Riley realized that had he just woken up outside when he went to sleep inside the cave. As if he was struck by lightning, Riley started to look around.
“Nainiae? Nainiae!”
Riley promptly looked for his maid and he found Nainiae who had her head lowered on her back. Riley got up from the ground where he was lying down.
“What happened?”
“Young Master, the thing is…”
Nainiae was having a hard time lifting her face. Instead of her, Andal walked and came next to Riley. Andal snorted loudly and explained the situation instead.
“What do you mean what happened? Isn’t it obvious? We dragged you here while you were sleeping.”
“What?”
Riley looked like he was not quite awake yet. He stared at Andal, and Andal added,
“We are near the border.”
“What?”
Riley asked again.
“Are you deaf? Are you not quite awake yet? I said we are at the border. Don’t make me repeat myself.”
Riley remembered that Andal’s cave and the Solia’s border were quite far apart. Still unable to believe it, he shook his head and denied the reality.
“Ah, I see. Am I still inside a dream?”
“Tsk…”
Andal clicked his tongue and shook his head as if he pitied the fool.
“Well, I closed my eyes in the cave. There is no way I would be opening my eyes at the Solia’s border. It is impossible unless I’m dreaming.”
Afterwards, Riley closed his eyes again. Watching this, Nainiae looked anxious. It seemed she was not sure what to do. She carefully corrected what had Riley said earlier.
“Young Master, this is not the Solia’s border.”
“Um?”
“This is Ansyrium’s border.”
Nainiae was saying that this was not Solia’s border but instead the Ansyrium’s border, which was located even further away from the cave than the Solia’s border. Riley had a dumbfounded look on his face for a moment. He then smiled slowly and said,
“Ansyrium?”
“… Yes.”
Nainiae responded in rat’s tail size voice. Riley looked around the forest and found fruit that were known to be found only at the Ansyrium’s region. Riley muttered,
“I see. This place really is Ansyrium.”
Looking at the fruits, Riley appeared to be amused. He scratched the back of his head and said,
“For a dream, it is constructed pretty well in detail?”
Nainiae watched Riley still insisting on the belief that this must be a dream. She looked even more ashamed than earlier. Nainiae lowered her head and apologized.
“I’m sorry, Young Master. I tried hard to recommend that it would be better for us to resolve this without you, but… My teacher is stubborn and I couldn’t change his mind by myself.”
Listening to her tearful voice, Riley forced himself to acknowledge that this situation was in fact not a dream. He couldn’t look more annoyed when he raised his upper body.
“Ugh…”
With a frustrated look on his face, Riley looked at the backs of Andal and Priesia who were having a conversation. He buried his face in his palms and mumbled,
“That son of a bitch. I should have just left him to die.”
Riley poured out curses at Andal and got up. Watching him, Nainiae tumbled and quickly came next to Riley to dust off the dirt on his back.
“So? Did you find that bastard?”
It seemed resenting Andal was not enough for Riley. He decided to add one more individual to the list. He asked Nainiae with a cold gaze and she shook her head with the look of a sinner on her face.
“No, not yet.”
Riley crumpled his face further and glared at the back of Andal who was walking in the front.
“Someone like him is a majestic existence? Majestic my ass. He is more like a foolish existence.”
At this point, Riley had three choices.
First, he could leave Andal and Priesia be and escape this place with Nainiae back to the mansion. Second, he could help Andal and Priesia and assist in hunting down the purple human named Epidemic. Third, …
“Nainiae, you have blanket in the dimensional space, right?”
“A blanket? I’m not sure?”
It was such a strange question to ask at the moment. Nainiae checked what she had in the dimensional space and carefully nodded.
“I think there is one, but… Why would you want a blanket all of a sudden?”
“Just bring it out.”
Having heard Riley’s order, Nainiae opened the dimensional space and brought out a blanket. She held it in her two arms and waited for the next order.
“Lay it.”
“Lay it? On the ground?”
“Wide. Lay it down wide.”
Having heard Riley’s order about making the blanket as wide as possible on the ground, Nainiae wondered if it would be all right to do this. As ordered, she waved the blanket in the air to have it spread wide. She then had the blanket lay on the ground.
“Is this good?”
Riley nodded to say that it was enough. He haphazardly dusted off his lower body and bent down.
“Young Master?”
The option that Riley chose was the third option. The third option was, ‘Let’s sleep first.’
* * *
There was a man who had his skin saturated in pitch black color. He was screaming in pain as he dug the tunnel.
“Ugh. Ugh…”
He was screaming in pain because of the fire.
“… Uuuk!”
Wharurururu, wharururururu…
Red flame grabbed onto his black body and it was eating away his body.
“No. Not here. It must not happen here.”
The man with pitch black skin mumbled.
If anyone saw the man, some might have asked if his skin turned dark because it was burned by the flame. However, that was not how it happened.
It was the poison.
Because of the special characteristic of his body, his skin was saturated to pitch black color. Even from a distance, he was exuding a horrendous stench that made one’s face crumple on its own.
“Kuk.”
Bubble bubble…
It seemed the poison in his body and the flame on his arm collided. Black colored smoke started to come off from him.
“Fuck… I thought he could. I thought that dragon could definitely finish me off.”
He mumbled as he dug into the ground with bare hands.
“Why? Why?”
He must have dug very deep. It was a dark underground place, but the fire on his arm was taking on the role of a torch. It was clearly revealing his anxious face.
“I cannot let this be. I cannot lose consciousness here…”
It appeared that there was poison in even his sweat. When his sweat dropped to the ground, the sweat made bubbling up sound and caused black smoke.
“… Uuuuk. Uuuuk.”
The man looked at the ground which had turned black. He ground his teeth and shook his head.
He thought he might faint if he didn’t.
“Just a little deeper. I need to go down further.”
The man mumbled.
“Until that dragon returns, I need to hold out as long as I can. Before the bastards… Before they find me…”
The man was currently exhausted from having gone through two different battles.
First one was against a man named Kabal with ridiculous strength.
The second battle was against a dragon named Andal, one of the beings who were known as gods of magic.
His body was drenched in pitch black color. His getup was in shambles, and his frame was… It looked extremely weak. It looked like he would fall over if someone blew a breath toward him.
“Just a little further…”
He looked desperate. As if he was running from something, he was digging. He was moving further down, deep below.
“Please. I don’t want to kill.”
Could it be that his voice was heard? Like the saving grace of a god… Someone’s voice could be heard from his back.
“… Epidemic.”
“…?!”
Having heard the voice calling his name, the man flinched his shoulders and turned around to look.
There was not supposed to be anything there. However, for some reason, there was a horizontal tear in the space. It was exuding a shady purple aura.
“You bastard…”
Epidemic had deadly intent showing on his face.
“You bastard. Why are you here?”
“Um, what an excessive greeting.”
Someone suddenly peeked out their face through the purple space. The face twisted up the tip of the mouth and acted as if he was being welcomed very generously. The face said,
“You even have a candle light for me.”
This someone looked at the fire that was still stuck on the man’s arm and called it a candle light.
Afterwards, he pulled out the shoulders, upper body and lower body from the purple space.
“Can I blow this candle light?”
Glaring at the man, Epidemic called him by his name.
“… Rebethra.”
Although he was called by his name, Rebethra merely shrugged his shoulders. He didn’t say anything in response.
“I think I expressed my intention clearly ten years ago? I don’t want to talk to you guys. I don’t want to join you guys either. Have I not made it clear?”
Despite the deadly intent directed at him, Rebethra laughed it off. He shrugged again and said,
“The position, the power… You are the best match. What can I do? The Great One said you are a talent that may or may not come in thousand, no, ten thousand years.”
“Match or whatever. An ability like this… I never wanted an epidemic. Tell this to that one you worship. This crap… Take it back immediately.”
Epidemic grabbed on to his arm as if he was about to tear it off. He was glaring at Rebethra with eyes full of resentment.
“Hm?”
Thinking it could not be helped; Rebethra put on a bitter look on his face and shook his head.
“It’s is unfortunate. It is so regrettable.”
“Ugh. Ugh…”
It seemed Epidemic was at his limit. He was looking at Rebethra, but now, Epidemic lowered his head and started to breath with difficulty.
‘Fuck. Here… Here is…’
Rebethra looked at Epidemic with pity. Rebethra extended his right hand toward Epidemic and said,
“I see. Our life long wish is a heavy burden. If you hate it that much… I do not intend to force it on you. However…”
Epidemic felt power coming from the front. He strained his eyes wide open and glared at Rebethra.
“We are in a bit of a hurry, so…”
“Kuk. You bastard… Bastard!”
“As the Left Leg who is in charge of the stench, I’ll need you to do your part that’s befitting of the title.”
“Uu…. Uuu! Why… Why!!”
Epidemic raised his arm forward to stop Rebethra. He walked a few steps toward Rebethra, but he was suddenly on his knees.
“Stop. Stop…”
His mind was fading slowly. Epidemic desperately extended his arm out and said stop. However, Rebethra’s hand continued to glow with purple light.
“It would be a waste if you didn’t obliterate a city at least.”
“… Stop this.”
“I’ll leave the rest to you. If you lose your mind and run amok, even the Great One won’t be able to handle it. You had been holding it in well so far. It probably will be all right to run around all excited once.”
“Don’t…”
“While at it, I hope you take around three dragons with you.”
Rebethra was trying to disappear in the space that was open behind him. Epidemic shouted at him. His voice was loud enough to make one wonder if he had torn his neck in the process.
“… Stoooopppp!!”
Epidemic lost consciousness after that.
* * *
“… It’s here.”
Lying on top of the blanket that was held by Nainiae, Riley was being dragged like a fish inside a net. Andal looked at this and clicked his tongue. Andal continued,
“Last time, I lost him in this spot.”
Andal was leading the way and he stopped here. It was entrance of an underground tunnel at a nameless forest.
“Here?”
The tunnel was big enough for just one person to barely pass through. It seemed the epidemic man went through here. The corners of the entrance were rotten black.
“It seems to be the right place.”
Priesia carefully looked at the rotten parts of the tunnel. She used her holy power to cleanse the parts and looked at Andal.
“Will you be going in right away?”
“I should.”
Having heard her question, Andal swung his arm and started to expand the tunnel’s size.
“While I was fighting him, I placed a flame on him. It probably didn’t get extinguished yet, but… it is probably better to not give him much time to recover.”
Nainiae dragged Riley all the way here on the blanket and stood behind Andal. With look of disbelief, Nainiae asked,
“You had your flame attached on him?”
“Yes.”
“He is that powerful? You had your flame attached to him, yet we need to be in such a hurry?”
Andal nodded and said,
“Also…”
Andal was remembering what the pitch black skinned human said in desperate voice.
‘Please, kill me.’
Andal remembered that the man was begging Andal to kill him.
