Ch.25Chapter 25. Abraham (2)

Chapter 25. Abraham (2)

Lakye did not tremble.

More precisely, she was emotionally quite shaken, but she didn’t reveal that fact to me.

While curling up her body, she poked her head out just enough so I could see the situation.

Thanks to her, I could see the darkness covering the sky and Abraham standing calmly beneath it.

The cloud demon was approaching slowly but deliberately toward the city where Abraham was.

It wasn’t just the dark cloud.

Dozens, hundreds, no—there could be thousands of flying entities accompanying the dark cloud.

Demons resembling birds and insects. Wingless demons were clutched in their legs.

According to George, the bat-like mid-rank demon he caught had five low-rank demons under its command.

According to RisingPhoenix, the cobra demon that Abraham caught also seemed to have three low-rank demons under its command.

The dark cloud commanded well over a thousand demons.

What kind of difference was there between mid-rank and high-rank?

I briefly turned my attention to the community window. I wondered if they were watching this too.

[RisingPhoenix: Abraham update!

He defeated three low-rank demons and is now in a bloody battle with a mid-rank demon!]

This bastard has been broadcasting the whole time.

[SamuraiJackson: Stop messing around and run away. You’re going to die.]

ㄴ [RisingPhoenix: Who cares. We’re all going to die anyway lol]

ㄴ [RisingPhoenix: If we’re going to die anyway, might as well enjoy one last interesting spectacle, right?]

ㄴ [RisingPhoenix: Die alone in a cave VS Die after watching an awesome battle]

ㄴ [RisingPhoenix: Shut up and choose the latter, right?]

Is his mind broken from exhaustion? I feel a bit sorry for him.

[MeleeSpy: Is everyone watching

That bastard has arrived.

Hide even if you have to dig into the ground.

Don’t do anything for 10 hours, just stay still.

Piss and shit right where you are.]

It was definitely massive enough to be visible from other regions.

Well, it was darkening the sky even as it approached from a distance.

[CorruptPowerKnight: Fuck…what the fuck

That was the dark cloud? Is that why nobody talked about it?

You fucking…those who came first should have explained this in more detail…

I was planning to try fighting a mid-rank demon when I reached level 6-7, but that was truly insane thinking…]

[ITrustedTheMonkeyUncle: MeleeSpy was right

For real;;]

While I was alternating between watching the community and Abraham, “it” slowly approached.

Woooong-!

Eventually, it reached Tibera with an ominous and terrible sound.

Flying demons that arrived ahead of it, reaching near the city where Abraham was, dropped the demons they were clutching in their legs.

Judging by their size, which wasn’t as large as the cobra demon, they seemed to be low-rank demons.

Thud!

Growl!

The demons that fell to the ground, rolling several times before standing up, charged toward Abraham.

When the distance had narrowed somewhat, Abraham raised his hand high into the sky.

And a long whip wrapped in holy light appeared.

Swoosh!

He swung the whip toward the demons. He swung it so fast that it created a shockwave.

Pop-pop-pop-boom!

The demons touched by the whip burst instantly and scattered as ash.

Overwhelming.

[RisingPhoenix: Oh lol Abraham just used a skill

He’s swinging a whip made of light! The demons are just getting swept away lol]

A comment appeared immediately.

[MeleeSpy: It’s the level 7 skill Whip of Judgment. If you’ve seen that, please run away now, I beg you.]

So it’s a skill called Whip of Judgment.

Soon after, light spread from Abraham’s whip, intercepting the flying demons that had approached nearby. It’s a light explosion skill.

I felt the same emotion as Bramanda. If you can do this much by reaching level 7… did he really have to choose such an extreme method?

Of course, that’s a thought I can have because I don’t know Abraham’s personality and the situation he was in.

Bang! Bang!

The demons exploded at medium range without even reaching Abraham.

A large monster parrot that looked like a mid-rank demon approached and tried to snatch him, but its leg got entangled in the whip and it flew away.

The sight of Abraham facing dozens of demons alone was truly the embodiment of a high-level user from Surviving as Paladin.

But that was all.

When the number of demons surrounding Abraham approached nearly hundreds, I sensed his defeat.

Now demons rushing and flying from all directions blocked Lakye’s and my view.

Light occasionally burst out from among them, but it was just a handful compared to the demonic army.

Before I knew it, the dark cloud loomed over Abraham.

It extended a massive tentacle downward, snatched Abraham who was buried among the demons, and lifted him up.

“Ugh, aaaaargh-!”

His screams as he was dragged away echoed all the way here.

“Y-you bastards! D-don’t come!”

RisingPhoenix, who had been watching, was also discovered and attacked by demons, literally being torn apart.

“We can’t stay any longer.”

As Lakye whispered softly before hiding her head completely, I could clearly see.

Abraham’s helmet, armor, and weapons falling to the ground.

All of them were terribly damaged.

He met a horrible end without even being able to fight the cloud demon.

Could I defeat such a being…?

…No, I must win.

Calmly, waiting for the right moment.

***

At the same time, at the Necromancer’s Tomb.

“Hah… who covered this with vegetation? Took me a while to find it.”

A bearded man in armor finally found the entrance to the tomb that Nix and the barbarian warriors had concealed.

His username was Rinojohnnson. He was a paladin who specialized in finding hidden pieces.

Having recently reached level 4 and acquired the “Purification” skill, he had returned to a dungeon he had previously given up on.

‘Has someone already taken it? No. Then there would be no reason to hide the entrance. Why was it covered up?’

While Rinojohnnson was lost in thought, a cold wind brushed past him.

“Huh?”

Looking up at what it might be, the sky had suddenly darkened.

“W-what is this.”

A word flashed through Rinojohnnson’s mind.

Dark cloud.

The cause of the disappearance of George’s once-successful raid party.

“Damn it…!”

He entered the tomb to hide himself.

‘Since I’m already in, might as well look for the hidden piece.’

After closing the coffin that served as a door, he raised his bracelet. The light entering the bracelet illuminated the dark tomb.

Crown. Bracelet. Necklace. Amulet. Everything he was wearing was a hidden piece.

Having lived as a game addict for decades, he was a heavy user who had written guides for Surviving as Paladin multiple times, delving deep into the game.

That’s why he knew the locations of hidden dungeons from a game that had failed 10 years ago.

He entered a room covered in murals, stepping over the zombie corpses that Nix and the warriors had previously dealt with.

He was able to come quickly because he had a necklace that functioned as a ‘special object detection radar’.

“What? It’s not here?”

No matter how much he searched through the booklets, the Book of the Dead was nowhere to be found.

‘Then why did the radar activate?’

Could there be a new hidden piece besides the Book of the Dead?

He had experienced this before in previous dungeon explorations.

Excited by the new discovery, he thoroughly searched the room, and before long, found a wall that sounded hollow when knocked.

‘It has magical protection.’

He used the ‘Dispel Protection (Intermediate)’ skill he had obtained from another dungeon to remove the protective magic on the wall.

The magic of the long-unattended tomb was easy to dispel.

And with another skill obtained from a different dungeon, ‘Grave Robber’s Skilled Hands’, he carefully excavated the wall.

Inside the wall was a jar placed in a space small enough for only a child to fit in.

And that jar was pulsating.

“What the…!”

Rinojohnnson instinctively sensed danger and tried to step back, but it was already too late.

His body was being pulled toward the jar by an unknown force.

“Eek! Eeek!”

Despite screaming and trying to escape, his hands had already opened the lid of the jar.

A red spiritual entity rising from the jar infiltrated Rinojohnnson’s facial features.

“Keck! Keck! Keheuk!”

It was Charon, a being that transcended the physical body and had become an evil spirit.

The necromancer’s last resort, which even divine power had failed to completely remove, had finally awakened.

A man tapping on a keyboard in a room corner, and a man wailing while embracing the corpses of three children.

Rinojohnnson’s and Charon’s memories mixed, and Charon’s soul consumed Rinojohnnson’s soul.

A continent facing extinction. Humans corrupted by demonic power. A goddess who summons humans from another world as sacrifices. The silent Roa.

“Are you… just a human whose fate has been toyed with by the gods?”

Rinojohnnson’s voice changed to something low and ominous.

A cold red light filled his eyes.

He walked calmly out of the tomb and looked up at the darkened sky.

The dark cloud, stopped in the far distance, came into his view.

“…Non-human beings are toying with the world. As always.”

He quietly gazed at the high-rank demon.

“Do not worry.”

It was no longer Rinojohnnson.

“I will save you all.”

The outcast who mastered forbidden death magic.

The calamity that brought the zombie apocalypse.

The transcendent who gained the ability to control body and soul.

The adversary of the gods.

An ancient evil that had been sleeping in the continent had awakened.