The Girls Are All Coveting Me

Amidst the torrential rain.

A gaunt girl picking mushrooms at the corner of the town carefully plucked the fresh mushrooms away.

A rumbling sound caught the girl's attention.

When she looked up, she saw her mother frozen in place.

She carefully reached out and tugged at her mother's worn clothes and said:

"Mom, has something happened in the town?"

The mother remained silent for a long time, then rubbed her daughter's head and said:

"We're going home now, Eira, and later you must hide in the basement and not come out."

"Why? Is it the Demons attacking us again?"

"Who knows, sometimes human hearts are scarier than Demons."

"Mom, I don't understand."

"It's good you don't understand, Eira, be obedient, hide, and for the next day, unless you hear Mom or Dad call you, don't come out."

The girl clutched the mushrooms in her little hands and said softly:

"Mom, are we going to die?"

The mother held the girl and ran towards home.

Not until they hid inside the house did she say:

"Which scoundrel told you such a thing?"

The girl Eira lowered her head and said:

"I heard it from the uncles in town."

"Eira, this isn't something you need to understand yet, listen to Mom, go and hide in the basement."

But Eira tugged on her mother's sleeve and said:

"Mom, I'm 8 years old, even if I'm not very smart, I know that someday I'll disappear too, just like my brother and sisters."

The mother silently opened the basement door, prepared to close it, and then hide the traces of the door.

"Eira, Mom won't let you disappear."

However, the girl shook her head and said:

"Eira knows, not only brother and sisters will disappear, but Dad and Mom will too, everyone will disappear someday, but one day and ten thousand days aren't really much of a difference."

The girl didn't quite understand the meaning of death.

But she at least knew why her family had fought until now.

Mom going out this time would mean she would never return, just like brother and sisters.

So she didn't want to enter the basement.

Just as she had said earlier.

There's no difference between one day and ten thousand days.

The difference is whether she can be with her family.

Suddenly, a deafening rumble echoed around.

The walls outside Neil Town collapsed with a crash.

A small mountain was advancing towards the center of the town at a pace that seemed slow but unwavering.

The shattered walls flew across the sky.

When they fell in the town, large areas of houses collapsed.

Sequence Five.

Disaster Beast.

Evolved form of Land Giant Claw Crab.

Mountain Crab King merged with the rain curtain.

Such a Demon, even if its brain development is imperfect, already possesses intelligence.

This is why the Land Giant Claw Crab is so deadly compared to other Demons.

Behind the small mountain, a group of seemingly petite Land Giant Claw Crab royal family followed closely.

Further away.

Smaller size guards of the Giant Claw Crab were crouching before the King and Throne.

This was the nightmare for the Menilanka people, the Demon that could stop children from crying at night.

Eira shook off the rubble from herself, ran to her mother who was pinned by the wall, and struggled to dig away the debris.

But how could her small body bear the burden of the wall.

Her mother kept shouting "Eira, run!", but the girl was unmoved, still trying to save her mother.

Suddenly, it turned dark.

The girl looked up in fear.

She only saw the Disaster Beast's crab leg the size of a building plowing towards their home.

Unrelated to killing intent.

It simply wanted to step over the ruins.

She closed her eyes in despair but then heard a whistling in the sky.

The dark clouds were torn open.

...

The rain in Neil Town wasn't as heavy.

But Morton's heart was clouded.

That night.

The Dante Port Hotel staff knocked on his door.

"Excuse me, are you Mr. Morton?"

The attendant said respectfully.

Morton frowned and said:

"It's me, is there something?"

The waitress handed over a note and said:

"A gentleman left in haste and asked me to pass this note to you."

Near the vital transportation route to Menilanka, to be honest, Morton's mood had been quite lousy lately.

A thousand emotions turned into a worry in this moment, right at the doorstep.

The sudden note heightened his bad feelings to the extreme.

After the attendant left, he opened the note.

It simply said:

"Morton, come to Neil Town for another fight."

The strokes were ones Speed Dragon Morton could never forget in his life.

The handwriting left by Noding, who was once both a friend and foe.

Moreover, he knew that someone as proud as Noding wouldn't lie to him.

Fear flooded his heart.

Noding's invitation was actually manageable.

The two were now enemies, at worst it would just be another battle.

But the issue was Noding had joined the infamous Void Erosion Sect.

A notorious cult that blood sacrifices an area using the National Alchemy Array's human flesh and spirit, transforming them into the Philosopher's Stone.

Noding being there meant the Void Erosion Sect had also appeared in Menilanka.

Such a clever Morton instantly unraveled the critical details.

"Noding!!!"

After calm thinking and judgment, he made a decision.

To bypass the fallen zone at top speed and head directly back to his hometown.

The possibility of dying along the way was high.

But it was the only thing he could do.

However, just rushing there couldn't really help his hometown.

He hesitated for a moment, then took out a medicine bottle from his backpack.

The bottle was engraved with an eerie green fist emblem.