Chapter 130: Graveyard of Gods
Fwoosh...
The wind moved through the graveyard with a long, mournful howl, dragging curtains of sand across the ground and slowly burying the evidence of whatever had happened here. Yet beneath that constant movement, something else seemed to be shifting beneath the dunes. It was subtle at first, almost indistinguishable from the movement of the sand itself, but every few seconds the ground seemed to rise and settle somewhere in the distance, as though something enormous was moving beneath the surface and patiently following the two men standing in the middle of the wasteland.
The Boss immediately straightened himself, brushing the dust from his clothes, but the usual arrogance that seemed permanently attached to his expression was nowhere to be found. His eyes moved across the desert, studying the black pillars, the enormous skeletons, and the dunes surrounding them with an unusual degree of caution. Even his breathing had changed, becoming slower and more controlled, as though he was trying to make certain that whatever was watching them would not notice his uneasiness.
Daito noticed it immediately.
He noticed everything.
With his injured shoulder hanging at an unnatural angle and blood slowly running down his fingers, Daito tilted his head slightly and asked, "You're scared?"
The Boss glanced toward him and gave a short laugh, although the sound lacked its usual confidence. "Scared? I don't get scared."
He reached up and adjusted his glasses, trying to regain some of the composure he had lost, but another deep movement rolled beneath the sand nearby, making the ground tremble beneath their feet.
The Boss's eyes shifted toward the disturbance for less than a second.
Daito caught it.
A faint smile appeared on his face as he said, "You're scared."
The Boss stared at him for several moments before releasing a tired sigh. "Perhaps a little."
The crimson clouds above them twisted as the wind suddenly grew stronger, sending sand sweeping around their feet.
The Boss slowly removed his glasses and held them in one hand, staring into the distance with an expression that Daito had never seen on his face before. It was almost as though the glasses had been another layer of protection, another part of the carefully constructed identity known simply as the Boss.
For years, perhaps decades, people had known him by that title. He was the leader of Silver Moon, the mastermind behind countless schemes, the manipulator who could twist situations from the shadows, the man who dreamed of reaching the position of Supreme Authority no matter how many bodies were left behind him.
To his enemies, he was a monster, and to his followers, he was a man who seemed incapable of doubting himself. But there was no reason to maintain that image here.
Not in this place.
Not when one of them might die before they ever found a way back.
The Boss looked directly at Daito and finally said, "My name is Gyoran Chitsujo."
Fwoo....
The wind seemed to die down for a moment, leaving the desert strangely quiet.
Daito blinked at him before looking around as though expecting something else to happen. "That's it?"
Gyoran's expression tightened. "What?"
"I thought it'd be some dramatic reveal."
Gyoran stared at him in disbelief before muttering, "That's because you're an idiot."
Daito shrugged. "Fair."
Gyoran Chitsujo was still the man responsible for Silver Moon. He was still responsible for countless deaths, still the man who had nearly destroyed Playmore, still the person who had enslaved Champagne's mind, and still the man who had pursued the dream of becoming Supreme Authority with enough determination to sacrifice nearly everything around him.
And Daito was still the man who had dragged him into this nightmare.
Daito's expression hardened as the pain from his injuries returned with every breath. His shoulder was badly damaged, several of his ribs were likely fractured, and the dragon energy still circulating through his body made his muscles burn from the inside. His sword was gone, his combat knife was damaged, and his entire body was screaming at him to stop moving.
He remained standing anyway.
Gyoran studied him for several seconds before shaking his head. "You fascinate me."
Daito said nothing.
"You possess no Savage Power," Gyoran continued. "You don't have an immunity enhancement, you have no Frevage modifications, no legendary weapon, and no known genetic mutation that should explain what you've been capable of doing."
Daito's expression remained unchanged.
Gyoran's eyes narrowed as he continued studying him. "And yet you keep defeating monsters."
The Boss's smile returned, but there was something different behind it now. It was no longer simple arrogance. There was genuine curiosity beneath it, almost bordering on obsession.
"I studied you, Daito. I investigated your battles, your movements, your victories, and the circumstances surrounding every fight you've survived. You shouldn't exist."
Daito raised an eyebrow.
"You aren't stronger than the Numerators," Gyoran continued.
"You aren't faster than them, you aren't more durable than them, and you aren't necessarily more talented than every fighter you've encountered. So why.....?"
His voice rose until it echoed across the desert. "Why do you keep winning?!"
The ground suddenly trembled.
The sound was low at first, almost like distant thunder, but it grew stronger beneath their feet as sand rolled down the nearby dunes. Neither man moved.
Daito simply looked at Gyoran.
Then he answered, "Because I don't quit."
Gyoran stared at him.
For several seconds, there was only the sound of the wind moving through the ancient graveyard.
Then Gyoran burst into laughter.
He laughed so hard that he bent slightly forward, his shoulders shaking while tears eventually appeared at the corners of his eyes. "That's your answer?!"
Daito shrugged despite the pain running through his body. "Pretty much."
Gyoran continued laughing until he finally wiped his eyes and looked at Daito again. The amusement slowly disappeared from his face, replaced by something much darker.
"You know what I hate most about you?"
Daito sighed. "This feels like a villain speech."
"It is."
"Go ahead."
Gyoran pointed toward him. "You make effort sound magical."
The humor vanished from his voice.
"You tell people to never quit. You tell them to keep moving forward. You tell them that anyone can become something if they work hard enough."
His expression tightened as he spoke, and the frustration buried beneath his calm exterior finally began to surface. "You make it sound as though effort solves everything."
Daito remained silent.
Gyoran's eyes lowered toward the sand beneath his feet. "I was born in the slums. I watched children starve. I watched powerful Savages treat ordinary people like insects, and I watched talented people die because they lacked the right connections."
His hands slowly tightened into fists.
"I worked harder than everyone."
The words became quieter.
"I did everything right."
A faint pressure began spreading through the desert.
Gyoran's Savage Power was leaking from his body.
The sand surrounding his feet began vibrating as invisible force moved through the air.
"And still..." His eyes trembled with anger. "...I wasn't chosen."
The Supreme Authority. The dream he had chased for years. The dream he had murdered for. The dream for which he had sacrificed everything.
"They looked down on me," Gyoran said, his voice becoming colder. "So I decided I would force the world to acknowledge me."
Daito listened without interrupting him.
Gyoran's expression twisted into a bitter smile. "That was the moment I decided I would never allow anyone to stand above me again."
Daito finally spoke.
"Then you're an idiot too."
Gyoran froze.
His eyebrows lowered. "What?"
"You spent your whole life trying to impress people who never cared about you." Daito's eyes narrowed as he continued, his voice remaining surprisingly calm despite the tension surrounding them.
"You built Silver Moon. You built armies. You created schemes. You nearly conquered Playmore. You controlled Champagne. You fought Numerators."
Daito raised his hand and pointed directly at Gyoran.
"And you're still crying because some old men didn't invite you to their club."
Silence descended over the desert.
A vein slowly appeared on Gyoran's forehead.
His eye twitched.
"...You really know how to make people angry."
Daito gave a small shrug. "Yeah."
The ground exploded.
BOOOOOOOOOOOOM!
A violent shockwave tore across the desert as millions of tons of sand erupted into the sky. Black stone pillars shattered from the sudden force, ancient bones cracked apart, and enormous dunes collapsed beneath the pressure as something massive surged upward from beneath them.
Daito immediately raised his injured arm to protect his face.
Gyoran stepped backward.
The entire desert shook, then something emerged.
An eye, a big gigantic eye.
It was so enormous that its surface alone appeared larger than a fortress, its pupil stretching across the landscape like a black abyss. Sand poured from its surface as the colossal creature beneath the desert slowly opened itself to the world.
Daito froze.
Gyoran froze.
Whatever stood beneath them was not a Freaker. It was not a Savage, and there was no record in either man's knowledge of anything remotely resembling it. Its presence alone seemed to distort the atmosphere, making the crimson sky tremble as though reality itself was struggling to contain whatever had awakened beneath the dunes.
The colossal eye blinked. Then a loud voice rolled across the dimension.
"Two insects have entered the Graveyard of Gods."
The sound was not merely loud. It felt old, so old that every syllable seemed to carry the weight of civilizations that had disappeared long before humanity had learned to record history.
Daito slowly reached toward his belt and pulled out the broken combat knife still hanging there. Beside him, Gyoran activated Cognitive Subjugation. Neither man looked away from the enormous eye.
The creature's voice rumbled through the desert again. "Will you entertain me before you die?"
Another tremor passed beneath their feet. Daito's eyes slowly moved across the enormous skeletons scattered throughout the wasteland.
Then he noticed something. The skeletons were not the remains of monsters that had simply died here.
They were remains of things that had been eaten.
The realization settled into his mind as another enormous eye opened in the distance, followed by another and another, until countless colossal eyes stretched across the horizon.
The crimson sky cracked, and the desert shook.
And Daito realized that whatever stood before them had already consumed creatures large enough to make cities look insignificant.
Yet instead of running, Daito laughed.
to be continued.....