Kino didn't know what that black thing truly is but one thing for sure is that, the black thing would grow as the Elder talking or thinking about past events. Especially about the era before the world is changed.
She figured it out thanks to what the Elder just said, 'what happened to this world while I was in my slumber?'
Kino analyzed these words very carefully and figured out what the Elder was trying to say. The Elder is in a deep sleep and that is the time when the world is changing. Even though the Elder is in a deep sleep, the world essence is very sensitive so it would wake up any ancient creatures when detecting that the world is changing.
However, it seems this time is different, the world essence didn't wake the Elder up, which is pretty strange.
'The world essence, if talking about the world essence. Is it possible that the Elder's mind would instantly think about the past? In other words, it is possible that something had happened over six millenniums ago.' She thought to herself.
'Is it possible that the Elder tried to remember it before fell asleep?' She added.
It makes sense if she thinks about it. What else could the Elder would do aside from trying to remember what happened before its sleep and hoping it could find the answer as to why the world essence becomes strange.
But, there are a lot of plot holes here that Kino didn't understand. Such as this world, especially about the apocalypse, which happened five years ago and the appearance of 'players' five months later after the apocalypse.
Because of that, the inhabitants of this continent are called 'NPC' by players and by that. Kino is convinced that the world they used to know is no more but in a world of a video game. It sounds very ridiculous but Kino is convinced that the world really is changed.
To make it more precise, a few months later after the apocalypse had started, the world changed completely. Such as humans have systems in their body and by that, they could become strong very easily.
What it meant by 'system' in their body is not like a cyborg or anything, it was more like an isekai character got a system but in this case, every human got one. Furthermore, the system is fair and very balanced.
Those who work hard the most will get stronger much faster. However, they are far more weaker than 'players', if one wants to be stronger, one must get a Player ID. Which allows them to access many locked features and makes them much, much stronger than before.
She doesn't know how the world changed to a world inside of a video game, heck, even all the people who live in the continent didn't know it either. So there is one time when they were trying to find out why the world had changed but some kind of warning appeared in their system.
If they ignore that warning and keep looking for answers, then they would only waste time and importantly, life. Those who want to know the answer will die. Their death will be in the cruelest way, thus, no one would bother to find out the truth.
Anyhow, zombies destroyed all the cities within five months despite the distance between cities being far, reaching up to thousands of kilometers and even though each city's military power is different, zombies destroyed it easily.
This was because they mutate faster than humans thought and some zombies even evolved to a powerful and fearsome creature.
"Although tired and felt sleepy, my body is fine." The Elder answered Kino's question and the latter felt something's wrong with the Elder's words.
Tired and sleepy? She thought to herself as she repeated the words.
The Elder then asks a question of why Kino would ask something like its body condition. The Elder opens its mouth but before its voice comes out, Kino out of the blue asks.
"Elder, are you ok?" Her tone is that of worried and the Elder quickly replied, "I am ok little one. Is there something wrong? As I said earlier, my body is only tired and sleepy but overall is good."
"Elder, forgive me to say this but your body isn't fine at all."
Her words make the Elder shocked and confused at the same time.
"What do you mean by that?" It said with its brows frowned. Its body is always in great shape ever since almost reaching immortality, the Elder never sick, tired or even get any illnesses! So when the girl said that its body isn't fine, the Elder was a bit surprised.
After the thought up above crossed its mind, the Elder then realized the girl's intention.
"That's right, it seems whatever is inside your body is worse than I thought. It managed to make an almost immortal body to get tired and sleepy. It seems what we are facing isn't anything normal."
The Elder nodded as it agreed to Kino's words. Indeed, whatever inside its body isn't anything normal.
"Elder, if I could ask something. What is the thing inside of your body?" Kino asked and the Elder looked at her with brows knitted together.
"You said you knew the way to remove whatever inside my body yet you didn't know what it is? Are you making fun of me, little one?" It enraged and its voice was enough to make the ground shake.
"Elder. It is true that I knew the way to remove it but whatever inside your body is something that I've never seen before!"
The Elder became more enraged and at this moment, the black thing behind the Elder's head began to grow albeit very slowly. Kino noticed this and tried to calm the Elder down.
However, little did she know that she only saw the outer part of the black thing. It was actually spread to the Elder's body like wildfire, it spreads very quickly and at the same time, absorbs emotions as its energy so that it could grow.
As the outer part is growing, it will become stronger and slowly weaken the defense system inside the Elder's body.
"Elder! I promise you that my words are not empty! Why do you think I would show you my ability to time travel and convince you that the world had changed?"
"Also, what is my benefit to make fun of an ancient creature like you?"
However, her words are useless. The Elder's body was taken over by rage at this point.
"Enough!" The Elder raises its crab like a claw to the air and smashes it to Kino's position. Thick dust rose to the sky and covered Kino's figure.
It is unknown if Kino was alive or not.