Chapter 163: Outbreak (8)

“You. Won.”

After forcing out the words, Dorian stopped all movement.

The slight tremors from pain and the irregular breathing.

Everything stopped and his head soon dropped forward lifelessly.

I stood up.

Blood surged from the shoulder that had been split open by the axe, but I paid it no mind.

“Hajin.”

I approached and called his name, but there was no answer.

He was dead.

The victor of this fight was me.

Just as it was in the past.

“…….”

I stared down quietly at Dorian, who had died with his eyes wide open.

Various emotions flickered across my face as I looked at him.

Has his sense of injustice been resolved?

There was no way for me to know.

The moment of silence was brief.

Whatever the reason, he was a traitor to the organization.

Any further understanding was a luxury.

I reached out and closed his eyes.

Then, without any lingering attachment, I turned and left the suite, which had been half-destroyed by our duel.

The state of the hallway I faced upon exiting was even worse than the suite.

The luxurious carpet on the floor was torn to shreds, its pieces scattered about.

The walls and ceiling were covered in sword marks, and in some places, the distinction from the guest rooms had vanished due to the destroyed and pierced outer walls.

And the protagonists who created this mess were still fighting fiercely.

Clatter and an unidentified man.

No.

As I examined the man’s appearance, a name instantly came to my mind and I stared at him with disbelief.

“Ga-il?”

Ga-il of the Red Greatsword.

An elite knight of the Western Knights, who protect the western front bordering the Naimus Empire.

The reason I could recognize him at a glance was because I had memorized the personal details of all the elite knights from each knight order.

As if to prove his moniker, the Red Greatsword, Ga-il’s hair was as red as a burning flame.

Also, the weapon he used was a claymore, larger than most greatswords and Ga-il was famous for wielding it with one hand based on his immense strength.

Just, like what I was seeing right now.

Kwaang! Kwang!

A destructive swordsmanship that seemed aimed not at cutting, but at shattering and breaking.

Every time the red cloak, the symbol of the Western Knights, fluttered, the surrounding terrain was gouged and shattered.

‘But I’m sure I heard he went missing.’

Four years ago, in an operation to subjugate a disaster-grade magical beast.

He had suddenly vanished like smoke.

It was a case where an elite knight went missing.

Not just the target, but the process was also a mystery.

Because of that, it was an incident that once caused a stir throughout all of Icata and that was why I remembered it clearly.

For the proud red knight of the Western Knights to be fighting on the side of the Cult.

‘What happened in those four years?’

The answer was revealed immediately.

Clatter’s dagger, which had been overwhelming Ga-il with incredible speed, accurately dug into his shoulder.

But Ga-il didn’t even flinch and swung his greatsword.

Buung-

No matter how much one’s physical abilities were enhanced by aura, a human should have shown a minimal reaction, like grimacing or flinching.

Only then did Dorian’s words flash through my mind.

[Or not? Seeing him command two Death Knights, he must not be just so-so, but definitely strong, huh?]

That Ga-il had become an undead?

It was unbelievable, but seeing the dark magic that shot out from the darkness and ambushed Clatter, I had no choice but to be certain.

Kwagwagwa!

The black flame was shot from behind Ga-il.

It was a blind spot, not visible from where I was hiding, so I immediately imitated a mirror shard and threw it forward.

The mirror, stuck in the wooden furniture, reflected the situation in the blind spot.

A man with a gloomy appearance, hiding behind a pillar, was preparing the next dark magic.

‘High Cleric Vallary.’

While I had been fighting Hajin in the corner of the guest room, Clatter had been facing two enemies alone.

I glanced at the opposite hallway.

The room at the end of the hall, Jaygie and Dayle were there.

‘Dayle.’

The ominous premonition had finally become reality.

High Cleric Vallary could command two Death Knights.

But only one, Ga-il, was here.

Where could the other one be?

“…….”

My face contorted horribly.

I was conflicted.

Clatter and Dayle.

Both were in a situation on the edge of a cliff.

Clatter was facing two enemies, and I didn’t know Dayle’s situation, but for that very reason, a more negative picture was drawn in my head.

It was then.

Pak!

A dagger flew and embedded itself in front of me.

“……Lord Clatter?”

I raised my head.

While dodging a savage sword strike, Clatter was staring at me.

A very brief exchange of glances.

Immediately after, the empty pupils hidden under the bandages looked towards the guest room where Dayle was.

I was not ignorant of what that gaze meant.

Looking at where Clatter was, I nodded my head with determination.

“I will, definitely, come back.”

I turned and ran to the room where Dayle and Jaygie were waiting.

And.

A pair of eyes watched my retreating figure blankly. It was High Cleric Vallary.

“He was taken down?”

Vallary glanced at the room I had come out of and let out a cynical laugh.

“Acting all cocky, but he was a nobody. He’s not even worth giving to Laitna as a gift.”

Vallary, who had planned to kill the insolent Dorian and give him to Laitna after everything was over, erased Dorian’s existence from his mind without any lingering attachment.

Giving trash as a gift was not something one did for one’s sister.

“Still, it’s a relief that it wasn’t a total loss.”

Vallary raised his eyes and looked with an interested expression at the bizarre being currently fighting fiercely with his second sword, Ga-il.

Although it was covered in bandages, Vallary could instinctively tell that the origin of that being was undead.

However, its origin may be undead, but it wasn’t now.

Because the class of its soul was incredibly high.

There was no way a being with such a high-class soul could be a mere undead following the orders of a necromancer.

As proof, the caster controlling the being was neither visible nor sensible nearby.

If it were an undead, the caster should have been by its side.

It felt like encountering a new species that did not exist in this world for the first time.

To his necromancer’s eyes, that being was the discovery of a new evolution.

‘It’s a pity that it’s not an undead, so we can’t make it ours.’

But because of that, it was a coveted treasure.

Luis?

His first sword, currently dealing with another little rat inside, would take care of that.

Although Dorian had died, there was not a hint of anxiety or worry on Vallary’s face.

***

Carefully entering the bedroom, I was momentarily at a loss for words at the horrific sight before me.

The place, swallowed by a giant sinkhole, could no longer be called a bedroom.

I already knew what this was a trace of and who had done it.

The remnants of a shattered ‘Third Eye’ at my feet caught my eye.

“……Dayle.”

I looked down into the hole that had been bored through.

The explosion must have been so powerful that the hole had penetrated through what looked to be at least five floors, just by eye.

‘Or he might have pulled the trigger repeatedly.’

I felt Dayle’s desperate heart, trying to take the Death Knight with him completely and for a moment, I was overcome with emotion.

No.

I still don’t know.

I shook my head and looked down.

There were no signs of any bodies or bloodstains on the floor.

It was just full of debris like earth and sand, bricks, rebar and concrete that had piled up from piercing through several floors.

And another important thing.

‘Ms. Jaygie is gone too.’

As I looked around, my eyes caught the end of a protruding rebar and a rope hanging from it.

It was a rope made by weaving together blankets and cloth from clothes, and the rope was stretched down towards the bottom of the hole.

Since they couldn’t get out because of Clatter and High Cleric Vallary’s fight, it was clear they had made a rope and went down.

I grabbed the rope with one hand and jumped down.

The hole was drilled directly from the 8th floor to the 2nd, but the rope, due to its limited length, only reached down to the 4th floor.

It was hard to imagine that Jaygie, who came down the rope, would have jumped from the 4th floor to the 2nd.

She was a young woman who had never even properly learned martial arts.

So I judged that Jaygie had gotten off on the 4th floor and landed there first.

The situation on the 4th floor was no better.

If the 6th floor and above was the fierce battleground between the Academy’s investigation team and the Cult, this place was like a hunting ground.

Undead were visible here and there, attacking the hotel guests.

‘Has this hotel already been taken over by them?’

It was perhaps a matter of course.

The hotel itself was a base for the Cult in the first place.

Only the innocent guests were being sacrificed for their evil deeds.

The way was to catch and kill Bishop Laitna, who could be called the source of this whole situation.

‘Is it possible?’

I thought as I shattered the skull of a skeleton rushing at me from the side with a single blow.

Chaser Idna.

And the Academy investigation team he was leading.

Would it be possible for them alone to kill Bishop Laitna?

Suddenly, I, who had planned this affair to save just one person, Jaygie, felt a severe pang of conscience.

‘I’ll evacuate Ms. Jaygie and come back.’

I had to do it anyway.

My comrades were here too.

As I was searching the 4th floor, cleaning up the undead.

As if my prayers had reached the heavens, I was finally able to find Jaygie, whom I had been searching for so desperately.

“Oh, don’t come!”

Was it because of the hotel staff uniform and the face mask?

Jaygie tried to run away from me, but when I took off the face mask, her eyes widened.

“Lu, Luis-brother?”

“Ms. Jaygie.”

“Oppa! Uwaaah!”

Jaygie burst into tears and hugged me.

But she immediately had to lift her buried head and look up at me.

“O, oppa. There’s blood on your body……”

Her clothes and hands were all stained with blood.

The blood that had seeped from my wound.

“I’m sorry. For getting you dirty.”

“Sob. Huuk!”

“Please don’t cry. It’s just an injury. More importantly, could you get on my back for now? We don’t have time.”

I hurriedly offered my back.

“Ms. Jaygie. I’ll take you outside……”

I stopped talking.

Dulduldul…….

My entire body began to tremble like crazy.

Because the floor I was standing on was shaking.

‘No. This is…….’

The floor, the walls.

The entire hotel was shaking.

Wajangchang, the light fixture on the ceiling fell and shattered and everything standing on it lost its balance and staggered.

“Kyaak!”

The same went for Jaygie.

Hugging the falling Jaygie, I hurriedly got up.

‘An earthquake?’

But for that to be the case…….

Cold sweat that started on my forehead trickled down my cheek and beaded on my chin.

A dry gulp went down my throat, and my hands and feet grew cold.

With that, the hair on my skin stood on end and the back of my neck grew chilly.

With my senses sharpened to the extreme, I heard a sound.

A sound so faint that if I hadn’t strained my hearing to the fullest, I would have just ignored it.

Jjeok-

‘A crack?’

It was the sound of something cracking.

The source of the sound was above.

I raised my head, and soon realized that the sound was only the beginning.

The beginning of a disaster.

Jjeok!

Jjeojeojeojeok!

The crack that split from the ceiling spread out like a spiderweb, swallowing the walls, the hallway, and everything on the 4th floor.

“Hold on tight!”

“Kyaaaaak!”

I quickly got up and ran without looking back.

Direction?

I didn’t know.

Even for someone as rational as me, my mind was currently filled with only one thought.

‘I have to get out of here, fast!’

And that judgment saved both my life and Jaygie’s.

At the same time, the ceiling that supported the floor above collapsed with a deafening roar.

Kwarururu!

An enormous amount of rubble poured down like a waterfall.

Unable to bear the weight of the sediment, the 4th floor also collapsed in succession.

And so, the Ladrier Hotel, which had been a home to many travelers for 35 years, was crumbling from within.

By something.

Chang!

I broke the window in front of me and threw my body outside.

Just as I was getting close to the ground.

Paang!

A shockwave that suddenly erupted from behind sent my body flying once more.

Thanks to that, I had to roll on the ground several times, holding Jaygie tightly so she wouldn’t get hurt.

“Keuk…….”

And I lifted my head.

The sight that entered my eyes was truly horrifying and shocking.

On top of the hotel that was collapsing like a sandcastle.

A giant made of bone was raising its massive body.

Gyaaaaaaa──

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