The Ancient Missing Link (12)

“Huuuuh…”

I drew in a deep breath, borrowing every scrap of mental grit I had left, and prepared to burn through the last of my mana by activating the rune.

…Fuck.

But it went exactly as I feared. Yerna’s soul was nowhere to be seen anywhere my eyes could reach. It fucking figured. The last spell I’d unleashed was a high-tier bombardment that scattered Veronica’s heat rays across a wide area, so of course nothing could survive that. Any soul caught in the blast would have been obliterated. In this world, souls simply vanished when struck by magic or rare metals like mithril.

“…Ugh!”

The pain forced me to cut off the rune magic. My mana had dwindled to the point where it was almost impossible to sense. I clicked my tongue. Goddammit. If I hadn’t dropped the Ogre’s Seal, I could have recovered some mana. Even if I couldn’t find Yerna’s soul, I could at least search the ruins for any artifacts the bitch might have hidden—

—Huh?

The thought made my heart lurch as if it had plummeted straight through my chest. My mind simply stopped. Like a seasoned tracker reading the weather from instinct alone, I bypassed every logical step and simply knew. I had overlooked something—something I absolutely could not afford to ignore.

…Artifacts from the ruins?

A spark jumped across my neurons like a severed power line. My overworked brain, half its cells probably dead by now, ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠began listing information that had once seemed meaningless. The thing I had missed started assembling into a horrifying picture.

The first piece of wrongness took shape in words. I repeated it silently.

…How was Yerna able to control that enormous amount of light mana?

Living creatures suffer terrible damage when their mana vessel overflows. That’s why you have to be careful drinking mana potions, and why I’d nearly passed out from dizziness after defeating the ogre and inheriting the rune’s mana through Succession. But Yerna? Had she shown any sign of strain? Not at ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠all. She had wielded light mana accumulated by an ancient ruin—enough to resurrect her dozens of times even on death’s doorstep—yet never faltered. More than that, in my normal state I had never sensed any transcendent mana from her. Wasn’t that exactly how I’d realized the ruins’ true nature? The only reason I could detect the light mana was because my magical abilities had exploded during the rampage.

So how had Yerna used it?

No. The question isn’t how she used it.

Where she had taken it from. That was the real problem.

Was it a tool? Had she drawn mana on the spot from an artifact like the Ogre’s Seal, just as I had unconsciously assumed? Impossible. When I had driven Yerna out, she had been completely naked, without a single item on her. If she had been recovering mana through an artifact, her regeneration should have stopped right then.

─Thump. Thump.

My heart pounded with growing dread. The more I thought about it, the more wrong it felt. Why had Yerna chosen to fight even after seeing my power? There are no fools among the mages of this world. They cover their weaknesses, calculate every risk, and pursue their desires with cold precision. That was what a mage of this world was.

Yet that same Yerna had personally greeted an intruder? Even after watching me tear through the ceiling of the underground tomb, she had trusted only her regenerating flesh and tried to fight me head-on? Was that even possible?

Right up until the endless pain had shattered her mind, the bitch had been hell-bent on killing me. She hadn’t even factored the damage to her own body into her calculations. As if—she had never feared her own death at all.

I couldn’t even wipe away the cold sweat rolling down my face. The undead of the ghost city that moved without souls. The light mana that governed birth and recovery. Yerna, who used magic to make plants grow. The rampaging me who had instinctively avoided crushing her skull. All those seemingly meaningless fragments mixed together, giving shape to a terrible premonition.

When I came back to myself, I was staring at the hole I had punched through the underground tomb. As if it had been waiting for exactly that moment, a pillar of fire erupted from it.

“—Fuck!!!”

Swearing violently, I snatched up my spear and ran. The pillar of fire was Veronica’s heat-ray magic. It was hard to believe she would fire it for no reason. An attack meant there was a target.

I pushed my mana-depleted body, now no different from an ordinary human’s, to its absolute limit. Muscles forged through effort powered my sprint, but to senses that had grown used to superhuman perception, the speed felt maddeningly slow.

─Thud!!

Something shot out from the hole in the underground tomb and seized the ground. I roared with seething hatred. If my eyes weren’t deceiving me, it was a green vine.

“Fuuuuuuuck!!!! You goddamn persistent zombie bitch!!!!!!!!”

─Whoosh!!

A woman in a robe, riding atop a giant flower petal, rose to the surface and landed. It was an ordinary robe suited for stealthy movement or escape. Her erratic actions had knocked the hood back. I ground my teeth. The worst-case scenario had been correct.

What stood there was Yerna, the whites of her eyes now completely blood-red.

So it really was a clone!!!!

The undead of the ghost city were creatures no different from flesh golems that moved without souls. In the same way, Yerna must have been able to manipulate her clone by linking it to her own soul.

Extremes meet. Holy magic and dark magic were fundamentally the same in that both overcame death. The young Ada Unicorn I had defeated was a perfect example.

─Screeech!!

I slammed to a halt. Yerna had lost all her light mana, but her main body still held its own reserves. They seemed nearly exhausted, much like mine, yet still more than enough to kill me now that I couldn’t use mana.

Of course, that wasn’t why I had stopped.

“—Move one more inch and I’ll rip this bitch’s head clean off!!!!”

Yerna shrieked, convulsing. The vine she controlled was wrapped tightly around Franc.

While fleeing the hidden space beneath the tomb, she had taken Franc hostage. There was no need to guess why. The only thing in Yerna’s eyes as she stared at me was pure terror.

“…What the hell are you?”

Yerna trembled as though she were looking at something incomprehensible. From her reaction, I realized the pain the clone felt had been transmitted to the main body. Of course. Such precise control would require more than the loose visual link Franc used with her golems. Only an extremely tight Path—one that couldn’t be easily severed—could explain the way she writhed in agony.

“…A successful experiment by the apostates? Nonsense. An exception. Impossible. There are no more empty Divine Thrones. You’re too old. The only test subject capable of overwhelming me should have been something like Sigrun…”

─Grind. Crunch.

Yerna shoved several fingers into her mouth and chewed like a madwoman. Trembling, she muttered to herself and showed clear signs of self-harm. Had my attack actually done something meaningful after all? The mental damage was so severe that the whites of her eyes had turned completely red. She looked more like a zombie than any zombie I had ever seen.

“…Why? Why me? Why do I have to suffer like this?”

Yerna tore at her own hair, gnawing on her fingers. The wounds did not regenerate.

“This is absurd. First the newcomer, now me ending up in this state… At this rate, even if I return, there will be no place left for me… If only the Dragon Tooth Battalion had cooperated… How was I supposed to slip past the Compilation Battalion right under our noses and return to the homeland—”

Her muttering grew more deranged, as if the damage to her brain had triggered full-blown mania. Then her face twisted like a vengeful demon.

“—I TOLD YOU NOT TO MOVE AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!”

It was the act of a complete lunatic, but there was a reason. She had spotted me shifting my foot with those bloodshot eyes.

─Crack!!

The vine binding Franc let out a horrible sound. Though much thinner than before, it was still strong enough to snap a fainted person’s neck. The tendrils twisted Franc’s head sideways. Just a little more pressure and she would never wake again.

“KNOCK IT THE FUCK OFF, YOU GODDAMN BITCH AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!”

I screamed in fury, but I had no sharp solution. I ground my teeth so hard that blood welled up from my gums. As reason sank, sunspots bloomed across the sun in my inner world. No. The anger was approaching the threshold of another rampage. I beat the rising black mana down, forcing it back.

I had hurled Yerna out of the underground tomb earlier, before fighting her properly. I had feared that the rampaging me would be unable to tell friend from foe. I still had no method to control the Beast Regression. Even if I did, the problem remained: could I save Franc before the vine snapped her neck?

Yerna, even as she descended into madness, was watching my every move. Probably because I was the source of the mania that had consumed her. At this rate, even if my mana recovered, rescuing Franc would be impossible.

What about Dana and the others? She hadn’t killed them before escaping, had she? Either way, I couldn’t count on help.

Yerna spat out her blood-soaked fingers and pointed at me.

“Don’t you dare twitch a single finger…!! If you chase me, I swear—no matter what happens before my life ends—I will kill this woman first!!!!”

Having delivered her savage warning, Yerna began retreating without even turning her back. She glared at me with both eyes as though she had no intention of giving me any orders.

It was then.

“…Ra…”

The awakened Franc murmured in a choked voice like a strangled bird. But Yerna paid her no attention, as if she had neither time nor focus to waste on her. She kept her gaze locked solely on me.

──That was the greatest mistake Yerna would ever make.

Tight…!

Franc seized the vine choking her neck and drew her hammer. Her strength, comparable to mine in Beast Regression, tore the thinned vine apart.

“──────.”

At the sight of her hostage breaking free on her own, even Yerna turned to look. Soil from the golem-summoning spell gathered on Franc’s hammer and compressed. It did not form limbs to imitate a person. Instead, it hardened beyond the density of ordinary clay. The shape was exactly that of a dwarf’s hammer carved from solid rock.

Franc stepped free of the vines and planted her feet. She swung the hammer—thicker than her own body—over her shoulder and smashed it into Yerna’s face with a full swing.

BOOOOOOM—!!!

The sound was less like striking a human body and more like a botched explosive detonation. Yerna spun like a wildcat hit by a motorcycle before slamming into the wall.

“Agh, hek, kaga-ack…?!”

“…From the very first time I heard about you, I wanted to do exactly this.”

To the pissing, babbling Yerna, Franc muttered in a low voice.

“…I will not become Nord’s shackles.”

─Drip. Drip.

Blood flowed from her wounds.

“I will build a family so wonderful that anyone who sees it will be envious. I will make sure Nord never regrets loving me. I will shout that I am happy being with Nord so loudly that it echoes all the way to the heavens!!!”

─BANG!!

Her small foot stamped the ground, radiating fighting spirit. The force traveled up through her entire body as the beautiful oversized hammer traced a perfect arc like a baseball bat swinging for a home run.

“Don’t you dare interfere with me and Nord────!!!!!”

Franc hurled the stone hammer with savage force, her blue eyes blazing. Yerna raised a shield. The barrier shattered like sugar glass beneath the sheer violence of kinetic energy. Yerna’s legs were crushed like gelatin.

“Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!!”

The vines that surged up in a desperate counterattack did not target Franc. Instead they whipped wildly in every direction. Because in the time Franc had bought me, I had already closed the distance to Yerna’s side.

─Tap tap!

My body felt heavy. I had no method to recover mana. I had none to waste on evasion.

──Then I would fill the gap ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠with mana that could not be consumed.

I closed my eyes. It was an utterly insane thing to do amid attacks I could not fully dodge even with my eyes open, yet it was something I had to do.

The sun in my inner world responded. I let the light of the sun—now free of sunspots—flow through my entire body, reached out to that illusory sun, and grasped it.

─Crackle!!!

The ancient god’s mana stirred. The dream I had seen flashed through my neurons like a revolving lantern. For some reason, the most vividly remembered lucid dream was the trivial drinking session I had shared with my father. Perhaps because I had been with family I loved. I forgot the situation entirely and laughter came first.

“…On the nine winding roads of Byeonsan, a stone stands and listens to the sound of water.”

With a tranquil heart, I recited the phrase my father had loved. Nefertiti had told me to create techniques the way one composes magic formulas. That what fits ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠one’s body best is the strongest. If that was true, there was no spell more suited to me than this one.

“Nothing, nothing, and even the absence of nothing. Not, not, and even the absence of not.”

The revolving lantern continued. My body, with consciousness fading fast, moved on pure instinct along the most efficient path. The heaviness vanished as if it had been a lie. My speed returned.

─Thudududuk!!

Within the storm of irregular vines, I unfolded the forms of 【Gertur】. The vines were sliced apart by the pure physical strength of a human who had almost no mana left. Raw physical technique had surpassed the power of magic.

“The subtle and mysterious principle of the profound and mysterious.”

The spear blade roared, carrying the sparkle of mana.

“Nothing nothing having having—having within the midst of nothing.”

I carved through the vines protecting Yerna’s body with the spear’s edge and closed the distance. I stepped into the perfect position for the blade to slice through her torso.

─Bang!!

At that final instant, Yerna detonated the flower she had summoned. Seeds the size of rugby balls rained down like grenade shrapnel, aiming to crush my skull. It was her last desperate surprise attack. If I tried to counter, I would have no mana left to strike with. So I kept my eyes closed and ignored the attack entirely.

─Shwaaaaak!!

Thudududuk!!

The sound of hard objects colliding. The seeds failed to graze even a single hair on my head. Franc’s thrown knife had deflected them, protecting me. The counterattack that should have spilled my brains across the ground had failed.

When I opened my eyes, Yerna was right in front of me. The distance was perfect. I showed no mercy. If I had questions, I could rip out her soul and ask them later. I swung my arm. Odin had told me to fix my naming sense first, hadn’t he? If it was the will of the gods, I would follow it. I named the secret art as if offering it to a god who no longer existed.

─Splurt!!!

After repeating the motion three times, I harvested the life of the woman who had once been my teacher.