Chapter 371: Inheritance War (1)

"Woah..."

After coming down, Kiriel regretted her previous decision not to follow Hansooafter reading the Quirae's memories.

'What a sight.'

Looking at the bright blue sphere through the glass panel, it felt like she was walking through space.

Like she had become a God who could walk in the air.

The Quirae wasn't interested in anything other than eating, so it hadn't looked down.

But looking at the scene down here, it was truly marvelous.

At this moment, Kiriel heard Enbi Arin's voice.

"...Heh, Melchizedek. I didn't expect that thing to keep something like this hidden beneath the Aokan."

She hadn't even dreamt of something like this when she was saving the people.

'Damn... I didn't even know what the enemy had up their sleeves. Why did I even try to defeat them?'

Thinking back to it, she was embarrassed beyond reason.

They had taken her hostage, used her, made her attack Hansoo, and some mysterious armor had almost killed her.

'Wait... This does feel familiar.'

But according to her own memories, she had never been here.

As Enbi Arin looked around curiously, Kiriel also roamed around and inspected the surrounding area.

There were three distinct things about this place.

The giant crystal that was supplying a tremendous amount of energy upwards.

The devoured corpses of a strange race that were barely maintaining their shape.

And the dried-up blue armor that race had apparently worn.

As Kiriel looked at the dried-up armor, she also came to the same question Hansoo had before.

'What the... Then where did Hansoo's armor come from?'

It looked like Melchizedek had been the one to find it.

And it had planned to use the corpses and the energy here to raise the Quirae and send them away.

It should have acquired the blue armor here as well.

But if every other armor had dried up, why was Hansoo's still functioning?

'Do the dried-up ones still function?'

Kiriel, who had the Dragon God Armor, reached out with her hands towards the blue armor in anticipation.

Although the Dragon God Armor she had on was strong, it was still a bit weaker in comparison to the blue armor Hansoo wore.

Although Enbi Arin could not control the blue armor and had almost died from it, that was a story of the past.

They, who had risen up to the level of a 3-Star, could easily support the blue armor with their mana.

But Kiriel was left disappointed after touching the blue armor.

...sssssss...

The blue armor disintegrated to dust the moment she touched it.

She had wondered, but indeed, these were all useless.

Completely dried up.

She grew even more curious about Hansoo's armor and started to use her Psychometry.

'Let's see... Something should come up if I search this room.'

And soon—

—ooooooong—

Her upgraded Psychometry started to sweep through the room.

..................................................

As Kiriel and Enbi Arin searched the area below—

Kyaaaak!

—a battle was raging on above.

Well, it was more like a massacre than a battle.

Kyaaak!

Countless Quirae were melting down from the red clouds.

Hansoo smiled bitterly as he looked below at the hard exoskeletons and the human appearances all melting down into nothingness.

"I am sorry that I couldn't rescue you..."

"Krrrrk... ugh."

Hansoo mumbled as he looked at the women who were giving birth to more Quirae.

There was nothing he could do after the Quirae had infected them.

Nothing except to send them off peacefully.

So he had to clean this place up thoroughly.

If he didn't, then the others coming up after them might end up as sacrifices as well.

The Quirae's reproduction speed was infamous, even within the Abyss.

Like the Ark-Roa, they were a top priority target for any force once found.

The third floor of the Abyss, which had ignored this, had become the Quirae's lair.

'It was insane.'

Evolving through humans was just the beginning.

The stronger the thing eaten, the longer its digestion, and it would go through more levels of evolution.

Humans bred 3rd-level Quirae, and the strange race here bred 5th-level Quirae.

Hansoo thought back to scenes created by the ones who had evolved past 20 levels and focused back on cleaning again.

He wanted to make this place, the Aokan, clean at least.

—booom!—

The red clouds that had been drifting around him started vigorously acting up and expanded at a crazy rate.

Kyaaak!

Aaaahh!

Hansoo went around Aokan while listening to the screams and soon reached the area where Kiriel had fought before.

'Tsk. They all died.'

Hansoo shook his head as he looked at traces of the nine—not even their corpses had remained.

Since Kiriel wouldn't attack them first, there was only one reason this had happened.

'There are always those who look to attack from the back.'

—clank—

—clank—

Hansoo looked around at the nine sets of Dragon God Armor on the ground and then picked up three.

The others had been damaged too much to be of use, but these three still looked functional.

If he gave one to Enbi Arin, then she would use it well.

Hansoo stood up after taking the three sets of armor and then looked at the control center at the back.

'Not bad. She does have some ability.'

Hansoo thought as he looked at the control center cut cleanly in two.

Even if the Kiriel's fang was a gift from the fairy.

Even if she had become a 3-Star.

Cutting something like that in two in such a clean manner was not easy.

But she had done it.

As soon as she climbed to the level of a 3-Star.

Hansoo whistled at the sight but then frowned.

'...?'

The nine Dragon God Soldiers were dead.

But there were traces of teleportation.

Traces of minimal troubleshooting on the control tower, enough to reactivate it.

Hansoo frowned and thought back to Kriel's words.

'N-Aroel... Was that his name?'

—s ssss!—

As Hansoo melted away the rest of the control center—

"Hansoo!"

—Enbi Arin and Kiriel shouted from a distance as they quickly dashed towards him.

Hansoo chuckled as he looked at the two arriving before him.

"You finished it quickly. Here's a present, Arin."

—clank—

Hansoo handed Enbi Arin the Dragon God Armor still in the best condition of the three.

"Thank you. I'll use it well."

There would be countless battles ahead of them.

The better their equipment, the better their situation would be.

—clakakakak!—

The moment Enbi Arin touched the Dragon God Armor, the armor quickly detached into countless pieces and surrounded her body.

Hansoo listened to the sounds of friction between the metal pieces and spoke to Kiriel.

"I wonder if you had fun looking at the museum. Did you enjoy watching the mummies and the ancient artifacts?"

The corpses and armor that looked at least hundreds of years old.

It wasn't a stretch to call it a museum at that point.

Kiriel shrugged her shoulders and replied:

"Sure, I didn't even need an audio guide."

Hansoo chuckled.

'If I had an ability like that, I would have loved going to places like the museum.'

An ability to read the past would be fun to use in a place like a museum.

Hansoo cleaned up his useless thoughts and asked:

"So, did you find out what happened to the armor?"

Kiriel's expression turned serious and replied:

"Yes."

As to how only one armor could stay preserved.

She figured some things out as she read the past.

"That... something wore it until recently."

"It was worn?"

Kiriel nodded.

"Yes."

Hansoo realized what had happened from this short conversation.

"So... There are still surviving owners of this blue armor."

Kiriel nodded with a dark expression.

........................................................

—kuuuuuooooo—

N-Akuon wore an excited expression as he listened to N-Aroel's second story.

"...So, other than those aliens and that new race, there's another race still alive?"

N-Aroel nodded.

"Yes. I like that you're quick to understand. After going into that hole, everything else was a corpse, but one was still alive."

"But... how? You said it was wearing that strange armor?"

N-Akuon made a confused expression.

He knew how the armor could've stayed functional and not dried up.

If it were equipped onto somebody still alive, it could absorb the energy from the host and maintain itself.

But according to what he'd heard, that armor was evil beyond reason.

The host should've long been dead from having that much energy absorbed.

But N-Aroel chuckled.

"Didn't I mention that crystal before?"

"Oh..."

N-Akuon nodded.

The crystal that supplied a tremendous amount of energy.

If one supplied themselves with energy from that crystal, it could explain how the owner of that blue armor had survived.

Since that ridiculous amount of energy could easily supply the blue armor.

N-Aroel continued to speak.

"Maybe... the host had been able to survive thanks to the armor. A symbiotic relationship of a sort?"

The blue armor sucked energy from its owner and in return used its life support functions to keep the host alive.

The host supplied the armor with energy and barely managed to survive.

And as he heard up to this point—

—a question appeared inside N-Akuon's head.

"Then... where did the host go? The owner of the blue armor."

N-Aroel laughed as he said:

"I love how well you understand these things. Right. That's the third story I'm about to tell you."

N-Aroel pointed towards the head of the Nelkipa, the final destination of the aliens, and spoke.