King Of Limbo

Only a fleeting glance from Aron, who was climbing up to another cave, was directed toward the departing Drakar.

…

Much time passed—roughly close to a day in Pesian time—and Aron was just planting the last of the runed sheets in a cave many meters away from the one he began from.

I couldn't have expected this type of living environment, and there weren't enough sheets. But they should still be adequate.

After giving it some thought, he eventually left the den he was in and made his way back to the first cave without being seen.

….

When the walls began to quiver, Jin and the others' intense boredom with waiting quickly ended.

As they turned to confront what would have appeared to be a dead end, they noticed the earth shifting to make a passageway that Aron rapidly crossed before immediately shutting it again.

"How nice of you to finally return."

Rose was the one who spoke first, with a lot of sarcasm in her voice, despite Jin and Jagu appearing to be the most impatient.

"I'm flattered I was missed." After replying with his own brand of casual sarcasm, Aron threw the pouch she had earlier handed him over.

He calmly disregarded her frightening glare as she grasped the empty sack.

"Let's leave."

Everyone was perplexed by his orders; wasn't he creating a strategy so they could assault successfully?

"Uh... okay,"

Jin hurriedly stood up and wiped the dirt off his clothes before turning to face Aron with a look of apparent surprise.

He considered asking more, but restrained himself and decided to continue to rely on Aron's strategies.

Mrah and Kalel were so exhausted from being in such a small space with so little air that they didn't even attempt to rise up until someone motioned for them to do so.

…

The group didn't say anything more before moving on in the direction they had just come from.

They hadn't even taken much of a break since the first time, so the walk this time was slower and more difficult.

They eventually exited the mountain range, but more slowly.

"Finally." Jagu let out a sigh of relief and stretched his limbs while inhaling fresh air.

For a Komi of his size and temperament, an enclosed environment was exceedingly irritating.

Soon after, the others followed and took a few deep breaths to purify themselves before looking to Aron to see what he would advise.

He maintained a solid glance up at the mountain's rough surface as they had just left it, but made no such suggestion.

Then he snatched out a small, rectangular piece of paper with only a few millimeters on either side, held it up to the sky, and muttered.

"Invoke."

As soon as the trigger word was uttered, several runic lines appeared. The beautiful golden glow spread across the full sheet of paper as it continued to get brighter and brighter.

Boom!~

Boom!~

The western Drakar's den on the opposite side of the mountain burst in a number of tremendous explosions.

The ground rumbled violently, and rocks flew up into the sky, as if a volcano had erupted.

Many horrified and grisly screams from the Drakar living in the western mountain range, particularly those in the den, could be heard beneath the explosion's ear-piercing booms.

"Jin, I need you to create a vast mist, covering parts of the western range and northern range. After that, you'll all need to head north, there's a large woodland there near the mountain range; you can wait for me there."

Jin wanted to follow up on several of Aron's directions, but his instructions came abruptly, and Aron's laid-back demeanor caused him to dismiss them.

Rose, on the other hand, wasn't as laid-back and questioned him.

"What of you?"

Even though she wasn't very interested in what he was planning, she was more worried about him as a whole, including his safety and whether he was going to leave them. Whatever the scenario, she required Aron's information, so his safety came second to her own.

"The explosion will draw a large number of Drakar here, and I'll take advantage of that confusion to slip away to the southern range and then the eastern. There I'll cause another disturbance and move north afterwards to meet you."

Aron turned around and was getting ready to leave in the southern direction of the mountain range as he was talking.

"All of this is just to divert attention." Jagu was quite alarmed by how far Aron had gone.

Everyone could see from the intensity of the explosions that many lives had been lost, and they began to wonder if he truly did all of this only to create a simple distraction.

"Yes and no. What is simpler than starting an organization from scratch? When you conquer and assimilate another, you reap the benefits of what was presumably many generations of labor. In Limbo, this is how life is conducted."

Despite the approaching menace of Drakar appearing in all directions, Aron turned and nonchalantly started walking away after saying those words.

He left while Jagu and the rest watched in silence. They found many of the procedures and activities here to be shocking because they had previously disapproved of them in Pesia.

But here? It was just an everyday occurrence.

This was especially true for Jin and Jagu, who both had strong personal convictions, and the longer they stayed with Aron, the more obvious this reality became and the closer they came to accepting it fully.

Mrah and Kalel had already essentially developed into Aron's dependent disciples.

This was evident in their anxiety as they watched him leave, as well as how quickly their sense of security vanished.

The weak had a tendency to obey, revere, and even idolize the powerful.

And Kolien, who was emancipating himself from them, was the strongest person in their eyes.

"Let's go as well." Jin, you may begin. Rose only watched Aron walk away for a moment before turning her attention to the direction they were supposed to travel in.