"A miracle of nature?"
These bizarre crystals were indeed eye-catching, but Heng's intuition told him Lancer's admiration wasn't just about their appearance. So, he asked directly.
During these days, he had found that while the man named Lancer didn't talk much, he wasn't hard to get along with. Sure enough, Lancer began to explain.
"These 'crystals' contain a special energy. It's very faint, but ——————"
He glanced around and let out a sigh of wonder.
"Since we entered this woodland of 'crystals,' have you seen its boundary?"
Heng shook his head and finally realized the implication.
"You mean... this entire 'Crystal Woodland' contains that strange energy you mentioned?"
"Exactly! This crystal forest, which stretches as far as the eye can see, is clearly made of the same substance. I can't even imagine how terrifying the total sum of energy would be if it were all gathered together!"
The energy in a single crystal might not even be enough to construct the simplest magical rune, but there were countless crystals here.
If Lancer had initially treated Heng's "Legend of the Azure Star" as just a story, he was now starting to become a believer. If one could utilize the energy stored in all the crystals in this forest, creating a world would be impossible, but creating an island might actually be feasible.
"Let's pick up the pace."
After returning the crystal to Olga Marie, Lancer reflexively quickened his steps. Olga Marie, taking the crystal back, couldn't help but smile; in her memory, Lancer rarely showed such an expression.
She also quickened her pace.
If there were paths to follow initially, as they went deeper, the way became increasingly difficult to navigate. By now, it had become a total "no-path" zone. However, this didn't stop the group.
The three agile cats handled scouting, while Lancer stayed at the very front. Heng was positioned in the middle.
This arrangement wasn't because Lancer was jealous—Olga Marie was wearing gear suited for the wild, so there wasn't much to see anyway. The reason was simple ————
"I'm sorry, Miss Olga Marie, for letting you stay below me."
A sweating Heng wasn't just being polite; he was exhausted. While his stamina wasn't weak—he wouldn't have dared cross the sea otherwise—rock climbing in this high-temperature environment was brutal. He hadn't expected the seemingly less-sturdy Olga Marie to show even greater stamina than him, eventually forcing him into the middle while she protected him from below.
"It's fine."
Olga Marie didn't look down on Heng at all; she knew they were fundamentally different.
During the climb, she relied entirely on magical assistance, whereas he was scaling several kilometers purely on physical grit. Physically speaking, he was already an anomaly.
As for Lancer?
After seeing him single-handedly shatter a monster as terrifying as "Walpurgisnacht," she had grown accustomed to placing him in the "Outlier" category. He was a being who could dismantle such monsters with his bare hands.
To her, simply floating along would have been easier, but just as she thought they would continue like this ————
BOOM!!
A massive explosion suddenly echoed from above. She froze; nothing unusual had happened for hours.
The moment the explosion rang out, Lancer's face changed. He was intimately familiar with that sound.
'Aru?!'
"I'm going up first!"
He decisively cut the rope connecting the three of them. He leapt to the side, his arm muscles bulging.
Snap!
With a sharp crack, the crystal pillar supporting him shattered, and he used the momentum to vault upward.
Though he couldn't confirm the cats' situation, Lancer knew things weren't good. Aru usually spent most of its time "slacking off."
The main reason for its slacking was that it specialized in demolition with bombs. This combat style, which caused massive collateral damage, meant it rarely attacked directly, focusing instead on support, scouting, commanding, and logistics.
For it to trigger a massive explosion without a plan meant it had encountered a situation where it had no other choice.
The three cats couldn't speak, but after years together and countless battles, their friendship was profound. Having stayed by his side for so long, they were Lancer's most important companions.
Sensing they might be in danger, Lancer exploded with terrifying power.
Using both hands and feet, his immense strength left the crystals in his wake shattered in an exaggerated fashion. This was why he had leapt to the side; if the other two had been directly below him, Olga Marie might have been fine, but Heng would have been crushed.
Covered in vivid red blood aura, he moved through the crystals as if on flat ground. In just over a minute, Lancer found his "target."
Among the countless crystals, a cavern spewing black smoke was incredibly conspicuous. Lancer gripped the edge with one hand and flipped onto the cavern floor. Simultaneously, his right hand gripped the air, and a blood-red spear appeared.
The moment he landed, the "enemies" appeared before him.
Two massive, lion-like creatures were letting out terrifying roars. They looked very similar, but the main difference was that one was red and the other was blue. However, Lancer's gaze was drawn to something else.
Jack, usually a show-off, hadn't even drawn his weapon. He was sprinting along the rock walls, trying to draw the attention of the two massive beasts. On the other side, the burly Tiger, showing none of his usual bulkiness, was sprinting away with Aru on his back.
As Lancer spotted them, they spotted him. With a series of urgent cries, Tiger ran toward Lancer.
Aru looked to be in bad shape. Its usually smooth fur was charred black—clearly a result of the explosion.
"Tiger, give Aru emergency treatment. I'll save Jack!"
An ice spear appeared in Lancer's right palm.
"GET... AWAY FROM IT!!"
With a furious roar, the ice spear flew like an arrow from a bow, streaking straight toward the blue target.