Chapter 394: Owner of the crystal (2)

—booooom!— 

“Ahhhh!”

“Damn! Buy time! John Stone will be here soon!”

While the three Transcendents were battling Hansoo—

—the memories surrounding the crystal entered through Kiriel’s hand and into her head.

‘What the hell is going on?’

Kiriel gulped.

This darkness did not exist until Clementine’s forces had found this place.

But the moment the Abyss fell, and the elevator appeared, things had changed.

The mysterious creature that came out from the elevator.

With appearances that resembled bears and lions.

Strange creatures continued to flood out.

Towards this crystal.

And Kiriel knew what had happened from that point.

Kill or be killed.

The people of Reyunion, who couldn’t even defend against basic monsters, were simply massacred, and the powerful forces of Clementine died as well.

‘I wonder where they went…?’

The powerful forces that Erunheim had seen in her memories had all disappeared.

Kiriel had thought that Clementine and Sangjin had succeeded in killing off all the Abyssal monsters but that was not the case.

‘They… didn’t succeed.’

It wasn’t that they had succeeded in killing them off.

The Transcendents had all disappeared because they had failed.

The monsters that came out from the elevator had long accomplished their goals.

Clementine’s forces had fallen back, and so they had given this place up, leaving it for Sangjin and the others.

—ssss— 

Kiriel stopped reading the memories and looked around.

Pure darkness.

The countless strands of darkness that reached out and tied down the crystal.

Kiriel gulped as she extended her hands into the darkness.

—pff— 

She felt an obstruction.

It felt just like a wall, a black wall.

A wall with strange strands extending out from it.

But to Kiriel, who could read memories, it was different.

She knew what was going on in here.

‘The ones alive are… seven.’

—ssss— 

The memories within the darkness started to enter her mind.

The ones that had survived the journey up to this point were only seven.

Of course, despite their low numbers, they were extremely strong.

After all, they had charged through all the Transcendents that had stood in their way.

But after reaching this place, they seemed to be quite tired from their efforts.

After smelling the crystal a few times, they smiled contentedly and touched the nearby walls.

But at that moment, the walls started to get dyed with a dark color.

And with that as the beginning, the area surrounding the crystal turned dark.

A color that one couldn’t simply describe with the word ‘dark’.

‘But… this isn’t the original color.’

Kiriel thought of the colors of the walls as they descended down here.

In any case, the memory continued.

As the walls turned dark—

—rumble— 

—the beings suddenly entered the wall.

Like a human entering a body of water.

With a carefree attitude.

And then—

—shshshshshshsh!— 

—thousands of strands of shadows extended out and secured the crystal.

And as she saw up to this point—

—she felt a hand on her shoulder.

“What happened here?”

“Mmm…”

As she turned around, she saw Hansoo who had already cleaned up the area.

It seems he had finished up while she was reading the memories.

The cracks on the blue armor showed it.

Kiriel looked at the blue armor in a daze and then woke up to reply to Hansoo.

‘But… what do I tell him?’

Kiriel wondered whether Hansoo even knew about the mysterious creatures, but in the end she told him everything she had seen.

She believed in his mystical ‘psychic abilities’.

“…So they entered the darkness and the strands extended out onto the crystals. The issue here is that most of them have been cut off.”

As Kiriel finished her words—

—Hansoo’s expression froze.

And he quickly made a decision.

“Give up the crystal. Leave immediately.”

“Huh? Wasn’t this extremely important?”

Hansoo shook his head.

“It is. But we can’t touch it anymore.”

‘We need to go somewhere else first. I now know why Clementine’s forces and Sanjin gave this up.’

It was a wise choice to do so.

Unlike the stupid actions of John Stone.

‘I need to clean this place up before we leave…’

Hansoo looked at the remaining strands and the crystal as he spoke.

“Kiriel, stay and protect this place. We cannot let anyone take the crystal.”

“Huh? What about you?”

Hansoo looked up and muttered:

“The ones who might cause a catastrophe… I need to pull them out by the roots.”

—boooom!— 

With a loud bang, Hansoo’s body quickly ascended through the hole.

………………………………………….

“Ugh… Hurry! We need to stop them before they get the crystal!”

John Stone gritted his teeth.

Such horrible timing for a thief to appear.

He’d worked too hard.

If he’d been slightly more laid back in dealing with the strands, he wouldn’t feel so pressured to rush over there.

But sadly, he and his underlings had taken turns day and night and had almost cut off all the strands from the crystal.

The remainder was more than enough for Hansoo to cut off by himself.

‘No… That thief! I was so close!’

All his hard work…

He couldn’t let anyone take it.

“Hurry! Hurry up! All of you!”.

John Stone continued to scream.

Not only towards his underlings but to the people of Reyunion as well, who’d armed themselves with their mechanical weapons.

And everyone frowned at these shouts.

John Stone saw this, but he didn’t have time to care what they thought.

He didn’t usually act this way.

No matter how strong he was, if he pushed them too hard, then he was bound to end up backstabbed.

Although he acted arrogantly, they wouldn’t act out of place as long as he treated them well.

But this situation was different.

Because of his towering rage, his Trait—Berserk Mode—was continuously active.

But then—

—boooom!— 

—something rose up from the depths like a meteor and landed before them.

“Ugh…”

“Damn! Prepare for battle!”

Everyone’s expressions turned grim at the terrifying aura of the being currently approaching them.

But John Stone’s expression brightened up.

‘Kang Hansoo!’

John Stone was extremely glad that Hansoo wasn’t by the crystal anymore and was here instead.

Due to this to his rage died down a bit, his sanity returning as he shouted at the man.

Of course, he wasn’t entirely sane just yet.

“You bastard! How dare you?! Trying to take what’s rightfully mine…”

“This is why I came here.”

“Huh?’

John Stone flinched at Hansoo’s words.

Hansoo ignored him as he continued to speak.

“It should be fine to leave you guys alone, but… you’ll probably cause a huge ruckus if I do.”

The people of Reyunion couldn’t cut the strands even if they wanted to.

Only Transcendents could manage it, although just barely.

Without the Flame, they were as good as usual.

But John Stone was different.

He would do whatever he could to cut off the strands and take the crystal.

And he could not let that happen.

It was better to let those things stay asleep.

‘I’ll just drag them all away.’

—whooosh!— 

Red clouds started to seep out from Hansoo’s body.

………………………………….

—rumble!— 

—boom! boom!— 

Kiriel listened to the noises echoing from the far distance and looked around the darkness in curiosity.

‘…So, we can’t take the crystal.’

There was only one reason she could think of for why they couldn’t.

In case they might awaken the sleeping beings inside it.

Although it was weird that those beings had worked so hard to reach here just to sleep, but since that crystal was the sole reason for their slumber, it made a lot of sense not to touch it.

Of course, she had another question.

‘Can’t we just ignore them and take it?’

Kiriel thought as she looked around.

She knew that these things were strong.

Since they had gone through countless Transcendents to reach this place.

And they should’ve already recovered their strength after their long period of rest.

If that crystal was that amazing, couldn’t they just take it and use its strength to kill off those beings?

Even if the crystal didn’t help them in battle, it didn’t seem like it was impossible to go up against those beings.

But she only questioned this for a moment.

‘There’s probably a reason.’

Kiriel decided to stop questioning Hansoo’s choices and sat in front of the crystal.

There was probably a reason why everyone else had given up on the crystal as well.

‘I don’t think anyone’s going to come here anyway… Should I just go up and help?’

The sounds of explosions were lessening as well.

But as she was thinking—

“Huh? We meet again!”

—a familiar voice rang out from behind her.

‘What? There was another entrance in the back?’

Opposite to where she and Hansoo had entered, somebody was walking through the darkness and approaching her.

And as she turned to the familiar voice—

—her expression changed to a frown.

“You…?”

“Hmm, I didn’t expect to see you here. Well, thanks for what happened last time.”

“Why are you here?”

Kiriel looked with displeasure at N-Aroel who had walked out from the darkness.

N-Aroel, the Nerpa, shrugged his shoulders and answered.

“Mmm, I’ve come to find something I need.”

The Nerpa pointed towards the crystal that was floating in the darkness.