Chapter 52: Ominous Signs (2)

In the empty interior, which was better described as a ‘barn’ rather than a ‘house,’ a woman lay collapsed.  

Yuria took a shallow breath, but after a closer look, she was relieved to see that the woman had merely lost consciousness.  

While Yuria breathed a quiet sigh of relief, the other two remained on high alert.  

“It’s very faint, but… there’s still the scent of a Monster. It’s certain a Monster was here not long ago.”  

Though speaking tentatively, Zion couldn’t quite shake his uncertainty.

The strange unease he’d felt from the start only grew stronger the further they pursued the Monster’s trail.  

“Huh? Then that’s strange. She looks perfectly fine.”  

Yuria’s doubt was echoed by Zion.

Was there something they were missing?

Something he didn’t know about?

There was only one way to find out—face the Monster directly.  

“That woman… I think she’s the daughter the man at the inn has been searching for.”  

“Oh? Really? He said she’d be wearing a good-quality purple ear cuff.”  

“I’ll support her. It might be dangerous, so the two of you stay alert around here.”  

Zion approached the woman cautiously after making his careful request.

Just as he reached out within arm’s length, the alien scent of a Monster began rapidly closing in from outside the city.  

It was as if the strange event surrounding the collapsed woman had triggered something.

Zion felt both frustrated and, oddly enough, relieved.  

“Something’s coming closer, fast!” Soares was the second to detect the anomaly.

Meanwhile, Yuria’s color perception, which heavily relied on sight, wasn’t very effective inside the cramped building.  

[Wait. Is that a Monster…? Something’s off, though.]

Frey, sensing the approaching Monster, repeatedly tilted his head in confusion.

Zion gripped the Spectrum, which had transformed into a longsword, focusing his mind so he could respond no matter where or when the enemy appeared.  

-“Grrr…!”  

Right after a beast-like roar sounded, something shot quickly through the wide-open window opposite them.

Zion tensed every muscle, ready to swing his blade.  

But the moment he caught sight of the foe, he couldn’t help but be taken aback.  

Overall, it resembled a human.

Some parts were exactly human.

The upper body, lower body, and limbs were dressed in ragged clothes and completely human-like, but beneath one pair of arms were two additional insect-like legs.  

On its back sprouted wings that looked like they had been torn from a wyvern, covered with membranes, and its head was that of a wolf.  

‘Is this really a Monster?’  

A wave of indescribable discomfort creased Zion’s face.

It looked like a grotesque, haphazardly assembled toy.  

-“Grrr…!”  

It kept its distance, trembling in fear but alert.

Anyone even slightly familiar with Monster behavior would immediately recognize how bizarre this was.  

The primary instinct of a Monster is hostility toward humans.

Even when on the brink of starvation, if a human appeared before them, Monsters would disregard their own survival to attack.  

But the creature before Zion behaved like an ordinary wild animal.

When Zion approached slowly, it flinched and stepped back, baring its teeth in caution, only to take a tentative step forward again when Zion retreated.  

Just as Zion reached out to the collapsed woman, the creature’s face twisted fiercely, and as if its earlier wariness was a lie, it lunged at him with surprising speed.  

Zion calmly swung the Spectrum at an angle that would shield the woman.

He had no intention of killing it.

Two of the insect legs were cut off, and a long slash opened across its side as the creature flew off and collapsed.  

-“Kyaeng!”  

Staggering to its feet, the creature anxiously glanced back and forth between Zion and the woman.  

The mounting unease caused Zion to narrow his eyes.

This did not feel like fighting a Monster.

Rather, it was like encountering a harmless wild animal defending its territory and young.  

“Zion, do not be deceived.” Soares’s cold voice brought Zion back to himself.

The woman’s father was no mere creature like that.

The real father was anxiously waiting for his daughter’s return at the city’s inn.  

[I can understand your hesitation, Zion. Honestly, if a Monster acted like that, I’d hesitate too.]

[No. No matter how it behaves, a Monster is a Monster.]

“So you think it’s best to kill it, Frey?”  

[To be honest, yes. If you let weak feelings grow, it only makes matters worse. You know that too.]

“Haha, that’s true. We’ve had our share of trouble from friends who thought that way.”  

The Monster crouched low, creeping closer to the woman.

It sniffed carefully, then reached out its hand cautiously.

Zion readied himself to sever the limb in an instant, but the Monster detected this sensitivity and startled, retreating again.  

It scratched the ground near the woman, whining anxiously.  

Though the consensus leaned toward killing it, Zion couldn’t make a swift judgment.

He knew Soares and Frey were right.

But still, was it really the correct choice?  

Zion closed his eyes briefly and deeply reflected within himself.  

‘Huu…’

After deciding, Zion opened his eyes and glared at the creature.

Surprised by the direct hostility, the creature flinched and got to its feet.

Zion stomped the ground.  

“Haah!”  

His blade plunged deeply into the creature’s abdomen.

Not stopping there, Zion pushed it, then leapt outside the building.  

Jumping into the air, he landed on the roof of a nearby empty house, gathering all his strength to leap again.

The house collapsed with a loud crash under his weight, but there was no time to worry about that.  

Breaking through several abandoned houses, Zion fled the city.

After running about ten minutes and feeling sufficiently distant, he stopped.  

Though the creature looked battered, the slash in its abdomen was already visibly regenerating.

Such was the tenacious vitality of a Monster.  

-“Kiiing, kink…”  

Zion slowly withdrew his blade.

The creature glanced at him with nervous eyes, then carefully turned toward where the lady was.  

“Don’t go.” Zion blocked its path, pointing the tip of his sword at it.  

“No one in the city will welcome you.”  

-“Grrr…”  

The creature lowered its head, stepping back tentatively.

But its gaze was not on Zion—it was fixed on the lady behind him.  

Zion grimaced and stepped closer.

He was close enough to cut its throat with a single strike.  

“I have to… kill you.”  

“As long as I can’t be certain you won’t harm humans your whole life, this is the best way.”  

-“Kiiing…” 

Zion’s expression was stained with the pain of cutting off his own fingers as he spoke slowly and haltingly.

Holding the still-bleeding wound with one hand, the creature gradually lowered its posture.  

Zion gritted his teeth.

The tense standoff froze time for a moment before a flash suddenly pierced the air.  

‘Haaaaa…’  

Without averting his eyes from the body collapsing with its throat slit, Zion let out a weary sigh, “Did I do the right thing?”  

[You did.] Frey spoke with deliberate firmness.  

“You’re right. Just because a Monster doesn’t act like one right now doesn’t guarantee it will stay that way forever. If there’s even a chance it might attack people someday, killing it is the right choice.”  

Yet, the troubled expression on Frey’s face betrayed his words.

Watching the corpse dry out at an unusually slow pace compared to ordinary Monsters, Frey scratched the back of his head.  

[Yeah, it’s strange. What kind of creature was that? Can we really call it a Monster?]  

“Maybe it’s a new species of Monster…?”  

[Who knows. At this point, it might be better to classify it as something else entirely.]

All the same, Zion’s nose, Frey’s Ma’an, and Arcs’s instruments all identified the creature as a Monster.  

[Still, it’s just one Monster… We can only hope it’s nothing special.] Frey sighed deeply, voicing the feelings everyone present shared.  

***

Yuria waited near the city gates for Zion.

When he approached, she carefully read much from his expression and asked quietly,  “How did it go?”  

“I killed it.”  

Though his voice was calm on the surface, a barely concealed anxiety trembled beneath.

Yuria nodded softly, then brightened her tone and changed the subject.  

“I took that young lady to her father. Soares examined her and said there’s nothing serious—she just seems to be asleep.”  

“Where is Soares now?”  

“She’s guarding the carriage. Anyway, thanks to you, we’ve found lodging while staying here. It’s no big deal, but you look really exhausted, don’t you?”  

Zion smiled weakly and nodded.  

Fortunately, no more strange incidents occurred while they stayed in Fargon.

After about three days of rest—restocking preserved foods, ingredients, and other travel supplies—the group headed north again.  

About a week into the carriage journey, Soares was the first to notice the change.

“The weather…”  

Fargon, and especially the Jewel Tower further north, was known as a cold region throughout the continent.  

Yet at some point, the temperature suddenly grew milder.  

This was due to the massive barrier spanning tens of kilometers around the Jewel Tower, known as the Great Barrier.  

The Great Barrier maintained the interior environment in a comfortable state suitable for human habitation and essentially marked the boundaries of the Jewel Tower’s territory.  

“Huh? Was that tower here just a moment ago…?” Yuria murmured, looking north as she rested after rooftop training.

Zion tore his gaze away from the Artifact Engineering Intermediate Course textbook he had been clutching all morning and looked out the window.  

“What’s going on, everyone?”  

“We’ve entered the Jewel Tower’s territory. We’re still a bit away from the tower itself, but it’s not far now.”  

“Zion, look at that!” At Yuria’s excited voice, Zion turned his head and involuntarily let out a low gasp.  

Far to the north, the carriage’s destination, stood an enormous tower so huge that the perspective seemed distorted.  

It was avant-garde if you wanted to be kind, but grotesque if you were honest.

The base—the part that should support the tower’s center—was its thinnest section, while the thickest middle part was about twenty times wider than the base, just by rough estimation.  

That was the only part with any kind of proper shape.

Above the middle, the tower was a chaotic jumble of square, circular, and elongated shapes piled haphazardly, as if someone had carelessly molded clay and abandoned it.  

Some blocks were so precariously balanced it was a wonder they hadn’t fallen.  

Passing the disorderly upper section, at the very top sat a neat disc-shaped structure, above which floated a glowing sphere as bright as the sun.  

The land of the most unique and alien beings—the realm of the Wizards—was drawing near.