Murim Login - Chapter 426

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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 426
Roooaaarrr!
The moment the Arch Lich beheld the colossal fire dragon erupting from the spear’s blade, understanding crystallized within its consciousness.
‘Too late.’
An attack that could not be evaded.
The spell left unspoken and the mana on the verge of completion scattered instantly before the descending inferno.
Toward the Arch Lich, now rigid and beyond pain, the fire dragon blazed with terrible fury, its maw gaping wide.
Kwaaaauuuuu!
With a roar that shook the heavens themselves, azure flames swept across all directions. Space warped, and a horrific heat vaporized everything in its path.
The Arch Lich felt its protective barriers and surrounding mana dissolving. A sensation it had not experienced in ages returned to it once more.
‘So this is heat.’
Whoooosh!
Azure hellfire consumed the Arch Lich’s vision. The fire dragon swept across its entire form and continued onward without pause.
The dragon’s trajectory led toward the colossal black gate standing at the heart of the Ruined City.
The Gate itself.
‘No!’
The Arch Lich’s crimson eyes blazed as it reached out, but no sound escaped its lips—and the fire dragon swallowed the Gate whole, a structure as massive as itself.
In that instant when unprecedented mana and flames born from the life force of hundreds of thousands of humans collided, a blinding flash erupted forth.
Fwooooosh!
A pillar of light visible from hundreds, perhaps thousands of kilometers away.
Darkness and azure flame collided and intermingled. The Building District, barely holding its ground, buckled at the waist, and rings of wind tore outward.
Kuuuuuuuuuung—
A sound and tremor beyond all mortal description shook the world itself.
The Gray Sky fractured, and the ashen mist that had shrouded the entire city dissipated like heat shimmer.
And as if all of this had been nothing more than a dream from some distant day, profound silence descended.
‘Ah.’
The Arch Lich gazed upon the world with hollow eyes.
The landscape appeared unchanged from moments before, yet it understood. Everything—including itself—had transformed. It had crumbled like a sandcastle.
The Arch Lich slowly turned its head. Its trembling crimson gaze fell upon a solitary figure standing tall like an iron tower.
– I should have killed you.
A single utterance that shattered the silence.
Jin Tae-kyung, his complexion drained of all color, spoke. Though he appeared ready to collapse at any moment from accumulated damage and mental exhaustion sustained through endless combat, his voice remained undiminished in strength.
“You should have. Why didn’t you finish me sooner?”
The Arch Lich fell silent. It was undeniably its own failure—having missed the opportunity to sever Jin Tae-kyung’s lifeline.
A moment of carelessness had reduced everything to nothing.
‘My King. I beg your forgiveness for this disloyal servant.’
The Arch Lich pleaded for absolution from its sovereign, wherever it might exist.
Had it not hesitated and killed Jin Tae-kyung immediately, had the monster that stood with this human not been reborn as a new existence and driven a cursed blade into its chest—everything would have unfolded according to plan.
It would have survived to complete the Gate, and leading an incalculable multitude of monsters, it would have slaughtered the vermin-like humans and set the cities ablaze.
Waiting for the day when the great King would return.
But the plan I thought was perfect fell apart spectacularly.
All because of a single human—Jin Tae-kyung’s arrival.
The Arch Lich’s crimson gaze, which had been dimming steadily, flared back to life with its last ounce of strength.
A vow to itself, a pledge of vengeance, poured forth toward Jin Tae-kyung.
– Remember me. The one who will trample your souls beneath my bare feet someday.
Jin Tae-kyung spat phlegm onto the ground.
“A dying bastard spouting nonsense. Go ahead, call Asmodeus a bastard.”
The Skeleton King hesitated before opening his mouth.
– Asmodeus… a bastard…
“Not you.”
– Ah, I understand. I just wanted to try it once. But it felt wrong to say something so irreverent.
“What does it matter? You’re a king now too.”
– You’re right.
By the River of Death, I swear—I will tear those two to shreds.
The Arch Lich stretched both hands toward Jin Tae-kyung and the Skeleton King.
Bony hands clenched as if to crush the two figures from a great distance, but nothing happened.
Instead, a wind from somewhere brushed across his entire form.
Whoooosh.
It was collapse. Starting with the Arch Lich’s hands turning to ash and scattering, everything that composed him began to crumble.
Arms, legs, chest, and finally the skull where the crimson gaze resided.
– Please survive. Until the day we meet again…
The final voice, laden with resentment, dissolved into the wind.
The intensifying wind carried the ashes of what was once called the Arch Lich, sweeping ever onward.
With each gust, everything caught in the range of that single slash collapsed and crumbled. Toppled high-rise buildings, concrete rubble, overturned vehicles, and corpses already drained of life…
And even the massive, incomplete Gate that would have become the starting point of an even greater war.
Fwooosh.
To Jin Tae-kyung’s ears, standing silent and watching the spectacle, rang a clear bell sound that only he could hear in this place.
Ding. Ding. Ding.
Countless System Messages flooded his vision. They were the fanfare announcing that everything had finally come to an end.
Yet Jin Tae-kyung’s body, having expended all its strength, was already tilting toward the ground.
‘I did it.’
With only that single thought, a deep and peaceful sleep claimed him.
And the Skeleton King, who caught Jin Tae-kyung’s falling form carefully in his arms, could see it.
The faint smile spreading across his lips.
– …You’ve worked hard.
Cunning, perhaps, but certainly a decent human after all.
The Skeleton King, muttering softly to himself, was about to move Jin Tae-kyung to a safer, more comfortable place when he remembered something he’d forgotten.
– Ah, that’s right. That sword.
The Hero’s Soul, was it called? He didn’t know who had given it that name, but it certainly possessed mysterious power.
It was thanks to that blade that he, once a Skeleton Warlord, had been awakened on the brink of annihilation, and had been able to inflict serious damage upon that terrifying Arch Lich.
– Almost forgot. I need to make sure I keep that.
It didn’t take the Skeleton King long to find it. The black sword that had been embedded in the target’s chest until moments ago was now resting quietly in the spot where the Arch Lich had stood.
However, upon grasping the Hero’s Soul, the Skeleton King tilted his head in confusion.
– Huh, something feels off.
It was an indescribable, peculiar sensation.
I couldn’t quite put my finger on it, but… while it was certainly a renowned blade, it lacked the mystical aura it once possessed.
– Did I find the wrong sword?
Yet even after the Skeleton King thoroughly searched the surroundings and examined the blade carefully, nothing changed.
After scratching his golden skull in contemplation for a while, the Skeleton King finally reached a conclusion.
– Hmm. It must be right, then.
He reasoned it was merely a fleeting sensation. The shape of the sword matched his memory, and he had even witnessed it falling from the Arch Lich’s chest with his own eyes in that final moment.
‘But why does this feel so unsettling?’
Utterly inexplicable. Shaking his head, the Skeleton King sheathed the blade between his pelvic bones.
He did not know what awaited as he turned toward the collapsed Jin Tae-kyung.
The moment Jin Tae-kyung lost consciousness after expending every ounce of his strength, a wisp of black energy—like mist—mingled with the scattering wind.
And with it, the golden light that had dwelt within the Hero’s Soul faded away in pursuit of that black energy.
Yet one existence perceived it differently.
The black energy that drifted away on the wind toward some distant place.
The Arch Lich, now reduced to a mere fragment of a powerless soul after losing most of its strength to Jin Tae-kyung, opened its eyes wide upon witnessing the dazzling golden light that blocked its path.
‘This is absurd.’
Every word the Arch Lich had spoken to Jin Tae-kyung and the Skeleton King before losing its form was absolute truth.
It would inevitably return in the not-distant future, and it intended to drench this land in blood with power far greater than before and legions of monsters far more numerous.
Life Force Vessel.
With that supreme dark magic accessible only to the undead—a vessel capable of preserving fragments of souls—eternal annihilation could be avoided.
Or so it had believed, until that radiant golden light blocked its path.
– What are you? What are you?!
The Arch Lich now was nothing more than a fragment of a worthless soul, utterly incomparable to the power emanating from the light.
Rage, panic, and terror caused the black energy to surge violently.
Yet despite the Arch Lich’s thoughts reaching out, the golden light showed no response. It only grew brighter, expanding in size.
And in the next instant, the Arch Lich understood the light’s true nature.
It was not magic—it was a soul. The soul of someone it had once shattered and trampled. A fragment of a soul that, though stripped of form, had clung to the blade through sheer will alone.
The Arch Lich suddenly recalled a memory it had long buried deep within its consciousness.
‘How noble, human. What is your name?’
That day when blood formed rivers and corpses formed mountains. A single human who stood until the very end in a city filled only with destruction and death.
– Lei Fei.
The Arch Lich—or rather, the black energy—froze in its movements.
Brilliant golden light burst forth from the void, crashing over it like a wave.
Kyaaaaaaah—!
‘…Damn it all.’
And that was the Arch Lich’s final thought.
* * *
The Battlefield where the main forces had converged was a maelstrom of chaos.
While the S-rank Hunters had withdrawn to the rear with some of their forces to clear a path for the Suicide Squad, tens of thousands of monsters seized the opportunity and surged forward without hesitation.
「Fire Rain!」
Boom-boom-boom-boom!
As the mage unit positioned in the back ranks unleashed a barrage of area-of-effect spells, a torrential downpour of flames descended upon the enemy.
Hundreds of monsters were reduced to charred husks, and just as the mages clenched their fists in triumph—
Screech! Splatter!
「…What?」
One of the mages wiped the blood from his face with a bewildered expression.
The face of his comrade, who had been smiling at him just moments before, was simply gone. Obliterated.
Pierced through by a black spear that had descended like a shaft of light from the distance.
Screech, boom!
When another spear came flying and skewered seven mages like kebabs, belated screams finally erupted.
「Aaahhhhh!」
「Death Knight! It’s a Death Knight!」
「What the hell are you talking about?! Didn’t we take care of all of them?」
「N-No, it seems we didn’t! It appears they’ve been hiding elite forces separately!」
Someone’s words became reality in an instant.
The elite monsters, having confirmed the absence of the S-rank Hunters, revealed themselves on the Battlefield, and an unstoppable slaughter commenced.
Crash!
Boom-boom-boom!
Death Knights, Liches, and dozens of Wyverns that had been hidden from view appeared and unleashed a relentless assault.
People fell endlessly, and monsters poured in without cessation.
With the S-rank Hunters absent, a thick veil of despair descended upon the faces of those who had been fighting for their very lives.
‘It’s all over.’
And then, in that very moment when everyone contemplated death—
Whoosh!
The Death Knight’s blade, which had been cleaving through someone’s body, came to an abrupt halt.
No—it crumbled into ash.
“W-What is this…?”
A Hunter who had barely escaped with his life looked around and gaped in astonishment.
It was an unbelievable sight.
First, hundreds fell; then thousands crumbled.
Soon, tens of thousands of monsters were disintegrating into ash and dust.
A great wind swept across the Battlefield.
Thus, the war had come to an end.

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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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