Book 2: Chapter 433
What was this?
“—huk.”
He couldn’t breathe.
What the hell happened?
Firstly, he noticed that he could see the sky. Then, he wondered if it really could be called the sky since it seemed to be a mixture of strange colours, but that wasn’t really important right now.
Why was he looking at the sky?
‘…it hurts.’
He felt pain as if his back had been broken. Phew. He let out a slow breath.
This was dangerous.
If the sand hadn’t acted as a cushion, that probably would have been the end of him. He must have lost consciousness, and the condition of his body must have been much worse.
‘So…’
He slowly began to regain his memories.
He had approached Pale and stretched out his hand.
He had intended to give her a finger flick. Of course, if he hit her with full strength, he would break her skull, so he’d intended to control his strength to a moderate level.
Half a step away.
He’d stopped just within reach and stretched out his finger.
And immediately afterward, his view was flipped, and he felt a sensation as if his body was floating. Kasajin had almost been buried in the sand, and that was how the situation became what it was now.
As he looked blankly at the sky, Pale’s face suddenly popped into the edge of his vision.
Kasajin looked up at that innocent face and asked.
“What are you?”
“Eh.”
Blatant disappointment spread across Pale’s face.
“What’s with… that face?”
“Your reaction was boring.”
“What did you expect?”
“Something like, ‘You fucking bitch! What the hell kind of trick did you use?!’?”
“Only shameless bastards would react like that. I’m sorry, but I’m not like that.”
“I see.”
Pale smiled and held out her hand.
Perhaps it was a display of kindness, but a displeased expression appeared on Kasajin’s face.
“What do you take me for?”
Then he got up on his own. He felt some pain in his back as he did so, but he didn’t show it.
Pale withdrew her outstretched hand and grinned.
“A man who confidently got into a fight and got thrown to the ground in one hit.”
“Let’s go again.”
As he said this, Kasajin took a stance. A misty stream of air flowed from his rock-like body.
“This time, I’ll take you seriously.”
It wasn’t just his expression that became serious. The aura that erupted from him was so violent that it began to disrupt space itself. Woowoowoong, the atmosphere also began to shake as if it was frightened.
“So you’ve decided to take me more seriously now?”
“Right. So let’s try again.”
“Ahaha. In the time you said that, you could have attacked several times.”
“I’m not so shameless as to attack an unprepared opponent.”
Pale’s expression changed subtly.
“Prepared? You want me to take a stance?”
“That is only fair.”
“Puha. Ahaha…”
Pale grabbed her stomach and burst into laughter. It was a bright, clear laugh, but the laugh didn’t make Kasajin feel good at all.
What was so funny? He didn’t even bother asking. Instead, his gaze simply continued to grow colder as his momentum rose.
Then, when her laughter finally stopped, he spoke.
“Are you done?”
“No. I didn’t laugh enough… Pfft.”
Pale wiped away tears from the corners of her eyes.
“Hey. Do you really think you’re in a position to talk about fairness?”
“What?”
“This is enough. Even when I’m defenceless like this, uncle won’t be a threat to me even if you do your best.”
“Can you take responsibility for those words?”
“We’ve been talking for a while now.”
Pale smiled and snapped her fingers.
“Enough talking, let’s get on with it.”
* * *
Kasajin charged in and was laid out on the ground once more.
“…”
The difference in skill was clear. To be honest, it was absurd.
As he looked, blankly, up at the sky, he asked.
“Are you, a Demigod?”
“Huh?”
He didn’t feel any divine power, but if this woman was a Demigod, then that would explain her ridiculous strength. Of course, it was true that Kasajin had proven his strength by slaying a Demigod, but in all honesty, that Demigod wasn’t particularly strong among the Demigods.
Like humans, there were also different degrees of individual strength among the Demigods.
The Demigod who used poison was like that, and Lord, their leader, was someone they couldn’t even figure out how to defeat.
“What’s that?”
Pale responded with a smirk.
Was she pretending? Kasajin narrowed his eyes as he looked at the other party, but in all honesty, he couldn’t tell.
With that attitude, it was impossible to infer any truth or falsehoods. Something like that? He wasn’t Iris.
The only thing Kasajin could do was ask straightforward questions.
“…what are you?”
She held out her hand again.
“I’m Pale!”
“…”
“Are you not going to grab it?”
Kasajin looked at her hand before grabbing it and getting to his feet. His hard palm clasped a hard palm that didn’t match her slim physique at all.
“Wow. You grabbed it this time. Did you have a change of heart?”
“You are stronger than me.”
“Huh?”
“That’s it.”
Pale tilted her head to the side, but Kasajin didn’t say anything else.
To be precise, he felt that the current Pale had that right.
Because that was one of the rights of the strong, the winner.
* * *
Pale gave him some explanations about ‘how to exist’ in this world. To be honest, he didn’t think it would be a problem to call it ‘how to live’. After all, what she taught him was basically the laws of the jungle. Kasajin acknowledged that he had a lot to learn, so he graciously accepted her instructions.
“You’re kinda slow.”
“Why can’t you understand something so simple?”
“What a waste of size. Ugh.”
He didn’t lose his temper even when she occasionally uttered insidious remarks.
“Uncle, you’re a little different from the way you look.”
“What does that mean?”
“You look like you’d get mad if someone even touched you.”
“…”
Was she saying that he was more patient than he looked? In fact, this reaction wasn’t unfamiliar to him. Many people looked at Kasajin and believed he was simple, ignorant, and hot headed. But in fact, he was nothing of the sort.
Nevertheless, there was one reason why he didn’t express his feelings to Pale even when he was scolded or bullied.
Pale was a strong person, whose ability surpassed Kasajin.
-Pale didn’t give a clear explanation about this place, but Kasajin was gradually able to realise that this was not his world. Despite having wandered around a lot on his own, he had never heard of a place with a grey desert and colourful sky.
Most of all, in this place, if you didn’t eat, you would begin to disappear from your toes. At first, he thought it was some kind of curse.
‘This is a terribly large place.’
Even in the Amakan desert, which was the largest area on the continent, if he were to walk in one direction for this long he would eventually come out, but not in this place.
Monsters continued to appear from time to time. Kasajin passed time by giving names to the unique monsters.
…Or at least that was the way it seemed, in truth, most of his attention was on Pale.
‘What is she doing?’
More than hundreds of times a day, Kasajin would look for an opening. His goal was a surprise attack. It wasn’t a fair act, but what could he say? Pale was strong. She was overwhelmingly powerful. She even accepted the weak and somewhat cowardly challenge. Or at least that was how it appeared to Kasajin.
And yet, he couldn’t see any. He couldn’t find them.
He constantly replayed simulations.
A powerful punch. His fist was crushed.
A roundhouse kick. His leg was torn off.
A headbutt. His skull was smashed and his brain was splattered.
…No matter what form the battle took, all he could see was defeat.
Then, at some point, the desert disappeared and was replaced by endless water. At first, it looked deep enough to remind him of the sea, but upon taking a step into it, he realised that it barely met his ankles.
“Where are we going?”
He asked this question after about a month or so. In fact, the passage of time was simply Kasajin’s guess. Because this world didn’t seem to have day and night.
“You are not the king.”
Pale answered without looking back.
Not the king? Kasajin let out a laugh.
“Not? I am the king.”
“Huh?”
“Haha. So there’s something that even you don’t know.”
“…”
Pale stopped and turned to look at Kasajin.
Was she upset? Was she surprised? Whatever it was, it felt like he’d one upped her for the first time.”
Kasajin smiled confidently and pointed towards himself.
“Did you not hear? Are you some kind of half-baked newbie Demigod who doesn’t know about anything? This father is the Magic Warrior King Kasajin who buries his fists in bastards’ faces.”
“…”
Seeing as she didn’t seem to understand, he repeated himself.
“Magic Warrior… King.”
“…Ah~”
Pale’s attitude quickly became lukewarm again.
“I see.”
“What’s with that attitude?”
“It’s nothing~”
Kasajin frowned as he followed her.
“More than that. Isn’t it about time that you gave me some answers? I think I should at least know where we are and who you are.”
“This is the Northern Region, and I’m Pale.”
“This fucker.”
In the end, he spat out a curse at her vague attitude. Did she want him to jump at her and try to kill her? He didn’t think he wanted anything more than to punch the back of her defenceless head at that moment.
Just as he began to seriously think about it, Pale stopped walking.
“I’m kidding, we’re almost there.”
Then she pointed somewhere.
“…what is that?”
Kasajin narrowed his eyes.
It was a sword. A single sword that seemed to release a strange red light.
It was stuck in the surface of the water.
“What is it? Do you want me to pull that out?”
“Yeah.”
“Why?”
“To know if you’re a Knight or not.”
“I think you made a mistake. I’m not the type to use a sword, you’re looking for someone else.”
“We’re here already, so just pick it up. Swordsmanship doesn’t really matter.”
“…”
With an unwilling expression, Kasajin walked across the water. Up close, the sword was more menacing than he thought. How to say it? He instinctively felt like he didn’t want to touch it.
But upon feeling the dagger-like gaze on his back, he forced himself to grab the sword.
“…kng.”
It wouldn’t come out. It didn’t even budge.
What the hell was this?
He immediately got carried away. The thought of just pretending to pick it up disappeared in an instant.
Kasajin grabbed the hilt of the sword with both hands and pulled with all of his might.
“Uahhhh!”
“Why are you screaming?”
Pale covered her ears and muttered, but, naturally, Kasajin didn’t hear her. The tendons on his arms bulged.
“…”
Crunch.
He grit his teeth. He used so much strength that cracks began to form on his molars. Both of his eyes were bloodshot, and the surface of the water beneath his feet shook heavily.
But the sword remained immovable.
“…huah!”
Eventually, Kasajin raised the white flag. He panted heavily as he collapsed on his ass in the water.
“What… is this?”
“Heart Knight*. Mm, I guess you’re not a Knight either.” (*: Or night, there is no guarantee yet)
“How many times have I told you, I’m a Magic Warrior…”
“Then it’s confirmed. You came here to be one of the Twelve Void Lords.”
“What?”
“I’m curious.”
Pale’s eyes curved like crescent moons.
“Which of the Twelve Void Lords will disappear.”
* * *
Pale said that the closest ones to them were the Dump Site, Utopia, and Room of Gold.
It was only later that Kasajin learned that those three places were the territories of three of the Twelve Void Lords.
In any case, he visited the territories and fought the Void Lords.
“…”
He was smashed.
They couldn’t be called fights, instead, they were disastrous defeats.
He saw his death hundreds of times in each fight. Nevertheless, it was purely thanks to Pale’s existence that he was still alive.
‘…am I this weak?’
Kasajin couldn’t help but think so as his shattered body regenerated once again.
“You’re getting stronger!”
He heard Pale’s voice. He became even more curious about her true identity.
Regardless of whether it was the Corpse Ghost, God’s Envoy, or Golden Eye, who smashed Kasajin one after the other, they all tucked their tails between their legs in front of her.
“…when fighting the gold eyes, I lasted three more seconds.”
After giving the self deprecating reply, Kasajin continued.
“There are twelve of them.”
“Yeah.”
“Are you one too? One of the Twelve Void Lords?”
“No.”
Twelve Void Lords.
…Twelve people.
“What positions were those three in among the twelve?”
He was talking about their strength.
“Well. Golden Eye is around the top, God’s Envoy is around the middle… and I think Corpse Ghost is near the bottom.”
This was something that Kasajin couldn’t have known on his own.
This was because he was beaten before he even knew what was happening, so he couldn’t measure the strength of his opponents.
“In any case, the north was a loss, so how about we go south next? We can stop by the castle before we go.”
“South? Who’s there?”
“[The 4th Beast], [Deathworm], and [The Beginning Wizard].”
He shouldn’t have asked.
Even if he heard their names, he didn’t know who they were.
“Ah. Keep in mind.”
Then Pale said something that even Kasajin, who barely knew anything about the ‘Twelve Void Lords’, had no choice but to pay attention to.
“The Beginning Wizard is the strongest among the current Twelve Void Lords.”