Chapter: 207
The ground and sky were upside down and twisted, and time seemed to have stopped, leaving people with startled expressions frozen like statues everywhere.
Water flowed backward, and stones that were about to fall to the ground floated in the air like butterflies.
“What is all this…?”
“Dark Magic…?”
Amidst a world turned upside down, the only ones still moving were Noah, Jess, and Iris.
Momentarily bewildered by the bizarre surroundings, the three quickly regained their composure.
“This isn’t the time for this – Lian… Lian is!”
“…!”
At Noah’s words, Iris and Jess snapped to attention, rapidly scanning their surroundings. The tent they were about to enter moments ago had completely vanished as if it had been erased, leaving no trace behind.
A surge of anxiety hit them, thinking Lian might have been obliterated along with the tent, but they quickly shook off the fear.
‘Everything is in chaos. The Imperial Army and the Beastmen’s camps are mixed together—maybe Lian’s tent has just been moved somewhere else…’
They didn’t understand why this strange phenomenon was happening, but all that filled Iris’s mind was concern for Lian, making it hard for her to think straight.
With no one waiting around, the three quickly dashed forward.
“Sniff, sniff… Ugh, there’s no smell at all…!”
In the black-and-white world, there were no smells or sounds. The only things echoing were their panicked breaths and mutterings.
They hurried past the jumbled mess of tents and briefly tangled shelters in search of where Lian might be.
Fortunately, they soon found the tent they were looking for.
Unlike the overlapping tents that looked like they were stuck in a glitch, Lian’s tent stood out—clean and spacious.
An electric wave of unease seeped in, as if standing before the Demon King’s chamber, but knowing the greater fear and despair that could await, the three entered the tent without a second thought.
Woom.
“…!”
“….!!”
“…!”
Inside the tent, transparent water floated in the air, bubbling as though a Water Magic spell was cast. Within the enormous mass of clear water that filled the tent, they spotted two familiar figures.
“Lian!”
“Brother!”
Noah and Iris reached out their hands towards the transparent water with alarmed, pale faces, while Jess narrowed her eyes in determination, extending her claws to attack the water mass like a slime.
The moment their hands touched the swirling water, it stretched and engulfed them like a hungry slime.
Woom…
Silence settled quietly within the tent.
*
“Ugh… where am I?”
Iris held her throbbing head as she surveyed her surroundings.
The first thing she noticed was the ruins of structures, much taller than a fortress, that looked like they had been bombed.
The once-familiar high-rise buildings stood skeletal, creaking as if they would collapse with the slightest wind. Every window was shattered, filled with dust and debris inside.
Abandoned cars were twisted and rusted, badly damaged in the streets.
Traffic lights lay dark and blackened, having lost their power, while most streetlights were broken. Weeds and vines had taken over the road.
Iris quickly realized that this was a completely different world from what she knew.
While most people would be scared out of their wits in this situation, Iris remained calm.
‘I need to find my brother.’
Having experienced a greater fear than being caught up in this bizarre scenario, she stepped forward without hesitation.
“Whoa!”
“…!”
As she slipped between a few crumpled cars and onto a relatively intact road, she sensed a familiar presence.
Whipping her head around, she spotted a strange man with a large backpack, casually smiling.
“Lian!”
Recognizing Lian’s spirit, Iris instinctively knew the stranger in front of her was her only precious person. She rushed forward to embrace him, but—
Whoosh.
“…?!”
It was as if Iris’s body passed through the man like a ghost. No matter how many times she flailed to find comfort in Lian’s arms, it was futile.
“Ugh… I’m going to be late at this rate!”
The man, presumed to be Lian, also seemed unaware of Iris, continuing on his way. Filled with desperate anxiety, Iris wobbled on trembling legs, chasing after him.
*
(Warning: Potential depictions of child abuse and school violence. If uncomfortable, please skip to the next chapter! Summarized content will be provided in the author’s notes for the next chapter!)
At the same time, Noah, waking up in a far less chaotic place than Iris, quickly discovered Lian. The only difference was that the Lian in front of her was an extremely small child.
Lian looked so tiny he barely reached her knee, appearing malnourished and frail.
Noah couldn’t tear her gaze away from the pitiful sight of him. He sat quietly in a corner, fiddling with a tattered toy that had seen better days.
Noah sat next to Lian, lost in thought.
‘Where on earth is this?’
The black-and-white distorted world, Lian’s appearance bobbing in that strange liquid, the familiar spirit inside that foreign child’s body.
Everything was too sudden and hard to comprehend.
Trying to do something, she drew her sword to swing, but it passed through everything as if she were a ghost. Even her magic couldn’t be used properly.
She even tried walking away from the skinny Lian, but quickly realized if she strayed too far, she would return to his side.
The futility of being able to do nothing, along with the fear of an uncertain reality, began to grip her ankles with despair. Just when she was trying to shake off those feelings—
“Shut up!”
The aged door creaked open violently, and a drunken man stormed in, yelling.
In contrast to the scrawny children, the man was pudgy and glared at the kids who had been quietly playing just moments before.
“Who’s making all this noise?! Huh?! Want to die?!”
Noah stepped in front of Lian with her sword raised, but the man seemed blind to her presence, fuming without control.
“Is it you? Huh?! Is it you?!”
The man stumbled up to a terrified child. Noah twisted her face in anger, swinging her sword, but it merely passed ineffective.
Just as she was gritting her teeth, holding in her unresolved rage—
Thud!
“…!”
Lian dashed out from behind her, blocking the man’s path. Shaking with fear, he clutched the man’s leg, trying to prevent the impending kick aimed at him.
“What the hell?!”
The man slurred, stumbling over his words before he kicked Lian. The kick from an adult man was as threatening as a knife to a starved child.
“Cough, hack…”
As Lian tumbled to the ground, gasping for breath, the man kicked him repeatedly, while the other children, terrified it would turn to them, buried their faces in their knees with closed eyes.
“Ugh, for real. Do I have to clean up another corpse? Come on, just do it moderately.”
A heavily made-up woman leaned against the doorframe, crossing her arms as she called out to the man. The man whipped his head to glance at her.
He seemed to find her appearance appealing as his face relaxed, stumbling up to her.
“Those brats are ignoring me, so what should I do? Huh? I need to show them who’s boss. They’ve been fed and sheltered but have no gratitude…”
Sitting in a huddled position next to the wheezing Lian, Noah bit her lip so hard it bled.
“Why… why does Lian have to go through this?”
Having spent her childhood together with Lian, the scenes unfolding before her felt like a cruel play created solely to torment him.
Perhaps it was a stage aimed at breaking her mentally.
In any case, the reality that she must witness Lian suffer helplessly remained unchanged.
*
“Grr…”
Jess, baring her teeth, tried to sink them into the obnoxious thug smiling smugly, but like the other two, her attack simply passed through the thuggish man.
“Why don’t you just die? Isn’t it a waste of air for you to be alive?”
“I would have jumped off by now.”
Jess’s sharp claws skimmed the thug’s chest but the thug didn’t react at all.
Jess’s ears drooped as she glanced to one side at the inability to do anything. Blood trickled from the corner of her mouth, and her cheeks were swollen, but the calm face of the unfamiliar Lian looked at her.
“Is that so?”
Lian replied in an unnaturally serene tone, as if he were completely broken. The lack of visible hurt or anger only fueled the thug’s rage as if they were insulted.
Regardless of whether they pummeled him or hurled insults at his parents, Lian maintained his calm demeanor.
Such an eerily tranquil expression made them hesitate before ultimately retreating.
Jess found herself crouched beside the battered Lian, tears streaming down her face. She was suffocating under the weight of utter helplessness.
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