Chapter 601: Conquering Godslaying Domain Avalon (2)

On the subway tracks, a knight squad was waiting for us, including a special-equipped mage known as a “Poison Fog User.”

The exact same type of enemy Fiona’s team had fought.

Honestly, this “Poison Fog User” looked less like a mage and more like a chemical-weapons operator. They were wearing gas masks, and the weapon that fired poison gas wasn’t a staff at all. It was a full-on sprayer. A horn-shaped nozzle attached to a backpack tank filled with… something.

Well, it was probably another ancient weapon.

Apparently, the poison-gas sprayer ran on a dedicated ancient spell, so even if you picked it up, you couldn’t use it. The tank didn’t contain poison gas itself either. Instead, it held an intricate multi-layered spell formula that refined poison gas. Since no one had deciphered the activation magic, even ancient-weapon collectors could safely display it as furniture.

But an ancient mage who kept moving as an undead was a legitimate user of the system, and they could casually unleash lethal gas with a power level that would absolutely be banned under international law on Earth.

Poison gas in a cramped space is brutal… but there was already a countermeasure.

Just like Nell had done, I’d follow that example.

Yes. This was the moment for the wind-based black magic I developed using pseudo wind-element techniques!

“I’ll open the way— Aerial Blade (Aile Blast)!”

Right before I fired my wind-infused Bullet Arts, Seris calmly used a wide-area wind spell and literally punched a hole through the thick purple poison cloud rolling toward us.

With control equal to Nell’s— no, even more precise— she carved out a clean passage. And she wasn’t just blowing it away with raw force: the wind lingered for a while, so the hole didn’t close immediately.

“Alright! Let’s go— move!”

Kai led the charge, with Rudra and Falkius right behind him. In moments they cut down the poison fog user first, then swept through the escorting knights.

“Heh. Easy.”

“Don’t get careless. Even a little of that fog is dangerous,” Rudra warned.

“Thanks, Seris-chan. That was perfect support,” Falkius said.

“I’m good with wind. And I’ve fought this exact enemy before,” Seris replied.

Before I knew it, the fight was over.

We weren’t here for loot, so nobody bothered stripping equipment from the fallen knights. The party just moved on like nothing happened.

And I was left with a weird feeling.

Wait… why do I feel left out?

I mean, I literally didn’t do anything.

“N-next time I’ll actually support properly as the backline…”

But my determination didn’t matter. The knight groups we met along the subway route were all small. The frontliners cut them down at the moment of contact and kept moving without stopping.

I hadn’t fired even once. I’d just been holding The Greed in readiness.

At this point, I could probably just put it back in the shadows…

“Finally, we’re back on the surface.”

“I hate underground. Feels like I can’t breathe.”

“I don’t care either way.”

“Undead like dark, damp places, right?”

“Hmph. Don’t lump me in with common vampires like some tunnel bug. I may have thrown away my pride, but they, in general, are arrogant.”

Rudra elegantly ignored Falkius’s sarcasm.

Listening to their banter, I also finally climbed back up from the subway to the surface.

“From here to Defense Tower Twenty-One, it’s about 300 meters in a straight line,” Seris said.

But she added that from this area onward, even the suburbs had stricter patrols.

Three hundred meters was nothing for us. With speed-boosting martial skills and magic, we could cross it in an instant.

But if we ran openly, got spotted, and triggered endless reinforcements, we’d be finished.

On the surface, the best approach was to avoid enemies and move quietly. Our goal was to face Lily, the boss monster. We didn’t want to waste stamina on needless fights.

So we slipped through the patrol net— and we already had a method.

“Based on Sariel’s analysis, the knights here patrol using combinations of multiple guard patterns,” I said.

In fact, using that, we’d already reached this point without a single direct collision.

Of course, we couldn’t know exact starting positions or exact numbers. It was only a prediction of “low probability.”

But it was still far safer than walking forward blindly.

“Ugh… I can’t do this kind of complicated stuff,” Kai declared immediately.

And Rudra wasn’t wrong either:

“The number of patrol patterns may be limited, but the number of active knight units is in the hundreds. If we spend time calculating every movement to find a safe route… we would be faster simply walking.”

Because patrols move in real time. If you take too long to calculate, the answer becomes outdated.

In other words, even the calculation itself had a time limit.

“So… any of us confident we can do it?” I asked.

“I dabble in academics as a hobby, but complex calculations are rough,” Falkius said.

“I have good grades… but even for me, this is difficult,” Seris admitted.

Right. Even I— someone who had at best “finished high school math”— had no chance.

Honestly, being told to calculate a safe route from this little information was impossible.

Sariel being able to do it was what was abnormal.

…Man. Sariel. You were seriously smart.

“Then… I’ll do it,” Simon said.

The one extending a hand of salvation to our “five swordsmen who are bad at math” was Simon.

Since he was hidden under Predator Coat, it looked like Vivian was speaking.

“You can do it?” I asked.

“I’m missing a lot of Sariel’s abilities— sixth sense, presence detection, spatial awareness— so my precision will be worse. But if it’s just calculation, I can do it quickly.”

“As expected… then I’m counting on you.”

Sariel had confirmed safe routes using multiple heightened senses, not calculation alone. Simon couldn’t match that. But pattern-based math? That was his domain.

“Huh. So you really were right to pick him,” Falkius said.

“Yeah. He’s our brains.”

I thought we were only relying on him for ancient ruins, so seeing him shine here was both reassuring… and a bit embarrassing for the rest of us.

“Alright. Follow Vivian.”

And with Simon’s route calculation— basically a Sariel-style method powered by pure brain— we advanced.

Unlike Fiona’s team, we couldn’t get “zero encounters,” but even then, the number of clashes was small enough to count on one hand. The enemy groups we ran into were also small, like they’d been on the subway tracks.

After only a few manageable fights, we reached the next destination.

Defense Tower Twenty-One, the gateway into the relatively safest central district.

“The door just ahead leads to the hall,” Seris said.

We had already stormed inside, eliminating the small garrison guarding the tower almost instantly.

“So it’s basically a boss room, right? Heh. My arms are itching,” Kai grinned.

“The opponent will be a large royal guard knight, but with this team, we should defeat it without trouble,” Rudra said.

That matched the information. Seris had already faced this boss once, and Vivian’s record also contained it clearly. We might not kill it as elegantly as Sariel and Nell did, but still.

“Unfortunately, this is as far as the area I know goes,” Seris said.

“No, it’s more than enough. Thanks, Seris.”

From here onward, even Seris hadn’t explored the central district. Still, her knowledge had helped us a lot up to now: ducking into open buildings to let patrols pass, cutting through alley shortcuts, and so on.

But the next area’s security would be too dense for even the Sariel-style pattern math to cover fully. Seris also had no experience there.

It was harsh terrain where exploration hadn’t progressed enough to build a detailed map.

If we got lost, worst case, even we could be wiped out.

Retreating before reaching Lily was unacceptable.

Focus up— but first, we deal with the boss here.

When we opened the door to the boss room, we entered the same circular hall I’d seen in Vivian’s record. In its center stood exactly as expected: a single large knight.

We weren’t here to duel. We could have all five jumped him and ended it instantly, but…

“Let me handle this.”

I stepped forward alone.

“Hogging it? That’s not fair, Chrono,” Kai pouted.

Rudra and Seris, however, nodded as if to say do what you want.

To be honest, the reason wasn’t just that I’d barely fought so far.

There was another purpose.

“Well, why not?” Falkius said. “I want to see whether Chrono-kun can really use his blessing inside Godslaying Domain. And this is a perfect chance.”

“Yeah,” I said. “This looks like the right target for a test swing.”

Sorry, everyone. I’m taking this one.

Like Falkius said, I wanted to confirm whether I could use the Demon King’s blessing here. And I also wanted to test the power I gained from Beheading, after it drank my blood.

Goooooo!!

The huge royal guard knight roared and charged, like it was screaming, Stop talking and come at me already!

Alright. Everyone agreed. I’m ready too.

“Flame Demon King (Overdrive)—”

As if it were only natural, a blazing crimson aura surged up.

By now, I did feel resistance to using Mia’s power… but I’ll use anything I can. I have no pride left. I’m just a hopeless man willing to do anything to obtain the women I love.

But the moment I握握握 this cursed great hatchet, those feelings fade.

Yeah, I know. While I’m holding you, I’ll focus only on cutting enemies down.

I silently drew Cursed Grudge Hatchet ‘Beheading’ from the shadow and raised it overhead. All stray thoughts disappeared.

“Black Calm: Tremor.”

I swung down with the martial art I used most.

But the clear ringing sound, like a bell— that was a first.

And cutting the enemy this easily… that was also a first.

It felt like cutting water.

A royal guard knight charging straight in, relying only on armor and shield defense, was nothing but a big target running toward me. I only had to bring the blade down at the best timing. I wasn’t even focusing on “hitting” him so much as focusing on the activation of the technique itself.

The technique Black Calm: Tremor was an enhanced version of Black Calm, reinforced by the vibration ability of Resonant Grudge Spear from Haunted Grave.

But I only had Beheading in hand. The gravekeeper’s naginata was still sleeping in the shadows.

Even so… I could draw out the abilities of cursed weapons I owned.

That was the new power I gained when Beheading drank my blood.

It wasn’t that I was “absorbing” other abilities. If I’d left Haunted Grave at home, Black Calm: Tremor wouldn’t activate.

It was more like Beheading had moved closer to me.

I can wield cursed weapons. So Beheading, after drinking my blood and becoming closer to my existence, could also “wield” cursed weapon abilities— meaning it could manifest those abilities through its own blade.

It already felt so natural in my grip that I forgot I was holding it.

Now it felt like even the tip of the blade had nerves.

Calling it a part of my body wouldn’t be an exaggeration.

So not only can it use abilities from my cursed weapons, if I wanted, I could even grow tendrils from the blade, or wrap it in black flame. The range of what Beheading could do had expanded dramatically.

Of course, it still couldn’t outperform the originals in their specialties. Only Haunted Grave could truly command undead through song, and Drain could never match Extreme Evil Feast.

Even so, the usability was outstanding.

My full-power Black Calm: Tremor split the royal guard knight— hammer and all— from head to crotch in one clean stroke.

The corpse fell apart in two, spraying murky black blood. The clean cut showed it had sliced not only flesh but even the thick spine straight down.

Well… if I’d cut through the shield that carries Reflect too, it might have felt harder.

“Beautiful,” Falkius said. “Chrono-kun… you really are the real thing.”

I was the only one moved by Beheading’s growth through “dialogue.” The others cared more about the fact that I truly could use my blessing in this domain.

They probably weren’t doubting me personally, but for native Pandora people, “blessing of the ancient Demon King Mia Elroad” is hard to believe. Being half-suspicious was natural.

“Who knows,” I said. “Maybe my god is just pretending to be a demon king.”

“Maybe,” Falkius replied. “But I believe you.”

The others also looked free of doubt now. They believed I truly had the demon king’s blessing.

“Thanks. But unfortunately, I probably won’t be able to meet your expectations in the end. I still can’t clear the final trial.”

How long would this demon king blessing remain with me?

Would it vanish once I reclaimed Lily?

If so, fine.

I don’t want power badly enough to sacrifice someone precious.

I wanted power to protect people.

If I sacrificed the very people I meant to protect just to gain “protective power,” that would be completely backward.

“…Seriously. Is this why you never gained followers, Mia?” I muttered.

Of course, no answer came back.