Chapter 439 : Temple (2)
In that fleeting moment, Alon searched through his mind and found the small amount of information he knew about Calypsophobia.
Because the man had taken the form of a human, he wondered if he might be a character from Calypsophobia.
However, there was no such being in the information he knew.
Just as his confusion deepened.
“Fascinating. Everything is exactly as expected. That person doesn’t even possess foresight to this extent.”
The man before him, sounding thoroughly delighted, completely turned away from the red sphere and looked at Alon and Yutia.
The body of the man now facing forward could hardly be called human.
Half of it looked similar to an ordinary human, but the other half was covered with something resembling grotesque red minerals.
“......Who are you?”
A smile hung on his lips as if he were enjoying himself.
Red hair.
Alon asked the unfamiliar divine-blood.
The man answered with laughter lingering in his voice.
“Does it matter who I am? Since you came here anyway, there’s no chance you’ll leave alive.”
“......That remains to be seen.”
“Remains to be seen?”
The man let out a sneer.
As if amused—and at the same time entertained—he nodded.
“Ah—well, sure. Maybe it does remain to be seen. Maybe you could stop me. But~”
He chuckled.
“Since the Whispering Void is descending anyway, it’s not that important.”
“!”
Alon’s eyes widened.
He still hadn’t figured out anything about the man in front of him.
However, the words that came from the man’s mouth were different.
“The Whispering Void?”
Alon knew that name.
There was no way he could forget it.
The Whispering Void was one of the fourth-stage divine-blood who led the largest faction of divine-blood mentioned by Blue Eyes.
‘How in the world?’
He couldn’t understand.
His expression twisted beneath his otherwise blank face.
As far as he knew, divine-blood had to descend to the surface step by step through their stages.
That was why Blue Eyes, who had told him these things—and even the Wanderer who had explained additional details—could not descend to this world.
They simply could not come down.
Yet the man in front of him, at a time when only first-stage divine-blood were just beginning to descend—was speaking nonsense about a divine-blood who should descend last making their appearance.
Could that be a lie?
Such a natural suspicion crossed Alon’s mind.
But soon he judged that it might not be a lie.
The reason was the enormous sphere behind the man.
The red sphere pulsed violently, as if containing power beyond anything Alon could imagine.
And slowly, its size was shrinking as it compressed.
Seeing that, Alon immediately tried to use magic toward the red sphere without hesitation.
But—
“Ah, if you were about to try something, go ahead. Do whatever you want. The descent has already begun anyway.”
“What?”
The man looked completely calm.
“Was that too complicated? Simply put, it’s already too late. Too late to stop that person’s descent.”
He even shrugged his shoulders and moved his body aside, as if telling them to try whatever they wanted.
At the moment Alon made a dumbfounded expression.
[......My Lord.]
“!”
Yutia’s voice echoed inside his head.
[I’m transmitting my voice through divine power, so please listen.]
Alon, surprised for a moment, slightly nodded at her explanation, and she continued speaking.
[From what I see, that man’s words seem like a half-truth. It’s true that a divine-blood far stronger than we can handle is descending, but it’s not that we have no chance to stop it yet.]
“......!”
[If you can hold that man off, My Lord, I’ll somehow manage the rest.]
Alon looked at her.
But she nodded with a small smile, as if telling him not to worry.
Alon turned his gaze toward the red sphere.
The sphere pulsed like a living being, shrinking as though compressing its power.
Would it really be okay to send Yutia there alone?
Worry came first.
[I’ll be fine.]
As if reading Alon’s thoughts, certainty shone in Yutia’s red eyes.
There was no more time to hesitate.
Nod—
Alon also nodded slightly in agreement.
[My Lord, be careful of that man. He seems to be on a completely different level compared to the divine-blood we’ve encountered so far.]
Listening to her warning, Alon looked forward.
To be honest, there were still many things he couldn’t understand.
However, the most important thing right now was to stop the situation unfolding before them.
So he let out a sigh and stared ahead.
And at that moment.
Yutia, who had been standing silently until just now, suddenly dashed toward the red sphere.
In an instant, Yutia moved.
The man who had been smiling until moments ago stretched out his hand.
In the blink of an eye, he reached right in front of Yutia.
However—
The moment the man’s hand was about to extend.
Alon, who had already been forming hand seals inside his pocket,
“Sniping of Oblivion.”
Immediately fired Sniping of Oblivion toward his hand.
The mana gathered was not much.
But it was more than enough to interrupt the man’s action.
And at that moment, Alon saw it.
The magic fired toward the hand reaching for Yutia stopped in place.
A sudden and incomprehensible situation.
But the moment Alon recognized that strange phenomenon, Yutia had already leaped into the red sphere.
“Tch, she went in.”
The man shrugged as if it couldn’t be helped and looked at Alon.
“I warned you that you wouldn’t be able to stop it.”
“......For someone saying that, you looked rather hurried while trying to stop her.”
“Well, there’s always the possibility of something going wrong. But now that she’s already gone in, there’s no reason to stop it. In fact, it might even be better this way.”
“......Why?”
“Why? Because I get to fight the Star Eater myself.”
The man continued speaking, the smile still not leaving his lips.
“I was really curious why that person cares so much about you. And I was curious why this plan had to be moved up much earlier because of you.”
At the man’s words, Alon instinctively realized something.
The Whispering Void was someone who remembered the first cycle.
And whatever was happening in this temple had, for some reason, been accelerated because of him.
“And above all, I wanted to try using the power I gained after receiving that person’s blessing and reaching the second stage.”
Alon stayed silent for a moment before speaking.
“......Are you divine-blood?”
He was fundamentally different from the divine-blood Alon had seen so far.
The man laughed cheerfully for a moment.
Then replied coldly.
“You’re comparing me to those half-baked things wandering around the continent who can’t even properly draw laws and therefore can’t use their true power?”
“......”
“Of course, until recently I wasn’t much different from them either.”
“......You speak as if you’re different from the divine-blood outside.”
“Do you think I wouldn’t be?”
The man frowned.
“There’s an enormous difference between those who can handle laws and those who cannot. You don’t know that?”
“Do I need to?”
“No, you don’t need to know. I just don’t understand why that person ordered ‘Drawing-In Night’ to kill you.”
“Well, whatever.”
Muttering that, ‘Drawing-In Night’ raised his hand with a grin.
“I’ll show you.”
“With my own hands.”
“The difference between those nobodies outside and a true divine-blood.”
And then.
His hand clenched tightly.
Tap—
Something abnormal occurred.
“......?”
At first, Alon couldn’t grasp what the anomaly was.
But in the next moment, realization struck him.
‘...It’s rising?’
Small fragments of stone were rising into the air.
The moment he realized the change—
Tap—
The anomaly began in earnest.
KWA-GAGAGAGAGAK—!!
The outer walls of the temple Alon was standing on were torn away incredibly easily and quickly, being sucked into the sky.
As if defying gravity itself.
KRAK—! KRRRRACK—!
The temple floor.
The enormous pillars.
The carved murals whose meanings were unknown.
Everything shattered instantly and was sucked into the sky, disappearing.
Even Alon’s own body.
“Basiliora—!”
The moment he realized his body was floating upward, a shout burst from Alon’s mouth.
And with that—
—!!!
Smashing through the temple, Basiliora appeared.
Grabbing onto its body and securing a wider field of vision, Alon’s eyes widened involuntarily.
“—!”
The range of the suction did not stop at the temple alone.
The enormous temple.
The red eggs.
The giant trees that existed there.
And eventually even the hill—
Everything in the surrounding area was being devoured greedily.
Countless red objects across the vast plain were crushed and sucked in.
The small hill in the center of the field was pulverized and absorbed like it was being dragged into a black hole.
And the last thing Alon saw was—
“…!”
A gigantic meteor floating in the sky.
Formed from absorbing everything on the ground.
A red planet.
So absurdly enormous that it even blocked out the sky and made Basiliora look like an ordinary snake, causing a hollow sigh to escape from Alon’s mouth.
“Do you understand now? The difference between nobodies and a true divine-blood.”
Drawing-In Night, who had created the massive meteor, twisted his lips into a grin.
“...This is insane—”
In the distance, Evan, who had been leisurely watching the situation at the temple just moments earlier, muttered a curse.
Beside him, Penia let out a hollow laugh.
“This is ridiculous~”
The enormous meteor floating in the sky.
Once it fell to the ground, it was large enough to erase everything with terrifying ease.
Of course, Penia had roughly expected a situation like this.
Alon had already warned her that something dangerous would happen at this temple.
However, she never thought Alon would be easily threatened.
Before entering the temple, Alon had completed every preparation he possibly could.
The fact that he could immediately respond with Basiliora was proof of that preparation.
But even if there was another plan after this—
“This is just too much.”
Penia’s hollow voice scattered into the air as her gaze turned toward Alon.
Normally, the distance should have been too great to see him clearly.
However, her eyes enhanced with mana allowed her to see Alon’s face.
His expressionless face.
And then—
“.....Huh?”
Penia let out an involuntary gasp.
It wasn’t because of Alon’s expressionless face.
After all, he maintained that expression no matter the situation.
The reason she was surprised was because of the posture he was taking.
After watching Alon for a long time, she had learned how to read his emotions.
The method was simple.
Unlike his face, his emotions were revealed through his posture.
And the emotion Penia detected from Alon at this moment was—
Not pressure.
Not fear.
Not resignation.
‘Confidence?’
It was confidence.
And just as Penia read Alon’s emotions—
Inside the red mist where Yutia had entered—
“Long time no see~”
[I figured you would return. You monstrous woman.]
She was facing a gigantic eye with her crimson gaze.