CHAPTER 122
122 - Outside the Barrier**

The sky was dark.

The effects of the spreading Erosion were immediately apparent in the surrounding environment. The sky was shrouded in darkness, and the ground was stained black. The vegetation that once gave off a fresh scent now emitted only a dreary, burnt smell.

The only thing that remained unscathed was the World Tree Jinwoo had planted. Just that one tree.

"What is going on here?"

Jinwoo asked the woman pinned beneath his foot. His tone wasn't his usual one; it resembled that of an interrogation.

The first thing he did when the incident occurred was to capture and bind the maid. She tried to flee in a panic, but she couldn't escape Jinwoo's grasp. Now, completely bound, she was being interrogated by Jinwoo as she lay pinned by the tree's roots.

"I-I don't know. I don't know either!"

"You don't know? Are you saying Belkarim isn't responsible for this?"

"That is..."

He could imagine her eyes trembling behind her mask. Whatever was happening, it was true that she was flustered. Jinwoo found this strange but didn't let it show.

"This power... it does seem to be my master's. I would not mistake her power."

He already knew that without her having to say it. The Erosion covering the area had a scent similar to the soul of the wolf he had seen that day.

And more importantly.

'The flow of time around the barrier is slowing down to a bizarre degree.'

He had tried launching sword qi to break or shatter the barrier, but it wouldn't break. It wasn't that his power was being blocked or nullified. It simply slowed down the closer it got to the barrier's surface, until now it seemed to have stopped altogether.

He didn't know if other Monarchs possessed this kind of authority, but as far as Jinwoo knew, Belkarim was the only one.

"But I don't understand. My master told me to watch over you. She also instructed me to offer a little advice if you seemed to be struggling. She wanted you to completely accept the black energy."

"I get that, but what's the reason for suddenly trapping us?"

"I-I was told nothing. I don't know anything about this. However, if I were to guess..."

The maid, her face nearly pressed into the ground, turned her head slightly. At the end of her gaze was a single tree.

"My master called this tree 'profane.' She said it would not only be of no help to you but would be an obstacle that would hold you back. Perhaps this is because of the tree? Yes, if we cut down this tree, my master will release the barrier. I will do it myself..."

Her words grew longer and began to take on a strange fervor.

He already knew she disliked the World Tree from the start. Now that she suspected it was the cause of this situation, that thought seemed to be accelerating.

As she reached out her arm, radiating an ominous energy, Jinwoo thrust his sword in front of her palm, blocking it.

"Enough."

Jinwoo's sword dug into the ground, threatening the maid's hand. If he had aimed just a little differently, her palm would have been pierced.

Hic! With a sharp intake of breath, the maid's hand froze. She couldn't hide the ominous look in her eyes as she stared at the World Tree, but for now, she stopped her immediate action.

"For now, let's investigate a bit more. I'll see if it can be broken from the inside."

"Yes..."

After tying the maid up completely so she couldn't move, he threw her at the base of the World Tree. The tree's roots moved on their own, binding the maid even more tightly.

She let out a brief groan of pain but didn't resist further. She seemed to sense that if she so much as moved a finger without permission, her head would fly.

After confirming that the World Tree had her securely bound, Jinwoo set out to explore the surroundings. Though it was an exploration, the space wasn't large.

It was a slightly wider area including the garden he had been in. It was similar in size to, or perhaps a little smaller than, the Erosion he had first experienced in Seoul.

Since there wasn't much to search, the investigation ended quickly. He found nothing.

'I don't see a core, either.'

There was no Black Flame that looked like a core. The only being here that held a Black Flame was the maid tied to the World Tree.

At first, he thought she was the core, which was why he had bound her first, but she wasn't. Not every Black Flame becomes the core of Erosion.

'It seems my perception has improved during my time here.'

He had been able to distinguish the energy of Erosion to some extent before, but after training in this garden, he could now differentiate it much more clearly.

He could now more accurately identify the power he once handled only by instinct, without knowing its true nature. His skills had certainly improved thanks to Belkarim's invitation.

The problem was why she had suddenly created the barrier.

'Simply put, it's one of two things.'

If he were to briefly speculate on the reason for such an act, two possibilities came to mind.

One was to imprison him.

'I'd been considering that possibility ever since I received the suspicious invitation.'

Jinwoo had entered this garden because he was invited by Belkarim. In other words, she wanted to keep him in this garden.

The problem was the duration. Jinwoo planned to leave as soon as he had finished a certain amount of training, but Belkarim might have had different ideas. She might have wanted him to stay longer.

If she had done this to make him stay longer... it wasn't an impossible scenario.

'The other is the opposite: to keep me from seeing what's happening outside.'

The other reason was the exact opposite. It wasn't to isolate and imprison Jinwoo from the outside, but to prevent him from seeing the outside.

If that were the case, it meant some incident had occurred outside the barrier.

There weren't many places to hide on the snow mountain.

This was not a normal mountain but a pile of earth and ice that Belkarim had her slaves build up over a long period. While there was some greenery that had sprouted on its own over the years, its density was very low.

Hiding spots were limited to crevices in rocks or dug-out burrows where shadows gathered. Kalesian was hiding in one such place, observing the situation.

'Hoo, so that's the ice castle Jinwoo mentioned. I wondered what it looked like... it's quite magnificent.'

Kalesian could now see the ice castle on the other side of the snow mountain.

Just a short while ago, it had been completely invisible. As someone uninvited by Belkarim, he was not qualified to see it.

But now he could see it. This meant the situation was so urgent that they couldn't even hide it from uninvited guests like him.

'Well, when you're attacked like that...'

The magnificent—or once magnificent—castle was being mercilessly destroyed by bombardment from the sky.

Dragons covering the sky flapped their massive wings, unleashing thunder, lightning, and all manner of fire and hail.

Though they numbered only in the dozens, each one was a colossal dragon, and their magical power was running rampant. Thanks to them, the sky was completely shrouded in black, without a trace of blue.

'They don't seem stronger than Silbaern... but to command such a number.'

The strength of each individual dragon was not comparable to Silbaern. But they were still dragons.

The dragon race, by nature, structured the world around themselves. To put it simply, they were self-centered, so it was incredibly rare for them to move in groups.

For a group of dozens, almost a legion, to be on the move meant there was a significant reason.

Either this ice castle was so atrocious that it had enraged dozens of dragons, or there was someone more powerful commanding them.

Kalesian believed it was the latter. Considering this was the Spirit Realm, that seemed more plausible.

'Belkarim's slaves seem to be fighting hard... but it won't be enough.'

The slaves who had been piling and carrying snow and ice had taken up arms and gone to war. Of course, "arms" was just a figure of speech; in reality, each was employing their own specialized tactics.

Although they were slaves who had only performed manual labor, they were beings Belkarim had gathered from all over the world. Each had a trick up their sleeve, and if well-honed, it was something that even a dragon could not ignore.

But they were weak.

No matter what tricks they had, that was all they had. The dragons covering the sky were far more cunning and intelligent to be fought with just that.

And so, they all perished. Lives were lost along with the collapsing ice castle. Though they were already dead, the experience of dying once more was extremely unpleasant.

"Huh, heok! Y-You!"

"Who are you?"

Just then, someone discovered the hiding Kalesian. The man was shrouded in dark magic, but it wasn't the energy of Erosion. He had fought the dragons in the sky with all sorts of skeletons and high-level undead, but in the end, he had lost all his minions and was left alone. It was Johann.

"P-Please, save me! I'll do anything, I beg you!"

"I'm hiding here with no way to help myself. How am I supposed to save you?"

"But please... sob!"

"Tsk, you'll be discovered if you stay out there. Get in here!"

Johann was making such a scene that Kalesian quickly pulled him into the hiding spot. Though "hiding spot" was an overstatement for what was just a narrow cave in a rock crevice.

"Heok! Heok, heok!"

"Where is your master? She doesn't show herself even when being invaded. Does she have no will to protect this place?"

Kalesian asked Johann, who was catching his breath. It was an important question, but Johann didn't know the answer.

"I don't... sob... know."

"Is that so? Is your master such a magnanimous person that she'd let her own front yard be destroyed?"

"How da—! N-No, sir. I really don't know."

Johann, who had reflexively started to get angry, remembered his situation and bowed his head again. Kalesian snorted, "Hmph."

"I'm going to look for Jinwoo. Are you coming?"

"Kang Jinwoo... him?"

"Yes. We are the only two allies in this world, so we must put our heads together to overcome this ordeal."

It wasn't a metaphor; he was stating a fact. Here in the Spirit Realm, the only being Kalesian could rely on was Jinwoo.

Thanks to him, he had been able to defeat Silbaern and escape that forest. If he had been alone, he would probably be dissolving in Silbaern's stomach acid by now.

"Is that bastard really that strong?"

"Of course he is. If he were weak, do you think he could have wandered around this Spirit Realm?"

"Hmm..."

Kalesian gave him a sidelong glance and then exited the cave. He didn't forget to use a type of magic that blended him with his surroundings to avoid being spotted by the dragon swarm in the sky.

"If you're not interested, just stay there. Though I don't know how long you can last without being found."

Kalesian left. Johann couldn't make a decision and fidgeted anxiously. Should he stay here where it was safe for now? Or should he risk it and follow that hatchling?

It was a long deliberation, but fortunately, this was Belkarim's land. A strange land that could turn even the longest time into a midsummer night's dream.

After a long yet short deliberation, he hurriedly followed after Kalesian.