Lion’s Heart (5)
The incident where the gates of Mnemosyne suddenly turned crimson is something that happened a thousand years ago.
The demonic activity that started in the capital was something that Zebedee had never encountered before.
Even the ones that popped out of this dungeon were flying demons that were difficult to deal with.
Because of that, the barrier was hastily activated without being able to evacuate all the people inside the school.
Arthur patted the boy’s shoulder and asked.
“Where are the people and how many are there?”
“Everyone in the cellar… Mrs. Charlotte, Mr. Thompson, Miss Ryuuba… all the errand boys. There are also students who helped with the cleanup. First grade, hib.”
“It’s vacation time, and there are students? Did they get called up?”
“Oh no, the people who were called up haven’t come yet, first year, sniff sniff, first year’s older sister said she didn’t go because her house is far away…”
Arthur, while assessing the situation, did not forget to look at the internal barrier that was already crackling and starting to fly around like lightning.
The child ran out, as if on his own, and a voice called Birch’s name was heard.
“Birch! Birch, where are you!”
A student in a dusty uniform emerged from between the trees that had been burned by the devil.
It was Lillian Bennett, a first-year student holding a [reinforced] poker.
The first-year student’s impression when I met him again after a few months had changed significantly.
Could it be because of the circumstances? Even though we were in the same place and with the same people, everything had become so different.
Lillian, being smart, seemed to figure out the situation quickly.
“I was not capable of breaking through the completely shielded outer barrier. It was due to my lack of training. Don’t worry about it, seniors, just do what you wanted to do. Let’s go back, Birch.”
Her reaction was different from that of the servant who wanted to hang on to Arthur and go out at any moment.
The child was struggling while holding onto Arthur.
Phiuuuuuuuuuuuu!
A lone flying machine, left behind somewhere, suddenly soared above the forest in front of the school.
I could tell from the shadows moving that he was about to throw a fireball.
I was concerned that this would add to the burden on the school’s internal and external boundaries, which are still precariously maintained.
Clayo was the first to grab the magic stone wallet and open it.
Just as he was about to fire Achilles’ spear.
Tata tata tata tata!
Taang!
Chel followed the flying demon’s tail feathers at an exquisite angle, and Lippi fired in response.
The flying demon stopped in the middle of throwing fire and twisted its staggering body to try to throw the cell away.
It was a battle in the sky.
Forgetting the gravity of the situation, Lillian asked in an awed voice.
“What is that?”
“Chel and Lippi are on the plane fighting the demon.”
bang!
Kwakwakwakwang!
The second bullet seemed to have gone straight to the demon’s core.
The sky was once again in disarray, and the demon’s hand scattered into dust.
A flame flashed in the girl’s pale lime eyes. The flame did not go out even after the demon’s corpse fell, but remained like a wick.
An untimely sense of wonder sent a chill down the girl’s back.
“That kind of thing is possible. I never imagined it.”
“Normally, no one would imagine it.”
“I’m just a prosecutor, but if only I could deal with those rotten demons like a wizard from up high, if only I had that power right now… that would be nice.”
Lillian bit her lips, her words ending awkwardly slurred as if she was not used to swearing.
Gugugugugu.
Gugu Palace.
Shhhhhhh!
Now a vortex of ether began to swirl around the inner barrier.
Clio shouted urgently.
“The inner barrier will explode soon. Arthur!”
Arthur took Clayo’s urging to heart.
We had to get Birch and Lillian back underground quickly.
If a low-grade student and a mere clerk, whose etheric sensitivity had just begun to blossom, were to face an etheric explosion at such close range, they would not be able to survive even with [Reinforcement] Evangelism.
Arthur shouted amidst the eerie noise caused by the barrier.
“Lillian, now is not the time to talk about that! When you’re done, tell Chel that you want to fly. If you’re alive, you can do anything.”
Arthur suppressed the urge to immediately lead everyone out.
“Go back underground with Birch. It’s safer there. Once this is resolved, I’ll help you get out of the outer barrier.”
Slurp.
Sigh.
Leticia and Isiel, who had been summoned, also added their words.
“Arthur keeps his promises, so trust him.”
“The internal barrier is too dangerous right now. It could explode at any moment, so it would be best to stay as far away from here as possible.”
Arthur gave Lillian a pair of the Typhlaum Gauntlets without giving Clayo a chance to stop him.
“If you blow ether into it, the shield will activate once. Use it when you really need it.”
Birch, who had been sobbing, was held firmly by Lillian’s hand and disappeared in the direction of the warehouse located at the entrance to the forest.
dump.
Arthur, who was surrounded by [Reinforcement], suddenly knelt on the floor. He placed both palms on the ground and swept the area within the range of his sword strike with ether.
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In a similar way to [Tracking], it was a search technique within the range of the sword that only highly skilled swordsmen could use.
Sssssut.
Arthur’s eyebrows twitched as if he had caught a whiff of something, and he was covered in sweat. Then he expanded [Reinforcement] to its maximum level, covering the entire range of his sword strike.
Clayo knew he had pinpointed the location of the basement.
Arthur, who had erased his smile, would not listen even if he spoke, and even if he could, he was not the type of person to whom the request to lower the level of protection for civilians would be accepted.
‘Give me the gauntlet, and the ether will fall to the floor.’
In front of his eyes, the internal barrier was about to burst, and right next to him, a pair of altruistic protagonists, unaware that their own lives were tied to the safety of the world, were trampling on Kleio’s nerves.
Perhaps I should have told Arthur that if you died, not only Birch and Lillian, but everyone you loved and had compassion for would be utterly destroyed.
But how on earth could I possibly convince Arthur of that?
To the upright man who is convinced that his suffering is meaningless and that he alone is not special.
Now all Kleio can do is use whatever means necessary to reduce the power of the barrier explosion.
yet.
The shaking of the earth, the pressure of the ether condensing, disappear, and an acoustic vacuum comes first. Things stop moving a little more slowly.
Cleo is overwhelmed by the silence and emptiness that comes with the collapse of the inner barrier.
Could it be that the apocalyptic vision that Gilad Eclipsi had shown the séance participants was a depiction of this moment, rather than the previous world that Kleio knew?
Beep be …
A long tail of tinnitus hung inside my ears.
“Distance” works with an unprecedented intensity, stretching time tautly.
One second is divided into ten million units, and Cleo barely manages to lift the stigmata from his right hand, which is about to scatter like a disintegrated demon.
The devil wasn’t the problem.
The moment when the ether of a level 8 wizard went wild and covered the heavens and earth.
The still world is pure white, and all Kleio can see is his own hand with twisted fingers and Arthur, who is holding Beg’s sword tightly as if it were an oath.
[-Unique Skill: Uses ‘Editor Rights’ (3/3).
NOTE: The usage limit for this chapter has expired.]
[―Time remaining / Time limit:
00:04:59 / 00:05:00]
Finally, the editor’s authority was fully exercised.
Arthur, free from the bonds of the stigmata, released his hardened white lips.
“I don’t feel Isiel and Leticia’s energy. The people in the warehouse are the same. It was like that even before your stigmata were activated.”
Arthur’s voice, as he recounted the situation, had no highs or lows. It was dry, like a machine’s voice. It was clear that he had suffered a terrible shock.
Clayo spoke with the utmost confidence.
“Arthur, it’s okay.”
Arthur’s head, which had been looking at the source of the explosion, turned toward Cleo in a movement that seemed to make a cracking sound.
It seemed that he was also trying to activate ‘Jeonkyunghwa’, as the stigmata on the back of his hand had an obsidian-like sheen.
The aura of the stigmata spread out widely, and was suspended by the ‘editor’s authority’, covering the empty space like a large umbrella.
No matter how many times he practiced, the area Arthur could put into the ‘Full’ movement range was not much different from the range of the sword strike.
It is only possible to move people who are visible, but moving people who are in an invisible location has never been successful.
However, he spread the stigmata as much as possible and tried to move not only his colleagues, his teacher whose life or death was unknown, but also those who were taking refuge in the underground.
It was a desperate situation.
“Remember? I can turn back time.”
“Yeah. And I’m out of that loop… .”
“Instead, if you change the case to include yourself, your time will be tangled up again, just like when the first stigmata appeared.”
“That doesn’t matter. Please turn back time. May the goddess grant it.”
He remembered what Cleo had said about time being able to be turned back only with the goddess’ permission.
Helpless at this moment, with nothing left but the mercy of God, Arthur clenched his jaw so hard that the tendons bulged.
Then he clasped his hands together on the grip as if praying.
To release the stigmata and ether again whenever time begins to move.
Clayo’s heart also burned.
There was a great connection between this world and Arthur, but it could not be said. For now, it was urgent to turn back this despair.
Since a while ago, Clayo’s fingertips had also been trembling uncontrollably.
He hid his trembling by exerting his strength and held the bundle of manuscripts that appeared before his eyes with his left hand. With his other hand, he adjusted the quill pen that was emitting a bright light.
The individual pages of the palimpsest, cracked at the edges like a drought-stricken land and scattering desert-like dust, revealed their contents.
Cleo read passages from the manuscript more urgently than ever.
The last phrase written before the blank page began struck me like a nail.
It was a good thing Arthur didn’t read this.
[“Zebedi Physis knew that only forbidden weather magic could prevent this disaster. But he had never asked to enter the King’s Library. It was the price he paid for living his entire life avoiding dangerous attention.
The inner barrier that had been blocking hundreds of flying demons eventually cracked as it passed its endurance limit. The entangled ether and the swarm of demons turned into a rain of fire. It was a rampage of ether. Zebedee sensed his own ether vessel collapsing. It was an unstoppable disaster.
The aftershocks immediately covered the eastern and western coasts of the ancient city. Arthur and his companions were all caught in the strong winds.”
The last line had neither a final punctuation mark nor a period.
As he was about to delete the last page, Cleo lifted his pen, which was about to start writing ink, from the page.
Thud.
Bam.
The gesture was so sudden that a drop of ink fell from the quill and stained the page.
‘The explosion part of the inner barrier has been rewritten. So how far exactly can it go back?’
Was this runaway of the remembered world planned by the author, or was it an accident caused by the deterioration of the manuscript?
If it’s the former, it’s impossible to fix, but if it’s the latter, you might be able to turn back time to yesterday as you originally thought. If you’re given more time, you might be able to prepare for it better.
Kleio suppressed his impatience and glanced at the time limit flashing before his eyes.
[―Time remaining / Time limit:
00:03:41 / 00:05:00]
There was still time.
