Chapter 651
What awaited Zeon and his group after they finally escaped the snowfield was a blackened wasteland.
The ground was charred black as if the sun itself had fallen upon it, and patches of the earth gleamed like glass.
The soil had melted under extreme heat and hardened into glass.
Giselle spoke with a somewhat frightened expression.
“How did this place end up like this?”
“Good question.”
Zeon, too, looked around with deeply sunken eyes.
Having absorbed a Dragon Heart, Zeon possessed the Authority of Extreme Heat. Even so, he could not affect such a vast stretch of land on this scale.
Just then—
Boom!
As if answering Zeon’s question, an explosion erupted from the earth and lava shot upward.
The ground split apart as lava burst forth, while volcanic ash and rocks flew through the air.
Rumble!
A vibration like the groan of the earth traveled through their feet and up their spines.
Craaack!
The land before their eyes was tearing apart.
Lava gushed from the wounds like fountains, melting the surface of the earth.
An immense wave of molten lava flowed down the slope.
Faced with the terrifying heat, Brielle and Levin hurriedly retreated.
Zeon was unaffected thanks to the Authority of Extreme Heat, and Giselle managed to endure it by protecting herself with ice magic.
But even they would be in danger if they stayed here too long, so they fell back.
Zeon spoke to Brielle and Levin.
“Let’s get out of here quickly. Before long, this entire area will be submerged in lava.”
“Okay!”
“Yes, Hyung!”
Rooaar!
Even at that moment, enormous amounts of lava continued to erupt like fountains through the cracks in the earth.
—Screeech!
—Kraaah!
The screams of magical beasts hiding throughout the area echoed around them.
Swept away by the waves of lava, the beasts melted instantly.
No matter that magical beasts were humanity’s enemies, the sight of them being so horribly dissolved by lava was chilling.
The lava tide quickly caught up to the rear of Zeon’s group.
No matter how fast humans ran, they could not outrun flowing lava.
Just before being swallowed, Zeon and Levin took to the air.
Levin, in ghost form, flew while carrying Brielle in his arms, while Zeon flew holding Giselle’s hand.
Dangling from Zeon’s grip, Giselle asked,
“You can use flight magic too?”
“It just happened somehow.”
“I’m jealous.”
Giselle looked genuinely envious.
She was an Awakener capable of using ice magic, but she could not use flight magic.
The same was true for every magic-using Awakener.
In Neo Seoul, the only people who could fly freely were Levin and Zeon.
Thanks to the two of them, the group escaped the lava zone safely.
What greeted them next was an endless desert.
Giselle spoke.
“This is it. The place where our raid party got sucked in.”
“Quicksand?”
“That’s right. That’s why I came looking for you. My raid party is down beneath this place. Please save them.”
“How did you escape from the sand, Lady Giselle?”
“I don’t know. I can’t remember.”
“You remember nothing at all?”
“It’s as if someone carved out my memories. I can’t remember anything after that point.”
Giselle shook her head with a confused expression.
Simply trying to recall those memories seemed painful, and cold sweat poured from her body.
Zeon asked no further questions.
“Understood. Let’s go inside first. Then we’ll find out what happened.”
“Thank you.”
“It’s nothing. First, let’s see what’s down there.”
Zeon’s senses spread through the sand.
Like the roots of a tree extending underground, his sensory tendrils reached deep beneath the desert.
At the very end of his senses, stretched to their limit, he detected a massive space.
It seemed to be the place Giselle had mentioned.
Zeon immediately used his Dominion to move the sand.
Shrrrk!
In an instant, a passage leading to the underground space was created.
Seeing this, Giselle could only stare with her mouth hanging open.
She knew exactly how difficult it was to create a tunnel like that in sand.
Ordinary people would have needed support structures capable of bearing tremendous weight and vast amounts of precious concrete.
Yet Zeon had created a solid passage instantly through sheer will alone.
It was truly a broken ability.
It might not be the strongest power on Earth, but it was certainly the most useful power on a planet transformed into a desert.
The four of them walked down the passage Zeon had created.
After walking for a long time, they arrived before a massive door.
The door had no handle and was sealed shut without the slightest gap, as though welded closed.
Levin looked at Zeon.
“Shall I open it?”
“Go ahead.”
Flash!
The moment Zeon finished speaking, Giga Lightning struck the door.
With an explosion, the door shattered and hung crookedly from its frame.
The four entered the underground space with ease.
The moment they stepped inside, the air changed.
The temperature became cool, as though they had entered an ice cave.
The underground chamber was unbelievably vast.
The darkness made it difficult to see clearly, but even at a glance it seemed well over a hundred meters high, while its width was impossible to estimate.
“What is this?”
“This is insane. How can there be a space this huge underground?”
Even Levin and Brielle could not hide their shock.
Zeon was surprised for a different reason.
When he had examined the place through the sand, it had not appeared this large.
It had certainly been big, but not to this incomprehensible extent.
The gap between what his senses had perceived and the actual interior was enormous.
Is there spatial distortion magic here?
If his guess was correct, whoever created this place possessed extraordinary power.
Even creating a small subspace required immense magic and tremendous luck.
To make a space this vast exist through distortion magic was beyond anything an ordinary being could imagine.
As far as Zeon knew, there was only one type of being capable of such a feat.
‘Could this be a dragon’s lair?’
Among all beings he knew, only dragons possessed the power to perform such miracles.
Zeon suddenly found it perfectly understandable that Jang Yong-Beom’s raid party had become trapped.
If this truly was a dragon’s lair, their inability to escape made complete sense.
Zeon spoke to Levin and Brielle.
“We don’t know what kinds of traps might exist here, so be careful not to get separated.”
“Got it, Hyung!”
“Don’t worry. I’ll stay right next to you.”
Both Levin and Brielle answered with serious expressions.
Like Zeon, they could tell there was something deeply unusual about this place.
The four moved forward cautiously.
No one knew how far they had traveled.
By their estimation, they had walked several kilometers at least.
Yet there was still no end in sight.
It felt as though they were drifting through the deep sea or outer space from ancient stories.
“What the hell is this place? Why doesn’t it end? Is something like this even physically possible?”
“It’s spatial distortion.”
Brielle answered Levin’s question.
Though young, her knowledge was extensive.
That was how she had recognized the type of magic woven into this place.
She looked at Zeon.
“Right?”
“That’s right.”
“Then the owner of this place is...”
Brielle trailed off.
Only one type of being came to mind that could cast magic on such a scale.
Zeon spoke.
“Yeah. There’s a high chance this is a dragon’s lair.”
“I knew it...”
“My God.”
Brielle, who had already suspected as much, nodded.
Levin, who had not expected it, squeezed his eyes shut.
The very word dragon carried that much weight.
Just then—
Wooooosh!
A rain of fire suddenly poured down upon them.
“Move!”
“Damn it!”
Zeon’s group scattered to avoid the fiery barrage.
Boom! Boom!
Fireballs crashed down beside them and exploded.
The ground overturned, while debris and sparks flew everywhere.
Even so, all four were exceptional Awakeners and managed to avoid being hit.
“This way!”
At that moment, Giselle suddenly changed direction at the front and shouted.
The other three followed where she led.
The place they arrived at contained a vast blue ocean.
The abruptly transformed scenery left them speechless.
More than anything, they were overwhelmed by the sight of the sea.
None of them had ever seen such a boundless blue expanse with fierce waves rolling endlessly.
Even Zeon, who had traveled across more than half the world, was seeing the ocean for the first time.
Crash! Crash!
The sound of waves striking rocks tickled their ears.
The sky was blue, and birds flew high above.
“My God.”
“What is this?”
“There’s no way this can be... real.”
Their voices trembled naturally.
Instinctively, they knew this scene was not real.
Yet they could not tear their eyes away.
The sea was something they had only heard about in stories from old people, because not even records remained.
They had heard tales of an ocean many times larger than the land humanity inhabited, filled with countless living creatures, but it had always been impossible to imagine.
Even the elders who spoke of the sea had never seen it themselves.
They had only heard stories from their fathers, who had heard them from theirs.
Among all the people alive on Earth, perhaps only a handful—including Jin Geum-Ho—had actually seen the sea.
Perhaps Jin Geum-Ho was the only one.
Whooosh! Crash!
Endless waves smashed against the rocks and broke apart.
The white foam scattering into the air was indescribably beautiful.
Until now, the underground lake beneath Steel Fortress had been the largest body of water any of them had ever seen.
Even then they had been deeply moved.
But the ocean inspired emotions beyond comparison.
Brielle was so overwhelmed that tears streamed from her eyes.
Levin held onto his trembling legs and muttered,
“This is insane. Completely insane. So this is what the sea was like.”
“It’s so beautiful.”
Brielle clasped her hands tightly, unable to pull herself away from her awe.
Zeon understood exactly how they felt.
Even he, who rarely became emotional over anything, felt his heart stirring before the ocean’s beauty.
He slowly closed his eyes.
Even then, the scene lingered before him.
It felt as though he could sell his soul if it meant being allowed to keep looking at such a sight.
But Zeon knew.
This scene was not real.
At that moment—
ROOOAR!
The calm sea suddenly began to churn violently.
Dark clouds filled the sky, and fierce wind and rain swept across the ocean.
Then a tidal wave rose and swallowed everything.
Soon after, the familiar rain of fire began falling upon the sea.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
The blazing fireballs struck the ocean, causing explosions one after another.
Then volcanoes erupted from the seabed, and the water grew scorching hot.
In the end, the entire sky turned white as though the sun itself had exploded.
A storm of superheated flames swept over Zeon and his companions.
Yet Zeon did not move.
He simply stood there holding Levin’s and Brielle’s hands.
Just as he had expected, the flame storm had no effect on them.
Everything unfolding before them was an illusion.
The vision continued.
At the center of the inferno, a gigantic tree was burning.
A tree so enormous that it could cover all of Kurayan.
Zeon knew exactly what it was.
“The... World Tree!”
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