#224
Kalkos Tribal Federation (2)
Inside a tent where all manner of bizarre ornaments had been placed here and there.
In a place filled with smoke from unidentified herbs that burned little by little.
Clatter— clack!
Bone fragments tossed lightly rolled across a round metal tray.
The old woman, who had been staring blankly at the result, soon let out a deep sigh and shook her head.
“Phew— I can’t see anything anymore, no matter what I do. I suppose I’ve grown old.”
Great Shaman Morna, having uttered that lament, squeezed her eyes shut as the tattoos covering her face twisted.
Divination was, from the start, a spell that had never been especially accurate, but that was only a statement that applied in general.
For a Great Shaman of her caliber, divining simple good or ill fortune had never been that difficult.
‘That’s how it should have been. Yet at some point, the future began to blur, and now I can’t even see an inch ahead.’
She slowly opened her eyes and looked outside through the gap in the tent.
What she saw there were countless people moving in perfect order for a single purpose.
All of them were busy preparing for war, as though possessed by something.
‘Balteon… just what are you doing right now?’
However, ever since she had been placed under confinement here immediately after the summit broke up, there was nothing she could do at the moment.
If her name value had not been needed to move several of the tribes, she likely would not even be alive by now.
‘I don’t know how long that measure will last. I did what I could for now, but whether he will be able to make it in time… the rest is up to the heavens.’
The large-built great warrior she had contacted while avoiding the watchers’ eyes, following her “intuition.”
He, too, was no ordinary man, so from the moment he grasped that the situation in the south was turning urgent, he would have begun responding in one way or another.
‘But…’
Then, at one moment while she was lost in thought.
Morna’s expression hardened.
“…This aura?”
As though she had seen something she should not have, her eyes went wide and round.
“Hah, is it already too late…?”
With a resigned expression, she gazed outside—at Beorsen—through the narrow gap barely a span wide, then thought of her family who were likely being held in some other city and let out a heavy sigh.
Praying that, at least, that calamity would pass them by.
Woooooo—
From the center of the city beyond, where Balteon’s residence lay.
An endlessly ominous and dreadful aura, one she had already felt once before, was slowly spreading throughout the entire city.
***
-Howard: Huh, he really has lost his mind, hasn’t he? I mean, I knew that from the start.
-Hesperon: …Wow, what’s he planning to do later, acting like that?
-Heinrich: Stop! Just how far over the line do you intend to go?! No matter what, that’s…!
-Hannibal Strauss: Ah— I’m tired of hearing that sort of thing now. I’ll reconnect when necessary.
-Heinrich: Wait…!
Hans focused his mind and raised a wall within himself.
Compared to the barrier with the “Mind Hub” that had been built before the main body lost consciousness, it was no more than a small fence.
But that alone was enough to quiet the many thoughts that had been noisily ringing in his head.
And a short while later.
《The entity has fulfilled the conditions and grows. The special skill “Wicked Wisdom” absorbs “Still Water” and “Insight” and evolves into “Profane Sage.”》
As though that had served as some sort of trigger, system text appeared before his eyes as he sat in the darkness.
[Hooh, I see. This bead is rather useful.]
He looked at the bead placed in one corner of his mental world and nodded in satisfaction.
A gift left behind by the Lawkeeper who had suddenly paid him a visit.
This object, which granted a positive effect to all mental abilities when used, had just been of great help in blocking the constant connection with those troublesome avatars.
‘Though the fact that each entity’s independence has been growing stronger over time must have played a part as well.’
Back when the main body was intact and served as the center of all entities.
Each avatar had been no different from a part of one body, such as a hand or a foot, merely with slightly individual habits.
Even for a while immediately after the main body fell asleep from the shock of fending off the Abyss’s mental erosion, they had naturally shared one another’s thoughts and acted as easily as breathing.
Hans’s poor condition was a separate matter.
But after a little more time had passed.
The avatars had come to go through a process known as a “conference in the brain” for smoother communication.
They could still perceive one another’s situations and even accept one another’s thoughts, but the process had become somewhat more cumbersome.
‘It’s only natural. Without the buffer zone called the “Mind Hub,” it would be even more dangerous for egos with distinct personalities to mix together.’
In particular, Hans—Hannibal Strauss, who had even been contaminated—had tended to be especially separate from the others.
And taking this opportunity, he had used the bead’s power to build a wall he could open and close by his own will.
Of course, even if he controlled the connection at will, they were fundamentally the same being, so the effect would not last long. But there was not much time left anyway, so that was not a problem that mattered.
[Kekeke— Ah, my head feels extraordinarily clear.]
As expected, had the avatars been unknowingly influencing one another in some way?
Somehow, the emotions contained within him felt as though they had become purer.
More immaculate and clean— the very condensation of evil and venom.
[In any case.]
His gaze turned toward a place where the pitch-black energy filling the space had gathered with particular density.
“Guuuh— Grrrk—!”
[Kekeke— This is peculiar. To think a human could accept the Abyss to this extent. I had my suspicions from the moment you harbored madness. As expected, you are no ordinary human.]
Creak— crack, crack—!
The large body collapsed on the floor continued to twist, and at the same time, black energy began gushing from him in streams.
The phenomenon, which continued for some time, finally came to an end only after the energy flowing outward was sucked back into his body.
Wriggle— wriggle—
“Guuuh… how vicious. It wasn’t this bad even when I used madness. As expected of the Immortal King…”
At last, he staggered to his feet, drool dripping from his mouth as he muttered a low complaint.
The veins all over his body had swollen to a dark bluish color, the whites of his eyes had turned black, and a blood-colored glow flickered in his pupils.
A dense aura of darkness dripped from his body like paint, so merely by standing there, he was contaminating his surroundings.
“Kuhpffft— How absurd. To think the wall I couldn’t surpass despite all my efforts until now would be broken in this manner.”
He was the Great Chieftain who, after a very minor dispute with the Immortal King, had ultimately come to understand his sincerity through persuasion accompanied by a bit of force.
And in the process, he had accepted the Abyss and become a demonized human—the main figure behind this coup, Balteon.
[Do you like the power?]
“Yes. So what you want is…”
[Balteon.]
But before his excited words could finish.
A low voice that seemed to echo from hell itself vibrated through the space, and he shut his mouth, involuntarily gauging the other’s mood.
[Your tone is rather curt.]
A short but authoritative and overwhelming statement.
Was it the influence of the Abyss he had accepted?
He had undoubtedly reached the realm he had longed for all his life, yet for some reason, he could not even act as he pleased before the Immortal King.
“…Is what you desire… as you said before?”
[Of course.]
What Hannibal Strauss wanted was influence over the continent, and among that, an enormous degree of influence that would guarantee him abundant karma.
[War.]
Everything was already prepared, so he would likely be able to earn no small amount of karma merely by adding his name to it.
But he had no intention of being satisfied with only that when such a fine opportunity had presented itself.
Then what should he do?
What was the way to maximize his intervention in an army whose planning stage had already begun, whose final preparations had already ended, and which was now only waiting to march toward the fertile lands?
‘The answer is right before my eyes.’
The commander-in-chief, Balteon, who had been eroded in the process of accepting power and become his servant.
Just as with him, he could simply cover everything, from the upper command of the prepared army down to its lowest ranks, entirely in his own color!
[Khehehe—!]
With the Abyss.
With death.
Whatever happened in the process was, to him, nothing more than a very minor matter.
***
Hans, using the bead in his mental world, had blocked the connection paths with the avatars.
Now, not only communication but even real-time confirmation of one another’s conditions had become impossible until Hans opened the door.
“We will hurry a little.”
Under the lead of Heinrich, whose heart had grown urgent because of that, the Hero’s party quickly crossed the desert after receiving desert robes and survival supplies delivered through “Avatar Cloud.”
Saint Liesta was carried by Heinrich, and Isea by Harley, while they focused solely on increasing their speed.
“Mr. Harley, your back is so broad that it’s easy to concentrate. It’s comfortable too.”
“Wahahaha! I do have quite the broad back!”
Isea, who was maintaining perception-obstructing and temperature-preserving magic that covered the entire sprinting group, slapped Harley’s vast back with one hand in admiration.
Not only was its area impressive, but beneath the robe lay the hide of a beast with abundant fur, making it quite literally like a moving bed.
Even as they ran like that, a few words were exchanged among the group.
Meanwhile, in the avatars’ conference room within their minds, as always, a serious topic was being discussed.
-Heinrich: We really can’t leave Hans like this. We have to stop his course of action somehow.
-Hugo: It definitely felt like things were getting worse and worse. In the beginning, he still exchanged opinions with us and showed signs of understanding the other side’s position. But now, to cut off conversation so suddenly like this.
-Hubert: Is there a way? Well, if we somehow stab him once with the holy sword filled with divine power, there might be a chance.
-Hesperon: Come to think of it, Harley, from what I saw before the connection was cut off, it looked like Hans was about to turn every human there into undead or monsters. What are you going to do about the new engraving? That old woman should obviously be there too.
-Harley: Huh? Uh, really?! Hey! You skull-headed bastard! Don’t tell me you killed the shaman granny? Damn it! Are you not answering? Don’t kill the granny! I warned you!
They were moving while devising countermeasures both inside and out like that, but they were, in both name and reality, powerhouses who represented the world.
Naturally, their senses could not help but transcend the perception of ordinary people.
‘An ambush of this many people in the desert. Bandits? Or an army being dispatched?’
Of course, they had already known that a considerable number of people were hiding in the area along the path they were taking.
However, going around would only be an unnecessary waste of time, and the other side would not be able to see through Isea’s magic, so they had decided to just pass by quietly…
But it seemed the other side thought differently.
“Alert! Alert!”
“Stop! Reveal yourselves!”
“If you do not comply immediately, you will be deemed hostile forces! We will kill you at once!”
Before they knew it, over twenty people had blocked their route and were pointing spears and arrows at them.
No matter how they were in the middle of moving, and no matter how she had been unable to use her full power while maintaining it in parallel with other spells, it was still magic used by Isea, a grand mage in name and reality.
If they had not only detected that in advance but responded this quickly, they absolutely could not be ordinary people.
‘Should we ignore them and pass by? Or subdue them and gather information? No, there are hundreds of them just in this vicinity. If we consider subduing and interrogating them, there’s no telling how long it’ll take. It seems better to just pass by…’
Still in the midst of running, he carefully analyzed how to respond in a span of less than one second…
‘Huh?’
Harley confirmed the faces of several of those soldiers and immediately stopped in place.
And following him, Heinrich and the others stopped as well.
“Mr. Harley? Why all of a sudden…”
Isea, who had been clinging to his back, seemed puzzled, but she did not look particularly worried either.
Of course, they were the strongest people around, capable of tearing apart thirty-meter giants without much difficulty, so there was no way they would be intimidated by a few desert soldiers.
With Isea’s help, Harley dispelled the perception-obstructing magic and stepped forward.
He was still wearing a robe to block the desert sandstorm, so his appearance was not fully revealed, but—
“Hup!”
“Mm!”
The violent pressure emanating from his massive build and overwhelming physique was enough to make even soldiers who were clearly elites tense up despite themselves and take a step back.
Of course, among them were some who flinched yet narrowed their eyes and observed him closely…
“…That big guy looks mighty familiar.”
“That chilling feeling too. Though he’s much stronger now. Don’t tell me…”
“Harley? Isn’t that Harley?!”
By an extraordinary coincidence, he had reunited in the middle of the desert with ties from the past.
The trio of southern warriors who had picked a fight with Harley while he was in the middle of establishing himself in the north, and who later got along with him as friends and subordinate employees.
The bulky Ruwang, the bearded Turaba, and the scarred Dao.
Harley threw off his robe and headed toward them.
“Kwahahaha! To think I’d see you all in a place like this, friends! What in the world are you doing here?”
“Harley, what are you doing here…?”
“Right. I heard you were busy traveling around with the Hero… Huh? Wait, then could that person over there be!”
“Hiiik! Lady Misty! Lady Misty! Please come out for a moment! Harley! The Hero!”
An unidentified army they had encountered by chance while heading toward Beorsen.
They were anti-Balteon forces who had gathered to punish Balteon, who was oppressing the tribes through wicked methods, and the woman in her twenties named Misty who led them was…
“Greetings. I knew someone was approaching, but I never imagined it would be the Hero’s party. This, too, must be fate. My name is Misty.”
The daughter of the Great Chieftain who had ruled the south before Balteon staged his coup.
And the granddaughter of Great Shaman Morna, as well as her disciple—a Great Shaman.