Chapter 186
“This is the place.”
The witches had confirmed the laboratory’s existence.
The source of the massive shockwave—powerful enough to shake the world.
They moved in quickly and stopped before the door.
“‘Shadow of Death’.”
“A fairly high-grade curse is blocking the entrance.”
“But curses are just cute toys to us.”
The barrier sealing the laboratory.
They recognized it instantly and smiled faintly.
The curse of death was a powerful curse—one that would instantly annihilate anyone who tried to force their way in.
Of course, it was the finest curse Ahheta could obtain.
…But they were witches.
Beings akin to living conglomerations of curses—masses of curses themselves.
How could any curse in the Abyss stop witches?
“Step aside.”
The three witches raised their hands.
Ssssssssss!
Black magic surged from their palms.
It swallowed the ‘Shadow of Death’ and began to press it down.
Unable to endure the pressure from the three witches, the ‘Shadow of Death’ shrank back and slipped aside like a frightened puppy.
It couldn’t withstand the witches—the Species Lords of curses.
“…It really is the laboratory.”
Ataraxia spoke as he stared at the door revealed behind the Shadow of Death.
He had tried to delay the witches’ discovery as long as possible, but they had found it anyway.
And their ability to repel curses was remarkable—almost admirable.
If he had tried to force his way in, even he would have struggled to remove that curse.
‘As expected, witches are witches.’
Just as dragonkin wield magic as naturally as breathing, witches handled black magic and curses the same way.
Races that lived in entirely different domains.
…Though he wasn’t sure witches should even be classified as a species.
If their numbers were just a little larger, the ‘Twelve Species’ might have become the ‘Thirteen Species’.
Kurung!
The door opened.
And then—
“Hmm, Mana Interference?”
Ataraxia frowned.
The moment it opened, he could feel mana trembling.
Mana itself tangling, then scattering.
It didn’t feel like it would be easy to draw mana out and cast magic.
“Hehehe. You look like a wet mouse, Ataraxia.”
“Ataraxia, are you scared?”
“If you’re afraid, you don’t have to go in.”
The witches mocked him.
Black magic couldn’t completely ignore the Mana Interference either, but compared to what Ataraxia must have been feeling, it was nothing.
And they had a reason to taunt him.
—‘The moment you recover “that”, kill him.’
The Black Witch’s command.
They intended to kill Ataraxia the moment they recovered the ‘Transcendent Grimoire’.
Normally, witches found it irritating—disgusting, even—to share the Abyss with dragonkin like him.
‘I don’t want to share the same space with a stupid dragonkin for even a second.’
‘This place will become your grave.’
‘We can’t let a mere dragon receive the Black Witch’s favor.’
He acted as if he followed the Black Witch, but dragonkin were a race whose true intentions were impossible to read.
After all, magic and black magic were opposing concepts.
How could a dragon and a witch—beings from entirely different worlds—stand together in one place?
Once inside, Ataraxia wouldn’t be able to use magic anyway.
Killing a dragonkin who couldn’t use magic would be simple.
“…I’m very curious about what’s inside.”
Ataraxia accepted their taunts.
He would have gone in even without them.
This place was emitting such heavy Mana Interference.
It took priority over killing the Archmage—over finding the Star of Arrogance and the Wish.
He had to check, at least once.
And if it was true that ‘Sephiro’ was inside—
‘I can’t let you disturb Sephiro-nim.’
If anything, he would be the one to obstruct the witches.
Ataraxia stepped through the doorway first.
Then—
“…It might be better to turn back.”
He immediately walked back out.
The witches snickered.
“Why? Is there an even stronger curse inside?”
“Of course you’re scared when you can’t use magic.”
“Tsk, tsk. Move aside. We’ll go in first.”
Leaving the bewildered Ataraxia behind, the witches entered the laboratory.
At the same time—
“…Hmm.”
“Golems…”
“There are… so many?”
A vast cavern.
Nine hundred golems, waiting the moment they set foot inside.
If they were ordinary golems, the witches wouldn’t have been surprised.
But the Dark Guardians, Death Golems, and Nightmares here were powerful entities—strong enough that demon lords used them to guard their castles.
Ataraxia reappeared behind the witches and spoke.
“Ahheta prepared quite the defense. Don’t you think so?”
His arms were crossed.
Since he couldn’t use magic, he had no intention of doing anything but watching from the back.
The witches objected.
“…They’re just stupid golems nonetheless.”
“Simple and plain.”
“They’re just hard lumps of rock.”
Big, hard lumps of rock.
A golem was nothing more, nothing less.
Things that didn’t even understand beautiful black magic—things that weren’t even alive.
Just large targets.
However—
-Intruders.
-They are trying to disturb our Master.
-Black magic! Witches!
The golems looked at them and spoke clearly.
“Oh ho.”
A sharp interest flared in Ataraxia’s expression.
The witches were equally stunned.
“The golems…”
“Have ego?”
“All of those numerous units?”
Originally, golems had no ego.
They couldn’t.
They were dolls—materials crudely stitched together around a Mana Core.
Yet they spoke.
They moved on their own, without orders, and began to surround the witches.
An unexpected variable.
The witches all thought the same thing.
…This fight wouldn’t be easy.
—
“That stupid Ahheta brat…”
The Black Witch watched the witches through her orb.
Within the orb, the witches’ battle against the golems unfolded.
She had expected Ahheta to prepare thorough defenses, but even she hadn’t anticipated nine hundred golems with ego.
“Did you covet it that much—the Transcendent Grimoire?”
The Transcendent Grimoire causes powerful Mana Interference.
If it renders mana itself useless, then there is nothing better than golems for guarding the laboratory.
But it was puzzling.
Golems are, in the end, dolls moved by a Mana Core.
No matter how sturdy the Mana Core, it shouldn’t be able to escape Mana Interference.
…Who would have thought he’d deploy golems with ego?
It seemed the Transcendent Grimoire had looked that irresistible to Ahheta.
Well.
Anyone who saw the grimoire lost their senses and coveted it.
Because of its intense, ecstatic form.
The Master of the Moon, Ahheta, was probably no different.
However—
‘I will reclaim the Transcendent Grimoire myself.’
He hadn’t completed it.
Then there was no choice but to take it back by force.
Nine hundred golems with ego were unexpected, but the three witches she had sent would still be more than capable of victory.
And she had given them a dedicated sealing tool to use the moment they approached the ‘Transcendent Grimoire’ at the laboratory’s core, so they could recover it.
“…I will complete it myself.”
The grimoire was incomplete.
Half its contents had been torn out.
But even with only half—no, even with only a few pages—anyone could tell how valuable it was.
Its true value, its contents—
“The Magic of the Transcendent.”
It was magic.
More than that, it was something akin to ‘Truth’.
Even the Black Witch, who dealt in black magic and stood on the opposite side of truth, was inevitably overwhelmed by the Magic of the Transcendent.
That was precisely why a witch couldn’t complete it.
But the Black Witch thought differently.
It was better to do it herself than entrust it to a fool like Ahheta.
No matter how long it took, no matter how much pain she endured, the Black Witch was serious enough about the ‘Transcendent Grimoire’ to bear it.
If she could learn it—
‘I can escape this swamp of the Abyss.’
She would escape the Abyss and carve the power of witches across the entire Abyss.
The Deep Abyss was the deepest pit of the Abyss.
The Black Witch and the witches weren’t here by choice.
“…Great Nine Lords. I will make you realize you are not great at all.”
They had been exiled by the Great Nine Lords.
And so, the only space left to the witches was this Abyss—like a rat hole.
A place of exile.
They had been judged and cast out arbitrarily, declared disruptive to the Abyss’s balance with their witch power.
But if she learned the power of the ‘Transcender’, everything changed.
Transcender.
The most divine and mysterious beings in the Abyss.
Existences so powerful that no one could touch them.
Because in their specific fields, they displayed truly transcendent abilities.
The Abyss’s earliest concepts had originated from them.
There were even stories that they were the operators who created the system.
That was why even the Great Nine Lords treated them with honor.
The magic left behind by such a Transcender.
Of course it would be coveted.
“…Wait.”
It was then.
The Black Witch’s eyes—fixed on the orb—began to tremble violently.
In the midst of the witches’ battle, the atmosphere inside the laboratory suddenly changed.
Golden dust churned through the entire space.
Then rain fell in one area, snow fell in another, and a typhoon blew in from elsewhere.
A space where every phenomenon seemed mixed together.
She knew only one place like that.
“Transcendent… Abyss?”
Transcendent Abyss!
An Abyss that exists in a way completely unlike conventional concepts.
And now, Ahheta’s laboratory had been overlaid with it.
Moreover, that golden dust—
‘Transcender!’
The traces of a Transcender within the Transcendent Abyss.
But it didn’t make sense.
Why the Transcendent Abyss had suddenly overlapped the laboratory, and why a Transcender had appeared.
…This is dangerous.
The Magic of the Transcendent is coveted, but the Transcender itself is not something to take lightly.
They were monsters who never forgave those who forced their way into their domain.
“…Get out. Immediately, from that place…!”
She commanded the witches.
But her words didn’t reach them.
Kksshhhzzzt!
The orb’s transmission was forcibly cut off.
Immediately after, the orb turned black, showing nothing.
—
—……What a truly fascinating being.
Those were the first words the Transcender spoke as it looked at Park Chan-woo.