Crunch!
What burst from Harvey Draker's chest was a thick tentacle tipped with sharp, hooklike claws.
Crunch-crunch—
The razor-sharp claws shattered every bone in Harvey Draker's ribcage before they erupted from within.
Harvey Draker looked down at the horrific tentacle protruding from his chest as blood spilled from his mouth.
"This is...?"
He raised his head and stared at Baron.
Baron opened his mouth in a solemn voice.
"A glorious day has arrived. The new humanity will usher in a new era!" Rooooar!
As if in response to Baron's cry, the aberrant Gate let out a long, wailing howl.
Soon, an impure energy began to flow from the Gate.
An ominous aura that blended the power of the Outsider Species with twisted Causality started to blanket the entire cavern.
The wizards bound by the Chains of the Soul absorbed that energy, and red eyes gleamed from the black voids of their masks.
Crack!
They began chanting their incantations again, their voices dripping with malice.
Incredibly, this time the Chains of the Soul began to change.
Sizzle—
The chains that had wrapped around the wizards' bodies turned black, then morphed into grotesque tentacles.
Slash!
Moreover, the magic circle that Nabu had set up was corrupted by the dark energy that poured from the aberrant Gate, transforming into a swamp that summoned even more tentacles.
The chains that had been trying to ensnare Baron also turned into tentacles, reversing the situation.
He shouted toward the wizards.
"Awaken! The purest Draker blood will be the key to opening the new era!"
The tentacles that sprouted from the ground slithered toward Harvey Draker, who was vomiting blood.
The writhing tentacles coiled around his arms and legs.
They then wrapped around the tentacle that emerged from his chest and began to swell his flesh.
Crunch-crunch—
Soon, the tentacle that burst from Harvey Draker's body began to inflate.
"Arghhh!"
With a scream of agony, Harvey Draker desperately tried to rip the tentacle from his body.
But he soon realized it was impossible.
"The Dragon Heart."
Incredibly, that tentacle was connected to the Dragon Heart that Arthur Draker had implanted in him.
If he pulled out the tentacle, the Dragon Heart would come out with it—and without it, Harvey Draker could no longer maintain his form in the Phenomenal World.
As he ground his teeth at the sight of the hideous tentacle that sprouted from his heart, Harvey Draker realized the truth.
'All of this was part of Arthur Draker's plan.'
From the moment he had given him the Dragon Heart, it had all been a setup leading to this situation.
As Harvey Draker grasped Arthur Draker's scheme and seethed with rage, Zeke—who had just finished off all the monsters Baron had summoned—raised his sword and flew toward him.
Zeke immediately unleashed a sword strike at Harvey Draker, from whose heart the tentacle had sprouted.
Boom-boom-boom!
The half-moon blade hurtled toward him.
But at that moment, the tentacle from his split-open chest moved swiftly, its sharp hookclaws shattering Zeke's strike.
"Cough!"
As the tentacle from his heart stirred, Harvey Draker spat blood and let out a groan of pain.
Soon, the swollen tentacles began to envelop his entire body.
The tentacles slithered and coiled around his limbs, forming a grotesque suit of armor.
The gathered tentacles soon created a new shape, positioning Harvey Draker's head at the center of the chest, while a new monstrous head formed above it from the tentacles.
Growl—
Zeke stared at Harvey Draker, whose body had been seized by the tentacle from his heart.
'What a horrific sight.'
It was like beholding an aberrant angel corrupted by the power of the Outsider Species.
The aberrant angel that had fully enveloped Harvey Draker's body turned its head.
It turned toward Baron, who stood before the Gate that had morphed into an altar, surrounded by the wizards who chanted their spells.
Soon, the aberrant angel reacted to their incantations and began moving toward the Gate.
Rumble-rumble!
The impure dark power that flowed from the Gate poured into the aberrant angel.
Zeke ground his teeth at the ominous force emanating from them.
From below, Manna and Ivan tried to erect a barrier to counter the eerie chanting.
But black blood continued to trickle from their noses and mouths.
Even hearing the incantations inflicted damage on the soul, so even the High Table members couldn't endure long in this place.
Seeing this, Zeke donned Theia's armor, gripped Ascalon, and unleashed the Resonance of Strong Waves and Empty Vibration.
Ziiing—
The Resonance of Strong Waves and Empty Vibration, amplified by the power of
Orichalcum, created a wave that partially blocked the profane incantations of the aberrant wizards.
Only then did Manna and Ivan's faces ease as they deployed their barrier.
'I need to find the Book of the Lion and get out of here as soon as possible.'
Zeke waited for the signal from Nabu and Nigel, who were searching for the Book of the Lion.
Once they found it, the plan was to escape immediately through Heracles, who waited outside, then completely seal off the space itself.
Closing off the Unique Domain would trap Baron and Harvey Draker here forever, unable to escape—which was why Zeke was buying time.
But finding the real Book of the Lion was taking longer than expected.
The Absolute Compass-linked authority, the Far-Seeing Eye, had clearly indicated that the Book of the Lion was here.
Thanks to that, Zeke and his group had arrived before Baron and kept searching, but they still hadn't found the book.
At that moment, something flashed through Zeke's mind.
'Maybe we're thinking about it wrong.'
Both he and Baron had assumed the Book of the Lion was a physical book because of its name.
But as the owner of the Kabbalah System, Zeke knew that a medium for recording knowledge didn't have to be a book.
As that thought struck him, Zeke spoke to the system.
'System, check if there's a secure archive here.'
At Zeke's words, the system began scanning for the secure archive.
Moments later, a message appeared.
[Secure archive searched.]
[Access prohibited by highest-tier security.]
[Authentication key required for access.]
As Zeke had suspected, the Book of the Lion didn't exist as a physical book.
'It exists as Karma data—right here in this space itself.'
Terakan Draker's secure archive was also stored in the form of Karma data within the academy's space.
The Book of the Lion existed here on the same principle.
'An authentication key.'
Zeke pondered, then glanced at Baron, who continuously infused ominous power into the aberrant angel, and made his decision.
"Innocent. Come forth."
The Guardian Innocent, created from a fragment of the Great Sage's heroic spirit and his homunculus, was summoned.
Sizzle—
Guardian Innocent emerged from Zeke's shadow and bowed his head toward him.
"Innocent, access the secure archive and disable the security."
As a guardian made from the Great Sage's heroic spirit, he was essentially the authentication key itself for the secure archive.
At Zeke's command, Innocent raised his staff.
A faint light flickered at the tip of the staff.
Woooong!
With a subtle vibration, the light shot up toward the cavern ceiling.
Another message appeared before Zeke's eyes.
[Accessed security system using the authentication key engraved in Guardian Innocent's soul.]
[Security disablement possible. Proceed?]
Zeke steadied his breath as he looked at the message window and selected to disable.
[Security on the secure archive has been disabled.]
[A portion of the Great Sage's sealed Unique Domain 'Infinite Archive' is revealed.] Rumble-rumble!
As the message confirmed the disablement, vibrations shook the entire cavern.
Something began to rise from the cavern floor.
Boom-boom-boom!
Incredibly, bookshelves emerged from the floor and surrounding walls.
Rumble-rumble!
Hundreds, thousands of shelves rose up, quickly filling the vast cavern.
At that moment, something sped toward Zeke.
"Zeke!"
Nabu and Nigel rode a flying carpet as they dodged the towering bookshelves and flew over.
Nabu shouted at Zeke.
"We were looking for the Book of the Lion, and what the hell is this?!"
replied to Nabu.
"The Book of the Lion doesn't exist as a separate book." Nabu's eyes widened in surprise at his words.
"Not in book form? Then how... Ah! You don't mean?"
As a sage who could handle Karma, Nabu immediately understood Zeke's point.
Zeke said to Nabu.
"I've disabled the seal on the Great Sage's archive. There should be... a medium here where the Demon King's power is sealed in the form of Karma data." Nabu looked incredulous at Zeke's words.
"It's mountains beyond mountains. How are we supposed to find that in all this...?" Ziiing—
Before Nabu could finish, a bizarre sound echoed through the cavern.
The source was none other than Baron and the aberrant wizards.
The Gate reacted to their incantations, its maw yawning wide.
Baron bellowed before it.
"The key to opening the new era! O Demon King, heed the call of the gods!" Rumble-rumble!
The dark power that poured from the Gate began to envelop the rising shelves.
The shelves then moved on their own, like puzzle pieces fitting together, as if alive.
Click! Click! Click!
Soon, they formed a spiral shape, creating a massive hole in the center.
felt the power emanating from that hole and shivered.
'That is...'
It was the same force that had dwelled in the voice tempting King Solomon before.
The irresistible trace of that power emanated from within the hole.
At that moment, the aberrant wizards' chanting grew louder.
Baron shouted toward the hole.
"O power of the sealed Demon King! A new vessel has been prepared! Descend upon this place!"
The aberrant angelic form that hovered above the Gate and contained Harvey Draker within was the sacrifice Arthur had prepared—a sort of vessel.
The purest Draker blood in the copy of an ancestor bore a Dragon Heart.
It was a being born with the fate of a savior but fallen, corrupted by the most wicked power in soul and flesh.
The most suitable vessel for the Demon King was none other than Harvey Draker.
After rescuing Harvey Draker, Arthur had implanted the Dragon Heart and sown a seed of ominous power within it—all for this very moment.
Zeke realized that Arthur Draker's goal wasn't him, but to infuse the Demon King's power into Harvey Draker.
'After injecting the Demon King's power into Harvey, he'll surely absorb it using the Fell God's authority.'
Arthur Draker had taken Ramon Siemens's plan of being devoured by the Fell God and evolved it into something even more insidious and vile.
'I have to stop the Demon King's power from taking hold in Harvey Draker's body no matter what.'
commanded the Guardian Innocent beside him.
"Innocent! Activate the archive's security protocols to block them!" Innocent raised his staff at Zeke's order.
Woooong!
Vibrations emanated from the staff.
The books in the archive began to glow in response to Innocent's staff. [The Great Sage's Unique Domain 'Infinite Archive' reacts to Innocent's power.] It was then that Innocent tried to draw forth the power of the Infinite Archive.
The aberrant wizards' chanting intensified.
Another message appeared.
[Ominous energy fills the space.]
[Cannot open the Unique Domain 'Infinite Archive' due to corrupting influence.]
[Innocent's soul is insufficient to wield the 'Infinite Archive.']
The Demon King's power that pooled in the space, combined with the profane force from the aberrant wizards Baron had created, seemed to block the Unique Domain's functions.
'The Demon King's power... even the leakage alone is this potent.'
Zeke could freshly feel just how viciously intense the Demon King's power sealed in the archive was, beyond imagination.
But then.
"O Demon King! Cast off the chains of your seal and descend into the prepared vessel!"
Baron's voice echoed throughout the archive.
Rooooar!
A massive howl spread from the hole at the end of the spiral shelves, filling the entire space.