Dungeon Predator (WN)

"I'm going to look through Krishan's memories now. Please put your hand on my back if you'd like to see them," Eder said.

Kang Oh, Sephiro, Cyndia, and Muhawk placed their hands on his back.

"The body is a container for the soul. Even if the soul has left, the body retains traces of its departed soul. Show us your memories, oh departed spirit!" Eder completed his incantation and placed his staff on Krishan's head.

Memories of the Dead!

Then, Kang Oh witnessed Krishan's memories like a movie. Those touching Eder's back experienced the same thing.

* * *

Through her surveillance plants, Krishan had just learned of the paladins' presence here. She rushed out of the cave, killed some of them, and then returned to the cave, sitting within her flower bud.

Krishan realized that not all of the paladins were here yet. Soon enough, that bastard who'd devoured her left wing and arm would be here!

She was locked in thought. Kang Oh was capable of nullifying her immortality! Last they fought, she had been much stronger than she was now.

Without sufficient life force, she couldn't use the God of Creation's power. Her body wasn't fully healed either.

Krishan didn't think she could beat Kang Oh if he transformed into that terrifying beast again. She was under the impression that Kang Oh could freely switch between his human form and that hulking beast form. However, she was dead wrong.

Her best option would be running away. However, the paladins had set up a perimeter, and using the God of Creation's power to initiate a Spatial Leap required a ton of life force.

Life force that she didn't have right now.

She was between a rock and a hard place, so she continued to mull over her options. Eventually, she had an idea. It wasn't the best option, but it was the next best thing.

"I have no other choice." Krishan left the cave. She needed more life force for her plan to work.

Krishan captured twelve of the paladins and brought them to her lair. Then, she completely drained them dry.

"This should be enough." She gripped a green seed, one about the size of a peach seed, in her left hand. Then, she removed the two combined sources from her body, divided them, and gripped them in her right hand.

"Hoo."

When she killed the Storm Guild and the paladins, she'd infused all of the resulting life force into the sources.

Krishan thought of her destination, raised her hand, and ripped open a hole in space.

Split.

But it was much too small for her to go through; she'd only managed to make a small crack before the stored life force was depleted.

She saw a familiar face, one that was happy to see her after such a long time.

"Krishan!" The jade-eyed man was surprised to see her and called her name.

"Jigon! I don't have time to catch up. Take this." Krishan put her hand through the crack and passed him the God of Creation's sources.

"These are..." Jigon looked shocked.

"This too!" She also threw the seed into the crack.

"What's going on?" Jigon asked.

Then, the crack began to close.

"The seed contains all of my memories and knowledge. You'll understand when you look through the seed," Krishan quickly said.

"Krishan!" Jigon said yearningly.

"Use that to free yourself! And make sure you revive me!" Krishan made her final request through the closing crack.

"Krisha..."

She couldn't hear him all the way through. The tear in space had completely shut.

"Done."

She no longer feared Kang Oh.

Krishan had passed the God of Creation's sources to Jigon, the only person that she trusted in this world. She'd also given him her seed, which was basically her very existence.

If Jigon gathered a couple more of the God of Creation's sources and infused a massive amount of life force into the seed, then she'd be able to live again!

"I'll live once more. Like a wilting flower that blooms again..."

Krishan only had one more task ahead of her. To somehow kill Kang Oh, the wielder of the blade that could overcome her immortality.

Jigon would be in danger if Kang Oh was allowed to live!

After that, the memories played out, but they'd already seen this part. After all, they'd fought against her firsthand.

Their viewing of Krishan's memories had come to an end.

"Who is Jigon? He has to be another one of the Mayanes, right?" Kang Oh asked. He could've sworn he saw wings behind Jigon's back.

"Yes, Mayanes Jigon. To my knowledge, he is being imprisoned by Lord Gainus."

"Gainus?" Kang Oh tilted his head. He definitely wasn't one of the Primordial Gods, and he didn't know of a god with that name.

"Divine Dragon Gainus. He is the Primordial Dragon, and the oldest dragon in existence."

"Divine Dragon Gainus..."

"When the Mayanes rebelled, the dragons fought against them alongside the gods. I heard that when their rebellion failed, Lord Gainus was tasked with keeping watch over two of their prisons. Those two are Jigon and Orga."

"We have to meet with him ASAP. We have to stop Jigon from escaping!" Kang Oh yelled.

If Jigon were to be released, then things would become a lot more complicated.

"We have no way of contacting the Divine Dragon, so I'll let the Supreme One know of our request." Cyndia knelt and began to pray. The top of her head began to radiate dim light.

Her party surrounded her and somberly waited.

A short while later, Cyndia finished her prayer.

"How did it go?" Eder asked.

"The Supreme One said that Lord Gainus would soon make an appearance," Cyndia replied.

Speak of the devil. All of a sudden, a golden magic circle appeared on the snow covered field. An old man appeared, wearing snow-white clothes without a speck of dust on it.

The old man's hair, beard, and eyebrows were all whiter than the snow itself.

"Lord Gainus, I am one of the goddess's lowly servants. My name is Cyndia." Cyndia made every effort to be respectful.

"Nice to meet you," Gainus said. His voice was soft, yet contained a sort of dignity to it.

"We don't have time for small talk. Jigon may attempt to escape. We have to stop him," Kang Oh said urgently.

Gainus looked him over and shook his head.

"It's really urgent. If Jigon manages to escape like Krishan, then..." Kang Oh was about to pester him, but Gainus cut him off.

"He's already gone."

"What?"

"Jigon has already escaped my nest. Orga too."

"No!" Cyndia looked disappointed. To think that the Mayanes had been released into the continent once more!

"Is there no way of pursuing them?" Kang Oh asked.

"I thought this might happen, so I branded their wings."

"Can we track them using those brands?"

"Yeah. But it's pointless."

"Why is that?"

"They ripped off their wings before they escaped. Hmm, I didn't expect them to rip their own wings off; after all, they prize their wings over everything else."

"Is there any other way of tracking them?"

"There are, but it won't be easy. Only the hard methods are left."

"The hard methods?"

"Scouring the continent. Although, it'll prove difficult as they no longer have their wings!"

"Mm." Kang Oh groaned. 'To think things would get this complicated!'

"How did you find Krishan?" Gainus asked.

"We received assistance from several people. People from the churches and adventurers," Cyndia replied.

"Then try finding them that way. I'll try finding them my own way."

"Understood. Then please tell us more about Jigon and Orga."

"Jigon and Orga are..." Gainus spoke for quite some time. He explained what they looked like, their special abilities, and even their family relations.

'It's because Krishan and Jigon are twins!'

It was strange that someone as arrogant as Krishan would leave her fate and the God of Creation's sources to the hands of another, but it made sense now, since the two of them were blood related.

"Take this." Gainus passed them a hand mirror.

"This is?" Cyndia accepted the mirror and tilted her head.

"You can communicate with me by rubbing the mirror."

"Ah."

"Let me know when you find Jigon or Orga."

"Yes, Lord Gainus."

Then, another golden magic circle appeared beneath his feet.

Whir!

The magic circle radiated intense light. By the time it disappeared, Gainus was nowhere to be found.

"Now what do we do?" Kang Oh asked.

"First, we'll go to the churches and ask for their assistance. We'll also go to the Adventurer Guild and commission them again."

"I'll leave the searching to you. I need to prepare for the fight itself."

This is what he was actually thinking: 'I don't want to do something so troublesome!'.

"Yes. Then I'll let you know when we find Jigon and Orga," Cyndia said.

"If you can't find me in Latnia City, then please come to Altein. There's a house there that was once supposedly haunted by a ghost. That's actually Eder's house." Kang Oh pointed at Eder.

"Understood."

"Ah, and regarding the trident..." Kang Oh brought up the trident and gauged her reaction.

He'd looked over the trident, and it turned out to be an SS-rank weapon. However, it had a small downside: it could only be used by the Mayanes. Weapons could be remodeled to remove that limitation, so it wasn't really a big flaw.

Thus, Kang Oh looked at her strongly, as if saying, 'Please let me have the weapon.'. But it didn't work in the slightest.

"We'll store it in the Church of Death. We can't let another one of the Mayanes get their hands on it."

"I can keep it safe too."

'I have an extremely safe spot: my inventory!'

"There's no place safer than the Church of Death," Cyndia said firmly.

"Ahem." Kang Oh reluctantly gave her the trident, and Cyndia passed it off to Muhawk.

Killing her had taken so much effort! To think he'd come back empty-handed! Kang Oh got heartburn just thinking about it.

"We have a lot of places to visit, so we'll get going first."

"Yes."

Cyndia and the paladins left.

Including Muhawk, Cyndia had been accompanied by 100 paladins. However, there were only 65 of them left. More than thirty of them had died in the battle with Krishan.

The remaining paladins collected the bodies of the fallen. They'd probably be buried in their birthplace, the Goddess's Land.

"We'll get going too." Kang Oh began to walk away. 'What an awkward victory.' That's what he thought of the hunt, at least.

Killing her was all well and good, but they hadn't reclaimed the sources she'd stolen. To top it all off, Jigon and Orga were free, which would prove to be a headache in the future!

* * *

A nameless hill somewhere in the continent's central region.

Two men stared at each other, their backs baring wounds as if something had been ripped out. They were none other than the escaped Mayanes! The jade-eyed man was Jigon, and the purple-eyed, baby faced man was Orga.

"What are you going to do now?" Orga said.

"I'm going to revive her." Jigon tightly gripped the deep green seed. He seemed unwilling to lose it.

"The old dragon, the goddess, and her servants will track us. If you're reckless, they'll catch you," Orga said.

"Getting caught isn't the issue here. Whether we're killed or not is," Jigon said. He'd looked through Krishan's memories via the seed and had learned about Kang Oh.

A swordsman that possessed a sword capable of bypassing their immortality!

Thus, Jigon had departed immediately using the God of Creation's sources. If he waited any longer, then the swordsman would come and kill him.

Plus, he needed to revive his only remaining kin, Krishan.

"We should hide and wait for the right opportunity," Orga said.

Jigon nodded his head and said, "Let's do this."

"What?"

"Without our wings, we look like everyone else."

"So?"

"Let's hide amongst them."

"Is that really such a good idea?" Orga didn't approve.

"My sister hid herself in the remote, freezing north. Despite that, they were able to find her."

"Then?"

"Nowhere is safe. If that's the case, then it's better if we hide in plain sight."

"Hoo, to think I'd have to live amongst those insects."

"We have to hunt them to gather life force. Being close to them is an advantage," Jigon said.

"That's true. But what about our other companions?" Orga asked. Aside from them, there were still four other Mayanes still alive.

"We don't know where they are, so we can't save them."

With enough life force, they could tear open a rift in space anywhere. But without knowledge of where the other Mayanes were, having the ability to teleport anywhere wouldn't be helpful in saving them!

"You don't know where they are? Then how did Krishan find you?"

Orga assumed that Krishan knew the other Mayanes' whereabouts. That's how she was able to pass Jigon the God of Creation's sources, or so he thought.

"We're twins; we each bear half a soul."

No matter how far apart they were, Krishan and Jigon could sense where the other was.

"Then we need to gather information."

Jigon nodded his head. "Mm!"

"Let's go."

Jigon and Orga descended the hill, and then went separate ways. A short while later, both of them saw a city.