Chapter 96: Regained Vitality

Clang- Cracking-!

A small line began to spread across the hallway, where a white silence had settled as if even time had frozen.

When the small line crossed APEP and crashed into the white waves, everything collapsed.

Sizzle-

The sight of it crumbling while emitting white smoke was reminiscent of a snowy mountain landscape.

However, despite everything being frozen white, something remained intact.

It was the magic tome that APEP was holding.

The evil mana flowing from the magic tome had disappeared because its user was dead, but the stiff book was still floating in place.

“This is…”

Despite the magic’s immense power, the fact that it’s still intact means it’s probably not an ordinary magic tome.

I gathered the scattered belongings and shoved the magic tome that APEP had been using into my bag.

Beyond the white, crumbling skeleton wall, the party members came into view.

Unlike at the beginning, the number of people had been reduced by half.

The condition of the survivors couldn’t be described as good either.

“Seris?”

Suddenly, my eyes met Tera’s. With her face covered in blood and sweat, barely able to open one eye, she was pulling out her greatsword, which had been buried in the white ice.

Her whole body was covered in wounds. Large and small sword wounds covered her entire body, emitting a pungent smell of blood.

“I-Is it over?”

At Tera’s question, the surviving party members looked at me with anticipation.

Everyone was waiting for my answer. For this fight to come to an end.

When I nodded, the party members let out rough breaths and collapsed onto the ground.

Fragments of shattered ice were scattered white on their clothes, but no one cared.

It was a short time, but the mental exhaustion was immense.

This would be the case for all the party members, including me. I silently walked over and plopped down among the party members.

There was no sense of discomfort.

Rather, I felt a strange sense of camaraderie from them.

They were comrades who hadn’t run away and had held onto the death knights until the end.

Without them, I wouldn’t have been able to defeat the black mage APEP.

Although we had defeated APEP, who seemed to be the dungeon’s master, the dungeon exploration itself wasn’t over.

This dungeon was still faithfully fulfilling its role.

“It seems like this is the path that black mage created while coming here…”

After taking a sufficient rest, when we started exploring the dungeon again, we discovered a staircase on one side of the hallway.

It was the path that APEP had taken, leading the army of the dead.

It was different from a normal path. It seemed to be a small passage prepared only for the dungeon’s master.

The party had to make a decision. To follow this path or to find a new one. The party members had a brief discussion.

“It could be dangerous…”

“It’s the passage that the dungeon’s master used to travel. There’s no way there would be traps.”

“I agree with Tera. He wouldn’t have set up traps in a passage he used himself.”

More than half chose to go down this passage.

I naturally looked up at Alfonso. Outwardly, Alfonso was the leader of this party, so we were waiting for his final decision.

However, Alfonso was hesitant to step forward.

The confident demeanor he had shown when exploring the dungeon had disappeared.

He hesitated and looked at me. Along with the other party members.

Everyone was waiting for my answer. As if they would follow my lead.

“Let’s go down.”

In the end, I led the party down towards the depths of the dungeon.

The party’s leader had naturally changed.

Every party member asked me for my opinion before acting, and they moved as I instructed.

Even Tera.

As expected, no particular traps were found while going down to the bottom of the dungeon.

To prepare for any possible situation, I took the lead and moved forward, and the party members followed behind me.

I didn’t let my guard down. With my physical condition not being normal, if another enemy appeared, it would be a major setback.

The goal was to reach the dungeon’s exit without fighting as much as possible.

“This is…”

While going down the long passage, I discovered a knight lying on the floor.

Like the other death knights that had appeared earlier, he was wearing old full plate armor and holding a sword in one hand.

He wasn’t moving. Now that the dungeon’s master had disappeared, the mana that had been moving his body had also disappeared, and he had clearly regained his rest.

To prepare for any possible situation, I tore off parts of the fallen knight’s body and scattered them around.

It was an act of desecrating the body of the dead, but no one criticized my actions.

Rather, they seemed to have thought of something similar and even helped me.

One party member was seen putting the knight’s helmet and skull into their bag.

The further down we went into the dungeon, the more traces of fallen death knights and collapsed skeletons were found.

The sight of the skeletons and death knights reviving even after being killed seemed to have traumatized the party members.

Whenever they discovered such traces, they trampled on them and turned the bones to dust.

The concept of time was vague. The inside of the dungeon, which was always dark and impossible to distinguish between day and night, caused immense stress.

The fact that we couldn’t get proper sleep also played a part.

The anxiety that the resurrected dead might come again at any time and place gnawed at the party members’ minds.

How much time had passed? While we were trudging along, stepping on the endlessly continuing stairs, a wide space suddenly appeared.

“This is…”

Smoothly carved pillars stood firm. Along the pillars was a carpet made of human skin.

Human expressions, hair, or fingernails were found in various places on the flesh-colored carpet.

“How gruesome…”

“Oh my…”

Judging by the fact that it hadn’t decayed, it seemed to have undergone special chemical treatment.

At the end of the carpet made of human skin was a throne made of pure white bones, and beyond that, a black sphere was floating.

The party members placed small lamps around the area and began to illuminate the space.

The space that unfolded around the large throne was very desolate.

I naturally approached the floating sphere.

I could feel a strong flow of mana. Connected to this sphere was a flow of unpolluted mana.

“This is…”

I shifted my gaze along the flow of mana.

As my gaze gradually moved upwards, when it reached the ceiling, I was able to understand what the mana flowing into this place was.

A huge magic circle was engraved on the ceiling.

The magic circle, with its bizarre shapes and incomprehensible characters, greedily gathered the surrounding mana and polluted the absorbed mana.

“Alfonso.”

“Ah, did you call me?”

“Yes.”

“What’s wrong?”

At my call, Alfonso approached.

He looked down at me with a very nervous expression.

“I heard that this country used to be a lush forest, right?”

“…It is said that it was in the past. But that was long before I was even born.”

“Maybe we can restore it to its former glory.”

“What are you talking about…”

It wouldn’t be right now.

When the absorbed mana returned to its original place and regained stability, this land would move towards the future to regain its past appearance.

I drew my sword from behind my back.

When the sword, drawn with a chilling sound, reflected the light of the lamp and scattered white backlight, starlight mana began to swirl around it.

A powerful magic wasn’t necessary.

Enough power to damage the magic circle engraved on the ceiling would be sufficient.

Considering the amount of mana that had been recovered, this method was also the best.

Thud-!

The moment I kicked off the ground, my body soared.

There wasn’t enough mana left to strengthen my body. I jumped up with pure physical strength, stepped on the pillar next to me, and jumped diagonally again.

The moment my body got closer to the ceiling, a pure white star drew a long trajectory and scraped the huge magic circle.

The circle that had been maintaining the magic’s durability was cut off.

The characters that had been guiding the flow of mana were erased.

When the white, elongated tail of light began to stretch downwards.

The magic circle that had been greedily devouring the land’s mana lost its light.

Thump-! Rumble-!

The moment the magic circle lost its power, the entire dungeon began to shake.

Crack-!

“W-What is this!”

“The dungeon…! The dungeon is collapsing!”

The party members’ excited voices filled the surroundings.

I stared at the dungeon’s ceiling with a dumbfounded expression.

Rumble-!

The surface of the ceiling began to shift, and small grains of stone fell down in a shower.

It was clear to anyone that the dungeon itself had begun to collapse.

To think that the entire dungeon would begin to collapse the moment the magic circle was damaged…

I swallowed hard, my face pale.

“This way! A path has opened up over here!”

Then, Tera’s voice was heard. When I turned my head slightly, there was indeed a passage that I hadn’t seen before wide open in front of Tera.

“R-Run!”

All the party members, including me, ran madly towards the narrow passage.

Rumble-!

As the dungeon began to collapse, a huge dust storm swept in.

We ran endlessly, stepping on the stairs leading upwards.

We couldn’t even think of looking back.

Even though the hazy dust obscured our vision, we didn’t stop.

The moment we moved forward, Rumble-! A sound rang out, and the front began to collapse.

At that terrible sight, everyone was about to stop, but pink hair shot forward. It was Tera.

“Hayat!”

Tera plunged her greatsword deep into the wall.

As soon as I saw that, I could understand what she meant. She had created a temporary ceiling with her sword.

It couldn’t last long. Without time to dawdle, everyone threw themselves under Tera’s sword.

Rumble-!

The moment even Tera, who had been holding onto the sword until the very end, escaped from that narrow space, the back collapsed completely along with Tera’s sword.

“Run!”

Even though she had lost her sword, Tera shouted forward without showing any signs of regret.

At the end of the endlessly continuing darkness, fresh air began to pour in along with a small light.

With only one step left to the surface. The party members let out silent screams and mustered all their strength.

The tied bandages were stained red due to the rough movements.

The slightly healed wounds burst open and spilled red blood. But no one groaned in pain.

The small light gradually grew larger.

The moment we ran without stopping and escaped the narrow passage.

Our vision cleared, and a vast plain unfolded before our eyes.

“Haaack!”

“Hieeuk…”

While we were lying on the ground, gasping for breath, a green stream began to spread widely from the passage we had escaped from.

It was like ripples spreading across a calm surface.

The widely spreading green stream didn’t stop.

It continued to move towards the ridge, as if trying to cover all of this lifeless land.