Chapter 420

Didikan frowned.
Chanting in the darkness was surely the wizard he’d passed in the corridor, and he vaguely remembered that the man in the coat had called him by the name of Akasha. A boulder wrapped in chains floated in front of Akasha.
“Oh my God–whoops!”
“Hey. Are you okay?”
“Oh, I can still hold out, but if I don’t stop it soon—.”
Asel watched Akasha, a silent gagging sensation repeated itself. It was a reaction reminiscent of a witness to a horrific car accident. He suddenly wanted to know why.
Didikan replied, a hint of irritation in his voice.
“I’m not sure what’s going on here. You said that earlier, but what exactly are we supposed to stop?”
“Woof–that’s what the wizard is doing, Dee, don’t you see Mr. Didikan?”
With a shaky hand, Asel pointed to Akasha and the rock he was facing.
The chained rock held an immeasurable amount of life. If the earth had a heart, I wondered, it would feel like that.
But only Asel, gifted with the talents of a sorcerer, could see through the chains and see life. Didikan’s brow creased.
“What do you mean you see–isn’t it just a stone? It looks kind of mystical.”
“It’s no ordinary stone, I’m not sure, but I’m sure it’s a world treasure, and by the way, that wizard is a–eh.”
I felt nauseous again.
The inky chains were draining the rock of its life force. The life force was being transferred to Akasha, the chain’s master, of course. All the while, the rock was spewing out erratic waves of energy as if it were screaming.
『■—■■■■.』
A pure white fissure grew in the space beside the rock. The crack, a tangle of life force and blood leaking from the cracks in Akasha’s fingers, felt very different from the usual spatial travel magic.
Asel paused to catch his breath.
“It’s just a gut feeling, we can’t leave that thing alone, because if the rock loses all its power–if some wizard runs off with it through that crack–something terrible will happen.”
The wizard’s touch was sending out fiercer warnings than ever. I had to stop him somehow. I had to use my hands while I was too focused on the spear to notice its presence.
Didikan sighed, glancing back and forth between Asel and Akasha.
“Whoa—okay, Asel. Let’s say your instincts are right. Let’s say the world explodes if we don’t stop that wizard, and even then, what can we do?”
“That, that’s—.”
“Even I, an ignoramus of magic, can see that this Akasha thing is a monster, and even if we succeed in interrupting it, we’ll most likely die–no, definitely die–and the guy who used to be friends with the leader of that cult isn’t nice enough to let us live.”
Didikan remembered. Akasha had tried to kill his friend in the coat after he’d gotten into a fight with the headmaster. He’d been lucky the last time they’d met in the hallway, but there was no guarantee it would be the same this time. Crouching down, he came to eye level with Asel.
“I’m afraid I can’t help you. If I die, the great forge will be lost forever, and I will not be able to see the face of the Doron Inspiration on the other side.”
“—Yes. I get it, it’s my choice.”
“I know. You were the one who insisted on going it alone and asked me to leave first, and I’m just stopping you now because I’m touched by your kindness.”
Didikan’s expression darkened further.
A hairy hand gripped Asel’s slender shoulder.
“If you go out, you will surely die, and whether you succeed or fail, the outcome is unknown. Are you willing to risk your life in this situation?”
“——!”
Asel sucked in a breath. His beautiful violet eyes fluttered uneasily. Didikan’s words reminded him of the horrors of death he’d been trying to ignore.
“I don’t want to die.
Of course I didn’t want to die. There’s so much I haven’t done yet. No one wants to die without enjoying the freedom they’ve gained after three years.
To be honest, it was hard for even Asel to understand why he was here. He just stumbled along, driven by a sense of mission to stop it.
It wasn’t just the wizard’s touch. Normally, I would have run away from a crisis like this, trusting that someone great would come along and save the day. There was only one difference between this and other similar situations.
You’d have to look away.
“I’m a—.”
I don’t know his name. The only thing that sticks in my mind is his ragged black coat and his skill with a sword. Shouting curses at the top of his lungs, he sliced through all who stood in his way with a single blade.
The lighthearted slaughter was the most intense shock Asel had ever experienced since he was born. It seemed that if he hit him hard enough, he would only be a couple years older than he was.
To Asel, who was frozen in the face of Akasha, he looked like a brilliant sun. He was speechless with awe. But the sun’s light cast a long shadow across Asel’s back.
I was vaguely aware of my talent, but I felt pathetic that I hadn’t capitalized on it.
Asel clenched his fists.
“I, for one, am—.”
Only then did he realize why he had come this far. He wanted to change, to step out into the light, even if he could never be as great as the swordsman he once was. Sensing a threat in Akasha and following her was the first step.
The desire to stand up as a person and do my part.
That handful of embers from the man’s fire had set Asel in motion.
“Yes. I’ve got it.”
Asel nodded.
Didikan looked at him with determination, then laughed in disbelief.
“Bluffing.”
He pushed himself to his feet, not bothering to hide his smile. He turned his head to see Akasha still chanting. With an outstretched finger, Didikan pointed to the ceiling, a few feet away from Akasha.
“Hey. See that statue stuck in the crack over there? The one with the broken upper body?”
“What? Ah—yes. I see it.”
“Telekinetically pull that out. It’s a cornerstone, and it’s going to bring the whole ceiling down around it. I’ve been watching it since I got in here.”
It had been created in response to the citadel’s heavy losses. The statue that had so exquisitely saved it from collapse had once been on display in the Lord’s chambers far away. Asel’s eyes widened.
“You’re going to run away with me, or else—!”
“Shut up. I’ll be damned if I don’t see it and damned if I don’t recognize it. If you’re ready, let’s do it.”
“Mr. Didikan—.”
The corners of Asel’s eyes watered. Didikan stopped looking away, feeling guilty for making her cry. Asel wiped at his eyes with his sleeve.
“Okay. I’ll do it. Just wait 37 seconds and you’ll have a clear gap.”
“Why 37 seconds?”
“That’s where his spells are the most mana intensive, because it’s a real-time drain, and when you’re casting a long spell like that, there’s always going to be a moment of distraction where a lot of mana is drained at once, and he’s no exception. He’s been casting the life drain spell since we ran into him in the hallway, so I’ve been checking his timing.”
Asel kept his gaze on Akasha as he spoke.
Didikan felt the hairs on his back stand up.
In other words, this little human being knew the condition of the wizard he encountered tens of minutes ago, down to the second.
‘I–maybe I’ve met an outrageous monster.’
It was something no normal person could ever do. Maybe the monster wasn’t just the man in the coat and that mage named Akasha.
Time passed in stifling suspense. Every second, Didikan snapped his fingers, and for the thirty-seventh time, he bent the knuckles of his index finger.
“Now.”
“Invisible Hand.”
The arcsel was a blast.
An invisible hand yanked a statue protruding through the ceiling. The marble statue shattered as it hit the floor.
『■?』
Akasha looked up from her chanting for the first time. For a moment, the absorption of life force and the creation of the rift stopped. Almost simultaneously, a sound like a whale’s growl echoed overhead.
“Now! Jump!”
“Ouch!”
Didikan lifted Asel up. He threw himself up as the ceiling crashed down, and a chunk of rock the size of a fist fell on Akasha’s head.
“You did it, you did it!”
Looking behind him, Asel clenched his fists as a cascade of furniture and debris from the upper floors came crashing down. There was a cloud of exploding dust. Akasha, the rocks, and the cracks were completely buried, no longer visible.
“Don’t relax until the end, we’re going to keep going!”
“Yeah, yeah!”
In a flash, Didikan was out of the hall and into the hallway. Darkness still hung over the empty passageway. The collapse had stopped, and the crushing sound was now inaudible. A fierce headwind was blowing the hair and fur from their bodies.
“Look, there’s a light!”
Running at the fastest pace of his life, Didikan reached the doorway that led outside. Sunlight streamed through the cracks of the stone door. There was a doorknob, but he didn’t have time to turn it. His heart was racing madly, drunk with the elation of survival.
Kaaaah!
Didikan smashes the stone door with his shoulder and escapes.
“What.”
“—?”
Their world came to a halt, and what awaited them was not a sunlit field, but a dreary, shadowy space.
“This is–why?”
He looked back quickly, but the way he’d come was blocked by a wall. Didikan’s eyes widened as he recognized the pattern on the wallpaper. This was the hall he had just been in. The same one he’d fled through when the ceiling collapsed.
“—I heard it fall apart.”
“Oh, nothing has changed—.”
It was like living a nightmare. Chan Chan looked around the hall and found it in the same state as when he’d first entered. The statue that Asel had pulled out and thrown with such gusto was still embedded in a corner of the ceiling.
What is it?
What’s going on?
Unsure of what was going on, the two men were stunned. Asel slipped off Didikan’s shoulder and struck him in the hip. Hearing something like the sound of the wind, he turned his head without thinking. His face was in front of him, and he froze in place as he realized what it was.
“Uh.”
It was a mask as polished as a mirror that reflected his face.
Akasha, bent at the waist in a bizarre way, locked eyes with him.
He was close enough to breathe, his pale face reflected in the mirror-like mask.
“Ahhhh—.”
At the center of the mask were three glowing eyes, glaring at him.
Akasha raised her arm. Asel froze, unable to do anything. Nails, curved like the claws of a bird of prey, dug into his cheek.
『■■■.』
An unintelligible gurgling noise emanated from beneath the mask.
Asel thought he hadn’t been mistaken when he heard that he had ‘caught it.