“Ms. Veronica!”
Casey shouted. Veronica flew at tremendous speed and slammed into the wall. No matter how much of a knight she was, it had to be at least a serious injury.
“I’m fine.”
Veronica staggered as she pushed herself upright.
Around her abdomen, frozen ice scattered off in little clumps.
In that split second, she had wrapped ice around her body to minimize the impact.
Veronica took a step—then, without realizing it, she wobbled.
‘Even though I blocked it properly... the shock is enormous.’
A master-class knight’s body stood far above an ordinary knight’s.
And yet, her head spun, and nausea churned in her stomach.
This much power, even without a direct hit. That meant the enemy’s physical ability was above hers.
Casey, Veronica, and Lexerra stared at the enemy at the same time.
The enemy wore clothing that resembled a stark-white toga. Elegant golden embroidery was lavishly etched into it.
His head was shaved bald, and his skin was so pale it was almost white. Bluish tattoos covered that paper-like skin.
The tattoos, as if they held some occult meaning, were drawn with an extremely regular, meticulous precision.
‘A person? But how...?’
Casey panicked. Her intuition pinpointed exactly who that man was.
“A person from the era that built these ancient ★ 𝐍𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 ★ ruins... is still alive?”
The man in front of them was an ancient human—one not recorded even in history.
He stared calmly down at the ice clinging to his ankle.
The cold had wrapped around his leg when he kicked Veronica away.
Even for a decent knight, the skin would necrotize, and a deep chill would crawl into the bones.
But the ancient human brushed the ice off with absurd ease. Beyond the crumbling shards, slightly necrotized skin was revealed.
Then the tattoo engraved around his ankle glowed, and the frostbitten skin instantly returned to its original state.
The ancient human’s gaze turned toward Casey.
“Wait! We’re not enemies!”
Casey shouted, reaching out, but the ancient human didn’t listen.
It looked like his figure vanished—then the space to Casey’s left exploded as if it had burst open.
Shock booms beyond the speed of sound hammered through the corridor in succession. If Casey hadn’t raised a water curtain in advance, her body would have been erased without leaving even a trace.
“What kind of power...!”
Casey watched as her water curtain wavered dangerously.
That ancient human was trying to tear the curtain apart with sheer physical force alone.
Crack.
He pulled his fist back and clenched hard.
The tattoos drawn along his forearm shone. An enormous amount of mana gathered in his fist and whipped into a storm.
Behind the water barrier, Casey felt her spine go cold.
‘What is that mana quantity?! He’s basically a spirit beast!’
It was a terrifying reserve of mana—so vast it felt like this was exactly what a human would be if they became a spirit beast.
The fist shot forward.
At a speed she’d never seen before, a blue line was carved sideways through the air.
The corridor wall split and crumbled into powder without even being touched by that blue line.
Just the energy contained in the mana was enough that the structure couldn’t endure it.
Boom!
The curtain Casey had raised popped like a balloon. The mana thrust out from his fist swallowed Casey whole.
......?
But the ancient human tilted his head. Casey, consumed by mana, dispersed as water.
That was a fake.
He realized it too late.
“For now.”
Casey, who had already retreated to where Veronica was, pointed at the ancient human.
“Cool your head!”
Water formed around the ancient human, twisting into a waterspout.
He crossed his arms to shield himself. Casey’s vortex engulfed him and flung him outside at tremendous speed.
“Ms. Veronica! Can you walk?”
“Yes. I’m fine. Khough. That ancient human... his kick is vicious.”
“We need to get out of here quickly. If we don’t know when more of those things might show up, it’s dangerous to stay.”
[No. That won’t happen.]
Lexerra suddenly said with certainty.
“Why?”
[Can’t you feel it? The other sleeping capsules down there aren’t working.]
Lexerra’s blue eyes swept over the space where the ancient human had awakened.
[That one who woke up is probably the only survivor—and the successful case. The rest... couldn’t endure the passage of time and died.]
“That’s... the best news I’ve heard all day.”
She couldn’t even imagine what would happen if not just one, but several of those monsters woke up at once.
[Even so, we can’t relax. Even if only one woke up... we still can’t measure his strength right now.]
“Anyway, let’s move!”
Casey, Veronica, and Lexerra escaped into the underground artificial garden.
She feared he’d ambush them the moment they emerged, but the ancient human was quieter than expected.
“Where is he?”
“Over there!”
With her outstanding eyesight, Veronica found him.
He stood in front of the artificial sun floating at the garden’s center.
Standing on empty air as if it were solid ground, he stared at the artificial sun and stretched out his hand.
It wasn’t called a sun for nothing.
It couldn’t match the real thing, but it had enough power to supply an endless heat source to this land for well over hundreds of years.
If someone touched it wrong, there was a real chance their skin—and then their entire body—would turn to ash in an instant.
But the ancient human was unfazed.
Instead, the bluish tattoos carved into his skin tinted gold, feeding energy into his body.
“What is that?”
Casey was dumbfounded.
Right now, that ancient human was absorbing the artificial sun’s thermal energy and converting it into energy within his own body.
A person normally takes in energy in the form of food.
But this ancient human had been asleep for centuries, and the first thing he did after waking wasn’t to eat—it was to take in energy instead of a meal.
“At this point, you can’t even call him human.”
If a beast evolved, it became a spirit beast. Based on such experiments, the ancient people had theorized that humans, too, could undergo an evolution worthy of a spirit beast.
Evolving humans into something higher.
The result was the ancient human who had just awakened.
A Spirit Human.
He had surpassed the framework of humanity and become a new end point—a new species.
He didn’t need to eat, his physical ability was beyond imagination, and he even possessed mana on par with a great mage.
Having absorbed enough energy, the Spirit Human’s gaze turned toward Casey, Veronica, and Lexerra.
[Dammit.]
Lexerra bit his lip. With no body in his current state, he had no way to stop that Spirit Human.
Which meant the two young ladies here would have to fight in his stead.
He knew Casey and Veronica were strong, but they still hadn’t fully seen what abilities that Spirit Human possessed.
The Spirit Human’s body dropped heavily to the ground above.
Kuuung!
Beyond the trees, a shock boom erupted, and a cloud of dust surged upward.
“He’s coming!”
Veronica tightened her grip on her sword and took the lead.
In the next instant, the artificial forest split left and right. The trees folding down to either side looked unreal, like Moses parting the sea.
It was purely the aftershock of the Spirit Human tearing straight through the forest.
Veronica drew out her aura to its maximum. Cold, frigid aura erupted as if it were venting.
Then she compressed it as tightly as possible. The aura was compressed to about a 1-centimeter thickness along the blade.
Toward the fist being thrown, Veronica drove her sword forward with everything she had.
Her timing was perfect. No carelessness. She was a master-class knight. In strength against strength, she would never be pushed back.
That thought shattered the moment she saw the tip of her blade break against the Spirit Human’s fist.
‘I can’t dodge.’
Veronica sensed her death.
Casey tried to protect her by raising a water curtain, but even that defense collapsed far too easily.
As the fist closing the remaining distance was about to smash her head—
Thud.
The Spirit Human stopped.
The fist stopped right in front of Veronica’s nose. It felt as if time itself had frozen.
Only then did the delayed shockwave burst outward, spreading through the area.
Lexerra was stunned.
[What’s with him? Why did he suddenly...?]
On the other hand, Casey curled her lips into a smile.
“Seriously. He only shows up at moments like this, that man.”
There was no special reason the Spirit Human had stopped his fist.
He had simply recognized, anew, the most dangerous existence here.
The Spirit Human withdrew his fist and turned around with a blank face.
There stood a handsome man with long hair, wearing a black frock coat.
He was a man for whom the word “pitch-black” fit perfectly.
Even visually, he was in stark contrast to the Spirit Human—
pale skin, ancient white clothing, and golden tattoos wrapped around his body.
In contrast, Ludger wore modern black clothing and was surrounded by black shadows.
Hans, who had arrived late, panted as he caught his breath—then froze when he saw the Spirit Human.
“This is insane. Now I finally get why I didn’t want to come here.”
The spirit beast genes inside Hans’s body had refused to enter the ruins because of that Spirit Human.
An animal’s instincts recognized a predator like a ghost. They knew there was something higher than them—so instinct had rejected it.
“Hans, fall back. I’ll deal with that.”
“Boss.......”
“If you get caught up in it, I won’t take responsibility.”
The moment the words ended, Hans quickly pulled away and joined Casey.
With all interference gone, Ludger faced the Spirit Human and said,
“So. You’re that successful case. The result of evolving humanity one step beyond. An outcome of evolution meant for a human to reach for the seat of a god, while still human.”
The Spirit Human didn’t answer. He only stared at Ludger with a dry gaze that revealed nothing.
Just when it seemed like conversation might be impossible, the Spirit Human opened his mouth.
“Who are you?”
“Ho.”
Ludger’s eyes narrowed slightly.
“So you can speak. I was wondering if I’d have to ask you in an old language instead.”
“I heard your language system and analyzed it.”
The Spirit Human’s statement was absurd.
After hearing them exchange only a few words, he had analyzed their language system and learned it instantly.
Not just inferring from one to ten—he had perfectly reconstructed the missing, blank areas into a complete form.
“Seems a lot of time has passed.”
“If you can speak with me, does that mean you intend to settle this with words?”
“Me, with words?”
The Spirit Human’s lips curled up. Since his face had been expressionless, the sneer stood out even more.
“Why would I?”
Arrogance seeped into his voice.
“I am the product of human evolution. A superior species meant to challenge the seat of a new god. I am nothing like old humanity such as you.”
“And who exactly is ‘old humanity’ here.”
Ludger found the Spirit Human’s claim deeply contradictory.
The oldest human calling modern humans “old humanity”—what irony could be greater?
“Don’t worry. I will personally rule over you and lead you down a better path.”
“It is still an age of monarchy, but just listening to you, you already have the makings of a dictator.”
Ludger shook his head.
“And you, human. More than anything, I sense something ominous from you. Yes... I can feel a god’s power. Don’t tell me you... are you from the Holy Nation?”
The Spirit Human frowned, as if he had sensed something strange from Ludger.
Ludger stared back at him with an assessing gaze.
To react this sensitively to a god’s aura...
“Decided. You have to die here.”
The Spirit Human clenched his fist. His tattoos blazed brilliantly. Storm-like energy whipped around them.
“Doesn’t look like persuasion will work.”
Ludger spoke as if he’d expected this and pulled out his cane.
As one could guess from the creature’s arrogant attitude, coexistence was practically impossible.
A future under the Spirit Human’s rule formed in his mind.
He wasn’t trying to break out of an existing cage.
He simply wanted to become the owner of a new one.
“I will become the god who leads the new era.”
“A manufactured god, you mean. No—since you mixed all sorts of things together, you’re no different from a chimera.”
Ludger spat coldly as he unfolded his formation.