Rex tried to rush toward Arthur, whose heart had been pierced by the tentacle.
But Ramon, who was behind him, grabbed Rex.
"It's already too late!"
Ramon held Rex back as he tried to head toward Arthur and pulled him away.
However, Rex shook off Ramon and tried to run toward Arthur again.
Seeing this, Ramon gritted his teeth and pulled out another scroll from his pocket.
He immediately tore the scroll and activated the magic.
Woooong!
As the spatial magic activated, light extended out and enveloped Ramon and Rex.
'So that's how Ramon and Rex managed to escape.'
Zeke, who had been inside Rex's body, instinctively rejected the light.
Tzzzzz—
Soon, along with the light, Rex and Ramon's figures vanished.
But at that moment, something astonishing happened.
'Huh?'
Zeke realized that he, who had been inside Rex's body, hadn't been teleported away and now stood in the cave in his own form.
[The System Akashic Code activates.]
[The Authority Eye of the Sage activates.]
[The Authority Re-Creation activates.]
[Reconstructing the relevant past memory.]
Through the authorities Zeke possessed, he could now examine the past that Rex hadn't seen.
Zeke turned his head and looked at his translucent body.
Arthur Draker lay collapsed with his heart pierced, motionless as if dead.
At that moment, the outsider-species magical beast that Arthur had bisected slowly began to rise.
Grrrruk!
Tentacles sprouted from the severed parts, sticking together until the divided body returned to its original form.
'So that's the characteristic of an outsider-species magical beast—its incredible regenerative ability. We didn't know that.'
It was only natural, since it was a beast none of them had ever seen before.
As Zeke clicked his tongue inwardly, the outsider-species magical beast rose and examined the fallen Arthur Draker.
Then, it extended its tentacles to wrap around Arthur's motionless body and lifted him up.
Grrrruk!
The outsider-species magical beast carried Arthur Draker and moved somewhere.
Zeke followed cautiously behind the beast with a puzzled expression.
Holding Arthur Draker, the outsider-species magical beast descended deep into the cave.
'Why is the outsider-species magical beast taking Arthur Draker's corpse, which was pierced through the heart and killed?'
Though it was a memory from the past, it had been reconstructed through Zeke's divine authorities, so it played out as vividly as reality.
Thus, this situation had truly occurred in the past.
As Zeke wondered how such a thing could have happened, the beast continued descending deeper underground.
Along the way, Zeke noticed something had changed.
'This is an artificially constructed space.'
If the upper dungeon had been a natural cave, the paths and corridors leading downward from some point felt clearly man-made.
And Zeke had seen architecture with a similar structure before.
'The underground structures built by the orks. This definitely matches that style and layout.'
The ancient temple Arthur Draker had been searching for was an ork underground labyrinth.
However, Zeke had no idea why an outsider-species magical beast would be in an orkmade underground labyrinth.
'An ancient temple located in an underground dungeon built by orks, guarded by an outsider species. What on earth is this place?'
Zeke recalled how Arthur Draker hadn't properly explained the nature of this place to his comrades Rex and Ramon earlier.
At that time, while inside Rex's body, Zeke had picked up on something from Arthur Draker's expression.
'Arthur Draker didn't fully know what this place was either.'
But Arthur Draker hadn't been the type to recklessly explore a suspicious ancient temple without proper knowledge.
So, there must have been a reason he ventured into this uncertain place despite the risks.
'He tried to hide it, but... Arthur Draker was clearly desperate and anxious.'
Zeke could read the underlying anxiety beneath Arthur Draker's composed facade.
He must have been in a desperate enough situation to descend into this unknown place and search for "something."
To Zeke, it had felt unfamiliar that Arthur Draker, who had always been so composed and had sought to control everything, had once been plagued by such desperation.
And it had been equally hard to believe that such an Arthur Draker had met his end here in this nameless dungeon, pierced through the heart by a magical beast.
'I'll find out what happened when I reach the end of this labyrinth.'
Zeke quietly followed behind, watching Arthur Draker's corpse being dragged away in the outsider-species magical beast's tentacles.
After descending the corridor for a long while, the outsider-species magical beast suddenly stopped.
Zeke halted behind it and surveyed the surroundings.
Soon, he spotted a massive door blocking the way in the darkness ahead of the beast.
Surprisingly, the outsider-species magical beast then bowed its head before the door, as if offering a prayer.
It was a posture that seemed to show reverence to the seal engraved on the door.
'I've never seen a magical beast react like that before.'
Zeke stepped forward and examined the seal on the door that the beast had bowed to.
And he couldn't help but be shocked.
The seal engraved on the door was one Zeke knew well.
'Emblem of the Sword?'
The door bore the Emblem of the Sword, symbolizing the Absolute Sword House Draker family line from Sword Saint Shattan Draker onward.
However, upon closer inspection, there was a slight difference: unlike Shattan Draker's Emblem of the Sword, a circle resembling the sun was drawn around the blade.
'Emblem of the Sword and Sun.'
Zeke couldn't fathom why a symbol almost identical to the Draker family's Emblem of the Sword was engraved on this ancient temple door.
Moreover, the fact that an outsider-species magical beast had shown reverence to this seal had been utterly baffling.
As Zeke grappled with confusion, the outsider-species magical beast began to move again.
Grrrruk!
It set Arthur Draker down on the ground and extended dozens of tentacles toward the seal on the door.
The tentacles soon slipped into the fine holes around the seal.
Grrrruk!
The dozens of tentacles entered the holes and meticulously manipulated the door's mechanisms.
Click-clack! Creak!
The disc engraved with the Emblem of the Sword and Sun began to rotate with a sound.
As the sword tip pointed upward, there was a click.
At the same time, crimson light spread from the disc across the entire door.
Tzzzzz—
Moments later, the door was covered in crimson threadlike lines, as if overlaid with capillaries, and it slowly split open to both sides.
Rumble!
As the door opened, a massive cavern that could hold thousands revealed itself inside.
Thump! Thump!
The cavern walls were astonishingly lined with the same crimson thread like lines as the door, tangled chaotically like capillaries.
Those lines emitted an eerie glow and pulsed like actual blood vessels.
Zeke's eyes widened at the bizarre sight of the revealed cavern.
'I never imagined a temple like this existed.'
It gave off a more grotesque feeling than any of the numerous dungeons, underground labyrinths, or cult temples Zeke had seen.
Grrrruk!
At that moment, the outsider-species magical beast extended its tentacles again, wrapped around Arthur Draker's corpse, and entered the cavern.
Zeke snapped out of it and followed behind the beast.
Entering inside, he could truly appreciate the cavern's enormous scale.
It was vast in width, but looking up, the ceiling was so high it was invisible.
'It's hard to even guess how deep underground this was built.'
As he entered, the pulsing of the crimson threadlike lines spread across the walls became even more palpable.
The entire massive space felt alive.
While Zeke surveyed the interior, the outsider-species magical beast carried Arthur Draker toward the center of the cavern.
There stood a towering altar, piled so high it resembled a tower.
The outsider-species magical beast ascended the altar's steps, carrying Arthur Draker.
Zeke followed, observing the beast's actions as he climbed the altar.
'Is it planning to offer the corpse on the altar?'
He still couldn't grasp what the beast had been doing or the true nature of this place.
What mattered was that the events unfolding here had been connected to Arthur Draker's resurrection.
Zeke calmly followed the beast up the tall altar for a long while.
And when he reached the highest point of the altar, he discovered something erected there.
Zeke couldn't help but be stunned by what stood in the center of the altar.
'What is that...?'
It was none other than a statue.
The reason for his shock was that he had seen this statue before.
'The Sword God Statue of the Draker family.'
It was the class identifier used in the Draker family's awakening rites for children, the very same Sword God Statue Zeke had seen in the Draker family's secret chamber alongside Arthur Draker.
Zeke felt confusion anew at the sight of this Sword God Statue standing atop the ancient underground temple altar.
'Arthur Draker said this Sword God Statue was modeled after their ancestor, Sword Saint Shattan Draker. But why is it here? Could this be what Arthur Draker was searching for?'
Zeke recalled when Arthur Draker had mentioned that the statue was modeled after Shattan Draker.
The Sword God Statue depicted a man with a sturdy build holding a bastard sword, the very image of a knight.
But the Shattan Draker Zeke had known had had a slender, androgynous frame that had made gender hard to discern at a glance, and had wielded not a bastard sword but a slender long sword.
He had thought even then that the statue didn't match Shattan Draker's appearance at all.
Suddenly, something flashed through Zeke's mind.
'That's right—this Sword God Statue isn't modeled after Shattan Draker.'
If it was placed in an ancient temple like this, it meant the statue predated the Hero King era, even before Shattan Draker's time.
'The Absolute Sword House Draker family was founded when Shattan Draker adopted the bloodline of Siemens Apollyon. But if it's even earlier than that...?'
Zeke had known that tracing Siemens Apollyon's bloodline led back to King Solomon, the first Demon King avatar.
And King Solomon had branched off from the Nephilim, created by the constellations to rule over humans.
Zeke finally seemed to understand the true identity of this Sword God Statue.
'The first Nephilim to appear in human form to dominate the Phenomenal World.'
Through absorbing Harvey Draker, Zeke had learned via the system who that first being was.
For the homunculus of the Great Sage had cultivated the progenitor of the Draker bloodline, which was none other than Harvey Draker.
'The original humanoid Nephilim and the progenitor of the Draker bloodline.' Zeke looked up at the Sword God Statue.
"Avatar Adam."
The moment Zeke realized the statue's true identity, the outsider-species magical beast placed Arthur Draker on the altar.
Arthur Draker, with his heart pierced, was completely lifeless.
The outsider-species magical beast that had brought him then bowed its head toward the Sword God Statue, as if in worship.
Suddenly, the Sword God Statue began to vibrate.
Rumble!
Starting from the Sword God Statue, the entire cavern shook.
Thump! Thump! Thump!
The pulsing grew stronger than before.
With beats like a massive heartbeat, something began emerging from spots across the cavern floor.
Grrrruk!
Fleshy, amorphous forms of outsider-species magical beasts revealed themselves from the ground.
At first formless, the beasts gradually took clearer shapes over time.
In an instant, the vast cavern was filled with thousands of outsider-species magical beasts.
Grrrruk!
Creak-creak!
Clack-clack!
The beasts began emitting grotesque cries toward the altar.
At that moment, the Sword God Statue on the altar receded backward.
Tzzzzz—
In the space it vacated, the air rippled, and something appeared.
'What is that...?' It was a sword.
A claymore-shaped blade entirely black.
It was the very sword that Arthur Draker had previously called Shattan Draker's sword in the family's secret chamber.
And Zeke himself had possessed a sword identical to this one.
'Shadow Sword Caladbolg.'
The sword that grew stronger over time, slipping from Zeke's control, infused with the Authority of Gluttony.
At that moment, an ominous energy emanated from the black sword embedded in the ground.
Tzzzzz—
The energy pouring from the black sword coalesced into one.
It formed a black stone of bizarre texture.
Zeke immediately recognized the identity of the black stone the sword had created.
'Dark Matter?'