Chapter 163 – LV.? Goddess of Beauty – [Four]

Pygma Mule remembered his Goddess. The Goddess of Beauty, who could have become the ruler of the world.

After the meteorite fell that day, even the Evil Spirits perished, leaving the Goddess of Beauty as the sole Evil Spirit. Hell, where the Evil Spirits had struggled to dominate each other, naturally became hers.

Moreover, she still retained her share of Heaven from her days as a Good Spirit, and now that her Undead minions had come to rule the Mortal Realm as well, the Celestial Realm, the Mortal Realm, and the underworld were practically all hers.

But to abandon all that and disappear? Was she that disappointed with the results her followers had created? As her Champion, it was utterly unacceptable.

Pygma Mule looked at the altar where he had once thrown himself onto the flames.

Unlike back then, the floor before it was bitterly cold. He knelt there and offered a prayer.

“Answer me, Goddess.”

Even as he did, he didn’t truly expect a reply. By now, it was just a habit he shouted out.

“My Goddess—”

After one more cry, just as he closed and opened his spiritual eyes—

All of Pygma Mule’s bones froze.

Within those eye sockets, the Goddess before him was reflected.

The Goddess more beautiful than anyone, her black hair cascading down to her waist, swaying gently.

The Goddess of Beauty was here before him.

Pygma Mule couldn’t believe this scene was real. For a moment, he thought he was seeing an illusion, but he couldn’t bring himself to cast a spell to shatter it. It was too enticing, too beautiful an illusion to break.

Absentmindedly, Pygma Mule reached his bony hand toward the illusion. And when he touched something spiritual, all the bones composing Pygma Mule trembled.

“Is it truly you?”

The Goddess of Beauty did not answer the Champion’s question. Instead, as if asking how dare something like him touch her, she smacked away the bony hand resting on her shoulder, then swung her palm once more to strike Pygma Mule’s cheekbone.

Pygma Mule’s skull, severed from his head in an instant, flew through the air. He saw the Goddess’s face, clearly filled with rage. Even as his vision spun, that face, full of contempt for him, was still unbearably beautiful.

Pygma Mule’s skull rolled on the ground. An amethyst he had embedded in his forehead fell out from the recent impact, but Pygma Mule paid it no mind.

The ancient Lich simply laughed as he gazed at the beautiful feet of the Goddess right before him.

Overwhelmed with boundless joy, he laughed and laughed, spiritually.

A while later, after even the Seraphim disappeared, Seo Yun finally accepted this entire situation.

She tried to get up, but her body still wouldn’t move, so she spat out her words.

“Are you going to get off soon, chimpanzee?”

“Huh? Uh…”

As Gaeulbi moved aside, Seo Yun could finally stand up. Then she looked toward the spot where Seo Rayeon had been standing just moments ago.

Of course, all that remained there was a purple mist. Seo Yun closed her mouth and stayed still.

It seemed Gaeulbi and Han Siwoo were also at a loss for what to say now. As silence flowed, a change began in this space.

The thick purple mist surrounding them visibly began to thin.

Seo Yun couldn’t tell what phenomenon this was, but to the Prophet Angel, it seemed a joyous event.

“Ah, finally…”

Joy rose to the Prophet Angel’s face, and immediately after, Seo Yun could tell that Seo Rayeon, who had just Ascended, had kept the promise she made.

Looking closely, she saw the Angel’s body also beginning to fade. It seemed that upon becoming a Goddess, she had freed this Angel from this prison as she had said she would.

As the Prophet Angel seemed about to leave this place, Gaeulbi shouted to her.

“Wait a moment, Angel Unni!”

The Prophet Angel looked at her. Gaeulbi hurriedly asked,

“Unni, you called Seo Yun ‘Goddess’ when you saw her, right? That was something you said after seeing a scene from the future, wasn’t it? You didn’t have precise information that made you call her that, right!”

Perhaps because she no longer needed to obsess over soul collection, or perhaps because she was in such an ecstatic mood now? Even though Gaeulbi didn’t offer a Fortune Fee, the Angel willingly answered.

“That is correct. Why?”

“Then, is it possible that the Goddess you saw then… might have been the face of that girl who just Ascended, not Seo Yun here? They have the same face. So maybe Unni saw a different face and mistakenly…”

“I do not know well.”

“You don’t know well?”

“Had I been such an excellent Prophet, would I have been imprisoned here? But, perhaps that could be the case.”

Despite the utterly ambiguous answer, Gaeulbi seemed satisfied. Gaeulbi clenching her front paws looked like an expression of resolute determination.

Then the Prophet Angel looked at them. She bowed her head and said.

“Then it is time to bid farewell. I sincerely thank you for all of this, and I pray you achieve what you desire.”

The next moment, even the Prophet Angel disappeared from this space. After a little more time passed, even the purple mist completely vanished.

In the place where the mist disappeared, a space that seemed like an old mine was revealed. There was even some plastic trash that seemed to have wrapped food lying around, a far cry from the mystical, dreamlike space of just moments ago, but it was a familiar and visually comfortable space.

Seo Yun looked at the mine for a while, then suddenly looked at Gaeulbi.

Looking at the girl who was gauging her reaction, she thought. Should she be angry about what she just did? Or…

Soon, Seo Yun sighed. There were many things she wanted to say, many things she wanted to question, but there was no need for that now. Seo Yun said.

“Let’s go back.”

Only then did a smile appear on Gaeulbi’s stiffened face.

“Right!”

The three of them took out their Spell Scrolls.

They were scrolls inscribed with the Return Spell. They read the words written on them.

The scrolls glowed, and their vision changed.

They had registered the Return Spell’s location as Happy Village.

So Seo Yun had prepared herself in advance before returning. She thought the village would be full of corpses, and among them would be many familiar faces.

And indeed, there were many corpses to be seen here and there in the collapsed Happy Village.

The detestable Undead, Shadow Specters, and numerous Skeletons… they were all just standing there.

That is, they were frozen. Whether Skeletons or Evil Spirits, they did not react or move even as Seo Yun approached.Seo Yun flinched but wasn’t overly startled. She simply felt relieved, thinking that her month-long journey hadn’t been in vain.

‘It seems Seo Rayeon did what she was supposed to do properly. Whoever’s clone she is, her work is excellent…’

The reason she could even have such leisurely thoughts was because there weren’t piles of familiar corpses scattered everywhere at the moment.

So where did everyone go? Had they all already evacuated?

As Seo Yun looked around, she flinched again upon hearing a sound from below and looked down.

A grotesque creature composed of gravel and large stones was approaching.

It was Oh Haengun’s familiar, the so-called Little Stone. Limping as it approached, Little Stone looked at her.

Seo Yun muttered.

“Uncle Haengun?”

No answer came. Seo Yun continued asking, undeterred.

“They said you fell in battle… Have you been resurrected?”

Again, no answer came, but instead, a buzzing sound was heard.

Mosquitoes flew before them. Their flight was unnaturally synchronized, reminiscent of a single monster. Han Siwoo gripped his sword, but Gaeulbi stopped him.

“Stay still. Don’t attack.”

Soon, the mosquitoes gathered together, forming the shape of a small human.

Seo Yun had seen this monster several times before.

A Swarm Mage. A monster where a swarm of insects coalesces to form the spirit of a human mage—the mage’s spirit formed by that insect swarm is the vengeful spirit of a mage who has already died. Could it be that mage couldn’t rest in peace even after death?

It was currently autumn, and the weather was cold like the winters of old, so the number of surviving mosquitoes wasn’t high. Perhaps because of this, the Swarm Mage’s size was pitifully small, and its movements lacked strength.

As if squeezing out its last strength, the Swarm Mage laboriously extended an arm made of mosquitoes, pointing its finger toward the ground. Then, as its lips moved, a Rock Specialization Mage’s spell activated.

A heavy sound was heard, and the concrete ground cracked…

It seemed to have expended its last strength. The mosquitoes that had formed the human shape began falling to the ground one by one, powerless. In an instant, the human form collapsed, and not a single mosquito survived.

When Seo Yun looked at Little Stone, it too had stopped moving.

Thus, she could tell what had happened to the mage connected to that familiar. Another death.

Seo Yun tightly closed her eyes.

“Rest for a while.”

Seo Yun opened her eyes and walked forward. She slipped into the cracked concrete floor. Han Siwoo and Gaeulbi followed.

“Where is this?”

“An underground parking lot. Used as a shelter by the village…”

And it was when they went down into the underground parking lot.

‘Bang!’ A gunshot echoed in the darkness. They probably thought we were intruders and fired, but the bullet didn’t reach this body.

Seo Yun belatedly used a Light Spell and looked at Gaeulbi; she saw a bullet, steaming, caught between Gaeulbi’s fingers. A sigh escaped her unwittingly. As a modern human, it was hard to accept a chimpanzee that had even conquered gunpowder weapons…

“Uh, uh…”

Then, turning her head, she saw silhouettes huddled together in a corner of the underground parking lot.

From among them, someone shouted in a voice filled with malice.

“Get lost, you bastard!”

When Seo Yun looked with Spirit Vision, it was the Cat Mom lady. She was sobbing with her head bowed deeply, embracing the boy she used to take care of, Jeon Sangguk, with her whole body. Jeon Sangguk, held in her embrace, looked limp and in poor condition. Shielding the immobile boy with her whole body, the Cat Mom lady shouted again.

“I said get lost, damn it!”

Seo Yun sighed inwardly. I thought that lady only liked cats and disliked human kids, but it seems she just hated me.

“It’s me, ma’am.”

As Seo Yun said that and lit another light, the inside of the underground parking lot brightened further. Finally, they could see each other’s faces.

The people gathered in one place looked this way. Seong Juri, who had been clenching her teeth, opened her eyes wide.

“Seo Yun?”

Meanwhile, Seo Yun looked at everyone.

The survivors of Happy Village—a group composed of many teenage Players and retired Players, a few Paladin NPCs, and a small number of non-Player residents.

Feeling both surprise and relief that they had survived, Seo Yun gestured.

“Come out.”

“But outside…”

“It’s over.”

However, some tried to get up but slumped back down, as if everyone was in poor physical condition. Even Seong Juri, with an expression that looked like she might collapse any moment, said.

“Seo Yun? Can you cast a Warmth Granting Spell on Sangguk? It’s so cold here he lost consciousness…”

Seo Yun nodded and provided the necessary measures. Having reached Level 15 this time, she had acquired not only new spells but also several spells she had given up on learning before. With Seo Yun’s touch, warmth was granted, and vitality was infused.

As Jeon Sangguk’s bluish face turned rosy, everyone let out a sigh of relief.

After doing similar things for the others, Seo Yun led everyone outside.

“Uh…”

The people who emerged above ground gaped at the motionless skeletons and the group of evil spirits.

Park Taeyang asked.

“Did you succeed in throwing the ring into the lava?”

“Huh? Ah, well. Roughly.”

Besides Park Taeyang, many others crowded around, asking various questions. What had she been doing all this time away from the village? Was stopping those skeletons her doing? And so on.

Seo Yun waved her hand and answered.

“Wait a moment. Now isn’t the time for leisurely Q&A.”

“Then…”

“There are also dead people here, right?”

The villagers looked at each other and then nodded. Seo Yun said.

“Please take me to those bodies.”

The villagers complied as requested. Following them, Seo Yun saw Sir William fallen on the fortress wall.

Since his soul wasn’t visible in Spirit Vision, he was already a corpse.

After somehow removing the heavily crumpled armor, the body inside was bruised here and there but looked relatively intact.

Instead of mourning his death, Seo Yun knelt before him and offered a prayer.

“…Return him, O Goddess.”

And when the prayer ended, a groan escaped from the mouths of the people gathered here.Seo Yun saw Sir William’s face twitch. His eyebrows and the skin around them writhed uncontrollably.

Soon, warmth returned to his cold skin, and after a moment, Sir William opened his eyes. He blinked a few times, then murmured as if to himself.

“Seo Yun?”

“That’s right.”

Seo Yun sat up and looked around, noticing that people’s eyes were fixed on them. Seeing their wide-eyed stares, she forced a calm expression and thought to herself.

At least it’s proven that I wasn’t just fooling around.