2. Guards>“Whoa… Where did these things come from…….”
Having lured them some distance away so that Miss Steel wouldn’t get caught up in it, Sian was impressed. The newly reborn, new-version elders were nothing like their frail former selves.
There was no waste in the way they used their strength. The laws within their bodies had been rearranged more powerfully, and they were far more skilled at using their power; except for their identical appearances, they were practically entirely different beings. To begin with, the difference in combat power was far too great.
So much so that, if it had been before he crossed the wall, he might have felt his life threatened by them.‘Good thing I came early… If Miss Steel had faced them after their souls had fully settled in, she would have died…….’They were even more threatening because their combat power was gradually increasing as their souls settled into place.
Of course, that was only a story from before he had crossed the wall.
Now that he had crossed it, he did not have the leeway to be careless, but he had more than enough composure to objectively observe them and take the lead in the fight.
The one who had been the Great Elder and the one who had been the Second Elder.‘The soul that entered the Great Elder’s body… somehow feels like a female entity…….’If asked why he thought it was female, he could not give an exact reason, but that was how it felt. It wasn’t that its fighting style was feminine. If anything, it was even more ferocious than the Second Elder beside it.
It was simply that the waves reverberating from the soul somehow helped him guess that, when that soul had been alive, it might have been female. Not that it was a particularly important matter.
They had clearly said they were of the same race, but the way they used their power differed greatly. The common point was that both were extremely ferocious. If they were Granain, they should have been classified as a humanoid race, one with firm intellect and reason, yet seeing them fight, they looked far closer to Harijan than to humans.
But Sian was in no hurry. On the contrary, he was delighted by the current situation.
It was a little troublesome, but he had encountered opponents against whom he could unleash all of his newly gained power.
They had attacked first, so he had no human scruples holding him back.
He had left his brother somewhere safe, so there was nothing weighing on his mind, and he had plenty of time.
The opponents were strong, but there was absolutely no worry that he would lose.
All of these conditions perfectly matched the cry resounding in his heart.
Smiling like a demon, Sian drew up the new power within him in one long surge and rushed in.☆ ☆ ☆<…
Where is this?>He looked around, but nothing could be seen. There were only others of his kind, in circumstances similar to his own.
He had lost most of his memories, but he groped through the rare fragments that remained, trying to grasp the current situation.<…
Inside Ravne, is it…….><…
My name… I cannot remember…….>
What happened to my descendants?>As he searched his memories and thought, his thoughts began to accelerate. Before long, countless thoughts bloomed and vanished, but a powerful cry that suddenly struck his mind began to push all of those thoughts away.<…
Obey…….>
As he drifted about like that, he suddenly felt his consciousness flowing somewhere.
No, it was not his consciousness that was flowing somewhere. The water of Ravne that contained his consciousness and soul was leaking down somewhere. Perhaps the recent tremors had opened a hole in the bottom of the spring.
It seeped here and there through the earth until it arrived somewhere. He did not know through what path he had come, or where he had arrived, but the instant he reached it, he knew.<…
Ah… we have arrived… at our origin.>He had no body, and his bones had decayed away, so he could not come back to life.
But based on the origin before his eyes, he could come back to life.
When the method appeared before him, his heart grew urgent. Those of his kind who had flowed in along with him were already competing to seep into the origin before them.
He could not fall behind either, so he hurriedly seeped inside.
Then the senses that had vanished began to return.
Light began to be felt through the place where his eyes had been.
Some kind of noisy sound began to reach him as well.
When he tried to move his arm, recalling the feeling from before, his arm moved.
Thinking that he would need a sword, he pictured it in his mind, and a sword stretched out as well, landing in his hand.
What an arrogant thought that had been!
The sensations felt throughout his entire body, surging in so intensely that they made his head spin, sent a fullness into every corner of him that he could never have tasted while drifting through the spring water as a soul.
At the same time, he understood. If he did not resist the cry in his head, the inner reverberation telling him to obey his instincts, he could continue to taste this fullness.
That was why he decided without hesitation. He could never give up this sensation, this fullness.
Obeying the instincts they had buried over long years in order to form a society and live together was something he could do as much as needed.
And thus, reborn, he erased every other thought, reason, and memory in his mind, and raised the new body he had obtained from the origin in order to follow his instincts.☆ ☆ ☆Reynold stared blankly at the sounds and voices growing ever more intense, then heard someone calling him.
“…
re.”
“……
Hm?”
Someone far away was looking at him and shouting loudly, but buried beneath the roar, it was hard to hear. Reynold sharpened his hearing to catch the sound.
“…
careful!”
As the sound gradually became clearer, Reynold focused on it even more, and at last he could hear what it was saying.
“I said be careful! You idiot!”
Pook.“…
Huh?”
But by the time he heard it, it was already too late.
Looking at the tip of a sword that had pierced through his stomach, Reynold tried to grasp the situation.
But soon, there was no need for that either.
Because another sword flying in from the side cut off his head.
Watching that from afar as he ran, Ktil realized he had failed to save Reynold and spat out a stream of curses.
“Damn it! I told you to be careful! What the hell are those things!”
Behind where Reynold had been standing, something was walking out from within a deeply gouged crevice.
Things that moved with only bones remaining, without muscle, flesh, or blood vessels.
With not a single piece of soft tissue to support the bones, they should have collapsed in heaps, but the things were wrapped in a bizarre red energy and moved as though alive.
Though not even their sensory organs remained, the red energy enveloping the bones that made them up lingered around their skulls, including the hollow eye sockets, as if replacing eyes and ears. The thing, too, turned its head left and right as if it had eyes, surveying its surroundings.
Only bones remained, yet it did not look weak at all. There were likely few people with enough courage to look down on the thing after seeing its thick bones and its chilling eye-light.
Then, in the midst of that, the red eye-light of the one standing at the very front turned toward Ktil.
Ktil felt goosebumps rise all over his body. Because he could clearly feel what the thing’s eyes were trying to convey.
“You bastard… Are you saying you’re going to eat me…? I’ll kill you!”
Ktil roared and charged fiercely. Two of them, at least, he could deal with easily enough.
But Ktil, who had been charging in to avenge Reynold, quickly turned his body and began running toward where Sir Rian was.
“Uaaaaaagh!”
It was not just two of them. Behind the two, dozens of red eye-lights were passing through the black gap and emerging outside. And upon discovering Ktil as he ran toward them, they charged fiercely.
And Rian, seeing Sir Ktil running from afar and the dozens of bizarre skeletons behind him, quickly gathered the scattered people.
“Reform the formation!”
Rian, who had come with an easy heart only to face an unexpected situation, clenched his teeth. The things running over there had not been born long ago and were still in a weak state. But they were gradually growing stronger.
It was too late to run as well. He himself could escape easily enough, but all of those at the Expert level would be caught. Perhaps because only their bones remained, the things were terrifyingly fast.
“Fifth Elder, can you help us?”<…
I will… try……. But… do not expect much…….>The Fifth Elder, who had been clutching his head as though the pain was growing worse and worse, concentrated strength in his hand and stepped forward.
Soon, the investigation team with its formation in place and the newly born red skeletons collided violently.☆ ☆ ☆“Hahahaha!”
Kudududuk. Kkudeudeuk.
Having swung his sword and driven his opponent into the mountain range in one blow, Sian gave a hearty laugh. It was so enjoyable to have opponents against whom he could exert his full power.
Moreover, these things oddly kept coming back to life. Even if their arms were cut off, even if their legs were chopped apart, if they withdrew for just a moment, bones would grow back in an instant, muscles would attach over them, blood vessels would intertwine, and flesh would sprout.
The things that had taken over the bodies of the Great Elder and the Second Elder before him were indeed powerful, and the Granain were said to be able to revive as long as they had bones and spring water, but this was beyond common sense.
But what did that matter? What mattered to Sian was that he had acquired toys he could play with for a long, long time.
The Great Elder on the left regenerated its severed arm and stretched it out. In an instant, blue light concentrated in its hand flew toward him, tearing through space.
Sian did not even swing his sword in that direction. Instead, he took advantage of the Great Elder’s attack to drive the Second Elder back with all his might.
And the Great Elder’s attack struck Sian’s head precisely—no, it thought it had struck precisely.
But that was an illusion. Something had been layered around Sian’s head, and the Great Elder struck that place. Clearly, the veil and Sian’s head were not even a finger’s breadth apart, yet that distance felt as far as the road to a mountain peak in the range. The attack the Great Elder had launched possessed the power to shatter a mountain, but it was scattered and pulverized entirely, and by the time it reached Sian, it had become like the punch of a child.
The Great Elder paid no attention at all to the fact that its attack had been blocked. It had been that way for a while now.
After striking the Great Elder and the Second Elder as they charged in again without giving up, Sian suddenly felt some strange power trying to act on his body.
“What arrogant bastard is…….”
Looking around to see who was trying to apply a miracle to him, Sian realized that there was no one around, and that the miracle was actually occurring near his own body.
The origin point of that Exar flow was the ring on his finger.
The ring, which formed a set with the Necklace of Covenant and was said to summon the ring’s owner when the necklace’s owner was in danger, was trying to activate.
Seeing this, Sian’s expression twisted hideously. He had thought nothing would happen if he left him there, but this meant something had happened to his brother.
Normally, he would have answered the summons without a single thought. His brother was more precious than anyone.
But…‘If I go now, Miss Steel will definitely die.’He did not know what had happened, but if he answered this summons now, Miss Steel would definitely die before he returned. She would be held back by that one there and would not be able to escape.
Only then did Sian’s heart grow urgent, and he swung his sword fiercely. His intention was to at least leave them half-crippled before he left.
But the near-immortal regenerative power that had entertained Sian until now was now holding him back. To completely smash apart the things that endlessly revived no matter how much he broke them, he needed more time.
Giiiiiiing!
“Damn it!”
The green light pouring fiercely from the ring told him he could delay the summoning no longer. In the end, Sian made his decision.☆ ☆ ☆Kuuung! Kududeuk!
“Persistent bastard…….”
Steel looked fed up as she watched the Fourth Elder charging toward her.
When it had been in the spring, it had been strong, but since it had not been long since it was reborn and it had been reborn by borrowing Gran-Bander’s body, she had thought she could suppress it without much difficulty. But it was more troublesome than she had expected.
Growing more adept at using his strength was a problem too, but the biggest issue was his regeneration speed. When they fought together in the past, he hadn’t possessed such an ability, but perhaps because he had soaked his body thoroughly in the spring, wounds were regenerating at a tremendous speed. Even when she tried to annihilate him, that area was restoring itself completely, seemingly regenerating based on the information engraved in his bones.
‘No matter what, this regeneration speed is absurd… I wonder how my little brother is faring…….’
In the midst of battle, Steel found a brief moment of respite and glanced toward Sian.
But contrary to her expectations, little brother Sian was incredibly flustered.
‘Huh?’
The two fighting over there with her brother were born based on the flesh of La-
Vander, and their souls were far stronger than the one she was fighting, so their combat prowess was formidable.
But since little brother Sian was an even greater monster, she had thought he would fight without much fluster—yet to see him so flustered.
‘Are they much stronger than expected……? But watching them fight, they don’t even look it…….’
At that moment, little brother Sian began running toward her at tremendous speed.
“Uh… huh?”
Startled by Sian rushing at her at tremendous speed, Steel lost track of the foe before her. And the foe before her was not so easygoing as to let that slide.
‘Damn it…….’
Flustered by the unexpected situation, Steel resolved to sacrifice an arm and poured all her strength into her right arm to receive the foe’s attack.
Crack!
But when the expected impact didn’t come, Steel lowered her arm in confusion and looked ahead. It turned out that Sian, who had approached before she knew it, had struck aside the foe charging at her and sent him flying toward the Great Elder and Second Elder who had been pursuing him.
“Oh my. Little brother, surely you didn’t come to save me…….”
“Miss Steel! There is no time!”
“Uh… huh?”
Surprised when Sian suddenly grabbed her wrist, Steel was bewildered when he slipped a ring onto her hand, but then something seemed to come to mind and she smiled pleasantly.
“Little brother… surely you’re not proposing here? Oh my, how romantic. You didn’t have to rush so.”
“What are you talking about… Please take good care of my brother.”
“What?”
While Steel was bewildered, green light burst from the ring, and shortly after, Steel vanished, leaving Sian alone.
Only then did Sian feel his mind ease. He didn’t know what was happening, but if it was Miss Steel, she could at least save his brother and flee. That was enough.
“Hoo… now that the urgent fire is put out… let’s play once more, you bastards.”
And Sian charged at the three rushing toward him.
☆ ☆ ☆
“Huff… huff… hold on a little longer, everyone!”
Rian was gradually growing exhausted from the attacks of the skeletons swarming from all directions. The only reason he had lasted until now was thanks to the necklace his younger brother had given him.
The moment he first took a skeleton’s attack, he thought he would die on the spot. But strange light seeped from the necklace his younger brother had given him, forming a gray-tinged cloud around his body.
It was no ordinary cloud. A marvelous cloud that infused the weapons attacking him with powerful electric shocks and even shot lightning at the attackers themselves. Having confirmed this artifact’s efficacy, Rian fought even harder at the front. Because the harder he fought, the greater the chance that even one more person would survive.
But they began to be pushed back continuously. The difference in overall strength was too severe from the start. The Fifth Elder seemed to have something wrong with his body and couldn’t fight proactively, and while the other investigation team members were fighting desperately, being pushed back was inevitable.
They fell one by one, and crisis came for Rian as well.
Swoosh!
Rian frowned at the blade flying toward him. There was no way to block that blade.
‘Hoo…….’
While he wore a despairing expression, brilliant green light suddenly exploded before his necklace. A completely different situation from when it had only emitted gray clouds until now.
The green light repelled the suddenly flying blade and maintained its glow for a while.
While Rian couldn’t comprehend what was happening due to the sudden change, the green light subsided, and from within it, a slender yet elongated hand stretched out.
☆ ☆ ☆
“Ah… what?”
She could have resisted the flow of Exar suddenly wrapping around her body, but her little brother wouldn’t do anything strange to her, and he had looked extremely urgent, so Steel surrendered herself to it and suddenly felt her surroundings change.
‘A short-range spatial transfer artifact…….’
When she looked beside her, she saw a child named Rian, who was Sian’s elder brother. Come to think of it, the ring on her hand was the one Sian had boasted about before. The ring that formed a set with the Oath Necklace. She had been so focused on the necklace that she couldn’t remember the ring’s design.
“Damn it! And here I got excited for nothing.”
Looking around, strange skeleton bastards were surrounding the child named Rian and pouring attacks on him. If Sian had seen this sight, these bastards would have regretted existing in this world.
‘Ah… but since they’re skeletons, I suppose that’s impossible.’
She didn’t know what they were, but the solution was clear. Grumbling aloud, Steel irritably flicked aside a skeleton approaching her.
But the result was anything but light.
Boom!
The skeleton’s head flew off as if struck by a cannon, smashing another skeleton in its trajectory before burying itself in the ground far away.
Rian was dumbfounded seeing that. From the necklace Sian had given him, the woman Sian had introduced to him last time had popped out. Not a trace remained of her demure appearance from that time; she was radiating the pressure of a savage beast in all directions. To the extent that even the skeletons charging mindlessly fell back.
“Hehe. Don’t worry too much, Sir Rian. Ah, may I call you Sir Rian?”
“Ah… please do, Miss Steel.”
“I am… hmm, someone little brother Sian sent to protect Sir Rian… something like a guardian angel, I suppose.”
And Steel, full of annoyance, looked at the skeleton bastard before her and clenched her fist.
“Though it won’t be very good for them.”
Having finished speaking, Steel exploded her aura at the skeletons before her and leaped in.
☆ ☆ ☆
Crack!
Watching the Fifth Elder fly away with a cheerful sound, Steel spoke to Rian.
“This much should do, shouldn’t it?”
“Ah… thank you, Miss Steel.”
“But why on earth did this old fogey suddenly charge at me…….”
When she had almost finished dealing with the skeletons, the Fifth Elder, who had been holding his head, also suddenly charged at her. Steel had cautiously approached him wondering if his soul had been switched too, but this one had simply lost his mind.
But since he kept regenerating and charging like a madman no matter how much she beat him, Steel had first turned his entire body to powder. Nevertheless, the Fifth Elder’s body was continuing to regenerate.
‘Hehe. That’s right, I’m not dead yet.’
Feeling the surrounding gazes looking at her in awe, Steel suddenly felt depressed. She must have been running away quite a lot these days. To think she felt elated by such children’s gazes.
“I believe this is settled.”
“Truly, thank you, Miss Steel. By the way, where did those things suddenly come from?”
The Granain race suddenly going mad, the resurrected La-
Vander, and even the skeletons rising up to attack… there was no common thread, but for these things to happen simultaneously was highly suspicious.
There was definitely some cause, and not knowing it was frustrating.
“Um… Sir Rian.”
“Yes… Sir Keutil, what is it?”
“Would it not be good to examine the hole those things came from?”
“Surely Sir Keutil… you saw where they first popped out from?”
“Yes. The hole behind Reynold’s corpse over there… they first popped out from there.”
As he spoke, Keutil pointed behind Reynold, who had fallen with his head missing in the distance.
Something reddish-brown could be seen there.
“For something like that to be there… why didn’t we know?”
A suspicious-looking object was buried in the ground at first glance, and Rian muttered to himself, perhaps finding it strange that no one had discovered it until now.
“That… should originally be dozens of meters, hundreds of meters below ground level. It was unearthed all the way here due to the great battle before.”
“Then it is understandable why no one had discovered it until now.”
One of the locals from the Lagram region answered, and Sir Keutil took it.
“Let us go and see.”
“Um… but Sir Rian…….”
“What is it, Sir Keutil?”
“If the one called the Fifth Elder has gone mad like that… are the villages where the Granain live safe?”
“Oh no!”
Rian struck his head as if he hadn’t thought of it. Come to think of it, if the Fifth Elder was like this, there was no guarantee the remaining elders were in their right minds either.
“Let us hurry there. And also… Miss Steel.”
“Hehe. What is it, Sir Rian?”
“If it is not too rude… would you mind helping us a little?”
Steel had no interest whatsoever in Granain and humans killing each other, and was rather more interested in that suspicious object inside the deeply hollowed mountain range. If anyone else had said such things to her, their neck would have been twisted off immediately, but actions always change depending on the place, the target, and the situation. The crux was that this child was the elder brother that little brother Sian cherished immensely.
‘Hehe. Shall I score some points this time?’
Moreover, if the ones called the Third Elder and Sixth Elder remaining there were causing a ruckus, the village situation would be extremely dangerous, and if she sent Rian alone to such a place…….
‘Ugh… we’ve gotten quite close, so could I really kill him……?’
Unable to be certain, Steel decided to act in a way that avoided risk.
“Hehe. Very well, Sir Rian. In exchange, make sure to tell my little brother later that I definitely helped.”
“What do you mean by that? We are alive now thanks entirely to you, Miss Steel.”
Satisfied with Rian’s answer, Steel smiled contentedly and shot off.
“Sir Rian, no matter how much we search, there is no one in the village.”
“I see. Where could everyone have gone?”
The investigation team that had gone to Shinji, Grang-
Latra felt bewildered to see the villages completely empty.
Though the Granain were not numerous, it was strange for it to be so quiet. If they had gone mad like the Fifth Elder, they should have already run toward the city.
Worried about that, Rian had asked Steel to stop by the city first, but there was no problem there. Only then did Rian gain some leeway and come to the villages with Steel, but no one was there.
“Hmm…….”
“Miss Steel, does something come to mind?”
“There is, but… Sir Rian, return to the city first. I will look into the rest myself.”
With those last words, Steel vanished from the spot in an instant.
Steel ran to where Sian had been fighting earlier. If her prediction was correct, they would all probably be there.
At some point, flashes of light had stopped bursting forth, and the sound of mountains collapsing could no longer be heard. Meaning the whole situation was drawing to a close. Therefore, Steel moved her steps with a light heart. Even if the sky fell, Sian would not have lost.
“As expected…….”
Steel exclaimed at the scene unfolding before her eyes. Where there had clearly been mountains before she teleported away, there was now an even deeper pit. And inside it, Sian and figures who appeared to be Granain were all strewn about.
“Little brother Sian… haha, you’ve caused quite a scene again. The day when they rename the Heaven’s Mountain Range to Sian’s Great Gorge can’t be far off.”
“You’ve come. What happened to my brother?”
Sian looked exhausted, but the moment he saw Steel, he asked about his brother’s well-being first.
“Hehe. Who do you think I am? I saved them all. Your brother doesn’t even have a scratch.”
“Phew… that’s a relief. Truly, thank you, Miss Steel.”
“Hehe. He’s your elder brother; if not me, who would look after him?”
Steel answered with a laugh.
“Still, it feels good to stretch your body, right? Last time you showed me, it looked like your body would twist even if you wanted to use it.”
Steel smiled, recalling Sian, who had been wielding his newly obtained power against the mountains and sky.
“…
It wasn’t as easy as it sounds. Look at this.”
With that, Sian showed them a dangling sword. It was the Crona
-phon, which had now become Sian’s signature weapon. And there was a great crack split through that Crona
-phon.
“Those guys really were strong……”
“Now that this has cooled, it’ll be hard to shape it again… Tch, I’ll have to use it carefully. There’s nothing else like it.”
“Come to think of it, how did you get that?”
Steel asked, sounding curious. A pitch-black blade that could accept that tremendous power without difficulty. It had no special functions, but with its sheer durability and weight alone, it could be placed on the same level as the treasured artifacts they possessed. It was strange that she had never known of such a thing until now.
“Um… well……”
And Sian explained how he had come to obtain the sword. After hearing the explanation, Steel made a displeased face.
“Ugh… then that’s a sword with people and everything else ground into it. Bad taste, little brother. More than I expected.”
“……”
“Crona
-phon, my foot. Kongtiang
-dough would be a better name for it.”
At Steel’s words, Sian also looked down at the black sword in his hand, evidently feeling uneasy, but soon his expression turned resolute.
“No matter what you say, Miss Steel, I’m going to use it. And Miss Steel, aren’t you saying that because if I throw it away, you’re planning to pick it up and use it?”
“Tch.”
“I knew it.” ‘He’s getting quicker on the uptake by the day…….’ Perhaps feeling cornered, Steel tried to change the subject.
“By the way… are all those kids down there dead?”
“Hmm… at first I intended to do that, but… no matter how much I beat them, they wouldn’t die. Even when I crushed their heads, they came back to life, so for now I just broke their arms and legs… They’ll probably reattach. I killed them several times, but they wouldn’t die… Their bones are ridiculously hard too… This situation isn’t simple.”
At Sian’s grave words, Steel looked down, and sure enough, she could sense something writhing.
“What about the other Granain besides those three?”
“Those men… when those three were getting beaten up earlier, they suddenly rushed in a crowd to help. They don’t die either. They kept trying to come back to life, so for now I broke all their bones.”
“Oh, right. Little brother, about that……”
Steel told Sian what she had discovered when she had gone to save Rian earlier.
“That’s very suspicious.”
“Right? Let’s take a look. I don’t know what the cause is, but I think it’ll at least be a clue.”
“Let’s do that. At this rate, there’ll be no end to it. But leaving them here while we go is a little……”
Sian muttered as he looked at the Granain struggling below.
“You’re worried they’ll move again?”
“Hmm… I think it’ll be fine until we get back, but… it feels a little unsettling……”
Sian leapt down below. Then he neatly stacked the three who couldn’t even move and placed the Crona
-phon on top of them.
Crack-crack-crack!
“There… now they won’t be able to move. Even if they regenerate, this should buy us time until their strength returns.”
“Little brother, sometimes you’re smart in unusual ways.”
“That was a compliment, right? Still, just in case, let’s hurry and return.”
“No, little brother. Wait. Let’s make it more certain.”
And Steel struck the side of the hollowed-out pit. Then, with a thunderous roar, the mountain ridge beside the pit began to collapse entirely, and the heaps of earth buried all the fallen Granain.
“With this much… it should buy us time. And unless it’s those three, it’ll take them a long time to get out too.”
“Well done. Then let’s go.”
Having finished things perfectly, Sian and Steel shot toward the place where her brother had been earlier.
At the spot where Sian and Steel arrived, the skeletons they had smashed earlier were writhing, wrapped in that same red aura.
“Wow… these guys too… There really does seem to be something inside.”
“Seriously… Is there something that makes people immortal?”
They were still writhing even after Miss Steel had dealt with them. As if he couldn’t believe the bizarre sight, Sian shook his head.
“We’ll know once we check. Where is it?”
“Hmm… I’m sure I said it was behind the corpse whose neck had been blown off……”
“There’s more than one corpse here with its head gone.”
“Wait. It was around there… Ah, over there!”
Seeing the corpse lying in front of the shaved-away cliff, Sian and Steel launched themselves over and were able to confirm the deep crevice behind it.
When they went a little way inside, they discovered something reddish buried in the earth.
“It looks incredibly smooth.”
Before Steel’s eyes stood a smooth red wall. But on closer inspection, it wasn’t a wall. Red plates filled the narrow gap.
Hundreds of those plates were lined up in a row, blocking Steel and Sian’s path. Looking a little more closely, they could see that a few of the red plates had fallen off.
“Hmm… a few pieces have come off, haven’t they? But little brother Sian, why are you so quiet?”
“……”
Sian silently glared at the red wall. Seeing that, Steel asked again as if she didn’t understand.
“Is there something about this? I don’t feel anything.”
“Don’t touch it, Miss Steel.”
“Hmm?”
Since her little brother wasn’t the sort to say such a thing for no reason, Steel lightly withdrew the hand she had been reaching out.
“What is it? Do you know what this is?”
“Let’s go outside for a moment.”
“You’re making me curious.”
Steel tried to touch the wall, but Sian grabbed her and dragged her outside.
“No… if we’re going to see what’s inside anyway, don’t we have to get past that red wall? Why did you stop me?”
Sian said nothing and began gathering power in both hands. The space around his hands began to warp violently, and from the crushed fissures, a dark radiance squeezed through and leaked out.
While Steel was overwhelmed by an amount of energy so vast she could not even imagine it, Sian swung his hands like windmills.
And the mountain remaining before their eyes began to peel away whole, as if its outer hide were being stripped off.
Rrrrrrrumble!
When the mountain’s outer layer had been peeled away and the dust settled, Steel could see what had been inside.
“…
This is……”
“Yes. This is the true identity of the red wall you saw earlier, Miss Steel.”
Steel could not close her mouth at the sight spread out before her eyes.
☆ ☆ ☆
Where is this?>
Rodebal was dreaming.
No, it was not a dream.
Rodebal was experiencing someone’s memories. Ancient memories handed down through his blood, his bones and soul, and the spring.
Rodebal was experiencing the inherited memories he could only know after stripping away all the thin reason that had covered his essence.
Rodebal muttered as he watched the sight before his eyes.
The self within the memories was not a Granain.
It was a quadrupedal life-form, larger, but still weak.
Yet it was fiercer than anyone, and more adept at survival than anyone.
The creature ate, and ate, and ate again, growing stronger.
It avoided dangerous opponents, and devoured weaker ones no matter what. And if it saw an opponent that seemed likely to one day become stronger than itself, it chased them to the end and devoured them.
In doing so, it naturally grew older and naturally grew stronger.
The horns on its head increased one by one. From one to two, from two to three… and at last, to six.
At last, it had gone from a feeble creature to a powerful being capable of controlling a vast continent.
But it never let its guard down. Even after gaining six horns, there were many who could still be its opponents. Rather, being half-strong made one good prey. The more strong ones it devoured, the faster it could grow stronger.
After becoming strong, it grew even more cautious. It never changed the pattern of living that had kept it alive until now.
Avoid strong ones, devour weak ones, and if death seems near, flee unconditionally.
As it grew stronger and stronger, it realized at a certain moment that the time had come for it to be born as a new existence, not as the six-horned being it had been until then.
But it had to be careful. At the moment it became stronger, it always became weak. The only weakness of itself, an incomparable powerhouse.
Until now, it had hidden itself away and undergone the process carefully, but that was no longer possible. If it went through this process, perhaps every being on the continent would come to know of its transformation.
And no one would wish for something to appear above its head. They would come to attack it.
Therefore, it decided to create the beings it needed. As it happened, it had a suitable ability. Rather than its own authority, it was the authority of some mayfly-like creature it had devoured, but now it belonged to it.
On the middle slope of the mountain range it had made its territory, it spat its saliva into a small spring. It was not simple saliva. It confined the “something” that was the source that made living creatures move and prevented it from escaping.
Then it removed its own tailbone. Removing too much would be a waste, so only a little.
Even a little was quite a large amount, given its size.
On the severed tailbone, it used the creature it had devoured to carve something. A power like sorcery, and like a miracle.
With this bone as the base, and using the spring, it inserted that “something.” After that, everything proceeded in one stroke.
Based on the fragments of its tailbone, muscle attached, blood vessels formed, and skin covered it.
The newly created beings were quite satisfactory. As long as its power continued to be supplied, they would not die, and even if they died, they could revive. Though they were utterly weak, if they did not die like that, they would continue to accumulate power and become fairly useful guards. On top of that, they could reproduce, killing two birds with one stone.
After creating them, before entering the preparation stage, it implanted a single command. To faithfully fulfill their duty as guards.
It was the purpose and essence of their existence, something they could never defy. A command of subordination carved into their bones and souls, one that would continue to be passed down through the generations.
The memories ended there. Whether that being moved on to the next stage, or whether it was killed, was not left in the memories. Even the memories up to this point were probably remnants carried along with the power and command transmitted through the soul. Now that its essence had been revealed, the memories must have been drawn up as well.
Rodebal fell into a sense of emptiness.
Their mighty race, the Granain.
In the end, their race had been nothing more than guards created by some Harijan in preparation for the time when it would grow weak.
That was why they had gone mad and run wild. Because the Harijan’s body had been attacked, the command carved into their bones and souls had responded. It was in danger, so they were to fulfill their duty.
As Rodebal sank into emptiness, another memory was transmitted to him.
Rodebal was thrown into confusion by the memories that had suddenly been transmitted to him.
With that voice as the last thing he heard, Rodebal felt himself leave the world of consciousness and return to reality. He was bound in restraints, but he felt no difficulty at all in tearing them apart and freeing himself.
All the madness that had ruled him earlier had vanished as well.
There was no one inside the building, so after freeing himself from the restraints, Rodebal lightly leapt outside without being obstructed.
And, avoiding people’s eyes, he began to run toward the voice calling him.