## Chapter 222 – 222. The Abyss (2)
#222. The Abyss (2)
A phrase from the Bible I read as a child suddenly came to mind.
A prisoner who held both the most brilliant light and the most hideous darkness.
A fallen seraph who dared to defy God in an attempt to become equal to Him, but was ultimately cast out of Heaven, losing even his pure white wings.
That angel’s name was Lucifer.
‘But wasn’t that just a myth…?’
Unlike demons, who occasionally descended, angels had never appeared even once in thousands of years of history.
As a result, even in theology, angels were considered imaginary beings that only appeared in myths.
Divine power represented the existence of God, but it did not prove the existence of angels.
‘An angel…’
I was surprised, to be honest.
But this was clearly a different world, not Earth. Just as there were demons on Earth, it wouldn’t be strange for angels to exist here.
Iris, for one, was an elf, a race that only existed in imagination on Earth.
But that didn’t mean I could let my guard down.
Not just any angel, but a fallen one.
It would be difficult to see her as having a normal way of thinking.
Besides, that killing intent just now was so intense that it gave me goosebumps and made me step back without even realizing it.
It wouldn’t be strange if she attacked me right now.
Without lowering my guard, I sent light magic forward. The darkness beyond began to be seen little by little.
“…Oh.”
There, a beautiful woman was bound by pure white chains.
Ting-
「You have encountered the Constellation ‘Fallen Star.’」
「…Error, error, error, error!」
「The player’s qualification has not been verified.」
「The reward payment will be postponed.」
「Please clear the tutorial floor to acquire player qualification.」
Dark purple hair scattered on the floor and dozens of black wings sprouting from her back; it was an appearance that truly matched the word “fallen angel.”
The killing intent in her eyes, which glared at me as if to kill, made my skin tingle.
Fortunately, she didn’t seem to be able to attack me because of the chains.
As I approached, the woman raised the corners of her lips and sneered at me.
“The livestock of Heaven have finally come to take my head.”
A voice as smooth and sweet as flowing honey was heard.
But the emotion contained within was by no means light. It was filled with blatant contempt, scorn, and hatred.
“Too afraid to even get your hands dirty, you resort to using a player. Well, your hands always have to be clean. Someone has to shed blood in your place. A foolish and hypocritical choice, typical of you.”
The eyes filled with intense killing intent quietly flashed.
Clang! Clang!!
She only moved slightly, but the chains reacted as if in response, violently thrashing and constricting her body.
Even though the chains dug so deeply into her skin that they left marks, the woman… no, Lucifer, didn’t even flinch.
She simply sneered at me.
“Machines that only praise God, I curse you who believe oppression is truth, in the fires of Gehenna until the end of this world.”
With those words, Lucifer lowered her head.
She looked like a prisoner waiting for the guillotine to fall.
After staring at her for a while, I quietly put my sword away. It seemed she was mistaking me for an accomplice of the guys who had imprisoned her here.
It was absurd, but I didn’t show it outwardly.
I was quite used to being misunderstood like this.
‘It reminds me of Yeo-hwa’s situation.’
Back then, I was almost killed for being mistaken as a pervert who peeped at her bathing.
I couldn’t help but let out a hollow laugh.
Come to think of it, both people I’d met through the matching had lived terribly unfortunate lives.
Iris was betrayed by the most trusted vassal and chased from the throne, and to top it off, she was falsely accused and imprisoned in an underground prison for 200 years.
And Cheon Yeo-hwa was a young lady of the Demonic Cult who was always threatened by pursuers even after escaping while poisoned.
I could only be grateful that the two of them were still alive before I got the dating app.
‘The third one is a sealed fallen angel…’
Of course, it seemed there would be plenty of fighting, just as I wanted.
Should I see it as the app reflecting my opinion in its own way?
I’m so tearfully grateful that I want to leave a lengthy review, but it’s a tragedy that I can’t.
“Hey.”
I crouched down within arm’s reach and met Lucifer’s gaze.
But she didn’t raise her head to look at me.
“Kill me.”
“Kill you? What are you talking about.”
What is she, some kind of knight?
Clang, I stood up and grabbed the chain.
I gave it a light tug, but far from breaking, it didn’t even get a scratch. Dozens of such chains were tangled together, restraining her body.
It wasn’t an ordinary chain.
I tried injecting magic power into the chain as a test, but the violent repulsion caused my magic circuit to ache in reverse.
At this point, I felt a strange sense of defiance.
‘I’m going to be sore tomorrow.’
Creak-
I drew up magic power and internal energy, and then surrounded it with auxiliary magic once again.
[Using Berserk.]
I could feel my stamina draining away.
It was a skill I didn’t usually use because it consumed too much stamina.
Creak, creak-
I grabbed the chains with both hands and tried to break them, but as expected, it was no use.
It seemed I would have to use magic or martial arts.
As I was searching for a suitable method to cut the chains without collapsing the ceiling,
“You, you…”
I met Lucifer’s eyes.
Her pupils were trembling slightly, like someone who was flustered.
“Just how can a mere player be unharmed even after touching ‘Aethersvine’…?”
“Aether… what?”
Ting-
[Information about a new item is being collected.]
[Aethersvine
Rank: Holy Relic
It is a celestial shackle that contains the first star in a rope made by weaving God’s hair. Its form is unlimited, and it has the power to bind all darkness and evil. Those who are not qualified are not even allowed to touch it and will be burned by the heavenly fire.]
I was at a loss for words as I read the screen that appeared before my eyes.
Holy Relic (聖遺物).
Some say it is an object imbued with the power of God, and others say that the highest-grade artifacts belong to this category.
‘…No wonder it wouldn’t break.’
I didn’t know much about Holy Relics.
Their numbers were too small, and there were only rumors that the Vatican and the governments of each country were keeping them under strict guard. They had rarely even been made public.
“…Just what is your identity?”
Lucifer’s voice sank heavily.
She seemed nonchalant on the outside, but she couldn’t hide the bewilderment contained within.
“What are you talking about.”
Judging from her attitude, there seemed to be no need to use polite language anymore.
“Don’t play dumb! Aethersvine is a Holy Relic that even the angels of Heaven are not allowed to touch. There’s no way a player, not even a Constellation, could touch it! Just who sent you? Could it be Michael?!”
When I pretended to clean my ears, her voice rose a notch as if she was agitated.
I think I know what she’s talking about.
It’s probably because of the last line of the item description, ‘Those who are not qualified are not even allowed to touch it and will be burned by the heavenly fire.’
“I don’t know what kind of misunderstanding you’ve had since earlier, but first of all, I don’t even know who Michael is. Of course, I have no intention of killing you either.”
“Ha! You expect me to believe that?! In the first place, the underground of the Tower is not open to players! So how can you be in the Abyss-”
“Player? What’s that?”
“…What?”
Player.
It was a word I had heard and seen several times since earlier.
Even now, an unfamiliar screen occupied a corner of my vision.
「The player’s qualification has not been verified.」
「Penalties will be applied if you do not leave this area.」
It also mentions the player here.
I don’t know exactly what it means, but it’s not like I have nothing to speculate on.
First of all, when I first set foot in the temple, a screen appeared saying that I had entered the 6th basement level, the Abyss (無底坑).
And a little while ago, a message appeared telling me to clear the tutorial floor to acquire player qualification.
At this point, it would be stranger not to know.
‘…A tower-climbing story.’
It didn’t seem to make sense, but Iris’s case was fantasy, and Cheon Yeo-hwa’s case was wuxia.
There was no guarantee that there would be no world where the background of a creation was reality.
“You’re not a player…?”
A faint light flickered in Lucifer’s eyes, and then horror spread across her face.
“For a resident who isn’t a player to be able to come to the Abyss… Could it be…? No, that can’t be. If that were the case, the other Constellations wouldn’t have stood still. So that means…”
Leaving her muttering to herself, I walked around the area looking for a way to release the chains.
If I could somehow take them with me, I might be able to find a clue to解除 Iris’s seal.
But after looking around for nearly 20 minutes, I couldn’t see any obvious clues.
I tried to break the connecting parts fixed to the floor somehow, but they were about the same strength as the chains, so I couldn’t break them at all.
The surrounding floor was also protected by the chains, so it wasn’t even scratched.
With this level of strength, even if I used 5th circle magic, it was clear that the ceiling would collapse before the chains broke.
‘Was I trying to get a Holy Relic too easily?’
Well, if it was that flimsy, that fallen angel wouldn’t be trapped here. I swallowed a sigh and returned to Lucifer.
Thud.
I took out a chair from my inventory and sat down.
“Is the misunderstanding cleared up a bit now?”
“…”
No answer came back.
But the killing intent had clearly decreased compared to before.
“If you’re still suspicious, how about we have a question-and-answer session? We can ask and answer each other one by one.”
Just as she seemed to have many questions for me, I also had many questions about this world.
As such, it was necessary to prioritize.
The first was, without a doubt, that chain called ‘Aethersvine.’
If I only had that, I might be able to find a way to解除 Iris’s seal without even going to the Santala Kingdom.
Of course, I would have to do some research to know for sure, but with Iris’s help, it wasn’t entirely impossible.
But before that, there was one thing I needed to know.
“Why are you trapped here?”
After all, that woman probably didn’t know how to release the chains either. If she knew, she wouldn’t be trapped here.
Of course, I could get a hint about it.
But was that woman really someone who should be released?
I needed to be sure about that.
Was she falsely accused and unfairly imprisoned like Iris, or was she really sealed after committing a crime?
“…Why are you curious about that.”
“If you were unfairly imprisoned, I’ll try to help you.”
“?”
The moment Lucifer’s face contorted with an expression I had never seen before.
Ting-
An alarm sounded in my head.
It was a different sound from the one I heard from the dating app.
An inexplicable sense of unease washed over me in an instant.
It was as if my instincts were warning me.
「Time has expired.」
「Penalties will be applied.」
Get out of here right now.
「The incarnation (化身體) of ‘The First Tempter’ manifests.」
“…What?”
Flint!
At that moment, an enormous killing intent swept in.
The suffocating pressure made it feel like my entire body was being crushed. It was a greater aura than the Minotaur I met in the underground labyrinth.
The light magic disappeared, and I turned my head towards the stone door where the darkness had settled again. In the darkness where I shouldn’t have been able to see even an inch ahead, ‘something’ with vertically torn pupils was looking this way.
-Saaa.
The fishy smell unique to reptiles brushed past the tip of my nose.
