-The Approaching Great Battle
* * *
Ren drifted briefly into sleep, then woke. Outside the window, the world was growing hazily bright.
Last night, she had drunk the potion Cheon Danbi had given her and gone to bed.
She had not fallen asleep right away. Her mind was tangled with all sorts of thoughts, and sleep did not come easily.
Still, she had tried to sleep. And she had known that she was the only one who had fallen asleep.
Cheon Danbi seemed to have gone to Neo Forest. Ren had wondered if she should follow, but she needed sleep. She needed to switch herself off.
She had not slept for very long, but she felt much refreshed. Yesterday, though she had not shown it to the others, it was true that she had been carrying a somewhat heavy heart alone.
Because doubts about herself had risen within her, she had not been able to confide in anyone.
‘When I needed to fight, I couldn’t fight properly. Because I couldn’t kill them.’
The monsters had naturally vanished. No—Oudin and the mages had killed the mother, causing the young to disappear.
Though in truth, they probably had not been mother and young. In any case, they had been connected in that way.
The investigation was not yet complete, but it seemed certain that those monsters were test subjects created by injecting Ren’s genes. Made by Vanaheim.
Just as the mother and young were connected, she felt that somewhere, in some corner of existence, the monsters and Ren herself were connected too. That was why she had not been able to kill them. Instinctively.
‘If something like this happens again, I might become a burden to the team. Mage Oudin and the others must trust me.’
But now all those test subjects were gone. She could only hope nothing similar would appear again.
Ren rose, put on some tea, and quietly thought.
What would she do from now on?
It was not complicated. She would defeat the black mages together with her teammates.
Perhaps because the night had passed, the dark thoughts had also retreated.
Ren was neither a mage nor a druid. But she was not an ordinary human either.
A hybrid, and a special ability.
But from now on, she would not be ashamed of her unique qualities. She would not look at herself the way her mother and her mother’s family had looked at her.
She had met people more precious than the family that had abandoned her. And above all, she had come to see herself anew.
‘I’ll become someone who can help Mage Oudin.’
It was not that she particularly wanted to become some special being. She would be satisfied simply being a teammate who did her part. Someone who fought alongside them, like Cheon Danbi and Gil.
From now on, she would affirm her own traits. Because she could fight with them.
Through her polymorph into a dragon, she had confirmed just how much power she could unleash if she used those traits without hesitation.
‘I won’t hesitate anymore. Not anymore. I have traits that are mine alone. That is who I am. A me unlike any other being in the world…’
Suddenly, Bruno came to mind.
The memory of meeting him in the magical space. Because of Bruno, her traits had been amplified.
She had to remember the feeling from that time. The vast power of pure white light. Within it, Ren could become anything. She could transform into anything at all. Now, she would fight with that power.
‘I’ll be the one to defeat Leviathan. Leviathan is mine to handle.’
Once she resolved herself that way, her chest somehow swelled with pride. Yesterday’s hesitation was nothing. It was already in the past.
Just then, she heard the front door open, and Cheon Danbi quietly stepped into the house. Somehow, it felt as though she had brought a radiant light in with her.
It was still early dawn outside, so where had she gathered such light?
“Ren, you’re already awake? Did I wake you?”
Cheon Danbi spotted Ren and asked with a bright smile.
“No. I was already up. I’m making tea. Would you like some?”
“Sounds good.”
“But isn’t it cold outside? The wind sounded incredible all night.”
Ren asked. Outside was certainly cold, yet strangely, she could feel a warm energy. It was as though Cheon Danbi’s vitality had been pushed to its peak.
“It is cold. Really cold. The weather is seriously strange. It’s not time for it to get this cold yet. I think something really is about to happen.”
Even as she said that, Cheon Danbi did not give off an air of gloom or oppressive worry. Ren smiled as she replied.
“I suppose so. Something will happen soon. This weather probably isn’t entirely natural. We’ll have to prepare thoroughly.”
“We will. We have to stop the black mages.”
“Have some tea.”
“Ah, thanks. Mmm. It’s nice and warm.”
Ren did not ask Cheon Danbi where she had gone during the night, and Cheon Danbi did not speak of meeting the elves and the World Tree.
But simply sitting across from each other and drinking warm tea together was enough. Something similar and weighty flowed through both of their hearts.
They knew that a great upheaval would soon occur. They could feel the terrible darkness that the black mage of the Magic Tower would bring.
Even so, the two of them were not merely afraid. Their resolve was greater than their fear.
Perhaps there was not much time left for them to quietly drink tea like this, but they believed that they would not yield this world to the darkness, and that they would surely reclaim a peaceful world.
“You should sleep, even if it’s only for a little while. You didn’t sleep all night.”
After they finished their tea, Ren said this as she cleared the cups.
“Yeah. I should get some rest. Did you sleep, Ren?”
“Yes. I slept well. I feel refreshed.”
“I wonder if Gil and the mage slept last night.”
“Nothing happened during the night, so probably… Or they might have trained. They say mages sometimes replace sleep with training.”
“That’s true. I’m jealous. No, actually, I’m not.”
Cheon Danbi said that, then giggled like a mischievous child.
When Ren merely looked at her with round eyes, Cheon Danbi continued.
“I’m a druid, after all. I’m not jealous of mages.”
“I’m not jealous of mages either. I’m a hybrid with a polymorph trait found nowhere else in the world.”
Ren replied. Then, for some reason, laughter bubbled up, and she laughed together with Cheon Danbi.
The two of them giggled, then burst into laughter. The more they laughed, the more they kept laughing, until in the end they were clutching their stomachs. A bright, warm energy wrapped around them both.
Had she ever affirmed herself so joyfully before? Ren thought anew that she should remember this day.
As though the two women’s laughter had driven away the remaining darkness, the eastern sky brightened. Morning had come.
* * *
As soon as I finished the operation against the shapeshifting monsters and returned home, I entered the magical space.
My mind was restless. The strangely cold, windy night felt anything but ordinary.
‘The decisive battle will come before long.’
By eliminating the shapeshifting monsters, which had likely been their final hidden card, the battle with Vanaheim had been brought to a close for now.
Kim Seonho’s whereabouts were still unknown, but he should no longer have any weapons left.
Of course, there was still the ambush called the Golden Apple, but for the time being, the Bureau and the government were blocking its release.
With Kim Seonho on the run, he no longer had any legal advantage whatsoever. A proper release of the Golden Apple was already out of the question.
On the other hand, the protests by people demanding the Golden Apple’s release were a headache, but the Bureau and the government should be able to resolve that to some extent as well.
The problem was the Magic Tower. It had been from the beginning, and it would be until the end.
Unless I ended the decisive battle with Samir, my fight would not be over.
At present, the Magic Tower had summoned Leviathan, the goat demon race, and others from the Demon Realm, so they likely would not drag things out for long. And this eerie cold and fierce wind were proof that the decisive battle was approaching.
‘Are the beings of the Demon Realm stealing this world’s energy?’
If so, we could not simply keep waiting on our side either. Whether our side attacked the Magic Tower first, or the Magic Tower erupted first, the decisive battle would begin soon.
However, infiltrating their stronghold, swarming with creatures from the Demon Realm and connected directly to it by an open passage, was an unreasonable task.
They would pour out even if we did not go looking for them, so it was better to wait. We had to prepare for that moment.
Or, if possible, it would be better for me to maximize spatial magic, surround the entire Magic Tower, and blast it beyond the dimension.
Even while sensing that the decisive battle was not far off, I had returned home instead of gathering all our allies to fortify our defenses because, more than anything else, it was important to check my own training and, if possible, meet Bruno.
I stepped into the magical space.
It was now a space I had opened to every member of the team, but tonight I was alone. Right now, I needed a moment alone.
The inside of the mansion was silent. The commotion of the outside world felt like a lie.
Naturally, no one was there. I had hoped, just in case, but Bruno did not appear either.
Instead, the crows flew in from the garden.
[Oudin! You’re here?]
[We were guarding the magical space well.]
A chuckle escaped me. What was there to guard in the magical space? Had they been told to stay inside, and now they were saying, in a roundabout way, that they had been bored?
“What is there to guard here?”
[Well, that’s true. This is the safest space in the world.]
[How is the outside world? Is it still all right?]
“Yeah. It’s all right. Though an imbalance of energy is taking place.”
[The great battle isn’t far off.]
[Are all the preparations done?]
“That’s why I came here. I’m going to do one final check, so don’t disturb me and go outside.”
When I said that, the crows visibly brightened.
[Oh! You’re telling us to go outside?]
[Great. Thanks. We wanted to get some fresh air anyway.]
“The outside world is cold and the wind is blowing hard, so be careful.”
My words were sincere, but the crows did not seem to care in the slightest. Without asking twice, they quickly headed for the portal. Then, in an instant, they disappeared.
After sending the crows out, I went to the garden and seated myself in the very center.
Now I was completely alone.
I steadied my breathing and slowly entered a state of concentration.
Spatial magic that would blow away the entire Magic Tower. Could I truly operate magic on that scale?
Though I had already glimpsed that there were no limits to spatial magic, I could not guarantee what its actual implementation would be like.
It was a space with a passage opened directly to the Demon Realm. It would not be easy.
Blowing away the Magic Tower would have a direct effect even on the Demon Realm, so the Demon Realm might counterattack.
In the end, it could become an act that disturbed the order of the universe. So it was not simply a matter of whether I could do it or not.
Through focused training, I entered the realm of possibility. I constructed circuits for spatial magic and ran simulations in various ways.
Magic that moves and raises energy and waves at the boundary between dimensions, crossing between them. It turns the inside and outside of space inside out, shakes the axis of time to create fractures, and opens gaps. It generates a void and creates spaces that have never existed before.
As I sat with my eyes closed, time like eternity passed by. The curvature of outer space brushed past me.
An ever-changing world, the aggregations of information flowing through it, and I—the archmage who presided over that universe.
At last, within countless imagined spaces, a pure white light shone. It was the infinite, vast light of the whole.