Chapter 455. Solitude (5)
-Roooooooooooooar!-
“Hmm…”
Belphegor gulped as he saw the huge ball floating in the air.
Seeing this from up close, he could feel a different level of pressure than before. It wasn’t just a matter of size. Of course, there was a sense of pressure seeing how it covered the entire sky, but he wouldn’t have come here, to begin with, if he was afraid.
They were the ones that could break the mountain if needed.
Even if a star of this size were to float in the air, they were confident of splitting it down in the middle given time if this was a normal, moon-like star like before. However, that blue light that was surrounding the white sphere was like a calm, overwhelming burden weighed on their shoulders. Seeing the energy flowing through the surface of the white sphere like a river was like a premonition that this could never be stopped by the power of humans.
John Stone, who was next to him, spat out.
“Why? Are you afraid to enter after coming here?”
“… I’m not sure what you’re talking about. By the way, you were saying this and that to come here and remain here.”
John Stone frowned from Belphegor’s remark.
‘You bastard. That’s because the situation keeps changing.’
How could he come up with consistent opinions and orders when the situation kept changing. At first, they had thought about going up since they wanted to help out Hansoo.
However, currently, they weren’t in a position to back him up.
Rather than worrying about the loss of contact with Hansoo, they needed to be more aware of preserving their power in the near future and confront the armies that would come toward them.
They had sent the vanguard out, but they could not find any traces of them whether they had flown into the sky or were buried in the ground.
‘This is truly crazy. Where the hell did all those guys go?’
John Stone was not happy with the faction splitting that was happening in the midst of all this. It was already an extent to send a scouting party ahead, but for a bunch of guys to swarm to this location?
Looking around, he immediately knew there were tens of thousands of people full of ambition here. They were the determined ones that took the initiative to find out the secrets of this newly emerging object. It was truly a farfetched hope that these guys would use their power morally for the right cause if they were to attain it.
No, there was a higher probability that they would do it for the opposite. These were the ones that had taken the risk of this white object to get their hands on the potential new power, and they didn’t look like those that would risk themselves for others. He had to do what he could to stop these blockheads to stop them, which was why he had followed them.
“Damn… It would be nice if these guys were freaked out and ran away for their lives after seeing something incredibly dangerous inside.”
John Stone muttered, looking at the white sphere floating in the sky.
That possibility wasn’t out of the question.
Through his conversation with Kiriel, he had heard the story broadly of the path that Hansoo took.
The dangers that he faced were unbelievable.
Upon hearing the obstacles he traversed and what he did, John Stone had no choice but to admit completely that the guy was truly a madman even if he was crazy himself.
Before he had lost his memory and after, he was crazy regardless. No, it could be said that he was more humane after losing his memories.
If he was in his right mind or even had a speck of wanting to live, he would not have crawled into such dangerous places and did what he did.
“I hope these guys run away fully depleted of spirit.”
John Stone took a long deep breath and muttered, seeing Belphegor and the other warriors ready to jump in.
The faraway entrance was well over a few dozen kilometers high in distance.
Even if it were them, they had to leap for quite a while to be able to enter.
The moment the others were preparing their whole bodies to jump off the ground…
-Booooooooooooooooooooooom!-
“Huh!”
“What the hell?!”
The sudden blue light frightened the warriors. The blue light was currently shining above them from the ground that they were standing at like the spotlight given to the actors in a movie theater.
They looked on at the eerie light that looked to capture them. When a few of them began to falter back…
-Papapapapapa!-
The light in the air quickly began to dance and change its form as the blue light intertwined with each other, creating hundreds and thousands of plates out of that blue light.
All of them were about 1meter in thickness as they began to line up from the sky toward the ground like stairs as if it were guiding them toward the entrance.
Both Belphegor and John Stone gulped after seeing this. Of course, it didn’t mean that they couldn’t enter without this. The important part was something else. There was someone else inside that was looking at them. That inviting, bright, extended staircase was proof. It was made playfully, but the power of light that was condensed was beyond imagination. If the person inside didn’t want them inside and had attacked them instead, it wouldn’t be strange at all, but the fact that the stairs were made was clear that it was an invitation.
While the people hesitated from the sudden response, Belphegor ventured toward the staircase.
‘Damn… I already started this.’
He didn’t know what was inside, but if he thought there was someone dangerous in there who had the will to kill them, there was no reason to invite them. In other words, it wouldn’t have been strange to attack them. Therefore, there wasn’t a real reason for them to refuse this invitation. He still hadn’t got what he wanted.
-Thump. Thump. Thump!-
Although there were many steps, each of them had a wide gap of several meters as Belphegor jumped on the stairs as if he was walking. The other Transcendents, who saw this, gulped before soon soaring after Belphegor with similar thoughts.
‘… Damn. It’s not like I can’t go in.’
John Stone, frowning, sighed before following the footsteps of the men inside the giant white object.
***
“You want to let them all in?”
Eres nodded from Keldian’s word.
“I told you. The ark is wide, and if we want to use all of its features, we need to increase the number of registrants.”
Noah laughed from the remark.
— A wise decision. The more registrants there are, there will be more functions available for use.
Eres exhaled, seeing Noah.
Eres always thought that there were causes and reasons for every result. From her point of view, there were reasons why this large white object was made, why it needed this much power, and why engineers had built Noah. There must be a reason for everything, and her intuition told her that the reason for all she had mentioned above was not particularly in their favor. In the first place, for those reasons to exist, there needed to be a common cause, which meant that there was an opponent for why Noah needed such great power.
“In order to prepare for that scenario, we need to build up our strength.”
Eres muttered.
If Noah was designed to have 18 Red Jades, it meant that there was definitely a time where Noah had to use all of them.
In case that was to happen, they had to increase the number of users which was in line with her ideology which respected the potential of humans and save as many as possible.
However, she wasn’t a fool. There was nothing more foolish than blindly trusting people in this world.
Eres looked at Keldian and Clementine before speaking,
“Then… All of you agree to bring these people in and watch them without registering, right?”
For now, they would watch them to see what intentions and thoughts they had to enter the ark and the motivations that led them there. They didn’t know anything, so it was best to examine for now.
After they make room in the ark for them and observing their actions, they would decide whether they would let them stay or not.
Keldian nodded from her words along with Clementine.
‘Clementine, I don’t know why you asked that question earlier… But I will be right again this time.’
If she were given the power to take someone to the New World, she would take as many as possible since they would be her friends and colleagues that would protect each others’ backs.
In this damned world… The only thing that could be trusted was humans.
‘Isn’t it?’
Eres bitterly smiled, seeing Clementine with a mysterious smile.
That confident smile always gave ease and stability to others, but when opinions differed like this, it made people nervous.
She thought that Clementine might be right again this time, but Eres shook her head.
‘No.’
If she couldn’t even trust humans, then she could really only despair.
It would truly be too scary to be left alone in this large world with no one to believe in.
‘Whew. Alright. I believe you.’
So far, he had been right. Therefore, it was enough to prove going forth that he was right in the future. Taking a deep breath, Eres prepared to meet the Adventurers that had climbed up the stairs and were walking through the hallway.
***
Booooooooooooooom!
— There are more and more people that are indecisive. Shouldn’t we go out slowly and clean up?
— Hey! It’s serious outside right now.
The demons kept talking inside Hansoo.
Though they were quarantined inside, they were able to get some idea of the situation outside through Mormat’s power, the Master of Authority.
The flies that were wholly swept all over the place earlier had not fully recovered. They wanted to see what was going on around Noah.
Although it was not possible to see inside Noah from far away, being able to look around Noah was a great help.
“Do… what you want.”
Hansoo ignored the words of the demons and began to lash out with his shield against the beasts in the room.
-Boooooooooooooooo!-
The bright red aura that surrounded his shield made the wolf-like beasts running toward him into a paste.
The red-jade like light that looked like blood continued to shine brightly a slightly red fungus color different from the Pandemic Blade.
The demons watching from the inside frowned.
‘You crazy Administrator… To give a madman a weird skill like that…’
Barmamunt gritted his teeth as he watched Hansoo, who was swimming in bright red colors on top of black and gold.