Chapter 257
Creation of the World (1)
Seira rummaged through the ashes. And she sighed.
‘Nothing.’
When she came out of the burned-down building, she saw a city that had been reduced to ashes.
It was a sad ending for Cheraltas, a metropolitan city that was once considered one of the Three Continental Powers.
The world’s wild monsters had swept through Latna like locusts, and human civilization was destroyed.
A young male Elf walked out of another building. It was Raondel, who had lost a lot of weight.
“Seira.”
His tone was pathetic.
“Did you find anything to eat?”
He had been starving for too long. He once looked for full-course dishes in the dungeon, but now he was willing to chew even moldy bread. He wouldn’t even remove the mold!
‘Maybe having stomachache is better than being hungry…’
Seira shook her head, betraying Raondel’s anticipating eyes.
“There’s nothing there.”
Leslie also walked out of another building empty-handed.
Standing with ragged appearances, the three looked at each other with gazes of despair.
Seira beckoned.
“Let’s get out of here. We don’t know when the monsters will appear again…”
The decision seemed a little late.
Soon, red eyes flashed everywhere. A low growl was heard over the charred stone wall.
Grrrr…
Grrrr…
Bipedal monsters, which seemed to be a mixture of wolves and tigers, were approaching them, their terrifying fangs sticking out.
“Damn it!”
“Where did they come from?”
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "64ce79d606107d003c23ea27", id: "pf-5140-1"}) In a hurry, Seira’s party assumed combat positions.
Raondel pulled out his sword, and Seira and Leslie prepared their arts.
The monsters narrowed in on them in all directions.
There were about 20 of them. Leslie identified them with her Guideline.
[Tribe: Elkfail Grid. Lv. 45]
Fortunately, they weren’t the monsters from Four Prohibited Areas. Their level was relatively low.
Maybe they were from a nearby dungeon.
The problem was that their physical conditions weren’t good.
“It’s hard to stand because I’m hungry…”
The monsters charged in all at once.
Trying to concentrate, Seira’s group swiftly launched a counterattack, but they soon stumbled and fell behind.
Leslie groaned.
‘I can’t conjure any energy….’
Spiritual arts could cure injuries, but hunger couldn’t be resolved. They hadn’t put anything in their mouths except water in the past three days.
Not to mention Seira and Raondel, even she couldn’t fight properly over level 70.
Within minutes, all three were driven to the corner.
Roaring and anticipating being able to chew and swallow human flesh, a monster pounced at them.
Raondel screamed.
“Argh!”
But his voice was swallowed up by an even louder scream.
Argh!
A large hole was made in the body of the attacking monster.
It wasn’t just him. Other monsters also shed blood in unison.
Two shadows appeared, slaughtering them.
“How dare such filthy monsters try to harm the citizens of Goddesses!”
“Die, you filthy things!”
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "64cc9e79c7059f003e4ad4b0", id: "pf-5109-1"}) A handsome middle-aged Elven Magic Swordsman swung his sword gracefully and cut the monsters’ neck.
The brown-bearded Dwarven warrior also launched a violent offensive with his battle-ax.
It took only a few seconds for all of the 20 monsters to die.
After organizing the situation, the middle-aged Elf looked back at Seira’s group.
“You’re safe now. Everyone is fine… What?”
The Elf and Dwarf’s eyes widened.
Seira had a similar reaction.
“What?”
They knew each other.
They were Palmer, the Yessen Church Templar Lord, and Merdill, the Preleu Church Templar Lord.
“You were alive!”
“Miss Seira, you’re safe!”
She ran, hugged Palmer, and cried.
“Argh!”
She didn’t expect to meet her colleagues during such hardships, even more so because of the people who didn’t survive.
“S-Sabine… Ugh…”
Palmer nodded somberly, patting the younger but bigger Nymph girl on the back.
“We know.”
Merdill sighed deeply, too.
“Sigh…”
Silence permeated around them.
Those who didn’t die amid such a terrible hell mourned those who did, quietly shedding tears.
“Hey, I know it’s not something to say in this atmosphere, but…”
It was Raondel’s hesitant voice that broke the silence.
“Do you have anything to eat?”
Merdil smiled bitterly.
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "663633fa8ebf7442f0652b33", id: "pf-8817-1"}) “Follow me. We have nothing, but…”
Starvation was unbearable pain. He couldn’t blame them for asking that despite the situation.
Palmer led the way.
“But I can still fill you up.”
* * *
Along with Palmer and Merdill, Seira’s party fled from the city.
They guided them through a small forest outside the city of Cheraltas.
As they went through the giant trees, a large vacant lot came out. About 500 troops were sitting and resting there.
A soldier on guard raised saluted the two.
“Welcome back.”
Merdill immediately raised a question.
“Are we the last?”
“Yes, everyone else has been patrolling.”
While reporting, the soldier was surprised to see Seira’s group.
“Captain Seira?”
“You know me?”
“I was serving at Fieldrocks.”
The soldier wept, saying, “It’s a relief.”
Seira couldn’t look him in the eye. It was because she remembered herself abandoning the soldiers and running away.
“I-I’m sorry…”
Meanwhile, Leslie looked around the place.
“There aren’t only Allendia troops here.”
Of the 500 troops, about half looked to be from Allendia. The rest wore different colors.
There were also knights and soldiers from the Kaldris and the Mado Kingdoms.
There was even a giant figure standing out of the woods…
“Huh, Dragon?”
Raondel freaked out, falling on his butt.
A 30-meter-long Blue Dragon was making a low roar in the air with its head raised.
Grrr!
It had to be an Ancient Dragon over 500 years old. All of Latna’s elites were enemies of the Upper Draconium. Yes, it was the enemy of the Allendia troops!
After a while, the Ancient Dragon lowered its head and soothed him.
“Don’t be afraid, Elf. We no longer have any reason to fight you.”
It spoke politely to Palmer afterward.
“I think I’ve driven every monster around us.”
“Then you should hide.”
As soon as Palmer said that, the Ancient Dragon took a human form.
He turned in a middle-aged male nymph, looked around, and spoke.
“As expected, this is making me anxious. Dragon Fear can prevent monsters from coming near us, but the danger of being discovered by the angels of the Devil increases too much in return.”
“I don’t want to call those damn monsters angels, Sarendias.”
Merdill gritted his teeth. Sarendias, the Blue Dragon, shrugged.
“But you don’t have a name for it, do you?”
Seira was dumbfounded.
“What’s going on here?”
Merdill replied, calling in a soldier and giving instructions.
“Let’s get something to eat first. Let’s talk over food.”
* * *
Their food situation wasn’t great. All they had was military emergency food mixed with fat and flour.
Of course, at the moment, it was a heavenly delicacy for Seira’s party.
“Woo! Woo!”
The three shoved emergency food into their mouths.
In the meantime, Merdill briefly explained what had happened.
“We don’t know much about that day. I was just busy surviving.”
He struggled to cut down the angel in front of him.
When he barely came to his senses, there were no friends or foes around him. He just found himself standing alone amid a pool of blood.
He scrambled around and picked up as many allies as he could.
“And we headed for a nearby border fort.”
But it was already burning by the time they got there.
Desperate, they headed for a nearby city.
“The city was already burned to the ground.”
Wherever they went, there were ashes, and wherever they went, there was nothing but Alien monsters.
They wandered, chased, and were chased. Somewhere along their journey, they met the remnants of the Kaldris and Mado Kingdoms.
The Devil had appeared. It wasn’t time for the Latnains to fight among themselves. They naturally banded together and moved.
They grasped the situation through word of mouth.
The Three Continental Powers had collapsed, and the Four Prohibited Areas had opened, and they knew that the world had been turned into hell.
But they didn’t know why or how that had happened until they met the Blue Dragon Sarendias.
“Thanks to him, we learned how the events unfolded.”
Several knights of the Kaldris-Mado Alliance accompanied him. They all fought at the Basin before they fell all over Latna through the Path of Shadows.
“They were at the place where the Devil was descending, and they knew the details.”
Sarendias smiled bitterly and processed Merdill’s words.
“Of course, we were all tied up in the distance…”
At least it could be confirmed that the Sword King Felard had died and that the Devil Omphalos had descended and killed the Archmage.
“I saw the Devil put her in a huge light and melt her away.”
All of the Top Three who had dominated the Upper Draconium disappeared. In other words, there was no longer anyone who could suppress old Dragons.
“I’ve been freed, but I can’t even enjoy it, so I joined them. I must somehow find the incarnation of the Goddess, ask for forgiveness, and fight the Devil.”
Seira nodded and asked another question.
“So, what do we do now?”
Palmer looked at the northern sky.
“There’s a rumor I’ve heard.”
The information network had collapsed, and the state and religious system had collapsed, but word of mouth had persisted and showed off its vitality.
According to it, not all of the Three Continental Powers had collapsed.
Armorica, the capital of Allendia, was still safe. The Sword King and the incarnation of the Goddess were raising their final banner against Omphalos.
“So we need to make our way to Armorica. It’s our only hope.”
* * *
Temporary Royal Palace of Armorica.
Han-bin’s group gathered on the bed and looked down at the sleeping girl.
Falling from the gate of Darkness, the incarnation of Althea, the Goddess of Light, appeared.
It wasn’t long before the girl opened her eyes. Kibie asked carefully.
“… Althea?”
The girl looked around with a blank expression for a moment. Then she came to her senses and shouted.
“Kybriel!”
The two reached out to each other.
The two separated sisters, the great Goddesses of Light and Darkness, had met again.
“Hey, do you know how much we’re suffering because of you?”
Light grabbed Darkness by the collar and shook her.
Of course, Kibie didn’t move.
The physical difference between a young girl and a savage Valtara warrior was huge.
“I-it’s not my fault! Why are you doing this only to me?”
“This wouldn’t have happened if you hadn’t been stabbed in the back in the first place!”
“I just got a bad ticket! Would it have been any different if you were there instead of me?”
Han-bin’s party watched the scene blankly.
It wasn’t the scene they had expected.
Ryu Han-bin, Artis, and Leon Hart were puzzled.
‘Do the Goddesses not get along with each other?’
‘This… This isn’t good.’
‘It’s not what I expected…’
Effir, on the other hand, smiled brightly.
“You two sisters seem to be on good terms. I envy you.”
The three men tilted their heads at the same time.
“… Huh?”
Well, at least they didn’t seem like they were really on bad terms. They were still glad to see one another, after all, and even hugged each other.
“I’m glad you’re safe, Kybriel.”
“Me, too, Althea.”
After a brief hug, Kibie stared at Althea.
“What’s going on? Why is your incarnation in the sanctuary of Darkness?”
“I was just looking for a chance to intervene from the start. Fortunately, you gave me a little break.”
“What about the others?”
“They just couldn’t get out of it. Now they can’t even afford to make incarnations.”
After coughing, Leon Hart spoke carefully.
“Goddess of Light, the incarnation of mankind’s creator.”
He bowed politely and introduced himself with all due respect.
“I’m Leon Hart, serving Kybriel of Darkness.”
“I know.”
Althea nodded solemnly.
Of course, it didn’t look that solemn because she was just a little girl.
“Pardon me for not seeing the truth because I am foolish, but…”
“I know what you’re trying to ask.”
Altia grinned as she interrupted.
“You’re saying this body doesn’t look like an incarnation, let alone a Goddess’s.”
The little girl in front of Leon Hart was a perfectly normal child. Her incarnation was nothing like Kibie’s.
“I couldn’t help it.”
The girl continued slowly.
“The Darkness is still empty, and the rest of our sisters are overwhelmed, trying to support the world. We don’t have the power to lay down on this land.”
What she brought wasn’t the power of the Goddess.
“I came down to earth with the wisdom of the Goddess.”
