Chapter 121. What on earth has changed now?
Librarian Teheman paced in front of the corridor.
“It’s been a long while since he went in…”
His face full of worry, his pacing steps were unbearably restless.
No wonder, Aster, who had gone in long ago, still hadn’t come out.
‘Could something have happened…?’
During the wait, the gloomy premonition he had pressed down several times suddenly rose up.
For a moment, though, Teheman shook his head.
‘No, that can’t be.’
What lay below was a fragment of Heaven’s Reversal, and Aster was its rightful owner.
Would some mishap befall the proper owner who came to claim his own?
He’d heard of unworthy ones trying to seize a fragment and suffering misfortune, but this was not that situation.
“Then why?”
Why hadn’t Aster come out?
If he had, he would have emerged long ago. But since there was still no sign…
Teheman stood anxiously, pacing. For someone from Endurance who had waited decades, his restlessness seemed immoderate.
But it was understandable. Those few hours of waiting while Aster had not returned gnawed at him far more than the decades beforehand had.
Just as Teheman, pacing nervously, halted in front of the corridor, it happened.
“…This won’t do.”
He decided he had to go down and check personally.
It was not an easy decision for him. After all, the passage was pitch-black. That inside was by no means an ordinary space.
For others it might merely be dark, but to Teheman’s eyes it was clearly visible.
TSZZZZZZ—!
Grotesque characters shimmered, filling the corridor. The uncanny flow formed ripples.
It was a truly horrifying sight. Imagine the feeling of seeing thousands, tens of thousands of ants swarming in front of you.
It had not been like this originally. The corridor lurched into that dreadful transformation shortly after Aster had entered.
“Phew… I suppose there’s no choice.”
Teheman resolved himself and took a deep breath.
He steeled himself against the psychological revulsion and resolved to rescue Aster.
Counting down in his mind, ‘three, two, one….’
He stepped toward the corridor!
BAM!
“You’re… Here!”
With a strange booming sound, Aster popped out.
“…!”
Had he sprung up from the ground? Teheman’s expression hardened at Aster’s sudden, unexpected appearance.
Then again…
BAM!
“…Oh!”
Aster vanished right before Teheman’s eyes. The place where he reappeared was behind Teheman.
Startled by the scream behind him, Teheman spun around.
‘What on earth…’
Aster, who had been right in front of him a moment ago, had popped out of a bookshelf with a…
BAM!
As if ricocheting, as if…teleporting.
“What in the world…what happened?”
Aster pushed himself up, rubbing his eyes.
What had happened? It had been a bloody mess.
To put it bluntly… It had been very long.
* * *
Time rewinds to a few hours earlier.
Aster had reached the end of the passage and seized the fragment of Heaven’s Reversal.
TSZZZZZZ!
The fragment crumbled, emitting a faint light. The page that had once been part of Heaven’s Reversal turned to dust in an instant and vanished.
Immediately after, the second Fire Seal changed.
Creak! Creak!
The strange characters from the fragment crawled along his skin and devoured the second Fire Seal.
‘Yes, it was consumption.’
There was no better way to describe it. The strange characters greedily ate up the second Fire Seal as if ingesting nourishment.
After a moment…
The devouring characters overlapped and layered until they formed a shape. They had swallowed the original Fire Seal and occupied that space.
At that point Aster thought, perhaps… the Fire Seal he’d obtained from Destrou was a kind of energy source? A feast prepared for the fragment of Heaven’s Reversal.’
Well, that aside, up to there it was just fine.
“This is different now… What changed?”
Having taken the fragment, he should have noticed something different. But nothing had changed.
Then, at that moment.
― [Leave.]
Heaven’s Reversal’s voice echoed in his mind. It was as curt as ever. It remained silent when it had to speak, but now, only when needed, it jabbed out a line.
But told him to leave?
He had already intended to leave soon. He’d taken what there was to take; why linger in such a gloomy place?
With that in mind, he climbed the stairs…
“…Hm?”
He couldn’t get out.
“What is this?”
Although he had certainly entered the passage and ascended the steps, when he opened his eyes he was back on the underground floor.
He steadied himself and climbed again. But once again…
TSZZZZ!
“…”
He was back at the bottom. It was as if a phantom barrier had been set like a maze.
How many times had he climbed since then? Maybe ten times, he guessed.
“Keeep… returning?”
Something was wrong.
Why?
“…Then I realized. Ah, it wasn’t telling me to walk out.”
“…It was telling you what?”
Aster rubbed the bluish area around his eyes with healing light and continued.
“Suddenly a rush of knowledge poured in.”
“Knowledge…?”
“Yes.”
It was knowledge.
“To put it plainly… how to use the power contained in the fragment.”
“Ah, method?”
Teheman’s eyes brightened.
“So, what exactly is the power contained in the fragment?”
Curiosity about the power inside the fragment he had guarded for decades burned within him.
“Hmm. This power is…”
Aster thought carefully.
After grasping how to use the fragment, he exited the passage.
If one only looked at that phenomenon, one could say this.
“Spatial movement?”
“Spatial movement? May I ask why you think so?”
Teheman asked with a careful expression.
Indeed, spatial magic had been entirely obsolete in modern times.
‘Warp gates are merely reviving ancient artifacts. At most, spatial magic is limited to anti-space…’
So, spatial movement?
If Aster’s words were correct, it could break the modern magical world’s common sense. Perhaps that was why Teheman listened to Aster’s voice with bated breath.
Aster spoke not long after.
“Because… uh. Please look at this for a moment.”
“…?”
“Because this makes it a bit painful when space overlaps… just a moment.”
TSZZZZ!
Suddenly, Aster conjured a sphere of magical power (a mana orb) into the air. Teheman tilted his head.
“A mana orb? Why conjure a mana orb all of a sudden?”
Though he couldn’t see, Teheman’s sense of magic made the orb’s form distinct.
“Wait a bit. I think this will work… hmm.”
Aster closed his eyes, a vague tickling in his head. Was it intuition? Different from how it feels during spatial movement.
But why?
‘Ugh…’
He simply couldn’t grasp it, there was a ticklish origin somewhere, but he couldn’t find the precise spot that caused the tickle.
Then suddenly…
Flash!
A spark shot through Aster’s mind.
“…Done.”
A soft voice. Teheman tilted his head. What did he mean by “done”?
“Don’t you understand?”
“You should explain it… hmm?”
Teheman realized something strange right then.
“The mana orb… huh?”
The mana orb that had been on the right had moved. Now, it was on the left.
‘…When did it move?’
There had been no hint. Even though Teheman was blind, he was a mage of considerable skill. Could he have missed the orb’s relocation?
If it were a newly conjured orb…
‘That wasn’t it either.’
Which meant.
“…Is this really spatial magic?”
Aster did not answer. Instead, he repeated what he had just done.
‘…Let’s see.’
Once he’d gotten a feel for it, the second attempt was easier.
TSZZZZ!
The orb on the left vanished. This time it reappeared above Teheman’s head. There was no trajectory. No premonitory symptom, it simply seemed to have leapt across space.
“Hehehe. Really, this really is it? Hehehehehe…”
A hollow laugh.
Teheman could hardly believe it.
‘Spatial magic? Hah! How can that be?’
A moment ago, he had assumed it was magic. But upon sensing that phenomenon anew, he was certain.
‘This is not magic.’
Magic, whether ancient or modern, prohibited or permitted, shared a commonality. They were used via two energy sources: mana and magical power. But the movement of the mana orb that Aster showed was different.
There was no flow of mana, no utilization of magical power.
Then what is it?
“…Heaven’s Reversal.”
Librarian Teheman whispered the word.
A trembling tone in the throat of an old man witnessing a miracle.
* * *
A village near the Dekullan family’s territory.
FWOOOSH!
Sudden flames swallowed the village. Simultaneous fires shot up in many places, and screams rose from all directions.
“F-fire!”
Someone discovered the blaze and cried out.
“Save me…!”
“Aah!”
Somehow, people writhing in flames moaned in pain.
“My fa-ther—!”
“Hurry, hurry, get out! Go…!”
A soot-streaked boy looked at the father pinned under a pillar and screamed; the father gestured for the son to run.
If there were a hell, would it not look like this?
The screams never stopped. The acrid smell of burning flesh sickened the senses, and the villagers’ wails were heart-rending.
An old man looked at the scene in a daze.
“Ah, ah…”
Between slightly parted lips, a voice escaped in deep grief.
How could he not?
“Th-the village… the village—!”
This village was the old man’s life’s work. His grandfather had settled this land, his father had tended it, and he planned to hand it down to his son and granddaughter.
To the village elder who had governed the village for generations, the place was the world. And yet all of it burned away in an instant. How could he remain composed!
The elder sobbed.
He could not help but cry. Half-lost in his thoughts, he dashed out. Even with his aged body he wanted to help; he wanted to pull at least one person from the fiendish flames.
A rough hand grabbed his head then.
“…Agh!”
“Elder, sit down.”
“P-please… save—”
“You know I said I’d spare them, didn’t I? All you have to do, elder, is watch.”
The man with the coarse grip forced the elder down on the slope overlooking the village. He lay helplessly.
“Sit quietly and watch. What is before you is a one-of-a-kind artwork. Do you not feel anything?”
“Ah, ugh, ugh, demon…”
The thing called Hollend regarded the sight like one entranced by a masterpiece.
He truly looked like someone lost in rapture before art.
“Elder, isn’t it truly beautiful? The father saving the son, the son crying for the father. How moving… hm?”
Hollend murmured as if reciting a poem; there was an odd look in his eyes.
“Elder? Hmm.”
The elder who had been alive a moment before was now cold.
A hole gaped through his chest.
The voice then sounded.
“Leader, Hollend. Receive the leader’s orders.”
“Hmm…”
The voice came from a woman wearing a crow mask. The posture and voice suggested a woman.
Hollend stared at the woman.
“Leader’s orders, eh… wait a moment.”
Hollend snapped his fingers.
Click!
KA-BOOM!
Hollend turned the village into a handful of ash and then looked up at the crow-masked woman.
“Come then, speak your will, crow. If it’s nothing, you’ll pay for killing my audience.”
A chilling murderous aura. The crow-masked woman spoke in a flat tone.
“The trade with Lorutel. We are to move out together with you, as per the head’s command.”
“Hmm. Is that so?”
Hollend’s eyes glittered.
“The Red Jade stigma placed by Kalahan can be cleansed there. That opportunity exists.”
“Stigma…”
Low, thick voice.
Crunch!
With the murderous aura came a violent surge that shook the earth. Even the crow was taken aback.
“Hmm.”
The crow sighed as Hollend’s eyes shone.
“Does that mean the scoundrels who killed our deputy leader among the vermin might come?”
“…Perhaps.”
It wasn’t certain.
But even as a possibility, it was enough for Hollend.
“So, that’s it then.”
The Red Flame Mage Hollend’s resolve solidified as his retinue came to attention.
