Chương 525: 524. 24th Ethnarch

It was a nice day but the silhouette of Sigma's skyline in the distance gave him a foreboding feeling. Something felt... wrong.

"Mike, make sure to get some distance from the outskirts." the blacksmith told the catman at the steering wheel.

"Ah, sure." Mike said and turned the shuttle a little so they would fly by Sigma at some distance.

"Don't you think we could enter Sigma and look for people that know something about your island?" Leana mentioned.

"It's by definition an island that no mortal can know the location of. I doubt there is anyone that could tell us. We have to look for it ourselves." he denied. I seemed like she was still trying to get them to look for her scouts first. But the blacksmith didn't have it. He couldn't help the feeling that they would be pulled into whatever trouble Sigma was in if they entered it now... Seth was afraid of angering Apollo by losing time on a side quest.

Despite keeping their distance from the smaller buildings on the outskirts of Sigma, Seth had a good look at the city thanks to the eye of Argos. However, there was not much to see. It reminded him of the time in Beta. The district was empty. There were some damages from what Seth assumed to be fights with monsters, but otherwise, the city was empty. Empty streets, lifeless buildings. That didn't have to mean anything, Seth thought to himself.

With how many monsters were present in the sea, it would have been a wonder if the district didn't suffer over the past two years. Y-City also had a huge area of abandoned ruins, people might have migrated to the district center for safety here too. Seth doubted there would be a lot of those terrifying living dungeons going around. At least he hoped so. The blacksmith sighed. When had he become unable to stay out of other people's business?

Although he wasn't ready to delay his quest, he started dropping recorder golems here and there to have a look at the situation on the ground. Sigma's huge cityscape stretched all the way from the shores of the inland sea, to the coast of the northern ocean. After crossing the mountains the climate also saw a big change. The temperate north of the northern mountains sank and the forests below them were covered in a fine layer of snow. What shocked the blacksmith, was the layers of snow on the streets of Sigma.

Seth had kind of gotten used to seeing snowy towns during in travel with Fin. The first time he had seen a concrete jungle covered in snow was the mountain city. But for a district to look like this... Even when the general climate was colder, Sigma was not supposed to look like this. The dense city structures of the districts had always held in the heat generated by vehicles, people, and the underground facilities that allowed them to stay self-sufficient. A cold district.

The concept itself seemed outlandish to him. At street level, where the sunlight didn't reach into the deep chasms between buildings, it was a dark and frozen world. Where electric lights and artificial heat were supposed to create a, not friendly, but habitable place reigned a frozen darkness. For Seth, this scene was disturbing, but objectively he couldn't find any other signs that something was wrong. The city was intact, the streets were not covered in blood or corpses, and everything just seemed... abandoned.

This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings. There was no obvious sign of danger. The lack thereof despite the obvious discrepancies was more concerning.

"Can I also have a look?" the princess asked, looking over his shoulder at the tablet screen.

"Sure, take this one." the blacksmith readily gave her a second screen to share the vision of recorder golems. Since nobody but mike had much to do, he ended up giving everyone a screen. It took several hours for them to pass by Sigma and they finally saw the ocean in the distance around late noon. Despite everyone taking part in the exploration of Sigma, they found absolutely nothing. Districts were massive and the recorder golems barely crossed the outskirts, even after hours of being deployed.

"I feel a presence watching us." Leana's cloaked escort suddenly exclaimed.

"Something triggered the automatic defense of the shuttle," Mike commented at almost the same time.

"When did it get so dark outside?" Mina suddenly asked, prompting everyone to look out the windows. It was true, the outside was enveloped in a dim twilight as if it was already evening. With a sudden jolt that threw everyone forward, the shuttle slowed down and came to a stop.

"What is it now, Mike?!" Seth exclaimed slightly pissed as he almost crashed face first into the wall that separated the cockpit and cabin. Mike only pointed at the windshield. Seth followed his finger and noticed something like a spectral skeleton fish in front of them in the sky. It was surrounded by a raving mass of fish bones, that looked like a long body that was constantly moving and turning in reoccurring patterns.

"How peculiar! So there are other people in this world that can withstand my curse." a hollow voice spoke curiously. The skeletonized skill of what looked like an armored fish with intense bone-shielded eyes appeared from the void.

"You are the ones that have been spying on my territory. Hmm, I feel a familiar presence among you. It feels similar to some other rats that came earlier." Seth noticed the figure stiffen beside Leana. It was probably talking of the scout parties the Princess had sent before.

"I guess this answers what happened to the scouts..." Seth mumbled. Except for him, the bus was silent. Only filled with ragged breaths. Looking back, he found that most of them were pale and frozen in fear. <Ding! You Skill: Fear Resistance (Passive) lv. 8 has become Fear Resistance (Passive) lv. 9! > A skill he had almost forgotten because there had been no reaction for quite a while suddenly jumped up to answer his question. A pressure he had not noticed before was alleviated.

Was it the doing of the beast in the front? Set tried using <Observation> but it didn't come up with any result. Its level was so far apart that he didn't even see the name, or it was not part of the system.

"Kukuku, you can still speak in my presence. It is almost a shame, that your life will end today. As a sign of appreciation, I shall tell you the name of the person who killed you. I am the 24th Ethnarch of the Beyond. You should feel honored to die by my hand." it stated seriously.

"Ceres, what are you doing? Attack it." Seth prompted the lightning bird. After the disaster with the horse monster, the bird tended to wait for a command, before attacking.

"Yes!" it called out enthusiastic and lighting rained on the skeletal creature.

"Hahaha, your attempts are futile." the Ethnarch laughed as electric arcs ran across the bones with little to no effect.

"Wolfram, distract it." Seth brought out another trump card. The imposing knight appeared from his inventory, carrying his staff and shield. He jumped out of the bus door and climbed on the roof. Shortly after, the night was lit up by purple rays zickzacking through the air. Where they hit the beast's body, it immediately turned into pieces of metal.

"Urgh! Divine power, disgusting." this time it reacted to the attack, and its eye focused on Wolfram. With its attention pulled, the magic knight started levitating and flew to the side, peppering the Ethnarch in spells that transmuted it into metal. I seemed like divine power was the specter's weakness. The metallic patches on the beast pulling the lightning also opened a chance for Ceres to inflict more damage to the foe. Using the chance someone slipped out of his pet space.

Moments later a massive ray of light pierced the raving body from the sky above. Puffle's signature move. The beast being bigger than the nightmare centipede only made it a giant target. Once again a formless pressure was lifted and the others got back to their senses.

"Mike! Get us out of her!" he urged the catboy, shaking his shoulder to get him out of his stupor. He nodded and hurriedly whipped the steering wheel around, making a sharp turn with the shuttle.

"Don't think this is enough to escape my grasp!" it cried, with its eyes glowing a deep red full of wrath. Portals opened in the surrounding sky and terrifying monsters emerged at the specter's command.