Wheeeeeee!
As the monster came charging, the sound of the siren drew closer and closer.
Tentacles came stabbing down toward me.
Boom. Boom.
I dodged the first tentacle that slammed down, and dodged the second as well.
My back felt exposed.
If I took even one step back, I would clearly fall into the hole.
I lifted my head and looked at the monster charging at me.
The monster, now right in front of me, didn’t seem to have any intention of stopping.
Tap.
Staring at the approaching monster, I suddenly flung myself backward.
The moment I threw myself back, the ground vanished beneath my feet.
The floor disappeared, and below me stretched a black hole with no end in sight.
As time had passed, I had become able to use gravity reversal and wind magic, but I did not use any magic at all.
On top of that, I had neither my bag nor my spear with me.
I had thrown the bag off earlier, and when I jumped backward, I had driven the spear into the edge of the hole.
Instead, the whip Magreta had given me was wrapped around my arm.
And the end of that whip was tied to the spear lodged in the edge of the hole.
Rattle-rattle-rattle.
The whip wrapped around my arm kept unwinding.
After I flew backward about twenty meters like that, my body began to plummet downward.
The ground rose above me, and the vertical tunnel filled my vision.
When I lifted my head, I saw the monster above the hole.
The monster was following me.
That was a relief.
However, the monster did not throw itself down the way I had.
It was a controlled object enraged to the tips of its head, but the thing chased after me by driving its tentacles into the vertical tunnel.
‘So it’s not an idiot after all.’
If it had been an ordinary beast, there would have been no need to go through all this trouble.
[Now!]
The moment it entered the vertical passage, I sent Soph the signal.
Clank.
The whip that had been continuously extending came to a sudden stop.
At the same time, a small magic circle rose from the tip of the spear to which the whip was tied.
[Activation commencing.]
Along with Soph’s words, the patterns engraved across the entire tunnel wall began to radiate light.
The facility’s magic circle, a spatial transfer magic circle, had unfolded.
As the magic circle activated, a circular hologram that filled the tunnel spread out.
The hologram filled the middle of the tunnel completely.
The universe unfolded beneath my feet.
The hologram showing outer space was a portal connected to another place.
Long ago, pollutants must have been sent to the moon through that portal.
As the portal formed, the sound of a siren came from above my head.
Bwooooooo.
The siren’s wail carried an emotion that seemed to mock me.
And no wonder, since the controlled object was also hanging by its tentacles, just like me.
The monster had driven dozens of tentacles firmly into the wall, and looked far safer than I did, relying on a single whip.
The monster seemed to have regained its senses.
The wound pierced through by the heat attack had also closed by more than half.
The monster stopped chasing me and tried to climb back up the tunnel by moving its tentacles.
I couldn’t let that thing climb back up.
I called Soph.
[Now!]
[We’ll have to use up all your energy. Are you all right with that?]
Since I had used up all the black stones, Soph would have to use my energy to cast magic.
[I’m fine.]
[Then endure it!]
With those words, dark energy was sucked out through the whip in my hand.
It was an enormous amount, enough to make me dizzy.
But I had to endure it.
Biting my lip, I gripped the whip.
Soph, receiving energy through the whip, cast his magic.
[Crush it. Gravity Enhancement!]
Along with the incantation, a huge magic circle unfolded above the controlled object.
It was a gravity magic circle created by Soph.
If gravity reversal was possible, there was no reason gravity enhancement would be impossible.
However, to impose gravity on that enormous monster required a tremendous amount of energy.
Energy was being drained from me like mad.
Boom!
As the magic circle unfolded, the monster sank downward.
Its body had become several times heavier.
Thud-thud-thud!
As the monster was dragged downward, the tentacles it had driven into the tunnel were ripped out.
Snap!
Some tentacles were half torn off, spilling white blood.
The monster tried to hold on by pulling out new tentacles, but it was too late.
The remaining tentacles were either severed or pulled free from the wall.
Tentacles flailed in every direction, and the monster began to fall downward.
Bwaaaaaa!
A terrified siren sounded from the falling monster.
Smashing the wall with its tentacles, the monster brushed past me.
A tremendous wind blew.
My body swayed from it, but by hanging onto the whip, I was barely able to endure.
With a pale face, I looked down at the monster falling into the portal.
The controlled object sank into the portal, its tentacles thrashing helplessly.
I raised my middle finger and sneered at the monster.
[Wander through space forever like that.]
At that moment,
one tentacle shot out from the monster’s body like lightning.
It was thinner than the other tentacles, about the thickness of a human forearm, and came shooting toward me.
Because it was thin, the tentacle stretched endlessly.
Just like Magreta’s whip.
The tentacle soared upward at an incredible speed and wrapped around my body.
There was no time to dodge.
“Guh!”
It was a truly sudden attack.
Even so, under normal circumstances, it was an attack I could have dodged easily.
But right now, my energy was so depleted that even hanging onto the whip was difficult.
In this situation, I couldn’t block the whip.
Clank.
The tentacle became absurdly heavy.
The monster had hung itself from the tentacle.
It felt as though my body would be crushed.
[Can you get out?]
[I-It’s impossible.]
Forget getting out—if I didn’t let go of the whip, it felt like my body would be torn apart.
Hearing my answer, Soph spoke urgently.
[I’ll erase the magic circle. If I follow you, I should be able to cut the tentacle. Plan A will be ruined, but we still have Plan B.]
Soph spoke as if there was another way, but I couldn’t follow his words right now.
Enduring the pain, I answered Soph.
[N-No. Just leave it. I have a way.]
[What? A way?]
Soph sounded puzzled by my words.
Instead of answering, I released the hand holding the whip.
My body fell downward.
[What are you doing!]
Soph’s scream rang out.
The spear and the whip rapidly shrank into the distance.
Whoosh!
The sound of wind struck my ears.
The tentacle was still wrapped around me, but I no longer felt any pain.
Because I was falling at the same speed as the monster.
When I turned my head, I saw the black portal—the universe.
The monster was no longer visible. It had been swallowed by the portal.
Only the single tentacle wrapped around my body told me that the monster was inside the portal.
I had thought that once the monster entered the portal, the tentacle would be released. But that was a mistaken assumption.
At this rate, I would be dragged into that portal as well.
Looking at the rapidly approaching portal, I tensed to the limit.
There was still a way to survive.
The opportunity would last only an instant.
The black universe filled my vision.
Flaaaash!
The next moment, the world turned white.
I had entered the portal.
The instant I entered the portal, the tentacle wrapped around my waist came loose.
Just as I had expected.
Spatial transfer was, in every case, individual transfer.
One had to move alone, and the baggage one could take along was calculated separately for each person.
There was no way the monster and my body would be transferred while connected.
Trusting in that, I had leapt into the portal.
The instant the tentacle came loose, I heightened my concentration to the maximum.
With my energy at rock bottom, it was difficult and exhausting, but exhaustion was something I could endure.
Fortunately, what I was about to do did not require energy.
To be honest, I couldn’t even know whether it required energy or not.
Because though I had only thought about it all this time, this was my first time actually doing it.
First, within the white light, I confirmed the path of energy.
The passage of energy that the monster had traveled first, and that I was now following.
It was hard to see clearly, but that passage extended far into outer space.
As I concentrated, time seemed to slow.
Time was relative after all.
Even so, I didn’t have much time left.
Soon, I would arrive at the destination.
The destination of this spatial transfer was outer space beyond the shattered moon.
If I was even a little late, I would be thrown out into space as well.
With Soph absent, I had no way to return to this planet.
Returning wasn’t even the problem.
Right away, I had no way to breathe in space.
The magic circle of the sewage treatment facility was a spatial transfer device that dumped pollutants onto the satellite.
Naturally, only one path of energy was visible.
Because I had known that, I was not disappointed.
No other path was visible, but I did not give up.
The energy passage did not lead in only one direction.
Though it had been fixed with magic, there had to be a path going the opposite way as well.
‘Found it!’
I found that passage.
A faint path lying parallel beside the energy passage I was riding.
It was difficult to see, but it was clearly the return path.
In reverse, it was the passage from the moon to the sewage treatment facility.
It was a path that had grown faint because the moon had been shattered, but traces still remained.
Now that I could see the path, it was time to step onto it.
I tried to place my foot on the faint path.
My body did not move.
‘Don’t tell me this isn’t it?’
Cold sweat burst out.
This was definitely the method I had imagined from the moment I began to see other paths.
Like when I had learned magic, I thought it would simply work, but that wasn’t the case.
‘Is it because I don’t have enough energy?’
‘Or is it impossible to begin with?’
Once I realized something was wrong, countless thoughts flashed through my mind.
Self-reproach for my carelessness, fear of death, the squad members who would worry about me, and even Soph.
For an instant, countless things appeared and disappeared in my mind.
As I stared blankly at the path like that, I saw a different form.
I had called it a path, but it was not a path.
This was not a flow of energy either.
It was merely a passage connecting the starting point and the destination, and a string tying the two points together.
I had thought my body was moving, but as it turned out, it was not moving at all.
As the scientists said, my body was skipping over space.
This place was a connection point linking space to space. I had thought time was passing, but perhaps time was not passing at all.
For a moment, I felt as if I had become unbelievably intelligent, but now was not the time to admire that.
Now that I knew the truth, I could know what I had to do.
I simply had to change the starting point and the destination.
Of course, it seemed like it would be difficult for other people, but I could do it.
I formed a new image in my mind.
The place I departed from was the shattered moon, and the place I arrived at was the sewage treatment facility.
The moment I formed that image, my body was standing upon the faint path.
‘It worked!’
The moment I rejoiced like that—
Flaaaash!
The light that had covered the world vanished.
As the light disappeared, I saw the universe filled with stars.
Beneath my feet was the half-destroyed moon, and around me drifted fragments of the shattered satellite.
Far ahead, I could see the monster as well.
The controlled object was flying through space, its tentacles flailing.
The monster was flying toward Trappist, the star of this solar system.
Right now, I was floating in outer space above the shattered moon.
‘Don’t tell me I was too late?’
The moment that thought came to mind—
Flaaaash!
Light covered the world.
I had undergone spatial transfer again.
The moment I was enveloped in white light, I understood what had happened.
The mages’ spatial transfer truly was instantaneous movement.
Because I had switched the starting point and the destination, I had departed once more from the shattered moon.
It felt like something didn’t make sense, and I didn’t know the complicated theory behind it, but I could tell that this time, I was going properly.
I entrusted my body to the energy passage.
The light disappeared, and I felt my body shoot upward.
Before I knew it, I had returned to the vertical tunnel.
[Hyeon!]
Along with the spear flying toward me, Soph’s voice rang out.
“I’m back!”
Smiling, I snatched the flying spear out of the air.
Rest