Chapter 143 - Devil’s Plague 4 (1/2)

She was an overlord who was well versed in pure magic.

Pure magic signified magic of the attributes of water, fire, earth, and wind, the basic attributes.

While she could use divine magic, she was not as good as the imperial priests.

The elves worshiped the Mother God as their guardian deity and did not receive enough blessings from the God of Light.

However, since the God of Light was similar in nature to the indigenous god called the Father God, Orphelia was able to establish friendly relations with the Holy Aperian Empire from the beginning.

In the past, she had clashed against Woohyuk because he had preemptively attacked the Holy Aperian Empire.

In the eyes of the elves, the forest race, he was seen as a foolish secular lord.

Since the overlords of the demonic faction were allied with each other, they thought that the rest of the forces around the continent needed to unite.

But since Woohyuk had attacked the Empire, the elves considered him a nuisance and an idiot lord.

'But back then, the Holy Aperian Empire had already collapsed.'

The secular power represented by the emperor and the religious power represented by the pope had collapsed together.

They could not handle the allied forces of the demon faction, and their internal division and conflict had become far too severe.

Clipport’s Fruit, which was distributed in large quantities by Aleister Crowley, also played a big part in that collapse.

Eventually, Emperor Tiberius was defeated by Baal, the first-ranking Demon King, and Pope Ignatius was burned to death by the Witch of Pride Trivia.

Afterwards, Princess Eleonora and Rosenkreuz continued to fight, but their defeat was already set in stone, so there was nothing they could do to change the tides of the war.

It was safe to assume that the Holy Aperian Empire was already in the hands of the demonic faction.

So Woohyuk went to attack the empire despite the Elf Queen’s dissuasion, and eventually captured Delpheon, the capital of the empire in the central plain.

As a result, the succeeding Pope, Rosenkreuz, left in exile to the Croa Principality, and Empress Eleonora was captured by Woohyuk and confined in the Sage Tower.

‘Our relationship turned for the worse because of that.’

He was on very friendly terms with Orphelia back in the days when they fought against the Blood Queen Alice.

Their interests and benefits matched together at the time.

He had just returned from the Lioness Kingdom after a long period of training, and was looking for a base of operations, while Orphelia wanted to get rid of her old enemy Alice.

His alliance with her began thereafter and continued on even after the Enoa Kingdom fell into his hands after defeating the Blood Queen.

They were so close that if their races were the same, they would’ve gotten married to each other.

In fact, Orphelia was infatuated with Woohyuk.

Of course, that only lasted until he conquered the Holy Aperian Empire.

Helena spoke to him as he recalled the past during their march.

“We’ve arrived at our destination, but there seems to be one problem.”

Helena was pointing up the cliff.

The entrance to the Devil's Crystal Cave was located in the middle of the cliff, but they didn't have any tools for rock climbing.

”Don’t worry. There’s an easier way.”

Woohyuk summoned a three-legged eagle and placed Helena and Karin on top of it.

The three-legged eagle soon flapped its wings and soared into the air.

HIgh pitched shrieks of fear resounded everywhere around them.

“Kyaaaaahhhhhhhhh!”

“I, I’m scared!”

Both girls had acrophobia.

Reina sighed as she heard and saw their fear.

“Human women are pathetic.”

“You ride this one.”

Woohyuk summoned an undead gargoyle and placed it in front of her.

Reina immediately stepped back in fear.

“You, you’re telling an elf to ride an undead mount…?”

“It doesn’t matter, does it? Even the pirates didn’t find any charm in your body and left you behind on the ship.”

Reina had been sexually harassed several times while she was in captivity of the Blackbeard pirates on the ship.

She trembled as she remembered what had happened to her.

“Tha-that’s not true. I was molested a few times and my lips were taken away. I wasn't raped like other people though. I barely managed to avoid that.”

“That’s a blessing within misfortune. If you don't want to experience anything like that again, get on.”

If she was separated from Woohyuk's party right now, she could get captured again by nearby pirates.

At Woohyuk's warning, Reina's face turned blue and immediately climbed onto the gargoyle.

“Th-then are you taking responsibility for my safety?”

”Of course.”

In order to maintain good relations with Elf Queen Orphelia in the future, he had to take good care of Reina right now.

When Reina flew into the air on the gargoyle, Woohyuk approached Allen.

“You don’t need a ride since you know flight magic, right?”

“H-how do you…”

“My knowledge is quite vast.”

Woohyuk put on Jake's airwalker boots and left Allen behind as he stood dumbfounded and surprised.

Afterwards, he performed aerial acrobatics and easily reached the cave entrance.

“All that’s left is to enter.”

“Why is this place so eerie? I can even feel some sort of gloomy energy.”

“Indeed. There are various types of monsters living here.”

Mandragoras were merely one of them.

Woohyuk made a torch and gave it to the party members one by one, and then stepped into the devil's crystal cave.

Tap. Tap.

The sound of his steps echoed inside the hollow cave.

“A-are there really medicinal herbs in this place?”

“Trust me. I am a legendary explorer despite my attitude.”

The title of Legendary Explorer could not be obtained by anyone.

It was only given to those who were the first to discover a ruin, a ruin that was impossible to reach through common sense, or obtained a top-notch artifact.

At Woohyuk's explanation, Karin looked slightly relieved.

“But I don’t see any monsters. I can definitely feel this uncomfortable energy though.”

“Watch your feet. There are many plant-type monsters amongst them.”

Woohyuk pointed to the ground further away with his finger.

A rather odd-looking plant was growing there.

“Is that… a monster?”

“It's a mandragora. Witches use it as an ingredient when making aphrodisiacs.”