A giant pillar soared through the ground. Its length touched the clouds up above while its blade curving through the skies cut even the wind that dared blow past it.
Even amidst the city of giant rubbles that the already enormous Nagas had created, the length of the staff was far too great.
"Thisss… is the placccce…" The Naga said, pointing at the staff that stretched to the skies. It wasn't something one person could just lift and carry off, Noa was having second thoughts about the Elf Mamon who asked them to bring it back.
The ominous energy of the 'concept' in the scythe was enough to send chills down the entire party.
"Just how do they use this stuff," Kalanaar mused, his hands crossed and a new robe hiding his muscles. "What lets them possess these strengths?"
"It's unclear so far," Emily muttered. "But researchers say it's all related to the string theory. Just like Mana and Ki and everything else."
"The what theory now?"
"String theory? Quantum mechanical framework where one-dimensional sub-atomic strings form a different kind of mass, charge, force, and other properties by their vibrational state?"
The dragonewt smiled and turned away.
"Just how do they use this stuff, what lets them possess these strengths?" He mused once more.
Heaving a sigh, Na-Ri pushed her stupid friend ahead. "We don't have enough time. Hey Cobra, get a move on."
The leader of the Naga unit, who had introduced himself as Cobra, nodded at Na-Ri's words and led the group ahead. Though they were still injured, Kalanaar, Kevin, and the Dryad were in a worse state.
Follow on NovᴇlEnglish.nᴇtThey passed over the mounds of debris once more, this time though they hadn't encountered any of the remnants.
As they reached closer to the staff, their eyes fell on a single hole in a giant slab of stone laying flat over the ground. The thin and narrow hole looked as if it would be too tight for even them to fit through let alone any remnant.
"That is the place," said Cobra. "All the monsters get ssscared from the weapon…"
Noa looked at the tracker in her hand. It still pointed away even though the scythe they were after was right in front of her. It seemed things were going to keep getting worse.
"Na-Ri, take the others underground," Noa said. "You said there are about fifty more people, right Cobra?"
"Correctsss…"
Noa nodded. Fifty people, delaying wasn't going to help.
"Abandon whatever you don't need, Cobra. There is truly no time to waste."
"What do we have left? I can't ask them to leave behind what little they put their lives on the line to save."
"I ask you to abandon, not to forget but to take them back." Noa turned and looked all the Nagas in the eye. "You are coming with us not to survive, but to fight."
Cobra lowered his looming head. He clenched his hand and his tail slithered.
"You are right. As long as we are alive, we have not lost."
The other Nagas looked at their leader with admiration and nodded too.
"Get everyone out right away, we are just a day from the portal. Na-Ri, I'll leave it to you and get the scythe."
With those words, Noa watched the group jump down the opening in the slab. The snakes slithered down while the others seemed to fit easily. Kalanaar was having a hard time go down, but his muscles crushed more of the opening and let him jump easily.
Noa took a look below and saw the groups of Nagas startled and Emily beginning her talk.
Unlike her brother, Na-Ri was not that good with people.
As she left them behind and strolled over to the scythe, Noa gazed upward. Was he really good with social skills? He was actually only good at being a tyrant.
His sister wasn't that different then.
A sigh left Noa as her eyes remained on the dark, sooty clouds looming in the skies. Momentarily torn through by the scythe, the clouds would always join together beyond it as if announcing that any resistance was useless.
Even if she lied and spoke about getting things back…
Even if they win, what was gone would never come back. She had felt it in her bones for the last five years.
Every moment she was alone, she would always think of those times, and even when she was with someone else, it was hard to stop her mind from wandering around.
What would things have been like if he was still around? Noa shook her head and grinned at the sky.
"Are you watching?" She muttered. "I hate you."
She hated him from the depths of her heart. For always making her think of him, for just leaving them behind.
A chuckle left her. Even these thoughts were the same for all of those five years. Noa stopped in front of the scythe and raised her eyes. She peered at the meter in her hands.
Even though she was right in front of the scythe, the strength of the Outer God it picked up was greater yet. Just what kind of monster was resting here? Every moment more in this place was full of risk.
Follow on Novᴇl-Onlinᴇ.cᴏm"I doubt even I would win…"
Not when the reaction of the machine was this skewed.
Noa noticed the Nagas and her party members stepping out of the hole in the ground.
Na-Ri looked back at her and gave her a thumbs up. Now all that remained was to take the scythe along—
She froze.
From behind Na-Ri.
Like a ghost fluttering in, a giant mass of white with black stripes floated over with a wide grin on its face.
A chill ran down Noa's back.
Way before the others could even see it, just the flutter of its limbs turned the enormous stone slab into a mass of spikes. The injured Nagas stepping out exploded and churned into tiny meat balls in the blink of an eye.
"ALL OF YOU!" Noa screamed. "RUN!!"
The Outer God of Reconstruction. Was here.
***
"Ahak… Ahak… Without even going to stage four…"
"…"
"You've become a monster, Eugene."