Undying Warlord

The raging fire that surrounded the Sun temple's town was still burning brightly.

However, everyone inside it had already been killed. Only Dilan was left alive, but he was imprisoned in the walls of fire.

He could barely move his body, his sight was blurred and his hands were trembling.

Every inch of his body from head to toe ached tremendously but Dilan didn't issue the slightest groan.

His expression was void of pain as he just lay on the floor and stared at the ceiling. If there was an emotion in his eyes, it was sadness.

After Dilan had killed everyone, he felt as if he was missing something, almost as if something had been torn out of him.

He sighed deeply and looked in the direction where he had burned Mason's body.

"I hope you can be more fortunate in your next life…"

Dilan couldn't know if something like a next life existed but given the miracles he and everyone on Milarn had witnessed, everything should be possible.

He simply hoped for the best while letting out another sigh.

'Would he still be alive if I had sternly rejected his requests of joining me?'

'Was it my fault that he was killed?'

'Should I have done something different?'

'Was I simply too weak to protect him, were the believers of the Sun temple too strong, or are my people too dependent on me?'

Numerous thoughts flashed through Dilan's mind and he had no idea how to handle the grief and guilt eating at his heart.

He was confused. In fact, Dilan was not even sure how he should feel.

Was he supposed to feel guilty because he had allowed Mason to follow him? Yes.

But at the same time, he had told Mason often enough that it would be dangerous, had created a path for him to escape, even if it hadn't worked out, and had done everything he could to protect him…which had failed miserably as well.

Dilan didn't even know Mason well. He hadn't seen him often in the few weeks since the Primordial Ascension happened.

However, even if he didn't know Mason well, he knew that it was a shame for him to die like this. Dilan knew that he was partially at fault for Mason's death, even if it was Mason, who had pleaded to be allowed to come with him.

Everything could have ended peacefully but that hadn't been the Priestess' goal.

'Was it really necessary for her to sacrifice her people to imprison us? If I'm not wrong, I had already used [Thunder Step], [Second Acceleration], and [Bracing Pain] before the walls of fire erupted around the town…

It was obvious that I wouldn't give up without fighting, and my Agility was twice as high as the Eternal Guards by then…so why?'

Dilan couldn't understand the reason behind the Priestess' action and even if he were to know, it wouldn't really change anything either.

He was just sad that it ended like this.

After he had calmed down a little bit, Dilan drank more than 30 mana replenishment potions, which Sarah had prepared for him beforehand.

They had been stored inside the Penta Item Pouch and were of good use for him right now.

But instead of using the mana to activate his Origin ability over and over again from scratch, Dilan kept his attention on the walls of fire.

'How long will it take before they disappear?'

He had to leave as quickly as possible but the walls of fire blocked all the ways of exit.

That was why Dilan could only hope for the best while averting his gaze to the basement of the Sun temple.

'Should I raid it until the flames disappear?' He wondered for a moment.

However, upon seeing the corpses of Ligrav and Rasnian, and the thick layer of blood that covered the now wet soil on the ground, Dilan could only sigh deeply.

'I may as well take care of that first…'

Slowly walking down the Sun temple after he stored the mangled corpse of the Ligrav Priestess in the storage ring he had obtained from her beforehand, Dilan reached the bottom of the stairs a few minutes later.

It would take him an eternity if he were to go to every single corpse and extract the essence crystal out of its head. As such, he thought of something that would save his time and energy.

He tried to release his mana to shroud the corpses around him. This didn't work at first because his senses were dulled due to his severe exhaustion.

But after a few tries, a few corpses were shrouded by his mana.

"System…give me their Essence crystals."

All of a sudden, Dilan's voice echoed through the surroundings. It was an instruction to the system.

He had hoped that it would react and allow him to absorb the Essence crystals inside the corpses as long as he had shrouded their body with his mana.

"Tch!" 'Not working, huh?'

It didn't work, which was somehow expected. But only a moment later the corpses he had shrouded with his mana disappeared as Dilan stored them in his storage ring.

"If I cannot get my hands on your Essence crystals easily, I might as well take your entire bodies…"

Dilan didn't care the slightest about the Ligrav and Rasnian bodies but he needed their Essence crystals.

There was nothing else for him to do right now, except to hope that the walls of fire would soon die down.

That was why he began to store the Ligrav and Rasnian corpses in his storage ring and the Penta Item Pouches he was wearing.

The corpses that could be stacked in the Penta Item Pouches were stored inside it, while the others were stored separately.

Dilan had no idea why it was not possible to stack all of their corpses but he made his own assumptions to keep himself distracted.

'Is it because of the number of blood enhancements or the occupation they chose while advancing to Tier-1?'

In the end, the reason didn't really matter to Dilan but the thoughts distracted him quite a bit. It was certainly helpful to prevent him from thinking about Mason, his guilt, the other emotions that flashed through his mind and the doubts he had.

Time passed slowly but the walls of fire were still fully erupted. Dilan's body was still as exhausted as before but he had begun to use his Origin ability after a while.

It alleviated his physical pain and created a cool sensation that spread through his body.

But even after constantly using his Origin ability for more than half an hour, Dilan was far from feeling that his condition had improved.

'My stats have been halved and it will take, at least, a week before everything returns to normal? That is under the condition that I keep using [Regeneration] whenever I replenish one unit of Mana…'

Dilan didn't like what he was sensing but he couldn't do anything against it.

He had to accept his condition and keep moving forward, otherwise, he would succumb to the terrifying dangers they were about to face.

If the Sun temple had been extremely dangerous to everyone, then the danger Dilan perceived from the mountainside was comparable to a calamity.

He had to leave the Sun temple and return to his people but the walls of fire didn't seem to want to let go of Dilan.

This was frustrating, even if it allowed Dilan to take his time and store every single Ligrav and Rasnian corpse inside his Penta Item Pouches and the Storage ring.

Afterward, there was still some time left until the fire around the camp would extinguish, enough to enter the Sun temple.

There was no believer left, so he might as well take their goods.

Dilan entered the Sun temple from the only entrance he found before. His steps were slow and he was mindful of possible traps.

Even if he didn't sense the presence of a living being, there might still be someone hidden somewhere. There could also be traps that would be activated the moment someone of a different race were to enter the temple.

Thus, Dilan was very careful from the moment he entered the Sun temple.

He took a look around but didn't see anything special.

The temple's inner walls looked the same as outside, the same Aztec-like build with numerous unique hieroglyphs visible to his bare eyes.

Numerous images had been engraved in the walls, attracting Dilan's attention.

However, the moment he entered the first larger hall, it was impossible for Dilan to stay silent.

"What the hell? Is that still a Gate?"

While looking at the liquid mass he presumed to be a Gate, Dilan was utterly dumbfounded. He could clearly remember that Gates didn't look like the one in front of him, but the notification he received upon getting closer made things easy to understand….or so he thought.

'Really…?'

**

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