Chapter 13: 11 – Descent of the Spirit queen

49 days had passed since then; during which time, Glenn and Ander traversed through the white desert to find the artifact holder. Unfortunately for them, they couldn't find anything and thus, had to follow the trail of clothes without owners on the ground.

Unfortunately for Glenn specifically, Kevin returned only after 2 days had passed, so he had to endure his endless babbling for 47 days straight.

'I think my ears are going to fall off... Status was right. I'm pushed to the brink of insanity because of this damn ghost!'

Worse still, Glenn felt that he hadn't made any progress with the Chaos art of Irreversibility. Well, maybe he did, but that was only if being able to control the Chaos 1 more inch away was considered progress, which he didn't.

Before Glenn could feel even worse about himself, Ander suddenly spoke, "Glenn, I've been meaning to ask you for a while now."

"...?"

"Why are you wearing that?"

As soon as Glenn was about to open his mouth again to answer, he suddenly halted in his path. Lighting a fire with his left hand and grabbing a handful of Chaos with his right, Glenn punched the ground right before him with such speed and power that the sand pulverized, not even being given the chance to rise up and obscure his vision. Before long, a terrifying shriek could be heard from the place Glenn's fist had struck. 

Not caring about the ear-piercing shriek, Glenn grabbed the thing that was shrieking and pulled it up from the ground.

"Look at that, our dinner," whistled Ander as he watched Glenn pulling out some kind of sandworm half a meter thick with a circular mouth that was jagged with sharp teeth. Taking out a sword, Ander slashed the worm in half; it died soon after, returning the 7th layer to complete silence. 

Wiping the blood off his face and throwing the top half of the worm toward Ander, Glenn moved to pull out the lower half and scowled, "I thought I've already passed your test? Why would you distract me? I almost fell for the Sandworm's ambush there."

"It wasn't my intention." Ander shrugged. "I'm just curious. Why are you wearing the old man's clothes?"

"You mean the old man whose Skill book you gave me?"

"Yes, that old man."

Throwing the lower half of the worm toward Ander, Glenn stretched his arms and sighed. "It's warm, and I can keep his clothes safe this way anyways. No need to worry about forgetting them. Also..." muttered Glenn in a low voice as he looked at the insignia of two curved swords clashing each other on the man's clothes. "...It looks cool." 

Fully capable of hearing this, Ander laughed and left to find anything combustible to make a campfire.

Also capable of hearing this was Kevin, who was frowning. "What's with kids these days? Dusty traveler's attire with a gray scarf, that's the exact opposite of cool!"

"Time changes, ghosty."

"Still, don't you feel a little bit embarrassed wearing clothes like that?"

"Says the one who's half-naked."

"Hey! How would I show the world my manly muscles otherwise?!"

"You can't. Only I can see your muscles, and that disgusts me." 

And with those words, Glenn tried to ignore Kevin and took out a knife, skinning the worm and removing its poison-producing organs before Ander got back with the fire kindlers.

"Huh..." Kevin muttered as he watched Glenn dismantling the Sandworm, "You're more proficient at this than I thought. With kids nowadays buying food from big stores instead of hunting them, I was sure that everyone has forgotten about how to make a proper meal in the wild."

Cutting open the worm's skin, Glenn spoke, "Didn't you watch Ander cook for the last dozens of days?"

"Yes, but he's old so I expected as much from him."

Halting all hand movements, Glenn turned to look at Kevin with a startled gaze. "Ander is... old?"

"Hey hey, why do you look so surprised?"

"He looks like he's fucking 22!"

"And you think he's 22?" Kevin raised an eyebrow.

"Yes!"

"And you didn't think anything was up when he begged you to marry his daughter, who is your age?"

"B-But he also said that she's adopted!"

"Yeah, adopted from his little brother." 

Glenn couldn't retort to that. Thus, he could only accept defeat and sigh. "Alright then, you won this time, ghosty. How old is he anyway?"

"Hmm... around 45. But I can't believe the look of surprise on your face. Don't you know that all high-tier awakened can make themselves look as old or young as they want as long as they don't change their biological structure and build that is."

"Yeah, I haven't," Glenn answered truthfully, "Where I'm from, there aren't many awakened. Well, my dad's a 9th-tier hunter but he chooses to make his appearance the same as his age for some reason."

Kevin nodded. "He seems like an interesting person."

"He is," said Glenn with much more enthusiasm than before, "There was a time when he—"

But Kevin interrupted him with a loud shout. "GET DOWN!"

Sensing the seriousness in Kevin's voice, Glenn immediately got down; a slick black blade whooshed through where his head was soon after. Hurriedly getting into a fighting stance, Glenn gazed at the one who had just swung the sword.

"It's a robed man. Of course it's a fucking robed man!"

"Oh," spoke the robed man as he pulled his sword out from the ground, "You defeated the 6th-tier knight and dodged my strike? As expected of you, old man."

"What old man?!"

"We won't be fooled again," said the man as he pointed his sword toward Glenn, "Although your voice sounds young, we know full well that it's just your shapeshifting skill. Who would've known that you're stupid enough to still wear the same clothes?"

Glenn immediately fumbled to take off the traveler's attire. "WAIT! YOU GOT IT ALL WRON—"

"DIE!"

And with the shout, the robed man disappeared from his spot. As Glenn was looking for where the man was, Kevin shouted, "Your left!"

Glenn dashed backward; the same slick black blade slashed through where he had just been almost immediately. Clenching his fist, Glenn punched the blade with all his strength. But of course, he did nothing but make his own bones shake in pain.

"Newbie, focus on dodging, don't even try to defend or attack! I will tell you where he'll attack from!"

Heeding to Kevin's words, Glenn tensed his muscle and focused on his senses.

"Right!"

Glenn took a step back. Dust and sand stirred up as the sword missed him and dug into the ground. Coughing the sand out of his throat, Glenn heard another shout.

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"Behind! Aiming at your head!"

Glenn dropped down to the ground.

"Above!"

He rolled to the side. The sword that was whooshing through the air suddenly disappeared and reappeared right above where his head was mere moments ago. Using the flat side of the blade as a foothold, he kicked against it and launched himself away.

Slowly pulling the sword out off the ground, the robed man raised it up above his head. "I have to admit, I underestimated you a little too much, old man." Mana agglomerated around his sword rapidly as he said his next words. "Now die along with that Skill book of yours! [Getsuga T—"

But before he could finish charging up his dangerous skill, a shadow dashed toward him from behind. Widening his eyes in surprise, the man quickly raised his sword to behind him to block the attack.

Sand rose as a powerful shockwave was sent across the 7th layer. As the cloud of sand obscuring everyone's vision settled, both Glenn and the man could see the identity of the shadow.

"Ander?!"

"Ander Stelwall!?"

Smiling, Ander put more force into his strike, sending the robed man flying a couple of hundred meters ago. Moving with such speed that it looked like he disappeared from his spot, Ander got beside Glenn almost immediately after.

"Glenn, I need you to run. I don't want to here any objectio—"

"Yeah, sure." Glenn interrupted him while eyeing the man warily. "He's an 8th-tier knight, just like you. I'd be a hindrance if I stayed here anyway. His target is... me, so run if things get too hard, okay? I just need 5 minutes to get far enough away."

"Aww, worrying about your father-in-law?" Ander chuckled.

In response, Glenn gave him the middle finger before running off. "Fuck off. Don't die on me, you bastard. I'll miss refusing your offer to marry your daughter if you die."

Watching Glenn's departing figure, Ander couldn't help but shake his head bitterly.

"Kids these days, they have no respect for their elders. Well, maybe it's my fault for making myself look 22." Taking out [Sword of Vitari] - his bonded weapon - from a crack in space, Ander tightened his grip on it and glared at the robed man.

"You know what it means for a knight to take out his bonded weapon, correct?"

In response, the man brandished his sword and shouted, "FOR GOD THEODRIS!"

Seeing this, Ander smirked.

"I guess you do. Now then, I don't have to hesitate anymore. You're meeting your end here, and you know it."

...

20 minutes.

That was the amount of time Glenn had run in this seemingly endless white desert. Stopping for a bit to catch his breath, Glenn glanced back in Ander's direction.

"The area has most likely become even more of a wasteland now," he muttered.

Suddenly, Kevin spoke up, "Newbie, I hear sounds of fighting."

"Yeah, probably the sound of them clashing swords finally reaching our place." Glenn waved his hand dismissively.

"It's not that! Are you doubting my ears?"

"Considering the fact that you're dead and have no ears, then yes."  

"Tch. Anyway, it's not my descendant's fight. The sounds are coming from your left."

Glenn stared to his left and squinted his eyes. Barely, just barely could he make out tiny dots that resembled humanoid creatures constantly dashing into each other and widening their distances at the same time. 

"Ghosty, are you sure they're people and not humanoid monsters fighting each other?"

"I'm certain. I even heard a maiden's scream in the midst of the battle along with a brave warrior vowing to protect her! He's so cool, unlike a certain someone who's still standing here, hesitating to rush in."

'What's this, a cheesy play?' But... this might be a good chance.'

Ander and Glenn hadn't met any living people during their 49 days inside this layer. Thus, helping out those people seemed to be the best choice right now.

'It's not like I can just run aimlessly in this wasteland anyway. Besides, I might encounter the Artifact holder if I'm lucky.'

But Glenn wasn't going to rush in recklessly. No, he was going to watch from a safe distance and judge where or not it was worth it to intervene.

As such, he began making his way toward the fight.

...

Lying prone on a nearby sand dune, Glenn strained his eyes to see a boy around his age with blonde hair, blue eyes, and impossibly handsome features clenching some kind of curved sword tight in his hands.

'I think people call the sword 'katana' or something. Isn't it a terribly bad weapon to wield in the depths? Well, he probably lost his original weapon; you'll have to make use of everything in this wasteland, I guess.'

The opponents the boy was fighting were 2 Death's wills. However, their teamwork was... almost impeccable. Just as one Death's will fell down from the boy's slash, the other rushed in to protect it.

'However I look at it, the blonde guy is losing.'

Then, Glenn's eyes drifted to the familiar person right behind the boy.

'Annie?'

Glenn rubbed his eyes to make sure that he wasn't seeing this. But however hard he rubbed them, the familiar brown-haired and brown-eyed girl was still there. The princess of Arline empire seemed to have a knack for getting into troubles. However, something was wrong.

'Was this whole situation caused due to her?'

However, he quickly discarded such thoughts. Based on what the robed man said before, it didn't seem like that it was the case.

'Heh, what an unlucky girl. But... this might be good.'

This was just the perfect chance to make the princess and possible prince of an empire indebted to him. As such, Glenn stood up and dashed toward their location.

Lighting a fire in his left hand and grabbing a handful of Chaos with his right, Glenn sneaked up behind a Death's will and—

[Chaos punch]

"KRIEEEEEEEEK!"

—Gave it a heavy punch. 

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