CH 444

The full course of food came out after the appetizer, and only the clinking sound of the utensils filled the air. Joshua was having a difficult time focusing on the meal. When the three Books of Death were gathered in one place, a phenomenon happened. It was similar to what had occurred when the artifacts of Entegasto and the Great Red were placed together in the same space.

Creak—

The space surrounding Joshua wavered, specifically above his head. The area, which could be called a storage space or a pocket dimension, was getting unstable. The level of instability was gradually increasing, and the shapes of the stuff stored inside vaguely appeared and disappeared repeatedly.

If no one intervened, then the entire storage space would be destroyed.

“Excuse me, Master.”

Joshua ended up pulling my gift back to its original position. The third volume of the Book of Death had a Power that could handle resentful souls. I had never seen those evil spirits, which were only described in the item window, in either my past or present lives. They were only briefly mentioned in Saint Jayden’s records.

Anyway, it was Joshua’s job to combine those three books into one.

We continued our meal. Desire for sex, sleep and hunger… Although it was generally known that the strongest of them was lust, none of them could be a priority for me. That was why I consciously recharged every time I tasted delicious food.

Human desires could be indicated in figures, and problems were inevitably caused when the figure became zero. Intentionally fulfilling desires? That was the destined path for those who dwell in the battlefield.

Meanwhile, an air of tension still lingered within the mansion. All communication lines leading to the outside had undoubtedly been severed. Otherwise, it was difficult to explain why no one called the mansion of the family, who was the significant influence in capitalism.

I used a handkerchief to dab away the wine stains on my lips.

“May I take a look?”

It would have sufficed to transport to outer space and check it, yet it appeared that he didn’t mind whether it was here or there. He truly regarded the Karjan family as a thing of the past.

“Of course.”

The meal was over, and Joshua’s gaze shifted to the final volume of the Book of Death.

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***

I had seen his pupils turn purple before when he used the power of the Vampire Lord. His appearance seemed to change slightly every time he switched between the two powers, as if he was changing clothes. However, he was neither the Vampire Lord nor the King of the Dead during the meal.

As he placed his hand on the book, the change began.

Hwaaaa-

A dense fog flowed out from behind Joshua and scattered. I could see it only because I had raised my Sense to observe his evolution. If not, then I wouldn’t have captured the moment the fog transformed into a human shape as it had happened in the blink of an eye.

It was Joshua’s spiritual body, a ‘soul’ in other words.

It looked identical to the physical body of Joshua sitting on the chair. It slowly floated in the air. Their bodies and souls were closely linked, like a bundle. The sight before me was a scene that I had seen repeatedly when fighting Entegasto.

Eeeeeeeek!

I then heard a scream from the kitchen. There was something coming through the wall from that direction. To the eyes of the servants there, it must have looked like a ghost, and essentially, that was an accurate description.

The ‘ghost’ appeared with a semi-transparent body projecting in the background, and he was covered in blue hue, wearing a military uniform. He had Nazi armbands on his arm and was holding a Luger pistol. His face was distorted by the scars left behind from being killed, and the way he looked around was extremely ferocious.

After he appeared, the specters of Nazi soldiers carrying rifles followed. Bullet wounds were in their abdomens, and lacerations were on their neck. They were all bearing the injuries that had led to their deaths.

When Joshua looked at them, all of them screamed and disappeared. Right, the Karjan family was rooted in Germany, but they were indeed of Jewish descent.

Nonetheless, the sole reason why Joshua’s gaze was indifferent toward specters was not just that. He had already erased the name of the family from him.

He turned his head without a word. The direction where the new specters appeared was from the room where the smell of blood from last night had not yet disappeared. There were three ghosts. They were of different ages, but all of them were in suits. Two were middle-aged, and one was a young adult.

Unlike the Nazi soldiers, they seemed to have been forcibly dragged out. When Joshua snapped his fingers toward them, his spiritual body connected with him and moved in the same manner.

It was the three souls’ turn. They sat in the direction pointed by Joshua. However, that was it. They couldn’t dare to look at him.

Although they were already dead, it seemed like Joshua could offer them something beyond death. That was why they were trembling like that. It was intriguing. Each volume of the Book of Death contained a powerful force that could organize an army. If the three volumes were combined into a single one, it was not going to be as simple as 1+1+1 = 3…

“I will bring one of you with me.”

Joshua spoke to the ghosts he had killed last night.

***

We entered Saint Dragorin together. It was a desolate wilderness with no one around. The traces of the past battle remained as harsh as a canyon. It was the place where I first fought against Dragorin and completed the insignia of Time Reversal.

Joshua also remembered this vicinity as he, too, had fought a battle here that threatened his life. Two beings had died here. Caldoran, the Guardian of the Land of Whirlpool, and Dragorin Red, who had come to help him.

Joshua was aware of why we specifically entered here.

“Caldoran was resurrected as a ghoul,” he said.

I asked, “What about Dragorin Red?”

Instead of answering, Joshua jumped down into the ravine. There was no dragon skull there because it had been reduced to powder after spewing a breath upon death.

Joshua, who had been staring at the broken skulls, finally answered. He was now looking at the realm I could not see.

“Its specter is powerful, though.”

However, his tone suggested something was amiss. Then, his soul sprang out from his body. Both Joshua and his soul moved in a similar manner, looking around at things I could not see.

“There is a power surrounding us that restrains the specter. The specter is resisting against it, Master.”

He didn’t finish his sentence, but his eyes were filled with certainty.

Doom Arukuda. Somehow, I seemed to have heard that name from his eyes.

Fuck.

We did all the work, but he was taking the credit. There lay the reason why Arukuda had been silent even though it couldn’t retrieve its belongings. It had been stealing the powerful stuff I had slain from an unknown world.

We exchanged a silent glance. Right then two more books sprung out from Joshua's storage box.

Pat! Papat!

Joshua’s face became serious the moment the three books came together in one space. I stepped back.

The books started to revolve around Joshua, and they accelerated. Eventually, it reached the point I could barely keep up with the rotation only when I pulled up to the limit of the overlord section.

Joshua’s pupils became the unique purple of the Vampire Lord. Both of his hands lost their color and were covered in a bleak aura. His soul trembled under the insane power of the rotation.

Then, the three transformations appeared and vanished repeatedly, including the Vampire Lord’s pupils, the hands that resurrected the dead, and the soul that controlled the specters. The process was also accelerating.

Eyes, hands, soul.

Then, the books flew by.

Eyes, hands, soul.

The books flew by even faster again.

The repetition reached the climax. Joshua did not scream, but his soul let out a high-pitched scream akin to a wailing demon. Then, the light bursting from the books blocked my sight and exploded with intense energy.

For a moment, every single page of each book flashed as they were torn and fluttered around! Then, they turned into faint energy and were sucked into Joshua’s mouth.

The last page soon disappeared inside him. Another burst of light exploded from his wide-open eyes and mouth. Soon, that light was dyed into deep red. Similar colored energies began to burst out around Joshua’s shoulders like a whirlwind.

Shock was still evident in him as each time he twitched his body, his soul bounced out, and screamed before disappearing. I couldn’t take my eyes off that sight. More accurately, I focused on his aura, which had suddenly become much stronger. A chill and darkness-filled aura now constituted his entire body…!

I had an intuition that he had one last challenge left.

[Your Priest’s, Osiris’s, ‘Inner Shell’ is on the verge of destruction.]

The message manifested the instant I had perceived it. While my exploration couldn’t intrude into the inner realms of other Awakened, I could discern the reactions unfolding there.

Never before had such a phenomenon occurred, even when Yeon-Hee turned into a Doom. Joshua was undoubtedly losing his Awakened abilities. Moreover, it was not Joshua himself who screamed when his shells, encompassing his four major powers, shattered, and the skills, traits, and insignia within descended into chaos, but his very soul. His physical body bore it all with unwavering resilience.

The newfound power he had acquired began to spread through the fractures in the shattered shell. It wasn’t just his heart that pounded. My heart also beated crazily, mirroring his, before gradually slowing down.

“I pledge my everything to you, Master.”

Joshua spoke to me, lowering himself to one knee again. His eyes, radiating a deep crimson energy, met mine briefly before casting down to the ground. Right then…

[Your Priest, Osiris, has awakened as the Undead Emperor.]

The image of Entegasto merged with the figure before me, still bowing.

[The Vampire Corps has vowed their obedience to the Undead Emperor.]

[The Evil Corps has vowed their obedience to the Undead Emperor.]

[The Necromancer Corps has vowed their obedience to the Undead Emperor.]

[The former Necromancer Corps (Barba Corps) has vowed their obedience to Doom Entegasto.]