Chapter 121: To Die is to Live
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 121: To Die is to Live
A hellish scene unfolded before Yernil's eyes.
What was presumed to be Dalstream was smeared across the conference room's walls and floor like slush.
How, then, could they prove it was him?
“I definitely saw him here with Life Detection.”
Professor Isilof had confirmed it with magic.
“Caleb was in this room too…”
That was the problem.
They didn't know his exact location in the room, but the life signs of two people had been present, and then, one after another, they had vanished.
It had happened suddenly, just before Isilof and Meldini arrived.
“I wonder if Caleb is part of this bloodbath…”
Someone made the chilling remark. Turning, Yernil saw it was the Halfling crossbowman, Remus.
Others from the same party were there too: Greg the Barbarian and Astin the Dwarf wizard.
Everyone was looking for Caleb.
“There’s too little blood for two people to have been murdered. And I don’t see any of Caleb’s belongings—his coat, his magic wand, anything like that,” the Consul deduced.
Of course, Dalstream’s belongings had also been obliterated, so he couldn't be certain.
Nearby, Bernard wandered through the room, praying.
“Aaaah! Caleb! Wh-where are you? Nathaniel, your servant begs of you. Help me find that wizard!”
There was also Urgash, the Orc Constable.
“What in the world is this tragedy?”
And Priest Mikhail.
“Yernil…?”
His eyes met Yernil’s, but he didn’t scold her for leaving her hospital room.
He simply bowed his head low.
And Neko.
“…”
The Beastfolk wizard was slumped on the floor, weeping.
“We… we shouldn’t have left. We should have fought with him…”
“Lead the search like the Inspector you are, Neko,” Magistrate Delphin said sharply as she passed by.
“I…”
But Neko had no strength left in her heart for that.
“I’m… I’m still just a Constable…”
Someone else stood motionless in the conference room, their eyes looking as if their soul had departed.
“Isel.”
Her father, Edward, wrapped an arm around his eldest daughter’s shoulder.
“You must be exhausted. Go get some rest.”
“I want to… help find him.”
“…”
Clorence stared silently at Isel’s slumped back.
It was the first time his older sister had been this lost in despair since that day 12 years ago.
And there was another person suffering just as much as Isel.
Professor Meldini.
He sat in the middle of the carnage, tapping the floor with the tip of his wand. Tap, tap, tap.
“A fox.”
He shouted to the other wizards.
“Bring me a Fox Spirit… Find one from anywhere! If Caleb’s body isn’t destroyed, we can resurrect him! We have to find the body!”
It was possible, as long as his soul preservation hadn't been broken.
With the Fox Spirit’s unique soul-tracking ability, they might be able to find Caleb’s body.
If, that is, his body wasn't part of the remains ground into the room.
“There is one Fox Spirit named Soyul,” said Jacob, a graduate student from the slave management department.
“She collapsed during the battle earlier and is currently unconscious. Her life isn’t in danger, but we don’t know when she’ll wake up.”
“…Then bring one from Wyndham!” Meldini roared.
“That kid…”
The professor’s shoulders trembled violently.
“That kid could have become an Archmage.”
“…”
“I can’t lose two Archmages in one day…”
Yernil squeezed her eyes shut.
She focused all her senses on her ears.
Caleb.
She had to find him.
If he was dead, he wouldn't be making a sound, but if he was alive, she could find his heartbeat.
Was it possible, with so many people making so much noise all around her?
She had a baseless conviction that it was.
No, she had to make it possible.
Yernil gritted her teeth.
I will find him.
I have to find him.
I’ll find him, no matter what.
I will be the one to find him.
The sound of Krom talking to the Frostian Mage, suggesting they half-kill that cat bastard and interrogate him.
The sound of Professor Meldini’s weeping.
The footsteps of constables running.
The squelching of blood under their shoes.
No sign of Caleb.
The sound of Isel wiping her eyes.
Bernard’s chanted prayers.
Birtanen tearing apart the walls, floor, and drawers.
The incantations of wizards.
Life Detection, Undead Detection, Sound Detection.
No sign of Caleb.
“Yernil.”
Aimus gently tapped her shoulder.
His expression was incredibly dark.
He was holding a resurrection scroll. It was the one Caleb had been carrying.
“Caleb… is…”
Tears welled up in Yernil’s eyes.
“Caleb…”
She wiped her eyes and lifted her head.
She couldn't hear a thing.
But something caught her eye.
Above the wall cabinet that Back Attack was searching.
In a corner, near the high ceiling of the room, was a small ventilation shaft.
It looked just big enough for a person to slip inside lying down.
“Redeploy sentries.”
It was a kind of instinct. Some fateful bond drew her there.
She didn't know if it was Wizus or Nathaniel, but it felt like a god was giving her a revelation.
That she would find Caleb there.
It pulled her like a magnet.
Thwang!
And when she clung to the vent and pulled herself up.
“Caleb!”
Yernil found him.
The genius wizard’s body was perfectly preserved, without a single scratch.
*
Have you heard of the Second Law of Thermodynamics?
Also known as the Law of Entropy.
It states that within a closed system, all matter and energy will inevitably disperse and scatter into a state of disorder.
For example, if you spray perfume in the corner of a room, the perfume particles will spread throughout the entire room.
Why?
Because being concentrated in one place is an ‘orderly’ state, and being spread out is more disorderly.
If you open the door, the perfume molecules will spread out onto the street.
Because that is even more disorderly.
From the smallest twig to a rock, a massive building, a mountain, or even the sea.
Unless someone intervenes, everything will eventually crumble and scatter with the passage of time.
Even the Earth itself.
In billions of years, it will vanish without a trace, its particles scattered throughout the cosmos.
The Law of Entropy is the force that inevitably drives all things to annihilation.
So, humans die.
I remembered something I heard in a philosophy class.
Neither religion nor science knows the answer to where we go after death, but now, I knew.
The place humans go when they die.
“The Ethereal Galaxy…?”
A vast sea spread out before my eyes. There was no land, only water.
That sea, flowing with a mystical sapphire light, was the Ethereal Galaxy.
My body was floating on the water, but my clothes weren't the least bit wet.
It was strange that I was even wearing clothes.
—This way.
I heard a voice calling from the far side of the sea. Without even trying to swim, my body began to move slowly with the current.
Then, a white sandy beach appeared.
It felt like I was dreaming.
In dreams, scenes can change in an instant, right? Without any need for coherence.
This sequence in the sea was like a leap in my train of thought.
When I arrived at the beach in an instant, a god was there.
I didn't have to ask to know.
The god’s name was…
“Wizus?”
His sapphire-hued body was the size of a person, and from it poured a bluish smoke and light.
The god was sitting on the white sand, touching it.
It was only then that I realized.
This isn’t a white sandy beach.
A chill ran down my spine.
Beyond the beach stood something like a mountain, but looking again, I saw it wasn't a mountain.
It was glass. A massive shard of glass.
Its true identity was…
“That’s… an hourglass…”
An hourglass of immense size lay shattered. The sand that had poured out of it had created the white beach, forming an island in the middle of the Ethereal Galaxy.
An hourglass so large it could create land… what in the world was this?
“You were not supposed to come here,” Wizus said.
“Pardon?”
“How can a preserved soul leave its body and ascend to the Ethereal Galaxy?”
Huh?
Wait a minute.
Now that I thought about it, that was truly strange.
Even in the game, there was no event where you traveled to the Ethereal Galaxy upon death.
And here, too.
From what I knew, people like Avison had already been resurrected twice. The Deep Layer adventurers must have been resurrected countless times.
But not a single one of them had ever said, ‘Wizus looks like this,’ or ‘The Ethereal Galaxy is like that,’ or ‘I went there and saw an hourglass island.’
“Have the other resurrected people never been here?”
“…That should be obvious.”
Then why was I here?
Could my soul preservation have been broken?
No.
If it had, Wizus wouldn't have asked, ‘Why is a preserved soul here?’
My soul preservation was intact. But why?
Could it be…
Was it because I chewed the poison while the Turn-Based Hourglass was active?
I looked up at the hourglass.
[Turn-Based Hourglass Cooldown: 44 seconds]
Even after arriving here immediately after my death, the hourglass’s ‘turn’ was still active.
Amazingly, it seemed the hourglass could dominate not only the physical world but the Ethereal Galaxy as well; even the galaxy itself had initially been frozen.
Though with only three seconds left, the waves had quickly started to churn.
What if I had met Wizus then?
Would Wizus have been frozen in time too?
—Caleb!
I heard someone’s voice.
—Caleb!
It was Yernil.
—Caleb!
*
“Hah!”
When I opened my eyes, I was in the middle of the chaotic annex of the Public Security Headquarters.
Yernil had her arms wrapped around my neck.
“Hyung-nim! Are you okay!?”
Back Attack shook my shoulders frantically.
“Haaah.”
Aimus let out a deep sigh of relief. In his hand was a torn resurrection scroll.
I was surrounded by a crowd of familiar, relieved faces.
Three professors—Isilof, Meldini, and even Hailey. And the assistant instructors, including Jacob and Scarlett.
Birtanen, Jikal, Emma… no, she wasn't here (the temple was probably the busiest place right now). Instead, I saw Priest Mikhail, Urgash, and Neko. Hijikata shrugged. “Soyul and Gildal are a bit injured,” he muttered under his breath.
Lord Edward, Clorence, and Isel were also there.
“We need to talk later,” Isel said softly.
“Okay.”
It seemed I had worried a lot of people. And the one who found my body and saved me was, as expected…
“Yernil found Caleb. She suddenly rushed to the air vent by herself and pulled him out,” Aimus explained.
That’s Yernil for you. I knew I could count on her.
“I’ve worked in this annex for two years, and I never even knew there was an air vent here,” Urgash said with a shrug.
“Caleb. Professor Dalstream is…” Isilof asked cautiously, a worried look on his face.
“…”
I held my tongue.
I couldn't just shout, Professor Dalstream protected me, exposed the Labyrinth’s secrets, and was murdered for it!
The fact that he knew was the reason he was killed.
I shouldn't go around carelessly spouting what I know.
I would have to discuss it quietly, only with people I could trust. Like Professor Isilof or Meldini. Or Isel, with her 100% trust level.
A few lines of text appeared next to the hourglass.
[First Death]
[The Hourglass's control ability has been expanded.]
[Select a person to subordinate.]
1. Aimus (Trust: 100%)
2. Back Attack (Trust: 100%)
3. Isel (Trust: 100%)
4. Neko (Trust: 100%)
5. Bernard (Trust: 100%)
The range of my turn-based commands had expanded. To two people.
“Caleb.”
Yernil pulled her forehead away from my shoulder and spoke, her eyes glistening with tears.
And something about her seemed a little off.
“I… how did I… find you?”
“What?”
“It’s not like I heard anything, but I just felt… I don’t know, like I absolutely had to go there…”
Because I told you to.
“Is this… fate?”
Calm down, Yernil…
*
In a village between floors, somewhere in the Labyrinth.
After all sorts of hardships, the Wyndham duo had finally dealt with the elevator and found their way to a village.
“It’s been a while since I’ve been in a village.”
“We almost had to evacuate everyone. If the Public Security Headquarters had discovered the elevator before we did.”
Bipa had recovered some of her lost strength with Chakbyeokingwang, but she still looked utterly exhausted. On top of that, her fan was broken.
It was late, near dawn.
While a war was raging in Sohen due to a Labyrinth eruption, the residents of the inter-floor village were sound asleep.
Knock, knock.
Mugol, having stopped in front of a shabby house, knocked on the door.
“Think she’s already asleep?”
“If she is, we’ll wake her up.”
Click!
Just as Bipa was about to turn the doorknob again, someone burst out from inside.
She was a Fox Spirit with eight tails.
Most Fox Spirits were beautiful, but this woman was beyond such simple descriptions.
Perfectly symmetrical features and a small, sharp nose. Inside her picturesque lips, neat teeth shone white.
And her eyes.
To borrow Bipa’s expression, her large, blue eyes were like ‘lakes of aether.’
“What is it?”
Once known as the strongest in Wyndham, the Fox Spirit Shaman, Hyedam.
She was there.
“Are you Hyedam right now? Or Hyoin?”
“Hyedam.”
“That’s a relief.”
“What’s going on all of a sudden?”
“Well…”
Bipa fiddled with her fan, wondering where to begin the story.
Meanwhile, Mugol cut straight to the point.
“Hey. We met Caleb.”
“What…?”
“Hey, you idiot, you can’t just say it like that.”
“Wait. What are you talking about?”
Hyedam cut Bipa off.
Her heart plummeted.
“Caleb… is alive?”
“Yeah. He’s alive. Your old lover.”
“He wasn’t just my lover,” Hyedam shook her head.
“He was my fiancé.”
Bipa thought to herself.
If the woman’s eyes were lakes of aether, her current gaze was the form of a Wave Whip.
She looked ready to destroy everything in her path to find her fiancé.
“Calm down…”