Chapter 643
Sylvia was a flying-type monster that inhabited only Kurayan.
Unlike other flying-type monsters, it flew from the very moment it was born, and once it succeeded in its first flight, it never landed on the ground again until the day it died.
It ate while flying and even slept while flying.
This was possible because Sylvia's brain was divided into two halves, and its wings were unbelievably thin and light, allowing it to float like a balloon even on the weakest breeze.
While one brain slept, the other remained awake and controlled bodily functions.
By alternating between the two brains in this way, it could rest without ever landing, allowing it to remain airborne for its entire life.
Because of this, ordinary people were unaware of Sylvia's existence.
Naturally, obtaining Sylvia's wings was exceedingly rare.
When a Sylvia died, its wings were carried away by the wind and disappeared somewhere.
Arachne was a woman who had become a spider after receiving a god's curse.
Cloth woven from the silk she spun was not only extraordinarily thin but also possessed powerful resistance against elemental attacks such as fire, water, and electricity.
Lastly, Argos was a monster with one hundred eyes and tremendous defensive power.
With its hundred eyes, it could monitor every movement occurring within a radius of several hundred kilometers.
In particular, the red eye located in the center of its forehead was a crystallization containing the entirety of Argos's essence.
Because of Argos's traits, even old man Klexi had given his organization the same name.
Hera and the others had willingly offered such precious treasures for Zeon.
That was because the debt they owed him was immense.
Without Zeon, there would never have been a forest where the elves could live with peace of mind.
Neither the Forest of Origin nor the World Tree Village could have come into existence without him.
Not only Latrisha and Floa, but many elves regarded Zeon as their benefactor and wanted to repay him somehow.
That was why Latrisha, Floa, and Hera had each contributed treasured possessions.
Kaylee gladly accepted their request.
Having settled in the Forest of Origin herself, she too strongly wished to repay Zeon.
That was why she had forgotten food and sleep over the past several days and devoted herself entirely to crafting.
It had been a long time since she had displayed such concentration.
She lost track of time as she immersed herself in the work.
She fused the three materials with completely different properties into one and completed the robe while preserving the characteristics of each material.
Zeon looked at Kaylee with an expression of disbelief.
"You're saying it has flight magic enchanted on it?"
"Yep."
"You really mean I can fly freely through the sky if I wear this?"
"Probably."
"Why aren't you certain?"
"Because I haven't used it myself. The flight ability is definitely there, but how much performance it can bring out depends on its owner."
"In other words, it depends on me?"
"Yep. Why? Don't you like it?"
"No, it's the opposite. I like it very much."
"Really? That's a relief."
A smile of relief appeared on Kaylee's face at Zeon's reaction.
"Can I try it on right now?"
"Of course."
At Kaylee's answer, Zeon immediately put on the robe.
The robe fit him perfectly, as though it had been tailored specifically for his body.
The moment he put it on, Zeon activated the camouflage magic.
The robe's color changed to resemble the interior of the workshop.
"Like a chameleon, it changes to match the surrounding colors and confuses visual perception. Not only that, it can interfere with detection magic too."
"That's impressive. I can use the flight magic right away as well, right?"
"Of course."
"Then I'll take a quick trip into the sky."
"Go ahead."
The moment Kaylee gave her permission, Zeon stepped outside and activated the flight magic.
Whoosh!
Without even summoning a sandstorm, Zeon's body gently rose into the air.
"Nice!"
Zeon immediately increased his altitude.
In an instant, his body became a tiny dot and reached high into the sky.
It was an incredible height that could never be reached by riding a sandstorm.
Above his head, he could feel the presence of a powerful force field.
It was the same force field he had only been able to sense after ascending to great heights with Teserina's help.
Zeon flew toward the force field.
Toward a place that could never be reached through sandstorms alone.
That was why Zeon had welcomed the flight magic enchanted into the robe.
The higher he climbed, the stronger the resistance became.
It felt like a warning from a god telling him not to ascend any farther.
Even so, he ignored it.
If he were afraid of a warning at this level, he never would have come this high in the first place.
The higher he went, the thinner the air became, and the temperature dropped rapidly.
Every time Zeon exhaled, white frost formed.
At some point, his body came to a stop in midair and would rise no farther.
"So this is the limit."
It seemed he had climbed more than ten kilometers above the ground.
No matter how much mana he poured into it, he could not go any higher.
Zeon accepted that this was the robe's limit.
He was not disappointed.
If he had come up using a sandstorm, his limit would have been only two or three kilometers above the ground.
Zeon stretched his hand into the air.
The force field felt even clearer than when he had ascended with Teserina.
"So the entire Earth is covered by a force field like this."
Without realizing it, Zeon bit his lip.
Spread densely like a net, the force field radiated overwhelming power, as though it would allow no living creature to pass through above it.
"Could Earth's desertification have been caused by this force field? If that's the case, wouldn't removing it allow Earth to regain its former environment?"
The thought came to him suddenly.
Yet it did not feel entirely absurd.
Just then—
—Kiiii!
A sharp roar suddenly echoed from somewhere far across the sky.
"What is that?"
Feeling a chill run down his spine, Zeon turned toward the source of the cry.
A gigantic monster was flying rapidly toward him.
It resembled a stingray.
Its inverted triangular body swept through the air while a long spiked tail, like a mace, swung behind it.
The creature was well over one hundred meters long.
Zeon had encountered quite a few monsters exceeding one hundred meters.
Arisedon, the guardian of the World Tree Village, possessed a body over two hundred meters long, and Gaia was also well over one hundred meters.
Compared purely in size and weight, the monster approaching through the sky was clearly inferior to Arisedon or Gaia.
But its presence was no less overwhelming than theirs.
Most intimidating of all were the ten eyes lined across its inverted triangular body.
Each eye looked in a different direction, searching for anything that might pose a threat.
Two of those eyes were fixed precisely on Zeon's location.
"What is that?"
Zeon frowned at the appearance of a monster unlike anything he had ever seen.
Though he had encountered and fought countless monsters, he had never seen one with such a form.
He had never even heard of such a monster.
Just then—
Two enormous shadows rapidly approached the stingray-like monster.
"Wyverns?"
And not just any wyverns—pitch-black Black Wyverns.
Judging by the fact that the two moved together, they appeared to be a mated pair.
The Black Wyverns were monsters that had made the region around the Forest of Origin their territory.
The Forest of Origin was the ideal habitat for them.
Had they followed their instincts, they would have entered the forest and built a nest there.
But because of the barrier surrounding the Forest of Origin, they could not settle inside and instead circled endlessly through the sky.
Even so, it was not a bad arrangement.
Many monsters entered the area seeking the Forest of Origin, providing an abundance of prey.
There was no way the Black Wyvern pair, which regarded the Forest of Origin as their territory, would leave an unknown monster alone after it suddenly appeared.
The pair flew toward the giant monster without making a sound.
They concealed both sound and presence perfectly.
Like assassins, Black Wyverns hunted by approaching stealthily and cutting off their prey's life in an instant.
Zeon watched them with interest.
Having approached the giant monster from behind, the Black Wyverns opened their mouths wide to attack.
Rumble!
At that moment, two of the giant monster's ten eyes shifted in different directions and spotted the Black Wyvern pair.
Flash!
A beam of light shot from each eye.
The two beams flew directly toward the Black Wyverns.
Ordinarily, wyverns were B-rank monsters.
Even a B-rank monster could deploy a force field capable of blocking most ordinary attacks.
The Black Wyvern pair were exceptionally powerful individuals among wyverns, both being A-rank.
Naturally, their force fields were correspondingly powerful.
But the two beams fired from the giant monster's eyes pierced through their force fields with absurd ease and even penetrated their bodies.
—Kraaah!
—Kyaaa!
The Black Wyverns screamed in pain.
But befitting A-rank monsters, both endured the agony and continued their attack on the giant monster.
Then—
The giant monster's remaining eight eyes simultaneously fired beams at the Black Wyverns.
Pshhhhhh!
Eight destructive beams pierced through the Black Wyverns' bodies as though through tofu.
This time, they could endure no longer.
The lives of the Black Wyvern pair were extinguished.
The pair fell helplessly from the sky.
The destructive beams fired from the giant monster's eyes possessed truly terrifying power.
"To deal with an A-rank Black Wyvern pair that quickly."
He would need to observe more to know for certain, but it was undoubtedly at least an S-rank monster.
After dealing with the Black Wyverns, the giant monster's eyes turned toward Zeon.
Naturally, it expected Zeon to still be there.
But Zeon's figure had vanished completely, as though erased by an eraser.
—Krrr?
The giant monster's ten eyes moved busily.
It searched in every direction, trying to locate Zeon.
The function of its eyes was not limited to firing destructive beams.
They were also specialized for surveillance and detection.
The ten eyes monitored every direction, allowing it to detect even the slightest movement within dozens of kilometers without blind spots.
It possessed capabilities similar to the high-altitude reconnaissance aircraft operated by militaries before the Great Cataclysm.
No existence could deceive the giant monster's eyes.
Yet Zeon was nowhere to be found.
Arriving at the location where Zeon had been floating, the monster moved all ten eyes and searched the surroundings.
But Zeon could not be seen anywhere.
Even so, the giant monster could not give up.
It circled around the area where Zeon had been for a long while before finally departing.
Once the giant monster completely disappeared, Zeon reappeared in midair as though by magic.
"So Camouflage works even on that monster."
In the brief moment when all of the giant monster's eyes were focused on the Black Wyverns, Zeon had activated Camouflage, the concealment magic built into the robe.
Camouflage perfectly blended Zeon's appearance into the sky itself, hiding him completely.
It also concealed his presence, breathing, and body temperature.
Even Zeon had not been certain whether concealment magic would work against a mysterious existence like that giant stingray-shaped monster.
But since there was no reason to fight it, he had activated the magic to test its performance.
Fortunately, confirming that the robe's abilities worked even against a monster with such keen vision and senses was a significant gain.
Thankfully, the giant monster seemed to have little interest in the ground.
Despite the Forest of Origin being visible below, it did not even spare it a glance before leaving, making it seem unlikely to become a threat.
"Not that anyone is likely to come up this high anyway."
Aside from himself, Teserina, and perhaps Levin, there were no humans capable of reaching such an altitude.
Even if someone did manage it, the chances of encountering that giant monster in such a vast sky were extremely small.
The only concern was what might happen if Gaia ever encountered it.
Even then, it did not seem as though Gaia would necessarily be outmatched or disadvantaged.
Deciding to worry about that another time, Zeon slowly descended toward the Forest of Origin.
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