Chapter 177

Chapter 177

It was quite a ridiculous situation.

Ur, whom they had worked so hard to seal away, was now the key to helping them return to their homes.

“Wh-what do you...”

“...What do we have to do then?”

The expedition party became agitated.

Seol, Frannan, the few leftover mercenary leaders, Chameli, and Mael stepped forward.

Each of them had earned the right to be called a leader within the expedition party.

Certainly, Seol had less claim to leadership than the others, as his only title was being the disciple of an Aspect Magician. However, considering all he accomplished during this journey, he could easily be ranked near the top.

Regardless, they all stepped forward to converse with Ur to better understand and organize the situation.

Ur scowled for a second before forming a twisted grin.

“Ah... I thought too rashly. Alright! I will help you escape from this hell and see sunlight!”

“Really?”

“S-Seriously?!”

Even though they all believed that Ur wouldn't help them due to his grievances with them, for some reason, he was surprisingly willing.

But in the end... Ur was Ur.

“However... I want to go with you.”

“What?”

“So hurry up and unseal me. Revive me. If you do, I will handsomely reward your loyalty.”

“This bastard...”

“Bwahahahaha! What did this monkey just say?”

“I think he wants us to scratch his back!”

- They’re pretty good at making fun of him LOL

- But... Do you guys even have a plan?

- You aren’t making fun of him for no reason... right?

Ur puffed up his cheeks.

It seemed like an expression an upset monkey would make.

“Y-You nasty... hmph!”

Ur crossed his arms and turned around.

"I'll take that as your rejection of the deal.”

“......”

"I can understand you refusing my proposal if you don’t mind dying here. I doubt all of you are oblivious to your own situation. Becoming heroes? That's fantastic! I'm sure all of you are eager to become heroes,” said Ur.

Ur’s words were like daggers to the hesitant mercenary leaders.

"The heroes who sealed this mighty Ur, a wizard and the root of all powers! However... do you really think anyone will remember your names? I highly doubt they'd even know what happened, let alone be curious! Because that's just how humans are, you self-centered bastards!"

Ur continued further, seemingly satisfied with the tongue-lashing he had just given out.

“All of you will be forgotten here with me! Forever...”

“I-I don’t want that...” shuddered one of the expedition party members.

After hearing that, more continued.

“I-I don’t want to die.”

“I never even thought about dying.”

“Instead of choosing to die, why don’t we talk with Ur more...”

“What would happen if we free Ur?”

“What if we seal him again after we free him...”

“If we free Ur... would there even be a way for people to know we were behind it?”

Eventually, the conversation flowed in a way which it shouldn’t have gone. Ur’s speech had shaken up everyone.

“Could you let us discuss first?” asked Frannan, waving his hand.

“Suit yourself. There is only one conclusion, though.”

The expedition party’s leading members then began their conversation to solve this troublesome issue.

* * *

Translator - goguma

Proofreader - Karane

* * *

“He... made quite an annoying offer.”

"At this rate, he'll have accomplished his goals and backed us into a corner."

“Is there a way for us to use him, without freeing him, to escape?”

“Wouldn’t that be impossible? As Bornuil said, he’s powerless inside Kiki’s body. He left the rest of himself inside of that spirit.”

“Haah...”

The leaders began to grimace and hold their heads.

Then, one person slowly opened their mouth, seemingly resigned to defeat.

“Maybe... Maybe the best thing for the world is for us to be forgotten here with Ur.”

“No! How could you...”

"There's no way that insane demon would earnestly help us. And what do you suppose we do after we unseal him? Don't tell me you plan on fighting him again."

“......”

"Don't forget we already lost to him once. If it wasn't for Snowman, we'd all be dead. He's also more tenacious than a bug. If we free him, it will be a disaster."Th.ê most uptod/ate novels a/re published on n(0)velbj)n(.)c/o/m

The group descended into chaos.

Agreeing to Ur’s proposal would be like turning all of their efforts up to this point into nothing, yet the thought of dying alongside the demon left them equally frustrated.

But, despite all this... Seol hadn’t spoken yet.

“Hm?”

Frannan thought for a long while before asking Seol. He secretly hoped that Seol, the person who sealed Ur, would have some way to overcome this situation.

“What are you thinking about?”

“Ah... I just had a question.”

“What is it?”

“If Ur revives... what body would he be in?”

“What?”

“If we hypothetically must revive him... which form should we choose? His human body or his spirit body?”

Though Frannan didn’t understand why Seol was asking that question, he didn’t ask why.

In the end, he was a transferee. It was almost obvious that he was prioritizing himself over the good of the world.

‘Does he plan to revive him...?’

Frannan would be lying if he said that he wasn’t a bit disappointed.

Even so, he did his best to hide it before responding to Seol.

“Hm... He only has a bit of mana left in his original body. So wouldn’t he want to be revived in the spirit body?”

“Spirit body... the spirit body...”

“I thought you’d have a method or something, but I guess not.”

Chameli then interrupted, with a defeated tone as well.

“No matter how hard I think about it, I can’t possibly accept his offer. We should... in here...”

“...there might be one.”

“What?”

Someone had butted in, interrupting Chameli.

It was Seol.

“There’s just one... one method that I managed to think of.”

Frannan, shocked, quickly asked back.

“What? How?!”

“I... will be making him mine.”

The others then understood what Seol meant.

Seol planned to turn Ur into his shadow summon.

“You must have lost your mind! You can’t even compare him to a demonic spirit like Agony! Even if it’s you—”

“Calm down and listen to what I have to say first,” said Seol.

“I don’t even need to—”

[After a few moments, the target will inevitably die.]

“What? What are you doing...”

Ur suddenly twitched and shook before losing all strength in his body.

“Ohohoho! You’ve succeeded! And I managed to put Ur to sleep as well.”

“We don’t have time, Bornuil! Quickly!”

“Okay!”

Bornuil, after taking over Ur’s body, began speaking rapidly.

"I, Ur, pledge to faithfully serve Snowman until his last breath, cherishing all life. Moreover, I will harbor no ill will towards the expedition party and will never act in any way that could harm them. I, Ur, will veer away from darkness, drawing nearer to the light, and will obey the commands of my master, Snowman, remaining by his side. If I fail to uphold these vows...!"

Ur, no... Bornuil’s eyes began to glow radiantly.

“My existence shall be brought to an end! Ohohohoho!”

Thud...

Ur’s body went limp.

[You have defeated Ur:Shades.]

“Then...”

Seol put his hand forth.

“Serve me!”

Craaaaaaaackle!

Black energies began to run rampant.

Seol had definitely grown immensely.

But even so, that was nearly not enough to take in Ur as his summon.

‘That’s exactly why he divided up his powers, though.’

Ur, except for his core powers, separated everything else from him.

It was solely due to it that the difficulty in summoning him decreased significantly, to a point where even Seol could summon him.

And to think, Ur's plan this entire time was to use that separated power explosively for the expedition party’s escape... the expedition party was fortunate that Ur possessed such immense power.

Craaaackle...

[You have successfully summoned Ur the Sealed’s shadow.]

[Passing on the skills.]

[The summon is extremely high-ranked.]

[You are only able to pass on its core powers, nothing else.]

[Wizardry has been fully passed on.]

[Tuner(Exceptionality) activates.]

[An additional high-rank skill has been passed on.]

[Maverick has been fully passed on.]

Craaaaaaackle!

A small, tiny ghost escaped free from the mountain of chains.

Clatter...

The ghost was in shackles, with a small chain connecting its shackles together.

Ur’s eyes began to flash.

After placing his hand on the dead spirit’s corpse, he then spoke.

“For now... let us leave this place.”

Huuuum...

[Ur the Sealed used Whale’s Breath.]

[Explosively rise to the top.]

“Everyone, prepare yourselves!”

“Expedition party! Stick together!”

A few seconds later, an immense force propelled them upward, shattering through Alcatron's ceilings to ascend even higher.

BAAAAAAAM!

BAAAAAAAAM!

BAAAAAAAAAAAAM!

“Krgh...”

A massive pillar of light illuminated the earth, large enough to be visible from a distance.

Fwoooooosh...

The expedition party had been expelled from the dungeon in an instant.

“W-We’re outside!”

“My eyes...”

“Wait... sunlight? It’s morning?”

“H-Hold on! We’re falling!”

“Don’t let go of my hands!”

[Chameli used Sanctification: Downhill.]

[Greatly reduce fall speed.]

“Hahaha!”

“It was a success!”

“We did it!”

“We made it out safely... hrgh...”

The expedition party relished in their victory before even landing on the ground.

Ur laughed upon seeing it, judging that it was time to proceed with his plan.

“Now, I will... you...”

Land... Land...

Despite everyone landing on the ground, Ur had yet to finish his words.

He paused for a second before opening his mouth once more.

“Why...? Why do I get the feeling that I shouldn’t kill any of you?”

“Well... that’s because Bornuil made a promise with us while you were asleep.”

Bornuil’s voice quickly exited out of Ur’s body.

“Ohohohoho! I made a promise with them because you seemed busy, Ur.”

“A promise like that, I could just... Hold on...”

Ur then looked down at his body.

Seol gave Ur a moment to think, then spoke after seeing his devastated expression.

“A spirit must keep its promise. It’s one of the strongest laws in the world.”

“No... How dare you!”

“You will cease to exist for real if you oppose me now, Ur.”

Ur then began to yell at himself, as if he was a person with a split personality.

“How dare you make a promise like that?!”

“Ohohohoho! Were you completely deceived?”

Agony’s lantern slowly drifted over to Ur, who was also in the air.

Float float...

Agony then spoke to Ur.

[Ahem... You do know that I am your senior, right?]

“...What?”

[You know what I’m talking about. Well... regardless...]

The tiny demonic spirit then began whispering into Ur’s ears.

[Let’s corrupt him together. We can achieve it swiftly if you assist me..]

“.......”

[Want some jerky? I hid some from him, kekeke... What do you think? Your senior is quite evil, isn’t he?]

“No... Not like this...”

Seol left Ur, who appeared to have lost the will to live, alone, and proceeded to inspect the details of his new summon.

He was shocked.

“This is...”