Episode 31
“P-please spare me.”
The last survivor pleaded with Deiodeun.
Her name was Eijeullin.
A magic-type Awakened, her specialty was wind magic.
In Neo Seoul, she had been a noble.
Being an A-rank Awakened, it was only natural that her nose grew high.
Having grown accustomed to being fawned over by everyone, she herself had come to think of herself as nobility.
That she had joined this attack squad had been purely her own will.
To the top brass of Neo Seoul, Deiodeun was a kind of taboo.
Everyone kept their mouths shut as if his name must not be spoken. Because of that, rebelliousness had sprouted in her.
‘So you’re that great? You’re nothing but a relic of the old era.’
She had wanted to prove it.
That the Awakened of the modern era were far superior.
To be exact, how exceptional she herself was.
That was the reason she had joined the Deiodeun attack squad. And now, she was bitterly regretting her decision.
Her face was horribly smeared with tears and snot, and she had pissed herself in the crotch.
Deiodeun was terrifying. And horrifying.
He seemed to be showing the limit of how strong a human could become.
Without using a proper skill even once, he had slaughtered every single Awakened who had attacked him.
Beating them to death with his fists, cutting them down with that massive greatsword.
Humans being cut down like scarecrows, blood gushing like fountains—at that sight, Eijeullin had lost her mind.
Due to the nature of being a magic-type Awakened, she had almost never fought in close quarters with demonic beasts or humans directly.
All she had to do was fire off a spell from a safe place from time to time.
Because of that, this was the first time she had witnessed such a horrific scene before her eyes.
Covered in blood and pieces of flesh, Deiodeun looked nothing like a fellow human.
Everyone was dead; the only one still alive was her.
Eijeullin hastily fell to her knees and pleaded.
“I-I was wrong. Please spare me.”
She could not even dare to think of resisting.
Deiodeun looked down at her with a pitiful expression.
“You want to live?”
“Yes! I’ll do anything if you just let me live.”
“Anything?”
“Yes! Anything?”
“Then kill yourself.”
“Huh?”
“I don’t need you, so I’m telling you to drop dead on your own.”
“I can’t do that. Please spare me.”
“Seeing as they sent the likes of you, I can tell exactly what the Mayor thinks of me. Message received loud and clear.”
“Huh?”
In that instant, Deiodeun swung Crayon.
A thin line of blood was drawn across the neck of Eijeullin, who wore a bewildered expression.
Immediately after, with a ‘thud,’ her head separated from her body and rolled across the ground.
“Hmph!”
Deiodeun snorted and approached Jeon.
Jeon’s face was heavily twisted.
He had followed Deiodeun and seen much death.
Among them had been elves that looked exactly like humans. But they had not been human.
Thanks to that, a psychological barrier had protected Jeon’s mind. But not now.
Though they had been enemies, numerous humans were strewn about as horrific corpses.
It was impossible for there to be no mental shock.
Deiodeun opened his mouth.
“Raise your head.”
“Yes!”
Jeon raised his head.
“Behold.”
“Yes!”
Jeon looked at the corpses strewn around them.
“That is the worth of humans living in the present era.”
“……”
“They strut around acting high and mighty because they’re Awakened, but in the end, they’re nothing but someone’s tools. Once their usefulness is exhausted, they’re discarded.”
“You mean they were discarded for being used up?”
“Jin Geum-ho has always been good at scheming.”
“Who is Jin Geum-ho?”
“The Mayor of Neo Seoul.”
At the unexpected answer, Jeon’s eyes went wide.
“Jin Geum-ho is a former bureaucrat who excels at politics. He clearly sent me a message while simultaneously disposing of his headaches.”
“You mean these people were Neo Seoul’s headaches?”
“Awakened are a double-edged sword. Those who listen well are good blades, but those who don’t are threats. So from time to time, he creates these events to keep the numbers in check.”
“Then what was the message?”
“Not to think of returning to Neo Seoul again, I suppose. Not that I had any intention of going back anyway. Kehehe!”
Deiodeun laughed at something he found amusing.
It had been decades since he had left Neo Seoul.
During that time, he had not set foot in Neo Seoul even once.
To those who had lived in the old Republic of Korea and its neighboring countries, it had been like a final bastion.
The last stronghold that protected humans from demonic beasts, and the mightiest fortress.
But to Deiodeun, it held no meaning whatsoever.
Rather than growing old and dying peacefully in a safe fortress, he would rather burn everything away in that harsh desert, leaving not a single trace, and scatter as ashes.
It was a journey for that purpose.
“Since you said you would follow me, such fields of carnage will continue to unfold before you. If your heart weakens and you disgracefully blubber with tears and snot, I will cut you down myself.”
“Who said my heart is weakening? It’s just my first time seeing this, so it’s uncomfortable, that’s all.”
“You must not even feel that discomfort. That is the only way for you to survive in this hellish world.”
“I understand.”
Jeon answered with a hardened expression.
It was advice like a threat from a man who had survived in the desert for over a hundred years.
It was a bit uncomfortable to hear, but they were words that became his flesh and blood.
Having engraved Deiodeun’s words upon his heart, Jeon cautiously asked.
“By the way, may I collect a few things?”
“What do you speak of?”
Instead of answering, Jeon looked at the corpses of the Awakened.
They were Awakened mobilized to capture Deiodeun.
Most of them had been high-ranking Awakened.
Thus, the items they possessed were highly likely to be valuable.
Deiodeun smirked.
“You really are a hyena.”
“Isn’t everything precious in the desert? You have to scavenge what you can while you can.”
“Do as you please.”
“Thank you.”
Jeon immediately began searching the corpses of the Awakened for useful items.
He felt not the slightest shame in this act.
He had done far worse in the slums.
Looting corpses for survival was only natural to him.
Jeon’s face twisted slightly as he searched the bodies for a while.
‘That damn old dog!’
Setting aside that not a single corpse was intact, he could not find a single piece of protective gear in one piece.
It was because Deiodeun had shattered them along with the gear.
What little he managed to salvage was a few weapons, the food and water loaded on the buggy, and a large backpack.
It seemed they had hunted quite a few demonic beasts on the way here.
The backpack was filled with magic stones extracted from demonic beasts.
After putting them all into his subspace, Jeon asked.
“What should we do with this vehicle? It still seems usable.”
“It will break down before long regardless. We abandon it.”
Desert sand devours machinery.
It might hold out for the moment, but without anyone to maintain it, it would soon wear down, corrode, and break.
Abandoning it was the wiser choice.
“Then let’s depart.”
The two resumed walking.
A sandstorm blew over the place they had left.
The desert sand soon buried the corpses of the Awakened and their vehicles without leaving a single trace.
＊＊＊
Fwoosh!
Sand scattered in the fierce wind.
The sandstorm had been growing stronger since some time ago.
Sandstorms so fierce that ordinary people could not even open their eyes blew incessantly.
At least Jeon and Deiodeun were not ordinary people, so they could endure; had it been anyone else, they would have gotten lost and collapsed by now.
Jeon found it strange.
No matter how unpredictable the desert climate was, it was definitely not a natural phenomenon for sandstorms to blow incessantly for several days like this.
Jeon asked Deiodeun.
“Am I mistaken? It seems the sandstorm is growing fiercer as we go.”
“You are not mistaken. The sandstorms will grow even fiercer going forward.”
“Even fiercer from here?”
“Indeed.”
At Deiodeun’s answer, Jeon felt dispirited.
Even as one who had awakened as a Sand Mage, the sandstorm was burdensome.
Deiodeun spoke.
“The place we are passing through now was once a sea.”
“A sea? You mean the place said to be larger than land and filled with saltwater?”
“Yes. To be exact, it would be correct to call it the Pacific Ocean.”
“The Pacific Ocean?”
At the word he was hearing for the first time in his life, Jeon’s eyes went wide.
Though it was a name he was hearing for the first time, he somehow felt vastness emanating from the very word.
“Can you believe it? That a sea so deep its deepest point exceeded ten thousand meters, so vast it could contain all the land in the world, completely evaporated and was filled with sand?”
Deiodeun bent at the waist and scooped the sand with his hand.
The sand immediately slipped through his fingers.
Deiodeun’s eyes were filled with rage as he watched the sand he could not grasp.
He still remembered vividly.
The blue sea stretching endlessly.
The seagulls flying above it and the powerful leaps of dolphins occasionally seen.
The brilliance of that era, never to be returned to again.
Though a hundred years had passed, the memories had not faded but had grown even clearer.
Perhaps that was why his rage and madness grew greater with time.
Jeon silently watched Deiodeun, who burned with rage.
It had already been two months since they had killed all the Awakened who had attacked them.
For two months, they had continued east.
During that time, Deiodeun had not said a single word about his divine power. Even so, Jeon somehow felt he could understand Deiodeun.
He himself had been born after the world changed like this, so he simply accepted the situation and lived, but to someone with vivid memories of the past like Deiodeun, the current world must be like hell.
So his crankiness and madness were understandable.
Of course, that did not mean he sympathized with him.
Deiodeun was still a damned old dog, and Jeon was being tempered day by day by his crankiness.
Then.
Jeon’s senses detected a hidden presence approaching them.
Kukuku!
The vibration could be felt beneath his feet.
Jeon silently looked ahead.
Fifty meters, thirty meters, and ten meters…….
The creature had hidden deep in the sand and approached right to beneath Jeon’s feet.
In that instant, Jeon muttered.
“Sand Mixer.”
Immediately, the sand beneath his feet began to rotate at a terrifying speed.
It was spinning around where Jeon stood like a blender.
Graaang!
A sound like gears turning echoed as the sand rotated.
Kieee!
In an instant, a monstrous shriek burst from inside the sand.
The being that had approached stealthily was trapped in the sand and being ground apart.
Its hard shell was being worn away, and the sand that dug inside minutely ground its flesh.
Writhing in pain it had never felt before in its life, the creature struggled to escape. But the sand vortex created by Jeon was imprisoning it like an iron wall and crushing it.
The sand Jeon stood on was dyed red.
The blood flowing from the creature’s body was dyeing the surrounding desert red.
Deiodeun silently watched the sight.
The demonic beast being pulverized beneath Jeon’s feet now was the Sand Worm, known as the terror of the desert.
A demonic beast feared by all because it stealthily approached while hidden in the sand.
Such a beast was being ground away by the sand without being able to put up much of a fight.
‘Truly a cheat-like ability.’
Having been with Deiodeun, Jeon’s talent was blooming perfectly.
His rank was still low, so the power was not perfect, but in terms of skill application and versatility, he was unparalleled.
Compared to Deiodeun at the same age, Jeon was far stronger.
It was truly an unbelievable achievement.
Pop!
A massive explosion erupted from within the sand.
Finally, the Sand Worm’s massive body burst, meeting a terrible end.
Deiodeun’s eyes gleamed.
‘If he’s reached this point, it should be fine to start soon.’