Chapter 53

Chapter 53 : Even Artisans Are Selective About Their Tools (4)

Hwipone boldly threw away the method of detouring this way and that to avoid the Phantasmal Species and chose the shortest route.

The crow-tit nestled inside my hood pecked at the nape of my neck with its beak.

I know. I know too.

The crow-tit had eaten until its belly nearly burst.

After gulping down every shard of every Fragment of a Phantasmal Species we had caught so far, the crow-tit kept eating fragments even as it gagged them back up. Then it refused food, crawled into my hood, and had been settled there for days.

The decisive cause was after we caught the second stronghold Phantasmal Species, an octopus wearing a turtle shell.

Still feeling as though sticky body fluid was clinging to me, I shuddered and grabbed Hwipone.

“If we do any more, I’ll die.”

“Exaggerating?”

“Seriously.”

Not me. The crow-tit.

I had no intention of ignoring Hwipone’s excitement.

After we finished about half of that tight, brainless Phantasmal Species-clearing schedule, breathing had definitely become easier.

Until then, because of the driving snow, every breath had felt as though I was storing cold ice particles in my lungs. Now, I could breathe proper air. On top of that, visibility had grown considerably longer too.

Still, what I wanted was to rest for a reasonable amount of time. We had cleared two places in a row, so let us catch our breath before wiping out the last one.

My appearance also looked thoroughly wrung dry from the repeatedly forced schedule, so Hwipone stroked his chin and thought for a moment.

I looked over the storm whipping in the distance, then found the place I had been looking for and gestured to Hwipone.

“Over there.”

It was the cave we had dug on the first day, not far from the entrance.

The cave we had made that day had been buried by the blizzard over the past few days, leaving almost no trace behind, but I was able to find it by the pile of snow we had stacked beside it.

Hwipone’s eyes widened.

“Why are you surprised? You know the way better than I do.”

Hwipone, who had been drooling over my ability and shouting about clearing it in the shortest possible time, had rushed straight across the map after we caught the second one.

When clearing a cross-shaped map, there were inevitably sections that overlapped.

Naturally, we had returned to the place where we first entered.

“So you can find your way well. Ahaha, yes. There is only one left now, so I suppose we can rest.”

With a proud expression—Did you do it? I did it—Hwipone laughed loudly and took the lead in digging out the covered snow pit.

A suitable cave, just large enough for two people to fit inside, was soon made.

Hwipone took out dry rations with practiced ease, and I packed snow together to make drinking water.

Since it had already been more than ten days since we came here, my body had adapted, so it did not take long before I could rest.

The moment I settled my rear on the ground, I pushed back my hood so the crow-tit could make itself comfortable.

The crow-tit, which had been letting out a light purr, soon fell asleep while digesting the masses it had gorged itself on.

I tapped Hwipone’s arm as he sat with his eyes closed in meditation and asked,

“Is the next one a snake?”

“……Have you been here before? How do you know?”

“Just a hunch?”

—that was what I said, but it was simple to infer.

The terrain in the four directions, the stronghold Phantasmal Species at each end, the first a tiger with water buffalo horns, the second an octopus with a turtle shell. And excluding the flame that might or might not exist…….

What would suit Phantasm better than the Four Directional Gods?

Since each seemed to have a screw loose in some way, I had simply thought a snake would appear instead of a dragon.

I shrugged and soothed my thirst.

After running around in the cold air for so long, it felt as though even the deepest parts of my bronchial tubes had dried out.

I was biting at my roughened lips when I instinctively sensed something. There was something too ambiguous to dismiss as my imagination, so I called Hwipone, who was tearing into his dry ration.

“Excuse me…….”

“Shh.”

Hwipone stopped me before I could even speak.

Hwipone had been about to bring out his Frame, but he stopped that too and extended several skewers to make an ice wall. Beyond it, snow collapsed down.

In an instant, the surroundings darkened.

The sun had not set yet, but it was because we had burrowed quite deep beneath the snow overhead.

Relying on faint light, I held my breath.

Beyond my blocked sight, I saw red mist spreading thickly.

That was a wave created by the momentary collision of the Power of Phantasm generated when someone opened the door.

I pointed upward with a finger and signaled to Hwipone with my eyes.

Hwipone nodded faintly and agreed with my meaning.

Someone had broken into this place, where entry was forbidden without Etel’s will.

Moreover, Etel, who knew Hwipone and I had crossed into this place together, had no reason to send another person in after us.

The intruders looked around the surrounding traces for a moment, then seemed to recall that this place was near the entrance and passed by without much concern.

My heart beat shallowly.

Because the form of the red mist and threads stretching after them and clumping together was a type I had seen before.

‘Karon.’

Why had the Underworld Lord, who was said to have returned to the Underworld, crossed into the former Sky’s Domain?

I had to view the Original Work.

It was right to eliminate uncertain elements from the start.

Forcing my tense, quickened breathing under control, I could only blink after they had completely disappeared.

Even after that, we held our breath for a long while longer before whispering in very small voices.

“Ruler of the Forest.”

“Karon.”

“……?”

“……What are you talking about? Pan?”

“You are the one saying Karon. How would the Underworld Lord come here?”

What phenomenon was this?

Was it possible to sense the same energy and recognize it as a completely different person?

Unless different standards were being applied to each of our boundaries right now―.

‘This is driving me insane.’

The thought that flashed through me made me feel as though I had been struck in the back of the head.

In other words, this was in a similar vein to the Original Work’s Branching Point.

A branching point was created, the Original Work twisted, and a path different from its existing direction was generated.

I had already split that Branching Point once, and I had made quite a mess at the negotiation room this time too.

The Original Work was already twisting.

Hwipone and I had clearly glimpsed different branches of the same moment.

Could I say that this was possible because this place was a cursed land filled with the Power of Phantasm?

My confusion showed plainly on my face.

Hwipone grabbed my shoulders and pressed me.

“Riwin. Is there a reason you think it is Karon?”

“W-well.”

If I insisted on anything here, I could not predict what effect it would have on the Original Work.

I called the system inwardly, but it was silent.

Come to think of it, that system bastard had been quiet the entire time since I came here.

Was that also because there was some influence at work?

The moment the question arose, I attempted Original Work Loading.

The system had vanished.

It reminded me of the time in the beginning, when it had vanished for a long while during Language data synchronization, but this time there was not even a warning.

For an instant, fear rang down my spine with a sharp tingle, and my body trembled.

A state where the system was excluded.

Only raw me.

Then were those red energies my original power?

---

We moved through snow that swallowed our steps.

We could no longer proceed at a leisurely pace.

There was an unfamiliar intruder in the former Sky’s Domain, and while we did not know whether his intent was goodwill or malice, waiting around would be the same as throwing away our own card.

The reason we at least steadied ourselves and decided to deal with the flame first was because that person had gone in the exact opposite direction.

Even though the blizzard had grown very faint, this place had merely changed from somewhere humans could not live into somewhere humans could survive, so the round trip would certainly take quite some time.

And by the time he came back empty-handed, we would already have finished our work.

Of course, that required the premise that everything would proceed smoothly.

“Can you break through the wall blocking the way?”

“It is not impossible. The problem is that I do not know where we will be thrown.”

“Thrown?”

“Every time we cross one wall, we lose our way. One should be all right, since it is already close to the destination.”

“Are you sure?”

“No.”

Hwipone frowned and pointed at my neck.

“As long as we have the necklace, every possible outcome is on our side.”

The necklace passed down to Etel, the Ruler of the Sky.

Their land, cursed for long years.

“Because that necklace will guide us on its own in order to bring the curse down on us.”

The necklace had shown no particular reaction while we were tearing through the land here and there, so I raised my brows.

“It guides us?”

“You will know once we go.”

Hwipone strode forward and spared his words.

The choice to give up on the last one and choose the flame did not mean Hwipone had admitted he trusted my words more.

Hwipone believed without a doubt that the energy he had sensed belonged to the Ruler of the Forest.

Hwipone’s basis for judgment was his own intuition. The fact that he had pinned me down and thrown me during our first meeting, yet dragged me along without killing me, was in the same vein.

The fact that someone like Hwipone felt it was the Ruler of the Forest meant that, originally, it was right.

From Hwipone’s perspective, there should not have been a situation where I denied that conclusion from the start.

“This is confusing.”

Hwipone shook his head and walked ahead first.

Even though he was sure of his own judgment, the reason he could not rashly argue and insist that he was right was entirely because of my ability.

When he thought back on my ability to identify the traits and weaknesses of Phantasmal Species I had shown in this place, he could not help suspecting that my claim was not absurd.

Because that sense far surpassed Hwipone’s intuition.

When we passed through the first zone, where a curtain should have been drawn, subtly distorted Phantasmal Species appeared.

Some had failed to form a single individual, with body parts fallen away and rolling separately, while others had all those parts exaggerated and clumped together like masses.

There were eyes and mouths where limbs should have been, and wings jutted out and flapped where faces should have been.

They looked like works from failed chimera experiments.

Those things did not seem to have puzzle pieces inside, so Hwipone carried his skewers around alone and sliced most of them apart.

When we entered deeper from the boundary of the second curtain, things with whole forms appeared, though their aggressive hostility was weaker than the ones before. I could not see any puzzle pieces in them either.

Hwipone glanced at me, understood what I meant, and cleared away only the ones that came charging.

After reaching the final point that way, we frowned up at a curtain that looked as though a soap-bubble film had frozen and spread out.

The blizzard was still fierce, and I could not see properly ahead, yet that rainbow-shimmering curtain was perfectly clear.

“Even I have never gone inside there.”

“You mean you do not know what is inside?”

“Whenever I get this far, those bastards revive.”

Each and every Phantasmal Species we had met inside, which had only seemed weak, would become stronger than the mutant yeti we first encountered.

At Hwipone’s following words, I turned pale.

“We should go together, right?”

“If you brought me here intending to dump an unknown enemy on me and make me play gatekeeper, I am going back right now.”

“As if.”

After rolling around for days while only checking Hwipone’s location, I had grown attached.

I should set aside the incident where he killed Woldeer.

The moment we crossed the curtain, the resistance of the necklace around my neck grew stronger.

The faintly glowing blue gem rattled as though it might shatter and thrashed to escape my neck.

Holding the necklace in my hand, I swept my gaze around, searching for Hwipone, whom I could no longer see.

“Is it structured to drop us randomly every time we cross a boundary?”

Perhaps that was what he meant by losing the way. A state where one lost their sense of direction and could not know where one was going.

Hwipone had clearly been separated from me and gone somewhere else.

Anxiety surged, but I forced the corners of my mouth up. For some reason, I felt as though I understood what Hwipone had meant when he said the necklace would guide us.

After thrashing wildly, the blue gem finally escaped my grip, slipped free from my neck, and shot into the sky. I lifted my head after it and found myself meeting the eyes of a creature leaping down from the distant sky to snatch the necklace.

Scattering a red glow from his eyes, the face grinning wide enough to reveal grotesquely overgrown pointed teeth rapidly enlarged.

Had I been guided to the curse?

THUD—!

The creature landed with perfect precision, one knee bent against the ground, then easily lifted his head.

His wavy, bright red hair swayed lightly with the recoil.

Leaving aside his bizarrely long limbs, his gleaming expression was sending out every warning that he was dangerous when―

“―My lord.”

The creature called me by a strange title.

He was a clear-eyed lunatic.