Chapter 594: Time to Settle an Old Debt

A cold wind passed between the snow-covered rocks.

The sky was red, and heavy clouds covered a large part of the distant peaks.

Along the mountainside, tall trees could be seen, their branches bending under the force of the wind, while the snow piled on them slowly fell to the ground.

In the middle of this cold and quiet landscape, a blue light appeared.

A few seconds later, Lian stepped out of the light, his feet landing on the snow-covered ground.

He looked around for a moment, this was the same mountain range that held some unpleasant memories for him.

After finishing their conversation with Rhaenar, he and Seris had decided to return to one of the old areas of the Ruined Realm before going their separate ways.

Fortunately, both of them had already registered return points in this area, so they did not need to travel through the long mountain path from the beginning again, not to mention that they had no idea how they would even find their way here without those points.

Lian had simply selected the point he wanted, and his special travel ability for the Ruined Realm had brought him here.

A few moments later, another blue light appeared a short distance away from him.

Seris appeared.

The girl took a step onto the snow, and her silver hair moved slightly in the wind as her cold gaze immediately turned toward the mountain peak.

The young Vorhelm looked in the same direction, but after a few seconds, his eyebrows drew together slightly.

Something was wrong.

"Seris."

The girl looked at him.

Lian pointed toward the mountains.

"Do you remember what this place looked like last time?"

Seris looked at the distant slopes for a few seconds before slowly nodding.

"Yeah."

Back then, the mountains had been covered in green plants, with tall rocks rising from the ground. A small village stood among the slopes, and narrow paths led from it toward a cave where the Dreadmaw Sovereign lived.

But now? A large part of the northern slope was gone.

The place where the cave entrance had once been was now a huge, black crack, the surrounding rocks had collapsed, and deep marks stretched from near the peak down toward the lower parts of the mountain.

Even the surrounding forests had been damaged.

Some trees had been pulled out by their roots, while others had been reduced to nothing but broken, blackened trunks.

Lian examined the scene for a few seconds before giving a low whistle.

"Wow."

The young Pendragon looked at him.

"What?"

"Looks like someone got really angry after we left."

The girl looked at the mountains again, and the corner of her mouth lifted slightly.

"Very angry."

Lian laughed, but when his gaze fell on the ruined slope, his smile slowly disappeared.

That creature had truly destroyed the entire area.

After its thirty-year plan had failed, it had probably had nothing left to control its anger.

"I never thought I’d willingly come back here one day." He muttered softly.

Seris looked at him.

"I wanted to come back and kill it."

Silence fell for a few moments, then Lian asked with a faint smile,

"Do you still remember the hit you took last time?"

For a moment, Seris looked at her left leg, the same leg that had been broken during their first battle against the Dreadmaw Sovereign.

"Yeah."

Her gaze returned to the mountains.

"But this time is different."

"Very different." He nodded.

They both started moving.

At first, their path passed through a forest where only scattered parts remained undamaged.

Snow covered the broken trunks, and some rocks had burn marks or signs of powerful impacts on their surfaces.

However, the closer they got to the mountains, the worse the destruction became.

Lian sometimes looked at the deep cracks that ran through the ground, some of them were several meters wide and stretched over long distances.

Based on the direction of the broken rocks, it was possible to guess that a huge force had been released from the upper part of the mountains toward the slopes.

And apparently, this had happened more than once.

"Do you think it’s still here?" Seris asked, seeing what the creature had done to this place out of anger. It was possible that it had already left the mountain by now.

He shook his head.

"There’s a good chance it is."

"Why?"

"If it could leave this place, it probably would have done so years ago."

Lian looked toward the peak.

"That creature needed a human body to enter human Regions, so it’s unlikely that it managed to leave the mountains without achieving its goal."

She nodded, the reasoning made sense.

But Lian was also considering another possibility.

Perhaps, after its plan had failed, the Dreadmaw Sovereign had finally found a new way to evolve.

If that had happened, they might be facing a creature far stronger than before, though this possibility did not worry him too much.

Not after everything he had experienced over the past few months.

Some time later, they reached the area near the old village... or more accurately, what remained of it.

Lian stopped on a small hill, from there, he could see the former location of the village.

The wooden houses had been almost completely destroyed, some were buried beneath piles of rocks, while others had nothing left but broken foundations sticking out of the snow.

The village’s central square was also buried beneath a thick layer of dirt and stone, and there was no longer any sign of the narrow paths between the houses.

Seris stood beside him.

Neither of them spoke for a few moments, but this time, the silence felt different.

He remembered the day they had entered this same village, the seemingly kind people, the village chief who spoke about the Mountain God.

And the three young people who had believed they had finally found a way to return home.

Aria.

Alisa.

Ryan.

Aria’s face appeared in his mind for a moment, the girl who had tried to protect the person she loved until the very end.

And that same person had ripped her heart out of her chest.

Lian still remembered the girl’s disbelieving expression, and even Alisa’s cries had not faded from his memories.

The sound that had echoed through the stone hall that day, while the Dreadmaw Sovereign watched everything from its throne.

He let out a quiet breath.

"I still remember."

Seris looked at him, there was no need to ask what he was talking about.

"Me too."

For a moment, the girl looked at the remains of the village.

"That creature..."

She did not finish her sentence, but Lian understood what she meant, the Dreadmaw Sovereign was not just a powerful monster.

It was a creature that nurtured human emotions to achieve its goals, only to destroy them at the worst possible moment.

To it, love, hope, and sorrow were nothing more than tools for its experiments.

He looked toward the mountains again.

"Let’s go."

She nodded.

They both walked down the hill and left the ruined village behind, the higher they climbed, the more difficult the path became.

But it was not because of the cold or the steep mountain slopes, a large part of the old paths no longer existed.

Where a narrow road had once passed between the rocks, there was now a deep cliff, while in another area, a huge pile of broken stones blocked the path.

Lian passed through the obstacles without difficulty, and Seris stayed close behind him.

Over the past few months, they had both grown strong enough that such obstacles no longer mattered much to them.

However, halfway along the path, he suddenly stopped, and his eyes narrowed slightly.

She stopped at the same moment, both of them had sensed something at the same time.

A very weak flow of energy was moving down from the cracks in the upper mountains, the energy was dark and heavy, but familiar to them.

Unlike the scattered energy of ordinary monsters, it had a clear and concentrated structure.

Lian looked toward the highest part of the mountains, and a faint smile appeared on his face.

"We found it."

Seris followed his gaze, in the distance, a huge shadow could be seen among the mist and floating dust.

But before they could make out its exact shape... BOOM!

A deep sound came from the top of the mountains, like a heavy strike against a huge bell.

A few seconds later, a wave of pressure passed through the rocky gaps and sent the snow on the slopes flying into the air.

Both of them remained still.

A second sound rang out, this time closer.

Then, a deep voice spread across the entire area from the top of the mountains.

"Who..."

The wind stopped for a moment.

"Dares to set foot in my territory?"

Lian raised his head, his smile grew slightly wider, and he said mockingly,

"Looks like it’s still just as welcoming."