Hero's Coffin Chapter 31

Chapter 31

Not only was it clearly different from the structure of the map Noi had drawn, but the way the wall was caved in was definitely not a normal way of creating a path. Harenir seemed to have realized this too, as he ordered him to step back, and as he was hesitantly following, Mela muttered.

As if she had identified 'its' identity just by taking one deep breath.

"...Monsters."

Rumble— The ground shook enormously at the same time as Mela's sigh. Before he could even properly steady his staggering body, something poured out of the pitch-black hole.

[Kyaaaaargh!]

[Hyaaak!]

The things that gushed out of the hole like sewage were all monsters. There were far more of them than what they had seen in the main hall before, and they were even larger in size. He sighed internally.

There are a fuck ton of unrighteous things here.

They had said the reason the tomb rose was to escape from the unrighteous, and the soldiers filling the temple also drove away the unrighteous or something. They even pointed spears at him, but they couldn’t drive these monsters away?!

Even as he was thinking this, monsters kept pouring in endlessly. Harenir, judging that it would be difficult to deal with all of them in this narrow space, quickly gave instructions.

"Let's get outside for now."

The monsters chased after them as they exited the room. It was a very unpleasant feeling to be fleeing with these creatures making all sorts of eerie noises on their tail, but he believed that once they got to the corridor, the doll soldiers would take care of them.

He hoped they would come quickly to deal with these things, after chanting "intruder, intruder" like a mantra, but.

"Why are they nowhere to be found when we need them...!"

Now, the soldiers couldn't be found anywhere in the temple. Just as he was becoming indignant, Harenir swung his sword widely. A dazzling light enveloped them. The dark green liquid that splattered as the monsters' bodies burst was horrifying.

[Kiek, kiiiiet...]

However, the creatures that appeared this time seemed to be stronger than the monsters they had encountered in the main hall, as they didn't die instantly from Harenir's attack. They hesitated, retreated and lowered their bodies... then finally charged all at once with a terrible scream.

The monsters poured in as if to completely cover Harenir. His figure disappeared in an instant.

"C-Commander!"

As Kalterik was flustered by their sheer numbers, the monsters were also flung towards them. They moved as if following someone's orders, seemingly trying to disperse the companions. Mela and Kalterik were instantly separated, and Noi was also isolated.

But he felt no worry for them. The holy knights immediately drew their swords to face the monsters, and Noi summoned trees from the ground with a crackle to capture them. As for Harenir, well, he'd come out on his own.

So the person to worry about now was himself.

"Ugh, ah, ack."

He was so out of breath from running that he couldn't even scream properly. It felt like he was really going to die trying to run with this pathetic body. He ran frantically, avoiding the monsters pouring in like waves. There was no need to look back to check the distance. They were right behind him.

Should he summon undead now? But aside from the fact that the attack power of Isaph's undead was low, he hesitated because this place was the first emperor's tomb, considered a 'sacred place'. Wouldn't he get hit with a karma beam immediately if he summoned undead in a land raised by God?

Then should he use the out-of-body skill? But it seemed like it would only work on one at a time, and there was no time for that, and wouldn't it be dangerous if his energy dropped instead? As he was pondering, he spotted a tombstone in the distance.

It was where the first emperor was buried.

The center of the temple had an open ceiling, with moonlight pouring in abundantly. What caught his eye was not the complex inscription on the tombstone, but the large statue of a deity behind it.

He knew it clearly since he had seen it in the main hall too. It was a statue of Solnium. One hand was stretched out towards the sky, and the other was extended towards earthly beings, a posture that was probably related to some myth about distributing light or something.

On the hand that the statue extended downwards, 'something' was placed.

Could that be the holy relic?

With that one hope, he squeezed out the last bit of strength left in his body. By now, the monsters had gotten close enough to grab at the hood of his robe.

[Grrrrrr! Grrrk!]

It was extremely chilling to hear the monsters' roars right behind him, and even feel the heat from their mouths. He ran forward, almost collapsing, and grabbed the object placed on the statue's hand.

Now that I have the holy relic, I can attack too...!

Whoosh!

"...?" 

[Grrrk...?]

As he grabbed the object and turned around, the monsters retreated hesitantly. They stepped back one or two steps, seemingly wary of the being who had been only running away suddenly turning around confidently, but he could only be dazed. The clicking sound fell pitifully.

He had been hopeful when his vision brightened at first, but.

"It's a flashlight?"

What he had grabbed was just a stick about 30cm long. When he pressed the transparent jewel embedded in the center of the stick, it clicked and sank in, and light burst from the end of the stick. It seemed to be a structure that emitted light using a magic stone.

Well, it does give light...

As he let out a dry laugh in disappointment, the monsters made irritated growling sounds. As if annoyed that they had hesitated in front of him for a moment, they all charged at him at once.

Crack!

But just before the monsters could get close, dozens of tree trunks shot up from the ground, binding them. Seeing the vivid trunks, he immediately recognized who had summoned them and felt relieved. It was Noi.

Perhaps he could use his ability more powerfully in a space full of life force, as a brilliant light green energy rippled around him. There were far more tree trunks than in the Encroachment Zone, and they were also sturdier.

Slash— Kalterik approached while killing the monsters inside the tree prison. Whether it was because Noi's tree trunks themselves had no killing power, or because he avoided direct killing due to being a fairy, Kalterik was cleaning up after him, shaking his head.

"You managed to run quite far. Is that how you avoided getting caught all this time?"

Mela was also with him, and it seemed they had each defeated all their monsters before coming to look for him.

"Sigh, there's never a quiet moment around you. Ever since we entered this place..."

"That's enough, Kalterik. We got to the sky island thanks to him, after all."

Surprisingly, it was Mela who cut off Kalterik's sarcasm. He had grown used to Kalterik and wasn't even paying attention to him, just tidying up his clothes, so Mela's words startled him.

Kalterik's eyes widened as if they might pop out, and he stammered.

"Me-Mela. I thought you hated that guy more! He's 'that' necromancer! The kind that conducts illegal experiments and research!"

"...Enough. The Commander told us not to create unnecessary conflicts, didn't he?"

The conversation passing between them was somehow strange. Was there some bad blood between Mela and necromancers? But she seemed unwilling to talk about it and cut off the conversation completely.

Just then, thud thud, Harenir approached from behind. Of course, not a single wound could be found on him, who had been covered by monsters. There was a bloodstain on his arm, but judging by its dark green color, it must have been a trace from the monsters.

Harenir muttered while tossing a red stone in his hand into the air.

"It was embedded in the monster's forehead."

It seemed that it had taken time to extract it. Mela examined the red stone closely and sighed.

"...It seems there's a being controlling the monsters, a demon."

"It seems so. This is a magic stone that enhances obedience."

It seemed his feeling that the monsters had strategically isolated the companions earlier wasn't a misconception. Kalterik shouted irritably.

"Ha! With the Dium reviving, now even the old demon race is causing trouble! It's a double disaster!"

The Order had called the Dium the new demon race, he had said. That after losing the long human-demon war, the demons had created new life forms to counter humans. So they probably called the existing demons the 'old demon race'.

As he was feeling pleased with the results of his preview, Harenir analyzed the situation more closely. Monsters hiding in the first emperor's tomb. And the huge hole in the place where the burial goods were stored. The existence of demons controlling the monsters.

"It seems that demon is also looking for the holy relic."

"Perhaps the temple soldiers were also patrolling to protect the holy relic?"

Harenir nodded slowly at Noi's opinion. With the doll soldiers filling the corridors densely, it was highly likely that the monsters had moved secretly by breaking through the walls of the rooms.

"We need to find it before the demon tries to destroy or contaminate the holy relic..."

Noi said, nibbling on his thumbnail. Oh, thanks to that, his question was answered. He had wondered why monsters were drawn to holy relics in the main hall too, and had guessed at the time that they were either mindlessly attracted to powerful forces or trying to destroy opposing energies.

But adding 'contamination' to that made everything make sense. Didn't contaminated holy relics usually have the opposite effect? Even in games, corrupted holy swords usually had higher grades than regular demon swords. If the former was a common grade, the latter would be rare, unique, legendary, and so on.