Dracon ran toward the Seil Kingdom with all his might.
His heart pounded as if it would burst, and his breath rose to his throat, but he could not stop.
He had to get away from this place at once and inform the Order of one critical fact.
Evil dark mages had appeared in the Silent Mountains!
The dark mages did not stop there.
With their formidable power, they had summoned countless legions of undead.
It was a sight that still made his flesh tremble.
Rainel and his fellow paladins had risked their lives in that horrific battle to create an opening for Dracon.
If only to ensure their sacrifice was not in vain, he had to tell the Order as quickly as possible.
As he ran on in a frenzy, a familiar suit of armor entered his sight.
It was a paladin like himself.
Why was another paladin here?
But Dracon was in no state to question it.
“B-Brother! S-Something terrible has happened! Over there… dark mages appeared over there!”
Rather, he felt a little relieved by the fact that he was not alone.
Dracon exchanged greetings with the other man.
When the other introduced himself as Eric, Dracon likewise gave his own name.
Then they moved on to the matter at hand.
“Brother Eric, I just… witnessed something terrible over there.”
His voice trembled.
Meeting Eric had loosened the tension in him, and his emotions surged all the more.
Even so, he desperately continued speaking.
“Our paladin brothers… were slaughtered by an undead legion. Lord Rainel tried to protect me, and…”
Dracon’s voice shook for a moment and broke off.
It felt as though the deaths of his comrades were being vividly replayed before his eyes.
“We must inform the Order of this at once! The Eldorad Continent is in danger!”
They had to quickly spread word of the appearance of the dark mages and the undead legion and prepare for it.
“My word… you truly went through something horrifying.”
After listening, Eric placed a hand on Dracon’s shoulder as he trembled in fear.
“But Brother, please calm yourself first and tell me in detail. Right now, understanding the situation is more important than anything else.”
Eric’s words were gentle, but there was neither surprise nor sympathy in his eyes.
Only emptiness existed there.
“Now, what exactly happened? And what do you mean by an undead legion?”
As he questioned Dracon, Eric placed a hand on the sword at his waist.
Eric’s true identity was a banshee controlling a paladin.
The banshee had a duty to protect the dungeon of the Great One.
Thus, if the human before him had noticed anything, he intended to kill him immediately.
‘An undead legion, you say…’
An undead legion had appeared in the mountains.
And he had said there were dark mages as well.
Several possibilities immediately came to mind.
‘Could Lord Necros have moved?’
Necros was an arch lich.
Since he possessed a skill that could raise corpses as skeletons, he could likely create an undead legion in an instant.
And since he wore a robe, it would be understandable for him to be mistaken for a dark mage.
However, Eric shook his head.
Necros had currently been granted a new dungeon by the Great One.
He would be busy managing it, so leisurely leading undead around and dealing with paladins?
It made no sense.
And Necros was not the only one capable of operating an undead legion.
‘Then did Lord Death Knight move?’
The Death Knight also had one ability.
It was the ability to turn those he killed into ghouls.
Sometimes, the stronger the will of the dead, the more likely a mutation would be born or an even more powerful ghoul would emerge.
If one made good use of those, creating an undead legion would be no difficult task.
In addition, the Death Knight was the mid-boss of Area 1 on the 1st Floor.
If he made use of Area 1’s forces, it was entirely possible.
‘No, it isn’t that either.’
But Eric shook his head again this time as well.
The Death Knight was currently supervising fortification work inside the dungeon.
There was no way he would be wandering around outside.
‘Perhaps it was the assault unit.’
The assault unit was a force recently established by General Administrator Celia.
It was composed entirely of undead monsters.
It was an elite force that charged at the enemy, undaunted even by death.
And the one leading the assault unit was a dullahan.
‘Not as strong as Lord Necros or Lord Death Knight, but strong enough.’
If it was a dullahan, it had more than enough strength to subdue paladins.
Thinking so, Eric tried to draw his sword.
In any case, if this truth became known to the Order, they would certainly lead troops and invade the mountains.
To prevent that worst-case scenario, he had to kill the paladin in front of him.
He intended to kill him and bury the truth.
Until Dracon’s next words reached his ears.
“…It was full of ghouls and skeletons. But that wasn’t all!”
Fear deepened in Dracon’s voice.
“There were dark mages there. They were the ones who summoned the undead legion! We absolutely must make this known!”
At those words, Eric’s expression twisted subtly.
He felt as though things had drifted slightly away from the direction he had been thinking.
Seeing Eric’s expression, Dracon assumed he was thinking the same thing and continued.
“That’s right, Brother Eric. Eclipse has returned. That infamous group of dark mages has appeared in the world once more!”
“Eclipse…!”
The banshee controlling Eric was flustered.
There was only one reason for his bewilderment.
‘What is Eclipse?’
He did not know exactly what this “Eclipse” Dracon mentioned was.
Even as a banshee, he could not extract the memories of the puppet he was controlling.
If there was any consolation, it was that the ones who had clashed with the paladins belonged to this place called Eclipse.
They were unrelated to the Great One’s dungeon.
‘Eclipse, huh…’
Putting together what he had heard, Eclipse was probably a group of dark mages.
Beyond that, he did not know exactly.
However, one thing was certain: they were beings who had trespassed upon the Great One’s domain.
‘How dare they trespass upon the Great One’s domain…’
Eric was enraged.
He was so furious that even his hand began to tremble.
Dracon, seeing this, interpreted it differently.
‘As expected, he is enraged to hear that Eclipse has revived.’
It was only natural that any paladin, anyone belonging to the White Order, would be furious in such a situation.
Dracon felt that telling Eric had been the right choice.
At that moment, Eric opened his mouth.
“This is a grave situation, Brother. Let us hurry to the kingdom! Vice-Captain Riana is there, so she will surely be able to provide us with good counsel!”
Eric clenched his teeth and feigned composure.
Riana was the vice-captain of the paladin order.
With the captain having been killed by the 7-Star Death Knight, she was also the person being discussed as the next captain.
And that was not all.
Riana had witnessed the miracle of “Maru,” who guarded the Great One.
Maru, a skeleton who wielded divine power.
All of it was the power of the Great One, but she had mistaken Maru for the appearance of a saint.
And she had become a follower who obeyed anything related to Maru without question.
Of course, what was said to be Maru’s words were in truth nothing more than something Celia created and Eric delivered, but that was something she could not know.
‘I can use Riana to keep Eclipse in check.’
It would be punishment for trespassing upon the Great One’s domain, and at the same time, a scapegoat to divert the Order’s attention.
‘Only for Him—’
Eric devised a plan to turn the Order’s interest toward the organization called Eclipse.
* * *
A dark aura poured out from the paladin’s body.
His pure-white armor gradually began to be dyed black, and the golden patterns on the armor transformed into a color like burning crimson.
The paladin let out a scream filled with agony.
“There is no goddess, there is no goddess! We were all deceived!”
It was a cry like his very soul was being twisted.
Sharia and Lucas were rendered speechless by the sight unfolding before their eyes.
“……”
He had been a paladin shouting the name of the goddess and fighting until just a short while ago, yet now he was exuding an entirely different aura.
‘He corrupted a paladin…’
And that was not all.
The other paladins, who had seemed powerful, had also been subdued in an instant.
No, could it really be called subduing?
It would not be wrong to call it a massacre.
The paladins had been annihilated.
Those who fell were unable to put up the slightest resistance as their bodies were brutally torn apart and crushed.
The rest were blown apart along with the skeletons’ charge, leaving not even a trace behind.
And the corrupted paladin continued muttering incomprehensible words.
“The goddess does not exist, the goddess never existed. It was all a lie. It was a lie…”
Not a trace of sanctity could be found in his appearance.
Lucas, who had been staring blankly, spoke in an excited voice.
“Did you see that, Captain? That is the Apostle’s true authority!”
Was it not truly astonishing to corrupt a paladin?
“All of this is a portent announcing the resurrection of the Evil God. The day when our Eclipse witnesses that great moment is not far off!”
Lucas bowed his head toward the apostles.
A new era would now arrive.
A fanatical light overflowed in his eyes.
It was the same for Sharia.
“As expected, offering a donation to the Apostle was the right decision!”
Sharia whispered with a face flushed with excitement.
Though the money to buy bread and ham had vanished in an instant, after seeing a miracle made with money, she had no regrets.
Rather, tears of emotion almost flowed.
But even amid that emotion, there was something she could not quite understand.
‘Why did he allow one of them to escape?’
In this battle, one paladin had fled.
With the Apostle’s power, he should have been able to prevent him from escaping, so why had he spared him?
He had not even shown any sign of pursuing the one who had fled.
“Um… Apostle?”
“Clack!”
When Sharia cautiously approached, Necros smiled contentedly.
Though she looked poor on the outside, she was a human who had given him gold coins.
It was only natural to show her favor.
“I do not know if I dare ask such a question. Is there a reason you are letting the fleeing paladin go?”
At Sharia’s question, he thought for a moment, then opened his mouth.
“Clack clack clack. Clack clack. Clack clack!”
Necros seemed to be explaining something while pleasantly clacking his bones. To Sharia, however, it was nothing more than the sound of bones.
‘He must have some intention.’
She did not mind.
The Apostle was a being who served the Evil God.
She simply thought there must be some reason she herself did not know.
“Clack clack.”
(That is how it came to be.)
Regardless of what the other party thought, Necros completed his answer to the question.
Everything happening in the mountains right now was part of Celia’s plan.
Celia had clearly said it.
Make it so that intruders continued to visit the dungeon.
From those words, Necros had realized something.
If they killed all the intruders, at some point, their footsteps would cease.
Only if at least some survived would rumors continue to spread, and that would lead to the intruders’ return visits.
If that happened, the intruders would undoubtedly continue climbing the mountains in the future as well.
“Clack.”
Just thinking about it put him in a good mood.
If intruders kept coming, did that not mean his income would increase by that much?
That said, it was not something he could simply be happy about.
“Clack…”
Necros was now the master of a new dungeon.
Unfortunately, the dungeon’s location was not in the mountains, but in the Seil Kingdom.
And since it was far from these mountains, coming often would be burdensome.
“……”
So he thought.
How could he earn more money?
Even now, he was making a great deal of money through the monster arena, but Necros wanted more money.
The only thing better than money was more money.
“Clack.”
After thinking for a moment, Necros gave an order.
In any case, he could take his time thinking about future matters later.
For now, cleaning up came first.
At Necros’s command, the skeletons and ghouls began collecting the equipment scattered across the battlefield.
Most of the paladins had been blown to pieces by the explosions, but he carefully gathered even the remaining fragments and equipment.
Necros moved off together with the undead legion, which had gathered the offerings and corpses.
Now he intended to distribute the harvest, and deliver a portion of it to Celia.
Necros always placed importance on distribution.
If he ate everything alone, problems were sure to arise.
“Clack clack.”
Necros was in a good mood today as well.
“W-Wait for us! Apostle!”
And behind him, Sharia and Lucas followed closely.
Once they left, the forest regained its silence.
A cold wind carried the smell of blood as it swept through the woods.
* * *
Necros and the Death Knight returned to the dungeon.
Behind them were not only ghouls and skeletons, but two dark mages as well.
Celia examined the humans with curious eyes.
As the dungeon’s general administrator, humans were no different from tools with various uses to her.
Some would gain the honor of being offered as sacrifices to the Great One.
Others would gain the opportunity of service by producing monsters to protect the dungeon.
There would even be those who would end up working as laborers in the Great One’s dungeon.
“Mr. Necros, what are those humans?”
Hidden within Celia’s question was the meaning of “What is their role?”
“Guuuuuh.”
(They are just humans of no significance.)
The mutant ghoul answered first, tactless as ever.
“Mr. Ghoul, be quiet.”
Of course, he was immediately dismissed.
“Guuuh guuuh.”
(Sob sob.)
Necros, however, was different.
“Clack clack.”
(They are sponsors.)
Since those dark mage humans had given Necros money, it was not wrong.
“Sponsors…”
At the word “sponsors,” Celia’s eyes flashed.
Among the kinds of humans she knew, there were also special beings like Kazel, the dungeon’s first human adjutant.
Her interest was piqued.
At that moment, one human came forward, trembling.
“A-Apostle of the Great One! My name is Sharia, and the Great One is soon to be my master! I, too, am a dark mage who awaits His resurrection and hates the Order!”
Celia smiled faintly.
A human who yearned for the descent of her great master and called herself His servant.
What a loyal and admirable heart that was.
Celia gladly welcomed the humans.