Chapter 153
Chapter 153
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 153
Chapter Title: World Erosor's Past
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World Erosors.
They are otherworlders who arrived in this world for various reasons.
Once upon a time, each of them had their own world, and they surely found happiness there.
But worlds are always finite, destined to end.
Evelask Benapoci.
The world she lived in was no different.
The world she was born into was called Dairox.
By the time she was born, Dairox was already a world at the end of its lifespan.
Acid rain poured endlessly from the skies, and the soil refused to nurture any life.
As a result, all creatures grew vicious in their fight to survive.
Beneath the ground, safe from the acid rain.
Countless people built their own cities there.
Evelask was an orphan in one such city.
A hand-to-mouth existence, day after day.
Her dream was always to see the world above.
She had never once seen the surface since birth.
So she scrimped and saved even on her daily meals to buy books from antique shops.
Those books contained old stories and drawings of the surface world.
That was her only joy in life.
Then one day.
She found a book in an antique shop.
Necromancy Studies.
The book claimed it was a long-lost discipline. Curious, she read it.
And soon realized one thing.
She had considerable talent for necromancy.
How else could she have created a skeletal monster from the leftover bones of a rat she'd eaten just a day before?
The sight of the bony corpse moving at her command was utterly fascinating.
From that day, she immersed herself in studying necromancy every single day.
She gathered every related book she could find.
While secretly studying necromancy day after day in hiding.
"Evelask!"
A girl's shout echoed through her ramshackle home as the door nearly burst open.
Startled mid-study, Evelask quickly hid her materials.
"Ah, Aimi, you scared me. What's up?"
She feigned innocence and welcomed the intruder.
There stood a girl with brown braided hair.
Bright and cheerful, she was Evelask's lifelong friend from childhood.
Her most precious—and only—friend, who had shared even the hardest days of scraping by.
"Why so jumpy? You were looking at something naughty again, weren't you?"
"Wh-when did I ever?!"
Evelask's face flushed red as she yelled.
Ever since she'd been caught engrossed in what turned out to be an erotic novel.
Aimi always teased her like that.
Grinning mischievously, she burst in with excitement.
"Evelask, remember that rumor going around lately?"
"Rumor?"
"Yeah, the one about the surface being safe!"
Evelask's eyes flickered.
She had heard the rumor too.
But she hadn't paid much attention.
The world was too harsh to believe such hopeful tales.
The underground cities themselves were nearing the end of their lifespans.
It was imminent.
Estimates put it at three years away.
All resources would deplete, the shelters would fail, and the acid rain would collapse the ground.
That was the future of this bleak world.
But Aimi never lost her brightness or hope.
"No, Evelask, this time it's real. They're recruiting directly from each city under the name 'Dairo x Salvation Squad' to venture to the surface."
Evelask looked surprised.
If the city was organizing it directly, that changed things.
"I-isn't it just like the regular survey teams?"
"This is different. The last survey team that returned said they found signs the surface is safe. The city's gathering top talents themselves."
Aimi's eyes sparkled fiercely.
She was a nuker, the profession that fought criminal syndicates and twisted monsters scattered underground.
And she was one of the best among them.
Her eyes burned with pride and ambition for her calling.
"They're building a spatial teleportation magic circle connected to the underground at the site of those signs."
"Aimi, you're not thinking of joining, are you?"
"Yeah, I am."
Aimi's gaze was deadly serious.
Evelask panicked at the sight.
Signs of safety or not, it was just the survey team's word.
No one knew the truth.
With the city's lifespan at three years, this was essentially a desperate gamble.
A path that might end before even those three years were up.
Aimi was thrashing against that fate.
"Aimi, it's too dangerous."
Evelask said worriedly.
According to Aimi, plenty of others were joining too.
She wanted to say Aimi didn't have to go.
"I've been promoted to vice-captain of the nukers. The previous one died from a lung perforation."
The underground cities lacked proper sanitation and medicine.
Residents were vulnerable to illness, nukers most of all.
They fought directly, making germ infiltration easy in battle.
Yet nukers persisted.
They were the only ones who could protect the city.
"Can't have the squad looking weak without a vice-captain."
Evelask realized why Aimi had come today.
To tell her she was leaving.
"Aimi."
"Trust me. I'm one of the city's famed powerhouses, right?"
Aimi smiled at her.
Evelask grabbed her hand tightly.
"Come back safe."
"Sure. If I find any books, I'll grab 'em all. Erotic novels, mostly?"
"Not that again!"
Aimi laughed merrily at Evelask's shout and left.
The salvation squad departed amid everyone's hopes.
A year passed.
The squad never returned.
Of course, Aimi included in that, didn't either.
"Aimi, you promised..."
Hearing of her disappearance, Evelask stared blankly.
They had grown up together like sisters their whole lives.
Aimi was sometimes like an older sister, sometimes a younger one.
Her absence shook Evelask to her core.
To make matters worse, the city's security was deteriorating rapidly.
With so many skilled nukers sent on the squad, fewer hands were left to maintain order.
Criminal infiltrations became easier as a result.
The city's lifespan was shrinking fast.
Doom was knocking at the door.
People fell into anxiety and despair.
Some even praised the end, claiming salvation lay in death, and set fires across homes.
As the city began accepting its demise.
Knock knock.
Someone knocked on the door of Evelask's home, where she'd been lost in a daze since the news.
She dragged herself to open it.
There stood a middle-aged man, once famed as the Iron Lion but now retired.
He glanced at her disheveled state and spoke.
"Evelask, I heard you've been studying necromancy."
She flinched at his words.
It was only natural.
Necromancy was a lost art, but forbidden in the city.
Handling corpses could breed countless problems.
She assumed he was there to punish her for breaking city rules.
"N-no way! I'd never study something like that!"
"I need your help."
Evelask froze.
She looked at him puzzled, and the Iron Lion met her gaze seriously.
"Do you remember the people who left with the first salvation squad a year ago?"
How could she forget?
Her dearest friend Aimi was among them.
"A signal came through the communication magic device recently. The mana field up there is too intense to decipher it, but it's definitely a survival report."
"Wh-what?! Really?!"
Evelask shouted in shock.
"Yes. If you want, I can show you myself. We believe they've reached a safe spot but can't activate the spatial magic circle for some reason, so they're sending signals."
Evelask's eyes widened.
"The storms of acid rain and mana fields over the past year likely prevented their return. And now that the signal's confirmed, the storm and mana have weakened."
It was too hopeful an assessment.
But the moment Evelask heard it, her heart raced.
Aimi was alive.
That thought invigorated her.
"The city's dispatching a second salvation squad. Preparations are far better than before."
"C-can I really help?"
"The acid storms and mana fields have completely altered the paths. We need to rejudge which routes are safe for humans."
Evelask finally understood.
She was a necromancer, one who commanded corpses.
Sending bodies ahead could secure paths more safely.
Determination filled her eyes.
"Okay. I'll join."
If only to find her friend Aimi.
She was set on participating in this squad.
Seeing her resolve, the Iron Lion nodded.
"Departure in two days. Be ready."
He left those words and departed.
And two days later.
Evelask joined the salvation squad.
The squad totaled four members.
Led by the Iron Lion and Evelask.
A male mage specializing in subspace magic.
The most standout one-armed female swordswoman among the remaining nukers.
Just four elite members for the second squad.
Tiny compared to the first.
But the city had reached its limit; no more could be spared.
Practically all top fighters had gone with the first squad.
"Let's move out."
At the Iron Lion's word, Evelask began ascending the stairs to the surface.
Her heart pounded.
The surface she'd never seen.
Of course it would, after yearning for it so long.
"Hey, Captain, the first squad was called Avalos, right? What's ours?"
Avalos meant "Wings of Dairox" in the old tongue.
The one-armed swordswoman Luzrang asked, and the Iron Lion replied curtly.
"Benapoci."
"Huh, what's that?"
Luzrang tilted her head at the unfamiliar word, and male mage Muzkang chuckled.
"Ancient tongue for 'hope'."
"Hmph, real poetic, huh."
"Well, we are the city's last hope. It's down to the wire now."
Muzkang glanced down the endless stairs.
He gazed wistfully at the underground city, now facing only death.
"Soon."
As the Iron Lion warned them to stay focused.
Evelask spotted the entrance to the surface.
A sturdy door patched with steel and scraps.
Reaching it, the Iron Lion gripped the circular handle with both hands and turned.
Creak, screeeeech!
After much effort, the door thudded open.
Blinded by the sudden light, Evelask squeezed her eyes shut.
Lifetime underground dweller, she was weak to brightness.
When she slowly opened her eyes.
Cracked earth and sand greeted her.
And a brilliantly shining sun.
Her eyes widened at the sight of the sun.
Its warmth seeped into her body for the first time.
Outside.
This was the outside.
"A sun in sight. Lucky day."
The Iron Lion looked up at the sky and said.
"Won't last."
His gaze shifted afar simultaneously.
Dark clouds gathered with a distant boom.
Heavy with acid rain, ready to turn the land into hell again.
The downpour would be fierce enough to form rivers.
"Move fast."
Thus, the quartet's journey began.
And as expected, the journey was grueling.
"It-it's collapsing!"
Weakened ground from constant acid rain crumbled underfoot, threatening to swallow them into the depths.
"Damn, so many! Captain, hold that side! Boobs, help here first!"
"N-not boobs! It's Evelask!"
"More coming!"
"Quiet down and focus, all of you."
Even in the acid rain, surface monsters swarmed in packs, eyes mad with hunger.
The four grew more haggard with each passing time.
Blocking acid rain was ordeal enough; ground collapsed at every turn, monsters lunged from nowhere, and mana storms occasionally raged.
If hell existed, this was it.
But perhaps because of that.
The four talked more often.
"In times like these, silence breeds distrust and breaks reliance. That's when mistakes happen."
It was the Iron Lion's philosophy as second squad leader.
At first, the other three just went along.
But as time wore on, their conversations multiplied.
They vaguely sensed it.
The moment talk ceased would be their end.
"I was born under a mom raped by criminals. She killed herself right after birthing me, and I got sold into slavery for backroom deals. My owner was a psycho with a hand fetish. Cut mine off at eight, said it was peak prettiness. Fucker."
The one-armed swordswoman Luzrang shared her brutal past.
"Haha, nothing that dark for me, what to do. Oh, wait, there is this: my talent shone so bright my master—afraid I'd take his spot—tried to kill me."
Mage Muzkang spoke lightly, but it wasn't. Later revealed his master was his father.
"When I retired, sick in bed, my daughter joined the first squad. Medicine was the bribe."
The Iron Lion explained why he joined.
He wanted to find the first squad more than anyone.
His daughter was there.
Her name, he later said, was Benapoci.
"Heh, since we're at it, let's make the second squad our clan? House Benapoci. Whaddya think? Those city noble wannabes do it all the time, the trash who think the world revolves around them."
"A clan? Then you'd be family with Lady Luzrang? Unpleasant."
"Quit liking me already."
"...Who said I do?"
Luzrang and Muzkang bickered often.
Seemed at odds, but in danger, they prioritized each other first.
"Sniff, ugh, you're terrible at this..."
"Ugh, shut up. You're too rough."
Evelask pretended not to hear the nighttime noises.
"Your friend and my daughter were friends."
From the Iron Lion, an unexpected tale.
Aimi and his daughter Benapoci had been close.
He felt guilty for bringing Evelask.
She was around his daughter's age; despite prioritizing his own, it gnawed at him.
"It's fine. We're going to find my friends."
The Iron Lion looked back, surprised.
Evelask averted her eyes shyly.
"Ahem, well, a friend's friend is a friend, right? So Benapoci's my friend too."
The Iron Lion, listening quietly, smiled for the first time.
"...She'd like that."
That smile etched eternally in Evelask's memory.
The journey continued.
They lost the path now and then.
Paths had shifted so much over time; it wasn't easy.
Still, the four pressed on, following the signal faithfully.
And in the end, the first casualty emerged.