VOLUME 13: CHAPTER 16

After willingly accepting Lark's mana into their bodies, hazy scenes flashed before the witches' mind.

On the deck of what seemed to be a massive flying ship, a snot-filled young girl was crying.

The young girl was surrounded by several grown men wearing exquisite garments. Just by their garbs alone, one would easily mistake them for nobility, maybe even royalty.

Each of those men had a fierce – almost too fierce – appearance.

"Tsk. She made a mess again?"

"Damn useless baggage."

"You're lucky this time, kid. If Dantes wasn't there that time, you would have been monster poop by now. You're so stupid. Haaah, as I've thought, Master shouldn't have taken you in. Hey, everyone, how about we throw her off this ship?"

"Kakaka! Nice suggestion!"

"Yeah, just throw her off!"

Hearing the threatening words, the young girl started bawling.

"Wuuuaaahhh!"

"W-What, why are you crying? Hey! Quervanu, make this kid shut up, will you!"

Hearing the name Quervanu, the witches watching the scene realized it was the man who would soon become known as the God of Poison.

Half of Quervanu's face looked melted, and his left arm was filled with bulging red veins.

Quervanu looked at the commotion, sighed, and went back to reading his book at the corner of the ship's deck.

The lion beastman leaning on the mast of the flying ship laughed, "Hahaha! This is why you're unpopular with women, Leonard!"

Leonard, the man who would one day become known as the God of Fighting, angrily spat, "Shut up, Loumen! What does a beastman like you know anyway!"

"—Waaaaahhhh! Hic…. Hic…! Waaaahhh!"

"Hey, someone make her stop! Dantes!"

Dantes, who'd been in charge of driving the ship, simply frowned. Like Quervanu, he didn't wish to be involved with the trio.

"Pollux, why are you just standing there! If Master sees this…"

An old man with thick spectacles smiled gently. He shook his head. "No need. Master is on his way here as we speak. Did you forget? He's the one who created this flying ship. He's already aware of everything."

The faces of those who openly bullied the girl turned ashen when they heard this.

Knowing how problematic some of his disciples were, the Master must have installed surveillance artifacts on this ship.

Pollux should have told them about it beforehand!

No, maybe it was their fault for being careless. They should have expected such measures, considering it was the Master.

The Master must have heard all of the abusive words they'd said to this little girl.

The Master must have seen how they openly shunned and mocked her while he wasn't around.

Quervanu clicked his tongue, "Fools."

The problem trio started panicking.

True to Pollux's words, the disciples on the flying ship felt a massive presence headed their way.

Kubarkava, the man who would one day become known as the Dragon Devourer, nervously laughed, "Haha. Fucking hell… Didn't the Master come from Alkaid? How did he manage to cross so much distance in a short period of time?"

SWOOOOOOOHHH

A gust of wind blew, and a second later, a middle-aged man landed on the ship's deck.

The future God of Poison was the very first to react to his arrival.

Quervanu immediately stood up, leapt toward the man, and knelt. The rest of the group followed suit.

"We greet Master! Welcome back!"

"W-We greet Master! Wel, Welcome back!"

The voices of those who'd been bullying the girl were trembling. Kubarkava's face, in particular, was drenched in sweat.

Instead of kneeling, the little girl ran toward the Master and jumped into his embrace.

"Master Evander!" said the little girl, her eyes puffy from all the crying. "You're finally here! I missed you so much!"

"Leanne, look at you," said Evander in a gentle voice. "Did you cry again? What happened?"

Evander was already aware, but he asked this question regardless.

"Haha, Master Evander," said Uurvesk. He was the one who called Leanne a 'useless baggage.' "It's normal for those her age to—"

Seeing their Master's cold gaze, Uurvesk stopped midway through his words. He immediately shut his mouth and hung his head in resignation.

Pollux amusingly smiled.

The oldest of the disciples couldn't understand why these troublemakers were still trying to find a way out of this mess. They should have known by now that there was no escaping the ears and eyes of the Master.

"What happened?" repeated Evander. "Did your senior brothers bully you again?"

Leanne looked as though she was about to cry, but she reined the tears back. She shook her head, "No, not at all…."

"Is that so?" said Evander.

"Yes, Master. You don't need to worry."

Evander laughed. "Hahaha!" He tightened his embrace on Leanne. "I'm really glad I took you in. I'm growing a bit tired of dealing with unruly ruffians, you see."

He was pertaining to Kubarkava, Leonard, and Uurvesk. These trio would always cause trouble wherever they went, and Evander would always end up cleaning up after their mess.

Currently, Leanne was the weakest among all of his disciples, which was understandable since she was the youngest.

Evander couldn't help but want to protect such a frail child.

How could anyone harm someone so sweet and precious in the first place?

"Is this what it feels like to have a daughter?" said Evander.

"I'm Master's daughter?" said Leanne innocently.

Evander softly smiled. He gently kissed the girl on the forehead. "Yes. I think so, Leanne. So, don't worry about anything. This father of yours will protect you, no matter what."

Leanne snuggled deeper into Evander's embrace. "Mmm! Yes!"

Evander said to the problem trio, "You stupid fools, do you think I don't know what you've been doing why I was away?"

"…M-Master… we, we are…."

"It's just a h-harmless prank, you know? Haha…."

"We helped Dantes placate the city mayor after the monster stampede! Why are we being blamed after everything we did!"

Evander sighed.

These three were already strong enough to be accepted as one of the Numbers in the Black Mages, but they still had a long way to go when it came to managing their emotions.

Why were they so insecure and jealous of Leanne anyway? As far as Evander knew, he also doted on the problem trio back when they were younger.

"We'll discuss your punishments once we return to the floating castle."

"!"

"M-Master!"

Evander ignored the desperate cries behind him.

Pollux slowly walked to him. "Master, by tomorrow, we'll reach the lair of the Phoenix."

The Phoenix was a mythical creature synonymous to immortality. It was the reason Evander Alaester had been searching for it.

After combing tens of thousands of archives, they finally found a lead to its whereabouts.

Now, all that's left was to verify whether the mythical creature existed or not.

"Dantes."

Dantes, who'd returned to steering the flying ship, replied, "Master."

"The formations?"

"All preparations are complete, Master. Even a tribe of Dragons wouldn't be able to escape our net once the spell is cast."

"Well done."

Evander put down Leanne gently.

He gazed at the horizon.

Several massive thunderclouds were blocking the flying ship's path. The continent they were currently at was impossible to traverse for normal people exactly due to these thunderclouds.

But for Evander Alaester's group, these clouds were nothing but mere hindrances they could obliterate in an instant.

"Kubarkava."

"M-Master."

"Create a pathway."

"Yes!"

The future Dragon Devourer grinned at the remaining members of the problem trio, silently flaunting that he'd been given a task to redeem himself by the Master.

Uurvesk and Leonard bit their lips from jealousy but didn't utter a word.

"Haha! Mere clouds dare to block Master Evander's path?!"

Kubarkava leapt and landed on the ship's bow. He raised his hand, and a glaive of mana larger than the flying ship itself appeared in the sky above them. 

In order to appease the Master, Kubarkava planned to use more strength than usual to destroy the thunderclouds.

Kubarkava swung the glaive, cutting the thunderclouds and the sky itself. The glaive's strike continued downward, splitting the mountain below in half.

The ground below rumbled from the impact. A massive fissure, which resembled more of a ravine, was created on the ground. The thunderclouds started dispersing, and the rays of the sun started seeping through the gaps.

Leanne grasped Evander Alaester's callused hand.

The little girl had gotten used to these crazy feats by now. She was concerned about a different matter.

"Are you going to become immortal soon, Master?"

Even the little girl knew that the Master was slowly dying from a curse.

The Master had tried various methods to stop aging, but failed. The most he could do was slow down the aging of his body, but even that had its limit.

Leanne wished to the gods – if they existed – that they would help him find the Phoenix.

Evander patted Leanne's head, and she closed her eyes in bliss.

"Hopefully, Leanne."

***

The scenes flashing in the witches' minds ended.

For a full minute, the witches stood there in complete silence.

Eventually, Lady Alice mustered the courage to speak, "…Are you?"

Lark nodded. And it was enough as an answer.

Like a puppet whose strings had been cut, Lady Alice fell down butt-first on the floor.

The soldiers who saw this realized that something must have happened, but the atmosphere surrounding the witches prevented them from poking their noses further.

Lady Alice mumbled, "…I see. Everything made sense now. No wonder someone so young is so powerful…."

The other witches were frozen in place. In their eyes, one could see a mixture of fear, awe, and disbelief.

Fleur, who proposed to become Lark's concubine before, was the most dumbfounded among the group.

If the memories shown to them were true, then King Lark was similar to a grandfather to them. No, he was someone way beyond that.

Just the mere thought that she tried to seduce him made her unable to look him in the eyes.

Fleur had never felt this embarrassed before. She wished the ground would just swallow her whole.

"Memory magic takes too much mana. Considering the number of witches, this is the limit of what I can show you right now," said Lark.

He could use such a complicated spell on several people only due to the help of the Sword of Morpheus. Without such a medium, even Lark would find it hard to show such detailed memories to others.

Although the memories he'd shown were short, the amount of mana he'd used already surpassed even Grand Scale Magic. It was also taxing to his mind as the caster.

"Haaah… this… it's still hard to believe," mumbled Lady Alice.

"Did we just see the Desert Deity's younger days?"

"…Flying ship? Floating castle?"

"And that strike that obliterated the thunderclouds and the mountain below… is that even possible to perform by a human?"

Everything they'd witnessed was absurd, making it difficult to believe and digest.

Lark said in an understanding voice, "Take as much time as you need. But know this: as the descendants of Leanne, you have the right to know these things. Once we have time, I'll fill you in with more details. If there are things you wish to know, just ask away. I'll do my best to answer your questions and guide you."

It feels as though Lark decided to help them since they were descendants of his disciples.

"If you're that person," said Lady Alice, "How come…" She paused then shook her head, "No, that's not important right now."

The leader of the witches decided to wait until they were out of this city before she would ask more questions regarding Lark's identity.

One of the witches cautiously said, "Uhm… how should we address you?"

"Just like before," said Lark.

"King Lark then?"

"Yes. And even just Lark will do. It's not like I'm fond of my current title."

The witches immediately rejected it.

"No, how could we dare!"

"That's right! We'll continue calling you Your Majesty then!"

The witches were clearly horrified by the idea. They vehemently rejected the notion of addressing Lark casually. For some reason, after seeing the memories, it felt disrespectful – blasphemous even – to address him like that.

Lark smiled. For some reason, his gaze on the witches seemed a lot softer than before. It felt akin to an old man fondly looking at his grandchild playing at the front yard.

"Well then," said Lark. "It feels we've stayed long enough in this city." He turned to General Marduk, "Do the General and his men have any thoughts of visiting the Imperial Palace? If not, let's go back to the surface."

General Marduk looked at Lark quizzically. "Does Your Majesty not have any intentions of visiting that place?"

After learning and confirming that the temple and the shrine were empty, the soldiers from the Republic were certain that Lark's group would visit the Imperial Palace afterward.

After all, according to the witches, that place remained untouched. It wasn't ransacked by the Wandering Sage, unlike the temple and the shrine.

"It's stuffy here," said Lark. "I think I've seen enough of this place. I want to go back."

For some reason, those words sounded like an excuse.

But it didn't make sense.

Who in their right mind would stop here without visiting the place which contained the greatest number of treasures and artifacts?

"If you still wish to visit the Imperial Palace, I won't stop you," said Lark. "But this will be where we'll part ways. My group will be going back to the surface."

General Marduk and the Inspectors started getting a headache.

This army was composed of elites from the Republic, but they were aware of how they managed to reach this place unharmed. Even the lowest-ranking soldier in their group knew that they wouldn't make it out alive if they were to return to the surface without King Lark's protection.

Those arachnias would slaughter them to the last man. Even the Inspectors, who were considered to be living weapons in the Republic, were nothing before those calamity-class monsters.

They could probably kill an arachnia if it were alone, but it would be entirely different if the giant spiders moved in groups.

The Inspectors looked at each other. It was frustrating.

How would they report this to the Senators and the High Magistrate later?

One of the Inspectors said, "It's not everyday we get to visit an ancient city. Why don't we look inside the Imperial Palace even for a bit, Your Majesty?"

Lark dismissed his words. He blatantly showed disinterest with the idea. "As I said before, it feels stuffy here. I want to go back."

What use would seeing the Imperial Palace of Ist' Tamat be if they end up being spider food on their way back?

The soldiers from the Republic felt powerless.

General Marduk sighed, "Haaah… if that's what His Majesty's wishes, as his escorts, we'll come along with you."

With those words, it was decided that everyone would return to the surface, excluding the witches who'd been originally watching over the underground city.

"You heard the General!" shouted the adjutant. "Hasten all preparations! We're going back!"

"Yes!"

After that, their group left the temple.

After one last look at the ancient city, they climbed the cliff and entered the cavern connected to the second floor of the dungeon.

"Haah… is there really no way?" mumbled one of the soldiers.

Another one muttered, "Stop mulling over it. You want to be left behind in this place?"

"No, that's not it. Maybe we could convince King Lark's group to wait for us while we explore the Imperial Palace or something…."

"Dream on. Didn't you hear him? He must be used to living the good life, that's why he wants to immediately go back."

"Tch. Royals and their posh lifestyle."

"Hey, be careful. What if he hears you!"

"Yeah, yeah."

Leading the way together with the ranger from Zenith, Lark could clearly hear the words of dissatisfaction from the soldiers behind them.

He could understand their frustrations.

It must have been very tempting to enter the Imperial Palace and see the various artifacts and treasures inside.

Lark purposely ended their trip here.

This way, the soldiers wouldn't be able to see the items in the Imperial Palace, and they wouldn't have the chance to take any weapons from Ist' Tamat.

Lark knew that the soldiers would have no choice but to return to the surface with them, not out of duty, but out of necessity and survival.

Unlike Lark, Lady Alice didn't take the soldiers' words kindly.

"So noisy. How dare they! King Lark, want me to bash their heads in?" she said.

The soldiers nearest her heard this, and they immediately told everyone else to shut their mouths, lest they suffer the consequences.

Lark laughed, "Just leave them alone. It's not like they're doing us any harm."

"…But still!"

"It's fine."

Lady Alice bit her lips.

After walking for quite some time, they finally reached a familiar fork. Lark looked at the middle tunnel. From here, he could feel numerous presences at the end of the tunnel.

"It's the main nest," said Vulcan. He remembered the words of the explorers before. "You want to get arachnia eggs, no?"

Lark nodded. "Yes."

As though they'd talked about it beforehand, Lark and Vulcan started walking toward the main nest's entrance.

The explorers shuddered when they realized what the two were about to do.

"W-Wait!" shouted Ludwig. "Are you crazy—ehem… I, I mean! What are you doing? That's the tunnel leading to the main nest!"

Vulcan fingered his right ear. He said in an annoyed voice, "Who gave you permission to talk directly to us, human?"

Ludwig shriveled under the Dragon's gaze. Had Vulcan not been considerate, Ludwig would have lost consciousness by now from Vulcan's Dragon fear.

"That, that… the main nest is…."

"Bah! Stop talking! Shut your damn mouth, maggot!" roared Vulcan. His voice carried a bit of mana, shaking the tunnel walls around them. "A dozen or so arachnia are nothing!"

Lark said to the rest of the group, "Please wait here, everyone. We'll return quickly after taking an egg."

General Marduk looked conflicted. After mustering his courage, he approached the two who were about to leave.

"King… King Lark!" said General Marduk. "Lord Dragon!"

Lark turned around and said, "General?"

"I swore that I'll ensure your safety before coming here!" said General Marduk. "I may be a hindrance, but please let me come with you! If things turn south, I won't take it against you if you use me as a bait to escape the arachnias!"

The soldiers were in an uproar.

"Nooo! General!"

"Why are you following those two into that… that hell hole!"

"You'll die if you enter the nest with them, General Marduk!"

The General roared, "Enough! I have already sworn and intend to keep my promise no matter what!"

Even in the face of danger, the General sure was stubborn.

Lark didn't hate people like him.

"Why are you making a commotion out of this," Vulcan said annoyedly. "In the end, they're just giant spiders."

Lark chuckled, "Vulcan, just think of it as the difference in perspective between races."

Lark said to General Marduk, "You seem strong. You can tag along, General, but please refrain from doing anything unnecessary like trying to sacrifice your life once we're inside."

"But I promised to—!"

"—We won't take you along otherwise."

The General felt defeated. He was honestly scared of going into the main nest, but he believed there were things more important than his life: The Republic, his oath, his promise to protect the people.

He would never be able to hold his head high if he let the King of another country die under his watch.

"Hah. Alright. I'll be in your care then, King Lark, Lord Dragon."

Vulcan snorted but didn't utter another word.

Lark said, "The General knows body-strengthening magic, yes?"

"Of course, Your Majesty."

Lark smiled. "Good. That makes things easier."

Lark shot out several orbs of light toward the end of the middle tunnel.

"Let's go."

With Lark at the lead, the three of them entered the middle tunnel and whizzed toward the main nest, passing by numerous massive cobwebs every now and then.

Eventually, they reached a large room around twice the size of the Desert Deity's temple.

"We're here," said Vulcan.

The three skidded to a halt.

General Marduk's heart almost leapt out of his chest the moment he saw the main nest.

"G-Gods above… oh gods…. oh gods…."

It was a scene straight from a nightmare.

Illuminated by the orbs of light Lark had shot beforehand, the main nest was littered with around thirty unhatched eggs covered by thick cobwebs.

There was a very faint – almost inaudible – pulsating sound coming from each of the eggs, which were around the size of an adult man.

But that's not the terrifying part for General Marduk.

Sixteen full grown arachnias were inside the main nest, each of them more than ten meters in size. Their numerous eyes seemed to be glaring at their group.

Judging by the arachnia's ability to hide, there was probably several more nearby.

"What… t-that…," gasped General Marduk, "is that also an arachnia?"

He was pertaining to the arachnia right at the center of the nest. Unlike its kin, this one was nearly thirty meters in size, and its belly was bulging, as though it was about to lay eggs soon.

Cold sweat ran down General Maduk's face.

If that thing laid its eggs, and if those arachnias escaped the dungeon and invaded the Republic…

He could only imagine the number of casualties and the damage it would cause the Republic.

"K-King Lark! As I've thought! This was a bad decision!"

General Marduk wished to escape from here as soon as possible.

No matter how he looked at it, entering this place was tantamount to suicide, even if they were accompanied by the Dragon.

Lark said in an understanding voice, "Calm down, General. If those giant spiders wanted to fight us, they would have attacked us before we could even reach this place."

Vulcan said condescendingly, "This is why we should have left that human behind. Tch."

Lark slowly walked toward the center of the nest.

The arachnias screeched, threatened by the human's movements.

Lark emitted mana and killing intent at the same time.

"I know it's unfair, but I'm here to take one of your eggs," said Lark to the arachnias. "We'll leave as soon as we take one, so be at ease."

Although he said pacifying words, he still continued emitting mana and killing intent to show the arachnias who was the hunter and the prey.

Arachnias didn't really care about their young. They would even sometimes eat their hatchlings if they ran out of food. The adults would even sometimes fight each other to establish a hierarchy, and the losers would end up in the winner's belly.

Lark was aware of this, and planned on using this information to take an egg without fighting against over a dozen of these giant spiders.

With the help of Vulcan, Lark judged that he could probably kill all of the arachnias here, but that would backfire against them in the long run.

They shouldn't kill the arachnias since they were crucial in preventing the Republic from freely entering the underground city as they wished.

Screeeeccchh!

The screeches from the giant spiders intensified as Lark walked closer to the eggs. Still, they did nothing but watch.

The massive brood mother at the nest's center wasn't moving. It didn't show any reaction even when Lark's group arrived here.

"Is it dying?" muttered Lark. "Well, no matter."

Lark touched one of the eggs and infused mana to its outer shell, fortifying its defenses severalfold. Afterward, he used wind magic to make it float above him.

"I'll take this one," said Lark to the giant spiders.

A thick thread of saliva dripped down from the ceiling. Lark already knew that there were three arachnias above him.

The moment he showed any signs of weakness, and the moment Vulcan retracted his Dragon fear, those creatures would attack him.

"As promised, we'll leave this place."

Without looking back, Lark took the egg with him.

"I got what I need. Let's go back."

General Marduk was still in a state of disbelief.

"As easy… as that?"

He couldn't believe that it was possible for anyone to just take an arachnia's egg. Moreover, it was taken from the main nest, right when all of the arachnias in the dungeons had gathered there.

"We told you already," said Vulcan in his same unfriendly voice. "It won't take long. There was no need for you to tag along."

"Ha… Haha…"

General Marduk didn't know whether he should feel relieved or horrified.