◈ Chapter 490. Fertilizer (6)
AAU.
“……
What did you say?”
News sent from the Another Space reached each branch.
It was an unbelievable story.
Bullshit they had no choice but to deny.
Some refused to accept even the source.
“That can’t be. Even if it’s the Another Space, it makes no sense that they filmed the inside of a rift, does it? Even those players can’t look inside from outside the rift!”
But it could be refuted.
“But it isn’t an ordinary rift…… is it? An incomplete prototype rift. If you take that into account, maybe it isn’t that strange a phenomenon. Considering we were able to communicate with the Arcana Continent players…….”
Even so, some did not give up.
“Why are you taking it so seriously? It could simply be a mistake, couldn’t it? In the end, the one who looked at the situation and made the judgment was human. Any human can make mistakes. Right? Haha…….”
A laugh forced with effort.
But soon, unlike a human, something incapable of making mistakes.
The footage record was transmitted.
“……
Confirm it immediately.”
A photograph filled the monitors in the control room.
It was a dazzling light captured in the gap of the rift.
When the image was enlarged, they could see it.
The figure of a man, more radiant still.
“!!!”
His fluttering silver hair was different from usual. Likewise, his unique attire, which had always boasted a brilliant appearance, was so resplendent it could not be described.
Yes, like mystical magic.
Someone said,
“……
Ma, mana?”
There was no expression more fitting than those words.
In the footage, the man had become mana itself and was scattering away. Only then did they begin to understand. Why the pilot of the Another Space had been certain of Hoyeol’s death.
Because the moment Hoyeol’s body scattered into the air,
nature began to surge.
It was no metaphor.
Amid shock, someone barely clung to their sense of responsibility.
“……
Those are spirits.”
Were spirits, which even players and Arcanians could not easily witness, now visible to the eyes of ordinary people like us? Setting aside such questions for the moment, they focused on the wondrous scene unfolding before them.
“Something is seeping into the spirits.”
“Can we even call that seeping in……? That’s not on that level.”
“Yes, it’s as if they’re becoming one.”
Mana.
Hoyeol, having become mana itself, became one with the spirits.
The result brought about by that was something no words could dare explain.
The Arcana Continent and reality.
They were two completely different worlds, but because they shared a common enemy in the fused intelligent entity Yggweed, comparison was easy. In reality, the Magic Tower’s mages were using even their accumulated items as they desperately fought against the fused intelligent entity.
“The movement of the upper body has stopped. The phase is over!”
On the Arcana Continent, it was no exaggeration to say the outcome of the battle had been decided.
With the mana Hoyeol had released, the spirits’ power had soared, and the fused intelligent entity Yggweed, unable to withstand the spirits’ blow, had begun to collapse from the upper body down.
Now that the Arcana Continent and reality were connected,
the crisis of the Arcana Continent was the crisis of reality,
and the reverse was true as well.
In that sense, they should have been happy.
Had they not predicted it?
If the remaining fused intelligent entity that had appeared on the Arcana Continent crossed over into reality. If, because of that, the fused intelligent entity even managed to stand upright. Then the Magic Tower, Seoul, and the nation called the Republic of Korea might vanish from reality forever.
However.
“…….”
No one could rejoice.
Because they had witnessed it in the footage record sent by the Another Space.
What sacrifice had followed this victory.
AAU Korea Branch.
Tap-tap-tap.
Seong Hyeonjun gritted his teeth and searched the database.
He wanted to confirm it with his own eyes.
That the phenomenon he had witnessed was, please, only his mistake.
“……!”
But it existed.──────[Status Abnormality, Mana Transformation]: The player changes into pure mana. In proportion to the player’s mana stat, the mana density in the surrounding area increases, but the moment Mana Transformation is released, the player dies.──────In the database, the status abnormality [Mana Transformation]
existed.
Even the concept illustration,
similar to Hoyeol’s appearance just moments ago.
“……
The moment it is released, the player dies.”
Yun Sugyeom held coffee in both hands.
He stood motionless, watching Seong Hyeonjun’s monitor. Because he could not believe it. But the database information, which must have been realized in some form on the Arcana Continent, was telling them.
That Hoyeol had truly died.
He had imagined it countless times.
In this regular update.
In the rift.
He had imagined whether Hoyeol, who always stood at the front, might fall into danger.
But from some point on, he had grown accustomed to it.
Because of that, he had not even thought of it.
The difficulty of the Arcana Continent Chronicles, which rose with every passing day.
Raymon Sean’s absurd obstinacy.
Likewise, he had mulled it over countless times.
That no one could replace General Manager Lee Hoyeol of Yusra. That the reason reality and the Arcana Continent, both worlds, had been safe was only because Lee Hoyeol existed.
That was why he could not dare imagine it.
Player Lee Hoyeol, killed in battle.
The aftermath that would sweep over both worlds when this tragic news was delivered.
Park Minjae opened his mouth.
“Today…….”
The voice that barely escaped him was trembling to a degree even his colleagues, who had worked with him for over a decade, had never heard. It was a voice desperately suppressing surging sorrow.
“We have not lost a single player…….”
Seoul.
The branch manager of AAU Korea, driven into a life-or-death crisis. If not for his position, he would have collapsed long ago. Like a revolving lantern in his mind, Lee Hoyeol’s path flashed past.
The back of the man who had walked a road no one had ever advanced down.
And not only that, a road so utterly dark,
he had illuminated like a single ray of light.
Because he had shouldered such a heavy burden alone.
That back had looked unbearably lonely.
Park Minjae continued in a somber voice.
“We, reality and the Arcana Continent, may at this moment have lost a ray of light that will never shine again. A ray of light that might have been warmer than the blazing sun…….”
—Click.
“……?”
There was no need to distinguish you from me. The control room. At that moment, some were staring blankly, some were shedding tears, and some had even buried their heads on their desks.
—Click.
As if it were not an auditory hallucination, the sound came again and again.
The sound of dress shoes that could not possibly be heard after the citizens had finished evacuating.
Like Pavlov’s dog, their lips moved reflexively.
“Ge, General Manager……?!”
As if in answer, an image appeared on the monitor.
His usual posture.
The same unwavering posture as always.
The player Lee Hoyeol, impossibly upright.
*
What are those expressions supposed to be?
‘Why are all of you making the expression I should be making?’
Were they startled by the loud sound of my shoes?
This is why I prefer teleportation over [Heavenly Demon Reign Step]…….
At any rate, that’s not what’s important.
Excluding Bensch, I looked at the Magic Tower mages gathered in one place. Seeing that Cle Odia, the author of the cultivation method for elixir herbs, was here too…….
‘Let’s see, even the Adept Mages have left the tower.’
That much I could understand.
A situation in which I, Marcelo, Matisse, and three or four other senior mages had left the tower for the Arcana Continent to stop the Great Beast. It would not have been strange for every member of the Magic Tower to leave.
However.
‘Don’t they all look more splendid than usual?’
I could not help flinching at the mages’ attire, different from usual.
‘……
Wait, aren’t those all decisive-battle magic tools?’
How did I recognize them right away, you ask?
It would be strange if I didn’t.
Who am I?
Back in my parachute days, when I had nothing to my name and no proper mana-related equipment.
To get my money’s worth,
hadn’t I scoured the Garnet Hall for all kinds of magic tools?
‘I couldn’t even satisfy the wearing conditions for those…….’
Thanks to the greed that I, Lee Hoyeol, had not managed to transcend, I recognized them instantly. I grasped the situation. The fact that the Magic Tower had been facing the fused intelligent entity Yggweed while making full use of its decisive-battle magic tools.
My lips slowly opened.
“Excellent.”
……
Grandfell, you praised them because of how neat their clothes were, didn’t you?
You might fool everyone else, but you can’t fool me, okay?
As if making an excuse in response to my interrogation, the words continued.
“Interim Acting Chief, Bensch William.”
Well, if it was Bensch, I would acknowledge him too.
‘There must indeed be a reason Grandfell thinks so highly of him.’
It seemed the Flame Emperor had faced the fused intelligent entity Yggweed with firepower beyond what he had shown in Antonium. Seeing as heat from him was shimmering everywhere.
But you can’t fool me this time either, Grandfell.
‘Who was it who appointed that Bensch as Acting Chief?’
This very body.
You intend to naturally remind them of that fact and puff out your chest again, don’t you, Grandfell? However, Lee Hoyeol’s conscience is pricked, and I can no longer bear to watch such misunderstandings.
‘I already felt more than enough of it to make me sick……!’
The moment I died on the Arcana Continent.
I could not forget the gazes of the spirits pouring down on me.
How should I put it?
It was so solemn
that I wondered if I should not come back to life and appear again.
No, solemn was not enough.
Because the system message had also blinked.
It said the title [Sublime]
had changed to [Exalted].
I still did not know what effect the new title had.
But at this moment, that was not what mattered.
Amid the showering gazes,
I spotted someone who looked especially surprised.
The master of the Myth Guild, Baek Yiseol.
Honestly, I had not expected a prototype rift to appear in Seoul, and right next to the Magic Tower at that. Damage must inevitably have occurred.
Perhaps the Myth Guild had gathered here to fulfill its responsibility as a ranking guild of the Republic of Korea, now that Gaon—no, now that the great alliance had vacated its place.
I added to Baek Yiseol,
“You, too, have proven your pride.”
Of course, further conversation was impossible.
As I said, this was a battlefield.
As soon as I finished speaking, a voice was heard.
“Chief Lee, the mana in the area is surging!!”
What’s more, the pattern was different from the Arcana Continent.
Just as Yggweed had manifested magic with his left hand,
the fused intelligent entity Yggweed was also condensing magic in its left hand.
I recited,
“Yggweed, you were certainly left-handed.”
Grandfell’s eye for detail was sharp, neither mistaken nor easily forgetful.
If he said Yggweed was left-handed, then he must have been left-handed.
But at this moment, I could be certain.
“However, you are different.”
The fused intelligent entity Yggweed.
Even if the system message that does not lie proclaimed it so. Even if Yggweed’s unique interference process could be glimpsed in the wavering mana traces.
That was not Yggweed.
Goooooo.
My gaze sank.
“For you were not this light.”
I was not talking about the amount of mana.
I was talking about weight.
The gentle giant.
The responsibility that followed when he took a step.
Yggweed had never once overlooked his own influence.
But what of the fused intelligent entity before my eyes?
Rumble, rumble.
Just from the flow of mana being condensed, cracks were forming in buildings.
All the windows were shattering, and all the roadside trees were being uprooted.
That was why I could be certain.
“Your deception is excessive, Oried.”
Oried.
The one who reacted immediately to my words
was the senior mage of the Spiritology School, Feiyan Lot.
“The Spirit King of Earth, Oried……. Then, could it be?!”
At last, he must have roughly gauged the fused intelligent entity’s identity.
Expressions that had already been solemn became even more resolute.
‘Same for me.’
Now, I had said it convincingly enough, but.
‘What do I do from here?’
This was reality.
There was no [Last Adventurer] to rely on.
Meaning I could not throw away one life and win without effort.
‘Why did Yggweed have to be left-handed, of all things?’
What’s more, now that I had learned the fused intelligent entity on this side was even more troublesome than the one on the Arcana Continent. I had no choice but to think of going all out from the very beginning.
[Heaven and Earth, I Alone Am Supreme].
Even if I had to risk going berserk, shouldn’t I protect them? Though it’s fairly far from the Magic Tower, my studio apartment, and the family home where Mom, Dad, and Wensu are, are all in Seoul.
But my decision had no choice but to be delayed.
Because from behind me, as I was racking my brain and drawing up mana,
a voice sounded.
“Ch, Chief Lee……?”
It was Bellier’s voice.
No, it was not only Bellier.
At this point, there was no reason for them to be newly surprised by my mana.
What could there be to murmur about in such an urgent situation…….
‘……
Huh?’
Into my vision, which had thought nothing of it,
light suddenly wavered.
To be precise, it was not mere light.
Aura.
A luminous body different from the mana being emitted from my entire body.
I could sense it instinctively.
Because I had seen more than enough of it until just now.
Because Grandfell’s sharp eyes could not overlook it.
Sssssss.
When I slowly raised my head, tree branches fluttered.
Just as the World Tree had appeared behind Hiel,
at some point, the World Tree had also risen behind me.
What that meant was simple.
That I had awakened another power,
the ability of {Nature}.
That, like Hiel, I had come to hear it.
[The Mother of All Things, the World Tree, whispers to you.]
However…….
“Regrettably.”
No matter what, these were the words of the World Tree.
“I refuse.”
Shouldn’t I at least pretend to think it over for a moment?!