A figure was running, leaping over the peaks of the mountain range.
With each leap, the ground cracked and trembled. It was a sight that could cause doubt to anyone who saw it.
The Fifth Lord—the Beast King had already left Gaitan Lake and was crossing the mountain range to the southeast.
She stopped in front of a peak for a moment, not breathing a single breath.
“...Ha.”
The Beast King, who had been quietly staring into the air, burst out laughing out of nowhere.
It was because the thrill she had felt before had not yet completely gone away.
‘Then I’ll have to kill you too.’
It was such a feeble threat, but she felt eerie for a moment that she had goose bumps all over her back.
The Seventh Lord, when he spoke those words, really wanted to kill herself. She was sure of it.
However, some bastard who was about to die intervened, and the other forgot about it.
“Should I have pushed him harder?”
With great regret, she licked her lips with her tongue.
The battle to fight and kill each other was the most intense bliss she felt in her life.
Who would have survived if the iron rule of Lords not fighting against each other had been broken and they properly fought one another?
She was confident that she could kill all other Lords except for the Overlord, but she wasn’t so confident that she could do the same to that human, the Seventh Lord.
The Seventh Lord was never under her in terms of power. Even with a brief friction, she instinctively sensed it.
“Ha, shit. I can’t get the excitement down.”
Aww!
The Beast King, who clenched and opened her hand, clenched her fist. The huge peak in front collapsed completely.
She slammed the ground and flew high into the air again, continuing her movement.
She was getting tired of hunting monsters again. Maybe she should go to the eastern border to hunt demons.
***
After finding the Mystery of [Space Leap], and seeing the Seawater people left for their hometown, all work to be done on the Gaitan Lake had been completed.
After paying the commission promised to Havel, who enchanted him with underwater breathing magic, we separated and we left for the next destination.
“Are you talking about the chief mage of the Santea Imperial Family…?”
Asher’s expression hardened.
When I told her about what had happened at the lake, this was her reaction.
Because it was such a huge collision, she felt the presence from afar, but after thinking about what to do with the order to stay where she was, she stayed in the wagon. It was a good thing, as it wouldn’t have helped much if she had come, anyway.
“The chieftain died during the battle, and the rest of the Seawater people started their travel back to their home safely.”
“...I see.”
After hearing all the stories, Asher’s expression was a mixture of sadness and anger.
Perhaps it was her past that overlapped.
Because her tribe was annihilated by Santea’s forces and by one of the five stars.
“...”
I stared at Asher, whose eyes were sullen.
To be honest, I felt sorry for her.
Because, having played the game, I already knew that no one had survived the annihilation of the White Moon tribe other than her.
Of course, there was no way she could tacitly believe what she said, and there was no way to prove how I knew it.
But anyway, I knew the truth and needed her, so I was using it as a bait.
Her purpose in life was to find survivors of her clan and to take revenge on Santea.
Once she found out that there were no survivors in her clan, the only meaning left in her life was revenge.
In the game, she had already made valuable friends before she found out about that fact, so she no longer wanted to get involved in revenge. But I didn’t know what would happen now that I had changed the story.
The image of Anne screaming desperately in front of the chieftain’s corpse flashes through my mind.
If possible, I wanted to support Asher so that she would not go astray even after learning the truth, but this was a matter of emotion, not something that game knowledge could solve.
'I think I’ve broken down quite a few of her barriers in our journey together so far, but the intimacy she has with me right now wasn’t that deep.'
“Are you sure you want to get revenge on Santea?”
Asher looked at me, startled at my question.
Soon she answered with a complicated face.
“Honestly, I don’t know. Right now, I’m just concentrating on finding surviving members of my tribe.”
...Right.
I nodded and looked out the window.
Originally, I had planned to procrastinate as much as possible, but I changed my mind.
Whatever the outcome, if the opportunity arose, I would take Asher to that place as soon as possible.
'Anyway, now there is one place left.'
The search for the Mystery was now at the end.
However, I had a foreboding that finding this Mystery would be the most difficult road on the journey so far.
Because the hidden place was none other than a demonic land. So I put it at the last place we should go to.
If I didn’t get either the [Blood Art] or the [Floating Veil], I might have postponed the search for this Mystery altogether.
Demonic land, Hallmenta.
As the name suggested, the term “demonic land” referred to an area where ordinary creatures could not live.
A land of death where all kinds of bizarre terrain, environments, meteorological phenomena, and monsters beyond common sense existed.
On this continent, there were five demonic lands.
And now the place I was going to go to was a place called Hallmenta, which was very close to Calderic, a long way to the northwest of here.
'It has a lot of monsters, but the terrain is also no joke.'
Anyway, as long as I had [Blood Art] and a [Floating Veil], no matter how powerful the monsters I faced were, there’s no big risk.
And since I got the [Space Leap], I didn’t have to worry about the terrain with many obstacles, even if I didn’t have Asher. I would still take her with me, though.
No matter how much magic I had, unless the opponent was a named boss, I could deal with almost any monster. Even Asher could do that as well.
I suddenly got curious and asked.
“Have you ever been to a demonic land?”
Asher answered with a puzzled look.
“I have not.”
“Then you’ll be able to experience it this time.”
“...Yes?”
“The next destination is the demonic land called Hallmenta.”
Asher blinked at my words.
The carriage traveled a long way and came to a city on the western frontier of the First Lord’s territory.
From there, I decided to just let Baros stay in the city.
He wasn’t at a low level per se, but to be honest, it seemed like it would be a bit of a burden to go with him in the demonic land.
Anyway, this was like telling him to wait while guarding the carriage, just like how it was usually during our travels.
This demonic land was so terribly wide that it was impossible to know how long it would take to find this Mystery.
Of course, because of Baros’ personality, he insisted on following us. But I simply used my authority to stop him from doing so.
“Then let’s go.”
Baros saw us off at the entrance to the city gates.
I left the city on horseback with Asher.
I practiced riding a horse while I was staying in the city for a few days.
It was the first time I ever rode a horse in my life, but I was able to quickly learn it thanks to my [Super Sensory].
As my senses developed, my motor nerves seemed to have also improved.
After practicing for a few days, my horse riding skill had reached a level where I could ride without holding the reins.
While riding my horse, I opened the map and looked at the road.
It was a map which was obtained at an expensive price. It roughly marked the topography of the northwestern part of Calderic and even the topography of the demonic land.
We couldn’t find a guide to guide us, so this Mystery search had to be done completely on our own.
Ha...
To be honest, I couldn’t really tell anything much just by looking at the map
These were the areas where I used to come and go while playing the game, as if I was just traipsing through a park.
However, as one might have seen through the journey so far, the game and my current reality had different standards, so my geographic knowledge based on the game was meaningless.
It’s better to not have the expectation that we could travel comfortably and just roll with whatever might come our way.
A long time passed while we travelled on horseback.
Gradually, as the landscape of the demonic land drew closer, changes occurred in the surrounding environment and topography.
Dark clouds in the sky blocked the sunlight even during the day, and the grasses gradually disappeared, making it difficult to find anything remotely green.
Instead, only the desolate stretch of land and rocks glowing with dark red light often came into view.
Perhaps the horses also felt the ominous energy floating in the air, and the more they moved, the more they stopped and trembled.
“Let’s take a break before we continue.”
“Yes.”
We settled down and had lunch.
It was a scenery that wasn’t really suited for eating, but we had to fill our stomach.
It was always Baros’ job to prepare the meal, but now Asher was taking his place.
What was surprising was that, although not as good as Baros, she was also very good at cooking.
She used to live in the mountains, so that’s probably only natural. Especially considering that she was a wanderer for a long time before entering the Overlord Castle.
kugugu.
Amid our meal, a group of monsters came from across the plains.
It was a bipedal bird-type monster that looked like a giant ostrich. It was called a Mad Bird, if he remembered correctly. They inhabited the plains.
Asher got up silently and tried to deal with the monsters, but when she looked back, she saw another huge thing behind them.
[Lv. 61]
A giant lizard with two heads.
I raised my [Super Sensory] and zoomed in on the giant lizard.
...Twin Headed Lizard?
When asked to pick out bizarre monsters from the demonic land, one of the representative ones was the monsters with multiple heads.
Twin Headed Lizard was one of them.
So, the Mad Birds were not running in our direction to attack us, but they were being pursued by the Twin Headed Lizard.
As we got closer to the demonic land, it seemed that monsters that were near the border were already appearing.
Of course, there was no mercy in Asher’s hands.
The huge sword energy fired by Asher rushed towards the group of monsters.
The sword aura tore up all the Mad Birds and cut down even those at the back. But...
Keek!
Surprisingly, the lizard withstood Asher’s attack.
While its blood poured on the ground, it frantically shook its head and rushed with a scream.
Asher raised her eyebrows and fired a sword energy once more. It was a sword aura with a much stronger energy than before.
It finally split the lizard that was hit by it again in half.
Asher drew her sword with a slightly uneasy expression.
I could see why she looked worried.
The monsters of the demonic land are mostly like that.
They were not only strong but also aggressive and ferocious if compared to normal monsters.
If it was just a normal monster, it wouldn’t be strange if it immediately died right after Asher’s first attack. But this one was clearly different.
Of course, there were also monsters that were incomparably weaker. In short, there were a lot of annoying monsters here and there.
Even in the game, hunting monsters in the demonic land was like committing suicide unless you were at a certain level.
“Ah.”
As she sat back down to eat, she sighed briefly when she saw her soup bowl spilled.
Because she suddenly stood up earlier, it fell over and spilled.
I looked at the scene and smiled, then our eyes met. She coughed in embarrassment and poured another soup into her bowl.
“Eat more.”
“...Yes.”
