NOVEL NEXT Chapter 1182: One Year
Somewhere in Mabi.
A peculiar, fantastical beast vigilantly moved through the dense jungle, its paws and talons pressing lightly against the damp earth.
Yes, the beast had both paws and talons…
It stood massive and imposing, its body built like a bear. It was broad, muscular, and covered in dark brown fur. But where a bear's head should have been was a sharp, angular face of a hawk.
Its golden eyes gleamed with intensity, scanning every little movement around it, almost as if… searching for something—or someone.
The beast's front limbs did not end in paws, but massive avian talons. The hind limbs, however, remained thick, powerful paws of a bear. The hawk-bear moved through the undergrowth, sniffing for a scent trail.
The prey was nearby, hiding. The beast was certain of it, but when it scanned its surroundings, it found no one.
Suddenly, the leaves of a certain tree nearby rustled, causing the hawk-bear to immediately tense up and look in that direction. Its eyes narrowed when it saw a… strange wooden chest standing on the branch.
For a moment, the beast was puzzled, probably wondering how an inanimate object like that could appear on a tree branch. More importantly, why did the chest have... legs?
But that moment of confusion was all its 'prey' needed.
A shadowy figure emerged from behind a tree, twin short blades in his hands, and chains coiled around his forearms. His hands blurred, and in the next instant, the blades whipped forward, cleaving the hawk-bear's head clean off in one swift motion.
The weapons didn't just stop there, however. They shot past the fresh corpse, its chains rattling, before finally embedding themselves deep into the trunk of the tree that was occupied by the wooden chest.
"Gege!" The mimic yelped in panic as its tiny legs lost balance and it tumbled down from the branch, landing miserably on the ground.
With great struggle, it got back to its feet, then cast a look full of indignation towards Adam.
"Gege! Gege!"
Of course, Adam barely heard him over the voices inside his head. The Laughing God continued to whisper, and he continued to listen.
"Sharp, sharp, sharp…" he muttered incoherently. "The blades are sharp, and the cleaving is swift. I still can't control the chains, though. Despite using these blades for…"
Adam tilted his head a little, then murmured, "How long has it been since I acquired the Blades of Fulgrim? No, how long has it been since I arrived on this island? I don't know, I don't know… When was the Battle of Ravenfell? I don't know, I don't know…"
The voices drowned him without end, gnawing at his mind. Yet, in these past few months, he had learned to endure them by forcing himself to focus solely on the task before him.
Through this, his concentration had sharpened to an almost miraculous degree, allowing him to cut through the ceaseless ravings of the Faceless Mask.
Unbeknownst to him, a thin line of drool slipped from his mouth as he intently thought about the time he had spent on this island. He crouched low on the ground, absentmindedly dragging his fingers across the soil, carving numbers one after another.
"One month to reach Ivory City," he murmured. "Another month to plan the heist… Mabi, the Land of the First Magi… After that, I traveled inwards for four… more months… I've spent six months on the island… and yet, nowhere close to the ancient ruins on the map that Cedric gave me…"
Adam had spent six months on the Coral Island that was Lord Tebu's shell, then another six months in Mabi.
It had already been one year since the Battle of Ravenfell, yet Adam was nowhere close to his objective on this island-continent.
While the youth was lost in his own thoughts, carving scribbles on the forest floor, Gege started to scream frantically, trying hard to get his attention.
Then, all of a sudden, intense alarm bells started to ring inside Adam's fractured mind. He quickly let go of the chains of the Blades of Fulgrim coiled around his forearms, then conjured the Staff of Calamity, right on time to block an attack.
BAM!
Another hawk-bear had sneaked up on him from behind, trying to avenge the death of its partner. Adam gritted his teeth as he held the staff horizontally in front of him in a defensive posture.
"Damn it," he spat through gritted teeth, his hands trembling. "I almost forgot!"
The hawk-bear, a beast at the Mana Vortex Rank, always moved around in pairs in the dangerous jungles of Mabi.
Sensing its partner's death, the beast went berserk and hurled itself at Adam in a reckless frenzy. The youth could feel the beast's rage weighing down on him.
His expression turned solemn as he swiftly adjusted his stance and delivered a sidekick to the beast's torso, sending it airborne.
Then, before the beast could crash on the ground, Adam swung his staff, mentally commanding it to extend in mid-arc and brought it down in a crushing blow upon the beast's hawk-like head.
The hawk-bear's skull exploded under the crushing force of Adam's staff, spraying blood, bone fragments, and brain matter into the air. With a single strike, he had felled a Mana Vortex-level beast!
Adam exhaled a deep breath, expanding his Sphere of Resonance to look for any nearby threats. Only after confirming there was no more danger around, did he finally heave a sigh of relief.
He then turned to the mimic and hissed, "You could have warned me, at least!"
The mimic was utterly dumbfounded. "Gege?"
"Stupid box," Adam cursed under his breath, shaking his head in disappointment.
"Gege! Gege!" The mimic was even more dumbfounded.
"Anyway, eat one and store the other." Adam waved his hand dismissively.
The mimic grumbled in frustration, then proceeded to devour the first beast Adam had killed. Meanwhile, the youth crouched on the ground again and began to carve numbers and characters that only he could understand.
A solemn look appeared on his face as he murmured:
"It's already been a year since the battle, and I've yet to arrive at the portal on this island continent. Hopefully, the Old Man can take care of the ones in Ulier and Nahua. As for the rest…"
He sighed as he turned his head eastward, his gaze seemingly settling on the distant lands across the Galestine Ocean.
"The fate of this world rests on the shoulders of us few…"