SWNOVELXO Chapter 357
Chapter 358. What You See Is All There Is (1)
A stocky figure, barely a meter tall, with a thick torso resembling a well-ripened potato.
The burly dwarf struggled in Keter’s grasp.
“Grabbing my beard! You pervert, can’t you let go?”
“Huh? Oh.”
For dwarves, the beard is quite a sensitive area. Keter, well aware of this, released the beard and instead grabbed the dwarf’s hair.
Whoosh.
Keter and Daat emerged from the swamp trap set by the dwarves. Keter placed the dwarf on the ground and spoke.
“There must be accomplices. Where are they all gathered?”
“I have nothing to say to a pervert.”
The dwarf was resolute. Their determination prioritized honor over life, so threats wouldn’t work.
Having dealt with dwarves in Ruquer, Keter knew better than anyone how to coax them.
“They’ll come out if we stir things up. Let’s just eat this one.”
“Huh?”
“Eh?”
Daat, of course, and even the dwarf were startled. Keter found their reactions odd.
“Why the surprise?”
“Brother! Even as a metaphor or analogy, that’s hard to swallow. You just said you’d eat this furry guy.”
“What’s the big deal? Dwarves are tasty.”
Shudder.
Daat felt a chill run down his spine. He had spent decades with Keter. He could tell the difference between a joke and a serious remark.
Keter was serious now. And that was absolutely not something Keter would normally say.
Daat grabbed the dwarf by the collar and shook him.
“What did you do to Brother?!”
Just moments ago, Keter was fine. But ever since they escaped the swamp, he’s been saying strange things. Naturally, the dwarf who set the trap must be to blame.
But the dwarf was equally panicked.
“All I did was trap you in the swamp! And you humans eat dwarves? You savages!”
“That can’t be!”
“Maknun. You’re acting weird.”
Seeing Keter’s concerned expression only made Daat more frustrated, raising his voice.
“Brother! Snap out of it! You’ve been saying strange things since earlier!”
“Snap out of it? I’ve been perfectly sane.”
“You’re definitely acting weird.”
Maknun took a few steps back, preparing for battle.
“Living in this world with a sane mind will drive you mad. You have to lose your mind to survive. If life feels hard, it’s because you’re too sane. Lose your mind. That’s what you always said, Brother.”
“……”
“Staying silent isn’t like you, Brother!”
Daat clasped his hands together and thrust them toward Keter. A compressed sphere of space shot toward Keter.
At first glance, it looked like a harmless air bubble, but it was a 7th-circle spatial magic, the ‘Space-Time Distortion Sphere,’ capable of annihilating anything it touched.
Keter didn’t even flinch at Daat’s sudden attack. He simply extended his palm and spoke.
“Maknun. Manipulating space is our Bloodline Tribe’s specialty.”
Crush.
Keter crushed the ‘Space-Time Distortion Sphere’ with his bare hand. He had shattered a 7th-circle magic with his bare hands.
Having witnessed Keter’s overwhelming power, Daat took a deep breath.
“What you just said was weird too. What’s the Bloodline Tribe? I know there are many subspecies in this world, but I’ve never heard of the Bloodline Tribe.”
“How can you not know the Bloodline Tribe? They’re one of the seven primordial races, just like the Dragon Tribe.”
“I never thought I’d say this, but snap out of it. You’ve lost too much of your mind.”
“Maknun. You’re the one saying strange things since earlier. This underground tunnel must be the problem. Let’s just destroy it entirely.”
Keter placed his palm on the ground.
Daat grew anxious. It wasn’t that he cared about the lives of the various races hiding in Sephira. Their lives weren’t that important.
The problem was that Keter wasn’t the type to take lives so easily.
‘Brother is being influenced by something. If he starts killing now, it’ll be unstoppable.’
A supreme powerhouse like Keter thinking lightly of killing? He would undoubtedly become a monster more dangerous than any demon realm creature.
But there was no way to stop Keter by force. Attempting to reason with him only made him think you were the strange one, so persuasion wouldn’t work either.
‘It’s not about persuasion. I need a word that can wake Brother up.’
There was no time to ponder. The tunnel was already starting to shake.
The tunnel’s size meant it wouldn’t collapse immediately, which was fortunate. Maknun decided to try words Keter liked.
“Money! Meat! Freedom!”
Whoosh.
Keter glanced at Maknun.
But that was it.
‘Come to think of it, everyone likes those things. Who doesn’t like money, meat, and freedom?’
Favorites didn’t work. Maknun moved on to the next idea.
“Abandoned by your parents! A vicious murderer!”
This time, Keter didn’t even look.
Crack! Crash!
Debris began falling from the ceiling. The sound of cracking echoed through the cave.
Even if the cave collapsed, Daat would be fine, but Sephira wouldn’t.
“Many people in Sephira will die or get hurt.”
“……”
Still no reaction.
But Maknun could feel it. The collapse of the tunnel had slowed slightly.
“Do you know Lord Hisop barely sleeps three hours a day? Anis and Taragon live every day as if they’re facing death.”
“What does that matter?”
“You said it yourself. If you cherish something, act like you don’t. That’s the only way to protect it.”
“Sephira is to me……”
“It’s precious to you. It’s your homeland. Your family.”
“……”
“And you’re going to destroy that Sephira?”
The tremors stopped. Keter removed his hand from the ground and stood up.
Maknun approached with a deep sigh.
“Have you come to your senses?”
“No. But I realized I’m acting strange. Why does this dwarf look delicious? Why do I feel like everything I’m doing is meaningless and want to put it off? Feeling like these emotions are normal is strange in itself.”
“Could it be a side effect of becoming too strong too quickly?”
“Maybe. Anyway, I’ll leave investigating this tunnel to you.”
“What about you?”
“I need to go find Endymion. At least in Sephira, he’s the only one who can help me.”
“Alright. Hurry up and go.”
“Will do.”
Not wanting to waste time retracing their steps, Keter burrowed straight up through the ground.
‘Why did I do that?’
Even as he asked himself, no clear answer came to mind.
To be precise, an inner voice questioned him. It asked why he found it strange when he had only done what was natural.
Dwarves are a delicacy. If they can’t communicate, isn’t it natural to eat them?
This tunnel couldn’t have been made by one dwarf alone. There must be at least ten dwarves here. What’s the big deal about eating one out of ten?
So, the fact that he’s even thinking this is strange. He’s human. Why would he eat a dwarf?
-Why are you a mere human? You are a great Dragon.
“……!”
That wasn’t someone else’s voice. It was his own.
‘Paratool. Is that you?’
He thought Paratool was dead, but now it seemed to be causing his confusion. That had to be it.
But that wasn’t the answer either.
-No. Paratool is completely gone. As a member of the Nahan tribe in the mental realm, I know this well.
I am both Dragon and Nahan. That’s why I know. Paratool is gone. That voice was mine. No one else’s.
Throb.
Finally reaching the surface, Keter clutched his head.
“Prince Keter?”
“Divine Archer?”
The servants of Sephira approached, finding his behavior strange. Keter reflexively extended his left hand and shouted.
“Don’t come near me, you insignificant bugs.”
“……?!”
A crimson surge erupted from his palm.
It was the precursor to Blood Magic.
Bloody Märchen.
A simple technique that explodes all the life force within blood. Isera used blood droplets as a medium, but originally, it could be used on any living being.
A technique only the progenitor vampires could use, akin to divine authority. Just as it was about to manifest from Keter’s hand-
Thud!
His right hand stopped his left.
The servants laughed, thinking Keter was joking, but Keter wasn’t in the mood to laugh.
‘If I had been a moment later, I would have really killed them all.’
He wasn’t even curious about how he could use Blood Magic, which he had no memory of. The whispers in his mind, his own inner voice, kept growing.
Keter realized. It was what they called ‘instinct.’
‘…I want to quit everything. Just sleep. I want to fly. Go to the sea. I crave blood……’
All sorts of instincts tormented Keter’s body and mind. If he had a moment of peace, he might understand why, but he couldn’t even feel that.
“Endymion!”
Too weak to even go find Endymion, Keter shouted toward the sky.
Endymion appeared before Keter as soon as he heard the call. In truth, he had been heading toward Keter even before that.
Endymion’s brow furrowed as he saw Keter.
“This is……”
“What’s happening to me?”
“The prophecy… was it wrong?”
When Endymion first saw Keter, he saw the future. A future where Keter burned Sephira.
But he thought he had prevented that future. He stopped Keter from becoming a Dragon. Keter had overcome it.
‘That wasn’t the crisis.’
Keter’s body was meant for the Dragon. But the human Keter had taken the Dragon’s body instead.
Endymion had predicted this would be a problem, but he didn’t know when or how it would manifest.
But now he knew.
“Are you trying to become all and one, one and all?”
What he felt from Keter wasn’t human. Elf, Dwarf, Dragon… Giant, Yaksha… Keter held the power of all races from ancient times to the present.
Who could have created such a horrifying thing? Endymion didn’t know. But one thing was certain: if they didn’t do something about Keter now, it wouldn’t just be Sephira’s destruction.
The end of the world, that fantastical event, would begin from Sephira.
“This is beyond what human mental strength can handle.”
It was a miracle that Keter had won against the Dragon in the mental realm. But even a miracle wouldn’t be enough this time.
The instincts of all races were concentrated in one human. Going against this was like a fish in the sea trying to conquer the ocean.
Whoosh.
An arrow appeared in Endymion’s hand.
It was the arrow of ‘Ain Soph.’
An incomplete Ain Soph couldn’t subdue Keter. But knowing this, Endymion still intended to fight.
Then, Keter spoke.
“What’s the problem?”
“Your very existence is the problem.”
“Ah……”
The corner of Keter’s mouth twitched upward. He looked like a monk who had attained enlightenment.
“I thought it was something big.”
Whoosh.
It happened in the blink of an eye. Keter snatched the Ain Soph arrow from Endymion’s hand.
Endymion only realized the arrow was gone when-
Thud.*
The Ain Soph arrow pierced his heart.