Trap (3)
Watching the carriages approaching from afar together,
Kali grabs my sleeve and pulls me closer, whispering.
“Who are they?”
“They’re reinforcements to help us.”
“What kind of help do we need? Shouldn’t we enter the dungeon as soon as possible and meet Luna? What was that chill in the first place?”
“It’s complicated to explain. We can’t go in right now. But I’ll make sure you meet Luna.”
I didn’t lie.
Kali will be able to meet Luna.
Probably soon.
“I see… You must have your own intentions. Judging by how you know the structure of Luna’s unique dungeon in detail, there’s no doubt that you’re one of the Four Heavenly Kings.”
Kali closes her mouth.
It seems she has decided to stop questioning.
Even if she did have questions, there was nothing she could do with her frail body.
She can only wait.
To be judged and pay the price, she can only wait.
She doesn’t know it yet, though…
“They’re here.”
At that moment, the carriage stops nearby.
The coachman opens the door wide.
A white-haired fox spirit walks out from inside.
[You bastard…]
“Long time no see.”
It’s a strange appearance, but I recognize it right away.
It was Taesu, Gwiho’s human form.
Overwhelmed by his strange appearance and aura, the gathered onlookers burst into applause.
And then, a child in a robe follows him out.
He looks at my face and hides behind Gwiho.
That little bastard…
[I came out of my closed-door training because I heard you needed help urgently. Sogong was about to awaken the ultimate secret of the True Dharma… Why did you have to interfere?]
“I need a great sorcerer. It would be easy if I had a sorcerer with the best talent and knowledge, like Taesu.”
[Hmm. You sure know how to flatter people… Fine. I’ll help you out.]
“But why is Sogong a clone?”
“······?!”
Sogong’s face turns pale in surprise.
Did he really think I wouldn’t notice?
I’ve caught him several times before.
[Ha. It’s really harder to fool you than to reach for the stars. This guy’s main body is still training far away. I brought a clone. But don’t worry too much. I put 70% of my main body’s power into the clone. Even as a clone, he’s stronger than any sorcerer in the world! He’s that talented!]
“······.”
It doesn’t seem like a lie.
Sogong’s body is a clone with no visible weaknesses as a ‘weak point’.
But the magical energy I feel inside him far surpasses the Sogong I remember.
It seems that he has indeed become stronger through his training.
“Anyway, thank you both for coming all this way when you’re both so busy.”
[It’s amazing. I’m seeing you express gratitude.]
“Do I look like an ungrateful bastard to you?”
[That’s exactly how I see you.]
“······.”
Gwiho’s gaze, as he says this, turns to Kali behind me.
For a moment, I was nervous that he had noticed that this child was Kali, the Four Heavenly King.
But it seems not, as he quickly loses interest and looks away.
Gwiho sighs as if to say, ‘Well, that’s that’.
Why doesn’t he ask me about Kali?
He must have seen her for the first time, but he looks at me as if it’s natural for Kali to be by my side.
[Your taste is still the same… It’s nice to see something consistent. People who change too quickly tend to die.]
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
[You don’t have to.]
People who change too quickly die…
Then maybe it’s time for me to die.
I feel it instinctively.
That my death is not far off.
It’s not that I’ve given up on life.
It’s just that I feel it.
I have an uneasy feeling that this place might be where I die.
“You seem different.”
“Is that so? My body changed a while ago. Suddenly, my body became hot and I lost consciousness… When I opened my eyes, I felt power overflowing from my body.”
A great change.At that time, it seemed that Xiao Gong was also affected.
The recovery of power weakened the power of most monsters.
However, it seemed that the story was different for Xiao Gong.
“I feel like something that was blocking my talent has disappeared.”
“Then use that talent to tell the main body to hurry up and practice. That way, the clone will also become stronger.”
“I don’t have a way to contact the main body right now······.”
“I was just saying, Imma.”
From Noble mtl dot com
First, we greet the guests.
Before we knew it, we passed the desolate square and headed for the headquarters.
In the meantime, Kali did not understand the situation at all and just watched me.
I blocked Kali, who was trying to follow me, and said firmly.
“Go out for a while.”
“Huh? Me? Are you talking about me?”
“Yes. We have something to talk about as adults.”
“Oh, yeah. That’s right. Oh······. Yes. I’ll go out······.”
Kali is now known as the orphan I picked up.
It’s natural not to bring a child to an important story.
Kali smiled awkwardly, remembering the setting and stepped back.
But I’m kicking Kali out for a different reason right now.
Soon, a boundary will be spread around the headquarters.
The space where only Mijeong, Mia, Guiho, Xiao Gong, and I remain is filled with desolation.
Among them.
I opened my lips first.
“Now that everyone is here, I’ll tell you. The guy outside is the Four Heavenly Kings Archdruid Kali, the spider monster who tried to take over the World Tree and turned Cologne into a mess.”
“······!”
“······!”
Everyone’s eyes widened except for Mijeong.
I’m a little sorry to tell Mia now.
But in order to avoid any problems, I had to keep quiet so as not to cause any confusion.
Before the three of them could recover from the shock and open their mouths.
I continued the story.
“And I want to kill that guy again. The method is simple. That guy’s soul can now be converted into a magic stone. So if you turn it back into a magic stone and break it, that’s it. But that’s not enough to pay for his crimes.”
[What do you mean?]
“I want him to pay the right price. But it would be ridiculous for me, a mere human, to talk about judgment and justice. So I want to leave the judgment to another absolute being.”
[An absolute being? What are you talking about? The gods of this land died long ago.]
That’s right.
The gods of this land are already dead in the ancient, mythical era.
What his body is still exuding is mana.
And the setting is that all living beings live, die, and circulate again by dividing the body of God.
“Yes. God is dead. In this world.”
[You? No way?!]
“Yes. That’s it. From now on, we will connect our world to the underworld. And, we will meet the underworld god and send Kali to the underworld to be condemned.”
“······!”
Underworld.
In other words, it is hell.
If we succeed in summoning the underworld god, we will not only be able to put Kali’s soul on the judgment seat, but we will also be able to send Luna, who is wandering the nine heavens in the form of a spirit body.
Maybe even Belfagor can be sent back to hell.
[W, well, it’s too late to say this······. Can you stop it······? I, I think it’s too big for me······.]
“No. I left Xiao Gong for today.”
Xiao Gong, who doesn’t know the seriousness of the situation, is bewildered.
Guiho’s face turned pale and he trembled.
There is no other way.
With this, we will destroy all the Four Heavenly Kings.
.
.
.
“Ha······.”
Outside the headquarters.
Kali tried to peek through the gap in the curtained window.
When she tried to put her ear to the crack in the door, she gave up and leaned against the wall.
“Something’s strange······.”
Something was strange.
This situation was something Kali had never thought of.
Until I headed to Elvengard.
I imagined reuniting with Luna and Belfagor.
When I actually came in, Eugene was discussing the dungeon strategy.
Of course, this is also a disguise.
He is deceiving the elves and mercenaries by pretending to help with the dungeon strategy.
He even lied that he couldn’t enter by using cold magic, so it must be true.
However, Kali had recently had strange suspicions about the Four Heavenly Kings, Mijeong.
If you ask me what the suspicion is, it was difficult to answer clearly.Everything was suspicious.
His identity, his relationship with me, etc.
There was certainly no shortage of unexplained things.
He was undoubtedly one of the Four Heavenly Kings and an apostle who was working hard for the advent of ‘that person’.
However, for some reason, Kali felt that the unexplained attitude he had towards her was strange.
He would sometimes look at Kali with intense emotion.
At first, she vaguely thought it was affection, but lately, she had noticed that it was a slightly different emotion.
One thing was for sure.
It wasn’t pure affection.
It seemed more like love and hate or intense anger.
‘It seems like he’s planning something big, but I have no idea what it is······.’
It was confusing.
What was the state of that dungeon that they were dragging their feet like this without even entering it?
She had no idea what the new people were doing.
‘I should ask them about it today······.’
It was time to find out for sure.
Kali made up her mind.