Going Back 10,000 Years (1)

‘What on earth just happened!?’

Something incomprehensible by common sense had occurred. A mysterious girl who came here alone at a time when subjugation teams were converging from all directions to kill the goblins.

He thought it was just a minor interference by coincidence, but it wasn’t. The intense hostility welling up inside him without his knowledge was directed right at her.

Just as humans instinctively fear darkness, he felt an instinctive threat and tried to eliminate her immediately. However, Kai froze right after that.

Because all of his goblin subordinates who had rushed out were swept away by a single gesture of her hand. Such magic that could shake and overturn the earth with a single gesture in an instant was unknown even to his knowledge, which had no small amount of experience.

“Who on earth are you?”

At this point, he couldn’t help but ask about her identity. Although her appearance looked like a harmless girl, he was already certain that she was no ordinary being.

The atmosphere she gave off and her appearance were extraordinary. Obviously, if she had been just an ordinary adventurer, the curse wouldn’t have been hostile to her.

“If you’re still maintaining your reason, don’t be swayed by the curse and speak your true mind. What is it that you want?”

Isilia began to approach the hesitating Kai. Contrary to her thoughts, Kai wasn’t completely swallowed by the curse, raging like the werewolf.

She, who had intended to save him thinking he was a complete victim, needed to know the truth.

“True mind…? This is my true mind. This is judgment upon you lot!”

And hearing those words, Kai burst out in anger. At the same time, a murky energy erupted from his body. A kind of power he shouldn’t normally possess.

Surprised by this black wave, Isilia stepped on a stone pillar she had made shoot up and leaped high, her light body doing a backflip to retreat, and immediately after, the stone pillar she had stepped on was destroyed in an instant.

“—!”

“Yes, that’s the power you spoke of. As expected, I need to purify it regardless of the circumstances.”

She bit her lip at the sight of the earth spirits popping out and panicking. This was the power that this land, which had asked for help from her who could uniquely hear their voices, had warned about.

Its source existed within Kai and the cave he was blocking.

“You probably thought you could win if just a few hundred goblins came in a group. But with this power, it’s a different story.”

Kai smirked, looking at the power burning in his body and sword. As he said, the power of calamity brought by the curse didn’t dwell in him alone.

“Wh-What’s with these guys?!”

“Aaargh!”

This power, which had also dwelled in some of the goblins currently fighting the subjugation team, simultaneously went berserk, instantly plunging the subjugation team, who had been fighting comfortably, into crisis.

“We will win this battle today! And judge those who have no right to live!”

‘Whatever the circumstances, I need to subdue him first.’

Frowning at Kai’s increasingly stronger power, Isilia once again moved the power of the earth.

Clearly, the rampaging Kai had become faster and stronger than in his prime, but it was his first time experiencing the ground he was standing on twisting and turning hostile against him.

“H-How is this…”

As Isilia’s eyes flashed, he staggered, unable to run far on the ground that was vibrating so hard it was difficult to even stand.

Only Isilia, blessed by the earth, could stand calmly on the turbulent ground.

* * *

“—!”

“Dodge!”

One of the goblins swinging a sword staggered and let out a strange cry, then went berserk with eyes turned black. At this sword strike with a completely different power, the adventurer party facing it tried to retreat in fear, but it was too late.

The goblin knocked away the adventurer’s sword in a single stroke and instantly cut down his body as well.

“The goblins are going berserk!”

The same was true for the goblins fighting the Guard. Confused by the rampage of these creatures that seemed to have changed their very species beyond just their momentum, the Guard soldiers also began to fall one by one.

The Guard was overwhelmed from the start by the attack of the goblins who seemed to have become berserkers forgetting death and pain.

“P-Professor! The readings…!”

“I can see that! Stay there and don’t get hurt!”

Renia’s group, who had been moving with the Guard testing the newly made detector, also got caught up in the suddenly unfolding events.

Clicking her tongue at her pale disciple as detectors were ringing from all directions, Renia raised her staff and cast magic to knock down the goblins attacking the Guard.

‘Each and every one is going berserk. What on earth is happening!?’

Even she was in a state of panic enough to make all her hair stand on end. It was an anomaly unknown even to the genius researcher and spirit beast who had studied such things all her life.

“I don’t know what it is, but the damage is too great. We have no choice but to use this.”

Guard Captain Lakum, who had been fiddling with his sword continuously, pointed something other than his sword at the goblins as if he couldn’t just stand by and watch.

His target was a particularly strong goblin specimen that was trying to kill a junior knight who had rushed out to protect the soldiers, reversely subduing him.

Holding his breath and aiming, Lakum pulled the trigger of the rifle he was shouldering towards the body of the goblin that was about to mercilessly stab the knight who had fallen to the ground.

“Ugh!?”

With a tremendous noise that struck the eardrums of everyone nearby, the quickly fired bullet penetrated and shattered the goblin’s body in an instant.

Clearly, there was magic surging strongly enough in the goblin’s body to knock down even a knight, but the bullet cleanly ignored it and pierced through the flesh in one go.

This power of the past, which perfectly ignored the power of the current era, was not called a decisive weapon for nothing, this restored artifact of the mythical era.

“More of them are coming!”

However, it wasn’t over just because one was taken down. Goblins were still swarming from all directions, and the shrinking Guard, unlike their initial unhindered advance, were barely managing to defend themselves.

“Professor!?”

“This is definitely not a natural phenomenon, it’s clear that something has happened that can’t be explained by any theory that has been published and researched so far. The root cause must be ahead, so we need to eliminate it before suffering greater damage.”

Lakum was startled and grabbed Renia’s arm as she tried to go somewhere alone. But she shook her head firmly.

It was not just out of scholarly curiosity, but to take the most efficient action to reduce damage now.

“If I use an invisibility spell, I can infiltrate past the senses of these excited creatures. Rather, their stronghold should be empty, so I should take this opportunity to investigate that place.”

“But going alone is too dangerous!”

She had a determined expression, but Lakum couldn’t bear to send her alone. Even if there was no obligation to protect her who had come voluntarily, it was partly their fault for not being able to properly stop the rampaging goblins that she was trying to go out alone.

“Then… lend me that weapon.”

Seeing Lakum’s desperate eyes as he grabbed her arm, Renia shook her head as if she had no choice. Instead, she glanced at the rifle he was holding.

“Do you know how to use it?”

After hesitating for a moment, Lakum handed the rifle to her as if he had no choice.

He asked if she could use it with doubt, but as soon as Renia received the rifle, she handled it very skillfully, removing the magazine to check the remaining bullets and inspecting the chamber.

“I’ve handled them often in my home country.”

She smirked at the dazed Lakum, then holding the gun in one hand and the staff in the other, she immediately left the formation. At this point, even Lakum and her colleagues could only watch.

‘I smell something. A very suspicious smell.’

Renia, who had started to slip past the goblins rushing at the Guard in excitement without noticing her, sniffed as she ran along the forest path.

Her certainty that something that had driven the goblins berserk and turned them into monsters of an unbelievable level was ahead also grew stronger.

“Whoa!?”

It was near a valley where goblin presences were no longer felt that she stumbled, losing her footing due to a strong vibration as she continued running.

Thanks to the unique physical abilities of beastkin, she didn’t fall, but she bit her lip feeling a wave of strong power along with the incoming wind.

‘Watchtowers, palisades, and even traps. These are definitely not ordinary goblins.’

As she got closer to their stronghold, seeing the facilities that started to appear one by one, she began to approach carefully, adding suppression of her presence on top of the invisibility magic.

The strong vibration felt earlier indeed originated from the goblin nest ahead.

“What in the world…?”

And she inadvertently gasped, her eyes widening at the sight unfolding before her.

Huge stone pillars that had risen from the ground were wrapping around something, rendering it completely immobile.