Something seemed wrong.
Minjun felt the premonition the moment he woke from his long slumber.
This was different from the Partial Awakenings he had experienced before. Unlike the agonizing pain of hanging between sleep and wakefulness, this was a distinct, ominous certainty.
That something had gone terribly wrong.
'I can't fall back asleep now.'
Minjun realized the magic power in his body was nearly depleted.
The physical body was the most efficient vessel for storing dragon blood. Yet, despite consuming plenty before he slept, he was nearly empty.
Far more time had passed than he expected. Even so, his kin were not ready to wake, and Minjun had been pushed to the brink of starvation.
'This is the worst-case scenario!'
But Minjun lacked the strength to even escape his isolated Shelter, let alone wake them.
'It seems an external shock woke me.'
Minjun fell into deep thought.
What was the situation outside? They had been absent far longer than planned—which race ruled now?
He glared at the wall that had hidden him for so long. The terror of being alone in the vast universe alternated with his current dilemma, weighing heavily on his mind.
His vulnerability was the root of his conflict. His powerlessness meant he needed others, but it also meant he had to avoid them.
'I have no idea what's going on beyond that wall.'
What ideology ruled this era?
If he dispelled the barrier hiding this Shelter, would whoever approached offer a helping hand or a sharp blade?
'There's no other way.'
Ultimately, he dispelled the barrier and poured all his remaining energy into keeping himself alive.
He predicted that if anyone found him, it would most likely be Endelion.
'The fragmentation of the universe should be complete, but they might have developed the technology to cross the divides. Assuming they haven't gone extinct.'
That prediction was completely wrong.
When a spaceship finally approached his hidden Shelter, its occupant was...
=My god! Are you... are you alright? Can you understand what I'm saying right now?=
The race that came to rescue him was an intelligent species evolved from annelids.
Brown fur covered its body, and its head coiled like a vortex.
It looked slightly different from Minjun's memories, but the resemblance to its ancestors was unmistakable.
'This makes no sense. A Kavite?!'
Had those pests advanced enough to build a spaceship?!
Minjun realized the time gap—the calculation error that had plunged him into this predicament—might be far more severe than he had feared.
=I will help you. Come, let us go together.=
The Kavite cared for Minjun with utmost devotion.
Minjun had deliberately avoided asking for dragon blood directly. Instead, he made the difficult demand for the blood of countless other lifeforms. The Kavite readily complied, providing everything Minjun asked for.
Thanks to the annelid's goodwill, Minjun secured the dragon blood. Like blessed rain soaking parched earth, strength filled his cells. He was absurdly weak compared to the past, but he could finally breathe.
As he wet his throat for the first time in an eternity, Minjun thought to himself.
'In the past, I burned their ancestors alive the moment they caught my eye.'
During his days as a ranch owner, he incinerated Kavites on sight. They were harmful pests to a dragon herder. He had once considered wiping out their entire bloodline, stopping only because it felt excessive.
To think the descendants of creatures he had slated for extermination had evolved enough to help him.
The providence of the world was truly unpredictable. Goodwill did not always return as goodwill, nor hostility as hostility.
Quenching his dry throat, Minjun asked himself with complicated feelings.
'If I had driven the Kavites to extinction back then... what would have happened?'
The image of the beasts squirming as they were engulfed in flames was vivid in his mind.
*
Minjun calmly looked down at the Kavites squirming as they were devoured by the flames.
Fwoosh!
The guards had been chopped into four or five pieces each. Instead of going limp, their severed bodies squirmed desperately. The stench of burning flesh and bodily fluids pierced his nose.
Agonizing screams rang out through the flames.
Screeeech!
Minjun set the spell to completely incinerate them and erase all traces, then turned his back.
And he asked himself.
'If I had driven the Kavites to extinction back then... what would have happened?'
Endelion or Todd would have found him. History wouldn't have changed.
'Or I might have been found by a dragon.'
He compared the Ancient Race and the dragons. Their mindsets and natures.
Would anything really have been different?
Minjun inwardly denied it.
'They would have eventually plotted something similar.'
Minjun knew the reason he had failed.
'I ignored and underestimated the nature of beasts.'
His promise to the Kavites had been meaningless. The beasts had ignored his pledge that, once the entire primordial race awakened, they would use their collective intelligence to help the Kavites become better beings.
Because the first member of the primordial race they encountered was as weak and defenseless as Minjun, they had chosen betrayal over waking the rest.
'The choice I should have made... was to hunt dragons alone to recover my strength and personally reclaim Yongreung, even if it took an eternity.'
The only gift their betrayal left behind was that it drastically reduced the time needed for that scenario, allowing him to sacrifice other beasts instead of dragons.
Now, Minjun had the justification to do so.
*
The highest level of Yongreung.
Kavite guards gathered in the open space before the passageway leading to the Mana Crystal production line. Many of them weren't originally stationed here; they were personnel dispatched from headquarters to escort today's high-ranking VIP.
'The Grand Committeeman is staying longer than usual today.'
The Kavites in charge of security were completely oblivious to what was happening in the lower levels.
An abrupt sight unfolded before their eyes.
"Uh... huh?!"
A Kavite near the entrance suddenly levitated.
He showed no signs of chanting a spell, making it seem like a telekinetic ability.
Wait... did he have an ability like that? And why use it now?
"Hey, what are you doing?"
The barrier didn't react, and none of the ability users sensed anyone else approaching.
That was why they assumed the Kavite was levitating on his own.
But soon, their faces contorted.
"N-No! I'm not doing this... Urghhh!"
Horrified gazes turned toward him.
The Kavite's long, snake-like body was swelling up like a balloon.
"U-Urghhh!"
A Kavite's epidermis boasted far greater elasticity than mammalian flesh. In terms of sheer stretchability, it was almost akin to intestines.
The soldier's body expanded rapidly. Endlessly, with no limit in sight.
"Urghhh... save..."
Soon, even his voice was crushed. His hyper-extended epidermis became nearly transparent, clearly revealing the writhing movements of his organs underneath. His relatively fragile eyeballs had long since ruptured, leaking like tears over the taut skin. His forcibly stretched body already devoured more than half the room. All of this happened in mere seconds.
And then.
Bang!
The Kavite exploded in midair. A heavy shockwave hammered the room.
The surviving Kavites quickly realized their comrade's explosive death was only the beginning.
Flesh and organs, blown into thousands of fragments, swept the area like a torrential downpour. Every piece carried tremendous force, mercilessly tearing through the surroundings like shrapnel.
Even their protective gear was helpless against the omnidirectional attack. The fragments of their comrade pierced the intangible veils cast by their artifacts like bullets.
In an instant, half of the gathered soldiers were mowed down.
"I-Intruder! An intruder!"
The Kavites couldn't understand the situation. They hadn't even caught a glimpse of the enemy yet.
How had they snuck all the way up here? What happened to the guards stationed out front...?
'Wait!'
An ominous premonition quickly seized them.
The base's alarms still hadn't gone off. Headquarters still hadn't noticed the intruder.
'The only entity capable of something like this is...!'
Grrr!
Their train of thought was cut off.
The Kavites who had collapsed just moments ago, their bodies riddled with holes, writhed and rose to their feet.
Those who had clearly died instantly were moving again.
"Kieeeek!"
The survivors couldn't see it: the souls of their recently deceased comrades degenerating into wraiths, bound by a mysterious power.
The desperately struggling wraiths were sucked back into their bodies and tethered, forced to move according to the voice commanding them.
"Undead!"
Extreme terror gripped the soldiers as the dignity of the Ancient Race crumbled before them. Dead Kavites being used as puppets was an atrocity they hadn't witnessed even in past wars.
"Kyaaaah!"
The jawless maws of the Kavites opened wide. The corpses lunged at their living comrades. The teeth lining their circular mouths glinted sharply.
Crunch!
A scene akin to a snake swallowing another headfirst unfolded. A bubbling mixture of their own fluids and those of the comrades they chewed flowed from the corpses' maws.
'I need to report the situation inside! I have to evacuate the Grand Committeeman at once!'
The guard at the gate leading to the production line made a split-second decision. Instead of relying on his dead Communicator, he acted. He turned his back on the pandemonium and sprinted toward the gate.
It was then that a roar tore through the air.
Swish!
"Kuaaagh!"
A sharp ice spike flew at him.
It pierced the back of the fleeing guard's neck, pinning his body to the wall beside the gate.
Pinned by the ice, the Kavite dangled and thrashed like an eel. Every time its long, elastic body whipped the wall, it left behind fluid like lash marks.
That attack belonged to Asiph-1. The more agile Kavites pinpointed his location by tracing the strike's trajectory. Photon Cannon blasts poured from their muzzles.
Asiph-1 clicked his tongue and launched himself into the air, breaking his stealth.
'Since I'm already exposed.'
The life force inside him boiled over, converting into magic power.
He murmured a spell.
Craaack!
Bundles of light branched out from Asiph-1's midair body like blood vessels. The lightning directly struck the Kavites fleeing the undead.
"Kyaaaagh!"
Bzzzzzt!
Purple fluid boiled up from the respiratory organs of the electrocuted Kavites. Shortly after, a thick, black, tar-like substance overflowed.
Thud!
As the lightning-struck Kavites collapsed one after another, Asiph-1 looked toward the one he had pinned to the wall.
It seemed his father had already taken care of it. The Kavite was melting into a thick slime, starting from its tail. The creature, thrashing violently at first, lost its strength and went limp as it dissolved up to its chest. It only stopped moving when nothing remained but the nape pinned to the wall.
"Uwaaa... Uwaaaagh!"
"Save me! No. Don't eat me... Get away! Aaaagh!"
Screams filled the air as the living were eaten alive by their dead comrades. The undead Minjun had created were faithfully running rampant. The situation here was mostly sorted out.
Asiph-1 crossed through them and stood before the gate connecting to the production line.
He asked Minjun for permission via a mental wave, and the answer came back immediately.
Crash!
The barrier blocking their way exploded into pieces.
*
"Grand Committeeman, what's wrong?"
The manager of Yongreung looked puzzled as he watched the Grand Committeeman suddenly freeze mid-conversation.
"...It is nothing."
The highest-ranking Kavite calmly changed the subject. But a bizarre feeling squirmed inside his mind.
'What was that just now?'
This old Kavite didn't normally believe in things like intuition.
But what he had just felt—that heavy premonition he couldn't possibly ignore...
An inexplicably ominous feeling raced through his mind.
Something seemed wrong.
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