The Greatest Warrior of All Time Returns-Chapter 420

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Chapter 420

The fundamental spirits of nature.

In other words, the spirit of fire.

The spirit of water.

The spirit of wind.

Or the spirit of earth.

The countless elemental spirits spread throughout nature tend to linger a lot around spirit users.

But up until now, I had almost never come into contact with natural spirits.

Grivy somewhat resembled an earth spirit, but although they handled the same kind of power, there were clearly many differences between Grivy and an actual earth spirit.

On top of that, Sur and Serqet dealt with entirely different elements to begin with.

Even if Sur appeared to handle flames, his main power was actually heat.

In other words, in Sur’s case, he could handle not only fire but also biting cold and explosive heat alike.

As for Serqet, she dealt with poison, so there was nothing much to compare in the first place.

It wasn’t that I had never seen natural spirits before.

But the existing spirits never approached me, and I also had never made any particular effort to contact them.

We hadn’t clashed or anything either.

Most of the time, we simply treated each other like stones by the roadside.

To have one approach me this directly.

And at that, at the level of a Spirit King—this was the first time.

It felt strange.

—The deepest part of the forest. The lake that has begun to be polluted… I will be waiting there.

With those words, the green spirit stone lost its power and turned a murky color.

It looked like quite a rare spirit stone, yet it ended up like this just from conveying the will of a being presumed to be a Spirit King.

It was almost laughable.

“Grivy. Where did you get this?”

“Th-that… a green bird suddenly flew over in the forest and gave it to me!”

It definitely looked like a wind spirit.

It was safe to assume that from the start, it had intended to contact me through Grivy.

A trap?

It didn’t seem like that.

The power I felt from the spirit stone was literally pure spirit energy itself, not even a trace of a human spirit’s mana mixed in.

I lifted Grivy up and placed her on my shoulders.

“Whoa! It’s high!”

An excited Grivy wiggled her body from side to side.

“Take good care of the youngest. I’ll be back soon.”

After all, the Demon Realm wasn’t much of a threat.

Coincidentally, I already knew about the lake in the Demon Realm from the tactical maps secured by Cascadia.

But pollution…?

I was pretty sure that place had been described as an extremely clear lake…

Well, I’d find out once I got there.

* * *

Entry into the Demon Realm was strictly prohibited, but that didn’t apply to me.

It couldn’t, really.

If I put my mind to it, I was capable of completely subjugating the entire Demon Realm itself.

Even so, the reason it was left alone was because of its unique ecosystem.

Considering the living zones and resources obtained through that ecosystem, it was more beneficial for Cascadia to simply manage and adjust it rather than wipe it all out.

The lake I was heading toward, in particular, was generally one of the dangerous areas that even knight squad members were forbidden from entering.

It was a place crawling with dinosaur-shaped monsters, and even the knights who usually managed the Demon Realm avoided stirring things up there.

Maybe that was why.

Originally, I had only known it as a beautiful lake.

There was something I hadn’t anticipated at all.

“It’s completely polluted.”

What should have been a pristine natural lake untouched by human hands had now turned into a swamp so bad it was hard to even call it a lake.

The Demon Realm was, by nature, a place where you never knew what might happen.

So polluted areas could certainly exist, but ever since the Cascadia family had been established and had managed the Demon Realm for a long time, this was the first time I had seen a case like this.

“Ugh… the smell!”

Grivy made a tearful face, pinching her nose on top of my shoulder.

“This is the first time I’ve seen something like this…”

Melissa, who had followed me out, also pinched her nose and frowned.

I hadn’t planned to bring her, but since she was the head of the Cascadia household and a duchess, she had an obligation to see the situation firsthand.

“So. Where’s the guy who called us here?”

“How would I know? It’s not like I’ve ever been involved with regular spirits.”

I tried spreading spirit mana to see if that would reveal anything, but nothing changed.

It simply felt like a polluted, dead lake.

But… wasn’t the one who asked for help the Wind Spirit King?

A lake should be the domain of the Water Spirit, shouldn’t it?

Just as I was thinking that,

Something grotesquely twisted began crawling out of the lake.

“Leon… what is that?”

At the horrifying sight, Melissa turned pale and grabbed my arm.

The original form of that thing was…

A spirit.

Spirits were usually cute, beautiful, or cool in appearance, but what I was seeing now looked like a once tiny and adorable spirit called an Undine that had been horribly twisted.

Power from another dimension?

No.

It was a little different from that.

Right then,

A refreshing wind blew, and a massive green wind eagle revealed itself.

At the same time, it crushed the twisted spirit and decomposed it into natural particles.

That was…

The death of a spirit.

No matter how much of a Spirit King it was, they usually wouldn’t do something like that.

Yet the wind spirit showed no hesitation.

—You have come. I have been waiting.

Despite being a spirit, it was quite polite.

Normally, spirits didn’t act like this, but it seemed that side was pretty desperate.

—Please follow me.

The wind spirit glanced at us, then slightly widened its eyes upon seeing Grivy and the other two spirits looking up at it with curiosity.

Then, pretending it hadn’t seen anything, it guided us forward.

The place it led us to wasn’t far from the lake.

There stood a peculiar statue.

It looked like a bust of a bird, and before that sculpture, a human-shaped figure made of pale green light was waiting for me.

“The Wind Spirit King. Sylphid.”

—Thank you for coming.

Calm, yet courteous speech.

But that wasn’t what I was focused on.

The mad king of wind.

It was him.

How had this spirit, who emanated such endlessly polite, kind, and pure energy, ended up as the shrieking monster I had encountered in the Labyrinth?

Melissa, seeing a Spirit King for the first time, looked him over in amazement before carefully asking me,

“Is… that really a Spirit King?”

“Yeah.”

“Wow… I’ve never seen one before. Normally, Spirit Kings are…”

Perhaps hearing Melissa’s voice, the Wind Spirit King Sylphid let out a faint chuckle.

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—That is correct, human. Normally, Spirit Kings do not reveal themselves in the Middle Realm. The very act of revealing our existence has a tremendous impact on nature.

Which meant there was something significant enough that he had to contact me in such an unusual manner.

The highest-ranking wind spirit, Jin, bowed its head toward the manifested Sylphid with its wings folded.

—You’ve done well. Return now.

—Yes, my king.

Jin literally scattered into the wind and vanished, and the Wind Spirit King Sylphid slowly moved toward us.

—Thank you for coming all this way.

“I never thought a regular spirit would try to contact me.”

—There is a matter that cannot be resolved without you. Before coming here, did you see the state of the lake?

At his question, I nodded.

“It wasn’t originally like that, was it?”

—That is correct. That lake has long been directly managed by the Water Spirit King, Elraim. That is why even the monsters here could not recklessly pollute it.

But now it was polluted.

If it wasn’t an other-dimensional being, and not monsters either, then why?

As I pondered the question, Sylphid spoke again.

—At present, Elraim is not properly protecting or managing even her own domain.

Melissa cut in while listening.

“That’s strange. Even if a Spirit King stopped managing it, would things really get that bad?”

Sylphid shook his head.

—Of course not. Even if she did not manage it, the lake would not end up like this.

“Then?”

—I cannot leave this place to confirm it myself, but it has been observed that this began shortly after Elraim took an interest in a certain human.

This was a man-made disaster.

Now I understood what he wanted.

—For now, the problem is only at the scale of this lake, but if it worsens, there is a possibility that a significant portion of the central continent’s water could become polluted.

“So you want me to go there personally and resolve it?”

—Yes.

It was a bold request, but since he was offering something in return, I had to consider it.

“And you’ll give me a name imbued with blessings?”

Sylphid opened his hand.

Wind gathered in his palm, and then a beautifully multicolored spirit stone appeared.

—Long ago, many spirits placed their blessings upon the name contained within this.

“What if I just take it and run?”

—I have simply judged that you are not such a being.

He was offering advance payment and asking me to take care of the matter.

To ask me to rein in the Water Spirit King’s deviation.

I asked to confirm,

“So. What exactly do you want me to do? Capture her and drag her back?”

—I will leave that to your judgment. However, I believe that simply overpowering her and bringing her back by force will not yield much effect.

There was bitterness in his voice.

Elraim had fallen for a human, and Sylphid was in a position where he couldn’t just leave her be.

The easiest method would be to erase Elraim and wait for the birth of a new Spirit King, but Sylphid didn’t seem to want that.

I nodded lightly.

“Then I need to know where this Elraim is first.”

At my request, Sylphid gestured.

Low-rank wind spirits, Sylphs, then brought over a small blue palm-sized fairy-like spirit to me.

“An Undine?”

A low-rank water spirit, Undine.

Normally cute and beautiful, but the Undine before me looked severely weakened.

—This child will guide you to her. I ask this of you, Guardian of the Middle Realm.

“Why am I the Guardian of the Middle Realm?”

—We already know that you are eliminating the grotesque force eroding this dimension. You are a being worthy of being called a guardian.

I liked Sylphid’s favorable attitude toward me.

“I’ll consider it for now. If it turns out to be something I can’t handle, I can just come back and return it, right?”

Instead of answering, Sylphid let out a gentle breeze once and then vanished.

It was obvious that even manifesting like this was a strain for him.

The pollution of the lake was not something I could directly fix.

It was a problem that would resolve itself once the Water Spirit King regained her senses.

“In my opinion, the deal itself is good. As long as it’s within reason.”

“Do we really have to?”

“If the Demon Realm’s ecosystem gets twisted, then all that’s left is subjugation. That’d be a hassle for you too, wouldn’t it?”

That was true.

When I nodded, Luna, who was holding the youngest child, examined the spirit stone I had given her.

“The purity is quite high. The clear energy surrounding it seems good.”

“Do you know how to use it?”

“Like this.”

Luna began to breathe her energy into the spirit stone.

Then the spirit stone’s energy scattered.

“Ah.”

She let out a short exclamation and smiled at the baby in her arms.

“Elpiria.”

“Elpiria?”

“Elpiria Cascadia.”

I understood what that name meant the moment she said it calmly.

“Not bad. It’s a pretty name.”

“It means a blessed child.”

“Nice. Elpiria.”

Saying it quietly, I took the child into my arms.

The moment we gave her the name Elpiria, I could feel clear spirit energy seeping into the child’s body.

The youngest, the fruit born between Luna and me, had now received the name Elpiria Cascadia.

It felt a bit rushed, but it was a pretty name, so I didn’t really have any complaints.

The problem was that it was an advance payment item, meaning if I refused Sylphid’s request, I’d have to return it.

“Is it okay to just use it like that?”

“Oops.”

She said it as if surprised, but I could clearly see the corner of Luna’s lips curling upward.

She’d planned this.

No matter what, it seemed she didn’t want to give up such a pretty and blessed name.

“Then, the important thing now is finding Elraim.”

“Is it even possible for a human to contract with a Spirit King in the first place?”

“Well… who knows. The world is wide, and there are plenty of talented humans.”

“To others, you’re the strangest one of all.”

True.

To others, I must look bizarre too, suddenly becoming a continent-level powerhouse overnight.

Fortunately, Sylphid’s Undine said that once it recovered somewhat, it would be able to find Elraim, so it wasn’t as if there was absolutely no method.

And so, for about two weeks, as we gathered information regarding Elraim, we received an unexpected piece of news.

—Spirit Tamer Competition.

“She shows up here as a contractor of Elraim?”

“At least in the advertisements, it says that a contractor of a Spirit King will give advice and prizes.”

If this world had fast information transfer like my previous life, it would be different, but it didn’t.

So even if rumors spread somewhere that a contractor of a Spirit King had appeared, it wouldn’t be strange.

Of course, all I needed was to find Elraim, so whether I participated or not didn’t really matter.

But it seemed like I had to win first place to make contact…

I glanced at Grivy.

Grivy wasn’t a regular spirit.

I wondered if that would be okay.

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