As the black aura gradually faded under the continuous washing of the light element, the tense expressions on everyone's faces finally began to relax.
“Is this Light Heal? Or Exorcism? Honestly, is there anything you can't do...? Aren't these skills only used by the priests of the Church of Light? Don't tell me you're actually related to them?”
Suddenly, Aila broke the silence. Her questions came in a rapid-fire barrage, aimed directly at Midir.
“Your guesses are likely both wrong. This is just an application of the light element. I only tried it on a whim. If I were actually an expert in this field, they would be recovering much faster than this.”
Midir shook his head, indicating he knew nothing about this Church of Light.
“Well, at least we’ve found a way to deal with it, even if the mysteries surrounding you just keep piling up!” Hearing his flat denial, Aila didn't press the matter further.
“So, should we keep moving? Or wait here for the reinforcement unit?”
Rosal offered her thoughts. It would take some time for the injured to recover, and if they waited any longer, they wouldn't reach the Azure City-State until late at night.
After some discussion, they decided that the four of them would head out first on Kiteclaw to reach the border town and assess the situation. The guards would remain behind to wait for the rest of the forces.
After leaving enough supplies for the squad to last two days, the four of them didn't linger. They urged Kiteclaw forward, continuing their journey south.
With Blake joining them, the weight on Kiteclaw had increased, so Aila didn't have the griffin maintain the high speeds from earlier. Consequently, as the sun began to set and the horizon was painted in a golden hue, the four of them finally witnessed a vast, rolling range of magnificent mountains at the edge of the world.
Stretched out before them were the Korana Mountains, a grand range extending thousands of kilometers from east to west. It served as the backbone of the earth, sharply dividing the fertile plains of the central Ryan Continent from the southern desert regions.
The Azure City-State was built upon the steep ridges of the Korana Mountains, with its surrounding satellite cities scattered like stars across various points of the range.
The Azure City-State was originally established to serve as a war fortress. The vast southern desert had been a place of exile for criminals of all races since ancient times, not to mention the beastkin tribes on the far southern continent who watched the human lands with greedy eyes.
As time passed, with the central Azure Fortress as the hub, the smaller defensive outposts around the mountains gradually evolved into cities capable of both defense and reconnaissance. They firmly locked down every pass in the mountain range, eventually forming a cluster of castle-cities as impregnable as a wall of bronze and iron.
Although the Azure City-State wasn't as populous as the cities on the plains and its economy wasn't as prosperous as the Royal Capital, the constant instability of the south meant that a massive garrison was stationed there at all times to deal with any issues that might arise.
But now, even the Azure City-State, with such formidable military power, had issued an emergency declaration. The scale of these magic calamities was easy to imagine.
According to their navigation, their immediate destination was a small city named Juna. Located deep within the continent and far from the noise of the borders, it didn't have a large garrison. With a population of only a few tens of thousands, its primary function was as a commercial transit hub.
As they approached, they didn't see a single living soul, let alone the merchant caravans that should have been constantly coming and going.
After a short flight, Aila skillfully guided Kiteclaw to a steady landing on the walls of Juna. However, contrary to their expectations, there were no city guards patrolling the walls. The surroundings were silent, without a hint of life.
Midir looked over the wall into the city. The blood-red sunset fell upon the small town that should have been bustling, but the streets were now silent. Various items were scattered across the ground; the entire city looked as if it had been abandoned for a long time.
“Why isn't there a single person here? It feels... kind of creepy.” Rosal looked at the empty surroundings with an uneasy expression.
Standing on the wall facing this desolate town, countless questions rose in their hearts. The afterglow of the sunset coated the city in a tragic red, but it couldn't hide the coldness and desolation radiating from it.
“There are signs of a struggle on the walls. They’re fresh, and it was intense. There are clear tracks of activity inside the city too. I don't know if the residents evacuated... or if...”
Aila walked to the side, carefully inspecting the marks on the wall. When she saw a large pool of blackened blood, she felt a sinking sensation in her chest.
Her keen hearing caught a rustling sound coming from the distance—a sound that definitely didn't belong to a human.
“Careful, there’s something nearby! Kiteclaw, take to the air and stay on guard!”
Aila quickly returned to the other three, shouting for the griffin to fly off the wall. She began using the magnification function of her goggles to scan the area.
A moment later, an unusual noise began to drift in from all directions, sending a chill through Midir and his companions. The sound was like countless creatures crawling rapidly over the ground, a noise that made their skin crawl and their scalps tingle.
“Do you hear that? What is that sound?” Midir asked in a low voice, his eyes sharp as he scanned for any abnormal movement.
Aila nodded, her pointed ears twitching slightly as she tried to pinpoint the source of the bizarre noises.
Just as the three of them were starting to feel lost, Aila suddenly looked at the ground beneath her feet with terror in her eyes and screamed.
“In the ground! They’re in the sewers!”
As Aila’s scream echoed over the walls, her voice was several octaves higher than usual, betraying a panic they had never seen before.
The three of them looked where she was pointing and saw a hair-raising scene—countless giant black insects were surging out from the sewers beneath the walls, the dark corners of houses, and the cracks at the edges of the fortifications.
These giant black insects had flat, oval bodies and a pair of sharp mandibles on their heads. Each one was as long as an adult man’s arm, radiating a sense of danger. As they moved, their long antennae twitched constantly in front of them, creating a nauseating sight.
“No way! Cockroaches!” Rosal’s face also filled with horror upon seeing the giant insects, but she wasn't nearly as pale as Aila beside her.
This was the first time Midir had seen the normally fearless Aila show such terror.
Her face was as white as paper, devoid of all color. Facing the tide of giant black insects, her body trembled slightly from the fear deep within her soul.
“No way... is this girl actually afraid of cockroaches?”
But the giant insects didn't give Midir time to think. In the blink of an eye, they had already reached the group.
“Go, get on Kiteclaw!” Midir waved his hand, cloaking the three beside him in a layer of wind element that allowed them to jump much higher with ease.
The dissipating wind element transformed into a circle of sharp blades, slicing toward the incoming insects and creating a massive wave of shattered carapaces and limbs.
Midir’s gaze quickly swept the area. Seeing that Aila was still frozen in place, unable to move, he rushed over without hesitation, scooped her up by the waist, and leaped forcefully onto Kiteclaw, who was waiting in mid-air.
It wasn't until the two of them were settled on the griffin and had flown dozens of meters away from the wall that Aila finally snapped out of her paralyzed state.
She looked back at the countless surging insects with lingering fear, muttering under her breath.
“Damn it! Damn it! Damn it! Why are there cockroaches! And why are they so big! If I’d known, I never would have come!”
Hearing Aila’s trembling voice, Midir felt a trace of amusement. He turned and looked at Blake, teasing him in a lighthearted tone.
“Your southern cockroaches are really something! Look, even Aila was scared out of her wits.” He spoke with a hint of humor, trying to ease the tension.
“No! Our cockroaches aren't as big as dogs! What on earth are these things?!” Blake felt relatively fine. Although there were many insects, they didn't pose a threat while they were flying in the air.
“Well, at least these bugs are different from southern cockroaches. At least they can't fly.”
Before Blake could even finish his sentence, the black swarm below began to change. They unfurled long, narrow wings from their backs and began to vibrate them at an incredible speed. With a sickening hiss, the giant insects actually took to the sky.
Watching the insects swarm toward Kiteclaw in mid-air, even Rosal cried out in fright.
“Is your mouth cursed?! They really can fly! These really are just cockroaches!”
Midir watched the rapidly approaching swarm and cursed Blake’s big mouth under his breath.
However, his hands didn't stop moving. In an instant, a massive fireball over ten meters in diameter manifested before him, crashing into the incoming black tide like a meteorite.
The moment the scorching fireball struck the swarm, a massive explosion of sparks erupted in mid-air. The insects hit by the flames made a series of ear-grating cracking sounds under the high heat, falling to the ground trailing black smoke.
But there were simply too many insects. The sea of fire in the sky was quickly breached by the bugs charging forward one after another.
“Tsk! Even if each one is weak, they’re a pain once they have numbers on their side!”
Seeing that his fireball had only stalled the swarm for a moment, Midir spoke with irritation. He no longer held back, gathering a massive amount of fire element around him.
“There aren't any living people nearby anyway, so it should be fine to go a bit overboard, right?” he thought to himself as massive fire dragons began to manifest in the air.
“Incinerate, Flame Dragon Annihilation Bolt!”
It was only at this moment that Aila and the other two saw Midir truly unleash his power for the first time.
As ten fire dragons dove from the sky with world-ending momentum, the scenery before them was completely obscured by vivid red flames.
Even the immeasurable swarm of black insects couldn't stop the fire dragons' advance; they were instantly vaporized into basic particles within the flames.
The fire dragons roared past, carrying a heatwave that turned all vegetation in their path to ash. Even Juna’s stone walls melted into gold-red lava under the intense heat, flowing onto the ground. The area for dozens of meters around the city gate was transformed into a landscape of hell.
Rate on N.U.
