Chapter 120
Chapter 120
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 120
Chapter Title: Chapter 35: Rebels and Traitors
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Tolari flew to the western forest where he had once battled the Talisman Count in the past.
In the middle of the forest, there was a clearing as large as a sports field, crudely patched up. They should have planted new trees here too, but things had been so hectic that they hadn't gotten around to it.
"Watch closely!"
Upon arrival, Tolari immediately unleashed a Tempest at the clearing without warning.
As Double Magic.
Whiiiiiing!
The blades of wind released from compression scattered in all directions.
If there had been trees there, they would have been ground into sawdust—not that I'm exaggerating much.
The two Tempests crossed paths, letting out a deafening roar as they carved into the rocks.
At the same time, starting from the farthest point, they created a vortex that pulled the scattered wind blades back inward.
It was a flawless Double Magic, without a single flaw.
"It actually works?"
I thought the effects of the injections from the sponsor had worn off because of the Core?
"Once you've got the feel for it, why wouldn't you use it? No way."
Tolari raised his nose high in the air.
"I've already gone beyond that level. If you drink the Brain Acceleration Elixir, Triple Magic is possible too. The downside is that the Domain you were using disappears, so you need a bit more concentration."
"That's a relief. I thought I'd regressed completely."
"Mana's down a tiny bit, but it's fine. We can call it even with what you gained from eating the Core."
Tolari spoke cheerfully, then suddenly frowned.
"Huh? Uh? Looks like I might be able to do Triple Magic even without the Brain Acceleration Elixir?"
"Really?"
"The sponsor's gift in my head is gone, right? That created more empty space in my Domain."
"Domain?"
"Before, I used the Brain Acceleration Elixir to create a third Domain and cast Triple Magic. I think I can recreate it in the empty space now."
……What?
Even I, a wizard with half a century of experience, couldn't comprehend what I'd just heard.
If it's empty, it's just empty—how does that enable Triple Magic?
I don't get the principle.
Whether it's the Triple Magic I use or Quintuple Magic, it's all thanks to the lich's mana crystal. I can't do it with just my brainpower alone.
"I'll explain after I try it. So……"
Tolari closed his eyes and groaned for a while. I sidled up next to him and asked quietly.
"You okay? Aren't you low on mana?"
"I can manage five Tempests. Just wait a bit, Your Highness. So……"
At that moment, blood started pouring from Tolari's nose.
"Whoa, your nose is bleeding."
"Huh? Oh, that's normal. Good sign."
Not just his nose—saliva started drooling from his mouth too. Hmm…… Isn't this something serious?
But it was too late to stop him.
Tempests had already formed in each of his outstretched hands, and a third one was swirling in front of his solar plexus, beginning to compress.
"Ugh……"
Tolari's focused eyes started to glaze over. Then, in an instant, his pupils snapped back into place, locking onto the target ahead.
And the three Tempests shot out like bullets.
Woooooong!
Success.
Wow, that's impressive. He did it completely sober.
As I clapped in admiration, a black energy rippled in the center of the distant clearing, and something opened.
A dimensional gate.
Why the hell now? It looked about the same size as the one that had opened inside Zectbaya's body.
"……!"
But there was no time to intervene. Just as Tolari's face twisted in shock from casting the spell.
"……."
A soldier from the other world, encased in sealed armor.
He crossed over to our side and raised his head.
……Flame Bottle?
That's a Flame Bottle, right? The basic troops from the other world that poured out in droves when the gate opened?
And then the massive vortex exploded.
The raging storm surged high into the sky, swallowing everything around it.
Kakakakakaka!
Inside the storm, three central wind blades spun at ultra-high speed.
The chilling resonance came from the blades clashing against each other—anything inside, like that Flame Bottle, wouldn't even have a shape left.
But something felt off.
I don't know why the dimensional gate suddenly opened or why only a single Flame Bottle came through.
Still, it was a pity that such a powerful Triple Tempest ended up just shredding one measly Flame Bottle.
"Did you see that just now? Your Highness, did you see it?"
Tolari shouted with wide eyes.
"A person popped out! What do we do? I killed someone!"
"Calm down. That's probably not a person."
"Huh? Huh?"
"It came out of a dimensional gate, so maybe not the sponsor…… No bandages either. Probably just a soldier from the Psyche dimension?"
"Soldier? So, an enemy?"
Tolari finally seemed relieved. But as we watched the Tempest storm slowly dissipate, both of us were gripped by a fear we'd never experienced before.
The enemy was unscathed.
That make any sense?
A single puny Flame Bottle takes a direct hit from Triple Tempest and comes out fine? Even a berserker wouldn't survive that unscathed?
"……Stay back for now."
I pushed Tolari behind me and stepped forward. Of course, we were still quite a distance away, but I couldn't predict what kind of attack the enemy might launch.
And right then.
"………!!"
He hastily removed his helmet and started shouting something incomprehensible.
"……! ……!!"
"What?"
It wasn't that the sound was quiet. I literally couldn't understand the words.
But there's a human head inside that helmet?
……A human?
He was a middle-aged man with a scruffy beard.
I quickly activated the Sovereign's Eye to check—fundamentally no different from humans on our side.
Why?
Aren't all Psyche folk just energy masses? Plus, Flame Bottles were supposed to have only mysterious smoke inside their armor.
But a living human?
"……."
He reached into the inside of his removed helmet, pulled out some unidentified device, and pressed it to his head.
"……I'm not your enemy!"
Suddenly, the man's voice came through clearly. He dropped to his knees in near-surrender and shouted.
"I'm not your enemy! I'm here to help! We don't have time, so please hear me out……."
I'd closed the distance by then, so I aimed my hand at his head and warned him.
"Don't move. Who are you? What's with that armor?"
"Armor? This is one of the last relics from the Golden Age. They call it Battle Armor."
"……Battle Armor?"
"Yeah. Ngh……."
The man disassembled the gauntlet part of his armor and dropped it to the ground with a sigh.
Thud!
"Whew, now I'm just a tin can. Good thing I filled it to the brim just in case. Otherwise, I'd have died the moment I arrived."
"You endured Triple Magic with just the armor's power?"
Tolari, who had flown over with me, pressed close to my side and asked. The man looked back and forth between us and smiled faintly.
"Well, well. It's been ages since I've seen such vibrant young people. You'll be seeing this armor a lot from now on. The traitors are mass-producing degraded versions and using them."
"Traitors?"
"Those who abandoned their human bodies for immortality. They're the Psyche folk now."
The man introduced himself as he disassembled the remaining parts of his armor one by one.
"I'm Virex, commander of the rebel army."
Rebel army? What's that?
"No time, so I'll explain briefly. The dimension attacking yours is called the Psyche dimension."
"I know that much."
"The Psyche dimension is currently ruled by traitor Psyche folk. But not all Psyche folk agreed to abandon their bodies for immortality. There was brutal fighting. In the end, we rebels had no choice but to hide deep underground."
……What?
"Unfortunately, no time for a full history lesson. Please trust me and follow for now."
Hold on—why should I trust you in this situation? You just came through a dimensional gate from the Psyche dimension?
……But the emotions I saw through the Sovereign's Eye were too genuine and desperate to argue that.
Extreme urgency.
Regret, pain.
And an overwhelming expectation and hope directed at me and Tolari. Even affection.
No hostility, anger, or suspicion, even if I searched with a magnifying glass.
Excuse me? Mr. Virex? Didn't we just meet? How can you trust strangers this much right after crossing dimensions?
"First, confirm this: one of you crossed to our side recently and wrecked the arena, right?"
"Yeah. That was me."
"Oh. Good. The coordinates must have lined up luckily."
Virex let out a deep sigh of relief.
"The rebels barely detected your unique frequency. We analyzed it and inputted it into our last portable dimensional gate generator to open one nearby. We aimed slightly off on purpose—no telling what attack might come if we landed right on you."
"Sorry. Worst timing by accident. Wasn't on purpose."
Tolari bowed his head slightly. But that's not the issue right now, is it? Portable dimensional gate generator? Something like that exists?
"It's fine. And this is the portable dimensional gate generator."
Virex pointed to the small device pressed to his head.
"It even has brainwave reading for translation. Connects different languages."
"It's like an all-in-one. But didn't we communicate fine with the Psyche folk?"
"They come with it standard. No—can't waste time on trivia. We don't know the fine print regulations anyway."
"Those Psyche bastards always blame 'regulations' too—what the hell are they?"
"Can't explain now. So……."
Virex pulled a few sheets of paper from inside his breastplate and asked.
"Have you had direct contact with any traitors?"
"Yeah. With one calling himself the sponsor."
"Did he ever hand you any paper with writing on it?"
"Paper? No."
"Not at all?"
"He went on and on about regulations and notices verbally, but never passed any paper or anything."
"Good, they haven't made the first move. Then take this."
Virex handed over a few sheets like A4 paper.
Hmm, it's covered in writing…… but it's in an unfamiliar script—I can't read a thing.
"Next, did the traitors give you any devices?"
"Devices? No way."
"Please confirm for sure. Really none?"
"None. Why would enemies trying to destroy us hand over devices? Why ask in the first place?"
"Regulations allow up to one. Needed to check if they preemptively gave junk to block future issues. Otherwise, what I pass could violate regs."
Wung!
Then the small dimensional gate behind him rippled violently. Virex clicked his tongue and removed the last remaining metal boot, setting it on the ground.
"Time's up already. Everything I can pass without breaking regs is on that paper. Of course, we haven't verified every reg, so issues might arise."
"Wait. I can't read what's written here."
"It's fine. The gate generator has translation. The remaining energy should suffice for that, even if it can't make a new gate."
"Huh? Huh?"
Virex bowed deeply toward me.
"I pray your Ald dimension repels the traitors' invasion and emerges as the final victor in this dimensional war. If so, please remember the goodwill we've shown. Details are on the last page."
He then removed the device from his head and placed it in my hand.
"……!! ……!!"
He added some incomprehensible farewell and threw himself back through the dimensional gate, vanishing.
The gate disappeared in an instant.
"……."
"……."
Tolari and I were speechless for a long while.
What the hell just happened? In that short time, it felt like a torrent of insane information.
The silence was broken by the deep voice of the golden eagle flying in from afar.
"What in the world happened! We detected powerful wind magic energy from here!"
"Teus……."
He landed where the dimensional gate had been and scanned the surroundings.
"Tch, did you waste magic on bare ground? If so, why not use it on me! This much would have lasted a month!"
Teus sighed. Then he started glaring at the small device in my hand.
"That…… feels like very strange power. Some similarity to the power in your sword. What is it?"
Beats me. What the hell is this?
What exactly just went down?
Traitors? Rebels? Portable dimensional transfer device?
And the mysterious armor that shrugged off Triple Magic, left behind by the self-proclaimed rebel leader?