Chapter 283

Chapter 283

BOOM, BOOM, BOOM, BOOM—!

Sand Blaster struck Lee Jung-ho again and again.

Each time, Lee Jung-ho’s body shook violently.

The tremendous impacts made his entire body go numb, but Lee Jung-ho endured.

He had already taken dozens of Sand Blaster shots, but Lee Jung-ho was still standing.

That was because aura protected his entire body while he unfolded Meteor Cleave.

However, the closer he drew to Zeon, the more Sand Blasters struck his body, increasing exponentially.

BOOM, BOOM, BOOM, BOOM—!

The longer the high-pressure sand attacks continued, the more the accumulated impact in his body grew like a snowball.

There was an infinite amount of sand spread across the desert, and Zeon still had plenty of mana left.

With a little exaggeration, he could have kept firing Sand Blaster until sunset the next day.

BOOM, BOOM, BOOM—!

“Gah!”

In the end, unable to withstand the repeated bombardment, Lee Jung-ho’s Meteor Cleave broke.

The aura protecting his body vanished, and he took dozens of Sand Blaster shots in succession.

With a scream, Lee Jung-ho was sent flying far away. But Zeon had no intention of ending it here.

He raised his hand. Then a tremendous pillar of sand shot up into the air.

When he clenched his fist tightly, the sand compressed until it became as hard as sandstone.

Zeon brought his fist down with all his strength, as if Lee Jung-ho were right in front of him. Then the pillar of sand, hardened like rock, plunged straight down toward Lee Jung-ho.

CRASH—!

The earth shook violently, and thick dust rose.

Lee Jung-ho’s limbs, crushed beneath the pillar of sand, were bent in grotesque directions. His chest was caved in as well, making it obvious at a glance that his condition was serious.

“Ghhh......”

Lee Jung-ho breathed raggedly.

Fresh blood flowed from his eyes, nose, ears, and mouth.

As if he could not believe he had suffered such a miserable defeat, Lee Jung-ho merely blinked.

Zeon approached him.

Looking down at Lee Jung-ho, Zeon said,

“It seems you were the one who received the lesson of death.”

“Do you think...... you’ll be all right?”

“What do you mean?”

“Can you...... handle the Mayor’s anger?”

At Lee Jung-ho’s words, Zeon tilted his head.

“Why would the Mayor be angry?”

“Are you asking because you don’t know? If you don’t bring back Moby Dick’s heart, the Mayor will be furious.”

“Then I just have to bring it back, don’t I? What’s the problem?”

“What?”

“The person who takes Moby Dick’s heart back doesn’t necessarily have to be you, does it?”

“You bastard!”

Lee Jung-ho’s eyes widened as he understood what Zeon meant.

Snap!

Zeon tore the necklace from Lee Jung-ho’s neck and said,

“It’s enchanted with subspace, right? As long as I put Moby Dick’s heart in here and take it back, Jin Geum-ho won’t question anything.”

“The Mayor will......”

“His Heavenly Eye is not omnipotent. He can predict the result to some extent, but he doesn’t know every part of the process. He probably read that if you accompanied me, he would be able to obtain Moby Dick’s heart. But your survival probably wasn’t included in the result he saw.”

“How do you know about the Heavenly Eye?”

“The person who knows Jin Geum-ho best told me.”

“You......”

The instant Lee Jung-ho tried to rise convulsively, sand covered him.

WHIRRRR!

The sand rotated fiercely.

Sand Blender had unfolded.

There was no scream.

That was because Lee Jung-ho’s body was ground away in an instant.

The sand where Lee Jung-ho had been buried turned red.

That was the end of Lee Jung-ho, a member of the Numbers.

“H-How?”

Claire’s face turned deathly pale when she saw it.

The person she feared most was Lee Jung-ho. Zeon, who had killed that Lee Jung-ho without suffering any significant wound, terrified her too much.

Zeon had not merely killed Lee Jung-ho.

He had killed every monster attacking Moby Dick as well.

It was a sight she would never have believed if she had not seen it with her own eyes.

That was how tremendous the shock she received was.

Her legs trembled so badly she could not stand.

It was something she had done under Lee Jung-ho’s orders, but she had played a large part in reducing Moby Dick to this state.

She did not know if Zeon would forgive her.

Zeon did not even glance at Claire and approached Moby Dick.

Moby Dick’s condition was horrific.

Its thick hide had split and torn open, exposing raw red flesh, while its internal organs and blood were being pushed out of its body in thick masses.

At a glance, anyone could tell it could not be saved.

Moby Dick seemed to know that as well.

Squeeee!

The baby whale also sensed its mother’s death and cried sorrowfully.

The sight of the baby whale rubbing its body against its dying mother’s face was enough to make even the hearts of those watching ache.

Even as it died, Moby Dick looked at its calf with deep tenderness, then turned its eyes toward Zeon.

Moby Dick’s eye was larger than Zeon’s entire body.

Although they could not communicate through words, Zeon felt he understood what Moby Dick was saying with its eyes.

Zeon nodded silently. Then a look of relief appeared in Moby Dick’s eyes.

Zeon reached out and stroked the baby whale.

Feeling his gentle touch, the baby whale raised its head and looked at Zeon.

Zeon stared directly into the baby whale’s eyes.

The human and the whale looked into each other’s eyes for a long time.

At some point, the two felt a thread connect deep within their hearts. At that very moment, intense light radiated from both Zeon and the baby whale.

Particles of light circled the two of them briefly, then were absorbed into their bodies.

It was not the artificial taming used by Tamers.

Their emotional thread had connected because they had truly understood each other’s hearts.

At that moment, Zeon was able to understand Moby Dick.

That was because information about Moby Dick flowed into him like a waterfall through the baby whale.

Moby Dick was not an ordinary monster.

Nor was it a lifeform born from the evolution of one of Earth’s whales.

It was a spirit born in Kurayan.

And not just any spirit, but a great spirit born with all four attributes.

Swept up in the backlash of Terraforming, it had somehow crossed over to Earth, but the great spirit had immediately faced the threat of extinction.

For a great spirit to survive, an environment rich in attributes was important, but Earth was covered in sand, and almost all attribute power had vanished.

In the end, the great spirit, having lost its power, slowly began to die.

That was when it discovered a giant whale.

The giant whale was also dying as the sea dried up.

The meeting between the dying spirit and the dying whale may, in a way, have been fate.

The spirit needed a vessel called a whale, and the whale needed a power source called a spirit.

In an extreme situation, the spirit and the whale fused, and were reborn as Moby Dick.

That was the background behind the birth of the monster called Moby Dick.

Strictly speaking, Moby Dick was not a monster, but a spirit lifeform.

A new lifeform that had adapted to the land called Earth.

However, it had not been born perfect from the beginning. It was incomplete.

Because of that, Moby Dick sometimes absorbed the little remaining earth and water attributes deep beneath the sand, or rose high into the sky to take in fire or air attributes, barely extending its life.

After surviving on Earth like that for a hundred years, it conceived the baby whale.

It was the first spirit lifeform born on Earth rather than Kurayan.

It was neither a complete spirit nor a complete living creature, but a lifeform that possessed the strengths of both.

To give birth to its calf, Moby Dick Domainized the area around its nest.

Even knowing that monsters would come rushing in once the domain was established.

If an ordinary Grade S monster had established a domain, Grade A monsters would not have dared charge in. But Moby Dick was not an ordinary monster.

The monsters instinctively knew that if they devoured Moby Dick, whose body contained attribute power, they could elevate their standing. That was why they had rushed here, disregarding even their own lives.

“So that’s what happened.”

The baby whale was a completely new spirit lifeform born on this land.

Unlike its incomplete mother, the baby whale was perfect.

Of course, it would take long years for it to grow as large as its mother and exert its full strength, but being perfect from the beginning carried a special meaning.

In a way, it might be the only hope for the broken Earth.

Just then—

FLASH!

Suddenly, particles of light flowed from Moby Dick’s dying body.

The intense particles of light wrapped around Archelon’s body, which was likewise dying. The particles of light that circled Archelon were slowly absorbed into it.

As the particles of light were absorbed, changes occurred in Archelon’s body.

Its shell, which had been shattered so horrifically, regenerated anew, and elasticity returned to the sagging skin of its limbs.

The wounds inflicted by the black sea anemone healed in an instant, and clarity returned to its clouded eyes.

That was not the only change.

Creak, crack!

Large spikes protruded from its hexagonal shell.

Its already hard shell had become armed with large, sharp spikes.

A horn also formed on Archelon’s forehead like that of a unicorn.

Until now, it had only possessed sturdy defensive power, but now it had gained a physical means of attack as well.

Zeon realized that this was Moby Dick’s final gift to Archelon, who had tried so hard to save it.

Along with the scattering particles of light, Moby Dick’s enormous body slowly vanished as well.

Squeeee!

The baby whale cried softly as it looked at its mother.

The heart of a calf forced to watch its mother’s death as soon as it was born was terribly sorrowful. But as befitted an extraordinary lifeform, it also accepted its mother’s death as part of the providence of nature.

The enormous body that had filled his vision vanished completely, leaving only a black, round jewel as large as several people put together.

Zeon realized that it was Moby Dick’s heart.

“You left a gift for me?”

Zeon smiled bitterly.

Just as he guessed, the enormous round jewel was Moby Dick’s heart, containing the attributes it had absorbed all this time.

However, because much of its power had been spent saving Archelon, it held only about one-tenth of its usual mana.

Even so, it was still an enormous amount of mana, but whether it would satisfy Jin Geum-ho’s expectations was unknown.

Zeon thought it did not matter.

The commission he had received was to bring Moby Dick’s heart. There had been no condition that it had to be intact.

“Hoo!”

Zeon let out a sigh and opened the necklace’s subspace, placing Moby Dick’s heart inside.

The baby whale watched everything while floating in the air.

Zeon carefully said to the baby whale,

“I’m sorry.”

Squeeee!

As if saying it was all right, the baby whale gave its unique frail cry.

Zeon stroked the baby whale’s head.

At that moment, as if it had smelled something on Zeon’s body, the baby whale flew around him and wagged its tail.

“Why?”

Squee!

“You smell something good from me?”

Squee!

“Where? Is something I have giving off a good scent?”

Squeeee!

Perhaps because they had communed, Zeon could understand everything contained in the baby whale’s cries.

The baby whale circled around Zeon’s right arm.

It was the arm wearing the Ultra-Heat Gauntlet.

‘Is it interested in something inside my subspace?’

There were many miscellaneous items inside his subspace.

When Zeon opened the subspace, the baby whale fearlessly stuck its head in.

Flapping its tail, the baby whale eagerly searched Zeon’s subspace.

The sight was so cute that Zeon left it alone.

After quite a while, the baby whale came back out of the subspace, holding a large mineral in its mouth.

“That is?”

It was the mineral he had taken from Park Man-ho when he had stopped by the Mana Stone Mine not long ago.

An unidentified mineral mined together with the top-grade Mana Stone in the same shaft.

It had no mana, but because he could feel a strange warmth from it, it had seemed special.

Zeon asked the baby whale,

“What is that?”

Squeeee!

At the baby whale’s answer, Zeon’s expression hardened.

“The seed of the World Tree?”