#206
Prelude to Chaos (1)
In the middle of a space now steeped in cold silence, though until just moments ago it had been filled with the clamor of battle.
“······.”
A man was slowly circling a certain area, looking around again and again.
A being who seemed indistinct yet oppressive, and in another sense almost ordinary.
He was the head of Earth’s greatest secret organization, the leader of the Beoncheonhoe.
‘I can’t tell.’
The spot he was examining now was the place where Hahoe Mask had last stood.
Thinking he might have missed something, he checked it over repeatedly, but no matter how closely he looked, he could find nothing especially unusual.
This space was perfect, as always—.
Not a single flaw, not a single trace, remained.
And that was precisely what was strange.
‘He simply vanished, as though his very existence had been erased. Without any warning.’
He had considered various unique skills and formed several hypotheses, but no matter what he applied, no convincing conclusion emerged.
To leave this space, crossing dimensions was essential. There was no way such a thing could be that easy, was there?
And even if he had escaped from this place through some truly exceptional ability, there should at least have been traces of it.
Not a disappearance without any sign whatsoever, like this.
‘It feels as though I’ve been bewitched by a ghost.’
It was something he could not possibly understand, but now that it had already happened, it was also a reality he had to accept.
And he would also have to prepare countermeasures so the same thing would not happen again.
“Leader! The treatment is all finished!”
While he had been immersed in thought for some time.
At the voice that came from behind him, he turned and looked that way.
“···Doctor. What is the state of the Yullyeongja?”
“Uhyahyat~ He’s gotten past the immediate crisis, at least. As expected, since he’d experienced it once before, it seems he managed to reduce the damage in his own way! This fellow just has a tendency to overdo things because he’s so eager, but his skills are quite decent, aren’t they?”
Doctor glanced at the unconscious Yullyeongja lying collapsed on the ground and spoke shamelessly.
By now, the thought that he himself had been the first to incite the other party and push the matter along had been wiped clean from his mind.
“Hmm, but···.”
The Yullyeongja was covered in all sorts of mechanical devices and magic tools that had been brought out for emergency treatment, as well as unidentified biological tissues and drugs.
Doctor turned his body this way and that several times to examine him, then soon frowned with a displeased look.
“···No matter how much I search, I can’t see it. Honestly, leaving a borrowed item lying around anywhere! Tsk~ This fellow really is careless···. It was made from materials you can’t even obtain anymore, and he went and lost it!”
He even went so far as to scold someone injured while carrying out a mission.
If he had completed the job properly, it might have been one thing, but he had failed to do even that and only caused losses. For someone with such an utterly self-centered way of thinking, it could not help but be displeasing.
“Hm, still, it isn’t an item that can be dealt with easily, so we should be able to retrieve it if we catch Hahoe Mask. I’ll have to devise various methods so we don’t miss him next time!”
Since he had been fully intending to capture and dissect him from the very beginning, nothing in particular had changed.
“Puhit~ In any case, we’ve taken a hit! To think I couldn’t even grasp the principle behind it despite seeing it clearly with my own two eyes? My blood is boiling! Uhyahyat!”
The leader glanced briefly at Doctor, who was burning with his usual madness-filled enthusiasm, then looked down again at the Yullyeongja lying on the floor.
It had been a long time since he had personally stepped forward due to the restrictions, yet he had let that rare opportunity slip away in vain without any meaningful gain.
No, had he not suffered only losses instead of gains?
‘Hahoe Mask···.’
The leader repeated that name once more and engraved it clearly into his memory.
Vowing that he would repay the humiliation of this day without fail.
***
The Immortal Castle, located in the northern mountain range of Auterica.
This place, filled on all sides with the aura of death, was the central stronghold of the Immortal Army and a demonic realm where most of the forces Hans had gathered thus far were assembled.
Of course, that did not mean every villain collected from various regions··· including black magicians and members of underground organizations, was present here.
Such small fry were left where they were, then used like expendables whenever an attack was needed nearby.
However, it was Hans’s policy to call useful beings to the Immortal Castle whenever possible, such as powerhouses above a certain level or those from the Immortal Army that had emerged from the Abyss’s Scar.
On top of that, the monsters dying en masse in the northern mountain range ensured a constant supply of additional undead.
Though a considerable number of them were being dispatched inland, it was inevitable that the mountains surrounding the place had been completely covered by undead forces.
And within the castle that rose at the center of that holy land of death.
In a grand hall where dozens of Death Knights stood in formation—.
[My king··· have you arrived···. This girl, Olivia··· offers her greetings to you, my king···.]
Hans, seated on a massive throne made of skulls and bones, leisurely looked down below.
[Yes, Olivia. From the looks of it, there were no major problems while I was away.]
As if he had never been struck down by the leader of the Beoncheonhoe, his appearance exuded a majesty truly befitting the name “Immortal King.”
Of course, remnants of divine power still lingered within his body, and his mental world was overloaded, so he was not exactly in good condition. But such problems were minor matters that would be resolved with enough time anyway.
‘The time difference with Earth can be troublesome, but it really is quite useful at times like this. When making undead, too.’
At that thought, his mind suddenly turned to the awakened undead additionally entrusted to Dwell.
Considering the time difference, it was about time for the individuals after Salma to be completed as well.
Having just keenly realized his lack of power in the fight against the leader of the Beoncheonhoe, he could not help but become more interested in undead, the easiest and fastest way to increase his forces apart from the growth of his avatars.
‘In a fight against that bastard, they won’t be much help unless they’re at least on Salma’s level, but they should still be useful when dealing with the Beoncheonhoe’s small fry.’
Even in this recent battle, if he had brought out undead like the Bone Dragon Heratos or Salma, he would probably have been able to confront the leader more properly.
It was a fact often overlooked because the Immortal King’s own specifications were so outstanding, but he was, first and foremost, a black magician and necromancer specialized for the rear lines.
However, this time he had chosen to preserve those forces as much as possible and take the blows with his own body.
So that those forces could be used on a more certain stage, at the most decisive moment.
[···The dispatch to the continent is proceeding step by step as you instructed beforehand···. Recently, the continental summit was held, so we have slowed the pace a little···.]
Even as Hans continued his thoughts, Olivia’s report went on.
As she was the general administrator of the Immortal Castle and the chief officer in charge of intelligence, summarizing and reporting the events that had occurred whenever he returned was one of her usual duties.
‘There doesn’t seem to be anything particularly unusual. Well, Heinrich and Heinz II’s information networks are no joke either.’
Unless it was something that had happened within the Immortal Castle, he already knew most things, but he did not interrupt her. Instead, he leisurely rested his chin on his hand and let his mind wander again.
Multitasking was now as natural to him as breathing, and there was always the possibility that information he did not know might pop out.
‘Come to think of it, I also need to properly test the item I stole··· no, the item that bastard left behind as a gift.’
Hans’s status now was completely different from when he had first met that bastard, so a single spiritual arm did not bring about any dramatic change.
At most, it gave him an additional advantage when using mental-type black magic.
Of course, even that alone would make the work of reading restrictions or memories much easier, so he was fairly satisfied. But the true value of this gift lay in the orb that bastard had left in his mental world.
‘Its basic effect is to further amplify abilities emitted from the mental realm··· but the level is extraordinary. I can’t even measure its limits without using it directly.’
As expected of people who swept up the products of numerous worlds, they had all sorts of marvelous things.
Just which dimension had produced such an item?
For starters, the fact that it existed not in reality but in the mental world was already far from ordinary.
[And we captured one of the white giants that appeared on the continent··· and entrusted its investigation to Dwell···.]
While Hans was pondering the utility of the orb.
Olivia began reporting an interesting matter.
‘They captured a white giant alive? ···I see. Come to think of it, they said one of them fled into the mountains from the Duchy of Rohan.’
The Immortal Army currently concentrated in the narrow region around the Immortal Castle possessed enough power to destroy several countries even if it charged straight ahead without thought.
There would have been no need for the army itself to move; capturing a single giant alive with just the executives would have been nothing at all.
[However, we have yet to obtain any useful information from its mouth···. It is said to be repeating only that it wishes to meet the king···.]
[···It speaks? And it wants to meet me?]
Her next words were more than enough to pique his interest.
One nostril that had been unsealed from the beginning, a mouth that had come unsealed shortly after capture, and one ear that had reportedly opened recently.
The giant’s head, she said, was repeatedly expressing a clear will.
It wanted to meet the Immortal King, Hans.
[Dwell is attempting various methods in parallel with his experiments···. But perhaps because it does not seem to be an ordinary living creature··· torture, mental magic, nothing works on it···.]
[Hmm.]
Hans leisurely nodded and slowly rose from the throne.
A white giant confined in the Immortal Castle’s laboratory, demanding conversation.
He had already felt the need for information about them, so what an unexpected windfall was this?
[Kuhuhut— Interesting. Shall we hear what it has to say?]
An opportunity to speak directly with a giant was not something he needed to refuse.
***
Guided by Dwell, Hans entered the place where the white giant’s head was imprisoned.
And the first thing he encountered there was.
Whoosh—
A purple mist that lay thickly across the entire space.
It was a virulent poison deadly to living beings, and if one’s magic power was weak, even undead would corrode away···.
[Oh, my apologies! Had I known Your Majesty was coming, I would have ventilated the place in advance. Since I haven’t paid it any mind, I forgot!]
But it did not affect those present here in the slightest.
Besides, an undead’s vision was not something that could be blocked by smoke screens in the first place, so all the more so.
No wonder Dwell had not felt particularly inconvenienced while studying the giant.
[It does not matter. More importantly··· indeed, this is the one.]
Hans’s gaze turned to the giant’s head, which sat alone in the middle of the space, restrained by all manner of means.
Black magic circles and altars carved in blood throughout the interior, black stakes emitting an evil aura and embedded like needles all over the head, ominous chains wrapped around the entirety of it, and more.
The red and black adornments combined with that pure white head, which seemed to be about four meters in size, made the grotesqueness of the space stand out even more.
And then.
[Ooh— Death—. The end of life, and ultimate loss—.]
The giant’s mouth, which had been quietly closed, opened.
Reciting something that sounded like a verse.
‘···What is this bastard saying?’
No, he understood that it was referring to him.
But how should he put it? This was far too···.
[Kekeke— Yes, this body is none other than the king of the dead and the incarnation of death. Servant of the abyss, slave of madness. I hear you dared request an audience with me?]
···Far too much to Hans’s taste.
He was inwardly flustered by the reply that had leapt out of his mouth before he knew it, but he showed none of it outwardly and steadfastly stared at the giant’s head.
‘···I thought it had been quiet lately, but that bastard flipped the switch again. It’ll be a pain for a while to correct my speech habits again.’
But the giant, unaware of his thoughts, opened its mouth once more and simply continued saying whatever it wanted to say.
[Ahh— Death, you have truly forgotten—. Our wish— the mission bestowed upon us by our lord—!]
Words Hans could not understand at all.
‘No, seriously, what is this bastard saying?’
He tilted his skull slightly and stared intently at the giant’s head.
He understood that they were both from the abyss.
It had probably requested a conversation because there was some kind of connection between them.
‘A wish and a mission, and a lord?’
But this did not seem to be a simple matter of that sort.
‘Wasn’t death and madness just something like the dregs of worlds sunk into the abyss?’
There had been nothing about this in the information left behind by the previous Immortal Kings either···.
[Death—. The oldest impurity— and the fate pooled at the very bottom of the abyss—.]
As he was lost in thought.
Snap— snap, snap-snap!
As the giant’s words continued, the black wires sealing its right eye began to slowly break apart.
‘An eye?’
At that sudden change, Hans instantly strengthened the black magic circle binding the giant and put up firm defenses around himself.
The creature did not seem hostile, but it was a safety measure taken just in case.
[I— as the messenger of the Lord— convey His will unto you—.]
And at last, the black wires sealing that eye were completely severed.
The giant’s eye flashed open—.
And the enormous “Eye of the Abyss” dwelling within it stared straight at Hans.
‘Kuh? Wait, this is···!’
The judgment that followed came in an instant.
Crunch—!
A black beam of light extending from his hand pierced a large hole through the giant’s head and destroyed its core on the spot.
However.
The abyss’s intervention had already breathed something into his mental world—.
And the something overflowing from within Hans did not stop there, but soon began to flow backward at tremendous speed toward the “Mind Hub.”