E-Rantel.
The walled city was silent in the night.
At least, on the surface.
Torches atop the ramparts flickered as they always did.
Guards patrolled their beats, fighting off drowsiness.
Merchants had shuttered their shops, and the lights of the inns were going out one by one.
But beneath the ground, a dark ritual was underway.
Deep in the shadows of E-Rantel.
The remnants of Zurrernorn’s mages and undead were gathered before the emblem of the Black Goat.
Nivs stood at the center.
Tier magic and other ominous sorceries swirled around his body.
It was similar to the mana of death, yet fundamentally different.
It was more viscous.
Deeper.
It felt like an energy that sought to intentionally rot living life and then give birth to something new from that putrid death.
Every time Nivs opened his mouth, the corpses on the floor twitched minutely.
As if the dead were trying to answer.
No.
As if death itself were responding to his voice.
Amidst the city’s darkness, Iel was also drawing closer to E-Rantel.
Having left Sylvania, she stood on the road outside the walls.
The night wind fluttered her black robe.
In the distance, the lights of the walled city of E-Rantel were visible.
But what wafted from beneath those lights was not the warm scent of life.
It was the stench of death.
Rotten mana.
Twisted souls.
Iel sensed it all.
She adjusted her grip on the Genesis Staff.
“I hope I’m not too late.”
At that moment.
The darkness above E-Rantel split open.
Through the black rift that opened soundlessly, a being descended.
Michael.
The Archangel of the Thousand Kingdom.
The Sword of Caesar.
Clad in white armor with black wings unfurled, she came to a halt in the night sky above the walled city.
And in the underground, Nivs raised his head.
The three gazes had not yet met.
Iel.
Michael.
Nivs.
However, the night of E-Rantel was already narrowing toward these three entities.
---
On the outskirts of E-Rantel.
Warrior Captain Gazef Stronoff opened his eyes on the cold ground.
The first thing he saw was the cloudy night sky.
Then, the city walls.
And the groans of his subordinates surrounding him.
“Warrior Captain...!”
One of the surviving soldiers of the warrior band staggered to his feet.
Gazef slowly sat up.
His head throbbed as if it were splitting open.
The fatigue of battle lingered in his body.
His armor was stained with dirt and blood.
But the strange thing wasn't his wounds.
It was his memory.
The pieces didn't connect.
He had headed for Carne Village.
He had encountered enemies who appeared to be from the Slane Theocracy.
The battle had begun.
His subordinates had fallen.
He had raised his sword.
And then, nothing.
It was as if someone had sliced out a section of his memory with a knife.
Gazef grit his teeth.
“How... did we get here?”
The soldiers looked at one another.
No one could answer.
One soldier spoke in a trembling voice.
“Warrior Captain... we were definitely at Carne Village. But when we came to... we were at E-Rantel.”
Gazef looked down at his hand.
His sword was still there.
But the sensation of holding it felt strange.
He had fought.
He had tried to protect someone.
He had been prepared to die.
But he couldn't recall who had saved them.
At that moment.
Gazef felt a strange energy coming from inside E-Rantel.
The cold, murky scent of death.
The walled city of E-Rantel was quiet on the outside.
But somewhere deep within the city, a dark energy—different from ordinary necromantic mana—was spreading.
Gazef slowly stood up.
His memory was a void.
But his body could still move.
He adjusted his grip on his sword.
“Gather the wounded.”
The soldiers of the warrior band looked up.
“Those who can move, follow me.”
The soldiers nodded.
Gazef tried to grasp the void in his memory.
But nothing came to mind.
Only one thing remained.
An ominous premonition.
---
Underground E-Rantel.
Zurrernorn’s ritual site was fully open.
Nivs.
Thirty followers of Shub-Niggurath.
The Leader of Zurrernorn.
And the 13 High Priests.
They were constructing a circular altar centered around the emblem of the Black Goat.
Corpses formed the circle.
Bones created the lines.
Souls flickered like the flames of the altar.
The ritual consisted of three stages.
First.
Summon thousands of low-tier undead using Zurrernorn’s necromantic magic.
Second.
Use the souls of those who died in E-Rantel and the souls from the Spiral of Death to summon thirty Level 90 Giant Dark Young.
Third.
Sacrifice the souls of those thirty Giant Dark Young to manifest Shub-Niggurath.
Nivs chanted a dark incantation.
The Leader of Zurrernorn released the souls he had imprisoned within himself.
The 13 High Priests activated the necromantic magic circles simultaneously.
And then, a 7th-tier spell was cast.
[Undead Army].
The cemeteries of E-Rantel.
The sewers.
Abandoned basements.
Old execution grounds.
Sealed ossuaries.
Forgotten graveyards.
From beneath them, bones and corpses rose.
First came the hands.
Then the arms.
Then the heads.
And then, thousands of low-tier undead poured into the city.
The walled city of E-Rantel was instantly plunged into chaos.
Screams erupted.
Guards rang the bells.
Merchants bolted their doors.
Adventurers rushed into the streets with weapons in hand.
Children cried.
The elderly fell.
Lights flickered.
The peace of the night was torn asunder.
Gazef Stronoff and the surviving warrior band witnessed the scene.
Gazef immediately issued orders.
“Mobilize the E-Rantel guard!”
His voice cut through the night streets.
“Everyone who can move, establish a defensive line!”
The warrior band and the guards moved under emergency authority.
Temporary defensive lines were set up on every street.
Shieldmen blocked the front.
Spearmen supported them from behind.
Archers climbed onto the rooftops.
Adventurers blocked the alleys with their own weapons.
Gazef swung his sword at the forefront.
An undead was cleaved.
Another fell.
Rotten arms flew through the air.
Skeletal heads were shattered.
But there were too many.
The low-tier undead were weak.
But they came in an endless tide.
No matter how many were cut down.
No matter how many were crushed.
No matter how many were pushed back.
They kept coming.
Gazef’s soldiers were growing exhausted.
The guards’ ranks began to waver.
One soldier dropped his shield.
Another soldier filled the gap.
A spearman was dragged away by the undead.
Gazef rushed over and cut the undead down.
But even more undead surged forward.
At that moment.
The earth rumbled from the direction of the city outskirts.
THUMP.
THUMP.
THUMP.
It wasn't the sound of an army's footsteps.
It was the sound of magic pounding the earth.
A woman walked forward.
Purple wavy hair.
A black robe.
The Genesis Staff in her hand.
It was Iel.
She stood in the middle of an E-Rantel street.
And then, she raised her staff.
The flow of mana seeped into the earth.
Iel cried out.
“[Terrae Irum]!”
Instantly.
The ground of E-Rantel split open.
The foundation beneath the undead army surging from the outskirts shook and erupted upward.
Stone pillars burst forth.
Walls of earth rose.
The fractured road tore through the undead ranks.
Hundreds of undead fell into the fissures in the ground.
Some were crushed by the rising rocks.
Others were caught in the split road, unable to move.
Gazef witnessed the sight.
He didn't know Iel.
He didn't know who she was.
Where she had come from.
Or why she was so powerful.
He knew nothing.
But he could tell one thing.
That woman had appeared to save E-Rantel.
Iel raised her staff once more.
Purple and white light overlapped at the tip of the Genesis Staff.
The necromantic mana scattered in E-Rantel’s atmosphere entered her perception.
Rotten mana.
Bound souls.
Death forced into being.
Iel’s gaze turned cold and heavy.
She chanted a low incantation.
“[Lumen].”
Light spread out.
The bodies of the undead moving in the darkness faltered.
Light seeped between rotten flesh and bone.
The dark mana that moved the bodies of the dead wavered.
Iel immediately followed with the next spell.
“[Tsunamits Sacre Lukits]!”
A tidal wave of sacred light swept over the entire street.
The light, spreading like a wave, swallowed the undead army.
The low-tier undead collapsed without even a scream.
Bones turned to ash.
Rotten flesh scattered within the light.
Hundreds of undead filling the alleys vanished.
The undead surging toward the plaza were also swept away and annihilated by the wave of light.
Gazef and the warrior band.
The E-Rantel guards.
The adventurers.
And the refugees.
They were all left speechless by the sight before them.
Iel caught her breath and lowered her staff.
But it wasn't over.
At that moment.
A group appeared from the black rift leading to the city's underground.
Nivs.
And the followers of Shub-Niggurath.
Thirty followers clad in black robes stood behind him.
Beneath their feet, the emblem of the Black Goat was spreading.
Nivs smiled as he looked at Iel.
“You cannot interfere with His ritual.”
He raised his hand.
Dark sorcery and tier magic overlapped.
“[Death].”
The instant-death spell flew toward Iel.
An invisible hand of death sought to clutch her throat.
But Iel did not take a single step back.
She planted her staff and cried out.
“[Sigillum Essentiae]!”
A magic circle of existence-fixation unfolded beneath her feet.
A purple circular emblem was etched onto the stone floor.
The moment the death magic touched Iel’s existence.
The magic circle glowed intensely.
The ether magic, which fixed one's existence against external changes, caught the instant-death judgment.
Death could not define her.
Nivs’s [Death] dissipated before Iel’s eyes.
Nivs’s smile faltered slightly.
Iel looked at him.
“That’s not how you’re supposed to use death.”
The emblem of the Black Goat wavered within Nivs’s pupils.
He stopped smiling.
“Followers,” he commanded lowly.
“Kill the citizens of E-Rantel yourselves.”
The black-robed followers bowed their heads simultaneously.
In the next instant.
Black teleportation circles unfolded beneath their feet.
Space distorted.
The followers vanished one by one.
Toward the residential districts of E-Rantel.
The merchant streets.
The plaza where refugees had gathered.
The temporary shelters inside the walls.
The followers scattered toward those locations.
Iel grit her teeth.
She wanted to save them.
She wanted to rush off immediately.
But Nivs was in front of her.
The center of the ritual had not yet been completely dismantled.
If she wavered now, even more people would die.
Iel swallowed hard and looked to her side.
Gazef Stronoff stood there, sword in hand.
His body was already a mess of blood and dust.
But his eyes had not broken.
Iel spoke.
“General?”
Gazef looked at her.
He didn't know who this woman was.
Why she was so strong.
Where she came from.
Or what she wanted.
He knew nothing.
But there was no time to ask questions now.
Iel said.
“I will give you strength.”
She took a very short breath.
“Normally, I shouldn't give buffs beyond the limit... but right now, we have to save people.”
She pointed the Genesis Staff toward Gazef.
“[Power Up].”
Mana flowed into Gazef’s muscles and nerves.
“[Infinity].”
The threshold of his limits was forcibly expanded.
“[Maximize Magic].”
The output of the buff magic was maximized.
“[Twin Maximize Magic].”
The reinforcement was layered once more.
“[Intelligence].”
His thoughts for reading the flow of the battlefield became crystal clear.
Finally, Iel carefully overlaid ether magic.
“[Sigillum Essentiae].”
Gazef’s existence was fixed so that it would not temporarily collapse.
Gazef’s body trembled.
His heart beat wildly.
His blood grew hot.
His vision widened.
The weight of his sword seemed to vanish, becoming light as a feather.
He felt his body surpass the limits of humanity.
Temporarily.
He had become a warrior equivalent to Level 70.
Gazef looked at Iel.
“...My thanks.”
Leaving only those words, he ran.
The ground shattered.
Gazef’s body streaked through the alleys like an arrow.
He charged in the direction the followers had vanished.
Iel watched him recede.
And then she looked forward again.
Now, only two beings remained in the plaza.
Iel.
And Nivs.
The leader of the Black Goat’s followers slowly tilted his head.
“Interesting.”
Dark sorcery circles rose around him once more.
Iel gripped her staff with both hands.
Purple ether mana bloomed from beneath her feet.
The night of E-Rantel.
The center of the ritual site.
The two faced each other.
Nivs moved first.
He spread the sleeves of his black robe.
Necromantic mana drawn from E-Rantel’s underground gathered at his fingertips.
“[Mass Death].”
A black ripple spread throughout the entire plaza.
The wave of death propagated like air.
Small insects and rats on the stone floor immediately shriveled up.
Nearby grass and trees also lost their vitality and turned black.
Iel struck her staff against the ground.
“[Sigillum Essentiae].”
The purple ether magic circle fixed her existence.
The wave of death failed to graze Iel’s body, splitting to either side of her.
Nivs immediately raised his hand.
“[Create Greater Undead].”
The corpses of the dead followers and the remaining undead debris twisted.
Bone and flesh adhered to one another.
Dark sorcery wrapped around them.
Five massive undead knights rose.
Each of their suits of armor was etched with the black emblem of Shub-Niggurath.
The moment Iel saw them, she followed with an incantation.
“[Lumen].”
Pure white light surged from the tip of her staff.
“[Columna Aquae Sacrae]!”
Pillars of sacred water erupted from the plaza floor.
The light-infused water pillars swallowed two of the undead knights.
Bones charred.
Armor melted away.
The dark emblems were torn apart within the light.
Iel did not stop.
“[Tsunamits Sacre Lukits]!”
The tidal wave of sacred light swept over the entire plaza.
The remaining three undead knights were swept back by the wave of light.
Nivs flicked his fingers.
“[Negative Burst].”
A black explosion burst through the wave of light.
Sacred light and negative energy collided.
The stone floor in the center of the plaza crumbled.
The entrance leading to the underground ritual site half-collapsed.
Iel did not retreat.
Her eyes grew cold and heavy.
“[Fractura Sigilli].”
The dark protective sorceries surrounding Nivs fractured.
“[Orbis Limitis].”
A purple barrier closed around Nivs.
The moment Nivs tried to move.
The barrier caught his spatial teleportation.
The smile completely vanished from Nivs’s face.
“You... think you can imprison me?”
He spread both hands.
“[Widen Magic: Vermin Bane].”
A swarm of black insects surged from the ground.
They were neither undead nor living, but something in between.
They writhed as if alive, but possessed no warmth of life.
The insects began to gnaw at Iel’s barrier.
Iel grit her teeth.
“[Spiritus Ignis Puri]!”
Purified flames spread in a circle.
The moment the insect swarm touched the white flames, they turned to ash.
Nivs chanted another spell.
“[Grasp Heart].”
An invisible hand sought to clutch Iel’s heart.
Iel immediately overlaid ether magic.
“[Apolliton Stasis].”
Space-time.
Life.
Death.
Creation.
Destruction.
Amidst all those torrents, her existence was absolutely fixed.
The hand of death could not reach Iel’s heart.
Iel gripped her staff with both hands.
This time, it wasn't for defense.
“[Diluvium Ether].”
The mana environment of reality changed.
The entire air of the plaza was dyed purple.
The flow of necromantic mana wavered.
The sorcery circles Nivs had established began to creak one by one.
The emblem of the Black Goat was distorted.
Nivs’s eyes widened.
“What are you doing—”
Iel immediately activated the next magic.
“[Logos Praxis].”
Nivs’s sorcery structure was interpreted within Iel’s perception.
The emblem of the Black Goat.
The soul contract connected to the Spiral of Death.
The sacrificial circuit for summoning the Giant Dark Young.
The ritual stems leading to the manifestation of Shub-Niggurath.
The knot where Zurrernorn’s necromantic magic and the ancient god’s sorcery were forcibly connected.
Iel saw it all.
And she severed it.
“[Fractura Sigilli]!”
One of the dark emblems on the ritual floor shattered.
Nivs retreated for the first time.
“How dare you!”
He drew upon all his necromantic mana.
“[Triplet Maximize Magic: Reality Slash]!”
Three rifts of blackness flew toward Iel.
Space was torn.
Light was severed.
Even the wind was cut apart.
Iel raised her staff.
“[Dialectica En].”
The dialectic of world-fixation unfolded.
The space that was being torn apart came to a halt.
The rifts could not advance any further before Iel.
Iel did not miss the opening.
“[Fulmen Excidii]!”
Lightning of destruction fell.
Black clouds formed above the plaza.
From within them, a massive bolt of lightning struck down toward Nivs.
Nivs deployed a defensive shield.
But the lightning cleaved through the shield.
His shoulder was charred.
Nivs staggered.
Iel drew upon even more mana.
“[Judicium Fulminis]!”
The lightning of judgment fell a second time.
This time, it wasn't just one.
Dozens of bolts of brilliant lightning descended from the heavens.
The lightning struck down as if besieging Nivs.
Nivs layered necromantic defensive shields one after another.
The first shield shattered.
The second shield was torn apart.
The third shield was charred black.
Nivs grit his teeth and cried out.
“[Summon Greater Black Goat Larva]!”
The ritual circle on the ground glowed forcibly once more.
The form of a massive, flesh-like young lamb half-rose from the ground.
It was far too grotesque to be called a lamb.
Its flesh writhed.
It had too many eyes.
Mouths were open in places they shouldn't be.
It wasn't a complete summoning yet.
But its mere presence weighed down upon the entire plaza.
Iel’s expression hardened the moment she saw it.
She did not hesitate.
“[Catharsis Field].”
A semi-mental barrier unfolded.
Shub-Niggurath’s dark sorcery was pushed back for a moment.
The form of the Giant Dark Young wavered.
Iel immediately drew upon her maximum firepower.
“[Maximize Magic].”
Purple mana swirled around her body.
“[Twin Maximize Magic].”
The mana rotation overlapped in two layers.
“[Tempestas Ignis]!”
A firestorm erupted.
A massive storm, a mixture of purified flames and ether mana, swallowed Nivs and the incomplete Black Goat Larva.
The entire plaza became as bright as day.
The dark sorcery circles were charred.
The altar used for the ritual collapsed.
The necromantic magic circles of the Spiral of Death exploded one by one.
Nivs endured within the storm.
But his body was falling apart.
His black robe was burned away.
Purple fissures appeared on his skin.
The soul bonds were also wavering.
Iel raised her staff high one last time.
“[Relativitas Variabilas].”
The absolute divinity overlaid upon Nivs wavered.
Shub-Niggurath’s protection was momentarily relativized.
The power of the god he believed to be absolute was reduced to a mere condition within Iel’s magic.
Nivs’s eyes shook.
Iel did not miss the moment.
“[Ragnarok]!”
The anti-divine magic was activated.
A massive magic circle opened in the sky.
Purple.
White.
Gold.
The three lights overlapped.
From their center, a massive flash symbolizing the twilight of the gods descended.
Nivs’s defensive shields were shattered into pieces.
The form of the incomplete Black Goat Larva completely collapsed.
More than half of Shub-Niggurath’s emblem was torn away.
Nivs fell to his knees.
Silence descended upon the plaza.
Iel breathed heavily.
But her staff was still pointed at Nivs.
Nivs was no longer smiling.
His body was crumbling.
But it wasn't over yet.
The emblem of the Black Goat was torn, but it had not completely vanished.
Its remnants still writhed behind Nivs’s back.
As if someone were moving their fingers in the darkness.
Iel saw it.
And she spoke lowly.
“It still... remains.”
At that moment.
A white light fell from the sky above E-Rantel.
No.
Black wings that looked like white light descended.
It was Michael.
The Archangel of the Thousand Kingdom.
The Sword of Caesar.
She slowly descended into the plaza and looked at Nivs.
In one hand, an angelic sword.
In the other, a divine shield.
The emblem of the Thousand Kingdom glowed on her armor.
Iel looked at Michael.
Michael also looked at Iel.
Their gazes met for the first time.
There was wariness in Iel’s eyes.
There was calculation in Michael’s eyes.
But for now, they shared the same enemy.
Nivs.
And Shub-Niggurath beyond him.
Michael spoke quietly.
“It is my Lord’s command.”
The tip of her sword pointed at Nivs.
“Monitor Nivs. Kill him if the situation becomes untenable.”
Iel did not lower her staff.
“And what about now?”
Michael looked down at Nivs.
The dark emblem behind Nivs’s body was widening once more.
Countless pupils were opening within that emblem.
Michael’s gaze turned cold and heavy.
“The situation has become untenable.”
Nivs slowly raised his head.
The corners of his mouth split open as if torn.
“Too late.”
His voice was no longer just one.
Countless voices were mixed within it.
“The city is already the altar.”
The dark emblem expanded once more.
Black tentacles crawled out from the fissures in the plaza floor.
In the distance, screams erupted from the residential district.
It was the direction where Gazef was fighting the followers.
Iel’s face hardened.
Michael raised her sword.
The night of E-Rantel began to move once more.
Iel gripped the Genesis Staff with both hands.
Michael unfurled her wings.
Nivs laughed with his broken body.
And from behind the torn emblem of the Black Goat, the shadow of a god that had not yet fully arrived raised its head.
E-Rantel had not yet been saved.
The battle was now entering its second phase.
Comments (0)
Please log in to leave a comment. Login or Register