Chapter 165

Mount Demon Sealing (2)

Mount Demon Sealing was famous for swarming with all kinds of bizarre beasts, befitting a place used for the coming-of-age ceremony of the Tribal Alliance.

And it was only natural that the quality of life for the humans stationed in such a place would be anything but pleasant.

“……Hey.”

Of course, that didn’t mean that Marlon, the captain of the guard currently in charge of managing the Mount Demon Sealing area, had suddenly awakened to some peculiar desire.

The reason he felt like chewing off the head of the vice-captain standing next to him was solely because of the scene unfolding before his eyes.

“What the hell is that?”

“…….”

Even if he asked, how would I know?

That thought slowly crept through the vice-captain’s mind.

Honestly.

Watching that monster tear across the mountainside teeming with beasts at a terrifying speed, such a reaction was only natural.

‘……The Great Chieftain told us to stay put and observe in case something unexpected happened……!’

To begin with, the only reason they were here at all was because of that very order.

If it looked like something might happen to Aiden Kellermain charging up there, they were to extract him immediately.

What was the intention behind sending him here in the first place and then attaching more men out of concern for danger? But weren’t the high-ranking people always like that? They must have had their own hidden agenda.

However, the emotion Marlon felt now was entirely different from the cynicism he had felt when he first came out here.

An accident? Danger?

Who, exactly, was supposed to be causing that to whom?

-!

With a boom, an explosion erupted from the mountainside.

It wasn’t that an actual bomb had gone off, but there was clearly a physical phenomenon occurring with comparable force.

It didn’t happen just once. The thunderous blasts echoed one after another, rippling outward continuously. Every time he took a step, the sound reverberated in all directions.

……To think this was happening within the confines of a single human body, it was unquestionably a massive incident.

And those beasts he was shattering with a single strike of his sword as he climbed—were they even just beasts?

If even one of them broke away and descended separately, it would be nothing short of a disaster for ordinary people. There were primate-type beasts that could tear a person apart with their bare hands, beasts that stunned their prey with ultrasonic waves and devoured them alive, beasts that secreted such virulent poison from their entire bodies that mere exposure would nearly melt a target down to the bone……

Among them, more than a few were so terrifying that they seemed less like beasts and more like native creatures that had not merely been infused with dark energy but outright demonized.

And yet.

He brushed those things aside as if they were nothing more than annoying insects and kept advancing.

It would have been one thing if he had merely swatted them away, but watching him crush them in a single breath as though he were truly killing bugs made reality feel distant, to the point that I wondered whether I was dreaming…….

Those who knew what Aiden Kellermain had done up until now might have been able to accept that it was possible. But from the perspective of someone seeing this man for the first time, he was nothing less than a calamity that had fallen out of nowhere.

‘……There was nothing there?’

Every warrior of the Tribal Alliance had to possess a certain aptitude for handling Mana Arts in order to be recognized as an adult. That meant all of them were quite capable of gauging roughly how strong another person was.

And clearly.

That man had been empty.

Not only empty. He was the kind of talent where even the possibility of filling that emptiness with something had seemed faint at best.

Yet the sight of him racing across that mountain as if he had become an entirely different person in mere seconds—

……From the standpoint of someone watching, it delivered a numbing shock, as though a human being had been swapped out on the spot.

“-”

The supernatural power that flowed out in a single breath resembled the one he had once copied from Noel.

A golden afterimage layered atop pure white qi.

It was a power that felt as though he were directly borrowing strength from a heavenly god and carrying it out.

Even seeing it for the first time, it was difficult to determine exactly what it was—but it wasn’t hard at all to realize how alien in nature that power was……

‘……Where the hell did this guy even come from?’

It was such an absurd ability that it made me feel that the Great Chieftain, who had refrained from openly expressing his stance until now, hadn’t started clashing with that man the moment he arrived here for no reason.

“How many minutes has it been?”

At his question, the vice-captain beside him stared blankly at the clock.

Since it was a clock of the Tribal Alliance, it didn’t take the same form as those outside. But precisely because of that, it delivered a far greater visual impact.

By the standards of the coming-of-age ceremony, that man was traversing the mountain at nearly one-tenth of the usual time.

“…….”

“…….”

“……One-tenth?”

“Yes.”

“Isn’t that close to the Great Chieftain’s record?”

“It is.”

Once again, the conversation between the two of them abruptly cut off.

And the two men stood there, staring blankly at Aiden as he climbed the mountain.

More than the mere visual stimulus of the clock, there was a grandeur in the sight of that man climbing the mountain itself that left one speechless.

Watching him quietly from the distant spire only made it all the more tangible.

Just how fast he was breaking through that place.

“……?”

And Marlon’s eyes, fixed on the scene, narrowed once more.

Aiden had now clearly stepped onto the mountainside used for the coming-of-age ceremony and was about to climb even higher.

‘He’s really going to try that?’

Trying to charge in there barehanded without even carrying a sacred relic certified by the priestesses was plainly not the act of someone in their right mind.

Of course, everything he had shown so far had already been far removed from sanity, but even so, throwing oneself straight into the area most thickly blanketed in dark energy—aside from the place where the body of the God of Devouring was directly sealed—was not something any ordinary mind would conceive of…….

“……??”

But soon, Marlon’s eyes narrowed even further.

Because right before them, a sight was unfolding that naturally drew such a reaction.

“Hey.”

“…….”

I wish he’d stop talking to me.

No matter what bizarre thing that man did, there was no way for him to know the reason anyway.

The vice-captain mulled over that thought, but fortunately, the question Marlon brought out this time was of a different sort.

“Why’s he turning black?”

“……What??”

“His whole body’s just turning black?”

Indeed.

Beyond the mountainside, where thick, viscous dark energy lay so heavily that merely looking at it felt like it would rot your eyes, Aiden’s figure—

Looked as though he had taken out a black raincoat and wrapped it around his entire body.

As if he had come prepared with equipment capable of blocking it.

And to members of the Tribal Alliance, who lived their lives constantly exposed to dark energy,

What that man now had wrapped around himself felt far more—

“……What in the world is that?”

……horrifying.

And filthy.

Marlon’s voice, once again giving voice to his doubt, trembled distinctly compared to before.

The truly shocking part had clearly not even begun yet.

▣

It wasn’t as though members of the Tribal Alliance possessed any aptitude for telepathy, but Dunadan Uzal was sharing almost the exact same impression as Marlon’s vice-captain in the spire atop the mountain.

“……What do you think the Great Chieftain was thinking when he ordered something like that?”

Whenever he saw people nearby asking questions like that, only one thought came to mind.

‘How would I know.’

The Great Chieftain had never paid the slightest attention no matter how much he and Saladin, who were practically lifelong rivals, bickered.

Fundamentally, the two of them divided the largest factions within the Tribal Alliance, and even their light verbal sparring was, in truth, an act that greatly heightened anxiety.

All chieftains held equal authority, which meant the balance of power among them was maintained at something close to a golden ratio.

Under normal circumstances, that fact acted as a deterrent that controlled conflicts between tribes. But if they were ever to find a real reason to fight, it would also serve as the perfect justification for clashing with one another in the fiercest way possible.

Even so, the Great Chieftain’s usual attitude toward such disputes was, at best, that of a bystander.

To put it more cynically.

It was as though he regarded them as matters not even worth his concern.

It was political acumen born of knowing better than anyone that he himself was the greatest force of restraint capable of acting when conflict erupted within the Tribal Alliance.

It wasn’t just his political standing. It was his personal combat power as well.

The Tribal Alliance’s greatest military strength was the warrior corps raised by their harsh environment—but standing at the very pinnacle of that corps was the Great Chieftain.

And yet.

Whether politically or militarily. A man who could serve alone as the deterrent for the entire alliance.

For him to pour this much attention onto a single outsider was not something that could be explained away as merely unusual.

“……Do you truly know nothing?”

“…….”

When one of the chieftains asked that, Dunadan pressed his lips tightly together.

Well.

It wasn’t as though he could know the Great Chieftain’s true intentions.

But he could make a guess.

“To tell him to do something similar to yourself in order to partially inherit authority……”

……Wasn’t that a structure one would use for a successor?

The people here must have sensed as much as well, which was why they were asking him such a question.

“……Even so, I doubt it would go that far. In the first place, even if he’s an outsider, reaching the summit of Mount Demon Sealing through ordinary means should be impossible.”

Even without going so far as to entertain such far-fetched talk of succession, the very first task given to Aiden was, from the outset, impossible to complete.

Saying that, they all turned their gazes toward the hologram that observed and transmitted the situation at Mount Demon Sealing.

A live broadcast of Aiden climbing the mountain was being displayed there, and as he stepped onto the mountainside and continued upward, someone clicked their tongue and shook their head.

Soon, the dark energy would surge in and burrow into that man’s body.

His courage—no, recklessness—in leaping in there without hesitation was worthy of respect, but to attempt such a thing without preparing any means was nothing more than bravado—

“…….”

—Or so everyone had been thinking, when their eyes narrowed.

Because they all saw Aiden in the screen ‘draw something out’ from somewhere and ‘wrap it’ around his body as if it were a piece of equipment.

On the surface, the motion looked as natural as taking out clothes and putting them on.

But the people gathered here were at least equal to, if not above, the Northern Grand Ducal House of the Empire when it came to dealing with dark energy.

It didn’t take long for them to realize what it was.

“……That.”

One of the chieftains pointed at the sight with a voice that sounded dizzy.

“Isn’t that demonkind?”

“…….”

A forgotten race. Spiritual parasites. Masters of dark energy.

And right before their eyes, that very race was being summoned and handled like equipment.