The expedition led by Antipus.
A castle began to come into view before their eyes.
It was hard to make out clearly through the dim field of vision and the monsters swarming so grotesquely in every direction, but it was unmistakably a castle.
It was so vast that its base alone filled their entire sight.
“The castle is in sight!”
The stairs leading to the castle entrance were wide enough for a giant to climb, but they were in poor condition.
They were terribly old and damaged here and there, and atop them hundreds of black monsters like skeletons were charging forward, eyes fixed only on the expedition. It would not have been strange if any part of the stairs collapsed at any moment.
But what could they do?
To clear this place, even if the stairs collapsed, they had no choice but to run up them.
“Keep up on your own.”
That was the entirety of the plan.
A dangerous situation in which the old stairs might crumble and they might be surrounded by monsters.
……So what? This was a battlefield where no one could afford to worry about every little thing.
Each person had to look after their own life, and at the very least, the fifty possessors here were all fully capable of that much.
Antipus glanced back once, then threw himself toward the broad, towering stairs.
With only a single greatsword in hand, he carved through the pitch-black tide brimming with hostility and opened a path.
A day and half a day—he did not know the exact time, but it must have been roughly that long.
All that time, without even being able to distinguish day from night, they had advanced while doing nothing but fight.
It was only possible because everyone here was a high-ranking ranker who had pushed their basic stats to the limit.
Of course, the expedition was in a terrible state.
It had only barely been possible because they were high-ranking rankers; it had never been easy.
Their expensive equipment that protected their bodies had long since been reduced to tatters, and the embedded skills in them were almost entirely unusable.
Because of the monsters charging in with no regard for their own lives, they were covered in countless small cuts, their entire bodies a wretched mess of sweat and blood.
“Leave the front to Antipus and block only the sides! Silbert! The rear!”
Even so, they had done it.
With a mere fifty people, they were finally climbing toward the castle.
In truth, even when they had reached the castle wall, even when they peered inside from the entrance, most of them had hesitated.
Because there were only fifty of them.
On the previous floor alone, there had been several times that number.
But in the end, they moved on and advanced.
It meant they were achieving tremendous growth in a short span of time.
“Hah…… hah…… Watch the side, the side!”
Awakened ones who, with stats exceeding human limits and powerful skills, had never experienced anything that could be called a crisis.
People who had never once fought while conserving mana to the utmost.
People who had never squeezed out every last drop of stamina and strength were being driven into extreme circumstances and growing rapidly.
Because that was the situation, everyone in the expedition could tell.
Antipus, who was opening the path at the very front, was already several levels above them.
Unlike them, who were straining desperately and somehow distributing their mana and stamina as they fought, Antipus, who did not shed even a single drop of sweat, was truly a monster among monsters.
The movements of one who knew he would never die.
A greatsword art that had lost all fear.
Antipus Praman was a monster who pierced through the tide alone.
And because of that, a question arose in one corner of their minds.
What was making him so impatient?
For what purpose was he trying to conquer the castle so quickly?
‘It would certainly be good if we conquered the castle before the Empire, but…….’
Daphne’s gaze turned toward Antipus’s back.
It would be impossible to continue clearing floors with fifty rankers like this.
The Abyss would keep appearing, and they would grow stronger accordingly.
But they could not stop either.
To stop meant to fall behind.
And that was a danger connected to her own homeland as well.
It was a danger that involved the lives of precious people, so they absolutely had to clear it.
So it was only natural that they would have to join forces with the Empire afterward, and right now was a good opportunity to leave a strong impression on them.
If they defeated the Conqueror and cleared the floor at overwhelming speed, would their influence not become that much stronger when they worked with the Empire in the future?
Would the Empire not recognize the importance of the possessors more clearly?
‘……Of course, Antipus wouldn’t be acting like that with that in mind.’
He was a man who had always stood at the summit, and for whom that was only natural.
After learning his identity outside, Daphne had no choice but to acknowledge it. Antipus Praman was the person closest to the strongest being this world desired.
This strongest of men would never move in order to curry favor with others.
He had another purpose.
What he was concerned with, more than the entire Empire, a superpower of immense scale, was only one person.
The name that had turned a man who should always have been at the peak into an eternal second place.
Rank 1, the Supreme Heavenly Demon.
To defeat him, to conquer this place before him no matter what—surely that was why Antipus was deciding and moving so quickly.
“……Hio Pavlenko.”
As Daphne watched that solid back heading toward the castle without even the slightest rest, as she gazed at the greatsword being swung with majestic force, she murmured quietly.
“No matter how much it’s you, you’ll be second this time.”
She knew Hio Pavlenko’s tremendous strength and ability, but this time, there was a high possibility that Antipus would conquer the floor first.
No matter how extraordinary Hio Pavlenko was, he would not be able to move faster than this through an endless wave of monsters.
Moreover, the Empire’s side would have twice as many people to protect, so they would move that much more cautiously. Antipus’s progress would be overwhelmingly faster.
And if that happened……
“Things are going to get quite complicated.”
Because she knew Antipus’s fierce obsession with the Supreme Heavenly Demon.
Because she knew the enormous symbolism the two figures, Antipus and the Supreme Heavenly Demon, held among the possessors.
By conquering the floor before the Supreme Heavenly Demon, Antipus intended to gradually scratch the firm reputation of the immovable number one.
And in the end, he would break that sky apart and ascend to the heavens himself.
“The position of leader who guides all rankers.”
So long as Antipus sought to defeat the Supreme Heavenly Demon, the two of them had no choice but to compete for that position.
Rankers who, outside, were called the first Awakened and wielded countless powers. A competition between two monsters to become the unshakable apex of such people.
Who would be the victor, and what result would await at the end?
‘For now, let’s focus on the clear.’
Thinking so, Daphne drew her bowstring once more.
They had only just barely arrived at the main castle.
The black tide surged toward them again from every direction.
A battle that would never end until they dealt with the castle’s Conqueror.
How much farther would they be able to go?
“This really is like hell.”
Whatever the result might be, the process was like a hell with no end in sight.
* * *
Frederick, a high priest of the Church of Lipue.
He was a deeply devout priest who had been born in Hiberunia and had served the goddess Lipue all his life, praying to her with sincerity.
He was also one of the high priests who had witnessed the miracle of the sanctuary, where the goddess manifested and the Saint was born.
Precisely because he had witnessed it himself, Frederick was a man with extraordinary faith in Hio Pavlenko, the apostle of the goddess.
That Frederick asked Hio very cautiously.
His voice trembled faintly.
“Um…… Apostle……?”
Without even turning his gaze, Hio replied calmly.
“Yes, Priest Frederick.”
“I would never dare to doubt you, Apostle, but…… is it truly all right for things to be like this……?”
“Is there some problem?”
At Hio’s still easygoing attitude, Frederick had no choice but to scratch his cheek.
Was there a problem?
The problem was that there were far too many problems.
—Woof, woof!
First of all, there was this creature, barking enthusiastically as if responding to Hio’s words.
A large black dog.
There were as many as four of them, and on their backs, the Sword Saint, Hio, and the physically weak priests were evenly divided and riding.
In the middle of a battlefield packed on all sides with undead monsters, no less.
“How is it that these wicked things…… are obeying your words, Apostle……?”
Inside the castle wall, where darkness had settled thickly.
As Frederick spoke in bewilderment, he looked back and forth in confusion between Hio and the huge black dog beneath him.
At a glance, was this not a creature that stood at the very opposite of holiness?
And yet how was it that such a cursed monster was listening to the Saint’s words, panting as it carried them?
Though it was irreverent, and not something one should say to the goddess’s apostle, was it not possible that the apostle had been corrupted by this cursed space?
There was truly a one-in-a-million, one-in-a-thousand possibility, after all.
And so Frederick looked at Hio with a slight trace of suspicion in his devout eyes.
“Could it be, Apostle, that you have been afflicted by a curse of darkness……”
Hio, still keeping his gaze fixed in one direction, even smiled faintly as he said,
“Aren’t they rather cute?”
……Cute, he said.
Those things with rotten patches all over their bodies, ominous red eyes, and streams of black energy pouring from them?
Had he truly heard him ask if they were cute?
Frederick doubted his own ears, so he picked at one ear and asked again.
“……Are you saying these things around us are cute?”
The black dog carrying him was strange enough, but the scenery around them was even more bizarre by far.
With the four black dogs at the center, the knights were moving on the outside, and beyond them, undead monsters with sinister appearances were moving along as well.
Together, that was.
The Imperial Knights and monsters, undead monsters at that, together.
It had been like this from the very beginning.
Because the first thing they had witnessed when they arrived was Hio Pavlenko, apostle of the goddess, surrounded by undead and being tossed into the air in celebration.
The goddess’s apostle being tossed into the air by undead. What kind of sight was that, one that seemed fit to be seen only right before the end of the world?
And yet at that sight, the Sword Saint had laughed heartily and found it amusing, while the ill-tempered elf woman had acted as though she did not care at all and naturally gone to stick herself right beside the Saint.
They said that if a normal person went to an abnormal world, the normal person became the abnormal one. This was exactly that.
“There’s no reason they wouldn’t be cute. They listen well and faithfully show us the way, don’t they?”
“Th-that may be so, but…… I am simply wondering why on earth monsters are obeying the Saint’s words……”
“I see. I understand completely.”
Only then did Hio close the book written in ancient script that he had been holding and look at Frederick.
With a gentle smile on his lips, as if he understood everything.
“I often receive this sort of misunderstanding.”
“Misunderstanding…… you say?”
“Yes. So, that day—the day I met the goddess—you know it well too, Priest.”
As Hio began to speak, his eyes turned wistfully toward the sky.
Not that there was much to see, with everything being so dark.
“At that time, the goddess Lipue of hope spoke to me. Child, the undead are pitiful souls, so take pity on them and gather them in! That is what she said.”
“D-did the goddess truly say such a thing?”
“She did. Is that not why she bestowed this ability upon me?”
“……Even so, I thought it was the duty of the divine to destroy beings of evil……”
“Ah, and she also added this.”
At Frederick’s attitude, which did not yield easily, Hio quickly added more.
“She said Priest Frederick’s prayers were the most sincere and filled with faith.”
“Are you s-s-saying that the goddess spoke of me—are you telling me that you are conveying that she said such a thing about me?!”
“Of course. The goddess told me to convey to each and every devout priest that she loves them all.”
“Ah, aah…… Lipue……!”
“The goddess watches over you so closely, Priest…… Surely you do not doubt the words of such a goddess, do you, Priest Frederick?”
“I-I would never dare!”
At Hio’s words, Frederick was so startled that as he waved his hands in denial, he nearly fell off the hell hound’s back.
Barely regaining his balance, Frederick continued speaking.
“I-I have never doubted the goddess or the Saint!”
“Then…… do you believe?”
“I believe!”
At that point, not only Frederick but even the other high priests riding behind him spoke in chorus.
“Do you truly believe?”
“Yes! We believe!”
As expected, the Goddess had foreseen even this trial and summoned the Apostle.
To think that the Apostle personally appointed by the Goddess would even pity such sinister creatures and take them in.
He still had a long, long way to go.
Resolving to devote himself even more earnestly and pray with greater faith, all the high priests, including Frederick, clasped their hands together and closed their eyes in prayer.
All while swaying along atop the Hell Hound’s back.
* * *
- ……Isn’t this basically a scam?
Purnel said as he watched the priests begin to pray, but Hio only shrugged and opened his magic book again.
‘If she feels wronged, she’ll wake up from her nap, won’t she?’
- Ruthless. Truly ruthless.
Ruthless or not, Hio didn’t care. The skill embedded in the Staff of the Authority of Darkness, “Domination,” was far more useful than he had imagined.
It went far beyond merely “useful.”
After all, it had turned this countless horde of Abyss monsters from the Necropolis into allies.
- Still, that’s a shame. It would be nice if you could take all these undead outside with you.
‘Can’t be helped. Once Domination wears off, they’re no different from Abyss monsters.’
What formed and moved an undead body was death energy, and “Domination” merely allowed him to control that death energy itself.
It was by no means a skill that turned Abyss monsters back into ordinary undead.
On top of that, it could not be maintained forever, so taking them along was impossible.
‘Still, this is more than enough.’
How often did one get to leisurely pore over a magic book on Blink while surrounded by an uncountable swarm of monsters?
Hio had more than enough mana, and the domain of Domination that moved with him at its center was wide.
It was large enough to contain all the imperial knights, with space left over beyond them, so every Abyss undead that entered was placed under his control.
Outside the domain, an endless number of monsters still howled ferociously and charged in, but the dominated undead were blocking them.
And even if some broke through that line, the moment they entered, they were immediately dominated and quickly became docile.
In short.
‘It couldn’t be more comfortable.’
All he had to do was comfortably research Blink while being escorted by undead.
A few of the knights nearby wore uneasy, unsettled expressions, but most of the others seemed fascinated by the phenomenon.
Some even smacked the undead walking beside them on the back of the head for no reason, or poked them here and there, yet the Abyss undead showed no reaction whatsoever.
Domination was working properly.
“Now, now, I’ll guarantee your safety, so everyone relax and enjoy the scenery a little as we go.”
If safety was guaranteed, what better travel destination could there be?
The view was a bit dark, but the majestic shape of a castle was beginning to appear.
And since they could move along while closely observing the grotesque appearances of Abyss undead they would normally never see, there would be no time to grow bored.
On top of that, when they looked closely at the ground they had not had the attention to notice before, did it not seem to be made not of ordinary stone, but of enormous bones?
As their sense of danger slowly faded, the knights moved along while looking around as if sightseeing, filled with curiosity like children visiting a zoo for the first time.
After sweeping his gaze over them, Hio turned his eyes back to the Blink magic book and murmured quietly.
“Nice.”
This place, where the chill air blew pleasantly thanks to the undead packed on every side, was the Necropolis.
The feeling of riding on the back of a Hell Hound, enjoying the cool air while devouring a magic book, was as though—
“This is heaven.”
It was just like heaven.