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Chapter 375: The Story After (7). [Side Story 7]

[Uh, uh?]

The Tower Master was flustered.

[How is it already…?]

It had not even been an hour since the battle with the Serpent began.

As far as the Tower Master knew, Ketal was on the other side of the continent.

There shouldn’t even have been enough time for word to reach him yet.

Ketal answered simply.

“I felt the waves of the battle. They were unusual, so I rushed over right away.”

The answer was beyond imagination, leaving the Tower Master dumbfounded.

[…From across the continent, you felt the waves?]

“I was meditating with nothing better to do.”

With his mind focused, his senses were sharpened.

And then, far away, he felt an odd wave—something colossal clashing against the world itself.

And as Ketal judged it, there was nothing in the outside world capable of producing such a disturbance.

Sensing that something was amiss, he immediately moved—and arrived just in time.

“By the looks of you, it seems it was quite dangerous.”

[…It was.]

[KRAAAAAAH!]

The Serpent thrashed its head violently to break free.

Ketal released his hand, and the Serpent raised its head with a snarl.

“It’s been a while, Serpent. I wondered where you’d gone since you weren’t inside—turns out you were out here.”

Ketal asked cheerfully,

“Have you been well?”

[…Barbarian.]

The Serpent’s voice carried both wariness and fear toward Ketal.

That monstrous being—the one who had trampled the Tower Master and even escaped the exile of the world itself—was now frightened of a being smaller than its own eye.

[…You were outside.]

“It has been quite a while.”

[If you were here, why is the outside world still intact?]

“Do you see me as nothing but a savage? How unfair.”

[And you say that yourself.]

“Well, I don’t deny that inside, I was rather barbaric.”

Ketal smiled faintly.

“But out here, I am different. In this world, I am closer to a gentleman.”

The Serpent glanced briefly at the Tower Master, who could only feel bitter about it—but did not deny it.

Indeed, Ketal seemed far closer to a gentleman than to a savage.

“Anyway… Tower Master, you’ve worked hard. From here on, leave it to me.”

[Ketal?]

Ketal suddenly grabbed the Tower Master by the neck and lifted him.

The Tower Master was caught off guard, but Ketal wore an apologetic expression.

“Unfortunately, once the battle begins, I cannot protect you. It’s a bit rough, but please understand.”

[Wa—]

“Hup!”

Ketal hurled the Tower Master away.

His figure soon vanished into the distance.

Ketal watched for a moment, then turned his body back.

“Well then.”

His voice shifted.

The atmosphere froze.

Instinctively, the Serpent crouched low.

[You show your true colors.]

Colder than the white snowscape, an emotion that could freeze all creation spread outward. His eyes held nothing but boredom, weariness, and rage toward existence itself.

This was the true form of the Ashen Barbarian of the White Wastes—Ketal.

In a low voice, he asked:

“How long have you been outside?”

The Serpent didn’t want to answer such a question.

Its pride screamed to resist.

Yet slowly, its mouth opened.

[…More than two years.]

“You’ve shown surprising patience, not moving for so long. Seeing the world intact, you must have judged me absent and decided it was time to act.”

Ketal nodded.

The Serpent bristled but could not refute it.

“I see enough. Then return to the White Wastes.”

Suddenly, the atmosphere shifted.

The Serpent recoiled instinctively, as an overwhelming force pressed upon it.

Ketal bared his teeth.

“This world belongs to me.”

The existence of the White Wastes had no right to covet it.

This world was his alone.

Overwhelming obsession and possessiveness bore down upon the Serpent, dragging forth its old traumas.

But it did not back down.

[I am the Serpent! The one who has existed since creation, promised unchanging Immutability! How dare a mere childlike Barbarian command me!]

“It’s been a while since I heard those words. Not pleasant, but novel.”

Ketal clenched his fist.

“Then, as always, you’ll have to be beaten.”

His fist flew toward the Serpent.

* * *

The Tower Master’s body flew through the air.

At such tremendous speed, crashing into the ground would leave him nothing but splinters scattered across the land.

Desperately, he summoned fragments of mana.

[Eeeek!]

A translucent barrier flared around him as he collided with the earth.

BOOOOOOM!

His body tumbled across the ground, rolling hundreds of meters before finally stopping.

From the dust, the Tower Master raised his head.

[…A little moderation would have been nice.]

He muttered irritably.

Another moment, and he might have been forced back into his Life Vessel.

But then, seeing what was unfolding in the distance, he understood.

If he had not been thrown this far, the shockwaves alone would have torn him to pieces.

Ruuuuumble…

The air quivered, the land rippled like waves, cracks split the ground, and storms erupted.

KWAANG!

With a deafening roar, the colossal Serpent went flying, visible even from afar.

[Hoho…]

The Serpent was strong—so much stronger than the Tower Master that even his newfound Eleventh Class power could never match it.

It was a primordial monster from creation itself.

And yet, that very monster—was being tossed around like a toy, hurled and smashed into the ground.

It was not that the Serpent was weak.

It was simply that Ketal was overwhelmingly strong.

[A wall… I feel a wall.]

So distant, unreachable.

The Tower Master whispered quietly—his words swallowed by the roaring battle.

* * *

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RUUUUMBLE!

The Serpent’s titanic tail lashed like a mountain in motion, rending the skies.

The sheer weight of it carried the pressure of an entire range.

Ketal smiled as he raised his fist.

His muscles flexed, distorting the very air.

“Hmph.”

BOOOOM!

His fist met the tail head-on.

A thunderous explosion shook heaven and earth.

The Serpent’s tail was flung into the air and smashed into the hollowed-out Alfra Mountains.

[Kyaaaaaah!]

The Serpent roared in fury.

Seizing the chance, it lunged, jaws gaping wide, and swallowed Ketal whole, clamping down with all its might.

“Hup!”

But Ketal’s hand braced against its palate, his foot pinned its tongue, and with sheer muscle alone he forced its jaws apart.

CRACK!

The Serpent’s jaw creaked in pain as it was pried open.

Screeching, it thrashed violently.

[Kyaaaaah!]

Ketal slipped free, standing in the air.

His body bore not a single wound, though his expression soured.

“Hm.”

In the White Wastes, it hadn’t mattered how he fought.

That world had no value to him.

Whether it shattered or was destroyed, he hadn’t cared.

But here, the outside world was different.

This was the fantasy he wanted to protect—his world.

“The toughest thing alive, huh.”

The Serpent’s immense body was disaster incarnate.

With the primordial power of Immutability, it was nigh unbreakable.

If the fight dragged on, an entire continent could be obliterated.

“I’d really rather you just leave.”

[Don’t mock me!]

The Serpent rose, shaking the heavens and splitting the clouds.

Hatred and fear burned in its eyes.

[I am the Serpent of Creation! The one promised Immutability! You dare try to claim this world for yourself?]

Ketal only bared his teeth in reply.

He stamped the ground and instantly appeared before its head.

The Serpent lashed its tail, but Ketal seized it.

“Let’s relive old memories!”

[Wa—]

Ketal swung the Serpent in circles like a toy.

RUMMMBLE!

The spinning mass whipped up gales, birthing a typhoon large enough to engulf the continent.

Terrified, the Tower Master fled further back.

At last, Ketal flung the Serpent away.

KWA-CRAAAASH!

The land split apart, a new cliff carved in an instant—something that would normally take millennia of tectonic shifts.

“You’re no match for me, Serpent.”

It was a matter of sheer power, and also of affinity.

The Filth-ridden Rat had once wounded him, its authority being the corruption of all things.

But the Serpent’s power was Immutability—defense, not offense.

Against Ketal, it could not inflict harm.

[…The same goes for you!]

The Serpent staggered upright.

[You cannot wound me either!]

It was eternal.

No blade could scar its flesh.

Ketal did not deny it.

“That was true once.”

But only in the past.

He drew his axe, aura flaring around it.

With a leap, he dodged the lashing tail and swung down.

CRACK.

[Kyaaaaaaaaah!]

The Serpent screamed—a scream of pain it had never once uttered in its eternal life.

Its cry shook the entire continent, forcing people to cover their ears in confusion and fear.

[Kyaah! Kyaaahh!]

The Serpent thrashed, rolling across the land in agony.

It was unbearable, burning pain—the first it had ever felt.

Trembling, it raised its head, its pupils dilated in disbelief.

Its body of eternal flesh—now bore an axe wound.

White blood poured forth, staining the ground.

[H-how…?]

How had Ketal scarred it?

Ketal’s voice was low and steady:

“I could always have killed you.”

The aura he now wielded made it easier, but even in the White Wastes it had been possible. For his power was that of Erasure—able to unmake anything.

He had simply never needed to use it.

“But things are different now.”

This was his world.

He had gained the strength of fantasy itself.

If he wished, he could end the Serpent anytime.

“Still… for the sake of old times, I’ll give you a choice. Cleaning up your corpse would be tedious.”

Ketal smiled faintly.

“Will you end your eternal life here? Or will you return quietly to where you came from, and live out your days in silence? Choose.”

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