Chapter 78
Chapter 78
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Translator: uly
Chapter: 78
Chapter Title: Became the Gallery's Only Reptile
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Whoosh.
Crackle.
The wind blew.
And following it, lightning writhed.
The two attributes, renowned as the absolute best in terms of speed, were still crossing the blue sky toward their destination.
Stop.
[This is the place.]
"This is..."
Upon arriving at the destination, as the wind and lightning faded away, what emerged was me and the Lightning Spirit King.
'Fast.'
I recalled the speed the Lightning Spirit King had shown on the way here and secretly wiped away cold sweat where no one could see.
Even exhausting all the wind energy I had, it had barely kept pace.
If my energy had been even a little short, or if my focus had wavered, I might have been left behind entirely.
And even more astonishing was that the Wind Spirit King was faster than the Lightning Spirit King, who had displayed this insane speed.
"I'm surprised. I never imagined you'd push me to move in earnest."
The Lightning Spirit King seemed just as shocked by my performance as I was by hers.
From what she'd roughly explained, she hadn't planned to move this fast originally, but when I matched her speed, it lit a fire under her.
I couldn't understand why she, who wasn't even the Fire Spirit King, got fired up over something like that.
'Well, thanks to that, we got here quickly, so that's a relief.'
If we'd gone at the speed I'd initially expected, it would have taken much longer to reach the waterfall area.
"As you said, it really does feel like no human warmth has touched this place in a long time."
I'd felt it before, but seeing this desolate village without a single sign of life still left a pang of regret.
"And these bloodstains. They're not from ordinary beasts."
[No corpses, and you can tell just from some old, hardened bloodstains?]
"I've lived a long time for no reason."
So if not wild beasts, then it was other humans who did this?
"Let's head to where you found the branch first."
[Right.]
Unfortunately, we couldn't gather more information here.
With time having passed, the faint traces left behind had their limits.
Creeeak.
The house where I'd found the branch.
The Lightning Spirit King entered and looked around before suddenly swinging her fist toward the wall...?
Bam!
[Wai—! What are you doing?]
"There's an empty space here."
[An empty... space?]
No, how the hell does she know that?
Don't tell me it's the wisdom of age again?
"Compared to the houses outside, the interior space felt oddly cramped."
[So you found the empty space because of that?]
"Yes. Look here."
Swoosh.
Sure enough, just as the Lightning Spirit King said, beyond the hole her fist had made in the wall was a space the same size as the room we were in.
"Let's see what they hid by creating this space."
Crackle.
I hurriedly followed as she instantly demolished the wall and moved into the inner space.
[The smell is foul. Probably because it's sealed off and hasn't aired out?]
"..."
[What is it? Why'd you suddenly stop—...]
How could I casually speak in front of the sight before us?
Like the Lightning Spirit King, I naturally closed my mouth and took in the figure before us.
[...Just bones left, so it's been a while since they died.]
"Yes."
There were two sets of skeletal remains there.
What their final moments had been like was roughly evident from the skeletons' positions.
"They ended their lives here together, mother and child."
[Hm.]
The one presumed to be the parent had a small skeleton, as if suited to their waist, pulled close and seated.
Feeling the bittersweet emotion emanating from that, I turned slightly and spoke to the Lightning Spirit King.
[What should we do with them?]
"All lives come to an end someday. You and I are no exceptions."
[I know.]
Of course, the day of death for her and me would be far in the distant future.
At the very least, dying from old age was extremely unlikely.
"El. You can use the power of earth, right?"
[Yes.]
"Then... could you bury those two... just as they are in this space?"
[Is that alright?]
"Of course, after we've gotten all the information we need."
So let's get moving.
At her words, I simply nodded quietly.
Rumble.
[Burying just one side of the space without collapsing the house is harder than I thought.]
After gathering a certain amount of information, we left the room and precisely buried only the hidden space into the ground.
Of course, it required tremendous focus because the house was so old that one mistake could cause it to collapse entirely.
[More importantly, are you alright?]
The Lightning Spirit King had gone silent since finding something in that space earlier.
She hid a troubled expression at my question and replied.
"I'm fine. Thanks to you, my curiosity is satisfied. It's all thanks to you, El."
[I just guided the way.]
"That guidance helped me without a doubt."
Crackle. Crackle.
As she slowly wrapped lightning around her body, I realized she was about to leave.
[I don't know what you found there, but safe travels.]
"Yes. I hope we meet again someday. Ah, and feel free to use the branch infused with my power as you wish. I've sealed it so the energy won't leak out anymore."
In that case, I could only be grateful.
As the owner, she could have taken it back without argument, but giving it to me as a gift was one thing. Plus, solving the issue of it constantly leaking energy, which had rendered hiding it pointless.
"I'll be off now."
[Alright. Safe travels.]
Crackle.
Lightning flashed before me, and just like the Wind Spirit King, she vanished from my sight in an instant.
[She said she moved in earnest, but she sure lies well.]
Her departure was clearly faster than our arrival, leaving me with nothing but a hollow chuckle.
[Now that the Lightning Spirit King is gone too, time to resolve the remaining issue.]
I'd been waiting for this moment alone.
Thanks to the Lightning Spirit King, Cheong and Silpi hadn't followed, giving me this time to myself.
[Come out already.]
Honestly, at first, I'd thought it was just a hallucination.
And the timing was inconvenient, with the other Spirit Kings arriving, forcing my attention elsewhere.
After the meeting ended, while moving with the Lightning Spirit King, I'd pondered inwardly.
Was what I'd heard back then really just a hallucination?
[I never dreamed you'd save my life like this. Looks like I underestimated you.]
No, it definitely wasn't a hallucination.
And now, it was confirming that my suspicion was correct.
[Your lifeline is still long, Tam.]
"I'm... not... Tam..."
As I drew out Tam, whom I'd thought I'd burned up, soul and all.
"How... did you know? I left no traces."
[Your speech sounds much more natural now.]
"Answer my question. Imoogi."
How did I figure it out? Simple.
I already knew what power Tam possessed.
'Honestly, I didn't expect that ability to still be around.'
One of Tam's abilities.
It was a special power called Phenomenon Maintenance, which kept the current state locked in place.
Upon revival, he'd used it on his body, allowing his flesh to revert to the state at the moment of activation no matter the wounds—an astonishing regenerative power.
'But I didn't know it could hold even the soul in place.'
Moreover, since he hadn't fully revived, he should only have one or two abilities left, and of all things, it was Phenomenon Maintenance.
Should I call this good luck?
'With this, he could definitely maintain that place's environment.'
But before that, why had his soul latched onto me? Let's find out.
[I knew about you.]
"You know me...? That is strange."
I quickly scanned my internals to find where Tam had latched on, but being a soul, no matter how much I searched, I couldn't detect any traces of him.
"You called me Tam. And you mentioned some unknown Rena and finished me off. But no matter how I think about it, I can't understand. I've never met anyone named Rena in my life, and no one's ever called me Tam or been called that by anyone."
I couldn't see Tam's face, but for some reason, I felt he was smiling.
A chilling smile, like a predator with prey right in front of it.
"You... Do you know the future?"
[What nonsense.]
"Right. Knowing the future is absurd. But if a goddess's power intervened... it wouldn't be so hard. What do you think? El Grace. Or should I say... Jijiyong's user?"
[You...]
How the hell?
"Don't be so surprised. I just repeated what you muttered earlier. Seeing you react like that, there must be something to it."
Who was this guy trying to tease?
I narrowed my eyes and calmly cooled my head.
Getting agitated here and giving him more information would be dangerous.
Especially considering the power he had.
"I don't know what you're worried about, but I can't harm you."
[Should I believe that?]
"What if you don't? You're stuck with me to the end now."
To the end... together?
What did that mean?
"You've been searching my insides thoroughly but couldn't find my traces, right? Know why? I'm inside your Yeouiju right now."
[...What?]
"I don't want to die like this. Even if it means clinging to the one who killed me."
So he took refuge in my Yeouiju?
Considering Tam's personality, it made sense for his survival. But why did it feel so uncomfortably sticky?
"I won't do anything foolish. I'll even actively help with your goals. So don't die on me, Imoogi who knows the future... Live long."