Dark Fantasy: Magical Eye Knight – Chapter 138

Chapter 138: Ruins (6)

TL: Potato-tan

Proofreader: Asianpotato

 

Russell, who had slapped his hands together, raised his hand. The axe that had soared high into the air clicked into his hand. Russell examined the axe blade of Final Frost. Sticky fluid was smeared on the axe blade. It was ice-cold to the touch.

 

Russell shook the axe to scatter the liquid, then looked around lightly. The wide field of vision showed the collapsed buildings and their ruins.

 

The floating ruins, called Lu-Bakumniora, had been greatly weakened by the magnitude of the earthquake and vibrations. This situation has persisted since Deckers’ consciousness vanished and an unfamiliar individual assumed control of his vacant body.

 

Someone, noticing the strange turn of events, forcibly pushed out Deckers, who was continuing the magic, and stopped the ritual, causing the previously trembling ground to settle down.

 

The surroundings were quiet. Perhaps because of the loud noise that had surrounded them until just before, even a small sound felt relatively loud.

 

The adventurers and mercenaries who had come to find the cause of the earthquake and the ruins, or those who were aiming for a fortune by excavating the ruins, all sat down and looked alternately at Russell and Deckers’s bodies. They stood up unsteadily, but they couldn’t take their eyes off the two.

 

“Russell!”

 

At that moment, Irrucil approached and looked at him. Her face was full of urgency. She hadn’t missed the fact that Deckers’ right hand had just brushed against his chest.

 

“Chest! Is your chest okay? Hey? Take off your clothes quickly!”

 

“No, sister, I’m fine. . .”

 

Irrucil, who was making a fuss, forced Russell to remove his coat, revealing his torn inner shirt and the wound on his left chest. His ragged shirt and upper body, which was full of solid muscles, were exposed.

 

Irrucil’s white hand was gently placed on the wound. Russell trembled at the slightly cool and soft touch. He uttered these words while tidying up his clothes once more.

 

“It wasn’t that deep in the first place. It’s just a scratch.”

 

He was right. His body, which had been strong from the beginning, had already stopped bleeding and scabbed over. When he brushed it off, his white flesh came up, and, except for the fact that it was a little white, it was not much different from his other skin.

 

“. . .You should have been careful.”

 

“Huh?”

 

Russell lowered his head in response to the slightly low and heavy voice. Irrucil, who had been looking down, suddenly raised her head.

 

Her face was slightly flushed, and her eyes were glistening with tears. Russell was momentarily stunned at her sight, which he had not seen in a long time.

 

Irrucil narrowed her eyes and glared at him.

 

“Be careful. Got it?”

 

“. . .Yeah.”

 

“I’ll lose my mind if you get hurt or anything.”

 

“I got it.”

 

Irrucil turned around immediately. Her earlobes were slightly red, as if she were embarrassed. Russell, who scratched the back of his head, moved his feet to Deckers’ body, which was lying dead.

 

“Hey. Are you still there?”

 

He turned Deckers’s body over. It was split in half, its brow wide, and its dull eyes staring up. It was enough for anyone to see that he was dead.

 

“You’re not fooling anyone.”

 

At that moment, his eyeballs abruptly turned and moved precisely in Russell’s direction. And from his lips, which were split only to the nose, a faint voice emerged, as if it would go out at any moment.

 

“. . . How. . .”

 

Russell placed the axe on his shoulder and looked down at the dying man.

 

“I’m curious about that, too. Everywhere I go, there are guys like you.”

 

Russell bent his legs and squatted down. Deckers’s body seemed to be undergoing a strange phenomenon, as if it were suffering from the aftereffects of forcibly drawing out magic power.

 

The blue veins turned black and cracked like a rice paddy in a drought. And then they crumbled from the severed ends of the fingertips and arms.

 

“What’s your purpose?”

 

“. . . What. . .?”

 

The corpse’s empty eyes, which appeared to be staring at Russell, shook. Russell continued speaking.

 

“You awaken the fallen dragon, transforming a city, including the Northeast, into a chaotic scene. In the village in the north, you wake up the old ancient devil and turn it into a nest of devils. In the central region, you wake up the ancient vampire and turn it into a city of vampires. After that, your plan was to stir up the orcs, who had lost their god, and initiate a war with the humans. Am I right?”

 

“. . . . . .How. Surely, all of that, you. . . . .?”

 

“I guess you’re a little slow on information.”

 

“Ugh, this guy. . . Ugh? Uugh!”

 

Russell’s magic eyes lit up, and he suddenly screamed. A faint purple color spread like a spot on his empty eyeballs.

 

“W, What is this? Let go! I said, Let go!”

 

“You should receive a present when you leave.”

 

Pwah-whoosh!

 

A fierce flame erupted from the corpse. A whitish figure emerged from the empty eyeballs, riding the flame until it completely subsided.

 

Russell switched off his magic eyes. The light, which had shone brightly even in broad daylight, went out and returned to its original eyes.

 

“Is he completely dead?”

 

Irrucil asked, walking over. She did not look at him, as if she were embarrassed by her behavior just now.

 

“Yeah.”

 

The guy who controlled Deckers’ body was gone. He had not died, but merely departed from his body. Of course, before he left, he had given him a blow.

 

The fact that he was controlling Deckers’s body, the fact that he had made eye contact with him, and the circulation of magic power that Russell had pushed into the body had caused him severe pain and agony. It would be difficult for him to regain his senses properly even after returning to his original body.

 

Russell checked Deckers’s body to make sure that nothing else was happening or that he was not trying to move again, and then searched his body.

 

Soon, a stone tablet came into Russell’s hands. The floating object had been trembling since earlier, but it no longer rose. Intermittent vibrations continued, but that was all.

 

Now it was time to return these golems to their original state. By pulling out this stone tablet from Deckers’s recent memory and injecting magic power and the Stone of Life, the golems began to operate.

 

This document also details the method of controlling the golems. By dripping a drop of blood, they would recognize the owner of the blood and follow orders—a simple but very sure structure. It was also unusual that, in order to invalidate the golem’s command, the previous owner had to be killed.

 

“Excuse me. . .”

 

Suddenly, Russell turned his head at the sound of someone calling him. People who had almost died were standing and looking at him hesitantly.

 

“Thank you for saving us.”

 

They, who appeared to be in their early thirties, had just come to the realization that the fight between Russell and Deckers, as well as the fact that the body they believed to be dead had suddenly risen and was attempting to crush them, were events beyond their control.

 

“Step back. Far away, if possible.”

 

“What are you going to do?”

 

“I’ve got to stop this floating thing. I’ll also return those golems to their original place.”

 

Several people looked at the stone tablet that Russell was holding with greedy eyes. The golems here had enormous value in themselves.

 

They might be able to reproduce the magic of the magic era that had been lost and disappeared thousands of years ago, and the materials that made up the golems themselves were a collection of precious metals and unknown things. In addition, the armor and food that the golems were wearing would be invaluable academic materials for art historians, historians, and archaeologists.

 

Seven or eight people stared at the stone tablet in Russell’s hand for a while. There was a strange power and atmosphere lingering on the stone tablet. The more they looked at it, the harder it was to take their eyes off of it.

 

Some people’s hands touched the handles of the swords on their waists or those attached to their backs. It was a slow but firm movement, as if they were not even aware of it.

 

Irrucil began to twist her lips and fidget with her hands when she saw it. She seemed to be about to emit magic power and swing her chains at any moment. Russell moved his feet in a strange environment.

 

Thud: Russell sent out a dull and heavy vibration. People’s eyes widened at the sound. Russell spoke, his gaze fixed on these individuals.

 

“You’re not leaving?”

 

Russell’s purple eyes shone quietly as he faced them. For some reason, the fog-like sensation that had been clouding people’s minds dissipated.

 

“Ah, ah. We’re going. We’re going.”

 

“We’ll go. Thank you again for saving us.”

 

“Thank you.”

 

Those who had rushed in realized the disparity in skill, experience, and strength, retreated, and left the entrance of the ruins. Russell glanced at them, then lowered his gaze to the stone tablet.

 

Their behavior, as if they were possessed by something, was definitely suspicious. And it was definitely related to this stone tablet he was holding. But he wasn’t affected at all by looking at the tablet.

 

“This is the stone tablet that was with those golems, right? Do you know how to use it?”

 

Russell put the stone tablet away in response to Irrucil’s question. It was because he was worried that she might also experience strange symptoms.

 

“Yeah.”

 

“How?”

 

“I just found out.”

 

Russell slowly unraveled Deckers’ memories, which had been gathered in a corner of his mind. For an ordinary person, it was an act that could cause confusion of personality, loss of reason, or even madness.

 

However, Russell endured such memories and separated the necessary parts from the unnecessary parts. It was a task to delete the life that Deckers had accumulated and leave only the magic knowledge.

 

Soon, Russell’s hands turned green with magic power. He then placed his palm on the stone tablet. The stone tablet, which had been just a gray stone, began to glow with blue lines, according to the strength and direction of the magic power that Russell was emitting.

 

Clickety-clack.

 

The heads of the golems, which had stopped working, were raised. The red light was still flashing in the helmet’s T-shaped groove, but it did not raise its military equipment, as it had been hostile to Russell and Irrucil earlier.

 

“Let’s go.”

 

As Russell gave the order, the Golem army moved in unison. Golems were equipped with the Stone of Life, which forcibly extracted humans’ life force from their chests.

 

Russell led the golems down into the ruins. The underground entrance was very large and wide, and many stairs continued down. The stairs, which were all uniform in size and height, had been intact for many years without a single break.

 

At the end of the stairs, they entered a cavity through which light was faintly shining. The cavity was much wider and larger than the entrance and stairs that had come down.

 

The cavity’s walls and ceiling, which rose upwards in a large hemispherical shape, did not appear to have any decorations or patterns engraved on them. However, Russell’s eyes saw the lines of a geometric magic circle hidden inside the plain wall.

 

The lines went up the wall and gathered on the ceiling to draw countless shapes of triangles, squares, and pentagons in one large circle, and then went down the wall again and reached the floor of the cavity.

 

The places where the lines were rounded were as clean as footprints, as if something with two legs had stood there for a long time. It was the place where the golems had stood.

 

When they returned to the cavity, the golems walked clickety-clack and stood where they had originally been. At first glance, the appearance of about a hundred golems standing there seemed to defy any rules.

 

However, Russell knew that it was the correct location. As the golems found their places, the devices that had been stopped started to turn again, and magic power began to flow again through the lines inside the walls.

 

However, some lines did not shine and remained silent. Russell knew that this was because of the golems that he and Irrucil had smashed. There were quite a few empty spaces, and the lines passing underneath were silent and did not activate the magic circle.

 

Russell walked slowly towards the location where the golems were stationed, taking in the scene all at once. The altar-like structure hovered in mid-air.

 

Russell went up the stairs and found a groove that was the perfect size for the stone tablet, which appeared to have had something placed on it originally. He placed the stone tablet in that spot.

 

Rumble━

 

The cavern vibrated greatly. Russell sensed something deep underground, directly connected to the altar where the stone tablet was placed.

 

An ancient being, as if it was being disturbed from its long sleep, was wriggling like it was waking up. At the moment when it was about to wake up, Russell had come down in time, inserted the stone tablet, and reactivated its sleep.

 

The being, which even Russell couldn’t recognize at a glance, seemed to be falling back into a deep sleep. The heartbeat, which had been thumping, slowed down. It was in a state of coma, not dead but not alive either. Russell watched its subtle movements, holding his breath.

 

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