Chapter 278. Land From The Past (5)

Rumble.

A humanoid being was quickly moving north within the Spirit Land.

Every time this existence that a human’s appearance but was clearly inhuman stepped, the lands collapsed and the space broke.

Tiamet looked at the status of his body while quickly flying north towards the mountain range that had started to appear on the horizon.

‘… Annoying.’

Tiamet frowned as he felt the mana storms that were slowly gnawing away at his body.

He couldn’t receive the protection of the spirits.

Though he was being protected by the vast amount of mana he had, the mana storm was slowly eating away at his body.

And it would become worse if he reached the lands beyond the mountain range.

Tiamet grinded his teeth and clenched his grip on the stake.

‘The hell am I doing for a single rat.’

But he had to go over.

Before that rat screwed things over.

— Tiamet. Haven’t you lived a bit too long? You will perish at his hands.

‘Nonsense.’

Though his stamina was being gnawed away from the mana storm, the gap between him and that rat was still gargantuan.

Rumble!

Tiamet shook off Mudusella’s prophecy from his head and increased his speed even more.

To go over the mountain range had he had already reached.

Then.

Boooom!

A white human being started to fly up next to the almost vertical surface of the mountain range.

Rummble!

A giant avalanche occurred.

***

Rumble.

Hansoo, who was shrouded in a seven-colored light, continued to push his way through the storm.

Through the frozen city.

‘There is no trace of life…’

Though he was prepared for the worse, there was nothing that caught his attention.

The giant buildings which seemed like they housed residents in the past were all devoid of any signs of life and all kinds of means of transportation were just laid out on the side of the roads.

But one never knew, anything could pop out from the shadows.

Hansoo quickly proceeded towards the giant tower while being on alert.

And in his head, constant nagging could be heard.

— Damned bastard. You really need to be thankful to me. Without me, you’d long been frozen dead.

The spirit’s words were indeed true.

The storm was getting stronger the closer he got to the tower.

Without the spirit, he’d long have frozen solid and died.

But Hansoo ignored the spirit’s words as he continued forward.

Since this spirit had tried to take over his body by force.

At that moment.

Hansoo saw something strange.

‘… What the…’

There was a strange space looking like a shop on the 1st floor of the building he was walking past.

There were tens of strange boxes neatly packed on top of each other inside it.

Though there still wasn’t any signs of life, Hansoo was intrigued and was about to enter.

But then.

Rumble.

A faint noise entered Hansoo’s alert ears.

Very faint.

Hansoo turned around towards the origin of the noise.

The noise was coming from the giant mountain range behind the fallen shipwreck.

And there was a huge avalanche coming down from the top of the mountain range.

Something like this shouldn’t happen for no reason.

‘… I thought he’d be working on traps and hostages, I never knew he’d come in person.’

Hansoo frowned as he thought of the person who was causing a natural disaster while approaching him.

Tiamet would see the fallen ship after going across the mountain range and would eventually find him.

They would need to fight.

Hansoo started to quickly calculate in his mind.

‘Do I have a chance?’

Though he had gained a spirit, he had never even dreamt of beating Tiamet in a battle.

Since that thing was a monstrosity in itself.

If they fought fairly then he would get shredded apart in mere few seconds.

‘But… That’s only if he’s in perfect condition.’

Tiamet had personally come.

For him to break the chains of the White Dragon Arena to move out, it stressed how urgent this entire thing was.

‘But he’s still a bit slow.’

Hansoo could tell Tiamet’s current speed due to the faint vibrations in the air.

If Tiamet was coming over with his original strength, he should’ve gone past the mountain range a long time ago.

But the fact that he was still climbing meant that he was being affected by this mana storm.

And it would only become worse after he climbed over.

Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!

‘Worst case, I’ll fight him but… In a place where I hold the most advantage.’

Hansoo quickly started to move out towards the origin of the mana storm, the tower.

Even though Tiamet’s condition wasn’t top notch, there was still a huge difference between them.

It was best to avoid a fight but at this rate, he would need to approach the tower no matter what.

‘Fucking hell.’

Hansoo smiled bitterly as he sensed the aura of Tiamet slowly climbing the mountain range.

His original plan was not this.

Since he never even thought that Tiamet would leave the White Dragon Arena to fight him.

There was only one plan in the beginning.

— Use the Spirit Land as a safe zone to increase our strength and then go over to the next zone.

Spirit Land.

A land of death where one would not be able to survive without the Protection Elixirs.

But there was another method to survive.

— Ain’s Blessing.

Their symbol which allowed them to somewhat hold the spirits.

The Protection Elixirs were just a byproduct of squeezing the Ains dry.

Once the Ains got inside the Spirit Land then the flow of Protection Elixirs would dry out which meant that the players outside would not be able to enter.

No matter how many there were, it was impossible to enter without the Protection Elixirs.

At that point they could just slowly gather their strength inside the Spirit Land and then move on over to the next zone.

Ally with the Ains to ensure safety, achieve the Spirit’s strength through the symbol and then climb up.

This is what he and his friends, the final members of humanity, had planned regarding the Green Zone.

But for a monster inside the White Dragon Arena, who shouldn’t have moved for anything, to come out in person.

— You will see enemies you have never seen before. The lion isn’t interested in an ant but is indeed interested in a buffalo.

Hansoo thought back to the words of Rahiman, one of his comrades, and laughed bitterly.

‘… I knew I’d suffer after coming back to the past but for it to be this much.’

Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!

Hansoo thought to himself as he proceeded towards the tower.

There was a discussion he had with his friends.

Regarding what they would do if they returned to the past.

Of course rushing ahead of everybody was a sure thing.

The reason why they had been able to survive until the end was because they had that much potential and skill.

Hansoo remembered the excited faces of everyone as they talked about what they’d do.

Someone said they would establish a harem by gathering every beauty with their strength, another said they would help the weak with the strength.

Some said they would kill everyone who got in their way and another said that they would get stronger than anybody had ever been.

‘I…’

At that moment.

Hansoo stopped.

‘What was my plan…?’

As long as he was a human being, he had his own desires.

It would only be normal if he had something he wanted to do after coming back to the past.

Since this world was not a world where one could have no regrets and coming back to the past meant that he could fix all of them.

Creating an army by gathering humanity and rescuing his friends who were waiting above?

It was good enough to be a reason but it wasn’t quite enough.

‘… There was something I wanted to do.’

It was clear he also had something he wanted to do.

Since his expression was very serious back then.

But he couldn’t pinpoint what it was.

As he tried to think about it, his head started to ache.

And the noise Tiamet was making was becoming louder.

“Hooo.”

Hansoo breathed out.

‘This isn’t the main priority right now.’

He needed to survive the fight first.

A single piece of missing memory wouldn’t impact him in the fight.

The most important thing was that he was doing well.

If the memory was an important one then he would eventually remember it.

Hansoo started to run even faster towards the tall tower in the distance.

— What the hell is this kid…

The spirit who had been sitting in the corner of Hansoo’s mind mumbled quietly.

***

Rumble.

The apex of the mountain range exploded.

Then.

Tiamet stood on the top of the tremendously tall mountain range and looked down.

He never thought that he’d come back here.

Tiamet grasped Rangkom’s Stake as he looked down at the now frozen city below his feet.

‘I cannot let the immortals know about this place…’

Tiamet started to quickly search for Hansoo’s traces.

The city was huge and even Tiamet couldn’t sense every part of it but it wouldn’t be hard.

‘There.’

Tiamet looked towards the fallen shipwreck below.

The hope of the humans to reach space.

Though it had lost its meaning now, it didn’t feel good to see it after having destroyed it by his own hands.

A tremendous amount of energy started to gather around Tiamet’s hands as he looked at the ship that was slowly repairing its outer walls.

‘No aura of life. But still, just in case…’

Boooooooom!

The moment Tiamet raised Rangkom’s Stake and aimed at the ship.

A very faint shockwave was heard by Tiamet.

And Tiamet’s eyes quickly focused on the origin of the sound.

‘Found it.’

Tiamet smiled in a cold manner as he watched the small being who was madly running towards the tower.

He was almost at the tower.

But not quite there yet.

‘The ship…’

Crackle.

Tiamet looked back and forth between his freezing body and the ship and then frowned.

Though he would be able to destroy the ship and catch the boy at the same time if he were at his peak condition, it was a bit too much for him now.

‘The rat first.’

Then.

Tiamet absorbed back he energy that was gathering on the stake and redirected it to his feet.

Booooooooom!

Tiamet blew apart the top of the mountain range as he flew up into the air.

‘That’s as far as you go.’

Tiamet disappeared.

Rummble.

The avalanche slowly proceeded its way down towards the ship.