The Lord Who Levels Up by Devouring - Chapter 315

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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 315. The Death King
Seraphia’s question—whether Adrian would emerge from the cocoon completely naked.
“I was just suddenly curious.”
Seraphia cradled her cheeks in both hands.
“What if my brother came out completely bare like that…!”
Even as she spoke, Seraphia’s face flushed with embarrassment.
Rielin didn’t know how to respond and fumbled for words.
“Ah… well….”
She blinked several times.
Opened her mouth, then closed it again.
And then, suddenly.
The memory of Adrian’s naked form from Feractrum surfaced—.
Kyaaaaaaah!!
Rielin’s face flushed crimson.
As if painted with scarlet dye.
The heat rushed all the way to the tips of her ears.
“…Rielin?”
Seraphia tilted her head in confusion.
Rielin hastily covered her face with both hands.
But the memory kept flooding back.
Like a newborn fawn, her legs gave out and she collapsed right there.
“W-wait? Rielin? Are you alright?!”
Seraphia rushed over in alarm.
Rielin couldn’t speak at all.
…couldn’t speak.
That scene playing in her mind.
So vivid, so impossibly clear—.
‘No, no, no!!’
The scorching heat spread across her face and down to her neck, painting everything crimson.
Thump, thump, thump.
Her heart raced wildly.
Her entire body trembled, shaking to the very marrow—.
‘…?’
Her heart was pounding that hard?
Rielin slowly lifted her head.
And thump, thump, thump.
She could see the cocoon convulsing with tremendous force.
“My brother must be coming out!!”
Both Seraphia’s and Rielin’s cheeks flushed simultaneously as if set ablaze.
* * *
The ultimate evolution progressing within the cocoon.
Even now, my body twisted and every cell within me transformed.
That sensation—how could I describe it?
I could express it in just one phrase.
◆Calamity Quest initiated: [Feeling Death in the Darkness].
As if I were feeling death itself within the darkness—.
‘…What?’
My consciousness snapped awake in an instant.
The Quest message suddenly blazed before my eyes.
It was abrupt, just as the words suggested.
But the reason my ‘consciousness’ had snapped awake wasn’t due to the abruptness.
‘A Calamity Quest?’
Calamity Quests shared similar mechanics with sudden Quests.
Yet they differed enormously in scale.
A Calamity Quest was, by definition, a calamity.
It demanded military strength sufficient to confront a Lord-tier entity.
In that sense, The Immortal Lord and the Beast Lord.
Both Quests that had corresponded to these two Lords belonged to the Calamity Quest category.
Therefore, the Calamity Quest that had just appeared meant it was triggered by a Lord-tier existence—.
==[Feeling Death in the Darkness]==
[Objective] – Survive death
[Reward] – Unlock new 【Privilege Skill】
[Failure] – Death
‘Death?’
…Something about the content felt off.
Normally, a Quest would specify its origin or the threat it posed.
Or.
The objective and conditions should be made clear.
But this was merely a single line: ‘Survive death’.
Which meant the entity that triggered this Calamity Quest and the threat itself was ‘death’ itself—.
‘Wait.’
A chill ran down my spine in that instant.
Of course, my spine was currently reshaping itself at will… but regardless.
My senses grew cold.
If.
The entity that triggered this Calamity Quest was death itself, there was only one possible explanation.
‘The Death Lord?’
The six Lords who served The Emperor.
The Death Lord.
There was no other possibility.
That made sense, for The Death Lord was a ‘Spirit of Death’—death itself given form.
Spirit.
A product of belief created by ancient humans who could not comprehend natural phenomena.
Lightning that illuminated the heavens.
Floods and tidal waves that engulfed the earth.
Now, with the advancement of magical science, we could explain their mechanisms and principles.
But in ancient times, that was not the case.
So they sought to understand through comparison to ‘gods’.
“Lightning strikes because the gods are angry!” they would say.
Where knowledge fell short, imagination flourished.
That imagination became belief.
That belief—a collective faith beyond divine power itself.
Sorcery was born.
Thus, gods of lightning, gods of the sea, gods of the sun, and so forth.
Sorcerous deities modeled after natural phenomena came into being.
And they became the very origin of what we now call spirits.
Therefore, a spirit’s strength depends on humanity’s belief in that natural phenomenon.
In other words, it varies according to what fear humans harbored.
That is why the god of lightning could become the king of gods.
Lightning brings thunder’s deafening roar.
It summons storms and torrential rains.
It ignites wildfires and tears the earth asunder.
When lightning strikes, all natural phenomena swirl together at once, so ancient humans elevated the god of lightning to ‘king of the gods’.
In other words, the physical force of a natural phenomenon is irrelevant.
Fear, dread, awe.
These are what determine a spirit’s strength.
And there is precisely one.
There existed one natural phenomenon that all living creatures in this world feared in common.
Even Dragons feared one natural phenomenon.
Death.
The final destination all life reaches.
The principle all existence instinctively dreads.
The entity standing at the apex of the cycle.
Fear of death transcends the limits of imagination.
Accordingly, the Spirit of Death is powerful beyond imagination.
Such a Spirit of Death….
So The Death Lord triggered a Calamity Quest?
‘Just like that, out of nowhere?’
…Well, I suppose that’s possible.
Calamity Quests were always sudden, after all.
But even setting that aside, it made no sense.
No, it was impossible.
‘The Death Lord is sealed in the Valley of Kardun?’
More precisely, he was trapped in a state interpreted as ‘circulation.’
Imprisoned? Quarantined? Restrained?
Or perhaps an infinite loop?
He remained caught in some such state, unable to escape.
In other words, The Death Lord did not exist.
The Death Lord—that title no longer belonged to anyone.
Therefore, I could not trigger a Calamity Quest at this moment.
I should not have been able to.
‘Then how…?’
* * *
Empire District 4, Commercial District.
At its heart stood the Distribution Ministry Headquarters.
“…and so, the Elves accidentally erased the season in Whitewolf County, which is why they’ve gone into lockdown.”
Marzen’s eyebrows twitched.
Bringing me such drivel and calling it intelligence.
Had this subordinate not been with me since my days as vice minister, I would have dismissed him long ago.
Besides, this was the Distribution Bureau.
Not the Information Bureau.
“…Very well, you may go.”
The Attendant Secretary left with a satisfied expression.
Marzen buried himself in his chair, pressing his temples firmly.
Truth be told.
Whitewolf County was hardly his concern.
Whether they imposed a full lockdown or not.
Marzen cared little for it.
But.
“…So the Special Operations Bureau moved toward the County?”
If the Special Operations Bureau was moving, that changed everything.
“Hmm.”
Marzen withdrew a document from beneath his desk.
A single name was written on the cover.
Director of the Information Bureau, Aurec Ordan.
But that was merely his official title.
His true position was ‘Director of the Special Operations Bureau.’
According to what Kim Fujiwara had revealed to me.
“Mm.”
Marzen calmly turned through the document.
Words remained visible between sentences blotted out in black ink.
-…Invictus tracking delegated to the Information Bureau….
-…Unauthorized activities….
-…Whitewolf Territory borderlands… anomalous phenomena reported….
-…Emergency deployment requested….
“So the Special Operations Bureau was dispatched to Whitewolf Territory due to the current Invictus rampage….”
I wasn’t certain whether they’d actually been deployed to the Territory.
I could only discern unauthorized activities.
Anomalous phenomena reports and emergency deployment requests—that much was clear.
But one thing was certain.
“The Special Operations Bureau is currently focused on Whitewolf Territory.”
Which meant.
Whitewolf Territory was as important as Invictus.
Or.
Something equally significant to Invictus had occurred in Whitewolf Territory.
“Could the Elves have actually erased the Territory’s seasons?”
Marzen’s brow furrowed deeply.
* * *
Within the Whitewolf County Quarantine Zone.
Here, Werebeasts gathered together grooming….
‘Is grooming the right word?’
Sarpedon observed the Werebeasts licking their fur and trimming their claws.
Particularly there.
A Werecat and a Wererat.
Two Werebeasts of similar size were licking each other.
More precisely, the Werecat was grooming the Wererat.
“Purr. Purrr.”
“Chirp.”
Both seemed delighted.
How to describe it.
They seemed to relish establishing their respective hierarchies.
And furthermore.
This was different from merely watching a cat and a rabbit.
Their human-like forms caressing each other while making soft sounds was, well.
“They’re cute when you watch them, aren’t they, brother?”
“They certainly are—.”
Sarpedon hastily closed his mouth.
The Furry Sergeant beside him raised his eyebrows.
“Do you favor Usamimi, brother?”
“…Usamimi?”
“It’s a Werebeast Rabbit.”
The Furry Sergeant pointed at the Werebeast Rabbit with his finger.
It lay sprawled out with a half-melted expression, clearly enjoying the grooming from the Werebeast Cat.
“As you can see, it’s incredibly cute.”
“….”
“Moreover, it possesses the characteristics of a rabbit, boasting remarkable reproductive capacity, and it’s just-.”
“Shut that mouth of yours. Before I tear it to shreds.”
This was utterly insane.
…Anyway.
The Werebeast Forces were behaving themselves.
A stark contrast to their sudden outburst days ago.
Even that outburst hadn’t been caused by madness or rampage.
What was it called again?
‘It was because of Adrian’s presence, wasn’t it?’
That seemed to be the case.
I wasn’t certain of the exact details, but something about absolute obedience to Adrian?
That’s what Kai had conveyed to me—something along those lines.
Which meant it was evidence of what Adrian represented to the Werebeast Forces.
‘As long as Adrian is here, the Werebeast Forces won’t run wild.’
Sarpedon watched the Werebeast Cat and Werebeast Rabbit being groomed.
Contented purring and languid movements.
It was at that very moment.
“KYAAAAAAAH!!”
Suddenly, the Werebeast Cat’s fur bristled all over as it thrashed about.
The Werebeast Rabbit’s eyes rolled back as well.
Its ears flattened sharply, hostility blazing across its face.
“What’s gotten into them?”
Did they accidentally bite each other while grooming?
That thought lasted only a moment.
The other Werebeast Forces began thrashing about like madness had seized them.
“GRRRRROWWWL!!”
“WOOF! WOOF WOOF!!”
Fur bristled across their entire bodies, and sharp fangs and wild eyes gleamed simultaneously.
As if they’d been consumed by frenzy.
One of the soldiers in the Quarantine Zone shouted urgently.
“W-We can’t control them! We need to execute them immediately-!”
“No.”
Sarpedon stopped the soldier’s words.
Then he observed the thrashing Werebeast Forces intently.
“They’re all… looking at the same place.”
All the Werebeasts were baring their fangs in the same direction.
In other words, this was not a frenzy born of madness or berserk rage.
Vigilance.
A response to some threat.
“…There is someone here.”
At Sarpedon’s words, every soldier in the Quarantine Zone turned their gaze.
And it had not.
Neither walked nor risen into being.
As if reality itself had folded in an instant to accommodate that ‘presence’, as though it had existed there since time immemorial.
It was simply there.
It bore the form of a human.
But form alone—nothing more.
Something that could not be called human.
The robe enveloping its body was drenched in darkness.
Though the hem of the robe did not touch the ground, mist and shadow flowed downward like a trailing shadow.
Arms and legs were visible within the robe.
Yet whether they belonged to living flesh.
Or to a corpse long dead, none could discern.
“Who are you?”
Sarpedon asked quietly.
Then the blurred face within the robe turned toward him.
Pallid skin.
Eyes, nose, mouth—they were certainly there.
But the moment one looked, they faded.
Looking again, an entirely different visage emerged.
“…An old man?”
One soldier spoke thus.
“An old man? Not a young woman?”
Another soldier insisted it was a young woman.
“A young woman? To me it looks like a middle-aged man?”
“I see… no face at all.”
All beheld the same entity, yet each perceived a wholly different form.
Thus, in Sarpedon’s eyes, he saw a ‘King’.
There was no crown.
No imperial robes.
No throne.
Not a single mark of kingship existed.
And yet it was unmistakably a ‘King’.
“Who are you?”
Sarpedon asked again.
A cool voice flowed from within the robe.
[A name… a name, you say…]
A voice?
No, it wasn’t.
This was a resonance etched directly into my consciousness.
[I have borne many names.]
In the distant past.
When humanity first built civilization.
[I was called Nergal.]
After that.
In the era when nations arose, kings emerged, and power took form.
[I was known by the name Osiris.]
And now.
As cities flourished and technology accumulated.
In this present age, where knowledge and power have departed the palace to become learning itself.
[I am called Hades.]
But.
[All the countless names that have passed through me were merely creations born from your need to ‘understand’ me.]
The essence remained singular.
[I am the one who guides death.]
Nergal’s deep, dark robe rippled.
[Whether you call me god or demon, such words are nothing but your language.]
Osiris’s mist and darkness intertwined, rising forth.
And.
[Awaken.]
Hades gestured.

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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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