Chapter 388: Flameless Land (2)

—boooom!— 

“There's too many weaklings around here.”

Kiriel said with a shrug, smas.h.i.+ng away the skull of an Abyssal monster.

Maybe it's because they were on the outskirts, but there were no humans here.

But there were quite a lot of others filling their spot.

—ssss— 

Hansoo picked up the crystal left behind by the corpse and said to Kiriel:

“Maybe it's because people don't live here. They probably didn't clean this place up that well.”

It was just as he said.

If the area where the humans lived and the area where the Abyssal monsters appeared were in the same place…

And there weren't enough humans to clean them all up…

It wouldn't be weird to find Abyssal monsters in a place where humans didn't exist.

'Or the opposite.'

But then—

—R-Korun Nell gave the answer.

“Dammit… Who would want to live in a place swarming with these things? Those pieces of trash… For them to let these things roam around here… The Neropa Union would never let this happen.”

Hansoo nodded at R-Korun Nell.

Those words were correct as well.

They probably hadn't expanded their powers up to this point because of all these monsters.

But Kiriel shrugged her shoulders as she looked to the distance.

“Anyway… what shall we do about them? I'm not really into being stalked.”

R-Korun Nell frowned at her question.

“… Is someone watching us? Since when?”

“Hmm. Ever since we arrived? They're pretending to run away but keep watching us from a distance.”

“What the…”

R-Korun Nell was confused.

Why were these two ignoring those spies?

Intel was the most important thing in a battle.

No matter how large your force.

No matter how many talents you had.

If they didn't know what they were going against, but the enemy knew about them?

Their lives would be in danger.

That is the battlefield.

But these two were just leaving those spies alone.

“Why aren't you dealing with them?! You can easily kill them!”

R-Korun Nell asked.

He knew that this woman in front of him was a monster.

She could easily snipe those scouts that were dozens of kilometers away.

But Kiriel ignored R-Korun Nell and asked Hansoo:

“What shall we do?”

Hansoo shrugged his shoulders.

“Leave them alone. They're probably having a huge headache trying to figure out what to do with us.”

'We'll see… what they really do.'

—kacha!— 

Kyaaaak!

Hansoo stomped on an Abyssal monster that popped out from beneath the ground and thought.

These monsters weren't strong at all.

But this was more than enough to ma.s.sacre the people of Reyunion who couldn't wield the Flame.

Which meant that there was a Transcendent who was fighting the Abyssal race alongside the people of Reyunion.

But if so, that brought up another question.

If the Transcendents existed, and they were in an alliance with the people of Reyunion, why were these monsters still roaming around freely?

The Transcendents could easily resolve this.

Which meant one thing.

'They aren't really on the friendliest terms. Let's see what happens.'

He just needed to do his own job.

—crunch!— 

Hansoo smashed away another monster charging towards him and continued on his way, all while ignoring the scouts in the distance.

“…More aliens?”

“Yes.”

“Mmm…”

Erunheim frowned.

There were seven people with the same uniform standing by Erunheim.

Same uniforms, but each gave out a different impression.

The seven people, who despite wearing identical outfits, each radiated an aura that was vastly different from the rest.

But they still had some similarities between them.

First, they were all leaders of a family, a nation, a union, or a tribe.

Second, their forces had all been defeated, and they had been forced to escape to this place.

A man in the corner spoke out.

“Didn't they say that no more aliens would come up? Are you sure you checked properly?”

The scout nodded as he replied:

“They could easily smash apart the C-types with just their bare hands. Very, very easily.”

“…Hmm.”

Everyone fell silent.

'They lied… They told us that no more aliens would come up.'

Gacherat, the patriarch of the Hun family, thought to himself.

They didn't know the exact details concerning the aliens' situation.

They had no way of finding out detailed information about beings that could jump between dimensions.

But the aliens who held a certain power within their Reyunion territory had often shouted with confidence:

'd.a.m.ned b.a.s.t.a.r.ds…'

Gacherat gritted his teeth as he thought of their c.o.c.ky att.i.tudes.

Although his situation was grim at this moment, he was once a ruler of a vast territory.

His family also had fleets that could cut across the skies just as well as the Dragon G.o.d Soldiers.

The

family had maintained their survival throughout the thousand-year war—they were not a family that could be made light of by some aliens with meager strength.

But all of that did not matter in this place.

Since they couldn't use the Flame in here.

But ironically, they were able to keep their lives staying here while escaping from the eyes of the Neropa Union.

Instead, they placed their lives in the hands of those aliens, receiving their protection.

Without them, they had no way of dealing with the strange monsters crawling around this place.

They would be killed off in a month without the aliens.

But this made them feel more and more uneasy.

A relations.h.i.+p like this always ended with the destruction of one side.

Even more so if one side was as c.o.c.ky and proud as those guys.

A few days ago, the aliens had almost dragged off a few of his family members into their beds.

If his daughter hadn't been a part of that group and he hadn't stepped up to beg for them, the aliens would have definitely taken them away.

'…Taking the crystal is one thing, but why must they do this? We have to deal with those guys.'

They didn't have a method until this point, but a new variable had just appeared.

And it was clear that Gacherat wasn't the only one with these thoughts as the other leaders within Reyunion nodded at each other.

Erunheim also seemed to have sensed this as she said:

“Let's approach them carefully. Do you all agree?”

Most of the other aliens were just killing off the monsters while enjoying alcohol and women in a specific location.

Which meant that if they blocked the eyes of the aliens, they would have no way of realizing that more aliens had appeared.

That would give them more than enough time to have a discussion.

'We don't know how strong the newcomers are, but…'

Even if they were weaker than the ones already in Reyunion, it didn't matter.

As long as they figured out a weak point or their relations.h.i.+ps with other forces, it would give the people of Reyunion a huge advantage.

“Ugh… things were better before those guys left.”

One person thought back to the day when the aliens had split up and left.

“No, we didn't have a shred of hope back then… But at least we have something now.”

“Right…”

Everyone nodded.

A tiger could not be dealt with.

But a fox pretending to be a king after the tiger has left could be dealt with.

Soon—

—the leaders of Reyunion all split up and started sending messages to their families and people.

“So, nothing is happening?”

“Hmm… Well. Good.”

Erunheim got annoyed at the man's casual att.i.tude and said:

“Huh? I told them to deal with it, but I guess they didn't. Alright. I'll go over and deal with them properly today.>

Erunheim was at a loss at his response, and she clenched her teeth and turned off the screen.

The man scoffed as he looked to the person next to him.

“They're treating us like idiots, right?”

The man standing by the side nodded.

“Yes.”

“d.a.m.ned b.a.s.t.a.r.ds.”

The man scoffed.

Even monkeys knew about the importance of intel in a battle.

Why would they leave every eye and ear to those guys?

There was a reason why he didn't personally gather intel.

There was no need to.

—pazzzzk— 

“Ugh…”

A body destroyed from torture.

The machinery parts inside his body had long been destroyed as well.

The man looked at the woman beneath him and chuckled.

“It really is a nice place. n.o.body notices when a person disappears.”

The reason they left some monsters alone wasn't because they were lazy.

But rather, it was convenient for them to exist.

'Even if a person disappears, we can just say the monsters killed them.'

Why would there be a reason for him to gather intel?

When he could just kidnap someone who already collected the intel?

“Let's see… Turn it on. You have something you saved up, right?”

“Ahh…”

The woman hurriedly moved her hands and activated the machine before her eyes.

Although it had a secure lock and the aliens couldn't even figure out how to use it.

Although she had received countless training for various tortures and had hardened her mind.

These guys were different.

'Beasts… Monsters…'

The scout, Kamel, hurriedly turned on the machine as she stared at the man who seemed to have crawled through h.e.l.l.

Soon— 

—chiiijijiik— 

—the machine crackled as it played a video.

Displaying the clear faces of two men and a woman.

And the man's expression quickly changed at this sight.

Confusion at first.

To disbelief.

And then joy.

“Hahahaha! Nice! Kang Hansoo! You didn't go up? Hahahaha!”

'Sangjin, the man you spent so long searching for… he's right here!'

Although his body was different, how could one not know about Hansoo?

That blinding being.

The man laughed as he spoke to his underling.

“Focus on gathering the crystal! I need to go somewhere!”

—booom!— 

Flames shrouded the man's body, and he disappeared.