Paladin of the Dead God - Chapter 221



Only Krnovel

Episode 221. The Wizard’s Tower (2)

“An Angel-Dragon Hybrid?! Is that possible?”

Hesabel asked in astonishment.

From a mortal’s perspective, both dragons and angels are terrible. All dragons are either dead or banished, and only a very small number survive as angels and are mentioned as legends, but angels are still symbols of the power of the gods that walk the earth.

Unlike other sects, Ellil regards dragons as symbols of bravery and wisdom rather than evil. Even so, the attempt to merge angels with dragons was something that even Ellil would find difficult to forgive.

“It was possible to conduct research without being detected because he shared his body and divinity.”

Just like the Sword of May, the gods must expend resources like the ‘Flame of Glory’ to create angels. The same goes for Elril. And Calurien stole it and mixed it with his own genes to create this hybrid.

[… … .]

Calurien didn’t say anything to Isaac’s attitude, which he knew without him having to say anything directly. He seemed to think that this was also a ‘mission’ that Isaac had been given.

But in fact, Isaac didn’t think much of it.

Whether Kalurien merged angels and dragons here, or zerg and protoss, was none of Isaac’s business. He was just curious about the effects of preying on them. And while he was at it, he also resolved one minor question.

Isaac said as he went down the stairs.

“All attempts to create dragons must have failed. You can tell by the fact that there are no finished versions. Those that were created poorly would have been difficult to recognize as dragons.”

[… … Yes. All of them were in a state where their bodies were broken, their intelligence was at rock bottom, or they were even unable to reproduce. After researching, we realized that without Dragon Hearts, we could not create a species called Dragon. However, Dragon Hearts were impossible to create artificially… … ]

“I guess you were trying to replace that with divine power?”

There is a power in this world that gives what one desires.

The sword, the miracle, the angel, the gods prove it. Calurien tried to artificially inject that mysterious power into the flesh instead of the dragon heart. The result is that hybrid.

Perhaps that was the reason Calurien became an angel of Elril. It wouldn’t be easy to attain the divinity of an angel.

But as you can see from the hybrid’s appearance, his attempt failed.

[Yes. Thanks to that, a being that was half in Urbansus and half on the ground appeared. However, its intelligence was significantly low, and it couldn’t use magic. Its intelligence was mediocre at best. It also didn’t have the most important ability to reproduce.]

Calurien conducted an experiment to prevent the extinction of the species.

We’re not trying to create a world-class mule.

As a result, his experiment had to be considered a failure. However, he could not discard the precious results of his experiment, nor could he release them into the world to expose his sins.

He ended up hiding it deep in the laboratory.

Isaac and his party finally reached the bottom of the underground. The Angel-Dragon Chimera was still asleep. Isaac carefully placed his hand on it, but it showed no sign of being pushed away or waking up.

Looking at the chain of seal made by Calurien, it seemed that it could easily be broken with the Ruaddin Key.

“Is it fierce?”

[… … Don’t talk like a dog. That’s not calm.]

In fact, there was no need to ask. This angel named Nekaruriel—not only dragons, but all chimeras have vicious natures. However, it was worth the risk to break through this secret dungeon.

“Then it’s time to deal with the waste you left behind, Calurien.”

Isaac struck the chain with the Ruaddin Key before Calurien could say anything. The moment a single chain broke, Nekaruriel’s gigantic body twitched. Isaac did not even need to touch the rest of the sealing chain.

The moment Necaruriel woke up and shook off his body, the chains burst apart with a fierce glow.

A hybrid born of divinity and savagery let out a ferocious roar.

***

I just wanted to eat it while it was sealed in chains, but the seal protected it not only from the inside but also from the outside. In any case, in order to eat Nekaruriel, I had to break the chains of the seal.

However, when the chains were broken forcibly instead of properly, the curses that Calurien had placed upon them were immediately activated.

Boom, Boom, Boom! Black fog began to envelop Nekaruriel and press down on him. Nekaruriel slumped to the floor, his neck slumping as if he was being crushed by an enormous weight.

Isaac felt relieved when he saw that sight.

‘Up until here, it’s still the same dungeon gimmick.’

Even if it was a failed experiment, it was still an absurd result of being a hybrid of an angel and a dragon. Considering that even in the game, capturing an angel is an event that only occurs in very rare circumstances, it should have been nearly impossible to capture Nekaruriel alone.

The gimmick that made it possible in a balanced way was the seal of Calurien.

However, if it is easy to catch because of a gimmick, it is not a hidden boss.

‘Hesabel, get ready.’

Isaac rushed in to slaughter the creatures that had been reduced to the level of wild beasts.

Necaruriel let out a fierce roar and spread his wings. At the same time, his body disappeared from the spot as if it was erased, and he reappeared in the air.

‘As expected, you have phase shift ability.’

Necaruriel is a half-dragon, half-angel being, with half of his body in Urbansus and half on Earth. He is neither here nor there, but instead, he can exist in any dimension he wants, whenever he wants.

It is not that he actually disappears, but that he briefly immerses his entire body in another space, Urbanus, and then emerges again. If you want to ask how that is possible, you must first ask the Immortal Emperor who brought the underworld down to the surface from the Immortal Church.

As if it had been waiting, the creature let out a fierce breath. As expected from a product of Calurien’s genes, it was a breath of lightning.

Kwakwakwakwakwak! Fortunately, Isaac had prepared a countermeasure against this thunderous breath. He quickly drew the colors beyond into high density to block the breath.

‘I will snipe you!’

Hesabel had already cleverly taken cover and taken up the high ground the moment Nekaruriel awoke. She aimed her crossbow reinforced with red feathers and fired at Nekaruriel.

The crossbow arrow ripped through the scales around Necaruriel’s neck in one fell swoop and lodged itself.

Hesabel’s eyes twitched. She aimed for the eyes, but Nekaruriel seemed to notice and avoided it. The moment she was about to shoot the arrow again, the same thing happened just now.

Suddenly, Nekaruriel’s body disappeared and appeared right in front of Hesabel.

The moment Nekaruriel tried to bite Hesabel with his sharp teeth, she barely escaped in a blood mist with a red plea.

Necaruriel roared again, as if in anger at his escaped prey.

It was a monster that seemed to combine the functional violence of an angel and the instinctive violence of a dragon.

‘Fortunately, it doesn’t look like we’ll be able to escape the tower right away.’

There’s a world of difference between dealing with winged beasts in a closed room and dealing with them in the open air.

As long as the bastard doesn’t escape from the tower, we will be able to hunt him sufficiently with the means we have prepared.

The sealing curse left by Calurien still did not disappear and persistently targeted Necaruriel. However, Necaruriel took a deep breath as if he was going to burn away even the black fog, and exhaled a thunderous breath.

Hook, kurrrrrr!

It was just one breath, but as it exploded in the cramped space, a storm of lightning struck like hundreds of typhoons, as the lightning bounced off and bounced around.

Isaac protected himself with armor colored in the colors of the beyond, but that didn’t mean he was immune to damage, and the parts that weren’t covered were bound to get heavily burned.

Thanks to that, Isaac, who had barely managed to fill his stomach, had no choice but to waste his precious feeling of fullness.

In the meantime, Hesabel fired a few more arrows. It was an attack aimed at tearing off the relatively difficult-to-dodge large wing area. However, another surprising characteristic of Nekaruriel was revealed.

Hesabel’s arrow pierced the translucent wings in vain.

‘The arrow just passed by!’

‘The translucent part seems to belong to Urbansus… or something.’

If so, there is a high chance that this attack will work.

Whoosh, whoosh! Nekaruriel turned around, laughing at Isaac’s attack. The direction Isaac’s sword was aimed at was the part of his body that Nekaruriel had turned translucent.

However, the fierce black aura that rose from Kachulain fiercely bit Necaluriel’s wing stump as if tearing it apart.

“Kyaaaaah!”

Necaruriel, who had reappeared late, roared fiercely and fell. Then, he dug his claws into the wall and slid down, leaving a long scar.

Isaac decided that his guess was correct by that appearance.

‘As expected, I’m getting hurt by the soul devouring perk.’

Necaruriel does not completely move to Urbansus, but only adapts his physical nature to it. Thanks to this, it was possible to confirm that the soul devouring perk was effective.

This point was quite encouraging.

The sword is useful for destroying undead, but it cannot do anything about their souls escaping. If they have a soul, they can somehow escape and fight back with a jumbled mess of a body. However, if you can hurt that soul, the speed will be much slower.

But the soul fragments that were buried in the black ink were not even enough to send a message, and I couldn’t even hear the alarm sound. I came with the intention of eating them all anyway. I had no intention of being satisfied with just a part of the soul.

Nekaruriel breathed another breath at Isaac, seemingly enraged by his wounds. It seemed to be the same pattern, but this time, he cleverly breathed lightning in all directions. He aimed for the lightning to bounce off of each other, making the pattern unpredictable, and covered the entire space. If you were hit by that, you would definitely get fried, even if you were an insulator.

However, Necaruriel’s lightning was slower than Isaac’s.

The runes carved into the Kachulainn glowed.

The hyper-acceleration ability allowed three times a day instantly set Isaac’s body on fire.

Isaac landed behind Necaruriel before he could even breathe his breath. His knees almost buckled under the acceleration he barely recognized.

Isaac was dizzy at the speed.

‘I didn’t even think I would run particularly fast… …!’

Kachulain’s acceleration ability did not simply make Isaac’s body more agile, but also made time itself faster. Thanks to this, Isaac could run several times faster than he normally would. Of course, the amount of momentum applied to his body was also several times higher.

‘If you use this recklessly, it’ll turn into a suicide bomb.’

However, once you get used to it, the possibilities are endless. If you jump at this speed, you can jump much higher than usual. Isaac uses his speed to spin around and cut Nekaruriel’s back thigh.

Another roar of pain erupted. Isaac quickly thrust his left hand into the wound before Necaruriel could phase shift. The parasites beyond swarmed into the wound.

It was an attempt made with the hope of success, but the moment Nekaruriel escaped through phase shift, the parasites fell to the ground.

‘It’s not working after all.’

I was tempted to try and tame Nekaruriel or make her my ally, but it seemed like the parasites from beyond were completely immune to that phase-shifting ability.

If that’s the case, then I’ll just eat it up.

Calurien muttered as he watched Isaac’s battle.

[You don’t seem nervous at all.]

“at all.”

Isaac said, pulling out a tentacle from his left hand.

“As I said, I didn’t come here to fight. I came here to eat.”

Isaac was simply testing out his newfound abilities one by one against Nekaruriel.

Nekaruriel seemed to realize that Isaac was a dangerous opponent and was looking for a place to escape. However, there was no way to escape the seal. Calurien said that he had the intelligence of a horse, but in fact, a horse is a very intelligent animal.

Meanwhile, the black fog tried to capture him again.

Necaruriel shifted his position again through phase shift. However, Isaac, who had figured out where he would move to in advance through the Eye of Chaos, was waiting for him. Isaac grabbed the wing of the beast with the hand of the dead. Necaruriel was startled and tried to shift again, but the hand of the dead, which even grabbed his soul, prevented Necaruriel from shifting.

When the phase change did not occur as intended, the creature flapped its wings in confusion.

Isaac’s left hand dug into the back of the bastard’s neck in one breath.