Beguiling the Enemy’s Patriarch - Chapter 130

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 130
* * *
“What…?”
The trembling earth stilled, revealing an enormous gate. I scrambled to my feet and shoved it open, only to freeze in place at the sight before me.
“What is this…?”
A foul stench mingled with the air I drew in. I stopped, blinking vacantly. What filled my vision was not the narrow, steep underground tunnel I’d traversed until now. There was no parched, cracked earth beneath my feet, no jagged earthen walls.
What lay before me was a colossal space I’d never imagined could exist within this tunnel. Drip. Drip. Water droplets echoed from somewhere unseen. I turned slowly, taking in the vast expanse. Smooth dark stone flooring stretched before me. Sinister tentacle-like ridges. And dozens of semicircular grooves carved into both walls. And within those semicircular recesses…
A short gasp escaped my lips.
“Ah.”
The same sharp, clawing sensation of magical energy I’d felt when confronting Hades directly washed over me. Soleia’s final words echoed in my ears.
“No matter what you see, don’t lose your nerve. Keep running. Understood?”
So this was what she meant? I wished I could simply collapse right then and there.
* * *
“This is insane. Truly terrifying, that woman was.”
A voice hummed and resonated. Raulus grumbled softly in complaint.
[To think such filthy things were constructed in the land I blessed. How revolting.]
“…Ugh.”
I wanted to agree, but only a groan escaped my lips. The magical energy radiating through the space made it difficult to maintain coherent thought. Numbness crept through my limbs until sensation faded entirely.
Yet what truly shattered my composure wasn’t the physical pain. I couldn’t tear my eyes away from the sight that densely filled the vast chamber. It seemed that when humans witness something too horrifying, tears don’t fall—instead, everything simply freezes solid.
“…”
This place was, in essence, a kind of ‘exhibition hall.’ Exhibition hall. No other word adequately described it. What filled the floor along both walls were glowing crimson magic circles. And above those circles, in the hollowed-out recesses…
[Corpses.]
Raulus muttered dryly. Leaping from my shoulder, Raulus approached the nearest body. I stood slack-jawed, watching as Raulus slowly circled above the magic circle, moving toward the corpse.
[Empty husks devoid of souls. More than half consumed by dark magic.]
Raulus was right. Like the two Gatekeepers who’d guarded the iron bars before, the bodies filling the walls couldn’t possibly be mistaken for anything but corpses. It wasn’t merely their pallid, bloodless skin. Humans couldn’t survive such horrific wounds, couldn’t exist in such a state of decay. My body trembled like aspen leaves. My voice quavered as I spoke.
“Earlier… the mages said the experiment was about halfway complete.”
[That’s right.]
“…”
Then this was undoubtedly an exhibition hall. An exhibition hall displaying Soleia’s puppets. A place housing her collection. I’d read of this in the climax of the original work—the scene where Decarve Belgot, whose inherited ability finally fully awakened, commanded a legion of corpses to target Brizni. Fragments of “Brizni Wants to Be Happy,” which I’d nearly forgotten, flickered through my mind. I struggled to reconstruct the vague passages that had scattered through my thoughts.
[“Mother’s legacy.”]
[Decarve had quietly repeated it.]
[“The Southern Region…”]
[He finally made his decision—.]
“…Southern Belgot.”
The place where Soleia’s corpse army lay hidden. I let out a small whimper.
“So that’s why she told me not to lose my nerve…”
But still, they’re just corpses. People already dead. Empty shells without souls.
“Right. Empty shells. Empty shells…”
I steadied myself and moved forward slowly. Each time I passed the densely packed magic circles on the floor, my head spun. A cold that gnawed from my fingernails seemed to freeze my veins from within. I barely held onto my fragmenting consciousness. Habitually, I checked the Holy Power remaining within me. Approximately thirty percent.
“This is cutting it close…”
I kept my gaze fixed downward, focusing only on my feet and the ground beneath them. Most of the corpses had their eyes wide open, and I feared that if our gazes met, I might lose consciousness on the spot.
I clutched the wolf cub—no larger than my fist—to my chest and hurried past the magical circles. My pace quickened with each step. Yet beyond the exhibition hall I’d nearly sprinted through, another exhibition hall awaited. My mouth fell open.
“No… how many of these are there…?”
I couldn’t even begin to fathom the scale of Soleia’s puppet army. If there were just one or two more halls like this, the count would easily exceed hundreds. Had she personally killed all of them? Then again, Soleia was the woman who had murdered the innocent Leria and transformed her into a puppet.
I bit my lip and quickened my pace. Still, the corpses in this exhibition hall were in relatively better condition. Some looked almost too pristine to be dead.
“If their eyes were just closed, they’d look almost alive…”
And it was precisely when I’d made it about halfway through the second exhibition hall that I heard it—a faint, thin moan.
“Hnn… ugh…”
My footsteps stopped abruptly. I cut myself off mid-thought and reflexively called out to Raulus.
“Ra… Raulus.”
[You don’t need to say anything. I heard it too.]
Raulus’s voice carried an ominous tone. I turned my head toward the source of the sound, my joints creaking. The floor was densely covered with crimson magical circles, leaving almost no gaps. And above them, corpses rotated slowly through the empty air. And…
“…!”
Trembling atop a magical circle I hadn’t noticed as I passed…
“Ah… damn it.”
A desperate curse escaped my lips unbidden. The shock hit me like a blow to the back of my head, leaving my mind reeling. Trembling on the magical circle was a small girl. Perhaps only thirteen or fourteen years old—a gaunt, skeletal child. She was… breathing, alive.
“…”
[…]
Neither Raulus nor I spoke first. A chilling silence descended.
“Hgh… cough.”
All I could hear was the child’s faint, coughing whimper. Beneath the tattered remnants of her skirt, her ankles were exposed. The magical circles binding her skeletal ankles like tree roots were a deep crimson. There was no other way to describe it—this was clearly a dark magic “experiment” in progress.
“No matter what you see, don’t let your heart weaken. Keep running. Do you understand?”
“…”
Only then did I grasp the true meaning of those words. Soleia must have known this would happen.
“Mother…”
The child whispered faintly. Her eyes, fixed directly on me, were a bright brown. Tears already pooled there spilled down to the floor. Plink, plink. The sound of falling tears echoed strangely through the entire exhibition hall. It was the source of the water droplets I’d been hearing since I entered this place. The child’s cracked lips trembled.
“Save… me…”
She’ll die soon. Looking into those brown eyes as the light faded from them, I knew it instinctively. The magical circle was burning brighter red with each passing moment.
“Save… me…”
The young girl reached out her hand toward me. Her fingernails were completely gone, her skin grotesquely cracked and torn. I could see her protruding wrist bones trembling with convulsions.
“Ah, really…”
My vision blurred. My mind hadn’t yet made a decision, but my hands were already setting Raulus down on the ground.
[Crumb, crumb?]
Raulus, sensing my distress, clung to my arm. I spoke quickly.
“It would be better if you went ahead, Raulus.”
Once I began moving, everything accelerated. I roughly wiped away my tears and immediately lowered myself to a crouch beneath the child.
“Sensory sharing—it’s still possible, right?”
[Go ahead? What do you mean?]
“At every fork, take the left path. Where there’s no fork, go straight.”
I frantically gathered the remaining Holy Power at my fingertips. I calculated the exact amount needed to shatter this magical circle while leaving just enough life in me to survive, then spoke rapidly.
“I’ll hold out as long as I can to keep Lari from being summoned back beyond Udeta, and I’ll leave traces as I go. That way, whether I follow or someone else comes down, they’ll be able to find the way.”
[And you barely have any power left!]
“Which is why it all depends on your speed.”
From this moment on, it was a race against time. Who would be faster? Would Hades manage to suppress Soleia’s consciousness again and seize complete control of her body first, or would Raulus reach the surface intact?
“I’ll follow right behind you. Don’t forget to leave traces—do you understand?”
[….]
“Hurry.”
My fingertips, wreathed in sharp Holy Power, reached the edge of the magic circle blazing crimson. I felt Raulus, who had been hesitating, finally move. I was no longer looking in that direction.
Raulus spoke one last time.
[Be careful with the earring—don’t let it break.]
The sturdy magic circle began to crack with a sharp sound, and Raulus turned and bolted away almost simultaneously.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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