Return of the Calamity-Class Death Knight

Chapter 65

Chapter 65: The Dungeon(3)

***

The crusade fell, its members entangled and intertwined with debris, as if they were caught in a spider’s web.

“Aaaah!”

The soldiers and paladins screamed like children.

No matter how experienced they were, falling into an endless darkness was a first for them.

‘To blow up such a vast area of land, you must have been well prepared’.

Damien remarked, his voice tinged with admiration and a hint of surprise.

Even Damien didn’t feel uneasy standing on the ground. The thickness of the ground was evidence of its sturdiness.

It wasn’t easy to collapse such a large piece of land all at once.

‘It’s so deep. I can’t see the end.’

[PR Note- Me when I saw her’s… Ahem! Ahem!]

Even if he amplified his eyesight with mana, he couldn’t see the bottom.

Even the paladins seemed unlikely to survive if they fell here.

‘Did he excavate the entire mountain? That’s why the dungeon entrance was on the mountain peak.’

The reason the dungeon was located on the mountain seemed to be to create such a deep space.

‘Corpseplay didn’t attract the Church’s attention without proper preparations.’

With Damien’s skill, he could have stepped on the rubble and jumped up to safety.

However, Damien didn’t opt for that route. The dark mana emanating from below was too potent. This was where Damien and the crusade going to fall.

Terrifying dark mana was emanating in the depths where darkness piled up layer by layer.

Until now, he couldn’t feel it because of the solid ground.

As soon as it disappeared, he could feel it vividly as if it were right in front of him.

‘Corpseplay, there you are.’

A smile appeared on Damien’s lips. He had finally found the prey he was expecting.

“Soldiers and paladins, listen up!”

At that moment, Gamal’s voice echoed.

A 2nd-grade paladin might have seen the debris as a means of escaping the trap, just as Damien had initially considered.

But Gamal was falling with the Crusaders. It was to save as many people as possible.

Margata and Sanus also continue to fall down with the crusade like Gamal.

“Activate the holy relic given by the Church! If you use the holy relic, you can survive even if you fall from this height!”

It was to save as many people as possible.

“If you fall down, don’t move and wait for rescue! We will definitely come to save you!”

Gamal shouted towards Sanus.

“Sanus! Use buffs! You must protect them all!”

“Yes~ I got it~.”

Even in such a situation, Sanus still seemed calm. When Sanus put her hands together, a bright light surrounded the crusade.

The divine power surrounded the body. It seemed to have a protective effect in collisions.

Unfortunately, in the urgent situation, the effect wasn’t significant.

“Margata! Move immediately if you fall down! You have to rescue as many people as possible!”

“I got it! Trust me!”

After Margata shouted loudly, the crusade collided with the ground.

***

Just before the collision with the ground, Damien rotated his body in mid-air.

As soon as his feet touched the ground, he bent his knees and waist to absorb the impact.

His landing was as soft as a feather drifting down.

“Ow, it hurts.”

But there was still some impact. Damien stretched his back and grumbled.

“Aaaah!”

At that moment, someone else fell. With a loud noise, a pit was dug into the ground.

“Ugh, ugh… ugh…”

Someone crawled out of the pit. Surprisingly, it was Dionysius.

“D-Damien Haksen?”

Even Dionysius was surprised. He looked at Damien with a worried face.

“Shouldn’t you get treated quickly? You don’t look okay.”

“Who said I’m not okay? This kind of impact… Aaargh!”

Before he could get up, Dionysius screamed.

Dionysius lay on the ground and activated divine power. The wounds began to heal.

“Darn it.”

Dionysius grumbled as he got up. It seemed like everything was resolved perfectly.

‘This is why paladins are such a pain in the ass.’

Paladins could use divine power for self-healing.

It was difficult to use during battle, and it consumed a lot of divine power, but it was a significant advantage.

“Of all people, you had to fall with me.”

Dionysius grumbled at Damien. Damien shrugged.

“You complain a lot. If someone saw you, they’d think you came here to have fun, not to fight.”

“W-Who’s complaining! Anyway, you’re the guy who’s annoying me…”

At that moment, Dionysius’s expression changed.

He aimed the spear at Damien. The spearhead was about to pierce Damien’s face.

Damien didn’t dodge the attack. The spear grazed his cheek, and then, with a swift motion, it passed through, stabbing a silhouette that coming from behind.

-Kieeek…!

The flesh golem, shaped like a bat, was screaming with the spear piercing through it.

“Don’t let your guard down and look around. We’re in the dark mage’s dungeon right now.”

Damien looked at Dionysius with a surprised expression.

Damien had been aware from the start that the flesh golem was approaching.

He had left it alone out of curiosity about how Dionysius would act. He never expected Dionysius to save him.

“I thought you had a grudge against me.”

“Yeah! I do! I’ll definitely get revenge later! …But that doesn’t mean I can just let you die.”

Damien looked at Dionysius with an unexpected feeling.

He had thought Dionysius was just a reckless kid when he showed anger towards him.

But now he realized that he was someone who could distinguish between work and personal feelings.

“And if you die, Sister Agnes will be sad.”

“What? Are you interested in Agnes?”

“What, what nonsense!”

Dionysius shouted. His reaction reminded Damien of his younger brother, Abel.

“Stop talking nonsense and follow me! We need to join the others!”

Dionysius took a few steps forward. But he didn’t go far before stopping.

In the darkness, a man covered in rags appeared.

“…Is that a person?”

Dionysius looked at the man with a puzzled expression.

“I’m a paladin dispatched by the church. Did you escape from the warlock?”

Dionysius tried to approach the man. At that moment, Damien grabbed Dionysius’s shoulder.

“What are you doing?”

“Look closely. That’s not a human.”

Damien pointed at the man. Dionysius’s eyes widened in shock.

“…The skin is stitched like rags?”

Damien had known from the beginning that the man was not a human but a flesh golem.

‘It must be the inner area of the dungeon. Seeing such high-quality flesh golems already…’

The Corpseplay had one peculiar obsession.

The more meticulously he crafted his flesh golems, the closer they resembled humans in appearance.

To him, it was a matter of beauty, but to Damien, it was simply a matter of horrible taste.

A flesh golem in the shape of a human.

The Corpseplay had given it the ridiculous name of ‘Masterpiece.’

“Waaah!”

A beastly roar came from the man’s mouth. Soon, his entire body began to swell.

The man, who had just been of average build, transformed into a muscular figure surpassing an ogre.

“Darn it, that was a flesh golem too.”

Dionysius raised his spear with a disgusted look on his face. A gray aura covered the spear.

“I don’t have time to deal with the likes of you!”

Dionysius rushed towards the flesh golem. He tried to pierce its chest with the spear.

But as soon as the spear touched the skin, the aura dissipated.

“…What?”

The spear, without of divine power, was nothing more than a common spearhead. It proved ineffective against the flesh golem’s tough skin.

“Waaah!”

The flesh golem swung its palm at Dionysius. He coughed a mouthful of blood and collapsed to the ground.

“Wha… how…”

Dionysius looked at the flesh golem in astonishment.

He wasn’t mistaken. He had definitely thrust the spear, but the divine power disappeared.

“D-Damien Haksen…! Run…! That thing is… dangerous…! Don’t fight it…”

Dionysius shouted at Damien. He couldn’t run away because of his injuries, so he tried to save Damien at least.

But when Dionysius saw Damien’s face, he felt his mind gone blank.

Laughter.

A creepy smile appeared on Damien’s face as he looked at the flesh golem.

It was an exaggerated and vivid smile as if someone was pulling the skin on his face from behind.

‘I thought there might be a chance.’

Damien’s hand tightened around the holy sword, it started radiating a brilliant glow.

‘Indeed, he is connected to Dorugo.’

It seemed to stimulate Damien’s fighting spirit. The flesh golem roared and charged.

Damien also charged without hesitation. The flesh golem’s fist came down toward his head.

Damien didn’t dodge and instead struck with his sword. As the holy sword met the fist, the fist split in half.

Damien slightly adjusted the angle of the blade. The flesh golem’s massive arm was cut off vertically.

– Ugh?

The Flesh Golem stared at his hand in disbelief.

A line was drawn in the air as the knee was cut in half.

– Ugh!

The flesh golem’s body tilted to one side. It tried to regain its balance by flailing its arms.

Damien then climbed onto the flesh golem’s chest. When he kicked the golem on its chest, the flesh golem fell back weakly.

– Ugh!

The flesh golem swung its arms to grab him.

Damien cut those arms as if they were bothersome. The thick arms of the flesh golem flew far away.

‘Corpseplay! I knew it from the beginning!’

Damien muttered incomprehensibly. He started to chop the flesh golem with great joy.

‘He must have received it from that bastard! Where did he put it? Here? Or here?’

Blood and flesh splattered everywhere. Damien’s body was dyed red.

Yet, the creepy smile that appeared on Damien’s face did not disappear.

With continuous slashing, the flesh golem came to a complete stop. But Damien’s hands did not stop.

Dionysius trembled all over at the horrifying sight.

‘I found it.’

Damien took something out of the flesh golem’s body. A round stone was filled with strange runes.

“Take it.”

Damien threw the stone at Dionysius.

“Take it to the church and have it checked. You might find out why the divine power was absorbed.”

Damien already knew the answer.

This was no ordinary item. It was a magical tool created after years of research by Dorugo to fight the church.

Due to this magical tool, the church suffered great losses in the war against Dorugo. They found a way to deal with it towards the end of the war, but the tide had already turned.

This time, Damien discovered it first and handed it over to the church. They would be able to find a solution more quickly.

“Can you move?”

Damien asked Dionysius.

“Yes, I can.”

“Why the sudden formality?”

“I-I just… I thought it was necessary…”

Dionysius uses his divine power to heal his body.

“Let’s get moving if you’re ready.”

“Yes, sir!”

Damien, with Dionysius, who was unusually polite, moved on.

***

They walked for a long time, but they didn’t see any other survivors.

“I can’t see the end. How big is this place?”

Dionysius looked around.

“From what I observed during our fall, it appears that the entire interior of the mountain has been hollowed out. It’s likely much larger here than the dungeon size we previously estimated.”

As he spoke, Damien had one question in mind.

The Corpseplay was an excellent Flesh Golem creator but he didn’t have the ability to carve out a mountain like that.

‘Are there any other mages working with him besides dark mages?’

There are no dark magic users who can manipulate Earth. It was outside the realm of dark magic.

So it was clear that there were other mages from different fields.

‘Well, there weren’t just dark mages under Dorugo’s command.’

Dorugo’s forces had a lot of different races who had gathered out of hatred for humans.

They cooperated with Dorugo to destroy humanity.

As he was thinking about this and walking.

Suddenly, a wide hall appeared. The ceiling and surroundings were all wide.

“Oh my~.”

For the first time since arriving here, another person’s voice was heard.

“Both of you are alive~?”

Sanus, the second-grade paladin of ‘Blinding Pain’, spoke in her usual soft tone.

Sanus wasn’t alone. There were several more members of ‘Blinding Pain’ standing around.

“I’m so glad to see you both safe~.”

Dionysius’s pupils widened when he saw Sanus.

It wasn’t because he was happy. It was because of someone Sanus was holding.

“Cough…… Cough……”

The person caught in Sanus’s hand coughed up blood.

At that sight, Dionysius shouted urgently.

“Death for Gamal!”

***

When she collided with the ground, Agnes felt a pain as if her entire body was being torn apart.

She almost lost consciousness, but Agnes somehow managed to hold on.

This place was the dungeon of the dark mage. Losing consciousness was akin to dying.

“Agnes! Snap out of it!”

Suddenly, Margata appeared in her field of vision. Fortunately, it seemed that Margata had fallen into the same place as Agnes.

Margata supported Agnes. Unlike Agnes, who was barely holding on, Margata looked fine.

“Hurry up and heal your body with divine power!”

Agnes began to heal her wounds with divine power as Margata instructed.

The broken bones quickly mended, and the torn muscles returned to their original state.

“Sister, what happened to the others?”

As Agnes got up, she asked. Margata silently pointed somewhere.

She turned to look and saw a paladin and a soldier, their entire bodies crushed to death.

Agnes had only barely managed to survive, but the other knights and soldiers were at an impossible height.

“……But there must still be people alive. Let’s go find them.”

At Margata’s words, Agnes nodded.

“Materials are already showing up?”

At that moment, a strange voice was heard.

Agnes and Margata quickly turned to where the sound came from.

“To fall right where I am. Both of you are unlucky.”

A young man who looked so frail that he could collapse at any moment was looking at them.

“Who are you? Reveal your identity.”

Margata said with a guarded face.

The young man weakly smiled and said.

“Corpseplay.”

***