Chapter 392. Flameless Land (6)

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Kiriel decided to go even deeper into the memory.

‘Let’s see what happened.’

Kiriel focused as she started to read the memory after Clementine’s forces had left.

***

Erunheim’s memories continued.

After Clementine’s forces had gone up.

This place was at peace for a short while.

Sangjin had succeeded in controlling the territory of Reyunion with his abilities.

And none of the Transcendents could do anything while he was there.

But one day.

After going into the place where Clementine’s forces had been digging at.

The peaceful days had ended.

— Gather up. There’s something we need to discuss.

At Sangjin’s words, all the aliens had gathered for a meeting.

Erunheim didn’t know about the contents of that meeting.

But one thing was clear.

Everything changed after that day.

— We will leave. We all have different opinions and… we need to respect that.

And Sangjin left after that.

Towards the Pompeion Empire to the south of Reyunion’s territory.

And Erunheim couldn’t figure out the reason behind Sangjin’s parting words.

After that meeting.

Some stayed.

Some went to the Pompeion Empire with Sangjin.

Some went to the Neropa Union.

Erunheim didn’t know what they were all thinking, but one thing was clear.

They each had different plans and had decided to split up.

The Transcendents had all left.

And she never saw them again.

***

‘Mmm… This is how things happened? Mmm… I wondered how someone like this had taken over this place.’

-Kiiiiing-

Kiriel nodded as she returned from the memories.

Of course, John Stone wasn’t weak in any sense.

John Stone was by far the strongest out of everyone who had decided to stay, and he was a decent leader.

If not, he wouldn’t have been able to reach this level.

After all, Kiriel didn’t have any confidence that she could beat John Stone in a fight.

‘He’s strong… He’s strong indeed.’

Kiriel mumbled as she looked at the aura John Stone was radiating.

He was strong.

Although they were all at the 3-Star level, John Stone had stayed here and continued to increase his strength after all.

Of course, he was still lacking in comparison to those who had left.

From Erunheim’s memories, there were at least twenty people who looked stronger than John Stone right now.

And this was only what Erunheim saw.

If they hadn’t all left, John Stone would’ve never been able to take over this place.

“… That is what happened.”

“Ugh…”

John Stone gritted his teeth at Kiriel who bluntly explained everything she saw to Hansoo.

It was all true, but it made him seem very incompetent.

‘Damned b****…’

Who was it that prettied up this place like this?

Of course, Hansoo didn’t care for John Stone’s thoughts as he made his decision.

‘I should go check inside.’

The thing that Clementine’s forces had wanted to dig out was definitely the controller he was looking for.

The object that was the reason this place was called the Flameless Land.

But there was something strange.

Two years was not a short time.

No matter how well-hidden the External Flame Divine Tool, or whether other things had gotten in their way of digging it out, two years was more than enough time to accomplish their goals.

But Clementine’s forces had relinquished it and gone up instead.

And an even stranger thing was Sangjin and the other people’s actions.

Sangjin had checked the insides and had left afterwards.

There was a reason for this.

And he needed to check it out.

“Which direction?”

“This way.”

As Hansoo looked to the direction Kiriel pointed to… John Stone knew instinctively.

That these people were aiming for the same thing as him.

These guys shouldn’t know anything since they’d just come up, but every single one of John Stone’s instinct was crying out in danger.

He sensed it.

That these people were going for the object hidden deep within this place.

The object that was supposed to be his.

“No!”

-Boooom!-

John Stone’s aura exploded outwards along with a shout.

His entire body burned up in dark red flames.

‘No! Do you know how much I’ve struggled for that?!’

Flames spewed out from John Stone’s eyes.

John Stone’s trait.

Berserk Mode.

It was a very simple trait, but there was nothing as good as a trait like this when it came to a battle.

A rage that burned the second he felt danger from his opponent.

It was similar to Enbi Arin’s Tainted Emotion, but there were clear differences.

Unlike Enbi Arin’s trait, which only raised two stats depending on the emotion, John Stone’s trait increased all his stats through either rage or fear.

The downside was… his decision-making skills and sanity became very clouded.

‘No!’

As his Berserk Mode activated… the fear he felt towards Hansoo started to wash away.

And rage replaced it all.

“Kuaaaaap!”

-Whoooosh!-

The giant axe on John Stone’s back rose up along with his Berserk Mode.

The monster that appeared on the 6th Zone.

An axe created from a monster that was famous for its hard exoskeleton, the Atantael.

The blade was created by sharpening its exoskeleton and its handle was made from its bones.

The axe, which played a huge part in helping John Stone rise up to his current position, flew towards Hansoo’s neck.

-Swoooosh!-

Kiriel looked at the axe and thought to herself,

‘… Brute.’

Her trait, Psychometry, was amazing in a sense that it allowed her to quickly become stronger and gave her a lot of answers.

But it was still lacking in a battle.

In the end, she felt that it would be difficult for her to deal with this brute currently charging towards Hansoo.

But Kiriel just looked around in boredom.

‘I guess everyone has their own job.’

She just needed to do her own.

But Hansoo acted outside her expectations.

The moment Hansoo saw John Stone charging towards him, he spoke to Kiriel.

“Let’s go.”

“Huh?”

‘You aren’t going to kill him off?’

Kiriel was confused, but her actions were still very quick.

Even before the axe got anywhere close to them.

-Kiiiing!-

Clouds appeared from Kiriel’s body and covered their bodies.

Then…

-Whoooosh!-

… The axe started to cut apart the clouds.

“Hahahahaha… hah?”

John Stone’s expression turned dark as he cut through the clouds.

‘I don’t feel like anything got cut…?’

And then… John Stone focused on the insides of the cloud where Hansoo and the woman should’ve been at.

“What the… Where did they go? Uaaaahh!”

John Stone, who was still in his Berserk Mode, shouted in rage as he looked at the empty land before him.

***

-Charrrrk-

Above the depths.

White clouds started to appear above the hole.

Then…

-Whooosh-

… The clouds disappeared, revealing the figures of Hansoo and Kiriel.

“Nice… We really arrived!”

Kiriel exclaimed out loud at her newly learned skill.

She had read about the skill’s explanations but using it was a whole other sensation.

The depths that she’d seen in Erunheim’s memories was in front of them.

Hansoo asked Kiriel,

“How are you?”

He was asking about her status.

Kiriel looked at her body and replied,

“There seems to be a lot of limitations. It drains a lot of my stamina and… I don’t think we can use it as a means of escape.”

A new skill.

<Cloudy Movement.>

She realized after using it.

One could move with no restrictions to distance, and once the skill was activated, they would become untargetable until it ended.

But there were a lot of limitations.

The biggest one was the user’s beliefs during a battle.

If one used the skill because they decided they couldn’t win in the battle, then the skill would not activate.

It only activated because she believed Hansoo could still win.

If she were alone, the skill would’ve never activated.

‘What a petty fairy. Should at least allow me to run away with it.’

Of course, running away wasn’t the best option, but knowing that one had a means of escape would allow them to fight with more confidence.

But Hansoo chuckled.

“Well, it has a good synergy with your trait.”

“… Right.”

Kiriel nodded.

Cloudy Movement.

— Moving anywhere within one’s memories.

This meant that to Kiriel, who could read memories, it had a great deal of synergy.

She had brought herself and Hansoo here using the memories of Erunheim.

‘It’ll be very useful.’

Kiriel then asked Hansoo,

“Anyway, why did you want to come here right away?”

‘Instead of beating him.’

Kiriel didn’t voice her whole opinion.

It made her sound too blunt.

Hansoo looked down into the depths and said,

“I felt like we needed to come here quickly.”

When he heard the memories that Kiriel read…

Hansoo felt that something was amiss.

A feeling that urged him to hurry.

If he had engaged in battle, then he would’ve had to fight John Stone and everyone else who followed afterward.

‘It… It doesn’t feel quite right.’

And he realized it as he looked down.

As to what was making him feel this uneasy.

The darkness that had almost separated from the crystal.

The adventurers who had been cutting away the darkness then shouted at Hansoo.

“Huh? Who are you guys?”

“This place is off-limits?”

Hansoo looked around the crystal, the people around it and then turned towards Kiriel.

“Let’s go in.”

“Yes.”

His goal was right before his eyes.

These brats weren’t his opponents at all.

After speaking to Kiriel, Hansoo jumped into the depths.

Towards the crystal that was being tied down by the darkness.