Ruined World (1)
Tyrant Dragon Taironax.
That ferocious being, which whipped up trouble at every opportunity thanks to its foul temperament, was none other than the very symbol of terror and calamity in this world.
Its massive size evoked the peaks of mountains, and it possessed two pairs of enormous wings befitting that bulk, as well as sharp horns and thorns protruding from its head and all across its body.
The overwhelming physical force born from its mass could crush absolutely anything with ease, and contrary to its seemingly sluggish bulk, its physical abilities—such as senses and reaction speed—reached transcendent realms.
The scales covering its entire body were composed of the hardest substance in the world, and its immense vitality and resistance were at a level none could dare fathom.
Indeed, wounds sustained while facing that being could not be healed by any means…
It was hardly strange that countless heroes who had set out to slay the Tyrant Dragon for the peace of the world had perished futilely.
If its intelligence had not been somewhat higher than that of a mere beast, challenging it would have been impossible from the start.
Literally a predator seated at the apex of the ecosystem.
And now, that Tyrant Dragon Taironax was…
Kuu-woong
— Kwarr-reung!
Crashed into the mountainside with its entire body covered in wounds, it caused a massive landslide. [Kraaaaaah——!]
The Tyrant Dragon thrust its head out from the collapsed mound of earth and roared savagely.
A howl filled with emotions such as rage, pain, irritation, and frustration. [Hoh? You endured this? As expected of one with such a notorious reputation, you're different from the others. You'll make excellent material. I thought this world was another dud, but this much is reasonably satisfying.]
But Hans, who faced the beast, could sense another emotion contained within that roar.
A vivid terror that could not be concealed even by savage ferocity. [Keheheh, stay still. I shall make you even freer. Your kin have already come and are waiting, so you shan't be lonely.]
From one hand raised upward, a blazing black sun arose.
An artificial sun that spread darkness—the opposite of the true sun that scattered light upon the world.
As its energy spread in all directions, every living being within its sphere of influence instantly withered away.
And immediately after,
Kwaaaahng——!
A massive earthquake shook the land alongside a black pillar of fire that soared high into the sky.
Such was the tremendous destructive force that an entire mountain could have evaporated whole.
The cities far away all reeled from the resulting earthquake, but Hans, already wholly absorbed by the sturdy living creature before his eyes, had no mind left to spare for such things. [It's still breathing after taking that? As expected…]
He, who had been nodding slowly, flashed a gleam from his eyes.
Anticipation welled up at what kind of masterpiece would be born if that monstrous body—virtually a specialty of this dimension—were turned into an undead. [Kwooooo——!] [Kyaaaaah——!]
At that moment, two massive dragon skulls leaped out from the shadow of the flailing Tyrant Dragon below and bit down on its neck at once.
Three massive bodies tangled together in an instant and rolled across the ground.
It didn't end there. [We must hunt it with minimal damage.] [It's on the verge of death. We can finish this quickly.]
The officers of the Undead Army appeared in succession and began latching onto the Tyrant Dragon's body one after another.
To cleanly and reliably sever its breath and make it their comrade.
Unlike the dragonkin of other dimensions, it was no different from a beast devoid of reason, so there was no need to feel any pangs of conscience.
According to information gathered through Olivia, they were also bomb-like beings that caused problems everywhere.
'Since there hasn't been any noteworthy gain until now, I should take what I can get. And it's been a while since Hallie had a good meal.'
Quite some time had passed since leaving Devour.
During that time, Hans had passed through two additional dimensions and arrived here, in Millerea, the fourth one, but had not discovered any suspicious circumstances that might be traces of the Buncheonhoeju since the first.
Compared to the previous worlds that had faced world-ending crises, he had only encountered trivial, ordinary nuisances like this Tyrant Dragon.
'Well, thinking about it, this place isn't even a closed dimension yet. There were some suspicious points while analyzing the memories, so I visited it first.'
Judging by the circumstances, it seemed he had been off the mark this time as well.
For a Transcendent, it was not strange at all for memories to have gaps in the process of breaking through mental barriers.
Of course, the situation was not so bad.
Rather, if there had been schemes laid by the Buncheonhoeju everywhere he went, that would have been more troublesome.
Simply discovering that his influence was not that overwhelming could be considered a gain in its own right.
'Still, it's a bit much to be going on business trips for information gathering and only drawing blanks in succession.'
It had been a decision made under the rational judgment that places where operations were well underway would have more traces left than worlds where everything had already ended.
It seemed he would have to go to a dimension with higher probability for the next destination in order to achieve his goal.
'Come to think of it, there was one suitable closed dimension remaining. The information in the collected memories pointed that way, and the probability of external intervention there was very high….'
While Hans was lost in such thoughts,
Uuuung
—a subtle vibration flowed out from his breast pocket.
He glanced at his subordinates who were dismantling the Tyrant Dragon and collecting trophies, then took something out from his breast pocket.
Uuuung
—Something that showed an even more violent reaction upon being brought out.
It was a pendant with an ornament attached to the end of a thin chain made of rare metal.
Of course, since it was in Hans's possession, the ornament was by no means an ordinary item. [Oh my, it still hasn't come to its senses.]
Hans lifted the pendant and brought it before his eye socket, letting out a small sigh and shaking his head.
With a gaze in which his eyes blazed with light at the ornament dangling from the end of the chain
—he stared straight at an eyeball of bizarre appearance.
Crackle
—Black lightning flickered at his fingertips.
Without the slightest hesitation, he brought his fingers to the writhing eyeball and shocked it just like that.
The eyeball spasmed repeatedly and squirmed to escape his grip, but of course, it was nothing more than a meaningless resistance. 'Remarkable. Its original ego has definitely been crushed, yet it resists to the very end. Is it because of the residual thoughts left in the true body?'
Truly befitting an existence of such high caliber as to be called a great archdemon.
And it was likely the strong attachment to life it had displayed in its final moments that had made it this way. 'I benefited greatly from that as well. If not for that, I wouldn't have been able to make an artifact like this.'
Hans held the now-docile pendant in his hand and nodded in satisfaction.
Hadn't it been thanks to this special item that he had been able to grant McCarthy the power of the 'Infinite Archdemon'?
He was a Necromancer and simultaneously an existence standing at the pinnacle of black mages.
As long as materials and conditions were met, it was not so difficult to create a 'demon-possessed armament' by mobilizing all manner of mysteries such as necromancy, demon contracts, and magic artifact crafting.
'Of course, if not for a confluence of coincidences and luck, creating an artifact with this much of its authority intact would have been utterly impossible.'
Be that as it may, the Infinite Archdemon was also an existence that had ascended to the demigod realm.
Given Devour's situation, where there were no beings worthy of being called gods unlike ordinary dimensions—perhaps because its patron deity had an evil god disposition—it was reasonable to view the demons, each governing a single 'concept', as being in a position akin to gods.
Perhaps a degraded version might have been possible, but creating an item containing that level of being's authority without loss was by no means an easy task.
'If I hadn't obtained the true body of a demon that hadn't completely perished even after taking a direct hit from the Death Sentence—one that had fallen into a sort of brain-dead state… I wouldn't have thought to use it either.'
Moreover, even after completing the item through all sorts of processes, the immense strain it continuously exerted made it impossible to create several.
To the extent that even Hans could maintain only this single one, what more need be said? 'Besides, even if I wanted to make more, I lack the materials.'
Still, he had gained know-how from this endeavor, so if a similar situation arose next time, he could proceed more easily.
The beginning had been pure coincidence, but once something succeeded once, the second time was naturally easier.
If he researched further during that process, the issue of being able to use only one might also be improved. 'If that happens.'
While Hans was gazing at the pendant like that, [My King… All clearing is finished…] [Hm.]
At the voice heard nearby, Hans calmly looked around his surroundings.
The scenery around him had already changed to the point where its original appearance could no longer be found.
Leaving aside that everything had become a complete mess, only a deep pit remained where a large mountain had stood—what more could be said?
'…If time passes and rain fills it, that place will become a lake too. It was a bit stifling with mountains packed so densely, so wouldn't a wide open lake be just right?'
Of course, Hans didn't care much.
He simply shamelessly rationalized and turned away from the scene of ruthless environmental destruction.
'Then let's move on to the next soon. I've gathered quite a few usable materials, with the Tyrant Dragon as the last.'
No matter how harmful a creature it was, there was no way he, an outsider, could drive it to extinction as he pleased.
Since he had collected enough to be reasonably satisfied, lingering any longer would only be a waste of time.
And so, the visitor from another world quietly vanished as quietly as he had come.
To 'Kosiyas'—a world that had been judged a closed dimension long ago, like Devour, and which had been set as his next destination.
***
After the outsider left.
Forbidden Land (禁地)
An anomaly that occurred in the Forbidden Land only became known to the world long after.
Because the Tyrant Dragon Taironax's notoriety was so great, no one dared approach even after witnessing the clearly abnormal pillar of fire and earthquake.
What people belatedly learned was that an unheard-of lake, absent from any records for ages, sat squarely where the mountain had been,
and that not only the Tyrant Dragon but several other notorious dragonkin had disappeared all at once.
And that tale was passed down through later generations as a legend and mystery of Millerea.
Along with the name 'Dragon's Lake'.
***
[…Huh?]
The moment he crossed the dimensional gate,
the first emotion Hans felt was bewilderment. 'What is this place?'
For an instant, he wondered if he had come to the wrong place.
It was only to be expected.
Because this place was far too different from everything he remembered about the dimension he had originally intended to visit.
The Kosiyas dimension belonged to what was commonly called the 'civilized realm'.
Its science and technology were at a level similar to Earth, but it was a world where things that would be called overtechnology by Earth's standards had permeated daily life through the development of magical engineering.
But the sight before him now… […It's already a dead world.]
It was beyond simply being called ruins.
The ground was filled with shattered concrete debris and all manner of scrap metal, and massive fissures so deep the bottom could not be seen split apart like drought-stricken fields.
Though unquestionably land, it had effectively become no different from islands. 'The magma is cooling down too.'
Having checked the bottom of the fissures through the 'Eye of the Abyss', he shook his head.
And immediately flew high into the sky to take in the whole world. 'The sea level is far too low. And what little remains has all rotted away.'
With the sea, the cradle of life, in such a state, there could be no living creatures.
Toxic substances filling the atmosphere instead of thin oxygen, radiation beating down directly, a planet losing its warmth and cooling down, and so on.
Hans stretched out his senses as far as possible using his specialty of detecting the living, but he only confirmed once again that all life, from flora and fauna down to microorganisms like bacteria, had been completely annihilated. [I can't feel any energy in space at all.]
It was enough to remind one of Earth, a barren wasteland of mystery… No, it was far more severe than that.
Perhaps because it had been squeezed dry of what it once had rather than never having it to begin with, the world reflected in his eyes was miserably withered.
Even as the entire world was dying, the fact that he couldn't even feel 'energy of death'—did that make any sense?
Hans's body, which had been flying swiftly while surveying the ground, halted in midair.
And then slowly raised his head to look up at the sky. 'This world is already finished.'
The sky was broken, shattered, and completely smashed apart.
What lay beyond it was not space.
Nothingness (無).
Literally, a space of absolute nothingness was swallowing this entire ruined world. 'There's no possibility of saving this world. Well, there isn't a single survivor to begin with.'
This place was nothing more and nothing less than a 'ruined world'.
Now, that would be the only word to describe this place, Kosiyas.
Then he suddenly realized one fact.
That the system message which always appeared whenever he entered another world had not been output just now. 'Has even the patron god who administers this world, and the Akasha System that encompasses all dimensions, already abandoned this world?'
He again tore through the void and began scanning the entire world.
The one who had made this place this way was surely the Buncheonhoeju.
To obtain even a small clue as per his original goal, he had to do something.
Because he didn't know when he could come to such a world again.
Then at one point,
while spreading his aura perception as wide as possible, his body jolted. [This is…]
He checked again, but there was no mistake.
Vitality, faintly felt.
And this reaction was definitely… 'A human? A human is still alive even in this state? How?'
He himself was already dead, so it didn't matter, but even an Awakened protected by the system wouldn't last long here.
Yet a being that had survived to the end in these worst of circumstances…
Hans's body shot forth like lightning.
Toward the place where the sole survivor of this ruined world remained.