EP.205 Land of Ashes (5)
It didn’t take long for a robber who lived without the law to learn etiquette.
“This way. customer.”
10 minutes.
It only took 10 minutes for a mercenary who had lived his entire life to learn to be polite. The mercenary stood in front of him and walked with his back bent.
“Do you by any chance need an explanation about the Gray Wasteland? Just ask. “I will explain everything I know.”
“noisy. “Shut your mouth.”
“Yes, yes…”
The mercenary’s shoulders trembled at the man’s words. He broke into a cold sweat as he looked at his broken finger.
‘I was quite confident in my skills…’
The mercenary was once a famous troubleshooter.
I believed that I would be able to subdue a decent wizard or two with just a sword. But what was the result?
Sigh!
For a moment, the mercenary’s sword was blocked by the man’s bare hand. His hand holding the sword tingled as if he had hit it on a rock.
‘and···.’
I was beaten like a dog.
It’s not a metaphor, I really got hit like a dog.
“100 million! “Wait a minute, a million!”
“Bone, my bone is broken! “Wait a minute, wait a minute!”
The blade shattered and he had to be beaten until his bones broke. The man only said one word to the mercenary, who was screaming with his face swollen.
“Stop acting harshly and stand up.”
Cold eyes.
“Your legs are fine, so you can walk. Guide me.”
In the meantime, the mercenary’s complexion could not help but turn pale at the fact that he had avoided the leg and hit it. In the mercenary’s eyes, the man no longer looked like a wizard or anything.
‘You monster.’
What kind of wizard in the world would want to grab a sword holder with his bare fists without using any magic? There can be no other monster like that. The mercenary continued his steps, swallowing his bloody tears.
“Why are you killing the baby? You said you wanted to explain. “You can have some affection for your own neighborhood.”
A voice came from behind.
It was a soft voice. Perhaps it was the voice of a girl accompanying a man. The mercenary walked in silence and listened to the voice.
“Is there any reason to listen to the boasts of parasites living in other countries? “I feel like I want to throw it all away.”
“Well, I have to understand…”
Mischievous laughter.
Soon the sound of footsteps came closer.
“There, man.”
“Yes, yes?”
“Tuk-tuk,” the girl said, touching the mercenary’s shoulder. The mercenary turned his stiff neck and looked behind him. A girl with a slight smile was looking at her.
gulp.
Swallowing dryly at the girl’s eye-catching appearance, the mercenary asked her a question in a trembling voice.
“Gung, do you have any questions?”
“What is there to deal with in the gray wasteland?”
“Are you interested in the item…?”
“Just to see if they listen.”
A soft voice seeps into my ears.
“Well, then, let’s start with the facilities…”
The mercenary, fascinated by the girl’s appearance, begins to explain various things. The mercenary began to explain as much as he knew about all the facilities as well as the goods handled in the gray wasteland.
“oh···.”
After hearing the explanation, the girl briefly exclaimed in exclamation.
Then, he touched the mercenary’s shoulder and took a few steps back. Then she looked at her companion and shrugged her shoulders.
“They say so.”
“I feel pretty dirty.”
“Shall I clean it up?”
“Wouldn’t it be annoying?”
“It’s nothing difficult. I’m pretty good at breaking things and breaking them up. “Is it this much?”
A bloody conversation takes place behind my back.
The mercenary just kept walking, listening to the conversation with one ear and leaving it with the other.
‘···Contrary to her appearance, she is a fierce-talking young lady.’
The mercenary laughed quietly, as if he were watching a child bluffing. He regarded what the girl said as a joke.
“If you go straight from here, you will find a path leading into the Land of Ashes.”
A long passageway.
The mercenary took a step back, pointing to a passage where a chilling wind blew. If you walk along this path, you will arrive at the land of death where everything has been reduced to ashes.
‘I don’t know why I’m going to that place…’
Up to that point, it was none of the mercenary’s business.
The mercenary just wanted to distance himself from them as soon as possible. The mercenary was just about to slowly back away from them.
“Let me give you some advice.”
The man who beat him like a dog opened his mouth.
Cold golden eyes glared at the mercenary.
“one week.”
He nodded.
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“Leave here within a week.”
It was both advice and warning.
The mercenary could not formulate any other answer than nodding his head to those cold eyes.
2.
A land that cannot conceive life.
With each step, the ash crumbled. The vast wilderness was completely gray. The wilderness that had lost its color was truly worthy of its nickname, the land of ashes.
“······.”
Since entering the land of ashes, Cardi has drastically become less talkative. He just walked his steps without saying a word, and his expression was stiff.
‘···I guess so.’
A place that was once my hometown.
However, now there is nothing left.
When you look at a place like that, all kinds of emotions come up and subside repeatedly. And all that remains at the end is a stiff expression. Because undefined emotions do not appear on the face.
I also had a similar experience.
Every time we stopped by my village, which had been reduced to ashes, and every time we laid flowers in front of the tombstones that had been thrown together because not a single body could be found, Kyle and I would become expressionless.
“···Even after hundreds of years, do you still miss me?”
I asked without context.
“Even if you live for a hundred or a thousand years, the memorable moment is always just a single moment.”
Cardi also gave a comprehensive answer.
We walked through the ashes in silence for a while. At first, there was only a pile of ashes, but as I continued walking, other scenery came into view.
The remains of a collapsed building.
Pillars that fell down in a mess.
There were ruins everywhere that were not completely destroyed. The further I walked, the more debris lay in the path. I was still used to it up to this point.
‘Because I’ve seen it once before.’
What I was really curious about.
‘It’s next time.’
I raised my head.
The feel of the ground I was stepping on became hard little by little. The ashes scatter and what remains is cracked ground. The moment we set foot on that land, we stopped.
Grr.
Beyond the line drawn like a border, red eyes flashed. It was a demonic beast living in a land of ashes. If I crossed this line, I would have to deal with those demonic beasts.
‘It’s not just the demonic beasts.’
Even though it is a human land, magical energy vibrates here. In fact, it was an environment that was no different from a demonic world. In the past, I couldn’t bear this place and went back…
“Shall we go in?”
Not now.
The moment I set foot on the black ground, the air changed. The feeling of my breathing being constricted was so familiar that it made me feel like I had returned to my hometown.
“Hey.”
I let out a short exclamation and pulled down my gloves. The flow of mana, which had become loose, becomes tighter. There was no room for demonic energy to seep into the tense flow of mana.
“It’s been a while since this happened.”
“Let’s clean it up first.”
Cardi nodded and pointed ahead. From the moment we crossed the line, the attention of the demons was focused on us. This is the moment when I clenched my fist to sweep it away.
“···uh?”
I blinked.
The magic beasts that appeared with their red eyes shaking were familiar to my eyes without me knowing why. I frowned and turned my head to look at Cardi.
“that···.”
“You’re probably right.”
Cardi said calmly.
“It’s a demon beast created by Gleria. Probably the first demon beasts created. “It is the result of a proper mixture of evil spirits and evil spirits created by squeezing out humans.”
“no···.”
“You’ll be wandering around all over the place. Let’s deal with it and move on.”
I suppressed a sigh and slapped my forehead. I thought it wouldn’t be an easy journey.
3.
The magical beasts controlled by the apostate were quite different from ordinary magical beasts. There was no ordinary magic beast at all.
‘The most infamous one is the crustacean…’
A crustacean that destroys everything that comes near it.
Although it was the most difficult beast, the crustacean was not the only problem. Everything the apostate called out had a sharp side.
Starting from the demonic beasts rising from the ground, the demonic beasts that stuck and self-destructed, the demonic beasts swimming in the fog… none of them were difficult.
There are hundreds of them.
Hundreds or thousands of them form an army and rush in.
‘Even so, you have to save every second to make your way…’
Because of this, the battle to subdue apostates always resulted in enormous sacrifices. Many knights died, and even warriors, including superhumans, had to risk their lives.
It was normal for both arms and both fingers to be blown off, and if I was careful, my legs would also fly off. Every time, Sarah, that bitch would use her divine power to attach Kyle’s and mine’s limbs.
“It was a nightmare, really.”
I let out a long sigh and stamped my feet. With a crunching sound, the skull of the demon beast beneath my feet was crushed.
“Sometimes I get confused as to whether this is a demonic beast or a zombie? Even if you crush its arms and legs, it will somehow move… and if you don’t finish it off, it will attack again.”
I stretched out my arm and grabbed the neck of the charging beast. I used such force to crush his neck vertebrae. He threw the limp beast on the floor and snapped his fingers.
Smite.
The fired seomseon crushes the limbs of the charging beast. I walked over to the convulsing beast lying on the floor, trampled on its head, and turned my head.
“Do you think it was cleaned up to some extent?”
I asked Cardi, pointing to the corpses of demonic beasts lying nearby. Cardi looked at me with a slightly shocked face.
“···Raniel, you.”
“uh.”
“Are you sure it was a wizard?”
I chuckled and laughed.
“Everyone who sees me says that. “We do it this way because it is the most efficient.”
It’s like, ‘This is… a wizard?’ Cardi looked at me with eyes that seemed to say. At that gaze, I shrugged my shoulders and continued speaking.
“Isn’t it great to save mana and fight while minimizing the range, so you don’t have to destroy ruins?”
“That’s true, but…”
“Good things are good, right?”
I wiped the soles of my military boots on the floor. The dark red slime scraped against the cracked ground.
‘There are a lot of them.’
I rubbed my feet on the floor and narrowed my eyes. The further we went, the more demons there were. There was thick soot on the floor.
“…But why is it so crowded with apostate demons?”
“Because it was Gleria who invaded the Western Wall.”
Cardi calmly answered my question.
“You probably heard the story that this place was destroyed overnight, right?”
“I know. Because it’s in the history books. “It is a kingdom that was destroyed overnight by four plagues.”
I nodded.
As if it were a promise, this sentence was always written down whenever the ancient kingdom was covered in any history book.
『A country destroyed overnight by four disasters.』
The most prosperous human nation.
However, the country disappeared overnight.
Thinking of that sentence, I opened my mouth.
“Was that really just one night?”
“To be exact, it was until the sun set and the sun rose again. “It will take about half a day.”
The elf, who had witnessed that history with his own eyes and felt it with his own body, began to speak quietly.
“The first to appear was Gleria. To the west was the main church of the Delohim Church, and Gleria appeared, destroying the place.”
Right here.
Saying that, Cardi walked ahead.
“Belial appeared in the east. “That guy, who completely turned into a black dragon during his fight with the Demon King, lost his senses and destroyed the castle walls and slaughtered humans at random.”
Many children were burned by the flames he spewed out.
Cardi muttered and laughed bitterly.
“Unfortunately, that was where the academy was located. “It was a place where the children that Belial said he wanted to protect received education.”
Cardi walks.
I kept walking and walking.
“Skebal appeared in the south. In a place full of magic towers, he massacred wizards and toppled the magic tower. In a way, I guess he got his wish.”
I followed behind him without saying a word.
“The last one to appear was Ganicalt. The sword he wielded cut through the strongest walls. “The moment the leader of the knights who was protecting the castle wall drew his sword to destroy the castle wall… no one could stop him.”
So there was only death.
“There the pride of the knights was crushed. The knights had to face death by the sword of their idol, the swordsman. “The final wall was broken by the hand of the hero who was called the protector of humanity.”
As Cardi said that, his steps slowed down, very slowly. The place where he stopped his steps was on the sooty wreckage.
“And me.”
Cardi, standing on top of the soot, looked back at me.
“At that time, I was standing here.”
Soot that has not been erased even after hundreds of years.
The melted and hardened corpses of demonic beasts were everywhere. Cardi, standing above him, smiled bitterly.
“I was trying to stop Gleria, who had become a madman here.”
The church collapsed.
Remnants of buildings scattered here and there.
Lots and lots of dirt staining the floor.
“······.”
Cardi’s eyes narrowed as she looked at it. The narrowed and narrowed eyes slowly closed. I felt like I was recalling a past that was distant to me, but not so distant to him.
“···Let’s go.”
Eventually, Cardi opened her eyes. With his voice subdued, he pointed to the ruins of the collapsed church.
“There might be something we’re looking for in there.”
A word from the author (author review)
Due to the nature of this episode, Cardi’s monologue will likely appear often.
Since this part is so closely related to the (former) warrior party, there are so many scenes I want to show from Cardi’s point of view that I’m greedy for the narrative…
In fact, since all the characters that were designed with the most effort are concentrated in the (old) warrior party, I feel like I have a great desire to show them something more. I will try my best to include as much as that!
