The land for those who do not believe, Alkeia.
“The original name attached to Alkeia was the Temple of All Gods. Very long ago, in an era known as the beginning, religion was not unified as it is now.”
A time of chaos and confusion.
In that time, countless gods existed, and the Temple was a place dedicated to every transcendent being shining in the sky.
“And because of that.”
Raniel flicked her finger.
“When one god claimed the heavens, Alkeia must have been plunged into the abyss. They must have wanted to erase the traces of the past.”
Who buried Alkeia in the abyss?
Was it buried in the deepest part of the vertical cave?
Though she did not speak it, Raniel knew that the being responsible was the Mage of Ancient Dragons. No one else could have orchestrated such a feat.
“Alkeia is that kind of place.”
A location where faith is mixed and filled with all kinds of strange powers.
“In short, this means we can’t guarantee what will happen. However, one thing we can speculate is…”
Raniel pointed to a map.
The map briefly depicted the structure of Alkeia, and among the dozens of divided sections, four points were glowing red.
“We need to target these four points.”
The locations concentrated with the strongest divine power.
The places where the curse was felt the most strongly.
Raniel spoke of the need to attack those points.
“We advance by smashing all four of these points and ultimately regroup here.”
The center of the temple.
As Raniel pointed at that center with her finger, she declared, “As quickly as possible.”
2.
Drip, as blood fell from the sky.
Four Carapace Dragons pierced and pinned against protruding pillars that had risen from the ground, their blood and severed flesh raining down like a storm.
Thump.
One figure walked down the slope, getting drenched in the red rain. It was Raniel van Trias. She lightly shook her wrist, and the skull of the Carapace Dragon she held fell with a thud, burying itself into the slope.
The skull, extracted along with the spine.
“Huff…”
Sighing briefly, Raniel swept her blood-soaked hair back. Following her was Remia. With Remia at her side, Raniel stood before the back gate of Alkeia.
The door was firmly closed.
Feeling the waves of murky water sloshing beyond, Raniel clenched her fist. She lowered her stance.
“Remia.”
Remia nocked an arrow onto her bowstring.
The arrow fed with moonlight. The moment Remia nodded, Raniel kicked off the ground and leapt forward, swinging her fist towards the firmly closed temple door.
Crack!
Her bare fist shattered the temple door.
As the wreckage of the door flew inside, the suppressed wave of beasts burst forth. However, the wave did not overflow outside the temple.
Creak.
Raniel’s fist was still dazzlingly bright.
The strike that shattered the temple door was made with her bare fist. She had yet to invoke the spell that should follow the strike, allowing her knuckles to burn bright for a moment.
Smash.
With a boom, the shockwave surged, sweeping the tides backward. Taking a step toward the receding wave, Raniel was followed by a moonlight arrow. The arrow, shot while drawing a tail of light, hit the black wave the moment it made contact.
Flash!
As the moonlight engulfed the wave, the scenery inside the temple came into view for Raniel. Strange circuits were intricately carved on the walls, and roots of trees extended throughout the temple.
…Everything was just as she had heard.
Raniel did not forget where she needed to go.
Entering the temple through the four diverging paths, the point Raniel aimed for was to the north. As she moved toward it, she recalled her conversation with Belnoa.
“There are doors closed in each sector, but among them, there are a few especially large doors. They were hard to see due to the darkness, but I definitely saw one.”
Pushing the waves away, Raniel sprinted ahead.
With starlight trailing her as she tore through the interior of the temple, Raniel halted at a certain point.
“Right here, the door with the sun engraved on it.”
She arrived after breaking through several doors.
At the far end of the room stood a door marked with the sun. Beyond that door was a suffocating heat. Raniel furrowed her brows.
…This was the door Belnoa had mentioned.
A massive presence emanated from inside, and in terms of position, this was one of the four points Raniel had marked on the map. The point assigned to her.
“Wait.”
Remia, following Raniel, halted her steps.
Clink.
With a chain drawn from her palm, Raniel approached the temple door. The sun and strange circuits engulfing the sun. Just as she reached to push the door open…
“…!”
Raniel flinched, her shoulders trembling.
The moment she reached for the temple door, she felt a chilling presence. A sticky malice. Slowly, Raniel withdrew her hand from the temple door.
Still, the malice lingered.
‘…No.’
It wasn’t from beyond the door.
This was not the malice felt because she reached for the temple door. After all, this was not the mixed feelings emanating from the traitor’s minions.
The felt malice stretched through the temple, disregarding distance; this sticky energy was something the traitor’s minions could never exude, as it had woven many elements into one.
This was the presence of a single human, one who lived only for a single purpose. Raniel recognized this dreadful malice, a resolve almost close to longing, as she muttered while pushing against the temple door.
“I did well to make it loose.”
A person who reached the level of superhuman on sheer resolve.
Sword Demon, Draka.
Raniel sensed that he was finally unleashing everything he had as he reached the stage he so desired.
*
The dispersed hunting team dashed through the temple’s interior to execute their missions. The muck pouring from the center of the temple attempted to ensnare their feet, yet they could not even grasp a single step of the hunting party.
Those who lived their lives to reach the pinnacle.
Having surpassed limits and shattered walls.
Those whom humanity called superhuman were originally thought to be self-righteous, arbitrary, and uncontrollable. However, this time was different. Under one hero, all superhumans gathered. They all rushed toward a singular goal.
Chloe’s spell opened the way. Belnoa’s storm surged forward, quickening their steps. Destel continued to support them, adapting his spells to the situation.
Hundreds of spells cast by Kelharlem swept through the temple. As the fragmented spells scattered in all directions, Resti integrated them into a single spell. While the minions tore at the tides, the spells stacked by Resti ripped the waves apart.
And then.
Lac and Natida hurried to match the steps of the advancing knight.
Rustle.
Looking ahead revealed the sight of the frenzied knight. The knight threw themselves into the oncoming muck. It was as if they were leaping into the waves.
Reckless. So dangerous.
Yet, disregarding such worries, the knight cleaved through the muck completely. Within the darkness, the knight’s red eyes shimmered ominously. It glistened like the eyes of a beast.
Crunch, crunch-crunch.
The knight stomped and crushed the minions crawling on the ground beneath their military boots, grinding them to bits, with their red eyes set on the depths of the temple. The malice emanating from the knight made Lac and Natida feel overwhelmed.
It’s dreadful.
A dreadful toxin was seeping out.
The poison one human dedicated their life to honing was thick. It was horrific.
‘…Sword Demon, Draka.’
A man who lost everything to the traitor, Gletus.
His hometown, his name, his people, and finally, his daughter.
Having lost everything, all that remained for him was profound hatred. Revenge. Draka had come this far solely for revenge.
Draka continued to walk.
Crushing and cleaving those that had turned into the figure resembling his daughter as he pressed forward.
Towards the end given to him.
So walked Draka, and in tow were Lac and Natida, reaching a firmly closed door. The door bore engravings of beasts. Reaching towards it, Lac extended his hand.
3.
The door engraved with the sun was flung open.
Creek, the door opened with a sound.
The moment they arrived in the vast chamber, Raniel grimaced. She couldn’t help but frown. A massive presence could be felt within the room, yet inside, nothing existed.
An empty chamber.
And, a space that felt severed like the inside of a Holy Grail.
This place was isolated from the outside. In the center of this isolated space, something was buried, Raniel saw. It was the corpse of something—a being that had met its end in two halves.
“…The Sun?”
*
The door engraved with the roots of trees was opened.
What sprawled before them was the Great Hollow.
The roots of trees climbing the walls of the Great Hollow. Withered black roots filled the room. Destel groaned as he looked toward the center of the Great Hollow.
“…What is that?”
The center of the Great Hollow.
There stood a gigantic tree, looking as if it had been burned.
*
The door engraved with lakes was opened.
The moment they stepped inside, the air became humid. Droplets formed on the walls of the Great Hollow. Drip, drip, as rain continued to fall from the sky. Looking up at the sky revealed an endless chamber.
An isolated space, was how Kelharlem thought.
Like the otherworld one traversed when summoning a familiar…
Just as Kelharlem was thinking this.
Resti, standing next to him, pointed towards the center of the Great Hollow.
“Over there.”
Resti frowned.
“Something is there.”
Kelharlem looked at the same spot.
In the center of the Great Hollow, black water was pooled.
*
The door engraved with animals was flung open.
Stepping inside unveiled the Great Hollow. An endless expanse of grass welcomed the three. Draka halted his steps, and Lac surveyed the meadow. An expanse that seemed to extend to the horizon.
Twitch.
As Lac scanned the grasslands, his body twitched sharply.
He reflexively took a step back.
“…What is happening?”
“That place.”
Lac stretched his arm out, pointing towards the center of the meadow.
In the middle of the meadow knelt something, a skeletal figure bereft of flesh. Bowing its head. The form of that something felt strangely familiar.
“…The King of Beasts.”
There lay a corpse resembling the King of Beasts.
*
“There’s nothing here. Just a gigantic, charred tree…”
The giant tree.
“Here, there is water pooling. Black water. It isn’t muck, it’s hard to describe… but I don’t feel any special presence.”
Water, lake.
“…A corpse of the King of Beasts. It doesn’t seem to belong to the true king, but rather seems to be a framework resembling his.”
The King of Beasts.
“…”
Raniel looked ahead.
There lay the sun cleaved in two. The giant tree, the lake, the King of Beasts, and the sun. The words connected one by one. A spark ignited in Raniel’s mind.
The cursed sun.
The master of cursed land.
The lake devoured by curses.
The King of Beasts.
Words pointing toward the ancient calamities. The moment the pieces fitted together, Raniel felt a chill run down her spine.
“This is insane.”
Raniel shouted into the communicator. To unleash spells against what lay at the center, to swing swords. They needed to cause as much damage as possible.
‘Now that I think about it, it was odd.’
The resistance had been far too weak.
The process of reaching this point had been eerily easy. Therefore, she thought there must be a powerful being withheld in this Great Hollow by the traitor… Yet, this was an unpredictable variable far beyond Raniel’s expectations.
“Right now…!”
At that moment, Raniel raised her voice.
Zzzt, a sound echoed as all connections severed. What she felt was complete isolation. The space had been entirely cut off.
And then.
Thunk.
At that moment.
Drip.
The rain.
Dripdripdripdripdripdrip.
The rain of black muck began to fall.
