Reincarnator – Chapter 372: Inheritance War (2)
“The third fun story?”
N-Aroel nodded at N-Akuon’s question.
“Yes. It’s a fun story. Melchizedek took one of the bodies from that race and went up. It was too much of a waste to use it as fodder and throw it away.”
N-Akuon nodded.
If it was really a race as powerful as that, even a corpse was valuable.
But it wouldn’t be as good as a live one.
There was still a question in his mind.
“…What will it do with the body?”
N-Aroel shrugged his shoulders.
“I don’t know. Maybe use it to turn the situation around? You see, it’s not in the greatest position right now.”
“Not in a good position? Hmm…”
N-Akuon could not understand the meaning behind that.
According to what he’d heard, Melchizedek had prepared meticulously.
It had succeeded in the rebellion, swept away the civilians of Angkara, and gained control over Nelkipa.
For someone who controlled that strange insectoid race, what could it have issues with?
N-Aroel smiled at N-Akuon’s words.
“Can you see that over there? That cannon-like thing.”
N-Akuon peeked his head out and looked out of the ship to the place N-Aroel was pointing to.
N-Aroel’s finger was pointing directly at the Nelkipa.
The spikes at the back of Nelkipa to be exact.
They called them spikes relative to the whole of Nelkipa, but those things were dozens of kilometers tall at least.
That size was actually comparable, or even taller, to the skyscrapers in Angkara.
It had a strange design as well.
N-Akuon was at a loss as he looked at the metallic spikes—each of them seemed to have a hole in the center.
“No way… Is that really a weapon?”
One of the technicians of the fleet had actually come up with a theory.
That those spikes could be weapons.
But that theory was soon ignored.
Because of one reason.
“If that was a weapon, why isn’t Melchizedek using it?”
N-Akuon asked N-Aroel fervently.
Well, it was more of a fear-stricken expression.
Of course.
That giant creature and the giant cannon.
The energy felt from within it was endless.
If that thing started firing at them, then both the fleets and the planet of Angkara wouldn’t be able to escape from turning into a sea of flames.
He could only feel fear.
So he had ignored that possibility.
If that was a weapon, why wasn’t Melchizedek retaliating after they attacked with Photon Strikes?
—boomboobooom—
—booboom—
N-Akuon looked at the giant creature that was flying through the countless rays of Photon Strikes as if they were just a light drizzle.
“Bingo. That’s the important part. Do you know why it isn’t attacking?”
“…Tell me.”
A part of him wanted to guess it as a challenge, but he was truly desperate for the answer.
N-Aroel looked at N-Akuon’s thirsty expression and smiled.
“It’s because Melchizedek doesn’t have complete control over Nelkipa.”
“…”
“And that’s why Melchizedek needs to turn the situation around. I don’t know what he’ll do though.”
“Hmm…”
Another question appeared inside N-Akuon’s head.
He no longer cared about how Melchizedek would use that new race’s body.
Something that he was even more curious about had popped up.
“…Who? Who’s causing Melchizedek this much trouble?”
Who had the power to?
“Let’s see…”
N-Aroel chuckled as he scanned the Nelkipa below.
……………………………………………
—rumble—
At the head of the giant Nelkipa.
Roaaaar
One man listened to the cries of the Nelkipa, which was maintaining its course towards Angkara despite the countless artillery shells smashing onto its body, and he cursed out loud.
“F***ing hell. I don’t even know why they fire these things when they don’t work anyway. Annoying.”
Countless artillery shells were continuously raining down on him.
Not that it mattered.
—boom!—
A Photon Strike slammed onto the man, but he just dusted himself off in an annoyed manner.
“Damn it. I hate saunas.”
The Photon Strike that had even burned Hansoo at the 2-Star level didn’t leave a single scratch on that man.
It wasn’t like the man was covered in the nano-coating anyway.
The man had easily blocked off the artillery shells with a thin mana barrier above his skin. He spoke to the woman standing next to him.
“Hey, could you stop that?”
The man looked perplexed at the woman next to him, who was stabbing herself with a strange spike.
Despite the spike puncturing her skin and causing her to bleed, she continued her actions with a dull expression.
‘Ugh, I can never get used to that.’
The woman snapped in anger.
“Shut up, don’t meddle in my hobbies. Focus on how you’re going to deal with that thing instead.”
“…I don’t think I can do anything.”
—oooooong—
The man, Ares Valentine, mumbled as he looked at the groups of soldiers marching around the giant fortress in the distance.
Of course, those little toys couldn’t stop them.
They could rip them apart like paper.
But the issue was the ones behind them.
2-Star Transcendents that had been modified and even equipped with armor.
As well as the tremendous amount of energy supplied from the crystal in Aokan.
‘No, the crystal in there is even bigger than the crystal in Aokan.’
Ares Valentine frowned.
The main crystal of the Nelkipa—the core that supplied it with energy.
And the modified transcendents that were setting up defenses using the energy from the crystal.
Even if they were 3-Star Transcendents, they’d end up as a couple of rags once they stepped in there.
Elis Valentine, the woman who was listening to Ares’s words, frowned as she snapped again.
“That’s why I said we should’ve taken that first, you dumb bastard.”
“…How could I have known this would happen? And I thought this was all we needed.”
The man looked at the giant crystal behind him.
—oooooong—
It wasn’t as large as the main crystal, but it was much larger than the one below Aokan.
One main crystal.
The sub-crystal behind him and the one in the distance that Elis Valentine was defending.
These three crystals were the main control centers of Nelkipa.
‘All this energy… just to provide enough energy to control this thing.’
Ares was at a loss.
The energy that he could feel from the crystal behind him was something that even he, a 3-Star Transcendent, feared slightly.
And all this energy was just a tiny fraction that came out from the artificial core of the Nelkipa.
‘Damn. We have to take control over this Nelkipa… Or if we can find the method to control all this energy.’
Ares Valentine frowned and felt regret.
They had looked down on Melchizedek a bit too much.
They’d thought that they could easily deal with Melchizedek’s toys, and then shred apart Kang Hansoo since they were both 3-Star Transcendents.
But after prying into the whole thing, what was all this?
Melchizedek had used its intensive knowledge and control over this giant creature to arm its underlings.
And as a result, they couldn’t even approach the main crystal and were tied down trying to protect the two sub-crystals.
‘Should I have studied instead of just fighting all the time?’
Ares Valentine lamented as he looked at the crystal behind him.
If he knew how to control this energy, then he would’ve long since charged in there and crushed Melchizedek’s skull.
The energy behind him was more than enough to do that.
Of course, something like that wasn’t possible for him.
This was not something one could do with a short amount of studying.
Only something like Melchizedek would be able to.
‘I need to accept what I have to accept.’
Ares Valentine looked at his twin sister, Elis Valentine, and asked:
“What are you going to do?’
Elis Valentine pointed towards Melchizedek’s fortress in the distance and replied:
“We might have the strength to defend all of this, but nothing will change if we just stick around here, right?”
“Mhm.”
“And charging in there will be a piece of cake?”
“Yup.’
“So taking control of the Nelkipa is the same as well?’
“Yes.”
Elis clapped lightly and then replied.
“Good, let’s begin.”
“Damn it…”
Ares made a flustered expression.
There was only one thing they could do now.
“You start first. I’ll join you soon.”
“Alright, I won’t see you off. Take care.”
With these words—
—booooom!—
—Elis’s body quickly disappeared towards the crystal in the distance.
Ares shrugged at this scene and then moved towards the sub-crystal behind him.
—oooooooong!—
The crystal that was overflowing with energy.
He had no way to control this energy at the moment.
It was too much for him to handle.
Melchizedek might be able to use it with its amazing technology, but he didn’t have a talent like that.
‘Maybe if I had the Acknowledgement.’
Well, the thing he was about to do didn’t really require him to control this energy.
‘Let’s see… Time for some fireworks before I go up.’
Ares chuckled coldly.
He’d tried so hard to keep this crystal, but if he couldn’t then it was better to destroy it.
And soon—
—boooom!—
—a tremendous amount of energy extended out from Ares’s body and shook the crystal.
……………………………………………
—rumble—
“I expected a greeting party, but it looks like that’s not happening.”
“Yeah. I expected them to do something as soon as we arrived.”
Kiriel and Enbi Arin were at a loss as they walked out from the giant elevator.
They had prepared themselves for the worst, but nothing was here.
But this only lasted for a moment.
—boooom!—
Kiriel and Enbi Arin quickly woke up from their delusions.
It was not the time to let down their guard.
“These crazy bastards… What the hell are they doing?”
This tremendous aura.
Two overbearing auras exploded out from the giant plane on the Nelkipa’s head.
From two edges of the plane.
No, it wasn’t just two.
—boooom!—
As two auras exploded out from two sides of the plane, another aura that was as big as both of them combined exploded out from between them.
Three energies ruptured outwards like the eruption of a volcano.
The tremendous amount of energy pushed against their skin, and Hansoo mumbled:
“I guess they didn’t have time to. They seem to be busy with their own jobs.”
“It’s time… for us to do our jobs as well.”
Hansoo mumbled as he looked at the three giant auras exploding around them.
—rumble—
Roaaaar!
The Nelkipa, which had been ignoring the countless artillery shells, started to cry out.
Reincarnator – Chapter 371: Inheritance War (1)
“Woah…”
After coming down, Kiriel regretted her previous decision not to follow Hansoo after reading the Quirae’s memories.
‘What a sight.’
Looking at the bright blue sphere through the glass panel, it felt like she was walking through space.
Like she had become a God who could walk in the air.
The Quirae wasn’t interested in anything other than eating, so it hadn’t looked down.
But looking at the scene down here, it was truly marvelous.
At this moment, Kiriel heard Enbi Arin’s voice.
“…Heh, Melchizedek. I didn’t expect that thing to keep something like this hidden beneath the Aokan.”
She hadn’t even dreamt of something like this when she was saving the people.
‘Damn… I didn’t even know what the enemy had up their sleeves. Why did I even try to defeat them?’
Thinking back to it, she was embarrassed beyond reason.
They had taken her hostage, used her, made her attack Hansoo, and some mysterious armor had almost killed her.
‘Wait… This does feel familiar.’
But according to her own memories, she had never been here.
As Enbi Arin looked around curiously, Kiriel also roamed around and inspected the surrounding area.
There were three distinct things about this place.
The giant crystal that was supplying a tremendous amount of energy upwards.
The devoured corpses of a strange race that were barely maintaining their shape.
And the dried-up blue armor that race had apparently worn.
As Kiriel looked at the dried-up armor, she also came to the same question Hansoo had before.
‘What the… Then where did Hansoo’s armor come from?’
It looked like Melchizedek had been the one to find it.
And it had planned to use the corpses and the energy here to raise the Quirae and send them away.
It should have acquired the blue armor here as well.
But if every other armor had dried up, why was Hansoo’s still functioning?
‘Do the dried-up ones still function?’
Kiriel, who had the Dragon God Armor, reached out with her hands towards the blue armor in anticipation.
Although the Dragon God Armor she had on was strong, it was still a bit weaker in comparison to the blue armor Hansoo wore.
Although Enbi Arin could not control the blue armor and had almost died from it, that was a story of the past.
They, who had risen up to the level of a 3-Star, could easily support the blue armor with their mana.
But Kiriel was left disappointed after touching the blue armor.
…sssssss…
The blue armor disintegrated to dust the moment she touched it.
She had wondered, but indeed, these were all useless.
Completely dried up.
She grew even more curious about Hansoo’s armor and started to use her Psychometry.
‘Let’s see… Something should come up if I search this room.’
And soon—
—ooooooong—
Her upgraded Psychometry started to sweep through the room.
…………………………………………..
As Kiriel and Enbi Arin searched the area below—
Kyaaaak!
—a battle was raging on above.
Well, it was more like a massacre than a battle.
Kyaaak!
Countless Quirae were melting down from the red clouds.
Hansoo smiled bitterly as he looked below at the hard exoskeletons and the human appearances all melting down into nothingness.
“I am sorry that I couldn’t rescue you…”
“Krrrrk… ugh.”
Hansoo mumbled as he looked at the women who were giving birth to more Quirae.
There was nothing he could do after the Quirae had infected them.
Nothing except to send them off peacefully.
So he had to clean this place up thoroughly.
If he didn’t, then the others coming up after them might end up as sacrifices as well.
The Quirae’s reproduction speed was infamous, even within the Abyss.
Like the Ark-Roa, they were a top priority target for any force once found.
The third floor of the Abyss, which had ignored this, had become the Quirae’s lair.
‘It was insane.’
Evolving through humans was just the beginning.
The stronger the thing eaten, the longer its digestion, and it would go through more levels of evolution.
Humans bred 3rd-level Quirae, and the strange race here bred 5th-level Quirae.
Hansoo thought back to scenes created by the ones who had evolved past 20 levels and focused back on cleaning again.
He wanted to make this place, the Aokan, clean at least.
—booom!—
The red clouds that had been drifting around him started vigorously acting up and expanded at a crazy rate.
Kyaaak!
Aaaahh!
Hansoo went around Aokan while listening to the screams and soon reached the area where Kiriel had fought before.
‘Tsk. They all died.’
Hansoo shook his head as he looked at traces of the nine—not even their corpses had remained.
Since Kiriel wouldn’t attack them first, there was only one reason this had happened.
‘There are always those who look to attack from the back.’
—clank—
—clank—
Hansoo looked around at the nine sets of Dragon God Armor on the ground and then picked up three.
The others had been damaged too much to be of use, but these three still looked functional.
If he gave one to Enbi Arin, then she would use it well.
Hansoo stood up after taking the three sets of armor and then looked at the control center at the back.
‘Not bad. She does have some ability.’
Hansoo thought as he looked at the control center cut cleanly in two.
Even if the Kiriel’s fang was a gift from the fairy.
Even if she had become a 3-Star.
Cutting something like that in two in such a clean manner was not easy.
But she had done it.
As soon as she climbed to the level of a 3-Star.
Hansoo whistled at the sight but then frowned.
‘…?’
The nine Dragon God Soldiers were dead.
But there were traces of teleportation.
Traces of minimal troubleshooting on the control tower, enough to reactivate it.
Hansoo frowned and thought back to Kriel’s words.
‘N-Aroel… Was that his name?’
—sssss!—
As Hansoo melted away the rest of the control center—
“Hansoo!”
—Enbi Arin and Kiriel shouted from a distance as they quickly dashed towards him.
Hansoo chuckled as he looked at the two arriving before him.
“You finished it quickly. Here’s a present, Arin.”
—clank—
Hansoo handed Enbi Arin the Dragon God Armor still in the best condition of the three.
“Thank you. I’ll use it well.”
There would be countless battles ahead of them.
The better their equipment, the better their situation would be.
—clakakakak!—
The moment Enbi Arin touched the Dragon God Armor, the armor quickly detached into countless pieces and surrounded her body.
Hansoo listened to the sounds of friction between the metal pieces and spoke to Kiriel.
“I wonder if you had fun looking at the museum. Did you enjoy watching the mummies and the ancient artifacts?”
The corpses and armor that looked at least hundreds of years old.
It wasn’t a stretch to call it a museum at that point.
Kiriel shrugged her shoulders and replied:
“Sure, I didn’t even need an audio guide.”
Hansoo chuckled.
‘If I had an ability like that, I would have loved going to places like the museum.’
An ability to read the past would be fun to use in a place like a museum.
Hansoo cleaned up his useless thoughts and asked:
“So, did you find out what happened to the armor?”
Kiriel’s expression turned serious and replied:
“Yes.”
As to how only one armor could stay preserved.
She figured some things out as she read the past.
“That… something wore it until recently.”
“It was worn?”
Kiriel nodded.
“Yes.”
Hansoo realized what had happened from this short conversation.
“So… There are still surviving owners of this blue armor.”
Kiriel nodded with a dark expression.
………………………………………………..
—kuuuuuooooo—
N-Akuon wore an excited expression as he listened to N-Aroel’s second story.
“…So, other than those aliens and that new race, there’s another race still alive?”
N-Aroel nodded.
“Yes. I like that you’re quick to understand. After going into that hole, everything else was a corpse, but one was still alive.”
“But… how? You said it was wearing that strange armor?”
N-Akuon made a confused expression.
He knew how the armor could’ve stayed functional and not dried up.
If it were equipped onto somebody still alive, it could absorb the energy from the host and maintain itself.
But according to what he’d heard, that armor was evil beyond reason.
The host should’ve long been dead from having that much energy absorbed.
But N-Aroel chuckled.
“Didn’t I mention that crystal before?”
“Oh…”
N-Akuon nodded.
The crystal that supplied a tremendous amount of energy.
If one supplied themselves with energy from that crystal, it could explain how the owner of that blue armor had survived.
Since that ridiculous amount of energy could easily supply the blue armor.
N-Aroel continued to speak.
“Maybe… the host had been able to survive thanks to the armor. A symbiotic relationship of a sort?”
The blue armor sucked energy from its owner and in return used its life support functions to keep the host alive.
The host supplied the armor with energy and barely managed to survive.
And as he heard up to this point—
—a question appeared inside N-Akuon’s head.
“Then… where did the host go? The owner of the blue armor.”
N-Aroel laughed as he said:
“I love how well you understand these things. Right. That’s the third story I’m about to tell you.”
N-Aroel pointed towards the head of the Nelkipa, the final destination of the aliens, and spoke.