Chapter 420
Chapter 420
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 420
Chapter Title: 2-90. The Second Full Stop (9)
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‘Isn’t that the guy from earlier? What’s he doing in a place like this?’
Didikan furrowed his brow.
The figure chanting spells in the darkness was unmistakably the mage they had brushed past in the corridor. He barely recalled that the coat-wearing man had called this thug Akasha. A rock wrapped in iron chains floated in front of Akasha.
“My god... ugh!”
“Hey, you okay?”
“Y-yeah, I can hold on for now. But we have to stop it quick...”
Asel stared at Akasha, quietly dry-heaving over and over. It was like the reaction of someone witnessing a gruesome car crash. What the hell had gotten into him all of a sudden?
Didikan shot back with a hint of irritation.
“I have no damn clue what’s going on here. You said that earlier too—what exactly are we supposed to stop?”
“Ugh... that spell the mage is casting. D-Didikan, can’t you see it?”
Asel pointed shakily at Akasha and the rock facing him.
The rock bound in iron chains brimmed with an immeasurable well of life force. If the heart of the earth had a presence, it might feel like this.
But only Asel, born with a mage’s talent, could pierce the chains’ interference to see that life force. Didikan’s brow creased.
“See what... It’s just a rock, isn’t it? Looks kinda sacred, sure.”
“It’s not just any sacred rock. I don’t know the details, but it’s gotta be some treasure the world can’t afford to lose. And that mage is... ugh.”
Dry heaves surged up again.
The pitch-black chains were greedily devouring the life force within the rock. Naturally, it all flowed to their master, Akasha. Throughout the brutal extraction, the rock emitted irregular pulses like screams.
『■...■■■.』
A pure white rift was tearing open in the space beside the rock. The blood droplets and life force leaking from between Akasha’s fingers wove together to form it—a crack that felt utterly unlike any standard spatial teleportation spell.
Asel caught his breath and continued.
“It’s just a gut feeling. We can’t let that go on. If the rock loses all its power... or if the mage drags it into that rift and runs, something terrible’s gonna happen.”
His mage’s intuition screamed warnings fiercer than ever. They had to stop the extraction somehow—strike while the mage was too focused on his chant to notice them.
Didikan glanced back and forth between Asel and Akasha, then sighed.
“Hoo... alright, Asel. Let’s say your gut’s spot on. Let’s say if we don’t stop that mage, the world explodes. Even so, what the hell can we do about it?”
“Th-that’s...”
“Even I, a total magic noob, can tell that Akasha guy’s a monster. Say we pull off the interruption—odds are we’re... no, we’re definitely dead. He’s not the type to let us walk away just ‘cause he hangs with that cult leader.”
Didikan remembered. Akasha had conspired with the cult leader to kill the coat-wearing guy. They’d gotten lucky and survived their corridor encounter, but no guarantees this time. He crouched down to meet Asel’s eyes.
“Sorry, but I can’t help. If I die too, the great forge’s lineage ends for good, and I couldn’t face Master Doron in the afterlife.”
“...I understand. It’s my choice anyway.”
“I know. You told me to go ahead alone from the start. I’m trying to talk you out of it now ‘cause that kindness moved me.”
Didikan’s expression darkened further.
His shaggy hand gripped Asel’s slender shoulder.
“If we step up, we’re dead for sure. Success or failure, the outcome’s a mystery. You really prepared to risk your life in a spot like this?”
“......!”
Asel gasped. His beautiful violet eyes wavered with anxiety. Didikan’s words dredged up the deathly terror he’d been trying to ignore.
‘I don’t wanna die.’
Of course he didn’t. There was so much he hadn’t experienced yet. No one wanted to die without even enjoying the freedom he’d regained after three years.
Honestly, even Asel couldn’t fully grasp why he was here. He’d just stepped forward, compelled by a sense of duty that he had to stop it.
It wasn’t just his mage’s intuition. Normally, he’d have fled, trusting some great hero would show up and handle it. There was only one difference between this and similar crises before.
He’d seen it.
“I...”
He didn’t know the name. Only the wildly flapping black coat and godlike swordsmanship burned in his memory. The man had spewed hoarse curses while cutting down every enemy in his path with a single blade.
That brisk slaughter had delivered the most intense shock of Asel’s life. The guy couldn’t have been more than a couple years older than him, at most.
To the frozen Asel during their Akasha encounter, he’d shone like the sun itself. Awe had stolen his voice. But the sun’s light cast a long shadow behind Asel.
Knowing his own faint talent yet wasting his years, he felt utterly pathetic.
Asel clenched his fist.
“I...”
Finally, he understood why he’d come this far. He wanted to change. He might never be as grand as that swordsman, but he yearned to step into the light. Following the threat from Akasha was his first step.
A wish to stand tall as a man and do his part.
That handful of embers the man had kindled was driving Asel forward.
“Yeah. I’m ready.”
Asel nodded.
Seeing his resolute face, Didikan let out an incredulous chuckle.
“What a bluff.”
He stood without hiding his smile, turning to see Akasha still chanting. Didikan pointed at the ceiling a bit away from Akasha.
“Hey. See that statue stuck in the crack up there? The one with the busted upper half.”
“Huh? Oh... yeah, I see it.”
“Yank it out with telekinesis. It’s acting like a keystone—the whole ceiling around it’ll come down. Spotted it when we came in.”
It was a weak point created when the fortress took heavy damage. The statue, perfectly plugging the collapse, had originally been displayed in the cult leader’s room far away. Asel’s eyes went wide.
“Y-you’re coming with me? If we do that...!”
“Shut it. Ignoring that resolve after seeing it would get me more hate when I’m dead. Ready? Let’s do it.”
“Didikan...”
Tears welled in Asel’s eyes. Didikan averted his gaze, feeling guilty like he’d made a girl cry. Asel wiped his eyes with his sleeve and nodded firmly.
“Got it. Just 37 seconds—then there’ll be a perfect opening.”
“Why 37 of all numbers?”
“That mage’s chant hits its peak mana drain there. Since it’s pulling mana in real-time, long chants like that always have a moment where a ton flows out at once—attention slips. Even this mage isn’t immune. He was chanting the life-force absorption spell when we passed in the hall, so I timed it.”
Asel kept his eyes on Akasha as he spoke.
Didikan felt the fur on his back stand on end.
In other words, this little human had been tracking the mage’s condition down to the second since their encounter dozens of minutes ago.
‘I might’ve run into a ridiculous monster myself.’
No normal person could do that. Maybe the monsters weren’t just the coat guy and that Akasha mage.
Time crawled by in suffocating tension. Didikan tapped his fingers for each second, bending his index knuckle on the thirty-seventh.
“Now.”
“Invisible Hand.”
Asel chanted softly.
An unseen hand shot through the ceiling, yanking the protruding statue. The marble figure shattered on impact with the floor.
『■?』
Akasha finally turned from his chant. For a split second, the life-force absorption and rift formation halted. Almost simultaneously, a whale-like growl rumbled from above.
“Now! Run!”
“Whoa!”
Didikan scooped up Asel. He leaped as the ceiling crashed down in a roar. In that instant, a house-sized rock fragment plummeted right over Akasha’s head.
“W-we did it!”
Asel, peering back, clenched his fist. Furniture and debris from the upper floor cascaded in chain reaction. Exploding dust clouds thickened the air. Akasha, the rock, and the rift were completely buried—out of sight.
“Don’t let up! Keep moving!”
“Y-yessir!”
Didikan burst from the hall into the corridor in a flash. The empty passage remained shrouded in darkness. The crashing stopped—had the collapse ended? A fierce headwind whipped their fur and hair.
“There—light!”
Racing at his life’s fastest speed, Didikan reached the exit door. Sunlight seeped through the stone door’s gap. There was a handle, but no time. His heart pounded wildly with the thrill of survival.
Boom!
The moment Didikan shoulder-smashed the stone door to splinters and escaped—
“What the.”
“...Huh?”
Their world froze. No sunlit field awaited. Instead, a dank, shadowy space loomed before them.
“Why is this...?”
They whipped around in panic, but their path back was sealed by a wall. Didikan gaped at the pattern carved into it. This was the hall they’d just fled—the exact spot where they’d brought down the ceiling.
“...I definitely heard it collapsing.”
“N-nothing’s changed...”
It felt like a nightmare. The hall, scanned carefully, was pristine as when they’d entered. The statue Asel had bravely yanked was still jammed in the ceiling corner.
What?
What the hell was happening?
Unable to grasp it, the two stood dumbfounded. Asel tumbled off Didikan’s shoulder onto his butt. Hearing a wind-like whoosh, Asel turned absently—and saw his own face right there. Realizing what it was, he froze solid.
“Uh.”
A mirror-smooth mask reflected his face.
Akasha, grotesquely hunched, locked eyes with him.
Close enough to feel breath. His pale face reflected on the glossy mask.
“Ah. Aaaah...”
Three eyes gleamed from the mask’s center, glaring at him.
Akasha raised his arm. Asel remained frozen, unable to act. Talon-like curved nails jabbed his cheek.
『■■■.』
A guttural noise emanated from under the mask, incomprehensible.
Asel was sure it meant ‘Gotcha.’