Sand Mage of the Burnt Desert-Chapter 558

Chapter 558

Kwaaah!

Behemoth boasted a body as huge as an average sand mountain. But the sandstorm was of such tremendous scale that it completely swallowed even Behemoth.

Within the raging sandstorm, Behemoth lifted its head.

The wind Zeon had raised carried searing heat. But it could not have any effect at all on Behemoth’s body, which was protected by a force field.

Above all, Behemoth itself possessed the authority of flame.

Having resistance to fire, it did not even flinch at a high-temperature sand tempest.

―A human who commands sand.

“Not an ordinary beast.”

Zeon frowned.

From experience, only an extremely small number among the beasts could convey their will clearly. All of those were S-rank or above.

At that moment, Tesserina’s voice was heard.

“It’s the Beast of Calamity, Behemoth.”

“Behemoth?”

“The reason he awakened is to destroy Neo Seoul.”

In an instant, killing intent flared in Zeon’s eyes.

He knew that Behemoth’s destination was Neo Seoul.

The other races of El Harun were luring Behemoth in the direction of Neo Seoul.

But if he wasn’t being lured and it was Behemoth’s will from the beginning, then it was a different story.

Zeon asked Behemoth.

“Why are you trying to destroy Neo Seoul?”

―It is my mission.

“Then why do you have such a mission?”

―It is my mission.

Behemoth repeated the same words as if it were a recording.

“If destroying Neo Seoul is your mission, then preventing the destruction of Neo Seoul is my mission.”

What purpose Behemoth had in trying to destroy Neo Seoul was not important.

It didn’t matter even if there was some kind of causality only he could see.

More than twenty million people were living in Neo Seoul.

He could not leave their lives in the hands of a huge magic beast like this. They were far too precious for that.

“Sand Gehenna.”

Bubble! Bubble!

The moment Zeon’s words fell, the ground Behemoth was standing on melted red-hot.

If it were an ordinary magic beast, it would have been submerged up to its torso in magma. But Behemoth was so huge that only below the ankles was barely submerged.

Boom! Boom!

With just a few simple steps, Behemoth escaped the magma.

Not even a trace of burns remained on the parts of its feet that had been submerged.

Because it had the authority of flame and a force field, it perfectly blocked the heat of the magma.

―One who obstructs ruin, I kill.

At that moment, red beams shot out from Behemoth’s eyes.

Boom!

Zeon’s body, struck by the red beams, was blown backward.

Barely stopping himself in midair, Zeon looked down at his chest.

There were scorch marks on the robe made of Balrog’s hide.

If the power of the beam had been just a little stronger, it would have pierced the robe.

It was a hair-raising moment.

Shhh!

Fortunately, thanks to its self-restoration, the robe returned to its original state. But Zeon’s hardened expression did not relax.

Because he could feel Behemoth’s tremendous latent power.

Boom! Boom!

Behemoth fired destruction beams in succession.

Zeon hurriedly created a sand wall. But the destruction beams pierced the sand wall as easily as tofu.

By then, Zeon had already ridden the sand and moved elsewhere.

Behemoth’s huge pupils rolled around. Where they turned was precisely where Zeon was.

Shhhh!

Once again, destruction beams were fired in rapid succession.

Everything that was hit by the destruction beams had holes punched straight through and melted away.

Their power extended for dozens of kilometers.

In fact, a gigantic sandworm that had been hiding in the sand dozens of kilometers away had a hole punched clean through its body and died.

Behemoth’s destruction beams seemed to have no limit.

Zeon thought it was unfair.

One side had to move like crazy riding sand, while the other just had to move its eyeballs and fire destruction beams.

‘I have to seal those beams.’

Zeon’s mind spun furiously.

It was proven that sand could never block those destruction beams.

In a way, Behemoth was practically Zeon’s natural enemy.

Its huge body, tremendous defense, and terrifying destruction beams were crushing all of Zeon’s strengths.

It was a desperate situation, but Zeon never despaired.

Because he believed that absolute advantage in compatibility did not exist in this world.

If Zeon only had the authority to command sand or the authority of flame, that would be one thing. But the number of things he could create by combining the two authorities was dozens just off the top of his head.

Zeon boldly chose one of them.

The sand floating around him seemed to gather into a sphere, and then it melted.

He poured his will into the melted sand and projected an image.

Just like making a Diamond Spear, he applied momentary high pressure and cooled it, forming a shape.

What was created before Zeon was a gigantic mirror.

At that moment, Behemoth’s destruction beam came flying toward Zeon again.

Zeon blocked the destruction beam with the mirror.

The destruction beam, which had pierced everything so far, could not penetrate the mirror Zeon had created in an instant and was reflected.

Zeon adjusted the angle of the mirror so that the destruction beam was reflected back at Behemoth.

Boom!

With a thunderous boom, Behemoth’s huge body staggered.

It had been struck by its own destruction beam and taken damage.

Behemoth blinked its large eyes.

It had not yet grasped the situation.

Behemoth fired destruction beams again.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

Dozens of destruction beams aimed at Zeon.

Zeon did not dodge and instead brought the mirror forward.

“Reflection Mirror.”

What he had created was a reflecting mirror.

Destruction beams were also light.

Knowing the property that light cannot penetrate a mirror and is reflected, he had created it.

The light that struck the reflecting mirror went straight back to Behemoth.

Bang!

With successive booms, Behemoth’s massive body shook.

Even though it was protected by a force field, it took enormous damage.

After that, Behemoth fired destruction beams several more times. But after being hit again and again by Zeon’s Reflection Mirror, it stopped using the destruction beams.

Behemoth, too, possessed the ability to learn.

Instead of using destruction beams, it used another authority.

Kwangg!

The sky that had been perfectly clear suddenly filled with dark clouds, and thunder and lightning struck down.

Seeing that sight, Tesserina hurriedly shouted to Zeon.

“It’s domainization! Hurry and dodge!”

Just like a dragon’s lair, the surrounding environment was being changed into the optimal conditions for a magic beast to exercise its abilities.

But before Tesserina could even finish speaking, Behemoth’s domainization was complete.

Tesserina bit her lip.

Once domainization was in effect, external beings could not enter.

The inside and outside were completely separated.

If it had been another magic beast’s domainization, Tesserina would have forcibly opened it and entered. But the opponent was Behemoth.

Tesserina’s power did not work on Behemoth. Likewise, she could not intervene in Behemoth’s domain.

Bang!

Behemoth and Zeon were swallowed by black currents and could not be seen.

Within the storm-like currents, flashes of light and successive booms erupted.

They couldn’t be seen with the eyes, but it was clear that a fierce battle was unfolding inside.

“Tch!”

Tesserina turned her head.

There was no reason to pay attention when she couldn’t intervene anyway.

Now was the time to trust Zeon and wait.

“Noona!”

Levin approached Tesserina’s side.

“Oh, Levin!”

“Good work.”

“Tch! If only I hadn’t been distracted, I would’ve killed them all.”

Regret was evident on Tesserina’s face.

The moment she intervened, the fierce battle ended.

Many of the beast-folk and Zela tribe lost their lives to Tesserina’s dreadful magic.

As soon as they realized the situation was unfavorable, Taboaru and Lamor fled with their surviving subordinates.

Lamor, who had been hit by Zeon’s White Phosphorus Flame, should have lost his life originally, but thanks to Taboaru he barely survived.

Looking in the direction they fled, Tesserina muttered,

“Those rat bastards run away the moment things turn against them.” 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝒆𝔀𝒆𝙗𝓷𝒐𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝓶

“Calm down, noona.”

“I’m just annoyed.”

“For now, let’s tend to the wounded of the Steel Fortress. There are quite a lot of casualties.”

“That’s what we should do.”

Tesserina nodded.

In fact, the damage to the awakened of the Steel Fortress who had clashed with the other races of El Harun was severe.

Many awakened had died, and just as many had been injured.

Even Urtian, who led the Steel Fortress, had taken no small amount of wounds and was slumped on the ground.

On one side, Liala, Uslan, and the others stood blankly.

Their faces showed complex emotions plainly.

When the awakened of the Steel Fortress and the other races of El Harun went to war, they couldn’t take either side.

No matter how much they hated them, they had lived rubbing shoulders with the other races in El Harun for years.

But they also couldn’t fight the awakened of the Steel Fortress.

In the end, they couldn’t intervene in the fight and could only stand to one side and watch the battle.

“Damn it!”

Liala kicked at the innocent sand for no reason.

Uslan and the subordinates felt the same.

“Luring Behemoth? They’re out of their minds.”

“Haa! This is really enough to make you sick. Just how far do they have to fall to be satisfied?”

They couldn’t bring themselves to look the awakened of the Steel Fortress in the face.

Being a resident of El Harun had never felt this shameful.

Uslan put a hand on Liala’s shoulder and said,

“Are you okay?”

“No, I’m not okay! I feel so dirty I could die.”

“I feel the same.”

“This crossed the line by a long shot. No matter how different the races and origins are, trying to lure Behemoth to bring about ruin… Del Roa too, and the other races who tried this—they’re all insane.”

“What do you plan to do?”

“I’m leaving El Harun.”

“What?”

“I’m taking all the humans and leaving El Harun. I can’t leave humans in a place crawling with those monsters. It’s time to part ways with them.”

Liala’s voice was firm.

That was how completely her affection for El Harun and the other races had fallen away because of this incident.

Usran asked,

“Where are you going to take the humans? Neo Seoul will have a hard time accommodating El Harun’s humans. There’s no guarantee they’ll accept us either.”

“Then we’ll have to look from now on.”

“What?”

“There has to be somewhere. A place where we can settle down….”

“Wherever it is, I’ll follow you to the end.”

“Thank you! For trusting me and following me.”

“No.”

Uslan shook his head.

Not only that, all the humans were feeling disgust at the behavior of the other races.

With this incident, even the last remaining affection had fallen away.

Now it felt like they could really leave El Harun without regret.

Just then—

Kwaaaaang!

A roar like the sky collapsing exploded.

A shockwave like a nuclear explosion swept over them.

“Damn it!”

Tesserina hurriedly cast a barrier to protect everyone.

Immediately after, an enormous impact struck them all.

“Ugh!”

“Kuh!”

Even though they blocked it with a barrier, the tremendous shock slammed into them.

After the shockwave passed, Tesserina withdrew the barrier.

Her gaze turned toward the place where Zeon and Behemoth had been fighting.

In an instant, Tesserina’s eyes trembled.

“My God!”

The entire terrain had completely changed.