5. Unkara>
When Sian said he would be leaving, the Lukras nodded and told him the location of the nearest Kiculus to their territory.
After coming outside and running across the plains, Sian reached something close to his limit and cooled his body as he gazed at the Kiculus visible in the far distance. From what Duke Lorval had told him back then, it would take some time for the core’s power to recover, but perhaps it had recovered to some degree, for the Kiculus’s leaves glowed blue, flaunting their radiance.
‘By the way… I’ve never been this way before… Well, I can just ask.’
Back then, all the dukes had died, and the only one left was probably Conrad. Judging by their personalities, it did not seem likely that they would be hiding out here, so he figured he would find out soon enough if he asked.
‘Tsk… It would be really nice if this thing could tell me the way too…….’
If he had an ability like his third sister-in-law’s “Path of Destiny,” he probably would have found them in no time. Lamenting why his own ability was of no use except in fighting and beating people, Sian steadily continued his training.
☆ ☆ ☆
After arriving at the Kiculus, Sian walked up toward the Kiculus where the noble would be staying, wondering how he should introduce himself. If he showed up out of nowhere and asked where Conrad was, it felt as though it would make for a very strange scene.
But Sian had no need to worry about that at all. The man ruling the Kiculus, Count Garion, welcomed him warmly the moment he saw him.
“Hello. My name is Sian… By any chance……”
“Ah! You’ve arrived. I received word.”
“…
Word?”
When Sian asked back with a blank look on his face, Count Garion smiled and said,
“The twins contacted me. They said that if someone named Sian happened to come, I should tell him to go to the place where the old House of Duke Lorval once stood.”
“Huh…….”
Sian let out an exclamation, not having expected Mr. Lagaofe to have arranged things to this extent.
‘That man’s head really does work well, anyway…….’
In any case, it was good for him.
Sian asked whether spatial transfer to Lorval was possible, but after hearing only that such a thing had not yet been installed, he set off toward Kiculus Lorval.
Now, even without Acra, he could sense the resonance to a certain degree. Feeling the faint core energy spreading through the atmosphere, Sian began running toward Lorval, which should be located on the peninsula to the northeast. If he crossed from Kiculus to Kiculus in order, he would arrive there eventually.
☆ ☆ ☆
“Heh heh. With this, even if he’s alive, he’ll come straight to Lorval instead of searching through the cores of every Kiculus, won’t he?”
When he had visited Lukra before, Lagaofe had roughly heard what favor Sian wanted to ask of him, and he knew that Sian would come looking for him someday—if only because Sian would need to return home.
But since Sian had no way of knowing where he was, he might search through every Kiculus, and if he was unlucky, he might get caught in the process. So Lagaofe had used the twins to tell all the nobles that if anyone was looking for Conrad, they should come to Lorval.
“Well, I suppose so.”
Ignoring Conrad, who was looking at him with a pathetic expression, Lagaofe wore a satisfied look as he busied himself gathering his belongings. He was preparing to run away.
“Then I’ll be off somewhere, hiding. Heh heh. Here… I’ll leave this communication artifact behind, so call me if you need anything.”
‘That sly little brain of his, honestly…….’
Conrad clicked his tongue as he looked at Lagaofe, then suddenly thought of something and asked him,
“But how long are you planning to keep running? It’s not as if Sian would actually kill you, or… anything like that.”
The Sian Conrad had seen did not seem to have such a violent temperament. And since Lagaofe had never directly tried to kill Sian, Conrad did not think Sian would fly into a rage and seek revenge. So he asked Lagaofe with a puzzled expression.
Lagaofe nodded and said,
“I am not running because I am afraid of being hit by Mr. Sian. Well… he is not the sort to hold a grudge, so it would be easier to just get beaten once and be done with it.”
“…
Then why?”
“Because I feel that if I get involved with him, even my luck will turn bad. Especially in unstable times like these. How am I to know what kind of fiery disaster might strike while I’m standing beside him?”
“That’s true too.”
And it probably would not be an ordinary fiery disaster, either. Conrad nodded, then suddenly thought of one more thing he had not taken into account and asked,
“…
Then what about us?”
Lagaofe looked back at him as if to ask what he meant.
“Well, weren’t you the ones who always shouted that warriors must live with danger at their side? As it happens, someone who carries danger around with him is coming here, so please enjoy yourselves together.”
“…….”
As Conrad suppressed the hand that truly wanted to punch him, Lagaofe threw out one last remark.
“In the case of an intellectual like myself, my principle is that danger must always be avoided. Hahaha! I’ll go to another region and take care of other work. I’ll return once the situation is over. Even if I get beaten… it would be better to be beaten then.”
And with that, Lagaofe disappeared from the spot.
☆ ☆ ☆
Not long after Lagaofe fled, Sian was able to arrive at Kiculus Lorval.
Perhaps because Lorval was so enormous, or perhaps because it had expended a great deal of strength while giving birth to Duke Lorval as a new existence, it looked as though it would still need more time to recover to its original state.
When he entered Lorval, Conrad welcomed Sian warmly.
“It’s good to see you, Mr. Conrad.”
“It has been a long time.”
‘He really came back alive…….’
Conrad stared at Sian before him in disbelief. Lagaofe had packed up his things and run away, seeming utterly certain that Sian would come, but in truth, Conrad had not believed that Sian would return alive. That was because, long ago, he had personally witnessed Krona’s overwhelming majesty. The same had been true of his companions.
A grotesque being that had, in an instant, swept away all the human races and Kal-Gul across that vast empire.
Conrad had found it impossible to believe that anyone could break through such beings and reach the extreme mountains where the Lukras lived, so in truth, he had not been waiting for Sian and had simply been doing his own work.
But now that he saw Sian before his eyes, Conrad began to understand to some degree.
‘He doesn’t seem human…….’
If he were human, that would have been impossible, but the being before him did not seem human. By rights, at Conrad’s level, he should not have been able to sense anything, yet something strange, something that felt as if it belonged to another dimension, was reaching him.
When still, no one would notice him, but once he moved, it felt as though he would summon a storm.
‘Mr. Lorval… you succeeded.’
To think he had brought such a person into being. Conrad once again thought of Lorval, who had now vanished, and paid him respect.
Conrad nodded and went inside with Sian to begin their conversation.
“So that’s what happened. Mr. Lagaofe… ran away, is that it?”
“That’s right. He didn’t even tell us his location before leaving… so we have no way of knowing where he is.”
“…
It’s all right. That isn’t what’s urgent anyway.”
Then Sian began speaking with Conrad about the mission he had to carry out this time. Conrad summarized it simply.
“So… you are saying you need a spatial-transfer magic circle that will let you escape after finishing your business at that cloud mountain?”
“Yes. If I flee there, they won’t be able to follow……. And just in case, everyone should take shelter around this area. If we’re truly unlucky… even this place may get swept up in it.”
Even if he escaped successfully, Sian had no way of knowing what the Drakuns, driven mad with rage, might do, so he spoke while considering what would come afterward.
‘A fiery disaster…….’
Conrad was reminded of what Lagaofe had said earlier and felt tremendously uneasy, but he shook his head to cast the thought away. After pondering this and that about whether he could use the magic circle Sian had requested, he wore an expression suggesting it would be fine.
“There are no commoners here, so Acra is not being supplied… but as long as energy is poured into the core, escape is possible at any time. That won’t be a problem, but… will there be no problem with you coming from there to here?”
“Hmm… But there isn’t really any other way, is there?”
Since it was a distance that would not take long if he ran, he had not thought much of it, but now that he considered it, it did seem that it could be dangerous if he were trapped by the Drakuns.
Conrad smiled and said,
“The reason spatial-transfer magic circles were made based on cores and Kiculus was simply because the energy required to supply them is so enormous. Mr. Sian, you can supply that energy by yourself, can you not? Just as you did last time.”
“Ah.”
Thinking about it, when he had escaped from the Drakuns last time, he had fled in just that way.
“I will make you a spatial-transfer artifact with the spatial-transfer coordinates and magic circle recorded in it, so that once you pour energy into it, spatial transfer will be possible immediately.”
“Can you make something like that so easily?”
When Sian asked in fascination, Conrad nodded and replied,
“This time, Ribias crossed over to the other side and brought back all sorts of things, so if I modify those, it should not take long. In the end, the energy is what is difficult to obtain; spatial-transfer magic circles and coordinates are not something we have used for only a day or two. Once it undergoes miniaturization, it will be done.”
“Oh!”
With the greatest problem solved, Sian’s face brightened. If that was true, then the moment he dealt with Unkara, he could flee on the spot.
Now that things had come to this, one more worry arose.
Should he go scout after the artifact was made, or should he go scout while it was being made?
‘There’s no need to even think about it.’
Sian decided to wait for the artifact to be completed and train in the meantime. He did not even properly know what kind of existence Unkara was, and he was going to a place he knew nothing about, so having at least that much insurance would make him feel at ease. And though he did not know why, he had a very bad feeling. It felt as if he should not go there. His entire body tingled with warning.
‘Is it really that strong…….’
Sian clenched his teeth. He could not know whether Unkara was strong, or whether the Drakuns had pulled some trick.
But if the Lukras were right, this was not something Sian could do whenever he felt like it. It was something he had to finish as quickly as possible.
‘I have no choice but to trust the Lukras and the artifact…….’
Having made the best choice he could, Sian immersed himself in training, hoping the Lukras would draw attention well.
☆ ☆ ☆
“Here it is. I made it in the shape of a ring so it would be easy to use. Once you pour in the required energy, it will immediately drop you at Einkel, where you arrived before, Mr. Sian, so there should be no need for you to learn any particular method of use.”
Conrad handed Sian a small ring-shaped artifact. The tiny ruby set into the ring was packed with countless tiny letters. At a glance, it looked crude, but considering the advanced formulas concentrated within it, its value easily surpassed several castles. It was, after all, a condensation of a La-Shar-Loa, of which there were only a few on the continent, into a single ring.
Sian looked at the ring in admiration.
“To think you could make something like this so quickly. That’s impressive. Doesn’t this mean you can increase the number of La-Shar-Loa as much as you want?”
Conrad shook his head.
“The spatial-transfer formula itself is originally extremely difficult and complex, but more important than that is the miracle of gathering and concentrating the energy. It requires truly enormous energy. This was made for a single person, and on the premise that you, Mr. Sian, would supply all of the energy into it yourself. If I had tried to make a ring capable of manifesting an ordinary La-Shar-Loa, it would have taken decades more. It was made for one-time use, so please use it carefully.”
“One use is enough. Thank you.”
It would be better if he could use it multiple times, but for now, this much was sufficient.
Sian put the ring on his left hand and prepared to leave. Seeing that, Conrad asked,
“Are you leaving right away?”
Sian nodded.
“There’s no reason to delay.”
If it could be resolved with his current abilities, the faster he resolved it, the better. If it could not be resolved with his current abilities, then it would be best to quickly identify the opponent and devise countermeasures. As long as the ring was ready, there was no reason to hesitate.
“I suppose you’re right. I wish you fortune in battle. Please resolve this as best you can and return.”
Con
-rad wanted to put on as bold a front as he could, but Ragaofe’s final word before leaving—firebolt—would not leave his mind, so he nodded and began preparing to leave as well. Just as Sian had said, there was a chance he would be swept up in things if he stayed here.
Sian looked at Con
-rad, said his farewells, and then shot away like a beam of light toward Cloud Island beyond the peninsula, the place where he had once been reborn as an Alpha.
“It’s thick……”
Sian, bouncing across the surface of the sea, let out a brief impression. The fog was still extraordinarily dense, and it was reducing his perception. Of course, he could see much farther than he had before his clash with Duke Rorbal, but even so, it was still diminished compared to his original detection range.
If this was what the smoke was like before even forming a barrier, he thought finding the Unkara would be quite troublesome. If it scattered this stuff in every direction and refused to come out from underground, he would truly have to overturn every inch of the earth. If he had his way, he wanted to blow it all away, but if he did something like that and accidentally touched the wrong thing, the Drakun would fly in at once to take his head. Thinking about it, he got chills at the realization that if he had touched the wrong thing while fighting here in the past, the Drakun might have flown in before he ever became an Alpha. ‘Then again… I’d rather it be a weak bastard, one that has to hide.’ Then it would not be dangerous. But his body, which kept sending him warning signals, continued to warn him not to enter this place. ‘Damn it… If only I had more time…….’ If he had, he could have trained steadily and fulfilled his duty to the alliance through a frontal confrontation. But now that the barrier was weakening, no one knew when a clash between the Drakun and the Lukra might break out, so he could not leisurely grow as strong as possible before entering.
As Sian ran across the water with all sorts of thoughts in his head, Cloud Island appeared before him, still bearing the traces of their former battle. Even after all the chaos back then, hundreds and thousands of peaks jutting out over the enormous mountain range were still spewing smoke with tremendous force.
In the midst of that, Sian discovered that not all of those fumes were the same.
The smoke seeping sluggishly down from cracks in the ground or holes in low peaks around the island’s edge was similar in composition to the fog blanketing the sea, but the smoke fiercely surging skyward from the immense peaks near the center of the island clearly carried some strange energy within it.
But it was an exceedingly subtle difference, one very difficult to notice. ‘No wonder I didn’t know…….’ It was incredibly covert. If he had not known about the existence of something called Akun
-kal, and if he had not examined it closely for that reason, he likely would have had a hard time noticing. From the look of it, Aksarai seemed to have done something. It would have been troublesome if it gave off its presence openly before the barrier covered the entire sky.
Still, now that he had at least found a direction for where to begin searching, Sian passed the edge of Cloud Island and launched himself toward the rugged central region.
Sian considered examining the largest peak first, but decided to start with the edges where the smoke was rising. The very center might have the highest chance of containing what he sought, but that also meant it had the highest chance of causing friction with something. As he climbed, he saw the giants who had once invaded past the peninsula. Unlike before, when they had been charging into the peninsula, they were now wandering in all directions as if they had lost their purpose. ‘By the way, where do those bastards keep crawling out from…….’ Since beings of their level could not grasp his movements, Sian lightly avoided them here and there as he gradually made his way deeper inside.
After going a little farther in, he reached a peak spewing smoke that felt different from before. Up close, the difference was even clearer. Sian dipped his hand slightly into the smoke and was impressed. ‘My body’s getting heavier… and my detection range is being restricted even more…….’ On top of that, he had heard it also amplified the Drakun’s innate special abilities, a racial trait of theirs, so he could understand why the Lukra found it such a headache.
There was a deep hole in the mountain peak, thickly spewing smoke, its bottom impossible to see. Its size was far from ordinary as well, far larger than a decent-sized village.
After hesitating for a moment, Sian leaped down. The barrier was restricting his detection range too greatly, so he could not properly discern what lay beneath the hole.
He fell for a long while. The farther down he went, the denser the smoke rising from below became, and the more the surrounding temperature climbed. Of course, the heat was not enough to threaten Sian, but he felt that he had come to the right place. ‘They did say it lived by eating lava…….’ As he descended, he briefly examined the wall, and it was not a naturally formed hole. The fact that there were hundreds or thousands of such abnormal tunnels was suspicious to begin with, and when he checked, sure enough, there were clear signs that something had gnawed and dug its way down with great effort. It seemed likely that this was the trace left by the creature called Unkara as it had diligently dug down from the surface in order to eat lava. At the end of it, the species known as Unkara would probably be dwelling there.
While descending, Sian sensed his energy perception gradually widening and his eyes gleamed with interest. The smoke that had been functioning as a barrier was turning into ordinary smoke the farther down he went. ‘Wow… just what in the world did they do…….’ From the look of it, there seemed to be something that implanted authority into the smoke rising from below. Sian had not even sensed that such a thing existed. He had merely inferred and discovered it by observing the change in the smoke. ‘I still have a long way to go…….’ Sian slowly began to understand why the Lukra priest had laughed.
Feeling the floor enter the range of his expanded energy perception, Sian gradually reduced his speed and lightly fixed himself to the wall. He had wondered whether the Drakun might have set up an alarm device, but so far, there had been no such precautions. ‘No problems so far… Well… who would crawl into a place like this?’ Sian let out a faint laugh and examined the Unkara caught within his perception. Below the tunnel, the space had been torn open by the Unkara, and the lava leaking out had turned it completely into a sea of magma. The Unkara was swimming vigorously through it, gulping down lava and spewing out smoke.
Its overall shape resembled a single larva. It was hundreds of meters long, and its outer skin was covered in armor like steel, as if to withstand the lava surrounding it on all sides. From between that armor, hundreds of chimney-like holes jutted out, and smoke was continuously leaking from them. Perhaps because the smoke leaking from the Unkara had not yet been imbued with the authority of the barrier, now that he had come below, his detection range had become much wider. Thanks to that, Sian could thoroughly examine the Unkara from a distance without much burden.
Then he tilted his head. ‘It’s not that strong…….’ Of course, that did not mean it was weak. Perhaps because it lived in lava, its carapace had evolved to be bizarrely tough, and despite its sluggish appearance, its movement speed seemed quite fast.
But was it enough to make Sian feel endangered…? Not at all. Just in case, he approached closer, and although it clearly sensed him, it merely turned the eight antennae near its mouth and sensed him briefly. It did not seem particularly inclined to attack. He had heard they had nasty temperaments, but perhaps that only applied to those weaker than themselves. When Sian, a powerful being, showed no intention of attacking, the Unkara focused on its meal. ‘Huh… My senses must have gotten pretty rusty…….’ Sian scratched his head, but since he could not be certain yet, he decided to go in a little farther. That one might simply be weak.
Rather than needlessly killing it and stirring up trouble, Sian decided to carry out his reconnaissance mission more diligently. Leaving it alone, he pierced through the earth and launched himself onward to examine other Unkara.
After digging through the ground here and there and observing several Unkara, Sian reached a conclusion. ‘Hm… This mission is going to be very easy.’ Sian was grateful that such luck had come his way. The Unkara’s level was not particularly high. Although the underground tunnel network was vast, and the smoke would make it take a long time given his reduced detection range, if he dealt with them one by one, it would eventually end without issue. When he was a Beta, his detection range might have been too narrow and made it difficult, but now that he was an Alpha, he could finish it without any risk. ‘I went out of my way to make an artifact for nothing. At this rate, I could’ve just come here directly…….’ Rrrrrrrrrrr.
Kuuung!
Sian, who had been strolling along cheerfully to deal with the Unkara before him, frowned at the sudden tremor he felt. At the same time, the Unkara in front of him twisted its body and began thrashing madly, trying to flee somewhere.
Sian tried to push through the dense smoke and expand his detection range in order to understand what was causing this phenomenon, but soon, there was no need. The cause appeared in person.
Kuwuuung!
The ceiling above the bubbling lava cavern collapsed, and through the gap, a deformed creature appeared, roughly snatched up the Unkara, and began crunching it between its jaws.
Kkuwuuung!
The Unkara, which had possessed such thick carapace, was being crunched to pieces by the bizarre creature that had suddenly appeared. Sian watched the creature’s meal with cold sweat running down his back.
Thick pincers.
Antennae growing from its head.
Pitch-black armor visible through the smoke.
After seeing its overall appearance, a familiar creature surfaced in Sian’s mind. ‘…
A crayfish?’ Of course, only its appearance was similar. From the details to its size, no matter how he looked at it, it was not a crayfish.
The Unkara was tens, even hundreds of meters in size, but the creature that had just collapsed the ceiling and appeared was far larger than that. Since only its head had emerged, he could not tell its overall length, but even from the general shape of its upper body, it was incomparably thicker than the Unkara. And the pincers on both its arms were crushing the Unkara’s armor, which had easily endured lava and underground pressure, like biscuits.
Perhaps the Unkara’s armor did not taste good, because the creature shattered all of it, then used its pincers to skillfully dig out only the tender flesh inside, grown on lava, and brought it to its mouth. At the end, it lifted the shell and began licking clean even the bits of flesh stuck inside. Just from that sight, Sian thought the creature’s body, hidden underground and out of view, could not possibly be short. It meant there was enough space in its belly to devour all the flesh of that enormous Unkara.
Sian was appalled by the sight. It was not because he was appalled by the creature’s ferocity. Nor was it because he pitied the Unkara being caught, crunched, and eaten.
The entire reason was the strength of the creature before him. ‘To think I didn’t notice a thing until something like this came all the way here…….’ At a glance, it was an incredibly powerful creature. At minimum, it was on his level, and it might even be stronger.
At the same time, Sian realized why the Unkara lived while spewing that strange smoke. ‘Damn it… I wondered why they were spraying this smoke everywhere…….’ From the moment he came here, it had felt strange. All living creatures evolved out of necessity. It was suspicious that Unkara, which dug tunnels deep underground and grew by eating lava, would bother moving around while spewing smoke everywhere to hide their own bodies.
There had been a reason.
It was because they had a natural predator. And in order to protect themselves from that predator, the Unkara had chosen to move around while spewing this smoke in every direction.
Sian was dumbfounded. He had briefly thought of it on his way here. No matter how he looked at it, if they were emitting smoke that hid their identity, perhaps it was because they needed to hide from a natural predator.
But Sian trusted Aksarai. What Aksarai needed was that smoke, which reacted strongly to authorities and supernatural powers. He needed the Unkara that spewed out that smoke, and Sian had thought: would the mighty Aksarai really have left alive the Unkara’s natural enemy? Even if Aksarai were only a quarter as strong as the stories Sian had heard, it probably would not have taken him even a minute to seize the crayfish-like creature before him and twist its neck.
That was why, when Sian came here, he had set aside the possibility of a natural enemy. But apparently, he had been wrong.
Srrrk.
The creature, having greedily swallowed one Unkara whole, seemed not to have noticed Sian and hid itself back inside the tunnel it had collapsed on its way out.
And Sian, who had been watching, also slipped his body out and moved off to kill the other Unkara. From the look of it, the creature was powerful, but it did not seem particularly interested in him. It looked as though he could simply avoid it carefully and kill the Unkara.
Sian lightly launched himself toward the other Unkara, but there was something he did not know.
When Aksarai had first arrived here, he had been delighted to discover the Unkara, but at the same time, he had also discovered the existence of a race called the Geshtal, their natural enemy.
No, it could not even be called a race. Aksarai did not know how the creature had come into being, but there was only a single individual. Judging by its appearance, it seemed to be some mutant that had sprung up from somewhere.
Aksarai had considered killing it, then stopped.
Because what he needed were the Unkara that produced smoke, not Unkara that simply lived in safety.
Aksarai could tell the moment he saw them. The reason they were digging through lava underground and spewing smoke like this was entirely because they were hiding while avoiding that creature. If he killed and eliminated that Geshtal, the Unkara would be freed from the threat of their natural enemy. In that case, they would no longer need to create such high-purity smoke to protect their bodies, so naturally, they would stop spewing it.
What good would it do if his authority turned the smoke into a barrier? If the smoke that served as the foundation disappeared, the barrier he had set up would ultimately collapse as well.
Thus, Aksarai left that Geshtal alive for the purpose of stimulating the Unkara.
That was one reason he had spared the creature.
There was another reason as well.
That Geshtal had evolved in order to pierce through this smoke and devour the Unkara. Outside the underground world, in places where the smoke had no influence, its sensory range was pitifully poor compared to its strength, but within this network of tunnels filled with smoke, its sensory range was truly vast. Even more so than Alphas of a similar level. By reading the vibrations of the earth, the flow of smoke, changes in temperature, and the direction of the lava, it viewed Cloud Island’s underground world in three dimensions; its sensory range was truly tremendous.
If the Geshtal wanted to, it could slaughter every last Unkara in no time. Its sensory range surpassed even that of the smoke. The reason it did not was because, in the long run, it would run out of food. Thus, the Geshtal kept the number of Unkara at an appropriate level, regularly eating only one at a time and maintaining their population.
Moreover, it absolutely disliked any existence other than its prey intruding into its tunnel network. The Unkara might think of the tunnel network they had dug as their own territory, but the Geshtal regarded every tunnel beneath Cloud Island as something like a fish farm where it raised Unkara.
This Cloud Island was a place the Geshtal had painstakingly built over a long time, like a lifelong annuity. And the Geshtal was not the sort of being that would sit by and watch anything other than its meals come into its territory. That was also why Aksarai had left the Drakun behind and come down alone.
In other words, in Aksarai’s eyes, the creature was an excellent sentinel, perfectly suited to protecting these Unkara. He had already been busy fighting the Rukra and found it troublesome to divert his forces; if he left the creature alive, it would take on the role of sentinel and protect this barrier on its own.
Sian thought he had avoided being caught by the Geshtal, but nothing could have been further from the truth. From the moment Sian entered, the Geshtal had been aware of his existence. There were only two reasons the Geshtal had not killed Sian.
First, Sian had not yet killed any Unkara, so it did not consider him a destroyer of its dining table.
Second, as long as he did not touch that dining table, he was strong enough to make fighting him a tiresome affair.
But if he touched the Unkara, the Geshtal had no intention whatsoever of letting the trespasser be.
After Sian disappeared, the Geshtal, which had seemed to vanish from atop the collapsed tunnel network, slowly poked out its head. Then, as if staring in the direction Sian had gone, it remained still for a long while before finally withdrawing its head again and disappearing into Cloud Island’s underground world.
“Hmm……”
As Sian moved through the tunnel network, he slowly felt himself adapting to the environment here. The proof was that his sensory range was gradually widening.
Above all, as Sian moved up and down through the tunnel network, he could sense what was converting the smoke into a barrier.
Centered on a certain range, some secretive yet incomparably powerful authority was changing the rules of the smoke, turning it into an entirely different substance, and overlaying a barrier atop it.
Sian thought that somewhere in the very center of this Cloud Island, there was probably something upon which Aksarai had left his authority. And that authority had been diligently turning the smoke that entered a certain range into a barrier for thousands of years and spewing it into the sky.
He had not known at first, but once he grew accustomed to the smoke and to the energy of the barrier, he could feel the difference.
Once that happened, he suddenly became curious. ‘Just what in the world did he leave behind……?’ All at once, the desire to see the traces of power left behind by a great being surged up within him. The fact that it was not even the being himself, but merely the power he had left behind, doing something like this felt truly remarkable. ‘Huh… I guess I’m still a warrior after all…….’ After mulling over various things, Sian made a decision. ‘Let’s go. Once everything is done.’ He did not think it would be dangerous to go and take a close look. Of course, if an unexpected situation arose, he would have to flee immediately, but from what he had seen, the creature called the Geshtal did not seem to care much about him, and dealing with the Unkara did not seem particularly dangerous either. Once everything was over, stopping by briefly to take a look should be fine.
But Sian did not forget his original purpose. His foremost objective was the Unkara. He had to reduce their numbers enough that the barrier could no longer be maintained.
Using his expanded sensory range, Sian hurled himself toward the nearest location where an Unkara was likely to be. ‘That… monster-like thing won’t be there, will it……?’ When Sian arrived near the Unkara, the first thing he did was check for the creature’s presence. If he were to clash with something like that, his life might be in danger.
After extending his senses as far as possible in every direction and realizing the creature was not there, Sian let out a sigh of relief. ‘Well… it probably doesn’t hunt that crazily either.’ In Sian’s estimation, there were somewhere between hundreds and thousands of Unkara. It was a large number if one thought of it that way, but if a creature like the one from earlier had been roaming around madly and devouring them, they would have gone extinct long ago.
The very fact that the Unkara were still alive meant, Sian guessed, that hunting was not being carried out actively. If so, the creature that had just finished its meal would have no interest in the other Unkara. ‘Though, honestly, I’m just hoping it doesn’t…….’ Fortunately, he still could not sense its presence, so Sian approached cautiously and placed his hand on the Unkara’s head. ‘Farewell.’ Then he raised the edge of his hand and severed the Unkara’s neck in a single stroke.
Kwoooong!
As if it could still move even after its neck had been cut, the Unkara’s severed head let out a mournful roar, and the remaining body thrashed wildly in every direction to attack Sian, but it was nothing more than its final struggle. In truth, Sian did not use his hands any further and simply stood still, watching.
The rampaging body churned up the surrounding sea of lava and half-destroyed the tunnel network before gradually losing strength and sinking beneath the lava. Sian watched the sight with pity, then shook his head. ‘This is something I have to do…….’ Just as he shook his head and was about to set out in search of the next Unkara, Sian’s expression twisted fiercely. From outside the range of his senses, something was rushing in at a truly tremendous speed.
He knew at once what it was. It had to be the creature from earlier that resembled a crayfish.
Zuuuuung!
Without delay, Sian began pouring energy into his ring.
That creature was not the issue right now. If he fought it, he would have to draw up every bit of his true power. There was no way the Drakun would fail to notice that, and they would not simply stand by and watch a battle taking place here, at the axis of the barrier. If that happened, while he was brawling with that creature, the Drakun would fly in and attack this place.
The ring, which had been devouring his fierce energy, spat out a dazzling radiance and swallowed Sian’s body. ‘…It worked!’ He had been worried the ring might not activate, but fortunately, it was working properly.
When Sian felt his body being transported, he let out a sigh of relief. ‘Whew… But how do I get back…….’ He began worrying about what to do next, but before even a second had passed, Sian realized there was absolutely no need to.
“What the hell! Why am I still here!”
The moment Sian, who had reappeared about ten steps from where he had been, shouted in bewilderment, the massive crayfish’s foreclaw burst out, collapsing the tunnel, and struck him viciously.
Crunch!
Kugugugung!
Struck by the Geshtal’s foreclaw, Sian smashed through the tunnel and fell deeper into the sea of lava. As Sian plunged in with a splash, the Geshtal approached him at even greater speed. It could not let go of the advantage it had seized by landing the first blow. ‘Kugh…….’ Sian swallowed blood with a choked groan.
The temperature of the sea of lava was no problem at all. The biggest problem right now was the claw of the crayfish bastard that had struck him by surprise. ‘This is bad…….’ After taking one hit, he knew. That thing was stronger than him. That Alpha, which had spent long ages devouring Unkara and building its strength, was truly no easy opponent.
Of course, there was a difference, but it was not a vast one. If he had been prepared in the first place, he would not have been hit this badly. Because he had relaxed after thinking he had succeeded in escaping through spatial movement, he had taken a direct hit from that enormous claw.
Sian swallowed the blood and prepared for the next attack. He did not think it would end with just one blow. The creature, already swinging its claw at him from the distance, looked very firmly determined to eat him as dessert after the Unkara it had eaten earlier. ‘Damn it… this bastard and that bastard too…….’ The Drakun were not the problem right now. If he tried to conserve his strength so as not to be noticed while fighting that creature, his entire body would be smashed apart and he would die on the spot.
For now, he had to deal with the creature in front of him, and think about the next problem afterward. Escaping would be best, but right now the creature had come too close. It would probably not let him get away.
A hopeless situation.
But Sian had not yet given up. He had something he believed in. ‘Right… There’s no way my life would go that smoothly. Damn it! Trusting an escape tool like this in the first place was the mistake.’
It was not over yet. Though the situation was hopeless, Sian had not entered such a dangerous place trusting only in a simple spatial movement device.
Gritting his teeth, Sian roughly pulled the now lightless ring from his finger, then drew out Broxian’s Spear, which he had kept within his body until now, and held it in his hand. Until now, there had been no need to use a weapon, and he had not been confident he could handle it properly, so he had not drawn it, but this was no time for that.
His opponent was stronger than him, and he had started at a disadvantage after taking an unexpected blow. He had to use everything he could.
Kwoou?
The creature, which had been charging at him with ferocious speed, flinched when it saw the weapon in Sian’s hand. Instinctively, it had realized the overwhelming power contained within the weapon.
Thanks to that, Sian was able to catch his breath and heal his internal injuries, but he was not in a particularly good situation either. ‘Phew… As expected, this is still beyond what I can handle…….’ From Sian’s current perspective, using these two weapons was no different from a child saying he would wield two swords at once. That was why he could not even take out Gran-La’s blade. Right now, simply handling the spear in his hand was already more than enough.
But the moment he gripped that spear, Sian realized his choice had not been wrong.
It felt as though he could smash absolutely anything. Just moments ago, the present situation had felt like a crisis of death, and his skill had been rising rapidly because of it, but the instant he grasped this spear, it no longer felt like that sort of crisis at all. Of course, that did not mean he thought he could win easily, but at the very least, it was certainly no longer as hopeless as before. ‘How in the world did they make something like this…….’ Aksarai was one thing, and Broxian was another… Even the legacies they had left behind were this extraordinary. It was hard to imagine just how powerful they had been when they were alive in the flesh. ‘Well… that doesn’t matter right now…….’ In any case, they were dead now. What mattered was that it was time to use this power to cook that bastard. ‘You’re dead, you damn lobster…….’ Grinding his teeth, Sian raised Broxian’s spear and violently struck at the lobster’s head. And the Geshtal facing Sian, as if refusing to lose, swung its forelegs and pressed Sian with the entirety of its enormous body, which was over a kilometer long.
Before long, the underground lava tunnel network beneath the Cloud Island where the Unkara lived began to shatter completely with a tremendous roar. Naturally, the Unkara living there were also swept up in that force and began to die en masse.☆ ☆ ☆
A massive wave that could not have spread unless it was a clash between reborn beings was reaching all the way to this distant place, the contested region.
Among the newly appeared alphas whose existence they had not yet grasped, the only one was the one born from those ground ants last time. He did not know what trick that creature had used to enter this place again, but Katura could not simply stand by and watch this situation unfold. The place from which the wave was spreading was a region that absolutely could not be damaged.
He did not know what was happening. But if the barrier collapsed… it would be a disaster.
Sian’s decision not to use the spear until now had not been wrong. If he had used this weapon while being chased by Dragona, he might have been able to withstand attacks more easily, but the balance of coefficients inside his body would have collapsed, slowing him down, and in the end he would have been caught.
In fact, even now, Sian was swinging the spear with great difficulty.
But the silver lobster he was facing was struggling even more desperately to avoid the spear. So desperately that it looked pitiful.
Kieeeeeek!
The silver spear cut through the air and flew toward the lobster. The lobster was extremely strong as well, and it was attacking Sian with all its might, so Sian was also at a distance where he could not land a clean blow. Thus, he had only shown a light thrust, meant to keep it in check.
The lobster, having used its strength to attack and come too close, failed to completely avoid the silver spear and ended up being grazed slightly by it. It had certainly not been a powerful attack. It was a tiny wound, the sort that could be dismissed as a scratch. In a way, it was so slight that it felt awkward even to call it a wound.
The moment the silver spear grazed the lobster, as if a silver writing instrument had drawn a line across pitch-black paper, a silver substance smeared across the lobster’s carapace. Up to that point, nothing changed.
But the reason the lobster had been desperately avoiding Sian’s spear until now was soon revealed.
Kieeeeeek!
A tremendous scream burst out. Anyone hearing it would think such a sound had come from the lobster’s mouth, but it was not a scream from the lobster’s mouth.
The source of the sound was the surface of the lobster where the silver spear had grazed it. To be precise, it was the bizarre noise made by the silver substance stuck there.
The silver substance there multiplied at a truly incredible speed and ravenously devoured the lobster’s carapace. As if water had been poured onto a pile of black salt, the lobster’s surface fiercely melted away and vanished, while the silver substance consumed it and let out shrieks filled with joy.
After it had devoured a certain amount, apparently deciding it could go no further, the silver substance crumbled into powder from the lobster’s surface and returned to the spear Sian was holding. At that moment, Sian could feel the spear’s power grow, however faintly. ‘So this is how this spear was made…….’ To Broxian, who grew stronger through training, the corpse of an alpha like that would likely have meant nothing, but all the alphas who had fought Broxian until now must have become prey for the silver spear in this way.
Because Broxian’s spear upset the balance to an almost violent degree, the lobster that had charged in with such momentum was being crushed without mercy by Sian’s hand. So much so that the way it had charged in at first seemed pitiful now. It tried to dodge as best it could, but its entire body had already been eaten ragged by the silver spear.
But Sian was not at ease either.
Now was truly the time to run. Yet that creature kept throwing itself at Sian desperately even in that state, and because of that, he still could not let go of the spear. Unless he finished that thing off for certain, escape was impossible. Holding this spear placed a burden on his body and actually lowered his movement speed, and if a creature like that caught him by the ankle, he could not simply ignore it. ‘Damn it… just fall already.’ As both the lobster and Sian fought with their hearts burning in anxiety, the only one delighted was Broxian’s silver spear, which had gained plenty to devour for the first time in a while.
The fight did not last long. The lobster was strong, but the spear’s power was simply too absurd.
From Sian’s point of view, in a sense, it was a battle from which he had gained everything he could.
Not only had he killed the lobster and survived, but in the aftermath of the fight, the Cloud Island had completely collapsed and the Unkara had also been wiped out. The barrier Aksarai had created would probably slowly fade away as the smoke disappeared.
He had learned how to handle the silver spear, and he had personally felt its tremendous power.
But Sian could not smile. An even greater crisis was approaching.
With his expression twisted, Sian looked up at the distant sky. ‘Damn it… they said they would buy me time, so what happened…….’ In a way, perhaps this was the result of them buying him time. But even if they had bought him time, the fact remained that it was already too late for him to escape.
Looking at the enormous qi waves approaching from afar, Sian resigned himself. That was not something he could overcome with a single spear. Their strength was one thing, but there were as many as seven of them.
At that moment, a clear path appeared before Sian’s eyes. And when Sian saw that path, his expression brightened.
Because it gave him hope that this path might save him from death.
Realizing where he had to go, Sian immediately launched himself along that path.