"Infinite" Lebaance might be, to put it dramatically, the most renowned of the Forty-Four Pillars.
During the reign of the Forty-Four Pillars, he commanded the largest territory and wielded the most powerful and fearsome army. He was undefeated in the internal conflicts between the Pillars until he was ultimately bested by humans.
There are whispers that he was even the strongest among them, though such claims remain unverified.
"Lebaance..." Mithra echoed, tasting the name on her tongue.
That particular pronunciation felt unique; it couldn't be mere coincidence.
If that was true, could the entities behind those whispers be the Forty-Four Pillars themselves?
"Were the Forty-Four Pillars also exterminated by humans?" she inquired.
"That's what history tells us. Of course, that history is incomplete. The specifics of how the Forty-Four Pillars were overthrown and destroyed are not fully recorded. In fact..."
Safin's voice trailed off.
Under Mithra's steady gaze, he continued slowly, "Even the names of some of the Forty-Four Pillars, and their true identities, have been lost to time."
"History should be remembered well," Mithra narrowed her eyes, saying nothing further.
"There's nothing we can do. People back then couldn't even feed themselves, let alone worry about history," Safin replied, throwing up his hands in resignation.
Mithra sighed, though this history lesson still helped her better understand her own situation.
"I'm starting to get hungry. The mountain rat I just caught is already eaten," Safin gestured toward Mithra.
Mithra rose to her feet. "I'll go fetch some food. Oh, can I go out and take a look around now?"
Safin considered her request for a moment, then nodded. "You can, but be careful."
"Okay."
With that, Mithra departed the cave.
As she walked away, Safin exhaled a sigh of relief. He covered his head with his hands, his body trembling slightly as if he were trying to suppress some form of pain.
After a long while, the pain finally subsided.
"This is probably... the last chance."
...
Mithra hadn't activated the exchange mechanism recently, but her efforts hadn’t waned. She was simply forced to be on her best behavior, as Safin guided her through the mine.
Around her left wrist, she had strung the necklace and bracelet she had acquired. The insights gleaned from her eyes about these artifacts were quite mundane, providing only a summary devoid of context. The necklace served as a sense-oriented intermediary, while the bracelet held the essence of fire and magma.
Currently, she was training in fire and magma miracles, though her progress with the intermediary felt sluggish.
Lost in her thoughts, Mithra made her way back to the pile of corpses, grabbing a torch along the way. After surveying her surroundings, she turned towards the entrance typically used by ordinary folk.
The path before her branched in several directions, forks that even Safin had overlooked. Mithra marveled at the intricate layout of the mine, a testament to its original craftsmanship.
To familiarize herself with the path ahead, she activated another Stabilize.
Ding.
With a sharp rock, she drove a deep gash into her arm. Taking a steadying breath, she utilized Stabilize to quell the intense pain.
Her senses heightened, she swiftly began to discern her surroundings, practicing various miracles along the way, now invigorated by the surge of awareness.
The wound healed rapidly. Just in time, Mithra arrived at the mouth of a cave that opened into the world beyond.
Stepping out, she beheld the sky of this new realm for the first time.
Regrettably, her initial glimpse revealed an overcast expanse, thick clouds pressing down like a heavy shroud. The gentle wind stirred, revealing a dilapidated road before her, littered with discarded tools.
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A rancid odor wafted through the air, accompanied by the sight of several decaying corpses outside the cave.
Nearby, a few buildings stood in varying states of disrepair.
Drawing another totem for herself, Mithra enhanced her senses before scanning her surroundings.
All clear. There were no signs of life.
With this confirmation, she pressed on, tentatively exploring.
Upon entering one of the buildings, she discovered it was merely a tool storage room. In the corner, an iron anvil lay neglected, a broken stone sledgehammer resting atop it.
The sledgehammer was square, with a chipped corner and a head roughly the size of a human skull. The handle was long and slender. Mithra hefted it in her hands, appreciating its weight.
Rumble...
Sounds emanated from outside the room.
Bang!
As she turned cautiously, a creature crashed through the wooden wall instead of the door!
At first, all she could make out was its dark black fur, and without a moment's hesitation, she hurled the torch in her grasp.
The dark fur ignited instantly, and the creature let out a low, furious growl.
As the dust settled, Mithra finally identified her foe.
A bear!
Mithra had visited zoos many times and recognized instantly that this bear was nothing like those she had seen before. It loomed large, its powerful paws ending in claws that gleamed with a deadly sharpness.
Yet, what struck Mithra as peculiar was the intelligence shining from the bear's small, bean-like eyes. As the flames licked at its fur, it glared at her with a mix of ferocity and resentment.
Mithra wouldn't interpret the bear's gaze as one might with a character in a novel, yet its eyes exuded an unsettling intelligence that sent a jolt of instinctive fear through her.
Without hesitation, she bolted from the narrow space.
The bear, noticing her flight, didn’t waste time extinguishing the flames licking its fur. Instead, it lunged after her with relentless determination.
Even the most agile person would struggle to evade a bear driven mad with fury so close at hand.
Clutching the stone sledgehammer tightly, Mithra used the short lead she had gained to catch her breath. At last, her intermediary activation was complete.
Reinforce Body!
A white mist coalesced in her left hand, imbuing it with weight. She swung her left hand toward her right arm, channeling the force through her entire being.
Thus, she accomplished the initial two-handed Reinforce Body.
With a swift, fluid motion, Mithra extended her arm, the stone sledgehammer in her grip arcing through the air!
Bang!
The sledgehammer connected with the bear’s head, sending a tremor through its massive body. It staggered, losing its balance and collapsing to the ground.
Mithra pressed her left hand to her forehead, hastily activating Stabilize.
Ding.
She pressed on, swinging the sledgehammer again and again against the bear.
As the creature’s once-fierce gaze flickered, a glimmer of fear seeped into its eyes. With each blow, the bear’s head suffered under the relentless assault, leaving it groaning in agony and unable to rise.
"Protect animals, protect animals, protect animals... No, I’m hunting. I want to eat bear paws," she murmured, her scattered thoughts muddled even to her own understanding. Each swing of her sledgehammer contradicted her earlier sentiment.
Despite her desire to protect, the blows kept falling.
The bear’s life was ebbing away.
Mithra felt her exhaustion mounting, beads of sweat trickling down her brow.
Even as a novice in Reinforce Body, the enhancement was formidable. The first time she wielded it, she had felt like a superhero.
Though she had no way of knowing the resilience of a typical bear’s skull, she reasoned that after battering its head with her heavy stone sledgehammer for what felt like an eternity, any ordinary bear would have succumbed.
What was wrong with this bear?
Her mind raced, but the sledgehammer in her grasp showed no signs of stopping, swinging down again and again.
It mattered little what affliction had befallen the beast. To eliminate any threat, and with no knowledge of how to subdue it without tranquilizers, her only option was to kill it.
The safest solution.
Bang!
But the sound that followed wasn't the heavy thud of her hammer—it was the sharp crack of a gunshot.
A spray of blood erupted from Mithra's chest. Her vision blurred instantly.
Staggering back a few steps, she knelt on one knee, gripping the sledgehammer to steady herself.
What the...
Her mind momentarily stalled before she made a quick decision. Reaching toward her wound, she activated Stabilize.
Ding.
Okay.
That had definitely been a gunshot.
As she regained her senses, her sharp hearing picked up the rustling of foliage ahead.
"Why, you want to attack my dog?" croaked a hoarse, shrill voice. Mithra's gaze settled on an old man, garbed like a mountain villager and bearing the hallmarks of a hunter.
A strange purple eye tattoo adorned his forehead, and his beard trembled along with his lips.
Gasping for breath, Mithra reached into her chest wound and pulled out the bullet.
A gunshot?
The old man didn’t approach her. Instead, he ambled over to the bear's side, retrieving a bracelet from his chest. He muttered something to himself as the bracelet flickered with a pattern resembling a claw, then hastily placed it against the bear’s body.
The bear’s groans diminished, its wounds closing rapidly as it struggled to rise.
"Good boy, good boy. It's good that you're okay," the old man cooed.
"Roar!" The bear erupted in a thunderous roar directed at the old man.
He merely chuckled, unfazed.
Behind him, Mithra rose to her feet, the old man's head in her sights.
Bang!
Suppressing the throbbing pain in her chest, she aimed carefully. The old man’s neck twisted violently, his expression frozen in a blissful smile—likely a painless death.
She had shown him mercy.
Mithra lowered her head and delivered another blow.
Splat!
Brain and blood splattered, the human skull yielding as easily as a watermelon.
"This feels pretty normal. He would have caused me more trouble..."
Raising her head, she released the blood-stained sledgehammer and turned her gaze to the bear, which had regained its strength and was now standing.
Its fierce eyes bore an uncanny intelligence.
Mithra half-sat, swiftly reaching for the fallen musket at the old man’s side. She aimed it at the bear and fired.
Bang!
As she raised the musket, the bear lunged at her. The bullet should have found its mark at such close range, yet the bear appeared entirely unphased.
It was likely shielded by its thick fur and blubber.
The bear’s massive paw crashed down. Mithra scrambled to evade, but the beast pressed its attack, striking her with brutal force.
This time, dodging was impossible. The world spun around her as she was sent tumbling through the air like a broken doll, crashing heavily to the ground.
This was a problem. Her surprise attack had given her the upper hand before, but now she stood no chance against the bear in a direct confrontation.
What should she do next?