Chapter 398

Chapter 398

With Abel’s spell, light enveloped his body.
It didn’t take as long as I expected.
For a moment, the world was dark again.
“—Cave?”
The first thing I noticed was the pure white stone walls and ceiling.
The air was dry.
Not far away, a light was breaking through.
I realized that this was a den under a huge rock, reminiscent of an animal’s nest.
I was in the middle of looking around.
“Hmmm—lucky for me, their eyes are—hmmm, just out of reach.”
“Abel.”
Abel was pinned against the wall, breathing heavily.
He looked like he’d been marching in full military regalia, his complexion flushed and panting.
“What, what’s wrong?”
“I didn’t think so—you monster. You must be the child of Cain.”
Abel laughed in disbelief.
As it turns out, moving the space didn’t have the side effect of making me sick to my stomach.
“Isn’t this how it’s supposed to work? It’s so much better than the usual spatial travel magic.”
“That doesn’t even make sense—look at that.”
Abel jerked his head back into the den.
It was a direction that felt popular.
The other three writhing in the darkness.
Thump!
Thump!
Fantasia was banging her head against the wall.
Each time the horns struck the white stone walls, the entire den shook as if it were about to collapse.
“Ouch! Eeeek!”
Like a farmer on a boat for the first time, Letancier was still getting his bearings.
Judging by the enthusiastic way he gobbled it up, it looks like he took my advice to eat a lot of the good stuff.
“Heh–heh–heh–!”
Orsay clenched his teeth and held back the contents.
He managed to keep his dignity, but it cost him dearly, purple flames spewing from his eyes and nose.
Honestly, it’s a little scary, but I’d rather just throw up in the cooler.
“What the hell.”
I was really the only one who was okay.
It was a strange thing.
I don’t know if it was my mood, but I felt more energized than usual.
“What’s wrong with them, they’re almost killing me.”
“That’s to be expected. We’re tens of millions of light-years away. Consider yourself lucky that it was a minor side effect.”
“Light years?”
“Hah—that’s how far light travels in a year. Even though they’re slower to develop than Dainhar, they can’t even commercialize such a basic concept. What a bunch of barbaric monkeys—Cuck!”
A fist to the stomach sent Abel sprawling.
The villain was the villain, judging by his off-topic ramblings.
It seemed to me that to instill manners, he would need to be spanked periodically, like Letancie.
However, regardless of Abel’s demeanor, the information itself was interesting.
“Jesus fucking Christ, then why do the bald guys come from so far away every time? What a bunch of assholes with nothing better to do.”
“Kool-aid, kool-aid, how dare you—!”
“If you want to be treated like a human being, mend your fucking ways. So where are we?”
“Damn, I don’t know.”
“What?”
I thought, what the hell?
I put my hand on the hilt and Abel flinched.
Even as he pretended to be fine, his body remembered the beautiful time he had spent on the Winter Horns.
Abel said urgently.
“I didn’t know what I didn’t know! It’s impossible for me, or even God, to coordinate five people at once. Be thankful that no one was scattered.”
“Who cares, why are you yelling at me?”
“You’ve come this far, there’s no turning back. Wake up, you bastards!”
Abel exclaimed.
It was the loudest he’d ever been.
Wiping the vomit from the corner of his mouth, Letancier sobbed.
“Hmph—hmph—where am I, a cave?”
“You have come to the most dangerous place in the world. The only way to live is to hurry and fulfill your purpose and run away. Unless you want to have your souls stolen by stupid deer and lizards too, get up!”
“How dare you call me a lizard—!”
Orse looked up.
Fantasia stopped banging her head and glared at Abel.
I wonder if this is called evil charisma.
He definitely had a knack for getting people’s attention.
“Our goal is twofold.
One is to hunt down the king of the race they call ‘Him,’ and the second is to destroy the ‘Source.'”
“Source?”
“A mass of power that is the source of the invading race. It is a conglomeration of souls and life force they have collected throughout the universe. Destroy the source and they are all gone. Including the king.”
“So why not just ignore the king and destroy the source?”
Fantasia intervened.
Regaining his composure, his eyes were shining again.
Abel nodded.
“Very clever, Fantasia. Surely all we need to do is destroy the source, but do you think their king will be knitting in his throne room by the time we get to the source?”
“——.”
“Of course not. The king doesn’t usually show up, but when his source is threatened, it’s a different story. He intervenes unconditionally.”
“So what should I do?”
“In the end, you have to fight the king. In this situation, it’s important to reduce the number of unnecessary battles to reach your objective in order to improve your success rate. Kills don’t mean much in a place where there’s a constant stream of them, which means you have to infiltrate.”
Before we knew it, we were listening to Abel.
The explanation was straightforward: the quality of teaching is on par with the faculty at Phileon Academy.
He continued his explanation, even drawing on the floor with his sword.
“We can’t afford to be seen by even one of them. Fortunately, they’re letting down their guard at home, so we won’t be spotted without causing quite a ruckus. Dead as a doornail, we’ll use the lethansie and demonic flight to get to the source.”
“If the numbers are low, shouldn’t we just kill them?”
“It’s stupid. Basically, they share senses. Their brains are wired completely differently than ours. The moment you give away your location to one, imagine being spotted by giants across the universe.”
This was something I knew.
It was this characteristic that led to the declaration of war against the Sun King.
It was a very challenging mission, but not impossible.
Because my ugly uncle knew where the source was.
I turned and pointed to the exit of the tunnel.
“Okay, then let’s get going. We don’t have time to be aesthetically pleasing, like he said.”
“Well, I guess I’ll have to do it again, won’t I? Woohoo–I’m ready.”
Letancier was determined.
I was impressed with his courage despite being terrified.
Orse and Fantasion were already poised for battle, their bodies bursting with life.
I was nervous, but it turns out my fears were unfounded.
Abel said.
“To determine the exact location of the source, you must first know the surrounding terrain. As soon as you get outside, run. Use terrain features like trees and rocks to hide yourself.”
“Sounds good. Let’s do one, two, three, and we’re off at the same time. One—”
My heart was pounding.
The tension was palpable.
As Letancier chanted the spell, his body felt as light as a feather.
After months of fighting together, I’ve gained a lot of sense.
The wind from the entrance to the burrow flipped his bangs.
“Three!”
We stormed out of the den.
The desert landscape opened up before me.
The sky, covered in pale clouds, was neither bright nor dark.
Dunes of white sand and ashen shadows stretched to the horizon.
The lack of color gave me the impression that I was looking at a landscape painting by the devil.
“Tsk.”
Abel clicked his tongue.
There was nowhere to hide.
I knew it would take some time to get a feel for the terrain.
I was sprinting, looking straight ahead.
Suddenly, I felt an eerie sensation above my head.
“What is it?”
It seemed like I was the only one who felt it, as no one else in the group reacted.
I looked up.
The bizarrely shifting clouds were glowing with the occasional thundercloud.
I was running with my eyes to the sky.
Suddenly, a corner of the clouds parted in a circle and a beam of light shot toward them.
“Fuck, dodge!”
“What?”
Letancier smirked.
Unfortunately, I didn’t get a chance to explain.
I leapt, spurred on by Fantasia’s horns.
The beam split to the left and right at the same time as it was launched.
A beam of light split in two and fell to either side of the group.
Kaaaaaahhh!!!
A spray of sand blotted out the sky.
The rain of sand revealed two huge pits.
It was a swallow-and-land moment.
“From now on, I will execute the insolent intruders.”
From where the beam came from, a deep, low voice echoed.
“What, what?!”
The group looked up.
It was a moment when all eyes were looking up.
Ouch!
The cloud layer covering the sky exploded and scattered.
What was hidden was revealed.
Everyone, including me, became as stiff as a statue.
“Ah.”
“You have made known your sins.”
Once again, the voice rang out.
It was a giant with six wings who spoke to him.
They were much bigger than the four-legged ones.
Each pair of arms held a sword made of light.
But it wasn’t his bald head that froze the group.
Hundreds of giants formed a circle in the sky above our heads.
“Huh huh. This.”
I laughed out loud at the absurdity of it all.
The unexpectedness of the situation can make people panic, but when it’s done in such a cool way, it’s actually pleasant.
Did they know we were coming here?
Fuck, the layers were like looking at a wedding cake.
“Turn it off, that’s it—.”
As he stared at the sky, Letancier began to sob.
The crunching teeth felt like they could crunch walnuts.
She glanced back at Abel, her mind racing with unintelligible words.
“Abel, it’s you!”
“Don’t take anyone alive. You forget I fought them too.”
“Well, then how did those bald guys know how to get here!”
“I don’t know, maybe I’m just unlucky.”
Abel sneered.
Judging by his tone of voice and facial expression, he really didn’t know.
His bravado, his laugh, the sweat trickling down his temples, proved his innocence.
I don’t know about the others, but this one was for sure.
That the plan had gone very, very wrong.The six-winged bald man pointed the tip of his sword at us.
“Foolish ones, perish in regret that you dared to set foot in the land of the children of the stars.”
“Extinguish.”
The four-winged bald men were back.
The sheer number of objects made it seem like thunder was rumbling through the air.
As they reached out, pure white particles gathered from all directions.
It was like a banquet of hundreds of millions of fireflies.
“—Beautiful.”
“Uh, run away!”
Abel marveled.
Letancier clutched at his hair.
A spear of light was then placed in the hands of each of the giants.
Hundreds of windows were glowing, many times larger and more intensely than we had ever seen on our side of the world.
Even the baldies seemed to be stronger in their own home.
“It’s a killer.
There was nowhere to run.
It was a sight so overwhelming that even the most determined commandos despaired.
This left us with only one option.
There’s a very cumbersome, but surefire way to do it.
“Lean.”
First, we needed to ask Lynn’s permission.
“Yeah. I’ll try.”
The sword vibrated as if in reply.
He gripped the hilt, and the colors of the setting sun sparkled on the blade.
Slowly, I raised my sword and aimed it at the six-winged bald man.
“Hey. Ironed balls.”
『——?』
The giant looked down at me.
I didn’t treat them as if they didn’t exist because they had a history of declaring war.
By the way, I’ve always hated that look of disapproval.
“Come down.”
I gripped the hilt of the sword with both hands.
I haven’t written this big since the war, but whatever works.
“What—”
The bald man was about to say something.
The sunset light that had been condensed in the sword god exploded.
Paaaaaaaaah!!!
The whole sky turned scarlet.
The giants, engulfed in light, fluttered in panic.
It’s definitely a lot of work.
The veins in my forehead flared, and my arms bulged like they were about to explode.
“Haaaaaaaah!!”
You still have to do it.
I gritted my teeth.
He swung his heavy sword toward the ground.
It was the moment the blade hit the floor, dragging a red tail.
『!!!』
Quagmire!!!
The giants swallowed by the sunset slammed to the ground in unison.
A pillar of sand rises.
The sound of breaking wings echoes sporadically.
The bald heads falling with a roar were like tree berries falling in a gale.
I raised my sword and called out to the group.
“Wake up, assholes, change of plans!”
“Hmph?!”
“We’re screwed, and pretty badly!”
In a panic, Letancier snapped his fingers.
The two hulks and Abel looked over, wide-eyed.
He’s breathing heavily, so he’s finally coming to his senses.
“I mean, just—”
Dragged the horsetail.
I racked my brain again, but there’s nothing else.
I pointed to the distant horizon and shouted at the top of my lungs.
“We’re going head-on!!”