Chapter 164: Genesis (1)

“Tha, that is……”

I couldn’t bring myself to finish the sentence.

Skeleton Lord.

The being at the apex of all skeletons.

A calamity made of bone.

Like a Death Knight, it belongs to the highest class of undead, but that’s only because there is no grade above it; it was an ancient death that could not be placed on the same level as a Death Knight.

An undead that occasionally appeared only in history books or old tomes.

Naturally, it was the first time I had ever seen it in person.

It was, literally, a sight of awe and terror.

The overwhelming shock caused Jaygie’s body to tremble uncontrollably, tears streaming down her face.

So I held her tightly.

Then, the faces of Dayle and Clatter suddenly surfaced in my mind.

I slowly helped her to her feet.

“Listen carefully, Ms. Jaygie.”

Jaygie looked at me.

“Run straight down this road, take the second right alley you come across, and run again. You will come to a familiar plaza. Go. Mr. Parnaci will be waiting for you there.”

“……Luis-oppa?”

“I’m sorry. I want to take you there, but I have something urgent to do.”

My comrades were trapped in the wreckage where the Skeleton Lord was born, down below.

I had to go to them.

“Go. I wish you luck.”

“Oppa! Luis-oppa……!”

Jaygie tearfully clung to me, but I bid her farewell and walked resolutely towards the collapsed Ladrier Hotel.

Fortunately, it seemed it hadn’t completely collapsed, as the hotel was somehow maintaining its form.

The half-destroyed part was the upper section where the Skeleton Lord had been summoned.

The first and second floors, where the lobby was, and especially the direction of the main entrance, were relatively intact and quite a few people were escaping through the main entrance.

“You can’t go in. There are undead inside!”

Just as I was about to go inside, someone grabbed me.

A soldier dressed in the uniform of the Capital Defense Force.

Having been dispatched after a report, guards from the Capital Defense Force and city guard soldiers had already surrounded the hotel, controlling the area.

They were rescuing citizens who had not yet evacuated and in between, they were smashing the skulls of skeletons that occasionally poked their heads out.

However, they too seemed unable to do anything about the Skeleton Lord, merely staring blankly at it while evacuating the nearby citizens.

The fortunate thing was that the Skeleton Lord’s attention seemed to be elsewhere, not here.

Gyaaaaah!

Kuuung!

After a quick glance at the Skeleton Lord swinging its fist towards something in the complete opposite direction, I removed the hand of the soldier who had grabbed my shoulder.

“I’ll be fine.”

“Huh? No, I’m telling you it’s dangerous! The hotel could collapse at any momen……”

Before the soldier could even finish his sentence, I turned and entered the hotel.

I heard a clucking of the tongue from behind me.

Upon passing through the door, the lobby, which had been perfectly fine just this morning, appeared.

The granite walls and pillars were shattered beyond recognition, and the entire view was hazy and blurred due to debris and dust that had not yet settled.

The light fixture hanging precariously from the ceiling flickered like a person with little life left, and with every vibration, stone dust rained down from the ceiling.

In that fear of the ceiling collapsing at any moment, I strode into the darkness created by the wreckage.

I searched the first floor, but all I found was a group of skeletons that had survived the collapse, staggering and wandering about.

I took care of them one by one and went up to the second floor.

But I couldn’t find Dayle or Clatter there either.

I tried to go higher, but the elevator and all three staircases were blocked by collapsed debris.

‘In that case…….’

“Heok! Heok!”

My heart pounded.

A bad thought, a ‘what if’, reared its head.

I had searched the relatively intact areas of the hotel, but there was no trace of them anywhere.

What could that possibly mean?

‘That can’t be. It can’t be.’

But I shook my head violently in denial, erasing the thought.

They were alive.

Without a doubt.

Firmly believing so, I descended to the first floor again.

As if that belief had reached the heavens, it was pure coincidence that I found a passage leading to the basement.

It had been hidden by a thick steel pipe, but when I lifted it, a hole leading to the basement was revealed.

And that hole perfectly matched the traces of Dayle’s explosive rounds I had seen from above.

There was no need to think.

I immediately jumped down.

***

Looking up at the summoned Skeleton Lord, Bishop Laitna narrowed her eyes.

‘Why a Lord for a fight like this? A Skeleton King is enough.’

A few hours ago, those were the exact words she had said to High Cleric Margo.

It wasn’t a lie.

She had really felt that way then, and she hadn’t even considered summoning a Skeleton Lord in the first place.

However, she only realized what a great act of hubris this was after meeting the man named Chaser Idna.

“Will you be okay?”

“Of course, brother. Go on up and help that thug-like guy. I’ll take care of things here.”

When she first faced the Academy investigation team, she had waved her hand with an annoyed expression, sending Dorian and High Cleric Vallary upstairs.

And she remained alone on the 6th floor to face the Academy.

Of course, High Cleric Margo and a few of Dorian’s subordinates, the dark priests, and so on, remained, but to her, they were just useless trash.

And in reality, they were swept away like fallen leaves by the imposing presence of Chaser Idna at the forefront.

“Things that can’t even be recycled. Well, shall we play a little for the first time in a while-?”

The death that arose from her fingertips crossed the hallway and blossomed like a flower from the walls, the ceiling, and even the backs of the corpses lying in the hallway.

And from within, skeletal soldiers rose.

From Skeletons, to Warriors, to Knights.

And finally, the King.

“Now, it’s a festival. Wipe them all out.”

At her command, the skeletons shrieked and, like cancer cells, instantly began to consume the hotel.

And to stop her, Chaser Idna stood before her.

And the martial prowess of Chaser Idna that she witnessed was beyond her imagination.

‘What is this?’

The Skeleton Warriors were massacred.

‘What the hell kind of bastard is he?’

The Skeleton Knights were brutally torn apart.

‘How can a mere knight be such a monster?’

The Skeleton King could only manage to block him.

‘This is…… something is wrong.’

Watching the King’s bone fragments being ground up, shattered, and sent flying in all directions by the dual swords Chaser wielded, Bishop Laitna hurriedly changed her perception of this battle.

And she supported the King.

Mending and reinforcing its bones.

She also occasionally attacked Chaser directly.

But it only bought a little more time; it couldn’t change the outcome itself.

In the end, after shattering the Skeleton King’s right arm, Chaser fired a sword qi through the opening, and the sword qi grazed Bishop Laitna’s neck.

Drip, blood flowed from her neck, soaking her robe.

Touching it with her hand and bringing it before her eyes, Bishop Laitna’s already pale face turned even whiter.

Then, the power of death began to ooze out like tentacles.

“……!”

Sensing the unusual atmosphere, Chaser Idna fired another sword qi, but it was blocked by the Skeleton King.

And.

The disaster occurred.

“Throne of the Skeleton God.”

The power of death swirled around the Skeleton King.

Skeletons gathered, and even the scattered and broken bone fragments flew through the air and were absorbed into the Skeleton King, causing its body to swell in an instant.

And so, the Skeleton Lord descended, destroying the hotel.

“Haa.”

Bishop Laitna changed her plan and decided to destroy all of Icata now that things had come to this.

Shadow?

The Skull Mask?

If she destroyed Icata, they’d crawl out on their own, probably.

Chaser Idna was now out of her interest, as his life was already forfeit with the summoning of the Lord.

Still, he was arrogant.

“Stomp him to death. Along with those Academy ants.”

The Lord drew its sword made of a spine and swung it at Chaser.

The power of the sword swung by the 30-meter giant produced a result similar to a mana bomb falling from the sky.

Kwaaaaaa!

A giant crater was formed where Chaser had been standing.

“Puhahat! Yes. That’s it! Destroy everything!”

Bishop Laitna watched the scene with a satisfied smile.

Just then, High Cleric Vallary appeared behind her.

“Laitna.”

“Huh? Oppa!”

“You ended up summoning the Lord.”

Laitna flinched at the light reprimand but soon pouted her lips and acted cute.

“I couldn’t help it. That guy was pretty strong.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, yeah. Look here! I got hurt here, you know?”

Seeing the wound on Bishop Laitna’s neck, High Cleric Vallary’s face was instantly filled with rage.

“So that’s what happened.”

“Yeah! But it’s okay. He’ll turn into beef jerky soon enough. More importantly, what’s that?”

Vallary looked behind him.

A giant black glass sphere was floating in the air and inside the glass sphere, Clatter, with only his upper body remaining, was trapped.

“It’s your present, Laitna.”

To state the conclusion first, High Cleric Vallary had managed to capture Clatter alive.

He was lucky.

The collapsing wall from the Lord’s summoning had fallen on Clatter.

Of course, he had struggled so fiercely that he ended up losing the Death Knight Ga-il, but Vallary didn’t particularly care.

Death Knights could be made as long as he had the materials.

“Really? That’s my present!?”

“Yes. This may look like an undead, but it’s clearly a transcendent being that has moved beyond that. It’s worth researching……”

At that moment.

Something that fell from the sky at the speed of light pierced through Vallary’s body.

“……enough……”

“Huh? What’s wrong all of a sudden, oppa?”

Laitna, who was looking strangely at the stuttering Vallary, saw the hole in his chest and the blood gushing out.

“……Brother?”

There was no answer.

The light had already vanished from the eyes of Vallary, whose heart had been blown wide open.

Instant death.

Confirming his death, Bishop Laitna’s hands trembled as she cupped Vallary’s face.

Soon.

Kyaaaaaaaa──!

She let out a scream mixed with fury and looked up.

“Looooord!”

Gyaaaaaaa──!

Feeling the caster’s emotions welling up with hatred and anger, the Skeleton Lord stopped its attack on Chaser Idna and the Academy investigation team and raised its spine.

Death swirled around the spine.

Then, the Skeleton Lord raised its head to the sky and swung it towards somewhere,

Kwakwakwakwa!

The projected death became a black crescent moon and split the sky.

“Die!”

shrieked Bishop Laitna desperately.

But.

Unfortunately, her curse was not fulfilled.

“Haaaaaaap!”

Because a powerful surge of immense strength, flying in with a roar that seemed to shake the entire world, collided with the black crescent, causing a massive explosion.

Kwarureung!

The explosion, which erupted with a great thunderclap, scattered the clouds in all directions, opening a path in the sky.

Naturally, all eyes on the ground turned towards it.

“…….”

The brightly lit full moon.

Beneath it, an airship that had been hidden by the clouds was revealing its magnificent form.

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