Chapter 481

Chapter 481

"That... insane...."

Gazing at the concentric circles adorning the sky, Diana exhaled the breath she had been holding.

Ian was the only one who was staring at the pillar of reddish-brown light shimmering through the dust cloud. To him, it looked like a light was emanating from Yanar Tash.

Of course, it was likely distorted by the dust cloud, making it appear much larger than it actually was.

Still, it seems absurdly large.

Just as Ian's brow furrowed involuntarily, a quest window popped up before his eyes.

[Grieving Guardian, Yanar Tash]

—Even a coward draws their sword when cornered.

Yog's leisurely whisper tickled his mind as Ian stared blankly at the quest window.

Instead of answering, Ian glanced left and right. It was clear Diana and Lucia hadn't heard the whisper. Only Seren was looking back at him.

Her eyes, meeting Ian's, blinked vacantly. "What was that whisper just now? It was ringing so badly, I couldn't understand it at all...."

—I played a little trick. As expected, your resonance with Ian is weakening, Halfwit.

Yog added with a chuckle. She seemed to have heard that one—Seren tilted her head slightly as Lucia looked over at Ian.

"What did Yog say?"

"You don't need to know. It's nothing," Ian muttered, turning his head back toward Yanar Tash.

As the concentric shockwaves faded, the silhouette shimmering through the dust cloud was slowly descending back into the sand. It scattered ash-colored dust clouds like cumulus clouds around it.

However, what caught Ian's attention wasn't that vanishing shape. Below the dissipating concentric circles, ash-colored whirlpools were sharply twisting and rising in various places. It sucked in the surrounding sand and even the scattered dust as if swallowing them.

"Sand tornado?" Diana, seeming to have realized the same thing, muttered with a frown.

A smile followed on Ian's face. Of course, it wasn't a smile of amusement.

It's really one thing after another. First a monster, then a landslide and sandstorm, and now quicksand and a sand tornado?

It felt like they were experiencing every natural disaster one could encounter in a desert.

There weren't many experiences as unpleasant as an unkillable opponent trying to kill you. If he made it out alive, he doubted he'd ever so much as spit in the desert's direction again.

"Now you all understand why I insisted on dismounting, don't you?" said Ian.

His eyes were still scanning the sand tornadoes rising and scattering erratically. In their midst, within the completely settled dust cloud, Yanar Tash was nowhere to be seen.

"That worm's target is me. Right now, just being near me is dangerous. So...." Adding in a flat voice, Ian looked back at Seren again. "You take the reins. Moro will obey your commands for a while."

As Moro, now running at a much slower pace, snorted a purplish breath, Seren nodded.

"I will gladly do so, but... is there another reason you are specifically entrusting the reins to me?"

"This one will try to fight whenever an opportunity arises," Ian muttered, glancing at Lucia who was watching him with a slightly narrowed brow, then turned to Diana, who was still gazing at the sand tornadoes.

"And that one will try to flee recklessly. Out of the three of you, you're the most neutral. That's why."

"Should I understand that as a command to make rational judgments according to the situation?"

"Isn't that also one of the virtues of a knight? Of course, horsemanship too."

Ian, tilting his head to the side, suddenly extended his left arm sideways and added, "Prioritize survival. Of course, don't leave anyone behind. Can you do it?"

"I will do my best, Agent of the Saint," Seren replied, her voice filled with a sense of duty, and bowed her head, firmly gripping the handle of her mace.

"No... even so...." Lucia began hesitantly. "You saw it too, didn't you, Sir Ian? That thing was enormous. Are you really going to be alright on your own?"

"Of course not," replied Ian, with a low chuckle.

He then extended his left hand towards her. In his hand was a luxurious hooded cloak of deep navy blue. It was the Cloak of the Undying, taken out from his pocket dimension.

"But since there's no other way, I have to try. Besides...." Ian, handing the cloak to Lucia, tilted his head. "I'm not alone this time."

As Lucia tilted her head, a chuckling laugh spread through everyone's minds.

—Of course, Friend. I will be by your side.

Yog, turning into black smoke, added arrogantly and shot towards Ian's right arm like an arrow and seeped into the gap of Ian's vambrace.

"I'll say this now, just in case. Be especially careful not to get caught up in the quicksand or those whirlwinds," Ian added.

He looked at Diana, who was rubbing her neck with a queasy expression, and continued, "If it looks like that might happen, you give them a warning beforehand."

"Of course. I will." Diana nodded.

There was, surprisingly, a trace of concern in the way she looked at him. Whether she was worried about him, or about herself being separated from him—he couldn't tell.

Ian, after casting a glance at Lucia, who was fumbling to put on the cloak, finally placed one foot on the saddle. Then, rising onto the saddle in a smooth motion, he stood upright with both feet planted, arms stretched slightly to keep his balance as he turned his head.

Shwaaaaaaa...

It was only a small shift in perspective, but from this higher vantage, the churning gray desert stretched far wider before him. The sandstorm-born winds radiating out from the vortexes drew a massive spiral across the land, impossible to measure in scale.

The presence of Yanar Tash, somewhere down there, was not clear at all. Just as it had been since they first stepped into the desert, only a vague chaos was felt.

—Let's go, my friend.

Yog whispered in a voice full of excitement, and Ian nodded.

"Sir Ian," called Lucia then.

Ian paused and lowered his gaze. Lucia, who had already put on the cloak and pulled the hood down, looked up at him.

"You have to come back alive."

"That's a difficult request." Answering with only the corners of his mouth turned up, Ian glanced over the deep navy cloak she wore.

Even though the wind was blowing, the hem of the cloak remained stuck fast to Lucia.

Maybe I shouldn't have taken it off.

Ian, smacking his lips briefly, finally leaned sideways.

"Still, I'll try my best," added Ian, as he jumped down from the saddle.

The reason he tumbled upon landing, instead of sliding to a stop, was because the ground was too soft.

The sand of the black desert wasn't coarse, but the sand of the Desert of Death felt like its particles were much finer.

If I put too much force, I'll sink right in.

Getting up with that thought, he patted down various parts of his body. Even so, his eyes remained fixed far beyond.

Swoosh—

Far away, sand tornadoes, rising in ominous spirals, were undulating. They scattered in unpredictable paths, endlessly sucking in the sand. The ash-gray was mixing with the reddish-brown, hazy sky.

Standing firmly, he felt things become clearer, particularly the presence of something immense below.

Like when he first encountered Inaskurgl, the overwhelming presence of Yanar Tash was gradually drawing nearer.

—It's finally just the two of us… But what a shame. I didn't want to rush things, you know.

Yog's whisper followed. Ian, smacking his lips briefly, turned his gaze.

In that brief moment, Moro had already pulled far ahead. Though its pace had slowed slightly, the beast was still fast—and was gradually veering in a wide arc.

"Hmm...."

Thanks to that, Ian could clearly make out the others behind him—Lucia looking back with a worried face, Diana leaning over, and Seren acrobatically climbing over Diana's shoulder to sit in the saddle.

Of course, he only allowed himself a fleeting glance.

—Well then, now...

Yog began slithering out from between the plates of Ian's glove. Instead of climbing up his arm as usual, it was heading down towards his hand.

—Will you allow me to connect with your chaos, friend?

Ian finally looked down at his right hand.

Yog, passing as if interweaving between his fingers, was crawling into his palm.

Raising his right hand as if accepting it, Ian muttered. "Go on, try it."

With Yog's chuckling laughter, the bead of chaos essence resonated. Sticky chaos power flowed through his veins and finally surged into his palm.

Yog began coiling itself there, curling into a tight, circular form.

Rumble... Rumble...

The resonance of the essence bead grew clearer and clearer. Simultaneously, a purplish light spread slowly from between Yog's jet-black scales.

A few seconds were enough for it to be covered in a purplish hue. To Ian's eyes, Yog looked as if it were viscously melting into his chaos.

Woosh—

And perhaps that wasn't far from the truth. Looking down at what was quickly becoming a flat, rounded purple mass, Ian narrowed his eyes.

It said a mask.

Although it had a somewhat sticky texture, its current appearance truly resembled a mask.

Sssst....

It looked even more so when two pointed eyeholes and, below them, a hole forming an elongated curve like a snake's snout, opened up in the center. Even the edges were slightly curling inwards.

—Now it seems it's time for you and I to become one....

Yog, now in the perfect form of a mask, whispered. Its tone felt very languid.

Ian silently stared down at the cross-section of the mask, where ominous purple light writhed.

Can I really trust this bastard?

Of course, the hesitation wasn't long. He had already come this far.

Besides, just reaching this point had already consumed no small amount of chaos. Nearly a third of his power was now infused into the mask.

At last, Ian slowly brought the mask to his face.

Rumble… Rumble…

The resonance of the essence bead grew louder and louder and the undulating purple light in his vision became clearer. The moment the mask touched his skin, a slick, cold chill washed over his face.

Yog's low laughter spread through his mind.

-Well done, my friend.

A tar-like chill spread from the mask's edges, instantly swallowing Ian. All his senses blurred, melting into the sticky, pulsating chaos.

***

Holding her hood down with one hand against the wind, Lucia stared out over the desert ahead.

They were now backtracking the way they had come. They realized they had reached a point beyond Yog's whispers.

However, Ian was still nowhere in sight.

Swoosh.

The ash-colored sandstorm, now swirling everywhere, was obscuring their vision. It was likely due to the sand tornadoes soaring in various places far away.

Scattered like scattered columns of smoke, the dark twisters looked like unstable pillars holding up the sky itself.

Lucia narrowed her eyes, scanning the landscape, then finally called out. "Sir Seren! Can you sense the Agent of the Saint?"

"Let me check—" Seren's words, which had immediately followed from behind, momentarily faded. A moment of gasping breaths spread.

"What... is this?" At Seren's suppressed gasp, Lucia looked back.

Seeing Seren, her left hand on her breastplate, her face contorted in pain, Lucia's eyes shot wide. "Sir Seren!"

Seren wasn't just letting out pained groans. A purplish hue was spreading like veins down her neck.

"What?" Diana, who had been looking towards the sand tornadoes, belatedly turned around with a frown. "What now—"

"Stop the resonance, sir! You can't lose consciousness now!" Lucia, leaning towards Seren, urgently exclaimed.

Although Seren remained silent, Lucia understood the resonance was unintentional. A strangely familiar wave of chaos pulsed through the back of her head.

Grrr!

As Moro slowed down, roaring, Lucia turned her head back to the front.

Woosh—

Almost simultaneously, an ash-colored explosion erupted far beyond. Though it was quite a distance away, the sand explosion was enormous enough to fill her entire field of vision.

"What the—shit?" Diana let out a horrified yell, and Moro came to a complete stop. The shockwave, arriving a beat later, swept over the entire group.

"Lucy! Go! Turn the horse around and run! Why are you just standing there?" Diana shouted at the top of her lungs as she clung to Seren's waist with both arms, bracing herself.

However, Lucia didn't answer. She didn't even think to pull her dislodged hood back on. Her gaze stayed fixed on the sand explosion, billowing like clouds.

Swoosh!

It wasn't the massive shadow shimmering beyond it that held her attention, but the flash of a purple arc shooting upward, piercing through the sand cloud.