Chapter 666
Chapter 666
The water was not just somewhat salty, it was unbearably salty.
It was as if someone had dumped in an entire mountain of salt.
“Did rock salt dissolve into it?”
The salt distributed in Neo Seoul also came from crushed deposits of rock salt.
Since salt was indispensable for the survival of living beings, Neo Seoul devoted enormous effort to securing rock salt.
Fortunately, a fairly large rock salt deposit had been discovered several decades ago, allowing a stable supply.
For a moment, Zeon suspected there might be a rock salt deposit here as well, but he soon shook his head.
His senses detected no mineral like rock salt anywhere.
Closing his eyes, Zeon spread Exion out once more.
He directed Exion in search of the source of the salty water.
Exion descended endlessly beneath his feet.
When it had gone down nearly a thousand meters, he sensed something unusual.
Like groundwater or an oasis, salty water was surging upward from a depth of a thousand meters.
“Is there an underground lake?”
Zeon had already confirmed the existence of a massive underground lake beneath the Steel Fortress.
It would not be strange if an identical lake existed beneath this place.
The only thing that bothered him was that the water was salty.
In the end, Zeon decided to see it for himself.
Srrrk!
The sand opened a path leading underground.
As if riding an elevator, Zeon descended rapidly below the earth.
In an instant, he reached a depth of one thousand meters.
Deep underground, where not a single ray of light reached, was absolute darkness.
Swooosh!
The sound of water echoed through the darkness.
Water sloshing this way, then that.
The sound reverberating through the enormous underground space made Zeon furrow his brow deeply.
It was a sound he had never heard at the underground lake beneath the Steel Fortress.
The underground lake there had no environmental changes, so the water had no reason to move.
Zeon created a fireball in his palm.
Infusing it with his will, he floated the fireball upward like a balloon.
Little by little, the true form of the underground space hidden in the darkness revealed itself.
“My... God.”
Before his eyes stretched an immense sea.
A vast sea whose end could not be seen.
It was impossible to believe that such an enormous sea existed beneath the sand.
Descending to the surface, Zeon scooped up some seawater and tasted it.
It was salty.
Without a doubt, it was a real sea.
“Wasn't the sea supposed to have disappeared?”
As a side effect of the terraforming, Earth had become a desert. That was why everyone believed the seas had dried up as well. Otherwise, there was no way to explain the Earth's current state.
Zeon had believed the same.
Though he was a Sand Mage, he had no way of knowing what lay thousands of meters underground.
It was beyond the range of his dominion.
The place where the Canyon had rooted itself lay at a notably lower elevation than the surrounding land.
Thanks to that geographical feature and Zeon's explosively enhanced abilities, the underground sea had been discovered.
Using flight magic, Zeon flew over the surface.
Not a trace of life could be sensed in the rolling sea.
A dead sea.
Yet Zeon was not disappointed.
Although the sea, untouched by even a single ray of light, had lost its vitality, he believed that if all the sand above were someday removed and sunlight reached it, it would live again.
The problem was the sand covering the sea.
Zeon wondered why it did not collapse.
Sand had no cohesion. It should never have been able to remain suspended like this.
He flew upward to inspect it.
Between the sea and the sand, he sensed an invisible membrane.
Even Zeon had never encountered this kind of barrier before.
It had not been created by magic, nor could it be maintained by someone's Authority.
“A miracle... or the will of the Earth?”
It was a phenomenon that could not be explained logically.
Zeon decided to accept it simply as the Earth's will.
Earth had resisted Krasias, that transcendent being from another world.
The planet undoubtedly possessed a will of its own.
That will had surely created this miracle.
“Hoo.”
Then perhaps, if all that sand were removed someday, the sea would once again return to humanity's embrace.
That would probably be the moment when Earth was completely restored.
For a moment, Zeon wondered if his own power could clear away all the sand.
But no matter how much he thought about it, it was impossible.
No matter how explosively his abilities had grown, removing all the sand covering the entire Pacific Ocean was beyond him.
Moreover, if he acted rashly, there was no telling what side effects might occur.
Interfering carelessly could lead to an even worse outcome.
That was why Zeon had no choice but to be cautious.
“For now, I'll leave it alone. Someday, the day will come when all the sand covering the sea can be removed.”
Even Zeon could not say when that day would come.
He possessed the Authority of Sand, but he was not a god.
Nor did he want to reveal the sea's existence prematurely and fill people with false hope.
Even if they knew there was a sea buried deep beneath the sand, they would never be able to descend here.
Only Zeon could witness this vast sea beneath the desert.
Having organized his thoughts, Zeon flew back toward the ceiling.
As he approached, the invisible membrane allowed him to pass through on its own.
It almost seemed to possess a will of its own.
Srrrk!
As he entered the sand, a passage opened.
Zeon swiftly emerged through it.
The moment he exited, the passage collapsed.
The path leading to the sea vanished completely.
As though everything that had just happened had been a dream, the desert still displayed its solemn majesty.
“Hoo! Time to wake from the dream and return to Neo Seoul.”
Even Zeon had never expected to leave Neo Seoul for this long.
Since he had no idea what might have happened in his absence, he needed to return quickly.
Whoosh!
Zeon immediately soared into the sky.
---
Jetoya blinked.
He was currently beneath the prison in the Central District.
Tesserina stood beside him.
She had brought him here after stopping by his house.
Having been brought to the underground prison without any explanation, Jetoya looked around in bewilderment.
He had never imagined such a prison existed beneath the Central District.
Watching the dazed Jetoya, Tesserina smiled.
“Don't just stand there. Sit in the chair for a moment.”
“Ah? Yes!”
Jetoya immediately sat in the chair beside him.
Leaving him there, Tesserina walked over to the man sitting inside the solitary cell.
The man was Damho.
All this time, Damho had never once left the cell, spending his days lying inside it.
Since he had caused no trouble whatsoever, the Numbers had relaxed and returned to their original posts.
Tesserina spoke.
“Have you been doing well?”
“As you can see...”
“Any discomfort?”
“None.”
“That's good. Not feeling cooped up?”
“Not at all. But what brings you here? Have you found a way to send me back to my homeland?”
“I've come up with one possible method.”
“A possibility?”
“It's not certain. It's only a possibility, just as the word implies.”
“What is it?”
“This.”
Tesserina took out a Teleport Gem from her robes.
Damho looked at it with a puzzled expression.
“You're saying that gem may be able to send me back to my homeland?”
“Yes. This item, called a Teleport Gem, can create a portal that connects distant spaces.”
“A portal... the gate we used to come here from that fortress?”
“That's right. It was made with this.”
At Tesserina's words, Damho examined the Teleport Gem carefully.
It looked like an ordinary gemstone.
It was hard to believe that such a small gem could create a gate connecting places far apart.
But there was no reason for Tesserina to lie to him.
“So if you improve that gem, it could open a gate to my homeland?”
“In theory, yes. The problem is that we don't know the exact coordinates of your homeland. More importantly, crossing into another dimension requires an enormous amount of energy.”
“Energy? You mean power?”
“Yes.”
“How much power are we talking about?”
“In theory, enough to consume all the energy Neo Seoul uses over several years in a single instant.”
“I have no sense of what that actually means.”
Damho was not a resident of Neo Seoul.
He had only recently arrived and had not even toured the city.
Naturally, he had no way of estimating how much energy Neo Seoul consumed.
Tesserina let out a faint sigh.
“To be honest, neither do I.”
Neo Seoul was home to twenty million people.
Even Tesserina did not know exactly how many magic stones were consumed each year to supply power to such a city.
She could only estimate that it was at least several hundred tons.
“So in other words, there's absolutely no way to gather that much energy by ordinary means.”
“That's right. Which is why I can't promise I'll succeed. But I intend to keep researching without giving up.”
“Why go that far? Honestly, from your perspective, there's no need to push yourself like this.”
“First, to satisfy my intellectual curiosity. I don't know if you're aware, but our race has an enormous thirst for knowledge. Second, because you're a dangerous existence.”
“I see.”
Damho nodded.
He could tell Tesserina was telling the truth.
Whatever the reason, he was grateful that she was researching a way to return him home.
Damho had a reason he absolutely had to return.
Even after wandering through countless worlds since leaving his homeland, he had never forgotten the people he loved.
If he could meet them again, he was prepared to pay any price.
At that moment—
Damho's gaze landed on Jetoya, who was sitting quietly off to the side.
At first, he had paid him no attention.
But looking again, he noticed something strange.
“Who is that child?”
“Jetoya? Ah, don't mind him. He's leaving with me.”
“Someone close to you?”
“Of course. He's one of the few people I truly treasure.”
“Is that so?”
Damho's eyes gleamed.
He spoke to Jetoya.
“Would you come here for a moment?”
“M-Me?”
Startled, Jetoya pointed at himself.
“Yes. Come here.”
At Damho's gesture, Jetoya looked toward Tesserina.
He knew nothing about Damho.
No one had explained anything before bringing him here.
But one thing was obvious.
Damho was no ordinary man.
His gaze and presence alone overwhelmed him.
Jetoya was by no means weak-willed.
Though still young, he possessed both the resolve and strength to lead the underground city.
His rank was only D-Class for now, but he was someone whose future growth held great promise.
Yet even Jetoya could only become as meek as a lamb before a man like Damho.
That was how overwhelming Damho's presence was.
Simply standing before him made it difficult to breathe.
Because of that, Jetoya could not help hesitating to approach.
Seeing his hesitation, Tesserina said,
“Go on. He won't harm you.”
“Yes!”
Gathering his courage, Jetoya walked toward Damho.
Damho swept his sharp gaze over Jetoya from head to toe before speaking.
“Why?”
“Pardon?”
“Why are you letting your talent rot by learning so many miscellaneous techniques?”
“What do you mean?”
To the bewildered Jetoya, Damho spoke firmly.
“You possess the talent for martial arts.”