Chapter 34
With a sharp gaze, Deiodeun looked around.
"The air has changed."
"What do you mean?"
Jeon looked at him, puzzled.
Deiodeun did not answer.
Jeon’s expression twisted at that, but Deiodeun paid him no mind.
Patiently explaining everything from start to finish did not help one grow.
One had to feel it themselves, harbor doubts, and agonize in order to grow.
Deiodeun had grown that way, and he applied his methods to Jeon as well.
Up until now, Jeon had followed along quite well, but it was still not enough.
Jeon had to agonize more fiercely. Only then could he become far stronger than he was now.
Befitting the center of the desert, the air was still hot. But within it lurked a damp, chilly energy.
He had wandered the desert for a long time, but this was the first time he had felt such a sensation.
A moment later, perhaps having sensed something strange as well, Jeon tilted his head.
Thinking that Jeon’s reaction wasn’t bad, Deiodeun pressed forward.
This was an unknown land that even he was visiting for the first time.
When people thought of a desert, they commonly imagined an identical landscape, but the truth was different.
Each region of the desert had its own distinct characteristics.
Some places stretched into endless valleys, while others were filled with quicksand where sand flowed like a river.
Just by looking at such features, one could roughly guess where they were. But he swore he had never before been in a region with such characteristics.
At the very least, it did not exist among the regions Deiodeun had traveled.
It was as if the very air harbored hostility toward humans.
Vrrrm!
Crayon unleashed its blade light.
Deiodeun nodded and answered.
"I know, my friend!"
Even after wandering the world for a hundred years, the reason he did not feel loneliness was thanks to Crayon.
Because Crayon was always with him, he did not succumb to madness and could maintain his sanity.
Crunch!
The sand beneath his feet crumbled finely and scattered in the wind.
It definitely felt different from the other sands he had stepped on until now.
Desert sand had no cohesion whatsoever. Since it couldn’t clump together in the first place, there was no reason for it to break apart just from being stepped on.
Here, everything was different.
Deiodeun moved without letting his guard down for an instant. But despite his vigilance, nothing happened for several days.
Suddenly, a strange sight entered Deiodeun’s vision.
"What is that?"
Far in the distance, he saw ochre-colored ground.
It was clearly different from the color of the sand in the desert they had traveled through until now.
He had lived in the desert for a hundred years, but he had never seen a place with such a color.
Beyond the ochre ground, something stood tall in the far distance.
It was too far to be certain, but it resembled a castle one might only see in storybooks.
"A castle in the middle of the desert?"
Deiodeun’s eyes sank deeply.
This was Deiodeun, who had seen with his own eyes many colonies, including the Neo Seoul Colony.
None of the colonies he had seen had a structure in the form of a castle like this.
There was no need to think further.
Deiodeun walked toward the castle.
He could feel Jeon diligently following behind him.
Jeon had already proven his worth just by eliminating the barrier that had persistently blocked him. He was no longer needed.
Even so, Deiodeun did not tell Jeon to go back.
Because, as Jeon had said, since they had come this far together, it was right to see the end together.
No matter what the result might be.
After walking a full day, they finally reached the ochre ground.
The moment they set foot on the ochre ground.
Crack!
Something suddenly broke through the earth and revealed itself.
It was an arm.
An arm with rotting, crumbling flesh exposing bone soon pressed against the ground and pulled up a body.
What revealed itself above the ochre ground was unmistakably a corpse.
A corpse clad in armor, at that.
Though half its flesh had rotted away and its bones were starkly exposed, somehow the thing was moving about, alive.
Deiodeun realized the corpse’s identity at once.
"Undead?"
It was a phenomenon where corpses moved for some reason.
Deiodeun had heard stories about it, but this was the first time seeing them directly.
The undead were not merely one.
After it, numerous undead abruptly broke through the earth and appeared.
Cloaks and armor fluttering in the wind, and swords held in their hands.
Their appearance was exactly like a medieval order of knights.
Deiodeun looked around.
He wondered if he had unknowingly entered a dungeon.
If it were a dungeon, it would be a phenomenon nothing out of the ordinary.
A dungeon was a place where anything was possible.
Fragments of another dimension, disconnected from reality.
In dungeons, things beyond human imagination were possible.
But this place was not a dungeon.
It was clearly reality.
For undead to rise in reality.
"For a dungeon-like phenomenon to occur outside of a dungeon. I must have come to the right place."
Deiodeun grinned.
Before he knew it, his unique madness dwelled in his eyes.
"Come at me! You who have not found rest."
His arrogant cry served as the trigger.
Kuaaaar!
The undead knights charged at Deiodeun like madmen.
Though their bodies had rotted and crumbled, their movements were agile, as if their former skills had not gone anywhere.
Claaaang!
Deiodeun’s sword and the undead knights’ swords collided, and the sound of metal burst forth.
***
The battle between Deiodeun and the undead knights was fierce.
As if showing the prowess of their lifetimes, the undead knights’ martial arts were formidable.
They led an evenly matched fight against the monstrous Deiodeun for a while. But that was only possible because Deiodeun was holding back.
Slash!
One undead knight was bisected by Deiodeun’s strike.
The undead knight, severed at the waist, rolled pathetically on the ground.
It was a fatal wound that would have killed a normal person instantly. But the undead knights were already dead.
Those who had died once could not die again.
Slip!
The severed upper and lower halves stuck together on their own and were restored to perfect condition in an instant.
Jeon muttered.
"So this is what they mean by undead?"
He did not participate directly in the battle, only watched.
This fight was not his fight.
It was Deiodeun’s fight.
Just as Deiodeun had done in the sand dungeon, this time it was his turn to watch.
His role had ended when he eliminated the barrier blocking the way ahead.
From now on, he had to watch from the standpoint of a bystander.
Unless Deiodeun wished otherwise.
"Keheheh!"
Deiodeun’s desperate, maddened laughter rang out.
He seemed truly joyful.
His opponents were the dead, but they were also knights.
Those who fought with swords.
The swordsmanship they had mastered in life was being manifested through their rotten bodies.
Fighting sword against sword was truly something he had not done in a long time.
Deiodeun did not use mana at all and faced the undead knights with pure swordsmanship. Even so, the undead knights could not match him.
Shhk!
Every time he swung Crayon, the undead knights were bisected and fell. But they soon recovered from their wounds and rushed at Deiodeun again.
Because they were already dead, they felt no fear and could not feel pain.
In some ways, they were similar to the Sand Soldiers Jeon had faced.
There was another similarity as well.
Their numbers.
Crack! Crack!
Undead knights kept breaking through the ground and appearing.
Their numbers seemed to easily exceed several hundred at a glance.
The undead knights charged at Deiodeun like madmen.
Even though Jeon was clearly nearby, they did not give him so much as a glance, attacking only Deiodeun.
Deiodeun cut down all the undead knights and pressed forward.
His goal was the castle visible in the distance.
Now it was clearly visible.
The castle had the form of a medieval fortress. Even so, it was not completely identical.
It was far more elegant yet sharp.
The walls were engraved with countless incomprehensible symbols.
Now, their color had faded so much that they appeared only as a dark gray, but they must have been incredibly splendid when first created.
Yet the symbols carved on the walls seemed familiar somehow.
Jeon, delving into his memory for a moment, soon pulled out a book from his subspace.
It was a book taken from the elf village Deiodeun had massacred.
When he opened the book, he saw letters identical to the symbols carved on the castle walls.
"Is this related to the elves?"
But something was off about viewing it as elven architecture.
As he had seen in the elf village Deiodeun had massacred, they lacked the ability to erect such a massive structure.
Above all, the undead knights currently blocking Deiodeun were all human.
If that castle truly had a connection to the elves, the undead knights would have been composed of elves, not humans.
The undead knights threw their entire bodies forward to stop Deiodeun. But Deiodeun was like a massive tidal wave.
He destroyed and swept away everything that blocked his path.
The undead knights recovered their broken bodies and charged, but the result was the same.
Deiodeun broke and broke again, advancing until he finally reached the old castle.
Crash!
He smashed the castle gates and entered. At that, the undead knights who had desperately blocked him stopped their attacks.
Jeon looked at the undead knights, puzzled.
Like machines with their power switched off, the undead knights did not move an inch.
"What the?"
Thanks to that, Jeon was able to enter the castle without difficulty.
Deiodeun plunged Crayon into the ground and shouted.
"Come out! Owner of this castle."
Vrrrm!
His cry became a storm that shook the massive castle.
It was then.
As if responding, a brilliant light bloomed from the castle floor.
The light transformed into lines, drawing a picture on the castle floor.
In an instant, a massive diagram was completed on the floor.
It was in the form of multiple circles surrounding a six-pointed star, and between the circles, elven letters were densely written.
"A magic circle?"
Then the magic circle erupted with an intense light, and something appeared from within it.
Twice the height of the undead knights, with a colossal frame.
It wore a helm with three horns protruding from its head, and armor made of an unidentified metal on its body. Over its shoulders hung a tattered gray cloak, and at its waist hung a greatsword as massive as Crayon.
Inside the knight’s helm, a red flame flickered, and its entire body was shrouded in an ominous darkness.
It was the master of this castle.
Deiodeun bared his white teeth and smiled.
"What is your name? Knight!"
Jeon naturally thought the knight would be unable to answer.
Because its vocal cords had rotted away, it was obvious it could not make a sound.
But the result was different from Jeon’s expectation.
"A...ka...rukeu!"
From the knight’s mouth flowed a sound like an echo in a cave.
Deiodeun spoke.
"My name is Deiodeun. Akarukeu!"
"Dei...odeun! Kill me and this curse..."
Suddenly the knight’s words stopped.
Instead, an ominous gray aura flared from its entire body.
The gray aura draped over its cloak and flickered like a living creature.
Fwoosh!
The gray aura also shrouded the knight’s massive sword.
Kuuuuh!
In that instant, the castle shook as if an earthquake had occurred.
Deiodeun gripped Crayon and spoke.
"Very well! I shall grant you death. You who were once a knight...."