Sand Mage of the Burnt Desert-Chapter 559

Chapter 559

Tesserina was extremely curious by nature.

So she looked up records of Earth from the past.

The strongest and worst weapon of the old civilizations she saw in those records—

it was the nuclear weapon.

The records didn’t even explain the principle, but they said that once it exploded, an area with a radius of dozens of kilometers would turn into a land of death.

A weapon several times stronger and more lethal than a dragon’s most powerful weapon, its Breath—that was the nuclear weapon.

She didn’t know how such a thing was possible, but the power of nuclear weapons was great enough for Tesserina to acknowledge.

And now, before her eyes, a scene like a nuclear weapon had exploded was unfolding.

The sand had been completely turned over, and a deep crater had been formed at the core as if a gigantic meteor had fallen.

Around the crater, the sand had melted and was boiling like magma.

The dreadful heat rode the wind and affected even those several kilometers away.

If everyone here hadn’t all been awakened, they would have lost their lives. If they had been ordinary people, just breathing in the heat carried by the wind would have been enough to kill them.

“Where’s Behemoth?”

“I don’t see Lord Zeon either.”

Neither Behemoth nor Zeon, who had been fighting inside the domain, could be seen.

“Tch!”

Levin and Tesserina hurriedly flew to the place where the two had been fighting.

There, they found Zeon.

He was slumped down in the center of the crater.

“Huh… Huh…!”

Zeon was gasping for breath as if he were about to pass out.

His appearance was a mess.

More than half his hair had melted and was curled and warped, and there were deep wounds on his face.

Through the tattered robe, deep injuries could be seen.

They were deep enough that it wouldn’t have been strange if his breathing had stopped, if not for his ultra-regeneration ability.

“Are you okay?”

“Hyung!”

The two rushed to Zeon.

Tesserina quickly took out a potion and made Zeon drink it.

“Hurry, drink this.”

“Thanks!” 𝘧𝓇𝑒𝑒𝑤ℯ𝑏𝓃𝘰𝑣ℯ𝘭.𝘤ℴ𝘮

Zeon didn’t refuse and poured the potion into his mouth.

It was a potion made directly by a dragon.

What Brielle made was effective, but it couldn’t possibly be compared to what Tesserina made.

His depleted mana and stamina recovered in an instant.

As his battered organs settled down, Zeon let out a big breath.

“Phew… Thanks.”

“That’s a relief. What about Behemoth?”

“It seems like he fled.”

“Fled? Behemoth fled? Where?”

Tesserina looked around with an expression that she couldn’t believe it.

Behemoth was a monster over a hundred meters tall. If such a monster had fled, it should be visible, but it couldn’t be seen anywhere in the desert.

Zeon said,

“It’s more like he withdrew on his own.”

“Why?”

“I think it’s because he hasn’t fully recovered his power yet.”

It was something you could only know from fighting him directly.

Behemoth was truly strong.

He possessed power befitting the nickname Beast of Calamity.

Behemoth after domainization was truly terrifying.

Behemoth pressed Zeon with a presence like a god.

Because of that, Zeon had to overcome the crisis of death dozens of times. But he didn’t go down easily.

While overcoming those crises, he grasped Behemoth’s weakness.

The thing was incomplete.

Both in its thinking and the way it used its power, it wasn’t whole.

It felt like its authority manifested later than its will.

It was probably because it hadn’t been awake long.

Zeon relentlessly targeted its weakness.

He read the signs before its authority manifested and blocked them in advance. On top of that, he mixed the authorities of sand and flame and used them appropriately. And at the decisive moment, he pierced its abdomen with a Diamond Spear.

The Diamond Spear pierced its force field like paper and went through its abdomen and back.

Behemoth, pierced by the Diamond Spear, took heavy damage.

Having taken heavy damage, Behemoth forcibly released its domainization.

As the power condensed inside the domain was released, an explosion comparable to a nuclear blast occurred.

Because of that, Zeon also suffered tremendous injuries and rolled on the ground.

By the time he came to his senses, Behemoth had already disappeared.

Tesserina clicked her tongue and muttered,

“Did he teleport?”

“Is it possible for such a huge magic beast to teleport?”

“It’s not easy. But it’s not impossible either.”

“The world is unfair.”

“He used teleportation in an incomplete state, so the aftereffects won’t be light.”

On top of already being heavily injured by Zeon, he had forced himself to use teleportation.

No matter how much of a Beast of Calamity he was, he couldn’t help but bear a heavy burden.

“He’ll definitely hide somewhere and try to recover.”

“How far could the teleport range be?”

“That I don’t know either. But given his size, he probably couldn’t go very far while injured. Instead, he likely hid deep underground.”

“We have to find him and eliminate him before he recovers.”

They had struggled that much even against an incomplete Behemoth. They couldn’t imagine what price they’d have to pay if he awakened in a perfect state.

Tesserina looked toward the place where the battle with the other races had taken place and said,

“Chasing him is important, but I think we need to deal with this place first.”

“Phew. Let’s do that.”

Zeon nodded.

Thanks to Tesserina, his wounds had healed, but he also needed time to regroup.

Zeon returned with Tesserina and Levin to where the Steel Fortress awakened were.

“Huff… Huff… You’re here.”

Urtian greeted Zeon, breathing roughly.

There was hardly any uninjured part to be found on Urtian’s body; it was covered with countless wounds.

And it wasn’t just Urtian.

Every awakened who had come out from the Steel Fortress had big and small injuries without exception.

They had fought a truly desperate battle.

That was how tremendous the fighting power of the other races was.

Zeon said,

“I’m late. I’m sorry.”

“No! Just the fact that you came is something to be grateful for. What happened to that monster?”

“He fled.”

“Fuck! As expected, he’s something else. To drive off that monster. Hahaha!”

Urtian laughed and then grimaced.

Because he laughed with a body that wasn’t whole, his wounds hurt like being stabbed with knives.

“He hadn’t been awake long and wasn’t whole. If he heals his injuries, he’ll become much more frighteningly strong.”

“Then we have to find him and eliminate him before that.”

“For now, let’s deal with this place first.”

“Ugh! I showed a sorry sight. For now, let’s all go to the Steel Fortress. Everyone will be welcome.”

“How is the Steel Fortress?”

“The number of children has increased a lot. Thanks to that, Debora and the women don’t have time to straighten their backs. Still, they smile and say it’s good.”

Thinking of the children, a smile came back to Urtian’s face.

“I want to see them soon.”

“Let’s go right away.”

“Before that, I’ll introduce my companions. This is Tesserina.”

“Ah! I saw you. You’re an incredible awakened. Thank you for the help! I’m Urtian.”

“Nice to meet you! I’m Tesserina.”

Tesserina gave a small wave.

“You already know Levin, so we’ll skip him, and this is Lady Liala and Lord Uslan.”

“Hmm!”

“You might guess, but they all came from El Harun.”

“I know.”

“You know?”

“I even know her name.”

Urtian’s gaze turned to Liala.

His intense eyes looked like they might pierce Liala at any moment.

Liala felt like she had seen Urtian’s face and eyes somewhere before.

A huge build, a face full of tattoos, and an elf with pointed ears.

She imagined him with the facial tattoos removed. Then a face she had seen a few times a very long time ago came to mind.

“That’s right! Urtian. I know you too. I remember your eyes.”

“It’s been a long time.”

“So you were alive.”

“As you can see, I clung to life stubbornly.”

“That’s a relief. It really is.”

“Heh. I have no grudge against you, Lady Liala. The ones who abandoned me were my own people. Still, I can’t say I’m glad to see you.”

“I understand.”

Liala nodded.

Urtian had a tough appearance not befitting an elf.

Even on Earth, he drew a lot of suspicion because he didn’t look like a typical elf, but in Kurayan that intensity was even worse.

Especially other elves shunned and excluded him because they felt his aura was different.

Even so, Urtian stubbornly survived in the elf world.

It was to take care of his sickly mother. But she didn’t live very long and passed away.

The hardships Urtian had to endure after being left alone were beyond words.

At that time, Urtian had thought that it would be good if this rotten world just went to ruin—and in reality, something like that happened.

A crisis of ruin came to Kurayan.

Elves and many other other races left Kurayan and migrated to Earth, and young Urtian crossed over among them.

But his luck ended there.

He fell behind the group.

It was an intentional falling behind.

The elves had deliberately let Urtian be left behind.

Left alone, Urtian became a scavenger to survive and lived for many years, gaining a notorious reputation.

Before he fell behind the group, Urtian had encountered Liala a few times.

Feeling sorry for Urtian, who was being persecuted by other elves, Liala had helped him. But her help only brought about the opposite effect.

Even though Liala helped him with a pure heart, the elves took offense.

Because of that, Urtian had to go through even harder times.

For a long time, the two had forgotten each other.

There was no reason to live remembering a connection from meeting a few times more than a hundred years ago. But now that they were facing each other after so long, those memories came back vividly.

Urtian said,

“By the way, why didn’t you help them?”

“We have many problems.”

“Heh! I can see it without looking. Once they could make a living, they pushed humans away.”

“How do you know that?”

“Because I’ve already experienced their nature with my whole body. How could I not know?”

“I see.”

Without realizing it, Liala nodded in understanding.

“Anyway, I have no grudge at all against you, Lady Liala. On the contrary, I’m grateful.”

“Phew.”

“Let’s go to the Steel Fortress. I’ll formally invite you.”

“The Steel Fortress?”

“Our home we prepared on Earth. You’ll be surprised when you see it.”

Urtian smiled broadly, showing his white teeth.

His face was filled with confidence.

It was the kind of smile only a man who had started with nothing and built something great could have.

While Urtian was talking with Liala, the awakened of the Steel Fortress recovered the bodies of the dead and loaded the wounded onto carts pulled by Bactrian camels.

Urtian said to them,

“Let’s go! To our home.”

“Waaah!”

The awakened of the Steel Fortress let out a cheer.

Liala and Uslan looked over those awakened.

There were elves, and there were humans. Rarely, there were also dark elves and half-elves.

They embraced each other and rejoiced in victory sincerely.

Among them, there was no jealousy or rivalry.

Seeing their united bond, Liala and Uslan wore bitter expressions.

Because that was exactly the bond they had wanted in El Harun.

The harmony they couldn’t achieve in El Harun was achieved in a remote corner of the desert.

And it was being done by the elf El Harun had thrown away.

“Haa…”

“Phew…”

The sighs of Liala and Uslan felt especially deep and heavy.