Chapter 121
Translator: penny
Chapter: 121
Chapter Title: The One We Should Believe In and Follow - 2
I headed to the place where Claire's trail had last cut off.
As a hero of sorts, tracking her wasn't exactly easy, but I eventually found it and pursued immediately.
How far had I traveled like that?
Claire's trail had ended deep inside a massive ravine.
And there,
as if on display, dozens of corpses were scattered about.
Men and women, young and old, even different races, but they all shared one thing in common.
An hourglass.
The emblem of Chronos was etched on their chests, radiating an ominous aura.
Anyone else might have investigated the bodies or just ignored them and moved on, but knowing exactly what this was, I drew Moonlight.
And then.
-Splat!!
"Kyieeeek!!"
I plunged Moonlight, transformed into a sword, straight into the nearest corpse.
At that moment, the body—which had completely lost all signs of life—let out a scream and jerked upright.
It was only natural.
These weren't corpses at all.
-Kik! Kikik! Kiiiik!
The fallen corpses—no, the lures—began to rise.
Moving like zombies in their grotesque forms, mimicking the living to draw people in, they resembled the lures on deep-sea anglerfish.
Of course, unlike mere lures, these had attack power too, charging at me to eliminate the intruder.
-Slash!!
But there was no way I'd fall to trash like that.
If I got taken down by these weaklings that crumpled after a couple of sword strikes, all my hard work up till now would weep tears of blood.
-Kyiek! Kyiek!!
One by one, the lures resembling corpses.
More precisely, the minions belonging to a massive mimic monster—abducted, devoured, and transformed—began to vanish.
After finishing off every last lure scattered around, I pressed deeper into the ravine and discovered a ruin with an open entrance.
Or, to be exact.
In the game, it was a monster included in the pre-campaign DLC pack before the full release.
A monster that implanted targets inside itself, showing them sweet visions of the future to make them follow Chronos later.
Of course, hardly any players fell for it...
The problem was that NPCs definitely did, and Claire—clearly one of them—had crawled right in here.
"Tch."
If I left her be, Claire would fully swing over to Chronos's side.
That would be a real headache, so I had to rescue her first.
I glanced at the ruin and switched Moonlight to staff form.
Then, for a declaration of war, I fired off a spell.
A glowing orb shot out and crashed into the ruin, revealing three eyes above the entrance.
The monster, impervious to any outside attacks, laughed.
If you want to kill me, come inside, it seemed to say, its three eyes curving into crescent moons with a creepy grin.
So I grinned back.
Let's see if you can split me apart later too.
As I entered the ruin—no, the monster's maw—a plain stone corridor greeted me.
It was so identical to the game that I wasn't particularly impressed.
Which was why I walked in without worry, and soon spotted a slime mimicking the corridor.
-Grrk... Grrrk...
As I stopped approaching, the slime writhed and began crawling toward me to devour me.
For someone who made it this far, taking out a couple slimes was child's play.
But why put out trash like this?
The answer was simple.
Killing this slime and discovering the item inside was exactly what the monster wanted.
"Ice Missile."
So I froze the slimes solid and just passed them by.
-Rumble...
"Haha. What, does it bug you that I didn't take the hourglass?"
-Ruuuumble...!!
Killing that slime forces you to acquire the hourglass.
A cursed item that restores mana while held, but that's just a trap.
The moment you find it, it auto-binds, and it amps up the monster's strongest mental attack in the final room.
'Mimang.'
Picking it up for a bit of mana recovery just ramps up the difficulty yourself.
Like I'd do something that stupid.
I mocked the intensifying vibrations—like the thing was fuming—and kept going.
After that, I encountered more monsters, traps, and even various treasure chests.
I ignored every single one cleanly, and each time, the vibrations grew fiercer.
Scratching the monster's temper raw like that, I wandered the interior until I reached a vast room with no end in sight, where I let out a sigh.
"Argh."
A groan escaped me.
The endless room was filled wall-to-wall with paintings, all of me and Claire.
Anyone could see they proved Claire was in this room, and as I looked, they began subtly tempting and shifting.
But maybe because I hadn't taken a single hourglass so far?
Or my mental resistance was high?
Or perhaps because I worshipped Cosmo.
Whatever the reason, the monster's 'Mimang' kept failing.
The paintings just distorted, redrew themselves, distorted again, over and over.
Occasionally one succeeded, showing early days when I got along decently with the hero party, but that was too weak to affect me...
Might as well show me chicken, my computer, or my room.
Sneering at them, I walked on for a while.
How long had it been?
In a faint glow ahead, I spotted someone sitting with knees hugged to chest.
It was Claire.
And beside her lay over ten hourglasses.
They'd probably been stone fragments when found, but now, triggered by Mimang upon entering the room, they'd become real hourglasses, sand flowing upward like time reversal.
"What, like a squirrel hoarding them all."
I stomped the hourglasses to smithereens and grabbed Claire, shaking her roughly.
"Hey, hey. Snap out of it."
"Ah... Ahh... Uh... Hyunwoo... Hyunwoo..."
She kept calling my name, but she wasn't seeing me.
Probably lost in unchanging pasts and impossible futures.
I checked her condition.
Even after smashing all the hourglasses, her mental strength was draining fast; left like this, she'd drop dead right here, apostle or not.
Hmm.
That'd be a pain.
"Ugh, you really take a lot of work. Hey! Wake up!"
"Ahhh... Hyunwoooo... Heh, hehe. Ehehhe... Hehehe... Hyunwoooo... He... Hehehe... Ehehhehehehehe..."
I shook her hard, tapped her cheeks, snapped my fingers in her face over and over, even used a mental recovery skill, but nothing worked.
Proof she'd been deeply ensnared.
Only one option left.
I clenched my fist, gathered mana, and activated the Monk skill.
Clear Mind Water, which dispels all mental contamination states.
And then.
"I'll fix a hero like you!"
To transmit Clear Mind Water, I swung my fist at Claire's face as she grinned blankly up at me.
Sure, she'd been a huge pain, but there was no malice in this punch.
Just using the Monk skill 'Understand each other with fists alone' to overlay Clear Mind Water on her.
Important, so I'll say it again.
None at all.
"Not snapping out of it?"
Should I hit her again?
As her left cheek swelled and she stared blankly up at me, I gathered mana.
Didn't some great saint say something like this?
If slapped on the left cheek, offer the right.
Conversely, when hitting, balance it out, right?
So might as well make both sides nice and puffy...
"...Huh? H-Huh...?"
She'd been staring blankly when she tilted her head, then flinched and scooted back in shock.
"W-Why are y-you here?!"
"That's what I want to ask you. Why are you here?"
"...Th-That..."
Flustered, she stammered out her story. She'd chased a monster kidnapping people?
That was bait too.
All the captured ones got eaten by the monster and turned into those lures outside.
"...Sorry. I... I made trouble for you again."
"Go back to base camp for now. I've told the soldiers what you need to do there."
"Huh? B-But!"
-Roooaaar!!
Maybe because Claire woke up? The monster started shaking violently.
Pretty pissed, huh.
I'd overturned a perfectly set table.
"To sum up quick: this ruin—no, the mimic monster's temptation."
"...Is that... so... Then what I saw in this room...?"
"Its temptation, digging into your mind. And one more thing."
I grabbed Claire by the collar and locked eyes with her.
"Even if it's not your fault, there's no going back to the past, and you shouldn't anyway."
"B-But."
"That past you chose."
"...Ah..."
"No matter what."
"..."
"Absolutely."
"...A-Ahh..."
"Can't undo it."
That should get through.
If not...
I'd be out of options.
Claire, looking dejected, opened a portal and returned to base.
At her departure, the monster lost it completely and dropped its mimicry.
The stone floor turned to flesh, the paintings faded.
It spewed digestive juices everywhere, like it was determined to eat me instead, with horrific noises, but no problem.
Actually, perfect.
The easiest way to beat this thing was to make it drop the mimicry.
I sprinted to the end of the room, now turning to meaty walls.
Maybe because Claire, who'd been caught in Mimang, was gone?
The endlessly expanded room had shrunk considerably, revealing an exit not far off.
-Thump! Thump!
Exiting through it led to a massive chamber.
In the center, amid pools of blood and flesh, a giant heart throbbed.
This was the monster's heart.
The core emitting powerful mental contamination.
A normal person would go mad just being here briefly, but I'm a bit beyond normal.
And then.
"The one we should believe in and follow isn't the vile, petty Chronos—it's the great outer god of the cosmos, Cosmo! Charge!! Lance Chaaarge!!!"
I transformed Moonlight into a spear and rammed it into the heart.
-Kuooooh!!
Too much to endure? The massive monster screamed, and its internal minions flooded the room.
But too late.
"Explode!!"
-Boooom!!!
The Warrior's mighty skill, Explosive Shatter Strike, erupted from Moonlight's tip. The devastating blow that bursts the foe from inside shredded part of the heart. Then I switched Moonlight to knuckles and hammered a hook into it.
-Smack!!
The heart shuddered violently, and from the gash spilling black blood, a fountain of red erupted.
I could feel the monster dying bit by bit.
-Kyaaaak!!
To stop me?
Flesh ruptured here and there as internal monsters charged, but no time for them.
I flicked them away with casual spells and telekinesis, then pummeled the heart a few more times.
-Pssshhh!!
-Sploooosh!!
Finally, as the defenseless heart took constant hits and stopped.
Corrosive acid poured into the room.
A last-ditch tantrum: if I'm going, you're coming too.
I sneered at the monsters grinning as they melted toward me in the acid.
A clueless newbie might let someone destroy the heart here and die together.
But.
"See ya."
As a veteran, no way I'd die like that.
I instantly teleported out.
-Ugh... Uuugh... Uuuugh...
Emerging outside via teleport, the ruin—the monster—began collapsing.
No hiding now, it revealed its fully concealed eyes, staring at me as death crept in from the destroyed heart.
I met those eyes full of resentment and rage with a grin.
"What? Wanna split me again like before?"
Its face.
No trace of a smile left.
"Whoops."
The massive monster corpse crumbled to dust.
Left behind was one thing.
A fist-sized gray gem.
'Fragment of the Outer God's Power.'
Thinking of the achievement and skill from offering this to Cosmo's statue at DLC start, I couldn't hide my joy.
"Heh. Hehehe."
Way better than petty Chronos trying to game over anyone who won't obey—Cosmo just hands out sweet rewards and achievements for offerings.
Trust in Cosmo, and head to paradise—no, home.
Author's Note (Afterword)
Happy Friday, heh heh. See you tomorrow~! Bye~!!
P.S. Still got juice for a part 2, heh.