Reincarnator

Reincarnator – Chapter 369: The buried natives (6)

—boom!— 

Hansoo quickly climbed up as he listened to the sounds of explosions.

He could check out that strange space below later anyway.

It was more important to figure out the reason behind the commotion.

—tatata!— 

And Hansoo frowned after looking at the scene above ground.

—booooom!— 

—rumble!— 

‘Enbi?… Why?’

Hansoo was confused as he stared at Enbi Arin—she had woken up but was currently fighting Kiriel.

……………………….

—booom!— 

‘Ugh!’

Kiriel clenched her teeth as she stared at Enbi Arin, who had started attacking her the moment she woke up.

‘Strong.’

They had both recently risen up to a 3-Star, so their strength levels were similar.

Which meant that the only thing they could compete with was the micromanagement and control of their skills, as well as their level of mastery of those skills.

Of course, Kiriel had always been confident in this field.

As she climbed up, there had been countless others stronger than her, but she had never lost a fight against an opponent with the same level of strength.

Her natural talent and her Psychometry, which quickly absorbed experiences, allowed her to boast a whole other level of strength.

But she soon realized that she’d been a bit too proud up until this point.

—crack!— 

Enbi Arin’s enhanced strength and dexterity from her trait, Tainted Emotions, was pushing Kiriel back.

After becoming a 3-Star Transcendent, Enbi Arin’s restored and enhanced body raged on as she continuously charged at Kiriel to shred her heart apart.

And the moment she saw this, Kiriel knew.

As to what emotion was fueling Enbi Arin.

‘…Rage.’

Rage was storming through Enbi Arin’s body.

To destroy everything before her eyes.

Kiriel quickly shouted in surprise:

“Dammit! I know you can hear me! I’m Hansoo’s comrade! We’re the ones that woke you up!”

She was different from when the armor had controlled her.

Enbi Arin had no sanity back then.

But now, she was completely sane and only filled with rage.

Which meant that Kiriel could communicate with her.

“…”

Enbi Arin flinched at Hansoo’s name, but only for a moment.

“F***…OFF!”

—booom!— 

Enbi Arin started to push Kiriel back again.

‘Dammit… At this rate…’

Enbi Arin was strong, but Kiriel had the Dragon God Armor.

But as Kiriel was about to activate her armor—

“I’ll take care of it.’

—booom!— 

—Hansoo jumped between Enbi Arin and Kiriel, and shouted:

“Enbi Arin! Wake up! It’s alright now! It’s all over!”

And Kiriel quickly rejoiced when she saw this.

‘Good. She should stop since Hansoo’s here.’

Although Enbi Arin might not believe her, she should stop once she saw Hansoo.

Although his face and body had altered slightly, he was still recognizable.

And Enbi Arin stopped fighting and looked at Hansoo’s face.

As if she doubted her own vision.

“Kang… Hansoo?”

Hansoo nodded.

“Yes. I’m here.”

But then—

—boom!— 

—an even more vicious aura exploded out from Enbi Arin’s body.

Pure, unadulterated rage.

Enbi Arin charged at Hansoo and roared at him.

“You! This is all your fault! This! I was living just fine!”

“…?”

‘Something’s weird.’

Hansoo pondered as he blocked Enbi Arin’s attacks.

The chipset wasn’t controlling her.

And she was completely sane.

But something was strange.

Hansoo looked at Enbi Arin’s shaking eyes and continued to think of a reason.

………………………………..

—boooboboboom— 

The Mimir’s fog covered Aokan, so nothing was visible, but the sounds of battle still resonated from within.

And the fleet continued to observe the city.

Although they couldn’t see anything, they could guess as to where the sounds originated from.

‘What a barbaric race. They fight and fight and fight… What the hell is going on?’

N-Akuon, the leader of the Technorats on the Kalkuroun Fleet, made a bitter expression as he saw the person walking towards him from a distance.

“Uhh… you survived.”

‘To see him again, especially in this place.’

N-Aroel.

His old rival.

N-Aroel’s abilities were no less than his own, but due to his nasty personality and his lack of respect for the R-Levels above him, he’d brought on a lot of hate from the ones at the top.

Especially since he hated wars after being born on a warring planet.

Because of this, he had been exiled to Aokan to rot for eternity, but for him to return like this…

‘But still… to survive from that chaos.’

N-Aroel smiled as he approached N-Akuon and sat next to him.

“Well, it wasn’t so bad. There’s a lot I learned as well.”

“…Nothing else? At least you came back in one piece.”

N-Akuon spoke to N-Aroel with concern.

Although N-Aroel’s thought processes were a bit dangerous, he wasn’t that bad of a person.

Plus, N-Akuon only labeled him as a rival; there was no real hatred between them.

He only felt lonely after hearing that they’d sent N-Aroel to Aokan, but seeing him like this wasn’t half bad.

N-Aroel smiled at N-Akuon’s words and replied:

“There were plenty of things. Fun stuff as well.”

“…Fun?”

N-Akuon asked curiously.

The term ‘fun’ was a word that could pique anybody’s interest.

And N-Aroel chuckled as he nodded.

“Yeah. Fun.”

“What was so fun about it?”

N-Aroel placed his head on his hand, thinking it over.

“There’s a lot. Too many to count, really. But three big ones. Let’s see…”

N-Aroel flicked his finger after a brief pause.

“Alright. This should be first. The conversation I had with Melchizedek.”

N-Akuon frowned and asked:

“Melchizedek?”

“Why are you so shocked? My position was more than enough to talk with Melchizedek.”

N-Akuon quickly started losing interest.

‘…It seems that this was before the rebellion.’

If that was the case, then having a simple conversation wasn’t hard.

Aokan was under Melchizedek’s control, and N-Aroel had been the city’s head technician.

They’d probably talked like two neighbors meeting on their way to work.

“Alright. What did you guys talk about?”

He’d long lost interest, but decided to hear him out.

N-Aroel continued to smile at N-Akuon’s detached tone.

“Well… it’s not much. It was saying something like how Angkara shouldn’t continue like this? About how everything is wrong and they shouldn’t be fighting like this.’

“…?!”

N-Akuon’s eyes widened at N-Aroel’s words.

What was this?

This meant that N-Aroel had long known about Melchizedek’s rebellion.

“…I think we need to discuss this seriously. What do you mean?’

N-Aroel chuckled at N-Akuon’s tense stance.

“It seems that you’re finally interested again. Right, it’s important to stay focused when listening to a fun story like this.”

“…If you’re just fooling around, then drop it. This is not a topic we can fool around with.”

Considering the things Melchizedek had done, even if one was barely involved they would still be framed as a traitor.

This was not a topic one could take lightly.

N-Aroel ignored N-Akuon’s words and continued to speak.

“Just listen. Aren’t you curious about what Melchizedek said?”

“…Sure. Fine. Speak.”

N-Akuon gave in to his curiosity.

While consoling himself.

‘Yeah. It’s a bit too much to call the guards for a light conversation like this.’

If N-Aroel got caught amidst this situation because he called the guards, they might drag him off and torture him.

And N-Akuon didn’t feel comfortable about doing such a thing to his old friend.

N-Aroel smiled.

“You… Just like the past, you always cared about me. Thanks. Anyway… what Melchizedek talked about was simple. That we needed to stop the small-scale battles and unite once again.”

“…Why?”

N-Aroel smile turned cold.

“We found traces of another race beneath Aokan.”

A very powerful race.

A race that was countless times stronger than their own planet, both in terms of strength and technology, and had once roamed over the universe.

According to Melchizedek’s calculations, they were not something that Angkara could oppose with their divided strength.

After some calculations, Melchizedek had come to the conclusion of 37 years.

If they stopped their war and focused entirely on development for 37 years, only then would they be able to survive.

N-Akuon scoffed at N-Aroel’s words.

“What a crazy can. So what, it’s going to conquer Angkara?”

Melchizedek’s words were something every civilian in Angkara wanted.

But if it could happen just because they wanted it to, they wouldn’t have gone to war in the first place.

There was only one scenario where there were no more disputes between the people.

When everybody was dead.

“Why didn’t you tell it to kill everyone off and replace them with machines? Nothing would fight each other anymore.”

If it replaced everything with machines, it could create that united world it talked about.

But N-Aroel shook his head.

“Melchizedek told me that it thought about that as well… But soon told me no. That they would only be able to wield the M-waves properly if people still lived.”

They needed strength to win battles.

And Melchizedek had tried very hard to achieve that strength with only machines.

But it was all futile.

The strength of the <Flame> inside Angkara that powered the Dragon God Armor and the various fleets.

And the hidden ability of humans that allowed them to control that flame’s power, the M-waves.

The strength that the Dragon God Soldiers or fleet masters could use was not something machines could achieve.

So they needed humans.

N-Aroel smiled and looked at N-Akuon.

“In the end, it told me that it found the perfect solution.’

N-Akuon scoffed.

“Chipsets? Brainwashing? It can control our bodies like that, but not our minds.”

The M-waves naturally declined anything that would harm one’s body.

Even if they were brainwashed.

Even if their bodies were forcefully controlled.

The M-waves would resist it all.

N-Aroel scoffed.

“Didn’t I say? It found a solution.”

“…What?”

“It told me it got a hint from someone else. Apparently, in another world… there are people that are asleep inside delightful dreams.”

They slept and dreamed of their ideal world.

And their bodies would fall under Melchizedek’s hands.

There was no resistance, either.

Although the bodies were fighting, their true selves would be in a very happy place.

‘Even if they release the chipset’s controls…They won’t be able to wake up from that dream.’

N-Aroel chuckled.

……………………………………….

“…It seems you had a very delightful dream.”

‘The reason why you didn’t want to wake up wasn’t because you didn’t like reality, but because the dream was too good…’

But one couldn’t live inside a dream forever.

They had to wake up.

No matter how happy the dreams made them.

Hansoo looked at Enbi Arin with a heavy expression.