Chapter 90: Finding the way to the Dimensional Gate [Part-1]
The bright white sun was shining high in the sky as the vast Crimson wasteland was filled with an eerie, heavy silence. The red ground beneath was completely crushed, containing scattered debris and drifting dunes of sand from the recent catastrophic battle.
The surrounding air was thick, filled entirely with the smell of blood and rotting flesh.
Three gigantic worms lay dead on the ground right near each other. Their internal organs were gruesomely scattered around on the red sand, and several hundreds of wounds covered the different parts of their massive bodies. Some of these injuries were just minor scratches, while others were incredibly deep gouges. Some parts of their thick hides were completely exposed, featuring massive holes that looked exactly as if someone had violently punched straight through them.
Sitting calmly on top of one of the dead Leviathans, a teenage boy with silver hair and azure blue eyes was busy cleaning a glowing crimson dagger. He casually shook the short blade to spill the sticky residue of monster blood off from its sharp edge.
Alen looked down at the dead monsters as the peaceful silence was finally maintained after their deafening, loud screams, which had annoyed him quite a bit during the fight.
[Hey, don’t shake me like I am some common object! I am a Transcended Weapon, you know?!]
[Seriously, you really are completely clueless about how a dagger is supposed to be used. Do you really think you can just throw me like a spear or swing me around wildly?]
[Do you seriously not even know how to properly hold a dagger? Did you not learn anything in the academy? I heard that at least a basic commoner would have known how to hold a simple dagger...]
Alen easily ignored her endless complaints. He couldn’t actually deny her words, as he was completely unaware and deeply inexperienced when it came to using daggers. A sword was a completely different thing. Because swords were much bigger in size compared to other weapons, and he had personally seen several people use them before, he understood their mechanics. Daggers, on the other hand, were mostly used by people who preferred short-range assassination techniques and incredibly swift, fast attacks.
But simply knowing what a weapon is used for does not mean you actually know how to use it in practice.
As Alen successfully spilled the remaining blood off the blade, the dagger suddenly disintegrated into bright red light particles and safely absorbed back inside his body.
[Mhmm... Let’s go now. We should really get going now...]
Alen nodded in agreement.
"Yeah, we definitely should go. I don’t want to fight any more monsters right now. I have to preserve my energy before actually entering the Ascension Realm... So, guide me to the correct route. I don’t know where to go from here."
Alen stood up, leaped from the towering top of the dead monster, and fell to the ground with a loud, heavy thud. The red sand around his feet shifted and moved away upon impact.
Alen dusted the sand from his clothes. He started to walk forward.
[We should head straight toward the Northeast direction... It will be the safest route to reach that dimensional gate. You just have to be incredibly careful about the flying monsters in this area. They are always ready to find new prey... And they have incredibly sharp vision... Sigh... It would have been so nice if I still had my original power... I could have played with them along the route...]
Alen started walking steadily toward the Northeast direction while keeping all of his senses highly alert for any impending danger that might suddenly come his way.
"By the way... you seem to act much more lively after we bonded. Where did that terrifying, emotionless girl go?"
[Hey, I am still me! Don’t you dare compare me with that other version of myself... It’s just that there was absolutely no reason for me to show or feel things like human emotion at that time!]
[Why would I have ever wasted my precious time thinking or caring about others? You don’t really know what it means to live for thousands of years in complete, utter solitary confinement...]
Her voice quieted down for a few long minutes before she finally continued in a much smaller, softer voice.
[I also don’t really know why I am suddenly able to express a little bit of emotion now... I always thought things like emotions simply didn’t exist inside me... Because I was always just a weapon, I don’t know what I am currently feeling. I just feel very confused...]
Alen softened his gaze while walking across the wasteland.
"Hey, it’s okay. You don’t need to know the exact reason why you’re changing. The good thing is that you are changing... But honestly, I still kind of like your completely emotionless face. You know, the one that once tried to scam me but totally failed? Hehe..."
[Hey, you bastard! Just stop your bullshit and keep walking!]
Alen happily dismissed her angry words while shrugging his shoulders. Suddenly, he remembered something very specific he had just heard from her.
"Hey, you just said you were thousands of years old, right? Are you truly that ancient? Can you tell me something from your past, then? I really want to know about your previous owners or something fascinating from the ancient history of this universe..."
A long, heavy pause followed. No reply came through the telepathic link for several long minutes. Alen almost thought that their mental connection was cut off or something had gone wrong. Then, her voice finally came back.
[Well... The truth is, I also don’t know exactly how old I am... I don’t even remember when I first manifested a consciousness from the weapon... I just somehow inherently know that ’Godless’ was a weapon created or discovered millions of years ago, right around the time the universe was first made.]
[I also don’t know who the previous holders of Godless were. Every single time a new wielder comes along and bonds with me, most of my memories from the distant past completely vanish...]
[Just before I was officially bonded with you today, I remembered everything clearly about my past owners. But it seems that all of that knowledge has now been forcibly erased from my consciousness...]
[It seems that the ’Order’ of the ’Universe’ is constantly trying to suppress my mind... The heavens know that if I were to remember every single memory I have collected up to now... then I would have eventually become fully omniscient. And if I had ever reached that state of knowing everything, then the universe wouldn’t have been able to suppress me anymore, and my power would have increased a hundredfold...]
Alen completely stopped walking for a second as he listened to her terrifying words. His brain seemed to have completely short-circuited at her revelation.
"Seriously? You’re saying that you were already so incredibly powerful that you could have actually damaged and hurt the Order of the Universe... Then, what exactly would have happened if you had actually reached that omniscient state?"
[...]
As the heavy silence stretched on, suddenly, the sharp sound of laughter echoed from inside his mind.
[Hehehehehe... You are way too delusional, you know that? Even I don’t know what I would have become if I had actually achieved that state... But it seems completely impossible to find out now, so don’t waste your precious time thinking about that, you stupid boy!]
Alen just shrugged his shoulders and continued walking, heading steadily toward the Northeast direction while continuously bickering back and forth with Ravena.
While Alen remained completely unaware of his wider surroundings, several kilometers away in the barren distance, a new threat emerged.
A giant, pitch-black bird with a long, terrifying neck and dense, razor-sharp feathers sat heavily on the ground while viciously eating some disgusting beast. Internal organs were scattered everywhere across the ground. The giant bird casually ate whatever felt convenient, as he was growing incredibly tired of eating the exact same beasts for a long time now.
Suddenly, he turned his massive head toward the Northeast direction. His primal predator senses snapped to attention. His pitch-black eyes sparkled with malice, scanning the vast distance as if he had already detected the scent of a brand new, delicious prey.
The giant bird started to violently flap his massive feathers, creating a large, terrifying wave of air pressure. The dead beast beneath his talons was blown away instantly by the sheer force of the wind, flying off along with the heavy debris.
The giant bird launched away from that place in a split second. Despite having such an unbelievably giant, heavy frame, he flew through the sky like a fired rocket, launching straight toward Alen’s location with the speed of a sonic boom.
As the predator was eagerly preparing for the brutal hunt, the prey walking on the ground remained blissfully unaware of the impending, deadly danger flying toward them.
