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Chapter 7 - Complaints and Despair

"Aron... Aron... Aron..."

It was unclear how much time had passed, but with a disturbing buzzing in his ears, Aron faintly heard Kim Yoon's panicked cries from a distance.

With great effort, he finally opened his eyes and was immediately shocked to see two giant birds battling in the sky. One was golden, and the other was reddish-yellow, clashing like two small suns, spewing fire in all directions, shaking the world and burning everything they touched.

"The Golden-Winged Roc and the Three-Legged Fire Crow... They really exist," he mumbled in a daze, feeling incredulous.

However, the burning heat and the sudden, intense pain coursing through his body reminded him that this was not a dream.

"Uh..."

With great difficulty, Aron tried to stand and realized he was now in the midst of scorched earth. Surrounded by walls of roaring flames that consumed every tree, blade of grass, and even the ground, everything appeared to smolder and glow in the dark red light, choked by swirling black smoke.

If it weren't for the pain and Uncle Kim's voice calling him from behind the flames, he would have thought he was dead and in hell.

"Aron... Can you hear me!? Say something!"

Aron opened his mouth to scream, but his throat felt dry and his lips were cracked. At the same time, he discovered that his clothes and pants were burned, and even his hair was nearly gone. His condition was truly pitiful.

"Aron! Aron!" Kim Yoon's voice now sounded frantic.

Hearing that, Aron knew he had to respond so that Kim Yoon wouldn't think he was dead. He moistened his lips and shouted, "Uncle Kim, I'm here!!"

"Aron!?" Kim Yoon's tone was a mix of surprise and relief. "Wait there, I'll come to get you!!"

This time, Aron didn't respond immediately but looked around again, realizing he was truly surrounded by flames. The path to Kim Yoon and the Cloud City was completely blocked by towering walls of fire, which showed no signs of extinguishing anytime soon.

Moreover, the two mythical birds were still battling in the sky, occasionally showering sparks around him. Even though they had moved away from his location, who could guarantee they wouldn't return?

"This place is dangerous; I have to get out of here," Aron murmured to himself and began shouting to Kim Yoon, "Uncle Kim, this place is too dangerous, and there's no way forward! You should go back to the city! I'll find another way!"

"No! I promised Sima Kong to protect you! Wait there!"

"There's no time! I'll go alone; tell Uncle Kong I'll be back soon!" After saying this, Aron ignored Kim Yoon and staggered away, searching for a safer path.

Although he tried to steer clear of the flames, almost everything he saw had been burned. He could only rely on fate and his pistol for protection.

Along the way, Aron encountered many monster corpses that were either dead or burned. He knew these monsters were incredibly strong, and if they were still alive, he would surely become a victim.

Feeling hungry and with a dry throat, as night began to fall, Aron finally spotted an unburned forest in the distance. He felt a slight sense of relief, but that feeling vanished when he heard howls and thuds behind him.

"Damn!"

Realizing it was a pack of monsters also trying to find a way out, Aron stopped thinking about how they had gotten behind him and forced his numb, heavy legs to run forward.

But how could Aron, in his current state, run faster than the healthy monsters that depended on this escape?

It didn't take long; just a few breaths later, a horde of monsters of various strange sizes and shapes began to emerge behind him.

When Aron tried to glance back, he felt a chill run down his spine.

Even though they were about a hundred meters away, the rampaging monsters, panicking with every thud of their feet, were terrifying. Especially when imagining a sea of monsters crashing toward him like waves.

"Damn it!!" He cursed again and summoned all his remaining strength into his legs. "Run! Keep running faster!"

Unfortunately, hope is never as beautiful as reality.

When the trees were only a few dozen meters away, a tremendous force suddenly struck his back.

As if hit by a truck, Aron's body spun and flew forward like an arrow released from a bow.

In his blurred vision and the whistling wind in his ears, Aron felt his weightless body collide with something, thud after thud.

"Boom!"

When he finally stopped, Aron fell from a large tree trunk, continuously spewing fresh blood from his mouth.

The intense pain, along with the numbness and blurred vision, quickly made him realize he had been thrown hundreds of meters and had broken several tree trunks.

He didn't know what had propelled him, nor did he want to find out. Watching the monsters in the distance still frantically running toward him, his mind was filled with complaints and questions. His eyelids began to feel heavy, and an overwhelming drowsiness suddenly washed over him.

"No... No... No!!" Aron tried to scream to keep his sanity, but his mouth was full of blood.

He attempted to stand, but he soon found he could no longer feel his limbs.

Trying to assess his condition, his eyes widened in shock.

Amid the fading sunlight and the last rays occasionally blocked by the shadows of the creatures scurrying around him, Aron, now slumped against a tree, was drenched in blood, in a horrific state that could no longer be recognized as a living being.

With all the red blood and the stench of decay enveloping his body, Aron's face appeared pale as paper. Parts of both his legs and arms had vanished, looking horrific as blood continued to pour out. The smell of decay and the aura of death quickly surrounded him.

"Am I going to die?" A question and a certainty suddenly emerged in his mind.

"Am I going to die here, without a whole body and not even knowing who killed me?" Aron wanted to laugh, but he couldn't.

"After years of hard work, I just wanted to see Jiajia healthy and smiling like before. After ten years of hard work and failing to save my mother, do I have to lose my sister too?"

"Is all my effort in vain? Is this how it ends?"

"Hahaha!!!"

"I won't accept it! I truly won't accept it!! It shouldn't be like this!"

"That's right!!!"

"Justice and hope!"

"Where is the justice and hope I deserve?! God, Goddess, Lord, or whatever you are, do you really not care about all this? Fate, am I truly destined for this?! I won't accept it!! I absolutely won't accept it!"

"Hahahaha...."

With all the questions, complaints, and everything he had bottled up over the years finally exploding, Aron suddenly burst into laughter before stopping, and everything went completely dark.

In the silence and chaos of the creatures around him, a sudden explosion echoed from Aron's corpse.

Soon after, cold, chilling black smoke began to pour out of his body, spreading in panic in all directions.

Whether it was trees, plants, grass, or even monsters, everything touched by the black smoke became dry and withered, like dead wood, as if all the water in their bodies had been sucked away by something unknown.

In just a few breaths, with Aron's corpse as the center, the black fog had spread a kilometer wide, and everything it passed through had become a death zone.

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