Chapter 308

Chapter 308

Even while speaking with Hassim, Zeon had been sweeping sharp eyes over the Awakened of the Helbrin Mercenary Corps.

The one who especially caught Zeon’s eye was Alton.

He was trying hard to look calm, but in Zeon’s eyes, he seemed tense, like a sniper just before pulling the trigger.

The moment Zeon focused on Alton like that, the explosion occurred.

That was when he knew.

Alton was the culprit who had caused the explosion when he and Briel entered the survivor village in the desert.

That was why Zeon eliminated him first.

In a way, Alton was an Awakened with an ability even more dangerous than Hassim’s.

“Son of a bitch!”

“Die!”

The Awakened, having lost Alton, attacked Zeon with fire in their eyes.

They had lived as if nothing in the world could frighten them, but for the first time in their lives, Zeon had driven them into a corner.

They had been chased through the desert, and when Zeon followed them all the way into the sewer, they were driven into sheer spite.

A cornered rat would bite a cat.

And they were not rats, but Awakened.

Awakened tempered through human hunting.

They were butchers more skilled than anyone at killing people.

Those men, driven by spite, were attacking Zeon.

The martial-type Awakened engaged him in close combat, while the few magic-type Awakened fired all kinds of attack Skills.

BOOM, BOOM, BOOM—!

The underground sewer shook as if it might collapse at any moment under the clash between Zeon and the Helbrin Mercenary Corps.

As expected of people who had worked together for a long time, the Helbrin Mercenary Corps coordinated well.

The martial-type Awakened attacked Zeon’s vital points at the same time, disrupting him so that it would be difficult to defend, while the magic-type Awakened supported them with precise bombardment.

There were not many raid teams in Neo Seoul capable of coordinating attacks this precisely.

Their coordinated assault was that astonishing.

It was movement that could not emerge without countless experiences behind it.

Many Awakened had lost their lives to their coordinated assault.

Among them had been Awakened of far higher Grades than theirs.

“He’s human too.”

“Fuck! We can kill him.”

“Woooar!”

The faces of the Helbrin attack force members attacking Zeon were filled with madness.

It was a sight that would have frightened an ordinary person, but Zeon’s reaction was different from what they expected.

“Tsk!”

Zeon clicked his tongue, and his gaze had sunk heavier than ever.

True madness was not like that.

Openly revealing one’s emotions and pressuring the opponent was nothing more than child’s play.

A cold head, a sharp reason, and a hot rage.

That was the true madness Zeon had learned.

Ssssss!

A black subspace opened behind Zeon’s back.

The Awakened of the Helbrin Mercenary Corps were startled by the enormous amount of sand pouring out from the subspace.

“What the hell?”

“Why is there sand......?”

GRRRRIND—!

In that instant, the sand piled thickly beneath Zeon’s feet began rotating at high speed.

The incredibly fine sand grains rotated and ground away everything.

The turbans on their heads and the deshada they wore were the first to vanish into powder.

Then their skin began to be ground away.

“Fuck!”

“Kraaaah!”

The Awakened screamed from the pain of having their entire bodies disassembled alive.

It was useless even if they raised their aura to resist.

Through their torn skin, sand grains dug into flesh and muscle.

In an instant, a person was dismantled and vanished from the world, turned into particles smaller than grains of sand.

“What? What is this......?”

Jetoya, who had followed with Briel, widened his eyes.

Naturally, there was not much sand in the underground sewer.

Sand that had flowed down from the surface had piled up here and there, but there had not been enough to fill the space where a survivor crew lived.

He was not even curious where so much sand had suddenly appeared from. That was because a far more shocking sight was unfolding before his eyes.

The invaders from the surface who had massacred his crew were being ground away by sand.

Now, almost no screams could be heard.

That was because even most of their vocal cords had been disassembled.

“Aaaargh!”

“You demon bastard!”

A few Awakened with especially sturdy bodies and defenses pierced through the sand and tried to counterattack.

More than half their armor had been ground away by the sand, and even their exposed skin was nearly flayed off, but they endured the pain and swung their weapons.

However, the miracle of their attacks reaching Zeon’s body never occurred.

CRUNCH—!

That was because sand humans that suddenly appeared before them took the attacks instead.

“Fuuuck!”

“What the hell is this?”

For the Awakened who had used up nearly all their strength breaking through Sand Blender, the appearance of Sand Soldiers was no different from a bolt from the blue.

The Sand Soldiers took the Awakened’s attacks with their entire bodies and pushed forward.

“N-No!”

“Fuck!”

The Awakened, overcome by the Sand Soldiers’ brute strength, were shoved back into Sand Blender.

What waited for them there were sand grains rotating at ultra-high speed.

“Kraaaah!”

“S-Spare......”

The Awakened were ground away together with the Sand Soldiers.

Jetoya, who watched the sight to the end, trembled all over.

“W-What is this? That man is controlling sand? How can a human......?”

“That’s right! Zeon is a Sandmancer. The only Sandmancer in Neo Seoul, no, on Earth.”

“Sandmancer?”

“Yes! The ruler of sand. That’s Zeon.”

Briel’s eyes were full of pride as she looked at Zeon.

When she had first made the contract of the soul with Zeon, it had been simply for survival. But now, she respected Zeon more than anyone.

That was because she had watched his path from closer than anyone else.

With that much ability, he could have dreamed of becoming the master of Neo Seoul, yet Zeon had no ambition to reign over people.

Some might look at Zeon and say he was too irresponsible for the power he possessed, but Briel did not think so.

That was because she knew very well how difficult it was for someone with immense power to maintain balance while living.

People were disappearing into bloody sand right before her eyes, but Briel felt not the slightest sympathy.

That was because, on the way here, she had seen with her own eyes what the Helbrin Mercenary Corps had done.

More than anything, the Helbrin Mercenary Corps were the ones who had kidnapped her.

If not for them, Briel’s life would never have changed so dramatically.

As a result, she had been rescued by Zeon and her life had improved dramatically, but the memories of barely surviving in the sewer while making drugs still tormented her from time to time.

‘Human hunters like them are better off disappearing, even for the sake of the world.’

At that moment, the sand grains that had filled the underground space slowly scattered.

Zeon was retrieving them back into his subspace.

Once he put all the sand back into the subspace, the hazy view cleared again.

“Ah!”

Jetoya let out an exclamation without realizing it.

The view was too clean.

The Awakened of the Helbrin Mercenary Corps, who had definitely filled the room moments ago, had all disappeared.

As if they had been erased from the world.

It was a sight he would not have believed if he had not seen it with his own eyes.

He could not believe this was a human ability.

But he had to believe it.

He had confirmed it with his own eyes, not anyone else’s.

Yet Zeon’s expression was not very good.

Briel noticed Zeon’s mood and carefully asked,

“What’s wrong, Zeon?”

“He ran away again......”

“Who ran away?”

“It seems the Captain escaped.”

“Really?”

Briel’s eyes widened in surprise.

It was a sealed space.

There was no exit except the place Zeon was blocking. It was hard to believe Hassim had escaped from a place like that.

“It seems he owns an item related to spatial movement.”

“Spatial movement?”

“His presence suddenly vanished.”

Like a candle being extinguished, Hassim’s presence and one other person’s presence disappeared from Zeon’s senses in an instant.

There was no way an Awakened on Hassim’s level had been ground away by sand before his subordinates.

“If he had an item like that, shouldn’t he have used it when he was first being chased?”

“There’s probably a limit on the number of uses, number of people, or distance. That’s why he saved it and used it at the final moment.”

“That could be true.”

Briel nodded.

Other than Zeon’s explanation, there was no way to explain the disappearance of Hassim and one other Awakened.

When Kurayan crossed over to Earth, many magitech techniques and Skills were lost.

The techniques related to spatial movement disappeared then as well.

From what she had heard in the High Elf village, in Kurayan, there had been items that made ultra-long-distance travel possible in an instant. But even in Kurayan, there had been only a few items related to ultra-long-distance movement, and most had been for short-distance movement.

Even those had been so rare that ordinary people could not obtain them, and only a very small number of people knew how to make them.

Because of that, the inheritance had been completely severed when Kurayan perished.

“Hoo!”

Zeon let out a low sigh.

He regretted failing to completely eliminate Hassim when he had the chance.

Zeon knew very well that venomous bastards like Hassim had to be killed decisively so there would be no future trouble.

“Now that I know he has an item related to spatial movement, I won’t let him go next time.”

He had fallen for it because he had not known.

If he fell for it again after knowing, he would only be proving himself stupid.

He could not become the fool here.

Briel asked,

“What are you going to do now? Are you going to keep tracking him?”

“It’s already too late to track him. I don’t even know where he went.”

“That’s true too.”

“First, I need to handle this place.”

The only ones Zeon had ground away with Sand Blender were the Awakened of the Helbrin Mercenary Corps.

There were still residents of the sewer alive here.

“Ugh!”

“Is he really human?”

The residents were looking at Zeon with eyes full of terror.

The Helbrin Mercenary Corps, who had suddenly appeared and slaughtered people, had been frightening, but Zeon, who had dealt with them far too easily, was even more terrifying.

Some residents trembled without even realizing they had wet their pants.

Only then did Zeon slowly examine the residents.

Their appearances were truly miserable.

It was not simply because they had been massacred by the Helbrin Mercenary Corps.

Everything about them, from head to toe, was pitiful.

Their hair was so matted and greasy that it was impossible to guess when they had last washed it. Their skin was covered in sores from having gone unwashed for so long.

Their eyes had degenerated, and even the slightest stimulation from light made fluid stream down from them.

Their bodies were as gaunt as dry firewood, and even their fingernails and toenails had grown long, making them resemble primitive people or apes.

It was hard to believe there were people living lives less than human beneath a city that had achieved ultra-advanced civilization like Neo Seoul.

“How can this be......?”

Briel covered her mouth with both hands.

Since she had also lived underground for quite a long time, she had thought she knew their reality well. But now she understood how mistaken that had been.

What she had experienced and seen was only the tip of the iceberg.

Croker’s gang, who had put Briel to work making drugs, had been at the top of this vast underground ecosystem.

Because of that, she had never even had the chance to meet the people at the very bottom of the underground ecosystem.

Briel had thought she had lived the most miserable life, but that had been a great illusion.

These were the people struggling desperately at the lowest bottom of the supergiant city called Neo Seoul.

Jetoya walked over to them and said,

“Now you know, right? Why we need a magic power generator.”

“Yeah!”

Zeon nodded.

This was exactly why he had not wanted to know the underground’s circumstances in detail.

Because he knew that once he learned about their situation, he would have no choice but to help.

The world was vast, and pitiful people were scattered everywhere like grains of sand.

Even if they were pitiful, Zeon could not help all of them.

Zeon’s view was that one should only get involved up to a reasonable line. But once he became directly connected like this, the story changed.

“Briel.”

“Yeah?”

“It seems you’ll have to make a magic power generator.”

“I’ll do that.”

Modern civilization began with electricity.

Zeon was trying to hand the seeds of civilization to the dark underground.