The night was pitch black and frantic winds from a sandstorm hit the group of four people dressed in black clothes.
They had been in the desert for a full day. They ran even though Almin and Langrum weren’t fully recovered. Alm and Bruno could already feel distant gazes fixed on them when they were in the city. There were still a few, but surely Dyen was already heading toward that city.
After picking up the missions from the elder and trying to leave in haste, Alm still wanted to do sothing. So, sothing was left behind with the female elder who gave them the missions. Alm’s words to her, along with so crystals as paynt, were to be delivered personally. Then, they ran in the opposite direction of Celestial Abyss City.
As soon as Dyen arrived, he received the news of the group’s departure. So, he went straight to the building, determined to use his contacts to find out where they went and what mission they took. Soon, the entourage with several elders entered the building, and the female elder who got the ssage to deliver was forced to broadcast it for everyone to hear with a sadistic smile.
"Almin is still missing your ladies. Since they must not have any comfort lately, when we return, we will be benevolent enough to let him help you with them again."
The entourage of elders froze, then laughter of ridicule echoed. That day, the old man almost died from spitting blood intensely, in pure hatred.
In the desert, they passed through that storm slowly, with Alm and Bruno leading in the front. It was night, and inside the storm, nothing could be seen ahead. Both Almin and Langrum insisted on going to the opposite side of the storm and waiting for the new day, but the whale just ignored them.
Now, they walked within it with tense looks, but it didn’t take long for them to realize that it wasn’t at all as dangerous as the tales of the elders. "How could anyone die because of this?" Both thought.
Ruri, sensing their agitation, spoke calmly, turning to face them. "Master knows what he’s doing, trust him. Just obey."
Alm and Bruno thanked her for those words. Neither Langrum nor Almin got too worked up; they wouldn’t have the courage to shout and oppose that little girl. So, they stayed silent and followed alongside.
Everyone was already in the Foundation Establishnt Realm and didn’t need to sleep every day, but Ruri wasn’t. When it reached midnight, she simply nestled in the chests of Alm and Bruno, covering herself with earth runes and sleeping deeply. She was more like a baby at that point.
Langrum saw that and felt strange. How could this little one sleep so closely attached to that malicious whale was a mystery. But she could instinctively sense that when the storm beca more intense, the whale made a detour, and everything beca smoother.
’He... can he know where we’re going?’ She thought in astonishnt. Even the elders walked carefully in the desert. They had many maps and followed strict rules to avoid storms. But this whale seed to be strolling calmly.
’Well, the projection for the first mission destination was three days away. I can still ch-’ It was at that mont that her thoughts were cut off with Alm and Bruno stopping abruptly.
The whale spoke: "Get ready, we’ve reached the first place, and sothing strong is guarding the underground."
"What? Don’t be ridiculous. We’re still far away," said Langrum.
"The path given by the mission information was with detours and stops. We ca in an almost straight line, so we’re already here," Bruno replied calmly.
Langrum was about to retort, but suddenly, the ground below them shook violently. Beneath them, the earth began to move and open. A killing intent was felt as a beast below was attacking. Then, the three ran in opposite directions, feeling the danger.
A giant crater opened in the sand, and they saw a massive shadow erging. They were still in the middle of the storm, so only now did Langrum realize that they had separated, and she could see very little ahead.
The pressure from the beast was deadly. Its cultivation should be even higher than all of them... How would they survive this? Despair began to take hold of her.
It was at this mont that the laws around them suddenly froze. The winds stopped circulating... the storm imdiately ceased... and light penetrated the world around. The full moon and stars in the sky showed their brilliance, gently illuminating everything.
Almin and Langrum, with astonished looks, saw the colossal whale floating, its eyes brown like earth shining like beacons in that luminous night. The laws of the earth and the entire desert seed to resonate with that being.
Then he smiled and spoke. "Am I so beautiful that you can’t take your eyes away? Too bad, though. You should instead pay attention to your back... if you don’t want to die, that is."
For a mont, both Almin and Langrum wanted to curse Alm. However, the latter part of his words made them wake up. Only then did they turn around and see that giant beast that looked like a black earth crocodile. It’s just that the beast was as frightened as they were after seeing the sudden change in the environnt.
Almin was of no help at all, so Langrum advanced alone but with confidence. She wouldn’t lose even if she were a few levels weaker in a direct confrontation. The beast then opened its jaws, and with each bite, space seed to be sucked into its mouth.
Almin was so slow that he was almost swallowed by it, but Langrum kicked him violently, sending him flying away.
"This pet of yours is too weak!" She shouted as she leaped and slashed with her black saber.
In a few exchanges, the beast found itself cornered; it couldn’t devour them. It was just too weak without the advantages of the environnt. When it tried to return underground, it realized it was completely stuck on the surface. Then, it knew it was in a cage created by that human floating mystically.
It decided to use its last resort and opened its mouth. At that mont, Alm shouted, "Almin, this is your chance! Ti to be useful."
Almin, who was already a bit away, heard that with a question in his mind. Then, he felt a presence behind him and turned around. Sohow, the whale appeared there! With a swift motion, a kick hit his back, sending him flying.
He flew towards the beast’s mouth, screaming as desperation took hold of him.
Langrum, who felt sothing was wrong, took a few steps back, watching in astonishnt as that figure flew towards the beast. "What are you doing? Are you sacrificing him!?"
"Just watch. He’s not... well, maybe a bit useless. But he has so qualities." Bruno replied, trying to defend his little brother a bit.
It was at that mont that Langrum felt intense heat, so strong that even breathing made her lungs ache. The world was then illuminated by a red sun in front of them. It wasn’t Almin, but the beast who released that fire attack!
"This beast was... a beast that also controlled fire!" Langrum murmured, frightened. Even if she had known before and had run, it wouldn’t have mattered. This flaming power was so dense that it would kill her. Now, she was so close that she couldn’t even dream of running.
Then, the calm voice beside her erged: "Not exactly. That’s an external power this beast absorbed. It must have co from so treasure of an elder who died. But it’s so connected with the beast that it has beco its own. It even created a core of flas on top of the earth power it has."
Langrum jumped in fright when she noticed Alm there. ’How could this whale be so fast?’ But she soon felt that all that heat she was feeling disappeared imdiately. Her face twisted, but an explosion of flas shattered her thoughts.
BOOM!
An area of several ters was completely engulfed by the power of the flas. And it took several minutes for the fla to calm down a bit.
Within the flas, a small space was calm. Inside, Langrum was properly protected from the flas as Alm and Bruno looked ahead leisurely.
"How... could you protect but not protect that guy?" She murmured as she thought about how Alm sacrificed Almin.
"Hm? Protect him?" Alm replied without turning to her. "There was no need. Like I said, he has his uses."
Then, the sound of sothing heavy hitting the ground was heard by her.
With the fall, she managed to see through the flas the trembling figure of Almin holding his spear. As for the best, it fell dead.
"He burned himself a bit... Well, not much to be done." Alm comnted, then jumped forward.
Despite the power of the laws of fire being completely integrated into the beast, it was still sothing that cost a lot of energy to use. Soon, Almin, who was at the sa cultivation level as the beast and was not so affected by fire laws, found himself facing the beast completely defenseless. That’s because the beast had gone all out with that fire attack, just for it to be of little use against Almin. In the end, Almin injured himself quite a bit but then only needed to pierce it once to kill it.
After the beast died, Almin and Langrum watched without words as the whale pierced the heart of that giant body with a sword. Then, a core the size of a fist was ripped out by him. It was red as fire, and just looking at it made the mind cloudy. Yet, the whale didn’t even give it a second look and threw the core behind them where Almin was located.
"Absorb this beast fla. It’s not very strong, but it will help with your main power." They told Almin, who grabbed the flaming core in the air, still startled.
Then, with another movent, Langrum saw the giant beast completely disappear, as if it had entered the deep void.
’I... I wasn’t the carrier?’ She reflected, frightened.
The whale turned around and closed his eyes. Then, a large amount of sand began to flow through the air again as the sandstorm slowly returned. Right after, all the residual fire was quickly extinguished.
"Let’s go fast. We’ll reach the next point tomorrow." Alm said briskly, turning around.
Only after a few seconds, Langrum and Almin ran after the whale with bewildered expressions on their faces.
’What was all that? Is he really just one stage of cultivation higher than ?’ Langrum couldn’t believe it. Instinctively, mories of the test ca to mind. He really was abnormal from the beginning...
Ruri slept peacefully the whole ti, covered by earth runes. On the next day, when she woke up, she was astonished to realize sothing strange. Neither Almin nor Langrum was complaining and cursing anymore.
She gave a penetrating look to Langrum and thought, ’What did they do together last night?’
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