LIGHTNOVELSTORY Chapter 31 - The Demigod (4)
Chapter 31. The Demigod (4)
Reward.
A truly beautiful and always thrilling word.
“What is it, the reward?”
In response to Yuri’s excited question, Johan replied, hands behind his back, in a rather arrogant tone.
“Do you want to know?”
“Yes!”
“Do you really want to know?”
“Yes!”
“Good. If you want to know that badly, I guess I should tell you. Hehehe.”
As soon as Johan let out a joyful laugh, a pure white aura emanated from beneath his feet.
‘What is this?’
Yuri had seen this before.
The white cloud that appeared when Johan blew away the cliff.
It was Johan’s Avatar.
Swish, swish-.
In an instant, Johan’s Avatar, which had taken control of the ground beneath them, lifted Yuri into the air.
Yuri, who had suddenly found himself standing on Johan’s Avatar, felt more curiosity than confusion.
‘Oh? What is this? It’s amazing.’
At first glance, it looked like a pure white cloud.
However, the sensation through his soles was as if it were sticky mud.
‘This feels like some kind of adhesive. My feet are stuck… Oh? They’re really stuck?’
The feeling that his feet were stuck was not mistaken.
Yuri’s feet were glued to the white cloud.
No, to be precise, the white cloud had firmly grasped Yuri’s feet.
No matter how hard Yuri struggled, he couldn’t free himself.
“Old man, what is this? Why is it like this?”
In response to Yuri’s question, Johan gave an unexpected answer.
“A person who has achieved the Avatar is now called a Master. But before the current classification was used, the state of manifesting the Avatar was called something else. It was called the state of becoming divine, as it held the possibility of becoming a god while being human.”
“…What nonsense are you talking about?”
“And those who reached the state of becoming divine were called Demigods.”
“Oh, enough. Just release this thing, will you?”
“Watch carefully. If you solve the task I’ve given you, you too can become half a god. That is the reward you can obtain.”
Johan spoke in an enigmatic manner.
Just as Yuri was about to make an annoyed retort.
Crackle-.
“Huh?”
With a strange sound, yellow lightning flashed within the white cloud.
The yellow lightning didn’t harm Yuri.
Crackle, crackle.
However, the lightning that appeared began to spread in an instant, covering the entire white cloud.
And then.
Whoosh-.
The cloud carrying Johan and Yuri shot straight up at an astounding speed.
“……?!”
Caught off guard by the situation.
His heart pounded in shock, but the pressure was so immense that Yuri couldn’t even scream.
The seemingly endless river below looked like a thick branch when they finally stopped ascending.
“What, what is this?!”
No matter how brave Yuri was, his legs trembled at the sight of the terrifying height below.
Considering that what was supporting him was a cloud that could disappear at any moment, it was a miracle he didn’t wet himself on the spot.
However, Johan, who had caused all this, was utterly composed.
He was more than composed; he walked casually on the cloud with his hands behind his back.
Johan smiled at Yuri.
“Hang in there.”
“…Huh?”
Crackle-.
As Yuri let out a dazed sound, the cloud, sparkling with lightning, shot forward.
“Ahh!”
Johan, with his hands behind his back, was very calm, but Yuri’s upper body bent sharply backward.
If the cloud hadn’t held his feet firmly, he would have fallen.
“Gyahhh!”
Barely managing to lift his upper body against the immense speed, Yuri couldn’t even open his eyes or breathe properly due to the wind pressure.
‘Control the flow… the flow of air!’
At this rate, he would suffocate.
Yuri desperately controlled the flow of air around him.
Finally able to breathe, he opened his eyes.
The first thing he saw was Johan’s back, standing with his hands behind him.
And with some breathing room, he could finally take in the rapidly passing scenery below.
It was natural for Yuri’s eyes to widen in surprise.
‘A person… is flying in the sky?!’
They said that achieving Cloud Step would allow one to walk in the air, but this was beyond walking.
Only now did he understand what Johan meant earlier.
‘If you achieve the Avatar, you can become half a god?’
To be able to blow away a cliff easily and freely fly in the sky.
With such power, wouldn’t one indeed be called a god?
But that was a premature judgment on Yuri’s part.
Swish-.
Johan, who had his hands behind his back, turned his head slightly.
Smirk-.
He was smiling.
As if mocking the idea of being called a demigod with just this.
Yuri felt an inexplicable unease.
At the same time, Johan said something, but Yuri couldn’t make it out over the deafening wind.
He could only guess from Johan’s lip movements.
‘So…….’
Mumbling, mumbling-.
Yuri squinted at Johan’s lips.
‘Let’s fly…….’
He struggled to understand Johan’s words and finally reached a conclusion.
‘…Bung Bung?’
As soon as he interpreted it, Yuri’s face turned pale.
“Wait!”
He reached out in a hurry, but he couldn’t touch Johan.
Johan was already looking ahead.
And the white cloud carrying Johan and Yuri accelerated rapidly.
Whoosh-.
In an instant, they broke the sound barrier.
Boom!
Leaving a disc-shaped shockwave behind, the white cloud surged forward.
Yuri, inside, was horrified, feeling like his skin would peel off despite controlling the air flow.
Desperately trying to control the air flow, he screamed.
“Don’t… call it… Bung Bung… you crazy old man! Arrrgh!”
This damn Bung Bung!
Whether it was the wind pressure or rage.
Yuri’s cheeks trembled fiercely.
* * *
A dazed Yuri stood by the roadside, blankly staring at the port.
His hair was wild like a lion’s mane.
His eyes were bloodshot from burst capillaries.
His cheeks were sunken, and there were dark circles under his eyes.
Even dried saliva stains around his mouth.
He was a sight to behold, truly bizarre and pitiful.
Although many people were passing by, everyone avoided Yuri, making his surroundings seem like a barrier had been set up.
On the other hand, Johan stood nearby, looking fresh and composed.
He nodded with satisfaction.
“We arrived on time.”
Yuri’s mind replayed the hellish experience as Johan’s cheerful voice echoed in his ears.
‘How long did that take?’
He couldn’t remember the exact time.
He only recalled struggling to survive until the sun set and rose again.
He roughly estimated that they had been flying at that insane speed for at least a day.
‘It was terrifying…….’
Yuri had to circulate his mana desperately to survive, with his stamina depleted as if he had been rowing a boat all day.
It was the first time he had felt heaven so close.
With the sky so high, he thought he might wake up in heaven if he closed his eyes.
‘…It felt like I glimpsed heaven’s gate.’
But it seemed it wasn’t his time to die yet as Yuri managed to land safely on the ground.
Right by Lake Monparche, where the Dragon’s Cradle was located.
It felt like a dream to Yuri.
‘He’s definitely worthy of being called a demigod.’
The ability to traverse a three-month journey on horseback in a day.
For an ordinary person, this could certainly be seen as the power of a demigod.
‘If I achieve the Avatar… could I do that too?’
If he solved Johan’s task and managed to create a perfect Avatar.
He wondered if he could possess such power too.
Yuri clenched his fists tightly.
Squeeze-.
‘This is a task I must solve?’
Today’s experience had been incredibly grueling.
But because of it, he could never forget the reward awaiting behind the task and why he had to solve it.
‘Of course, that’s that.’
Today’s experience was something he never wanted to repeat.
Shiver-.
As Yuri shuddered, recalling the dreadful memories.
‘Wait a minute?’
A thought crossed his mind.
‘Hold on?!’
Yuri turned his head abruptly and spoke in a low voice.
“Old man?”
“What do you want?”
“If you could do this, why didn’t you tell me sooner?”
Johan had the ability to travel three months’ distance in a day.
If he had flown like this for an hour or two a day, they could have arrived a month earlier and been resting by now.
To such a question, Johan casually picked his nose and replied.
“You didn’t ask, did you?”
He spoke as if it was the most obvious thing.
Yuri felt a strong conviction.
‘This man… didn’t tell me on purpose.’
He had deliberately told him at the last moment.
‘Why would he do that?’
Why didn’t he tell him on purpose?
The reason was simple.
‘Why else? To torment me!’
That damned old man!
With that, Yuri’s sanity snapped.
“…Old man.”
“Yes.”
“When was the moment you most wanted to kill someone in your life?”
“Why do you ask that all of a sudden?”
“I think that moment for me… is now.”
Swish-.
Yuri’s eyes filled with rage and madness as he drew his sword.
“Our Whitey’s first blood will be yours… heehee.”
With a bizarre laugh, Yuri, completely unhinged, charged with his sword named Whitey.
“Die, old man!”
* * *
A reckless attack that disregarded life.
But Yuri’s attack on the old man didn’t achieve its purpose.
Because the target, despite his age, was immensely powerful.
Yuri, who couldn’t even touch Johan’s clothes, had to pay the price for losing his mind.
“Ugh…….”
His cheeks were swollen, and his lips looked like they’d been stung by a bee.
His eye had turned a deep blue.
Having been beaten until he passed out, Yuri woke up next to a trash can in an alley.
The stench of garbage and the terrible pain coursing through his body seemed to clear his mind.
‘Just wait, you old geezer… Do you think you’ll stay healthy forever? One day you’ll be old and need a cane! And when that day comes, I’ll break it!’
…It seemed his sanity had only partially returned.
Yuri stood up, carving his grudge deep into his bones.
‘Ugh… I’m going to die.’
Every part of him ached from the thorough beating.
‘How long was I out for? Have they already started the entry process?’
If they didn’t get into the Cradle after all that trouble, he might die of frustration.
With that thought, Yuri left the alley.
The scene that greeted him was the bustling harbor and the strong smell of the sea.
And a breathtaking view that made him forget his grudge.
A perfectly drawn horizon.
Endless waves and sparkling sunlight.
The sight was so beautiful that Yuri’s lips parted in awe.
“Wow…….”
When they first arrived, he was too overwhelmed and enraged to notice.
Seeing the lake in a clear state of mind, it was truly magnificent.
‘Is this… Lake Monparche?’
The world’s largest lake, said to be as big as an administrative district, Lake Monparche.
It was said that crossing the lake from end to end by boat would take several days.
Though he knew this fact, seeing it in person, he finally understood why it was called the world’s largest lake.
‘Is this really a lake? Not a sea?’
As Yuri stared blankly at the endless blue waves.
Honk-.
A heavy horn sounded from somewhere.