Chapter 375
Even though the sun blazed overhead, a chill swept through the air.
Not only the human Awakened, but even the dark elves felt their hair stand on end and a shiver crawl down their spines.
“What the hell...?”
“Who is that guy…?”
They were warriors who had survived their whole lives fighting in the desert.
No ordinary event could shake them, and they never flinched even before the mightiest of monsters. But at the sight of this man, their bodies froze. They couldn't move.
They were completely overwheld by the strange atmosphere radiating from him.
Even Levin and Brielle, floating in midair, had gone pale and couldn’t react.
The only one free to move was Zeon.
His body slowly rose into the air.
The sand was lifting him.
Zeon ca to a stop at the sa height as the man.
The man tilted his head slightly and murmured,
“Stubborn, aren’t you? Well, confidence is good and all, but you ought to know who you're dealing with first.”
BOOM!
Before the man even finished speaking, an explosion rang out from Zeon’s position.
An unseen force had attacked Zeon.
Shockwave.
It was an offensive spell cast by the man.
A spell of imnse destructive power.
Especially devastating against humans, Shockwave wasn’t a spell one could unleash lightly. Its power ca with a price—casting delay. But the man had invoked it without a single sign.
Sothing no ordinary human could do.
The man had been sure that Zeon would be at least moderately injured. But the mont he saw Zeon, the faint smile on his lips vanished.
Zeon stood completely unhard.
There were no signs of damage, no look of surprise.
He rely stared at the man with calm indifference, as if watching a cow stare at a chicken.
The sight of Zeon made the man feel a chill in his blood.
“So… this is the Sand Mage. To think he could neutralize Shockwave by vibrating the sand in that brief mont.”
Shockwave was a sonic attack.
The best way to nullify a sonic attack was to produce a counter-frequency in the sa range. And Zeon had done just that—vibrating the sand particles around him to emit canceling waves.
It was an unbelievable reaction speed for a human.
The man swept back his hood and said,
“My na is Kalinan. Yours?”
“I’m Zeon.”
“Good! Zeon, you’re worthy of conversation.”
Removing his hat, Kalinan looked straight at Zeon.
His face was as finely sculpted as porcelain.
With dark golden hair, golden eyes, and especially prominent pointed ears.
Zeon imdiately recognized what he was.
“You’re an elf.”
“I used to be.”
“You’re denying your past?”
“Let’s just say… the present has changed.”
“So you were born an elf but no longer are? Is that how I should understand it?”
“You’re quite clever for a human.”
Kalinan made a face of impressed surprise.
“I get that a lot, Kalinan.”
“A sand mage, huh? Be proud of that. Not even in Kurayan was there such an Awakened.”
“Thanks.”
“No need to thank . You’re going to die by my hand anyway.”
“Before that, let ask one thing. You’re the one who gave that bone necklace to Chuangkar, right?”
“So you’re the one who killed that old orc.”
Zeon had sensed Kalinan’s existence through the bone necklace, and Kalinan had co here chasing the one who killed Chuangkar.
Their eting was inevitable.
Kalinan looked past Zeon to Hahr and the spirit.
More precisely—he was salivating at the spirit.
“I should thank you. Thanks to you killing that old orc, I found this spirit.”
“Yuri’s already soul-bound with Hahr. Isn’t it a bit shaless to still covet her?”
“That so-called soul bond can be severed. Just hand over the spirit, and I’ll let you live.”
“You remind of soone.”
“What nonsense are you spouting now?”
“Nigel, the half-dragon.”
“…”
“So you know him. I was just fishing, but it landed.”
Zeon’s eyes glinted coldly.
Kalinan and Nigel were oddly similar.
Different species, builds, and auras—nothing was the sa. Yet they sohow mirrored each other.
Kalinan’s golden eyes flashed.
“How do you know Nigel? Where did you see him?”
“What’s your relationship to him?”
“Answer , human! Before I tear you to shreds!”
“You answer first.”
“You insolent human! Do you know who you’re speaking to?!”
“A mutated elf?”
“What did you say?”
“Just like Nigel, you must’ve changed due to sothing. Maybe… a certain violet gem?”
“…”
Kalinan said nothing more.
And that was all the answer Zeon needed.
Nigel had said the sa thing.
He was a dragon—speaking in the past tense.
He had chosen to abandon his dragon body and beco a half-dragon.
Under normal circumstances, that was impossible.
A being discarding its species’ limits and reinventing itself on its own? If that were possible, even the dragon Hyltun, whom Dyoden once fought, would’ve shed his form long ago.
Not even Hyltun could do it by his own power.
So Nigel and Kalinan shouldn’t have been able to either.
Unless, of course, they’d received help from sothing—or soone—extraordinary.
That’s when Zeon rembered the necromancer Pilgrim.
Though Nigel had killed him, Pilgrim possessed abnormally powerful magic.
His undead defied all common sense.
Nigel had retrieved a violet gem from Pilgrim’s chest. So Zeon had concluded:
The gem must’ve been what gave Pilgrim his unnatural strength.
Otherwise, why would Nigel go out of his way to retrieve it personally?
And so, all signs pointed to one conclusion—
The violet gem was the key.
Those who bore it surpassed the limits of their race.
Zeon asked,
“That violet gem… is it connected to Krasias?”
“You’re really sothing. Just how much do you know?”
“Nigel asked —‘Do you really believe Krasias is dead?’ A being as powerful as him wouldn’t say that lightly. So yes… the gem must be tied to Krasias.”
“You’re smart. Of all the humans I’ve t, you’re by far the brightest.”
“Thanks for the complint.”
“It’s not a complint. It’s a declaration of war—I’m going to kill you.”
“I see.”
Even when Kalinan declared his intent to kill him, Zeon replied calmly. As if it didn’t concern him.
Kalinan’s golden eyebrows twitched.
He didn’t like Zeon’s attitude.
Kalinan was an elf from Kurayan.
Very few in Kurayan knew of him. That’s how long he’d lived—so long that nearly all mory of him had faded.
Even after coming to Earth, he lived alone.
Age had dulled his ambitions, and he had grown to dislike inconvenience.
Even interacting with other elves had beco a bother. So he wandered the desert alone.
Until one day—his fate changed.
He found the violet gem Zeon had spoken of.
That day, he transcended the limits of an elf and was reborn.
Just like Nigel.
Originally, Kalinan had little desire.
But ever since absorbing the violet gem, his greed burned.
If he desired sothing, he had to have it. If he hated sothing, he destroyed it completely.
That was why he had given Chuangkar the bone necklace.
He’d infused the necklace with a fraction of his power to strengthen the orcs—to destroy what he hated.
But Zeon had crushed those plans.
Naturally, Kalinan didn’t think fondly of him.
“You broke my toy, so now I’ll take sothing precious from you.”
“Go ahead—if you can.”
“Arrogant. You’re worthy of confidence, yes, but even that should know its limits.”
“Did you know?”
“Know what?”
“Nigel said the sa things. Just like you. He spoke a lot—looked down on others as if he were a god. That gem… it must give people a serious god complex.”
“You insolent—!”
Kalinan’s lips twitched.
Zeon’s provocation had struck a nerve.
Suddenly, golden light burst from Kalinan’s eyes—and another Shockwave exploded forth.
SHRAAANG!
“GAAH!”
“AHHH!”
Everyone in the Black Forest clutched their ears and collapsed.
Their eardrums rang, their brains throbbed as if struck like a bell.
They couldn’t stay conscious.
Even Floa’s eyes lost focus, and drool stread from her lips—despite not being hit directly.
Zeon, again, vibrated the sand particles to nullify the Shockwave.
But this ti, his face darkened.
He had taken a solid hit.
His insides twisted and blood surged upward.
The trendous shock had battered his organs.
At that mont, Kalinan shot into the sky.
He soared high—so high the Black Forest looked like a patch of moss below.
Then he murmured,
“I’ll shatter it all at once. Wide Area Spallation.”
WHOOOONG—
Sound echoed across the sky.
The air around the Black Forest scread.
It was as if the entire forest had been sealed in a giant bell—the sound enclosed it completely.
The vibrations multiplied—dozens, hundreds of tis over.
Ultrasonic waves, inaudible to the human ear, pounded the Black Forest.
“AAAGH!”
“P-please…!”
Every living being in the forest cried out.
Their insides were boiling.
Just like food in a microwave, the ultrasonic waves caused the fluids inside their bodies to boil violently.
In re seconds, their bodies would burst from within.
Then—Zeon moved.
“HYAAAH!”
At his shout, the sand of the earth erupted upward.
WOOOONG!
Dusty sand particles collided and vibrated against each other.
Using the sa technique that had blocked Shockwave—now on a wide scale.
Sound consud sound. The sound waves boiling the forest vanished.
And in their place, silence fell.
Kalinan’s expression contorted in disbelief.
He hadn’t expected this.
But the real surprise was yet to co.
—Beep!
From the empty sky, a giant whale head poked out.
Gaia had awakened.
Having digested the Scythe of the Reaper, Gaia was now several tis larger than before.
She raised her head and looked at Kalinan.
—Beep?
“He’s our enemy.”
—Beep!
Gaia’s eyes turned fierce.
With Zeon on her back, she rocketed into the sky.
Kalinan’s face rapidly expanded in Zeon’s vision.
Zeon drew on his full power.
WHOOOOSH!
The sand swirled, launching Gaia with terrifying speed.
An elf who transcended his race?
So what?
“You were reborn as sothing new… but that doesn’t an you don’t bleed.”
Fused with Gaia, Zeon charged straight at Kalinan with fearso speed.
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