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Chapter 283 - Nephram (2)

It wasn’t just dark; he felt like he was surrounded by nothingness.

At that moment, an unfamiliar voice broke the silence.

- Who are you?

The voice echoed through the Chest like it would’ve done in a cave. Henry scoffed and looked around. He still couldn’t see anything, but this made it all the more ridiculous.

Henry wondered what kind of entity could enter Klever’s Chest and make its voice known like this.

‘Magic? No, this doesn’t feel like magic.’

Instead of answering the question, Henry kept trying to figure out what this entity was and how strong it was, but to no avail. He didn’t feel any mana from it, but something slightly different.

Realizing he couldn’t ignore this entity any longer, Henry responded with a question instead of answering.

“Are you Nephram?”

- You insolent brat! I asked you a question first! If you disrespect me like this one more time, I will...

“Kill me then.”

- ...What?

“Kill me if you can.”

In the end, Henry couldn’t gauge the opponent’s power, but that didn’t mean he was scared. If they were a devout member of the Church of Nephram, Henry had some means to deal with them, like the Pope had said.

Alternatively, there was a chance his opponent possessed not the powers of Nephram, but demonic energy, but that wasn’t frightening either. Henry had dealt with demonic energy plenty of times in his lifetime, so overall he wasn’t afraid at all that he could die here, which was why he was so brazen.

- ...

There was a long moment of silence.

“Klever,” said Henry.

- Yes, Master.

“What happened? Did he capture you or something?”

- No. I’m not really sure about the voice from earlier either. I don’t think I was robbed of my powers, but the voice came out from nowhere...

“Is that so?”

Contrary to Henry’s fears, Klever hadn’t been captured by this mysterious entity. The silence persisted for a while, and then...

Vvrrr—!

Henry pulled out the Shalka, which was vibrating again, and its needle was also spinning furiously. He didn’t understand why this was happening. The Shalka seemed like a broken clock, so Henry put it back in the subspace.

Then, with a dull expression, Henry cast a spell, the target being the darkness surrounding him. There was no point in waiting for an answer from his silent opponent.

The Dance of the Angry Giant, a powerful 7th-Circle earthquake magic, was now fully prepared in Henry\'s hands. All he had to do was activate it.

“Klever, get ready,” said Henry.

- Yes, Master.

Oong!

Klever opened the Chest slightly, and Henry released the compressed earthquake magic through the gap as if throwing a pebble.

Boom!

A thundering boom shook everything around the Chest.

This powerful 7th-Circle spell, the Dance of the Angry Giant, was named like that because it produced an earthquake that felt as though a giant was dancing nearby.

The effect of this spell was devastating.

The magic shot through the water flooding the underground room, cracking the floor and the walls and destroying everything. Henry watched everything from inside the Chest with his arms folded.

The destruction was gradually growing in intensity and spreading; cracks lead to more cracks, and the small damage quickly turned catastrophic.

This was the horror of earthquake magic—a chain reaction of destruction.

After a while, Henry noticed that the water Elagon had ejected into the room was slowly draining. When he could finally see the ground again, Henry shielded himself with magic just in case he would get attacked again and stepped out of the Chest.

Snap!

Once he was outside, Henry snapped his fingers, and this time, several lights illuminated the area.

Henry scanned his now bright surroundings and thought to himself, ‘There must’ve been some sort of barrier in this place that was preventing my mana from activating.’

Henry was only now able to use his mana, after destroying the entire place with a devastating earthquake. This meant that the barrier hadn’t specifically stopped Henry from using magic, but that it had been protecting the place from any outside forces.

His shoes were dirty from all the mud caused by Elagon’s water. Henry looked at the remains of the skeleton soldiers stuck in the mud and clicked his tongue.

‘Did they back down?’

No more skeletons were attacking him, and the barrier that had been disrupting his mana was clearly gone. He also couldn’t hear the voice that had tried to intimidate him either.

Henry thought that his opponent had backed down, but just then, he spotted a door in the distance that hadn’t been there before.

‘Huh?’

The door was caked with mud. It seemed that Henry’s destructive magic had revealed this hidden door.

‘A door... It’s a little too obvious.’

Henry was reasonably skeptical about this. He thought about it for a moment before raising his hand.

“Shout of Steel.”

Boom!

As soon as he cast the spell, a huge chunk of steel materialized out of thin air and slammed into the door with tremendous force.

There was a dent in the door, but Henry’s attack didn\'t end there.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

The more Henry moved his hand, the more the block of steel pounded on the door. Of course, he could’ve drawn his sword and slashed the door, but he chose against it because he didn’t want to give away the fact that he was a magic swordsman. He also wanted to show off the power of his magic, irritated that it had been suppressed so far.

Soon, Henry completely shattered the door with the steel he had summoned.

“Cancel.”

As Henry withdrew his hand, the block of steel disappeared. He then threw Light beyond the shattered door and peered inside.

Whoosh!

The scenery beyond the busted door reminded Henry of the temple he had seen underneath the palace in Shahatra.

As soon as he discovered the temple, Henry took out the Shalka and smiled upon looking at it. Much to his delight, the needle was clearly pointing to the moon.

***

“Squawk! Squawk!”

What lay beyond the door was indeed a temple. Hector, having lost his patience, flew inside with a cry.

Henry followed behind him. Looking at the temple, he said, “I think I’ve come to the right place.”

There was no reason for a normal temple to be hidden this deep underground and be protected by a special barrier. This particular temple clearly had some sort of sinister backstory.

Henry shone the Light on the temple as he looked around it. The area was huge, but there were no signs of life. Instead, the temple emanated a repulsive concentration of demonic energy.

‘Demonic energy, huh...’

The demonic energy Henry had felt from those skeletons was nowhere near as powerful as this one. He reckoned that back in the underground area, he had to have felt the demonic energy from this temple, not from the skeletons themselves.

“Armor on.”

Znggg.

White armor appeared on Henry. He had no intention of giving the Church of Nephram another chance, or to be exact, he had no intention of wasting any more time.

Henry stood in front of the temple. Amplifying his voice with mana, he shouted firmly, “Listen, Church of Nephram!”

Henry’s voice filled the air.

“If no one appears before me right now, I’ll burn this temple to the ground!’

If someone from the Church of Nephram had been watching Henry so far, they certainly knew he wasn’t bluffing.

He waited for a bit, but his firm warning was met with utter silence, as no one emerged from the temple.

Henry sighed deeply and said, “You had your chance.”

He raised his head above his head, amassing a fierce wind pressure. But just then...

“W-wait a minute!”

The loud gusting wind had almost drowned out that voice, but luckily, Henry’s hearing was quite keen. He stopped amassing the wind and turned his head in the direction of the voice. He spotted a man running out of the temple, panting.

Henry undid the wind.

Seeing the man coming toward him, Henry said, “Stop.”

The man instantly complied. He was wearing a hood of a weathered brown color.

As soon as the man stopped, Henry snapped his fingers.

Snap!

“Argh.”

Henry used magic to quickly tie the man’s hands behind his back. The man then fell to his knees, and the hood fell back and revealed his face.

He looked almost as old as Pope Ross.

In a harsh tone, Henry asked, “Who are you?”

“M-my name is Hoosler.”

“Who are you affiliated with?”

“The Church of Nephram. You’ve come to the right place.”

The old man gave Henry the answer he wanted. Henry walked up closer to Hoosler and kneeled to look him in the eye.

Henry snapped his fingers again.

Snap!

One of Hoosler’s arms snapped forward from behind his back, and Henry placed the Shalka in his palm.

The Shalka was still pointing to the moon. Seeing that, Henry retrieved the Shalka with a satisfied smile.

“I’m a wizard, and I have business with the Church of Nephram. Are you the only member of the church?”

“...Yes.”

“Well, that makes you the leader. I have some questions for you, Hoosler, and I hope you’ll cooperate.”

Henry spoke rather politely to Hoosler, but his tone was intimidating.

Scared, Hoosler replied in a shaky voice, “U-uhm... Sir, I will certainly answer all your questions, but before that, could you please give me a chance to ask you a question too?”

“Fine. Ask.”

“How did you find out about this place?”

“The Pope told me.”

“The Pope?”

“Yeah. Does the name Ross Borgia I ring a bell?”

“R-Ross! How dare he...!”

“That’s the end of your question. You can’t ask me any more questions now.”

Henry was controlling Hoosler with mana, so he had no way of harming Henry. But just then, gritting his teeth, Hoosler shouted, “For the Demon God!”

Bite!

Hoosler then bit his tongue, releasing a large volume of dense poisonous mist.