Chapter 138
Chapter 138
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 138
Chapter Title: The Salamander's Pursuit and Eres's Training
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A salamander, a fireball hotter than lava, would surely make a massive boom when it hit the water. But.
"No one... heard it? The sound of it hitting the water?"
At Pachem's words, the three people who had collapsed rose to their feet and stuck their heads out the hole to peer below.
Just before touching the water, the salamander must have clung to the cliff face—it was now rapidly climbing up the wall.
"Damn it!"
Pachem slammed the floor near the hole, dropping rocks, while Na-young relentlessly fired mana needles.
However, now out in the open air where oxygen was plentiful—not in the oxygen-poor tunnel—they couldn't inflict significant damage on the salamander.
Watching the two desperately trying to block it, Jae-in steeled her resolve.
"Na-young, my research data is on the main computer at the World Tree Research Institute. The password is the date the chairman hired me."
"What? What are you saying?!"
Jae-in ran and threw herself out the hole, leaping downward.
If she were alone, she would have fought until the thing burned her to death. She would have kept running.
But she couldn't let Na-young and Pachem die because of her.
"Ah... I still had so much research left to do...."
The sky she saw as she fell was an impeccably clear blue. It was too fine a day to die.
The salamander tracked the falling Jae-in with its eyes, then kicked off the cliff to follow her down.
* * *
I used teleportation magic to head south to Malbokia to meet Eres.
"Mr. Carlton, is it okay for you to come with me time-wise?"
"It's fine. Lady Jiseok is an important guest, so it's only natural that I escort you. I'm sorry, but from here on, we have to travel by carriage."
I had initially planned to run there. But since it wasn't another country and a master from this other world dashing across foreign soil could be seen as an act of hostility, I held back.
"Yes, let's take it slow."
Jae-in would need time to process the dragon heart anyway. There was plenty of time even if I went slowly.
As I boarded the carriage Carlton had prepared, I recalled riding one across the East Continent with Eres.
Of course, Carlton didn't toss gold coins around or hurl abuse at the coachman like Eres had.
"Judging by how far out this place is, there must not be many who believe in the Incarnation of Darkness, right?"
"The people of the West Continent have a long history of persecution by the entrenched races, so they fear darkness and crave light."
"Eres might be a bit hurt if she heard that."
"The revelations from Lady Aiter, the Incarnation of Light, are recorded in history books only very rarely, but there are almost no tales of the Incarnation of Darkness, Lady Eres. Now that her existence is known, won't her followers grow?"
"That could be."
It made sense for Tellus people, who believed only what they could see.
We rode the carriage to the southernmost tip of Malbokia and its neighboring country, Allnewesia. Crossing the border was a breeze with Carlton, a high-ranking official of Malbokia.
After driving down country roads for a good while, we finally arrived at the temple.
".....It's smaller than I expected."
The temple wasn't very large. There were hundreds of churches in Seoul bigger than this.
The temple of light I'd seen in Malbokia's capital had been enormous.
"Ahem... I hope Lady Eres isn't too offended."
"She probably won't mind much."
"Ooh!! Lady Jiseok!"
A gaunt priest came rushing out and prostrated himself flat on the ground.
"Pardon? You know me?"
"Of course I do! You're the disciple who met Lady Eres in person and received her teachings!"
"Disciple... well, that's true enough. Please, stand up."
I helped him to his feet.
"Thank you. Thanks to you, Lady Jiseok, the Dark Temple's canon has been revised for the first time in decades."
I wasn't sure if having my name in their canon was good or not, but his goodwill would be helpful moving forward.
"I am Rondi, priest of the Dark Temple. How may I assist you?"
Rondi greeted me uniquely, covering both eyes with his right hand.
"Priest Rondi, I'd like to pray to Lady Eres. I thought she might hear me better if I prayed from here."
"It's embarrassing, but we've never heard Lady Eres's voice ourselves, so I can't give you a firm answer."
"That's okay. Could I use the place where you usually pray?"
"Of course. This way."
Following Rondi's guidance, I entered the temple interior. The inside was just as modest as the outside. Past the entrance stood a statue of Eres.
"What do you think? Does it resemble her?"
Not at all. Statues in myths were usually idealized, but this one was the opposite. It was beautiful, but the atmosphere was different from Eres's, and it didn't capture her full beauty.
"It looks similar, doesn't it?"
There was no need to point out the differences, so I told a white lie. Well, the tall stature and long black straight hair were alike.
Rondi was deeply moved by my well-intentioned fib.
He then led me to stairs descending underground.
"Is the prayer room underground?"
"The best place to pray to Lady Eres, the Incarnation of Darkness, is in the darkness, of course."
"I'll wait outside."
Carlton turned away, intimidated by the pitch-black stairs where nothing was visible.
In contrast, Rondi descended the utterly dark stairs swiftly, relying on a single candle, as if he could see everything clearly.
"As expected, Lady Jiseok is accustomed to the darkness too."
His pleased words weren't wrong, but in my case, my senses were so developed that I could perceive everything around me even with my eyes closed and ears plugged.
"Here we are."
The underground prayer room was just a plain natural cave.
At the end of the cave sat a smaller version of the goddess statue we'd seen above, perched on a rock.
"May I pray alongside you?"
"Of course."
Rondi extinguished the candle.
The cave plunged into pitch blackness without a single ray of light. The humidity was high, but good ventilation and maintenance kept any unpleasant smells away.
*Lady Eres. Lady Eres. Are you there?*
Not knowing how to pray properly, I closed my eyes and called out to Lady Eres in my mind.
Naturally, there was no answer, but I kept calling.
*Lady Eres, please answer me.*
*I need help.*
*Shall I bring snacks?*
*Or alcohol?*
*Hello?*
*Lady Eres?*
With nothing else to do while waiting for Jae-in anyway, I prayed for several hours straight.
"Ahem... As expected... your faith is profound. I'll head up now."
Rondi, who had been kneeling and praying beside me, stood up limping, his legs probably aching. I'd unintentionally bruised the priest's pride.
"I'll keep going, so go ahead. You can take the candle."
Rondi bowed his head and left.
I continued praying alone.
*Lady Eres. Lady Eres.*
I gradually sped up, calling thousands, then tens of thousands of times.
*Shut up already!*
With Eres's roar, I felt my body being sucked away.
"Huh? Lady Eres?"
I opened my eyes and looked around. It was still utterly dark without a speck of light, but this wasn't the underground prayer room anymore.
This was a vast space where I couldn't sense walls even in the distance.
Before me appeared Eres, not in her childlike form but as a tall woman with black hair.
Annoyed, she had her arms crossed and her face scrunched up in a frown.
"You're so damn noisy! How many times do you have to call me?!"
"You could've just answered right away."
"Do I owe you a response? You shameless bastard!"
"But where is this?"
"Inside my barrier."
"Barrier?"
"That bastard Incarnation of Light schemed behind my back and sealed me so I couldn't move."
"What scheme?"
"When I asked about the Administrators, it turns out you already knew. You even made a deal with them. A coward's deal to spare only us Incarnations, the roots, even if they destroy this world where Tellus exists...."
Eres bit her lip hard.
"Are they strong enough to subjugate even a world's Incarnation?"
We had to fight them ahead—it couldn't be like this.
"They have many ways without directly fighting beings like me. If a dimension-eating Destruction God devours this world, we couldn't exist either."
"I lack information on them. Isn't there a way?"
"That's why I'm currently holding the Incarnation of Light captive and interrogating it. The tight-lipped bastard won't talk, but a bit more pressure and I'll get it out."
"You're strong enough to capture the Incarnation of Light?"
"You fool. What meaning does a handful of light have before true darkness? Light is born from darkness in the end. Among this world's Incarnations, none can oppose me. You've risen in rank now, so you can sense it, can't you?"
Indeed, Eres's power, which I couldn't even gauge before, was now somewhat measurable. I'd thought I'd gotten closer, but she was overwhelmingly stronger.
"But you can see that my rank has risen?"
"Hmph, it's still just a mouse tail of power. You're awfully slow."
"That's why I came. How do I grow this power?"
"Your problem isn't growing power—it's learning to use it."
"....."
"You thick-headed idiot. Your existence rising in rank means you've become a higher-dimensional being. You're no longer bound by the laws of the dimension you've existed in until now."
As Eres spoke, she slowly floated into the air. Flight magic shows subtle acceleration and deceleration. But what she did ignored physical laws entirely, gliding smoothly.
"Easy to say... but how do I do it?"
"Your spouse is so clever, yet how did you turn out like this?"
"Stop nagging and teach me. Aren't you planning to oppose the Destruction God and Administrators anyway?"
"It's not that simple. But training you aligns with my goals. Fine."
Eres swept her hand down, and a massive hole opened beneath me. I plummeted through without resistance.
"It won't end with just a little pain when you hit bottom, so figure it out yourself."
Eres descended beside my falling form, speaking calmly. Unlike me flailing in freefall, she moved by her own will, stable and leisurely.
"No! That's exactly what I don't know how to do!"
"Then fall."
I tried blasting aura and life force downward to slow down, but my fall speed didn't decrease—it accelerated.
This entire space was under Eres's dominion.
Kwang!
"Cough...."
My bones shattered all over, organs crushed. My head was split, senses in chaos.
"Again."
Before my bones could even knit, another hole opened below. I hit bottom, then another hole.
I recovered mid-fall, flailed again, hit bottom.
"Again."
"You're getting revenge for all that praying earlier, aren't you?!"
"Exactly. But it'll help, so shut up and focus. Discard common sense. Discard your senses."
It wasn't easy to suddenly shut off my always-attuned senses.
Float... float... float!!
Kwang!
"Abandon three-dimensional thinking. Spirits unbound by physical laws exist in this world, as do souls. You can now touch those existences, meaning you've escaped physical laws too."
True, I could now touch the World Tree's spirits and had smashed the Second Heaven's cherubim.
"We have time, so take it slow."
I'd planned to chat briefly and leave, but this was going to take a while.