Chapter 246
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 246
Chapter Title: Into the Demon Beast King's Stomach
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"What... what did you say?"
"She broke through the barrier and got out. It happened so fast and so cleanly that we can't even track her exact position."
"Haa... I really don't know what to do with this problem child..."
"I'll go check it out myself. Probably nothing major, but just in case."
"...We'll dispatch the instructors too, but... Young Master, we've already seen you unleash that massive spell. Can you even move right now?"
"It's not that hard."
"You don't seem to have much mana left on the surface, so how...?"
"Must be my constitution."
With that, I pulled Varil out from the shadows where I'd stashed him.
The others jumped in surprise again at the overwhelming presence as he unfurled his wings and let out a roar in an instant, but the Shadow Dragon Varil obeyed my command and soared high into the sky.
"Unleash the kids. We can't even tell where she went."
At my words, Varil's wings flapped once as he flew high, and massive shadow clumps began raining down like bombs on the distant forest plains from his wings.
All units, rise. We're searching for the problem child now.
Ashuria Abelgard. In my eyes, she's the most skilled and the biggest troublemaker by far.
Compared to her, the heirs from the Star Clan—who were just a bit arrogant—or the mage families were downright adorable.
If Ashuria escaped, we needed to think about her objective. But she was so unpredictable that it was hard to guess.
"By the way, it's almost been a month, and still no word from Isna."
[If it's related to the Red Moon, we must account for variables.]
"Yeah, probably."
At least it was a relief that she seemed fine for now.
Info from the undead started flooding in from all over the forest in an instant, but nothing useful turned up.
To handle it, I resonated their energies, linked their visions, and began processing the massive data influx at once.
I sped through the incoming visual feeds.
But no matter how I searched, nothing suspicious showed up.
Then it happened.
"Hold it. Freeze."
At my command, the undead halted in perfect unison, as if on cue.
I rewound the info like fast-forwarding time in reverse.
And there, in an empty space, I spotted the only trace.
"Found it."
I ordered Varil to head to the spot with the anomaly.
The destination looked perfectly normal, no traces visible.
But amid those traces, I picked up one tiny clue.
The faint remnant of magic from that clueless last disciple.
Spotting the oddity in the barely-there trace, I punched the air without hesitation.
Kwajik! Kwachang!!!!
The empty space warped in an instant.
Five long, stretched-out massive gashes.
I'd hoped against hope, but...
"The worst-case scenario just hit back-to-back."
A Demon Realm monster. Estimated to be a Demon Beast King-class entity from the Demon Realm.
Traces of the ancient monster Berga.
Without hesitation, I grabbed the communication artifact and spoke.
"All units, retreat. Do not cross the barrier under any circumstances."
-Chiik! What are you talking about, Young Master! What—
"A Demon Beast King has appeared. It's Berga. It won't come inside the barrier, so retreat immediately."
-Wha... Berga?! Why would a Demon Beast King be in this forest!!
"That's what we'll figure out starting now. Anyway, stay beyond the barrier no matter what. I'll go fetch the problem child."
From the exposed traces, besides Ashuria, at least two more sets of tracks remained.
The giant one had a habit of eating and then not moving right away, so it couldn't have gone far.
"Varil. Full speed."
It had likely been drawn here by the massive stampede gate, devoured Ashuria, and was heading back to its lair.
The problem was, to save Ashuria—who might already be eaten—I'd have to enter its body directly, not just capture it.
Berga was tricky and cautious.
For all its immense power, its prudence made it hard to deal with, even if natural predators existed.
Plus, with its hypersensitive senses, it'd bolt the moment it detected me...
A coward for a Demon Beast King, but that made it all the more dangerous.
"No way around it?"
As I pondered after reverse-summoning all the undead, Luna reached out.
"Just camouflage it decently?"
"How?"
"Got a good method."
A glow emanated from her hand, morphing into a thin, transparent veil.
It enveloped us.
"Berga goes nuts for certain mana patterns. It's hypersensitive to foreign energies like mana because of its diet."
For its massive size, its staple was precisely foreign energy—mana or aura.
It devoured prey to absorb and replenish their mana.
The issue was it valued its life so much that it only went after safe levels of mana, ghosting away from anything riskier.
"This veil's like a distortion field. You could do it solo, Leon, but this makes it easier."
At her words, I slowly attuned my mana.
If it'd eaten Ashuria, emitting mana at her level would surely tempt it.
As I adjusted and released my mana, the surrounding space distorted fiercely.
There you are, you bastard. Come and eat.
Kwang!!!
The air's light refraction twisted, and a massive maw appeared, swallowing me and Luna in one gulp.
Infiltration success.
"Just you wait, you damn problem child."
The space shifted in a flash.
A cavernous expanse that barely seemed like a living being's mouth unfolded, littered with monster corpses burning fiercely on all sides.
"Magic spear traces. With marks like this... those two problem children must've been with her."
They had talent, sure, but wandering off without fear...
"Finding them won't be hard."
They weren't weaklings, so they'd fought their way through here. But Berga's innards were structured to drain mana the more you fought.
Even top-tier fighters would tire out fast.
Finding them before it got worse was key.
With clear tracks laid out, no chance of wrong turns.
Soon, changes appeared in the traces on the monster corpses. The deep gashes were fading.
Not long after, a roar and commotion echoed from the distorted space ahead, sound barely carrying.
They seemed alive, thankfully.
But the situation looked gravely serious too.
"Huff... huff..."
Basara, his breathing ragged beyond belief, carried the passed-out Rubas on his back as he staggered forward.
"Damn it... Is there even an end to this place?"
Kwaaaang!!
Ashuria was still calmly massacring monsters, but Basara could feel it clearly.
The strain was weighing on her too.
This space was unnatural.
The more you used aura or mana, the heavier your body felt, like an illusion.
"We're definitely inside that monster's gut."
"A living creature's stomach like this?"
"Keep going like this, and we'll all get digested."
Frankly, it defied common sense.
He couldn't even fathom why they had to chase Ashuria and end up in this mess.
"Can we even get out? Should we head deeper in?"
"No clue. Can't think of it like a normal creature's insides."
The cave they'd entered had no path behind them to begin with.
Only forward.
Standing still changed nothing, so forward it was.
Monster levels weren't changing, but with two on the brink of collapse, things could only worsen.
"Grrrk..."
"Hey! Hey! Rubas! Snap out of it!"
Even without fighting, mana was being siphoned, worsening Rubas's state.
He'd resisted well at first, but sustained combat left him like this.
At this point, it was undeniable. Ashuria Abelgard's power was leagues beyond theirs.
Setting aside grudges, Basara's pride as a genius or powerhouse had long been shattered.
He had to admit it.
Among their age group, probably no one in the world was stronger than her.
Kwaaaang!!
Ashuria swept away a horde of monsters in a explosive blast, then staggered and collapsed to one knee.
"Hey! You okay?!"
"Haa... haa..."
She looked merely tired on the surface, but Basara sensed far deeper fatigue.
"No good... Can't handle the mana drain."
"Damn it. Let's find a spot to hide. No fighting means less mana or aura loss... Ugh?!"
As he spoke, a monster lunged out of nowhere, slamming into Basara.
'Too late!'
Too fast to react, Basara was defenseless.
Chwaaak!!!
Blood sprayed, but he wasn't badly hurt.
"Ashuria Abelgard!"
"..."
The monster's razor claws had pierced not Basara, but Ashuria's shoulder.
"You... why...?"
"Can you stand?"
She countered with a question instead of an answer.
"..."
Kwajijijik!!!
She blasted lightning—her signature magic, it seemed—scattering the monsters, then pointed to one side.
"Small gap over there. Let's head that way first."
"R... right."
They barely squeezed into the narrow hole in the cave wall, and Basara laid Rubas down there.
Then he rushed to Ashuria, who had collapsed using her staff as a crutch.
"Hey! You okay?!"
"Don't yell. Head's ringing."
She spoke calmly and slowly closed her eyes.
"Damn. At this rate, we're all done. Any ideas?"
"None."
"Then wandering aimlessly means nothing?"
"Standing still kills us too."
Basara gathered his aura, irked by her blunt fact-stating devoid of humanity.
"We won't last ten minutes like this. You've used way more mana than us."
"Twenty. Intense fights shorten it."
At least the monsters weren't swarming this narrow crevice.
"Why the hell does a monster's gut have a space like this...?"
"Like antibody cells. We're treated as foreign objects. What it really digests is our aura or mana."
The human flesh was just worthless residue it didn't need to absorb.
"Heal that wound first."
Basara rummaged through his pouch and pulled out a small medicine box.
"Not sure it'll help, but it's great for stopping bleeding."
"...Thanks."
Ashuria took it matter-of-factly, applying the salve to her shoulder wound without a grimace.