Chapter 33
Translator: True Detective
### Chapter 33: The Otherworld (2)
I was standing within a landscape that was simultaneously familiar and foreign.
'……Is this the Academy?'
It was clearly the structure of the Academy hallways, but the atmosphere was entirely different.
Beyond simply having all the lights turned off, it had a dreary coloration as if a whole bowl of horror movie filters had been poured over it.
The unpleasant humidity and chill hovering around my skin grated on my nerves.
I instinctively realized that this place was the Otherworld.
Entry seemed to be a success for now.
'……I really want to go home.'
A primal fear climbing up my spine began to nibble away at my reason.
The thought of quickly retrieving the Spirit Vessel and returning stirred frantically in my head.
That dreary and offensive atmosphere one would only see in school ghost stories.
It felt as if something would pop out from beyond the walls at any moment.
Pretending to be calm, I spoke to Eleanor inside my sleeve.
"Senior. Where do you think the Spirit Vessel is?"
[It is clearly in this vicinity…… but strange. I still cannot feel it with certainty.]
"You can't feel it nearby? Even though we've come this far?"
Eleanor fell silent for a moment.
The pressure given by that silence was no joke.
My heartbeat quickened. I didn't have a good feeling.
[Rihan. It has become clear. Someone—]
It was then, while Eleanor was continuing her words.
"Hehe, haha……."
That unpleasant laughter I heard from beyond reality earlier echoed through the hallway again.
"……What is it."
I reflexively turned my head.
Far away at the end of the hallway, in a blind spot where darkness had settled thickly, something was standing.
A shape with only its head peeking out from behind a wall.
Looking at the face, it looked like a person…….
A woman?
Before the question could be solved.
I made eye contact with it.
"……!"
My breath hitched.
It looked fucking disgusting.
No, the word disgusting wasn't enough.
It grinned at me.
The corners of its mouth literally ripped up to its ears.
The eye sockets were hollowly empty, and only black holes were staring at me.
Fuck. It finally came out.
That is 100% a ghost.
I gripped the Eleanor doll in my bosom. If it weren't for this small doll, I would have collapsed and fainted right here.
[Do not grip this lady's body so tightly! I cannot breathe!]
"This isn't the time to be saying things like that! Senior, what is that! Why is it shaped like that!"
[Probably…… a vengeful spirit. Things that are not human often make nests in the Otherworld. However, perhaps due to the Spirit Vessel, the concentration of the surroundings is abnormal. Even the power of that spirit far exceeds the general level.]
I mean, what am I supposed to do if you tell me that now!
I pulled up mana with trembling hands. The reason in my head spun frantically.
Think, Rihan. Put your science student brain to work!
Does magic work? Do the laws of physics apply to that thing?
For now, let's try that pathetic plan I came up with earlier. I have to buy time by talking at least.
"……Excuse me! How did you fix your horizontal coordinate system? Considering the rotation and revolution of the planet, it would be normal for you to be flying through the wall and into space right now……!"
The ghost reacted to my half-witted question.
It slowly pulled its body out from behind the wall.
'……Uh?'
I thought it was just peeking its head out, but it wasn't the head; its neck was unnaturally long.
No, it wasn't just the neck.
The limbs being dragged out from behind the wall were all bizarrely long and thin.
The joints were bent as if it had at least three or four extra.
Son of a…… it was an Eight-Foot-Tall Ghost?
[It is coming. Rihan, do not just stand there blankly!]
*Kieeeeeeeek—!*
The ghost let out a frantic screech.
It began to rush toward me, flailing its long limbs like a spider.
'Right, damn it! There's no way a joke like that would work!'
I started running frantically toward the opposite end of the hallway.
The thing's speed was too fast.
Its long arms swung like whips, trying to snatch me.
The stench of rot vibrated throughout the entire hallway.
'Think! Think! If it touches me, I'm dead!'
The thing's long arm sliced through the air.
*Whoosh—! Bam!*
Its hand, which slammed into the spot where my head had been just a moment ago, ruthlessly crushed the wall surface.
I instinctively rolled on the floor.
*Rumble—, thud!*
[Rihan! To the left!]
At Eleanor's shout, I reflexively twisted my body to the right.
The thing's leg, swung like a whip, narrowly missed my side and smashed a classroom door.
Fragments flew and scratched my cheek, but there was no time to feel pain.
I staggered up and dashed down the hallway again.
But during that maddening chase.
A corner of my brain began to work coldly.
Just now.
The sound of destruction when the thing broke the wall.
The trajectory of the wooden splinters that flew out when it kicked the door.
And—
*Thump. Thump. Thump.*
The irregular but clear sounds of impact mixed with my footsteps.
'Wait a minute.'
I felt a sense of incongruity.
When the thing turned the corner, I heard the friction sound of its long feet sliding across the floor.
'Friction? Frictional force exists?'
If it were a simple illusion or a spiritual energy body, there would be no need to push off the floor.
But that thing is clearly kicking off the ground.
It is accelerating using that reaction.
"……."
In other words, the thing has mass and is affected by gravity.
That means it is an opponent for whom Newton's classical mechanics work!
I suddenly stopped, stretched both hands forward, and explosively released mana.
I boosted the momentum of the air molecules in the narrow space ahead to the extreme.
Nitrogen and oxygen molecules vibrated frantically, pushing each other away.
*Sizzle— Boooom!*
High-heat plasma sparks burst out momentarily, but that wasn't enough.
Because I hated the very idea of letting that bastard get close to me.
Air heated to ultra-high temperatures expands to an enormous volume in an instant.
I blocked that direction of expansion with a mana barrier and forced it forward.
*KWA-AAAAANG—!!!*
A massive directional shockwave, generated by the rapid expansion of air in the narrow hallway, exploded at the speed of sound.
The ghost was hit head-on by the air cannon without being able to resist even once.
The long arms that were reaching out were caught in the pressure of the air cannon and bent at bizarre angles.
Finally.
The thing's body, which took the shockwave head-on, was crushed like a cannonball and sent flying—
*Crash!*
The thing, having smashed into the wall at the end of the hallway, exploded without a trace.
Seeing it scatter as black smoke, I slumped to the floor.
"Haa, haa…… haa……."
My heart felt like it would burst. Cold sweat flowed down my spine.
[You concentrated your power quite cleverly. Not bad, Rihan.]
"Fuck…… thanks for the compliment, but I really want to go home……."
I felt like I had faced some monster, not a ghost.
As the tension relaxed, heavy breaths burst out.
It was exactly the moment I barely managed to take a breath.
*Thump. Thump. Thump.*
A massive vibration that shook the entire hallway echoed.
It was a weight class on a different scale compared to that eight-foot ghost from earlier.
'……What now. This time it sounds like it's coming from outside?'
Turning my head out the window to see what else had come, I froze in place.
"……."
Beyond the window.
In the middle of the Academy playground stood a massive beast the size of a building.
A single eye, rising above its giant body, shone like a lighthouse, scanning the surroundings back and forth.
"Crazy…… what on earth is that."
[Do not panic, and hold your breath. Rihan.]
At Eleanor's warning, I instinctively lowered my body and hid behind the wall.
No, even so, this was too much.
"You're saying these kinds of guys gathered just because of a single Spirit Vessel?"
[Something like that. A Spirit Vessel is the purest essence of this world. It is no different from a torch burning in the darkness. However…… even I, having lived a thousand years, am seeing such a bizarre sight for the first time.]
"……Even you are seeing it for the first time, Senior?"
Even the Grand Mage who lived for a millennium showed her fluster.
[Because the very idea of leaving a Spirit Vessel in such a damp Otherworld is beyond common sense.]
Of course, I knew the Spirit Vessel was a great object.
But was it an object with this much influence?
What kind of demonic realm was the Otherworld that ghosts were having a regular meeting in?
If guys like that continued to pop out, it was certain that I wouldn't last even five minutes with my mana capacity.
"Phew……."
I had to hurry. That guy wasn't a size I could easily take on like the eight-foot ghost earlier.
"Senior. So what were you saying earlier about the Spirit Vessel? Finish what you were going to say."
[Rihan. The Spirit Vessel being here is definitely someone's doing. It was not simply tossed into the Otherworld; they created another rift within the space here and cleverly hid it.]
What kind of nonsense is this. A rift within another space in the Otherworld?
[It means they hid it by overlapping from reality to the Otherworld, and from the Otherworld once more into a rift in space.]
There is no limit to this excess. Just stick to one.
It meant a double-lock.
"Can you find that space?"
[……My abilities in this doll state are insufficient. If my soul were intact, it might be different, but now it is even a struggle to point out the boundary line.]
In the end, it meant I couldn't find it right now.
My head throbbed. The situation had returned to square one.
Who could untie the knot of this intricately tangled space?
While pondering for a moment, one person flashed through my mind.
Yuna.
Yuna can presumably feel the existence of ghosts affected by the Spirit Vessel.
If I could only bring her innate sense here.
Finding the rift in that space wouldn't be impossible either.
The problem was that I had just hurt Yuna by spitting out trash-like venomous words earlier.
'……Well, what can I do. Whether I apologize or beg, let's think about that later.'
First, surviving and getting out is the priority.
There was nothing to be gained by staying here longer without Yuna.
If I used Kotodama again at the spot where I entered, I should be able to return to reality.
[Rihan, hurry. That monster's movements are gradually heading this way.]
Holding my breath and concealing my mana to the extreme, I carefully checked beyond the window.
I planned to dash to the entrance while the thing turned its head.
However.
I made eye contact exactly with the eye of the giant scanning the playground.
"……Fuck, I'm screwed."
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