The Lord Who Levels Up by Devouring - Chapter 317

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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 317. Death Legion (2)
The soldiers of Whitewolf Territory remained unfazed by the spectral assault on their minds.
Unfazed was an understatement.
They weren’t even under mental attack.
The nightmares pouring forth from the wraiths dissolved before they could even touch the soldiers’ consciousness.
As if despair and fear were forbidden upon this land.
As if despair and fear could never breach the soldiers’ minds.
Kee, kee-ack?!
Yaaaaaaagh?!
The spectral assault faded without even becoming noise.
“Wha—?!”
“Huh—?!”
Only Seraphia and Rielin’s minds were left bewildered by the backlash.
Then, in that moment.
[…The legacy of a Dragon and the blessing of the World Tree.]
A desolate voice echoed.
A voice?
No, it wasn’t a voice.
It was a resonance carved directly into the mind.
Seraphia’s gaze instinctively turned toward the source of that resonance.
A robe of deep, suffocating darkness.
A silhouette shrouded in black mist and shadow.
The form was humanoid.
But beneath the light-devouring robe.
A black outline—whether skin or illusion—shimmered uncertainly.
“A Lich…?”
That was what Seraphia perceived.
A Lich.
The supreme undead, called the priest of the afterlife.
It was said to be a powerful mage who had transformed their own body into undeath, commanding death itself—but.
“It’s not a Lich.”
She was mistaken.
Rielin’s emerald eyes pierced through that darkness.
“A Lich is undead, but it cannot command other undead.”
Because a Lich is a ‘mage’.
It defied death, that much is true.
But only through Mana Force.
It extended its consciousness based on the laws of this world.
In other words, a Lich is not one of the dead.
It is merely one who has postponed death.
Above all, a mage cannot resurrect the dead.
Because they have come to “understand” that within this world’s laws, the dead cannot be revived.
Therefore, a lich cannot awaken the undead.
Cannot even command them.
For it lies beyond the domain of magical power.
Sorcery.
Specifically, the kind that manipulates dead spirits.
“A Necromancer.”
He stood at the opposite end of the spectrum from Rielin.
Rielin was The Spirit Summoner.
The Spirit Summoner commands living spirits.
That is, spirits that are alive.
Wind, fire, wood, stone, water, and so forth.
The vibrant spirits of nature belonged to this category.
A Necromancer, by contrast, commands dead spirits.
That is, spirits that are deceased.
Phantoms, the departed, vengeful wraiths, and the like.
The faded essences of departed consciousness fell into this domain.
But.
“Something was different….”
Something felt off.
This was far more overwhelming than a mere Necromancer.
Not simply commanding dead spirits—
[Answer my call.]
A sudden resonance pierced the air.
The black mist parted.
From within that rift emerged an enormous beast bearing three heads.
“A dog?”
Seraphia’s eyes widened in shock.
It was no ordinary canine.
For one, it possessed three heads.
With six eyes total—and Seraphia knew of only one creature in existence that looked like this.
“Cerberus?”
The gatekeeper of the underworld.
Hades’ faithful hound, Cerberus.
A creature that existed only in myth was manifesting before her eyes.
Grrrrrrooooaaarrr!!
All three maws roared in unison.
The earth trembled as space itself vibrated.
Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Crash!
It was a vibration bordering on annihilation.
The soldiers of Whitewolf Territory cried out in urgency.
-Cover your ears! It’s burrowing into our very minds!
-Deploy your auras, all of you!!
-The roar is tearing our bodies apart!
Cerberus’s roar engulfed the soldiers.
-Ugh!
-It reaches even to the rear!
-Maintain your breathing!!
Eventually, several soldiers were hurled backward by the force of the roar.
Fortunately, they managed to rise again.
Yet the violent roar that ruptured eardrums and vibrated bone itself swept across the Battlefield like a cataclysm.
“This… this can’t be real….”
Seraphia instinctively retreated backward.
And then.
Beyond the Battlefield torn asunder by the roar, another form descended.
The head of a crocodile.
A lion’s mane sprouted from its neck.
Its upper body bore the shape of a leopard.
Its lower body resembled that of a hippopotamus.
Its gleaming eyes burned with an ominous light, as though steeped in blood.
“…Ammut.”
The words came from Rielin.
Ammut.
The gatekeeper of the underworld.
A servant of Osiris and a devourer of the dead.
Ammut lowered her head slightly.
Her blood-stained tongue lolled, releasing a horrific cry.
Gruuuuuuuuurrrrrrrrr!!!
-Ugh…! My head… it feels like it’s shattering…!
-My consciousness is wavering… as if something is devouring me…!
-Death… it’s pressing down. Within this cry…!
The soldiers staggered.
Dragon equipment and the blessing of Yggdrasil.
Auras and barriers of incomprehensible will.
Even with all these protections in place, the soldiers could not endure.
“It’s not suppressing the mind.”
Rielin clenched her teeth and continued.
“It’s corroding life itself.”
Rielin’s words rang true.
Death itself was woven into the cry.
Resistance and defense were meaningless.
“The Forest Elder is in danger!”
Adrian faced the same peril.
Thud—! Thud—!
The cocoon convulsed violently.
Adrian’s life was corroding bit by bit beneath the erupting roar of death.
Crack—! Crackle—!
Fissures spread across the cocoon’s surface.
Black cracks spiderwebbed outward.
Adrian’s vitality drained rapidly through the spreading fractures.
“At this rate…!”
Rielin immediately raised her hand.
Emerald currents flowed from her fingertips, enveloping the cocoon.
But.
“It won’t hold…!”
The aura of death was too overwhelming.
More than that.
“Yggdrasil… isn’t responding!”
Even Yggdrasil was being consumed by death.
Its blessing was fading away.
Rielin’s face drained of all color.
In that moment.
“Let me help!”
Seraphia’s eyes blazed with pure white light.
The authority of absolute zero.
Extreme cold that froze all possibilities into stillness.
Seraphia extended her hand.
The cold radiating from her fingertips did not target the cocoon.
Death itself.
The absolute cold seized death.
Within the frozen void, death dissipated without unfolding any possibility.
[What is…?]
A resonance echoed.
Considerable astonishment mingled within it.
[…I see.]
The resonance sounded near.
Though at considerable distance, it rang vivid as if spoken from beside me.
[If all possibilities are frozen, death itself has no room to intervene.]
The resonance deepened.
“Wise and audacious indeed.”
Intrigue and curiosity mingled in that voice.
“Yet you have not quite grasped the truth.”
Groooooaaarrrrr!!
Krrraaaaaahhh!!
The two beasts roared once more.
Ammut’s cry withered all life.
Cerberus’s roar tore through reality itself.
Destruction and decay.
The two attributes of death converged, and reality itself began to rot.
-Ahhhhhhh!
-The space is collapsing!!
The soldiers’ screams engulfed the Battlefield.
Rielin squeezed every ounce of her power to shield Adrian’s fleeing life.
“Hnnnngh!!”
Seraphia poured all her strength into protecting Adrian from death itself.
“Haaahhhhh!!”
Space twisted.
Gravity warped.
The very laws of this world were decaying—and at that moment.
-Full Ether Deployment!!
Broombar’s hammer smashed down upon the rotting reality.
* * *
Kwaaang─!!
The hammer struck the decaying world.
From where the hammer landed, the distortion reversed its flow.
The fractures halted.
The corrupting reality ceased its spread.
And then.
“Delusion Realization!!”
─Click, Krrrung! Boom!
Countless metals collided and began assembling themselves.
Thus was born a single colossal device.
Perpetual Motion Machine – ArchonoEngine.
(Perpetual Motion Machine – ArchonoEngine).
Infinite energy erupted from the ArchonoEngine.
The hammer received that energy and refined reality itself.
Kwang! Boom! Boom!
Reconstructing the corroded laws.
Forging the decayed concepts anew.
Melting away the rotten ideology.
I forged the collapsed structure anew.
Clang! Boom! Clang!
With each hammer strike, the fractures sealed themselves.
The decaying gravity regained its form.
The skeletal framework of the crumbling world rose up once more.
Broombar kept his feet planted firmly in the rifts of the collapsing world as he lifted his head.
Before his eyes stood two beasts.
Ammut and Cerberus were roaring.
Broombar charged forward without hesitation.
Crash! Clang! Clang clang clang!
Cerberus barked first, thrusting all three heads forward.
Broombar did not slow.
He plunged deeper, barehanded, and drove his fist toward the descending Cerberus.
Boom!!
Broombar’s fist connected squarely with the center head.
The massive skull bent backward.
Teeth shattered and flew loose.
A cry of agony erupted.
But the other two heads simultaneously clamped down on Broombar’s ribs.
In that instant.
Broombar’s knee drove upward into the left head’s jaw.
Broombar’s elbow whipped across the right head’s temple.
Crack! Boom!!
Screech!!
[….]
Hades fell silent for a moment.
That Dwarf, beating Cerberus like a common dog.
Long ago.
A memory suddenly surfaced unbidden.
Heracles.
Yet thinking about it, he too was a Dwarf.
More precisely, a half-breed of Dwarf and human—a Duergar.
But his extraordinary endurance.
His immense strength.
All of it stemmed from Dwarf bloodline.
Therefore, what unfolds here now.
Screech! Screech!
Roaaarrr!
Broombar pummeling both Cerberus and Ammut was perhaps only inevitable.
That was why Hades fell silent for a different reason.
[To refine reality itself based on delusion….]
The corroding reality came to a halt.
The decaying space and crumbling structure reclaimed their original forms.
The power of death was infinite.
But the power of delusion was equally infinite.
More precisely, that mechanism.
The energy it produced was infinite.
And so.
Life was awakening once more.
A truly colossal life—one that even death itself could not touch—began its pulse anew.
Thus, Nergal spoke.
[The flesh has decayed, yet the soul has not lost its way.]
Osiris gestured.
[Don the vanished flesh, and reclaim the will that remains.]
And.
[Now true death shall commence.]
Hades lifted his gaze.
* * *
Beneath Hades’ stare, death sank with crushing weight.
The surroundings began to stain with darkness.
Like black pigment spreading across a palette, darkness rapidly engulfed the vicinity.
As black flowers bloomed in full splendor.
The space was swallowed by The Abyss.
And within that abyss.
Grrrrrrrraaaaaahhhhh─!!!
The shrieks of the dead echoed forth.
The grinding friction of bone against bone.
Nameless cries uttered by those who had forgotten even death itself.
The dead crawled endlessly from within the abyssal space.
Sarpedon roared out.
“Everyone, come to your senses!!!”
The soldiers of Whitewolf Territory snapped their heads up.
Their minds were still crushed beneath the weight of death.
The protection of Yggdrasil was gone.
Yet the soldiers gripped their weapons.
No—they could grip them.
Because Balm was holding back the erosion of death.
Because Broombar was holding back Cerberus and Ammut.
Thanks to that, the soldiers could fight.
“Reorganize the front lines!!”
Sarpedon’s cry erupted once more.
The undead legions poured endlessly from the chasms of The Abyss.
A rotting army, their forms twisted by sinister power.
“Those things…!!”
“They’re not ordinary undead!”
This army that marched on despite death was something far different from the Immortal Legion.
They had once been knights.
Kings and soldiers.
But now they stood upon this land again as undead, stripped of their names yet bound by their purpose.
They had not transcended death.
They were forms ensnared by death itself, hollow shells of what they once were.
The Death Legion.
Grrrraaaaaahhhhh—!!!
The Death Legion surged forward.
It was as though death itself was consuming the Battlefield.
“Do not fall back!! If we retreat, the Whitewolf Territory is lost!!!”
The soldiers held their ground.
Then, as the two armies collided, it happened.
Suddenly, arrows rained down from the sky.
The deluge of arrows shimmered with the essence of spirits.
“This is….”
“The Elves!!”
Upon the Mountain Ridge, the Elf Sentries drew their bowstrings in unison.
Thwack-thwack-thwack-thwack-thwack-boom!!
A barrage of arrows surpassing ballista firepower swept through the undead ranks mercilessly.
The undead formations crumbled.
Death faltered.
Then came a thunderous boom, boom, boom!
The earth trembled.
A heavy vibration accompanied a deep roar.
“Magitech cannons loaded!!”
Beyond the Hill, Dwarf Warriors dragged forth colossal magitech devices.
“First battery, lock firing angles!”
“Magitech rounds loaded! Ready to fire!!”
And then.
“Blow those rotting abominations to pieces—!!”
The magitech cannons erupted in unison.
Dozens of luminous beams shot skyward.
They struck the heart of the Death Legion with devastating precision.
Boom! Crash! Booooom!!
Thousands of undead shattered where they stood.
Formations utterly collapsed.
The entire front line disintegrated.
Through the chaos.
“All units, regroup nooooooow!!!”
Sarpedon’s roar tore through the Death Legion and echoed across the battlefield.

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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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