CHAPTER 187
"Saint, I will take care of this!"
"Do not worry. I am still perfectly fine!"
"I will go first! Please preserve your body!"

After Sergeant Jo Seunghyeop joined us—helping out fiercely for some reason—we continued to repeatedly engage in combat with the possessed Regular Army.
Since leaving the bodies intact meant they would just be possessed again, we had no choice but to repeatedly destroy them, but we steadily piled up their severed hands.
Before long, Sergeant Jo Seunghyeop's and my bags were completely stuffed with all sorts of hands.

"Harua, I think it's over."

Just as I firmly adjusted the bag on my shoulder, Aranseol's voice called out.
Turning my head to follow her gaze, I saw an empty space.
There were no more signs of anyone present.
With this, we had effectively recovered all the Regular Army soldiers from the east all the way to the west.
Maybe it was because I had been constantly firing Holy Bullets.
I felt a bit fatigued, but it was a meaningful achievement.

"Alright. Let's head back."

Although we had recovered the Regular Army, it wasn't a situation where we could let our guard down.
Sohan, who had appeared earlier, still hadn't shown himself.
I figured he was acting as bait to draw out Soun, but regardless of that, the bastard's movements were highly suspicious.
I had no idea where he was or what he was doing.
Above all, the black roots we had seen earlier hadn't made an appearance in a while.
Considering that they were the vessel for the Artificial Transcendent, they definitely had some sort of scheme brewing.
A strangely ominous premonition lingered in my mind.
It was an inexplicable feeling that something massive was about to go down.

But even with that premonition, I had to do what I could first.
We ran as fast as we could and returned to the soul barrier.
The barrier had already expanded to a much larger size than before.
Additionally, perhaps there was a fire mage among the people I had revived, because the flames of the mass exorcism were burning even larger.
I thought flames of that size would burn up all the surrounding space, but I didn't feel any heat from them. Since it was a fire meant for the mass exorcism, it seemed it was a flame that only burned away the grudges of souls.

Beneath it, I could see Babiyen waving her staff like crazy.
Her face was deathly pale, making it obvious she was pouring out a massive amount of magic power.
It meant she had been working her ass off even while we were gone.

"Harua-nim, you're back-ssumda!"

Lululio, who spotted us first, welcomed us from inside the barrier.

"Yeah. First, I need to do some reviving. Sergeant Jo Seunghyeop, could you line up the hands next to me?"
"Yes, sir! Understood!"

Sergeant Jo faithfully followed my orders and hurriedly began setting out the hands.
I left the arrangement of the hands to him and sat down in front of them.
Then, I immediately began casting Resurrection magic on them one by one.
Maybe it was because I had revived countless people before.
Casting Resurrection magic no longer placed any burden on my body.
I don't know how it would have been if I still had my physical heart, but I didn't have such constraints.
So, without hesitation, I kept reviving them all.

Aranseol took charge of pushing the revived Regular Army soldiers into the barrier.
As soon as I revived them, she skillfully shoved the people inside.

"Gasp!"
"W-What happened..."

Soon after, the Regular Army soldiers began to revive inside the barrier.

"I-I'm alive."
"When did it come to this..."

Among them were some who had already experienced being resurrected.
There were many people in the Regular Army that I had saved, so it was a natural reaction.

While I spent a long time reviving them, a blue flame soared all the way to the ceiling in the distance.
However, instead of burning the ceiling, the flame spread out in all directions along it.
The blue flame began to fill the entire space.
The Lord of Souls, Legolash, stood in front of it.
He raised both arms, which were exposed from his long sleeves.
His arms were dyed in a blue light, and that light felt almost ethereal.
Legolash's long sleeves fluttered with his hand gestures.
As his dance began, the flames also scattered here and there, moving like will-o'-the-wisps.
Behind Legolash, the fire mages tenaciously maintained the flames.

At that moment, for some reason, my body felt lighter.
It felt as though the weights suppressing my body were falling off one by one.

"The lingering souls are disappearing one by one."

Aranseol, who could sense the presence of the souls through Danmyung, looked up at the ceiling.

"Does it feel like they're releasing their grudges?"

I couldn't exactly see the souls myself.
I'd probably be able to see them if they were souls possessing holy power.

Or maybe there's some sort of technique for it using holy power.

Come to think of it, Aigis seemed to be able to perceive the souls themselves.
There might be a method I just didn't know about yet.

"Uh, well, it feels like they're being dragged into the flames and extinguished."

Aranseol replied with a slightly awkward expression.
By the looks of it, they weren't exactly passing on peacefully.
Then again, they were all souls that had been dragged here against their will; who knows how much resentment they harbored.
There was no way they'd pass on with some half-assed method.

"I should just finish up what I need to do."

I decided not to worry about something I couldn't help with anyway, and focus on reviving people instead.
Time passed as I repeatedly cast Resurrection magic over and over.
Legolash's mass exorcism reached its climax, and just as Babiyen, who was maintaining the fire magic, looked like she was about to drop dead...

Thump—

I suddenly felt a sensation of something crushing down on my shoulders.
This incredibly bizarre sensation.
Having felt this sensation a long time ago, my head snapped up.

'...What is this right now.'

Goosebumps erupted all over my body, and the Mimyeongryeong poked its head out from my embrace.
It was clear that the little guy felt the same presence I did.

"Saint, what is the matter?"

Sergeant Jo Seunghyeop, who had been following Aranseol's lead in moving people into the barrier, voiced his confusion.
I could only imagine how blank my face looked as I stared up at the ceiling.

"Aranseol."

I had revived everyone.
To confirm what this was, I had to go outside right now.

"There's something I need to check outside! Right now!"
"Get on my back."

Aranseol offered me her back without hesitation.
No matter how much I had trained my body, Aranseol was infinitely faster than me.
Throwing all sense of shame out the window, I climbed onto her back.

"Inferno, we don't know what's coming, so stay on guard! I'm going to check outside!"
"All Regular Army personnel, assemble!"

Inferno immediately reacted to my shout.
Carrying me on her back, Aranseol began sprinting straight toward the outside.
The path we had cleared with Inferno taking the shortest route.
We ran down that path like crazy, and the moment we finally reached the entrance...

In front of the entrance we had come through.
I saw that black roots had densely blocked it off.

"I'll break through!"

While still on Aranseol's back, I pointed my finger at the black roots.
The moment the Mimyeongryeong wrapped around my finger, a Holy Bullet was fired.
The flying bullet added rotational force, shredding the black roots to pieces.
But that wasn't enough.
The roots were still there, making me wonder just how thickly they had covered the exit.

Because of that, Aranseol kicked off her leg and drew Danmyung.
Then, gripping Danmyung tightly with just her left hand, she gathered red electrical currents into the blade.

Heavenly Sword.

The pinnacle of swordsmanship that could cut through anything shot forward.
The black roots that touched Danmyung shifted to both sides and were completely sliced apart.

Boom, crash!

The black roots must have been much more massive than we thought, as we heard the tremendous weight of the severed roots crashing down.
As Aranseol's speed dropped from using the Heavenly Sword, I immediately cast Holy Magic on her, and she broke through the black roots, soaring into the sky.

Sacred Weapon.

A golden rope formed in my grasp and wrapped around the black roots.
Swinging alongside Aranseol, we finally landed on top of the black roots.

Thud—

With a brief impact, the black roots shook violently.
Coming outside, an appalling sight was revealed.
The entirety of Sky Castle was engulfed by the black roots originating from below, turning into a horrific mess.
It was no different from the black roots swallowing the entire Sky Castle.
But there was an even bigger problem than that.

Up in the sky.
An overwhelming presence that others wouldn't be able to sense was bearing down.

"...These crazy sons of bitches."

Inside the black clouds.
Something was looking down at us.
It was an existence that far exceeded the boundaries of human comprehension.

Transcendents.

They were looking down at this place.
It was my second time seeing the Transcendents since the incident with Bloody.
Just by looking at this place, they were dyeing the sky of this world a different color.

"How the hell did they..."
"Harua, what's going on?"

Aranseol, who couldn't perceive the Transcendents, asked me in confusion.
To her eyes, the black roots seemed to be the more pressing concern right now.

Rumble—

At that moment, the black roots shook the entirety of Sky Castle.
At the same time, another black root began to shoot up from beneath our feet.
It moved as if trying to entangle us.

"Harua!"

Aranseol hurriedly snatched me up and started running.
The black roots continuously sprouted, chasing after us.
Even amidst that, my gaze remained fixed on the sky, unable to look away.
I had fully experienced just how dangerous Transcendents were during the Bloody incident. They were beings capable of twisting everything just by slightly intervening in this world.
And now, for some reason, those very beings were watching this place.

My mind raced frantically.
I recalled how Bloody had summoned the Transcendents back then.
The condition for summoning the Transcendents.

"...A Holy Ground?"

My eyes landed on the black roots.
What was currently happening inside Sky Castle.
This situation where an uncountable number of souls were undergoing a mass exorcism.
Lua had said that humans were small seeds capable of becoming Transcendents.
And a Holy Ground held the strongest power of the Transcendent that formed this land.
Burning up meant a massive consumption of energy.
Did the seeds of Transcendents burning all at once mean that, temporarily, it was performing the exact same role as a Holy Ground?

And the one summoning those Transcendents is...

These black roots.
The moment my thoughts reached that point, my eyes shot wide open.

"Aranseol!"

Inside this Sky Castle.
There was someone summoning the Transcendents.
And I already knew exactly who that person was.
The man who had been wandering all alone inside the empty Sky Castle.

"We need to find Sohan!"

Sohan had the means to summon the Transcendents.