Chapter 29

All living creatures knew that the endlessly stretching desert was a dangerous place.

Even the demonic beasts that lived there remained constantly cautious.

As countless as grains of sand, demonic beasts inhabited every corner of the desert—and among them were many ranked as S-class threats.

Most S-class beasts had firmly established territories. They rarely left them under normal circumstances, but for some reason, whenever they did, they would turn the entire desert upside down.

Because of that, whether strong or weak, desert beasts never neglected their vigilance.

The Crown Bison was one such creature.

Standing over three meters tall, the massive beast had crown-shaped horns on its head—hence the name.

Though cattle were normally herbivores, the Crown Bison was carnivorous.

In a world made only of desert, it had evolved that way since there was no grass to eat.

Its prey consisted of smaller demonic beasts and insects.

To find prey buried deep in the sand, it constantly moved with its nose pressed to the ground.

Even with the sun blazing overhead, the Crown Bison continued searching for food.

Maintaining such a massive body required a large amount of sustenance. From morning until evening, it had to roam tirelessly in search of prey.

While frantically searching, the Crown Bison suddenly looked at its front legs.

It had felt something strange.

Shhhh…

Sand was slipping downward.

At first, it didn't think much of it. But the flow of sand gradually sped up, and soon the Crown Bison's body began sliding down the dune along with it.

Moo!

Sensing danger, the Crown Bison hurriedly tried to escape the sand. But the more it struggled, the faster the sand collapsed beneath it.

In the end, it rolled down the slope together with the sand.

Thud!

With a heavy impact, its massive body slammed into the ground.

Shaking its head, the Crown Bison tried to stand—but the sand had hardened, binding it tightly.

The more it struggled to break free, the stronger the pressure became.

Then—

Boom!

A sand missile, about the size of a child's forearm, smashed its head apart.

"Nice! I won't have to worry about food for a while."

Someone rose from the sand nearby.

It was Zeon.

All of this had been his doing.

He had dragged the Crown Bison from atop the dune using quicksand, then finished it off with a Sand Missile.

He had hunted the massive beast in an extremely efficient manner.

Zeon pulled a dagger from his chest and began skinning the Crown Bison.

Despite its enormous size, there wasn't much of it that humans could eat. Only a small portion of its chest was free of demonic energy and safe to consume.

Zeon carefully cut out the edible part.

Though it was only a portion of the chest, it was as large as his torso.

Carrying the meat, Zeon activated Sand Step.

Gliding over the desert, he arrived in front of a giant cactus.

Underneath the house-sized cactus sat Deioden.

In front of him lay a massive magic stone.

It was the magic core of the A-class demonic beast Titanoboa that they had hunted yesterday.

The Titanoboa was a gigantic creature over twenty meters long.

As expected of an A-class beast, it possessed powerful skills—but Deioden had killed it with ease.

The Titanoboa had contained an enormous magic stone.

It radiated an immense amount of energy, befitting an A-class beast.

Deioden inserted Crayon into the magic stone.

Crayon glowed red-hot.

It was the result of absorbing the energy contained within the stone.

Because the energy was so powerful, the absorption process took quite some time.

Deioden focused completely, guiding Crayon as it absorbed the energy.

Zeon quietly sat down and began preparing the meat.

He cut it into small pieces and laid them out in the shade.

The moisture quickly evaporated, leaving the meat dry and tough.

Jerky.

Zeon stored all but one piece in his subspace.

He held the remaining piece in his mouth and watched Deioden.

It seemed the absorption was nearing completion, as Crayon now emitted intense heat.

It had already been over a month since they left the Black Forest.

During that time, Deioden had cleared two dungeons.

Both had been buried deep beneath the sand, and they had only been able to enter them thanks to Zeon.

The Titanoboa had been the boss of the dungeon they entered yesterday.

Despite its overwhelming presence, it had been no more than a worm before Deioden.

'This is absurd. How can something like that even exist?'

To Zeon, Deioden no longer seemed human—but a monster.

Over the past month, Zeon had also grown tremendously.

He had mastered the use of sand to the point where he could easily hunt most demonic beasts.

Even so, he couldn't begin to compare to Deioden.

Tssss—

At last, all the energy within the magic stone was absorbed into Crayon.

The stone, having lost all its power, became nothing more than an ordinary rock.

Click! Clack!

At that moment, Crayon suddenly disassembled itself in midair.

Its parts floated around Deioden before reassembling into one.

It had evolved anew, empowered by the magic stone.

The evolved Crayon emitted an even more terrifying aura.

Yet Deioden's expression remained unsatisfied.

"Still not enough."

Hearing him mutter that, Zeon was dumbfounded.

Crayon had already evolved repeatedly—it could easily be considered the strongest weapon in the world.

And yet he still found it lacking.

'What on earth is he trying to fight?'

To an outsider, it might seem like nothing more than the actions of a madman.

But having observed him closely, Zeon knew there was consistency in everything Deioden did.

Everything he did was tied to becoming stronger.

Either strengthening himself—or strengthening Crayon.

Like someone obsessed to the point of compulsion, Deioden was fixated on gaining more power.

Zeon reached a single conclusion.

Deioden was preparing for war.

He didn't know who the opponent was, but it was clearly something even Deioden found difficult to handle. That was why he was desperately trying to grow stronger.

'Damn it… was it a mistake to insist on following him to the end?'

He felt a slight regret, but he had no intention of turning back now.

Zeon tossed one of the jerky pieces he had made earlier to Deioden. Without a word of thanks, Deioden chewed it.

"Let's go!"

After finishing the jerky, Deioden stood up.

Zeon nodded and swallowed the rest of his own.

Deioden was already far ahead. Zeon hurriedly activated Sand Step to follow him.

Their direction—east, once again.

He wondered what lay at the end of it.

'They say there used to be an ocean out this way…'

The ocean.

Something only heard about in stories—almost no one had actually seen it.

Only someone who had lived as long as Deioden might have seen the sea. For those born afterward, there had been no such opportunity.

Whoooosh!

A strong wind blew.

Zeon pulled his robe tighter.

The robe made by elves was light and easy to move in, but it offered less protection than the one made from sand fiend hide. He had to wrap it tightly just to block the wind.

'Won't another sand fiend show up?'

This time, he was confident he wouldn't be lured in and could kill it.

Just as Zeon was grumbling to himself—

Deioden, walking ahead, suddenly collapsed.

Bang!

A gunshot echoed across the middle of the desert.

"What the—?"

Zeon immediately dropped flat to the ground.

He formed a sand barrier around himself, preparing for further shots.

But fortunately, no second gunshot followed.

"Where did that come from?"

At least within Zeon's sensory range, no lifeforms were detected.

It had clearly been a sniper attack from beyond his control range.

Then—

Far off on the distant plain, black figures appeared.

Humans.

And not just one or two.

Even at a glance, there were over a hundred.

They were riding desert buggies, racing toward him.

"Scavengers?"

Zeon focused mana into his eyes.

The figures approaching in the distance became clear.

"…Those guys?"

Watching the buggy at the front, Zeon recognized familiar faces.

It was Jang Yong-beom's party—the ones who had saved him from the sandworm.

Jang Yong-beom, Aiden, Mountain, and Giselle were all riding in the same vehicle.

Behind them followed around twenty more buggies.

What caught Zeon's attention was the buggy directly behind Jang Yong-beom.

A man stood on it, holding a massive rifle.

White smoke still rose from the barrel—he was clearly the one who had shot Deioden.

"A magic bullet sniper…?"

Rare though they were, some Awakened used firearms.

Marksmen who could land shots with near-perfect accuracy, no matter the distance.

They weren't very effective against massive beasts or those with protective fields—but against humans, they were absolute killing weapons.

Neo Seoul had even developed firearms combining magic and science for them.

Sniper rifles designed to strike targets beyond an Awakened's detection range had effective distances exceeding ten kilometers.

When paired with the sharpshooter's "hawk eye" and refined senses, they became overwhelmingly powerful.

Just like now.

The one who had sniped Deioden from ten kilometers away—

was Rio Palona.

Rio was a sniper belonging to Numbers, an execution unit directly under the mayor of Neo Seoul.

The mayor of Neo Seoul wielded absolute power, using the execution unit to eliminate political enemies.

Click!

"I was a bit tense since they called him a butcher, but… he's nothing special."

Rio smiled as he ejected the cartridge.

It had been a shot from ten kilometers away.

No matter how powerful an Awakened was, sensing a bullet from that distance was impossible.

At that moment, Jang Yong-beom, riding in the front vehicle, shouted loudly,

"Don't let your guard down. That's Deioden we're dealing with. He's a crazy old man."

"Heh. Why be tense over a dead old man?"

Rio scoffed.

He was convinced Deioden was dead.

In fact, he almost felt embarrassed for bringing so many other Awakened just in case.

"Still… there was one more guy."

Rio muttered as he loaded another round.

The downside of his sniper rifle was that it could only fire one shot at a time.

There was always a delay between shots.

But Rio wasn't worried.

There was still plenty of distance between him and Zeon—and that was more than enough for his rifle.

He searched for Zeon and brought the scope to his eye.

Through the magic scope, he saw something writhing—getting up.

The moment he recognized what it was, Rio muttered unconsciously,

"No way… I aimed for the head."

The one rising—

was the old man he had just shot.

Tsssss—

White smoke rose from Deioden's forehead, where the bullet had struck.

"Heh…"

Inside the scope, Deioden was smiling.

He pulled his arm far back—

and then hurled something forward with full force.

Swoooosh!

A terrifying sound tore through the air across the desert.

Jang Yong-beom shouted urgently,

"Everyone, watch out!"

BOOM!

Before his words even finished, the vehicle Rio was riding exploded.

Embedded in the wreckage—

was a massive greatsword.

Crayon.

Jang Yong-beom quickly searched for Rio.

When he found him, his face twisted.

Rio had been impaled by Crayon, his body stretched out like a frog.

There was no need to check if he was alive.

It was an instant death.

Jang Yong-beom's lips twisted in fury.

"You monstrous old bastard!"