By Zephyria 
Two years ago, the day we crossed the Yuil Mountains, we had three objectives.
First, ascertain the whereabouts of the First Goddess and the God of Oasis, and join them.
Second, eliminate every Black magician we see and find and rescue the Imperial Knights.
Third, completely seize the Ninth God’s fragment and his Origin to make them my own.
Though I listed them out, all three required us to wander the Magic territory aimlessly.
If only we could pinpoint our desired locations with Divine Power in an instant. Gano Paquin, who couldn’t use his power in places without records, was reduced to a mere burden who knew a little something as soon as we entered north of the Yuil Mountains.
He said that without finding records, we couldn’t know the locations of the gods or the Imperial Knights. I wondered if this was why the God of Records insisted on needing me, and why he didn’t prevent the other party members from joining.
We first began searching for the Ninth God’s fragments.
It was because I still lacked the strength to confidently claim victory even if I fought a god directly, and the God of Records remembered, albeit vaguely, where he had scattered the Ninth God’s fragments.
The journey to find the god’s fragments was arduous.
The God of Records had previously stated that he had broken the Ninth God into thirty-six pieces as punishment and scattered them across the continent. Across the continent. That statement was half true and half false.
The First Goddess cherished and loved all beings on the continent. The God of Oasis viewed monsters and humans equally, and found both bothersome. The Sun God favored only humans who believed in him or monsters who believed in him.
And the God of Records greatly favored only humans, regardless of their faith.
The God of Records did not want to place dangerous substances near the humans he cherished. Therefore, he hid one fragment each in the Empire, the five kingdoms, and the Shatun Desert, and threw the rest into the lands north of the Yuil Mountains.
The God of Records believed that if he hid the Ninth God’s Origin securely, the god wouldn’t be able to roam the continent for a while, but he was wrong. Wesley Kiadris, who had just ascended the Yuil Mountains by sheer bad luck, came into contact with the god’s Origin through an inexplicable method.
And the Ninth God, as soon as he took possession of Wesley Kiadris’s body and became able to move, immediately sealed the God of Records and sank him to the bottom of a lake.
Even with lost power, how could a human body withstand a god’s soul?
Wesley Kiadris’s body would have rapidly deteriorated amidst the complex and tumultuous energies of the Magic territory. That’s why he would have wandered the entire continent, collecting the easier-to-obtain smaller fragments first…
Now, he would be searching for his own fragments, whose locations in this Magic territory are unknown.
Just like us.
I looked up at the Owlbear circling and observing us from directly above my head.
The Owlbear was a medium-sized monster with the head of an owl. It typically stood between 6 to 8 meters tall, had a bear-like physique, and was covered head to toe in feathers resembling Scale Armor.
The creature was far inferior to a Wyvern in both size and strength. However, its feathers possessed a mana rebound force greater than a Wyvern’s, making it troublesome to cut down even for a Sword Master.
And it originally had no wings.
Yes, it was normal for it to have no wings.
“…Are those Wyverns never coming back?”
“They say they can’t stand it anymore because it’s their breeding season. What can I do? I’m not the third child, and I’m not usually good with monsters…”
“But you got along well at the beginning.”
“They don’t like it because that Mage acts so annoyingly!”
“Wha-! What are you saying like that! They left because if they traveled with us, Wyverns would starve! They couldn’t pass through narrow paths! Black magicians would spot us from afar and run away, so they were a hindrance!”
“In any case, it’s all Boulder’s fault.”
“What! How can a Mage live with such injustice!”
Mage Boulder retorted indignantly. Even if he was right, I didn’t want to hear it. It was true that the difficulty of this journey had significantly increased after we sent the Wyverns away.
Monsters that had absorbed the god’s fragments were strong enough to act as rulers of a territory. Those already powerful beings had obtained even greater strength, so why would they remain idle? The Magic territory became more chaotic, and chaos invited more turbulent mana movements.
As a result, we could only fully perceive the existence of a god’s fragment when we were very close to it, within about 20 meters of its location.
Is the Ninth God suffering as much as we are? Wouldn’t it be better to wait for him to regain all his strength and attack us? I was extremely curious about what on earth he was thinking and where he was wandering.
A sigh escaped me as I saw the Owlbear gliding about thirty meters above, looking down at us.
I wish the Owlbear that swallowed the god’s fragment had lived its life without ever knowing it would grow wings. The ones that stood on four or six legs on land were dealt with alongside the other party members, but after the Wyverns left, any flying ones like this became my sole responsibility.
Pulling a teacup with Telekinesis was not difficult, but dragging monsters with immense mana rebound force from afar was a sweat-inducing task, even for me.
Moreover, the mana concentration in the surroundings was so dense. The aura I was drawing out was being compressed from all sides, making me feel nauseous. With a churning stomach, I glared at the spot far above and pulled my outstretched arm.
As the Owlbear stumbled and swayed, being pulled little by little towards Ikyun, I concentrated all my nerves. If I took half a step back, the Owlbear would slide down about 3 meters.
Still, it was better than last time. I had done this a few times, so my skill had improved somewhat.
“Gnnn, gnnn, gnnn…!”
I gritted my teeth, trying to hold onto the creature that kept trying to escape upwards and backwards with groaning sounds.
“That guy is really crying so unfairly.”
“Of course, he would be. What wrong did he do…”
“Sigh, that’s why you should dispose of trash properly. You just threw it anywhere, causing unnecessary hardship…”
“I’ve said I was wrong a hundred times.”
“Then reflect a hundred and one times.”
They were Boulder, Leon, Hugh, and Gano Paquin, in that order. Hugh Benson’s scolding of the god was so absurd that my grip loosened. After struggling to regain control like reins and nearly dragging the Owlbear to the ground, I called out to the Mage with a pained sound.
“…Boulder.”
“Yes, yes. I’m ready. Let’s begin.”
Mage Boulder casually tossed Mana Stones onto the ground. The Sylphs, who were watching me from beside me, each caught one of the carelessly thrown Mana Stones and placed it in its position. I didn’t have the余裕 to praise the spirits who looked proud and shrugged.
The moment I placed the Owlbear inside the circle drawn with Mana Stones with great effort.
Chains of Light shot up from the ground, grasping and holding it.
“Gnnn…! Gnnn…!”
“Quickly, do it, quickly.”
My hands and feet were numb, and my shoulders ached, but was the Owlbear, bound by magic for the first time, any less surprised? It was pitiful to see it threatening me by opening its beak and pecking at me whenever I got a little closer, struggling wildly.
Naturally, the party members came out and stood guard around the Owlbear. Only Elvin, carrying the God of Records on his back, stood idly by my side, looking up at the Owlbear.
As I parted the white feathers on the Owlbear’s belly and buried my hand, it thrashed even more violently. Its wings were tough, and its flesh was also firm. It felt like touching a giant, warm stone statue.
Closing my eyes, I gathered my energy.
I pushed my blue Internal Energy, derived from the Great expansive divine skill of azure sky, into the Owlbear’s body, found the strongest and most violent point, and pulled it into my body. As the absorbed power traveled through my Palm Center, circled my Middle Dantian, and was drawn down to my Lower Dantian, I shed black light one by one.
The God of Records called this act of absorbing the god’s fragment to enlarge my Lower Dantian, ‘making a body for the Origin to enter.’ I preferred to call it ‘returning the monster to its original form.’
As the Owlbear, caught and struggling, thrashed, its wing joints disappeared, and fallen feathers piled up on the ground.
“Is it over?”
“…”
“Not yet. Yes, please continue.”
Since I didn’t reply, everyone stood facing outwards again, quietly.
Standing guard with intense tension was only in the early stages. Now I was accustomed to those who spoke to me while I absorbed the god’s fragments like Spiritual Medicine. If I just didn’t reply and focused on my task, they would mind their own business.
In the meantime, the Owlbear, which had been about 9 meters tall, reduced its height by two-thirds.
“…It’s done.”
“Gguk…. Gguk…. Ggukkk….”
“It was power that was not originally yours. Do not be so resentful.”
“Even I would be resentful if it happened to me. Wouldn’t you? Like, you’d fight other monsters, eat a really cool strength-enhancing potion, become the leader of this area, fly in the sky, and then suddenly someone walks up and snatches it away.”
“Boulder.”
“It’s a joke, a joke. You can’t say anything…”
The Owlbear, dejected and disheartened after losing the god’s fragment, behaved meekly even after the Binding was released. I stopped Boulder, who was approaching the Owlbear’s tail feathers with his big eyes rolling around. It would be a troublesome matter if I were to be kicked by it by carelessly approaching from behind.
In the beginning, we used to dismember monsters to extract the god’s fragments.
However, the god’s fragment is not a monster’s Inner Core. We learned a little later that it could be absorbed without necessarily killing the monster, so we stopped doing that.
What’s the difference between the Goblin Mage Boulder carries around, the Wyvern we rode, or the Owlbear in front of us? Regardless, thanks to having a god among our party members, most monsters did not attack first. If we could let them live, we didn’t want to kill them.
Therefore, while we killed every Black magician we encountered, we let all monsters go.
As the situation settled down, nearby Slimes began to crawl over. Startled by their presence, the Owlbear flapped its front paws as if to leap up, then ran away on all fours. Hearing the heavy thudding footsteps fading away, I clenched and unclenched my fist.
Though it had been repeated several times, this sensation of all the Acupoints in my body swelling and then receding still felt unfamiliar. It would take quite some time to make this power entirely my own.
Gano Paquin, still slung over Elvin’s back, asked in a listless voice,
“How was it, was this one a bit big?”
“It’s moderately medium-sized. With this, now… ten? Did we find ten?”
“Eleven.”
It was estimated that the Ninth God was divided into one Origin and thirty-five fragments.
Seven fragments, presumed to have been in the Yuil Mountains south of the region and already taken by Wesley, plus the eleven I found. That meant the First Goddess, the God of Oasis, or the Ninth God himself held some of the remaining seventeen, while some were still lodged within monsters’ bellies.
Feeling annoyed by my ankles being buried in mud from dragging the Owlbear, I scraped the soles of my shoes against a suitable surface to remove the mud. Seeing this, Leon offered me a Clean Artifact. Not wanting to expend an Artifact for such a minor task, I shook my head to refuse and asked,
“Is Wesley Kiadris still not in the Empire?”
“For now, it seems he’s out of the Sun God’s sight… but his contact has been sporadic lately. Still, he’s pleased that humans are doing quite well. He says the mana concentration on the continent seems to have stabilized.”
“Oasis?”
Hugh Benson answered that question.
“The last thing we heard was him screaming in frustration half a year ago. He hasn’t said anything since.”
“…Sigh…”
“Let’s rest for today. We’ve been awake for three days and nights, so we need to sleep for one.”
“…Yes.”
I wondered when this long journey would ever end.
I really, truly missed Ruben….