The Multiverse Trailblazer Chapter 149 149: Kazdel

"Hmm? I've been following the map's directions, but where am I?"

Caelus looked at the map in his hand. He felt he had not taken a wrong turn, yet he had been walking through this desolate land for quite so ti without seeing a trace of anyone, not even the Originium Slugs or Wasteland Wolves unique to this continent.

After putting away the map, Caelus had not walked far before a violent explosion sounded from ahead.

Within the ruins of a town, which perhaps had once been prosperous countless years ago, nothing remained now but broken walls and crumbling ruins.

Even so, these ruins made good cover, giving the Sarkaz rcenaries ard with crossbows places to hide.

Although Originium firearms, weapons similar to guns, existed on this continent, they were essentially high-end weapons, and most of them were held by the Laterano. Even if so were in circulation, they were not sothing ordinary people could afford to use.

Therefore, long-range attacks either ca from Arts or relied on bows, arrows, or crossbows, and, of course, explosives.

"(Sarkaz profanity!) Is that Yanchi squad crazy? They're fighting so aggressively!"

A Sarkaz rcenary hiding behind cover to avoid attacks from enemy Casters cursed.

"Who knows? Ever since the civil war broke out, all the rcenaries who have seen Theresa seem to fight with extra ferocity. Once the filthy rats living in the shadows are illuminated by light, they always feel that the light is special, so they beco willing to sacrifice themselves for that radiance. What's it called again? I rember Yan has a specific idiom for this, sothing about moths flying into a fla?"

"I think it's 'moths flying into a fla.' Anyway, it's sothing like that! Damn it! Do bombs not cost money? Bastard!"

The man who had just been complaining looked at the bomb thrown at his feet. In his final monts, he managed one last complaint before being blown to the ground.

As for the rcenary who had used his agile movents to shift away just as the bomb landed, avoiding the explosion, he quickly turned back and began looting supplies and portable valuables from his comrade's body.

He felt no sadness. He had long grown used to such things.

In Kazdel, a brother who might have been drinking with you a second ago could turn around and cut you down for a bounty the next.

Lovers who might have been kissing a second ago could beco enemies trying to kill each other the next.

A brother who had been laughing and joking with you earlier might be pierced by a stray arrow from out of nowhere the next mont.

In Kazdel, deception, slaughter, and death were all commonplace.

Around the ruins of the town, the chaotic battle finally ca to an end. The victors looted the bodies of the defeated, while also killing comrades who had not fully died yet to end their suffering and prevent them from having enough breath left to counterattack.

"How could Kazdel possibly restore its nation? Her Highness Theresa's wish is beautiful, but ultimately, it's unrealistic. We Sarkaz will always live like this."

An old rcenary who had finished the battle pulled a cigarette from his pocket and put it in his mouth, sighing. Years of rcenary life had long since made him lose all hope in that beautiful vision.

The reason he was fighting here was not for so so-called holand or so so-called wish, but simply to obtain the money he needed to survive.

Fighting with beautiful visions like those youngsters would not keep you alive for long on this land.

Caelus stood not far away, witnessing the entire process of this small-scale conflict. So Sarkaz seed to hold a near-religious belief in the leader nad Theresa, while the vast majority of Sarkaz simply treated this war as part of their lives and work, long accustod to taking lives.

He even saw that so of their faces were still very young, clearly not yet adults, but even so, their thods were already extrely ruthless, perhaps because they had already participated in countless battles.

Caelus stood beside these rcenary leaders, listening to the information revealed through their chatter. He learned that just one or two months ago, war had broken out in Kazdel.

This war had broken out suddenly. The one who originally ruled Kazdel was Her Highness Theresa, but her brother, Theresis, had suddenly rebelled.

Since then, the factions in Kazdel had split into two. One followed Theresa, the idealistic monarch who wanted to lead the Sarkaz in rebuilding their holand.

The other followed Theresis, believing in this monarch whose thods were harsher, whose ideals were more realistic, and whose goals were clearer.

Perhaps because of their differing philosophies, the two sides finally erupted into civil war, and all of Kazdel was engulfed in the flas of war.

Even Sarkaz who had originally been active as rcenaries in other countries had rushed back to this holand because of the civil strife, participating in the war.

Those Sarkaz did not understand how to improve the treatnt of the Sarkaz, or how to make their holand, Kazdel, better, so they could only blindly follow their monarch, following the direction pointed out by the monarch they had chosen.

Caelus walked for a while longer, then learned from various fragnted pieces of news that the idealistic monarch nad Theresa had established an organization in Kazdel called Babel.

"This na... it feels like it's going to collapse before long. It's really not a very auspicious choice."

Caelus said this. Although there were no traces of the religions he was familiar with on this land, the na "Tower of Babel" symbolized a high tower destroyed by gods.

Caelus noticed that when he finished saying this, the system did not join in on his snarky comnt. This should have been the ti for it to make so dark jokes or complain along with him, but now it remained silent.

There was only one possibility. He was right, and this Babel was indeed closely related to the fate of this continent, perhaps even having a very strong connection to it, so the system could not spoil anything.

Caelus could not help feeling curious and decided to go to Babel to take a good look.

But the problem now was that he did not know where Babel was.

Just as Caelus was planning to head to a nearby rcenary market to look for information, he suddenly saw a Sarkaz girl rummaging through trash in the ruins not far away.

The clothes the other person wore were tattered and completely the wrong size, likely stripped from a corpse. Her hair looked grayish-white, and the horns on her head, which marked her as Sarkaz, looked like solid Originium crystals, giving off an ominous impression.

She appeared to be scavenging, searching through the ruins of battle for any valuable items that had been left behind.

Caelus thought about how he would definitely need to communicate with people when he went to the rcenary market later. Having a local with him would be much more convenient, and running into one at a ti like this could be considered fate.

Since it was fate, he might as well take this young girl to see their ruler.

Thinking this, Caelus revealed his form and walked toward the girl.

The mont the sound of Caelus's footsteps hitting the ground rang out, the girl vigilantly drew the dagger she carried and looked toward the direction of the sound.

"I have a temporary job here. Are you interested?"

The girl looked at Caelus before her and then used her own Originium Arts. It was a form of intuition, one that could tell her whether the person standing before her was dangerous.

Then, the girl felt as if she had touched sothing.

It was so warm, so comfortable, as if it were filled with the aura of life, as if she had returned to the embrace of the person called mother, whom she had completely forgotten.

It was as if she were drowning in a warm ocean, and all her exhaustion, all her despair, and all her numbness were washed away by those warm waters.

Was it an ocean? No. It was light.

Caelus sensed that the girl opposite him had lightly touched him with her ntal energy and attempted to probe his ntal state, and then the girl simply collapsed and fell unconscious.

Should I stick a label on myself in the future that says, "Do not use ntal probing"?

Caelus thought this to himself as he looked at the unconscious girl. Then, semi-transparent jellyfish drifted out of the air, bound the unconscious girl, and floated in midair, following behind Caelus as he walked farther and farther away.

(To be continued.)