Episode 99
099. Calamity
“Ma-Master! How are you here…?”
Geumson doubted his own eyes. Astrid should not be here. The side effects of drinking the ‘Potion of Memory’ had not yet dissipated. It was a situation where she needed to refrain from using magic. Yet, Astrid had come here. Right into the heart of this hellish battlefield.
“I came because I was worried about you. You’re trying to shoulder too much burden alone again, my young disciple.”
Her voice held not reproach, but a warm kindness. It was something she could say because she had looked into golden hand memories. Knowing that, Geumsom felt an unbidden lump form in his throat, but now was not the time for sentimentality.
“It’s dangerous, Master! Please, you must leave this place…!”
KWA-BOOOOM-!
Before golden hand could finish his sentence, a massive boulder traced a parabolic arc through the air and slammed into the section of the rampart where they stood. Below the wall, a gigantic cyclops was roaring, its single eye gleaming. Not satisfied with one throw, it hurled another enormous rock.
“Get down!”
Golden Hand reflexively stepped in front of Astrid. But Astrid did not move a muscle. She merely raised the hand holding her staff lightly towards the incoming boulder.
“How noisy.”
With her quiet murmur, the boulder halted mid-air. Then, a moment later, as if time were flowing backwards, it retraced its trajectory with perfect accuracy and struck the cyclops squarely in the head.
SPLAT-!
The cyclops was crushed flat by the boulder before it could even scream properly. At that overwhelming sight, the movements of the players fighting their desperate battle atop the wall momentarily froze.
“Wha-what was that? What just happened? A cyclops got one-shotted? That was clearly… a boss-level monster?”
“That old lady… is she a mage? But was there a spell like that?”
“Huh? Why are the Airtos mages reacting like that?”
All the wizards of Airtos.
Their gazes turned toward Astrid.
And then.
Thud.
“We greet the Star!”
Even in the urgent combat situation, the mages knelt. As if the monsters were not even a crisis, they knelt only towards Astrid. And as if ashamed of themselves for being unable to stop even a crisis of this scale, for being unable to weave a miracle, they simply bowed their heads.
“Oh my, I’m sorry. You’ve all been suffering. I am late.”
A simple, casual remark directed at them. Yet, at those words, it seemed some among Aertos’s wizards were shedding tears. However, Astrid spoke to golden hand.
“Golden Hand, do you know why wizards wear robes and pull their hoods deep over their heads?”
A sudden question, out of place in the hellish battlefield. It seemed as if time flowed differently between Astrid and Geumson. It was as if she intended to use even this moment as a learning opportunity.
“Isn’t it because it’s easier to inscribe more magic onto a robe? That way, the power of spells would be stronger.”
It was easier to inscribe more magic onto the soft, expansive fabric of a robe than onto hard weapons. It was a fitting answer from golden hand’s, a blacksmith who had enhanced countless players’ equipment. But Astrid shook her head at that answer.
“It is so as not to see.”
So as not to see.
It was a completely unexpected answer. Astrid’s words continued.
“The screams filled with agony, the gazes of those begging for a miracle, the deaths of comrades. It is so as not to see all of that.”
“So as not to see…”
“Yes. Mistakes are not permitted for a mage. Magic is that which must absolutely succeed, even in the most extreme situations.”
Even if a loved one is threatened by a monster.
Even if a comrade is being torn apart and screaming in agony.
Even in that moment when a monster drools and bares its sharp fangs right before your eyes.
The mage chants the incantation.
Pulling the hood low, focusing solely on the magic, they chant the incantation.
For that is the only way to weave a miracle.
For that is the only path to save everyone.
“That is why a wizards wears a hood. So as not to see. Solely to weave a miracle.”
As she spoke, Astrid removed her own robe. And draping the removed robe over Geumson’s shoulders, she said:
“But golden hand, you must not do that.”
“Huh? Then…”
“Yes. Do not wear the hood. Raise your head and face it directly. Take into your eyes those who are suffering.”
At that moment, Astrid’s robe, now wrapped around golden hand, began to change its form.
Swish—
Taking the shape of a cloak draped over golden hand shoulders. The robe, which had been pristine and noble when worn by Astrid, began to turn a deep grey as golden hand wore it. Moreover, unlike a robe, it appeared more like a mantle, shrouding golden hand’s form like a shadow. Simultaneously, a message appeared.
[Astrid’s Shadow Cloak]
Grade: Mythic
Defense: 3,800
Effects:
[Absolute Memory]: You never forget a place once visited.
[Shadow Concealment]: Can conceal the wearer’s presence, magic, and even appearance.
[Magic Amplification]: Amplifies the wearer’s magic by 100%.
[Spatial Leap]: Allows short-distance teleportation to memorized locations.
Description:
An item that assists Astrid’s memory.
Unfortunately, it can only remember locations.
Mythic grade.
An item of Mythic grade, which he had never used before, not in his past life nor until now. That was ‘Astrid’s Shadow Cloak’. Contrary to the description, it was far from ‘unfortunate’. It was rather an excessive item.
“Master, this is…”
“It is an item I no longer need, thanks to you. It suits you well, as I thought. It was a bit too flashy on you before, wasn’t it?”
Golden Hand appearance, clad in heavy armor with a hammer on his back, was eye-catching no matter where he went. But the moment he was wrapped in Astrid’s Shadow Cloak, Golden Hands looked like nothing more than an ordinary traveler.
“You need not carry the burden alone. Leave it to me now.”
golden hand cloak had no hood. As Astrid had said, golden hand raised his head. Astrid was stepping onto the battlefield. Geumson tried to stop her.
“Master! You mustn’t! If you use magic now…!”
You will lose your memories.
Astrid’s memories were still unstable. But Astrid spoke as if it didn’t matter.
“You showed me your miracle, didn’t you? Then you must see mine. And I hope it aids you on the path you must walk.”
Astrid’s eyes grew profound. Because she knew the thorny path golden hand must walk. Because she knew how painful that path would be, Astrid stepped forward. Even if it meant losing some more memories. Compared to golden hands burden, it was but a cheap price.
“Poor things…”
Her gaze was directed at the horde of monsters filling the area below the wall. Then, she took out a glass vial filled with a black liquid from her bosom and threw it down over the wall.
Crash-!
The moment that vial shattered.
The movements of the monsters stopped.
No, the monsters began charging forward madly.
“Master… that is!”
Judging by the monsters’ reaction, it was clear. What Astrid had shattered was Monster Attracting Incense. An item that could draw forth magical beasts with just a single drop. The very item that had triggered the monster wave.
And she had shattered an entire vial of it.
At that moment, the red dots flooding golden hand’s system map began to change drastically.
‘All the monsters… are swarming toward the south!’
All the monsters pressing against the east, west, and even the north. They were all swarming south. The monster wave. It was no longer a wave of monsters.
It was a tidal wave.
Monsters became a tidal wave, beginning to surge toward the south. Before that monster tsunami, the players lowered their weapons. They could only let out a deep sigh.
It was over.
They couldn’t stop that.
Just as they were thinking that.
“Time Regression.”
Astrid’s low voice.
And one step.
As Astrid took one step forward, the wrinkles at her fingertips began to smooth out. As she took another step toward the edge of the rampart, her once dry, silvery hair loosened like silk, appearing like the Milky Way in the night sky.
“M-Master?”
Astrid was growing younger in an instant. It looked as if time was reversing to her prime. But it seemed that wasn’t the end.
“Now then… watch. Do not miss a single thing.”
The moment Astrid released the ‘presence’ she had been concealing all this time.
golden hand body stiffened.
Astrid’s presence.
It felt as if he were facing a ‘Calamity’ that mankind had encountered.
Like facing the Calamity that had marked the end of the Age of Destruction.
