Chapter 99 Orange Zone 5
Kududududu
A tremendous vibration ran throughout the ground.
Kwaruru
"Uuk!"
"What!"
From the single wave of the huge vibration, the people's bodies flew into the air and then bounced off all around.
They hadn't gotten hurt due to their inhuman physiques and skills but it was a vibration that was strong enough to bounce these guys into the air.
'What. Is it an earthquake?'
But it didn't seem like even an earthquake would be at this level.
While Sofía was shocked from the huge vibration, a huge soundwave rang from far away.
Kuooooooo
The cry of a Margoth was loud enough on its own but the level of this cry was on a different dimension.
A cry which shook the heavens and was like thunder that pushed apart the clouds.
'…Pain?'
While Sofía was frowning at the emotion that was carried upon that cry, somebody hugged Sofía from behind.
"Uh?"
Sofía was shocked at the sudden actions of Hansoo.
'What is this sudden…'
While Sofía was blushing, Hansoo spoke towards Sofía behind her.
"We need to fly away quickly Sofía. Hurry."
"What?"
"I don't have a flying skill."
Sofía looked at the surroundings at those words.
"Damnit! Run to the shelter!"
"Goddamnit! Why the clash already!"
Ken and the others who were killing and hunting were hurriedly running in all directions.
Some went through the hole on the ground and hid.
Another one used all their skills to harden themselves and then smashed their body into the ground.
Some threw their body into the air and then quickly flew towards a direction.
As the seniors of the Orange Zone were acting like that, the people who were getting attacked and those who were watching the attack started to follow them as well.
Since that strange vibration and the actions of their seniors were enough to make them feel uneasy.
Kuuuuung!
The giant Margoths started to cry out as they smashed their heads deep into the grounds.
At the same time they compressed their bodies as much as possible and stuck as close as they could onto the ground.
As if they were trying to prevent getting flicked off somewhere.
Sofía was dazed at the tens of hills that were created in an instant.
'What is going on…'
Tekilon approached Sofía and then hung onto the back as well.
And then spoke.
"I'll be in your care too. Female."
"…"
Sofía suppressed the sudden rage which skyrocketed for some unknown reason and then started to activate her skill, <monumental air path>.
Oooooong
Sofía's body carried the two male bodies and then started to rise high up into the sky.
'How far do I have to go up?'
It was better to copy others when one didn't know.
As she saw, the people who had gotten onto the sky already had climbed up hundreds of meters.
But their expressions didn't really look that great.
As if they wanted to go up higher but couldn't due to the restrictions of their skills.
While Sofía was pondering while looking at these people, Hansoo spoke to her.
"Since you've come all the way here it's better for you to see it. Go up as high as possible."
"What?"
Sofía looked downwards at those words.
Margoths that had shrunk down.
But nothing different could be seen yet.
'…Let's go up a bit higher.'
Sofía's curiosity was stimulated from the current situation which told her that something might happen.
Sofía followed Hansoo's words as she went up even higher.
Though she had gone up hundreds of meters higher than the others who were floating in the sky, she still could not find the origin of the vibration.
Just vast plains.
But at that time another wave of the huge vibration rang throughout the lands.
Kururururururur
At the same time something smashed the ground after cutting through the clouds on the edge of the plains.
Booooom!
Sofía freaked out after seeing something whipping around in the distance.
'…Ouroboros?'
The thing that had been smashed on the edge of the land could be seen by their eyes.
The beasts below were big as well but the Ouroboros, which they had fought, was naturally thought of at the humongous size that wouldn't even be compared to them.
'Though it does seem a bit different…'
While Sofía was squinting her eyes to see it more clearly, Hansoo shook his head and spoke.
"You'll be able to see it if you go up higher. It'll be hard to see yet.'
"…"
Sofía went up higher with Hansoo and Tekilon on her back at those words.
After a long while after Sofía had reached the heights where the clouds had shrouded her body, she could see what it was.
And where the vibrations had come from.
Kuoooooooo
"Uwaaaaa…"
Sofía looked beneath her feet.
It was a sea of lava all around.
No matter where she looked the only thing she could see was a sea of lava.
A hell-like environment that no life could live on.
But there was a creature living in such an environment.
"…So we were above that thing huh."
The land they thought of as the land was actually not land.
A giant beast that couldn't even be compared to the Calamity Fish.
'…With that size it could probably be as big as a small country.'
Four legs that were like the trunk of the World Tree.
And a giant body which could be compared to the area of a whole country which was being supported by such legs.
The thing which had made her think of the Ouroboros was a long and thick tail.
A giant cow-like head and a pair of horns that shot above the clouds.
The giant beast had half of its body submerged within the sea of lava and was screaming out in pain.
Tekilon mumbled with a bitter-like expression.
"It's the Gragos."
Divine Beast, Gragos.
A giant beast that should only come out within legends and tales which maintained its body temperature by submerging its body within the sea of lava, the <heringsen>, and supplied its body with energy by drinking the lava.
A gigantic creature which was located a level above the Margoth.
A creature which supplied land and food to other creatures upon the Heringsen where no life could exist upon.
At that time a question occurred upon Sofía's mind.
'What could possibly threaten this?'
It was clearly shouting out in agony.
But what would threaten something with a body such as this?
The dinosaur-like thing they had seen earlier was big too but those things taking a few bites would just feel like fleas gnawing on its bits.
And they were probably allowed to do so because it was only that much.
'If they could actually inflict pain onto it then it would just roll around once or so.'
It may only be a flip to it but once that thing flipped upon the sea of lava that was probably thousands of meters in depth, the creatures living upon it would probably go through an armageddon.
At that time Tekilon spoke:
"The only thing that can threaten a Gragos… Is another Gragos."
Kuuuuuuuhh!
At that time something jumped out from the sea of lava and then attacked the Gragos.
Though they were both Gragos, they still looked different.
If the giant Gragos they were on looked like a cow then the Gragos that popped out from the sea of lava and was trying to bite down upon the bottocks of the cow-like had the form of a lizard.
The lizard-like Gragos which had popped out from the lava opened its jaw and then bit down onto the buttocks of the bull-like Gragos.
Then a battle occurred.
The bull-shaped Gragos was much larger than the Lizard but as if it didn't want to fight, it smashed at the Lizard with its hind legs, whipped its tail and tried to run away from it.
The Lizard shaped Gragos continued to bite down upon the buttocks of the Bull-shaped one as if it wouldn't let go easily.
'…So that thing was a tail.'
Sofía then finally understood why all the creatures above that thing ran away in fear and tried to firmly tie down their bodies.
Though the Bull wasn't really fighting back vigorously, this much was still a calamity to those living upon it.
Though they could live through the shockwave, what if they got flicked off into the sea of lava?
Or get swept by the tail that was swinging from side to side?
'…But that thing's a bit weird.'
Sofía realized that the attacking Lizard and the Bull had differences.
No, their size and looks were both different but there was another difference on the Lizard.
That the lower half of its body had blackened.
She couldn't tell when it was submerged under the lava but once it got upon the Bull's buttocks with its front legs, she could see the blackened lower body.
And as if the blackened lower body didn't move properly, the Lizard only used its front legs and its mouth while it hung onto the Bull's buttocks.
Kuuuuung!
Soon the Bull-shaped Gragos had succeeded in flinging off the Lizard and running away.
Though their sizes had an impact, the fact that the Lizard couldn't use its lower body was a major factor as well.
Kiiiii
The Lizard looked at the running Bull with a regretful expression but looked at the flesh in its mouth contently as it started to chew on it.
Then a change occurred.
The lower part of its body which was blackened started to recover its color.
The Lizard-shaped Gragos cried sadly upon looking at the color of the body that had slightly returned and then plunged its body back into the sea of lava.
"…"
"Let's go down. It'll be hard to catch up to the Gragos if it went off further away from us."
Sofía stayed silent from Tekilon's words and then slowly went downwards.
Sofía looked around the surroundings after reaching the ground.
"Uwaaa…"
Chaos.
The giant trees had been all broken and pulled off and the Margoths were slowly raising their bodies while crying out in agony as if their bodies were in pain.
"Kuuu…"
"Kuhak."
The adventurers stumbled up as they walked off into a direction as they released their skills as if they had barely survived this time as well.
'…It was just a Lizard biting off a bit of the meat on a Cow's butt.'
Since it was humongous in size even compared to the lizard, there wasn't a calamity this time.
No, it was only this much because the Bull didn't like to fight, if it were to madly charge with its horns like in a bullfight then it would've been much worse than this.
'No, If that thing had lost…'
The Bull had won because a small one had come.
What if an opponent which the Bull needed to fight against with all of its strength appeared?
Or an existence which could devour the bull?
'Insane.'
Sofía looked at Tekilon as she spoke.
"What happened? The lizard had half of its body blackened."
Though Sofía had thought of Tekilon as a nuisance when they had first come here, now she was very grateful for having him.
From the fact that there was a person next to her who could satisfy her curiosity which was vigorously rising up.
Tekilon spoke.
"Calamity of Death."
"What?"
"It's the name of the calamity that destroyed our world."
It wasn't that their race, the Akaron, had died from an epidemic.
The things that had gotten sick were another existence.
The Divine Beasts, Gragos.
The giant creatures which supplied them with the land and nutrition they needed to survive.
Their race, the Akarons, looked up to the power of the Gragos and then used their genes and invented the Body Modification which would strengthen their bodies.
And that attempt had succeeded very well to the point where they had driven off the Margoths that had threatened them and had united their race who were living on multiple Gragos' bodies.
This was the 2nd Great War.
But the spotlight of the 3rd Great War was not them.
The Gragoses that had been inflicted with the Calamity of Death had gone crazy and started to chomp down upon the other Gragoses.
And their world had embarked on the path of destruction in an instant.
Since the Akarons and the Margoths were nothing but bugs compared to the transcendental existence, the Gragos.
There was nothing they could do in a situation where the gods were jumping around and the lands were getting destroyed.
Tekilon spoke towards Hansoo.
"You saw the Gragos. It's not weird for yours or my race to get killed off at any time. So I want to ask. How are you trying to save our race? Don't say nonsense like killing the Gragos that attack. The Calamity Fish or the Ouroboros were just extremely toned-down versions of the Gragos."
The Four Calamities.
These were merely toned down versions they had created while researching the Gragos for their Body Modification.
The transcendental creature, Gragos, was perfect beyond reason and much larger and did not have a weakness.
A predator of a Gragos was another Gragos.
Sofía made an expression full of fear at those words.