Chapter 41

Chapter 41

Kaian was having fun for the first time in a while.

As expected, you learn a lot more in actual combat.

As he reflected on that realization, he decided he should thank Dominic once he finished the request and returned.

Finn, however, felt very differently.

She looked at the cuts on Kaian's face, grabbed him by the collar, and screamed.

"Please! Let me transform already! This is driving me crazy!"

"Hahaha. Come on, let's play a little longer."

Kaian kicked off a tree and performed a backward somersault.

Whoosh!

Then he saw a dark elf wrapped completely in vines sprinting toward him at incredible speed.

Tap-tap-tap-tap-tap!

"Huh? What's that...?"

Something was strange.

Kaian couldn't sense any life from the dark elf wrapped in vines.

Only an extremely faint trace of mana remained.

There was also a dagger buried in his neck.

A very familiar dagger.

Kaian's expression hardened.

"Don't tell me..."

It was the exact dagger he'd driven into the brave squad member earlier.

There was no mistaking it.

But I stabbed his carotid artery. He should be dead.

Kaian created more distance from the approaching dark elf while reviewing what had happened.

Tap! Tap! Tap! Tap!

After stabbing him through the carotid artery, had Kaian actually confirmed that his mana had completely disappeared?

I saw it weakening... Damn it. I didn't check until it vanished completely.

And the faint mana approaching him now definitely belonged to that squad member.

It had been Kaian's mistake to assume the man was dead.

But...

How is he moving again?

Then Kaian noticed even more dark elves running behind the first one.

They were no longer using [Stealth].

They were simply chasing Kaian with everything they had.

Their mana feels familiar too... Ah! Right!

They were the dark elves Kaian had killed with arrows at the beginning of the fight.

Like the first one, none of them had any life force.

Only faint traces of mana remained around them.

"...That's strange."

Kaian widened the distance again.

Tap! Tap! Tap! Tap!

Then he strengthened the [Double Enhance] cast on his eyes and looked back.

The group of dark elves wrapped tightly in vines became perfectly clear.

Kaian immediately strengthened [Second Eyes] as well and examined the mana remaining inside them.

Hummmm...

"..."

His expression turned cold.

There was no mana left inside the dark elves themselves.

The thing possessing mana was...

"...The vines."

The dark elves weren't alive.

The vines wrapped around their bodies were.

Those vines alone held weak mana and moved like living creatures.

Watching from the treetops, Sarvel smiled triumphantly.

Every dark elf who participated in a hunt was required to swallow a seed called [Reach Vine].

It was a parasitic plant that germinated just before the host died by devouring the mana remaining inside the heart.

Once grown, the vines crawled out through the host's airway and wrapped themselves around the corpse.

Then they manipulated that corpse to search for a stronger life-form with more mana, seeking a new host.

It's a final measure that allows a squad to escape safely from powerful prey.

Food acquisition had always been the first priority of dark elf hunts.

That was why they avoided using poison that might damage the meat.

And why they avoided activating [Reach Vine] whenever possible.

Sarvel, however, thought differently.

Why should hunting exist only for survival? Hunting is the privilege and pleasure of the predator!

And if the prey was powerful, then using an equally powerful weapon was only natural.

If it meant killing the Reaper, Sarvel would've gladly used every squad member he'd brought as a host for [Reach Vine].

It would've been better if even more of them had died... but that cunning Reaper has been acting more cautiously than I expected. It doesn't matter.

Sarvel's confident voice traveled through the air.

"Every dark elf you kill will create another host for [Reach Vine]! What will you do now, Reaper of the Forest?!"

Kaian abruptly stopped running.

His head lowered.

He could feel the corpses controlled by [Reach Vine] charging toward him.

Tap-tap-tap-tap-tap!

"Haah. You really know how to ruin someone's mood."

Turquoise mana rose around Kaian and formed a round barrier.

Whoooosh!

Arrows and short spears struck the barrier and snapped as easily as blades of grass.

The corpses controlled by [Reach Vine] repeatedly charged into it, trying to break through.

Thoom! Thoom!

Kaian watched them with a twisted expression.

"So... this is what happens when I try to fight you nicely?"

The strange songs and fog disturbing his senses had been fine.

The poisoned arrows and spears had been fine.

Blocking his escape routes and changing the terrain had been fine.

Even hiding underground and stabbing weapons up through the ground had been fine.

If anything, Kaian had admired how organized their hunting methods were.

But using their dead subordinates as hunting tools...

For what?

Mana crystals?

Money?

Why should weaker people be driven to death so someone stronger could profit?

The faces of Kaian's family flashed through his mind one after another.

Blood vessels spread through his eyes.

"Hey."

Kaian's voice dropped.

"You piece of shit who's lower than a bug."

Turquoise mana more vivid and concentrated than ever before began rising from his body.

Whoooooosh...!

"You don't get to die peacefully."

Then came a low, freezing incantation.

"[Terra, Behold and Rage. Titan's Eye.]"

And then...

Flash!

Kaian's mana filled the entire interior of [Air Dome].

Then vanished.

***

For a moment, Sarvel thought he'd hallucinated.

Perhaps the lack of oxygen had simply caused his vision to flicker.

But as if mocking that assumption, turquoise mana began flashing continuously throughout [Air Dome].

Sarvel's breathing became even rougher as emotion surged through him.

"Haah... Haaah..."

He had dragged the sky down.

Cut away the enemy's wings.

Bound his hands and feet.

Strangled him with fog.

Raised corpses from the earth.

Then how...

How was lightning flashing inside his dome?

That furious mana seemed to declare...

Wherever I stand is the sky.

Sarvel shuddered and shouted hoarsely.

"Cheap tricks! What are you supposed to be, a highest-rank mage?!"

But as if to laugh at his desperate denial, a massive vibration began shaking [Air Dome].

Rrrrrrrrrumble!

The corpses wrapped in vines fell over and tangled together.

The dark elves pressed themselves flat against the ground.

Even Sarvel desperately clung to a tree trunk as the impact threatened to throw him away.

"Urgh!"

The first ones to understand what was happening were actually the underground units.

They were already tense because of the unprecedented earthquake.

Then suddenly, cold night air and brilliant turquoise light flooded into their underground space.

Every dark elf below ground naturally looked upward.

And they saw it.

The enormous mass of earth above them...

Was getting farther away.

"...!"

One particularly quick soldier immediately escaped the damp underground and sprinted away.

Tap-tap-tap-tap!

It was instinctive judgment.

To understand what was happening, he needed enough distance to see everything at once.

Even while running, however, he couldn't bring himself to look back.

He simply sprinted until the vast shadow of earth hanging above him disappeared.

Then he frantically climbed the nearest tree.

Scramble-scramble-scramble!

When he finally looked up to confirm the truth...

His knees gave out.

"Ah...! The Reaper of the Forest is enraged!"

The tightly sealed hemispherical hunting ground known as [Air Dome] was being lifted into the sky.

Rrrrrrrrrumble!

By then, Sarvel had also realized what was happening.

The entire landscape of Vernas Forest, something that should've been visible only while flying, stretched out beneath him.

There was no way he could misunderstand now.

"What... is this...?"

He forgot to breathe.

[Air Dome] floated high above the forest as though it rested on the palm of one of the ancient Titans said to have disappeared long ago.

"My magic..."

Sarvel trembled with rage.

"That was my magic! It was clearly my spell...!"

Then Kaian grabbed Sarvel from behind.

Flash!

"What?!"

Sarvel sensed Kaian's presence a moment too late.

By then, an arrow had already pierced his Achilles tendon.

Snap! Snap!

"Aaaagh!"

Sarvel screamed.

Kaian's expression remained completely emotionless.

He drove additional poisoned arrows used by the squads into Sarvel's body.

One through each Achilles tendon.

Five along his back, following the line of his spine.

And one through each shoulder.

[Quick Venom], the poison that disrupted mana flow, flooded into Sarvel's Imaginary World.

Within moments, he was completely incapable of fighting.

He staggered dangerously on the branch.

This can't be how it ends...!

Kaian had no intention of letting him fall.

He pulled a rope out with [Quick Draw] and looped it around Sarvel's neck.

Then he hung him from the tree.

Snap!

"Urgh!"

During the brief moment when his mana stopped flowing backward, Sarvel barely managed to cast defensive magic.

It was enough to prevent his neck from breaking.

Nothing more.

He couldn't repair his severed muscles.

He couldn't remove the rope.

Sarvel focused desperately on maintaining his defensive spell.

But he'd already consumed almost all his mana matter.

The rope and his own Imaginary World squeezed the breath from him from both directions.

"Urgh... Ngh!"

Standing in midair atop a floating leaf, Kaian looked down at Sarvel.

"How does it feel?"

His voice was calm.

"All you ever did was give orders and watch from a distance. How does it feel to stand in the middle of the hunting ground yourself?"

It was the voice Sarvel had heard countless times in his imagination.

The voice of the Reaper.

The unforgettable nightmare tore into his chest.

Thick turquoise mana churned violently around Kaian.

Cold eyes.

A mocking smile.

"The hunter and the hunted."

Kaian's Imaginary World burned brighter with anger.

"Those positions can change at any moment, can't they?"

Yet his voice remained as clear and calm as ever.

That contradiction only made the killing intent inside it even more overwhelming.

"Oh."

Kaian tilted his head.

"Is this your first time being hunted?"

Sarvel made choking sounds.

Kaian ignored them.

"All that talk about mana matter running out..."

His gaze was cold.

"Pathetic."

"Urgh!"

"You still have some left, don't you? You sat up here watching while your subordinates died, so you should have plenty."

Kaian smiled faintly.

"Try your best to endure. You should at least watch how the game you started ends."

Sarvel continued choking.

Kaian went on as though he couldn't care less.

"Honestly, I don't really understand what it feels like to run out of mana matter."

Sarvel's eyes widened.

"The whole world is filled with mana."

Kaian's tone was almost conversational.

"If you need more, why not just take some and use it?"

Sarvel's pupils expanded further.

Insane! Materialization isn't that simple!

But all he could produce was a strangled groan.

Kaian looked emotionlessly at his suffering face.

He already knew what Sarvel was thinking.

He thinks it's impossible.

The time required for materialization differed greatly from mage to mage.

But it always required intense concentration.

Common sense said a mage should choose a safe place and time where they wouldn't be disturbed.

So of course he'd think materializing mana during a battle is impossible.

Kaian sighed.

"I know."

His voice was quiet.

"I know what I'm saying isn't normal."

Then the corner of his mouth twisted into a strange, almost mad smile.

"But you called me the Reaper, didn't you?"

"...!"

Kaian's turquoise eyes gleamed.

"A Reaper wouldn't be normal, would he?"

The moment Sarvel saw that smile...

He finally understood.

The goddess of Vernas Forest had never been on his side.