Chapter 53
“Do you know how many companies were completely wiped out in Krajar thirty-five years ago? Two. Two entire companies.”
“……”
“I mean to say, two hundred holy knights were devoured by Krajar.”
Bale’s gaze sharpened.
Olek let out a sigh and continued, his expression heavy.
“It was a long time ago, but there’s one thing I remember clearly. The piles of white bones pouring out of the red mist.”
In Olek’s memories—
The outskirts of Populosa, much smaller than it is now, resurfaced in his mind, thirty-five years in the past.
‘Everyone, don’t worry! The Luminem family has come, leading the entire Holy Order to lay siege to the mana stone!’
That day, the people of the Populosa region were ecstatic. At last, knights had arrived to drive away the monsters that had been encroaching on their land.
‘Once we destroy the mana stone, the hunger will finally end. We’ll be able to hunt in the forest again like before, restart the furnaces, reopen the mines….’
But the people’s hopes did not last long.
After cutting down the countless monsters that poured out from within the mana stone, the most troublesome and powerful enemy of all finally revealed itself.
“……That thing literally had no form.”
The ultimate enemy that appeared from inside the mana stone.
Krajar’s body could only be described as mist.
A faintly glowing red fog, spread across the forest floor like water.
“It was only when the knights who charged in without fear began to disappear one by one that everyone realized what was happening. They were being dragged into Krajar’s subspace.”
The monster Krajar had neither sharp fangs nor honed claws.
Yet it began killing people faster and more precisely than any other monster.
“Once Krajar’s subspace opens, it can’t be accessed from the outside. To break it, you have to tear through the spatial veil from the inside and escape.”
“The spatial veil…?”
“The invisible boundary surrounding the subspace.”
But tearing through that spatial veil was never easy.
Anyone who was sucked into Krajar’s subspace was forced to confront the fear they dreaded most.
In fact, while Krajar digested roughly two hundred people, only one managed to overcome the hallucinations and make it back out.
“The young lord of Luminem.”
Valentis Luminem, a young holy knight who was twenty at the time.
“Does it make any sense that only one person survived while two entire companies were annihilated? Back then, it really was…”
Olek’s body trembled as he recalled the past.
“The fog spread endlessly. It was moving so fast it looked like it would swallow not just Populosa, but the surrounding regions as well.”
If Valentis Luminem hadn’t torn through the spatial veil and emerged five days later, Krajar might still be alive even now.
“So what are you saying?” Bale snapped impatiently. “That our guildmaster got sucked into that so-called subspace?!”
Olek nodded anxiously.
“Why do you think the Order—or blacksmiths like us—buy monster cores in the first place?”
Fiddling with the whetstone at his waist, he spoke quickly.
“Even after a monster dies, the core retains the mana it wielded while alive. The problem is what happens when that residual mana is too strong.”
Basto frowned.
“Krajar was an extraordinary monster, so a tremendous amount of mana remained in its core.”
“And?”
“Just a moment ago, for some reason, the core cracked, and the mana inside began to leak out! Mana that loses control outside the core instinctively tries to revert to its former shape!”
“Its former shape?”
“Krajar itself! You all saw that vile mist that drags targets into a subspace!”
Basto’s lips parted slightly.
The image of the red stone cracking in Tia’s hands, and the smoke seeping out of it, rose vividly in his mind.
“Then what do we do?”
His face drained of color as Basto stared wide-eyed.
“You said once Krajar’s subspace opens, it’s hard to break from the outside.”
“That’s right. As far as I know, the only way is to tear through the spatial veil from inside—”
“And if you can’t?”
Bale cut him off.
“What if our guildmaster can’t get out? What if he can’t tear through that veil or whatever it is?”
Olek fell silent.
After a moment, he muttered in a sunken voice.
“……Then he’ll slowly melt away and disappear inside.”
In his mind, the horrific scene he’d witnessed as a child replayed itself.
The dark crimson fog at the edge of the forest, spewing out the white bones of two hundred people.
“Damn it all!”
With Bale’s curse, a dreadful silence settled over the armory.
“Ow, ow…”
Meanwhile, Astier opened his eyes in a dark, unfamiliar place.
Immediately, he frowned at the pain throbbing in his backside.
“It hurts……”
And it wasn’t just his butt.
For some reason, his lower back and shoulders were aching too.
Tia first struggled to his feet, then looked around with a frightened expression.
“Where am I……?”
At that moment, drip—a cold drop of water splashed onto his cheek.
When he looked up, pitch-black storm clouds covered the entire sky.
Boom—!
A terrifying clap of thunder followed, and the rain began to pour down violently.
Blaaare!
Suddenly, a loud car horn blared in his ears.
He took a step back just as an old gray car whizzed past right in front of his nose.
Tia wiped the muddy water dripping from his cheek, his face full of shock.
After looking around, he muttered in disbelief.
“Jongnogu……?”
A rainy night street.
Where Tia was standing now was unmistakably South Korea.
Splash, splash.
Every step he took made muddy water slosh beneath his feet.
Trying to ignore the sound, Tia muttered in a trembling, fading voice.
“Choco-late… pizzaaa… fried chickennn…….”
But no matter how many delicious foods he listed, his fear didn’t fade.
And no wonder—an utterly chilling scene had been unfolding before his eyes for a while now.
Rusty iron gates strewn along the roadside, buildings with bare concrete exposed.
Shattered windows, flooded roads, and cars occasionally driving by with empty driver’s seats.
“Sweet tomato… Vienna sausage… meat, dumpliiings…….”
The voice he’d stubbornly kept up gradually grew quieter.
“Misterrr…….”
Tia wiped the tears that had begun to leak out and called for Basto.
“Brother Bale! Grandpa Nordix!”
But once again, there was no answer.
All that reached his ears was the torrential rain hammering down.
Staring blankly at the muddy water rising to his calves, Tia sniffled and turned around.
Behind him, the road he’d come from stretched endlessly into the distance.
Zzzzt—
Suddenly, a crackling sound came from behind him.
Startled, he saw a red light flashing atop an unattended street stall some distance away.
“What is that……?”
Looking closer, he realized it was a radio left sitting there.
Frightened, Tia took a step back.
[—Cur…rent… ty…phoon… effects……]
The radio flickered red a few times, crackling as it began broadcasting the weather forecast.
[—Due to the current typhoon’s influence, heavy rain warnings have been issued for most regions nationwide. Strong winds and rainfall are expected, with up to 100 millimeters of rain per hour in central regions……]
Tia’s face darkened.
“A typhoon……?”
Rain, thunder, lightning.
And now a typhoon on top of it all.
An empty night street and a crackling radio.
His body began to tremble, and he swallowed hard without meaning to.
Because every single one of these things was something Tia was deeply afraid of.
