Chapter 106
Chapter 106
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 106
Chapter Title: The Courage to Face Severance
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“Of course, that’s only if you have the courage to face the severance.”
The fairy tale of returning after 300 years and miraculously reuniting with a comrade from 300 years ago who somehow survived didn’t come true.
Lemi Elibaden.
As the dragons said, people die.
What Yoshuhar had cautiously recommended to me back then was Rista’s corpse. It took tremendous courage just to nod.
“If that is your wish, then follow me.”
As I followed Yoshuhar out of the prayer room, Rain took a deep breath and asked,
“……How was it?”
Just asking that meaningless question made my throat tighten.
Was it to prepare for the reality I was about to face by learning a fragment of the reality Rista had been forced to endure?
Yoshuhar glanced back briefly, then spoke in a voice soaked in grief.
“If you’re asking about Rista’s daily life as she cared for you here, she acted bright and cheerful, just as she always had.”
“Yeah……?”
“But no one failed to notice the shadow of sorrow cast over that smile.”
“How?”
“Because she laughed far too often. She was probably trying to hide her grief.”
The underground sanctuary—the ossuary—was sealed by a grand barrier at its entrance. When Yoshuhar placed his hand on it, dragon words majestically emerged, and the curtain of light slowly parted.
“The Light Dragon, taking pity on you all, bestowed light upon that child’s flesh, preserving it unchanged for 300 years…… But perhaps, for you, that might make for an even crueler reunion.”
Was he saying Rista’s body hadn’t decayed and remained as it was 300 years ago?
As Yoshuhar worried, I couldn’t help but fret over whether I could bear facing it.
At the same time, amid the shock of the reunion, something I’d meant to ask came to mind belatedly.
“Yoshuhar, can you tell me about Tureina’s end too?”
Hadn’t they said Tureina retained her youthful beauty even in old age? Had she received the Light Dragon’s grace as well?
“Tureina……”
I’d naturally expected good news, but when Yoshuhar hesitated before answering, a sliver of unease surged.
“As I said earlier, I cannot answer that question.”
No, it wasn’t just a sliver.
It was the moment when a worry I’d recently suppressed by force, lurking in a corner of my mind, suddenly amplified for certain.
“Don’t tell me it’s for the same reason you can’t reveal the black mages’ identities?”
That instant was the turning point.
In that fleeting moment, too many events unfolded for my mind to process.
Darkness—an unfathomable, overwhelming darkness—engulfed my vision, no, the world itself.
Then, intense tremors rippled across the ground, strong enough to knock one off their feet, followed by a chilling shriek as if thousands or tens of thousands of beasts cried out at once, tearing at my eardrums.
‘No way……’
My heart pounded wildly, instinctively shifting into combat readiness. The familiar aura filling the air, suffocating me…… It was the Abyss.
Screeech……
……Screeech, screeech……
……Screeech…… skree, screeech……
………………Screeech.
A high-pitched frequency like nails neurotically scraping glass pierced my ears, making them throb as cold sweat drenched my body.
“Yoshuhar, this, this can’t be…… right?!”
Even Lin had heard that sound only once. It meant just one thing.
In the final battle, when the Lizard Lord’s seal broke and a crack formed in the World Axis—it was that sound. More precisely, the sound of the entity beyond the seal forcibly clawing at it, creating a rift.
Yoshuhar, who knew the gravity of the situation better than anyone, suddenly erupted in a massive burst of light, assuming his draconic form, spreading his vast wings, and launching himself out the door.
“What the hell is……?”
Pushing through the gale from his wingbeats, I barely made it outside to witness the madness unfolding before my eyes.
“Ha, ha, ahahaha……!”
“Hee, hee heeheehee……!”
The guards, who had been clawing at their faces until they were smeared with blood, were now bursting into insane laughter.
And their eyes……
Those two eyes……
Were slowly turning dark blue-green. It was a familiar sight—the process of being consumed by the Abyss’s madness, transforming into undead.
“This is insane……”
No way, this can’t be happening.
This is the Papal Palace.
The center from which light spreads across the world, the headquarters of the Light Dragon Church, the stronghold of the Golden Dragon Legion……
A place where this could never happen—and yet it was.
“Pipi! Kasena!”
Panting desperately, I searched for my companions, but the situation was hopeless.
The Abyss’s concentration was so thick that dark blue-green currents drifted like fog, gradually blocking my vision.
“Pipi───!”
How many times did I scream until my throat tore?
By some miracle, I found Kasena thanks to Pipi’s spherical flame barrier enveloping her.
Inside the barrier, Kasena was gasping painfully for breath. An overwhelming wave of relief hit me, making me dizzy.
Without Pipi, Kasena would have met the same fate as the guards. It wasn’t a concentration a normal person could withstand.
“Good job, Pipi. Keep protecting Kasena.”
Yoshuhar and the cardinals led the Golden Dragon Legion into the sky in numbers that blotted it out, circling a single point.
A voice not of this world emanated, surrounding the increasingly tearing dimensional rift.
I didn’t even have time to glance up. The next instant, dark blue-green light flared like fireworks at my feet, spreading across the ground.
──?!
The surface, rapidly eroded by the Abyss, writhed with countless letters and equations slithering like snakes.
A magic square……?
And with each flicker of that light, the Abyss tumor sprouting in the sky pulsed in resonance. I realized it instantly. This was a dimensional array.
“Bell Quirius.”
My vision tinted red as a pure white flower with seven petals bloomed from my pupils, spinning beautifully.
Before the bloodline secret that dissected all things into equations, the world shattered into numbers, flooding my mind with so much information it burned white-hot.
Kneeling on one knee, I carefully examined the magic square’s structure, and my eyes trembled.
‘What is this……?’
Magic, rituals, and black magic intertwined with exquisite precision—it was overwhelming artistry.
┏ 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 ┓
・The runes used: a combination of formulaic Ruticen, incantation-type Altigma, taboo Orvios, and amplification Delvasherz, in ratios 2.2:2.1:3.7:2.0.
┗ 0 0 1 0 0 1 0 0 1 ┛
Moreover, the runes were maliciously scrambled like a cipher, as if insured against anyone reverse-engineering it.
This rune combination warned:
Touch even one number wrong, and the Abyss will devour your brain. So don’t you dare interfere.
“Ha…….”
Tension like walking on thin ice mixed with reckless fighting spirit, bursting into a hollow laugh.
‘Fine…… I’ll take this bet.’
Starting with the vector equation of the vertical line forming the 293rd equation.
Reverse the equation, expand to basic elements, then recombine.
Pop, pop—blood vessels in my eyes burst one by one, stinging my pupils with blood, blurring my vision.
It’s fine.
Still fine.
Unlike previous equations, the key here was swapping real roots for imaginary ones to sabotage the magic square’s effects.
Drip—blood trickled down both cheeks, met at my chin, and fell in drops to the ground.
It’s fine.
I can do more.
Rituals and black magic foundations were hard to unravel, but twisting just the Ruticen and Delvasherz-based spells would deal significant damage to this intricate higher-order magic square.
‘Can’t fix the rift coordinates on the World Axis now, so alter the power. Minimize the damage.’
It was a delicate task requiring focus like threading a needle’s eye a thousand times without a single miss.
213, 269, 351, 421.
Dissect the equations from the puzzle-like square, reverse, recombine, and slot back. That completed the 67th equation.
Mana left is about 2,000? I can do two more…… As I panted, wiping cold sweat from my forehead—
“Hmm?”
From beyond the Abyss fog, a voice so familiar it ached my heart seemed to call.
“There’s still foreign matter remaining.”
Click…… High heels sharply striking marble, and with it, the faint outline of a familiar yet unfamiliar wide-brimmed hat writhed in the mist.
No, it’s not certain.
Bell Quirius overuse blurred my vision momentarily. Maybe a hallucination.
But my hearing was clear. I’d definitely heard that voice before.
Slightly more sultry than in my memory, but one I’d heard so often it was tiresome…… Whose voice was it?
“I’ll handle it.”
The momentary lapse in focus—due to fragmented memories circling my mind and an overwhelming surge of mana that chilled my spine to the marrow—was my downfall.
Swish, the sound of an iron fan unfolding.
In that instant, whoosh—a blaze erupted, and an indescribably potent Abyss storm engulfed Rain.
“What……?”
A 2-star barrier couldn’t hold even a second?
Throwing myself toward Kasena and Pipi to erect a new one, the iron fan sliced the air like a scythe swung viciously.
The storm wrapped around Rain and Kasena first, hurling them far away, plowing up the ground along the trajectory and shattering the marble pavement.
“…….”
Hiding her face below the unfolded fan, Valensidis eyed the situation before reporting to the woman in the wide-brimmed hat, Tureina.
“The sense to erect a barrier in that instant…… Looks like we missed.”
Tureina glared at Valensidis suspiciously for a moment, then bit down on her pipe shaped like a fire dragon and issued a curt order.
“Finish it off properly.”
“Yes.”
Tureina then strode into the Papal Palace as if entering her own garden. No human could stop her.
Those who escaped the madness and mounted even feeble resistance had their bodies twisted by the smoke she exhaled, limbs torn apart and scattered across the floor.
Treading expressionlessly over the splattered flesh, Tureina’s gaze turned toward the entrance to the underground ossuary.
‘I thought the barrier would give me some trouble……’
With all cardinals absent, or perhaps due to the World Axis rift, the barrier had vanished without a trace.
Whatever the reason, it was fine.
As long as she could enter and meet him—that was enough. The cigarette smoke filling Tureina’s lungs felt thicker than usual.
“I’ll rescue you now, Master.”
* * *
In the future, the global cataclysm recorded as the Black Point Rampage was visible even from Delaiten.
“That can’t be…….”
Madelia saw the heavens roil under sinister clouds and hurriedly donned her robe, summoning soldiers.
“We head to the Papal Palace immediately. Gather all available forces.”
It wasn’t just Delaiten—the tearing of dimensions echoed across the continent, naturally drawing all eyes at once.
“What the hell is that?”
Whether Leo Ren, the Bow Star dozing on a rooftop, or Doran Slade leading his special forces toward Haral Doniki.
“…….”
Even the heroine drenched in the blood of the ‘Ancien’ she’d just felled could clearly see that dark spot.
Her name was Frisvia, clad head to toe in ultra-advanced mechanical gear.
First among the eleven platinum-grade adventurers deemed the strongest, her petite, girl-like build marked her as a Dwarf.
Inside her optical helmet, Frisvia’s lips twisted slightly.
“Hmph, so it’s begun even south of the barrier.”
And that day, emergency missives went out to all mobilizable forces.
Starting with the five Imperial Understars acknowledged by the Emperor as the empire’s strongest, to the platinum adventurers……
It was the declaration of martial law.
* * *
When I came to—no, when I opened my eyes— the stench of rotting greenery filled the air.
The mana encircling my body faded slowly. I’d definitely cast a defensive spell…… What? The barrier’s intact.
How? The answer was twofold: a threat-only illusion spell, or the opponent never intended harm……
“She threw us far…….”
Rain knew the answer.
Steadying his ragged breath, he hoisted Kasena onto his back. They’d been flung to the northern forest outskirts of the city, giving a full view of the disaster engulfing the Papal Palace.
All living things…… writhed in a hell of agony.
“Emergency, emergency, emergency!”
Pipi, patrolling the skies, dove down urgently. Simultaneously, immense mana squeezed his lungs as it approached.
‘Damn…… She wasn’t even using half her power normally.’
Carrying an overwhelming miasma that rotted everything around, the student council president Valensidis appeared before him.
Though whether that title mattered now was questionable.
Amid his heaving breaths, a massive black mana wave rivaling 5-star condensed in Valensidis’s hand.
“Finally showing your true colors, you bastard.”
I considered setting Kasena down to fight at full strength, but in ‘combat,’ he outclassed me.
More like a vile expert?
He’d instantly grab Kasena as a weakness and take me down easily. Mobility halved—the worst scenario—but I couldn’t abandon her.
‘Can’t even form seals, so no mental barrier……’
No, with most mana spent on Bell Quirius, I lacked even the power for a mental barrier. Had to find a way to survive.
“Hey, why so quiet?”
But he didn’t respond.
That gap in behavior grated unbearably.
“Say something.”
“…….”
“I said say something, damn it! Why! Why the hell?! You could’ve killed me just now but didn’t? Why throw me here?!”
By then, a ferocious darkness hovered over Valensidis’s palm, poised to swallow everything.
Bell Quirius.
As I hastily deployed my visual field in blood-red, Valensidis glanced skyward.
“Neither you nor I can defy the great current of the natural order right now.”
“……?”
“But we can judge right from wrong. And choose accordingly. With our free will.”
Valensidis extended his hand toward me—and in that moment, the dark wave exploded from it.