Chapter 274. Kahar (8)
A presence behind me disappeared. Obviously, it was Ellos’ presence. The world’s enemy in front of me widened his eyes.
“You’re going to kill him?”
“I froze him for now. I don’t want to get stabbed from behind, you see.”
I replied calmly. The world’s enemy seemed to hesitate for a moment, then he asked.
“I couldn’t feel a thing. How did you a do it so quickly?”
“If I tell you, will you tell me too? How you enticed Ellos. I doubt it was your face that did it.”
As I said that, I held up my Chaotic Spear. The reason I could freeze Ellos so quickly was simple. Ellos had already been within Ruyue’s domain from that time I asked her to cool everyone off.
“… You’re not bad, even better than Sir Kasina.”
I aimed my spear at him, signaling that I wanted to fight quickly. However, he didn’t even think to take out his weapon and laughed playfully. As I thought, he was different. He was different than all the other worlds’ enemies. If I had to find someone like him, it would only be Luka continent’s Demon Lord.
“The boldness to march in here, fully knowing that it’s a trap. The decisiveness in killing your friend the moment you learned of his betrayal. Most importantly, that mysterious power overflowing within you even with the dungeon’s power gone.”
He held up his hand covered in his powered suit and rubbed his chin. At the same time, my interest in him grew. From his movements, I could feel a depth of martial arts on a completely different level than any of the enemies I’ve faced so far. He seemed to have thought the same thing. I could tell by the way he was smiling.
“This is quite troubling. Hm…”
In the next moment, he snapped his fingers as if he came to a conclusion.
“Earth’s Hero, why don’t you ally with us?”
“Ally?”
“Yes, ally. Become my friend.”
I was wondering what he was going to say, but to think it would be this dull. I snorted and retorted.
“I refuse.”
“No, don’t worry. That woman you guys call Lord, her influence won’t reach us here.”
I flinched. He was a world’s enemy. It made sense that he knew this much. But what made me flinch wasn’t the fact that he knew about the Dungeon Lord, but the way he said it. He was full of leisure as if he knew something much greater.
“You… What is your plan?”
“To tell you the truth, I planned on joining hands with the Edias continent to propel my plan, but it only makes sense that I change ship now that a stronger partner appeared.”
“Partner, eh? You think that’s an appropriate word between an attacker and a defender?”
Although that’s what I said, I was still somewhat interested. If he planned on telling me more, there was no reason to refuse. After all, part of the reason I was working as a Dimensional Mercenary was to gain more information about the attackers. I was somewhat hoping that this would happen.
He spoke.
“Of course it’s appropriate. We’re all being toyed by them, so we’re fellow victims.”
“Let me explain something. First of all, I don’t have the world’s power.”
“You’re not surprised?”
“I knew.”
“What!?”
He wasn’t a Hero, nor did he carry the world’s power in his body. Because of it, I was wracking my brain at the moment, trying to find out who Edias continent’s Hero was. The man in front of me seemed to be surprised that I could recognize the owner of a world’s power. He probably thought it was the attacking side’s privilege.
Soon, however, he composed himself. What he then said made me fl.u.s.tered.
“But you see, I once had a world’s power. To be exact, I retrieved it after killing Keteuce continent’s Hero.”
I felt like I was smacked in the head.
“What…?”
What did he mean?
“It’s simple. Edias continent isn’t our first target. Before we came here, we fought the people of Keteuce continent and came out victorious in glory. Sadly, that glory didn’t last long.”
“You, what are you saying…?”
“Curious? … Should I tell you?”
“You liar…!”
Despite what I said, I was shrinking back. Curious? Of course, I was. But I never expected his story to be so far beyond my knowledge. If what he said was right, the invaders had lost the world’s power even after destroying one world. For a moment, I thought of the Demon Lord. Was he also in the same position…?
“I’m going to tell you something you don’t know. Listen carefully. Once you do, I’m sure you’ll join my side. Just like how Sir Kasina did not too long ago.”
Nearby, an invader gritted his teeth. His hostility wasn’t aimed at me. It was aimed at something far bigger and far far away. I felt dizzy. Only when Licorice grabbed me from the back did I realize, I had been staggering.
“It’s a simple story. The reason we’re facing each other as enemies. I’m going to tell you about that.”
“Go on. My ears are open.”
“Good. At first, we were just like you and the inhabitants of the Edias continent, normal humans living normal lives. Ah, to be exact, we’re a bit different than you humans. We’re a bit smarter but weaker physically. But, in a broader sense, we’re still humans.”
“And?”
“One day, babies stopped being born.”
He voice was calm, but hidden within it was a clear and sharp fury.
“Babies were born dead. No magical tool or prayer could save them. There were no new lives, and old lives couldn’t laugh even as they died.”
He continued.
“Crops withered and fell in the middle of growing. Livestock collapsed in the middle of giving birth and died in the middle of giving birth. Even monsters, who were humanity’s enemy, couldn’t escape this fate. The flow of mana became stiff. It became hard to recover from injuries. It was h.e.l.l. It was as if the world had died. All remaining lives were slowly dying.”
“That’s what happens to a world with its world’s power taken.”
“Right. You must have had a clear enemy to direct your hostility. But we weren’t even given that. From when we woke up in the morning to when we barely fell asleep at night, everyone cried tears of pain. They hated the earth, hated the heaven, and hated G.o.d. Even so, nothing changed. Except for one thing.”
I felt like I knew what the one thing was.
“We had to grab onto it. We had to throw ourselves at it. We knew. Beyond the pathway that appeared on our continent, we had to kill them, decapitate them, and steal their power of life. We knew that was our only hope. What would you have done in that case, Hero?”
“I would have marched into them.”
I couldn’t lie. ‘I can’t hurt innocent people living peacefully, so I’ll obediently die with my world.’ I couldn’t bring myself to say that.
“Honest, how honest. As I thought, I really like you.”
“Just continue with your story. Didn’t you say you conquered the Keteuce continent?”
“That’s right. I did, not someone else, but me. With my own hands, I grabbed the neck of their so-called Hero and snapped it off. Then, I obtained his power. Instead of our withered world, we settled in Keteuce continent. We spared those who surrendered and mercilessly killed those who didn’t. It took a long, long time, but eventually, every human in Keteuce continent had the blood of our people flowing in them. Just like that, we reclaimed peace. We didn’t need to do anything anymore.”
“Then why did you invade Edias continent?”
“That’s a silly question, Earth’s Hero. Didn’t I tell you the answer before?”
“My name is Kang Shin.”
“Yes, Kang Shin, my name is Hazen.”
Hazen stared at me fixedly, as if he was waiting for my reaction.
“It was because Keteuce continent’s power disappeared. It wasn’t anyone’s fault. It disappeared as if it never existed in the first place.”
I fell silent.
It wasn’t that I had never imagined it. In fact, I had considered it once before. But I never believed that it could actually happen. I didn’t want to.
“I still can’t forget that day. When I found out that all babies born that day died, when I found out that the overflowing power of the Hero and the power of the world disappeared from within me, I realized… The nightmare wasn’t over. No…”
His voice stuck in my ears like tar.
“I realized, the nightmare won’t end. It simply continues. Infinitely.”
I shook my head.
“Why? Why did the world’s power disappear again? Overflowing worlds and lack of power to support them. Wasn’t that why worlds were paired up?”
“Right, that’s what I thought too at first. Were there more worlds that needed to be erased? But that was impossible. World’s power that once supported all worlds couldn’t have had just diminished. Someone, an existence that we can’t even come to perceive, was toying with us. Maintaining worlds? That was all bulls.h.i.t! A pretext and an excuse! They might even be looking at us fighting each other and leisurely betting on which side would win. Almost like watching warriors fight to their deaths in a Colosseum.”
“You’re saying that’s the reason they erased a world’s power and paired up worlds?”
“Right. So you understand.”
I looked back at Licorice and Lotte. They both shook their heads.
“I’ve never heard anything like it, Hero. That man… has lived long. His war began far earlier than ours.”
“It’s the same for me, Dear Husband. To be honest, I can’t believe him.”
Hazen smirked.
“Regardless, we crossed over to Edias continent. It was hard. We had obtained peace after a fierce war, so we were too indulged in it. A countless number of our comrades died, and in the process, we killed a countless number of our enemies. Then, a thought suddenly crossed my mind. If this continued, we would eventually perish. We would forever be toyed by them. Unless we took the initiative from them, it would continue until not a single piece of flesh or bone remained from us.”
“And… This crystal is the answer you came up with?”
“That’s right!”
He nodded excitedly.
“No matter how many worlds we conquer, we realized we could lose the world’s power in the blink of an eye. At that point, a question popped up in my head. What the h.e.l.l was this dungeon that helped the defending side? Just who was this Lord woman that she had such an enormous power? Kang Shin, don’t you want to find out?”
“I do, but without her, Earth would have been annihilated by our enemies long ago.”
“Oh dear, if you trust her just because you received her help, you’ll end up with an axe to your back. Here, look.”
He pointed at the crystal taking up most of the s.p.a.ce in the area. The crystal was sucking in surrounding mana and releasing corrupted mana at the same time. That was what restrained my power.”
“As you can probably feel, it’s an amazing thing. While fighting the so-called dungeon explorers from Keteuce continent and Edias continent, we couldn’t help but a.n.a.lyze them. Obviously, we found a way to weaken the dungeon’s power. All we needed were the material to build the magical tool and the mana to control it. We managed to find all the material, but the mana problem wasn’t something we could resolve in Keteuce continent. But this place, this Peruta Mountain Range, was different. There was more than enough mana gathered here to operate the magical tool.”
In the middle of hearing him brag, I realized something. I immediately voiced my suspicion.
“That magical tool, it’s complete?”
“Amazing! So you see it!”
He smirked.
“But it’s still too big! Its core function hasn’t been realized either. We have to make it much smaller, small enough to carry it. We have to raise its output, too! But it’s possible! We can do it. And when it’s complete, that’s when you, partner, come in. You take it and enter the dungeon.”
“You want me to kill the Dungeon Lord?”
He bit the question I asked casually.
“We should share its power. Then, we’ll form an alliance. Starting with each world’s leaders, we’ll begin to mix. Eventually, all of humanity will intermarry. A countless number of couples will be formed between two worlds, and when their children are born, the two worlds will start to become one. It doesn’t matter even if one of the worlds’ power disappears. Why? Because the blood of both our worlds will be flowing in everyone’s veins!”
“Ho.”
I let out a short exclamation of admiration. He seemed even more excited at my reaction, as he shouted even louder.
“If we can control the dungeon’s power, which can open the pathway to countless worlds, what will we have to fear? Nothing! We’ll be able to enter any world as we please!”
“With power.”
“Right, with infinite power! In the end, we will become the victors! Indomitable victors that no one can threaten! Invincible victors that won’t be toyed by anyone’s hands!”
“So you were just delusional. I’m starting to doubt whether Keteuce continent even existed.”
I spoke bluntly. However, he unexpectedly sneered at my response.
“Can you say that when you’re feeling the magical tool’s power? Kang Shin, do you think this power won’t reach the Dungeon Lord?”
“Do you think it’ll be that simple? Do you think the Dungeon Lord is even killable? Even if you killed her, will you be able to take her power?”
“She is just a fool with an incredible power! The dungeon is her, and she is the dungeon. If she’s in front of us, we can a.n.a.lyze her. We can even a.n.a.lyze G.o.ds! Taking her power after killing her will be even simpler. All power can be held in a container!”
I was doubtful, truly doubtful. However, I held in my curiosity and asked.
“Why did you approach Ellos?”
“We heard from other explorers that Sir Kasina had ties to another world’s Hero. Plus, he’s currently the true head of the continent’s allied force.”
True head. I thought of the way Ellos ordered the empire’s knights. He was the disciple of the Hero and friend of the empire’s crown prince. He was fitting of the t.i.tle ‘true head’.
“Plus, he was the Hero’s disciple. Right, the person who can most easily lead the Hero into a trap. And, he was wise. He understood what I said, and he had the brains to cooperate with us to save his continent’s people.”
No, that’s impossible. You don’t know it. That he lost his fiancée to your forces!
However, there was still something I needed to find out, something I needed to confirm. I asked.
“If you couldn’t take the Hero’s power from that Hero you killed, that means he wasn’t the Hero when you killed him?”
“That’s also right! The Hero suffered grave injuries in one of our previous fights. He fled with his disciple and transferred the power to him. Besides me and his disciple, no one else knows this. After all, the disciple hid the fact that he became the Hero. If he hides it, no one else can find out, unless they’re people like us.”
Although I knew the answer, I still asked.
“Who’s the disciple?”
“Isn’t that obvious? It’s Sir Kasina, of course! The one you froze.”
In that moment, I slowly closed my eyes.
I felt like I finally arrived at the answer.
The reason Ellos acted so strangely.
Why we had to come here, and what power he had. How he could hide the fact that he became the Hero from me, and what he planned to do from now.
“Now, I’d like you to make up your mind. Who should we kill? You should know the answer.”
“No, Shin doesn’t have the answer. I do.”
A voice rang out from above, but before I could look up, I first looked behind. The ice I believed to have trapped Ellos was shattered into pieces.
I turned to the direction of the voice. There, Ellos was standing on the top of the giant crystal.
“The answer was there from the very beginning, from the moment Baruella died from your hands.”
“Sir Kasina…!? Who’s Baruella? Are you betraying us because of just one person?”
Ellos smirked without answering him.
“Shin, you knew everything, right?”
I answered.
“Yeah.”
“Really?”
“Yeah.”
“And you still let me be.”
“I did.”
“You didn’t even go full out when you froze me, huh?”
“Of course not. You’re nowhere strong enough to break Ruyue’s full-power ice.”
“Thanks, friend. You trusted me.”
“You should thank me.”
“But you shouldn’t have trusted me.”
I became speechless for a moment. I thought about what to say and chose the easy words.
“You’re probably right. I only just found out. If I knew earlier, I would have killed you.”
“But to bring him here without invoking suspicion, I needed you to be the bait. Sorry.”
Ellos bowed to me. Soon, he lifted up his head. His eyes were dyed blood red.
“Die with me.”
“Sir Kasina, don’t touch that magical tool!”
“Hazen, do you know? In this continent, there’s a story. A story about a G.o.d who conceals himself without anyone knowing. When this G.o.d appears, he breaks and destroys everything, including himself.”
Ellos smiled with his teeth bared. Not only his eyes, but his entire body was being dyed red. In that instant, the flash in Hazen’s eyes changed. He hadn’t paid attention to Ellos in the slightest, but he now realized he had the power to make him.
“STOP HIM! NOW!”
“I am Kahar, G.o.d of Concealment and Vengeance.”
Indeed, his ability to conceal himself was top-notch. Neither Hazen nor I could detect him at all.
A stream of red light shot up from his body and penetrated Hazen’s subordinates. I instantly knew that it wasn’t just mana. Even amongst G.o.ds’ powers, that thing was wicked. It was pulling out his blood and soul altogether.
Ellos held up his sword beginning to drip with bloodred aura. Without even a hint of hesitation, he stabbed it into the crystal.
“Everyone, die with me.”
An enormous energy exploded. Feeling the storm of mana that no one, not even Hazen, could come out unscathed…
I smiled.