Chapter 442
Chapter 442
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Translator: Ebonarch
Chapter: 442
Chapter Title: Wandering (5)
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A bleakly tilted signpost marked the boundary of Tarot Town.
Si-woo pushed through the chaotic space, already drenched in sweat from head to toe.
"I'm getting dizzy."
Around him, swirling distortion fields hummed faintly, tracing hazy circles.
Where two different kinds of 'distortion' met, they separated into layers like water and oil.
The crimson branch distortion, normally invisible to the naked eye, revealed sharp boundaries now that he'd entered this warped space.
-Creak... Creak...
The biggest problem was that this distortion field was emitting an ominous screech, like a submarine forced to dive below its maximum depth.
The moment he crossed the boundary, Si-woo adapted his body and dashed toward the center.
There were no functioning clocks here, so his only way to gauge time was his internal biological clock.
He figured about five minutes had passed.
Reaching halfway to his goal in just five minutes could be seen as progress.
But on the flip side...
The interference wasn't even that severe yet.
Simply walking this distance in his armor had already eaten up a sixth of his time.
Far in the distance, a storm of particles raged like the eye of a typhoon slamming into the ground.
It looked less like a magical phenomenon and more like a massive natural disaster—a volcano or earthquake.
As he stepped into it, he couldn't even guess what dangers awaited.
"......"
Looking back over his shoulder, he could see the path he'd taken.
Twisting footprints marked his route, as he'd avoided overly tangled spots and stuck to safer ground.
Retracing those steps would get him out easily.
Countless compromises flashed through his mind.
Maybe Amelia could stop the rampage on her own.
Maybe breaking through the random space with magic to reach her was impossible from the start.
Even if he made it to her after twists and turns, he might get blasted by Duke Erelim's barrage and die on the spot.
Si-woo wasn't immortal, nor was he Super Mario with extra lives.
Trying to save Amelia would be reckless bravado he couldn't back up.
Even those great witches shied away from this catastrophe—what guts had made him crawl in here?
He and Amelia hadn't met once since parting ways.
At first, it felt like half his body had been torn away, but life bloomed anew over the landfill of sorrow from that farewell.
Those who meet must part.
Drifting apart from someone precious and becoming strangers might not be such a big deal.
Meeting is just promising a future goodbye.
The world would keep turning without Amelia, and so would Si-woo's daily life.
Give up just a little, and he could return to the cozy home where his master, Sharon, and the twins awaited.
The chance to enjoy the usual peace, a comfortable and sweet option.
"No."
He shook his head.
The hesitation creeping up his back was severed by that simple gesture.
He'd been through similar dilemmas many times.
A lot of people who knew him had asked.
Why risk his life for others every time? How could he be so reckless?
He'd heard worried scoldings from those dear to him.
Some had even praised his outward courage and selflessness.
But Si-woo would just sheepishly scratch his head.
Because none of it stemmed from altruism, a sense of justice, or self-sacrifice.
Shin Si-woo wasn't some hero who turned impossible battles into victories, let alone a saint destined to lead the masses beyond vulgarity.
He just knew.
If he fled or gave up on the crisis right in front of him out of fear, the future wouldn't be the same.
Even if it looked like a flawless artifact, it'd be fatally warped somewhere.
Even in peaceful days, regrets would bubble up now and then.
'If only I'd been braver back then'—mired in sticky remorse.
Si-woo didn't want that.
Better to reach out and pull up a hand within grasp than wallow in regret, leave incompleteness, and smile bitterly in a flawed future.
Pure selfishness.
-Creak! Creak! Creak!
"Just behave this once. I'll oil you up if we get out safe."
As he took a sweat-drenched step—controlling the crimson branch inside and avoiding the random space outside—the ominous crimson branch went haywire.
Si-woo felt walls brush past his body.
A pressure like the air itself had changed assaulted the distortion field in an instant.
Just one more step, and the world flipped.
He was surely looking at the same spot.
But with that single step as the boundary, Tarot Town had transformed.
Like a graphic card tumbled in the sand a couple times before booting a game—the world lay shattered.
2.
When he'd received the overview map and set his destination, he'd worried inwardly.
Tarot Town wasn't some tiny English village.
It proudly boasted Gehenna's second-largest branch.
And searching inside a random space? He'd pessimistically figured locating Amelia would be ordeal enough...
No need.
The world was telling him her position intuitively.
-Ruuuumble!
It was like a surrealist painter high on hallucinogens had drawn it.
Floating stone houses drifted by. An upside-down carriage, jaggedly thrusting ground, a clock tower bent in a circle like a tree warped at the waist.
The distortion wasn't limited to objects.
The sky was wrong.
A world glowing sickly green like patchwork rags stitched together—parts dawn-lit, parts afternoon-clear, parts blazing twilight, parts pale starlight.
Glowering like crudely mended clothes.
The ground was wrong.
If someone asked, 'What happened in there?' he could describe it roughly.
But 'So what happened to the ground?' and he'd be stumped.
It was clearly flat expanse.
Yet his brain registered it as a deeply cratered pit.
Blink, and it looked flat again, like nothing was wrong.
A disconnect between sight and perception.
Even his left eye, piercing mana flows, couldn't define this space.
One thing certain: At the heart of the silently swirling black particle storm, in the crater's center depression, Amelia waited.
Si-woo tested with a shout as loud as he could muster, hoping for a reply.
"Lady Amelia!"
Silence answered.
This damned space didn't even echo.
The particle storm just rippled outward like unchecked mushroom spawn.
"......"
Now the real thing began.
He squeezed his eyes shut and exhaled sharply.
No time for sightseeing.
Si-woo advanced carefully, step by step, mindful not to break the distortion field.
-Screeech! Screeeech! Screeeeech!
If this were a radiation zone, the distortion field's cries were just like a Geiger counter's warnings.
No need to heed them—his head was already feverish.
Maintaining the crumpling field, like a tin can sinking into the abyss, demanded insane reflexes.
"Huh?"
Si-woo stared in disbelief.
An unbelievable sight.
"A little girl?"
A silhouette gleaming like a fairy in brilliant gold.
Perspective warped strangely, but it seemed a child barely reaching his waist, sprinting along.
Blink twice, and she vanished.
Like an illusion.
Was the tension messing with his mind?
No girl could roam a place like this.
No time to dawdle anyway.
And finally.
Si-woo reached the crater's edge.
Up close, the surreal landscape hit harder.
A dark pit, like the whole town sucked inward.
Around it, tiny particles clung to the distortion field like iron filings in a hurricane.
-Keeen! Keeen! Keeen!
At a glance like volcanic fallout, but these weren't harmless.
Innumerable specks slamming the field sparked eerily, throwing off calculations.
Just a few hits did this much.
Each step, clutching his burning head, ramped up the pressure.
He hadn't thought it'd be easy, but not this resistant.
'What the hell is she thinking, pulling this stunt?' drifted through his mind unbidden.
-Crackle!
Then one particle pierced the field and grazed his fingertip.
Not even direct contact, strictly speaking.
"Ngh!"
Just brushing the black gauntlet made the shadow armor—tightly woven—ripple wildly.
Si-woo wrestled the unruly shadows back under control.
Without Sharon's reinforcement, it'd have dispersed in an instant.
This wouldn't do.
Entering meant death.
He needed countermeasures.
"Okay. It's fine."
Calming his unease, Si-woo deliberately cracked the tiniest gap in the field.
Let a few particles in, smack them away with the armor instantly.
-Screeeeech!
Like a vaccine, but the armor wailed like caught in a hydraulic press.
No time for words or thought.
Just back-calculate the armor's reactions, deduce the particles' nature.
That alone was how to dive into the death pit and survive.
-Screeeeech!
Like soothing a bucking horse, he stabilized the armor's structure and reverse-engineered the particles' influence.
"This is..."
One discovery.
It eerily mimicked an autonomic defense system.
A freakish self-sealing barrier rejecting all existence.
She was pushing everything away.
Why?
Set the surging question aside.
Eyes closed, he focused, touching circuits woven through every corner of the armor.
Sparking flares.
His armor thrashed to avoid takeover; black particles invaded like cancer cells.
The subtle flames evoked endless geometric patterns in a kaleidoscope—blindingly intricate.
Seeming random chaos, but patterns existed.
In the searing neural blaze, Si-woo traced them.
Weaving accumulated magical knowledge, experience, and sudden inspirations into new rules.
A massive mental blackboard spanning hectares unfurled in his mind.
Magical equations and formulas scribbled faster than a printer—discarded, rewritten, verified, discarded, rewritten, discarded.
"Ah..."
The computation taxed his brain like overwork, but he realized.
This was like precisely reconstructing a crystal glass three seconds after it hit the floor.
Not one, but dozens simultaneously, under a tight deadline.
Even Laplace's Demon couldn't manage that.
Eyes open, his constricted vision from overaccelerated thinking cleared.
The particle storm was nearly upon him.
Thick metallic tang from his numb nose.
He got it.
Blocking was impossible.
Reverse-engineering or defending—neither within his power.
-Screeeeech! Screeeeech!
Particles now blackened the horizon, savagely gnawing the field.
The crimson branch vibrated madly, barriers and distortions lashing out wildly—futile.
Soon, very soon, Si-woo would be swept away.
"Urgh...!"
Pull back first.
Charging in was suicide.
Compute more, or find another way, then try again.
Resolved, he kicked off the ground.
-Ruuuuumble!
The world shook violently.
"What...?"
The ground had tilted somehow.
Like a sinkhole erupting, the pit expanded instantly, swallowing the earth.
In this space, Si-woo could only run while maintaining field and armor.
No ribbons, no coordinates, no wings.
"Fuck."
An ancient curse etched into his genes burst out.
And Si-woo was sucked into the bottomless abyss.