The Butcher of Sargon (Renekton, The Butcher of The Sand in Arknight)

“Saria, are you really going? The situation at the company isn’t dire enough for you to risk your life.”

“But if I don’t, we’ll have to compromise, won’t we?”

“There must be another way.”

“This is our Rhine Lab. I don’t want anyone to tarnish it!”

“…”

Saria opened her eyes and found herself lying on a dune buggy.

Why was she lying on a dune buggy?

Saria “remembered”—she was injured, exhausted, and attacked by a disaster beast, sustaining severe injuries.

“How are things now?”

Saria’s voice was hoarse. She had overestimated her endurance and underestimated the threats in the Hotlands.

“Mr. Garde is outside; things aren’t that bad yet…”

Chris’s voice sounded, tinged with sadness.

“But Willy is dead.”

“Willy?”

Saria remembered. Willy was attacked during the night watch, with his upper body devoured by a disaster beast called chameleon.

Then, the Hotlands’ heavy rain came down again, forcing them to continue moving.

On the way, she was too exhausted and was attacked by another disaster beast. If it weren’t for Garde, she would have been dead.

“How long has it been since then?”

“Three days have passed!”

Three days!

Saria was stunned for a moment and then reached out to open the car door, but Chris stopped her.

“You can’t, Director. You’re still injured and can’t keep fighting!”

“We can’t keep relying on Garde!”

“Director, we have no choice but to rely on Mr. Garde now!”

Saria turned back in disbelief.

Chris was holding onto her sleeve, whispering, “Director, our arrows are nearly depleted. Next, we’ll have to fight those monsters ourselves. Without Mr. Garde holding them off, we’ll all die!”

The pain from her wounds shot through her, triggering Saria’s nerves and making her clutch her head.

She couldn’t tell if it was her head hurting or her wounds.

“Director?”

Chris’s worried voice came from beside her, and Saria forced a smile.

“I’m fine…”

Saria knew she was the leader of this team, and she absolutely couldn’t fall now.

Otherwise, all the operators would lose the courage to keep going.

But just as she finished speaking, crimson blood splattered across half of the car window like a spray.

Beside Saria, she heard a roar.

“I’ll kill you! I swear I’ll kill you! I’ll avenge Willy!”

Outside the dune buggy, a Lupo operator’s eyes were blood-red with rage, and with only one arm left, he drove his greatsword into a giant lizard.

The five-meter-long giant lizard shrieked in pain, its skin constantly changing color, but the blood covering it prevented it from escaping the Lupo operator’s assault.

“Gavin!”

Saria pushed open the car door, instinctively reaching for her shield.

But there was nothing beside her.

To treat her wounds, Chris had removed her protective gear, leaving her in just a thin shirt.

So she could only watch as her companion fought with all his might, only to be crushed by the chameleon, losing half his body.

She watched as the Lupo operator’s last arm fell limply.

The chameleon, with the greatsword still lodged in it, shrieked in pain and charged at the dune buggy.

“Director, look out!”

An operator rushed over to protect Saria.

But Saria pushed him away, clenched her fist so tightly that her fingers dug into her palms.

The chameleon charged at Saria, and without a word, she swung her fist.

No Originium Arts, no offensive gear—just her fists and her body. Saria struck the chameleon.

Boom!!  

Dust flew everywhere as the massive creature, over five meters long, was slammed into the ground by Saria’s punch.

One punch wasn’t enough—she punched again!

With each of Saria’s blows, the earth trembled, until the creature beneath her was a bloody mess, until Saria’s fists were bleeding from the impact against the monster’s scales.

“Director, we have to break through!”

The rain poured down, and the acid rain stung Saria’s injured hands, making her fingers tremble.

Saria looked outside. “Where’s Garde?”

“Mr. Garde can’t help us anymore. There are too many enemies. We have to get out of here!”

An operator shouted loudly over the rain.

Saria looked up.

A flash of lightning revealed a massive shadow descending from the sky, crashing down in the distance.

She saw Garde’s iconic axe, saw him surrounded on all sides, barely able to catch his breath.

But he was holding off almost all the enemies, just as he had promised.

If the sky falls, there will be someone tall to hold it up.

The crocodile man was fulfilling his promise, even though he didn’t have to put himself in such danger to protect them.

Sizzle!  

In the darkness, shadows attacked again.

In swarms.

A Rhine Lab operator was caught off guard, his body pierced through, a spider thread binding his foot, dragging him into the darkness outside the sandcastle.

“Director! Director, save me! I don’t want to die! My child just started elementary school, I—”

“Danny!”

Saria remembered the names of every operator in her team.

Before setting out, she had reviewed their profiles.

She knew that the reason this Liberi man followed her into the Hotland was because he trusted her, believing that no matter how dire the situation, she could lead them out safely.

But she wasn’t as strong as they imagined.

There were many things she couldn’t do.

“Retreat!”

In her final moment of rationality, Saria abandoned the pleas of a teammate who trusted her.

With a near-scream, she shouted, “Everyone, retreat!”

No one stepped forward to question Saria’s decision because it was the right one—a decision so right it felt cruel.

But it was too late.

Three jet-black giant wolves suddenly broke into the sandcastle, tearing apart the last line of defense.

The operators’ weapons and arrows bounced off the rain-soaked fur of the giant wolves, not leaving so much as a scratch.

Each of the three wolves exuded a suffocating power that overwhelmed Saria.

No, this isn’t right!

Why is this happening?

No, it shouldn’t be like this!

A voice in Saria’s mind told her that everything she was seeing wasn’t real, that it was all an illusion.

But another voice insisted, how could an illusion be this real?

Real enough to perfectly replicate the personalities of every operator she knew?

She could only hold off one wolf, watching helplessly as the other two towering wolves charged into the crowd, easily breaking through the operators’ defenses and tearing their bodies apart.

She had promised that if she led them into the Hotland, she would bring them all back, not one more, not one less.

But she couldn’t do it!

Boom!  

A blood-soaked figure broke through the downpour, hacking down the giant wolf in front of her with a single axe swing.

She saw that the crocodile man had many wounds on his body, some so deep that she could see the bones beneath the flesh.

But the crocodile man stood before her and said, “Leave it all to me!”

…

In the end, Saria found only one surviving operator.

Her legs were gone, gnawed off with brutal bite marks—not severed, not cut, but chewed to pieces.

Saria used the medic’s bandages to tie Chris to her back and kept moving forward.

With her hands, with her body, she tore apart the disaster beasts that stood in her way.

But there were too many.

“Director, put me down,” Chris’s weak voice came from behind her.

“No, I’ll take you to a safe place.”

“I’ll only slow you down.”

“Your weight is nothing to me!”

“But, Director, you’d move much faster on your own.”

“Stop talking.”

“Director…”

“Chris, I order you to survive!”

“…But, it hurts so much.”

The sound of a girl’s soft sobs came from behind her.

“…Director.”

“I’m here!”

“You must survive!”

The girl’s voice grew fainter, so weak that Saria could barely hear it through the heavy rain.

“…Along with my share, along with everyone’s share, you must find a cure for Oripathy. You must make Rhine Lab, make this land, better.”

Squelch~  

A shard of Originium pierced Saria’s palm.

Without her shield, with her equipment shattered, and without the tools to cast Arts, she was just an ordinary female Vouivre.

Aside from being physically stronger than the average female Vouivre, she was useless.

But without the tools for casting Arts…

She could just regain them, couldn’t she?

As long as she was infected with Oripathy…

She could cast Arts again, use calcification again!

One step!

Two steps!

Saria carried Chris on her back, her ears ringing with the sounds of Garde clashing with the disaster beasts.

Garde had already held off the most dangerous enemies for them.

Yet she still lost so many companions, so many comrades.

Was she too weak?

Had she not tried hard enough?

Father, please tell me, what should I do?

The Originium shard embedded in her palm began to spread.

She had used the power of the staff’s Originium Arts thousands of times before, but now, she didn’t need the staff.

“Calcification!”

Layer upon layer of white material covered Saria’s body.

She clenched her fists and took step after step forward.

The disaster beasts before Saria let out cries of terror.

Their bodies, which should have been incredibly tough, suddenly showed signs of cracking.

The disaster beast bones that are composed of calcium couldn’t bear their weight, and cracks began to appear.

Before Saria, all the disaster beasts knelt and prostrated themselves.

Moments earlier, they had been so rampant, yet now, they were as humble as ants.

One disaster beast saw Saria passing by and tried to attack her.

But without the support of its bones, its muscles couldn’t even allow it to lift its claws.

Even the claws it once prided itself on slowly turned to dust in Saria’s calcification.

Finally, even its skull, which supported its brain, began to disintegrate.

The body behind her gradually grew cold, just like the cold rain falling from the sky.

“Just a little further, just a little more.”

Saria kept moving forward mechanically, trying to find the “safe place” Garde had mentioned.

Until she saw a tomb.

A tomb that had stood in this Hotland for thousands of years, a tomb of nightmares.

Memory returned to the starting point.

Saria remembered.

She remembered everything.

What she had just experienced was all a dream.

A nightmare?

Saria stared blankly at the sky, letting the rain drench her face.

No, this wasn’t a dream!

This was the future!

…

Garde entered Saria’s dream.

But he saw nothing, only a little girl, a young Vouivre girl.

The young Vouivre girl was holding her toy car, crying softly.

Garde walked over, trying his best to make his smile gentle.

“Little one, what’s wrong? Why are you crying here?”

The girl carefully picked up her toy car and placed it in front of Garde, her nose twitching.

“Toby…Toby and the others bullied me!”