VOLUME 11: EPILOGUE

VOLUME 11: EPILOGUE

After flying at top speed for an hour, their group finally arrived at the Iron Mountains. As expected, flocks of sky demons and wyverns blocked their path.

“Damn bugs!”

“You dare block God Evander’s path?! You pesky insects!”

“Fools! Pay with your lives!”

“Die! Die! Die!”

The Scylla tore through the bodies of the sky demons with its wings, firing elemental spells at the twin-headed wyverns that tried swooping toward them.

Like a ruler of the skies, the Scylla approached the Iron Mountains unhindered. The seven-headed creature didn’t slow down and simply killed anything that got in its way.

When their group was finally near the foot of the Iron Mountains, Vaungur went to Lark’s side. He said in a voice only the two of them could hear, “King Lark, I have a favor to ask of you.”

It was apparent that Vaungur wished that they keep this conversation between the two of them. Wordlessly, Lark prompted the right-hand man of the Beast King to continue.

“I understand that your priority is to close the portal, and that all of us are responsible for our own lives,” said Vaungur. “But if there comes a time wherein His Majesty, the Beast King, is in danger, I hope you could spare some of your strength to save him.”

Vaungur’s gaze moved down, toward the foot of the Iron Mountains below. From here, he could see the gravity of the situation. He realized how direr it was than initially expected, now that he was seeing it up close.

With just a glance, it was apparent that the number of demons here in the Iron Mountains was almost a dozen times greater than the horde which attacked the Talverton Stronghold.

Vaungur believed that this place would be his grave. And looking at his fellow beastmen, it seemed that they, too, thought the same way.

Although each of them used to be famous warriors before becoming a royal guard, none of them expected themselves to come out of this predicament alive.

Still, no one uttered a word of complaint. No one voiced out their will to back down from this battle. They fought through their fears and stood their ground. Vaungur and all of the royal guards had already decided to follow the Beast King until the very end.

Vaungur looked Lark straight in the eyes. “Even if all of us were to die, it doesn’t matter. But please, at the very least, let the Beast King return alive. I’m begging you, King Lark.”

Lark calmly observed the lion beastman. “It sounds like you plan on dying here.”

“No, that’s not it. I’m just thinking of the worst-case scenario. Unlike you, I’m not confident about fighting against so many demons. And besides, even if we die here, as long as the Beast King lives, the United Grakas Alliance will survive. His life is far more precious than all of ours combined.”

Lark found their resolve admirable.

But in the end, this was not something Lark could decided on his own.

Lark said to the Beast King, who’d been standing near the edge of the Scylla’s body, “Your Majesty, what do you think?”

Vaungur was baffled at the question, “W-What—”

“—He can hear you.” Lark smiled. Even when not amplified by mana, the White Lion’s senses were extraordinary. “He’s just pretending not to.”

Vaungur noticed that the body of the Beast King seemed stiffer than normal, as though he was embarrassed by the words he’d heard come out of Vaungur’s mouth. Even his ears, seen through his thick mane, were flushed red.

Was it his imagination?

The Beast King coughed awkwardly, “What are you talking about, King Lark?” He changed the topic, “Look, below. I can see the White Flower.”

Lark grinned and decided not to tease the Beast King further. He moved next to the Beast King and also gazed at the White Flower below.

“So, they’re still alive,” said Lark.

With his eyesight strengthened with mana, Lark could see the three beastmen slaves huddled inside the White Flower. Currently, six fire giants and hundreds of smaller demons were trying to reach them inside, but to no avail. The massive roots of the white flower erratically and continuously moved about, striking every demon that approached the place. Its roots, which were highly resistant to fire, ensnared the fire giants, preventing them from moving closer to the beastmen.

“Fly closer to them,” said Lark to the Scylla.

Blackie replied, “Understood, God Evander.”

The Scylla slowly descended, until it was only five hundred meters above the ground. From this distance, Van could finally see his little brother.

“FIOR!”

Without hesitation, and without considering the fact that they were currently hundreds of meters in the sky, Van strengthened his body with mana and jumped down.

“Hey, wait!” said Hatch. Seeing that Van had already jumped, Hatch scratched his head exasperatedly. He grabbed his large battle axe and clicked his tongue, “Damn it! That stupid rabbit! At least wait for me! I’m sorry King Lark! Your Majesty!”

After uttering words of apologies to Lark and the Beast King, Hatch followed after Van. He, too, jumped down from the Scylla. He landed on the ground below with a loud thud, sending rocks and clouds of dust flying about.

Such a reckless jump would have killed any normal beastman, but it hardly did any damage to the Bloody Whale and the Protector of the Rabbit Tribe. Their reflexes and strengthened bodies more than compensated for their terrible landing.

“The young ones are so eager,” grinned the Beast King. “Vaungur! Royal guards!”

“Your Majesty!”

“Your Majesty!”

“I forbid anyone from dying unnecessarily! As discussed, we shall rescue those slaves, and at the same time, divert the demons’ attention to us! We shall buy time for King Lark to successfully close the portal! We’re going down!”

Everyone also strengthened their bodies with mana and started jumping down the Scylla.

Unlike Hatch and Van, some of the Royal Guards sustained minor damages upon landing, but they pushed through the pain and started slaughtering the demons around them.

While Van and Hatch went to save the survivors next to the White Flower, the Beast King and his Royal Guards did their best to divert the demons to them.

They fought as flashily and as loudly as possible, attracting as many demons as they could to their group.

“Haa… those beastmen,” said the Scylla. “How reckless and foolish. With their number, the demons they will be able to attract to their location will be hardly significant.”

Those words were true, but Lark believe this was still much better than being allies with cowards who wouldn’t dare risk their lives for their homelands.

And although they were lacking in number, attracting the attention of the nearby demons would still help Lark somewhat.

Lark decided to examine the portal first. He planned on not using any powerful spells, until he was certain that he had enough mana to close the portal.

Although the portal appeared unstable, he wanted to be sure. In their current state, a single mistake could mean the life or death of an entire nation.

“Blackie,” said Lark.

“God Evander.”

“Prevent any sky demons from approaching me while I examine the portal,” said Lark.

“As you command.”

“What about us, master?” said Chryselle.

Lark paused then said, “Stay here. You’ve already fought enough back in Talverton. Even just observing the battle here will be a valuable experience. It’ll help you with your growth later on.”

Chryselle and Anandra knew their limits. And they believed that there was no need to put Lark at a disadvantage by forcing him to protect them.

They nodded their heads.

“Understood, Master,” said Anandra.

“Please return safely,” said Chryselle.

“I’m going down,” said Lark.

After the Scylla hovered right above the portal, Lark jumped down.

Most of the demons within the area had already gone to where the White Flower and the Beast King were, and only several dozen remained to guard the portal.

Without the Pathfinder guiding the demons, their security became lax and full of holes.

Fourth-tier Spell: Fork Lightning

Lark cast several lightning spells upon landing on the ground, hitting the tormentors, lesser demons, and flesh eaters near the portal in an instant. Their bodies squirmed, and they shrieked as forks of lightning pierced their bodies, turning them into charred corpses.

A middle-ranking nest unborrowed itself from the ground, emerging right behind Lark.

Without looking, Lark nimbly avoided its tentacles by sidestepping and tilting his body. He turned around, and using his right hand, touched the nest’s bloated body. He channeled mana into its body, forcefully overloading it with energy.

The nest shrieked.

“You’re too noisy.”

Feeling the abundant external mana, the body and tentacles of the middle-ranking nest froze for several seconds. Using this opportunity, Lark searched for the core’s location within its body. His bracer turned into a sword and tore through the nest’s flesh, piercing the tiny core of the parasitic demon.

Like a puppet whose strings were cut, the middle-ranking nest slumped lifelessly on the ground the moment its core was destroyed by Lark.

Lark looked around him.

Although the Beast King and his men attracted the majority of the nearby demons, their sheer number made it impossible for Lark to examine the portal uninterrupted.

From here, Lark could see hundreds of them charging to this place.

Lark decided to take care of those within his immediate vicinity first.

Tenth Tier Magic: Abyss Illusion Barrier

With Lark at the center, black mist started shrouding everything near the portal. The illusionary mist spanned almost two kilometers in diameter, reaching even the White Flower.

Allies and enemies alike caught in the illusion barrier halted in their tracks. As though everything was swallowed by the abyss, their vision turned pitch black.

Fortunately, the White Flower was unaffected by this, since the numerous eyes on its trunk, which it inherited from the Pathfinder, were capable of seeing through the dark.

One-sidedly, it started massacring the demons around it. It even started whipping the fire giants with its roots and vines.

It was the perfect spell for the current situation not only for Lark, but also for the White Flower.

Lark gazed at the portal.

“From the other side of this is the Demon Realm,” he muttered.

For a moment, Lark had the urge to enter the portal. Doing so, he would probably arrive at the Great Cavern where the Immortal Demon was previously sealed.

But Lark knew that doing so would be too reckless.

Even if the Sword of Morpheus was at its full strength, he wasn’t sure of his survival if he entered.

The Demon Lord Barkuvara was, after all, powerful enough to fight him back when he was still Evander Alaester – with his full equipment set, artifacts, and all.

Considering the potential traps and the demons guarding the other side, it would be too risky to enter the Demon Realm on his own, in his current state.

Lark touched the portal, carefully channeling his mana through it as to not activate it. His mana coursed through the rift in the Middle Space, and he started getting an imagery of how the portal was duplicated in the first place.

He felt the numerous mana stabilizers on the other side of the portal.

He felt the runes that altered its coordinates.

And he felt the mana that evenly split it.

Lark felt the complex structures that made it possible for a duplicated portal to function properly despite the restrictions.

‘Such an intelligent demon,’ thought Lark.

It had been several minutes since Lark started studying the portal, but he still couldn’t fully grasp how the demons managed to duplicate and alter its coordinates.

He’d already gained several ideas after analyzing its structure, but they weren’t enough for him to put his theories into practice later on or arrive at a definite conclusion.

Currently, his knowledge regarding this field was severely lacking.

Well, it was to be expected.

The Arzomos took decades to suppress the portal.

And the demons took several months before they managed to duplicate and relocate it.

A few minutes of analyzing its structure would never be enough to fully understand the principles behind it.

‘It’s a shame, but we’re in the middle of enemy territory. This should be enough for now. It’s time to close this portal.’

The portal was unstable enough to close on its own if left alone, but there was always the chance of demons repairing it once given a chance. Thus, Lark decided to forcefully close it now.

Lark channeled mana through the pathway he’d discovered by analyzing the structure of the portal. Slowly, he solidified the channeled mana, preventing it from being absorbed by the bottomless hole in the Middle Space.

‘Go, Morpheus.’

With the Sword of Morpheus acting as the medium, Lark forcefully expanded the solidified mana and willed them to thrash about the pathway, creating cuts and holes here and there.

Following the laws of the world, the cuts and holes quickly started closing on their own, but before it was fully repaired, Lark started firing his spells at them.

Several powerful disintegration spells shot out from the Sword of Morpheus, tearing through the portal’s Middle Space. And without stopping, the disintegration spells reached the cuts and holes previously created by Lark, expanding them to hundreds of times their initial size.

The ground shook, and tremendous pressure swept through everyone in the Iron Mountains as the instability of the portal reached greater heights.

Lark felt the portal starting to collapse. Immediately, he set up a barrier to enclose it.

The ripples on its body increased even further, and strings of erratic mana started shooting out of the portal, one after another. Each of these strings of mana were capable of producing powerful explosions, and had Lark not blocked them with a mana barrier, they would have killed not only the demons around them, but also the beastmen.

Lark continued maintaining a delicate balance between closing the portal and preventing it from fully exploding.

He weaved through numerous pathways in the Middle Space with his disintegration spells, weakening the portal’s foundation here and there, while taking care not to collapse one portion one-sidedly.

‘Almost there.’

Finally, after several minutes, the portal lost its strength. The ripples in its body disappeared, and its mana started dissipating into the Middle Space.

Eventually, the portal spanning more than a hundred meters in size vanished.

Now, all that’s left was to safely evacuate the beastmen.

Lark closed his eyes and searched through the numerous mana signatures in the Iron Mountains. After pinpointing the Beast King’s location, he sent him a mental transmission.

‘Your Majesty. The portal has been closed. Go to where the White Flower is and get onboard the Scylla.’

Lark didn’t hear a response, as the Beast King wasn’t capable of a similar spell, but he knew that the beastman heard it.

Lark sent a mental transmission to the Scylla above, ‘Blackie, descend to the White Flower. We’re leaving.’

‘Understood, God Evander.’

Lark dispelled the illusionary barrier. The black mist dispersed, revealing the demons around them. At the same time, the seven-headed creature descended, landing right next to the White Flower.

By now, Van and Hatch had already reached the three beastmen slaves. And they bewilderedly stared at the Scylla the moment it landed to where they were.

Lark strengthened his body with mana and shot toward them.

“Ah, King Lark!” said Hatch.

Van and Fior were in the middle of their tear-filled reunion when Lark arrived. He said, “I’m sorry to interrupt your reunion, but we don’t have much time. Get on.”

Van wiped the tears in his eyes and nodded. He grabbed Fior by the waist, before jumping on top of the Scylla’s body. Seeing this, Hatch also grabbed Arlo and Kukri, and quickly followed suit.

While waiting for the Beast King and the royal guards to arrive, the white flower made sure that no demons would be able to approach Lark. Despite its high fire resistance, its roots and vines were already scorched and tattered, but they still continued moving regardless to protect their master.

The White Flower was dying, yet, it still continued fighting.

“Finally,” said Lark. “They’re here.”

After several minutes of waiting, the Beast King and his men finally arrived. They, too, immediately jumped on top of the Scylla’s body.

“Above,” said Lark. “It’s time to clean up this place, Blackie.”

The Scylla jumped up, flapped its wings, and flew high into the sky. Even without Lark explicitly explaining things to it, the Scylla understood its master’s intentions.

Lark looked at the White Flower, which from this distance, had turned into the size of a coin. Even now, the white flower continued fighting the demons on its own. Riddled with numerous injuries, several of its roots finally caught fire after receiving a breath attack from the fire giants. Its petals were torn by the sky demons, and the tormentors which finally reached its trunk started ripping its flesh off.

‘You can rest now. You’ve done well.’

Lark turned to the rabbit wearing cracked glasses, “Strategist Fior.”

The rabbit didn’t expect that the human knew his name.

“Who—”

“—Who I am doesn’t matter,” said Lark. “Tell me. Aside from the three of you, are there any more survivors in that mountain?”

Fior had seen several slaves flee into the deepest part of the tunnels, back when they were escaping. But several days had passed since then, and he doubted if any of them managed to survive until now. If they did, it would be nothing short of a miracle.

After all, as far as he knew, he was the only one who’d stored several days’ worth of rations in the tunnels, in the event of an emergency.

Eventually, Fior said, “I believe we’re the only survivors.”

“I see,” said Lark. “Then, there’s no need to hold back.”

As cruel as it sounds, it was a fortunate thing that there were no other survivors in the mountains.

Lark willed the Sword of Morpheus to turn into a staff. He raised it up and started casting his spell.

“What the hell…”

Hatch couldn’t help but cuss upon seeing what was happening.

Massive amounts of mana visible even to non-magicians started coming out of the staff King Lark was holding.

Quickly, a massive magic formation that partially covered the sky above manifested itself. The clouds started parting from the pressure brought forth by the mana aggregates.

The gargantuan magic formation glowed for several seconds, before breaking into numerous particles of light. From below, hundreds of thousands of stones flew up and started combining with each other, forming nearly a thousand house-size boulders. And as though it was merely the prelude, golden flames and lightning started enveloping them.

Pinnacle-grade Magic: A Starry Sky

More than fifteen hundred years ago, it was a spell created by the Council of Mages of the Magic Empire. A spell the hegemon of the Era of Magic used during war and large-scale battles. A spell usually cast by dozens of high-ranking mages, with the aid of a medium or an artifact. But now, it was being used by a single magician.

A spell with a pristine name contrasting its destructive capability.

A spell so catastrophic it was eventually dubbed as one of the Forbidden Spells back in the Era of Magic.

Not only was it incapable of distinguishing between allies and foes, the spell was also powerful enough to alter the terrain on its own.

It was a spell capable of destroying a major city, along with its nearby territories.

Still, due to the sheer size of the Iron Mountains, even this pinnacle-grade spell wouldn’t be enough to completely destroy it.

Soon, the pinnacle-grade spell unfolded its entire might before everyone.

As though the celestial bodies above had descended to the mortal plane, hundreds of meteors started raining down the heavens. The ground rumbled, the earth shrieked, and the mountains started experiencing unprecedented destruction.

Each meteor strike killed thousands of demons, leaving behind a massive crater that could fit dozens of carriages combined. Even the fire giants, who were resistant to flames, couldn’t survive the impact of the attacks.

The shockwave created by the meteors alone ruptured the insides of the demons, and those that managed to survive were scorched by the flames and forks of lightning that started spreading out in all directions.

In just a few minutes after the spell was cast, a large portion of the Iron Mountains had turned into an inferno.

Even from above, they could feel the scorching heat below.

“H-Hey, he said we’re just going to thin out the number of demons, right?”

No one knew who said it, but those words were exactly what were on everyone’s mind.

When they heard Lark say that their goal was to ‘thin out’ the number of demons, they’d been expecting to kill at least several thousand of them, maybe ten thousand at most.

But what’s this?

Looking at the massive boulders blazing and falling from the sky, and at the explosions and shockwaves they produced upon impact, this was no different from annihilating the demons in the Iron Mountains.

It was a scene straight out of Mérggaridéon – the end of the world, as foretold in the Scriptures of the Three Gods.

The beastmen – the Beast King included – watched with pallid faces as the falling stars fell one after another, killing thousands of demons with each impact.

They started wondering what would have happened had that spell been used in the cities of the United Grakas Alliance.

There was no doubt about it – Even the City of Magna, with its numerous defensive towers and twenty-thousand-strong army, would be wiped off the map.

Didn’t King Lark say that he didn’t plan on destroying the mountains themselves?

Although the mountains weren’t flattened by the spell, their peaks were still pulverized by the blazing boulders. The tunnels collapsed, and numerous craters were formed on the ground.

The beastmen realized that their interpretation of the word ‘destruction’ greatly differed from King Lark.

For quite some time, everyone watched the scene in silence. The sound of demons’ shrieks and death throes, along with deafening explosions, served as the background.

“Your Majesty,” said Lark.

The Beast King flinched. For the first time, he found it hard to look Lark straight in the eyes.

“Y-Yes!”

All this time, he’d been wondering what would have happened had he insisted on fighting against Lark back in the coliseum.

Just the mere thought sent him shivers.

“We’ve done enough,” said Lark. “I believe it’s time to go back.”

“O-Of course,” said the Beast King, nodding his head.

“Blackie, let’s go,” said Lark. “To Talverton Stronghold.”