Chapter 381

Chapter 381

It was a moment of passing through the cracks.
A crappy sensation washed over me, about seven times worse than when I was spatializing.
I felt dizzy and nauseous, like a ghost was caressing my cochlea.
“Woof.”
I managed to look up.
About 500 meters away, I saw a crack that looked exactly like the one I came in.
The rest of the room was bathed in white.
It wasn’t that far away.
But the moment I took a step, I realized why Sarante had said no one else could enter the rift.
“What the fuck?”
I felt like I’d been thrown into the deep end.
The pressure on my body was exploding.
As I squinted, I could see particles finer than dust roaming the space.
A bright red nosebleed trickled down his cheek.
“That’s pretty good.”
It felt a bit like being under telekinetic spell.
Perhaps those particles were the magic catalyst.
My bones and joints were creaking.
If I were a normal person, I would have squashed like a jellyfish the moment I stepped into the crack.
Akasha must be a stumbling block if she can do this much magic when I’m not around.
“That’s magic.”
I tugged on the hilt of my sword.
As the blade arced, a liquid, fluid sword qi swirled and shot out.
The particles dissipate, clearing the way to the crack.
It looks like a tunnel of blood.
“Hmph!”
I didn’t want to bother anymore.
I took a deep breath and my thighs bulged.
Your heel struck the pavement roughly.
His body shot like a bullet, and in a flash he was in front of the crack.
I glanced behind me and saw the crack I had entered.
Beyond the broken space, the late-night forest stirred.
“——.”
It was a split second, but I had a lot of thoughts.
Honestly, it was hard to keep my doubts at bay.
In fact, isn’t this all a dream?
Is Sarante, who entrusted me with her future, a mean ghost in disguise?
Honestly, it doesn’t make sense.
All of a sudden, it’s like, “Oh, the future is this, parallel worlds are that.
“Well, it doesn’t make sense since I died and came back to life.
Still, it didn’t take long to solidify my resolve.
I’ve been forgetting about it a lot lately.
I knew I was living a second life.I remembered the breath of the captain as he kissed me, the feel of his parched lips against mine, the pungent scent of blood that came with the beads, and the view of Nimburton when I opened my eyes.
In retrospect, it wasn’t the first time I’ve been entrusted with the fate of the world.
– I decided to give you a call.
I decided to stay as positive as possible.
I’ve been suffering from paranoia lately.
About the forsaken.
Of the world that remains after Adeshan’s disappearance, of the world that doesn’t even exist.
But it turns out it wasn’t a delusion, it was reality.
And I was given the right to be a part of that world.
In fact, it could be considered lucky.
Typically, people who suffer from this condition are either put in straitjackets and imprisoned or treated as insane until they die.
“Yeah.
He who has eaten the meat knows the flavor.”
So there you have it, a short and long story.
I slammed my sword in and closed my eyes instead of braking.
The flash of light that burst through the crack blinded me.
****
The light quickly faded.
I slowly opened my eyes.
The white sandy beach lapped beneath the boat.
“What the hell.”
To my surprise, I was still flying.
It was so fast, I felt like I was hitting the ground hard.
I wanted to make a stable landing, but the distance to the ground was too close.
It was like a glider trying to land on a runway, as the altitude got lower and lower.
Well.
You’re screwed.
It was about the time we could observe the shape of each grain of sand.
“Crack!”
Face down in the sand.
The off-balance body bounced wildly.
I rolled twenty-three laps before losing inertia and coming to a stop.
“Tsk, tsk, tsk, bad luck!”
I bounced to my feet.
Every time I spit or blew my nose, sand came out.
I wanted to melt it all down and turn it into glass, because the white shiny stuff is like jewelry, and I don’t care if it’s pretty.
“Wait a minute. This—.”
I was in the middle of turning my coat pockets inside out.
A light bulb went off in my head.
I’d definitely seen this sand before.
Lifeless, pale pellets, like the carcasses of vampires.
Right next to me, I could hear the waves crashing.
I turned my head, frozen in place.
“Huh. Fuck.”
A blood-red sea stretched along the sandy shore.
The sky against the horizon was as white as a sandy beach.
The crimson waters were eerily transparent, allowing us to see through to a depth that wasn’t unreasonably deep.
“Why is there nothing?
That’s what added to the eeriness.
There was nothing underwater that should be teeming with life.
There were no fish, coral, or any of the usual suspects.
Only a few whitish reefs remained, poking their heads out like a jabberwocky.
His body was stiff, but his hands were working hard, brushing off his coat.
The darker visibility adds confidence.
I’ve seen this landscape before.
“——Is it already over?”
Yuck.
It made a cracking sound in my mouth.
The day I saw this was the day I bonded with Abel.
We tangled and fought our way through a dimensional rift and landed on some nameless star.
Where the sea is red and the land is white, like here.
Abel named the star Mala, the planet that had been overrun by a race of giants.
“I never thought this would happen.
It wasn’t hard to figure out what was going on.
Sarante only said that the parallel world was after the death of the Warlord, but he was uncertain how much later.
Judging by the landscape, it had been a while.
Nebula Clazier’s plan has been fully realized and has reached its conclusion.
“That’s a dog’s breakfast ending.”
I took a deep breath and felt better.
We had to act fast.
My goal was to destroy the rifts in the world and destroy Akasha.
The first crack to be smashed was a given.
When I looked back, I saw a spectacular landing.
“—I’m glad you didn’t break your neck.”
I thought I could plant crops right where the sand was.
At the end of the furrow, the fissure I’d entered was flickering with white light.
I grabbed my sword and approached the rift.
It was my last chance to dismiss the whole thing as a dream, but I didn’t hesitate.
The strike fell flat.
The particles of magic disintegrated, and the cracks began to close.
“Nothing much.”
It took a few seconds.
The wound in the space healed without a trace.
I ran my hand over the crack just to be sure.
I didn’t feel anything.
I couldn’t get away with this anymore.
Just as I was about to get down to business, a question popped into my head.
“How do you know where the cracks are, anyway?
This was a pretty serious problem.
There was no way to determine where the crack was, let alone how wide the parallel world was.
It would have been much easier if I had friends, but unfortunately I was the only one here.
“If only Sita or Asel were here.”
I sighed.
I felt like I had no choice but to do it the primitive way.
Walk until you see a crack.
Still, it wasn’t a very vague task.
Akasha’s purpose was to summon the Giant and Nebula Clasier, so it was likely that the rift existed in a place where their auras were felt.
Once you’ve pinched one, you can probably figure out where the other cracks are.
“Okay. Let’s get started.”
Mate!
I clapped my hands and steeled my resolve.
It was a little lonely not having a supportive audience, but I had no choice.
Because the hero’s path is often a lonely one.
It was the car I was about to drive along the shoreline.
“I think there’s something to the west.”
“Holy shit!”
Suddenly, a girl’s voice rang out.
I was so surprised that I let out a girlish scream.
He reflexively drew his sword.
I looked around, but I couldn’t see anything but the sea and the land that had failed to dye.
I was trying to catch my breath.
“Why are you so surprised? You’ve been with me the whole time.”
I heard the same voice again.
It was so close.
My eyes widened as I looked in the direction of the sound.
The drawn blade was whimpering.
“Lean—!”
“You’ve finally shown your true colors. Alone in the middle of nowhere, huh?”
I’d forgotten about it.
The owner of the voice was none other than my knife.
Or, more accurately, the ghost that lives in my knife (it pisses me off when I call it that).
Rin, Spirit of the Holy Sword.
“Are you okay?”
“I’m hungry. Slice me something.”
“No, not like that, like my body is about to disintegrate—or I’m unconscious—.”
“Yeah. Sounds good.”
Lin’s voice was as nonchalant as ever.
My heart suddenly leapt into my throat.
I wasn’t alone.
“That’s good to hear. I’m so dirty glad to see you.”
“—I like your attitude today. Make sure you treat me like this every day.”
I couldn’t stop laughing.
As he stroked the hilt, Rin purred like a happy cat.
Suddenly, I remembered our earlier conversation and snapped my fingers.
“Oh, by the way, what’s out west?”
“Yep. I don’t know what it is, but it’s very unpleasant, and I want to cut it right now.”
“Bald assholes? Great, let’s go.”
It was rare for Lean to be actively murderous.
Apparently, the peculiar holy sword had smelled something.
I ran toward the direction the tip of the sword was pointing.
“Where is this in the world, I don’t know. I don’t know.”
“I don’t know. I don’t like it. How did I end up here?”
“It’s a long story, but, um–I’ll tell you anyway.”
I told Lynn the whole story of the incident.
My only friend, for now, listened to the story with a series of “huhs.
The white sand bounced cheerfully as I struck the ground.
Every once in a while, I’d glance back and see footprints that were reddened by pooling seawater.
After dozens of “yeses,” that was it.
“Found.”
“Huh?”
For the first time, I got a different answer.
Almost simultaneously, I felt a familiar, fucked-up sensation.
The gaze moved to the ocean and remained fixed.
“What the hell is that?”
His brow creased.
Lin was now growling like a ravenous beast.
A white sea mist stirred against the red horizon.
The sight of a puffy cloud.
The inside was shimmering like a starburst, the unmistakable sign of a Nebula Clazier.
“Hands?”
But it wasn’t their mana that caught my and Lin’s attention.
Something huge flickered in the thick fog.
I soon realized that it was someone’s hand.
A giant hand, rising out of the sea.
“Is it alive?”
Rin smirked.
The hand didn’t move.
I wanted to get a better idea of the shape, but it was too far away to see from this location.
“I’ll know when I see it.”
In times like these, it’s best to be there in person.
It was a long way away, but it seemed to work.
Kaaaah!
Gathering strength in my legs, I leapt toward the ocean.
“Your strength is better.”
“What’s new.”
Lin was impressed.
The beach was rapidly receding.
With all the cursing I’ve done, I could leap to a level similar to Zaifa’s if I wanted to.
I haven’t had to exert this much effort lately, though.
It was a hectic time for recovery, but peace was restored.
“That’s creepy.
A sea of red rippled beneath my feet.
The deep ocean, where sunlight doesn’t reach, has an opaque red color.
There’s probably nothing there, but based on the visuals, I wouldn’t be surprised if there were giant tentacles sticking out.
Soon, the fog engulfed me.
“I can’t believe I have to watch this again.”
I frowned.
The inside of the seafoam was like a darkroom in a planetarium.
Nebula Clazier’s mana was shimmering everywhere.
His grip on the sword tightened.
“What, are you going to cut it?”
I answered Lynn’s question with a stronger grip on the hilt of my sword.
It wasn’t stinky or toxic, but it was just ugly.
“Okay. Let’s do it.”
Rin chuckled.
The red-tailed blade drew a giant circle.
The sword was back in its sheath.
Chaaaahhhhh-!
The dense fog bisected left and right.
Just in time, the wind picked up.
The 1-kilometer-radius plume of gas began to split up and disperse.
The hand behind the veil was revealed.
It was closer than I thought, and I was almost there.
Suddenly, my eyes narrowed.
“—altar?”
The giant hand did not belong to a creature.