Chapter 28

Chapter 28

Bzzzzzzz!

Zeon’s image was reflected in the eyes of the queen bee as she beat her wings.

The queen bee knew.

She knew that the one who had inflicted serious damage on her swarm was Zeon.

The queen bee was a monster, but she possessed intelligence close to that of a human.

Because of that, she was not attacking recklessly like Go Du-won, but was carefully probing him.

Zeon found it strange.

That was because even while facing the queen bee, a gigantic monster, he did not feel much fear.

Although not much time had passed since he awakened, he had fought countless monsters.

The monsters he had fought until now were by no means inferior to the queen bee.

Rather, in terms of individual danger alone, there had been some that surpassed the queen bee.

What made the queen bee frightening was when she commanded an uncountable number of Bomb Bees.

Now that she had lost most of her subordinates, she was not that dangerous.

Zeon was not judging that way out of arrogance.

Right now, Zeon was colder than anyone.

A Skill was the blooming of the talent an Awakened held within.

It evolved when conditions, timing, and the person’s own effort and instinct harmonized.

The earliest Awakened had all realized and developed their Skills that way. But as time passed and experience accumulated, methods for developing Skills efficiently were created.

In other words, a kind of formula had been made.

Most Awakened followed such methods. That was because there was no waste.

But this method had one major flaw.

Because they followed a set formula, the breadth of their thinking became limited.

Since they believed the formula was the most efficient method, they had no reason to explore other methods.

But Zeon was different.

He was the only Awakened who controlled sand.

It was a path no one had ever walked before.

Because of that, he had to think desperately and find the optimal method of growth by himself.

Thanks to that effort and contemplation, Zeon had gained a cold reason that did not waver in any situation.

Of course, Deioden’s looking on while pretending it was teaching also played a part.

‘I have the compatibility advantage.’

The problem was how to safely rescue Har, who was hanging from the queen bee’s abdomen.

Even if he killed the queen bee, it would be meaningless if he could not save her.

A kind of handicap had been placed on Zeon.

He drew a picture in his mind.

When the picture of rescuing Har was complete, the queen bee could no longer hold back and attacked.

SHOOO!

The queen bee’s gigantic body charged at Zeon at a speed nearly close to the speed of sound.

At that instant, Zeon raised a sand barrier.

It was taller and thicker than any he had used until now.

No matter how strong the queen bee was, if she struck a sand barrier of this thickness, she was certain to receive no small shock.

But no sound of impact came.

That was because just before striking the sand barrier, the queen bee changed her trajectory as if she had expected it.

The queen bee came to an abrupt stop, then shot straight up.

SHOOONG!

The queen bee, who had been looking down at Zeon from high in the air, plunged straight down.

The first attack had been a fake, and this was her true aim.

But Zeon did not panic.

This too was within the range of his expectations.

“Haaah!”

CRASHCRASHCRASH!

The sand near Zeon’s feet condensed and shot toward the queen bee.

It was Sand Blaster, firing sand under high pressure.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

Sand Blaster struck the queen bee’s body one after another.

Each time, the queen bee’s enormous body shook greatly.

The power of each individual Sand Blaster was not that strong. But it was enough to slightly break the queen bee’s balance.

Because of that, the queen bee’s flight speed slowed a little.

In that time, Zeon used Sand Walk and moved slightly out of the queen bee’s flight path.

SHOOONG!

The queen bee passed by him by a hair’s breadth.

At that instant, Zeon fired Sand Missile.

BOOM!

With an explosive roar, Sand Missile struck the egg from which Har was hanging.

From the impact, the egg and Har fell at the same time.

‘Good!’

Zeon smiled.

The thrill of seeing the picture he had drawn in his mind become reality just as it was made him tremble. But it was still too early to rejoice.

That was because his mana had hit bottom.

It was the price of using Skills without pause.

KIEEE!

The queen bee, robbed of the egg and Har, let out a monstrous cry.

The queen bee flew in again to take back the egg and Har.

There was none of the cunning she had shown moments ago. Impatience had blown away her reason.

Zeon quietly recited,

“Sand Blender!”

A flash burst from Elura’s Tear around his neck, and his depleted mana filled in an instant.

At that moment, an enormous amount of sand rose and wrapped around the queen bee. Then it rotated at high speed.

CRAAAAASH!

The sand rotated at high speed and scraped away at the queen bee.

KIEEE!

The queen bee screamed and struggled to escape Sand Blender. But Zeon skillfully controlled Sand Blender and trapped the queen bee perfectly.

The high-speed rotating sand tore away the queen bee’s wings and shattered her shell.

As her screams continued, the Bomb Bees still alive flew in to save the queen bee.

Some attacked Zeon, and the rest threw themselves into the sand where the queen bee was trapped.

At that moment, Go Du-won, who had come to his senses, fired arrows and protected Zeon.

BOBOBOBOOM!

Bomb Bees kept exploding around Zeon.

Thanks to that, Zeon could focus his mind and continue maintaining Sand Blender.

Explosions kept bursting inside the sand.

It was the sound of Bomb Bees ground up by Sand Blender exploding.

The explosions also dealt a heavy blow to the already weakened queen bee. The loyalty of the Bomb Bees who had rushed in to save the queen bee was instead injuring her.

CRACK!

At last, a large hole opened in the queen bee’s head.

Sand dug into the hole and scraped away her brain and internal organs.

Before he knew it, the sand rotating at high speed had been stained blood-red.

“Okay! That’s enough.”

At that instant, Zeon stopped the Skill.

He spoke as if composed on the outside, but his face had turned deathly pale.

That was because his mental strength and mana had been completely exhausted.

THUD!

When Sand Blender stopped, the queen bee crashed to the ground.

The queen bee’s state was truly wretched.

Her head had been blown away and could no longer be seen, and traces of where she had been ground by sand were clear all over her body. The wings that had enabled her high-speed flight had vanished without a trace.

It was a shabby end, unworthy of a monster that had ruled the Black Forest for so long.

“Har!”

Once the threat disappeared, Go Du-won ran to his daughter.

“Dad?”

Har looked at Go Du-won while holding the egg.

“Are you all right?”

“I’m fine!”

Har answered with difficulty.

Go Du-won’s gaze turned to the egg she was holding in her arms.

“Why are you holding the queen bee’s egg? Throw it away.”

“This isn’t an egg.”

“What?”

“It’s not an egg the queen bee laid.”

“How do you know that?”

“I just know.”

“What?”

“This child called me.”

“You’re saying the egg called you?”

“Yes!”

Har nodded.

When she had been playing in front of the house, she had felt an intense pull.

The egg was calling her.

As she followed the call and moved her feet, before she knew it, she was in front of the queen bee.

Bomb Bees had attacked her on the way here, but for some reason, she had been unharmed.

That was because the egg had protected her.

Go Du-won looked anew at the egg Har was holding.

A faint blue light was pouring from the egg.

It had the same form as an egg, but there was no shell. It looked as if blue light had been compressed into a round shape.

A being came to Go Du-won’s mind.

“Could it be a Spirit Egg?”

His wife had once said it.

This land had been damaged so badly that spirits could not live here, and so spirits did not exist.

Even so, she had hoped that a spirit would be born someday.

Go Du-won had asked out of curiosity,

“How are spirits born?”

“The wind of nature, and the will to exist on their own. If the wishes of humans or elves are added to that, a spirit is born somewhere. A primordial spirit exists in the form of an egg, and after feeding on the wish for life and growing, at some point it breaks through its shell and comes out.”

In other words, the Spirit Egg Har was holding had clearly been born on its own inside the queen bee’s egg sac. That was because it had judged that location advantageous for survival. And it had called Har.

‘Because Har is a half-elf.’

It was said that elves were originally born with strong spirit affinity. Since there were no other elves nearby, it had clearly called Har, who was a half-elf.

“Yes! This is definitely a Spirit Egg.”

“A Spirit Egg? Then a spirit will be born from inside it?”

Zeon looked at it with a fascinated expression.

This was a world where Awakened ran rampant.

Even if spirits were added to that, it would not be strange at all. But this was the first time Zeon had even heard the word spirit.

Without any sign of wariness, Har held the Spirit Egg out to Zeon.

“Do you want to touch it?”

“Can I?”

“Yes!”

Zeon carefully brought his hand to the Spirit Egg.

At that instant, a strange warmth could be felt in his palm.

The warmth traveled along his hand and reached his heart.

“Mm!”

At the mysterious sensation, Zeon withdrew his hand. Then Har smiled and said,

“It says thank you.”

“Who? The egg?”

“Yes!”

“Can you hear the egg’s voice?”

“Yes! It says it was born in the queen bee’s nest and waited a long time for someone who could hear its voice.”

“So that someone was you.”

“Yes! It says that if you left, there would be no more chance, so it forced itself to call me.”

“Mm!”

Har answered with an innocent expression.

He did not feel that she was lying.

Then Go Du-won took Zeon’s hand.

“Thank you truly. Thanks to you, I saved my daughter, and now the Black Forest can be revived as well. It is all thanks to you. I do not know how I can repay this debt.”

“It’s fine. This is enough.”

Zeon answered while looking at Elura’s Tear around his neck.

The more he looked at it, the more incredible an object it was.

An item that completely restored mana once a day.

Thanks to it, he could lessen his worries about mana.

That alone was enough profit.

“Let’s get out now. If I don’t return by morning, Deioden will abandon me and leave.”

“Why not stay here instead? That would be a hundred times better than following Deioden. You may not know this, but accompanying Deioden on the road he intends to take is no different from suicide.”

“I know.”

“Then will you stay here?”

“I’ll still follow him.”

“Why in the world?”

“I just got stubborn.”

Zeon smiled.

For now, that was the only way he could say it.

Go Du-won looked at Zeon with pity for a moment. But he did not try to persuade him any further.

He coveted Zeon’s ability, but now that the Bomb Bee swarm, the greatest threat, had been completely eliminated, he could do without him.

The Black Forest, with the Bomb Bees removed, was extremely quiet.

The enormous shade created by the carbonized trees did not seem like a scene from this world.

The Black Forest had value if only because there was space where one could avoid the sunlight.

But this was not the place where Zeon belonged.

He suited the sand of the desert, where the sun blazed down.

When he came out of the Black Forest, Deioden greeted him warmly.

“You are late, cripple!”

‘Dogshit old man!’

Zeon answered with a smile.