Chapter 182: The Thing That Emerged Into the World (4)

“Uh... well.”

Aquaz and Baker found themselves unable to respond right away. Their bodies instinctively shifted backward, as if their minds were still processing what they had witnessed just moments earlier. Even though the threat had passed, a subtle wariness lingered between them and Ketal, a tension born not of distrust, but of awe and uncertainty.

Ketal, oblivious to his own imposing presence, simply cocked his head to the side. “Is something wrong?”

His tone was mild, even friendly, his face bearing the same gentle curiosity he always wore. To anyone looking in from the outside, Ketal seemed as approachable and calm as ever, as if the brutal slaughter of a monster moments before was nothing out of the ordinary.

However, for Aquaz and Baker, it was impossible to erase the vivid memory of Ketal crushing the life from the white monster—a feat of such cold efficiency and strength that it had left an indelible mark in their minds. The image replayed, again and again: Ketal’s calm face, the monster’s thrashing, the sound of bones breaking beneath his hands.

Baker, unable to help himself, gulped hard. “N-no, it’s not that. I mean, I’m fine...”

Yet his trembling voice betrayed the storm of emotions beneath the surface—fear, amazement, and something like reverence.

Ketal recognized the source of their discomfort and offered a rueful, apologetic smile. “Ah, I see. Sorry about earlier. I let my feelings get the better of me. That thing... it brought up a lot of bad memories. I guess I got a bit carried away.”

“Y-you did?” Aquaz asked him, looking at him, searching his face for any lingering traces of anger or violence.

Ketal nodded, his features softening. “I suppose I showed you a side of me you weren’t expecting. Sorry if it was unpleasant. I should have handled it better.”

Baker was quick to wave his hands, trying to dispel the awkwardness. “No, no, you saved us. If anything, we should be thanking you. If you hadn’t shown up when you did...”

He trailed off, unable to finish the thought. They both knew what would have happened if Ketal had not appeared.

For a moment, an awkward silence settled over the three of them. It was broken only by the sound of the distant waves lapping against the ruined outskirts of the City of Merfolk, a reminder that life above continued as usual, regardless of the violence hidden below.

Gradually, as his heart rate slowed, Baker’s innate curiosity began to take over his fear. He stared at Ketal, studying him in a new light, as if seeing him for the very first time. The question came out almost as a whisper: “So... you’re really the Ashen-haired Barbarian of the White Snowfield?”

Ketal nodded, his eyes crinkling in the corners. “That’s right. I spent my whole life there.”

Baker blinked several times, his brain working overtime to process what that meant. He wanted to ask a dozen questions at once, but before he could, Aquaz stepped in, her voice soft but firm.

“Perhaps we can discuss this further after we return. The merfolk must be worried about us. We’ve been gone longer than we planned.”

“Ah, yes. You’re right.” Baker flushed slightly, embarrassed by his own eagerness. He turned to Aquaz and managed a smile, “And thank you, Aquaz, for watching my back. I wouldn’t have lasted a minute without you.”

Aquaz shook her head, her silver hair catching the faint light. “No, Baker. It’s I who should thank you. You risked yourself to shield me when things looked bleak.”

Baker looked away, trying to hide the blush that crept up his cheeks. “That’s what comrades do. We take care of each other.”

With the tension slowly ebbing, they made their way out of the ruined depths of the former Demon Realm and back toward the city above.

At the city’s edge, the familiar figure of Kukulitan stood waiting, his face tight with anxiety as he peered down into the dark entrance of the sea cave. When he saw the trio emerge—battered but alive—he rushed to meet them, his relief palpable.

“You’re safe! What happened down there?” Kukulitan’s voice shook, and he could barely conceal his worry. “I could feel the power—like the entire ocean was shaking apart...”

He’d felt every surge of force, every echo of violence that had traveled up through the water, unable to do anything but wait in dread.

Ketal met his eyes calmly. “There was a monster. Not the apes you feared—something much worse.”

Kukulitan’s eyes went round. “A monster? But... the apes...?”

Aquaz answered before Ketal could, “The apes you saw here were only a fraction of what we found below. Nearly a thousand more were inside the cave, all dead when we arrived.”

Kukulitan staggered, going pale as a pearl. “A thousand...? Dead? By whose hand?”

“Not ours,” Ketal said quietly. “Something else had made its lair there—a being even more dangerous than the Demon Realm apes. It killed them all before we arrived.”

He gestured to the battered, unnatural body of the white-skinned monster, now lifeless on the sand. The merfolk leader stared, words failing him as he took in the creature’s grotesque form and the raw power it radiated even in death.

For a few moments, silence hung in the air, heavy with unasked questions.

“Perhaps it’s best if you see for yourself,” Ketal suggested. “The threat is gone. That place is no longer the Demon Realm it once was. Bring your people, and check it with your own eyes.”

Kukulitan nodded, still reeling, but he trusted Ketal’s judgment enough to follow his advice.

***

Kukulitan led the merfolk down into the Demon Realm. Before long, they would surely be shocked by the countless ape corpses strewn across the cavern floor. Ketal’s group did not follow. They needed rest to recover from the exhaustion left by the fierce battle. However, that was not the only reason they stayed behind.

They gathered in one of the few intact houses left in the City of Merfolk. It was a modest shelter, its walls battered but still standing. In the quiet, Ketal spoke in a subdued tone.

“As I mentioned before... I suppose I should explain things properly. I come from the place you all call the White Snowfield. I spent my entire life there. In the outside world, I learned people refer to me as the Ashen-haired Barbarian.”

Baker let out a sound like the air escaping from a balloon. He could barely believe his ears. “Is that... really true?”

Long ago, there was an emperor who ruled over the world. That emperor gathered his full strength to conquer the White Snowfield. The power he assembled was second to none, boasting more than a dozen Transcendent warriors, many devout priests, and even Heroes among their number. They came equipped with all manner of artifacts—a force that was truly the might of a continent-spanning emperor.

The emperor strode confidently into the White Snowfield. But a few years later, he returned a broken man, having lost everything. In his delirium, he spoke only of the monsters dwelling in the White Snowfield, and of them all, he claimed the most dangerous was the Ashen-haired Barbarian.

Since that legendary expedition, countless other champions and adventurers had attempted to brave the White Snowfield, but most never returned. Even those who did offered little useful information; their accounts were muddled and sparse. As a result, people often debated whether the Ashen Barbarian was real or simply a figment of the dying emperor’s madness.

And now, sitting before them, was the very legend himself.

Baker stared at Ketal, dumbstruck. Even Aquaz, who had already suspected the truth, gazed at Ketal with renewed awe. The realization that they were sitting with a living legend left both of them in stunned silence.

It was Baker who first managed to break free from the shock, his words stammering as he spoke. “So... when did you first come out into the world?”

Ketal answered calmly, “Not very long ago. I’d say it’s been a few months, at most.”

“That’s about when the Demon Realm beings started showing up outside, isn’t it?” Baker said, his mind racing to connect the dots.

Ketal nodded. “I’m not sure how closely the two are related, but the timing is certainly similar.”

“Did you ever encounter the monsters the emperor spoke about?” Baker pressed, his curiosity finally outweighing his nerves.

“I met them often. Sometimes, we clashed.” Ketal’s words were simple, but their meaning was immense.

“I see...,” Baker murmured. The truth was beginning to settle in.

This really was the Ashen-haired Barbarian from legend. The realization was equal parts awe-inspiring and strangely reassuring. Ketal’s strength had always seemed extraordinary—far beyond the reach of any ordinary person, even among the world’s strongest. To learn that he truly was the Ashen-haired Barbarian of legend made it easier to understand.

Observing their reaction, Ketal spoke again, sounding almost surprised. “You both seem to be handling this rather well. I was worried you might panic and try to attack me.”

Baker forced a laugh, shaking his head. “No, no... I mean, you are terrifying, but—”

Aquaz interrupted, her tone warm. “It’s because it’s you, Ketal. We know what kind of person you are. That won’t change.”

They knew Ketal well enough to understand that, even if he was the Ashen-haired Barbarian, he was not their enemy. Baker, too, despite his lingering fear, felt his curiosity as a mage burning even stronger.

Ketal smiled gently at their acceptance, a little tension melting from his posture. With the atmosphere lightening, Baker could not help but ask the question that had been gnawing at him. “That monster we met earlier—the one you called Whitie—how strong is it, really, compared to the other monsters in the White Snowfield?”

The image of that white-skinned creature, its body covered in long claws, flashed through his mind. It had been overwhelmingly strong. It had tossed Aquaz and Baker around with ease, albeit they weren’t prepared well for the fight.

If Ketal hadn’t appeared when he did, there was no doubt they would have been slaughtered on the spot. Not even a priceless artifact, nor the full might of a genius trained by the Mage Tower, had amounted to anything in the face of that monster’s raw strength.

But what troubled Baker most was the way the creature fought. “It didn’t use any Myst at all—just pure, physical strength.”

In this world, those who could not wield Myst stood no chance against those who could. That was a fundamental truth of their reality. Yet both Ketal and the monster they’d just faced seemed to defy that truth, overwhelming even the mightiest with brute force alone.

Ketal nodded, understanding Baker’s confusion. “To begin with, what you call Myst—those don’t really exist in the White Snowfield. Or if they do, they take on very strange and twisted forms.”

“So all the monsters there are strong just through their bodies alone?” Aquaz asked him, almost incredulous.

“Not all of them,” Ketal said, shaking his head. “Some do wield strange powers, but they’re not like the Myst you’re familiar with. Their power feels... more distorted, less like something of this world.”

Aquaz and Baker both took in a sharp breath. The thought of an entire realm where beings could grow so powerful without relying on divine blessing or magic was daunting.

Ketal continued, “Anyway, within the White Snowfield itself, Whitie’s strength is nothing special.”

Baker gaped. “That... wasn’t special?”

Ketal nodded again. “Whitie was a formidable predator in the food chain of the deep sea. But in the grand scheme of things, there were plenty even stronger.”

Even leaving aside the monsters known to the world at large, there were many in the White Snowfield more powerful than Whitie.

Aquaz let out a shaky sigh, the magnitude of it all slowly dawning on her. “So... a creature that could toy with both of us, that would rank among the highest-level Transcendents here, wasn’t even considered remarkable there?”

Baker gulped, still trying to comprehend the scale. “So the legends were true...”

Among scholars, there had always been debate about the emperor’s failed conquest of the White Snowfield. Many assumed that, rather than monsters, it was the brutal climate and navigational hazards that doomed his expedition. To imagine that such a force could truly have been annihilated in battle seemed far-fetched. But listening to Ketal, Baker began to believe it might have been possible after all.

Aquaz spoke next, her voice cautious. “Do you think those monsters... could ever come out into the world?”

“There was a time when I thought it impossible,” Ketal replied honestly.

The only reason Ketal managed to leave was by clearing the Quest. He always believed the beings inside the Demon Realm needed something like that—some loophole or extraordinary circumstance. But Whitie managed to come out.

Judging by the state of the ape corpses, it had been at least a month since it left the White Snowfield. If that was the case, there was no reason other monsters couldn’t do the same.

He paused, his expression becoming grim. “But even so, it’s been awfully quiet. If more of the White Snowfield’s monsters had made it out, the world would already be in chaos. Maybe there are still other restrictions in place. I can’t say for sure.”

Aquaz nodded, visibly relieved that there weren’t more monsters like Whitie running amok, but also unsettled by the uncertainty. They would have to remain vigilant.

After a short silence, Ketal asked them, “Do you have any other questions?”

“I do,” Baker said, his voice trembling. He stared at Ketal, as if seeing him for the first time. “You lived your whole life in the White Snowfield, right?”

Ketal nodded. “Yes.”

“And you not only fought those monsters, but you hunted Whitie for sport, even gave it a nickname. That means you fought it often, right?”

“From time to time, I’d head into the deep sea to hunt them,” Ketal admitted, as if it were the most natural thing in the world.

“And you clashed with the monsters from the legends, too...”

“There were plenty of territorial disputes. We clashed often enough,” Ketal confirmed.

“Those monsters... They’re all even stronger than Whitie, aren’t they?”

Ketal nodded once more, as if it were obvious.

Baker gulped hard, his next words coming out barely above a whisper. But there was a glint in his eye—a spark of excitement and fear mingled together, the curiosity of a mage who had always wanted to know just how far the limits of power could be pushed.

“Then... just how strong are you, Ketal?”