Chapter 380: Troika (2)

"Why did you reach that conclusion?" I asked.

"Because you seem to like them. Whenever you talk about those humans, your voice gets soft and squishy," Gith-Za-Rai answered.

"What nonsense?!"

"Am I wrong? After all this time together, do you really think I can't read an undead's emotions?"

Did she have that kind of authority, too?

She said she couldn't extract memories, though...

Well, maybe she could peer into emotions. Embarrassment surged up inside me as that thought crossed my mind.

She giggled faintly. "Personally, I'm curious too. What kind of humans managed to capture the heart of such a bizarre creature like you?"

Damn it.

I was at a loss for words.

Gith-Za-Rai did not mock me for long before moving on. "Of course, even putting that aside, we still have to meet them. According to what you said..."

The laughter drained from her face. She became serious. "Their changes persist even after your regression. Abilities and emotions both. Their memories also remain in the form of dreams, right?"

I nodded. "When you clear a scenario, the change solidifies."

"So they're permanent allies, with no possibility of betrayal," Gith-Za-Rai continued, "they're wedges you drive into this world. You hammer them into the gaps you found in the worldline, pry it open, and hold it there. The deeper the wedge goes, the wider that gap will become."

She smiled thinly. "They are beings who can anchor permanent changes that don't reset when you regress. You say you want to help them, but in truth, they're the ones who can help you forever."

"Mm..."

"You should have told me sooner. It would have been better if you'd mentioned this in our previous life."

I shrank a little under her reproach.

Why didn't I tell her?

I had mentioned their names, and even written them down when I went to Daliac to ask for information. At the same time, I'd also unconsciously blurred their presence. For some reason, I hadn't wanted to talk about them with Gith-Za-Rai.

Is it guilt? Or...

I did not know.

"Well, even if you had, we still would have moved through the underground passage the exact same way. Hence it's a pointless complaint."

If anyone had been averting their eyes on purpose as the story went on, it was Gith-Za-Rai herself.

I proceeded to point something out. "You're part of the scenario as well, Gith-Za-Rai. You're walking around with a bomb strapped to half your body."

If I thought about Bassago's threat, about his malice and his authority...

"This is what's truly dangerous. We need to act quickly..."

"If the circumstances arise where I die," the necromancer shook her head as she continued, "then just let me die."

Her words were so absurd I could not even respond at first. Only after a long silence did I manage to say, "You're the one who told me to focus on other people's scenarios... What are you doing right now?"

"Strictly speaking, it's not death. My memory would simply be cut off." A smile bloomed on her face. She was talking about her own death, yet her smile was radiant. "From now on, I'll live centered around you. I've decided to entrust my continuity to your regression."

I finally understood, and recalled the conversation I'd had with Gith-Za-Rai in my previous life.

"Good... good. The more I throw you into chaos, the stronger you get. All that pretending to be weak, and yet it takes a crisis to bring out your real strength. Oh, please. You'll just come back if you die, won't you? Think of it this way. If this world continues after your death, what's stopping me from continuing with it?"

The information gap aside, her view of life and death hadn't changed at all since then.

"You're that sure? That the next you will be the same as the current you?"

She laughed for a moment, then answered, "Who exactly do you take me for?"

I stiffened.

"Do you think I'm some fifteen-year-old boy whose crush changes twice a day?" she asked.

"My apologies."

For hundreds of years, she had carried out countless deaths. Not only that, she had weighed the price of those deaths, taken that payment, and raised them as a legion.

Not everyone got to choose their life. Yet not only she had designated the deaths of others, she had also designated their new lives as well. She had chosen and commanded life and death more times than could be counted. To ask if she was sure was almost an insult.

Her life and death and what they meant, those were hers alone to judge.

"If I think of it as my memories being severed at set intervals, it isn't that complicated." Of course, she did not seem angry in the slightest. "Hehe. Hehehe... Where else would I find something this entertaining? It's practically the same as me regressing with you."

"There's really no option where we seal Bassago's engraving or something like that?"

"A waste of power." Gith-Za-Rai snorted. "It's only natural that I can't freely use the power he gave me. But to seal it, I'd have to draw on my own power as well. I have no intention of maintaining that kind of state."

"Mm..."

She elaborated, "You worry too much. In truth, it's a huge burden. Reversing a contract engraving means taking on at least double the strain yourself. Besides, it took multiple Demon Kings just to curse me, didn't it? Before the corrosion spreads, the Demon King is heavily restricted from exerting direct power in the human realm."

"I see."

In other words, even with the engraving, Bassago couldn't slay her as long as we remained outside the Demon Realm's domains. Even so, a lingering unease remained.

"In that case, I'd have to prevent the Demon Kings' descent, right?"

With their descent, the Demon Realm would begin to erode the human world. If the Third Seat manifested with his true power, he could probably kill Gith-Za-Rai alone. He wouldn't even have to bother reversing the engraving.

"Haha... Unless I kill Bassago and take his throne, then yes, in the short term, that's your task."

"What about the Lindbrum's dream? Were you planning to strike at the Demon King from the start?"

She gave a bitter smile. "That was just the textbook intention. The dragon is gone. It's probably dead."

"And?"

"If there were a corpse, I wanted to resurrect it. A being whose breath alone becomes a source of mana—whose countless offshoots imitate it, take it as their sigil and glyph. The very realm of illusion and the image of portraits. I wanted to bring such a dragon back. I dreamed of binding a Lindbrum at the pinnacle to my service. But even after wandering across two continents, I couldn't find any further traces. Compared to that, the compromise I made with the Hero's grave was pathetic."

"Mm..."

The story finally came together in my mind.

She looked at me with a smile so bright, it was almost overwhelming. "Right now, you interest me more than any Lindbrum. Heheheh... I feel more fired up than when I first discovered traces of a dragon's soul."

It was a bit much, hence I gently changed the subject. "I'll clear other scenarios and try to stop the descent. Then we can go find Rubia and Rena togeth—"

"No, I'll handle that part. I should convene a Red Flake council immediately and put this down as a primary agenda item. If it passes, I'll be able to draw on all of their strength, which will make it much easier. But I'll need to act in person. We should part ways for a while."

"Can't I come with you?"

"You have your own task." Her eyes burned. "While I prepare everything, grow stronger. Whether it's Rubia or Rena, they're all secondary compared to you."

"Fine..."

Gith-Za-Rai would prepare, and the entire Red Flake Assassins' Order would move with her. I could hardly imagine a more reassuring rope to cling to.

Getting stronger is simple.

If anything, they were words I had been waiting to hear. I knew every dungeon, bandit gang, and monster nest in the southern region.

***

"Let's meet in Daliac in a month."

Remembering Gith-Za-Rai's words, I ran across the wasteland. One month. It felt like a long time since we were apart. When I thought of what would have happened to Rena and Rubia by then, that span felt even longer. In the necromancer's opinion, we should quietly prepare until the emperor disappeared into the distance. Still, given that the assassination intelligence had already been set in motion, her opinion was sound.

In the end, there was more than enough time. It was time to change classes and subsequently raise my level again.

First, Spiders.

Since I had no Masquerade or Stealth skill, it'd be best to move to a place away from humans for the time being.

Fwhoosh!

I passed the dead trees and stepped into the Spider den.

Nothing's changed.

Just because Naneow and Isaac were gone didn't mean the dungeon itself would vanish. It was obvious, but the familiar scenery gave me a strange sense of relief.

It's been a while. I'll take it slow.

I advanced at a leisurely pace, checking the holes scattered all over the cave. This time, there were no human corpses anywhere.

So, there's nothing like the Yublam guard here. Then no one is regularly supplying bodies?

Perhaps they had starved to death thanks to the altered worldline.

I might be wasting my time.

Clack.

Half-expecting nothing, I continued down the narrow passage. "Detection."

I walked and walked, but sensed nothing. The surroundings were silent.

Tap... Tap...

Only the loud echo of my own footsteps rang through the cave, as if I were making noise just to draw something out. In the darkness, the sound bounced again and again, and the black swallowed only its movement.

Creeeak.

I pushed open the iron gate.

[Blessed Vault of Sherititi]

[Dungeon Rank: B]

[A dungeon that can never be cleared......]

What?

Screeeeeee!

An enormous swarm of Spiders rushed at me. Of course, to call those grotesque things "Spiders" was a serious misuse of the word.

Have they evolved?

The reason the Spiders hadn't been outside was simple. They were no longer small enough to slip in and out through the "holes."

Creeeeeeeak!

I expanded my Domain to about two meters and examined it. At the ends of their eight legs, hook-like claws had formed, perfect for catching prey and tearing it apart. The patterns engraved across them were not the simple protective coloration of insects.

Grand magic sigils?

Creatures equipped with basic grand-magic sigils on their exoskeletons, designed so they couldn't be burned away in one blast. To top it off, two of their thickest legs even had wide membranes attached, likely to enable short glides.

This is insane.

Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!

Thirty. Forty. Fifty. Sixty. They surrounded me from every direction, with no end in sight. I simply repelled them into my Inventory as I walked. The Spiders weren't the problem.

Blessed Vault of Sherititi... That means blessed by...

It didn't even need to be said. The Demon King, whose descent had now become imminent: The First Seat, Baal.

Screee!

Screeeee!

Lightning Wave.

Crack! Boom! Crack!

Even if they'd been enhanced, or had grand-magic sigils embedded externally, dozens of Spiders evaporated atop the hemisphere of my Domain.

Creatures that had spent their entire lives sucking the fluids of other things couldn't even splatter their final ichor on me. They were simply erased. The surge of electrical discharge danced through the whole chamber. They vanished as though they had never existed.

[Level Up!]

[Level Up!]

[Level Up!]

[Level Up!]

The status window screamed noisily. Strangely, it felt like something I hadn't seen in a very long time. I stepped onto the bare floor and continued forward past the loud messages, leaving the familiar fragments lying on either side.

[100 Additional Stat Points will be consumed.]

[Beginning Epic-Class Advancement Process...]

[Race check... valid...]

[Conversion unnecessary...]

[Special mana source detected... accelerating transformation.]

[1.3%...]

Crack! Craaack!

[20.1%...]

After the recombination of bone and marrow...

[41.6%...]

Cold fire ignited inside me, as though the faint stars of twilight whispered their wishes, and the deepest darkness offered me its flame.

[99.9%]

[Class Change: Death Knight.]

In the end, they were only Spiders. Yet I stared blankly at the message, forgetting the situation for a moment. I had expected this. This was what I had been planning for all along, and I had nothing in this world that was "guaranteed" to be mine. Naturally, I was entranced.

[You have unlocked Yuchirin's Regret.]

[— Reallocate every Attribute you have assigned so far.

— Unlocks once at a total Attribute sum of 100.]

[Death Knight Perk Unlocked: 1/?]

[Yuchirin's Regret: Unlocked Perk]

[200 Additional Stat Points awarded!]

[Redistribute your Stats.]

For a while, I just stared at the status window in disbelief.

Death Knight. This was obviously prepared for someone. Of course, once I unlocked Yuchirin's Regret, the 100 stat points I had spent returned as double.

Double.

Even without considering my Inventory, or using a single skill, these stats alone were overwhelming.

And this is probably the most basic benefit...

[Health: 135(new!)]

[Strength: 145(new!)]

[Agility: 160(new!)]

[Wisdom: 45(new!)]

[Stat distribution complete.]

[When your total Stats reach 666, an additional perk will be unlocked.]

Aside from Wisdom—which I could raise anytime by reading Ashton's book—I prioritized Agility, Strength, then Health. My total stats were already close to 500. The next perk didn't feel far away.

Fwish!

I felt light. I had become much faster than I'd been moments ago.

I've regained it.

This was almost the same level I'd reached when infiltrating the imperial archives with Isaac. I checked the unopened perks.

[Perk: Tomb of Ash]

[— Imbue your weapon with balefire that burns the target until death.

— Because the fire consumes karmic recompense, it may be used only against foes burdened with sufficient sin.

— Unlocks at Class Lv. 5 and Swordsmanship Lv. 15.]

[Perk: Star of Baskerville]

[— The stars observe you.

— Each time you proclaim a Demon King's doctrine, you may forcibly draw upon that Demon King's power.

— Unlocks upon reaching a total Doctrine Level sum of 60.]

[Perk: Tetrabyte's Dispute]

[— The Demon Realm does not agree.

— Monsters that attack you have a high chance to split.

— The more intelligent the monster, the higher the chance of mutual schism.

— Unlocks at Class Lv. 5 and when the Allure Skill line reaches Lv. 10+.]

[Perk: Vetraas's Cold Moon]

[— The secrets of the five moons smile upon you.

— Gravity: Lunar pull favors you. At its extremity, you can even cause earthquakes according to your will.

— Orbit: The moon sometimes swells, sometimes brightens, sometimes sinks into darkness—but it is ever favorable to you. Moon-related Skills and items trigger under the most advantageous conditions regardless of timing.

— Unlocks when the moon recognizes territory under your dominion.(Lordship Lv. 10+)]

Everything from now on, every perk would come from leveling up. Naturally, my desire to hunt ignited.

It's the fourth time I've seen it, isn't it?

The dungeon boss was familiar. Even if it had grown stronger, I felt no tension whatsoever.

Fwhoosh!

I left the inner sanctum in a leap.

Something's wrong.

There was nothing. The massive pit that had once been filled with flames, blood, and screams was empty.

"Detection."

No responses.

Vmmm...

Crackle!

Even with a light Lightning Domain extending two meters, there was no response.

What happened?

No hostility. No presence. The pit was truly empty. Feeling oddly hollow, I circled the edges of the crater, and my gaze met a familiar spider statue.

There it is.