Chapter 121
Chapter 121
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>Translator: Ryuma
>Chapter: 121
>Chapter Title: What the Hell's Different This Time?
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Librarian Teheman paced back and forth in front of the passageway.
"It's been ages since he went in..."
His face was etched with worry, his restless footsteps betraying his anxiety.
And who could blame him? Aster had entered quite some time ago, yet there was still no sign of him.
'What if... something happened?'
An ominous premonition he'd suppressed time and again surged up unbidden as he waited.
But that doubt lasted only a moment. Teheman shook his head.
'No, that can't be.'
Down there was a fragment of Reverse Heaven, and Aster was its rightful owner.
What mishap could befall the true master reclaiming what was his?
He'd heard tales of the unqualified suffering calamity while trying to claim a fragment, but this was different.
"Then why?"
Why hadn't Aster emerged?
He should have come out by now. Yet there was no word...
Teheman paced with growing impatience. For a man who'd endured decades of waiting, it was a surprisingly scattered display.
But it couldn't be helped.
These few hours without Aster felt more agonizing than all those decades combined.
Teheman halted abruptly in front of the passageway, his frantic pacing ceasing.
"...I can't wait any longer."
He'd have to go down and check himself.
It wasn't an easy decision for him.
The passageway was shrouded in darkness. The space beyond was anything but ordinary.
To others, it was just dim. But Teheman's eyes could clearly see it.
Tzzzzz—
Eldritch runes filled the passageway, rippling in grotesque waves.
It was a truly horrifying sight.
Like staring down at thousands, no, tens of thousands of swarming ants.
It hadn't always been this way.
The passageway had twisted into this nightmare shortly after Aster entered.
"Hoo... No choice."
Teheman steeled himself with a deep breath.
Overcoming his psychological revulsion, he resolved to rescue Aster.
He counted down in his mind—three, two, one—and stepped toward the passageway!
Pang—!
"Ar...rived!"
Aster burst out with a bizarre whoosh of air.
"......!"
Had he erupted from the ground? Teheman paled at Aster's sudden appearance.
That was the moment.
Once more...
Pang—!
"...Gasp!"
Aster vanished right before his eyes.
He reappeared behind Teheman.
"...Kuh!"
Teheman whipped around at the scream from behind.
'What the...'
Aster had been right in front of him moments ago, only to bounce out from between the bookshelves with a pop.
As if...
...he'd teleported.
"What in the world happened?"
Aster rubbed his eyes as he picked himself up from the floor.
What happened? Something utterly ridiculous.
To put it simply...
...it had been a long story.
* * *
A few hours earlier.
Aster reached the end of the passageway and seized the fragment of Reverse Heaven.
Tzzzzz—
The fragment crumbled, emitting a faint glow. The page, once part of Reverse Heaven, turned to dust in an instant and vanished.
Moments later, a change came over his second Fire Mark.
Crack, crunch.
Eldritch runes migrated from the fragment, crawling up his skin to devour the second Fire Mark.
'Right... it was devouring.'
There was no other way to describe it.
The runes consumed the Fire Mark voraciously, like a beast feasting on nutrients.
After a while.
Srrrk—
The sated runes overlapped, forming a new shape. They'd chewed through the old mark and taken its place.
That's when Aster realized.
The Fire Mark from Destrow... wasn't it some kind of energy source? A banquet prepared for the Reverse Heaven fragment.
Anyway. Up to that point, it was whatever.
"What the hell's different this time?"
He'd claimed the fragment, so something should have changed. But nothing did.
Then...
— [Get out.]
Reverse Heaven's voice echoed in his mind.
Still as curt as ever. No reply when called, but yapping away when it suited it.
Get out?
He'd planned to leave anyway.
He'd gotten everything there was to get. Why linger in this pitch-black hole?
With that thought, he climbed the stairs...
"...Huh?"
He couldn't leave.
"What?"
He'd clearly entered the passageway and ascended the stairs, yet when he opened his eyes, he was back at the underground floor.
Shaking himself alert, he climbed again.
But again...
Tzzzz.
"......"
Back at the bottom.
It felt exactly like being trapped in an illusionary barrier maze.
How many times did he climb after that? Probably around ten.
"I'm... looping back every time?"
Something was off.
Why?
"...That's when I realized. Oh, this wasn't about walking out."
"...And?"
Aster rubbed his bruised eyelids with Light of Healing and continued.
"Then, whoosh! Some knowledge flooded in."
"Knowledge...?"
"...Yeah."
It was knowledge.
"To put it simply... how to use the power contained in the fragment?"
"Huh, how to use it?"
Librarian Teheman's eyes sparkled.
"So, what exactly is the power in that fragment?"
He too had guarded it for decades, curious about the force within.
"Hmm. This power is..."
Aster pondered deeply.
After grasping how to wield the fragment, he'd used that power to escape the passageway.
Judging by the phenomenon alone, one could say:
"Spatial movement?"
"Spatial movement? May I ask why you think so?"
Teheman asked cautiously.
And rightly so—spatial movement was a magic lost to the modern age.
Spatial magic as a whole was.
'Warp gates are just reactivated ancient relics. The only modern spatial magic is subspace...'
But spatial movement?
If Aster was right, this shattered modern magical conventions—a monumental discovery.
Perhaps that's why.
Teheman held his breath, hanging on Aster's every word.
Aster spoke soon after.
"The reason... hmm. Ah, mind taking a look at this for a sec?"
"......?"
"Space overlapping hurts like hell... just a moment."
Tzzzz—
Aster suddenly conjured a mana orb in midair. Teheman tilted his head.
"A mana orb? Why suddenly?"
Though invisible to his eyes, Teheman's senses clearly captured its form.
"Wait just a bit. Feels like it might work... hmm."
Aster closed his eyes.
A ticklish sensation teased his mind. Intuition? Different from spatial movement.
But why?
'Urgh...'
The feeling wouldn't solidify.
Like knowing an itch was there but unable to pinpoint it.
Then, suddenly.
Paat!
A spark flashed in Aster's mind.
"...Got it."
A quiet murmur. Teheman tilted his head again. Got what?
"Don't get it?"
"You have to explain... hmm?"
Teheman noticed something odd right then.
"The mana orb... huh?"
The orb floating to his right had shifted to the left. When?
'...When did that happen?'
No warning. Blind or not, Teheman was a skilled mage. How could he miss a mana orb moving right in front of him?
Had Aster conjured a new one?
'No.'
Which meant:
"...For real?"
Truly...
"...spatial magic?"
Aster didn't answer. He simply repeated the feat.
'...Let's see.'
Second time was easier once he had the feel.
Tzzzz—
The orb vanished from the left, reappearing above Teheman's head.
No trajectory. No precursor—like leaping through space itself.
"Ha, haha. Real, really? Ha, hahahaha..."
A hollow laugh escaped him.
Teheman couldn't believe it.
'Spatial magic? Ha! How is that spatial magic?'
He'd assumed it was magic moments ago. But sensing it again confirmed:
'That's... not magic.'
Magic—ancient or modern, standard or forbidden—shared one trait.
It drew from mana and magical power.
But Aster's mana orb movement lacked both flows.
So what was it?
"...Reverse Heaven."
Librarian Teheman murmured the word softly.
The trembling voice of an old man beholding a miracle.
* * *
A village near Decullan Family territory.
Roooar—!
Flames erupted suddenly, devouring the village.
Simultaneous blazes shot up everywhere, screams echoing from all sides.
"F-Fire!"
Some spotted the flames and shouted.
"S-Save...!"
"Aaagh!"
Others writhed in agony, engulfed.
"Father—!"
"Get out, quick! Hurry...!"
A soot-covered boy wailed at his father pinned under a pillar, while the man gestured him away.
Was this hell?
The screams never ceased.
The acrid stench of burning flesh turned the stomach, the villagers' cries heart-wrenching.
A hellscape painted by midnight flames without warning.
An old man stared at it vacantly.
"Ah, aaah..."
The voice leaking from his parted lips was pure grief.
How could it not be?
"Th-The village... the village...!"
This was the hearth he'd tended his whole life.
The land his grandfather claimed, his father nurtured, now passed to him—to hand to his son and granddaughter.
To the village elder who'd managed it for generations, this was his world.
Yet it all burned in a single inferno. How could he keep his wits?
"Hueh, hueeeh..."
The elder sobbed.
He had to.
Brothers, children, friends, sisters—all vanishing in the blaze.
He wanted to rush in, save anyone with his frail body.
No... he had to.
Half out of his mind, the elder bolted forward. To save someone, anyone from the vicious flames.
A rough hand seized him then.
"...Guhk!"
"Elder, sit."
"P-Please... save..."
"I told you. I'll save you. You have one job."
The burly man pinned the elder down.
On a slope overlooking the village. The elder slumped helplessly under the force.
"Sit tight and watch. Before you is the world's one-of-a-kind artwork. Feel anything?"
"Ah, ugh, ah, demon..."
Terror filled the elder's eyes as he gazed at the man—Holland.
What artwork? People died screaming. Beauty? Only one existence could find beauty there.
A demon.
But unlike the elder's horror, Holland drank in the scene entranced.
His eyes gleamed with rapture, as if beholding true art.
"Elder, isn't it beautiful? Fathers saving sons, sons weeping for fathers. How... hmm?"
A glint entered Holland's entranced eyes.
"Elder? Hmm."
The elder, alive moments ago, had gone cold.
A gaping hole in his chest.
A voice spoke then.
"Captain Holland. Orders from the Patriarch."
"Hmm..."
The voice belonged to a figure in a raven mask. Build and tone suggested a woman.
Holland stared at her.
"Patriarch's orders... Right, hold on."
He snapped his fingers.
Snap.
Boom—!
Holland reduced the village to ashes, then looked up at her.
"Speak, Raven. If it's trivial, you'll pay for slaying my artwork's audience."
Chilling killing intent. Yet the woman called Raven replied flatly.
"The deal with Lortel this time. The Patriarch commands you join me."
"Understood. Now, any last words?"
Roooar—!
Murderous aura choked her. But did she not feel it?
Raven continued evenly.
Her next words were enough to redirect Holland's bloodlust.
"The Crimson Jade's stigma from Karahen. A chance to wash it away."
"Stigma..."
His voice dropped low.
Grrrrr—
Fierce aura erupted with the killing intent, shaking the earth. Even the unflappable Raven flinched!
"Hmm."
As she sighed.
Holland's eyes gleamed.
"So the bastards who killed our vermin vice-captain might show?"
"...Possibly."
She couldn't be sure.
But for Holland, possibility sufficed.
"Yeah, that's it."
Crimson Jade's captain.
The moment the Blazing Sorcerer Holland's confinement ended.