by Road Warrior
The Cave Elf wielding the staff finished their introduction. “We are the guardians protecting the tomb of the great king. We seek out the false ones and strike them down.”
Mikhael’s mouth twisted into a weird shape. His expectations had been shattered. Odrias hurriedly tugged on his sleeve from the side. “Young Master.”
The situation had turned sour. Mikhael understood this mentally, but his heart could not accept this truth. He continued to waddle in shock when both of the Cave Elves pointed towards Mikhael and his group.
“How dare you sacrifice the blood of some lowly commoner to the monarch of the skies and earth!” The Cave Elves let out a thunderous roar as even the air around them seemed to chill. A silence full of hostility filled the air. The Ancient Kingdom’s swordsmen, who had been looking in on the situation from a distance, finally began to realize that the situation was worsening and exchanged glances while the Elves continued.
“There is only death for those who disturb our king’s resting place with foul blood.”
“We shall wash away the unclean blood you have brought with your own.”
The two Cave Elves raised their weapons.
“Young Master!” Odrias pulled out his sword and stood protectively in front of Mikhael.
“Now! You must es-…!!”
He didn’t even manage to finish his warning when an unseen magical shackle constricted his body and a sword adorned with gems pierced his throat.
“O-old man!!” A sharp screech echoed throughout the tomb of the Avian King. Odrias, who had been a powerful Swordmaster, had been killed by a single strike of a blade, causing the swordsmen of the Ancient Kingdom in the vicinity to lose their will to fight. Mikhael was no exception.
“I am no match for them! I-I have to get Father!’
He immediately turned around to escape, but the Servants of the Nahak weren’t sitting idly by. The magical chains bound his torso, and the sharp blade severed his leg.
“Aaaaah!”
Mikhael Gilford cried out like a wild beast when both of his heel tendons were cut and rolled about before the burial chamber of the king. The two Cave Elves that had suppressed Mikhael began to attack the remaining swordsmen of the Ancient Kingdom. It didn’t take much longer to clean up the riffraff. The other five, excluding Odrias, were dragged into the burial chamber with their legs severed.
“A peaceful death is a pipe dream for the likes of you.”
“You will listen to the sound of your own breathing as you suffocate to death in utter darkness.”
The Cave Elf wielding the staff chanted a spell that caused one of the walls to crumble and the skulls within to pour out. The other wielding the sword threw them into the wall one by one.
“N-no!”
“Stop this!”
“F-Forgive me! Mercy!”
Their cries of mercy were swallowed up by the wall that magically sealed itself. The bleak desolation and shrieks of pain rang out beyond the wall like an echo.
“…”
Sungchul had been watching everything. Mimi must have seen a similar spectacle. She must have escaped by herself somehow.
The Cave Elf wielding a sword turned its head towards where Sungchul was hiding. “Who is hiding there? Identify yourself.”
Sungchul did not reveal himself from the darkness. The Cave Elves looked over in his direction for quite a while before they walked towards their tombs. The Royal Servants could not find Sungchul.
So they’re only around this level. Sungchul let out a shallow sigh before quietly revealing himself.
“Bawk! Bawk!”
The young Nahak in his grasp cried out as it flailed. The Cave Elves heard this and turned their heads. The red rubies embedded into their eye sockets let out an eerie light.
“Who are you?” The two Cave Elves spoke simultaneously.
Sungchul revealed the young Nahak in his hand as he spoke. “As you can see, I am here to make a sacrifice.”
The Cave Elves looked toward the Nahak held in his hands. It was a beast that possessed white feathers.
The eyes of the Cave Elves flared angrily once again.
“You dare bring another pathetic white-feathered one? Did you not witness what happened after the mistake of your kind?”
“It just shows that this is the level of these inferior humans.”
Sungchul silently listened to their rumblings as he contemplated their words. So it was the color of the feathers that was the issue.
Sungchul tried to recall the scene back at the poultry farm. It was difficult to parse due to the poor lighting, but he could recall that there were only white-feathered Nahaks there. It meant that Nahaks with feathers that were not white in color were rare.
As expected, the woman must have known everything.
Regardless, there was a problem at hand to attend to: the servants of the Royal King that were fuming with hostility towards him. Sungchul released the Nahak in his hands.
The young Nahak began to look at the foreign surroundings with wonder and curiosity until he discovered Odrias’s corpse and pecked out his eyeball with its beak. In the time it took for the bird to swallow the eye loudly, Sungchul extended his right hand. Fal Garaz suddenly appeared within it. The divine tool which was crafted from the shards of the sky itself.
“…!!”
The two Cave Elves that witnessed its majesty began to hesitate. Its might was something that didn’t require explanation to be felt. They could feel that there was power and history behind that weapon.
Bertelgia, who had now grown accustomed to this pattern of events, began to shout from Sungchul’s back. “Both of you! You’re done for!”
Sungchul hefted the hammer to his shoulder as he walked toward the Cave Elves.
The Cave Elf with the staff began to utter an indecipherable incantation. A mysterious magical formation began to ripple out from his lips. Sungchul hadn’t known what it was when he first arrived here, but he figured it out now. Is it some kind of restraint?
Suddenly, invisible shackles bound his arms and legs firmly. Sungchul’s Soul Contract, The Eye of Truth, revealed to him that the shackles were made of vengeful souls of the deceased.
Such vile magic.
The sword-wielding elf began to rush towards him. It was the same tactic that had caught Odrias off guard, but that method wouldn’t work on Sungchul. God-like power coursed through his veins. He could feel that wave of power and began to lightly move his body.
“Kwaaaaa!”
“Gyaaaaak!”
Hellish screeches and cries of agony could be heard as the restraints formed of souls that bound his four limbs began to tear.
“…?!”
The staff-wielding Cave Elf suddenly froze. Something impossible had occurred. The sword-wielding Cave Elf had been completely focused on the task of piercing Sungchul’s heart and waited for the sensation of the sword digging into his chest and piercing his heart. However, his expectations didn’t come to pass. A blunt force lightly shook his body.
GRIP.
The powerful hands of a human wrapped around his neck. Shock and terror appeared in the Cave Elf’s ruby red eyes. When strength passed through the hand that gripped his neck, the Cave Elf dropped his blade and used both his arms in an effort to free himself from the human’s grasp. He tried to scratch the man with his sharp nails, but it wasn’t enough to even leave a mark on the firmly gripped hand.
Krrrt!
The Cave Elf lost consciousness along with the sound of something snapping echoing in the halls. And after a loud impact, its body was forever destroyed.
“…”
Sungchul tossed away the Cave Elf corpse with a crushed skull and moved to face his next enemy. The remaining Cave Elf began to wave his arms while quickly rushing to speak.
“Wait, human! I’ll tell you a method. A blue-feathered…”
WHAM!
The number of crushed heads grew to two.
“So it’s the blue feathers?”
The pieces of the puzzle fell into place. All that was left was for Sungchul to return to the poultry farm to seek out a blue-feathered Nahak.
“Hey, what are you going to do about that guy?” Bertelgia looked toward the young Nahak that was chewing on Odrias’ corpse as she continued, “You’re not going to use him in one of your recipes, are you?”
“I don’t eat intelligent creatures.”
“Really…?”
“…except dragons.”
Sungchul put away Fal Garaz into his Soul Storage and headed toward the poultry farm, but as he was about to step out of the room with the still burial chamber, he could hear someone’s voice from another entrance.
“Miss Mimi! It’s over here-yeyo! The black square is here-yeyo!”
It was a homunculus’s voice. Sungchul stopped in his tracks and looked over in the direction of the voice. From the corner of a hidden entrance, an armored homunculus was leading a bloodied woman. It was the blinded Mimi Azrael.
The woman who could no longer see in front of her moved her head as if trying to look around her surroundings and spoke. “Ujicha. Are you sure that the Swordmaster is dead?” She asked with her voice thick with genuine fear.
“Yes! This Ujicha saw it himself-yeyo! Miss Mimi! The Swordmaster died to the Cave Elves with the shinies-yeyo! There is that bad guy’s corpse over there-yeyo!”
“What about the Tomb Guardians?”
“Ara? I thought I saw them enter the tomb, but now they’re all dead-yeyo.”
“Dead? The Guardians?”
“Yes. All of their heads were caved in-yeyo.”
“How did that happen? For the Guardians to die… could it be Willie Gilford himself…?!” Mimi sucked in her breath and focused on her hearing. There was only a deathly silence with no sounds of the living. “Let’s move quickly, Ujicha.”
“I understand-yeyo!”
The homunculus led Mimi towards the altar. Mimi reached out to feel for the altar, then when she managed to find it, she pulled out two magic staves from her Soul Storage to use as crutches to stand with all of her strength.
“Urrrrk…”
Mimi, who now stood in front of the altar, looked down towards the homunculus who should be standing beside her feet and spoke in a soft voice. “Ujicha. Can you give me a big hug?”
“What? Miss Mimi is going to hug me-yeyo?!” The homunculus spoke with a tearful voice.
“I just have one last request,” said Mimi.
Sungchul and Bertelgia were watching the scene quietly from a distance.
“What could they be doing?” Bertelgia asked Sungchul who was beside her.
Sungchul also had the same question. What could this woman be trying to do?
He continued to watch Mimi’s actions. The homunculus went into her embrace.
“Take off your helmet.” Mimi spoke softly.
“Can I really do that-yeyo?”
When the homunculus asked carefully, she put on a magnanimous expression and nodded her head. Soon, the homunculus removed his iron mask. The grotesque appearance that lied within was completely exposed without any filter. Rather than a face, it looked more like several grotesque pieces of meat had been sewn together to form the face tissue.
“Urk…”
Bertelgia couldn’t bear looking at the appearance any longer and hid behind Sungchul, but Sungchul didn’t miss a single moment of that enhanced Homunculus’ bare face. One thing stood out as odd. It looked fundamentally different than a normal homunculus. Sungchul's eyes were drawn to something hidden behind the hideous scars and the countless boils, something beyond the severely burnt skin.
It wasn’t a normal homunculus as expected. More than that… that mouth… did she rip a beak out of its face?
At that moment, the homunculus’ body suddenly stiffened. A sharp dagger had been stabbed into its neck.
“Miss… Miss Mimi…?”
The homunculus stuttered like a clockwork doll as it turned its head with red blood pouring out of its neck. Mimi pushed the homunculus down onto the altar and shoved the dagger deeper as she spoke softly. “I’m really sorry, but there’s no other way.”
“This life was given by Miss Mimi anyways-yeyo. It’s only right that Miss Mimi takes back what she gave-yeyo, but everything is growing so dark-yeyo. It hurts so much-yeyo…”
“…when I get stronger, I’ll revive you guys,” said Mimi as she twisted the dagger embedded into its neck. Something seemed to snap as the homunculus instantly died, and its blood began to fill the altar.
Surprise overtook Sungchul’s eyes. Could that homunculus have been created with the blood of a blue-feathered Nahak?
The ground began to tremble, and a deep rumbling that pierced the dungeon in its entirety could be heard by everyone within. The black gravestone began to rise into the air. Within the burial chamber, the real burial chamber of the Avian King finally revealed itself.
[All those living and dead, kneel]
[make way for the Final King, Marakia]
At the same time, there was a relic upon the Tower of Recluse, an ancient tower revered as the most mystical and holy structure of the Other World, known as the Scripture of Calamity. There was an all-important change occurring to this relic which can only be altered by the divine will.
“What the…! Are you saying that a new clause is being added to the Scripture of Calamity?!”
The tower’s owner, Saint Porpyrius, began to head towards the sacred citadel in which the Scripture of Calamity was held in such a hurry that he paid no heed to his clothes becoming disarrayed. He witnessed it. Along with the alteration of the previous five calamities, a new calamity was being recorded on the first line simultaneously.
[The King of Feathers and Beak that devoured his own kin will spread his wings of sin once again to swallow the world in darkness.]
***
The fog lifted and the being within the burial chamber slowly revealed itself. The face and wings of a hawk and the torso of a human. It was an avian. Most noble of all avians, it was the King of the Nahaks. He had pitch black feathers and a shining golden beak, and purple eyes so deep, they looked as if they would suck everything in.
As he stepped down from his burial chamber, he looked toward Mimi who was holding herself up precariously with two staves.
“I am Marakia. Who are you, foreigner?”
If one ignored the dignified and dominating aura which wrapped his entire body, his voice seemed rather young, perhaps even childish. Mimi could not see what was in front of her, but she knew that a great and destructive being of legends was standing before her.
“My absolute monarch of the earth and skies.” Mimi put both her hands together in a grovelling gesture as she continued, “This pathetic and insignificant Mimi Azrael of the humankind greets you.”
Marakia tilted his head slightly to look at her. “You are blind in both eyes.”
He extended his hand filled with rings adorned with gems and brushed across her face as though stroking it. Then a miracle occurred: Mimi's two eyes returned to their formal state.
“Ah…! Your highness!” She suddenly realized that she could see once more and threw herself at Marakia’s feet out of gratitude.
“However, where are my servants and my people?” asked Marakia.
“Your Highness’ servants and people… have long since disappeared.”
“What did you say?”
A small creature began to linger in the corner of his eyes. It was the white-feathered baby Nahak that was feeding upon Odrias’ corpse.
“Isn’t that one of my people? He might be of low blood with his white feathers, but he is still one of my subjects nonetheless. Where are my blue-feathered nobles and advisers?” asked Marakia.
“They… have already… become extinct for the sake of raising your highness to your god-like status.”
“Ah!” Marakia let out a short exclamation. He thought back to the days before his long slumber, to the time when his race had f
lourished. In the bleak moment before the Calamity came down upon them, the King and the Council had decided to bet everything they had on Marakia who was born with the black wings of legends said to be the mark of the one destined to bring salvation to their race and committed to performing a ritual as their last act of desperation.
And that was where his memories ended.
“I see. I had fallen into an eternal slumber after that moment.”
“That’s correct, your majesty.” Mimi adjusted her mangled legs to grovel before Marakia. She looked up towards him carefully and spoke again. “And I have woken you from that eternal slumber despite countless dangers and obstructions.”
“Is that so? Then I suppose it is only correct to bestow upon you something appropriate.”
Marakia raised his hand, and overwhelming power gathered into it. At that moment, slow but firm footsteps could be heard from the darkness on the opposite side of the room.
“…”
It was Sungchul. Curiosity rose within Marakia’s eyes. “Who is that?”
Mimi desperately evaded Sungchul’s gaze as she answered his question. “That man is one of those that did not want your majesty’s rebirth. It might be good to rid yourself of him.”
Bertelgia scoffed as though it was the most ridiculous thing she had ever heard. “What?! Listen, lady! How can you be so ungrateful to say that we are the enemy after we saved you? Are you even human?”
Sungchul calmed Bertelgia who was buzzing about in anger with a wave of his hand, then looked alternatingly toward Marakia and Mimi and spoke calmly. “Mimi Azrael. I have come to receive the crown as promised.”
Mimi did not give Sungchul a single glance. She continued to kneel before the Avian King and pleaded to him. “Just look your highness. They aim for your majesty’s crown. You mustn't show mercy to the irreverent ones without beak or wing who covet the crown of the Nahak.”
Marakia was barely listening to Mimi’s words. His violet eyes were focused intently on this foreigner with a strange attire composed of a dusty coat and a pair of worn-out jeans. This human. He is definitely not normal.
It was at that moment when another figure leapt into the burial chamber.