episode_0055

Mordor felt no concern when the intruders first appeared.

Mordor had lived for over 100 years. He was well-versed in assessing an opponent’s skill.

Two intruders. Both were strong, but he could handle them with ease.

The only thought in his head was that they would make good material.

It had been hard to find useful corpses lately, so he thought this was a good opportunity.

However, for some reason, only one intruder entered.

He considered it arrogant and found the idea amusing.

He would kill this one, turn them into a subordinate, and then kill the other intruder outside.

‘This will be fun.’

Experimenting with young children had grown tiresome, so this was a welcome change.

“Mordor.”

The problem was that the guy knew too much about Death Heaven.

When that guy first spoke his name.

Betzdo. He thought that arrogant fellow had sent him.

‘Old man, you’re only sitting there because of your age. You’re weaker than me, aren’t you?’

A disgrace to necromancers, who, despite being a necromancer, knew neither the greatness nor the sublimity of necromancy.

An idiot who entered Death Heaven simply because he survived.

Mordor himself had originally not intended to enter Death Heaven.

He believed that grouping together was an act performed only by unchosen, foolish humans.

‘Weak.’

But after witnessing the skill of that person, the leader of Death Heaven, he changed his mind.

That person was a true necromancer, a god of death.

That person appeared suddenly but was stronger than any other necromancer.

Strong enough to seize the entire continent immediately.

He had said it many times: let’s conquer the continent.

But that person always refused with the same words.

‘It is not yet time, wait.’

The only command that person gave was one.

Do not draw attention.

Therefore, he secretly collected corpses.

It was easy to obtain the corpses of insignificant humans.

‘You really pay this much money?’

With just money, he could quickly acquire people.

He had grown tired of acquiring them with money and had sometimes obtained them through other methods.

Besides his name, that guy knew many things.

His own rank, Betzdo’s rank, and even his abilities—he didn’t seem surprised, as if he knew them too.

‘Could there be a traitor inside?’

No, that couldn’t be.

They had made a ‘contract’ that absolutely prevented betrayal.

‘I’ll play with him a bit and then get information.’

Although his specialty—the technique of changing the face of a faceless corpse into the face of someone that guy cherished—didn’t work.

If he had only that one skill, he would have died a long time ago.

He summoned battle-specific corpses.

Each corpse possessed the power of a large monster.

But that young punk didn’t seem scared at all by the corpses.

He said nothing.

A chill.

An ominous feeling instantly arose.

It was the same feeling he had long ago when he lost a war.

“Nightmare.”

As the young punk spoke, a fog enveloped the entire laboratory.

The summoned corpses vanished, leaving only the young punk and himself inside the lab.

‘Is it illusion magic?’

Illusion magic.

Magic that manipulates the opponent’s brain and mind to make them see falsehoods.

“Do you think I’d fall for illusion magic of this level?”

The way to counter illusion magic is simple.

Flow mana into the head.

However, for some reason, even when he flowed mana into his head, the fog didn’t disappear.

What Loki was using wasn’t an illusion, but a phantasm.

It was closer to creating something out of thin air rather than making the opponent see something.

But Mordor knew nothing about Loki.

“Tsk.”

Mordor clicked his tongue once and tried to summon corpses again.

*Thud!*

But even when he struck the ground with his staff, no corpses appeared.

“What on earth did you do to……..”

*Thwack.*

Mordor stopped speaking mid-sentence.

His head fell off.

Literally, his head fell to the floor.

The face on the floor matched his own.

Huh?

Panicked, he instantly fumbled with his hand where his face should have been.

Fortunately, his face was still attached.

Blood?

But his hands were covered in blood.

The more he touched his face, the more blood stained his hands.

“Aaaargh!!!!”

Before he could even process the situation, a scream echoed. It was identical to his own voice.

He turned his head and looked towards the source of the scream.

“Hot! Hot! Hot! Help me! Help me!”

*Flinch.*

There, he himself was screaming, his entire body engulfed in flames.

Mordor bowed his head to check his body.

*Whoosh, whoosh.*

His body was on fire.

Huh?

It wasn’t hot at all.

Yet his skin turned black.

*Whoosh.*

He smelled his flesh burning.

But he felt no pain.

*Drip, drip.*

His blackened skin dripped to the floor.

He felt no pain.

“Water, water!”

But despite that, he screamed.

If he stayed like this, he would burn to death!

*Hiss.*

He bowed his head to check his body.

All the fire on his body went out.

But his skin was completely charred and dangled loosely.

The fire was extinguished, but his skin didn’t return to its original state.

“……So………hun……gry.”

A weak voice was heard.

Again, it was identical to his own voice.

There, he himself was starving to death.

He was so emaciated that his bones seemed to pierce through his skin.

“Wow! Food!”

The voice of a young child, unfitting for the situation, was heard.

At the mention of food, the starving version of himself lifted its head.

“Look here, there’s food!”

What the young child pointed at was Mordor.

“Huh?”

Upon hearing those words, Mordor instinctively stepped back.

*Thump-thump-thump-thump-thump-thump.*

Mordor saw the starving version of himself rush towards him. He was immediately tackled.

Something in his own image opened its mouth wide and tore at his flesh. It kept tearing. Chewing. Chewing. Swallowing.

He felt no pain while being torn, but he saw his flesh being ripped with his eyes and heard the sound of it being chewed with his ears.

“Aaaaargh!!!”

His lower body vanished as he was continuously torn apart.

After completely tearing off his lower body, the thing in his own image finally seemed satisfied and left.

“Ughhhhh.”

Upon hearing the sound, Mordor flinched and looked in the direction it came from.

“You!!”

And he laughed. Because there were the corpses Mordor used.

“First, get out of……….”

Mordor’s words couldn’t continue. One corpse had plunged a knife into Mordor’s body.

“Huh?”

Another corpse chopped his arm with an axe.

His arm was severed, and blood gushed out like a fountain.

“Aaaaaaaaaargh!!!!!!”

Other corpses appeared from behind.

They were the children Mordor had created as a joke.

“What are you looking at!”

The children weren’t holding any weapons.

Mordor hadn’t given them weapons because they were useless.

Dozens of children opened their mouths.

Mordor remembered the image of himself tearing and eating flesh.

“N-no!”

Dozens of children tore at Mordor.

All parts except his head disappeared.

Only then did the corpses leave.

“Ugh……….”

At some point, Mordor began making the same sounds as the corpses he created.

*Thump.*

A clump of dirt fell before Mordor’s eyes.

Mordor looked up.

“Aaaargh!!”

And he was horrified.

A mountain was falling directly onto his head.

Mordor tried desperately to escape, but without arms or legs, he couldn’t possibly run away.

“H-help me!!!”

All Mordor could do was watch the mountain fall onto his head.

‘I’m dying!’

Mordor had faced death several times.

But he had never actually died.

In a short span, Mordor experienced his head falling off, being burned, his body being eaten, and being struck by knives and axes.

The Mordor who claimed to be special because he dealt with death was gone.

Only an ugly old man struggling to survive remained.

*CRASH!!!*

The mountain crashed down onto Mordor’s head.

Mordor closed his eyes.

However, he felt nothing.

Mordor opened his eyes again.

His arms and legs were all there.

He checked his body.

It was clean, without a single wound.

“……A dream?”

“Was something wrong?”

Mordor looked in the direction the voice came from.

There was the person he admired, the number one of Death Heaven.

“Well….. I had a dream, no, a nightmare.”

That person said, “Hmm.”

“Oh? But that wasn’t a dream?”

“Huh?”

As soon as the words ended, a sound was heard.

*Thump.*

His head fell to the floor.

It matched his own face.

Panic.

Doubt.

Fear.

Fear.

Fear.

Fear.

Fear.

Fear.

Fear.

*Whoosh.*

His body caught fire.

There was nothing he could do.

It wasn’t dying physically.

His mind was dying.

.

.

.

Loki looked at Mordor with emotionless eyes.

An hour had passed since he used the skill.

At some point, Mordor stopped making any sound and only trembled.

Loki looked tired.

To create phantasms, everything had to be imagined and created.

He could maintain it for an hour thanks to the elixir, but the throbbing headache was unavoidable.

*Thump-thump.*

Feeling his mana completely depleted, Loki walked towards Mordor.

*Clink.*

He put away his sword-stick and pulled a dagger from his subspace.

It was the dagger he had used to kill those children.

“Die.”

*Thwack.*

Loki stabbed Mordor’s head with the dagger.

Mordor couldn’t even scream.

Death Heaven’s Rank 8, Mordor.

Deceased.