“Is there anybody out there?” A panicked lady crawled her way out from a burning forest. One arm pulled her across the dirt, while the other hid in a cloth. Her legs from the knee down had both been cut off, both limbs missing. It was befuddling how she wasn’t dead yet, but given enough time, she ought to be.

When she noticed me walking toward her, her eyes opened wide as if she had just seen a stairwell to a new realm.

“Please!” She scrambled for a moment, pausing, then taking something out. Very gently, she revealed a lump wrapped tightly in cloth.

“What happened?”

“Please… Take care… Melithear…”

Her eyes stayed clear to the end, and it must have been a struggle to even speak. She no longer moved, yet strength did not leave her body. The thing wrapped in cloth was still presented to me on an elevated surface, and the woman’s eyes stayed looking up at me, unblinking.

‘A semi-mortal?’

The blonde hair running down her back had scattered with hints of blood wilting at the ends. The long ears drooped, giving off an unsettling characteristic to the premature death.

Even for their species, it was extremely rare for there to be a semi-mortal among them—not to mention, her legs had been cut off clean. There were no traces of blood left. Her corpse had dried out long ago, yet the mana inside her body had kept it lively for all this time. It was a wonder how such a strong being could succumb to such a fate. She must have had a high-ranking position as well.

Her haunting eyes did not leave me a second of security. It stared straight at my soul, pressuring me to do the “right” thing.

I picked up what she tried so hard to protect and started unraveling the cloth. What first popped out was a strand of golden hair. It had a lackluster glint, not resembling its species.

Opening the binds further only confirmed my suspicions.

‘A baby.’

It looked to be asleep.

I bound it back together, making sure it was nice and tight while creating a small opening for air.

I should probably bring the baby somewhere safe first, but it was suspicious as to how such a large forest fire could occur to such a great degree. The forest inhabitants wouldn’t have allowed it in the first place. But it continued raging with no one in opposition.

I swung my left arm as my right was occupied, and extinguished the fire through a great wind. With the loss of the immediate danger, the surroundings went dark, but I could still see sparks and glimpses of smoke from deep within the forest.

I grasped the package with both arms to my chest, before sprinting off.

The illusion barrier must have been disrupted, so I may be able to blend with the havoc and sneak in to ascertain the situation.

As I rushed in, I continued extinguishing the fire with the thrust of an arm.

Eventually, I reached an opening where I saw a mirror reflection of myself. As I moved to the other side, the reflective barrier distorted to make way for me. It rippled like a droplet of water along a still lake, and once I got over the fabled illusion, I was greeted by nothing other than crumbs in the rubble.

‘It’s destroyed?’

While I had never been to the Ancestral Citadel, I would not have expected it to be in such a puny state. If there was anything else that could describe it, I doubted it because there was nothing left of the original to describe. There weren’t even ruins. It was just a plane of ashes with smoothed-out hills here and there. It was not ancestral, or much of a citadel anymore. No semblance could be found with its name.

A black figure erupted from the ashes, making his appearance known to me.

“Are you alright?”

I didn’t think there’d still be survivors when the citadel had been reduced to fine gravel.

“Errch erffph.” It coughed, or at least I thought it did.

“I’ve been expecting you.”

A black ball flew toward me, catching me off guard, but I reflexively avoided it like any stray arrow.

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“What are you?”

More goo-like beings climbed their way up from the ashes as if reenacting the birth of a phoenix.

“Hand over your heart, incorrigible one.”

‘Behind.’

I drew my sword with my left hand and stabbed behind me in a natural reverse-grip, much like a disposable dagger.

It would be dangerous if I wasn’t careful, so I spared no time in deploying my Domain to encompass the surroundings. Luckily, there was no other Domain or disruption around, so I took control relatively easily. My senses were able to encapsulate all that was within my field of vision, leaving no space empty. That included the deep earth and the dark skies, all wrapped up in a sphere with me at the epicenter.

‘Left, right, behind…’

They seemed to be appearing from everywhere in all the cardinal directions. I couldn’t sense any in the air, so whatever this was, it was bound to the ground with me.

In the fraction of time I had deployed my Domain, I pulled my sword out from the creature behind me and spun my torso to face the other way. Without wasting a second, I followed the natural spin of my body to direct the force into my blade, adding to the slice.

*Gllk

Its blackened head came off with a resounding gurgle. My sword was refined and should have been oiled well the last time I checked, so it was supposed to make more of “Swish,” sound like cutting through air. It wasn’t supposed to be met with such resistance.

As the head dropped to the ground, another sprouted from the creature.

I did not hesitate to bring my blade back the other way, switching to a more diagonal grip, and at the same time, spinning my sword around. It was a makeshift technique for using single-edged swords like double-edged ones, covering for the versatility issues of a single-edged blade.

Of course, this could only be done because the sword was as light as a feather. I could toss it and maneuver it as easily as a quill.

With a swift motion, my blade sawed through the creature like water, splitting its torso from the legs.

I quickly followed up with a push kick, pushing the creature’s corpse away. I was well past the point of worrying if any of that black substance would stain my shoes.

With the baby in my right arm, I tossed my sword upward while swapping arms so my dominant hand wouldn’t be occupied. I could fight equally well on both, but I was more primed to fighting on my right.

‘Much better.’

I flicked my wrist, and in an instant, the sharpness of my sword was carried by the wind currents, forming a type of transparent blade. It flew as fast as it took me to blink, making it even more impossible to see coming.

It was truly a beautiful thing. Glorious, yet practical. The pinnacle of all swordsmanship was present in that single move.

The hundreds of figures wandering about were all cut in half in a single crescent. All damage came from the waist up—rather, everything from the waist up had been wiped cleanly out of existence.

“You can’t defeat me, incorrigible one.”

“So you have a core, huh?” I watched as the bodies started regrowing one by one, from the bottom up. The numbers had doubled, which did not make sense unless there was a main entity for this hive-mind. There must have been a catalyst somewhere that allowed for such fast regeneration.

I marked all the creatures in my Domain and chained them together with a string of stagnant electricity before pulling the fuse.

A quick flash came at once, sparking a couple times like that of lightning, before holding steady. Sound stopped coexisting with time for a brief moment, before returning with a crisp sizzling reduced to the span of a second.

*Thump

*Thump

*Thu-thump

The cohort of gooey bodies fell in unison.

I knew they were going to regrow eventually, so I placed all my attention back to observing my Domain. I was monitoring every possible input and output that went to and fro my sphere of influence, which included observing the flow of mana particles. There had to be a source of reason for these creature’s regeneration.

“...”

“Waaaa!” A muffled cry came from my left arm.

‘Did it wake up or something?’

I ignored the cry and resumed what I was doing, but oddly enough, instead of mana particles being supplied from a direct source, mana particles were leaving my Domain, dispersing everywhere in equal quantities. That made it hard to trace its footprints. When I looked again, the gooey bodies had all disappeared. They were probably transformed back into mana particles before sinking and leaving through the ground.

‘Hmmm.’

I did not know what to think of it, but it didn’t look like I’d be able to do anything. Whoever this entity was, was aware of my existence and practiced enough to control the flow of particles perfectly—a feat nigh impossible for most. It was better at handling magic than even me.

‘Incorrigible one…’

What kind of being would still refer to people like that?

It was peculiar. It wasn’t looking down on me but was treating me with respect despite the hostility. That was the only explanation I could come up with for why it made haste with its retreat.

“Waawaa!”

‘This…’

What am I supposed to do with this child?

“WAAA!!!” It screamed louder, startling me.

I opened the wraps, exposing a face from the depths of the fabric.

“Wa…” It stared at me.

“...”

“...”

“Hello.”

“...”

‘Why am I greeting a baby?’

“...” It continued staring like no one’s business.

‘Should I smile?’

“Keeehaa!”

“Heehaha!” The little fucker kept laughing for some reason.

‘Should I throw her away?’