CHAPTER 96: Severing the World
Guarding a path meant there was something to protect.

In this desert, it wasn't just any Orc, but a minion of a Monarch. What it was trying to protect was obvious: a temple, or the divine objects it had stolen so far.

[This is perfect. Let’s capture that thing and interrogate it for the temple’s location.]

‘You want to capture it alive?’

[As long as it’s breathing, that’s enough.]

Jinwoo looked at the Orc in front of him. It was draped in black cloth covering its head and entire body, so he couldn't see its contours, but he could tell it was large.

‘A few stabs with a sword won't make it talk.’

It wasn't the type to spill everything under some half-hearted threat. And it wasn't like he had mastered any torture techniques.

[Don't worry. I have a way.]

The Lord of Light told him to leave it to it. Its confident tone suggested it had a reliable method.

If so, it was worth the extra effort to capture it alive. It was more difficult than killing it, but it was the only lead in this desert.

“You do not approach.”

The sand-mage stood still, unmoving. The sandstorm on its green hand also remained. It was a guardian of the path, so it had no need to actively come and kill Jinwoo. If he turned around and left, it probably wouldn't even bother to chase him.

But Jinwoo had a reason to catch it. Not one, but two.

‘Can you do it?’

Clang!

At Jinwoo’s words, the Ego Sword hummed slightly, making a sound like rattling chains. Trusting its confidence, Jinwoo kicked off the sand.

“Foolish. You cannot recognize the place where you will die.”

The sand-mage’s two eyes, visible through the black cloth covering its head, gleamed ominously. For an Orc, it spoke quite intelligently. Perhaps it was highly educated, having learned sorcery.

Given Vertus, it wasn't that surprising. And from his experience with Vertus, he knew one thing for certain.

Even if its speech was polite and courteous, beneath it all raged the blood-soaked fighting spirit characteristic of the Orc race.

The sand glinted sharply and rushed toward Jinwoo to tear him apart. Unlike the initial ambush, it didn't take the form of a blade. The tiny grains of sand swarmed him as they were.

The smallest of blades. Moving on their own, they resembled a swarm of insects, evoking a primal sense of disgust.

Jinwoo leaped into the oncoming sand. Protected by a barrier of wind, he charged toward the sand-mage as countless grains of sand relentlessly battered its surface.

‘Each grain of sand is infused with mana... For a creature of its size, it’s surprisingly meticulous.’

Amazingly, every grain of sand trying to penetrate the wind was individually imbued with mana. It wasn't just a single mass of mana applied to the whole; each one was separate.

Imbuing an object with mana wasn't a difficult task, but applying it to each of these countless grains of sand was a staggering feat, even for Jinwoo. He could never replicate it.

However.

“In the end, sand is just sand.”

Jinwoo swung his Ego Sword, cutting through the flow of sand. The sandstorm was imbued with considerable power, but it was lighter than he expected.

Sand was sand. No matter how much mana was poured into it, its weight didn't increase.

“...!”

The sand-mage's eyes widened when it saw Jinwoo burst through the sandstorm in an instant. It had imagined a mangled corpse, but Jinwoo was not only not a corpse, he was completely unharmed.

“You bastard...!”

Only then did it hastily gather sand to form a sword. It was short, about the length of a forearm, but its thickness was comparable to an axe—a blunt sword.

A heavy, yellow sword made from the finest sand particles it controlled. It swung it down at Jinwoo, who had already closed the distance, but...

SLICE!

The arm holding the sword was what was severed.

“Kuaaaaargh!”

Even as his face contorted in pain, the sand-mage didn't fall back. Instead, it showed its aggression by lunging forward to attack Jinwoo. Truly an Orc.

Jinwoo simply changed the direction of the sword that had cut off its arm and swung down again. The Orc's remaining arm was half-severed, gushing blood.

Jinwoo kicked the staggering Orc in the chest.

“Keuk!”

With one arm lost, it couldn't maintain its balance, and the blood loss was severe. Unable to support itself, it collapsed onto the sandy ground with a heavy thud.

Jinwoo pointed his sword at its neck, then lowered it to its chest. Where the tip of the sword was aimed, a Black Flame flickered. Probably near where its heart would be.

“You son of a... Mmph! Mmph!”

As the creature, lying on the ground, tried to lift its head to glare at him, a root sprouted from the ground, clamped over its mouth, and held it in place.

The opponent was a sorcerer who used some kind of spell. While controlling sand seemed to be its main ability, it might have some troublesome spells it could cast with its mouth.

The root from the God of the Moonlight Forest sealed its mouth and held its head still. Not only that, but it also forced its eyelids wide open so it couldn't even blink.

“Mmph! Mmmph!”

The large body thrashed, kicking up sand. Soon, its limbs were also bound by roots and pinned to the ground.

Jinwoo looked at the light beside him.

“You said you had a way to interrogate it?”

[Yes. This will only take a moment.]

The light approached the sand-mage’s bound face and flickered several times. Sometimes short, sometimes long. It blinked a few times, as if tapping out Morse code.

Soon, the sand-mage’s struggles subsided, and its eyes became vacant and unfocused.

Now, even when the roots released it, it didn't resist. It slowly stood up, and without even brushing the sand from its body, it clasped its hands as if in prayer toward the light and knelt, prostrating itself.

“I greet my master.”

[It’s all done.]

It truly took only a moment. The time it took to completely dominate a minion was no more than a few blinks of an eye.

‘I thought it might use Erosion or something...’

Jinwoo had imagined it would swallow the Orc with Erosion and make it its own minion. However, it had stolen the Lord of War’s minion with a completely different power, not Erosion.

“If it’s this easy, why didn’t you do it sooner?”

It was so simple it was almost anticlimactic. When he asked, the light swayed from side to side as if shaking its head.

[This is the first time I’ve captured a minion this easily. I’ve caught a few ordinary Orcs, but they didn’t know the temple’s location.]

It seemed it had already tried this several times on regular Orcs. But capturing mere grunts yielded no information about the temple. This was the first time it had captured a minion-level being alive, and so easily at that. The Lord of Light's tone held a hint of admiration.

And then.

Flicker—

The light flickered slightly. Subtly, right in front of Jinwoo’s eyes.

It didn't exude any aura, but the act itself raised Jinwoo’s guard. Seeing Jinwoo step back and finger the hilt of his sword, the light spoke hastily.

[Oh, no, it’s not that. The connection is just a little unstable. Ahaha.]

“...”

Was it telling the truth, or just making an excuse? This was an entity he couldn't let his guard down around for a single moment.

Was it really right to be traveling with a being like this?

‘Then again, it’s the one following me around of its own accord...’

The problem was that even if he wanted to chase it away, he had no way to do so. Still, there was one fortunate thing.

A tree root had grown and inserted itself between Jinwoo and the light, its nerves on edge as it faced the light.

There was a garden filled with light.

At first glance, it appeared sacred and beautiful, but upon closer inspection, it was a bizarre place.

Despite being so full of light, there were no shadows.

There was no shade under the trees, no shadows from the flowers, and no darkness in the caves between the rocks.

A place that could not exist in an ordinary world.

Luminous flowers formed fields that stretched beyond the horizon, and among them, one could see bees flying about, pollinating, and squirrels scurrying away with acorns.

The song of a bird chirping on a branch seemed to sparkle like starlight itself.

In that paradise-like place sat a woman. A beautiful woman with teal hair.

“...Why isn't it working?”

No, it wasn't strange that it didn't work. She had expected as much when she tried.

The real question she should be asking was why the ‘baptism’ didn’t work.

“That tree-thing didn’t do anything, so why did it fail?”

The power of the World Tree resided in his body. It had been there for a long time, claiming his body as its own and repelling all other beings like herself.

So, she knew the baptism wouldn't work. The reason she tried anyway was because she wanted to observe how the World Tree would block it.

The problem was that it failed even though the World Tree did nothing.

“...And the fact that he noticed the minion before I did.”

He was no ordinary being. Kang Jinwoo, was it?

The one who had stolen the Sky God's divine object and banished its temple from the Gate.

“He was a Hunter from a place called Earth, I believe.”

She knew Earth was a planet the Sky God was quite diligently targeting.

Thinking about it that way, it made sense that Kang Jinwoo had stolen the Sky God's divine object. It was a small act of retaliation against the one attacking their world.

“Earth...”

Tapping her chin in thought, she extended a hand. At her gesture, one of the nearby bees flew unsteadily toward her.

“You. You said you were a Hunter from Earth, didn’t you? Can you tell me about your world?”

Even though it was a bee incapable of human speech, she smiled as if she could hear it perfectly and listened intently.

The information extracted from the sand-mage was simple.

The Temple of War was located in a canyon down along this riverbed.

It sounded easy enough, but the downstream part of the riverbed was said to branch into dozens of streams. Those streams then split again, resulting in over a hundred possible paths in total.

Among those paths, only one led to the canyon where the Temple of War was located.

“I will tell you how to find the path. First, when you arrive at the first fork, if you look at the night sky...”

[I don't care. Just guide us.]

“Yes. Please follow me.”

As the sand-mage's explanation threatened to drag on, the Lord of Light cut it off and ordered it to lead the way. It was a much simpler and more accurate method than a tedious explanation.

“Hah... I guess I can’t even fix the car.”

Jinwoo stored the three pieces of his vehicle in his inventory. It should probably be called a pile of scrap metal now, not a vehicle.

Following the sand-mage, they traveled down the riverbed.

They moved faster than walking speed, but not at a full sprint. It was slower than the car, but their pace was still quite fast.

After traveling for several more days with minimal sleep, they arrived at the canyon the sand-mage had mentioned.

Red cliffs blocked their path like a wall that severed the world. There was a narrow path between them, but an ominous darkness lurked within, preventing easy entry.

There were no guards, nothing blocking the way. But the dark aura emanating from between the canyon walls alone created an eerie atmosphere.

What was even more noticeable was...

BOOM!

The canyon was already under attack by someone.

Not many, just two. A small, flying dragon hatchling, and clinging to it, a woman of Indian descent.

“Isn’t that Kalesian and Mahiri?”

As Jinwoo stood there, surprised by the unexpected encounter.

KRAKOOM!

A breath weapon shot from Kalesian’s mouth, striking the red cliffs that divided the world.