97
097 ― Traces Left Behind
The beam shot from Kalesian's mouth struck the cliff. An overwhelming, destructive blow that could be felt even from this distance.
However, the cliff remained intact. It stood firm without breaking or crumbling. Not even a crack appeared.
Having already tried this several times, Kalesian showed no particular surprise. He simply frowned with annoyance.
He continued firing bang bang breaths without stopping, pounding against the cliff.
[ Oh my, a dragon? How fascinating that there's a dragon in the 3rd floor. ]
The God of Light spoke with apparent surprise.
Monsters belonging to the dragon category did exist in the 3rd floor. There were Shadows and other dragon-type monsters as well.
However, it was surprising to find an actual Dragon—the symbol and pinnacle of the dragon race—in the 3rd floor.
Even if not quite the Spirit Realm, the 5th floor Dragon floor was still far removed from the lower floors below.
[ I see... It appears to be an adult, but its body remains that of a hatchling. Was it able to descend to the 3rd floor because it failed to molt? ]
"He said he prevented his own molting because he wanted to see other worlds."
[ That dragon said that? ]
Jin-woo nodded. When they first met in New York, he had definitely said that.
[ That's a lie. ]
But the God of Light flatly denied those words.
"A lie?"
[ Dragon molting isn't just a simple natural phenomenon—it's a phenomenon that belongs to providence and destiny. To deliberately prevent it... A hatchling couldn't do such a thing. Perhaps an ancient dragon that's lived 7-8 thousand years, but not a hatchling. ]
Preventing molting was something only an ancient dragon could do?
If that was true, then Kalesian's claim that he didn't molt was indeed a lie.
He had clearly said that he hadn't molted from his very first molt as a newly born hatchling.
[ He probably couldn't molt due to other factors. Perhaps he was cursed by an existence above the level of an ancient dragon, or maybe he was born deformed. ]
According to his explanation, dragon molting was like an innate destiny. Therefore, being unable to molt meant one of two cases.
Either he was cursed by an existence powerful enough to twist a dragon's fate, or he was born with such a destiny from the beginning.
'So saying he ‘didn't’ molt was just an excuse. Either way, it's not something you'd tell someone you just met...'
He didn't feel betrayed just because it was a lie.
Whether Kalesian couldn't molt for either reason, both cases weren't content to casually spread around.
Such a trivial lie mattered less than the relationship they'd built since then. He and Kalesian had maintained a good relationship as partners.
'The Temple of Sky was attacking first, too, and the Temple of War came to strike first as well. Quick on their feet.'
Whether it was because dragons had excellent information-gathering abilities, or the Temple of War had been a target from the beginning.
He had said he'd been investigating the 3rd floor's temples for a long time to steal divine artifacts, so it wouldn't be strange if the Temple of War was one of his targets.
Kwaaaaaa!
By then, more than three breaths had already struck the red cliff. Besides that, Kalesian had unleashed several powerful spells, but it remained unscathed.
Eventually exhausted, Kalesian descended to the ground, panting. Mahiri landed gently and embraced him, and Kalesian stuck out his tongue in her arms, showing his fatigue.
"Kalesian."
When Jin-woo approached, Kalesian glanced at him. Not particularly surprised, it seemed he had noticed Jin-woo's arrival long ago.
"You came. Hm? What's that beside you..."
"It's the God of Light. I came from that temple."
"The God of Light?"
However, he seemed not to have noticed the companion. Kalesian's eyes widened in surprise at the unexpected company.
[ Is your name Kalesian? Nice to meet you. ]
"...What brings such a haughty being from the Spirit Realm here?"
[ The lower floor is in danger, so I came to save it. ]
Though only a cluster of light without visible expression, the tone sounded cheerful as if about to sing.
Kalesian's eyes narrowed. It was a look that suspected there was definitely some ulterior motive.
A few more words were exchanged after that, but nothing improved. Kalesian's suspicion wasn't erased, and the God of Light didn't particularly try to dispel the suspicion either.
Unable to continue such an unproductive conversation, Jin-woo interjected.
"Kalesian. Is the Temple of War inside that canyon?"
"As far as I know, yes."
Only then did Kalesian turn his gaze from the light and answer.
"Then why aren't you going inside and instead firing breaths from outside? There's a path in the middle."
"Can't go in."
Can't go in?
"It's better to experience it directly than hear about it. Come here."
Mahiri, holding Kalesian, began walking ahead, and Jin-woo and the cluster of light followed behind. Jin-woo asked the light.
"Can't go in? Is there some kind of device at the Temple of War?"
[ I wouldn't know. I've never been to other gods' temples. ]
That made sense, too. Though 13 temples were gathered in the single city called Pandemonium, those temples weren't connected to each other.
Jin-woo followed behind Kalesian and arrived at the front of the path between the canyon. A path between two towering cliffs. Even coming this close, the inside of the path was covered in darkness, making nothing visible.
"Try going in. It's not dangerous, but just in case, don't let your guard down."
"Yes."
Heeding Kalesian's advice, they stepped in together. But when he came to his senses, he was left alone.
"Kalesian?"
Kalesian, who had definitely been beside him, was nowhere to be seen. Mahiri, who had been holding him, was also gone.
Instead, what he saw was an endlessly spread wasteland and white bones piled up enough to trip over.
The red earth covered with white bones, dyed pure white, created a mysterious yet grotesque landscape. Though bones could be seen scattered throughout the desert, this interior was far worse.
[ This is the temple. ]
"This is?"
Though Kalesian had disappeared, the cluster of light remained. The God of Light looked around, examining the surroundings.
[ It's inside the temple. They've overlapped space using a divine artifact. The outer desert seems to be an aftereffect of this place. ]
"So this barrier was the real thing from the beginning, and the outside was just a byproduct."
[ Exactly. ]
To think that the desert that isolated the 3rd floor was merely a byproduct. He couldn't even imagine how powerful a domain was being deployed.
'...The energies are tangled, making it hard to see the path clearly.'
Similar to the Temple of Sky, he could see erosive energy, but no path was visible.
More precisely, there were too many paths to tell which was the real one.
Complex thread-like energies were tangled in tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of strands, making it impossible to figure out where each led.
[ Shall we go out for now? Kalesian probably went out too. ]
"Is the way out this direction?"
Still, among the hundreds of thousands of strands, he knew exactly one path. The entrance connecting to the outside they had just entered from.
Taking that path outside, as the God of Light had guessed, Kalesian was already out.
"How was it?"
"I saw a wasteland covered in white bones. From just a glance, it seemed difficult to find a path."
"Same for me. At first, I tried to find a path once, but it wasn't easy."
"So that's why you were firing breaths at the cliff, trying to destroy it along with the barrier?"
"If I destroy it all, it's convenient. Why bother searching for a path?"
Kalesian spoke while snorting.
He had seemed very meticulous when experimenting with the God of Sky's scabbard, but at times like this, he was rough.
[ You did well. As expected of a dragon, your intuition is sharp, too. ]
"Is that so?"
[ The inside there is merely the interior of a divine artifact. You can't do anything inside it. ]
"Divine artifact?"
Kalesian's eyes sparkled. Still a dragon who got excited first whenever treasure was mentioned.
[ What you can find inside a forest is at most leaves or tree roots. To find the forest, you need to come outside. ]
"You're saying I need to destroy that cliff to find the divine artifact?"
Kalesian raised his head with a face brimming with motivation. His goal seemed to have become even more solid.
'That's good, but.'
Jin-woo also raised his head to look at the cliff. The red cliff that remained without a single crack despite receiving countless spells and breaths.
He had no idea how to destroy that thing.
***
Kalesian flew up again and began pounding the cliff. Jin-woo couldn't just watch either, so he stood in front of the cliff.
Jin-woo also tried attacking the cliff with sword energy, but it was hopeless. Though sword energy was sharp, it didn't have the destructive power equal to Kalesian's breath.
'What if I attack just one point?'
Wouldn't it pierce through even a little?
With that thought, he swung his sword for quite a while, but the cliff remained solid. Jin-woo's palm holding the sword was becoming sore.
"......"
Jin-woo, looking alternately at the unbreakable cliff and his own sword, asked the God of Light.
"Wouldn't it be better to search inside after all?"
[ It would be like looking for a fish inside a fish's belly. ]
The God of Light shook his head in disapproval. Though the barrier inside the cliff might be a comfortable space for those who serve the God of War, it was a merciless place for external enemies.
If he spent time endlessly searching for paths inside, he might end up like the white bones covering the ground.
'There didn't seem to be a separate core either.'
The Erosion so far and the Temple of Sky's barrier could be escaped by destroying the core, but the inside of the red cliff was different.
There was no specific core, but rather the entire vast space itself felt like a core.
Like the arm that briefly appeared when cutting through Moonlit Forest, it was gigantic, and the barrier's scale was considerable, too.
'Unless my arm becomes that large, it would be difficult to cut through in one stroke.'
Moreover, it wasn't just size that was the problem, but also strength. When he was struggling to cut even a single rock of the cliff, how could he cut through the entire barrier at once?
'Hm?'
Then Jin-woo, who had been quietly looking at the cliff, squinted with puzzlement.
It seemed like some small realization had just passed by, but he couldn't tell what it was. It was too fast, and because it passed in an instant, he couldn't recall it.
But it was probably something very important. After all, there was no such thing as an unimportant realization.
'What was it?'
Jin-woo racked his brain to recall it. Like small daily forgetting, retrieving memories that had already flowed into the river of oblivion was not an easy task.
But there had definitely been something he realized while looking at the cliff.
Did he notice a weakness in the cliff? Did he find some trace he hadn't noticed? Perhaps there was a secret door, and he had discovered the door crack.
All sorts of thoughts came to mind, but none were correct. No matter how much he looked, there wasn't even a crack on the cliff, let alone any traces. It was a cliff that remained intact even against Kalesian's breath—there was no way traces would remain from a few sword strikes.
There was nothing on the cliff. Then.
'Is it the path side?'
Had he discovered something from the path between the cliffs?
With that thought, he peered into the darkness-filled path between the two cliffs, and something came to mind.
He wasn't sure if this was the same as the realization that had just passed, but it was definitely a new discovery. And that discovery brought many things to Jin-woo.
"This path..."
The narrow canyon between two cliffs. He had only thought of it that way, but that wasn't it.
'It's a sword scar.'
It wasn't actually a path, but a trace left by cutting with a giant sword.