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Chapter 274

Angela was right. The Moai had suddenly appeared in the Underworld again, surrounding the walls of Valhǫll before standing still.

“Where did all these Moai…” Dominique muttered.

With the changes made to the Underworld after the Second Restoration, the Underworld now felt extremely cramped with so many Moai gathered in one spot. Dominique was getting disgusted at the sheer number of Moai gathered.

However, she quickly ordered Quantus with a stern expression, “It’s best we prepare the Nagas, just in case.”

All the Nagas had evolved to Hero-Grade status, but she wasn’t sure if they would be enough to stop the tainted army of Moai. That was how endless the Moai appeared to her. It was as if the entire Underworld were filled with them.

Upon hearing her instructions, Quantus placed the Naga Protection Squadron at the forefront and gathered the Guardian Dragons, who had barely recovered from their fatigue, in one place.

“How did we not know about this?” Dominique mused. Rikshasha appeared guilty, but the truth is, Dominique wasn’t rebuking her. She truly didn’t understand.

It was impossible to understand how the Moai, that had disappeared like the wind, had suddenly reappeared out of the blue and gathered like this. No matter how much she considered whether they had hidden in empty labyrinths scattered across the Underworld during the Second Restoration, the numbers simply didn’t add up.

“In the worst case scenario, we might have to rely solely on the gluttony of the Grand Labyrinth…”

Since the Grand Labyrinth had been reinforced and upgraded several times, its ravenous appetite was bound to not go anywhere, even if its meals were the Moai that had been contaminated with malice. The only problem was how big its stomach was.

“Unni.” Angela suddenly spoke up while Dominique frowned in thought. “Did you forget? The fact that I’m a Highlord as well, just like Master.”

Dominique looked in the direction of the voice that didn’t sound like that of someone in crisis. What she saw was the Vampire’s face.

“Ah…” Only then did she realize that despite Master’s absence, another Highlord had taken his place alongside them. Although Angela wasn’t superior to their master, who had become a monster that devoured everything in its path, she was still very much a Highlord.

“The problem now isn’t about stopping them. The problem is why they’ve flocked like this,” Angela began.

Dominique started to feel burdened by Angela constantly calling her ‘Unni’, but she didn’t let it show the slightest bit and continued to listen to her.

“We can guess why they’ve gathered like this. It’s clear that these beings, warriors whose dreams have been shattered by frustration and despair, instinctively felt Valhǫll’s energy and are seeking their place of residence,” Angela continued.

It was a rough guess, but that was enough. After all, everything related to the Highlords was incomprehensible to the summons, other than the Lords themselves. That was the result, and Dominique wasn’t permitted or required to understand Angela’s thought process and conclusion.

“It certainly makes sense.” Morrigan abruptly interrupted them. She continued, “Even when the Lord was alive, most of its soldiers were too weak to be called warriors of Valhǫll. Some of them were real tough bastards, but most of them were already the Dead whose eyes had rotted from failing their missions. The Moai are similarly ghouls that wander the Underworld, so they’re well suited to take the place of the Dead.”

It wasn’t just Morrigan. Heimdall and the other Hero-Grade summons also nodded in agreement, saying it was pretty plausible reasoning. Angela smiled warmly as she watched Dominique and the summons begin to exchange opinions with each other.

Dominique was wise. The only thing she lacked was her experience of the world outside the labyrinth. Seeing how she had been able to make the needed inferences simply by shifting her perspective to that of a being outside the labyrinth, she certainly seemed to have enough capacity to act as the King’s Representative.

Master was absent, and an unfathomable number of Moai had appeared, but Angela wasn’t concerned. In fact, she was rather looking forward to it. Most of the changes that had occurred in the Underworld in recent years had been beneficial to Master. It was no different now.

Her gaze turned to the Moai that had popped up all over the Underworld like bean sprouts. Although most of them were nothing more than ghouls whose bodies had broken apart and lost their consciousness, they would still prove to be a formidable force if they moved in unison toward a single purpose.

If, as per Dominique’s guess, these Moai had gathered to become the new residents of Valhǫll, they would prove to be a great addition to Master’s strength.

Aaaaaaargh.

The Moai let out a gloomy, deafening cry. Thousands upon thousands of Moai joined in an unearthly scream that shook those present to their soul.

“Prepare for battle!” the startled Quantus shouted.

The Nagas shuddered and let out a howl that roared like the wind. There was no fear in their eyes, and only their fighting spirit and a sense of duty to protect the labyrinth remained.

Angela smiled with satisfaction once again, and prepared herself to unleash the real power of the Red Castle just in case.

Aaaaaaaargh.

The sudden tension filled the entire Underworld.

However, the Moai that seemed as if they could rush in at any moment still remained in place. From the horde, only one relatively normal-looking one stepped forward.

It was a rather strange sight, seeing how the Moai, which would normally rush toward any living creature in the vicinity, were otherwise still standing in place.

“Ah!”

However, one of the Moai in front of the rest was oddly familiar. Its body was a broken mess. As with all Moai, it was nothing unusual, but a few pure white feathers stuck to its body caught the summons’ attention.

“That’s the one that wandered the closest to Master among all the Moai that followed him.”

It was Valicius, who had been the closest to those Moai and had even experimented on them, who discerned the odd Moai’s identity.

“What is it trying to do?” Valicius mused after seeing how strangely the Moai was behaving, as it stood in front of the rest of the pack and let out an inexplicable sob.

Rikshasha replied, “I don’t know why that Dead is standing out among the rest, but what I do know is that they don’t intend to fight us right now.”

With her excellent ability to sense any crisis, it was Rikshasha who had realized that there was no immediate hostility in the Moai’s bizarre behavior.

“For the Moai who have been tainted by the malice of the Underworld to not be hostile…” she trailed off.

Dominique narrowed her eyes as she looked at the Moai. “That’s true. It doesn’t look like we’ll be engaged in combat any time soon.”

After much thought, she had come to that conclusion, but she couldn’t help but make the necessary preparations just in case. Thus, she kept the Nagas on standby as she continued to observe what the Moai were doing.

Her original plan had been to push the Moai away from the front gates of Valhǫll, but now, she decided to put that plan aside and continue to observe their bizarre behavior. Upon receiving her orders, the Nagas began to take turns resting, and a strange standoff ensued.

“Mm.” The usually battle-crazed Death Crow was surprisingly silent for some reason. No, she seemed to be deep in thought.

The brave Dawn Rooster, Heimdall, who would readily head into battle even if it meant going against a whole army of Moai, looked at the expression on Morrigan’s face before asking, “Is there something suspicious?”

“That Moai…” Prompted by Heimdall, Morrigan raised a finger and mused, “Why is it so familiar?”

She was somehow familiar with the appearance of the Moai that had hovered around closest to their master, with those few crushed white feathers stuck onto its body.

“Mm, now that you mention it, I feel the same way as well.” Heimdall nodded to express his agreement, apparently feeling the same way as Morrigan.

The other Hero-Grade summons also nodded in agreement. However, no matter how much they racked their brains, they couldn’t figure out the identity of the odd Moai, because none of them could fathom how the Moai might have looked before it turned into one. The only thing that stood out were its few pathetic feathers.

“Ah!” At that moment, those seemingly insignificant feathers set off a lightbulb in Morrigan’s mind. “No way…”

They might have been born from the same source, but one had become the Death Crow who traversed all battlefields, while the other had become the White Raven who looked after the king. And now, for some reason, Morrigan was reminded of the White Raven by the sight of the odd Moai.

“No way. It can’t be,” Morrigan murmured.

The White Raven hadn’t been able to win against the Twilight. All that had remained was herself. And Morrigan continued to try and ignore the abominable body of the Moai that caught her attention.

***

While Dominique and the summons were busy figuring out how to deal with the sudden influx of the Moai, a visitor silently visited the depths of the Grand Labyrinth where Mimir was imprisoned.

Shockingly, in the dark and gloomy Underworld, the visitor was a young girl in a pure white dress. The girl hopped along, setting foot on the border of the Grand Labyrinth without any hesitation. The Grand Labyrinth, which would normally have swallowed any intruder by now, stayed still for some reason.

“That’s right, good boy. As long as you stay still, I won’t hurt you either,” the intruder called out in a clear and delicate voice. The Grand Labyrinth whimpered. It was a pathetic sound, like a wounded animal weeping in fright.

“Good boy. Stay that way, alright? Once I’m done with business, I’ll silently head back, so stay quiet.” The girl’s voice gently commanded the Grand Labyrinth once more, and as if it understood what the girl was saying, it fell completely silent.

The girl let out a bright, wide smile that seemed out of place in the Underworld, before continuing to hop toward the depths of the Grand Labyrinth. As she walked down the sometimes wide, sometimes narrow passageway, several Nagas came face to face with the girl, but none stopped her. Some even greeted her, as if they had known her for a long time. Thanks to that, she was able to reach the depths of the Grand Labyrinth where Mimir was held captive without any hindrance.

When Mimir, who was lying on the floor in an empty space that didn’t even include a bed, saw the girl, he quickly jumped up. He cried, startled, “Y… You’ve personally come here?”

The girl raised a finger and put it to her lips. “Shh.”

“I’m sorry.” Mimir belatedly remembered that they were in the middle of the Grand Labyrinth and quickly lowered his voice apologetically. He continued, “I… I’ve done everything you ordered. Milord seemed to fully understand who was helping him from the side all this time.”

When the girl gave no particular response, Mimir carefully, hesitantly began to explain the situation. “However, contrary to what you expected, Milord doesn’t seem to feel very betrayed.”

“Hmm, did he already forget about me? How sad,” the girl replied.

She truly seemed to mean what she said, considering the sad look on her face. Just from her outward expression alone, one could feel a sense of sadness and would want to give her an assuring hug, but the more she did so, the more Mimir lowered his body.

“Maybe it’s not that he forgot, but rather, he might still not be certain,” Mimir said.

“It would be nice if that were the case, but we can’t be so sure. Ten years is a rather long time for a human being,” the girl replied.

It was a rather unpredictable conversation, as they seemed to regret the fact that Kim Jin-Woo couldn’t figure out the identity of the existence who had been supporting him all this time.

“Well, that’s fine. The order may be different, but the results will still be the same,” the girl continued, quickly composing herself.

“The throne of Valhǫll sees not just the present and the future. He will sit on Hliðskjálf, and soon face the truth.”

The girl’s words sounded almost like a prophecy, carrying a strange sense of power behind them. She whispered softly, and by the end of her sentence, her words became so soft that they were barely audible.

“But bear with it no matter how hard it is, my promised heir.”

Her whisper barely lingered on the tip of her tongue, and the girl smiled brightly.

“My little Jin-Woo.”