Chapter 449

[Using the Stigma of Death!]

[The stigma is engraved onto the Primordial Abyssal Beast!]

[Upon the death of the stigmatized target, a portion of its stats will be permanently absorbed!]

A terrifyingly blue magic circle shot out from the pitch-black ring on Kim Minwoo's index finger.

A blood-red stigma crossing the empty air of the Sea of Destruction where not even light existed. It slammed like a brand into the main body of the beast flashing its twelve eyes.

[Keureureureureu……!]

Did it intuitively sense that an ominous mark was engraved on its soul.

The Primordial Abyssal Beast let out a roar that shook the floor of the Sea of Destruction.

The guy's cry was converted into pure murderous intent and plugged directly into the minds of Kim Minwoo's party.

A mental attack that would cause instant death if it were a normal Awakened.

However, the quantum AI cores synchronized with Kim Minwoo's soul perfectly filtered out that noise in 0.001 seconds.

Kim Minwoo readjusted his grip on Hell Rhapsody and issued a cold command.

"Begin."

As soon as the command fell, the cogwheels of the Death Legion turned fiercely under the authority of the Maestro of the Underworld.

― How dare you disturb the Master's eardrums. I will pierce you.

The first to shoot out was Cedric.

Above his bone armor, the golden dragon scales of the Hwangrin Duke Drakan and the blood-red berserker pattern of the Iron-Blooded King Carnos pulsated simultaneously.

Cedric, taking a javelin-throwing stance, stepped on the vacuum of the Sea of Destruction and leaped as if being shot out.

Kwaaaaaaang―!

The massive dragon strike that exploded from the blood-red spear tip surged like a thunderbolt toward the Abyssal Beast's bulk.

However, the Abyssal Beast was also a monster that had survived eons in the Sea of Destruction.

Hundreds of pitch-black tentacles popped out from the guy's flesh and tried to snare Cedric's spear.

That split second.

― Burn!

Vulcan, who was following behind Cedric, opened his jawbone jjeok and spewed the hellfire of the underworld.

The black flame that boiled up to the limit after chewing and swallowing the soul of Grand Duke Amon.

The ruinous flame swallowed the tentacles and transformed the freezing abyss of the Sea of Destruction into a fiery hell of tens of thousands of degrees.

"Kieeeeek!"

At the pain of its tentacles burning, the Abyssal Beast rolled back its twelve pupils.

The moment the guy compressed the surrounding abyssal energy into a single point and was about to spit out a massive black sphere.

― That won't do.

Merhen, floating in the empty air with her silver hair fluttering, lightly extended her dragon bone staff.

[Merhen uses Heavenly Word!]

『Freeze.』

Along with the chilling language of absolute law, the absolute zero field Ice Domain, extorted from the Witch of the White Night Elise, covered the Abyssal Beast's main body whole.

The tentacles that were burning in the hellfire and the black magic power sphere it was just about to spew began to freeze jjeojeojeok before the coercive power of the Heavenly Word.

"Kyaaaak……!"

Rapid thermal expansion and rapid cooling mercilessly tore off the beast's outer shell.

There was no way the Blood Duke Olivia would miss that perfect defenseless blind spot.

Seugeok―!

Seugeogeok―!

Her formless sword, having become even stealthier after swallowing Grand Duke Paimon, surged soundlessly toward the Abyssal Beast's core joints and pupils.

Three blood-red eyeballs whose defensive membranes were torn burst simultaneously, splattering sticky bodily fluids in all directions.

The four Legion Commanders continued a perfect combo without the slightest error under the authority of the Maestro of the Underworld.

A raid tempo that even dozens of decent higher dimension ranker parties gathered together could not even mimic.

[Keuraaaaaaa!]

The anger of its eyeballs bursting.

The monster began to thrash with the momentum to overturn the floor of the Sea of Destruction.

Thousands of cysts that swelled on the guy's back opened simultaneously.

Pitch-black abyssal spheres that swallowed even light poured down on the battlefield like a shower.

A multiple area-of-effect bombardment.

Each and every shot contained destructive power that would tear a high ranker's defensive barrier like a sheet of paper.

Kim Minwoo gripped the hilt of Hell Rhapsody tightly and strode forward.

The Legion Commanders immediately stopped their attacks and retreated behind Kim Minwoo's back.

At the same time, thousands of abyssal spheres from all directions were concentrated toward Kim Minwoo alone.

The pitch-black status of a Higher God coldly overlaid Kim Minwoo's black pupils.

[Deploying the skill, Descent (EX) at maximum output!]

Paaaaaaat―!

The Crown, Heart, and Ring of the Supreme Sovereign of Death.

And the newly obtained Belt resonated with Kim Minwoo's soul and spewed pitch-black light.

And the conductor's finale.

[Activating the second effect of the authority, Maestro of the Underworld (EX), Orchestra of Death!]

Kim Minwoo's will stretched out.

The massive magic power and life force of the four Legion Commanders who had retreated behind and the hundreds of thousands of undead legions on standby in the subspace began to fuse toward the tip of Kim Minwoo's Hell Rhapsody alone.

Uuuuung―!

The sword blade could not withstand the weight of space and let out a bizarre dissonance.

Cedric's spearmanship.

Vulcan's flame.

Merhen's freezing.

Olivia's murderous intent.

All those heterogeneous energies clumped into a lump of perfect ruin at the Death Lord's fingertips.

The moment Kim Minwoo raised Hell Rhapsody.

[Using the skill, Compression (EX)!]

The knowledge of an Outer God that would crush even a planet.

The mystery of compression shoved that massive energy of ruin into a single singularity the size of a needle tip.

"Goodbye, fatty."

Seugeok―!

Kim Minwoo slashed Hell Rhapsody diagonally down.

A soundless slash.

The compressed sword trajectory stretching out while causing pitch-black noise dug straight into the exact center of the Primordial Abyssal Beast.

Jjeok―! Jjeojeojeojeok―!

[Keu, keuaaaaaak……!]

The beast's hypertrophied physical body smoothly split into two like butter cut by a hot blade.

Blood-red abyssal bodily fluids surged like a fountain.

The beast's body, completely drained of life force and split in two, collapsed heavily to the floor of the Sea of Destruction.

Kugugugugung―!

[Perfectly subjugated the hidden boss of the Sea of Destruction, 'Primordial Abyssal Beast'!]

[A massive amount of experience is settled!]

[Level rises explosively!]

Golden level-up messages filling his vision burst like firecrackers.

However, Kim Minwoo's gaze was fixed not on the level-up window, but on the red message that popped up as the Stigma of Death activated.

[The skill, Stigma of Death (EX) has been activated!]

[Permanently absorbing a portion of the deceased Primordial Abyssal Beast's essence!]

[Strength +400. Agility +200. Stamina +300. Magic Power +100!]

[The density of the physical body becomes exponentially harder, enough to withstand the pressure of the abyss!]

"Oh. Pretty lucrative."

Kim Minwoo smiled with a pik.

Recalling that all stats went up by 200 when he caught the Blood Wolf Lupus…….

It meant the Abyssal Beast was a stronger monster than the Seven Venerables.

'If it were the past, I would have rolled around for days to catch it.'

He remembered the time when he first faced the Seven Venerables.

Kim Minwoo back then barely slashed down a single guy after grinding away the lives of each Legion Commander and squeezing out every last drop of his magic power.

But how is it now.

He split an abyssal monster that easily surpassed Lupus in two with a single slash.

The density of the magic power flowing through his blood vessels became even stickier. A pleasure washed over him as the muscles all over his body expanded explosively and hardened.

"As expected of a boss mob packed with nutrients. It's practically a buffet."

Opening and closing his fist satisfyingly, Kim Minwoo looked down at the corpse of the Abyssal Beast sprawled on the floor.

It was that very moment.

Ttiring―!

[You have gained a strange enlightenment!]

[You master a new usage for the skill, Compression (EX)!]

[From now on, you can compress materials and summons to transmutate a new result!]

"……Huh?"

Kim Minwoo tilted his head.

Compress materials and summons?

Does it mean he can compress and fuse steel into the bones of a normal skeleton to create something like a steel skeleton?

Kim Minwoo's obsidian-like pupils stared intently at the massive corpse of the Abyssal Beast sprawled on the floor.

'Wait. Then are corpses treated as materials too?'

Flesh possessing ultimate durability that withstood the pressure of the Sea of Destruction.

If done well, it meant he could combine the corpse of this monster with his undead to create a completely new biological weapon.

Kim Minwoo's mouth corners curled up with interest.

"Cedric. Come here and stand for a second."

Cedric approached and stood holding his blood-red spear.

Kim Minwoo raised Hell Rhapsody and attempted to activate the compression skill.

The targets were the Primordial Abyssal Beast corpse sprawled on the floor.

And Cedric.

Paaaaat―!

However, the split second the authority of compression was about to activate.

Deep blue magic power bounced off, and a red warning window floated in the empty air.

[Warning!]

[The status of the target undead is too high!]

[Harmony with the material is not achieved!]

"Hmm."

It meant that no matter how good the material was, fusion was impossible if the status didn't match or the compatibility clashed with the undead acting as the skeleton.

Cedric was a top-tier Legion Commander who had already chewed up the souls of Demon Realm Grand Dukes and reached the apex of tankers.

It seemed harmony could not be established to contain that massive status with merely the corpse of a single Abyssal Beast.

'Then it seems I just need to find an undead with a matching status and a good combination formula.'

Kim Minwoo shoved the massive corpse of the Abyssal Beast into his inventory. Continuing the experiment right away was getting annoying due to the spatial pressure of the Sea of Destruction anyway.

It would be much more efficient to fuse this good material with the most fitting undead in a safe place later.

'I'll have to go back and slowly research which undead to mix it with to maximize efficiency.'

It was a pleasant harvest.

Now what was left was to harvest the true reward sleeping at the bottom of this Sea of Destruction.

Kim Minwoo moved his steps to the center of the empty void floor.

There, the two jackpots guarded by the dead gatekeeper were spewing brilliant light.

A black pearl swirling brilliantly as if harboring a galaxy.

And a pitch-black gauntlet engraved with a geometric bone pattern.

Kim Minwoo reached out toward the black pearl first.

[You have acquired the special potential unlocking material, Pearl of the Abyss!]

Now only one material was left until potential liberation.

'Flame of the Sun.'

He could figure out where that item came from gradually.

Safely stowing the pearl in his inventory, Kim Minwoo's gaze finally headed toward the last spoil.

The arrangement of the Death Lord vibrating violently in resonance with the depths of his soul.

The moment Kim Minwoo carefully picked up the pitch-black gauntlet.

The Crown of the Supreme Sovereign of Death on his head, the Belt, the Heart, and the Ring simultaneously spewed red light and hummed as if vomiting joy.

Ttiring―!

A massive golden system message filling his vision floated up brilliantly, piercing the darkness of the Sea of Destruction.

[You have acquired the fifth legacy of the Death Lord, the Gauntlet of the Supreme Sovereign of Death!]

[The set effect of the Supreme Sovereign of Death unlocks even more powerfully!]

"Well then, let's see what kind of item it is."