Chapter 60: Ch 60: When All Puzzle Pieces Fall Into Place

***

“Welcome, Your Grace. I have been waiting for you forever.”

“Your… Grace? I think you have the wrong person.”

“No. You are exactly who fate led here. I am Princess Naida Tideborn, Guardian of the Sea God’s Palace. I am here to welcome you as the next Sea God.”

***

Ba-dump. Ba-dump. Ba-dump.

As the foreign memories flooded in, Bella’s heart trembled uncontrollably.

Her face turned pale as a sheet, and her eyes widened in shock.

The world slowed within her perception.

Ruina was descending before her, moving at a snail’s pace.

Yet Bella noticed none of it.

Nothing else mattered to her anymore.

At that moment, everything finally fell into place, like a puzzle solved after an eternity.

She saw Arlan standing within the Sea God’s Palace.

At first, she was confused. She could not understand why he was standing before Naida.

But then the memories continued.

She saw his growth. His struggles. His convictions. His transformation.

She saw how Arlan became Aegis.

Aegis = Arlan

The realization struck her like an explosion inside her mind.

“So this is why my heart races whenever I go near him.”

“So this is why I cannot hate him, no matter how hard I try.”

“So this is why I keep dreaming of that bastard every single night.”

Her lips trembled.

“Because that bastard is… my Arlan. My swee Arlan,” she mumbled as tears unknowingly burst forth, streaming down her cheeks like a uncontrollable waterfall.

Bella understood clearly. And this understanding hurt more than ignorance ever could.

The whole reason for her journey had been to seek Arlan’s forgiveness, yet she had treated that very person so coldly just recently.

The realisation made Bella wanting to kill herself with heart wrenching guilt and remorse.

“Master!” Ruina called out to Bella in her dragon form.

“Why are you crying? Did Ruina do something clumsy again?” she asked in panic.

She still remembered how Bella had punished her for accidentally ruining an entire island just as Bella was about to gain submission from the enemy, wasting all the effort spent to obtain those Sky Crystals.

As punishment, Ruina had been forced to stand on one foot for an entire day.

Although, It was a different matter that she completed the punishment with ease.

Still, the memory of Bella’s enraged expression frightened her.

However, today her master’s expression seemed… different.

Bella swiftly climbed onto Ruina’s back.

“Let’s go, Ruina. We have to find him,” she said as she wiped away her tears.

She understood that crying or drowning in remorse would not help him in any way.

What she wanted, desperately, was to meet him and clear all the misunderstandings between them before anything else went wrong.

Though Ruina did not understand whom her master was talking about, she felt the urgency in her voice.

“Hold tight, Master. We’re going off limit,” she announced with a wide smile.

In the next moment, as Bella tightened her grip on the reins, Ruina flapped her silver wings with earth-shaking force.

Like a streak of silver light, the duo departed toward the unknown.

Whether they would meet Aegis, or face even greater danger, remained uncertain.

—

It was evening when Aegis and Pyro encountered their first Earth Titan.

On the horizon, the Earth Titan’s fortress-like form painted the scene like a primal horror.

As Aegis flew toward it at incredible speed, he was able to estimate its size.

It stood about one hundred meters tall, ape-like in shape, with grotesque roots hanging from its body like tentacles.

It moved on four legs, its eyes glowing with a chilling green light.

[ Target Identified: Earth Titan ]

[ Power Rank: Count / C ]

[ Abilities: Gravitational Domain ]

“Just C-rank and already this big?”

Aegis couldn’t help but be amazed.

“Just how big are the S-class ones?”

Just thinking about that possibility made his spine tingle slightly.

This was not fear.

It was a warning of how terrifying the Earth Titans could be.

However, he was not weak anymore.

He was a peak Duke-rank powerhouse. Combined with the God-Killer Trident, he was nearly invincible.

To test his pure Duke-rank strength, Aegis decided to confront the Titan with his bare hands, reinforcing his muscles with mana.

As he channeled his Duke-rank power, a layer of silver sheen covered his body like a reinforced barrier.

Both his magical and natural defenses rose to a terrifying level.

Just then, he noticed the little fire slime preparing itself for battle, completely unconcerned with the enemy’s size.

“Pyro, stop!”

At his command, Pyro halted instantly and looked at Aegis with a confused expression.

Its gaze clearly asked, Why are you stopping me, Master?

Aegis stepped forward calmly and said coolly, “This isn’t your battle, Pyro. You’re still weak.”

Pyro looked hurt by his master’s words, but the next sentence made it overflow with joy.

“After this is over, I’ll make you stronger. Only then can you help me.”

Pyro understood what that meant.

It would receive blessings from its master, something it had secretly envied others for.

And now, finally, it was his turn.

Aegis, now a dark silhouette against the setting red sun, ascended with impossible velocity, like a dark spear launched into the cerulean expanse.

For a heartbeat, it hung at the apex, to a point of pure potential energy. Then, it reversed course, plummeting toward the massive, distracted Earth Titan like a blazing, inverted meteor.

Buzz!

The air around Aegis screamed, not with friction, but with the sheer, unbridled charge of Raw Force. Every molecule in its reinforced frame aligned with the vector of descent.

Aegis became the ultimate kinetic weapon as his legs locked and pointed downward, forming a perfect, razor-sharp spike, like a falling needle of forged mythril and muscle.

The speed transcended normal perception; it was less a fall and more an instantaneous, gravitational collapse toward its target.

The Earth Titan, a colossal figure of striated granite and moss-green vital fluid, registered the threat an agonizing moment too late. Its geological instincts shrieked a primal warning of impact, but the sheer momentum of the attack defied the lumbering Titan’s reaction time.

BOOOM!

The impact was cataclysmic. Aegis’s reinforced body, driven by that ungodly velocity, struck the Titan’s Rock Solid torso not just like a high-caliber bullet, but like a lance forged from compressed lightning.

The force was so absolute that the Titan’s dense, ancient stone shell offered no meaningful resistance.

Aegis didn’t just pierce it; it obliterated the point of contact, driving through the geological layers and into the Titan’s core.

A violent, internal detonation followed next. The impact shattered the Titan’s monolithic structure from within, creating a shockwave of destruction that rippled outward.

Thwak. Thwak. Thwak.

Massive chunks of rubbles, mostly granite shards in the size of boulders were violently ejected, accompanied by shower of the Titan’s lifeblood: a thick, viscous, green slippery liquid that splattered across the battlefield.

The gore was less organic and more elemental.

The Earth Titan’s massive unblinking eyes, usually glowing with the slow green vitality, dimmed completely.

The colossal construct collapsed, not with a roar, but with a shuddering, terminal sigh of displaced earth.

Aegis emerged from the Titan’s broken remains, and descended calmly through drifting dust and falling rubble.

Not a single scratch was seen on his body.

The place was eerily silent under the darkening sky.

And then, a White Crystal bounced near his legs.

As he picked the Crystal up while reading the System description, a smile appeared on his face.

But it was smile of a Hunter founding his preys.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep