143. The Space... Was Split....
143. The Space... Was Split....
"You're saying this won't work?"
The Aura Blade, honed to its extreme, was blocked.
The Aura Blade manifested by a Master—the highest realm a swordsman, a human, a mortal could reach—and yet it had no effect.
Of course, he knew it wasn't an absolute technique that could cut through anything.
An Aura Blade of equal level required a battle of strength to cut through, and certain special substances were also difficult to sever.
But the feeling from this wall and door was something else entirely.
A sensation that he couldn't even scratch it, not even a speck.
Other things could be cut through with more effort, but this felt like something he couldn't even approach.
It looked like an ordinary wall, but a different concept was at play.
"To perfectly block a Master's Aura Blade... then that means... it's not a substance, but a perfectly isolated space...! Isn't there no way out?"
If it were a substance, no matter what it was, an extreme Aura Blade would inflict damage.
Though the extent of the damage varied depending on the output, there was no substance that could perfectly block it.
That was because an extreme Aura Blade distorted reality through an extreme mental landscape.
Thus, that meant the blocking wall was not a 'substance.'
They were trapped in a 'Small World,' a miracle that completely isolated them from the outside.
"No way out?! Just cut it down and escape. Easy enough!"
"An isolated space is the domain of Authorities that transcend magic. Atlas... you couldn't even scratch it..."
"No. I just didn't do it right yet. I can cut it!"
Amy's muttering pricked his pride, and he clenched his teeth even harder.
A Small World was one of the Authorities wielded only by immortals who had escaped the shackles of mortality.
It was a world, tiny but possessing its own independent governing laws.
Trying to escape by violating the laws set in such a world, it was only natural that scratching it with ordinary methods was difficult.
But while he could accept that it was 'hard to cut,' he could not accept that it 'could not be cut.'
So what if it was an isolated, enclosed space? The fact that something that looked like a cheap love hotel could block his Aura Blade was something he refused to acknowledge.
"I don't know about anything else, but I can't accept that I can't cut this kind of place apart."
Even more so, he couldn't accept that he couldn't cut apart a damn room you can't leave without having sex.
It wasn't like it was some Great Demon's lair or the deepest pit of hell.
If he couldn't cut this apart, his pride as a Master would be cracked.
"Atlas, what are you trying to do??"
He held the Aura Blade only in his right hand and brought his left hand up to his face.
I hadn't given up yet.
Let my heart sink into the abyss.
This was a matter of pride.
It was something he truly hated to do, but to raise his 'destructive power,' he had to do anything.
He calmed his heart and dredged up the horrifying memories of 'Atlas' that slept in the deepest place, bringing them to the surface.
The most horrifying memories for Atlas Titan....
Right, he recalled the childhood he'd spent in the Titan household.
"Keu... eueug...!!!"
The wounds that he'd pushed to the deepest place and desperately turned away from, though never forgotten, were as vivid as if they'd happened yesterday even after over ten years, if prodded.
He'd excelled in every way but was always ignored because of his height alone.
No matter how well he handled the sword, he was constantly beaten for being lacking.
He had to train to the brink of death and endure the agony of his organs twisting from consuming elixirs his body could scarcely withstand.
The memory of his father, always looking down at him from above with cold eyes, felt as if he was still standing over him even now.
"Uwaaah..!!!"
-Pajijijik!!
The turmoil of his heart manifested through the sword in his hand.
The form of the Aura Blade, which had been remarkably calm and stable, twisted violently.
Like ripples on the water's surface, it distorted, wavered, and thrashed wildly.
It wasn't simply that his mental landscape was disturbed and the Aura Blade was becoming unstable.
It was as if he was heating water to a boiling overflow—stimulating himself to strengthen the already sufficient power of the Aura Blade even further.
The wildly boiling Aura Blade grew so massive it became difficult to control with one hand.
Just as it reached the critical point, I grabbed the sword again with the hand I'd placed on my face.
"..!!!"
At that, the Aura Blade, which had seemed ready to explode at any moment, stabilized.
Amy watched the scene with bated breath.
Outwardly, it looked the same as before, but Amy, watching from beside him, could tell.
Just how much power was swirling within that roughly 150-centimeter-long sword.
"Hoo... If this doesn't work either... I'm quitting being a Master...!!!"
"Huh???"
Leaving the bewildered Amy behind, I struck the wall once more with my Aura Blade.
-Pachijijijijik!!!!
A different reaction came this time.
The wall, which had seemed like it wouldn't even scratch, began reacting for the first time as it clashed with the newly formed Aura Blade.
If this place was an isolated space, then he just had to cut the space itself.
You just had to imagine it.
The Law that I, who had become a Master, unconsciously manifested allowed me to step on, touch, and fold space.
If it was me—no one else but me, who could fold and touch space—then I should be able to cut even the wall of an isolated space.
The pure white burning aura clashed with the wall, spitting out pale sparks violently, and soon, a crack began to split between them.
"It's having an effect! The wall is cracking!!"
"Ha..!! Yes, this is more like it..!!!"
Riding the momentum, he pushed even harder, and the crack grew larger.
Then, Amy noticed new text being written on the metal plate attached to the door.
"Wait! There's text being written on the door!!"
"Ha, must be getting nervous now that the wall's starting to tear..!! Just wait a little longer and I'll split the whole thing in two, so look forward to it!!"
"I don't think that's what it is...!!"
At Amy's words, he shifted his gaze from the crack in the wall to the metal plate on the door.
On the smooth metal plate, characters were writing themselves.
[Failure to achieve the 'Rule' will result in risk of death]
"Oh, I'm so scared, a risk of death. I'm dying here anyway..!!"
Ignoring the metal plate's warning, he continued widening the hole in the wall.
The hole, which had started the size of a fingernail, grew larger and larger following the advance of the Aura Blade, until eventually it became a massive hole large enough to fit an entire person's head.
When it did, we witnessed what existed beyond that hole.
"Uh..?"
There was nothing inside the hole.
No space, no objects, an empty, endless darkness stretching out infinitely.
"It's Tartarus..!! Damn it."
He withdrew his Aura Blade and stepped back.
The gap that had split closed up at a rapid pace the moment he withdrew the Aura Blade.
"Haa... haa..."
It looked shabby, but it was a truly horrible place.
The pitch-black darkness that looked like a hole in the void was a colossal maw that swallowed everything it touched,
An endless prison where the moment you stepped in, you'd have to fall infinitely.
"So this... can't be escaped through trickery, it seems...?"
Evidently, the outside was connected to Tartarus.
The wall and door with Asmodeus's symbol on them became even more credible.
Because a being of Great Demon level was plenty capable of creating such a space.
'Normally they wouldn't waste it on making this kind of thing...!'
He was dumbfounded that the power other Great Demons used to build their fortresses or hide precious treasures had been wasted on creating a damn room you can only escape by having sex.
Once he calmed down a bit, rage surged up.
He'd achieved the feat of splitting space and making a hole with a mortal body, so why couldn't he escape?
He'd thought it was a Gordian Knot and tried to cut it, but this wasn't a rope, it was the wire of a time bomb.
If he cut it, the bomb would explode.
Why the hell was that kind of thing in the middle of the Academy, damn it.
The more he thought about something that didn't even appear in the original story popping up, the angrier he got.
-----------------------------
Amy had studied and knew what kind of place Tartarus was as well.
An infinite space said to have existed since this world came into being, an inescapable prison that, once you fell in, you could never leave by any means.
Outside this room that looked like a cheap lodging establishment, Tartarus stretched out.
She felt like she understood the rules by which this space was constructed.
Seeing the same symbol carved on both the door and the warehouse wall, it seemed a magic formula was applied: if the conditions written on the wall were met, the door would open, and they could return to the original world.
If they hated that and tried to forcibly tear the wall apart like Atlas just did... they'd simply fall into the Tartarus stretching outside.
Escaping this place through trickery was impossible.
Yes, there was no other way out.
There was no way.
'To get out... we have to do what's written on the wall...?'
Very fortunately, what the wall instructed was an action they could definitely carry out.
[Room Where You Must Have Sex to Escape]
The phrase surfaced in her mind once more.
If two lovers were trapped here, they might have just laughed and walked out nonchalantly.
But if they weren't?
"...."
She stole a glance and saw Atlas had put down his sword and was deep in thought.
He seemed to be worrying about something similar to her.
"Ah."
Their eyes met.
Atlas didn't turn his head, just kept staring at her, then opened his mouth.
"...I thought about it a lot,"
Atlas's eyes as he started speaking were extremely serious.
"I really can't think of any other way."
"No, right?"
Atlas fell silent.
That heavy silence was too much to bear.
"That's... not it, right?"
Just then, she remembered the artifact hanging around her neck.
"Right! Atlas, I have an artifact that can let me escape this kind of situation. With this, I should be able to escape plenty easily..!!"
"I heard about that before. But you said only one person can leave. If one leaves, the other has to stay trapped here. Even if you can get out, what happens to the one left behind? Do you just have to wait here alone endlessly for rescue? In this place where the outside is Tartarus?"
Hearing that, she couldn't say anything and just tightly gripped the watch-shaped artifact.
This artifact was a very special item, so it could let her escape this place.
But alone.
One person had to stay behind here.
If she left, she might not be able to come back in, and if so, the trapped person would have no choice but to wait for rescue, unable to solve the room's rule.
She had also heard many stories about time flowing differently in Tartarus compared to the outside.
Even if she went outside and somehow managed to come back in to rescue him, it meant no one knew what could happen here in the meantime.
"It's Asmodeus's sorcery. If we do the action written on the wall, we'll be released."
Atlas's hand came to rest on her shoulder.
"No..."
She instinctively smacked his hand away.
As she squeezed her eyes shut, the scene she'd witnessed in the forest surfaced in her mind.
The image of her two most beloved people entangled together.
"Atlas... you have Liber."
The moment she said that, Atlas's pupils widened.
"Since when did you know?"
"Isn't it too much to think I wouldn't know when you two go around practically screaming it?"
As if to say 'well, that's true,' Atlas smiled bitterly, then chuckled sheepishly, not seeming very surprised.
She believed he surely didn't actually think no one would know.
"I said no!! To do it with someone you don't like after being tempted by a demon..!! It's wrong!!"
No matter what, this wasn't right.
Atlas was lovers with Liber, and she was nothing. To have relations to escape this place...
She felt too sorry toward Liber.
But Atlas, who had been listening to her words, laughed as if asking what the big deal was.
"Someone I don't like... I do like you, though?"
Even though she understood what that meant, she still flinched in surprise.
"What about you?"
Atlas placed his hand on her shoulder once more.
This time, she couldn't smack it away.
If she said she didn't like Atlas, it would definitely be a lie.
"That's so unfair of you...."
She couldn't see it herself, but her face was undoubtedly flushed as red as a carrot.