Chapter 55: Defeated ’Hero’, Layla Jauregia. Part-1.

"Phew... staying in that place was kind of stressful..."

The train station was pretty small, but just staying there put a lot of invisible pressure on Zephyr’s mind, as if something was staring at him continuously from the darkness somewhere.

If an ordinary person were staying in a place like that, they would likely go insane from paranoia in just a few hours.

*Dudududududududu~*

The rhythmic noise of the mining cart moving forward on the train track brought more consolidation to his heart than anything else could at the moment.

’Even with my powerful eyesight, I can’t seem to see the end of this tunnel; the path ahead is completely dark with no end in sight...’

The narrow underground tunnel was too dark and too silent, so much so that it almost seemed unnatural; only the light of the torch and the sound of the mining cart stood out in this endless darkness.

*Shmmm!*

Just when Zephyr was feeling a bit bored sitting still, the ceiling of the tunnel suddenly glowed up with a dark bluish aura of dense mana, and a painting made from condensed mana suddenly appeared on the ceiling.

In this darkness, it was simply impossible to miss the painting, and with Zephyr’s powerful eyesight, he saw it in full detail.

The painting depicted a small secluded town located at the foot of a mountain and hidden by the lush forest around it.

There were no roads leading to the town, and it was clear that this was a secluded and an extremely hidden place.

There was even a narrow river passing by near the town, and the entire town seemed quite prosperous.

"The sky... is it just me, or does that peculiar ’K’ shaped constellation in the sky seem quite identical to the one I saw on the silver spear in the sea outside?"

"The town located right below this ’K’ shaped constellation is only the one that I am in right now..."

"Is this picture depicting what the town used to be like before... but how’s that possible? There’s no mountain near the town outside... an entire mountain couldn’t have just disappeared overnight, right?"

Zephyr felt quite bewildered by this painting and felt that it was likely fake, but then he realized that this was a bizarre world with all kinds of bizarre phenomena happening everywhere.

Even if an entire mountain range disappears overnight, it wouldn’t be considered abnormal at all!

’Perhaps some kind of mana flow disturbance could have done this... or maybe a powerful monster is responsible...’

Ever since Zephyr awakened his mana, he could sense the flow of mana in the air, and from the knowledge provided by the ’Shattered Firmament Martial Art’ technique, Zephyr knew that it was certainly possible to manipulate the flow of mana in the surroundings.

In fact, all beings that can control mana can affect the flow of mana in the air to some extent with their mana control, and it is easy to understand that if used correctly, this flow of mana can be used for extremely destructive purposes too.

Once Zephyr reaches a certain mastery over mana and his combat art, he will also be able to borrow the power of the flow of mana to a greater extent, enhancing his raw attack power many times over!

At that point, it won’t be too difficult to blow away a mountain or two in a single punch.

’Even if the mountain was destroyed by mana flow, it is possible that those giants that are almost as tall as mountains themselves could have destroyed it...’

’Their homes alone are almost as big as mountains; it won’t be surprising if a gigantic mountain is just a big pile of sand in their eyes that can be pushed away very easily...’

Just when Zephyr was busy thinking about the image, a new image appeared on the ceiling once he traveled a bit further with the mining cart.

This time the painting was much simpler; it was a scene from inside a small hut, and it showed a newborn child held tightly in the arms of an old lady standing beside a bed on which a woman lay unconscious.

From the hut’s window, the ’K’ constellation was visible in the dark sky, and the newborn child seemed to be glowing under the gentle moonlight falling on the child from the window.

"The mother looks like she’s either unconscious or is dead due to childbirth... this scene seems to be depicting the process of birth, aging, and death at the same time..."

The young child represented birth, the old lady represented aging, and the dead mother represented death; these were three primary rules of life that every mortal being had to follow regardless of who they were.

"But... what is this ’K’ star constellation and the moonlight representing in the image though?"

Zephyr was no artist; he didn’t know sh*t about art and had no idea how to evaluate this painting. He couldn’t comprehend the message that this painting was trying to show at all.

"Are these paintings... trying to tell me a story?"

Although Zephyr didn’t know much about art, he was very familiar with the concept of manga and novels.

Often times, in manga when a story is about to begin, the creator first shows the image of the location from a distance, like the first image, and then the main character, like the newborn baby that appeared to be shining under moonlight.

"But whose story is this..."

Amidst rising confusion and questions, the mining cart moved forward, and a new painting appeared on the ceiling.

This time it was a scene from outside the old hut; a young girl had aimed her toy sword towards the sky as one of her feet rested on the head of a toy dragon.

"Is this... trying to show her overwhelming victory over a powerful foe by going against the will of heaven itself?"

Pointing your sword against the sky likely meant going against the heavens, and the dragon was likely a great foe; the young girl was the ’Hero’ of the story.

"This young girl... she must be the newborn child from the previous image... She’s depicted like a ’Hero’ in this image... Don’t tell me, this is the story of ’Layla Jauregia,’ who created this trail and has the title ’Hero’!?"