Pioneering the Apocalyptic World - Chapter 138

Chapter 08: The king of the sky

The super large bird sized monster “Jizu”. Also known as the “The King of the Sky”.

Being the King of birds, it is the king of the sky.

With a single flap of its wings, it can fly through the world in the blink of an eye, and the only places it can’t reach are the depths of the earth and the bottom of the sea.

With a single cry, it frightens all the birds and makes them flee.

If someone dares to provoke its wrath, a pair of giant wings will block the sun and the world will be covered in darkness.

The way it stares at the world from the sky, is it aiming for something or searching for something??

… And It’s a monster that only exists as flavor text in books inside. In fact, I never have met it in-game.

Even so, the reason why I can tell that the large bird crouching in front of me is Jizu is because of its distinctive plumage.

A sky-blue so beautiful that it can be mistaken for the sky.

Its wings colors have an increased gradation towards the tip, with the end being dyed red. It seems to be a reference to the sky and the sun.

In the game, on the top of the world’s highest mountain, there were only a few feathers left in the remains of what looked like a nest. It’s an extremely valuable material that can be used for armor and arrows, but it was mostly used as a wind attribute catalyst of the highest rank.

Why on earth would Jizu be in a place like this? Did we wind up wandering through the mountains and before I knew it, we have slipped into the highest mountain? No, we shouldn’t have traveled such a long distance, and we couldn’t have been teleported… Probably.

In addition, another book states that Jizu will appear at the end of the world.

… Well, this Asteria is actually in a critical situation, so it might be fair to call it’s in an apocalyptic state. If the contents of the book are correct, it wouldn’t be strange for it be here…?

Its body length is roughly estimated to be twenty meters. It’s hard to tell because the neck is long, so there must be more. Even so, it is completely different from the records – there were many details such as being 100 meters long or reaching from heaven to earth – but exaggerated expressions peculiar to myths and folklore are common.

There are other legendary monsters that the book touched, such as “The King of the Land, Behemoth” and “The King of the Sea, Leviathan”… But looking at this situation, do they also exist?

Unfortunately, since it didn’t exist in the game, I don’t know how strong this Jizu is.

It is called the king of the sky, so it’s probably stronger than wind-type dragons such as Altair and Zephyrus. As expected, I don’t think it’s stronger than The Ouroboros Dragon, but… The Ouroboros Dragon itself is on a different dimension, so it doesn’t even serve as a comparison.

And above all, of course, I have no idea how it fights. What attack patterns it uses, which attacks are effective, what not to do, etc… I don’t know anything.

Including all of the above, I suddenly remembered that I encountered an opponent who was “obviously superior”, I had no information, had no strength, to have encountered an opponent that I would not be able to defeat no matter what means I use… And that filled me with fear.

I can’t move. I can’t make a sound. How much easier it would have been if I could just scream and run away, regardless of how pathetic I’d look.

I feel like I’m having trouble thinking and even breathing.

I was desperately trying to muster up my will, determined that it couldn’t continue like this.

Then, my eyes met Jizu’s.

“–”

At that moment. Suddenly the paralyzing fear disappears.

It felt like I had been frozen for quite some time, but I wonder if it was just for a moment.

As proof of that, I sensed that Regulus and Liese were about to raise their weapons behind me… So, I hurriedly stopped them.

“Stop! Put down your weapon!”

“”…!?”

The two gasped in surprise at my instructions.

And then, a person- or rather, a beast, showed interest in my actions.

Jizu speaks with an alto voice that is hard to imagine given its huge size. The voice sounded like both a high-voiced male and a low-voiced female, and it is difficult to tell which one it is.

[Hou… A miko that isn’t hostile to monsters like me? Did you realize the difference in strength between us and gave up before the fight to become just my food?]

The two people behind me and Fricka who was by my side conveyed even more surprise at the fact that Jizu can talk. Uru, who was standing in front of us, didn’t show any signs of confusion like the others, let alone just standing still cautiously, she put her hands on her hips with a relaxed look. Does this mean Uru is stronger than Jizu, or does she have the same idea as me?

Judging from Uru’s appearance, I think it’s okay, but just to be sure, I guided Fricka behind me with my hands without taking my eyes off Jizu, and she tightly grabbed the back of my clothes… Yeah, I definitely can’t back out of this talk. After taking a deep breath, being careful not to let my voice shake and I spoke clearly.

“The answer is the former. As you may have guessed, I am a miko, but… I have no reason to fight with the King of the Sky.”

Judging from the pressure that Jizu has been emitting from a while ago, it is clear that I cannot win even if we fight. To be honest, It’s so heavy that I want to collapse right here.

I don’t know what will happen because I can’t see the bottom of Uru’s power, but except for Uru everyone, including me, is in danger. It is not hard to imagine that if we hold Uru back, she will end up defeated.

But I would rather run away than just give up, so the latter is incorrect.

[Why don’t you have a reason to fight?]

“Aren’t you the one who knows best about that?”

As Jizu said, it knows that I am a miko.

I don’t know at what point it realized it… But, if Jizu had been hostile, it should have launched an attack quickly while I was still frozen.

The fact that it didn’t do that means that Jizu has “no reason to fight us.”

And for my reason… Jizu doesn’t show any hostility.

This is probably the reason why I didn’t feel any ‘bad feelings’ on the way to here or even after I arrived here. What about the pressure? I think this is simply a difference in rank (level). I am so weak that Its mere presence overwhelms me. Just as I once almost fell to my knees before the God of Creation.

And the final blow was the light in Its eyes.

Just like Zephyr, in its eyes I can see the light of reason in its eyes. Unlike enemy monsters, it doesn’t seek to spill my (a miko’s) blood. It doesn’t try to cause destruction in vain. I can’t bring myself to defeat such an opponent just because It is a monster.

… Well, since we can’t win, I’d like to avoid the fight if possible. Huh? As a miko, is that okay? You might think so, but as someone who is in charge of everyone’s lives, it’s probably not a wrong decision.

Jizu raises its long neck without getting up and looks away from me.

I heard a twitching sound as it moved towards Regulus and Liese, but as I said, the two didn’t take a fighting stance.

Next, it moved its gaze to Fricka, and I felt the grip on my clothes became a little stronger. Still, she trusted me, and didn’t back down.

Finally, it moved to Uru… And it stopped moving for a while, with the two just staring at each other.

… I can only see the Uru’s back, but she is not glaring down it, right? I wasn’t supposed to understand a bird’s expression, but I felt like it was scared for a moment… No way, right?

[…… I see. There’s certainly no reason for us to fight…]

There was one person who I could not give any guarantee, but Jizu seemed to understand, perhaps because all of us didn’t show any fighting spirit.

I internally breathed a huge sigh of relief that I had successfully avoided the battle.

However, in the next moment, Jizu continued with words that made me doubt my ears, and I had no choice but to give a stupid reply.

[So… Are you planning on eating me?]

“…… Huh?”