A while ago, when Kyle stepped into the darkness. He felt a sudden pull around his body and before he knew it he was standing outside the boundary of a large platform.
Kyle shook his head to remove the remnant of haziness from his eyes. The moment he lifted his gaze a bloody sight reflected in his vision. The platform was turned upside down with scattered pieces of debris everywhere. He eyed the few dead bodies lying lifelessly on the ground before looking at the four alive individuals fighting with two tanned, dark-skinned men.
As if noticing Kyle’s gaze, a pair of dark beady eyes looked back at him with an ominous glint. But, before the winged man could make Kyle’s presence known to his other companion, one of his opponents struck him with a bolt of lightning.
Kyle’s expression hardened and Bia narrowed her eyes at the platform.
-‘What the hell is happening?’
‘I think the winged men are trying to kill the others because I can sense they are stronger.’
As he replied to Bia, Kyle finally found the book he was looking around for in his mind space. He summoned the book out and stepped on the platform when a familiar yet unfamiliar mechanical voice drifted to his ears.
“Welcome new participants to the ‘0179’ treasure land.”
“Counting the number of new arrivals….”
Kyle ignored the voice but the people fighting in the room stopped for a second. They immediately moved their eyes to look at him. The only human among the four individuals fighting with the winged men cried out loudly.
“It’s a human! Not a winged creature!”
On the other hand, the winged men’s expressions turned ugly because with the addition of Kyle, the fight was not in their favor anymore. The mechanical voice sounded again but this time it left everyone dumbfounded.
“Total new arrivals two; A (C+)-Rank divine beast and a (??)-Rank human.”
“Loading… unable to detect the rank of the human… Automatic rank would be assigned.”
“Conclusion; Total new participants two; A (C+)-Rank divine beast and a (F-)-Rank human.”
“Please do your best to find the correct answer to the path in front of you.”
Kyle’s eyes didn’t move away from the fight. Due to his presence, the two winged men retreated to a distance and the three elves and one human finally had some time to tend to their injuries.
In the midst of the heavy atmosphere, Kyle sensed two pairs of heated eyes directed toward him. He raised his brow, the winged men were staring at Bia with greedy eyes.
‘Oh? It’s seemed they know about the word ‘Divine’.’
He casually opened the book and traced the first name written inside with his figures.
‘Demons… No, these winged men are a little different.’
All around him, the platform was silent as everyone stared at him with strange expressions. What the hell was he doing reading a book in the middle of a place where a life and death battle was ongoing?
The injured human could not take it when he saw how one of the winged men was secretly preparing to attack the new arrival. He looked at the hoodied boy and shouted with frustration.
“What are you doing? Come here! These two creatures are dangerous. One is (A-)-Rank while the other is (B+)-Rank. They killed all the participants who entered this castle!”
He was infuriated when Kyle ignored him and shut his mouth with a deadpan expression. He looked at the three elves and they slowly started moving backward toward the door present at the other end of the platform. Anyway, if the hoodied boy was so hell-bent on dying under those creatures they would let him die.
Opposite them, after flipping a few more pages of the book Kyle stopped at a familiar description and rubbed his chin with a serious expression.
“Dark race. One of the two important subsidiary branches of the demon race. Woah I can not believe there are more races except for the ones I know.”
He mumbled softly and tossed the book in his mind space before gazing at the two winged men.
“So, the two of you are from the dark race? If yes, why are you killing others?…”
Kyle stopped for a second when a sudden realization struck him.
‘Wait, according to the book just like demons the dark race feasted on all types of living flesh, and due to their cruel nature, they liked to destroy peace. More specifically they can do anything to gain strength… don’t tell me the people from the dark race are trapped in this realm.’
Bia blinked at Kyle’s evaluation.
-‘If it’s true doesn’t that mean the ones who entered this secret realm are in danger.’
The winged men looked surprised because after killing a few outsiders they were sure the outside world had forgotten about their presence. They looked at Kyle with amusement and one of them suddenly grinned widely. He was secretly gathering dense mana behind himself in the form of a destructive black fireball and it was almost ready. At first, he was a little skeptical about the new arrival rank but the dark fireball was strong enough to kill even an individual with (S-)-Rank strength so he was confident to finish this little boy with one attack.
He licked his lips and looked at Bia with creepy eyes. In his whole life he had only ever heard in words about ‘divine beasts’ but to think he would see one such beast with a punny human. It was unbelievable.
“Human how about you asked this question to your ancestors?”
The moment these words left his mouth, he immediately tossed the black fireball toward Kyle. A maniac laughter echoed in the air when the winged man saw Kyle’s stunned expression.
The human and the three injured elves froze in their spots, they looked at Kyle’s figure and sighed inwardly. Still, they took advantage of the few seconds they got and immediately lugged toward the door with everything they had. After all, with their condition, they would not last long if they fought with those winged creatures again.
Even after a few seconds, the four of them did not hear anything behind them. They gritted their teeth and the first one to arrive in front of the door was the human.
He sighed with tears brimming in his eyes and stretched out his hand to push the door when a familiar hoodied boy appeared in his vision.
He froze mere inches away from the door with his mouth hung open. The three elves behind him also halted their steps.
A barely audible voice escaped the human trembling lips.
“How ..?”
As if waiting for the question, two loud painful cries echoed behind them. Just like the three elves, the human nervously looked back and his eyes widened with disbelief.
The black fireball was frozen mid-air with wisps of blue flames dancing all around its surface even before it reached the hoodied boy’s location. The two winged creatures were crying in pain because everything below their necks was frozen into ice.
Not even sparring the shocked individuals a glance, Kyle looked back at the flying bird with a guilty expression.
Bia cursed and dived toward him with an angry expression.
-‘Damn it! At least inform me if you are going to use instant teleportation!’
‘Sorry, I forget..’
Kyle rubbed her head and pushed the door open. The individuals standing beside him finally snapped out of their stupor and looked at him with wary expressions.
The human even pointed his finger at him while stuttering something incomprehensible.
“You….You..”
Kyle gazed at them once and stepped in the door without looking back.
After he left, the human looked at the three elves standing beside him.
“Those bright eyes…. I remember now! Is not he the one who caused a commotion in front of the realm gate? That bird sitting on his head it’s the phoenix right!”
The elves looked at each other with complicated expressions. They did not dare to comment on it because just a while ago they tried to abandon the same person.
In the end, they all decided to wait for a while before they entered the door to avoid the hoodied boy. Little did they know , the hoodied boy had an old cleaning habit. No matter allowed or not he always took each and every useful treasure from the places he visited.