Chapter 155 – LV.Twelve Mage Oh Haengun – [One]

Hidden within the ash cloud, the Sun Ship had remained motionless for hours. It was waiting for a single vessel to pass through the atmosphere below.

To be precise, it was waiting for a ghost ship filled with skeletons—and for Pygma Mule, who was aboard it.

Paladin Enoch, unable to even muster the courage for idle chatter, sat quietly, waiting inside the ship.

And the wait proved worthwhile. After continuous waiting, a massive ghost ship finally arrived in the sky below the Sun Ship. Through the ship’s window, Enoch saw the ghost ship.

A single aircraft carrier, its ominous aura—which a ghost ship should rightfully possess—completely overshadowed by its grandeur… Paladin Enoch vaguely wondered where he had heard the term “aircraft carrier,” but given the urgency of the situation, the question vanished from his mind in an instant.

Enoch lifted his minigun and prepared for battle.

A vibration was felt beneath his feet. He knew it was the Sun Ship’s hull plates opening. And as Sehul’s Small Sun inside was exposed, the surrounding area was instantly filled with radiance.

And the moment that radiance practically exploded, Enoch could vividly imagine what had transpired below without even seeing it directly. The Sun Ship’s main cannon, Sehul’s Solar Ray, had been fired.

The next moment, a massive pillar of light struck that dreadful ship.

It was a truly magnificent sight. The light, brimming with energy, engulfed that colossal iron ghost ship.

“Did we hit it?”

“We hit it! Based on the Spirit I saw, Pygma Mule, who was standing on the deck, also burned and vanished—”

It was just as cheers erupted inside the ship.

Enoch, who had been glancing around, widened his eyes as he saw his comrades freeze mid-action. Even the clouds flowing leisurely outside the window had foolishly stopped. Realizing what had happened, Enoch shouted.

“Time has stopped!”

There was likely no need for the warning. Those who had frozen wouldn’t have heard it, and it seemed other Paladin comrades who could still move, like Enoch, had already noticed.

Hadn’t they experienced a similar situation in a village not long ago? Learning from that incident, thirty percent of the Paladins participating in this operation had been given accessories enchanted with Haste Spells, allowing them to move even while time was stopped.

A voice echoed through the frozen ship.

「The gray rats have crawled out of the dust. Did the cheese smell sweet?」

A psychic wave transmitted directly into their minds. The bodies of the Paladins who realized who was speaking stiffened.

Such psychic waves are the preferred means of communication for voiceless skeletal Liches.

Pygma Mule spoke.

「Thanks for melting my Avatar Body for me. As you know, Avatar Bodies are self-aware things and tend to disobey their main body’s words at the drop of a hat. Lately, it hasn’t been listening to me, so I was considering destroying it and making a new one. It’s nice that you little rats have lightened my burden.」

“Shut up!”

One Paladin shouted, but the ancient Lich seemed to read the fear within. Pygma Mule chuckled psychically.

「Anyway, an exchange of little rats and one disobedient clone… I come out ahead.」

“I said shut up!”

「Just luring out these filthy little rats makes this expedition worthwhile.」

“Shut up!”

Did the sharp rebuke have an effect? Pygma Mule fell silent, bringing stillness to the surroundings, but it was an ominous stillness. In a frozen space, if even the sounds cease, that’s the only way it can feel.

Enoch desperately wished for some ominous sign to appear and break this dreadful tension. And dozens of seconds later, he regretted wishing for that.

A blue light shimmered in the air. A blue Dimensional Gate.

And Enoch, as if entranced, sent his gaze toward it.

Beyond that blue Dimensional Gate, he saw a night sky, and a single mineral object drifting through that night sky.

What is that? The knowledge of Enoch, the American college graduate, not Paladin Enoch, revealed its identity. Outer space and a rock drifting there.

Since time was stopped, the rock’s movement was also frozen, but it wasn’t hard to guess that the Dimensional Gate lay in its flight path. And the moment time resumed, the rock passing through the Dimensional Gate and reaching Earth would have to be renamed a meteorite.

And then time began to flow.

To warn their comrades who had just been trapped in stopped time, the Paladins shouted frantically.

“Move, move now!”

Fortunately, key crew members like the captain and helmsman had also been issued Haste rings. It seemed they moved the ship the moment time began to flow.

The Sun Ship moved forward, and the meteorite falling from the Dimensional Gate struck not the ship’s center but its stern.

A dizzying vertigo shook Enoch’s brain, and for a moment, he couldn’t regain his senses.

A massive shock swept through the entire ship. Enoch experienced the unprecedented event of the ship he was on rotating once in mid-air.

Amidst terrible pain and dizziness, he felt the Sun Ship slowly falling. Damn it, it seemed the meteorite had destroyed the Small Sun that served as the power source…

Amidst it all, as if the captain had exerted his final skill, the Sun Ship continued moving forward even as it fell. In that direction, he saw the aircraft carrier, its deck glowing from being engulfed earlier by the massive pillar of light.

The magically amplified voice of Lord Cairo Simon reached them.

「Pygma Mule must be nearby. He might even be on that ship! Everyone, prepare for battle—」

Soon after, the Sun Ship rammed into the left side of the smoking aircraft carrier. A successful ramming tactic in mid-air. At that moment, Enoch felt something akin to admiration that this medieval ship had dealt a blow to a modern cutting-edge weapon. He lifted his minigun and charged out onto the ship.

He stepped from the Sun Ship onto the ghost ship.

“Enemies! There are still surviving enemies!”

Surprisingly, Undead that hadn’t burned remained inside the aircraft carrier. Undead Liches in robes chanted ominous Spells, engaging the Paladins trying to transfer onto their ship.

And golden rays poured from the muzzle of Enoch’s minigun. Those golden rays shattered their Protection Spells and broke their bones into pieces. They were 7.62mm bullets consecrated by the Divine Spells of Priests and Paladins.

True experts in dealing with Undead, it didn’t take long for the Paladins to occupy that massive ghost ship.Lord Cairo Simon asked.

“Where is Pygma?”

“He’s not here!”

At that moment, a laugh pierced painfully through his mind. A psychic laugh.

Amidst the Ancient Lich’s mocking laughter, both the Sun Ship and the Aircraft Carrier lost the power to stay aloft and plummeted toward the Mortal Realm.

The Paladin’s body was already enchanted with a Spell to prepare for a fall before battle. So, when the two ships crashed with a tremendous roar, Enoch knew he would survive, but the other crew members who hadn’t received the Spell would all perish.

Groaning as he escaped the Aircraft Carrier, Enoch briefly covered his eyes.

A dense purple fog hung in the air. The Goddess’s repulsive fog, which swallowed sunlight, spread beneath them.

Looking up, he saw the sky was also tinged purple.

A Purple Moon shone in the gray sky. The purple fog did not block that eerie moonlight but allowed it to pass through entirely to the ground below.

Thus, on the ground bathed in moonlight, the Undead rose. If only worthless Skeletons had risen in droves, the Paladins could have easily broken through. But it seemed this place was either a communal burial ground for a giant tribe, or perhaps Pygma Mule had asked the Prophet Angel trapped in the lamp (though there is only one imprisoned Angel, there are many lamps that summon her. It is well-known that she spreads malicious prophecies everywhere for her own survival) and learned of the events to unfold here, burying the remains of giants in advance.

Giant Skeletons rose within the fog. Soon, the silhouettes of large and small bones swayed beyond the mist.

Between the legs of the giant Skeletons, heavily armed Skeletons filled every gap without exception. There was no space to pass through anywhere. Someone muttered as if in prayer.

“For the Sun.”

Following that, Lord Cairo slowly uttered the Crusaders’ rallying cry. The Skeletons blocking the way ahead remained silent, so his quiet words were clearly heard.

“We are the Crusaders. The protectors of humanity, the eternal adversaries of the Kingdom of Immortals.”

“For the Sun…”

“Therefore, we must now fight so that someone other than us may see the day the Sun rises again.”

Enoch raised his minigun, its barrels spinning with a golden glow, and shouted.

“For the Sun!”

And the Paladins charged forward. The figures of their comrades who rushed ahead were swallowed by the thick purple fog.

Enoch also poured out golden bullets wildly until they ran out, then drew his golden sword and charged into the fog.

After bringing an entire village’s people through the Dimensional Gate, the residents of Happy Village helped them settle near Happy Village. Seo Yun also assisted in her spare time. During this, news arrived of the annihilation of the Sun Ship and the Paladins inside, and several more days passed.

Then, Oh Haengun called for Seo Yun. Having been away from the village hunting, Seo Yun received new news from Oh Haengun.

“Paladins have come.”

“Paladins? From the Crusaders?”

“Yes. They say they survived because they didn’t participate in the operation? They’ve been operating separately in Europe, but if they continue like that, they’ll all be hunted down and killed. So, William suggested coming here…”

“So, are the Paladins coming to Happy Village now?”

“Yes, William asked me if he could bring his comrades here. I told him to bring them. Anyway, there aren’t many Paladins, so the Provisions won’t be depleted much…”

Leading the surviving Paladins was Vice Commander Sir Marshall.

The old Paladin, who had aged even more since last seen, approached with the other Paladins. He gave a nod to the ‘Archangel’ and then looked at Oh Haengun.

True to his twisted personality, the old man didn’t start with thanks for accepting these remnants.

“I’ll say this now because I’m afraid you’ll curse me later if trouble arises. Taking us into your village could be dangerous.”

At Sir Marshall’s warning, Oh Haengun asked.

“Dangerous how?”

“That skeleton bastard Pygma hates us terribly. It’s a grudge that’s been going on since before the world got to this state… Now that we’ve left the Sun Ship and are easier to hunt, he’ll pursue us to the ends of Hell. The main reason we hid in the ashes was to avoid catching his eye…”

And Oh Haengun replied.

“It’s fine.”

“Fine? Why?”

“It’s true he might chase you all the way here, but he’d come even if we drove you away. That Pygma Mule bastard is a stereotypical Final Boss whose goal is world destruction, right? If he’s bound to come someday, it’s better to accept you and increase our fighting strength.”

Oh Haengun’s tone now carried considerable confidence. He didn’t even flinch at the mention that the Paladins’ presence posed a danger to the village. Perhaps the operation he led as Chief, which succeeded without a single casualty or even injury, had given him a certain level of confidence.

Seeing the Mage’s spirited appearance after so long, even Seo Yun felt proud.

Then, a voice filled with hostility, its origin unknown, drilled into her mind.

「So this is it, the rats’ den?」

A Paladin muttered in a frightened voice, revealing who had spoken.

“Pygma Mule?”

「It was worth gritting my teeth and letting you go.」

Seo Yun saw a small, glowing purple violet emblem on a Paladin’s Breastplate. Even that Paladin seemed surprised, staring dumbfounded at his own Breastplate.

The violet emblem flashed, and a skeletal phantom appeared in the air.

Naturally, it was Pygma Mule. A large amethyst embedded between the dark eye sockets on his forehead, surrounded densely by rubies… It was exactly like the illustration of Pygma Mule in the Rulebook.

As everyone stared wide-eyed at the skeleton, Seo Yun thought.

Damn it, my face. He mustn’t see this face… Seo Yun hurriedly tried to cover her face.

A sudden pulling sensation made her body sway, and a girl stepped in front of her, blocking the view.

Just by her height, Seo Yun knew who it was. Gaeulbi stood with her back turned, whispering without looking back.

“Stay behind me…”