Mountain, Underground Labyrinth, Collapsed Basen Battlefield—
Thud!
The final Singing Stone Wolf King collapsed, its large body landing with a resonating, stony thud.
Its enormous body crashed into the devastated floor, sending another wave of stone and dust scattering across the battlefield and into the air. A long spiderweb-like crack spread from beneath its cracked carcass before the creature's rocky flesh gradually crumbled, dissolving into a mixture of grey specks of spiritual energy and spectral threads that quietly drifted away, leaving only a pile of sad stone. It was also at that moment that the mournful melody of the Song of Stone had finally ceased. The oppressive atmosphere that had been slowly stripping away everyone's perception slowly loosened its grip as the surrounding energy began to violently flow back into the cavern. It was as if the cave could once again breathe, causing a sudden surge in the surrounding spiritual energy. This was a common phenomenon called an 'empty void'. It would happen whenever a domain-like space collapsed and needed to be refilled, sucking in the surroundings.
As time passed and the tide receded, silence soon followed…
-
Gillion and Hirano were the first to emerge from the dust, their dark eyes scanning their surroundings with indifference as they stepped towards the center of the destruction.
"Is that all of them?"
"At least, I don't see any more of the big guys."
Their gaze turned, and not far away, Raina lay unconscious in the center of the devastation. She had fallen face first, so her posture was anything but pleasant. The massive black hammer was discarded nearby, half-buried beneath a pile of stone, and the strange fusion of black energy that had surrounded her during the fight was still there, but it had already begun dissipating, albeit at an extremely slow speed.
Overall, she was like a clump of black fire, black fire that was slowly extinguishing.
Even just looking gave off an extremely dangerous feeling, a little like an overheated engine that was teetering on burning out, and constantly expelling black smoke, ready to explode.
"…It's finally over," Gillion muttered with a faint look of disappointment. The large demon cracked his neck before walking toward the remaining phantoms of the Singing Stone Wolves. Since he couldn't fight to his heart's content, he might as well take it out on the scattered remnants, right?
While Gillion looked for the stragglers, Hirano walked up to Raina and took a look.
After waving his hand, she was rolled over, and a lot of the black smoke was pushed away. He looked down, and without the black haze, he could finally see the true state of her body.
The old demon faintly frowned, because Raina seemed to be in a lot worse of a condition than he originally had thought.
After she had fallen from the sky, there was one last pulse of extremely condensed energy, likely some kind of remnant from the fusion process. This final breath of energy seemed to have caused far more damage than the entire fight, leaving Raina's skin heavily scarred by a series of severe black burns.
Hirano could only shake his head. He was not a doctor, and he had no medical skills.
Whether they could heal or not, he did not know.
Around him, several of the weaker groups of wolves immediately fled into the darkness without looking back, but just as many remained, growling, hesitating. As the two figures passed, the beasts actively made way, clearly fighting against their own wild instincts, forcing themselves not to attack.
Not long after, Nodaba also silently jumped down from the dark cliff high above. Boom! He swung his black-blood-stained spear before resting it over his shoulder, walking forward with a dark expression. As he passed, he gave Atllin and Lilit a cold look before offering Gillion and Hirano a quick nod.
He reached the unconscious Raina, then crouched down alongside Hirano to check on her condition.
Nodaba examined her pulse before checking the newly formed pair of shadowy horns that had temporarily grown from her temples, which were already dissipating like smoke.
His aged brows slowly furrowed.
He muttered something, then shook his head unconsciously.
He couldn't tell exactly what these were, but his initial intuition was correct, Raina was mutating. Whether this change was for the better or for the worse, he was still unsure. He squinted his eyes, remembering the sensation he had felt during the battle. Although he had been unable to see the majority of the conflict due to the nature of his fight, he could never mistake that strange resonance that came from their bloodline.
"…Remarkable…" he muttered in an extremely low voice.
It was impossible to know what he was truly thinking, but a strange light appeared in his eyes.
He checked her body even more closely.
Her original set of horns remained mostly unchanged, but these new ones were different. They were shorter, more curved, and their outlines occasionally flickered between solid and shadow, as though they had yet to fully stabilize. For now, this was only a kind of projection; the real horns were almost completely hidden, concealed within her hair. As for this projection-like state, It seemed as if it would completely disappear in another ten minutes. Looking at it, they would take a long time to properly grow, especially without the added assistance of whatever that strange energy was. The majority of the mutations appeared to revolve around these horns, though her body wasn't completely unaltered. It was clear that her elemental body had undergone a slight change, but even Nodaba couldn't tell what had happened.
He frowned.
Aside from that, there should be no long-term problems, at least permanently.
"What do you think?" Gillion asked from behind.
Hirano slowly shook his head. "I don't know. I've never seen anything like this. But she should still be a demon, right?" It was a slightly hesitant response.
"You're asking that because you felt it too," Hirano continued, glancing at the two dragons from the corner of his eye. "That aura… it felt a little like those dragons. At least for a brief moment."
Gillion nodded slowly.
Although he didn't understand, he was one hundred percent sure that Raina was a pure-blooded demon. In fact, all demons existed in a state of strict reproductive isolation, meaning there was no such thing as a half-demon.
Mm, at least, there shouldn't be…
Both demons looked down at Nodaba, who was still examining the unconscious woman.
After who knows how long, Gillion walked away and began treating his own remaining injuries. Although he was basically untouched, he still had a few small scratches and scrapes, which healed almost instantly when he flexed.
Hirano watched his back as he left, slightly distracted.
Like Nodaba, he was also lost in thought. In fact, Gillion was also contemplating something, but he simply expressed his concern in a very different way.
At the same time, across the ruins, Atllin, and Lilit quietly watched everything unfold. Neither dragon approached, and neither made any comment. They simply finished observing Raina's transformation in silence before exchanging a brief glance.
After some time, Raina's breathing steadied, and relief spread through the group.
As everyone finally relaxed, Gillion suddenly scratched his head.
"…Say…" He pointed toward the deeper tunnel. "That thing you fought earlier... why was it even up there? That wasn't a Singing Stone wolf, was it?" This question was directed at Nodaba.
Nodaba just stared at him coldly, then looked away.
The cold shoulder, that was what he received.
It seemed as if he didn't want to talk about it, but perhaps there was a reason.
Gillion frowned, about to say something, but decided against it.
Finally, Atllin calmly answered from across the clearing. "Although I don't know your normal dynamic, since he didn't want to let you see it, it's very likely that it's something 'very evil'."
Gillion looked confused, obviously not understanding the dragon's words.
Lilit simply shook his head, and Atllin smiled wryly.
Both dragons knew that explaining what was up there was too difficult for this mussel head to understand. If they wanted to explain, it would take some time, but whether they would or shouldn't was a completely different question.
After all, if that thing was what they suspected, then it was better to be silent.
Although they could not see it, they could feel that terrifying aura. For some reason, they felt as if they had encountered their natural enemy, a thing that they had to destroy at all costs.
It was exactly this feeling that made them understand what they had encountered…
-
Time passed.
The battlefield had already been cleaned up, and the remaining beasts had been slain to the best of their ability. This wasn't because the demons were acting out of charity; instead, it was a direct order from Nodaba. As for his reasoning, he did not say, but the others all believed that it was related to whatever entity he had previously been fighting.
Perhaps he was looking for something, or perhaps he was just cautious, but he ordered them to kill as many of the remaining wolves as they could find. Even the two dragons joined in the fun, albeit with a faintly perfunctory attitude. Although they seemed interested, they didn't seem to treat whatever Nodaba was looking for with the same level of caution, at least, not anymore.
Aside from the countless craters and shattered walls left behind by the conflict, very little remained to suggest that dozens of terrifying Fifth Order Magic Beast Kings had just been slaughtered here.
The darkness element possessed the property of devouring; by simply touching a corpse, any of these demons could transform the remains into dark elemental energy, which they could then consume to replenish themselves. This process took time, around a few hours for beasts of this strength, but many of the smaller ones, those with physical bodies, were completely consumed. As for the Beast Kings, they were either stored in storage rings or dismantled and kept for later.
Hirano slowly wandered through the ruins, one hand stroking his beard while the other rested behind his back. His amber eyes swept across the cave walls before gradually closing. With a quiet breath, his will rippled outward, commanding the surrounding spiritual energy to form a faint stream that quietly spread through the stone, probing every tunnel, crack, and hidden passage that extended into this underground labyrinth. As a caster type, he possessed the highest level of skill in this area, so he was naturally intrusted with finding a way back to the surface.
Nearby, Gillion hoisted the still-unconscious Raina onto his broad back, handling her as though she weighed absolutely nothing. After adjusting her position, he hooked an arm beneath her legs before glancing toward Nodaba and nodding.
Several moments later, Hirano's eyes slowly opened.
"…Found it." He muttered, his gravely voice showing a hint of surprise.
Everyone turned.
"There's an enormous hollow ahead," he said, pointing toward the tunnel beyond the battlefield. "It's much larger than this cavern. I can also feel fresh air… and a tremendous concentration of spiritual energy. We… should have found the direction to the so-called trial pillar…"
Nodaba nodded.
No one objected.
The old demon had already begun walking away. He didn't need to say much. His spear rested across one shoulder while the strange black crow quietly flew back and perched on it. No one knew when it had disappeared, and no one knew where it had returned from.
The group gathered their few remaining supplies, checked their equipment one final time, and moved on. Soon, under Nodaba's silent lead, both dragons and demons disappeared into the darkness, leaving the ruined battlefield behind.
Without looking back, he naturally assumed the lead.
The two dragons silently followed behind, both treating the excursion as more of an interesting show.
* * *
—Silence…
After an unknown amount of time had passed, a sudden rumble rolled through the darkness.
In the area they had just left, something moved.
The view shifted upward, settling on the high cliff where Nodaba had fought the corrupted Wolf King. What remained here was a scorched battlefield choked with black ash and burning black fire. The black flames did not seem intent on spreading, yet the lingering vestiges of the fleshy abomination continuously burned within them, showing no signs of dying out anytime soon.
Gurgel—ga! Pop!
There was a sudden, sharp movement as something shot out from the depths of the black fire. Just as it was about to escape and disappear into the darkness—
Boom!
—A large hand, formed from light and far larger than that of an average human, slammed down mid-air and crushed the wriggling mass of black mud into the earth.
Before the mass could slip away from the cliff, the large hand that had just materialized out of thin air pressed down on the black mud with a single finger. The black mud was instantly compressed into the size of a single grain of sand before the hand carelessly tossed it away, allowing it to harmlessly dissipate into the wind.
A pair of unseen eyes lingered in the shadows, staring intently toward an unknown direction…
They narrowed.
Soon, they disappeared.
Everything returned to silence…
* * *
The group leisurely left through the underground passage.
Their footsteps echoed throughout the winding labyrinth while the occasional rumble of distant sounds rippled through the path. The further they went, the less the cave resembled a claustrophobic battlefield and the more it resembled an untouched world, naturally constructed, pure, and hidden deep beneath the mountains.
The walls gradually became smoother, and the hollow atmosphere began to liven up. Pale green moss spread across the stone like a soft blanket, bathing the tunnel in a gentle emerald glow. Thick vines hung from cracks overhead, and patches of strange grass had somehow managed to grow from the bare rock, nourished by countless tiny streams that trickled down and intertwined from unseen heights. Rivulets of crystal-clear water flowed alongside the path, occasionally disappearing beneath the stone before emerging once again farther ahead.
"…This is quite a nice place," Hirano quietly muttered, secretly pondering something in his mind.
Gillion found himself looking around in surprise. Unlike Hirano's appreciation of the scenery, this sudden tranquility made him feel a bit anxious.
The further they walked, the fresher the air became. A cool breeze drifted through the passage, carrying the crisp scent of rich earth and vibrant plants. It gently brushed against their faces, causing even Nodaba to raise his head slightly.
"There should be an exit nearby," Lilit observed from the back.
Another few minutes passed. The tunnel slowly widened, and the darkness ahead gradually softened as a pale white glow appeared in the distance. At first, it resembled nothing more than a faint shimmer, but then it slowly grew brighter and brighter. Soon, they were bathed in natural sunlight. It spilled into the end of the tunnel from somewhere above, illuminating the plant-covered walls and causing the countless droplets of water to sparkle like tiny crystal-like stars.
The group instinctively quickened their steps.
No longer confined by the underground labyrinth, they could feel that something incredibly vast was waiting just beyond the light.