Chapter 187
Chapter 187
-----------------------------------------------------------------
>Translator: Ryuma
>Chapter: 187
>Chapter Title: What's Bad?
>-----------------------------------------------------------------
The fist, loaded with sincerity, shook the ancient ruins with a resounding boom.
But how could a person's true feelings be conveyed in just one go?
Naturally, my punches didn't stop at a single blow.
*CRASH, CRASH, CRAAAAASH―――!*
“Y-You, right now……!”
“Senior, don’t stop me. These insolent bastards— we came to rescue them, and this is how they screw us over?”
Yes, this was my true feeling.
My sincerity, sent straight to these ungrateful wretches.
My mood was already foul enough.
I had come here with a heart rooted in justice, risking my life to save not just the masses of people, but the spirits as well, through my benevolent influence.
Yet these ungrateful spirits— what could they possibly be dissatisfied with to interfere like this?
“S-Stop it! We don’t even know for sure it was the spirits! Th-That’s right! I’ve heard of ruins like this before. Ones that repel intruders according to their design…….”
“You’re saying…… it wasn’t the spirits?”
I paused my fist for a moment and turned to my senior. Senior Mysern nodded urgently at my gaze.
“Y-Yes. It’s just your guess, isn’t it? Why would the spirits do that? They crave freedom more than anyone.”
“Then…… it must be the ruins’ fault?”
“That’s right! Exactly!”
“And…… if I’m guessing right, these ruins are the ones imprisoning the spirits.”
“That’s…… right?”
Yes, the ruins.
I nodded emphatically, then turned my gaze to Damian. *Whoosh――! * As I released my mana, the dust cleared, revealing Damian’s face clearly.
“Damian, you hear that?”
“Yeah, I heard.”
“So, what’s bad?”
“The ruins.”
Yes, that’s right.
Now, what about Chenbi’s opinion?
As soon as my gaze reached him, Chenbi opened his mouth as if he’d been waiting.
“I think the ruins are bad too.”
“Right? You think so too? Honestly, I thought the same.”
The bad ones aren’t the spirits. It’s these ruins.
So, what should we do?
“Evil must be destroyed immediately. It’s best to wipe out evil on the spot.”
“Y-You. What do you mean by……?”
“What do I mean? It means executing justice. This fist now carries not just sincerity, but justice.”
Justice filled my clenched fist.
I thrust out the fist brimming with justice without hesitation. Whether the bad thing was the spirits or the ruins, what needed to be done remained the same.
Once more, the resounding roar of justice echoed through the entire ruins.
“Th-The whole place could collapse! Stop! We’ll all die!”
“My world already collapsed. We came to save you, and you refuse? It’s the spirits’ fault I snapped like this.”
“No……. It might not be the spirits!”
“Master, I’m so tired too. I just want to rest right now. I missed you, but all we get is spirits. Friend, I’ll help you.”
“What have *you* done……!”
Damian stuck close to my side, diligently blasting me with Light of Healing. Truth be told, I wasn’t hurt, so it wasn’t necessary, but I gratefully accepted the sentiment.
It was right after that when Senior Mysern turned his eyes to Chenbi.
“Ch-Chenbi. Say something to him. Try to stop him!”
“Lord Mysern, you said we must answer the call of the times. If two out of four agree, doesn’t that make it the call of the times?”
“What kind of nonsense……!”
“Everyone dies eventually.”
Well said, Chenbi!
With Chenbi joining in, a maddening harmony formed.
When I smashed…… *Zzzap!* Chenbi gathered the dust and debris and cleared it away. *Sparkle sparkle.* Damian proved his utter uselessness with all his might.
There’s an old saying: Even a blank sheet of paper is useful when lifted together.
And indeed it was.
Alone, I could only blast things apart, but with the useless Damian and Chenbi, we were inching forward bit by bit.
We were punching through the wall, advancing slowly but surely.
In the midst of it, I glanced back at Senior Mysern.
‘Senior, what will you do now?’
The tide had turned.
The world is like the Seil River. Sitting there frozen will only get you swept away by the waves. Wouldn’t it be better to stand at the forefront of those waves and charge toward the sea?
Senior Mysern’s pupils trembled faintly at my gaze.
‘You really have to do this? This is too radical.’
‘Change always happens in an instant.’
‘How can you only think of the results? A righteous act must have a righteous process!’
‘The process? Does the world beautify even the process of failure? History is written by the victors.’
‘You really……!’
In this exchange of glances, we waged a fierce debate. Of course, all of this was just my imagination. Far from the truth.
But the outcome matched my imagination perfectly.
“……No helping it, then. Madlin.”
“You’ve thought it through. History is always written around the victors, after all.”
“……I don’t know what nonsense that is, but even reacting is exhausting now. Anyway, I’ll help too. It’d be better to dig a bit more to the left from where you are now.”
“Heh.”
Ah, an annoyingly smug laugh slipped out before I knew it.
Didn’t this make me seem like the villain?
But it was fine.
‘My heart is steeped in justice.’
“This spot?”
“Yes, that one. And Chenbi. Help me reinforce the hole so it doesn’t collapse. Leave the dust to Fury.”
*Purrylit!*
Madlin was followed by Fury joining in.
And that wasn’t all.
“Eiki, I leave it to you.”
Even Eiki appeared, cleaning the dust off us and adding to the comfort of the work!
Not bad.
No, it was actually great.
I smiled, feeling the wave of the times in our united hearts.
‘The spirits’ cheers are reaching even here. That exciting, huh?’
* * *
[I hate it――――!]
The unified spirits reacted with extreme rejection.
* * *
Had my intent worked?
The reaction was immediate.
Aster stopped his busy punching and caught his breath for a moment.
*Rumble rumble rumble……!*
A massive roar spreading throughout the ruins. On a whole different level from before.
If earlier was just a teaser, now it sounded like the entire ruins were being rebuilt.
It could subtly alter its structure as much as it wanted, but making this much noise meant it was that agitated.
As Aster smirked smugly, he wasn’t the only one grinning in satisfaction.
“Our sincerity got through.”
“I don’t know how, but it seems like it did.”
Damian smiled innocently, and Chenbi’s lips curled up slightly.
Amid it all, only Mysern grasped the gravity of the situation.
‘This…… this isn’t good.’
The ruins, quiet just moments ago, had grown noisy.
And ‘noisy’ here didn’t just mean this roar.
It was more like…… yes, stepping into a fairy dance, with the spirits’ will resounding in his ears.
That will was utterly despairing.
[I hate it, I hate it, I hat…….]
Fierce rejection.
Mysern clutched his head and staggered, feeling as if the negative emotions had materialized against his skin.
“Master, you okay? You can’t be hurting.”
Damian clung to him, firing off Light of Healing, but it had no effect.
The pain Mysern felt now wasn’t physical— it was mental shock from the spirits’ negative emotions.
To Mysern right now, this space was no different from hell.
Thrown into the heart of negative emotions.
“Ugh……”
As Mysern staggered and collapsed, Fury clung to him worriedly.
Madlin shuffled slowly over and rubbed her cheek against his face, and even the haughty Eiki hovered nearby with a startled look.
At this point, even Aster had no choice but to notice the severity.
“Senior, you alright?”
“F-Fine…… fine…….”
Mysern tried to say something, but couldn’t finish.
Aster’s expression hardened at the sight.
‘This…… wasn’t in my expectations?’
To think he’d collapse from the spirits’ voices?
He knew Senior Mysern felt considerable fatigue from the fairy-dance-accompanied spirits’ will, but this was beyond what he’d heard.
How much time passed like that?
*Rumble…… rumble…….*
The vibrations subsided.
As the vibrations faded, the spirits’ voices grew faint, and the collapsed Mysern slowly regained consciousness.
“……You okay?”
Had he blacked out for a bit?
His pitch-black vision cleared slowly, Aster’s face coming into sharp focus.
Mysern pressed his throbbing temples and sat up.
“I’m fine…… well, honestly, no.”
“……Sorry. I didn’t expect…….”
Aster tried to apologize, but Mysern shook his head.
“No, it’s not your fault. Strictly speaking…… it’s just that my spirit affinity is too exceptional.”
It wasn’t empty words.
Mysern’s already outstanding spirit affinity had deepened with each passing year, to the point where even he couldn’t gauge its limits.
He hadn’t explained it in detail to Aster before, but the burden of the fairy-dance voices wasn’t solely due to age.
Anyway.
“No need to apologize. It was just too sudden…… your method wasn’t bad.”
Mysern comforted the apologetic Aster.
Truth be told, even he might have chosen the same if no clear solution presented itself.
Of course, he’d have tried various other things first— that was the difference.
“That aside, this confirms it. For some reason, the spirits are rejecting us.”
Mysern calmly assessed the situation now that the pain had passed. But even without the pain, his expression wasn’t bright.
The spirits rejecting them this violently was something even he hadn’t anticipated.
“What can we do? If you want, even now, I’ll do my utmost to find a way out. Judging by the spirits’ reaction, they won’t block us if we try to leave…….”
At Mysern’s question, Aster thought for a moment.
No, he tried to think.
‘If I had my way, I’d obviously…… these ungrateful…….’
That’s as far as his thoughts went.
*Crunch, crack, crunch!*
Suddenly, monstrous rupturing sounds from beyond the wall.
“……?”
Aster halted his thoughts and turned toward the source. It wasn’t a conscious reaction. The sound had genuinely pulled him.
‘……What?’
The sound was eerie. Like smashing, or like something melting away. And Aster had heard this sound once before.
When was it? Right— probably in his past life’s final moments, battling Pahren von Decullan. When Pahren’s lava devoured the stone, it made exactly that noise.
……Aster realized this as the eerie rupturing reached him.
*BOOM―――!*
The broad tunnel’s wall exploded outward in one second flat.
*Crunch!*
“……Gah!”
The savage grasp bursting from the wall snatched Aster in a mere two seconds.
No, even less than two.
*Crunch, crack, crunch!*
The massive something dragged Aster away, retreating back through the hole it had emerged from.
And—
At the three-second mark.
“……Friend?”
Damian, facing reality, trembled around his eyes.
No, Damian still hadn’t fully grasped reality.
In what felt like an instant, he pictured what had happened in his mind— forcing himself to accept the harsh truth.
Amid it all.
Mysern, leaving the frightened spirits behind, opened his mouth in a daze.
“Infernal…….”
The name slipping from his lips belonged to a spirit from the mythic age…… no, a malevolent spirit.