Chapter 149

The monster known as the Sea Elder was an exceptionally large individual among the fishmen.

In truth, it wasn’t just its size that was large.

A bit of ancient mana, a little of a mysterious origin, and a heaping of madness and disgust.

Between a fishman and a Sea Elder, there was a difference comparable to that between a common magical beast and a phantom beast.

And there were over thirty of such Sea Elders.

The sight of them writhing in the dark water pit visible through the crack in the rock was utterly disgusting and grotesque.

Kobet felt his sanity chipping away just by looking at the thirty Sea Elders and his mind was already not in a sound state.

“…….”

Amethus bowed his head with a sorrowful expression.

Even in the dark cave, his face was unusually shadowed.

“Is there no other way…….”

His heart was filled with lament.

Thirty Sea Elders, monsters that seemed to come straight out of old tales.

Even for someone like him, he had no choice but to use his sword.

It meant he had no choice but to let his precious sword be covered in toxic and foul-smelling blood.

He looked down at the double-edged sword he always carried.

It was much smaller than when he first got it.

Having used it for over 10 years, it had naturally and slowly shrunk in size.

This double-edged sword was a gift from Ferbias, his old friend who was now the Emperor of the Cordis Empire.

Even for Ferbias, it was something he had bought with his own money during his student days, so it wasn’t an exceptionally outstanding item.

It was certainly a good sword, but it wasn’t made with the intention of being used for over 10 years.

Though he always meticulously maintained it, every single chip or damage was agonizing.

And now he had to cut down such monsters.

To let his precious sword be covered in toxic blood! Amethus felt a sorrow close to despair.

“Sir Knight.”

Kobet carefully opened his mouth.

The old man had some inkling of Amethus’s feelings.

“I found something like this…….”

“No way……!”

Amethus’s face brightened in an instant.

“Thank you so much, Kobet!”

He took a worn-out blade from the old man’s hand.

Its original shape was hard to recognize, but it seemed to be a harpoon.

He couldn’t guess why it had drifted here and it was so worn it was barely a blade, but it didn’t matter.

This was more than excellent.

Amethus swung the old harpoon a couple of times.

A truly murderous sound was made.

He beamed and entrusted his double-edged sword to the old man.

Now that he had a harpoon, it was time to catch some fish.

“Lucky me.”

He leaped as if flying, holding the harpoon.

The Sea Elders didn’t even notice.

Amethus, with the momentum of his leap, pierced through the head of one Sea Elder.

Its head disappeared as if it exploded and its body collapsed.

Blood splattered in all directions.

The Sea Elders were simply bewildered.

It was dark, making it hard to see what had happened, and only the smell of blood was clear.

Amethus, though tall for a human, was very small compared to a Sea Elder. The Sea Elders couldn’t easily spot Amethus.

By the time one monster clearly recognized Amethus and the old harpoon in his hand and let out a scream, ten of the thirty were already dead.

“Human……!”

“It’s a human……!”

Though discovered, Amethus was unfazed.

He had no intention of hiding in the first place.

He was just too fast for them to have spotted him.

“As I thought, these things also speak the Imperial language.”

His grip tightened with growing displeasure.

The remaining Sea Elders felt a chill.

They had an uneasy premonition that they would become corpses in a more gruesome state than their already dead comrades, and soon, that became a reality.

The thirty Sea Elders soon transformed into ten corpses in a gruesome state and twenty corpses in a more gruesome state.

The fishy smell of blood was now beyond description.

Kobet, whose nose was already numb, nonchalantly approached Amethus and handed him the scabbard.

Amethus roughly washed himself and took the sword.

They walked on without a word.

Down, further down.

To a deeper, darker place.

How far does this cave continue?

How far down does it go?

It becomes endlessly deep and dark.

Yet the ground they trod on becomes increasingly flat.

As if touched by human hands.

But those hands seemed to be from a very long time ago.

It looked to be at least a thousand years old.

Amethus swept his hand across the wall.

Wiping away the water moss and ancient grime revealed a bas-relief.

The stone wall was filled with drawings that seemed to worship something.

There were letters too, but they were unreadable.

It wasn’t the Ancient Hotus language; it seemed to be from an even earlier time.

Before Cordis, there was Hotus.

Before Hotus, the Ancient Times.

Could this undersea cave be a temple that served an Ancient God long ago?

Amethus felt a warmth in his chest. He took out a white mask from within his clothes.

‘Breath of Light…….’

Seven years ago, on Aretion Island, he had cut the lifeline of the Ancient God his family had served.

The Breath of Light had torn off its face and given it to Amethus.

Along with the words, ‘do not forget me.’

That face, the white mask that had changed to fit Amethus’s face perfectly, was growing hot.

This was the first time in seven years such a thing had happened.

He had always carried the face of the Breath of Light, but not once had it grown hot or hummed.

What in this undersea cave had awakened the remains of an Ancient God?

Amethus, lost in thought, suddenly raised his head.

“Stop, Kobet.”

His jade eyes flashed.

“Someone is here.”

***

“I knew the fishmen were being loud…….”

A dragging tone, the Imperial language with a Hobel Bay accent.

From the darkness, a man slowly walked out.

“Who the hell are you to have come this far?”

“…….”

Instead of answering, Amethus put on the white mask, the face of the Breath of Light.

He had only brought it to his face, but it wrapped around his skin.

It clung so tightly he worried he might not be able to take it off again.

Fire ignited on the head of the masked Amethus.

It resembled the Breath of Light, which had an incandescent light orb instead of a head.

However, the flame on Amethus’s head was jade-colored; it illuminated the surroundings but was not hot. Instead, a strange power seemed to flow through it.

The white mask and the jade flame startled Kobet.

The man with the Hobel Bay accent was startled as well.

He was holding a large spear in his hand.

“…That mask, it’s imbued with the power of an Ancient God.”

“Is that so?”

“You’re calm.”

The spear-wielding man scoffed.

“It’s a shame you can’t reveal your name. If you did, you wouldn’t be so calm.”

“Perhaps.”

“…You have a talent for irking people with just a few words.”

The man clicked his tongue.

Amethus’s face was not visible because of the mask.

Moreover, with the jade flame blazing from his head, his other features seemed trivial.

“What on earth are you thinking?”

“I was thinking how fortunate this is.”

Amethus drew his double-edged sword.

It was terribly sharp.

“Because it seems my sword won’t be damaged even if I cut you.”

“Ha……!”

The man’s name was Oholius.

He felt utterly flabbergasted.

“How can there be such an arrogant brat…….”

Oholius was a centurion of the Cordis 9th Legion.

His rank was just below the Legion Commander, and so was his skill.

He had found his Ars of the soul, and was a man worthy of the title of Master west of the Great Mountain Range.

Does not the fact that he was solely managing the Hatchery of Calamity prove the Empire’s trust in him?

“You, you’re arrogant.”

“You too.”

Oholius’s head rolled to the ground.

He was a Cordis centurion, and the fact that he had blocked Amethus’s sword three times proved his skill.

However, he did not possess the skill to block Amethus’s sword a fourth time.

Amethus took out a cloth and wiped his sword.

Compared to the fishmen’s blood, human blood had almost no stench.

Kobet wasn’t even surprised.

After Amethus had sliced up thirty Sea Elders and parted the sea, he figured there was nothing to be surprised about him cutting down one human.

It was a natural thought for Kobet, who didn’t know that Oholius was a Cordis centurion.

“Let’s go down, Kobet.”

Amethus took off the mask.

Now that Oholius was dead, there was no need to hide his face.

His worry that it might not come off because it had stuck so tightly was a lie, as it came off with ease.

“I think the next one is the last.”

***

On their way down, there was a place with a particularly foul stench.

Kobet wanted to pass by quickly, but Amethus stopped.

Since venturing into this undersea cave without Amethus meant certain death, Kobet had no choice but to stop as well.

Amethus put on the mask again.

The jade flame blazed, illuminating the surroundings.

He followed the stench and found a pile of something.

Amethus instantly saw through the pile’s identity and fell silent.

“…….”

He glared at the pile.

Anger mingled within the blazing jade flame.

Kobet did not yet know the pile’s identity.

Amethus let out a deep sigh.

It wasn’t easy to speak.

Still, he had to.

“…Kobet.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Do you know why I brought you all the way here?”

“Well…….”

It couldn’t have been as a guide.

He knew less about this undersea cave than Amethus did.

Kobet had been nothing but a burden to Amethus all along.

Of course, it was a very light burden for Amethus.

“Because it seemed you had a reason to hate the fishmen.”

“Don’t tell me…….”

He was an old man whose mind was not sound.

He had been like that ever since he lost his son.

But because of that, he realized what Amethus was about to say.

“Who did you lose?”

“My son, my only son…….”

“…I believe you’ll have to check.”

“Ah, ah……!”

Only then did Kobet realize the identity of that pile and let out a gasp.

His face contorted in grief, but he couldn’t stop walking.

Amethus was kind enough to raise the jade flame higher so that he could look into the pile.

That pile was a pile of human corpses.

Those who had been abducted by the fishmen and lost their lives were stacked like trash.

There were some that were just beginning to rot, and some that were already rotted away to bone.

Tears flowed down Kobet’s wrinkled and dirty face.

“Oh, ooh…….”

He wept as he searched through the pile.

Amethus did not help.

It was something the old man had to do himself.

Even if he was cut by sharp bones and the rotten flesh and blood seeped into the wounds.

“Rakle, Rakle……!”

Very tragically, the old man found him.

Among the pile, he found familiar clothes and a familiar necklace.

He had bought them himself, so there was no way he wouldn’t know.

“…Why are you here? Why are you here, Rakle…….”

At the sight of his kin, rotted to the bone, the old man sobbed and sobbed.

“…My son, my son, my son Rakle… If only I were here instead, if only I had rotted in your place…….”

“…….”

Amethus could only feel pity.

He felt he owed a great debt to the name of Aretion, to his own family.

That was why he wanted to help the old man who had lost his family find at least the remains.

It went as he had intended, and as expected, he was heartbroken.

“My son, my son…….”

“Wait.”

Amethus said coldly.

He roughly pushed the old man who was hugging his son’s remains.

The sobbing Kobet tumbled helplessly.

Amethus stood as if to protect him and placed his hand on his sword’s hilt.

‘…It was too faint to notice, but there was a sound of breathing from within the pile of corpses.’

With his hand on the hilt, he slowly dug through the pile.

Kobet, with tear-filled eyes, watched what he was doing.

Amethus soon found a small life among the pile of corpses.

“What is this…….”

“Ooh…….”

It was a little girl.

She looked to be about six years old.

“…She’s still breathing. It seems she fainted from exhaustion after starving for so long.”

The child was wrapped in clothes.

She must have hidden like that in the pile of corpses, holding her breath in the clothes to avoid the fishmen’s eyes. Kobet slowly raised his hand.

“Those clothes, those clothes are… Rakle’s…….”

The clothes wrapped around the child were Rakle’s, Kobet’s son’s.

It looked as if someone had wrapped her up to protect her, rather than her having done it herself.

Kobet slowly approached the child.

Amethus did not stop him.

The old man carefully, very carefully, extended his hand.

As if he regarded the small life as a phantom that would disappear if he even breathed too loudly.

The old man’s hand is wrinkled and dirty.

He very lightly touched the child’s hand.

The child was unconscious.

Yet it was a wondrous thing that she held on tightly as soon as the old man’s hand touched hers.

Even while unconscious, the child gripped the old man’s hand with all her might.

Looking at the child wrapped in his son’s clothes, the old man shed tears.

“Let’s get out, child…….”

The tears were strangely hot.

“Let’s get out of here…….”

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