บท 43: Back again

Through a large window in his room, a ray of sunshine cast upon Leviathan's face, causing him to frown a bit and awaken from his deep slumber.

"Did I sleep until morning?" He looked through the large window, toward the rising sun in the east.

Getting up from his bed, he sat on it, thinking.

A few minutes passed.

"Let's just do some training today," he said as he stood up and walked.

Morning in the sanctuary is not so different from how it looks during the day. Workers and people who clean and maintain the sanctuary are always busy and running around everywhere.

At some point, they stopped what they were doing and bowed their heads toward the salvation figure who was walking in the corridor.

Soon, Leviathan came to the outside area of the sanctuary.

With a blazing wing* in his hand, he jumped into the air and vanished.

After that, his figure reappeared above the huge and vast forest that he and Incarus had visited before.

Flying at high speed, he continued to go further above the forest.

"Should I have told Icarus about where I'm going?" he thought while flying.

"Whatever, I can't do anything about it now."

As he was flying, he looked below toward the forest until an area with fewer trees and creatures appeared in his vision.

"Right here," he uttered as he jumped downward from the sky.

But even though he descended at high speed, right before he touched the ground, he slowed down and stepped on the ground smoothly without causing any unnecessary mess.

As he stood on the ground, he heard the pleasant sound of the morning birds singing,

their songs resonating throughout the entire forest.

Listening to the song, not only Leviathan, but other animals also appeared to be in a pleasant mood, with some even seeming completely focused on it.

This was proven by a fluffy, ball-shaped furry creature a few steps away from Leviathan. While the other creatures ran when Leviathan landed, this little creature didn't bother to run. Instead, it appeared to be enjoying the melodies of the birds.

Seeing the creature, Leviathan couldn't manage to control his urge to pet it.

Lifting his foot, he took a step forward.

Creak!

But as it landed, it landed on dried branches, which produced a crunching sound.

Alerted by this, the fluffy creature suddenly opened its eyes and saw Leviathan in front. With quick movements, it rolled toward a bush close to it.

Seeing this, Leviathan hurriedly tried to catch it, but the creature's rolling was faster than his grabbing.

So the creature moved into the bush and vanished.

"Tch!" muttered Leviathan as he straightened up his back.

"Come to think of it," he looked toward a tree in front of him, which was so large that even his figure looked small compared to it.

"Even though I myself am several times larger than a normal person, this tree is larger than me, and others are the same."

He looked at other trees that were a similar size as he had seen before.

"This world must be much larger than the one I was in before."

With the sunlight covered by the tree, he began to walk in its shadow.

"How do I start this now? As Icarus explained, I need to focus on my inner instinct."

He stopped moving and closed his eyes.

"Let's try to do that."

He began to concentrate his focus on himself.

Eyes closed, his whole vision became dark as he tried to feel something within him.

"Why can't I feel anything? Is it because I lack focus?"

Even after a few minutes, he didn't feel anything.

Huff!

Exhaling, he calmed down and refocused.

Slowly, he began to hear his own heartbeat.

Lug! Dug!

And in another minute, he began to hear sounds from the forest—the sounds of birds flying, the rustling of leaves, the sound of some unknown creature gnawing on something, and the wind blowing. In an extraordinary moment, he even felt like he could hear the sound of a leaf parting ways from a tree.

Outside, around his body, an extremely tiny bead of sweat began to emerge.

"I... could feel..."

Creak!

But at that moment, he heard the same sound as when he had crushed the branch on the ground.

Disturbed by this, he lost his focus and opened his eyes.

"Dammit, what now?" he muttered in annoyance as looked toward the sound's direction.

Huh!

In front of him stood an old man, dressed in ragged clothing. In one of his hands, he held a staff, which he used to balance his unsteady body as he walked.

The old man, at the moment, was looking at Leviathan with his mouth fully open, which had only three or four teeth, at most.

[An old man, looks like someone in his nineties. What should I do? Should I talk?]

Mustering up his courage, Leviathan decided to talk to the old man.

"Ugh... Hey," he spoke.

But as soon as he did.

"Please forgive this old life, I was just wandering in this forest when I stumbled upon your esteemed one. I dare not think about trespassing your territory, this is an act I did unknowingly," the old man kneeled while uttering those words, seemingly scared to the fullest.

Looking toward the old man, Leviathan swallowed his words in the middle of what he tried to say to him.