“Haha…”
Sian let out a hollow laugh as he looked at the rune. It was creating the red hole that dragged him in, but it was large enough to swallow the monster that was trapped in the rune.
The monster was now wailing as it was attacked by people around it. However, since the monster was also strong, it was still holding up.
“Huh? Isn’t that the place that you were dragged into? So, that’s the… dangerous place at the other continent?”
Sian nodded. “Right.”
“Didn’t you kill everything in there? I guess it’s nothing much then.”
Stiel thought Sian had killed everything in it before coming out of the hole, but she was mistaken.
“No, I barely managed to kill the things that were closer to me and got out.”
The hole that dragged him in was small, but the world inside wasn’t like that. It was vast and was full of monsters. There were also monsters who were as strong as Sian back then. He quickly dealt with monsters around him and got out before he got attacked by those monsters.
Even that short fight almost killed him. He thought it might be okay since he had become much stronger, but it wasn’t.
‘It’s still dangerous.’
It would still be dangerous if he got caught in the place. But, he wasn’t worried. Just like last time, the hole didn’t let anything inside jump out.
The problem now was the reason for installing it. It was too much to kill the monster. Sian figured it was enough to even hold back the Seven-Horned for a moment.
‘Wait… hold the Seven-Horned?’
Sian began to speculate something that was very concerning.
“Dammit…”
“What is it?”
Stiel was curious as Sian scowled.
“You should stay in here for a while.”
“Huh? Wait- HEY!”
Sian quickly took out Karnine and activated the magic. After putting Stiel into <Somazran> where she was captured in before, Sian began running away at an incredible speed.
A gigantic structure was coming toward them at an unbelievable speed. It was coming from far away past the Great Forest, but it already looked so big.
Its movement didn’t seem realistic. It was big as a mountain, but it ran easily like some cat pouncing in. It didn’t make any sound or tremors, proof that it was changing the outer environment at will.
Even without considering the seven horns on its head, its movement and size proved how powerful it was.
Sian knew what it was. He saw it in the memory.
Chrona, the ruler of the Great Forest.
It was running straight toward the red sphere.
‘That’s… gigantic.’
It felt different to see the monster in real life. Sian then realized what the monster that was thrown into the hole was. It was different from Nekra’s memories, so he didn’t recognize it at first.
It was Chrona’s offspring that Lagaope had thrown into the rune. It was what made Chrona come running for it.
“Lagaope… what are you up to?”
Con-Rad shouted as he saw the status window popping up in front of him.
“We got it!”
They were reaching the end of the quest.
[Quest: Cross the Great Forest]
-Chrona will not use her full power as she is close to Dragona’s territory. She will take time to rescue her offspring.
-Pass through the Great Forest before Chrona comes back to guard it. Chrona will not go after you once you cross it.
-Success: Migration complete. 0 Exp (Experience at its limit)
-Failure: Everyone dies
It was now time for their efforts to come to fruition.
This was why Groyn had been hunting Six-Horned Harijans for over hundreds of years. Chrona must not be bothered when her offspring fell into the hole.
There were some six horns within Chrona’s territory, but that was okay. The weaker ones could be taken care of by Groyn and others while Con-Rad could take care of the stronger ones.
The Kal-Gul that was most bothersome had been eradicated a long time ago, and so was Nekra.
Other than Tasha-Dagon, they also had prepared other methods to tie down Chrona for a longer period of time. They installed it right in front of Dragona’s territory for that reason.
400 years ago, they wanted to kidnap the offspring, put it into Dragona’s territory, and bail, but they didn’t expect Chrona to be that close and powerful. They knew Chrona was powerful, but just knowing it and actually facing the monster were two different stories. That’s why they tried to make the two Seven-Horned fight each other, but they had to change their plans drastically after that. Two Seven-Horns fighting meant doomsday for all.
That was why they just planned to pin her down for a while. It was a petty plan, but even such a plan was hard to achieve against the powerful Chrona.
“RUN!”
They ran out at great speed. With Con-Rad in the lead, they ran through the Great Forest. They were destined to die if they were captured. They didn’t know why she didn’t follow them after the Great Forest, but Aksarai never gave them wrong information. They just needed to cross the forest.
Sian watched Chrona looking into the sphere at its offspring. As she arrived, she opened her mouth wide.
‘Ugh, is she going to fire?’
Sian flinched, but Chrona then turned toward Sky Mountain. Then she closed its mouth. It looked like she had given up on using the beam that Sian saw in the memory. Chrona then struck the red sphere with its front leg.
It was a simple strike, but a deafening sound came from it and the sphere shattered into pieces. The evil energy began pouring out at once. Sian frowned as he was familiar with the energy.
But it wasn’t just the energy. The monsters inside stopped attacking the offspring and began crawling out to attack Chrona.
When Chrona destroyed the sphere, the whole thing grew even wider. So countless monsters began crawling out from it and attacked Chrona.
Chrona began smacking down the strongest ones as if she were annoyed. She ignored all the weak ones and crushed the annoying ones first.
‘Wow, it’s not even working.’
Chrona seemed like she wasn’t using her full power either. After she killed each monster, she then put her head into the hole and grabbed the offspring that stopped moving due to fatigue with her mouth and dragged it out.
‘But it’s so calm.’
Sian was fascinated as Chrona was for sure caring for its offspring, but she remained so calm. What was more fascinating was that he wasn’t running away. The feeling was telling him he needed to do something here.
‘Don’t say I have to smack her in the face or something.’
He did not want to do that. Sian was also proud that he had become strong enough to even dare think of smacking its face.
As he was pondering whether he should run away, he felt powerful energy coming from the mountain. It wasn’t only the mountain, but there was also powerful extraction energy coming from within the lake. Then some opaque stone monument soared from within.
Weapons created with all technologies of <Amaran>, <Great Magical Council> and <Herrantor>. It was a strengthened one that was powerful enough to damage superhumans. Lagaope and Takion did not name them as they were to be used once and Chrona would destroy them.
All kinds of magic began activating from the monument, targeting Chrona.
It was all powerful enough to crush a capital city in seconds.
Sian then realized what Lagaope’s goal was.
‘He’s just trying to buy time.’
The magic was more focused on buying time than destroying it. It was powerful enough to crush the city, but it was nowhere close to fight against the Seven-Horned.
It seemed like it worked as it stopped Chrona for a few seconds. Chrona then swung its leg to destroy the monuments with ease. There were too many monuments, and Chrona was also being dragged down by the monsters coming out from the red sphere.
There was a limit, however. Chrona carefully destroyed all the monuments and killed the monsters.
After destroying the monuments, she fled.
As Sian watched Chrona disappear, he realized something.
“…Huh?”
Sian began thinking about what was going on. The sphere that Chrona destroyed wasn’t closing and looked like it would not close if it was left like that. Monsters were still crawling out from it.
“…”
Sian was dumbfounded. He thought Chrona would jump in to take revenge inside as it seemed like it was very annoyed. It was a bit dangerous for him, but it would be nothing for Chrona.
Yet as he thought about it, there was no need for Chrona to do such a thing. She just needed to return with her offspring.
Sian then realized why he was led here.
“I need to close that.”
The world was doomed if that was not closed. Sian would survive, but others wouldn’t. Either way, it was no big deal. He was strong enough to close the hole from outside easily now. Sian then began approaching the rift.
