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Chapter 271: Star, the U.S. (6)

Francois Prelati was the icon of those Elder Lichs. He used to be a highly renowned priest in the fifteenth century, but his greed for immmortality led him to pursue forbidden magic spells, which in turn turned him into a Lich upon death.

Over five hundred years, Francois lived in the shadows, learning numerous black magic spells. When the age of Dungeons started, he could finally come out to the world again.

To him, the White Tiger Clan wasn’t just a Clan for Francois. Its members were comrades who gave him a second chance in life and saviors who helped him exceed the limit of Nyx as a Lich. The Clan also served as a home to all sorts of people who had a past similar to his, so he really liked being an elder in the White Tiger Clan’s Council of Elders.

‘With this title, I can do anything,’?Francois thought.

His title was the shield that protected him from his hunters and the certification that allowed him to do various experiments.

‘Kekekeke! It’s not different here.’?Francois coldly laughed as he watched Chang-Sun, who was looking back at him. He thought he would finally get to have a fun experiment for the first time in a long time.

‘Abandoned Building in Chicago,’ the Instance Dungeon installed within this building, was Francois’ masterpiece among all his other masterpieces. In his mind palace, which was about materializing one’s imagination, he used his advanced illusion magic spells and formations, creating a separate space. With the addition of a Dungeon Core from another Dungeon, the Dungeon could move like a living creature.

The sole goal of ‘Abandoned Building in Chicago’ was to kill their main enemy. Hence, countless monsters were summoned in it. Since it was basically a world made specifically to kill Chang-Sun, Francois was impressed with Chang-Sun for reaching this floor. However, he was also certain that Chang-Sun would soon cry his eyes out and beg not to be killed.

‘That’s what everyone I met has done!’?

Even the pompous cleric from a Catholic church ended up begging Francois not to kill him. Considering his past experience, Francois thought that Chang-Sun would not be any diff—!

Rumble!

[The Skill ‘Fiery Lightning Bolt’ has been activated!]

Before Francois could even finish his train of thought, the black electromagnetic force circling around Chang-Sun was fired at him. The giant ray of light was about to strike him like a rising Dragon, so he was forced to quickly escape Chang-Sun’s attack range.

“Where are your manners?! An elder is speaking, so you should ans—!” Francois shouted at Chang-Sun, but the consecutive [Fiery Lighting Bolt] attacks forced him to stop abruptly.

Boom, boom, boom!

Rumble―!

Still hanging upside down, Francois repeatedly activated [Blink] and reappeared all over the ceiling. Although the sight looked somewhat bizarre, Chang-Sun just kept firing [Fiery Lightning Bolts] wherever Francois showed up as if Chang-Sun could not care less about him and had actually been waiting for him to show himself. After a while, Francois realized that he had to do something about the [Fiery Lightning Bolts].

Boom, boom, boom!

Francois slammed his staff against the ceiling, creating smoke of dust. The [Fiery Lightning Bolt] hit the invisible barrier he created, the collision resulting in smoke and a burning smell. At that moment, Chang-Sun showed up before Francois.

Swooosh―!

With his Jigwi’s wings spread open, Chang-Sun flew toward him and concentrated his flames on the Nameless Spear in his right hand to activate [Lance Charging]. An explosion soon took place.

“Hmph! Sloppy!” Francois shouted.

Claang!

Living up to his title as a prominent elder in the White Tiger Clan Council of Elders, Francois narrowly parried Chang-Sun’s Nameless Spear upward with his staff. A strong gust of wind was created upon impact, making Chang-Sun’s hair flutter.

“You…” Chang-Sun’s eyes turned cold upon detecting a scent.

Woosh!

His Inferno Sights flickered to life. “... opened a cryptical book.”

A shiver went down Francois’ spine the moment he looked into Chang-Sun’s eyes. Even though Francois was an Undead, there was something about Chang-Sun’s eyes that overwhelmed his soul. He had become a demigod after becoming a Elder Lich, however, and he had also been blessed by the <Starlight> in [Seven Cryptical Books of Hsan] with assistance from the White Tiger Clan. . He was now powerful enough to escape from his fear.

“Kekekeke! You’re right on point! I heard you could be in possession of a couple of the cryptical books, but I didn’t expect it to be rea—!” Francois said.

Executive Director Oh knew about it, so there was no way that the Council of Elders wouldn’t.

Francois was currently more driven by his new goal of becoming stronger, so he planned to take Chang-Sun’s cryptical books. Although it only lasted for a split second, Chang-Sun demonstrated a level of power that was strong enough to intimidate Francois, so he thought he would be able to surpass his current level and become a Arch-Elder Lich if he could get his hands on the rest of the books.

However, Francois couldn’t keep imagining his rosy future. Before he could finish speaking, Chang-Sun’s spear handle detached in the middle, and Chang-Sun struck Francois’ face with the two short spears.

Slash!

Francois quickly leaned backward, allowing him to dodge Chang-Sun’s attack with only a scratch on his cheek. His artificially-made green blood splattered in the air.

“You bas—!”

“If there are guys like you, then that means there are many more people who have Ithaca’s <Starlight>.” Chang-Sun didn’t care how furious Francois was. The only thought he had in mind was how to recover Ithaca’s legacy, which the damned Heoju had taken.

Woosh, woosh, woosh―!

Having no intention to let Francois live, Chang-Sun decided to kill Francois as quickly as possible and retrieve Ithaca’s <Starlight>. If his hypothesis was correct, the other members of the White Tiger Clan’s Council of Elders would have Ithaca’s <Starlight> as well.

Elders like Bu Yeong-Jin and Tae Hong-Gak, who followed Chang-Sun to France, were just pawns in the Council of Elders, so there was a high chance that they were not given Ithaca’s <Starlight>.

‘The elder named Jaegal Hyeon-Ryong or something is totally different, though,’?Chang-Sun thought.

Sun Wukong the Monkey King’s apostle had to be more than worthy enough to receive <Starlight>.

Clang, clang, clang!

Chang-Sun thrust the Nameless Spear in rapid succession. When he felt like it wasn’t enough, he used his whip to not give Francois any time to activate his magic spells.

“Y-you!” Francois stammered.

Francois used [Blink] to escape, but Chang-Sun tenaciously kept coming after him. At this rate, he knew he would be in real danger soon.

Slash―!

“Keugh…!”

Just as he expected, the [Yuchang Sword] flashed before his eyes and slashed off his left arm. He could restore his arm anytime, but being unable to use hand seals was a critical problem for a wizard. To make things worse, the divine and lightning energy in the [Yuchang Sword] began to permeate into Francois, disrupting his mana circulation and making him dizzy.

‘I should have listened to the vice leader about not taking him lightly—!’?Francois thought.

“I know how much you want to retrieve the <Starlight>, but it would be best not to take him lightly.”?

Hyeon-Ryong’s remark popped into Francois’ mind, finally understanding what Hyeon-Ryong meant. Right now, however, he had to focus on coming up with a countermeasure. He felt as if now was a good time to activate his Authority.

[Space Severance] was the unique Authority that he had created from the <Starlight> he had received. It trapped his target for a certain amount of time in a space he created, and no matter how strong the target was, they would never be able to escape from it. In fact, Francois created the ‘Abandoned Building in Chicago’ based on his Authority.

‘I have to suffer for at least several days if I use this, but—!’?

Even for Francois, who had an abundant amount of mana, the Authority was still very taxing to use due to how strong it was. It was very effective, though, and it wasn’t like he had any other choice.

Woosh, woosh, woosh!

At that moment, the world around Francois turned upside down.

Click, clack…!

The small skull on his staff opened and closed its mouth several times.

Flash!

The small skull’s eyes emitted dark red lights, completely blocking Chang-Sun’s view.

* * *

[You have been trapped in a severed space!]

Swoosh―!

[Tiamat’s Snaggletooth] definitely cut through Francois’ waist, but Chang-Sun felt nothing.

‘… What?’?Chang-Sun wondered.

Francois disappeared, leaving Chang-Sunalone in the pitch-black darkness. At that moment, he noticed something was wrong.

A gust of wind soon agglomerated in front of Chang-Sun and Armand showed up. Her small elemental spirit form was frowning. 「It looks like you’re trapped in an artificially-made space.」

Dria appeared beside Armand and scoffed. 「It’s Chanaz.」

“Chanaz?” Chang-Sun repeated.

「She’s one of our sisters, and she’s good at controlling space. It seems your opponent received her <Starlight>.」

Chang-Sun nodded. Space was one of Ithaca’s power attributes along with wind, so one of her daughters having an ability related to space wasn’t odd at all. Now that he thought about it, he heard that Ithaca was a descendant of Quirinale[1], the clan of space that most Celestials did not even know about.

Besides, techniques that drove an enemy to madness by trapping them in a certain place were very common. Some even changed the flow of time within the space.

‘Let’s try smashing it first,’?Chang-Sun thought.

Pzzzzz!

He didn’t know how different this space’s flow of time was from the real world, so escaping this place as quickly as possible was for the best. Chang-Sun unleashed as much Fulgurator energy as he could. He hadn’t mastered it yet, but it was already powerful. Atra Fulmen lightning bolts spread all over the place and ripped the darkness to shreds.

Boom, boom, boom!

Rumble―!

However, no matter how many explosions Chang-Sun created, the same message just kept popping up.

[You have been trapped in a severed space.]

[You have been trapped in a severed space.]

…

[You have been trapped in a severed space.]

…

[You are currently unable to escape.]

「Getting out of here won’t be easy. Among us, she has the greatest control over space,」 Dria said.

Chang-Sun looked at Armand, who nodded in agreement and she added, 「She’s our eldest sister.」

Their explanation gave sense to everything happening right now.

‘Ithaca’s oldest daughter… If I hadn’t been around, that child would have inherited all of Ithaca’s <Starlight>,’?Chang-Sun thought.

Chang-Sun was Ithaca’s heir. However, as her eldest daughter, Chanaz had to be as strong as Ithaca during her prime. It was only natural that the space made based on her <Starlight> was capable of trapping Chang-Sun and nullifying his attacks.

‘It’s safe to assume that the elders who possess <Starlight> in the Council of Elders have and can activate this kind of power. How bothersome.’?

If those elders were physically stronger than Gildals and had Ithaca’s Authorities, then it would surely take a long time to exterminate them. On the other hand, Chang-Sun could just turn them into his subordinates using Executive Director Oh and Seo Jeong-Gwon.

“Is there any way out of here?”

「I don’t know.」 Dria shrugged.

“You don’t know?”

「Us sisters don’t really reveal what kind of unique powers we have, but I did hear that one has to meet a requirement to dismantle the space Chanaz has created.」

“What requirement would that be?”

「This kind of place usually isn’t sustained solely by one’s mana. It is materialized using some laws of nature, so I heard that disassembling it is surprisingly as easy as creating it,」 Dria said.

「Maybe the requirement is related to time. It should be impossible to maintain this space indefinitely, after all,」Armand added.

Chang-Sun nodded in agreement. There certainly had to be a limit to maintaining this kind of place. However, even if he could hold out until the space was dismantled by itself, he didn’t know how different the flow of time here was from the real world. Moreover, Chang-Sun had no way of knowing how long he had to wait. Escaping this place seemed far-fetched.

Most people would mentally break down once they were locked up in a place like this. However, Chang-Sun had to first meet a requirement to get out of here.

‘This is hard.’

Thump!

Chang-Sun sat on the ground.

「What’s wrong?」

「What are you doing?」

“There doesn’t seem to be anything I can do about this right now. I can only wait until either the time limit is over or my subordinates outside come to rescue me. Until then, I should at least do something productive.” Chang-Sun held up his arm, revealing the small rune sentences engraved on his forearm.

[Your soul is synchronizing with the sentences.]

…

[16:27:49]

[16:27:48]

[16:27:47]

…

Fortunately, the process was still going smoothly.

“Maybe I’m actually lucky to be here,” Chang-Sun murmured.

No one would interrupt him here, which meant he had all the time in the world right now to complete [False Belief].

‘I’ve been postponing my Secret Darkness Techniques studies. I should use this time to study it and master Fulgurator,’?Chang-Sun thought. However, as he did…

[The Celestial ‘A Good Season to Hunt’ asks you to sleep with her if you have the time!]

1. It’s actually a place. One of the Seven Hills in Rome.