The Don clapped his hands and said,
"Whoa. Excellent. If possible, Iʼd want to give you an award plaque. Something like the Deduction Award of the Year!"
At that moment, another round of applause came from behind.
It was the Don again.
"Bravo! Eternal glory to the Knight of Salvation!" Two Dons walked out from different directions.
However, the masks they wore differed. One bore a wide grin, while the other featured a single teardrop at the corner of its eye.
The two Don clones took turns speaking.
"Zeke Draker."
"Even if youʼve uncovered our secrets,"
"Thereʼs nothing you can really do about it."
Zeke looked at the two Dons and said,
"Where is Abel Draker?"
At those words, the two Dons burst into laughter, clutching their stomachs.
"Puhahaha!"
The Dons, who had laughed in unison, suddenly sobered up and straightened their backs.
"Son of a bitch,"
"Do you think weʼre some kind of dog shit?" Tss tss tss!
Bloodline abilities activated from the bodies of the two Dons.
But then— Kwaduduk—
With a sickening crunch, the upper body of one of the Don clones vanished entirely.
"Uh?"
The other clone recoiled in surprise at the sight.
A massive mouth gaped open from the rippling black shadow beside Zeke.
His eyes gleamed coldly.
"Go ahead, try running if you can. Iʼll chase you to the ends of the earth and devour you."
The Don clone panicked and backed away under Zekeʼs icy gaze.
'What... what is that?ʼ
Even for him, it proved impossible to comprehend the identity of the enormous mouth in the shadow that had instantly swallowed one of his clones.
They were beings created by the power of chaos—undefined existences.
That was why they had become irregulars, and with that power, they could absorb the bloodline abilities of ability users and wield them through the power of chaos.
Having lived for so long, they knew far more than they did not.
Yet he had no inkling about the giant mouth that had devoured his clone.
'Is it the authority of the Flesh-Devouring Emperor Ajitahaka? No. Iʼve seen that through
Abel Draker already. Itʼs different from this.ʼ
Zeke unleashed the power of his shadow to draw out Gluttony, pressuring the Don clone.
Gluttony proved an authority difficult for him to control as well, but it became an unavoidable choice to suppress the Don, who possessed the power of chaos.
Fortunately, one clone had been futilely consumed by Gluttony, and the otherʼs panic confirmed that Zekeʼs strategy had worked.
The Don clone looked at Zeke and said,
"...What the hell is that?"
"Curious? Youʼll know if you get eaten yourself."
Gluttony approached the Don with its maw wide open, exuding ample menace.
Judging that he could not immediately grasp its nature, the Don decided he needed to escape this place first and backed away.
Pajijijik—
He tried to flee using spatial movement, but Zekeʼs mana reversal technique prevented him from activating his ability.
'Damn it. What kind of bastard has abilities like this...ʼ
From the enemyʼs perspective, no one proved as tricky to deal with as Zeke.
He could wield swordsmanship and magic, authorities, bloodline abilities, and even the unique techniques of other races, on top of possessing the power of immortality— essentially, he had no weaknesses.
The Don changed his attitude as Zeke gradually closed in.
"Fine, Zeke Draker. You win."
He raised his hands high above his head and continued,
"I surrender. Iʼll comply, so tell me what you want."
Zeke eyed the Don, who had given up more easily than expected, and opened his mouth.
"Youʼre talking nonsense. Thereʼs no way youʼd just surrender." The Don shook his head at Zekeʼs words.
"What can I do in this situation? Iʼm a clone, but I still have a soul. Iʼve lost my sense of self after all the mixing and merging, though."
Their origins lay with the six princes of a fallen kingdom.
But through the curse on the Thebea Kingdom, second sons had died generation after generation, and they had grown stronger by absorbing the resulting vengeful spirits.
And when absorbing the vengeful spirit of an unjustly slain second son, the infant self of the yet-to-grow child inevitably got swept up with it.
Having absorbed such vengeful spirits for over a millennium, it stood to reason that their sense of identity—who they truly were—had become faint.
The Don clone looked at Zeke and said,
"Weʼre already new beings different from back then. The main body canʼt move easily, so we have no choice but to split our souls and embed them in puppets to act."
He twisted his neck 360 degrees and said,
"Of course, the puppets develop their own egos after a long time. Weʼve already settled into these puppets and become separate personalities. Weʼre different entities from the main body now."
Souls merged, split, and then became independent new souls.
Zeke recalled a constellation that had possessed a similar authority.
'Mammon, the Endlessly Devouring One. He too split and proliferated his soul to create clones, using them as avatar bodies.ʼ
It seemed the power of chaos had granted such power to the cursed princes of the fallen kingdom.
The Don clone slowly approached Zeke.
"But you know, weʼve been searching for a very long time. For a body strong enough for us to inhabit."
The reason the Nostra Family had sought out bloodline ability users, developed enhancement drugs to strengthen flesh, and conducted chimera experiments—all of it aimed to find a vessel for their souls.
His eyes gleamed as he spoke.
"And that body is right here now?"
In an instant, the Don clone lunged at Zeke.
Jjeojeok—
The mask he wore cracked, then moved like a living creature, lunging to cover Zekeʼs face.
Chwarararak—
The mask writhed as it attached to Zekeʼs face and settled into place.
The cloneʼs voice echoed in Zekeʼs mind.
[The main body wanted your body but held back. But I canʼt just let it go.]
Using the mask as a medium, the Don clone attempted to dominate Zekeʼs body, plunging into his mental world as a mental body.
Tss tss tss—
Zekeʼs tightly sealed mental world opened, and the cloneʼs mental body rapidly burrowed inside.
[Kahaha! Got it! This body is mine now!]
Once he infiltrated the mental world and absorbed Zekeʼs soul, he could control this powerful body as he pleased.
The clone body had grown stronger by absorbing the souls of strong bloodline ability users in this manner up until now.
But as his mental body grew too powerful, ordinary ability usersʼ flesh could not withstand it, so he had dwelled in puppets made of blood tear stone.
However, a body as strong as Zekeʼs would surely have sufficed to endure his mental body.
Filled with anticipation, he traversed the long tunnel-like passage of the mental world, burrowing toward Zekeʼs soul in the depths.
Before the rapidly advancing cloneʼs mental body, a massive hole appeared.
It was the entrance connected to Zekeʼs depths.
The clone flinched at the sight of the hole.
'What is that?ʼ
As a fragment of a cursed mental body, he had infiltrated hundreds of minds and devoured souls in their depths.
But he had never seen a sight like this anywhere.
The entrance loomed incomparably larger than any typical inner world.
The mental body felt an instinctive fear upon seeing the profound darkness within that entrance.
'If I enter there... I wonʼt be able to come out again.ʼ
He realized he had stepped into a place he should not have.
He needed to escape this place as soon as possible.
The moment he realized this and turned to flee—
"Where are you trying to go in such a hurry?"
Zeke had already manifested a form within his own mental world.
The cloneʼs hazy, smoky mental body panicked at the sight of Zeke.
Tss tss tss—
He quickly shifted into the form of the suited man who had worn the mask.
[Get out of the wayyy!]
The cloneʼs mental body screamed and reached out toward Zeke.
But unlike in reality, his abilities would not activate here.
Zeke slowly approached the mental body.
"This is my mental world. Did you think you could wield the pathetic abilities youʼve stolen from other ability users here?"
Realizing he could not use his powers no matter how hard he tried, the mental body changed plans.
'Iʼll force my way out of here and return to the main body.ʼ
He resolved to escape the mental world forcibly and return to the main body.
Tss tss tss—
His form blurred again, and the mental body itself tried to exit Zekeʼs body.
But then—
Kiiiiing—
The mental body attempting to leave Zekeʼs mental world caught like a fly in a net, unable to detach from the flesh.
[Wh-what... how is this possible...!]
Panicking, the mental body forced itself to revert to its original form.
Zeke walked up to him.
"Your decision to enter here was a very foolish choice."
As the holder of the immortal class and immortal body constitution, Zeke possessed mental strength stronger than any other being.
Even the blood king Caligula, king of Shambhala and ruler of the third-eye clan, could not withstand Zekeʼs mental world and got absorbed by him.
No matter how much of a millennium-old cursed being it was, infiltrating Zekeʼs mental world proved impossible.
Zeke extended his hand toward the Donʼs clone body.
At the same time, chains of Solomon burst forth from the empty space.
Chwararararak—
The soul-binding chains restrained even the mental body.
The Donʼs clone body, bound limb by limb in the chains, screamed.
[Damn it! Let go! Release me!]
Zeke tightened the chains further as he looked at the Don.
"Youʼll soon see your main body too, so donʼt feel too aggrieved."
Tss tss tss—
The ground beneath the bound Don turned into a black swamp.
The mental body gradually sank downward.
[Ah, no! Nooooo!]
The Don screamed as he sank, vanishing completely soon after.
A portion of the Don cloneʼs mental body had been absorbed into Zekeʼs mental world.
Soon, a message appeared before Zekeʼs eyes.
[You have absorbed a portion of the mental body of a cursed being infused with the power of chaos.]
[Your expended stamina, mental strength, and mana are replenished.]
[You absorb multiple bloodline abilities from the absorbed mental body.]
[As a reward, 15,000 karma points are granted.]
The bloodline abilities contained within the mental body recorded in the list in the form of skills.
But most proved not very effective for Zeke to use now, so he decided to convert them to karma points or transfer them to his summons.
Even so, absorbing the cloneʼs mental body allowed him to restore some of the previously uninterpretable karma data information.
Through this, Zeke could sense where the Donʼs main body was located.
'The main body exists in the deepest underground of this labyrinth.ʼ He exited the mental world and returned to reality.
Tudududuk—
The mask covering his face crumbled into powder and fell away.
Before moving, Zeke stared at the now-empty puppet body that the clone had inhabited.
'I should bring this to Lord Hades. He might like it. It could be useful for his research.ʼ He stored the hollow puppet in his inventory.
Then, he set coordinates for a location close to the underground space where the main body was.
'Abel should be where that thing is.ʼ
Zekeʼs body vanished into the portal along with the light.
*
At that moment, Hades stayed at the Agamemnon Castle in Mycenae, immersed in his powered suit research.
He improved his research results based on the tome of Hyperion that Zeke had given him.
"Ha, I didnʼt know it worked like this. As expected, Lord Hyperion is amazing..." But then—
Felix burst into Hadesʼs laboratory.
"L-Lord Hades, big trouble!"
Hades, who hated interruptions during research the most, scowled at Felix. "Felix, you insolent human. I told you not to barge in while Iʼm researching!" He raised his body into the air with mana.
"You really take my majestic true form lightly. You need to see it to snap out of it..."
"Ah! Thatʼs not it! Demons have invaded Mycenae right now!"
At Felixʼs words, Hades startled.
"What? Demons?"
Only then did Hades snap to attention and check the surveillance artifacts he had set up outside the castle.
Something floated in the sky over Mycenae.
"This is crazy..."
A massive gate had opened in the sky, and tens of thousands of monsters poured out from within.