Eneaura (2)
Eneaura (2)
A clear notification chime rang out, and a heavy sense of buoyancy enveloped my body.
The sensation of my vision flashing white and the world turning inside out.
Moments later, the dazzling light receded, and the rich scent of grass tickling my nose along with the sudden oppressive dampness welcomed me.
It was the familiar forest of the beastmen village I had experienced on the 21st and 22nd floors.
"Oh! Si-woo! You came again, meow!"
Before I could even fully secure my vision, a bright and cheerful voice smacked against my ears.
When I turned my head, I saw Tigris far off in the distance, wagging her tail wildly as she ran toward me.
Her appearance as she charged at me, leaping up as if to greet me, was exactly like a cat that had been waiting for its owner for a long time.
But just as she was about to jump into my arms, a large hand suddenly shot out from the air and roughly seized Tigris by the scruff of her neck.
"Where do you think you're recklessly jumping again!"
It was the massive tiger beastman Romanike.
Dangling in midair, Tigris flailed her short limbs like a cat that had missed its prey.
The sight was exactly like a kitten caught by the scruff of its neck by its mother, and a chuckle escaped me.
"Ah, come on, meow! I'm gonna play with Si-woo, meow!"
"I told you to show proper respect to guests!"
At Romanike's scolding, Tigris eventually sullenly flattened her ears.
Lowered to the ground, she pouted her lips as if endlessly disappointed and thumped her tail against the floor.
"You've come again. I've been waiting."
Romanike smiled dependably and offered me a greeting.
I had stored the Orichalcum armor in my inventory and was dressed in light training clothes.
I stretched my legs long and twisted my waist, starting light stretches.
"Let her go, Romanike-ssi. I wasn't just resting outside either, you know."
At my relaxed words, Romanike's eyes widened slightly, and Tigris's ears, which had been drooping toward the ground, perked straight up.
I rolled my shoulders in circles and gestured toward Tigris.
"I'm ready. You can come at me."
The moment my provocation landed, the corners of Tigris's mouth curled up.
—Tat!
With the sound of kicking off the ground, Tigris laughed brightly and shot straight into my arms.
It was a speed so fast and terrifying that it had been invisible to the eye during our last spar.
The me of back then would have panicked, tumbled away, and been desperate to dodge.
But now, it was different.
I could clearly see her trajectory with my own eyes.
I inhaled and drew up the Aura in my core.
Golden energy raced through my veins and instantly coiled around my right arm.
Toward her small fist flying before my eyes, I lightly raised my Aura-clad arm and blocked it.
—Peo-eok!
A dull sound reverberated across the sparring ground.
But my arm did not budge even a single inch backward.
"...!"
Romanike's mouth fell wide open, frozen, unable to hide his astonishment.
But the most surprised among them, naturally, was Tigris.
She wore a fascinated expression at the fact that the punch she had thrown had been blocked.
However, that bewilderment did not last even a second.
Tigris's golden pupils split vertically, and her face began to flush with bright delight.
Like a child who, for the very first time in her life, had received a perfect and unbreakable toy.
"Fun, meow! Really fun, meow!"
Tigris shouted with a voice full of rapture and began the spar in earnest.
Her beast-like fists and kicks poured in from all directions.
I organically circulated the Golden Aura throughout my entire body, deflecting and batting away her attacks.
Of course, because my stats were basically thug-level and were now compounded with Aura, I could endure her attacks.
But I still lacked the skill to completely overwhelm Tigris's overwhelming reflexes and the unpredictable trajectories unique to beasts.
How long did the fierce exchange continue?
In the end, the Aura that had been tautly wrapped around my body was exhausted.
The moment the golden energy died down, my leg was hooked by Tigris's tail, and I was sent sprawling flat on my back onto the soft dirt ground.
—Kudang-tang!
"Heok... huff...."
I was out of breath, as if my lungs were tearing.
My whole body was drenched in sweat to the point where the chill of the dirt ground actually felt pleasant.
With my Aura depleted, I didn't even have the strength to lift a single finger.
Beside me, Tigris was crouched down on her knees.
She poked my cheeks with both hands and whined.
"Fun, meow! Si-woo, let's play more, meow! Get up quickly, meow!"
"...Hey, I'm dying here. Let me catch my breath."
As I panted and barely managed to answer, Romanike cleared his throat with a fake cough and snatched Tigris by the scruff of her neck again.
"You little rascal! He's about to black out! Stop it."
Romanike looked at me sprawled across the floor and spoke in a voice mixed with shock and admiration.
"Good heavens... Just a few days ago, you didn't even know of the existence of Aura, yet you've become able to control it to this degree. Truly, it's unbelievable."
Romanike clicked his tongue and shook his head side to side.
At his compliment, I offered a faint bitter smile.
That was because the hellish time I'd spent holed up in a corner of my room, squeezing the Cloud Stone with Aura to craft the boots, had flashed through my mind.
As a result of that insane labor, it seemed my Aura manipulation had become quite natural.
I grabbed the hand Romanike offered and barely managed to pull myself upright.
He brushed the dirt off me and added in a serious voice.
"Indeed, the person who took care of 'her' Tail is different in some way. With that pure energy and talent of yours, you might truly be able to stand against 'her.'"
The words "her" and "Tail" jumped out of his mouth again.
The frustration I had felt last time on the 22nd floor, when I was practically chased out without being able to ask the questions I hadn't gotten to, came to mind.
I had to find out for certain this time.
I stopped brushing off the dirt and looked Romanike straight in both eyes as I asked.
"I've been curious for a while... What exactly are those Tails and 'her'? What is her identity that makes everyone so wary?"
At my direct question, Romanike's expression sank heavily.
He remained silent for a moment, then turned his head toward the massive mountain range visible far beyond the forest.
At the edge of his gaze, an unknown fear and resentment accumulated over many years were intertwined.
"We... don't really know either."
Romanike opened his mouth in a low and bitter voice.
"We don't even know her real name. It's also unclear when she appeared in this forest and began threatening us, or for what purpose she so cruelly slaughters us beastmen and tries to use us as sacrifices."
He clenched his fist tightly and let out a deep sigh.
"But there are a few facts we know in our very bones. First, she can detach Tails from herself like avatars and make them act independently. Second, each and every one of those Tails is strong enough to casually massacre dozens of average beastman warriors."
Romanike's voice trembled minutely.
"And third... her true body is a despairing existence that we cannot even dare to imagine."
I swallowed dryly.
That old beastman on the 22nd floor, who had spoken even after his head was cut off.
That grotesque being that dyed everything around it with poisonous mist and moved without any presence was supposedly just one of 'her' Tails.
A chilling cold ran down my spine.
It was clear that this floor had something far more vicious and gigantic lurking than I had imagined.
A great throne hall where darkness lay heavily.
Under a ceiling so high it seemed to cover the sky, a desolate silence hovered over the cold marble floor.
A splendid yet chilly throne placed in the center of the hall.
Upon it sat the fox beastman Eneaura, her long wavy pink hair draped down, sitting sprawled out lazily.
The pink tails extending profusely behind her swayed gracefully, expressing their languid owner's mood.
Under her gaze, several beastmen were prostrated on the floor, trembling like aspen leaves.
"P-Please, spare me...!"
"At home... a young child still waits! If I'm gone, that child will starve to death!"
Voices filled with terror and pitiful cries rang wretchedly through the throne hall.
But from between Eneaura's red lips, no mercy or sympathy whatsoever flowed forth.
She simply stared down at the prostrated beastmen with dispassionate coldness, as if looking at worthless bugs crawling at her feet.
—Chwareureuk.
Eneaura, who had been lightly waving her fan, snapped her wrist.
The whitely gleaming metal fan in her hand folded in an instant.
—Chaeng!
The cold and clear sound of metal striking metal sharply split the hall.
It was right after that sound rang out.
The cries of the beastmen, who had been prostrated on the floor, pouring out tears and snot as they begged for their lives, cut off abruptly.
Their heads lifted stiffly, like puppets whose strings had been cut.
The eyes that had, just moments ago, been soaked in terror, crying out for survival, were already murkily clouded over.
Perfectly unfocused, completely hollow eyes.
Their reason and emotions had been vainly erased by that single sound of the fan.
Eneaura raised the tip of her folded fan and pointed toward the door of the massive tower firmly shut at the back of the hall.
"Go."
A single languid and short word.
The beastmen who had been writhing, begging for their lives just moments ago, staggered to their feet.
No sadness or fear remained on their faces.
Only a mechanical, indifferent, and dull voice flowed out toward the throne.
"Understood. Eneaura-nim."
Like hollow scarecrows from which souls had fled, they slowly but without hesitation began moving their steps toward the heavy door of the tower.
Watching their retreating figures disappear into the darkness, Eneaura half-rose from her throne.
She bowed her head toward the tower with courtesy.
"Bon appétit."
A chilly smile lingered at the corners of her mouth.
As she leaned back against the throne at an angle, the secretary who had been standing right beside Eneaura like a shadow took a step forward.
She was a woman whose perfect blackness extended from her hair to her toes, but whose exposed skin alone was so pale and white-jade-like that it seemed not a single drop of blood flowed beneath it.
Eneaura yawned lazily and asked Gumi.
"Gumi. The sacrifices seem to be getting weaker and weaker as time goes on. Aren't there any stronger, more usable sacrifices?"
She fussed with her nails and grumbled irritably.
"That tiger beastman I saw last time seemed quite tasty, though."
Gumi answered without being shaken by Eneaura's complaint.
"As it happens, Your Highness's forces are already searching their stronghold. If you wait just a little longer, satisfactory sacrifices seem likely to be offered up soon."
At Gumi's report, Eneaura gently brushed her fingers through her abundant pink tails.
The corners of her eyes narrowed oddly.
"Or else... I'd like to meet the insolent culprit who sent Ilmi to me in person."
Eneaura gazed up at the pale moonlight shining through the gaps in the throne's high windows and murmured in a low voice.
Vividly etched in her mind were the cold eyes of the man she had seen through Ilmi's vision, the one who had swung Golden Aura in the forest and cut off her Tail.
"Just where could you be hiding, I wonder?"
Between Eneaura's captivating lips, a cruel laugh like that of a beast eyeing its prey flowed out.
Her white fangs, bathed in moonlight, flashed coldly.
At the same time, in the deepest and most secluded part of the forest.
In front of a dense thicket where giant trees were intricately tangled, forming a natural wall.
This was the entrance to the barrier that Romanike and the beastmen villagers had desperately erected to protect themselves from external threats.
In the pitch-black darkness covering everything around, a single woman stopped, blocking the way before the barrier.
A hideous and deep scar was long engraved above her left eye, and her red hair, burning as intensely as blood even in the darkness, whipped wildly in the wind.
It was Imi, who had been unleashed to find their stronghold.
Imi detected the subtle magical wave of the barrier, and her eyes flashed as if excited.
Her lips drew an arc, curling up as if about to tear.
—Hwareureuk!
From both her hands, crimson flames coiled like serpents and blazed up fiercely.
The heat of the fire instantly dried out the damp leaves around her, turning them to ash.
Imi, holding the burning flames, grinned toward the hidden village beyond the barrier and murmured.
"Is this the place? Where the little rats are hiding?"
Thick killing intent swirled in her eyes as she finished preparing to dye the forest a crimson sea of fire.