734 – Multiple Stages of Death – 2

There was nothing special about the dungeon created by Death King.

There was a sense of disconnection from the surrounding environment, and it was strange to say that there was nothing special about a huge maze-like dungeon. Other than those two things, it didn’t feel like it was the home of a great evil.

No matter how much I searched the dungeon, there was nothing there except for the corpses that had already been defeated. At the very least, there was no trace of the legacy or magic left by the Death King. It was simply a garrison where the Death King and his army were located. It felt exactly like that.

‘Maybe it worked out better.’

There is no need for the church to take any action as there are no peculiarities or traces. The Death King was subdued and his army was annihilated, so the holy war was successfully completed.

Therefore, as soon as I came out of the dungeon, I took out the communication tool. Because the communication port did not work properly inside the dungeon, the victory report could not be posted. How anxiously our brothers and sisters in the church are waiting for news from us.

‘His Holiness will be pleased.’

The Holy Father is heartbroken that the bell has rung five times in hundreds of years. However, thanks to Count Tyglehen’s great performance, the Death King was defeated without much damage, so His Holiness will surely be happy.

No problem. Isn’t the Count not only a noble of the Empire but also a Blessed of the Church?

“Your Majesty the Cardinal.”

“Your Excellency?”

With that in mind, just before activating the communication port, Count Tyglehen approached.

“Are you going to report it now?”

“Yes. I had to hold off reporting for a while because there might be remnants of the Death King in the dungeon, but since I confirmed that there were no problems, I have to report my victory to His Holiness.”

“I see.”

The Count nodded slightly, quickly looked around, and continued speaking in a low voice.

“I’m sorry, but could you postpone the report for a while? I have something urgent to tell you.”

“Is the Count telling me… ?”

“This is a story that needs to be shared between the three of us, including Brother Tanian.”

With those words, I put the communication port back.

Delaying His Holiness’ joy is heartbreaking, but it is a request from the Count who defeated the Death King. I can tolerate just taking a moment.

Moreover, it is a meeting where I, the commander-in-chief of the punitive force, the Count, his second-in-command, and Brother Tanian, the next saint, gather together. It’s definitely not a light story.

‘Is this a message from the emperor?’

It’s definitely a possibility. If the count, who is the emperor’s closest confidant, requests a close conversation, he will have nothing but the emperor’s will.

I thought so for about 10 minutes.

“This is the real Death King.”

Until the Count brought out something in a gathering where it was just me, the Count, and Brother Tanian.

“Yes?”

“Yes?”

The Count takes out a small doll from his chest and makes a shocking statement that the doll is the real Death King.

At that remark, Brother Tanian and I both looked blankly at the doll in the count’s hand and the count’s face.

‘Is this a joke?’

I looked at Brother Tanian’s face, wondering if it was a joke on his part. If the Count is the kind of person who makes boring jokes like this, your brother, who has been with him for three years, probably knows it well.

‘No.’

Unfortunately, the brother’s expression was full of embarrassment. My facial expression will probably be no different.

“Well, Excellency the Count. This doll—”

“It’s unpleasant. Are you treating me like a puppet when you’re Enen’s puppet?”

The doll opened its mouth before I finished speaking. And the Count crushed the doll’s body before it could finish speaking.

Eventually, I closed my mouth again as I saw the doll’s head falling to the floor.

Did the doll just say that?

“Hey. If you suddenly do this, even I would be a little surprised.”

What’s even more surprising is that the doll, with only its head remaining, can talk just fine. Even the crushed neck area was slowly recovering.

“…As you can see, it’s like this.”

At the count’s bitter voice, I instinctively trampled on the head of the doll—no, the Death King.

Sadly, the shattered head was soon restored.

The suppression of the Death King failed. Moreover, the count who declared that he had defeated the Death King was hiding the Death King, even if only for a short time.

Thanks to this, the meeting of the three became a hearing rather than a hearing for the count.

“Your Excellency. The Church rang the bell five times and pledged to subdue the Death King. Interfering with this would be an act against the Church’s cause, but isn’t the Count a blessed man who received Enen’s blessing? I believe there must be a good reason.”

Therefore, there is pressure to explain the situation so that Brother Tanian, the next saint, and I, the commander-in-chief of the punitive force, can understand. In response to this blatant pressure, the count nodded, took off the sword from his belt and placed it on the floor.

Seeing them disarm themselves first, the wariness in my heart eased a little. At least the count is not trying to be hostile to the church.

“What I’m going to tell you now may be a big shock to you two. But I don’t think I’ll be able to convince you two if I don’t explain it, so I’ll tell you everything at the risk of being rude.”

He nodded his head at the count’s cooperative attitude. No matter how shocking it is, could it be more shocking than the fact that the Death King was hidden?

“Death King’s name is Lisianne. He was a cardinal of the Dawn Church in the past, and he chose a god other than Enen.”

However, contrary to his mental preparation, he collapsed on the floor as soon as he heard the count’s words his his his.

Before I knew it, the authority and honor of the church almost plummeted.

***

The expressions on Tanian and the cardinal’s faces were as if they were literally in a daze.

It’s a natural reaction. I told these two everything, not only the identity of the Death King, but also the fact that the Death King’s death was voluntary.

“If the subjugation had been carried out in the Death King’s Dungeon, it would have led to the annihilation of the subjugation force.”

The cardinal even closed his eyes as he calmly confirmed the death.

Lisianne is a monster who created something from nothing with a single applause. There is a high probability that this feat would be possible inside the dungeon created by Lisianne, but we almost had a subjugation battle inside it.

Fighting a monster in my home base that even a saint could not kill, and who recovered from my heavenly slash? Will we all die together? Rather, the way to increase the survival probability of the punitive force was to let Lisianne meet her death as she wanted.

“I’m sorry for saying that we defeated the Death King, but it was difficult to say that the Death King hid somewhere else or escaped while the paladins and priests could hear.”

“In that case … The punitive force would have searched all over the continent to find Death King. Even though Death King is actually with his brother his.”

“Yes, that’s right.”

I nodded at Tanian’s words.

An enemy that cannot be defeated. The harshness of having to fight the Death King in the front yard, where even a mutt eats half of the food. However, to say that the Death King is somewhere else means that the punitive force must make an indefinite pilgrimage to the continent.

So, after much thought, he created a fake Death King (what was) and declared the subjugation complete. I know that this has a lot of loopholes and is a recipe for a big mess if things go wrong, but at least it was better than jumping into the Death King Raid on the spot.

“And if the Death King revealed his identity during the battle, there wouldn’t have been as much confusion.”

This time, Tanian nodded.

It would be crazy to fight against an enemy that can’t die, but that enemy even launches a mental attack by saying, ‘I was actually a cardinal from the Neg Order.’ There is no such thing as bad news.

“But brother. I understand what you mean, but what do you plan to do now? Isn’t it dangerous for you to carry around a Death King who cannot be killed?”

“Ha. This is the person who will lead me to death. Do you think I would dare harm someone like that? Do I look like the hypocrites of Enen who would kill me if I were a heretic?”

At Tanian’s words, Lisianne, who was on the floor, spoke confidently.

“…If it’s death.”

At the word death, Tanian’s eyes turned to me again.

Tanian closed his eyes sadly, meaning that what you thought was correct, and he let out a laugh. Because Tanian also knows how the evil spirit called Death lives.

“The Death King became like this after receiving the energy of death, so only death can kill the Death King.”

“The only hope is death. It’s a strange thing.”

“Isn’t it a bit too much to risk death in front of the person involved?”

Neither I, Thanian, nor the Cardinal responded to Lisianne’s words.

What kind of trouble is this because of these damn Death Kings and Jangsaeng?

After ordering the punitive force to wait for a while, Tanian, the cardinal, and I boarded Ziz and flew north.

No, in preparation for an emergency, we headed to a cold land further north than the North. If Lisian goes on a rampage here, there will be no casualties.

“It was said that Enen imprisoned the oldest worries and sins in a cold land. “I guess this is that cold land.”

Meanwhile, Lisianne grinned and looked around her.

‘Is this right?’

Seeing that scene, I sighed for an unknown number of times and felt a sense of self-destruction that never stopped.

You don’t negotiate with terrorists. Unfortunately, the terrorist was a crazy person who could not die, so we ended up negotiating.

The good news is that Lisianne considers me an apostle of death. Thanks to this, she treats me like a superior and quietly obeys me, and this obedience is maintained because she believes that I will help her meet Jangsaeng. I can’t guarantee that I will ultimately refuse to meet him or what will happen after I meet Jangsaeng.

‘…Jangsaeng will not awaken to death.’

The worst case scenario is that Jangsaeng reverts to the time when he was an evil spirit, but Jangsaeng does not even have a vessel to contain his divinity. Rather, the stronger Lisianne becomes, the stronger Jangsaeng will be.

That’s why I fiddled with the hilt of my sword with nervousness,

“Meeting Your Excellency.”

The family wizard who received my call appeared using teleportation.

“I never thought I would come back to this damn place.”

With Jangsaeng, who was resting at the mansion.

“…Hmm?”

“Huh?”

And Jangsaeng and Lisianne showed interest in each other as if it were a lie.

Even though there was no specific introduction. As if he instinctively recognized the energy of the other person.

“What about you, that energy?”

“Huh, huh? Huh?”

Jangsaeng escaped from the wizard’s embrace with a bright look in his eyes. On the other hand, Lisi Anne looked confused and her body began to tremble.

“Um, that person is Death…? No, that can’t be… Death is definitely an abyss monster that covers the sky and turns the earth… But this energy is definitely…”

“That is death.”

I quietly opened my mouth at the sight of Lisianne, who seemed to be trying to deny reality.

“Ah…”

Then, Lisi Anne’s body her her, which had entered a state of super vibration, suddenly stopped.

“Lord, death!”

Eventually, Li Xianne burst into tears and ran towards Jangsaeng, and she fell down in front of him and wept loudly.

“How, how can this be? No matter how many times you have been sealed, you, who gave an equal death to all living beings, and who were the destination of all living beings, can end up like this!”

“…”

Jangsaeng, who suddenly became like this, was so confused that he couldn’t open his mouth.

“Death is going through such suffering, and as a follower of His will His, I absolutely cannot sit idly by!”

After saying that, Lisianne placed both her hands on her chest and pulled out her black spheres.

‘That’s it.’

It was a bizarre sight with a black sphere protruding from inside her body, but I could tell it instinctively.

That is the energy of death that Lisianne harbored. She is the culprit who turned Lisianne into a crazy monster and an unkillable being.

“Death! What is yours back to you! Your servant’s to the great Lord!”

“Oh…”

At Rishi Anne’s her cry her her her, her her Jangsaengi’s her mouth her her her turned towards the black sphere.

It was only for a moment, but I saw it. A slight sense of greed passed through Jangsaeng’s eyes.

***

A small human even compared to me… No, is he really a human? Anyway, as soon as she realized that the small being was holding my fragment, her heart started pounding.

Although it is a weak energy, worse than a fingernail compared to its prime, it can be quite useful depending on how it is used. Since the vessel containing divinity has disappeared, it is impossible to return to godhood, but if you have that energy, you can do more than you can now.

“Death! What is yours back to you! Your servant’s to the great Lord!”

So when this extraordinary being offered me a fragment, it willingly tried to eat it.

Until I made eye contact with the owner.

‘Would it be quicker for you to extinguish it, or would it be quicker for me to draw my sword?’

Until I read the clear warning in the owner’s eyes.

‘Damn.’

In the end, he walked to his owner in sorrow, holding the fragment in his mouth.

If you eat this, your stomach will be cut open by the owner and you will die.