Chapter 165 - Othello 4 (1/2)
Woohyuk’s shadow expanded behind him, and Nakron emerged from it with the lichs under his command.
Astaroth stopped his endless assault on Woohyuk and stepped back.
“Nakron… So you are still alive.”
“No, I am dead. Unfortunately, I challenged the Death God’s Throne and failed.
The Death God was one of the seven gods worshipped on the Eeth Continent.
In return for his challenge, Nakron had to become a spirit of the system and sponsor someone.
In the end, Woohyuk was the only person to clear his rigorous standards.
Astaroth tilted his head at Nakron's words.
“A Demon King is trying to challenge the seats of the gods?”
“You’re quite slow on the uptake. This person is the human who inherited the former Demon God’s name.”
”Are… Are you saying that a human can step into the abyss that even we fear?”
Astaroth stared in confusion.
His reaction was natural since that was the reason he was seeking the Sangreal Chronicles himself.
Nakron chuckled in amusement.
“You don’t know anything about the 72 Demon Kings. Just be the stepping stone for the birth of the new Demon God.”
“No, I must find out. I must learn the secrets of this world.”
In order to do that, he had to steal the Sangreal Chronicles from Eteria Rodinus.
As Astaroth recited a spell, a dark blue demonic energy covered the ground of the large Colosseum and swayed like waves.
It was the Land of Grief.
The other demon kings were doing fine since the spell was of darkness attribute, but the members of Eteria Rodinus and Catsy suffered from severe headaches.
“Arghhhhhhh!”
“Urgh…!”
The sage-level wizards didn’t get their life force deprived, but still suffered considerable mental damage.
Astaroth grinned smugly and pointed to the humans who were groaning in pain.
“Is it fine to keep fighting me like this? They look like they need help...”
“…”
Instead of answering, Woohyuk summoned his undead army.
Because of the undeads’ nature, they were able to fight without taking any damage from the Land of Grief.
As the elite undeads began to slaughter the monsters Astaroth had summoned, he watched and sighed.
“I was expecting something like this, but didn’t think there’d be so many powerful individuals among your undeads. Now I can’t even use those humans as hostages.”
“It’s because I have a hobby of collecting elite undeads.”
Woohyuk shrugged with a smug face.
He had collected quite a few elite undeads so far.
“Anyways, let’s end this fight. I want to keep talking to you and mess around too, but the system won’t let us be.”
Nakron lifted his staff and started chanting with the Lichs.
“…It’s been a while since I last saw a Bone Dragon.”
“It’s my dear little dragon. Would you like to play with it?”
The dragon’s eyes flashed and took on a red hue, and it ran towards Astaroth.
At first glance, it was only composed of bare bones and looked feeble, but it had been reinforced by Nakron.
Most weapons wouldn’t be able to leave even a scratch on the bones.
“Ugh…!”
Astaroth groaned as he blocked the dragon's sharp claws.
His opponent wasn’t just an evil necromancer as he was known to the general public.
He was a Lich King, a Lich King that was once powerful enough to become the Death God.
“You don't like my pet, Astaroth?”
As Astaroth struggled, Nakron appeared next to him and ridiculed him.
Immediately, the other lichs joined forces and surrounded Astaroth.
“...”
Finding himself cornered, Astaroth tried to use Meteor Storm by lifting Regius with both hands.
At that moment, Woohyuk appeared behind Astaroth and swung his sword at his opponent’s side.
Clang!
Sparks flew, and Grandia and Regius cross blades.
Woohyuk and Astaroth were facing each other.
”I don't think this is the proper moment to use magic, Astaroth.”
“…You keep getting in my way, Asura.”
From Astaroth's point of view, the situation was bad.
The three demon kings of Ars Nova had almost incapacitated Orobas by overpowering him, and Eteria Rodinus was also effectively stopping the monsters and demons with the help of the undeads.
Since things couldn’t continue like this, Astaroth gave an order to all his vassals.
[Leave them be! Come protect me now!]
The orders of a demon monarch were absolute.
The high-ranking demons immediately brandished their weapons and flew towards him, but the lichs stopped their advances.
All of the lichs who followed Nakron were wizards who had made quite a name during their lifetime.
They did not get pushed back against the high-ranking demons.
Due to these sequences of events, Woohyuk, Nakron, and the Bone Dragon were the only ones left to face Astaroth.
The Demon King slightly cut his own thigh with Regius.
As Regius drank some of his blood, the blade began to glow in a dark red shine.
“What are you scheming this time?”
”Who knows?.”
Astaroth still had a trump card he had not used yet.
The three skills that Regius had absorbed from other people.
They were some of the factors that Woohyuk considered to be important variables.
With his gut feeling warning him, Nakron lifted his staff and spoke aloud.
“Since you’re using the power of blood, it must be a skill related to vampires. Most probably a very ancient skill..”
“Someone’s quick on the uptake. Indeed, this ability belongs to Nosferatu.”
Nosferatu was a Vampire Lord from ancient mythology.
He had tried to protect his kingdom, but ended up becoming a pile of ashes due to the God of Light’s powers.
Nakron couldn’t figure out how Regius had absorbed the Vampire Lord’s ability.
“It happened long before my existence, so I’m not sure how it happened. I don't have a power that allows me to look into the past.”
“Don’t think about it too much. Nobody knows the actual truth.”
Astaroth had inherited Regius from his predecessor along with his name.
In other words, he had never met Nosferatu himself.
Nakron nodded at Astaroth’s words.
“There are so many secrets in this world.”
“And I will figure them all out. I will be liberated from the unknown past.”
After ending the talk, Astaroth lifted Regius, which was dyed dark red.