The ground was black. The moon hanging in the sky was ominously sinister. Dust stirred by the dry wind obscured their vision like fog.
The darkness bugs that had been pursuing Yurik, Valter, and Cellinne from the boundary no longer followed once they entered deep into the wasteland.
Cellinne thought it was exactly like a food chain.
Just as foxes wouldn't enter a tiger's territory,
The wasteland also seemed to have territories thoroughly divided according to power hierarchy.
How evil would the demon sleeping where the ominous star fell be?
Cellinne looked around. All her senses were sending warnings that they had entered a danger zone.
But having come this far, they couldn't turn back. Yurik hadn't ordered a retreat either, and even if they went back like this...
A chilling whisper. Cold air that brushed past her ear.
Without thinking, she thrust her fist in that direction, but nothing was there.
"Who is it!"
At her cry, the group stopped walking.
Though Cellinne looked around, she couldn't see anything.
Even the faces of Yurik and Valter, who were close by, were dim. Because of the dust— no, this wasn't dust. White smoke rising from the ground crept up stealthily.
Ice? Cold? As Cellinne lowered her stance with clenched fists, she heard the sound of metal ringing.
"Wait."
Silence. The three people's sharp senses detected presences beyond the darkness.
The sound of something rapidly tapping. The noise of needles constantly hitting a table. Things crawling, scraping, clicking, and emitting smoke.
There wasn't just one. Not even three or four.
Hundreds, dozens of somethings were observing them from beyond the darkness.
One of them made a crackling sound.
[Can't¿go, can't]
[Turn¡back back back back back can't can't can't can't...]
[Who■who■who■who■who■who¡]
[Re■.■who?■who retreat.retreat retreat retreat retreat retreat retreat retreat retreat retreat retreat retreat.]
In the swaying shadows,
When Cellinne unconsciously stepped forward, the whispering abruptly stopped.
A single word was heard clearly.
[Retreat.]
"Everyone be careful—!"
Darkness swallowed her warning and rushed at them like hunting dogs. Three hands resembling crustacean pincers grabbed her neck, stomach, and feet, clinging to her. Her flesh was crushed against the hard shell, making crunching sounds.
She grasped what held her neck with both hands. Her feet dangled in the air.
Even as she choked and gasped for breath, her fighter's instincts coolly assessed survival.
-Crack.
White ice sprouted from within the pincers. As the shell cracked, fragments fell with a sharp sound.
"Grandfather!"
A flashing axe blade in her blurred vision. Along with Valter's roar, a strong impact struck Cellinne. After a brief fall, the solid arms supporting her were undoubtedly Valter's.
But it wasn't over yet.
The thing with three severed arms finally emerged from the darkness and revealed itself.
In the mist, under the dim moonlight, something bizarre swayed. What was up there definitely had substance, yet felt like a painting.
A head resembling a human. But instead of eyes, there were hollow cavities. It gave an impression of being twisted somewhere.
The neck draped with thick hanging skin soon connected to a centipede-like body, and dull light reflected from the shell on its back, shining. Countless legs clicked incessantly.
In front of it, the pincers that had served as hands lay writhing, severed by Valter's axe.
At the sight of a demon they had never imagined, Valter and Cellinne held their breath.
[Retreat?retreat¡retreat¡retreat¡retreat¡retreat¡retreat¡retreat¡retreat¡retreat¡retreat¡retreat¡retreat¡retreat¡retreat¡retreat¡retreat¡retreat?]
The demon screamed. The thing that had suddenly lowered its body began crawling rapidly toward them.
Valter charged forward swinging his axe to meet it.
Just before the two rushing beings collided, Valter barely dodged to the side and managed to bury his axe blade in the demon's neck, hanging from it.
Swaying and climbing upward, Valter brought down his axe on the thick neck's hide with a short cry.
The blade bounced off the slippery, hairless hide surface several times. But it couldn't overcome Valter's persistence.
-Swish!
With a disgustingly bursting sound, revolting fluid covered him. The crawling demon thrashed about, spraying bodily fluids in all directions.
[Help¿help¡help help help help help help help help help help help help help help help help help help help help¡]
The ground shook as if an earthquake had struck. It felt like sitting on a raging bull. Valter swung his axe frantically toward the wound. Splash, splash. When the dulled blade no longer penetrated, when the demon, dulled by pain, extended its remaining pincers toward him.
"Freeze!"
Cellinne was in the middle of the demon's path.
The size difference between her and the demon was like that between a human and a gnat.
But she didn't back down. She firmly gripped her hands wearing the scratched gauntlets.
White energy swirled and shone in her green eyes. Eyes that brought to mind snow that fell in early spring and sprouts that stubbornly grew despite it.
One foot back. Lower the upper body.
Draw up the power circulating through the body and concentrate it at one point. When the demon roared and raised itself to crush her.
She threw a straight punch with all her might.
A cold north wind swept through. A ringing sound echoed in their ears.
Everything turned white for an instant, then regained its color.
Perfect blue ice shot up in the direction she faced. The ice that grew from the ground like a plant, with its faceted surfaces sparkling, was even beautiful.
Bodily fluid trickled down the smooth ice surface.
Looking up, there was the demon with its entire body pierced through.
The demon's neck was broken as it hung in the air with only dozens of legs trembling.
As the viscous liquid gurgling and flowing down fell to the ground,
Cellinne could finally exhale.
Those who had witnessed their kin's death had already disappeared far away.
Valter, who had jumped down from above the demon, hurriedly supported Cellinne as she staggered and collapsed.
"Oh my, oh my. Does anything hurt? Let me see. How's your neck?"
"No, Grandfather. It's just dizziness."
She couldn't stand because her legs had given out, and Valter was restless.
There was a hand that grabbed her arm to help her up.
"Your Highness."
"Don't go all-out just because you've received a blessing. If you rampage without knowing moderation, the vessel will break."
"The, the vessel?"
Leaving behind his stern advice, Yurik approached the demon and tapped the ice. Confirming it could be broken, he shattered the ice and brought down the limp demon.
Though Cellinne and Valter had no idea what Yurik intended to do,
They cried out in surprise when he cut his palm to draw blood.
"Your Highness!"
"Why are you cutting your innocent hand! Stop!"
Despite their protests, Yurik's blood flowed to the demon.
The body that received the blood began to writhe. As if it had been granted the right to be revived by some omnipotent being,
The holes in its body grew smaller, and new flesh sprouted to connect the severed, dangling neck.
Destruction, regeneration, restoration.
Cellinne, who had been watching the scene in shock, suddenly cried out.
"Your Highness, then, if that thing comes back to life!"
The revived demon raised its head. But Yurik didn't dodge. He simply,
-Bang!
Hit the head of the demon that had lifted the black holes that served as its eyes.
But not lightly—rather hard.
Cellinne and Valter stiffened as they watched the demon with its neck grotesquely bent and head buried in the ground.
Yurik lowered his fist and looked at the demon making strange sounds, then called Cellinne.
"Come here."
"U-uh, yes."
"You two will ride this thing to the crater in the wasteland."
"What?"
Had His Highness finally lost his mind? Or was she the one who had gone crazy?
Cellinne tapped her ears, but that didn't change anything.
Yurik only continued saying what he wanted to say.
"If it doesn't listen, hit its head like I just did. Then it will understand."
"What? But... but it's a wasteland demon!"
"'Dimensional Vagrant.' Didn't Dardin teach you?"
"No, of course I remember the name—but you want us to ride it! That's ridiculous!"
Meanwhile, Valter was seriously poking the Dimensional Vagrant with his shoe tip.
Cellinne pointed at it while protesting breathlessly.
"How can we ride such a thing? Didn't you see just now? It tried to kill us! It tried to eat us! Don't you see this neck and, here, my stomach? I'm bleeding now! Blood! It hurts like hell!"
"Didn't you just subdue it? Then you can subdue it if you ride it too."
Aaaah! Cellinne wanted to scream. Why was His Highness talking like Adonis?
Did both of them know they sometimes made statements that departed from human common sense?
Whether Cellinne did this or not, Yurik gestured toward the Dimensional Vagrant.
"The wasteland is vast, and we lack proper transportation. It's impossible for three people to ride one horse. Most importantly, you'll need transportation to fight that thing."
"You mean the 'Star Walker' in the impact crater."
"Yes."
Ah. She really hated it. She hated it to death.
But if she said she didn't want to here, she might really be killed by Yurik.
In the end, she could only cry inwardly while climbing onto the demon—
No. The Dimensional Vagrant that kept making strange squeaking sounds.
The Dimensional Vagrant, resembling a giant centipede, was running through the wasteland.
But even considering Cellinne's aversion,
The Dimensional Vagrant was a surprisingly decent means of transportation.
First, aside from being large enough for Valter and Cellinne to ride comfortably,
The riding experience was smoother and better than floating a boat on a quiet riverside.
Since it was running several times faster than a horse, it felt like becoming a bird.
Of course, it was problematic that it occasionally spouted human language that grated on their ears or tried to go in the wrong direction.
Most problems were solved when Valter slightly adjusted the head's direction with his axe.
Cellinne watched Valter controlling the head's direction while sitting on the Dimensional Vagrant's head with a subtle expression.
She thought it was strange that this wasn't actually bad.
Cellinne glanced down below. Beside the Dimensional Vagrant, she could see Yurik riding the black horse.
That horse definitely wasn't ordinary either. From being able to suddenly appear or disappear, to having the speed to keep up with demons in the wasteland.
What exactly was that horse? What kind of person was His Highness? What kind of human was Yesung to be able to visit the wasteland and return unharmed?
Questions she had vaguely held since long ago. Though the day to solve them would probably never come.
Something suddenly entered her field of vision.
Cellinne slowly stood up on the Dimensional Vagrant's head.
Beyond the wind pressure that seemed like it would blow her away, beyond the black ground of the wasteland.
"Your Highness! It's the impact crater! The ominous star!"
A crater that suddenly rose from the plain.
The inside was excavated to an unknowable depth,
And the meteor that had once been surrounded by ice had become a door connecting to the Leng Plateau and was submerged in a sea of black mud in the crater.
Around it, only a few Dimensional Vagrant individuals swayed their upper bodies as they crawled.
At first glance, there seemed to be nothing wrong with the crater. The mud bubbled moment by moment, surging like a real sea, and only what overflowed slid down the mound to stain the ground.
However, no matter how much they looked, the 'Star Walker' was nowhere to be seen.
What had Dardin said about the demon sleeping in the impact crater?
-It's large. Though it's said to resemble reptiles, you shouldn't think of snakes or lizards. The Star Walker has no scales and has the habit of mostly moving with its legs.
Had it already fled somewhere? Since no one said it could fly, it might have already left the crater for somewhere else.
When Cellinne was thinking this,
Suddenly the Dimensional Vagrants scattered here and there all began fleeing at once.
Seeing them scatter in all directions, something seemed wrong.
Didn't it seem like they were avoiding their bodies, predicting an approaching threat?
But when they climbed up the crater wall,
And when they directly faced that black sea before their eyes,
The two shocked people felt like they might lose consciousness.
The movement of the waves had a strangely flowing pattern. Rising and falling. Rising and falling again.
Far in the distance, on the surface of the erected meteor, there was a door drawn with blood of unknown origin.
This was not a sea.
The being that filled the crater,
Was the final demon to be defeated in the wasteland and a monster that dreamed countless dreams while sleeping.
Eyes that had been closed in the middle of the sea opened.
The moment their gazes met, a voice that broke through and penetrated the protection dwelling in Valter and Cellinne chirped.
[Come... with... me... to the stars... return, go, we, you, end, to the end...]
The axe handle slipped from Valter's hand.
Before the Star Walker that had devoured the minds of hundreds of humans,
The fragile barriers of human reason began to slowly crumble.
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