Elaine, who had left the ruins of the royal palace, was now walking through a barren field. She then stopped in her tracks when she noticed something strange.
Wandering around in the wasteland were black figures and upon closer inspection, she identified them as monsters.
‘What are they doing here?’
Monsters originated from negative human emotions such as hatred, sadness and anger. Over time, as those negative human emotions accumulate, they combine with the natural mana in the world which then forms monsters.
Even if they aren’t necessarily monsters, all unnatural beings, such as witches, were born from this principle. The beings who were born this way had different properties depending on the emotions they were formed from. Therefore, monsters were mainly created in places of tragedy, such as massacres or disasters.
Since Seveka was now a place where a large massacre has occurred, it was a given that it would become a den infested with monsters. However, the massacre occurred only recently. It should have still been a while before the monsters appeared here…
‘There are so many.’
However, for some reason, the sight in front of Elaine currently was of monsters completely covering a field, turning it black. Moreover, no matter how you look at it, there were only monsters here at the intermediate level or higher.
How could monsters of that level be created in only a few days? And this many?
‘I should get out of here for now.’
Elaine had many questions, but at the moment, there was no way of knowing. Rather than that, getting out of this place was the main priority. To do that, she had to pass through the swarm of monsters but, she had no intention of dealing with that many one by one.
Elaine circulated mana through her body. There were numerous monsters, but they were scattered here and there. It may be difficult to avoid the eyes of all the monsters, but if she moved as quickly as she possibly could, she could reduce unnecessary confrontations.
As she was just about to take her first step…
Kieeek!
Suddenly a strange cry was heard from overhead. When she looked up, she saw a pitch-black bird circling in the sky. It was a monster that had the appearance of a large crow.
At the sound, all the eyes of the scattered monsters focused in one place. When the monsters discovered the presence of a human they all let out a unanimous roar and flocked toward Elaine’s direction.
She had wanted to pass by as quietly as possible, but that didn’t appear possible now. A small sigh escaped.
She was currently wearing torn clothes and didn’t even have a sword. An ordinary sword master can only apply sword energy through a weapon shaped like a sword. Even if they were able to drastically increase their physical abilities by using their mana on their bodies, it would be impossible to deal with that many monsters without a sword.
In any case, that would all apply only to an ‘ordinary’ sword master. Of course, Elaine’s skills were anything but ordinary and those rules did not apply to her. Her skills didn’t rely solely on a weapon and such.
She raised one arm while staring at the monsters that were now right in front of her. Soon, white mana flowed above her hand. The shapeless mana slowly began to take the form of a sharp blade.
Elaine immediately began to fend off the monsters, sending waves of energy toward them. With each sweep of the white mana, damage was inflicted on the monsters and screams erupted from the creatures.
Time passed on slowly.
‘Why isn’t it decreasing?’
As Elaine continuously defeated numerous monsters, eventually she noticed that her mana level was not decreasing at all. She wasn’t holding back at all and by now she would have used a considerable amount. However, Elaine still possessed the same level of mana. To be precise, if felt as if the surrounding mana was automatically replenishing her core.
While battling dozens of monsters, Elaine realized the changes to her body one by one.
Extremely enhanced physical abilities and frightening resilience. These changes may have occurred because the witch’s heart is the source of infinite life force. But why is it that her mana never ran out?
‘How is it that Bella has endless mana? Does it never deplete?’
It was a conversation she’d had with Bella. One day, Bella answered this question Elaine had asked her out of curiosity.
“Rather than saying it doesn’t decrease… Should I say there’s no sign of it shrinking?”
“What does that mean?”
“Well, I am a witch after all.”
“That’s true.”
“And a witch is a being born from a combination of human emotions and natural mana.”
Bella was clam as she told the story of how she was born. It was as if she was reciting a recipe.
“People all desires to live a healthy, beautiful, long life. It’s a primal desire that every human being has. This old wish, which began at the birth of civilization, took root and sprouted over time, eventually giving birth to the creation of witches.”
“My heart is the source of eternal life, and eternal life is the product of the mana created by the love and desire of many people, over a long period of time.”
“…love?”
“Yes, since I am a being born from such an emotion, mana seems to love me as well, so, I don’t run out of mana. Its almost infinite, I’d say.”
Based on that conversation, Elaine felt like she had a vague idea of why the mana inside her was not depleted. As Bella’s heart was now passed onto her, the characteristics of receiving mana’s affection had also been transferred to her as well.
Each time she discovered a trace of Bella within her, Elaine felt overwhelmed. But since she had now made her decision carry on with life, she couldn’t turn back or hesitate.
Elaine looked down at her blood-soaked palms and raised he head. She saw more monsters running at her from afar. She had already defeated so many but they were still swarming in endlessly.
Even though there were no end to them, there was no fear in her eyes as she looked upon the scene. She felt the heart beating inside her and took another step toward the monsters.
***
Elaine narrowed her eyes as she measured the direction of the rising sun. Now, if she kept walking, she would near the boarder of Seveka. Right before reaching the boarder there was a small private house.
After walking past the house, she saw some soldiers surrounding the boarder that formed Seveka.
“What is going on?”
Elaine unconsciously hid behind the broken building and narrowed her eyes. There was a significant number of soldiers lining the boarder, more than at first glance. They were patrolling the surrounding area as if regulating who could enter and exit.
For some reason, she had a feeling that nothing good would come from being discovered by them. As soon as she saw a gap in their line, she quietly slipped through the poorly guarded area, avoiding the eyes of the soldiers. This was only possible because the sun had set and it was quite dark by now and there were many remains of collapsed buildings around. Her extremely agile physical ability also played a big role as well.
She passed the border that was guarded by soldiers and arrived at a small village.
‘Why on earth were those soldiers there earlier?’
Even after she had passed through the guards, she still felt uneasy so she looked back at the direction where the soldiers were. Coincidentally, she saw some villagers pass by. She cautiously approached them and spoke.
“Excuse me, but may I ask you some questions?”
“Hmm? Sure.”
“There are a lot of soldiers at the Seveka boarder. Do you know why?”
“Huh? Why would you ask that? Are there still people who don’t know that Seveka is a restricted area?”
“Restricted?”
“Well, after the incident, Seveka became overrun with monsters. Did you not know, the surrounding area has become so dangerous that the King has ordered the soldiers to guard the boarder?”
She couldn’t understand what they were talking about.
Not allowed to enter Seveka?
It was only recently that a disaster occurred in Seveka…
Elaine asked in a confused voice.
“Has everything in Seveka already been sorted out? What about any survivors? What happened to all the people?”
The villager’s face became strange.
“What on earth are you talking about? Its been taken care of long ago. Its already been 20 years since the tragedy occurred.”
“20 Years? What…?”
For a moment she didn’t believe her ears.
“That’s right. Why do you keep asking such obvious questions?”
“Why is that… So, what about the year? Isn’t it the year 512?”
The question escaped her mouth without thinking. She had a somewhat ominous feeling. At her words, the villager’s face became even more strange.
“Huh? What on earth are you talking about now? This is year 532. Treating the Seveka incident as if it happened yesterday and talking nonsense about it being 512…”
The villager now looked at her like she was crazy. Then, suddenly they noticed her tattered, torn clothes and the dirt on her face. After seeing her pitiful face, the people around started whispering.
“Hey, is that person okay?”
“What happened to her?”
They glanced at her with pitiful eyes but, Elaine was frozen in thought.
“532…?”
Elaine repeated what she had heard with a blank face.
- The day she turned twenty and also the day she closed her eyes for the last time in the burning city.
Twenty years have passed since that day? It’s really 532?
At that time, another townsperson asked in a cautious tone.
“Do you know where your house is? We can take you- “
Before he could finish his sentence-
“Huh? Hey, girl!”
She had already turned around and was running away. The startled townspeople tried to grab her, but she quickly disappeared from their sight.
She gritted her teeth and ran to the village then opened the door of the first random store she saw.
“Welcome-”
Elaine passed by the owner and went directly behind the counter without even saying hello. She started flipping through the calendar that was hanging on the wall.
‘Please, no.’
However, despite all her wishes, the words on the calendar were large and clear.
[February 5, 532 Philion Calendar]
She couldn’t believe it. It couldn’t be. Of course, she thought it was 512, at most a few days had passed.
Her thoughts had come to a halt. She was frozen.
‘So, the monsters…’
The monsters she saw in Seveka before coming to the village… She thought it was strange that the results of that massacre were already visible.
It wasn’t strange now, though. Everything made sense. After all, 20 years had passed.
20 years since the tragedy of that day.
