Sand Mage of the Burnt Desert

Chapter 20

Tracking Dyoden wasn’t that difficult.

It was because traces left by him were visible everywhere.

The corpses of monsters that dominated the desert were scattered all around.

All the corpses were either brutally mutilated or shattered into pieces.

Dyoden had slaughtered every monster in his path.

It was truly an overwhelming display of power that defied common sense.

Thanks to that, Zeon could be safe from the threat of monsters.

“Just how strong is he? S-rank?”

Zeon shook his head in amazement.

He had never seen an S-rank in action, so he couldn’t be sure, but it seemed unlikely that even an S-rank could wield such power.

In fact, even S-rank Awakeneds in Neo Seoul were hesitant to venture alone into the distant desert.

Venturing alone into a desert far from Neo Seoul was a daunting task even for S-rank Awakened individuals.

Dyoden had been doing things that even S-rank Awakened individuals dared not attempt for a long time.

He traversed the desert alone, confronting numerous monsters.

He was not afraid of monsters.

Rather, the monsters were afraid of him.

This Awakened individual was unprecedented.

“An Awakened above even S-rank? I wonder if the leaders of Neo Seoul are aware of this.”

He was genuinely curious.

Whether the leaders of Neo Seoul were aware of Dyoden, and if they were, how they were reacting to it.

Dyoden was a being that transcended common sense in many ways.

Then it happened.

In Zeon’s field of vision, smoke rising in the distance caught his eye.

A thin column of smoke shot up from where the sky met the horizon.

He could know without confirmation.

Dyoden was there.

Zeon infused mana to increase his speed.

Swoosh!

His body glided across the desert as if he was sliding.

After running for about thirty minutes, Zeon arrived at the oasis.

It wasn’t the moving oasis he had encountered with the Sand Angler before, but a fixed oasis in one place. Such locations were devoid of Sand Anglers, making them ideal for settlements or villages, precisely like the Desert Elf village.

The small village, painstakingly nurtured by the Desert Elves, lay devastated, with what seemed to be elf remains strewn around.

Witnessing the dreadful sight, Zeon gasped in disbelief.

“Insane!”

Limbs sprawled everywhere resembled debris from toys children had demolished in a fit of anger.

All of this was the handiwork of Dyoden alone.

Zeon quickly found Dyoden.

Finding Dyoden wasn’t difficult.

He was not far from where Zeon was.

In front of Dyoden, a middle-aged man who appeared to be an elf was kneeling with a young girl in his arms.

The middle-aged elf was pleading with tears in his eyes.

Though the voice couldn’t be heard, the atmosphere made it clear that he was begging Dyoden to spare the girl’s life.

The girl still looked very young.

Her actual age was unknown, but she appeared to be barely twelve in human age.

Zeon didn’t think Dyoden would harm such a young elf. This is because it was a kind of taboo to kill an enemy who had not yet reached adulthood, no matter how much one had a grudge against them.

Swoosh!

But, as if to mock Zeon’s assumptions, Dyoden cut down both the middle-aged elf and the young girl elf with a single strike.

The fresh blood splattered from their neck painted Dyoden red.

The moment Zeon witnessed this, the string of reason in Zeon’s mind suddenly snapped.

“Hey! You old bastard!”

Zeon lost his temper and shouted.

At that moment, the sand rose like a wave and struck Dyoden.

A huge amount of sand pressed down on Dyoden as if trying to crush him to death.

At that moment, a burst of red energy erupted from Dyoden’s entire body.

Kwaaaang!

The red energy instantly blew away the sand and Zeon.

Wehn Zeon groggily regained consciousness, lying on the ground, the first thing he saw was Dyoden’s legs.

He raised his head and saw Dyoden looking down at him.

His eyes still glowed with a fierce light.

Zeon confronted that gaze without averting his eyes.

“Killing a child who hasn’t grown up yet. Aren’t you ashamed?”

“Child?.”

“But she was still older than you.”

“That—”

Crack!

Instantly, Dyoden pressed down on Zeon’s back with his foot.

The sheer weight felt like a colossal rock pressing onto Zeon’s face, making it flush red.

The pressure was so intense that his spine and ribs felt like they would snap, making it impossible to breathe.

Groan!

The chestplate made of a Queen Wolf Ant’s exoskeleton sounded as if it would shatter under the immense pressure.

“Urgh!”

Struggling to wriggle out from under Dyoden’s foot, Zeon exerted all his might, yet Dyoden’s foot remained unmoving.

“Agghh!”

Still struggling, Zeon unleashed the Sand Blaster.

Boom!

The Sand Blaster erupted at Dyoden. But even directly hitting Dyoden with the force that shattered the head of a Wolf Ant, there was no visible effect on Dyoden.

Dyoden pressed down on Zeon’s chest even harder.

“Geh!”

Zeon threw up blood.

Dyoden gazed at Zeon, not with the madness seen moments before, but with eyes that seemed oddly subdued, almost impossible to gauge.

It seemed unbelievable that this person had slaughtered elves with frenzied eyes just moments ago.

Easing the pressure on Zeon’s chest slightly, Dyoden asked.

“Do you think I’ve gone too far?”

“Did… did you really need to kill.. .even the child?”

“Why should I spare the child? Just because she’s young? Because that’s what others say? That same child will grow up to be an enemy of humanity.”

“But…”

“Those elf bastards are an incredible race. They ruined others’ world in order to survive. Spare such hypocrites just because they’re young? Don’t be ridiculous. They’re worthless insects. I will continue to kill such insects whenever I see them.”

“……”

“Do you want to tell me I’m wrong? Do you want to stop me? Then stop me with your strength, not your mouth. Do you understand? You worthless idiot!”

Dyoden removed the foot that was pressing down on Zeon’s chest.

“Cough! Cough!”

Zeon coughed violently.

His eyes were bloodshot.

If Dyoden had pressed down a little harder, not only the blood vessels in his eyes, but also his heart and internal organs would have exploded.

He knew from the beginning that he was no match for Dyoden.

He never even considered himself a match.

Dyoden was like a star in the sky, beyond his reach.

But now, his thoughts had changed.

‘I’ll become as strong as Dyoden, no, I’ll become even stronger than him.’

He wanted to speak with strength, not grovel like a dog.

For the first time in his life, he had a clear goal.

The target was Dyoden.

Zeon made it his goal to become stronger than him.

***

Zeon scoured the elf village.

He was wondering if there might be any survivors. However, not a single elf survived Dyoden’s hands.

Dyoden hadn’t spared a single living being in the elf village.

Seeing over a hundred elves reduced to mere pieces of meat made him feel disgusted.

At the same time, a question arose.

He remembered Dyoden’s words.

They ruined others’ world in order to survive? So does that mean the elves are responsible for the world becoming like this?’

If that was the case, Dyoden’s anger made sense.

Zeon was born after the world had already been destroyed.

That’s why he knew nothing about the world before.

Most people living in Neo Seoul were the same.

Though it was recorded, they didn’t experience how vibrant and abundant the world once was.

But Dyoden was born into the world before the great cataclysam.

During those times and even as the world crumbled, he watched everything unfold.

The sense of loss and anger he might have felt throughout that process could’ve been somewhat expected.

“Phew!”

Zeon let out a sigh.

Dyoden was alone in a remote place outside the elf village.

Staying even momentarily within the elf village was horrific for him. To Dyoden, even breathing the same air that the elves was no different from torture.

Zeon surveyed the elf village.

The elves’ houses were mud houses made of hardened sand.

It may have been an inevitable choice due to the nature of the desert, where no special building materials could be obtained.

The presence of the oasis nearby had been their sole means of survival until now; without it, the elves would’ve perished long ago.

Zeon entered one of the relatively intact houses.

The interior was remarkably simple, only containing items necessary for daily life.

However, the items didn’t resemble what Zeon had seen in Neo Seoul.

There was a sense of antiquity, an old-world charm lingering around them.

Most likely, these were items originally owned by the elves.

Bows, arrows, beautiful jewelry, and robes, all caught his eye.

Zeon looked at the items one by one.

“It’s definitely not something that was made recently.”

What particularly caught his attention was a very old book.

There were unidentifiable letters written within it.

It was clearly an item brought from the elves’ original world.

Zeon first stored the books and other items in his subspace artifact.

Although they were items he did not need, they would undoubtedly fetch a good price if sold.

He gathered all the useful items into subspace.

While rummaging around, Zeon discovered a small hidden storeroom behind a wall.

His face contorted as he looked into the storeroom.

All the stored items were clearly human-made, unlike the elegant elf designs, they displayed practicality in their design and materials.

Most of these items were typically made in Neo Seoul.

The items were stained with blood, presumably of humans.

“These guys! They must have robbed passersby.”

There was no way the elves, who are hostile towards humans, would have paid a fair price for the item.

It was evident they attacked and looted the humans passing by.

Moments ago, Zeon might have felt some remorse for the slain elves at Dyoden’s hands, but even that feeling had now vanished.

They were Scavengers, only in a different skin.

They’d killed people and taken their belongings; there was no chance they spared lives to maintain secrecy.

Judging by the quantity of items, the number of people they killed seemed to be enormous.

“They’ve killed so many.”

Zeon shook his head, thoroughly searching the storeroom in case there might be something useful.

However, the elves had used up all the useful items, and all that was left was miscellaneous.

Taking useless items would just burden him.

Zeon gave up and walked out of the house.

He raised his control over the sand.

Shoosh!

Suddenly, the sands in the area shifted, covering the entire village.

Destroyed houses and the corpses of the elves were all buried and vanished beneath the sand.

In a matter of moments, what was once a fairly large village became a grave.

There were no traces left behind.

Unlike regular soil, desert sand doesn’t leave any traces even if they were moved or covered.

Now, even if someone stumbled upon the oasis, they wouldn’t know that elves had once lived there.

Zeon filled his water pouch with water from the oasis and walked toward Dyoden’s direction.

The long night had passed, and the sun was already shining on the desert.

Dyoden continued ahead without a word, and Zeon silently followed behind.