Chapter 141
Chapter 141
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 141
Chapter Title: Dimensional Parasites
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"Parasites?"
Havel voiced his doubt.
'I thought their abilities were just manifestations using Calamities.'
The superior version of the manifestation wielded by auras.
That was how Havel had viewed their powers.
But to think it was due to parasites.
'No, that's not entirely wrong.'
Havel recalled the Demonic Palace deeply engraved into his own flesh.
The power of the Demonic Palace had taken root in his body, much like a parasite.
And after it appeared, Havel had grown abnormally strong.
His original strength, plus the vessel of the Demonic Palace, and then absorbing Calamities on top of that.
That was how he had reached this point.
'Indeed.'
Havel had ultimately ascended to Transcendent.
At this stage, he could be seen as a mutant, no longer fully human.
"Quite an intriguing story."
"If it were just intriguing, that'd be fine."
A bitter expression crossed Kaal's face.
"In my view, the real problem is the reality where more and more people are gaining abilities from dimensional parasite infections—worse than the dimensional beasts themselves."
Kaal raised his hand.
Calamity writhed and flowed from his grasp.
"There's a reason I call this power a dimensional parasite."
"It doesn't fully belong to the one wielding it."
Havel thought back to the God of Night he had seen in the former 7th Hierarchy.
The crows that rampaged after receiving power from the God of Night.
They had merely borrowed that power.
It wasn't their own.
"And it will slowly dye the cities, until all of humanity is infected by the parasites."
Havel recalled the time when everyone in the world ended up using Calamities.
"I mentioned earlier. Ability users are a different species from humanity."
They merely wore the shell of humans.
Inside, they were completely different.
"When the entire world is infected by parasites."
Kaal stared directly at the people filling the burial chamber.
"Can we still call them humanity?"
The extinction of humanity.
That was what Kaal declared.
"Beyond the dimensional gates, there's undoubtedly a colony of parasites infecting humanity."
"The moment I was infected at age six, I gained intelligence rivaling an adult."
"The colony's lord must be an entity of even higher intelligence."
That lord of the colony was continuously infecting all of humanity.
Yet humanity couldn't reject ability users.
They were the finest resource against the dimensional beasts emerging from the gates.
Weapons had advanced through civilization's progress, sure.
But deploying ability users was far cheaper and safer.
Thus, humanity had grown increasingly reliant on them.
To the point where a world without ability users was unimaginable.
"What the colony's lord wants is simple."
"Infect all of humanity with parasites, make them its own."
"Then terraform the entire world into their colony."
By then, it would be too late.
No true humans would remain in this world.
The new humanity, infected by parasites, would become puppets following the colony's lord.
"I don't know everything the colony's lord desires."
"But they're steadily making humanity dependent on ability users."
The dimensional beasts steadily pouring from the gates.
And the ability users appearing knowingly or unknowingly alongside them.
The colony's lord was advancing its plan very slowly, over a long time.
Until the very last human was infected.
"I've been closing dimensional gates all this time to stop that."
Kaal recalled the gates he had sealed with his spatial abilities.
Even though he himself had gained these powers from a parasite infection.
He had kept closing them so the rest of humanity could survive a little longer.
"But if we don't eliminate the root cause, it'll just repeat."
All Kaal could do was delay it.
He had no way to remove the source.
It was obvious.
The colony, lord of the parasites, wouldn't let an infected Kaal attack it.
"The reason no major battles have broken out among ability users for so long, and why they've stayed united? It's the parasites' influence."
To prevent them from reducing each other's numbers.
It had deliberately implanted inhibitions against fighting one another.
"The parasite that infected me is the same. It's designed so I can't attack the colony's lord."
Kaal clenched and unclenched his fist.
Havel could guess why he hadn't shared this with other ability users.
But one question lingered for Havel.
"If I were the colony's lord, I would've made sure you couldn't even suspect it."
Not even allowing the feeling of rebellion.
Kaal let out a hollow laugh.
"There was a mistake during a hasty spatial jump once."
With that, Kaal slightly lifted his shirt.
His abdomen was hollowed out, pitch black.
"My spatial jumps break the body into particles, send them through the 4th dimension, then reconstruct in 3D space."
In that process, part of Kaal's body had been lost.
And the lost flesh contained part of the parasite.
"I managed to patch it up and survive, but that erased the vague reverence toward the colony."
A being born from coincidence.
The only one in the world harboring hostility toward the colony's lord.
That was Abraxas.
Kaal turned to Havel, who had been listening silently.
"But as I said, I can't do anything to the colony's lord myself."
As their eyes met, Havel understood one fact.
"......You were the one who summoned me."
"Correct."
Kaal couldn't touch the colony's lord.
So he had made a gamble.
Not opening a gate to the colony's lord's dimension.
But to another dimension entirely.
It risked inviting a new catastrophe.
But with humanity already starting to get fully infected.
It was a gamble worth taking.
It might summon someone to stand against the colony's lord.
And that gamble had paid off with Havel.
'The place I first saw in the 8th Hierarchy was another dimension, and the ghost city with the veil was the dimensional gate Kaal left open.'
Everything clicked into place, and Havel accepted it quickly.
"Still, I took some precautions."
Havel guessed what those were.
They pointed to his own status.
As their eyes met, Kaal smiled apologetically.
"When crossing space, I stripped away what the target possessed."
"And you can only retrieve it beyond that dimension."
"Yeah, it was random, but in your case, it was your age."
Now Havel understood why Kaal had mocked his appearance at first glance.
"So, I want to make a deal with you."
The story was over.
The secrets of this world and everything Kaal had done until now.
A single gamble on the line for humanity's extinction.
Kaal had bet on Havel.
"Havel, help me defeat the colony's lord."
Something the infected ability users couldn't do.
Only a being from another world could.
Kaal bowed his head in request.
He didn't know the value of the years he had taken from Havel.
But he had nowhere else to turn.
He was the only one freed from the colony's lord by chance.
Perhaps Kaal had been fighting alone in this world like an outcast.
Havel briefly thought of the Demonic Palace.
The days he had climbed it alone.
That searing loneliness still lingered vividly.
"You're lucky."
Age meant little to Havel.
But he had another reason for coming here.
"You've got the best shot at killing that colony's lord right in your hands."
Climb the Tower.
At that point, Havel had no reason to refuse Kaal's request.
"Lead the way."
Crushing bosses was his specialty. ◇◇◇◆◇◇◇ After finishing his conversation with Kaal.
Havel moved with him without hesitation.
The two boarded a vehicle called a bus.
"Where are we headed?"
Havel didn't know where the colony was.
So as he vaguely followed Kaal, the man explained.
"District 1."
District 1.
The city said to be completely conquered by dimensional gates.
"The colony's lord succeeded in dimensional transfer only once, six years ago."
Havel showed doubt.
"Then the dimensional gates happening now?"
"All the dimensional beasts are produced in District 1."
"Dimensional transfers consume a lot of power."
"So the colony's lord succeeded once, then steadily terraforms."
"You know more details than I expected."
Kaal's information was far more vast than imagined.
When asked about it, Kaal's face turned bitter.
"Well, I've been devising ways all this time."
"My first plan was to blow away District 1 along with the colony's lord."
In that process, Kaal had gathered vast intel.
And confirmed one thing.
That his power alone couldn't touch the colony's lord.
"What about Freddy?"
Freddy had said beforehand to let him help Kaal if possible.
"He's an ability user too. Same parasite infection."
Kaal didn't speak ill of Freddy.
He was an excellent agent who had saved countless lives.
But regardless of his will, the parasite dwelled within him.
"No matter how much a human struggles, once infected, it's no longer human."
Kaal said as much, gazing at his reflection in the bus window.
"And I'm the same."
No longer human, yet fighting to protect humanity.
Kaal wanted to defeat the colony's lord.
Havel didn't see him as just another person.
Havel might be in a similar situation.
'Completing myself as the lord of Calamities to protect the Central Continent. Is that what it means?'
For some reason, this hierarchy felt like the Tower speaking to him.
Are you human?
Are those you're protecting the same as you?
It kept repeating such words.