“That’s wrong.”
The cruise ship, sailing near the Arctic Ocean, had crashed into an unknown island and come to a halt.
The Joint-Surgery Master, who had been staring at the ship’s keel with an indifferent expression, rose and shook his head.
“The framework supporting the ship’s weight is broken. It’s impossible to repair it like this.”
“What?”
Freya’s face contorted in a frown.
“Hey, just use your technique to patch it up roughly. We have to use that to get back, right?”
“My technique is the result of analysis honed to the point where I can join cellular tissue, based on a precise understanding of the human body.”
The Joint-Surgery Master dusted off his hands and retorted.
“I have no desire to use my technique on such greasy scrap metal. I refuse.”
“It’s not that you don’t want to, it’s that you can’t.”
The clown mocked the Joint-Surgery Master as if he had been waiting for this.
“To use the Joint-Surgery technique, you need an understanding or structural analysis of the target, right? It seems your knowledge of ships is quite lacking?”
“You’re mistaken. I can weld such simple metal with my eyes closed.”
The Joint-Surgery Master frowned, looking displeased.
“However, if I force it and it breaks down in the middle of the sea, those without ability will have to drown.”
“……”
“I don’t care, but can you guys swim hundreds of kilometers back to the mainland?”
“Let’s stop this pointless debate and move on…….”
Chebien’s puppet twisted its head and opened its mouth.
“There are plenty of ways to repair the ship…… The leader will be waiting…….”
“Hmm, the ship’s damage is more serious than I thought…….”
The clown pretended to ponder for a moment, then grinned and turned his body.
“Well, if all else fails, Agneta can hold the broken keel, right? Let’s go.”
“No. I won’t do it…….”
Ignoring Agneta’s faint grumbling, they began walking towards the island.
The huge island, with a massive shadow spread out like wings.
The central part, which rose high like a mountain, looked like a volcanic area from afar.
“The shadow’s wings that wrap around the island pass through the center and extend to both sides.”
“Do we have to walk all the way there to meet the leader?”
The members, scattered across the wide sandy beach, each walked towards the distant shadow.
As they entered the dense forest filled with palm trees and vines, a stuffy humidity enveloped them.
“Ugh, it’s hot… and humid…… I feel awful…….”
“That’s strange.”
Soryu said with a stiff expression from behind Freya, whose face had instantly crumpled.
“We were sailing near the Arctic Ocean until just now. But the environment of this island is hotter than a tropical region. That means…….”
“It means that a powerful magical beast or monster that can change the surrounding environment and climate is living here.”
Lenok replied, looking around the forest.
“There’s no magical power or main force, so it’s not the influence of an artifact or technique. It’s purely heat caused by environmental changes.”
The existence of a powerful magical beast that could completely change the climate and environment of an island.
They had heard that such things lived in remote or unexplored areas, or in scenic spots with ley lines [lines of energy in the earth], but they had never actually seen one.
Could the leader’s presence here also be related to the island’s environment?
“If we’re unlucky, we might have to fight a magical beast before we even meet the leader. Victor, can you handle it?”
“Why are you asking me that?”
Lenok cast a cold gaze at the clown from behind his mask.
“You can do what you did in Kavahim Royal City. Did you forget how to fight in the meantime?”
“Killing people isn’t difficult, but large magical beasts are just cumbersome. Wouldn’t it be faster for Victor to use his domain like he did in the Royal City?”
“……The Magnetic Domain?”
Upon hearing those words, the members’ gazes simultaneously turned to Lenok.
Not only Freya and Chebien, but even Soryu and the Joint-Surgery Master reacted with surprise.
“You used something you didn’t even use in the well in the Royal City?”
“My domain is a power that requires special conditions, so it’s not an ability I can use anytime.”
Lenok replied nonchalantly and walked forward.
“It’s difficult to handle, and in some cases, it’s a power that’s worse than not using it. Don’t expect me to use it in a place like this.”
“Huh, didn’t you have a lot of ridiculous abilities?”
The clown pushed aside the bushes in front of Lenok and tilted his head.
“It’s not strange for a Specialization-type sorcerer to have various restrictions to deploy a Magnetic Domain, but even considering that, you had some very bizarre powers.”
“…….”
“It’s interesting that the Illusionist is saying that much.”
The Joint-Surgery Master stared intently at Lenok from behind.
“The domains of the Specialization-type are often very different in form and nature compared to other domains. Is your Magnetic Domain also taking such a form?”
“I don’t know why you think I would tell you that.”
Lenok turned to the Joint-Surgery Master with a cold gaze.
“If you’re curious, why don’t you take out your own domain and see for yourself?”
“My Magnetic Domain is not an ability that I can control and use at will.”
The Joint-Surgery Master replied as if it were nothing.
“To be precise, it’s closer to a kind of ‘impulse.’ It’s not even clear if it will be helpful in battle, and if I were to unleash it here, everyone would die.”
“…….”
Was that why the Joint-Surgery Master had split his left and right brains at the first gate, risking his Magnetic Domain being sealed?
Lenok unintentionally heard the reason why the fight at that time was possible, but he ignored it and moved on.
Behind the three sorcerers walking ahead, the other members made disgusted faces.
“To be able to discuss the Magnetic Domain so casually, it’s a strange feeling.”
“Hehe, are they just going around revealing their technique information like that? They’re all crazy…….”
“Victor didn’t really say anything, did he?”
Lenok stopped walking, hearing Agneta’s bewildered question.
“We’ve arrived. It’s here.”
Whoooosh!!!!!
In the center of the dense forest, filled with hot air, a huge sphere of shadow was rotating.
Above the house-sized sphere of shadow, magnificent wings of shadow stretched across the center of the island to both sides.
The wings of shadow overlapped, making it look as if a black pillar was piercing through the island and slowly rotating.
“This is…….”
“A passage?”
Some of the members, who recognized the identity of the shadow mass looming before them, wore strange expressions.
“A large-scale spatial distortion created by concentrating shadows.”
“There’s only one black magician who can use such a technique…….”
“Did the Underworld King…… visit this place before?”
“…….”
A large-scale spatial distortion point created using black magic that manipulates shadows.
Even within Pandemonium, only the Underworld King, who was not present, could do such a thing.
Lenok, who had momentarily recalled the memories of the Archive [a repository of knowledge], fell silent, and the other members closed their mouths.
It was probably because the Underworld King’s status within Pandemonium was so absolute.
“The space hidden within the shadow is not detected at all. This is unexpected.”
The clown, who had been squatting down and looking into the shadow, tilted his head.
“It seems we need a little preparation to meet the leader. What should we do?”
“Is there any other way than entering the shadow right now?”
Soryu retorted.
“If this shadow is a ‘medium’ prepared by the Underworld King for the leader, we have no choice.”
“What I’m saying is, shouldn’t we set some simple guidelines before going in?”
The clown stood up and pointed to the shadow passage.
“I’m guessing the space inside is much larger than it appears. Considering the Underworld King’s level when I last saw him, there might even be time distortion.”
“…….”
“Even if we all go in together, we might end up in different timelines and spaces. Shouldn’t we decide on a plan in advance?”
“Are you saying that this shadow passage itself might be taking the form of a wormhole where space-time is distorted…….”
Lenok was lost in thought.
“I didn’t expect we would need this much preparation to meet the leader directly.”
“Hehehe, it’s not a difficult problem…….”
Chebien said, rattling the puppet.
“Let’s divide our forces. If the two strongest enter separately, we can prepare for the worst-case scenario…….”
“The two strongest?”
“I don’t think I need to directly name them…….”
The puppet’s gaze naturally turned to the clown and Lenok.
“Or should we decide who is stronger here……?”
“…….”
For a moment, the clown and Lenok’s eyes met, and a strange atmosphere flowed around them.
Which was stronger, the clown or Lenok?
It was a meaningless comparison, but Lenok felt intrigued by it.
If they compared technique output, Lenok would have an overwhelming advantage, but the clown’s illusion had the potential to nullify such a comparison of power.
In fact, the clown had never revealed his full power, including his Magnetic Domain.
Lenok was curious to see what kind of reality manipulation could be achieved by pushing the luck of the roulette to its limit, but-
“Chebien. If you don’t like my opinion, just say so honestly. Do you want to see me torn to pieces by Victor?”
The clown, who was naturally making a fuss as if he were breathing, smiled and turned to Lenok.
“Well, but it would be effective if Victor and I were separated. As long as we don’t all get scattered, one of us will be able to meet the leader.”
“I don’t care.”
Lenok nodded.
“Decide the order and the number of people. The rest of us will go inside.”
“Well, okay. Then, who wants to go with me to meet the leader, raise your hand~”
“…….”
No one raised their hand.
The clown made a hurt expression.
“No, does everyone like Victor more than me? I admit it, but this is too much.”
“Victor is annoying, but his manipulation technique is reliable.”
“You have a bad personality, and your technique is unreliable.”
“……Eing, then I’ll just pick. Agneta, Chapman, Antares. Come with me!”
The clown, grumbling, picked his team and disappeared into the shadow in an instant.
“Not only the presence, but even the life signs and magical power patterns have completely disappeared.”
Soryu, who had been watching, quietly shone his eyes.
“It seems that the space-time inside the shadow is distorted beyond recognition.”
“Let’s go in too.”
Why did the leader leave a medium using the Underworld King’s black magic on this island?
What was the reason for having to meet the other members through this preparation?
Once they went inside, they would understand everything.
Lenok, who had met eyes with Freya, who was shrugging her shoulders, took a step towards the swaying shadow.
Whoosh!!!
Lenok realized that Agneta and Antares were standing face to face, looking at him.
“Huh.”
Agneta tilted her head with a dazed expression.
“Victor. Why are you here? Weren’t you supposed to come in later?”
“…….”
Instead of answering, Lenok turned his gaze to the dark corridor that stretched out before him.
A dark corridor, existing within the shadow entrance, stretched out endlessly.
“……It seems the criteria for dividing the group was not the order of entering the shadow.”
Lenok tilted his head, looking at the darkness lurking beyond the passage.
“Did the leader design things to be this way from the beginning?”
“Perhaps it wasn’t something he prepared himself.”
Antares replied.
“He’s no longer in a state where he can do such productive work.”
“……What?”
Just as Lenok paused at those words, Antares quietly looked towards the end of the corridor.
“To go against one’s origin, one must fully understand that origin.”
“…….”
“To twist an already determined answer, one must already know what the answer is. That’s how he exists as a mortal.”
“What are you two talking about?”
“Antares.”
Leaving Agneta, who was bewildered, Lenok said in a cold voice.
“Did you foresee this moment from the beginning, that you and I would be left behind?”
“No. But it’s okay now.”
Antares smiled.
“Agneta won’t place much meaning on this conversation, and he won’t care what I say either.”
“…….”
“But before I leave, I’ve been waiting for this moment to talk to you.”
Antares, who slowly turned to Lenok, said.
“He is a necessity. From a distant past that cannot be foreseen, he completed a task so great that he became such an existence himself.”
“…….”
“But that also means that every moment he exists in reality, he leads everything to necessity.”
He spoke while slowly walking down the endless passage.
“Every moment he exists as a cause in this world, and as a result, the causalities that have not yet been severed become entangled and inevitably change.”
“Is that…… why the leader is staying in a place like this?”
“Well, if you want to be precise, this isn’t a passage, but…….”
Antares smiled.
“It’s clear that it’s the reason why he avoids contact with others and acts alone.”
“…….”
“I think it’s proof that he still wants to be human.”
Unlike the cult leader who had undergone two ascensions, the leader had not lost himself.
Even while struggling to continue existing in this world after succeeding in ascension.
He continues to move forward, trying to achieve the answer he had initially decided on without changing his mind.
At the end of the great task of shooting down a god to prevent the ending, which no transcendent had dared to imitate.
What he is trying to challenge again in this world is-
“From here on, it’s not a story that I can dare to foresee.”
Antares turned his gaze to Lenok.
“Even so, the reason I’m saying this is because I’m grateful to you for what happened in the Royal City.”
“Grateful?”
“After glimpsing a failed future, I believed that I could change the future using foresight.”
Antares said.
“So I chose Aron, who was my comrade, connected him to the Archive, and helped him take the throne with that knowledge. But that shouldn’t have happened.”
“…….”
“The knowledge in the Archive is vast, but it has its limits. It’s a concept designed to exist after the ending, and…… it’s not something that was originally made for ‘humans’ to read.”
A blurred expression. The voice explaining the past also gradually fades.
Recalling old memories, reliving emotions while reminiscing about the past that could not be undone.
“While I was helping him with foresight, Aron gradually gave up on ‘himself’ and changed. We were unknowingly repeating the failure of the pilgrimage.”
“……Antares.”
“Even my crude foresight, which glimpses a failed future, can have irreversible consequences if used incorrectly.”
Antares looked down at Lenok.
“That’s why I know how dangerous and transcendent the concept of necessity, which is the result itself, is.”
“…….”
“He no longer designs or creates anything. Whether he intends to or not, he is always there as a result.”
Antares’s expression, looking at Lenok, momentarily took on a complex light.
“So if you’re thinking of being with him, you need to make a more careful decision than you are now.”
“…….”
“That’s all I wanted to say. I’ll be going back now.”
Leaving Lenok in silence, Antares smiled gently and turned away.
“He wouldn’t exactly welcome my presence. From the beginning, I-”
“That’s not exactly the case.”
Someone answered.
“Whether he dislikes or hates someone…… he hasn’t paid that much attention to others.”
“…….”
A silence as cold as ice flowed.
The blind spot where Lenok and Antares’s gazes did not overlap.
Beyond the majestic darkness that stretched out at the end of the shadow-covered corridor.
Someone whose face could not be seen was leaning back, quietly looking this way.
Just by tilting his head slightly and casting his gaze, a chillingly sharp and keen presence.
At the same time, a powerful, immense, and distorted transcendence takes its place, completely covering and erasing that sense of incongruity.
In a calm and quiet voice, ‘he’ said.
“A failed seer is, in a way, somewhat similar to my origin.”
“…….”
“That’s why Myung doesn’t seem to like you, but it doesn’t matter.”
A faint noise flickered in the hazy darkness.
“I no longer place much meaning on such necessity.”
“……Leader.”
Lenok turned his gaze with a stiff expression.
“Are you… there?”
“You’re the last one.”
He, who was leaning back in the darkness, slowly rose from his seat and said.
“Let’s start from the inside. Neither of us can stay here for long.”
“What…… does that mean? This wasn’t a shadow passage created by Myung?”
“I had to borrow the shadow of a star for a while to overlap my coordinates with yours.”
In the darkness, a noisy gaze seemed to scan the other side of the passage.
The leader, who had turned to Lenok, tilted his noisy gaze and said slowly.
“This is the inside of the Six Netherworld Demon Realm, located at the deepest part of the central front. It’s also one of the few places where I can manifest and stay.”
“……What?”