LGHTNOVELBOOK Chapter 71
Chapter 71: Let’s Go Find a New Friend 4
Twisted Gaia.
Gaia, connected to countless biological factories sprawling across Ark and the earth, absorbed the vitality of the ground and monsters to accumulate reason and self-awarenHamaress, naming itself.
As [Goddess Gaia of the Twisted Earth].
Though Gaia’s incarnation disappeared after a single clash with Alice at the Green Factory, Gaia’s branches stretched across the entire world.
They extended inside and outside Ark, and beyond.
However, it was best to avoid the prying eyes of those annoying humans called Overseers.
For Gaia, losing an avatar, which was merely one of its fragments, was no big deal. But creating an avatar required redirecting the full capabilities of a biological factory.
The abnormal mana fluctuations and the oversaturation of vitality during this process were more than enough to draw the Overseers’ attention.
No matter how powerful Gaia’s presence was, with all its latent potential and possibilities, a newborn avatar could not contend with a First-Class Overseer.
Under normal circumstances, Gaia would not have had any particular desire to tread the surface.
Its entire existence had been about sowing life recklessly and birthing aimlessly. But the peculiar and intriguing being known as Alice was something Gaia desperately wanted for itself.
Thus, this time, Gaia used its powers with a sense of urgency, imbuing its efforts to create an avatar with longing, hope, and anticipation.
“Phew…”
As a result, Gaia’s avatar was born, not within Ark’s interior but in an isolated biological factory on the outskirts.
The avatar, staggering as it rose, had pale skin like that of a newborn. Because the factory was not a proper one—one already destroyed by the Overseers—Gaia’s state was extremely unstable.
Unable to walk properly, it dragged itself forward with its arms.
Wherever Gaia’s hand reached, vegetation withered, and trees died.
To stabilize the incomplete vitality of its avatar, Gaia forcibly absorbed all the life around it to fully form its body.
In this state, it couldn’t bring Alice to its cradle.
“Alice… Where… are you?”
Even though twisted, Gaia, as the mother of life, could perceive all living things.
Of course, distinguishing individuals took some time, but Gaia, under normal conditions, would have been able to locate Alice right away.
However, Alice was an android made of metal, machinery, gears, and screws. Because of this, Gaia, uncharacteristically for the Mother of All Things, couldn’t accurately pinpoint Alice’s location.
Still, it could faintly sense that she had headed north.
Thus, small and frail Gaia began moving northward, slowly but steadily, absorbing the life of nearby plants and flowers as it went.
“Ah, my adorable child. Soon… I’ll meet you…”
Why had Gaia taken an interest in someone like Alice?
She wasn’t even a proper living being, merely an android made of scraps, yet she fascinated Gaia immensely.
Until now, Gaia, devoid of proper reason, had indiscriminately birthed life and monsters, producing fruits named biological factories purely by instinct.
“Even I find it… fascinating…”
That an android, a being made of metal and machinery, had imbued Gaia with reason was an irony Gaia herself found amusing.
Gaia’s journey to the northern lands was slow yet persistent.
Of course, the journey wasn’t smooth.
The avatar’s legs were too weak to function, rendering it incredibly slow.
The lack of vitality left the legs as little more than empty shells.
Absorbing the life of plants and flowers wasn’t nearly enough.
However, life attracts life.
Gaia’s avatar bore a humanoid appearance remarkably similar to Alice’s—a beautiful girl with green skin, much like a goblin, crawling helplessly along the ground. This easily caught human attention.
“Hey, there’s someone over there.”
“A kid…? What’s a kid doing here…”
“Whoa, look at that figure.”
“You’re a sick bastard.”
-Thunk!-
The approaching humans’ life force provided sufficient nourishment for the avatar.
Fortunately, the outer regions were full of Hunters hunting monsters.
A few deaths among them wouldn’t trigger alarms within Ark.
It wasn’t unusual for Hunters to die to monsters during hunts or suffer accidents.
Thus, Gaia had no trouble draining the life from any humans who approached it.
By lunging and embedding parts of its body into theirs, Gaia absorbed their life force entirely into its avatar.
Unintentionally, Gaia learned to mimic humans to entice them, adopting harmless or captivating behaviors to attract their attention.
Once its legs regained mobility, Gaia began luring humans to drain their vitality. Despite its humanoid appearance, monsters frequently attacked it. Yet Gaia pressed on, fueled by its determination to meet Alice.
Gaia, who had never known the concept of time, saw the sun rise and set countless times as it walked.
It kept moving, and moving again.
Gaia’s interest in Alice, irrational and devoid of logic, was an obsession. To Gaia, Alice was a child it absolutely had to meet, even if it cost its life.
[Emergency! Spotted! Spotted! Calamity sighted!]
“Reporting to Deputy Director Milton! An unregistered Calamity entity has been discovered in Zone C-18 west of our garrison!”
Those who aimed to stop Gaia en masse soon appeared.
Who were they?
Though not Overseers, humans suddenly emerged and began blocking Gaia’s path. While Gaia was puzzled by the situation, it was also filled with anger.
‘Crawling through dirt and swallowing mud, all just to meet one adorable child… What’s so wrong with that?’
“Hmph, a Calamity, you say. It seems the Overseer’s information was correct.”
Though Gaia’s anger was palpable, it was no less bewildering for Ernest Rail.
Someone, not part of the native forces, had been persistently raiding supply lines and even causing the disappearance of all 50 dolls sent to eliminate the native forces.
The continuous looting of supplies and the disappearance of dolls prompted the Overseer Line, in partnership with Ernest Rail, to be dispatched urgently to the northern front.
When the collaborating Overseer reported detecting an unusual entity, it was assumed the native force monkeys were up to something.
No one at the corporation could have predicted that the humanoid Calamity Gaia would appear so brazenly.
Deputy Director Milton, who had lost 50 of Ernest Rail’s masterpieces, would ordinarily have been subject to severe disciplinary action. However, whether by luck or timing, the emergence of the Calamity Gaia presented a convenient diversion.
“Tch, I never thought I’d see a humanoid Calamity in a place like this. Now it all makes sense. With such an unreasonable Calamity, no wonder the supply lines have been completely plundered, and all the dolls destroyed.”
Although Gaia’s purpose as a humanoid Calamity was unclear, its appearance on the northern front served as a plausible explanation for the looted supply lines and the missing 50 dolls.
“Well, this works out perfectly. All personnel and contracted Hunters, listen up. We will hunt the Calamity here!”
[[[[“Yes, sir!”]]]]
“Haaaaa…”
However, contrary to Deputy Director Milton’s assumptions, Gaia must have felt aggrieved.
What even is a doll?
What’s a supply line?
This is my first time here.
Yet, dialogue between a Calamity and humans was unnecessary.
The fully armed regular employees and Hunters of Ernest Rail surrounded Gaia and charged. Gaia began to feel emotions of anger and frustration bubbling within.
“Alice… I miss you…”
At that moment, rotting branches began to sprout from Gaia’s body, piercing through the numerous humans.
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A hornless male Demon introduced himself as Hamar.
Though the Demons, led by Hamar, remained wary of us, it seemed they no longer considered us enemies, perhaps because I spoke in their language.
After traversing the dim forest, we finally reached an expansive land.
It was a world filled with cliffs, forests, and an inky blackness akin to the night sky, populated by a significant number of Demons.
“Welcome to Baroness Sabrina’s territory.”
A barony.
These Demons were under the management of nobles.
The world of the Demons was hidden behind a singular barrier.
Ernest Rail seemed to have assumed that the native forces—the Demons’ strongholds—were concealed within burrows or caves. In truth, the Demons’ world was separated by a barrier encompassing the region itself.
It was similar to a dungeon, yet distinctly a separate world.
I called it the Reverse World.
‘No wonder the two Mega Corps combined forces but still couldn’t completely destroy the external forces.
The Demons’ land doesn’t even exist within this world.
No matter how strong the Mega Corp might be, they can’t completely wipe out the Demons.’
However, the Demons’ situation didn’t seem favorable.
Injured individuals could be seen everywhere, and many buildings and roads appeared damaged, as though bombs had detonated.
A once-grand clock tower that likely marked the city’s time was now half-destroyed, and only remnants of fountains and flowerpots remained.
The weariness and exhaustion in the eyes of the people made it clear that they had been fighting the Mega Corp alliance for a long time.
Humans couldn’t have directly invaded this place.
If they had breached the barrier and launched a direct invasion, the Demons would have been wiped out already.
Most likely, bombs from Ernest Rail or Dawn had coincidentally rolled into the Reverse World during their indiscriminate bombings.
“How long has it been since you started fighting humans?”
“A very long time. But there has never been a crisis as dire as this.”
The Demons had likely repelled human invaders from their territory in the past as well.
“But that’s strange. Don’t Demons grow stronger as they age, absorbing mana from nature?”
“That was the case in the past. However, the mana of this world has been tainted by things like Gates and Calamities, turning into a poison.”
Gates were Calamities not only for humans but also for Demons.
As the name implied, Gates connected various unspecified worlds.
Naturally, mana mixed with the air, impurities, and toxins of foreign realms would flow into this land.
For Demons, whose bodies were fundamentally composed of mana, this would be especially lethal.
Typically, high-ranking Demons like Demon Kings or territorial rulers would purify the land’s mana.
‘Except… there isn’t a Demon King right now…’
Could I be the reason for the Demons’ decline?