Chapter 666: The One They Follow

"You might even be stronger than my brother."

"Your brother?" Lian raised an eyebrow.

"Alistair Sterling."

But before she could explain further, Rindo turned his head.

"Alistair Sterling? The student council president of the English Academy?"

"You know him?" Alicia looked at him with some surprise.

"Of course, he’s one of the most famous geniuses of our generation, even among the major academies, his name is well known."

"Oh? I guess he’s a great fighter if even you know him." Lian became curious.

"No, my brother is a Healer." Alicia answered.

Silence followed for several seconds.

Young Vorhelm turned his head.

"A Healer?" He did not mean to look down on healers, but from the way these two were talking about him, he had thought Alistair was a warrior or had some kind of combat role.

"Yes."

"The strongest genius of the English Academy is a healer?"

The girl gave a very faint smile.

"Almost everyone has the same reaction when they hear that."

"But Alistair isn’t an ordinary healer." Rindo nodded.

"How so?" Lian asked.

Alicia looked at her own sword for a moment.

"My brother never wanted to be a healer, when his class was revealed during his awakening, he decided to use it in his own way."

She continued.

"He spent years studying the body structures of monsters and how tissues heal, eventually, he learned how to use healing energy to disable enemies."

"For example?" Young Vorhelm raised an eyebrow.

"If a monster’s joint is injured, he can guide the healing process in the wrong way, as a result, the bones or tissues might heal in a way that prevents the joint from moving properly."

The girl raised her hand and pointed to her own elbow.

"Or he can cause too much tissue growth in a certain area and put more pressure on the surrounding muscles and nerves."

Lian thought for a few moments.

Oh?

This method required effective mana contact and overcoming the target’s physical resistance, but if Alistair’s control was really as good as Alicia described, even a small wound could become an opportunity for a dangerous attack.

"So he uses skills that were created to save lives to kill monsters?"

She nodded.

"Exactly."

Rindo added.

"That’s why he’s famous, most healers try to return the body to its normal condition, Alistair has learned how to control the healing process itself."

"I have to admit, I’d like to meet him someday." Lian smiled, he did not follow much news about people his own age.

It had been a long time since he had followed any kind of news at all, and he had not had the time for it.

Alicia looked at him.

"I’d prefer your meeting to be friendly."

"Me too." Lian laughed.

Noah let out a short sigh.

"Why do I feel like that wasn’t reassuring at all?"

He shrugged and then looked at Alicia again.

"By the way, if your brother is that famous, why didn’t he come to the Land of First Dawn?"

"When the names of the Chosen were announced, my brother was inside a Legacy Dungeon."

"A Legacy Dungeon?" He knew what a Legacy Dungeon was, in fact, he himself had entered one before with Liana, Seraphina, and Seris.

She nodded.

"The last news I received was that his mission still wasn’t finished."

Lian thought for a moment.

Alistair Sterling, hmm?

He remembered the name, perhaps he would have a chance to meet such an unusual genius in the future.

Hours passed.

The group crossed several broken regions, and the farther they went, the clearer the sound of the guitar became, sometimes the music became quieter for a few minutes and then returned even louder.

Lian examined the surroundings several times with [ True Sequence ], but he still found no sign of its source.

When the approximate time of the next judgment approached, he finally ordered them to stop.

"We should stay here for a while."

"Are you tired?" Noah raised his head.

Vorhelm pointed toward the Hollow Sun.

"No, but it’s almost time for the next judgment."

The young Frenchman’s smile faded, and Rindo immediately looked toward the sky as well.

The group stopped on a wide stone platform that was far from the unstable edges.

Then Lian raised his hand.

One and Two disappeared among streams of light and returned to the Colony House.

[ Special Member One: Returned to Colony House ]

[ Special Member Two: Returned to Colony House ]

Noah looked at the empty place where the wolf had been.

"Why did you send them back? Did you see something nearby?"

Lian raised his head.

"Yeah, up there."

Then he explained.

"I’d rather none of my summons be here when the judgment begins."

"Do you think it might target them too?" Noah asked with curiosity.

"It already tried."

"Seriously?"

"Yeah. But I sent them back before the sentence could form."

"And what if you had sent them back later?" Alicia asked calmly.

Lian looked at the sun for several seconds.

"I’d rather not find out."

After that, the group settled down at their resting place.

They ate some of their food supplies and rested for a while, but the music continued.

Noah, who was lying on a rock, finally placed his hand over his face.

"I swear, if we get out of here alive, I won’t listen to any music for a month."

Rindo laughed.

"Does it bother you that much?"

"Not the song itself, it’s actually beautiful, the problem is that I don’t know who’s playing it! And that’s not a good feeling, it gives me a bad feeling, like I’m in a horror movie."

But before the conversation could continue, the air around them changed for a moment.

Lian raised his head, and the huge rings of the Hollow Sun were turning more slowly.

"It’s starting."

A few seconds later, the Judge’s huge and emotionless voice echoed throughout the land.

"The Sixth Judgment has begun."

Thin threads of golden light spread out from around the rings and moved across different parts of the land.

He activated [ True Sequence ].

The identification stage had begun once again.

Several threads stopped on distant condemned beings, and after the charges were announced, golden lights appeared in different parts of the land.

The group watched the judgment in silence.

Lian noticed that, just like before, part of the energy moved toward the ground after the sentences were carried out, but its destination was still beyond the range of his senses.

Into the depths again.

Finally, after several sentences were carried out, the sun’s rings slowed down.

"The Sixth Judgment has been completed."

"Next Judgment: Twenty-four hours later."

The golden lights disappeared.

For a few moments, no one spoke, six judgments had passed, and none of them had found a way out of this land yet.

They had been trapped in this land for six days without any contact with the outside world, what was even more interesting was that they did not even know whether the people outside were aware of their situation.

But it was reasonable to assume that they had found out, because the curtain had become like a wall, and no one could enter or leave anymore.

And the people trapped inside the Land of First Dawn were not ordinary people, each of the ten Chosen was a well-known genius.

It was possible that reports had already reached presidents, the Secretary-General of the World Union, the Federation President, and even the Guild Cooperation Council or the Awakened Association.

In the middle of this silence, the sound of the guitar was heard again.

This time, it was even clearer than before.

Noah sighed.

"I can’t believe it, this musician doesn’t even stop during the judgment."

Lian gave a short laugh, but after listening for a few minutes, he stood up.

"Where are you going?" Rindo asked.

Lian pointed toward the distant regions.

"I want to take a look over there, maybe I can find out where this guitar sound is coming from."

Noah immediately raised his hand.

"If you find a real musician, please ask him why he’s holding a concert in the middle of the apocalypse."

"Of course."

Young Vorhelm looked at Rindo.

"Take care of the others until I return, if the ground starts changing, move away from this platform."

He nodded.

"Okay, don’t go too far."

Lian opened his black wings and left the ground with one powerful movement, and a few seconds later, only a small shadow could be seen against the golden light of the sun.

Alicia watched Lian’s flight path for a while and then said calmly.

"He’s a strange person."

"Lian?" Noah raised his head.

"Yes."

The young Frenchman gave a short smile.

"He’s not a bad person, he just has a habit of doing everything his own way."

She shook her head.

"No, that’s not what I meant."

"Then what?"

The girl remained silent for several seconds.

"Since I met him, he hasn’t tried to impress anyone even once."

She looked toward the path where Lian had disappeared.

"I praised his strength, and he just thanked me, I talked about saving others, and instead of trying to make himself look like a hero, he thought about the dangers."

Rindo said nothing, but the corner of his mouth rose slightly.

She continued.

"Some people spend their entire lives trying to prove to others that they deserve to rule, they constantly talk about their power, position, and rights."

She paused for a moment.

"But he doesn’t even ask anyone to follow him, even so, when things become dangerous, the others naturally wait to see what decision he’ll make."

"You figured all that out in the short time you’ve known him?" Noah looked at her for several seconds.

"Yeah.... and maybe that’s the difference between someone who can truly lead and someone who only wants a crown." Alicia finally said.

However, it was unclear whether she was saying these things without any special meaning or whether her family situation had something to do with them.

Rindo lowered his gaze for a moment, Roderick’s name came to his mind without him meaning to think of it.

But he said nothing.

"I guess that’s what makes him dangerous." Noah gave a faint smile, and a cold light flickered in his eyes ... then he added.

"I think if he were here, he’d be happy to hear that."

"I don’t think so." She shook her head.

"Why?"

"Because he doesn’t seem to do these things just to hear people say that about him."

Noah gave a short laugh and then leaned his head against the rock.

The sound of the guitar continued to echo among the broken pillars, and farther away, Lian was moving quickly between the stone platforms.

Every time he passed one of the ancient pillars, the sound of the music changed for a moment.