Chapter 153

Chapter 153

The slime clumped together like a swarm of maggots. Countless bubbles bubbled and boiled, forming the shape of a man. A long, thin silhouette.
‘Are you still there……!
Kim reflexively closed the distance. It was a series of unexpected events. While his emotions were stirring, his thinking remained calm.
You have two choices right now. Fight or flight.
It was a no-brainer.
“It’s actually a good thing.
In order for the Godmother to cast her spells at a certain level, she requires the death of a large number of creatures, or sacrifices.
And right now, it’s not fulfilling the condition.
It’s a funny metaphor, but the death scattered here is past its expiration date. The reverberations of death have long since dispersed. Only the crumbling ruins remain to testify to the devastation.
The odds are in your favor.
Voila!
With that conclusion, Kim took out Helixivir and removed the stopper. There was no hesitation as she brought the needle to her neck, ready to inject the drug.
He paused.
“You, who are you?”
It was obvious as the mucus slowly peeled off.
Hair as black as the night sky, darker than Asians. Long, elongated limbs. The physical features were similar, but only ‘similar’.
“Postmarked Altaira.”
A whisper-quiet, yet crisp tone.
“I thought you were a former prefect in Bastitera…….”
Altayre’s head turned slowly.
Kim looked behind him. A horned Castus was running toward him, emitting heat and flames that made the atmosphere seem distorted.
It wasn’t just one person.
“Mr. Hyun, step aside!”
Electricity crackled in the girl’s hands as she cried out in urgency. A masked man drew a dagger. In the distance, a woman with pink hair and eyes pointed a gun at him.
In the nick of time, Kim raised his right hand.
“It’s okay. Stop.”
That alone was a game changer.
Though still wary, the enemy’s desire to attack has abated for the moment. The spell ceased to manifest, only the muzzle of the gun still pointed at Altair.
Altayre is frankly impressed.
“You’re very trusted by your team.”
“Thankfully.”
Kim said, calming him down again with eye contact.
“It’s more about you.”
An [Ivory] appeared in Kim’s hand. Aiming it precisely at Altair’s head, she continued the conversation. If he showed any signs of suspicion, she would shoot him.
“Are you looking for me? How and why?”
“No, you’re the one who came to me.”
“What does that mean?”
“He’s had his eye on this place for about two weeks.”
The wind whipped around him, a solid black robe that resembled a priest’s vestments. A high, early gale swept across the ruins of Shamalsina.
“You know the one the world calls the Godmother.”
“…Are you an associate of the godmother?”
Altayre smiled crookedly at Leila’s question.
“Surely Dvora was once our comrade, but that was long ago. I warn you in advance that Dvora’s evil deeds are an unpardonable sin, even for us.”
“What do you mean, “we”?”
“I’m just a witch living in a remote forest.”
Kim recalled the game’s setup. He had known Altayre’s identity from the moment he realized that his opponent’s face didn’t match his godmother’s.
Mutant Species Vidia.
They’re not a race that has much influence on the continent. There are several reasons for this, but the main one is that their lifestyle is extremely closed.
“You don’t come out of the woods unless you’re in trouble.
Flipped around, it looks like this
The problem was big enough for Vidya to break convention.
“I’ve been waiting for someone to tell the world of the tragedy that Deborah has caused, and it’s safe to say that I was pleasantly mistaken to come face to face with you.”
“I don’t know why you’re happy.”
“Deborah’s reluctance to open the ‘Sanctuary’ for fear of us is a sign that she’s been pushed to the brink, and the small man believes it’s you.”
So far, so good.
“Episode 17.
After Bastitera, and after several battles with the Godmother, Vidia’s messenger appears before the Professor’s group.
The location is different, but the composition is exactly the same.
“and would like to invite Mr. Hyun to join us.”
You are led to a tower in the forest. The target has been changed to Kim Yi Hyun instead of the professor, but it doesn’t matter. As long as you’re recognized by Vidia’s priest, you can get the item.
An object that removes the godmother’s “system invulnerability”.
This is an essential item to have in your arsenal.
‘I tried to go there, but I couldn’t find it….’
The game doesn’t even mention the location in detail. You could ask around, but it would be pointless. Uninvited guests can’t reach the tower in the first place.
As it turns out, I was happily mistaken.
But there was also a nagging feeling.
“Can I call this good news?
In exchange for Shamalshina, he gets the knife to kill his godmother. It may not have been your intention, but it’s the twist in the scenario that caused the collapse of a healthy nation.
Don’t feel sorry for yourself. It’s in the past.
But I do feel a sense of responsibility for what’s to come.
“One more question.”
“Anything in that category that a small person can answer.”
“Where is the godmother now?”
“Thankfully, that’s an easy question.”
Vidia is connected to each other through the Sanctuary. Dvora, in particular, has advanced the Sanctuary to Winter twice in less than a year. The connection is stronger than ever.
You can trace the coordinates and match them to a map of the continent to get the answer.
“Near the Shiran Empire. Howland.”
Kim narrowed her eyes at Altayre’s answer.
‘You crazy bitch.
An island nation that, like Shalem, had already been destroyed decades ago.
A land that is said to be uninhabited in modern times.
There, it says “Markus Dressner”.
There is a bomb that will accelerate the destruction of the continent.
“Okay, I’ll catch up.”
“Tongue, Mr. Hyun?”
Kim looked at Leila’s horrified face. The professor and the other agents had similar expressions. It looked like a fire moth crawling into a limb.
It’s not worth the time to mess around.
“You guys go back to the lab first. Go tell Kushan the news.”
“I don’t know what you’re thinking, Mr. Hyun, but I can’t do it this time. This isn’t a decision you can make on the fly. You need to discuss it with the director and…….”
“We can’t afford that. Kushan would understand.”
He said flatly.
“I’ll be back as soon as I’m done, and I want you to gather your forces. More than you did in Bastitera. And not just against the Godmother, but against the entire Legion.”
Next up were Dustborn’s agents.
I called out to Chelsea, and she lowered her gun and approached.
“Chelsea, take this.”
The lightly thrown object flew in a parabolic arc. Chelsea looked back and forth at the object in her hand. It was a small pouch with a string for easy carrying.
“What is this?”
“Think of it as a compass or a navigation system. Your destination is the Albatross’s temporary base. Get there and get help. Labs will have the same thing, but reporting comes first.”
“That means we need to hurry, okay.”
He nods as he reaches into his pocket.
“What about headcount allocation?”
“Only Asterike sticks to me.”
“Wouldn’t it be better to take Mr. Edwin with you?”
“No. Two will do.”
Asterisks are also more of an insurance policy than a necessity. If everything goes well, there won’t be a battle. On the contrary, the absence of Edwin makes Chelsea nervous.
“Do well, I’ll count on you.”
I patted Chelsea on the shoulder. He was a troublemaker in many ways, but when it counted, he was reliable. You could count on him to take over when you needed to be away.
Chelsea was grateful for the trust.
“Don’t forget to pack it in.”
“I know without you telling me.”
Kim turned her back on him. Altair stood in place like a tree, waiting for the cleanup to be done. He locked gazes with her dull purple eyes.
“I’ll be right on my way.”
* * *
Nephritis forced her eyes open.
It wasn’t foggy, but my vision was blurry. To the unfocused eye, one object appeared to be several.
He was groggy, like he was drunk. Maybe even drunk. I can’t feel the black worms burrowing inside my fingernails and toenails, eating away at my flesh.
There is pain. Every nerve in your body screams out in pain, but the pain seems distant. Even your reflexive screams don’t sound like your own voice.
It was a change I realized ten days into the torture.
“Stranger things have happened.
Is it a self-defense mechanism to protect the mind from external stimuli, and if so, is it a new personality that you don’t even know you have? Is man such a strong yet fragile creature….
“There’s no emotion in your screams.”
Click, click!
The sound of the cane tapping on the floor rang hollow.
Then Nephrite’s head was grabbed and he was forced to his feet. They saw each other’s reflection in the reddened walls and violet eyes.
“Okay, what did you see this time?”
“How many times have I said, Kool-Aid! ….”
Nephrites coughed up a mouthful of dead blood and smiled crookedly.
“A death of four years. It was a terrible, ugly end, and yet it was so delightful that I could replay it a hundred times and never tire of it, though I do not enjoy drifting through time.”
There was a rumbling laugh.
Despite the obvious mockery, her godmother showed no sign of anger. But Nephritis knew from experience that appearances were not always the truth.
Or not.
Poof!
“Aaaahhhh…!”
The tip of the staff stabbed Nephrite’s thigh. He twisted the staff as it pierced the flesh. The scream he’d heard hundreds, maybe thousands of times, erupted once more.
“I guess that great saint of Shamalsina didn’t see my future.”
“…I have spoken the truth, hmph, the truth. The future is not at the mercy of mere mortals, and I am proving it before you.”
The shackles on his limbs creaked with every movement.
I don’t know where this place is. It’s too big for a prison. Stone pillars at regular intervals support the ceiling. There are no windows, so it must be underground, but that’s not much help.
Imprisonment and torture. No matter how much you scream, no help comes. Forced to eat food that’s worse than garbage and pass out several times a day.
And it gives me nightmares.
Shamalsina’s dream of the day she was destroyed. Imprinted in her mind, even her personality, separated by self-defense mechanisms, cannot escape it. They suffer the same pain.
Nephrites was the first to know.
The more I tried to escape the present, the more often I saw the future.
In her visions, she experienced the future as a spirit floating through the air. The time zones seemed to be different each time, but she soon realized they had one thing in common.
‘Who is that guy….’
There is a man every time.
He was in the ruins of Shamalshina, and he was in a darkened tower. He was in a highly technologized underground facility, and even here.
Nephrite chuckled as he recalled the fragment of the future he’d glimpsed.
“I’ll say it again. Soon you will die. It is as certain a future as the destruction of Shamalshina. Try as you might, you will be a sight for sore eyes.”
The Godmother’s eyes turned cold.
She pulled the staff out of Nephrite’s thigh and pushed herself to her feet. The slime from her feet clung to Nephrite’s skin.
“Aaaah, aaaah, aaaah!”
I made my way through the tearing screams. An abandoned underground cistern. The deeper I went, the quieter the screams became, and other noises began to blend in.
Repeated beeps like a metronome.
The sound of steam being blown out of a turbine.
The sound of water running down a pipe in the ceiling.
At the center of it all was a man buried in a giant machine.
“…….”
The godmother never said anything to him; she didn’t feel the need to. As Markus Dressner’s consciousness is dispersed among the dolls he handles.
It was the last resort my godmother had in store for me. The corners of her mouth curled, revealing a tooth between her lips. Her hands clutched at my breasts, ready to rip them off.
“Ugh, ha…!”
The pain traveled through my body with my pulse. She broke out in a cold sweat. Ever since the bullet had pierced her heart, Daemo had suffered from phantom pain.
The way out of the pain was clear.
It’s kill or be killed.
“Come on, come on…….”
As soon as possible.
The enemy waited for us to reach this place.