Chapter 23

"Damn it! Heh…!"

When the pain becomes too much—when it feels like you're about to go insane—you start to laugh.

That was exactly Zeon's state right now.

He was slumped against a wall.

He didn't even have the strength to stand on his own two feet, so all he could do was lean there, gasping for breath.

His face was split and torn in multiple places, blood streaming down, and his entire body was covered in severe wounds.

The only reason he was still alive was thanks to the breastplate made from the corpse of the Queen Wolf Ant and the robe crafted from the hide of the Sand Devourer, which had protected his body.

If even one of those had been missing, Zeon would have died long ago.

"Haa…"

As the pain subsided slightly, it became a bit easier to breathe.

Zeon took a deep breath and looked around.

Fragments of shattered stone filled the dark space.

They were the remains of the centaur-like golems.

He had fought with everything he had.

Dodge, strike, evade again, strike again.

He ran, turned back to ambush, got surrounded, slipped out like an eel—

He repeated it over and over, fighting like a madman.

And when he finally came to his senses, all the centaur golems had been destroyed.

"Damn it… this hurts like hell."

Grabbing his trembling legs, Zeon forced himself to stand.

After fighting enemies like that, he expected his rank to rise—but there was no change in his insignia.

Maybe it was because he hadn't used sand.

Muttering to himself, Zeon staggered forward.

"Isn't there some kind of potion that restores stamina if you drink it?"

For a place called a temple, it didn't seem unreasonable to expect something like that.

Even if such an item existed, it wouldn't be lying around in a hallway like this.

It would most likely be in the place where the deity was enshrined.

Not knowing when another centaur golem might appear, Zeon moved forward as cautiously as possible.

Then, a massive door appeared before him.

It was incomparably larger than the door in the corridor where the centaur golems had appeared.

"Damn it…"

He didn't even need to see it to know.

Behind that door was something far greater than anything he had faced so far.

From experience, the size of the door was directly proportional to the size of the golem behind it.

But it was too late to turn back now.

"Hoo…"

Taking a deep breath, Zeon pushed the door open with force.

The space beyond was enormous.

It was hard to believe such a vast area existed within the temple.

It spanned a hundred meters in width and stood over thirty meters high.

At the center of that immense space stood a towering statue.

From what appeared to be its head extended two massive horns, reminiscent of a water buffalo.

The statue itself stood over five meters tall, exuding an overwhelming sense of pressure.

He didn't need confirmation.

That thing was the master of this chamber.

The giant golem remained completely still, as if it hadn't noticed Zeon's presence.

Zeon's gaze shifted to a small door behind the massive golem.

That looked like the exit.

'If I rush through before it notices… I might have a chance.'

He assumed that the golem, given its massive size, would be slow.

Golems were usually sluggish by nature—

unless they were specialized for mobility, like the centaur ones.

Step!

Zeon kicked off the ground and sprinted forward.

Gathering every last bit of strength, he ran with everything he had.

In an instant, he passed the giant golem and nearly reached the door on the other side.

A flicker of triumph began to appear on his face—

"Got—"

Boom!

With a deafening crash, Zeon's body was flung backward.

Standing before him was the giant golem.

"Cough!"

Zeon spat blood as he barely managed to lift his head.

The massive golem stood blocking the door like a gatekeeper.

He hadn't even noticed it move.

That meant it had moved with incredible stealth—

without making a single sound.

A black force field radiated from the golem's entire body.

And that could only mean one thing.

"B-rank… or higher?"

Even C-rank enemies were beyond his ability to handle—so a B-rank was unimaginable.

Deioden could tear apart B-rank monsters like toys, but that was only because he was an abnormal awakened.

Zeon, on the other hand, was only E-rank.

And on top of that, his main power had been forcibly sealed.

Facing a giant golem like this in such a state was practically suicide.

If only he could use sand—even that would make things less hopeless.

Zeon wiped the blood from his lips and stood up.

He knew he couldn't win.

But he couldn't just sit there and wait to die either.

"Fine… let's do this. You only die once anyway."

One thing he had learned from Deioden—

never give up, no matter what.

If you endure long enough, an opportunity will come.

The problem was whether you could survive until that moment—and whether you could seize that opportunity when it arrived.

"First… I need to figure out where its core is."

The earlier golems had their cores in their necks.

The centaur golems had theirs in the center of their chests.

Somewhere in that massive body, there had to be a core.

At that moment—

Flash!

A burst of light erupted from the giant golem, and in an instant, it appeared right in front of Zeon.

"Blink?!"

Zeon's eyes widened.

Only then did he realize how the golem had attacked him earlier.

It was using Blink—a skill that allows instant movement to any visible location—freely.

Zeon immediately threw himself to the ground.

Whoosh!

The giant golem's fist swept past just a hair above Zeon's head.

If his reaction had been even a fraction slower, he would have been crushed into pulp.

A cold sweat ran down his spine.

At that moment, a human voice echoed from the giant golem's mouth.

—Gigraine. Eliminating intruder.

"Gigraine? That your name?"

Zeon asked, but the giant golem—Gigraine—didn't answer and attacked again.

A flash erupted, and in an instant, Gigraine's massive body appeared right in front of him.

But this time, Zeon didn't get caught off guard.

The moment the flash appeared, he threw himself aside.

He had realized that Gigraine emitted a flash right before using Blink.

If he knew when Blink would activate, dodging it wasn't that difficult.

Just as he predicted, Gigraine appeared exactly where Zeon had been moments before.

Seizing the opening, Zeon struck its torso.

"Hyaaah!"

Clang!

His full-powered blow bounced off with a metallic sound.

Gigraine's durability was on an entirely different level from any golem Zeon had faced before.

On top of that, the black force field protected it completely—there wasn't even a scratch on its surface.

Despair crept in.

He couldn't even begin to imagine how to fight a monster like this.

For a brief moment, he thought—

This must be how the beasts felt when facing Deioden.

Whoosh!

Gigraine's fist came flying at him again.

Each fist was nearly the size of Zeon himself.

If he took a direct hit, it would be over.

Zeon flattened himself against the ground to dodge, then rolled and sprang back to his feet.

He poured mana into his gauntlet and struck again.

Clang!

Once more, his attack did nothing.

Not even a chip of stone fell off.

Its toughness was absurd.

Clang! Clang! Clang!

Zeon launched several more consecutive strikes.

It was like trying to break a boulder with an egg.

Still, he didn't give up.

He kept attacking, trying to locate Gigraine's core.

In the end, he couldn't find the core—but he did discover a weakness.

The weakness of that massive golem was its knee joints.

Because of its enormous size and weight, tremendous stress was placed on its knees whenever it moved.

Perhaps that was why it relied on Blink—to reduce the strain on its joints.

At that moment—

Crackle!

Sparks suddenly burst from Gigraine's massive horns.

Zeon immediately understood what that meant.

'An attack skill?'

After all, it was at least a B-rank monster.

It would be stranger if it didn't have one.

Zeon steadied himself and fixed his gaze on the horns.

The next instant, arcs of lightning exploded from them.

It was Chain Lightning—spreading out like a net.

The lightning filled the vast underground chamber, sweeping through everything.

Zeon instinctively realized—

he couldn't dodge it.

In that instant, he pulled his robe over himself and curled up.

All he could do was trust in the defensive power of the robe made from the Sand Devourer's hide.

KRAAASH!

The massive web of electricity slammed into him.

"Ghh…!"

Even with his body fully covered, the overwhelming shock and current surged through him.

Zeon gritted his teeth and endured the pain.

Finally, the moment that felt like eternity came to an end.

What remained of Zeon was a miserable sight.

Most of his robe had been burned or torn away, exposing his flesh.

Though the robe had excellent regenerative properties, it was useless against damage beyond its limits.

Now shredded, it had completely lost its function.

Still, by sacrificing the robe, he had managed to survive.

Even so, he couldn't come out of such a powerful electric attack unscathed.

The currents that the robe failed to absorb struck him directly.

Only his awakened body and sheer willpower kept him from collapsing entirely.

Thud. Thud.

Gigraine approached him.

Zeon couldn't move.

He had survived—but his nerves were paralyzed by the electric shock.

The paralysis was slowly fading, but not enough for him to move.

'Damn it…!'

He clenched his teeth.

Gigraine was closing in—

walking slowly, as if there was no need to use Blink on prey already caught.

Watching it approach while being unable to move filled Zeon with despair and rage.

'If only I could use sand…'

He gathered what little mana he had left and tried to extend his control.

Even knowing there was no sand in the temple, he couldn't just give up.

At that moment—

He faintly sensed sand.

'What?'

There shouldn't have been a single grain of sand inside the temple.

And yet, something was responding.

Zeon focused on the faint sensation.

Surprisingly, the source was inside his pocket.

'My pocket… then…?'

It was the hourglass he had gotten by chance at the magic stone mine.

It had never reacted before—but now, at this very moment, it was responding.

As Zeon focused on the hourglass, Gigraine arrived.

After staring at him for a moment, the golem kicked him.

BOOM!

With a deafening explosion, Zeon's body was sent flying.

Like an arrow, he shot across the chamber and slammed into the opposite wall.

His condition was horrific.

Even the breastplate made from the Queen Wolf Ant's shell shattered, and his entire body was crushed as if run over by a massive armored vehicle.

It was a miracle he was still breathing.

Thud. Thud.

Gigraine approached to finish him off.

At that moment—

A handful of sand spilled out from Zeon's pocket.

The hourglass had shattered from the impact, releasing its contents.

Sssss—

The fine grains of sand suddenly began to be absorbed into Zeon's pores.

In an instant, all of it disappeared into his body.

And that was when the change began.

Crack—snap!

In a flash, his wounds healed, and his shattered bones returned to normal.

All of it—

because of the sand that had been absorbed into him.

No one had told him.

But Zeon instinctively understood what it was.

"Exion!"

The finest sand particles in existence.

The exclusive weapon of a sand mage—

Exion.