Chapter 249. Ain (4)

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Rummblee.

The Ains.

A fascinating race which had a lot of secrets.

But they had a peculiarity.

Their physical bodies couldn’t maintain their corporeal shape and consisted of a translucent shadow-like form.

Like enveloping a shadow with smoke.

This was why the humans couldn’t distinguish between these people.

They could just barely distinguish between females and males.

‘Looking at the body… It seems like it’s a female.’

Hansoo mumbled at the blurry Ain and then clenched his hands.

Because his opponent was not weak.

The seal suppressed the Ain’s strength.

At the same time it trapped them.

So the battle power of the Ains rising after the seal disappeared was an obvious thing.

But according to what he knew, the Ains could only use their entire strength after entering the Spirit Land.

Which meant that the Ain in front of him could barely use half her strength.

‘But still.’

Estimated level 300.

Though she was a bit weaker in comparison to Arthus Krancheska above, she was still very powerful.

No, she was a monster.

Everybody who was following behind Hansoo was on edge.

“Woah. What the…”

“… Do we really have to fight that?”

The Ain blocking their path didn’t hide her presence and aura so everybody could feel how powerful she was.

— Ains. It’s really been a while. I could… probably win but I’ll have to use my power.

The shout of Akun, the leader of the souls, rang out through his head.

He could win.

But he would clearly have to use a lot of the mana node’s energy.

‘There’s a lot of places where I need to use it.’

As Hansoo frowned.

The Ain in front of Hansoo spoke.

“I have no thoughts of fighting. I just came up to fulfill the Prophecy.”

“… Fulfilling the prophecy?”

The Ain nodded as she replied.

“Apparently with your destiny you cannot die in this place. So I am here. To help you.”

“Hmm.”

Hansoo frowned.

As he found out that he didn’t have to fight the Ain, he started to calm down and sighed.

“Well. If you’re going to help you should all come… Why just one?”

If they were that strong, couldn’t they just act together?

Einchel mumbled to herself but that small whisper couldn’t escape the supernatural hearing of the Ains.

The Ain replied at Einchel’s words with her ringing tone of voice.

“It wouldn’t be that good for you then.”

“Huh?”

The Ain smirked as she spoke.

“I’m saying that you shouldn’t overestimate yourselves.”

***

Rumble.

The entire maze was trembling from the seal breaking.

Along with the giant mountain where the entrance lay.

“Uh? Back up more!”

“Shit. I can’t even watch in peace.”

As the players, who were watching the mountain breaking, backed off.

Kwaaaaaaa!

Something flew in through the sky like a meteor.

Then.

Boooooom!

“Ehukk!”.

“What is this!”

A line of light smashed down into the ground.

In between the shocked players.

And next to Arthus Krancheska grinding his teeth.

Arthus, whose rage had skyrocketed to the point of the fire becoming black, quickly calmed down the flames and reorganized himself.

The person who had landed was not somebody who he could dare be angry in front of.

Great General, Cykrus.

The guardian god who protected and supported the entire Kingdom.

And one of the few people who Arthus Krancheska, who had a tremendous amount of pride, truly admired and followed.

The rage got amplified inside Arthus Krancheska’s body even more.

‘This was a mission the Great General gave me personally… Fuck!’

Arthus Krancheska’s expression crunched up as he kneeled on the ground.

To those who knew about Arthus Krancheska’s pride, this was a shocking scene but it was nowhere close enough for Arthus himself.

Thinking about what this event would cause, he wanted to smash his head down into the ground.

Arthus Krancheska mumbled with a dejected expression towards the Great General who was staring back at him expressionlessly.

“Please kill me. Because I was inadequate… The seal got released.”

Cykrus’s eyes trembled a bit but then he shook his head and replied.

“… No. It couldn’t be helped.”

In a situation where the minor seal broke and the curse was in effect, even he himself couldn’t go in.

Arthus Krancheska wouldn’t have been able to do anything.

The final responsibility lay on himself who hadn’t been able to manage everything properly.

Himself who had been wary of the Korin Kingdom’s Great General, Dal Taran, and had paid little attention to this place.

Of course Cykrus was curious as well.

For the flail’s seal to have been broken.

Even he couldn’t have expected something like this.

‘There was an immortal who could do this? Or…’

Cykrus shook his head after a few different thoughts.

Whatever the cause was, the water had been spilt already.

The seal had been broken and the suppressed Ains were released.

He wanted to sigh out thinking of the events that would happen because of this but he suppressed it and sighed inside his mind instead.

Everybody was looking up to him at the moment.

He had to take control and show a resolute look.

“Stand up. Stop wasting time down there.”

Arthus Krancheska quickly stood up from the Great General’s words.

Since his words were correct.

The events had occurred already and now they had to deal with it.

The Ains were released.

But this wasn’t the worst case scenario yet.

Since they were only half as strong.

Cyrkus asked Arthus.

“What do you think those guys would do?”

Arthus replied instantly.

“… They’ll try to go to the Spirit Land.”

Their true, lost strength was inside that place.

Once they go in there then things would really turn for the worse.

The kingdoms wouldn’t be able to handle it which meant the Empire, which was asleep in the distance, would awaken.

They needed to stop that from happening no matter what.

With all their might.

Cykrus nodded at Arthus Kranchesk’s words.

“Call for reinforcements, it’s an emergency. Tell them to bring all the knights and mages in the capital. As much as the warp gate can handle. I’ll bring the defense brigade by the walls.”

Arthus Francheska froze in place from the words of the Great General about how even the defense brigade would come into play.

The defense brigade was the shield of the kingdom.

If they came here then the wall facing the Korin Kingdom will become defenseless.

Cykrus spoke towards Arthus Krancheska after reading his worried expression.

“It’s okay. I’ve dealt with that side already.”

“… Ohm then?”

Krancheska’s expression brightened up from Cykrus’s words as Cykrus nodded.

“Yeah. Dal-Taran is coming as well. This… Isn’t a time where we should be fighting.”

It was not a time where they should be fighting for an extra penny.

If they couldn’t block the Ains then things would really turn for the worse.

All the Kingdoms will freeze and melt down.

Including both the Korin and Keil kingdoms.

It was truly a full frontal battle now.

Cykrus mumbled towards the rumbling maze.

‘You should’ve just hid inside calmly. Why are you trying to come out. At this rate… We can’t sit still either.’

The time for him to see the clash between races which he hadn’t been able to see in the past had now come.

Then.

Arthus Krancheska mumbled for a moment and spoke.

“Then what about the God’s Flail?”

Cykrus rubbed his chin.

“Hmm…”

The flail was something that they needed to find.

Even more so now that they had to battle against the Ains.

Maintaining the seal wasn’t its sole job.

Krancheska spoke to Cykrus.

“I’ll bring it.”

“You?”

Krancheska nodded as he spoke.

“The person who broke the flail’s seal would probably be very strong. And… If they passed the flail’s test then not anybody would be able to beat him. I’ll go bring it personally.”

Cykrus nodded towards Krancheska.

Though this guy was young, he had risen to the rank of captain of the magic brigade with pure talent.

His ability was more than good enough.

It was more than enough to deal with somebody who passed the test of the flail.

“Alright then.”

Krancheska nodded with a confident expression.

***

“Our race will go to the Spirit Land now…”

‘It wouldn’t be easy…’

The Ain mumbled to herself after speaking to Hansoo.

The humans wouldn’t have played around while they had been trapped here.

The feeble defense formation they would’ve set up wouldn’t be easy to break through and it would only get tougher as time went on.

This was the best time.

They needed to break through during this time when the humans were wary of each other and when the defense formation was still very weak.

And they had to get to the Spirit Land where they could recover their true strength.

Before the humans could swarm in.

The Ain continued to speak.

“Seeing that you released us, you probably want something from us but… I believe we should be looking after our own race for now.”

The Ain muttered while watching the countless humans behind Hansoo.

Hansoo replied to those words.

“So. What’s the prophecy that you brought?”

A strange look appeared in the Ain’s eyes from Hansoo’s direct question.

The prophecy told them.

That this guy needed to live.

Most of the attention will fall onto their race and from this a gap for the humans to live would be made but it was nowhere enough.

Since the people above ruled the world.

So she had come.

If they were going to help the humans with strength then somebody stronger or a few more people would’ve come.

Though she was strong, she wasn’t strong enough to deal with the entire situation.

But she had come for another reason.

Not for strength but intel.

To give these guys important information that would be of help.

In order to deal with the currently unfair situation.

The Ain spoke.

“The first prophecy says that you guys will have to dodge a small sun that would soon arrive.”

“… A sun?”

As Einchel and the others made a strange expression.

Kwaaaaa!

A tremendous amount of mana started to rain down from the ceiling.

Mana that was incomparable to that from a spirit stone.

So powerful that it even affected them multiple floors below.

‘Oh god… The curse was released.’

Everyone freaked out.

Hansoo mumbled as he felt the presence of the person charging towards them.

“A prophecy about 10 seconds into the future. How helpful.”

“… Instead of sneering, let’s go. There’s no time.”

Hansoo spoke towards the Ain.

“Which way is your race heading?”

The Ain pointed towards a direction from Hansoo’s question.

Hansoo pondered for a moment and then pointed with his own finger.

Towards the opposite direction of the Ains.

“Let’s go this way then.”

Einchel frowned at those words.

‘… Does he have a plan? The opposite direction?’

If he had a plan then he wouldn’t choose to go onto the exact opposite direction of the Ains, he would’ve chosen to go towards the Ains for protection.

But Einchel soon realized this wasn’t the time for her to think about such things.

The deadly aura emitted by the mana was getting closer and closer even now.

She didn’t know what it was but they had to move immediately.

Then.

Hansoo’s group and the Ain started to run towards a direction in the maze.