NOVEL WEB Chapter 164
Aster was the first to arrive at the edge of the Floating Island, gazing down at the ground below.
“What’s that…?”
Even in the pitch-black of night, a sinister flame blazed even darker—a source of ominousness brought by his apprentice, Hong Yu-ri. It was said that Marang had battled the Butterfly of Covenant, and now fire was raging in front of them. A black flame covering the path connecting Tehran and Baramin was blocking the swarm of the Plague from escaping.
There was no way mere flames could hold it back. If it could, the line would never have been breached by the Plague. Yet for some reason, the Plague was having a hard time passing through. Seeing the mass beyond the fire melting like oil, Aster gulped.
It felt like he caught a glimpse of a demonic face in that black flame. The sense of foreboding only grew stronger, causing him to unknowingly glance at his apprentice.
…The talented child, Baek So-yul, stood beside his apprentice with an expression of calm indifference, but Aster could sense the underlying anxiety reflected back at him.
What on earth had Marang been given in return? Why was Marang helping humanity?
Aster too had done a bit of digging. It turned out that Marang was a monster named Alpha. He learned about the fierce battle between Hong Yu-ri and Marang from the news.
In the end, it was his own pupil that had lost, while Marang did not take a life.
A creature with intellect—this very intelligence was the main cause of Aster’s dread. Those with intelligence could wear multiple masks and live hidden lives.
Although Marang claimed to offer a chance to deal with the Disease and Plague… Aster sighed. What if Marang had ulterior motives? He couldn’t be too sure about anything right now; it was time to focus on what needed to be done.
Red magic power began to swirl around him.
***
A perfect blockade was impossible, but it was working better than he thought.
The quick ones could retreat or run far away, but those who couldn’t were turning themselves into fuel, spreading the inferno around them. The flame of Transformation spread its domain, and the Wolf began to turn and run.
There was nothing more he could do here. Or, rather, there was really no time to do anything. The ground from Baramin began to undulate like waves, and beneath it, the burrowing pests, the Disease, began to fiercely chase after the evacuees.
Though its speed wasn’t all that great, escaping on foot was impossible. The evacuees—no, even the soldiers—would all be prey.
In the end, there was only one Floating Island. If the Square couldn’t cover both locations at once, it was necessary to lure the monster away. Even during the battle with the Plague later on, it needed to be ensured that the Disease wouldn’t interfere.
If they could get there, as he had mentioned before, a bombardment of magic would injure and separate the Disease and the Plague.
It was at least fortunate that, like the Plague, the Disease had no intelligence. If it acted on instinct like a beast, it could be lured away. The only issue was surviving while drawing its attention.
After devouring a whole city, the monster couldn’t be allowed to get too close to the evacuees. It wouldn’t be easy, but it had to be done.
He couldn’t sacrifice the entire evacuee population—possibly numbering in the hundreds of thousands—as bait for the Disease.
It wouldn’t take long for the magic from the Square to rain down. The Wolf immediately exerted its Intimidation, and the Disease, running underground, seemed to pause for a moment before rushing past the Wolf.
The Wolf’s Intimidation might have temporarily caught its attention, but it was powerless to scare off the Disease, even with the title of Tyrant.
This was understandable, as the Disease was far above the Wolf. To put it simply, they were on completely different levels. The Wolf’s teeth couldn’t reach the Disease; it was no wonder the Disease ignored the Wolf as if a barking dog wouldn’t bother a dragon.
The gap between the Disease and the Wolf was immense.
—This was just the perspective of a creature devouring the land.
The burrowing monster, living in the underground and lacking any vision, could only instinctively feel the Wolf’s presence without ever truly seeing it. More accurately, it lacked the keen instinct or perception to read the latent power within.
The Disease, intending to ignore the Wolf, halted as its instincts had saved it many times before, barely avoiding something that was deeply embedded in the ground.
“―――!”
The cries from below sounded like the hall of hell calling from the Abyss. It wasn’t just a threat; something had attacked it—and the Disease was enraged.
It was something other than the Island of the Sky that always attacked it. And it was firmly planted on the ground—!
When it saw the glowing red eyes, the king of the underground known as the Disease twisted its body. It couldn’t ignore something challenging its very existence over feeding.
As its massive form undulated, the ground crumbled, and the Wolf began to turn and flee again.
—The power that had deeply rooted itself in the land. The Void had not avoided it; it simply hadn’t been consumed. Even the Master of All Things had succumbed to it and devoured his hand, but it had no effect on the monster.
It was hardly surprising. The creature known as the Disease, which the red eyes peered through, was beyond anything encountered by the Wolf so far.
It was different from the Plague, which spread and contaminated, creating swarms.
This creature did not merely spread sickness or gather— it corrupted and broke the earth itself.
If anything, the Disease had the advantage over the Plague in terms of sheer physical form.
Seeing this with his own eyes confirmed Aster’s suspicions.
[Eater of the Earth]
[Body Length 132.8m] [Height 11.53m] [Weight 1.44kt]
[Power 808] [Agility 673] [Stamina 786] [Magic Power 727]
Even if it sustained damage, defeating the Disease would likely be an uphill battle.
The status alone far exceeded everything the Wolf had previously encountered. Even the lowest agility was not much lower than the Volcano Ceratops’s highest strength.
Despite being attacked three times by Hong Yu-ri’s Great Magic, the Volcano Ceratops had eventually taken damage. Yet the Disease had withstood decades of magic bombardments from the Square without dying—the greatest catastrophe humanity could not defeat.
The biggest cause that was leading humanity towards extinction, alongside the Plague. The reality of this disaster was now vividly clear in the Wolf’s eyes.
The red eyes contained the Disease, yet its ears caught the distant sound of bombings falling relentlessly upon the ruined city. The deafening explosions.
Without a doubt, from the Square. Unwavering magic was rained upon the swarm, and in that moment, the Wolf lured the monster just as he had planned, while the ground quaked beneath it.
The speed was in the Wolf’s favor. It was easy enough to escape, but the Wolf knew it was only possible because the monster was down below.
With a speed crushing the earth as if it were a runaway train, if it ever revealed itself on the ground, even the Wolf itself had no guarantees it could escape.
In an instant, a strong warning echoed in the Wolf’s sensibilities, and he leaped with a calculated jump, kicking off the ground and creating a gust of wind.
Countless tentacles rose in response, swiping down a moment too late from the ground.
The writhing tentacles were long enough to stretch dozens of meters, whipping up dust as the ground shifted like a sandstorm, snapping trees and rocks into pieces without any resistance.
The horrifying tentacles, a few levels above the Wolf’s own spiky appendages, seemed to possess their own will as they chased the Wolf relentlessly.
Countless strands and swipes that exceeded 700 in agility with over 800 in strength was nothing short of a disaster.
Each tentacle, when wildly swung, managed to break the sound barrier with a deafening crack.
The Wolf negated the pressure of the wind with a gust of its own and fearlessly soared high even amidst the whirl of tentacles.
As the dreadful tentacles descended from all sides, the Wolf found its final burst of power and finally successfully climbed to a height where the tentacles couldn’t reach.
One second—no, not even one second—a dangerously narrow timeframe passed. The late-arriving tentacle mass clapped together in the air, and the Wolf was propelled upwards from the pressure and wind, climbing several dozen meters higher.
Yet even then, it couldn’t relax. The tentacles might not reach, but it knew this was far from the end.
This skill was several levels above the Wolf’s spikes. Naturally, that meant it could shoot spikes as well. The skies were filled with incoming spikes, and the Wolf gritted its teeth. The reason the Floating Island was so high above was entirely because of this. If not, humanity would’ve been annihilated long ago.
While it dodged the tentacles, avoiding the spikes was even harder. With the skies blackening, there was no way to evade them.
However, those spikes were projected. They weren’t attached to the body of the Disease, meaning they wouldn’t affect the skills. If that were the case, it was entirely doable. As soon as the Wolf thought that, the black spikes filling the sky vanished without a trace due to the Void’s influence.
The moment the Wolf escaped both the spikes and the tentacles, it seized a very brief opportunity.
This was due to the Disease still failing to grasp the true existence of the Wolf. The kind of insight akin to the Wolf’s keen perception was nonexistent in the Disease.
Because it didn’t need to. There were so few beings capable of challenging the king of the underground. Even the Plague couldn’t match the Disease in raw power.
“――― ―――!”
As it howled, the earth trembled and tremors began to shake the ground. It wasn’t merely a roar—it was a skill driven by intent.
[Skills Held]
[Earth Shaker(A)] [Demonic Grip(B)] [Great Magic Power(B)] [Rock Skin(B)] [Divine Power(B)] [Mitigation(C)] [Dragon Breath(C)] [Magic Armor(C)] [Superior Hearing(D)] [Regeneration(D)] [Demon’s Feast(D)] [Superior Intuition(D)] [Poison Resistance(D)]
Among countless skills, the one possessing A-grade—Earth Shaker. A massive earthquake began with it as the ground plates collided, shattering and upheaving, sending shattered fragments flying as if possessing their own will. Though it could devour the Void, it needed to avoid the mindless spikes filled with the raw power of Great Magic.
The Disease began to stretch its tentacles upward, throwing pieces of ground that could hardly be called rubble.
Rocks thrown by the tentacles and earth shattered by the Earth Shaker.
Most were avoided, but avoiding them all was impossible with their size and number. Amid it all, the spikes shot out threateningly toward the Wolf. The vast area of influence spread like a net, slashing the earth and devouring the crumbled rocks. While enduring and persevering, the Wolf continued forward.
If it hadn’t been for the warnings from its keen senses, it would’ve been dead already, pressed to the ground. Just thinking about it chilled him to the bone.
If reshaping the terrain was that easy, hiding in the shadows would be utterly meaningless. The Wolf snickered. These conditions were far more horrendous and dismal than his vague thoughts could conceive.
This was calamity. An unreasonable existence that humanity struggled to survive against, devouring the land—the Disease.
It was a monster that sat atop the very world Aster had known from novels.
However— in the end, it was just another being to be surpassed.
Focused within, the Wolf ran higher in the sky, sketching a slim line for safety. It continued to run at a sufficient distance where the writhing tentacles and projectiles wouldn’t pose a threat.
As long as it’s underground, the Disease couldn’t catch the Wolf. Neither the tentacles nor the earth’s debris posed a threat as the Wolf ascended into an altitude where it could easily evade them, ultimately forcing the Disease to reveal its colossal form above ground.
—The biggest reason it could flee thus far was that the monster had been destroying the land while chasing it. Even in original form, the Disease had been far faster than the Wolf.
Its true form resembled the Earth Serpent, yet it was closer to a centipede. It had no real legs, but countless tentacles gave it an almost insect-like appearance.
The revealed Disease. There was less than half the distance left to the ongoing bombardment from the Square, but the Wolf swallowed hard.
The real luring started now.