"What happened?"
The entire village was a sea of flames, houses were destroyed, hills were shattered, large craters from explosions were everywhere, the entire village was in ruins.
Hastora didn't immediately run there, he just looked at the condition of the village from a distance. He observed in detail, from the ruins of the destroyed buildings, the large fire that was blazing, and the collapsed hills.
He tried to figure out the mastermind behind all this.
From his observations, the large fire blazing in the village was not the result of human carelessness, but a fire that originated from an attack by a powerful monster.
The destroyed hills also seemed to be the work of a monster, it was impossible for the villagers to do it.
The debris from the destroyed houses looked like the aftermath of a physical attack from a monster. It could be seen from the footprints of the monster that were near the destroyed houses.
Without thinking, Hastora immediately ran towards the destroyed village. He remained very calm despite the horrific sight before him.
20,000 years ago, there were many sights far more terrifying than the sight before him now. Hastora was used to it, compared to 20,000 years ago, this sight was nothing.
Upon arriving there, he walked calmly while looking at the condition of the village.
Nothing was left.
There were many corpses of villagers lying there, fresh blood flowing from their bodies, a pungent smell could be smelled everywhere. But, there was something more important right now, which was...
His family!
Hastora immediately ran towards his house—upon arriving there, he found nothing.
There was only a destroyed house and a large fire there, nothing else. Hastora circled the entire destroyed and burned village to find his parents.
He was looking for them not because he cared, but he still needed them to survive.
With his current physical condition, he would have difficulty surviving alone. He needed them!
He had been around the entire village, but, he couldn't find them both. Among all the corpses there, only the corpses of his parents were not visible.
Hastora began to suspect this situation, he ran back to his house that had been destroyed before.
He tried to find something around there, but, again and again, he found nothing. There was only one question that came to his mind right now, which was...
Was this all their doing?
Hastora tried to gather all the pieces of the puzzle that existed, starting from the corpses of his parents who were not in the village, his house was destroyed but there was no blood there, and there were no pieces of important items that were there.
First, since he left home, his parents had no activities that required them to leave their home. It was impossible for them to survive this devastating attack without suffering fatal injuries considering the strength of his parents who were only C-rank creatures.
Second, how could his parents have managed to take some important items away?, this monster attack itself was very devastating, especially what they took away was the artifacts that were kept by his father, Ard.
Third, this is the core of all the previous puzzles, which is... There are no corpses of his parents here. How could it be? At a time when all the corpses of the villagers were here, how could the corpses of his parents not be there?.
There is no other reason, eaten by a monster? If you look at it from now, the monster that attacked this village didn't look like a monster that ate humans. It could be seen from how the corpses of the villagers were not eaten by it.
While he was busy thinking about the previous problem, suddenly there was a sound of very strong footsteps. The footsteps made the ground tremble there, Hastora immediately turned around.
"So you're the mastermind behind all this?"
It could be seen, a monster with a height of 5 meters stood in front of Hastora. The monster looked like an alligator, but, there was one difference that distinguished the monster from the alligator, which was...
The number of tails.
Alligators only have one tail, but, the monster has three tails on its back.
The energy emitted by the monster was very strong, capable of making the trees around it wither instantly.
Hastora took out his grimoire from behind the shadow. He absorbed a little magical energy emitted by the monster with his grimoire. A number came out, the number showed the amount of RP owned by the monster that was in front of him right now, the amount of RP of the monster was...
12,000
The monster's RP was two thousand more than Hastora's. But, it didn't make Hastora afraid and run away, he took out his sword.
A sword with a dark red blade came out from behind the shadow, the sword emitted energy that was very intimidating, and strong.
The sword was one of Hastora's backup swords, the name of the sword was... Bloodmourn.
Bloodmourn is one of Hastora's three backup swords, this sword is often used by him when he doesn't want to use his main sword.
Hastora coated his sword with aura, the sword emitted a dark black and dark red aura, Hastora swung his sword—
"What are you waiting for?"
He waited for the monster to attack first, but—the monster never came to attack him. Instead, the monster just stood there waiting for an attack from Hastora.
Hastora felt challenged, he stared coldly at the monster, then ran quickly towards it.
"You're too arrogant for a lowly monster" he said.
Hastora tried to slash the monster's legs first, he ran zig-zag so that he wouldn't be easily hit by the monster's attack.
Seeing an attack from Hastora, the monster stood up. He attacked Hastora using his legs.
It was an attack that was very easy to avoid, Hastora calmly avoided all those attacks. He quickened his pace, faster and faster until finally...
Srethhh
Hastora's sword landed on one of the monster's legs, his slash was very fast, strong, and sharp.
The monster fell, it roared loudly, the sound of its roar caused some of the remaining hills in the village to collapse.
The monster seemed to want to attack Hastora, a dark green energy gathered in its mouth. Then, the monster fired a wave of energy that moved quickly towards Hastora.
Boommm!
A large explosion occurred as a result of the wave of energy being fired, the attack was very devastating, causing the village to be completely destroyed without leaving anything behind.
The corpses of the villagers, and the houses that were destroyed before, immediately disappeared, vanished as a result of the monster's attack.
Dust flew, blurring the view around it. Slowly—the dust began to disappear, faintly, a person could be seen standing there. The person was...
Hastora.
He used his magic, Gravity Vortex to absorb the radiation of the energy wave that was directed to his place. The energy radiation in question was the energy radiation caused by the explosion earlier.
"Just that?" asked Hastora, while holding a black hole. "Take this"
Hastora threw the black hole towards the monster in front of him. The black hole immediately sucked in the things around it easily.
Realizing that the attack could not be resisted by him, the monster ran away to avoid the black hole. However, all that was in vain—the gravitational pull of the black hole was so strong.
The monster began to be sucked into the black hole. The monster tried to attack Hastora using a wave of energy again, but, it couldn't—
The gravitational pull of the hole prevented the monster from firing a wave of energy again.
Hastora raised his eyebrows.
"This isn't enough" he said, "I need to strengthen the black hole"
Hastora pointed his palm forward, a dark red mana came out of his palm. The mana was directed to the black hole in front of him.
Instantly, the black hole became even stronger after being given a little mana by Hastora.
So strong, the previous monster was immediately sucked easily into the black hole, then, the black hole disappeared instantly.
"You think you can win against me even though your RP is bigger?" said Hastora, his expression flat.
Hastora sighed, "should I leave from here?" he said.
Hastora created a black cloak from the darkness, then he stepped away from the village without looking back.
While walking, two questions came to his mind suddenly. The question is...
How could the monster be in the village? And where will he go now?.
First, it is impossible for the monster to come to the village. The monster itself looks like a monster that comes from inside the gate.
Gate is a multidimensional gap that connects one reality space with another, both in one world and between different worlds. The Gate is formed from energy instability, the will of superior entities, or high-level magic engineering. It serves as a transition path to extreme locations such as dungeons, demon realms, and other worlds.
One of the reasons why gates can appear randomly is when two or more worlds have synchronous but not harmonious Azure Arcanum fluctuations, then interdimensional resonance occurs. This causes the walls of reality between worlds to weaken and tear, causing the Gate to form as a result of the collision of two cosmic energies that should be isolated.
Azure Arcanum is primordial energy that flows throughout the multirealm existence as the main cosmic balancer. It crosses the boundaries of space and time to maintain the stability of every world from destruction, distortion, or anomalies. Azure Arcanum is autonomous and cosmically conscious, able to respond to any form of threat to existential balance by distributing its energy to critical points wherever and whenever.
Only certain people can resist, withstand, or neutralize Azure Arcanum. Of course those people are very strong, 20,000 years ago, Hastora was among those who could resist, withstand, and neutralize Azure Arcanum.
Hastora thought, if there was someone who deliberately made the energy from inside the gate unstable until it caused a dungeon break, initially Hastora thought that the person was his parents considering their corpses were not even there. However...
It's all wrong.
It was impossible for his parents to create a dungeon break, their strength was not capable of doing that. There are a few more questions that arise in his mind, which is—
Are his parents still alive? And if they are still alive, where are they?
Hastora thought about that question for a moment, but, he quickly forgot about it and moved on to the second question which was.
...
Where will he go now?
This is the most important thing for him now, he no longer has a place to live, and his parents have disappeared somewhere.
Hastora pondered for a moment while walking aimlessly. After pondering for a long time, there was only one destination that came to his mind right now, it was...
The capital.
The capital is a very appropriate destination for his current condition, it is the closest place.
Hastora quickened his pace, running towards the capital. Based on the information he knew so far, the capital was west of the village where he lived.
It took him a long time to reach the capital, he couldn't keep running, his body wasn't as strong as it was 20,000 years ago.
"Maybe it will arrive in a week" he said to himself.
...
After a few minutes of running, Hastora began to feel tired. His breath was labored, his legs ached from running continuously.
He wanted to rest, but he didn't do it. He looked around, trying to find a way to make his journey faster.
"I hope there's a horse here" he said.
Not long after, he saw a horse-drawn carriage that was heading towards the capital from a distance. Hastora immediately ran and approached the carriage driver.
"Excuse me" said Hastora.
Hearing someone's voice, the carriage driver stopped, he turned around.
"What's up?" asked the driver.
"You want to go to the capital?" asked Hastora.
"Yes, that's right... I want to go to the capital" answered the driver.
"May I hitch a ride?" asked Hastora.
The driver smiled cynically, he looked at Hastora like he was looking at an insect.
"Do you have money?" he asked, "this isn't free"
Hastora was a little surprised when the driver asked for payment, he didn't have any money. Hastora tried to persuade him with the incident he experienced in the village earlier.
However, the driver seemed not to believe Hastora's words and was about to continue his journey.
"You think I believe that nonsense?" said the driver, "I won't let someone who doesn't even have money like you ride my carriage"
The driver left Hastora alone, Hastora stared coldly at the carriage driver, there was only one thing that came to his mind right now, which was...
Kill him and take his carriage by force.
Hastora stepped quickly, blocking the carriage's path. The driver who saw Hastora appear suddenly was surprised and fell.
"Ughhh"
The driver got up while holding his aching waist, he gritted his teeth, he felt very angry.
"You!" shouted the driver, "I'll never let you ride if you don't have money!"
Hastora didn't react at all, he just stared at the man with a flat and cold look. He walked slowly towards the driver, and...
"Die"
He decapitated the driver with his sword, the driver's head separated from his body. He staring coldly at the carriage driver's head...
"Poor thing" he said, his voice flat.
He stepped towards the carriage and got on it.
"With this, my journey to the capital will be a short one"
He made the horses that were in charge of pulling the carriage move and went towards the capital.
"Come on"
To be continued in the next chapter…