Dark Fantasy: Magical Eye Knight – Chapter 74

Chapter 74: Iskalia (1)

TL: Potato-tan

Proofreader: Asianpotato

 

The dungeon was near.

 

It was not a straight path, of course. Ancient dungeons buried deep in the earth for a long time, receiving underground magic power, gradually grew into strange bodies.

 

Similar to the remnants of an ancient ideological conflict or the remnants of ancient kingdoms that crumbled due to conflict,

 

However, Russell passed through the winding passages and the gruesome traps without any difficulty. It was all thanks to his eyes. A lump of fire was burning like a will-o’-the-wisp in the darkness.

 

The falsehood, illusion, distortion, or hallucination of the five senses had no effect on Russell. The monsters that lived on the underground’s twisted magic power were the same.

 

“Kee-aaak!”

 

With characterless screams, the underground monsters rushed at Russell. Their appearance was so disgusting that it was hard to keep your eyes open if you saw them on the ground.

 

The monsters, which had developed all their senses except their eyes because they did not need them, had evolved by growing long hair, erecting thorns, or making their skin saggy.

 

However, the evolutions they had made to survive underground and prey on their own kind knelt before the brutal violence. Russell’s axe, Final Frost, cut through the monsters’ waists and necks.

 

Russell moved on without hesitation. The monsters were not the only ones he encountered in the underground dungeon. There were mercenaries, adventurers, and relic excavators who had entered first.

 

“M, Man! Oh, thank you, God! Look, help me.”

 

At the corner of the road, Russell met a mercenary leaning against the wall. The mercenary, wearing a breastplate, chain mail, and a helmet, got up with a staggering gesture.

 

“I’ve spent days trapped in this stuffy environment. My leg hurts a little. . . . . “

 

His pronunciation was unstable. This was because only half of his lips moved. The one remaining eyeball was looking at the ceiling, not at Russell, and the sword in his hand was pointing straight at him.

 

It was not an action that matched the words asking for help. Russell swung his axe without saying a word and cut the mercenary’s neck. Something like unknown spores, tentacles, and insect eggs covered more than half of the man’s body.

 

There were many such people in this passage. Those who search for dungeons without preparation, with only a windfall in mind, usually end up like this. They face the curse of a crazy wizard, navigate a complex maze akin to a cave, and face the attack of monsters residing within.

 

Gold, silver, treasures, and magic tools can certainly be a turning point in life. It could, in the same way, turn life and death upside down.

 

With his bright eyes, he scanned the passage’s walls and ceiling. A steady flow of magic power was heading towards one place. That was his waypoint.

 

Russell continued down the dungeon. No, it was a little confusing as to whether he was going down or up. In addition to his spatial sense confusion, even his sense of time became vague.

 

He no longer knew how many hours or days he had been here. However, he did not panic at the confusion of the senses. Finally, all roads come to an end. The end is the beginning.

 

Russell’s eyes faithfully did what they had to do. Even the underground’s thick magic power, which distorted time and space, could not interfere with his eyes. This was because Russell’s eyes were not just appendages attached to the human body, but passages.

 

Nevertheless, the space in this dungeon was strange. It felt very artificial, as if someone had made it on purpose.

 

‘How long had passed?’ He reached the end of the road, which was a maze, but not for him. It was a huge cavity. They erected five large pillars and revealed a small lake.

 

Since the pillars were emitting a faint light, Russell noticed that the light from the lake was red. There was also a passenger in front of the lake.

 

The passenger also noticed Russell’s presence. He turned around and looked at Russell.

 

“What? Humans can’t come here.”

 

He was dressed in gray armor. His face was not visible because he was wearing a helmet, but his deep and low voice, like a cave, indicated that he was a man. His back bore a huge and winding greatsword.

 

The man in gray armor tilted his head and continued what he was going to do. He muttered something and sprinkled five pieces of crimson crystal into the lake. It had the same number as the pillars surrounding the lake.

 

Woong.

 

A vibration rang out. It was a vibration that rang out as soon as the crimson crystal pieces touched the lake, a vibration rang out. Russell felt the light from the pillars surrounding the lake grow stronger. ‘What was flowing there?’

 

There was blood. Russell knew where the blood flowing through the pillars came from. He thought that the ceiling was not the ceiling.

 

The blood was bubbling and flowing against gravity. Russell realized that it was the blood flowing on the ground above the dungeon—the territory—that gathered together.

 

The blood did not pour down like a waterfall, but it was constantly swirling and boiling, filtering out impurities.

 

And the purified, clear blood was reaching the top of the pillars in a thin but continuous stream.

 

The five pillars, drawing an inverted pentagram, received the blood flowing down their tops and poured it into the lake. Even though a lot of blood had entered the lake, it remained level.

 

At a glance, it was clear that an ominous and peculiar ritual was in progress. Russell threw his axe like lightning.

 

Kwang!

 

Russell’s eyes widened a little. The man in gray armor had his hand out in the air, and the axe stopped in mid-air. It had been blocked.

 

However, the man seemed surprised by Russell’s strength, as his arm was shaking a little. Suppressing his trembling arm, the man spoke in a similarly trembling voice.

 

“You have great strength. If your strength is this great, you should be able to travel this far. Even so, the magic power of the underground must have corrupted humans into existence.”

 

While the man was muttering, Russell tried to summon his axe. However, Final Frost did not return to his hand. Soon, a mist-like energy rose from the man’s body, taking over the surroundings.

 

Russell showed no concern for the missing axe. He possessed more than one weapon. Russell pulled out a huge black greatsword, Nahilnir, from his coat, and the man in gray armor opened his eyes wide.

 

“Nahilnir? Are you the one who killed Ismenios?”

 

“Rather than killing him, I helped him kill himself.”

 

The man’s eyes calmed down at Russell’s answer. The gray mist around his body rippled.

 

“I met someone who interfered with the great plan in an unexpected place. Is it Olga’s guidance?”

 

The man in gray armor reached for the sword hilt behind his back and stopped.

 

“No. If it’s here. . . . . .yes.”

 

“What is it?”

 

Russell, who had stamped on the floor, suddenly pulled out the black greatsword. The man in gray armor could not ignore the attack that seemed to cut the world, and he stretched both of his hands forward. Once again, an invisible energy blocked the greatsword.

 

Clack━.

 

A metallic creaking sound rang out in the air. It was the sound of space crumpling as power collided. Russell was holding the great sword with only one hand, and the man in gray armor was stretching out both of his trembling hands.

 

The balance of power tilted toward Russell. The moment the invisible power disappeared, the man twisted his body, gritting his teeth. The black greatsword left a long scar from the man’s right palm to his elbow.

 

“Keugh!”

 

Russell, who then launched a follow-up attack, was enveloped by the gray mist that had been watching the situation since earlier, rapidly narrowing its range.

 

Ssang━!

 

In the cavity, a loud noise echoed and reverberated. The gray mist blocked Nahilnir. And it did not stop at blocking, but went up the greatsword in the shape of a spiral and wrapped around Russell. And it tried to crush his body with tremendous pressure.

 

“Hup!”

 

Russell screamed and exhaled all of his body’s magic power. The gray mist resisted for a moment, but gave in to the force and returned to the man.

 

The ceiling and the lake below were not affected by the clash between the two. The blood was still pouring down. A wave of crimson light also began to spread slowly from the lake.

 

The man, who had his right arm in a cast in the gap of the gray mist, said.

 

“. . . . . Indeed, a great warrior. But you won’t survive here either. The fangs that tear at dawn will put you to sleep forever or make you a puppet.”

 

‘What is he mumbling about?’ As Russell was about to gather his magic power, the mist spun rapidly and became a perfect sphere. And it gradually shrank, disappearing with a poof. Russell blinked his eyes.

 

“Damn it. Did he run away?”

 

The man had performed teleportation, one of the most powerful spells of spatial magic. However, the flow of magic power was almost invisible to Russell’s eyes.

 

The mist that the man had exhaled was not a mist of magic power but closer to an energy of a different nature.

 

Russell felt a sense of discomfort from the energy. He had seen a similar energy recently. It was Kai’s red energy. It felt similar to the energy of the unorthodox god Vulcan.

 

Of course, there was only one thing in common: magic power could not be felt, but the nature of the two energies was completely different. If he felt fighting spirit and anger in Kai’s, he felt only dampness and an evil energy in the man in gray armor. ‘Can magic be performed with that energy?’

 

No, there were also spells that could only be performed with divine power, so he may have used one.

 

At that moment, Russell realized that he could no longer worry about the man who had disappeared. While Russell and the man were fighting, the fall of blood was over, and the man was running away.

 

Googo Goo Goo.

 

The lake shook with a vibration. When he looked up, the blood on the ceiling had disappeared. Only the ceiling with a hardened texture was visible. It seemed that all the blood had seeped into the lake.

 

The pillars around the lake that drew the inverted pentagram also turned into powder and fell down. Something slowly rose from the shaking lake.

 

No, it was the lake itself that was rising. The red lake gradually began to take on a single shape from its smooth body. It was a huge snake.

 

Russell was reminded of the basilisk he had killed before. However, the current snake appeared to be larger than the previous one. At that moment, a change occurred in the lake, which had turned into a snake.

 

It shed its skin. That was the only way to describe it. The red skin turned black in an instant and fell off. Inside, a new red snake appeared. It then shed its skin again.

 

When the snake repeated this about five times, what came out last was not a snake. It was a woman with white skin.

 

Her crimson hair was so long that it reached her feet, and her well-proportioned body seemed to violate the ultimate beauty. Soft eyebrows, a straight nose, and red lips below were harmonious yet symmetrical. She was beautiful.

 

The woman floated with her eyes closed and slowly touched the ground. She opened her eyes. A red glow flashed in her black pupils for a moment and then disappeared. The woman’s gaze fell on Russell, who was standing alone.

 

“Are you the one who woke this lady?”

 

“No.”

 

The woman tilted her head.

 

“You’re the only one here?”

 

“The one who woke you up ran away. While fighting me.”

 

“Is that true? Well, it doesn’t matter.”

 

Red blood rose from underneath the woman’s feet and instantly formed a dress. It was an old-fashioned dress with long, frilly collars, sleeves, and a wide hem.

 

“Begone. I will spare your life as a reward for welcoming me for the first time.”

 

“What are you going to do when you go out?”

 

“Well. I think I need to fill my stomach first. I’m hungry. The amount of blood I have is insufficient to sustain my body. More, I need more blood. . . But I don’t know why I’m explaining all this. Get out of the way. I don’t say it more than three times.”

 

“You don’t have to say it three times.”

 

Russell summoned the axe that had fallen onto the opposite side of the floor. The axe was quickly in his hand, as always.

 

“. . . . . .Are you going to fight me?”

 

“Should I let the blood-sucking monster go outside?”

 

His words made the woman’s expression cold. Her hand reached out like lightning and aimed at Russell’s neck. Russell reacted quickly to an attack that ordinary people would not even recognize, threatening to tear their heads off.

 

He leaned back as if someone had pulled him from behind, avoiding it, while simultaneously holding a greatsword in his right hand and an axe in his left, attempting to cut off the woman’s arm.

 

Clang!

 

However, the woman’s arm remained intact. Unlike its soft appearance, it withstood the greatsword and axe blades, making a sound like steel clashing.

 

The woman’s body accelerated. It was a speed that was hard to follow with the eyes, but Russell responded in the same way. Dozens of consecutive attacks per second clashed and fell repeatedly.

 

The surprising thing was that Russell was holding a weapon, whereas the woman was facing the blades with her bare hands and no weapons.

 

Kwang!

 

The two, who pushed each other away at the same time, landed on the floor. Russell had no major injuries. On the other hand, the woman frowned a little. Numerous minor wounds were visible in her. Blood was flowing slowly. It was not a very good sign for her, but it made her make up her mind.

 

“You’re not an ordinary human. Okay. I will treat you as poorly as I can.”

 

She rolled her foot.

 

With a thump, a different landscape encroached on the space from under her feet.

 

Russell, who had been in the underground cavity of the dungeon until now, got up and looked around. He was now standing in a field.

 

In the sky, the red light of dusk was tearing the clouds brilliantly and spreading flesh on the horizon. Under the clouds, crows were cawing and scattering black feathers on the field.

 

There were numerous corpses on the field. All of them were corpses pierced by stakes. The ends of the wooden stakes that pierced through their buttocks and out of their mouths had lost their original color long ago, soaked in blood.

 

The thick, bloody smell was chilling from all sides. The crows, intoxicated by the smell, only circled the sky, unable to sit on the corpses and eat their eyeballs or entrails.

 

It was because of one being.

 

A woman with black hair covering her face, sitting on a pile of corpses. She was wearing a blood-colored breastplate, and a serpentine greatsword, long and stretched like a snake, was held in her white hand.

 

She slowly rose from the pile of corpses. The pile of corpses collapsed with a roar and disappeared without a trace.

 

“I am the rightful ruler of Isgard. The king of blood. The one who appears at the end of the sunset. The fangs that tear the dawn, Iscalia. Human, tell me your name.”

 

Russell turned his neck around. There was a cracking sound. The woman frowned at his impudent appearance, he said.

 

“Russell.”

 

Iscalia nodded.

 

“Russell. I will eat you. You will live forever in me, like I have eaten all my people, you too will live forever in me.”

 

‘I see.’ Russell clicked his tongue.

 

“Yes. Let’s see if your blood or my blood wins.”

 

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