Now fully devoured by the wraiths, Jinmu rolled his shoulders as if pleased, then looked toward Yuda. The strange Mana flowing in his eyes gave him a completely different air. He really did seem like someone else now. No, he had to be someone else.
“Thank you, boy. Thanks to you, we have a body again.”
“You’re saying that as if it were yours all along.”
The wraith-possessed Jinmu let out a laugh.
“Kihaha! True, it is not my body. But the one who owned it stole it from me. Ah, no, let me correct that. He stole it from us. So it is only fair that we take it back, don’t you think?”
“How many of you are crammed into that body? Your voices overlap so much it is disgusting. It hurts to listen.”
“Hmm, let me see. Two hundred… three hundred, four hundred… four hundred seventy… one. Quite a lot, in this small frame.”
He shrugged, as if it hardly mattered.
“Well then. I have given my thanks, and I have work to do.”
“Work?”
“Yes, work. We are preparing the ritual to welcome our great king and eternal Monarch, Bel-Terza, into this land. We were at the very end of it. Everything was almost ready, but that Jinmu fool pushed us out of his flesh.”
“Bel-Terza? That name… he is the Sixth Monarch of the Demon Realm. Wait, are you saying you plan to summon something that dangerous into this world?”
Jeanne cut in, and Jinmu let out a breathy laugh.
“You are well informed. But I would prefer if you used an honorific for him. He is on a different level than the likes of you.”
Just then he coughed and spat out a lump of blood. He glanced down at the stain on the floor and pulled a troubled face.
“Oh dear… it would not be strange if this body died right now. It was already half dead to begin with. If Jinmu manages to push us out again in this state, that would be troublesome. We should get going.”
“You expect us to let you walk away after saying you are going to summon a Monarch?”
He smirked.
“What a coincidence. I had no intention of letting you go either. If you want to follow, then try. If you survive, that is. I am curious whether you can. If you are lucky, you might even get to see us complete the ritual.”
He gave a light wave as if in farewell, then turned his back. The wraiths waiting behind him flowed in to block the way. They eyed Yuda and Jeanne like they were drooling, then let out short howls as if politely announcing the start of the show and began to close in.
They spread out in all directions, trying to keep as much distance between each other as possible. Clearly they remembered the Liberation skill Yuda had just used with Altemia. But even if hundreds of wraiths tried to space themselves out, how far could they really move in a confined space like this?
Yuda hurled Altemia straight at the cluster in front of him. Liberation triggered the moment it left his hand, a blood-colored aura surging out like blades and shredding the wraiths. Their shrieks sounded like they would tear his eardrums apart as they were ground to pieces. And with that as a signal, more wraiths began to reach out from the walls, ceiling, and floor.
“Jeanne. You know we have to go, right?”
She could not answer him right away. She swung her lance, slammed her shield down, and stomped her feet. It was not that she could not hear him through the noise. For a Blue Lance Knight, the name Jinmu was heavy enough that she had to be careful. Only after cutting down the unending waves of wraiths did Jeanne finally start to gasp for breath. Yuda kept watch for any wraiths that might still be lurking so she could rest. Unlike her, he barely felt any physical strain thanks to Altemia. Even so, she remained silent, and the conflict on her face was obvious.
But Yuda needed to break through that hesitation.
「Save Cheriu Village 3.」
[You have entered the manor of Baekje’s honorary noble, Count Jinmu. And you have met him.]
[By some stroke of fortune, you encountered the original Count Jinmu while he was sane, and even spoke with him for a while.]
[Whether by luck or his carelessness, you dealt a fatal blow to him while he was not controlling any wraiths.]
[His body was already frail. Altemia pierced him and drained his life, weakening his mental barrier once more. The wraiths that bore grudges against him used that opening to take his body back.]
[He has already sent wraiths into the nearby village, possessed many people, and brought their living bodies here. The ritual to summon 〈Bel-Terza〉, the great Death Monarch, is nearly complete.]
[Of course, one of the Seven Monarchs of the Demon Realm cannot be summoned so easily.]
[It is uncertain whether he will even answer the call. But if the ritual fails, Count Jinmu’s soul will be torn apart, the remaining wraiths will go berserk and scatter, and the small passage linked to the Demon Realm will remain here, turning this land into a place overflowing with monsters.]
[Closing that passage will require countless sacrifices. Here, you may choose.]
[Risk your life to stop Count Jinmu’s ritual for a fame no one may ever recognize.]
[Or withdraw for the sake of safety.]
[No one will blame you, no matter which you choose.]
[You are, after all, just someone who happened to come here by chance.]
[But if you defeat Count Jinmu in this manor, it will be the same as completely saving Cheriu Village.]
A quest. That alone was reason enough, and it was the very reason he had come this far.
So he waited carefully for Jeanne’s answer. At that moment, many footsteps echoed in the distance.
Staggering figures were approaching from the end of the corridor. The magic lamps set into the ceiling lit them up clearly as they came.
“Ghouls…”
Jeanne whispered as she watched them.
People whose bodies looked like all moisture had been drained from them shuffled forward in grotesque forms. Their mouths hung open like their souls had left them, and their awkward, jerky steps screamed of emptiness. Judging by their clothes, they were villagers. Those countless footprints at the manor entrance must have belonged to them.
There were men and women, children, adults, and the elderly. It was bad enough that they had been killed by wraiths. Now they could not even rest in peace and instead trudged toward Yuda and Jeanne.
First wraiths, now zombies too.
They were ghouls, not zombies, but still. Once he got back to his own world, he felt like he would be able to laugh at zombie movies.
Clank.
Jeanne, who had watched them in silence, raised her shield and stepped in front of Yuda.
“I am sorry for answering so late. It is shameful. I have no idea why I even hesitated. I might die, but if I run from someone trying to do something like this, I do not know if I deserve to be called a knight. I will fight with you, Yuda.”
The ghouls finally came close enough to recognize Yuda and Jeanne. The ones at the front lowered their stance, then rushed forward. Before Yuda could throw Altemia, Jeanne sprinted ahead and slammed into them with her shield.
Her shield, wrapped in Mana, struck them with a booming crash like an explosion and sent them all flying back. The charging ghouls collapsed in a wave, almost spectacular to watch. Jeanne raised her cavalry lance and swung it like a club as she advanced, stomping down on the head of a wriggling ghoul under her feet.
There was a sharp crack as it burst, but not a single drop of blood splashed. Only the awful sound of something breaking rang out. She was pushing forward alone. Yuda, who had been staring blankly for a moment, hurried after her so he would not fall behind. It was as if she was trying to atone for her earlier hesitation. Her momentum was terrifying.
She lifted her lance high over her head and brought it straight down on the ghoul in front of her. With another crunchy crack, its bones shattered and it was crushed flat, leaving a deep dent in the floor. Then she caught a ghoul charging from the left with her shield and drove it into the wall, pinning it there. Every blow landed heavy, and the ghouls whose bones were smashed to pieces could not move at all. All Yuda had to do was follow in her wake and finish off the ones she missed. In no time, the ghouls were completely cleared. Those with severed legs or sliced bodies twitched on the floor, but their movements were far too slow to reach Yuda or Jeanne.
“I will move a bit faster. Will that be alright?”
“I am fine. The real question is whether you are alright, Jeanne.”
“This much is no problem.”
She said it as if to tell him not to worry and stepped forward again. But from the way she tried to steady her breathing, she looked far more exhausted than her words suggested. She had been fighting nonstop while coating her weapons and armor with Mana, so it was only natural.
“Let us rest for a moment before we go on. You seem tired.”
“No. While we rest, he might finish his preparations.”
“Then I will take the lead.”
“…Understood.”
She paused for a moment as if thinking, then nodded without complaint. The corridor was longer than expected, and wraiths and ghouls continued to appear until they reached the end. They had already cut down nearly two hundred ghouls, and since not a single drop of blood had flown, it felt less like fighting people and more like fighting monsters. Jeanne seemed thrown off when she saw that the room at the end of the hall was completely empty.
“Did he move with magic?”
“That is possible, but there should be a way down below. No mage would build only a room like this and stop.”
Yuda searched through his memories of the game.
‘There were definitely three basement floors.’
Going from the first basement to the second required triggering several gimmicks, but going from the second to the third was simple. Yuda walked over to the wall, reached out toward a section that felt solid, and dragged his hand along it. At one point, ripples suddenly spread from the wall and swallowed his hand. Jeanne flinched in surprise, but Yuda acted like it was nothing, waving his trapped hand a bit and even sticking his head through the wall before pulling it back.
“It is this way. Let’s go.”
“……”
Jeanne looked stunned that Yuda had found the route down so easily.
They found the staircase leading deeper and went down to the second basement floor, but there were only more strange experimental tools and books whose purpose they could not guess. There was nothing that felt like a threat. The emptiness itself felt unsettling.
‘This cannot be it.’
Just as there had been ghouls and wraiths on the first basement floor, there should have been wraith-possessed ghouls and a sub-boss monster on the second. Yet it was far too quiet. There had never been traps here to begin with, but in the game, monsters were supposed to rush in like starved people spotting food. Now there was nothing.
‘Why is everything that should be here missing?’
The situation made no sense, and doubt gnawed at him. As he walked down the silent corridor, Yuda suddenly stopped, as if something had clicked. The answer was simpler than he thought.
Damn it. It is because I came too early!
The one currently inside this body was not Kain but Yuda. And it was not yet time for Kain to come here. Kain was supposed to arrive slowly, weeks later. Yuda was in the middle of doing a quest Kain should have done in the future, so of course Kain would never show up and trigger those events.
If Kain had come here at the proper point in time, the story would have followed the game’s script. The village would already be a ruin. He never would have met that priest named Arhil. There was no way he would have seen Count Jinmu calmly drinking coffee with his mind intact.
It was so obvious in hindsight that he felt stupid for not realizing it sooner.
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***Author’s Note***
Even when Diablo 3 came out, I was not this obsessed.
Lost Ark is pretty much over for me now, so I should get back to writing.
Starting tomorrow, chapters will go up again between 12 and 1. T_T
Q. Reader 난너부리 wrote: “Looks like Yuda does not realize the story is twisted because he came too early, lol. Originally Kain was supposed to show up months later and trigger this event, but he rushed in and broke the timeline… He is not realizing the obvious.”
A. That was the comment, and you are very sharp. I am impressed.
Q. The part where Yuda attacks Jinmu feels really unconvincing. From Jeanne’s point of view he is just a suspicious guy, she is on guard, and then Yuda suddenly picks a fight and dives into combat.
A. Hmm, I will do my best to revise that.
