CHAPTER 140: Unknown Princess
Now Ank was standing beside the unknown princess who was still in a coma.
He was going to do training but stopped by Ai.
Ai told him to check the princess.So he came here to check her.
Her body lay silently , she showed no movement, no reaction, no sign of waking up anytime soon.
There was still something about her presence that made Ank stop and look at her longer than he had intended, because deep inside, he could still feel the faint echo of the pain that had surged through him the moment he had touched her earlier.
A pain that was not physical but something far more complicated, something that connected to a memory he could not fully grasp yet could not ignore either.
He had come here to see her not because Ai told him .
Not because he had to.
But because something in him wanted to.
Because even now, that moment is still fresh in his mind.He remembered it clearly without forgetting any details.
The moment the Stone Plant Prince had launched that energy blast toward the mountain, a destructive force so massive that it would have erased everything in its path without leaving even a trace behind, and at that time.
Even a single second of delay would have changed the outcome completely, and as he stood there now, he could not help but think about what would have happened if he had been late, even by the smallest margin.
Maya and this unknown princess had been lying there unconscious, completely defenseless, completely unaware of the danger that was about to fall upon them.
And Ank had arrived just in time.
Before the blast could reach.
Before everything ended.
But what had shocked him at that moment
was not just the incoming destruction.
It was what he saw when he arrived.
Because standing there, between the incoming attack and the unconscious bodies of Maya and the princess, were two figures.
Still.
Unmoving.
Yet unyielding.
Horskey.
And the Earth Spider.
They were protecting Maya.
Not running.
Not retreating.
Not hesitating.
They were standing their ground against an overwhelming force that should have crushed them long ago, and yet they continued to fight.
Even as their bodies were pushed beyond their limits, even as the number of enemies surrounding them kept increasing with every passing second.
They were surrounded from all corners.
Stone Plant soldiers were attacking from all directions, their numbers overwhelming, their attacks relentless, and yet those two continued to resist, continuing to fight as if nothing else mattered except the task they had taken upon themselves.
Their bodies told the story of that battle.
Horskey's condition was severe.
Both of his arms had already been cut off, lying on the ground beside him, his body barely able to remain standing, and yet even without his arms, he did not fall, he did not retreat, he simply stood there, enduring, blocking, protecting.
The Earth Spider was in an even worse condition.
Its front legs were completely destroyed, its massive body covered in cracks that spread across its entire surface, as if it was slowly breaking apart from within, each movement pushing it closer to complete collapse, and yet even in that state, it continued to stand, continued to defend, continued to fight.
They were already on the edge of death.
And still they did not move away.
Ank saw all of this and made him happy.
And without hesitation, he moved.
He passed through the horde.
Instantly.
Every enemy that stood in his path was eliminated before they could even react, their existence erased as if they had never been there, and within that same motion, he reached the front line where Horskey and the Earth Spider stood.
He landed before them.
And for a brief moment, time seemed to pause.
They could not react.
They could not understand what had just happened.
Because everything had changed too quickly.
But Ank did not waste a single second.
Because there was no time.
"Thank you for protecting Maya," he said with a smile, his voice calm, genuine, carrying a sincerity that did not need to be explained.
"Now you both can rest."
And with that, he touched them.
Gently.
And in that instant, both of them disappeared.
They were teleported far away from the battlefield.
To a village.
A safe place.
A place where there were no monsters, no enemies, no threats, and where they could finally rest without fear of being attacked again.
They did not resist.
They did not question.
Because they trusted him completely.
Just as Ank trusted them.
They closed their eyes almost immediately after arriving, their bodies finally giving in to the exhaustion they had been holding back for so long.
Because they had been fighting continuously for the last two days without proper rest, pushing themselves far beyond their limits, and even the small assistance provided by Creation had not been enough to fully sustain them against such an overwhelming assault.
Ank watched them for a brief moment.
Making sure they were safe.
Before turning away.
Because his task was not finished yet.
He moved toward the cave.
The place where Maya was.
The place where the unknown princess lay.
The place where everything would change.
As he stepped inside, the atmosphere shifted slightly, the silence within the cave carrying a weight that felt different from the battlefield outside, as if something else was present here, something hidden, something waiting.
Because the moment he stepped into that cave.
Something began.
Something that he did not notice.
Something that he could not stop.
Something that would eventually grow into a disaster far beyond anything he had faced before.
Because the person lying beside Maya.
The unknown princess was not just some random girl that Ank was going to save.
She was the beginning.
The reason.
The trigger.
For the destruction of the entire central continent.
And start the great war in the Universe that no one had seen before.
And Ank did not know it yet.
He would become the centre of all chaos.