Chapter 92
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 92
Chapter Title: 31. Toward Salvation
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[Help Me]
Three crooked letters etched into my palm.
The moment I laid eyes on that short word, my hazy mind—still lost in the afterglow of my date—cooled like ice water had been dumped over it.
"...Elysia?"
I slowly uttered her name, and the sylph perched on my palm nodded vigorously.
The emotions in those tiny eyes were unmistakable: sheer terror and desperation.
For a spirit that was usually so playful to be gripped by such fear...
It was a sure sign that her summoner, Elysia, was facing a deadly threat.
'She said she was just heading back home for a bit.'
It had been several days since she left the academy.
By now, she should have returned.
The sweet memories with Iris evaporated from my mind without a trace.
In their place settled razor-sharp reason alone.
"Where?"
No sooner had the question left my lips than the sylph shot off my palm and into the air.
It circled frantically overhead before pointing not toward the main gate, but to the sparsely trafficked northern forest.
"Lead the way."
There was no hesitation.
I kicked off the ground and chased after the sylph.
Thank goodness the streets were empty during break; even my inhuman speed didn't draw attention.
It didn't matter anyway.
Nothing else did right now.
'Elysia.'
She's strong.
A genius in spirit arts, magic, archery—across the board.
If she'd sent her spirit begging for help like this, her foe wasn't some run-of-the-mill thug.
'An ambush?'
No way.
She was the type to make allies, not enemies.
Besides, she'd brought attendants from her duke's household.
If they'd broken through them to threaten her...
'Who? Who's got reason to target Elysia?'
The wind whistled past as I pursued the sylph deeper into the forest, my mind tangling in knots.
'No special events around now.'
Midterms were over; break time. In the game, no raid events happened during this rest period for players.
It was meant to be peaceful.
It had to be.
So why...?
"..."
'Damn it all.'
Boom!
I poured more mana into my feet for an explosive burst of speed, pulverizing the scenery behind me.
Branches clawed at my cheeks, bushes snagged my clothes.
None of it registered.
Only the direction the sylph flew.
Only her at the end of that path.
She dominated my thoughts.
"Sylph! Faster!"
I bit my lip.
Anxiety clawed at my throat.
+ + +
Thud-thud! Thud!
How far had I run?
Deep in the woods, where even the academy's spires had vanished from sight.
"Hah... huff!"
My lungs burned like they might burst, but I couldn't stop.
Leg muscles screamed, my body soaked in sweat—yet I accelerated.
Faster.
Madder still.
Then, cresting a hill, the view opened up.
The panting sylph halted abruptly.
"...!"
My eyes followed its gaze, and my heart plummeted.
The clearing in the forest's heart reeked of blood.
Traces of brutal combat littered the ground, alongside the corpses of Elysia's escorts, sprawled everywhere.
Life gone, their cooling bodies pooled in crimson.
And at the epicenter of the carnage...
"L-Let me go!"
Elysia screamed, struggling.
Gone was her elegant poise; her clothes torn, face muddied.
Her disheveled golden hair screamed her desperation.
Gripping her wrist in a vise-like hand was a mysterious figure in a white mask, watching silently.
"...Come quietly."
The voice from behind the mask was emotionless, mechanical, ice-cold.
Around him, similarly clad figures stood guard, weapons drawn, auras suppressed expertly.
No mere bandits or kidnappers.
They'd never have overwhelmed her escorts otherwise.
'What the hell are these bastards?'
Rage boiled as I took in the unfamiliar foes, but no time to think.
"...Elysia!"
I bellowed her name, throat raw, charging into the clearing.
Ignoring my legs' agonized protests.
Her lips split and bleeding, she whipped her head toward my desperate cry.
"E-Evan...!"
Spotting me, her pupils dilated.
Tears welled in her wide eyes, on the verge of spilling.
"...Tundra! Jesse! Clear a path!"
[I'll follow you, my lord!]
[As you command.]
Two shadows erupted from the darkness, lunging at the enemies.
Exposing them to Elysia? Irrelevant.
Rescuing her came first.
"My lord! Through here!"
Tundra and Jesse carved through the masked foes blocking the way.
I shot straight for the one holding Elysia, channeling all my mana to crush his skull in one blow.
Just a bit.
A little closer.
At arm's reach.
A mere few steps away.
Swish.
The white-masked man turned to me.
From the empty holes in his mask, a chilling yet familiar gaze pierced me.
The instant it met mine...
"...Too late."
He murmured flatly, stating plain fact—no mockery, no sneer.
Simultaneously, the space around him warped unnaturally.
Woooong!
Dazzling light enveloped him and Elysia.
Teleportation magic.
Higher level than any I'd seen at the academy.
"No!"
I thrust out my hand desperately.
My fingertips grazed her hem—or so it felt.
"E-Evan...!"
Her desperate cry vanished into the light.
Fwosh!
"Elysia!"
My grasping hand sliced only cold air.
Crunch!
One second.
A single second too late; I clutched only his fading afterimage.
The pressure cratered the ground.
But they were gone.
Elysia. The white-masked man.
All vanished like a lie.
"Hah... hah...!"
Grip.
I dropped to my knees, staring blankly at the empty space where she'd been.
Ragged breaths heaving, fists clenched.
Nails dug into flesh, blood welling—no pain.
"Aaaargh!"
My anguished roar echoed through the empty clearing.
A beast's howl of rage, helplessness, despair.
I pounded the ground like a madman.
Bam! Bam! Bam!
Fists mangled, blood spraying—couldn't stop.
Had to vent this churning fury or go insane.
'I let her slip away.'
Right before my eyes.
Inches away.
I'd just watched her get dragged off.
Those terrified eyes.
That desperate hand reaching for me.
Her voice calling my name at the last—it gnawed at my sanity.
'No no no!'
If only I'd been faster.
Or noticed sooner when the sylph arrived.
As always.
Regret always came too late.
"M-My lord! Calm down! It's not over yet!"
Tundra's frantic shout pierced my reddening vision, slowly clearing it.
But reason wouldn't return easily.
Calm down? How?
Elysia kidnapped by unknown bastards.
What they'd do to her, where they'd take her—I had no clue.
"Elysia... aaaargh!"
I roared, slamming the earth; it split, dust erupting.
Fingers shredded to rags—what did it matter?
Dozens of beastly howls later.
My heaving breaths slowed, the blazing rage cooling.
"..."
I staggered to my feet.
Stared dumbly at my bloodied hands.
The self-destructive fists trembled grotesquely.
'Not the time for this.'
Anger and despair changed nothing.
She wouldn't return on their own.
Be cold. Calculate.
Find their trail, rescue her no matter what.
"Tundra."
I called his name softly.
"Y-Yes, my lord!"
"Those bodies."
I nodded at the masked corpses on the ground—Tundra and Jesse's kills.
"..."
"Bring them."
"The... bodies, my lord?"
"Yeah. Got questions for them."
"R-Right away!"
Tundra vanished into shadow without protest.
Soon, he dragged two corpses before me.
Cold and stiff, but irrelevant.
Dead men tell no tales? Not for me.
"..."
I knelt, placing a hand on a corpse's head.
Viscous black mana flowed from my fingertips, enveloping it.
Black magic to read a dead man's lingering thoughts.
Not as clear as from the living.
But enough to squeeze out clues—who they were, where they'd gone.
Mana delved into the brain; blurry images flooded my mind.
Shaking vision.
Choppy scenes like broken film.
Even freshly dead, memories were shockingly damaged.
"...Hah. Memory wipe, huh."
Pre-set to trigger on death.
'Disgusting pricks.'
I poured in more mana.
[...S-Stop! Don't dig deeper...!]
[I'll... vanish...!]
Screams erupted from their soul remnants.
Forcing out erased memories shattered their essences—agony unimaginable.
'Don't care.'
Souls shatter, fade? Fine.
Only clues mattered.
Crackle! Fizzle!
The head convulsed, spewing black smoke.
Fragmented memories surfaced and faded.
Slowly, the intel I sought took shape.
[...Eclipse... he is...]
[...Theocracy... must...]
[...Prince... will come...]
Pulled from the brain: disjointed, chaotic shards.
Like mirror fragments, no full picture.
But their conversations in the haze.
Fleeting faces of figures.
Enough.
I withdrew my hand and stood.
The now-useless corpse crumbled, smoking black—souls incinerated, no trace left.
Irrelevant.
What mattered: their destination.
"Theocracy..."
I rolled the word on my tongue.
The nation worshiping the one true god, center of faith.
And in The Glory's late story, the unavoidable final battlefield.
"Eclipse, was it."
My mind cooled; memory stirred at the fragment.
Eclipse—definitely the group Aria from the Wild Festival raid belonged to.
I clenched my dripping fist.
Why they targeted her? Unknown.
But one thing certain:
She'd been taken there—to the Theocracy.
"Tundra. Jesse."
I steadied my trembling voice.
Called them quietly.
"Yes, my lord!"
"Your orders."
"We have a destination."
I glared south, toward the Theocracy.
Cold wind tousled my hair, but my burning eyes didn't waver.
"We're going to the Theocracy."