The Laughing Swordsman

Chapter 299 - Don't Be Too Scared, Little Baby

The king attempted to pull Mark back, so that he wouldn't get closer to the wind elemental. Unfortunately, he somehow just barely missed, even though he should've been able to grab on easily.

Mark was rubbing his chin with great interest as he approached the wind elemental, completely ignoring the warning altogether.

The king visibly panicked.

"Wait! You can't do that! You're going to completely disrupt the flow of the wind that keeps up the city!"

Unfortunately, Mark couldn't care less about the state of the city.

Which the king realistically should've seen coming.

Though there really wasn't anything he could do other than hope Mark would keep up his end of the deal.

However, something as fickle as honor, did not matter to that man one bit.

Mark's eyes widened considerably as he got closer to the wind elemental.

"...So that's what he meant when he said to just go to this city."

The king continued to shout various warnings and threats, until eventually just pleading for him to come back.

Mark heard those cries, yes. But he didn't even process the meaning behind the sounds, successfully ignoring it. As he approached, he couldn't help but chuckle.

"To think that I could actually find a wind elemental... I suppose it's only natural if there is one of fire."

Mark continued getting closer, letting the winds batter against his clothes. For the first few moments this occurred, nothing happened.

However, after about ten seconds, the entire floating island began to tilt to the side.

The king immediately slid across the room before hitting the wall on the opposite side, knocking the air out of him. Mark himself wasn't affected, but the walls around him did move a little too much for comfort.

As for the other people scattered about in the city, that shift of the island was absolute havoc for them. All of them began to fall to one side, landing on the sides of houses or just tumbling across the streets like a tumbleweed.

Though the rabbit people and the guards were having a heated fight earlier on, now neither of them could even bother sparing the other a glance. They were just trying to survive.

One of the rabbit people stuck their sword into the side of a house to slow down their fall while a guard purposely got his leg caught into an open door, to catch their breath.

Most of the townsfolk were screaming at the top of their lungs.

"An earthquake!"

"But this is way worse than anything we've had before!"

"Heavens! Please save us!"

A few people were already near the edge of the floating island and were unable to catch onto anything, thus began flying towards it. They were extremely afraid.

Which did make a certain amount of sense, but it was well known that if you tried to walk off the island, the winds would push you back.

The only thing was, it was also well known that during an 'earthquake', there was a certain chance that one would not be pushed back. The chances increased tremendously depending on the severity of the earthquake.

...And this was the largest magnitude earthquake they have ever come to experience.

As such, several people began flying off the edge. In that time, they were able to see that there was an entire world underneath them this entire time.

Since the fall was tremendously long, they still had quite some time to take in all in before they died. Some were able to accept their death, while others were aggrieved.

A few of them felt incredibly happy to see a new world, but felt pity that they would be unable to explore it.

Back to the situation at hand, Apollo simply used a little bit of his flight powers and was able to stay on the island. As for Eden, she began falling, but was able to keep herself up by creating sticky black flesh on the soles of her shoes, allowing her to cling on.

At the moment, the person who caused all this mess, had gotten right up next to the wind elemental. Naturally, this person was Mark.

For the longest time, he would always have a composed expression. However, excitement couldn't help but slip out, in the form of widened eyes and a smile. It was simply because the boon of an elemental for him was far too big.

It was so big, that Mark needed several seconds to comprehend it.

He reached out to it and touched it.

...And that was when a cry rang out.

It sounded like the cry of a baby, but it was far louder. 

Mark chuckled.

"Come on now little one, I won't harm you... too much."

Two lights gradually began shining from within the wind elemental.

It had woken up.

And it was not happy.

The entire palace disappeared, becoming wind. Furniture and people like the king all began to fall from the air, which was quite concerning for those in question.

There wasn't much they could do about it though.

However, the wind elemental wasn't trying to harm those people, but fight against Mark. A heavy aura sprouted out of the wind elemental along with a loud cry.

Several tornadoes began to form and crash towards Mark, prompting him to raise both eyebrows.

However, he did not panic. Instead, he laughed.

"I suppose it's only natural that I should not suppress myself so much anymore."

His body began to glow white. However, unlike before, it wasn't to dash to some place.

Suddenly, the white light scattered, almost like it was wind itself.

Which revealed Mark.

However, this time, he had six black horns on his head. They curved with elusive bends, almost like they weren't actually horns, but waves of wind themselves.

The horns peeked out from his now completely white and long hair. As for his skin, it had not fully transformed to black skin, but the black seeped down from the top of his head, almost like an infection.

Mark smiled.

"Don't be too scared, little baby."