Chapter 220
Chapter 220
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 220
Chapter Title: Interlude–Reunion (2)
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“Honestly, what have you been up to, getting yourself into the Magyeong? Huh? And I heard you fell into a fissure that you, Vega, said was safe?”
Deneb chattered away, never giving her mouth a rest.
Deneb giggled as she hovered around Vega.
“A Constellation who’s supposed to protect her children ends up putting her own child in danger… How could you? Huh? Huh? Huh?”
[…]
Vega closed her eyes, letting Deneb’s words go in one ear and out the other.
No, to be precise.
She was pretending to ignore them.
[…I must endure. I must endure.]
A thick vein popped on Vega’s smooth forehead as she clenched her fist and muttered under her breath.
“Heeheehee! Ah, that feels so refreshing!”
Deneb stretched her arms out wide.
Just as Vega was glaring at Deneb and trying to swallow her anger.
The temple doors, adorned with lavish decorations, opened, and a young man and two women entered.
“You’re here?”
Deneb turned to look at Allen Oscar and the sisters, Shaolin and Shaolan.
Allen, at the forefront, gave a barely perceptible nod.
He glanced at Vega, Ha-eun, and Isabella with cold eyes before turning his head toward Deneb.
“What’s this all of a sudden?”
“I have a favor to ask you, Allen.”
“A favor?”
“I need you to go to the Magyeong.”
“…The Magyeong?”
Allen’s brow furrowed slightly.
“Are you telling me to go meet Elder Cheongwonseong?”
“No. You’re going to rescue Noerang.”
“Noerang?”
“Noerang?”
At the mention of Noerang, the eyes of Shaolin and Shaolan glinted fiercely.
Deneb subtly turned her head and gestured with her eyes, prompting Vega to step forward.
[It is good to meet you.]
“Greetings to the Constellation of Lyra.”
Allen bowed his head with a disciplined posture.
[Due to my oversight, my child has become trapped in the Magyeong.]
“Trapped in the Magyeong…?”
Vega slowly explained what had happened inside the Magyeong.
As her explanation continued, the expressions of Allen, Shaolin, and Shaolan hardened.
“If he couldn’t get out of that situation, he’s probably already dead…”
“Sister, be quiet.”
Shaolin hurriedly covered Shaolan’s mouth.
“I see. I understand the situation.”
Allen let out a short sigh and turned his head toward Deneb.
His gaze was filled with reproach, as if asking, ‘Did you really agree to that request?’
Deneb flinched, then hesitantly nodded.
“…Haa.”
With a deep sigh, Allen turned back to Vega.
“Understood. I will lend my strength to rescue Noerang.”
He had no deep friendship or sense of duty with Oh-jin that would compel him to risk his life to enter the Magyeong and rescue him, but.
[Thank you.]
“It’s because Deneb asked.”
It was a request from none other than Deneb, who was like a parent to him.
There was no reason to refuse.
“That’s my Allen! I knew I could count on you!”
Deneb’s eyes sparkled as she grabbed Allen’s arm.
“Ah, it might be a bit much to call it a trade-off… but there is one thing I’d like to ask of you.”
[Speak.]
Allen smiled faintly as he looked down at Deneb, who was clinging to him like a cicada.
“If Deneb ever finds herself in a difficult situation, like you are now, Lady Vega, I would like you to help her just once.”
“Hey! Wh-what are you suddenly saying!”
There’s no way I’d ever be in trouble!
Allen gently patted the head of the shouting Deneb.
Vega watched the two of them with a gentle smile.
[Of course.]
“Then, we will depart immediately.”
Just as Allen touched the sword at his waist and was about to turn.
“Ah, wait a minute.”
Deneb, who had been loudly pulling on Allen’s arm, suddenly hardened her expression.
As if she had never been acting childish, the frivolous atmosphere vanished in an instant, replaced by a sharp, murderous aura.
“…Hk.”
The killing intent was directed at Isabella, who had been standing quietly behind Vega.
Deneb narrowed her eyes and glared at Isabella.
“What are you?”
*Crack!*
With a simple gesture, pillars of ice shot up from the temple floor, forming a dense cage that trapped Isabella.
“……”
Isabella stared at the ice pillars that imprisoned her with a stiff expression.
[Enough.]
Vega blocked Deneb as she tried to approach Isabella.
[I will vouch for this child’s identity.]
“…Are you out of your mind, Vega? She’s an apostle of the Black Star.”
[I am aware.]
“Hmm.”
Deneb nodded lightly and snapped her fingers.
The ice pillars that had risen around Isabella came crashing down.
“Well, if you say so, Vega, I’ll trust you.”
If Lyra herself was stepping up to vouch for her, there was no need to press the matter.
[Thank you.]
“Ack! I told you not to treat me like a kid!”
When Vega tried to pat her head, Deneb shuddered as if having a seizure and ran away.
Ha-eun let out a dry laugh and pressed a hand to her forehead.
“Somehow, the image I had of Constellations is completely shattering.”
“We don’t have time to stand around like this. If we don’t go as soon as possible…”
Isabella chewed on her nails with an anxious expression.
“I told you not to worry, didn’t I?”
Ha-eun grinned and pulled Isabella, who was biting her nails, closer by the shoulder.
She gently patted the trembling girl’s back and continued.
“Oh-jin’s not the type to die that easily.”
“…Ah, I know.”
Isabella, who had been nervously biting her nails, snapped back to her senses and hid her blushing cheeks.
She could feel Ha-eun’s hand on her back trembling slightly.
“…You’re scared too.”
“Huh?”
“No. It’s nothing.”
Isabella, her expression noticeably brighter, stepped away from Ha-eun with a faint smile.
She turned to Allen and the Xiao sisters and said.
“It’s okay to leave right away, right?”
“Yes.”
“But how are we getting to the North Pole? There aren’t any Sanctuaries around there.”
Shaolan tilted her head and asked.
“I’ve prepared the Colagrande family’s private jet. We can just move to the Sanctuary in London and fly from there.”
“Alright! Then let’s hurry up, grab that punk Oh-jin by the scruff of his neck, and come back!”
Ha-eun shouted energetically and turned around.
As she was about to step out of the temple, Vega approached her.
[I entrust my child to you.]
“Yeah.”
Ha-eun turned to Vega and grinned.
“I’ll be sure to bring him back.”
***
The First Fissure.
A super-massive gate located in the North Pole, with a diameter of 50 kilometers.
“So this is… the First Fissure.”
Isabella swallowed hard as she looked at the black fissure stretching wide across the arctic glacier.
Even though they were still quite a distance away, it was so vast that she couldn’t see its end even when she turned her head.
Isabella quickened her pace with an anxious look.
“Hold on a second.”
Ha-eun grabbed Isabella’s arm and scanned their surroundings.
Around the fissure, which was directly connected to the Magyeong, high-level monsters not commonly seen on Earth were casually roaming about.
“…Are you sure this is the area with the fewest monsters?”
“Yes.”
Allen nodded.
“We used this route the last time we went to the Magyeong.”
“You’ve been to the Magyeong before?”
Ha-eun looked at Allen with a surprised expression.
Allen nodded silently.
He slowly drew the sword from his waist and continued.
“Speed is what matters. The moment we delay, a swarm of Masu drawn by the commotion will rush us.”
“They won’t follow us into the Magyeong?”
“No. Once we’re inside, we’ll be safe for the time being.”
“…So they’re like gatekeepers?”
“You could say that.”
In any case, the fact that there was someone with experience in visiting the Magyeong brought a flicker of relief to Ha-eun and Isabella’s eyes.
“Well, it would be a problem if this team couldn’t even enter the Magyeong.”
Isabella, the 3rd-ranked Executor of the Black Star Society; Allen, a member of the Chilseong; the Xiao sisters, ranked 4th and 5th among Deneb’s twelve apostles; and Ha-eun, a high-level Awakened of Draco, a constellation rivaling the Zodiac.
If a group of this caliber couldn’t even enter the Magyeong, the very existence of the Magyeong would never have become known to the world in the first place.
“I will take the lead.”
Allen drew his sword and stepped forward.
His sharp eyes scanned the swarm of Masu loitering around the black fissure before he lightly kicked off the ground.
*Kwajajajak!*
His form vanished as if melting into the air.
A light swing of his sword spread a wide swathe of white frost, and the swarm of Masu froze in an instant, unable to even scream.
“Whoa…”
A low gasp escaped Ha-eun’s lips.
“How was that? How was that? Isn’t our big brother Allen amazing?”
Shaolan wriggled her body as she gazed at Allen’s back at the front of the group.
Shaolin frowned and glared at Shaolan.
“There are other people here, so have some dignity, sister.”
“My, my, what’s gotten into her? Usually, you’re the one screaming and making a fuss just by looking at Allen’s face.”
“S-Sister!”
Shaolin exclaimed, her face flushing red.
“Quiet.”
At Allen’s low command, the two women flinched and clamped their mouths shut.
“We will proceed slowly.”
“Didn’t you say speed was important just now?”
“First, we’ll approach the First Fissure as stealthily as possible, then we’ll run.”
Allen left the ice-statue monsters behind and started walking toward the First Fissure.
The remaining distance was about 10 kilometers.
Even for them, with bodies that far surpassed human limits, it was a difficult distance to cover in a single dash.
As they slowly held their breath, silently dispatching monster swarms and approaching the First Fissure.
“…What is this?”
Allen, whose expression rarely changed, frowned and looked around.
“This is…”
Isabella, who was following behind, also sensed the suspicious presences and furrowed her delicate brow.
Ha-eun looked around and asked.
“What? What’s going on?”
“The movements of the Masu are strange.”
Allen looked back at the swarm of Masu he had turned into ice statues.
He was sure he had dealt with them quickly, without giving them a chance to even scream.
“The surrounding Masu have started to flock this way.”
“What? Why all of a sudden?”
“I don’t know.”
Sensing the Masu gathering from all directions, Allen tightened his grip on his sword.
He didn’t know how the Masu had noticed them and were now stampeding toward this route, but.
“We’ll break through head-on!”
Now that they were discovered, there was no other way.
“Hup!”
*Kwaang!*
Allen stomped the ground fiercely and dashed forward.
*Kwajajajajak!*
A cold energy, incomparable to the arctic chill, sliced through the bodies of the approaching Masu.
“Kirrrrk!”
“Krrk? Krrrk?”
The Masu that were swarming the area began to shriek at Allen’s appearance.
Panic and shock were mixed in the eyes of the flustered Masu.
‘We weren’t discovered?’
Allen frowned with a look of incomprehension.
If they weren’t discovered.
Then why were the Masu suddenly gathering here?
‘There’s something else.’
Come to think of it, he had vaguely heard something from Cheongwonseong when he went to the Magyeong before.
The Masu guarding the vicinity of the Magyeong were beings who had been exiled for failing to belong to the ‘King’s’ faction.
And.
Most of the exiled Masu had been bewitched by the ‘Snake’ and followed her as if she were their king.
“…No way.”
Allen’s expression hardened.
Beyond the snowfield, Masu were gathering like clouds.
No matter if an intruder had appeared, the Masu guarding a fissure spanning an enormous 50-kilometer range would never gather in one place like this.
Except for one possibility.
When their master, the ‘Snake,’ personally graced Earth with her presence.
“The snake… is crossing over here right now?”
Allen stared with trembling eyes at the swarm of Masu that filled the vast snowfield.