Chapter 149
The monster known as the Sea Elder was an exceptionally large individual among the fishn.
In truth, it wasn't just its size that was large.
A bit of ancient mana, a little of a mysterious origin, and a heaping of madness and disgust.
Between a fishman and a Sea Elder, there was a difference comparable to that between a common magical beast and a phantom beast.
And there were over thirty of such Sea Elders.
The sight of them writhing in the dark water pit visible through the crack in the rock was utterly disgusting and grotesque.
Kobet felt his sanity chipping away just by looking at the thirty Sea Elders and his mind was already not in a sound state.
“…….”
Athus bowed his head with a sorrowful expression.
Even in the dark cave, his face was unusually shadowed.
“Is there no other way…….”
His heart was filled with lant.
Thirty Sea Elders, monsters that seed to co straight out of old tales.
Even for soone like him, he had no choice but to use his sword.
It ant he had no choice but to let his precious sword be covered in toxic and foul-slling blood.
He looked down at the double-edged sword he always carried.
It was much smaller than when he first got it.
Having used it for over 10 years, it had naturally and slowly shrunk in size.
This double-edged sword was a gift from Ferbias, his old friend who was now the Emperor of the Cordis Empire.
Even for Ferbias, it was sothing he had bought with his own money during his student days, so it wasn't an exceptionally outstanding item.
It was certainly a good sword, but it wasn't made with the intention of being used for over 10 years.
Though he always ticulously maintained it, every single chip or damage was agonizing.
And now he had to cut down such monsters.
To let his precious sword be covered in toxic blood! Athus felt a sorrow close to despair.
“Sir Knight.”
Kobet carefully opened his mouth.
The old man had so inkling of Athus's feelings.
“I found sothing like this…….”
“No way……!”
Athus's face brightened in an instant.
“Thank you so much, Kobet!”
He took a worn-out blade from the old man's hand.
Its original shape was hard to recognize, but it seed to be a harpoon.
He couldn't guess why it had drifted here and it was so worn it was barely a blade, but it didn't matter.
This was more than excellent.
Athus swung the old harpoon a couple of tis.
A truly murderous sound was made.
He bead and entrusted his double-edged sword to the old man.
Now that he had a harpoon, it was ti to catch so fish.
“Lucky .”
He leaped as if flying, holding the harpoon.
The Sea Elders didn't even notice.
Athus, with the montum of his leap, pierced through the head of one Sea Elder.
Its head disappeared as if it exploded and its body collapsed.
Blood splattered in all directions.
The Sea Elders were simply bewildered.
It was dark, making it hard to see what had happened, and only the sll of blood was clear.
Athus, though tall for a human, was very small compared to a Sea Elder. The Sea Elders couldn't easily spot Athus.
By the ti one monster clearly recognized Athus and the old harpoon in his hand and let out a scream, ten of the thirty were already dead.
“Human……!”
“It's a human……!”
Though discovered, Athus was unfazed.
He had no intention of hiding in the first place.
He was just too fast for them to have spotted him.
“As I thought, these things also speak the Imperial language.”
His grip tightened with growing displeasure.
The remaining Sea Elders felt a chill.
They had an uneasy premonition that they would beco corpses in a more grueso state than their already dead comrades, and soon, that beca a reality.
The thirty Sea Elders soon transford into ten corpses in a grueso state and twenty corpses in a more grueso state.
The fishy sll of blood was now beyond description.
Kobet, whose nose was already numb, nonchalantly approached Athus and handed him the scabbard.
Athus roughly washed himself and took the sword.
They walked on without a word.
Down, further down.
To a deeper, darker place.
How far does this cave continue?
How far down does it go?
It becos endlessly deep and dark.
Yet the ground they trod on becos increasingly flat.
As if touched by human hands.
But those hands seed to be from a very long ti ago.
It looked to be at least a thousand years old.
Athus swept his hand across the wall.
Wiping away the water moss and ancient gri revealed a bas-relief.
The stone wall was filled with drawings that seed to worship sothing.
There were letters too, but they were unreadable.
It wasn't the Ancient Hotus language; it seed to be from an even earlier ti.
Before Cordis, there was Hotus.
Before Hotus, the Ancient Tis.
Could this undersea cave be a temple that served an Ancient God long ago?
Athus felt a warmth in his chest. He took out a white mask from within his clothes.
‘Breath of Light…….’
Seven years ago, on Aretion Island, he had cut the lifeline of the Ancient God his family had served.
The Breath of Light had torn off its face and given it to Athus.
Along with the words, ‘do not forget .’
That face, the white mask that had changed to fit Athus's face perfectly, was growing hot.
This was the first ti in seven years such a thing had happened.
He had always carried the face of the Breath of Light, but not once had it grown hot or humd.
What in this undersea cave had awakened the remains of an Ancient God?
Athus, lost in thought, suddenly raised his head.
“Stop, Kobet.”
His jade eyes flashed.
“Soone is here.”
***
“I knew the fishn were being loud…….”
A dragging tone, the Imperial language with a Hobel Bay accent.
From the darkness, a man slowly walked out.
“Who the hell are you to have co this far?”
“…….”
Instead of answering, Athus put on the white mask, the face of the Breath of Light.
He had only brought it to his face, but it wrapped around his skin.
It clung so tightly he worried he might not be able to take it off again.
Fire ignited on the head of the masked Athus.
It resembled the Breath of Light, which had an incandescent light orb instead of a head.
However, the fla on Athus's head was jade-colored; it illuminated the surroundings but was not hot. Instead, a strange power seed to flow through it.
The white mask and the jade fla startled Kobet.
The man with the Hobel Bay accent was startled as well.
He was holding a large spear in his hand.
“…That mask, it’s imbued with the power of an Ancient God.”
“Is that so?”
“You’re calm.”
The spear-wielding man scoffed.
“It’s a sha you can’t reveal your na. If you did, you wouldn’t be so calm.”
“Perhaps.”
“…You have a talent for irking people with just a few words.”
The man clicked his tongue.
Athus's face was not visible because of the mask.
Moreover, with the jade fla blazing from his head, his other features seed trivial.
“What on earth are you thinking?”
“I was thinking how fortunate this is.”
Athus drew his double-edged sword.
It was terribly sharp.
“Because it seems my sword won't be damaged even if I cut you.”
“Ha……!”
The man's na was Oholius.
He felt utterly flabbergasted.
“How can there be such an arrogant brat…….”
Oholius was a centurion of the Cordis 9th Legion.
His rank was just below the Legion Commander, and so was his skill.
He had found his Ars of the soul, and was a man worthy of the title of Master west of the Great Mountain Range.
Does not the fact that he was solely managing the Hatchery of Calamity prove the Empire's trust in him?
“You, you’re arrogant.”
“You too.”
Oholius’s head rolled to the ground.
He was a Cordis centurion, and the fact that he had blocked Athus's sword three tis proved his skill.
However, he did not possess the skill to block Athus's sword a fourth ti.
Athus took out a cloth and wiped his sword.
Compared to the fishn's blood, human blood had almost no stench.
Kobet wasn't even surprised.
After Athus had sliced up thirty Sea Elders and parted the sea, he figured there was nothing to be surprised about him cutting down one human.
It was a natural thought for Kobet, who didn't know that Oholius was a Cordis centurion.
“Let's go down, Kobet.”
Athus took off the mask.
Now that Oholius was dead, there was no need to hide his face.
His worry that it might not co off because it had stuck so tightly was a lie, as it ca off with ease.
“I think the next one is the last.”
***
On their way down, there was a place with a particularly foul stench.
Kobet wanted to pass by quickly, but Athus stopped.
Since venturing into this undersea cave without Athus ant certain death, Kobet had no choice but to stop as well.
Athus put on the mask again.
The jade fla blazed, illuminating the surroundings.
He followed the stench and found a pile of sothing.
Athus instantly saw through the pile's identity and fell silent.
“…….”
He glared at the pile.
Anger mingled within the blazing jade fla.
Kobet did not yet know the pile's identity.
Athus let out a deep sigh.
It wasn't easy to speak.
Still, he had to.
“…Kobet.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Do you know why I brought you all the way here?”
“Well…….”
It couldn't have been as a guide.
He knew less about this undersea cave than Athus did.
Kobet had been nothing but a burden to Athus all along.
Of course, it was a very light burden for Athus.
“Because it seed you had a reason to hate the fishn.”
“Don't tell …….”
He was an old man whose mind was not sound.
He had been like that ever since he lost his son.
But because of that, he realized what Athus was about to say.
“Who did you lose?”
“My son, my only son…….”
“…I believe you’ll have to check.”
“Ah, ah……!”
Only then did Kobet realize the identity of that pile and let out a gasp.
His face contorted in grief, but he couldn't stop walking.
Athus was kind enough to raise the jade fla higher so that he could look into the pile.
That pile was a pile of human corpses.
Those who had been abducted by the fishn and lost their lives were stacked like trash.
There were so that were just beginning to rot, and so that were already rotted away to bone.
Tears flowed down Kobet's wrinkled and dirty face.
“Oh, ooh…….”
He wept as he searched through the pile.
Athus did not help.
It was sothing the old man had to do himself.
Even if he was cut by sharp bones and the rotten flesh and blood seeped into the wounds.
“Rakle, Rakle……!”
Very tragically, the old man found him.
Among the pile, he found familiar clothes and a familiar necklace.
He had bought them himself, so there was no way he wouldn't know.
“…Why are you here? Why are you here, Rakle…….”
At the sight of his kin, rotted to the bone, the old man sobbed and sobbed.
“…My son, my son, my son Rakle… If only I were here instead, if only I had rotted in your place…….”
“…….”
Athus could only feel pity.
He felt he owed a great debt to the na of Aretion, to his own family.
That was why he wanted to help the old man who had lost his family find at least the remains.
It went as he had intended, and as expected, he was heartbroken.
“My son, my son…….”
“Wait.”
Athus said coldly.
He roughly pushed the old man who was hugging his son's remains.
The sobbing Kobet tumbled helplessly.
Athus stood as if to protect him and placed his hand on his sword's hilt.
‘…It was too faint to notice, but there was a sound of breathing from within the pile of corpses.’
With his hand on the hilt, he slowly dug through the pile.
Kobet, with tear-filled eyes, watched what he was doing.
Athus soon found a small life among the pile of corpses.
“What is this…….”
“Ooh…….”
It was a little girl.
She looked to be about six years old.
“…She’s still breathing. It seems she fainted from exhaustion after starving for so long.”
The child was wrapped in clothes.
She must have hidden like that in the pile of corpses, holding her breath in the clothes to avoid the fishn's eyes. Kobet slowly raised his hand.
“Those clothes, those clothes are… Rakle’s…….”
The clothes wrapped around the child were Rakle's, Kobet's son's.
It looked as if soone had wrapped her up to protect her, rather than her having done it herself.
Kobet slowly approached the child.
Athus did not stop him.
The old man carefully, very carefully, extended his hand.
As if he regarded the small life as a phantom that would disappear if he even breathed too loudly.
The old man's hand is wrinkled and dirty.
He very lightly touched the child's hand.
The child was unconscious.
Yet it was a wondrous thing that she held on tightly as soon as the old man's hand touched hers.
Even while unconscious, the child gripped the old man's hand with all her might.
Looking at the child wrapped in his son's clothes, the old man shed tears.
“Let's get out, child…….”
The tears were strangely hot.
“Let's get out of here…….”
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