Dark Fantasy: Magical Eye Knight – Chapter 139

Chapter 139: Beyond the Pitch Black (1)

TL: Potato-tan

Proofreader: Asianpotato

 

Deckers, when he was still alive, said that this floating ruin was a remnant of an ancient magic city. Lu-Bakumniora, was it? It was a name he had never heard before.

 

The loss or burning of the records of ancient empires, civilizations, and the Age of Magic was inevitable. Folktales or someone’s notes only occasionally referenced them.

 

Russell slowly stared at the underground existence that was gradually fading away. Then a sense of underground existence came over him.

 

Thud━

 

A gust of wind blew through the cavity, and not a single breath of wind could pass.

 

“Russell! What is this?”

 

“. . .Just be quiet.”

 

Russell, who had put both hands on the altar, figured out what he needed in an instant. He needed to make a sacrifice. He had guessed it from the shape of the altar, but in order to reactivate the magic circle and conceal the ruins, a sacrifice was necessary.

 

The life force required for that sacrifice was enormous. The sacrifice of at least five or more lives necessitated the outpouring of life force, the resentment and grudges of the victims, and the creation of evil and black magic.

 

But Russell didn’t immediately think about going outside and grabbing people. He simply brought his index finger and middle finger together to form a sword finger, then deeply cut his left palm.

 

“Russell, what are you. . .?”

 

“Sister, just a moment.”

 

Russell, having calmed Irrucil, who was looking at him with surprised eyes, dropped the blood flowing from his palm onto the altar and stone slab.

 

Woowoong-!

 

The altar, which had reacted every time a drop fell, soon began to draw new lines of light with a noise. Russell had just met the altar’s sacrifice criteria with a few drops of blood.

 

From the beginning, Russell had been able to think of it because he knew about the heterogeneous power and life force that his body possessed, and it had succeeded.

 

Even if it hadn’t, confronting the previously sealed existence remained a viable option. At this point, he didn’t know exactly what it was, and waking it up could potentially aid an unidentified force that was attempting to cause chaos in our world.

 

Russell, who confirmed that the magic circle was reactivating, stopped the blood flowing from his palm and stopped the bleeding. The deep cut healed right away.

 

At that moment, something completely different began to appear in Russell’s field of vision. ‘What was it?’

 

With an unusually bewildered feeling, he focused on the field of vision he was seeing. Then, he could see the stone slab, the altar, and what lay beyond. Beyond the pitch-black darkness, he met someone’s gaze. Two pairs of pupils burned deeply blue in the darkness. A total of four eyes were facing Russell’s pupils.

 

━Who. . .

 

Russell frowned at the voice that rang directly in his head, not his ears.

 

The voice was very young. The gender was unknown, but it sounded like a teenage boy or girl.

 

At that moment, when Russell’s pupils and the two pairs of eyes met, his cognitive speed began to increase infinitely. Everything around him lost its color and turned dull black and white.

 

Kiiiiiiing. . .

 

Everything slowed down with the sound of an old machine turning. Irrucil, who realized Russell’s abnormality and raised her arm towards him, the giant spherical magic circle that encompassed the cavern floor, walls, and ceiling.

 

Both magic power and atmospheric mana remained frozen. One could only sense a very slight flow of time. In the midst of his infinitely divided sense of perception, Russell realized that he was floating in the middle of a vast darkness.

 

He could see the spherical magic circle enclosing the darkness. Geometric shapes, lines, and letters densely engraved the magic circle. However, there were some places where it was incomplete, as if someone had failed to fill it in.

 

Russell and Irrucil destroyed the golems, preventing their activation. And within that spherical magic circle, something raised its body.

 

It was invisible because of the darkness, but even a glimpse of it revealed that it was a large being. It was about 8 to 9 meters tall and had the head and body of a lion, the scales of a dragon, the wings of a bat on its back, and the tail of a crocodile on its butt. It was a monster with eagle-sized legs and claws.

 

“. . . . . . .”

 

Russell stared blankly at the giant monster. It looked like a mishmash of several species. It was a monster similar in appearance to the imaginary monster Chimera from Greek mythology that he had seen in his previous life.

 

And Russell’s eyes could also see the numerous souls that resided within that monster. The group spirit bodies, made in a way he couldn’t even guess, were constantly repeating the process of the faces of men, women, the old, and the young popping out and then going back in.

 

The bodies of spirits, as terrifying and cruel as the monster’s body that was outwardly visible, were trapped within the monster’s body, roaring.

 

He didn’t know what the guy who had taken over Deckers’s body was trying to do with that monster . Was he trying to control the monster that was sealed, beyond just moving this relic?

 

Or was it merely an attempt to unleash it in the central area and create chaos by inciting panic among the people?

 

If this Hedilund city collapsed, the other three cities centered around it would also have to prepare. The king’s authority had been fragmented and weakened, while the lords and castle lords possessed ample supplies and troops.

 

It was possible that a warlord might rise under the pretext of subjugating that monster. If that happened, the kingdom’s chaos would spiral into an unstoppable whirlpool, and the forces behind the scenes might get what they wanted from the process or the results.

 

He couldn’t leave it like that. He didn’t know who the bastards were, but he was certain that these kinds of things posed a significant obstacle in his path. He wouldn’t shy away from a fight that came his way, but he didn’t want to be walking around with the smell of blood all the time.

 

Of course, no exact and certain evidence or traces of a link have been revealed. It was just that the things that happened in the villages, cities, and territories that Russell visited during his wandering were all events that ordinary people might encounter once or twice in their lives.

 

But after fighting Deckers and then the guy who called his body a terminal and defeating him, he had seen with his own eyes that there was an unknown force.

 

The individual in the gray armor, who had awakened Calia in the Errandis domain and dispersed the Stone of Life, could potentially be his comrade. There was a chance he had some connection to that individual.

 

Russell, who had finished his short but long thoughts, raised his head and stared at the monster.

 

━. . . . . . .

 

Unlike when it had first spoken, the monster was just looking at Russell with slowly closing eyes.

 

In those eyes, Russell read one wish. It was death. The monster, who had been wandering through sleep and dreams for too long, was now wishing for his death. It was asking for a real rest.

 

And Russell realized that this space was a phenomenon that had occurred when the wish of that old monster seeped out and reached Russell and his eyes through the gap in the weakened magic circle for a moment.

 

“Do you want to die?”

 

━. . . . . . .

 

Without speaking or making a sound, the monster blinks. Four eyes closed at the same time and then slowly opened.

 

Russell didn’t know who had created that monster. Russell was unable to imagine that a country hundreds of years ago had conducted some sort of experiment or research that had resulted in the creation of such a monster, sealed under the ruins and protected by golems.

 

Time had buried such things too deeply, in a layer beyond his comprehension. Russell had no intention of digging into it himself.

 

Russell raised his hand. Then, the spherical magic circle shook at his will. However, it regained its stability as if nothing had happened. He exerted his will once again. Then, the magic circle shook again.

 

The arrangement of the runes and shapes attempted to confuse and resist Russell’s power, in accordance with his gestures and will. Russell slowly began to change the purpose of the magic circle.

 

This kind of interference would not have been possible if the golems had not broken and had returned to their original positions. However, there were holes in the magic circle here and there, and the cause of that was the golems that Russell and the rest had completely broken on the ground that couldn’t form an axis.

 

And because of the blood that Russell had shed, his will had begun to penetrate a corner of the magic circle’s composition, and the link that had continued for thousands of years began to break.

 

Wadddduddduk.

 

Russell clenched his hand, feeling as if he could hear a sound in a space where there was none. The front of the spherical magic circle was completely shattered, creating a large gap. It was spacious enough for someone like Russell to easily enter and exit.

 

According to his will, the magic power released from the broken magic circle was gathered in his hand. The gathered magic power instantly transformed into a lightning spear, emitting blue lightning.

 

Crackle, crackle.

 

Russell stood in front of the monster, whose bonds had been completely broken and whose freedom had been restored. Although it would be able to move its arms and legs freely as its bonds were released, the distorted monster with a group spirit body was just blankly slumping out its body.

 

His hand slowly touched the monster’s chest, and an electric shock seeped inside. The electric shock instantly reached the monster’s heart and completely stopped its movement.

 

Thud: A transparent wave spread out spherically, with the monster at its center.

 

The monster’s four pupils widened, then lost strength. Russell read a sense of gratitude in the completely closed pupils.

 

Urrrung━

 

The space in the darkness shook. Russell reversed his consciousness. His body and consciousness, which had sunk for a moment, pierced through the space and rose upward, and Russell opened his eyes.

 

“Russell! Are you okay? Just now. . . . .!”

 

“I’m okay. Let’s go out for now. It’s going to collapse.”

 

Russell and Irrucil escaped the ruins. Behind them, the cavity’s ceiling collapsed, and rocks fell. Those rocks gradually covered the old altar and golems.

 

As the two of them came out completely, a thick cloud of dust emerged from the entrance of the ruins.

 

“Cough, cough. Dust. What did you do?”

 

“I stopped others from doing the same thing.”

 

“The golems?”

 

“That too.”

 

Russell looked down at the completely blocked underground entrance to the ruins. Even if they tried to excavate as before, it would be difficult to dig down because the magic and altar of the cavern had been completely destroyed.

 

Additionally, any attempt by the guys to obtain golems, magic tools, or awaken the sealed monster would be futile. Russell had granted the monster its wish to die, which explains the situation.

 

Irrucil came close and looked up at him. Russell smiled broadly and said something to her face, full of curiosity.

 

“There was a monster sealed underground. I think they were after that. The guy who was controlling the wizard’s body a while ago.”

 

“How did you. .? Ah. Did you see it with that eye?”

 

“Yeah.”

 

“You’ve really changed a lot from before.”

 

Irrucil looked at Russell with a new expression.

 

“Then that wizard, the guy named Deckers, didn’t know what was down there?”

 

“I think so. He didn’t even seem to know that the golems he had brought up were in charge of the axis of the magic circle below.”

 

“How? He’s a wizard. He should know a lot about magic power, spells, and magic circles.”

 

Russell, who had his arms crossed, pulled his lips together with one hand.

 

“He was a guy with a lot of strange points. His knowledge was biased. It was as if someone had deliberately taught him this way. Or. . .”

 

“Or?”

 

“He was injected with that knowledge.”

 

“Injected with it?”

 

Russell held back his words. The forces that had been secretly controlling Deckers could mass-produce wizards, just as Deckers could change the balance of power.

 

Of course, it wouldn’t be easy, and it would require countless lives’ blood, black magic, and sorcery. However, he couldn’t think that the guys who held the money and power would find such a process difficult.

 

🔷🔷🔷🔷🔷🔷

 

It wasn’t until the fourth day that the chaos in the city completely subsided. Fortunately, since Deckers had been killed quickly by Russell, his magic had been cut off, and the floating of the ruins had stopped.

 

However, sporadic earthquakes persisted, leading to the collapse of buildings and the deaths or injuries of countless people.

 

Farrell and Lord Gellerd worked hard to quell the chaos with their soldiers. Russell, Irrucil, Aellasis, and Calia also helped.

 

The chaos didn’t subside until the sun tipped over the horizon on the fourth day, allowing for the rough repair of the fallen buildings.

 

Russell looked at the cracked inner wall and sat down on the steps next to it. A glance revealed the cityscape below, as befitting a lord’s castle on high ground.

 

Places where inns, restaurants, and houses had collapsed and remained empty were visible intermittently. Porters paused to transport materials and gathered for dinner.

 

The sunset’s red light tilted from the west, and the city’s shadow also tilted. As they received that red light, the clouds floating in the sky glowed brightly and flowed slowly.

 

The city was filled with the savory smell of baking, boiling, and stewing food.

 

“You were here.”

 

At that moment, someone walked next to him and sat down with a plop. It was Farrell’s. He had soot on his face, and his hair was dusty, so he must have been doing something somewhere.

 

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