Yuliena Awakens (1)
The faces that rose into view looked as though they were asking what I was even talking about.
Which was only natural.
Anyone could imagine what would happen to the world if that thing were let loose.
They were probably already thinking about what came after that. Still, there was only one option if we wanted to survive.
We have to break it.
Even Max, the caretaker, couldn’t smash the massive system that had taken root inside the Crack Museum.
And for us, as players, it was no different.
Could there be anyone capable of interfering with the system to some degree? Of course there could.
You can do it, can’t you?
The fragment of the ancient god standing before us could make it happen.
It might be able to blast apart the exhibition hall where the myth-grade weapon was being protected by the system, or even open the exit to this dungeon that could not be escaped unless it was cleared.
If things went wrong, we’d be the ones who’d personally unleash a massive threat upon the continent, but there was no guarantee that creature was necessarily evil either.
Dear ancient god! I believe in you. Shit!
“What….”
“I won’t hear any objections. Right now, I just think this is the method with the highest chance of helping us survive.”
“Are you serious?”
“Dead serious.”
If the fragment of the ancient god was a complete lunatic, then sacrificing ourselves here for the sake of the continent would be the right thing to do.
But if everything went wrong, there was a real possibility this would become seriously dangerous. The whole continent would be swept into a sea of fire and shattered to pieces.
Still…
First, I need to survive.
It was a thoroughly petty, small-minded way to think, but I couldn’t help it.
Kim Hyunsung might have been the type to burn himself alive for the sake of the continent, but I wasn’t some great man like him.
My life mattered most, and the lives of the people around me mattered most.
I didn’t have the slightest intention of dying in place of strangers whose faces I didn’t even know.
To put it bluntly, the people around me were more important than the entire continent.
Tell sacrifice to go screw itself.
The lives of me and the people around me were worth more than every human on this continent.
It was a disgusting thought, but there was nothing I could do about it.
“Isn’t there some other way….”
“There isn’t. For now, we break the seal first and think later.”
Kim Hyunsung bit his lip slightly, but perhaps he sensed I had some kind of plan, because he gave a firm nod.
Of course, I didn’t have any brilliant trick up my sleeve.
Which meant that from this point on, every response would have to be improvised on the spot.
One misstep, one slip of the foot, and everything would collapse.
But of course I wasn’t going to explain any of that in advance.
If I answered, “First we survive,” it would only make Kim Hyunsung’s self-sacrificing nature more troublesome.
Of course, I wasn’t the only one thrown off by my words.
Max, who had been staring at the ancient god before us, was just as flustered.
In fact, he looked like the most bewildered of all.
After all, it was absurd to imagine there had ever been lunatics in the centuries since this museum was built who would try to completely release the seal on a myth-grade monster.
I could confidently say we were probably the first.
“What are you… planning to do?”
“What am I planning to do? Try to survive, obviously. What else can we do? If the dungeon guide’s an idiot, what brilliant solution do you think explorers are supposed to have?”
“That’s a dangerous idea. Please, don’t….”
“Pffft. Your tone’s gotten awfully polite, caretaker. If you hate it so much, then stop us.”
“As I already told you, I don’t have that authority. I, I’ll say it again: there was no probability manipulation. And… and….”
“What?”
“If you thought what I said earlier was somewhat rude… then I’d like to apologize….”
“Where am I supposed to receive your apology? In heaven, after I’m dead? Shut your mouth, you caretaker bastard. Even if I die, I’m not dying alone.”
“D-do you even know what you’re trying to do?”
“Shut up, asshole. It’s not like we’re doing this because we like it.”
“Selfish humans. Rotten, disgusting humans! You think you can break the seal the guardians placed?”
“Well. From where I’m standing, it seems a hell of a lot more possible than pointing a sword at the great fragment of the ancient god himself… hmm? What does our museum caretaker Max think?”
“Dialugia! You know, don’t you? Do you really think that being should be allowed to emerge into the world?”
“……”
He seemed to realize that talking to us was getting nowhere and started dragging Dialugia into it instead. The sight was almost ridiculous.
Dialugia’s expression was dark as well.
I didn’t know much about dragons, but from what that thing had said before—about them being beings who restored balance—I suspected she might not want that thing to come out into the world.
She addressed me as expected, but….
“Um….”
“If you don’t want our little darling to be mocked for having no mother or father, then do whatever you want, woman.”
A mother is strong.
Dialugia’s lips were pressed tight as I saw her in my field of view.
Seeing that, Max started shouting again, but his words were basically background noise at this point.
Honestly, watching him panic like that was entertaining.
The more the caretaker’s face twisted, the better the news was for us.
There’s a chance.
The seal the Crack Guardians had placed might be brittle against external force, even if it was unclear how it would handle pressure from the inside.
This can work… There has to be a gap somewhere.
They had sealed away a being of that caliber and turned it into a trial for museum explorers.
Even if they were mythic beings themselves, like the fragment of the ancient god, there was no way a system built on that scale didn’t have flaws.
Of course, my reasoning was only speculation, and even if I were right, breaking the thing wouldn’t be easy. But as I’d said earlier, it was still a far more plausible plan than holding that bastard off for an hour.
For now, the important thing was to issue orders quickly.
“Ignore all of Max’s bullshit. Dialugia, prepare your breath and unleash your highest-power magic at the same time. Hyunsung, Yeonju—if possible, after the explosion, go in directly and….”
“Understood.”
“I’ll do it.”
It was practically the same as asking them to kill themselves, but both of them nodded anyway.
Just then, a familiar voice began to ring out.
[3. 2. 1.]
[Battle has begun.]
We had to break it before the attack came in.
As expected, the fragment of the ancient god immediately started thrashing, trying to tear at the seal.
Just seeing it made my body tremble, and a nameless fear draped itself over me from head to toe.
But that overwhelming dread vanished in an instant.
“!!!!!!!!”
At the very least, in appearance, she looked incredibly dependable as she manifested before us.
Her immense horns and massive frame, her sheer presence—anyone would have gasped at the sight.
Transformed into the giant form I’d seen before, she drew in a huge breath.
Even to my eyes, an absurd amount of mana was gathering.
Just the shockwave from that breath alone would damage us if it hit here.
But because all our firepower had to be focused on this one moment, there was no spare strength for protective magic.
I have to block the shockwave.
I’d have to summon the dragon tail to take the impact.
It still might not be enough, but there wasn’t time to worry about anything else.
After pouring mana into the dragon breath potion I’d left partially unused in my pocket, a faint whirring sound began to rise.
Jung Hayan also began chanting.
It was the first time I’d ever seen her cast in earnest.
Mana gathered around her to a degree that didn’t lose out to Dialugia in the slightest.
Everyone was staring at Jung Hayan in shock, so there was no need to say anything more.
The other mages also started their incantations, and even priests like Sun Heeyoung were reciting prayers to concentrate their firepower.
This can work.
It definitely could.
The signal flare was Dialugia’s breath.
With a crackling roar, her body was shoved backward.
The beam of light she unleashed instantly gnawed at the ground and surged toward the chains imprisoning the fragment of the ancient god, and before Jung Hayan, a sphere impossible to describe began to appear as well.
Moving forward at an agonizingly slow pace, the sphere gradually accelerated until it struck the seal as if being sucked into it.
Other spells, too, were battering the seal’s chains.
The deafening roar that followed was only natural.
A sound so violent it felt like my eardrums might tear apart rang out, but Kim Hyunsung and Park Yeonju forced their way through the explosion’s aftershock.
Since they could deliver the largest single-hit damage, they would slip into the weakened section and finish the job.
It seemed the others couldn’t see it, but I could clearly make out Kim Hyunsung and Park Yeonju’s figures.
The holy barrier that had covered them peeled away, and even as their skin tore, they refused to let go of their swords, concentrating mana into one hand.
Simply enduring the shockwave from the blast would already have been a huge burden.
They didn’t look to be in good condition, but they were forcibly swallowing the blood surging up their throats and swinging their swords.
Looking at those chains of the seal, so close to breaking yet refusing to shatter, irritation flared up in me all at once.
You can’t die! Hyunsung!
“Deokgu, get ready to retrieve Hyunsung and Park Yeonju.”
“Ah—yeah! O-okay!”
“Priests, pour in as much divine power as you can. Heeyoung, Gimo, concentrate the divine power exactly where I point. Mages, keep your defensive magic ready at all times, and front-liners including Park Deokgu, move inside. Dialugia, the moment the next one’s ready, fire it.”
“Hyung, are you going too?”
“Yeah.”
There wasn’t time to explain.
Anyway, if Kim Hyunsung died, I died too.
It was at that very moment that something huge came crashing down on us.
A fragment?
One of the massive tentacles.
It didn’t yet seem to recognize us as its target and was merely stretching itself out, but that alone was enough to make us hold our breath.
When the giant shadow fell over us, I could only stare blankly upward.
I’m dead.
Fortunately, the one who blocked that attack was Dialugia.
Damn it.
I felt relieved and miserable at the same time.
She unleashed her breath toward the incoming tentacle.
It had been an unavoidable choice.
If that thing had landed here, I would have died, and total annihilation would have been certain.
Another shockwave surged through, almost sending me flying backward, but Park Deokgu grabbed me and kept me from rolling away.
Once again, a torrent of spells fell upon the battlefield, and through it all, Kim Hyunsung and Park Yeonju were still trying to break the chains of the seal.
But….
Not enough.
It wasn’t desperately insufficient, but it was close. Just a little more. If we could pour in just a little more firepower, it felt like it would break properly, but it still wouldn’t shatter.
Damn it.
It was only natural to rack my brain, searching for some way to bring our firepower up from somewhere.
But nothing came to mind.
It was only then that my gaze drifted to the sword in my hand.
“Yuliena?”
It was the only thing I could think to try.
“……”
“Yuliena! My Yuliena!”
“……”
“Awaken, Yuliena. Ahhh, my Yuliena! I need you! Yuliena! I need you!”
I probably sounded like a madman, but if I had to, I’d grab even at a straw.
Using a tone fit for a Shakespearean comedy was unexpectedly humiliating.
But this was all I could do right now.
“Ahhh, Yuliena! My love! Yuliena, awaken! Please! Please save me and my comrades trapped in this situation! My love, Yuliena!”
Damn it.
“Yuliena! Damn it! Yuliena my ass!!”
Trying to rely on something like this in the first place had been a mistake.
I was in the middle of drawing the kind of picture I didn’t want to imagine—total annihilation—when something…
I heard a voice I hadn’t heard in a very, very long time.
—Aaaahhh! Gedrick! My Gedrick! My Gedrick!!
“Huh?”
—Aaaahhh! My love, Gedrick! My everything! My whole world! The light of my life and my hope! My savior! My eternal flower! Gedrick! At last! At long, long last, I can hear your voice! My Gedrick!
Afterword
Max: “N-no! The museum! My museum!”