Chapter: 625 – The Oldest Wish (6)
—
Elena
“Yah!”
A menacing purple flash erupted from the Holy Mother’s fingertips!
For an ordinary human, that kind of power would be enough to turn them into pulp without even a moment to react, but thankfully, there’s no such thing as an ordinary person in this place.
Fortuna moved just a half-step back, as if he had eyes on the back of his head, narrowly dodging the attack.
So, what about me?
— Whoosh!
As soon as the blessing vanished, a creature of ominous imagination manifested.
It’s the moth that had been a huge help in Rooms 202 and 203!
The blasphemous creature took the brunt of the flash with its body.
— Crack!
In an instant, a fist-sized hole pierced through its torso, scattering crispy dust everywhere, but this was hardly a significant blow.
It could be easily restored.
The Holy Mother, having lost her blessing, was undoubtedly weakened.
Not just her hexagonal form shrank, but the very balance of her abilities was shattered.
Cliff of Crystals and Taegeukdo.
Both artifacts have some offensive capabilities, but they clearly fall short compared to Justice.
Not to mention, even the half-baked bit of Justice I just used was still more potent!
The purple beam projected by the crystals?
Its strength was ambiguous.
The blasphemous creature had been withstanding it this whole time; if it were the hammer of judgment crafted by the blessings of Justice, it could never withstand it.
Also, the method of attack from the artifacts was too simple.
Even I, with my ordinary physique, started recognizing the pattern after experiencing it about 20 times: “A body part glows → A beam shoots in a straight line from that part.”
Fortuna probably figured it out the first few times he saw it.
Taegeukdo?
This was more problematic.
“Taegeukdo, gather—”
To use it, I had to take on a peculiar posture and recite a chant.
What’s wrong with memorizing a few words while striking a pose, you ask?
Well, with Fortuna right in front of me, it becomes a challenge.
— Rustle!
“Your preparation is too loud.”
“—Ack!”
“Use techniques like this at home.”
Suddenly I realized just how convenient Justice was in battle.
After its manifestation, there are no preparation times and the power of judgment flows freely according to my imagination, making avenues for attack endlessly diverse.
— Crackle!
As the Holy Mother’s right arm shattered, purple ore exploded everywhere instead of flesh and blood.
It was a bizarre scene, but by now, I’d seen it more than ten times, so everyone was numb to it.
— Whoosh!
Instantly, the blasphemous creature whipped up dust everywhere, and the crystals covered in dust couldn’t attach properly.
Crystal pieces strewn everywhere were preventing the Holy Mother from reclaiming her strength!
“You….”
The Holy Mother’s eyes sparked with fury.
“Your regeneration is disturbingly impressive.”
Fortuna replied nonchalantly.
But even for him, things weren’t comfortable.
It was due to the constant streams of dust coming from the blasphemous creature toward the Holy Mother.
That toxic substance is so malicious it could stifle the regeneration of the Cliff of Crystals—what would it do to a person?
I’m avoiding exposure behind the creature, but Fortuna couldn’t.
Dressed in black armor, one might not notice, but his body must have been getting hammered repeatedly inside that armor.
Holding onto the Soul Vessel with his soul and using his signature magical power to keep his body together.
“…”
I didn’t mean to, but while fighting alongside Fortuna again, I observed him.
Thanks to that, I naturally grasped his limits.
For example, his unique intuition and luck help him dodge small, focused attacks, but he’s often completely helpless against wide-area ones.
When there’s no angle to dodge, even luck won’t help.
Once hit, he’s tossed aside more easily than expected.
His ability to revive persistently due to that magical power doesn’t make his body extremely robust.
Impenetrable like a diamond?
Does that level of durability even matter in such a fight?
The Holy Mother’s fingers are sturdier than a building yet she still gets smashed and torn apart!
I began to understand why Han Kain said he was caught off-guard by Wisdom in an instant before rewinding time.
Moreover, the merged Wisdom with the Ark supposedly caused destruction at a city scale in a single swing, leaving no room to evade.
“Is your recovery slower than before?”
“Yours too!”
The Holy Mother and Fortuna both had significantly diminished recovery rates.
What about me in the back?
“…”
Since earlier, I’ve been feeling increasingly dizzy.
I’m hungry and thirsty.
There’s a craving for forbidden flesh and forbidden water, a thirst building inside me.
I’ve been using this ominous imagination for too long without the aid of clarity.
If I don’t get some help soon, I might just rip off my own arm!
“Let’s wrap this up.”
With a thunderous charge, Fortuna went for his final strike.
The Holy Mother seemed too weak to avoid it, taking Fortuna’s powerful blow straight to her body.
— Crackle!
The Cliff of Crystals collapsed, scattering countless shards everywhere.
This time, the crystals couldn’t regenerate anymore.
In the ruined Moon Church, purple ore pieces lay scattered all around.
A delayed sense of calm washed over me.
Soon, the emblematic black armor of ‘Fortuna’ began to dissipate like mist.
So this is where the limit of awakening lies?
Seeing that, the blasphemous creature along with the Holy Mother also crumbled, bubbling up like foam.
The Holy Mother, the blasphemous creature, and Fortuna all vanished.
What remained was just me and a slightly scared-looking boy.
“Big sis! W-It’s over now, right?”
“… Seungyub?”
“Y-Yes!”
“…”
How strange.
Without a doubt, the voice saying “Someone’s luck is someone’s misfortune. Next time, I’ll be lucky and you’ll be unfortunate” is the same as the voice asking, “W-It’s over now, right?”
Yet living it, Fortuna and Seungyub’s vibes are completely different.
The former seems ready to swing his black sword and slaughter demons even in hell, while the latter feels more like someone you’d see tapping away at a keyboard rather than battling in a war.
So this is why Sophia was spellbound watching Seungyub.
Seungyub approached with a worried expression.
“Big sis? Are you okay?”
“…”
Sorry, but I’m not in a chatty mood right now.
Does Seungyub realize how delightful the smell of blood is coming from that wound on his side since earlier?!
I can literally feel my judgment warping in real-time!
If I don’t get help from clarity soon—
“Ah!”
“Big sis?”
What’s the reason clarity isn’t restoring me?
It’s because I can’t use the Blessing of Justice until the fight ends, according to the trial!
So, this fight isn’t over yet!
— Ting!
In that moment, the scattered remains of the Cliff of Crystals sparkled ominously!
Instinctively, I wrapped my arms around the boy in front of me.
— rumble!
Everything felt as though it was in slow motion, a surreal sensation.
The Holy Mother’s final desperate act.
Crystal debris burst forth from all directions.
The boy, still wide-eyed and clueless, didn’t grasp what was happening.
Is this what they call a ‘flashback’?
A shockwave swept through the area.
Immediately afterward, I couldn’t see anything.
I couldn’t hear a thing.
Even the sensation of holding Seungyub vanished.
An indescribable pain engulfed me, yet that pain lasted only a moment.
What remained was nothingness.
Elena Ivanova’s physical body itself vanished without a trace.
Then, what exactly is this ‘ME’ that I’m contemplating now?
…
The blasphemous creatures crafted by my mind and hands.
Caterpillars, moths.
Cocooning.
…
I felt the blasphemous imagination fill the void.
—
Kim Ahri
“We’re almost at the next area!”
Before Aidia even spoke, tension filled the air.
The words ‘Field of Convicts’ flashed on the elevator’s display.
Neither Mino nor Eunsol could hide it, even the former Wisdom wore a stern expression.
According to Kain’s guesses, what awaits us in the Field of Convicts are hordes of evil spirits.
“We’re here!”
— Clunk!
As soon as the elevator arrived in the Field of Convicts—
“…!”
Before anyone could catch their breath, the surroundings began to warp.
Damp stalactites, gray concrete, old wood, rotting grass, unidentifiable rocks, sticky liquid, salty air, murky colors, cold ore—
Countless materials popped up, vanished, and erupted again like foam, each one distinct and rampant.
“Ugh!”
Eunsol lost her balance.
The solid elevator floor had turned into a slippery swamp.
Cha Jinchul, nearby, grabbed her immediately, but now, underneath him, the floor transformed into an empty void!
“No—!”
— Whoosh!
Just as Kain summoned a holy sun to catch Mino and the Holy Mother, Cha Jinchul was left clinging to the seemingly intact wall.
But would the walls really hold steady while the floor shifts between a swamp and a void?!
“Grab me!”
The former Wisdom’s firm shout.
As soon as I noticed, Kain’s clothes began to flutter peculiarly, and he fixed himself in mid-air.
Jinchul finally managed to grab his arm, still looking alive—
But then, the sky turned suddenly dark and was pouring rain!
— Rumbling!
“This is absurd! Purely absurd!”
The first time I heard the former Wisdom’s panicked voice.
In a long life, he had endured all sorts of bizarre situations, yet this moment was almost incomprehensible.
This place was a chaos zone where ‘stable space-time’ was completely absent.
At a moment when everyone was thrown into disarray due to the continuously shifting surroundings, a warped dodecahedron emitted ominous light.
“Yah!”
Focusing all my mental energy, opaque partitions began to form all around.
Finally, my companions found a moment’s reprieve.
“Is this wall indeed safe?”
Eunsol, who had gone pale, asked anxiously.
Kain attempted to analyze the situation.
“Since Ahri made these walls using a dodecahedron, I think it should be alright! Right?”
The former Wisdom also threw in his opinion.
“This space is like the boundary between dreams and reality…. The walls made of artifacts should have a completely independent mechanism unlike dreams, so I believe we should be fine.”
I, the one who built the walls, was feeling uncertain, yet they were all discussing it!
Is this some kind of wisdom cartel?
Caught off guard momentarily, Mino pointed at a torn corner of the elevator that looked like it was about to crumble.
“What, what’s that!”
“…”
When did something like that get here?
No, even more so…
What an atrocious sight is that?!
Rotting bones, writhing flesh, waning souls flickering like candles.
Something that was once human but isn’t quite anymore.
“There’s more than one, isn’t there? Naturally, though.”
The former Wisdom, now belatedly aware of the situation, spoke in a grim tone.
As he said, every ‘place’ our gazes fell upon was filled with the abominable forms of souls.
Groaning apparitions, grotesque entities seemed to embody the concept of ‘pain.’
Their despair is what constituted the bricks and pillars around, continuously warping the space.
Kain, pale-faced, supplemented the earlier explanation.
“The Holy Mother said it before. Never wander into open spaces. Countless souls’ distorted dreams erode us.”
“We never actually went into an open space, did we? We were in the elevator.”
As the former Wisdom pointed out, we indeed never exited the elevator.
The elevator itself was twisted.
“Somehow, the density in this area is so high that it seems the safe zone has vanished—”
“Ugh!”
“Ahh, Aidia!”
“Holy Mother!”
At that moment, the Holy Mother suddenly dropped to her knees, vomiting wildly.
Bloodshot eyes, trembling body, and—spitting out—purple ore?
Holy Mother! Is she even human or is she a reptilian—whatever, is she a being of some kind?!
“Dreams… There are too many dreams…”
“Can we fix the elevator?”
“Too… too many…”
“Eunsol! For now—”
“I’ll play the flute!”
Eunsol rushed to the Holy Mother and began using the Flute of Rest, but there was no immediate improvement in her condition.
This realm is where dreams and reality intermingle.
The elevator leading to the sanctuary is also a dream, and the Holy Mother created this dream.
Now under attack in the Field of Convicts, the Holy Mother’s psyche is probably suffering too.
Taking a deep breath, I surveyed the surroundings.
Wailing echoes endlessly.
Twisted souls filling the world generate a hellish dream.
Will I be able to reshape the elevator while caught in the violent influences of this nightmare?
It’s like trying to paint a delicate watercolor amid a raging storm.
No wonder the Holy Mother looks more like she’s gasping for breath than restoring the elevator.
What do I do?
“Ha…”
Just as I exhaled, a shabby-looking box appeared in the hands of the former Wisdom.
The second legacy of the former Wisdom!
As we all looked at the box with a sense of hope—
“…”
Suddenly, the box vanished.
Did the former Wisdom just unsummon his artifact?
Eunsol asked incredulously.
“What are you doing?”
Is he bragging about having two artifacts of his own? What gives?!
“I used a hint right after summoning it.”
“Huh?”
“They say not to use the joker freely.”
The old man shrugged at Kain.
Kain thought for a moment before replying similarly.
“I used a hint just now.”
“What’s the reason this is called the ‘Field of Convicts’?”
“Oh-ho?”
“What’s the way to stop the nightmare and restore the elevator?”
“Aha, I see now! That was it!”
What did he just understand?
Is this really a wisdom cartel?!
Once I return to reality, I need to establish some laws.
How does a ‘Ban on Pronouns’ sound?
I should punish those wisdom bozos every time they use expressions like ‘that,’ ‘this,’ or ‘those’ by having their tongues torn out!
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