Chapter 150 – Saint and Holy Knights (5)

Even while contamination spread, the holy knight order’s charge didn’t stop. They endlessly recited prayers while running toward the demon king.

[Since. You. Snuck. Into. Someone. Else’s. Home, You. Must. Receive. The. Host’s. Hospitality.]

What stopped their steps wasn’t contamination but the corpses of dead monsters.

When the skeleton standing beside the demon king stepped forward and raised its bony hand, an enormous number of monsters were summoned in front of the holy knight order.

They were the monsters of this dungeon that the knight order had killed while descending to this place.

The skeleton wearing a robe and raising its bony hand was originally the summoning mage who owned this dungeon.

He was old and close to death, so he summoned the demon king to become a mage who never dies eternally.

He had become a lich.

He had become a loyal limb of the demon king down to his very mind.

Though whether the form he transformed into as a lich was what he wanted was unclear, he seemed very satisfied now.

The monsters were all summoned in the corpse state the knight order had killed them in, but their massive bodies were sufficient to block the knight order’s path.

“Charge!”

Even at the suddenly appearing pile of monster corpses, Knight Commander Illiana wasn’t flustered.

Simultaneously with the knight commander’s order, the knight order’s front row raised their shields and collided with the monsters’ corpses.

Thud!

The collision sound echoed throughout the hall, but the monsters’ corpses didn’t bounce away.

If they were ordinary corpses they would have bounced away, but the re-summoned corpses were moving while ignoring the shock through the lich’s powerful summoning technique.

A lizard-man with one arm cut off blocking a shield with the other arm, a giant worm with its intestines exposed blocking another shield.

The monsters summoned here began moving again like the Minotaurs Sun-woo had just sliced up moments ago.

“Cut off their heads! That’s the only way to stop them!”

Fortunately, the knights knew how to put moving dead back to sleep again.

Moreover, these were monsters they had already killed once before.

The only problem now was there were too many of them.

They were steadily beheading the attacking monsters, but as many as the heads that flew off kept getting summoned continuously.

The lich seemed determined to summon all the monsters they had killed while coming down to the 7th basement floor.

Thud!

At that moment, another collision sound echoed from one side of the surging monsters.

Unlike the previous collision, several monsters bounced away in all directions.

“We’ll help.”

Where the monsters flew away, Daniel stood with his body emitting heat as he took his stance.

It was the sound of Daniel, who had applied 〈Body Enhancement〉 to his body, blowing away monsters.

Daniel cut off the necks of the fallen monsters with the greatsword he bought with points with a scraping sound, then launched his body toward a cluster of other monsters.

The armor obtained from the dragon’s lair sufficiently withstood his enhanced body strengthening and the collision with monsters.

Thanks to Daniel, the monsters’ formation began collapsing.

“I’m going too!”

On the opposite side from Daniel, the prince began running wild.

When the armor, sword, and accessories plastered with all kinds of magic scattered light, the rushing monsters were literally disintegrated into pieces.

As the monsters began collapsing, the knight order began calmly advancing centered around the knight commander.

There was no support from Priest Ban, but they were sufficiently powerful.

Priest Ban, who suffered internal injuries from the unexpected attack, was continuously dueling with the contaminated saint.

Priest Ban was blocking contamination and dark divine power with his whole body even while vomiting blood.

At this unexpected good fight, the lich clicked his tongue and tried to pour out magic, but he first had to put out the fire attached to his robe.

This was because fire spirits were shooting flames at him.

[Was my preparation insufficient? Well, I didn’t expect God’s dregs and system slaves to come together.]

Along with words that he’d better help a bit, Demon King Murmur, who stood in the center of the faded magic circle, slightly raised his hand.

The magic circle that only had traces remaining began taking form again and scattering light.

However, that light disappeared in an earthquake that shook the entire hall.

Rumble!

The floor where the magic circle was being created cracked in all directions and overturned, and the shining magic circle shattered into pieces, disappearing without a trace.

[What are you!]

Demon King Murmur turned his beak toward the man who had shattered his magic.

Before anyone knew, Sun-woo stood with one foot on the destroyed magic circle.

Sun-woo had smashed it with sorcery in sync with the magic circle’s activation.

“One of the system slaves you mentioned. I’d like to hear more about that system thing.”

At Sun-woo’s words, the demon king made a sharp sound while opening his beak as if absurd.

[Even worthless trash are running around causing trouble. Not even in my original body, and I stayed quiet to gather strength, but I must really look funny?]

Murky energy began pouring out at tremendous speed from the speaking demon king’s body.

[Do you know what you just destroyed? It’s a magic circle that gathers the demon world’s power to use maximum strength in this world. This magic circle not only helps me regain power but is also binding me. Do you know what happens when you destroy this?]

Though the demon king mocked Sun-woo, Sun-woo didn’t seem particularly shaken.

“I know. After all, I’m quite well-versed in magic circles.”

At Sun-woo’s answer, the demon king seemed at a loss for words.

He stared at Sun-woo with his beak open, then soon his eyes turned blood-red.

[How dare you mock me! I won’t kill you here. Cry alone atop countless corpses!]

The demon king shattered the ceiling as is and shot upward. Though he hadn’t fully recovered yet, having enough power to destroy one country already, he planned to set Sun-woo aside first and smash the surrounding countries instead.

Sun-woo looked at the punctured ceiling with an absurd expression.

“In the end, despite the grand words, you got scared and ran! Are you really a demon king?”

In any case, if left alone, there would certainly be countless casualties as the demon king said.

Sun-woo drew up all his internal energy and converted it to sorcery. The earth spirits Sun-woo called shot upward through the ground.

The earth spirits gained the power of the barrier magic circles Sun-woo had created on each floor.

They caught up to the fleeing demon king, then soon overtook him.

Massive vibrations began violently shaking the hall.

As the vibrations intensified, the fighting monsters and people also stopped fighting and lay prone on the floor.

Boom, crash, crash!… Sounds of destruction came consecutively from far above, until finally the ceiling the demon king had punctured shattered and rocks poured down.

Kraaash!

People were bewildered by the sudden disaster.

The knight order and summoners kept backing away to avoid the pouring stones, and most of the monsters were crushed under stones and couldn’t move.

Shortly after, at the location where the magic circle had been, a small mountain of rocks, stones, and earth formed, and the surroundings were devastated by various falling rocks.

A giant hole was endlessly punctured long through the ceiling.

Inter-floor rocks of several meters each and spaces of several dozen meters, five entire floors were completely punctured.

The summoners and holy knights barely avoided their bodies, but their mouths couldn’t help but open at the massive disaster unfolding before their eyes.

“Wasn’t he a swordsman? Was he a magic swordsman? This level of magic is archmage grade…”

The prince also stared at Sun-woo standing in front of the giant pile of stones with a half-dazed expression.

“Ugh, well, I’ve collapsed valleys before… Rather than thinking about Summoner Sun-woo later, how about we clean up here first. That side seems almost gone.”

Daniel said to the prince while rubbing the arm holding his greatsword.

As he said, once the lich’s spell stopped, no more summoning stopped, and only the remaining monsters were wriggling between the stones.

The prince and Daniel, and the holy knight order came to their senses and began dealing with the surviving monsters.

Meanwhile, Sun-woo muttered toward the pile of stones before his eyes.

“Just come out, will you? I know you’re fine.”

Inside this pile of stones was buried the demon king who got caught in the shower of pouring stones while trying to break through the dungeon upward and was smashed to the floor.

The demon king, who had been bewildered by the unexpected situation, could no longer endure hearing Sun-woo’s voice from outside.

Crash!

One side of the stone pile burst and the crow-man revealed himself.

As Sun-woo expected, though hit and crushed by countless stones, his body looked completely unharmed.

[I will kill you! I’ll postpone punishing the false gods until later and kill you first!]

Though he looked completely uninjured, the demon king’s anger looked genuine.

The aura pouring from his body made Sun-woo’s body tingle, and the monsters with severed necks began wriggling again.

“What! We cut off their necks but they’re moving again!”

“Chop them to pieces! The demon king’s power has grown stronger!”

The plan to seal the demon king’s abilities with Priest Ban’s powerful divine power, then have the holy knight order eliminate the demon king, was frustrated by the saint.

The holy knight order was thoroughly smashing the summoned monsters.

They weren’t the type to blame themselves for not being able to stop the demon king with their own power.

Rather, they thought of the summoners’ appearance as a gift from God and found their own work to do.

Thanks to that, the monsters trying to move again were cut by body parts like meat hanging in a butcher shop and became completely useless even if moving.

Moreover, the skeleton mage, the lich, was well-roasted by the spirits’ fire and barely holding on with only defensive magic wrapped around his bones, and the contaminated saint was on the verge of collapsing under the combined attack of Priest Ban and the prince and Daniel.

Eventually, realizing that nothing could be done with a necromancer’s abilities, the demon king decided to move directly.

Whoosh!

The demon king’s body instantly disappeared from atop the pile of stones and appeared behind Sun-woo.

Extending his sharply grown claws, the demon king who appeared behind swung at Sun-woo’s back, but Sun-woo was already no longer there.

Sun-woo responded to the demon king’s spatial movement with the Yi Xing Huan Wei (Transposition) movement technique.

His movement technique, which had now reached ten stars, enabled instantaneous movement matching spatial teleportation.

Clang!

[Kyak!]

The claws emitting radiance were blocked by Sun-woo’s bracers and couldn’t advance further, and instead the bracers’ scream heard after a long time made Sun-woo’s head ache.

The demon king, surprised that Sun-woo blocked, stopped moving, but Sun-woo didn’t stop.

His sword moved brilliantly toward the stopped demon king.

Sun-woo’s sword pierced the demon king’s shoulder and chest and gouged his side.

However, at that moment the demon king used spatial movement to get back on top of the pile of stones and examined his body.

The punctured shoulder and chest smoothly filled in, and the deeply cut side also returned to original.

It wasn’t the appearance of wounds healing but rather as if time was turned back.

[Excellent skill. But useless work against me.]

The demon king sent mockery toward Sun-woo, and Sun-woo frowned.

Apparently ordinary attacks didn’t work on the demon king.

That’s when it happened.

He felt something flying toward Sun-woo from behind. When Sun-woo turned his hand back to catch it, it was a transparent bottle containing clear liquid.

“It’s the Purifying Spring! If you apply that to your sword, it’ll work on the demon king!”

Following that, Priest Ban’s voice was heard. At his words the demon king let out a scream, and Sun-woo quickly broke the bottle and poured the liquid on his sword.

〈Purifying Spring〉

Purifying water made with a maiden’s saliva, excellent at purifying demonic energy.

Good thing Sun-woo wasn’t someone who would read item descriptions in such an urgent situation…

Sun-woo, unaware of what the ‘Purifying Spring’ was made from, pushed aside the inexplicable uncomfortable feeling and launched his body toward the demon king.