Chapter 58: The Twelve Ancient Death Apostles
-----
[The [Dark Crystal Necklace (C Rank)] is reacting to the [Hobgoblin Warrior (D Rank)]. Any monster that wears this bracelet will receive a buff to their stats of +25%, while their Skill Power will be boosted by an additional +50%.]
[A Mysterious Darkness seems to be lurking within the Danger Zone, plotting something devious.]
This Mysterious Darkness… It is already appearing so soon. In the novel, these Dark Crystals started emerging across Danger Zones much later; it was already in the late part of the Second Awakening.
And their origins are much more complicated than they look. Aside from vile entities that can be compared to constellations, such as archdemons, there are also powerful evils, although not as comparable to constellations, that roam between different worlds.
They’re known as the Twelve Ancient Death Apostles. And the origin of these Dark Crystals is their presence in this world. They’re entities that go by different titles and could be said to be between mortals and gods, but more gods than mortals in that regard.
They joined the “Game” that the Void Rulers created to further enhance their growth and achieve a higher level of divinity and power. How so? By disrupting order and absorbing the “causality” energy that is produced.
Well, in simple terms, they create chaos, destruction, and suffering, which furthers their growth as entities; after all, they’re all trying to become archdemons or constellations. The more they make themselves “real” in our world, the further their “lore” grows, the more they’re known, and the more they can further complete their metamorphosis into divine-level entities.
But this is wrong! Why are they showing up here?! The first sign of their arrival are these Dark crystals, which are completely toxic and dangerous to any human but further enhance the growth of any monster and are even useful for demonic humans too.
These crystals began growing around the Danger Zones and even the city’s underground through the last part of the Second Awakening and caused great chaos as they attracted monsters, further enhanced or evolved them into even stronger forms, and made them go berserk.
It might look like a nothingburger right now, but if there are more of these items lying around or if the goblins or orcs in this Danger Zone have gotten their hands on them, it could cause a lot of trouble.
This is bad, really bad!
Why?! I can’t even relax for a bit! Dammit! And who’s apostle is this? Could it be? Could it be him? He’s the best one at making Dark crystals, but... Ugh, weren’t we going to deal with the Dawn of a New World first?
The plot is off the rails and going too fast!
“We need to quickly get rid of them, or they’ll eventually find us out,” I said, my eyes growing sharper as I used Eyes of Truth. “Kevin, Annabelle, you surround them from behind. Baihe, let’s confront them in front.”
“Alright!” Baihe nodded.
“Ugh, fine.” Kevin sighed.
“I like your plan!” Annabelle smiled.
We moved rapidly across the house's rooftops and then leaped into action. Landing around the scouting goblins so fast and out of nowhere, they were genuinely scared.
“Gryaakh?!”The hobgoblins stepped back in shock, only to see my daggers slice the neck of one of his subordinates.
E-rank monsters are no problem for me as of now; I was able to slice through one of the goblin’s necks like a warm knife through butter. I leaped forward and instantly killed another by slashing its chest and letting out a ray of light, blowing it up into pieces.
BOOOM!
“{Freezing Chains}!”
Meanwhile, Baihe conjured small chains made of ice, wrapping them around the feet of four goblins at once and stopping their panicking movements.
“Hyaaaah!”
Her frozen spear materialized as she pierced their heads one after the other, consecutively killing four in a row in less than five seconds.
"E-rank monsters are too easy." Kevin sighed, kicking the legs of three goblins and forcing them out of balance as they fell down onto the floor, and then he quickly administered several blows into their heads with his golden spear.
They were dead in just the blink of an eye.
“Hehehe… Come out, everyone; there’s new food for you here~!” Annabelle laughed creepily as she raised her dress, and then hundreds of spiders surged from within, swarming four goblins.
The goblins screamed in agony as they were bitten and poisoned by the spider's fangs. While they attempted to fight, the spiders only injected even more venom; their bodies became paralyzed quickly after, and they ended up getting eaten alive.
Annabelle really has a gruesome way of fighting, huh?
“GRYAAAKH!”
The Hobgoblin, however, was a different issue altogether; the bastard instantly attempted to escape without even fighting, and he was rather capable of that with his fancy accessory.
“Don’t let him run away!” Kevin said.
I chased the Hobgoblin, imbuing Ki and Mana into my weapons and then swinging them both together in an x shape, unleashing a powerful aura slash of sunlight energy, which impacted the Hobgoblin’s back and exploded.
“Gryyaarrrgh!”
The hobgoblin somehow survived, barely, as I quickly caught up to him and took away the bracelet he was wearing.
“Quite the fancy accessory you’ve got here; where did you get this?” I asked.
“Hyeheheh… GYEKAAH!!!”
The hobgoblin suddenly leaped towards me, as if trying to surprise me.
"That's not going to work.”
I gave it a kick on the head and blew the whole head away from its body.
CLASH!
“Ah, oops, maybe I should try to hold on a bit... I blew his head off with that kick. I sighed.
“You’re a monster." Sepa sighed from behind me.
“Huh? You’re literally a huge centipede!” I protested. “Shut up.”
[You and your Party have defeated [Green Goblin Warriors (E+++ Rank)] x12 and [Hobgoblin Warrior (D Rank)] x1!]
[You earned 4000 EXP]
Even the EXP is a bit disappointing. After all the power leveling I did, it really feels lackluster, doesn’t it? Tough 4k EXP out of this easy fight is actually pretty generous.
“{Rise}” I quickly decided to revive the Hobgoblin using my Ruler of the Dead Skill.
[You have activated the Effects of the [Ruler of the Dead (S): Lv2] Skill!]
[The Souls of the Dead have answered your call.]
[You’ve risen, the [Headless Hobgoblin Warrior (D- Rank)]!]
“Graahhh…”
The Undead quickly stood up again. The Hobgoblin Undead was holding his head with his hand and ended up becoming a different Undead than I imagined. It looks like missing your head actually makes you weaker as an undead.
“W-Woah! Did you just make an Undead?!” Kevin asked in shock. “T-That’s without a doubt the blessing of a Death God!”
“She made a dead friend!” Annabelle admired this.
“Oh? Is this your first time seeing this?” Baihe giggled.
“I offer you the bodies of your former comrades. Now tell me more about where your hideout is. And where did you get this crystal?" I said this, touching the head of the hobgoblin. A black energy rushed from within my hands into his head.
“Graaahh!”
[The [Headless Hobgoblin Warrior (D- Rank)] has accepted your offerings.]
[The Soul of the Dead has allowed you to peek into his memories before death.]
[The special effects of the [Anubis’ Judgement (S): Lv2], [Ruler of the Dead (S): Lv2], and [Divine Eye of Truth (S): Lv2] have been activated at the same time.]
[You’ve manifested a new skill: [Eye of Anubis (A): Lv1]!]
Suddenly, my mind delved into the hobgoblin’s mind. I saw its blurry memories in rather high detail. I wasn’t able to see everything, and there seemed to be some time limit, so I simply went to what I needed to know.
Several images emerged one after the other within my mind; the Hobgoblin’s hideout showed up first. Then it displayed them working together with other ogre-type monsters, such as orcs. And then, in the depths of their dungeon, several black and purple crystals were growing, which they were constantly mining and extracting, converting them into rough accessories and weapons.
Behind everything, I saw a shadow. someone I couldn’t discern, who was commanding the Orc Chief to force all monsters to do his bidding...
Who is it?
Come on… Just show me his face!
However, before I could see any further, the memory ended. It wasn’t as if I couldn’t see any further; the hobgoblin simply never saw this mysterious person’s face at all. Ugh.
[The Effects of [Eye of Anubis (A): Lv1] have ended.]
[Cooldown: 1 Hour.]
Well, at the very least, I acquired a new skill, and I learned enough for now.
“What were you doing?” Kevin asked. "Honestly, you’re beginning to make me even more creeped out."
“I was looking into the memories of the dead,” I said. “I’ve figured out their hideout; it seems like there’s way more of them than I imagined... But if we can secure their entire hideout for us, we could earn tons of points and get to figure out the origin of this weird necklace. Luckily, the other place I wanted to visit is right around the corner.”
“The hideout…” Baihe said. “Well, if what you say is true, then that’s for the better; we wouldn’t want a horde of monsters attacking our city... Even if it has walls and all.”
“Alright! If that’s real, then let’s go; I’m getting bored of looking at your faces.” Kevin smiled. “Where to go, girl boss?”
“To the northwest, follow me,” I said with a smile.
After we finished getting the magic crystals, we jumped into action.
If what I saw is really the truth, then this could escalate into something even worse. I am beginning to think this one person might be a vessel of the Apostle behind this.
It is quite obvious that they aimed to raise a whole army of super-powered monsters to raid the city and cause even more destruction and chaos. I can’t let more events that never happened in the novel unfold; I’ll stop this before it can even occur.
-----