Clue to the Truth (2)
It was a colossal sphere, easily thirty meters across. The orb emanated a brilliant blue glow, shimmering like a massive sapphire. Around it orbited letters glowing with pure white light, circling the sphere at its center.
"Whoa..."
A soft exclamation escaped Seo A-ra's lips as she gazed up at the sphere. It was a sight so breathtaking that the word beautiful burst forth unbidden.
Yeong-sik scanned the chamber housing the blue sphere. Though its immense size and oppressive presence had initially dominated his vision, this place held more than just the orb. Surrounding it like guardians were four altars.
On the altar to the left of the sphere were twin swords plunged into the stone. One blade was black, the other red.
Behind the sphere stood an altar with a longsword of gleaming golden blade embedded there. Directly in front lay a platinum ring intricately embossed with an angel motif. And on the right altar...
"What is that?"
Yeong-sik's expression hardened as he spotted the object on the right altar.
Memory... cube?
Atop the altar sat what looked like a black cube split cleanly in half.
No.
Yeong-sik denied the thought instinctively upon seeing the bisected hexahedron. The shape was similar, but different. This was something alien, unlike any memory cube—or anything else—he'd encountered before.
This feeling...
His heart pounded. A sharp chill raced up his spine, and his body trembled faintly. A whirlwind of emotions surged within him—rage, longing, regret—all tangled in a complex storm.
Too much to encapsulate in a single word. But Yeong-sik had felt this before.
It's like when I found the suit.
He recalled the moment he'd first discovered the Raketeon 2nd Model, his face turning distant and melancholic. An inexplicable torrent of emotion shook him to his core.
Why...?
Yeong-sik frowned at the inexplicable surge boiling in his chest. It felt like his body was being manipulated by some external force. Like hands emerging from thick fog, squeezing his throat—suffocating, repulsive.
"What is this...?"
Tiriya von Erman's voice reached his ears, snapping him from his reverie. He opened his mouth in a low voice.
"No idea. The items around it look like rare artifacts from this dungeon... but that thing in the center? Beats me."
Shaking off thoughts of the four altar objects, Yeong-sik shifted his gaze to the blue sphere. The real mystery was that unidentified orb, not the relics.
"Park Sia. Do you know anything about that sphere?"
He approached her as he asked. She'd targeted something in this dungeon from the start. Chances were high she knew about this enigmatic sphere too.
Park Sia didn't respond, staring up at it blankly. Her clenched fist trembled faintly.
"Sia-unnie? What's wrong?"
Kang Ha-rin tilted her head and drew near, noticing her state.
Snapping to at Ha-rin's voice, Park Sia shook her head with a faint smile.
"Nothing. And Yeong-sik, you asked about the sphere?"
"Yes."
Yeong-sik nodded, watching her. Park Sia continued with a bittersweet glint in her eyes.
"If the records I read are correct... that sphere is a device storing certain information."
"Information?"
"Yes."
Park Sia placed her hand on the blue sphere.
"Records about the creators of the monsters."
Noble one of noble blood, may the records left here become the foundation for the return of glory.
A murmur rippled through the group at her words. Leviathan Guild members and Salvatore Guild alike widened their eyes, bodies trembling faintly.
The monsters' creators. The ones who annihilated the Ingrium Empire and were even now flooding the continent with monsters to devour it whole. The beings the summoners had to slay to return to Earth.
"Tiriya."
"Huh? Oh, yes."
"We'll probably need your power to activate this sphere too."
Park Sia gazed up at the blue sphere, which showed no reaction despite her infused mana.
Tiriya swallowed hard and nodded. Approaching the massive orb, she cautiously placed her hand upon it.
Woooong!
As her hand touched it, the sphere's blue glow intensified, and the orbiting letters swirled in complex patterns.
"A map?"
A map of the entire Ernoir continent materialized above the sphere.
Some twenty years before the monster invasion, a massive explosion rocked the northern continent.
An orange circle marked the spot on the map as the voice continued flatly. The summoners swallowed hard.
Publicly announced as a natural disaster, the truth was far different.
Investigation teams determined the northern blast was caused by a meteor from outer space.
"What...?"
The summoners' faces twisted at the orb's outlandish claim. A meteor explosion? Unthinkable.
Afterward, entities appeared using unidentified objects to control monsters. They dominated and bred them like livestock, exploding their numbers. We surmise these beings came from outer space.
"...So the creators are aliens?"
Yuna let out a disbelieving scoff. Aliens. A trope from countless stories, but hearing it here felt utterly unreal.
"If we think that way, us otherworlders are just as absurd."
Bae Han-seong adjusted his round glasses, speaking calmly.
"Hold on."
Park Sia's expression hardened. One word in the sphere's message grated unbearably.
"...'Entities'? Plural?"
"Ah..."
Horror dawned on the summoners' faces at her murmur.
With overwhelming power, they subjugated the monsters and marched on the Ingrium Empire. The brave imperial army and Eight Heroes united against them, but their strength was too great.
"The creators... weren't just one."
Park Sia murmured in a trembling voice at the confirmation. The enemy they must slay to return home wasn't singular. That fact plunged the summoners into deep despair.
Yeong-sik watched his stunned guildmates, lips pressed tight. It wasn't shocking news to him. He'd known from decoding memory cubes that multiple creators controlled the monsters.
Still, it's a bombshell for those hearing it first.
He clicked his tongue at a summoner who'd collapsed, legs giving out from the shock. Without past memories, Yeong-sik's own desire to return to Earth wasn't that strong.
But the others were different. Dragged from peaceful lives by brutal force, "going home" had been their greatest pillar of strength.
Learning the final bosses numbered more than one was like hearing midway through a brutally hard game that there were multiple endgame bosses. Despair was natural.
"No way... Even one is overwhelming enough...!"
Park Sia bit her lip hard, clutching her fist. Her shoulders shook. An uncharacteristic lapse for her usual composure.
The battle against those who transcended magic was devastating. Fertile plains burned to ash, the empire's radiant civilization reduced to rubble overnight.
Emotion crept into the voice from the blue sphere. Yeong-sik realized it was a real recording, not synthetic.
When the fierce battle ended, the survivors went into hiding to prepare for the return of glory.
The white letters orbiting the sphere trembled violently.
Here we have stored the legacies of two of the Eight Heroes and the emperor's seal. Noble one of noble blood, please use these legacies to spread the name of Ingrium across the continent once more.
"Legacies of the Eight Heroes..."
Yeong-sik turned to the black-and-red twin swords and the radiant golden longsword. Instinct told him these were the heroes' relics.
Then.
His gaze shifted to the right altar.
They are strong, but not invincible. For proof, we succeeded in slaying one of the extraterrestrials.
"Ooh."
Exclamations rose from the summoners. Knowing the creators could be killed brought strange relief.
Dissecting the corpse revealed intriguing facts about them.
Zzzt.
Faint static buzzed in Yeong-sik's ears. The sphere's form distorted slightly.
What the...?
Eager for those "intriguing facts," Yeong-sik frowned at the sphere.
The extraterrestrials are made of zzzt... Their power source is zzzt...
"Wh-what?"
"The audio's glitching...?"
The summoners glanced around in confusion as static interrupted the crucial part. The sphere's form warped more severely.
"What's happening...?"
Yeong-sik tensed, staring at the increasingly distorted blue sphere.
Zzzzzzt... The extraterrestrial we slew possessed advanced intelligence and zzzt..., even a name. That being was zzzt...
"Th-that thing's getting weirder!"
"Tiriya! What's going on?!"
"I-I don't know why it's doing this either!"
Tiriya poured more angelic power into the sphere in panic. The distortion snapped back momentarily.
The voice echoed clearly through the chamber.
It called itself 'Raketeon'.
Yeong-sik's eyes widened at the name ringing out crystal clear.
"What... did you say?"
A voice cold as ice slipped from his lips.