Ch.112The Saint Is Dangerous (7)

As we approached where everyone was gathered, Xavier seemed to notice our presence and came over to greet us first.

“…You’ve come. And who is this person beside you?”

“This is Baek Eunha. The one you were curious about, Master.”

“Oh, I didn’t expect to meet under these circumstances, but it’s a pleasure. Are you two the only support?”

“Reinforcements are being prepared, but they probably won’t arrive anytime soon.”

Glancing around, I noticed the civilians weren’t in great condition. I nodded slightly at Xavier’s words and got straight to the point.

“We need to offer sacrifices, right?”

“You already figured it out? That makes things faster. The gate was created in a particularly malicious way, making it difficult to destroy by force.”

“Hmm, I get the general idea.”

I waved the civilians back and approached the altar, carefully analyzing the magic formation placed on it.

After about a minute, I could reach a conclusion.

“I can disable this.”

“Really? It seemed to be quite an advanced magical formula.”

“Not a problem for someone like me.”

Well, it makes sense that Xavier would be surprised.

Even for him, an S-rank hunter with top-tier skills, this was a magical formula he couldn’t handle. It’s understandable he’d find it hard to believe I could solve it.

But I was once an absolute ruler of an era whom even a gathering of so-called heroes wouldn’t dare to challenge.

To someone like me, this level of sorcery was child’s play.

“However, disabling this will consume a lot of my power, so you’ll need to take responsibility for what lies ahead.”

“Leave it to me. With Yesiel here, we’ll be fine.”

I nodded and approached the altar, drawing up my magical power and death energy.

‘This really is malicious.’

The exact effect was this:

A death altar requiring the sacrifice of five human lives to open the path to the boss room.

For S-rank dungeon hunters, each member is a precious fighting force, so advancing would mean accepting tremendous losses.

‘It could even cause internal division.’

I had wondered why the dungeon monsters were all knight statues, but it was obvious they would be replenished over time to attack those trapped here.

Truly befitting the cruelty of an S-rank dungeon.

However, this time they faced the wrong opponent.

‘As he said, breaking it by force would be difficult.’

So, I needed to make the altar believe appropriate sacrifices had been offered.

“Undead call.”

What I needed was a spell combining necromancy and witch’s sorcery—

Ophelia’s Spirit doll, a witch who once made her name known throughout the continent of Thebes.

‘The principle isn’t difficult.’

It’s similar to the skeleton with free will that Song Hayeon created before.

However, it needs to be much more refined to deceive the magic on the altar.

I created stone dolls with magic, planted a strand of my hair in each, and began infusing them with fabricated souls.

Rustle.

Whoosh.

By the time all the work was finished, 20 minutes had already passed.

Without hesitation, I began offering the soul dolls one by one to the altar as sacrifices.

Tzzzzz.

Poof!

Poof!

Poof!

Only after all the dolls had lost their form and disappeared did the massive door blocking the boss room finally begin to respond.

Crack.

Rumble.

“…You really opened it. That’s impressive.”

Xavier expressed his admiration and took the lead position again, while Yesiel cast a wide-area blessing on the people exhausted by the dungeon’s magical pressure.

“Blessing of Light.”

Whoosh!

Shining!

With this, all preparations were complete.

However, we couldn’t bring civilians into the boss room, so someone needed to stay behind to protect them.

And that role naturally fell to me, who had consumed a lot of power.

“Try to finish within an hour and open the door.”

“I think you’ll be fine, Eunha, but please be careful anyway.”

With that, the two entered the boss room for the final assault, and I sighed, sitting down on the floor to rest.

“Um, excuse me.”

“Don’t worry. The only enemies here are at most those statues. And those two should be able to handle the boss easily.”

“I-I see. But there’s something I need to tell you…”

At the words of a bespectacled young man among the civilians, I made a gesture for him to continue, with a puzzled expression.

And his answer was completely unexpected.

“U-until now I thought it might be my imagination so I didn’t mention it, but there was something strange about one of the statues that attacked us.”

“What was strange?”

“One of the statues had a symbol on its helmet part, which seemed odd, and I think that symbol matched the one engraved on that altar ahead…”

Hearing this, I slightly furrowed my brow and asked again.

“Did Xavier know about this?”

“H-he didn’t mention it, but since he cut down the statues from a distance, he might not have noticed.”

“…That’s definitely strange.”

If what this young man said was true, this wasn’t something to dismiss. The fact that they shared the same symbol meant there might be some connection with the magic cast on this altar.

‘Could it be…’

I didn’t need to think too hard—the simplest possibility was right in front of me.

What if this sacrificial altar wasn’t simply meant to reduce the invaders’ strength and cause internal division?

What if it was designed to use the life energy of the sacrifices for some other purpose?

‘…’

Whoosh.

Fwoosh!

With rising vigilance, I immediately took out the Book of Death and summoned the three Cyclops brothers again.

And soon, from the corridor that Xavier had likely passed through, leisurely footsteps began to echo.

“…If you don’t want to die, all of you retreat to the boss room entrance.”

“Y-yes, understood!”

This dungeon truly is malicious to the end.

I raised my death energy quietly while staring at the approaching knight statue that was emitting a bizarre holy power.

#

‘This is strange.’

Having entered the dungeon’s boss room, Xavier and Yesiel continued to advance while questioning the unexpectedly vast interior.

A boss room of this size in a small dungeon—this was certainly not normal.

“I can’t sense any energy that would indicate a boss monster.”

“Neither can I. It doesn’t seem to be just a feeling.”

Both were S-rank hunters with exceptional sensory abilities. Even with the boss room being enormous, it was strange that they couldn’t detect its presence.

And as the two advanced further into the boss room, they finally reached what appeared to be the end.

“…This seems to be the end.”

“I’ve sent holy power throughout the entire space, but there’s no response.”

Something was seriously wrong. That thought was creeping into their minds when—

[My, it seems we have welcome guests.]

From behind them, where there had clearly been no one, a figure suddenly appeared.

An old man with ashen, pale skin as if he were a corpse.

He was dressed in ill-fitting priest’s robes and was staring at Xavier and Yesiel.

“You…”

“You must be the master of this dungeon. I’ll eliminate you quickly.”

Despite her words, Yesiel raised her guard for the first time since entering the dungeon.

A humanoid boss with intelligence.

Among high-rank dungeon bosses, this type was considered the most troublesome.

Moreover, she couldn’t sense any presence or energy from him despite him standing right before her.

This unknown terror was pressing down on Yesiel.

[There’s no need to be hasty. After all, there’s nothing you can do.]

“What do you mean?”

[I mean this.]

Tzzzzz.

As the old man finished speaking, his form began to waver as if it were an illusion.

Seeing this, the two finally realized why they couldn’t sense his presence or energy.

“You’re not the real body?”

[Correct. Therefore, it’s fair to say that you, trapped in here, have no way to harm me.]

That couldn’t be.

A boss monster not being present in the boss room completely defied the established rules of dungeons.

However, the quick-witted Xavier was able to spot a flaw in that thinking.

“This isn’t the boss room. We’ve been completely deceived.”

[That’s right. You seem to have quite an intelligent mind.]

But.

[Regardless, now that you’ve entered this place, your fate is essentially sealed.]

“What?”

[This is a kind of isolation space. And the power of those inside will gradually flow to my real body outside.]

Whoosh.

Slip.

Slipping.

With those words, life energy actually began to be extracted from the two.

In that moment of crisis, Xavier looked worriedly toward the entrance of the fake boss room.

‘She’ll need to hold out somehow outside.’

Baek Eunha, who had exhausted much of her power earlier, and the lives of the civilians now depended on her.