. Offensives and defensives crossed between the giant and the wizard; with every shift of their gazes, waves surged across the ground, and storms of magic raged.

Kwooogagagaga!!!

Dazzling explosions erupted from all sides, hammering the Frost Lord’s entire body, and hundreds of mana threads rippled like waves, entangling the giant’s limbs. The gentle glow of the surging mana threads flickered across the blue plain.

The prisoners, forgetting their escape, watched the magnificent spectacle of silver rain falling at Lennok’s every gesture.

“It’s beautiful…”

“Is that really a human like us?”

“He wasn’t a Prophet. He’s an unbelievable monster…!!”

What kind of being the Prophet had been during their time together in prison no longer mattered. The only thing that mattered was that this wizard possessed overwhelming power, enough to battle a monster trapped in the Memorial Tower.

Leaving the panicked prisoners behind, the giant man gritted his teeth and turned his head.

“…The barrier collapsed, opening a path. We’ll escape while the Prophet fights that monster.”

“Hah, hah!!”

The giant man led the prisoners, frantically fleeing past the collapsed barrier, evading the Frost Lord’s breath. Past the garden, a winding, steep slope. Beyond the hill, only a sheer cliff and a small elevator at its edge were visible.

Jolt, jolt!!

“Th-the elevator’s broken!!”

“Damn it, how are we supposed to…!!”

It was an impossibly long distance to climb the cliff bare-handed. As the bewildered prisoners frantically hammered and fiddled with the elevator to fix it, the giant man checked beneath the control panel and gritted his teeth.

The words left by the Chronicle’s author were scrawled, as if in a hurry, beneath this elevator’s control panel too.

[Broken elevator. It was never intended to function.]

[The escape process itself is a trap; it seems to capture the spirits and bodies that escape the prison and use them as nutrients.]

[More precisely, it means they made it so it doesn’t matter whether you escape the prison or not.]

“A-a trap… Dammit, so what that guy said was…”

Did this mean the Prophet had known all along the facts that the Chronicle’s author only realized upon reaching this point? The giant man shook his head, unable to hide his bewilderment, yet quickly read the remaining message.

[The Frost Lord’s method of eternal slumber is the result of artificial measures; it’s a preservation method a deceased Guardian Spirit Beast alone could not achieve.]

[It’s presumed to be the work of an evil spirit wandering the Memorial Tower’s underground levels, so if you can handle Military Spirit Wizardry, try to communicate. I escaped immediately, so I couldn’t meet it.]

“So how did he escape, then…!!”

The giant man frantically pounded the control panel, but the words written there only revealed the miserable reality.

[My personal opinion is that there’s a possibility it’s disguised as a prisoner, instigating escape.]

[Beware of the traitor.]

“…”

Having read that far, the giant man’s body froze in place as if turned to ice. It belatedly occurred to him that ever since he started reading the chronicle, no one besides himself had spoken a word. A profound silence, where no sound could be heard. A vast graveyard where not even a presence could be sensed.

It must be a mistake. Everyone must be focusing on the message, just like him.

The moment the giant man thought so to himself and abruptly turned his gaze behind him.

“Why are you so slow to catch on?”

The severed heads of the prisoners floated in the air, weeping tears of blood, staring at the giant man.

“Aaaaaaaah!!”

The giant man convulsed, stumbling backward, caught his foot on a tombstone, and fell. The blood of the decapitated prisoners splattered onto the giant man’s fallen face. Incredibly red and hot fresh blood, proving it had just been spilled.

“Ah, ah…”

Above the dazed, fallen giant man, only then did a single person bend down and look at him.

“Do you know why I left these words here?”

The old man, who had been trying to escape with the giant man, was looking at him with a beaming smile. In the old man’s hand was a blood-stained demon-slaying blade, ill-suited for his physique.

“The reactions of friends like you, after reading the entire chronicle and then turning around, are just too amusing.”

“H-huh, h-huh…!!”

“I intentionally leave one person alive, and kill all the others until they finish reading the inscription. How’s that?”

The old man slowly raised his sword, watching the giant man tremble, unable to speak a word.

“I couldn’t catch the one who left this message, but thanks to him, I got a fun new game, so I’m satisfied—”

Kwoooong!!

At that moment, a massive shadow fell from above the two. A bulk that instantly crushed the ground and the gravestones, obliterating all traces. Someone shrouded in a jet-black robe stood atop the helplessly fallen ash-gray giant, looking down at them.

“P-prophet…!!”

The giant man trembled and shouted towards him, and the old man holding the demon-slaying blade subtly frowned.

“Hmph, faster than I thought. Did you destroy the Guardian Spirit Beast’s corpse in such a short time?”

“Dealing with these big guys isn’t a one-day or two-day affair.”

Lennok replied, casually rubbing his shoulder. While giants weren’t a good match for manipulation spellcraft, this was already the third time he’d faced such monsters: Archduke Gillian of Kabahim, Apostle Camlodal, and now the Guardian Spirit Beast, the Frost Lord. Regardless of compatibility, it wouldn’t be strange for Lennok to have already developed a knack for this kind of combat.

As a result, in this barren wasteland where there was little to bind with mana threads, Lennok had utterly crushed the Frost Lord’s corpse without even summoning any specialized system summons.

“You must be the fallen Myriad Ghost said to wander the Memorial Tower’s underground levels.”

Thud!!

Lennok stepped down from the fallen Frost Lord’s corpse, smiling as he looked at the old man with the demon-slaying blade.

“Even if you’re mad, to hide among prisoners and voyeuristically watch their reactions… That’s a disgusting hobby.”

“…”

“Even if you are fallen, I’d like to see just how strong a Myriad Ghost of Yorta truly is.”

Creak…!!

Somewhere, the sound of threads being pulled taut was heard, yet no mana threads were visible. As the old man realized this and frowned, Lennok calmly asked.

“Shall we try?”

“No. We can’t do that.”

The old man, smiling brightly, slowly withdrew his demon-slaying blade and replied.

“A fallen being like myself cannot lay a hand on the owner of that ring…”

“…”

The Guide’s Ring. Did he already know about its soul’s owner? Considering that the Guide’s Ghost was also banished from Yorta and became a fallen entity, perhaps there were specific rules that applied to fallen beings.

“I was hoping to have some fun while you played with that corpse… Well, never mind.”

The old man, cackling as he looked at the sole surviving giant man, spun around without a trace of regret.

“Perhaps after the Night Parade is over, who knows. If you still maintain your spirit and body intact until then, we shall meet again.”

Whoosh!!

With an unpleasant metallic hiss, the old man’s form vanished from the spot as if washed away.

Only then did the giant man, sweating profusely, finally release the breath he had been holding.

“Hah, hah…!!”

“If you weren’t going to listen to my words, you should at least have listened properly to the Chronicle’s advice.”

Lennok said, his voice expressionless, as he tapped the Frost Lord’s corpse.

“You, you… who are you?”

The giant man asked, collapsing weakly onto the spot.

“Who are you, to act as if you know everything in a crazy place like this…!!”

“Ah, this is it.”

Ignoring the horrified giant man’s question, Lennok used mana threads to lift the Frost Lord’s head. As he held open the Guardian Spirit Beast’s pale, rigid mouth, something faintly glowing with golden light glimmered deep within its throat. Something hidden deep within the spirit beast’s throat, accessed through its mouth.

“The power of its exhaled breath was excessively strong for a Guardian Spirit Beast of its size.”

Lennok, having found an old scroll, picked it up and said.

“If there was a secret, I knew it would be inside the Guardian Spirit Beast’s body—”

Lennok unhesitatingly unfurled the scroll, then stopped speaking and gave a bitter smile. Inside the scroll, the same handwriting as the chronicle he had seen so far was written.

“An amusing fellow. Not content with just facing the Guardian Spirit Beast, he even left a separate message inside it?”

He had already thought the person who left inscriptions calling themselves a “chronicle” all over the prison was peculiar, but he never imagined they would leave such a message inside the Guardian Spirit Beast’s body. He didn’t know who the author of this record was, but it seemed highly likely to be someone with a very unique and unconventional worldview. Indeed, that must be why they went to the trouble of leaving all sorts of strange advice and records in a prison like this.

But Lennok’s smile slowly faded the moment he confirmed the contents written on the scroll.

[The Demolding Curse is the end faced by a being with an origin that transcends its vessel, and I have long been interested in it.]

[Perhaps it’s because I felt a sense of kinship with those born with talents unsuited to their station, facing an unwanted death.]

“…”

The Chronicle’s author’s words felt subtly strange. Lennok frowned at the unsettling feeling tickling a corner of his mind, and continued reading the inscription.

[A Guardian Spirit Beast is a spirit beast born within a Domain, possessing intelligence, and existing by materializing itself.]

[Its very existence can be said to have transcended life and death, finding a new life.]

[The conclusion I found in the Infinite Void was different from that, but the meaning itself was not.]

“…Found a conclusion in the Infinite Void?”

Did this mean the author of this chronicle had left this inscription after already entering and returning from the Infinite Void? The moment Lennok murmured after that fact and reread the inscription.

[Therefore, I decided to return from death and record the events that transpired in Yorta as a chronicle.]

“…”

Only then did Lennok realize who the author of this chronicle was.

An origin that transcends its vessel. Talent unsuited to one’s station.

Broad-minded enough to explore every corner of Yorta’s Memorial Tower underground prison and leave advice.

A skilled individual capable of finding the desired flow of curses in the Infinite Void and reaching conclusions.

A being who refers to himself as having returned from death.

“Ethan Bajour…”

The author who entered Yorta long before Lennok and left records in the form of a chronicle was none other than the Marshal of Deadrise, and Kaiser’s son.

The moment he muttered that name, a bitter smile on his face.

Fwaaat…!!!

From the bottom of the scroll, with a dazzling golden glow, hidden text began to emerge.

[Papyrus Aureus activation keyword recognized.]

[One unique embedded consumption spellcraft confirmed.]

[Would you like to use the Resurrection spell?]

Lennok’s expression subtly changed as he read the text that appeared on the papyrus.

“…The Resurrection spell?”