Chapter 389. Flameless Land (3)

‘It’s been a while, but… it’s really a sight.’

Hansoo continued to look around as he headed inwards.

At all the broken down Dragon God Armor.

At all the starships destroyed from the result of a hasty landing.

‘It seems they really escaped in a hurry.’

The Reyunion’s weapons.

Hansoo looked at the ships that had crashed due to the lack of the Flame’s strength.

He’d never thought of going against the Flame in the past, so he had never cared about it, but he knew now.

As to how powerful the Flame’s strength was.

A strength that was strong enough to go against the Transcendents who’d crossed the wall.

And that was still a small fraction in comparison to the true strength of the Flame sleeping inside the planet.

But inside this area, all of that strength was forbidden.

Because of the existence of the External Flame Divine Tool.

At first, no one knew who had created this tool.

There were no traces of the creator.

But Hansoo knew after going back into the past.

As to who’d shoved that Flame into this planet.

And who’d hidden the tool to control the Flame in this land.

‘… Nerpa.’

The Nelkipa that orbited Angkara and that existence hidden inside the Nelkipa.

Hansoo could deduce many things looking at the Nerpa who’d gone off to Angkara the moment it woke up.

Of course, this didn’t answer every question.

‘Why is he coming here, though?’

Hansoo thought of the Kalkuroun Fleet that should be slowly approaching this place.

***

Inside the giant starship.

R-Koronaita Nell was dumbfounded as he listened to N-Aroel’s words.

“You… You gave us the Flame?”

R-Koronaita Nell shouted out in rage.

“Don’t lie! What kind of words are those?!”

Although they gave it the simple name of <Flame>.

It was not just a simple ball of flame.

The small sun that was sleeping inside the planet.

The <Flame>, hidden inside the shell of this planet, was something to be revered and feared.

Everybody could see the red sun of their planet through the <Valley of Retribution> between the continents.

It was the source of life for their planet, which had once been doomed to freeze to death after their previous sun had died out.

Giving their race the power to control the fleet and travel through the universe.

They only called it a <Flame>, but in reality, it was more like a sun.

N-Aroel, the Nerpa, chuckled.

“Yeah? Then is it logical for a sun to stay trapped within a tiny planet? To release that kind of energy without control, you guys clearly know that it should’ve long since reduced your entire planet into a blazing ball of flames.”

“… Ugh.”

R-Koronaita Nell fell silent.

Those words were correct.

That was a question that no researcher on Angkara could answer.

A ball of energy trapped within their planet that should’ve been tens of thousands of times larger than what it appeared.

Maintaining a very calm state that wasn’t causing any harm to their planet that surrounded it like a thin shell.

Very illogical indeed.

The Nerpa chuckled towards Angkara that had now appeared before his eyes.

‘I didn’t know this would happen.’

The <Blazing Jade> that the Nerpa had bestowed upon them thousands of years ago.

They had stepped out and bestowed the <Flame> to a planet that was about to freeze due to the death of their sun.

Although it wasn’t as big as the original sun, the Nerpa had dug out the insides of that giant planet, which was already many times larger than a normal planet, and placed the <Blazing Jade> inside it.

When his race had been in their prime, something like that wasn’t difficult nor was it a problem.

But not anymore.

<Blazing Jade>, the simple gift that they had given away was now his only hope.

A flame that they had given to save the dying race.

The beings of this planet didn’t have the right to complain if he were to take it away.

‘It’s a bit childish to give something and then take it back, but what else can I do… Anyway, where do I even start?’

The Nerpa frowned.

A chaotic planet.

The only toy he had was a fleet, which had a few ships he couldn’t even use anymore. Their engines had overloaded when he destroyed the crystal.

Although this was more than enough to destroy countless cities and shake an entire nation, that was not enough to go against his enemies.

According to N-Aroel’s memories, his enemies had built their entire civilization from the <Flame>.

They would struggle with every last ounce of their strength to not lose the Flame, which meant that he would have to go against the entire planet.

‘It would’ve been easier if I had the Nelkipa… Tsk.’

He missed his stolen body and Nelkipa at this point.

With the Nelkipa, he could easily erase their entire civilization within a day and take over Angkara.

At least he had stopped Melchizedek and the aliens from taking it over.

‘The fastest way to control the Flame is acquiring the controller.’

If he could take the three controllers spread around the planet, then he would be able to control the Flame as a whole.

Game over.

Although he didn’t have his blue armor or his powerful body, the power to control the Flame was embedded deep inside his soul.

He would gain the chance to stand up again.

‘It seems our savior has failed… I must at least try to save our fallen race.’

The Nerpa thought back to the man who’d left with a heavy burden on his shoulders.

***

While the Nerpa was heading towards Angkara.

Hansoo was also heading towards his destination.

-Boom!-

Hansoo smacked away another Abyssal monster and then chuckled at the aura he could feel around him.

‘What to do…’

He couldn’t see them because they were so far away, but he could clearly feel them.

The people who were watching him from the distance.

Despite seeing his group for the first time and to still maintain their distance like that, it meant that they knew about Transcendents and how strong they were.

‘They’re used to Transcendents.’

He could also deduce another thing.

That the Transcendents inside here were around the 3-Star level.

If they felt that Hansoo’s power was that of a 2-Star Transcendent, then they wouldn’t be keeping such a long distance from them.

‘At least a 3-Star… Hmm.’

He didn’t know how many there were, but they weren’t weaklings.

As Hansoo looked into the distance…

-Kuoooo!-

… An aura quickly approached them from the far distance.

And Kiriel said softly to Hansoo as she felt this,

“Not quite gentle, huh?”

“Right.”

The being was approaching them at an incredible speed.

Although the vehicles of Reyunion were easily moving at a speed above 300 km per hour even without the Flame, the mysterious Transcendent easily left those vehicles in the dust as they approached Hansoo’s group.

The meteor-like being crossed multiple kilometers in an instant and soon arrived before them.

-Booom!-

The man smiled as he looked at Hansoo and said in greeting,

“Long time no see, Mr. Hansoo. I’m called John Stone.”

‘… Who? I’ve never seen him before.’

Hansoo was confused.

But John Stone whistled as he looked at Hansoo.

‘The world really got much better, huh?’

Hansoo was a being who was so powerful that he couldn’t even imagine his strength in the past.

With a power so overbearing that being on the same floor as him was unbelievable.

He shone even more because he used that strength to fight at the very front lines.

Achieving things nobody could even dream of.

Back then, he’d thought that Hansoo was mankind’s savior.

Until he turned the world upside down and disappeared two years ago.

‘Well, I’ve gotten much stronger thanks to you.’

He’d managed to quickly rise up to the 6th Zone and gained a tremendous amount of strength.

Although Hansoo was stronger than him, he was still confident.

Intel was more important than strength.

The reason why Hansoo had been able to lead them was not just because of his strength, but mainly because he knew what to do.

But not anymore.

He wouldn’t know anything since he’d just come up.

It wasn’t Hansoo that was setting up the playing field anymore but him instead.

‘Good. Good.’

“Do you know what’s going on around here?”

Hansoo chuckled as he looked at the confident John Stone.

‘I can already guess where your confidence comes from, but… things won’t play out the way you want.’

Information was important indeed.

If he was going to speak on his own, then there was no reason to refuse.

John Stone giggled as he said,

“You wouldn’t. If you did… you wouldn’t be this carefree after knowing that the man you raised has already betrayed you…”

‘Heheh.’

John Stone smiled.

***

‘Tsk. I knew this would happen. They’re already swarming around them.’

The Nerpa was at a loss as he looked at the data from inside the Kalkuroun Fleet.

They had left behind three controllers.

But flies had already gathered around two of them.

Especially large flies.

‘One… is the Neropa Union. Another is the Pompeion Empire… I see.’

He’d been initially surprised because the technology should’ve been beyond their comprehension, but it looks like they’d solved a part of it.

That was probably the reason why the two forces had been able to crush all others.

Because they had a secret weapon that the others didn’t.

‘I guess this fleet would be nowhere enough.’

The Nerpa pondered for a moment and then changed his destination.

‘The last one should be easy. The flies around it seem weak enough.’

-Ooooong-

The fleet started to move again.

Towards the Reyunion’s territory.

The Flameless Land.