◈ Episode 520. We Had a Lot in Common (1)
Black hair.
Black pupils.
A shabby martial robe.
“So I found nothing again today……”
The Warrior of the Sunrise.
He looked at the hands with which he had been rummaging through the rubble.
A body that had joined the ranks of the Transcendents.
Ordinarily, it should not have suffered so much as a scratch.
“Uncool bro, if you leave that alone, it’s gonna fester.”
Yet his wounds were severe enough for the Child of Lightning to voice his concern.
It was enough to tell anyone
just how long he had been scouring the vast ruins.
The warrior said,
“Shut up. It’s not as if you’re going to help.”
“Huh? Me?”
“If not, why did you follow me out here?”
“Eek.”
Rustle.
The Child of Lightning swiftly leapt down from the tree and landed.
Then he hurriedly pretended to search through the ruins.
Even he thought it was pathetic, but he had no choice.
“Cut me some slack. I don’t want to be caught alone and dragged off to the realm of nature.”
The reason he could handle the lightning (雷電)
of nature itself without any particular effort
was because the boy was of mixed blood, born between a human and a spirit.
The Warrior of the Sunrise glared at him sidelong.
“Are you talking nonsense about your father again?”
“I’m telling you, it’s not a lie!”
My dad is Zeus, the Spirit King of Lightning.
The Child of Lightning answered as he always did.
Though the Warrior of the Sunrise did not even pretend to listen.
“Tsk. You’re pitiable too, at such a young age.”
It must have been because those around him had revered him as a Transcendent too early.
“If you were my younger brother, you……”
The Warrior of the Sunrise was far from lazy.
His homeland was the Eastern Continent,
where the sun rose a little earlier than on the Arcana Continent
and set a little later.
“……
I would have treated you a little better.”
However, now, neither blood kin nor his homeland, the Eastern Continent, remained to him.
The upheaval caused by the emergence of the Demon World. Because of it, the Eastern Continent had collided with the Arcana Continent. Compared to the vast Arcana Continent, the Eastern Continent was no more than a small island, and it had vanished without leaving even a trace.
The Child of Lightning tactfully said,
“How could something like this happen overnight?”
A regular update.
Though the Warrior of the Sunrise did not know the exact name of the culprit,
he had some idea of its existence.
Without letting himself sink into emotion, he continued,
“Because this has become a world where such things can happen.”
Just as the Zero Mountains had vanished overnight.
Now that the traces of the Eastern Continent could not be found anywhere,
if he let himself fall into idle thoughts, he might sink into endless anguish.
Recall Master’s teachings.
-“Before training, cast away your anguish.”
The Warrior of the Sunrise once again
moved his wounded hands.
It was at that moment.
Suddenly, a vibration could be felt from the silent earth.……
Ruuumble.
“!”
At first, he thought it was the roar of a great monster.
If one were to ask why not just a monster, but a great monster,
it was because of the current state of the Arcana Continent.
[Legends stir upon the Arcana Continent.]
Even if they could not see the system message,
the two of them had joined the ranks of the Transcendents.
With sharp intuition, they could sense it.
“See? I told you something’s been strange for a while now!”
I said we should’ve stopped by the Salon of Space-Time!
The telepathic notice that a highest-ranking guest had entered the Salon of Space-Time.
The Child of Lightning had intended to follow him into the salon immediately.
If only the Warrior of the Sunrise had not thrown cold water on the idea.
-“What right do we have to come and go from the salon?”
That was right.
The Warrior of the Sunrise remembered all of his own deeds. Even the fault of having committed slaughter in the imperial capital, Antonium, while under Oxidin’s brainwashing.
-“Haa……. Haa……”
That was why he had come here as if fleeing.
He had searched for traces of his homeland in order to atone. To that Warrior of the Sunrise, the Child of Lightning had used the power of spirits to convey news from faraway Antonium.
“Bro, are you still worrying about that? I told you, Oxidin was suppressed before he could even do much. And Grandfel Claudi…… whatever, that person isn’t the kind to hold you responsible, so even if you ran into him at the salon……”
The Warrior of the Sunrise cut him off.
“Before that, we had already committed a wrong once.”
“……
Ah.”
Right, we had formed something called the Transcendent Alliance with Oxidin, hadn’t we?
Grandfel Claudi……
Anyway, that man had shown us mercy.
If so, that reaction was understandable.
“Even so, three times would be a bit much……”
In that case,
he would at least vent this stifling feeling.
The Child of Lightning was likewise sensing the vibrations of the earth when he said,
“Whatever it is, I’ll shock it senseless for you, bro.”
Crackle.
An electric current coursed over his little finger like a lightning rod.
Even if the opponent was a great monster,
the Child of Lightning was confident he could bring it down.
However……
“It’s not a great monster. Something’s different.”
The vibrations he felt were alien.
They were certainly resounding as if they would shake the earth,
yet they were subtly artificial.
To put it more precisely……
“……
It sounds as though things are being built, not falling apart.”
Indeed, the senses of one who had joined the ranks of the Transcendents were sharp.
Before long, an unbelievable sight unfolded before their eyes.
The ruins were rising on their own.
The collapsed buildings were being restored to their original state.
The Child of Lightning barely managed to speak.
“Wh-what is that?!”
But he could not finish his sentence.
Because he had witnessed the being carrying out that unbelievable “reversal.”
That was right.
“Th-th-th-that’s……!!”
From far away,
radiating a brilliant presence,
Grandfel Claudi, name abridged.
*
You might as well hope a cat walks past the stove without stopping.
Activation of ultra-wide-area reversal magic.
Having ascended to the Ten Thrones, there was no limit to the use of magic power that had risen to a different level. It would not be an exaggeration to say that I could manifest literally anything imaginable through magic.
Thanks to that.
‘If I add just a slight bit of exaggeration…….’
Roads were laid wherever I clicked my way forward.
Buildings that had collapsed rose again wherever my gaze landed.
‘So my desperate struggles come back to me like this.’
They were spells I had used like my bread and butter
to compensate for my insufficient [Magic Power].
Namely, construction magic and reversal magic.
I thought seriously.
‘Let’s see. I’ve already presented reversal magic at the Magic Tower.’
If I had nothing to present at the next regular conference, should I present construction magic too?
What did the Arcana Continent, reduced to a wasteland, truly need?
Large-scale civil engineering work, of course.
‘Is there no such thing as patents for magic?’
If there were, just the royalties for construction magic alone would……
I, Lee Hoyeol, was falling into greedy fantasies I had not dared entertain in [Claudi’s Abyss].
It was at that moment that someone blocked my path.
The reason I noticed their presence late was simple.
Neither of them harbored any hostility toward me.
Especially the older one.
……
Thud.
The older one, the Warrior of the Sunrise, knelt before me.
“Though it is late, I ask for forgiveness.”
Shrrk.
He even set down the dao (刀)
that had been at his waist, then bowed his head to me. As if he would offer even his own head if I wished.
‘What is this about?’
Of course, needless to say, I had no intention of doing that.
It seemed he was seriously misunderstanding something.
I had not been pursuing the Warrior of the Sunrise.
-Search for Gabriel’s remains in the ruined city, Ogratium. (In Progress)
For thorough preparation.
To obtain Gabriel’s relics.
I was on my way to Ogratium.
And because this damned pride of mine would not let me ignore things,
I had merely been meddling by manifesting reversal magic along the way.
‘Even to me it looked noisy, so to others, well…….’
I was flustered too.
“Raise your head.”
Yet this iron-faced one did not show even a hint of it.
To the Warrior of the Sunrise as he raised his head,
he had the audacity to say,
“I shall forgive your transgression.”
I knew full well just how dreadful Ryuoh Junchun’s brainwashing was.
I had seen it during the unification of all under heaven.
Hadn’t it been on the level of toying with an entire nation?
‘And on top of that, Oxidin’s power was added to it.’
For the Warrior of the Sunrise, there likely had been no way to resist.
However, I was puzzled.
Why were the Warrior of the Sunrise and the Child of Lightning
in the eastern part of the continent?
Even without my asking, an answer came.
“……
I fled to my homeland under the pretext of atonement. Of course, as you can see, my homeland, the Eastern Continent, can no longer be found even in traces.”
The Eastern Continent.
‘That’s information I heard at the AAU branch managers’ meeting.’
As expected, it was a region that had existed only as a setting within the database, and like other settings, it had been realized in some form on the Arcana Continent. However, they had said they suspected it would be difficult to find even traces of it because it collided with the Arcana Continent during the Cataclysm……
‘Experience really doesn’t go anywhere.’
For once, AAU’s conjecture seemed to have hit the mark.
‘This might…….’
It might prove useful one day.
If I received help from the Warrior of the Sunrise, who was from the Eastern Continent, along with AAU’s information,
couldn’t I obtain something from the traces of the Eastern Continent?
‘To do that, I need to maintain a good relationship.’
If so,
the first thing to do was to help the kneeling Warrior of the Sunrise to his feet.
I intended to speak kindly.
Of course.
“Move aside from that spot.”
……
The words did not come out as I intended.
“!”
The Warrior of the Sunrise immediately rose, and together with the Child of Lightning, opened the way. I looked at the warrior’s hands. Had he been rummaging through these vast ruins with his bare hands? They were in terrible condition.
‘At that rate, when will you ever find traces of your homeland?’
I clicked my tongue inwardly and manifested reversal magic.
As I said, reversal magic and construction magic were as familiar to me as breathing.
As if rewinding time.
!……
Ruuuumble.
Buildings rose back into place.
“Wh-what?!”
The one more surprised by the sight was not the Warrior of the Sunrise, but the Child of Lightning. Compared to a warrior who handled the dao, someone who handled lightning would be slightly more knowledgeable about magic.
“What kind of insane magic is that?!”
That kind of honest reaction was new, too.
‘At the Magic Tower, everyone softened their evaluations.’
In truth, 『Reversal Magic』 had not yet been adopted as an official school of the Magic Tower. The reason was simple. Other than Marcelo and me, no one had yet understood or manifested it.
‘Even if we establish a school, there’s no one who can learn it.’
Had they called it an interference process so abstruse it felt almost pedantic?
You could only see as much as you knew.
The Warrior of the Sunrise simply looked bewildered.
‘Of course, it’s not as if I’m hoping for recognition.’
To me, it was nothing much.
Whenever others were startled and overestimated it,
my cheeks heated up and I could not help but feel pricked by my conscience……!
Still, thanks to even the Warrior of the Sunrise remaining silent,
I was able to brazenly manifest reversal magic to the end.
And I was able to witness it.
‘……
What is that?’
A building that was clearly out of place.
[You have discovered a trace of the Eastern Continent, “Entrance to the Shrine.”]
An architectural style I had never seen on the Arcana Continent until now.
An intricately built wooden structure entered my sight.
Messages appeared one after another.
[You have acquired the achievement, “Lorentzk of the Eastern Continent.”]
Lorentzk of the Eastern Continent.
Was it named after the greatest romantic explorer on the Arcana Continent because I had discovered the Eastern Continent for the first time? In any case, its effect was fairly welcome.
[Achievement: Lorentzk of the Eastern Continent]
[Effect: On the Eastern Continent, the stat “Luck” increases slightly.]
[Duration: Permanent]
‘Grandfel would fly into a rage and call it superstition, though.’
After all, whenever I invested stats into Luck,
I had seen fairly useful effects in their own way.
More importantly, I watched the Warrior of the Sunrise’s expression.
‘Ahem.’
Since I had shown him this favor, I wanted to take at least a modest amount of credit. But for some reason, the Warrior of the Sunrise’s expression was terribly serious.
“This is not good.”
Then he even clicked his tongue, just now……?
There was no way my reversal magic had reversed something incorrectly.
As I flinched beneath my iron mask,
the Warrior of the Sunrise picked up the dao that had fallen to the ground and opened his mouth.
“I regret to say that building appears to be the symbol of the shrine (神堂)
that vanished without a trace from the Eastern Continent during the time I lived in my homeland.”
“If it’s a shrine, does that mean it’s a place that enshrines a god, bro?”
“No. To be precise, it is not a god.”
At the solemn words of the Warrior of the Sunrise, I flinched.
“It is a yokai.”
A yokai.
The instant I heard that word, Gabriel’s actions seemed to sketch themselves before my eyes. The reason Gabriel, who had been a demon hunter, had died in the eastern part of the Arcana Continent, far from Akshan, out of nowhere.
That reason must surely be connected to that yokai.
The moment I exercised the demon hunter’s sense of smell,
the quest objective flickered.
The objective had been newly updated.
However.
-Search for Gabriel’s remains in the ruined city, Ogratium. (In Progress)
●Hunt the yokai of Ogratium, “Great Yokai of the Valley Where Blood Never Stops Flowing, the Cruel God-Slaying Eight-Headed Matricidal Serpent (神殺八頭殺母蛇).” (In Progress)
For some reason,
like “someone” else, your full name is far too long, isn’t it?
That certain someone deigned to open his mouth.
“That name is truly impertinent.”