Chapter 15

Chapter 15: Artificial Rift (1)

She told me why she was heading to the Artificial Rift.

“Actually, Yulia and I were pretty close before enrolling here. As her friend, I got a little worried.”

“If it is Yulia, then just a moment ago she was sent away by ‘Forced Teleport’……”

“Ahaha, well… yes, it turned out that way.”

She laughed awkwardly.

“Come to think of it, we never introduced ourselves properly. I am Viole. Viole Yustis.”

Viole Yustis.

She was a student from the Holy Order, just like Yulia the Sword Radiance, and had enrolled in Saengterminum alongside her.

If I remembered correctly, she had said they had grown up together in the Order since childhood.

Unlike Yulia, who was gifted in both healing and combat, Viole was more talented with blessings than with fighting.

That was the normal case, really. Yulia was simply too monstrously gifted.

“I do not really need to introduce myself, do I?”

“Ah… well…….”

Perhaps because she felt guilty about the way her face had soured when she first saw me, Viole looked embarrassed and averted her eyes.

“Ahem……. Damon, would you like to go into the rift with me? I do not know the terrain of this ‘Artificial Rift’ either. If the two of us go in together and move around, I think we will be able to find Yulia faster.”

I could still sense some wariness in her tone, but that was only natural. It was the karma I had earned from what I did during the entrance exam.

Still, she must have seen the way I fought during the exam and decided that at least my combat ability looked useful, which was why she made the offer.

‘Honestly, what does she take me for?’

It was a little absurd, but it did not matter much.

I had approached her for a reason of my own anyway.

So I told her what I wanted.

“All right. But I want to add one condition.”

“A condition?”

“Teach me how to bring forth Holy Power.”

Her eyes widened into circles.

***

Since Saengterminum maintained neutrality, it was not an academy subordinate to any particular nation.

It functioned as an academy that trained talented individuals from all over the world under the name of a Blue Dragon Hatchling.

Because of that, the territory of Saengterminum, including Saengterminum Academy, was filled with all sorts of facilities for the convenience of the students studying there.

And among them, the place where the ‘Artificial Rift’ had been opened was installed right at the center of Saengterminum’s grounds for safe supervision.

“Waa…….”

Viole’s eyes sparkled as she looked at the Artificial Rift, and I followed her gaze and examined it as well.

The floor of the wide-open plaza was densely inscribed with complex magical formulas.

When I traced the direction in which those formulas converged, I saw several semicircular tunnels large enough for ten people to pass through with ease.

Beyond the tunnels, a deep blue light shimmered.

‘Even seeing it again, it really is impressive.’

To think they actually came up with the idea of creating such a massive rift through magic.

An administrator waiting nearby for the Artificial Rift approached and asked what our business was. 

When Viole explained the situation to him, he lowered his head and let out a heavy sigh.

They really do have it rough, with that blue lizard as their representative.

“If you wait near the entrance of the rift, you should be able to meet them. Since you are successful applicants of Saengterminum, the monsters that come out near the entrance should be easy for you to subdue.”

After hearing a few simple precautions from the administrator, Viole and I passed through the tunnel and walked into the rift.

***

The moment Damon and Viole passed through the rift, even the air itself changed.

The first things before their eyes were dazzling sunlight and green grass.

Rustle…….

The leaves growing on the trees swayed in the cool breeze blowing in from somewhere.

If it had been a little chilly outside, then this place was neither cold nor hot, but exactly pleasant.

Behind the two of them, the entrance of the rift they had just used shimmered in a semicircle.

Mana Forging.

Mana Dagger, Two Consecutive Forgings.

“All right, let us go.”

Viole studied the mana daggers Damon had summoned into both hands, then swallowed.

“I already thought it was strange back in the testing ground, but… can you not use Holy Power at all?”

“It has not been long since my Holy Power manifested. Thanks to that, I never had the chance to learn it properly.”

“For someone like that, it seems you still received proper training……. What were you doing before you came to Saengterminum?”

Damon thought that, with such an innocent-looking face, she probed into something potentially sensitive with remarkable naturalness.

Or perhaps he should have called her foxlike.

There was a reason she came from the Holy Order, which was called an elite group even within the Holy Empire.

There was no point in trying some half-baked excuse.

With the Holy Order’s information network, it would be easy for them to discover that the information on Damon, whose appearance I was wearing as a disguise, cut off in suspicious ways.

“It is a bit hard to tell you that. It is not like we have known each other that long.”

It was more comfortable to be openly secretive instead.

Given the nature of Saengterminum as a neutral zone, there were plenty of students here with personal or political issues.

“Hmmm……. Well, all right then.”

Since Viole knew that too, she did not press any further.

“So, how is it? Are you getting a feel for handling Holy Power?”

“Well…….”

Letting the end of the sentence trail off, Damon opened and closed his right hand, which was covered by a leather glove.

As he walked toward the Artificial Rift with Viole, he recalled the conversation they had shared.

“How to bring forth Holy Power?”

Viole had readily agreed when Damon proposed that, in exchange for going together into the Artificial Rift, he wanted to know how to bring forth Holy Power.

“Hmm… maybe the closest way to think of it is that you are asking Holy Power itself for a favor?”

“……?”

Damon had nearly asked what kind of nonsense that was supposed to mean.

“What are you talking about?”

If bringing forth Holy Power required some kind of special calculation formula, then he could at least have understood that.

But asking it for a favor? 

He had no idea what that meant.

“It seems that was a little hard to understand.”

Viole tapped the area near her chest with a finger.

“Even if you refine the mana generated in your heart into Holy Power, you cannot just draw it out and use it immediately. Holy Power only responds when you recognize it and make an ‘earnest wish.’”

“An earnest wish?”

“It is not anything that grand. You just have to think about what you want to do with Holy Power.”

Up to that point, Damon recalled the conversation and rolled the mana dagger in his hand with a dubious expression.

‘It is really that simple?’

Because he was a Black Mage, the gap felt even wider.

If Black Magic was used incorrectly, the side effects fell entirely upon the caster, so Black Mages, himself included, thoroughly verified the magical formulas they intended to use.

But now he was being told that no formula was needed to bring forth Holy Power, so it felt unfamiliar in every way.

It was like thinking it was natural to walk along a rugged mountain path, only to be told instead to walk on a flat road paved with smooth tiles.

Well, even so, it was still better than not trying at all.

‘Since I have the Sacred Mark, I should not need to refine mana into Holy Power…….’

Damon focused on the back of the hand where the Sacred Mark was engraved.

Watching him, Viole curled her lips upward like a fox.

‘I made it sound easy, but it is actually pretty difficult.’

To bring forth Holy Power, the user had to possess a clear wish.

But most users of Holy Power wandered for up to three days at that very stage.

That was because a simple desire like ‘I want to become stronger with Holy Power’ would not make Holy Power respond.

Only when the user poured their ultimate wish into Holy Power, and there was not even the slightest falsehood in that wish, would Holy Power lend them its strength.

Viole had been about to tell him that it would be better to find Yulia first and then practice Holy Power slowly, but—after blinking several times, Viole’s eyes widened.

And with good reason.

Hummmm…….

Holy Power was surging from Damon’s right hand, still covered by the leather glove.

‘What? That was ridiculously easy.’

Damon’s face fell into a sullen look.

So because I did not know something this simple, I had put on a whole show by even wrapping Demonic Armament over myself while trying to draw Holy Power out of the Sacred Mark?

It was good news, but… somehow it also felt unbelievably hollow.

“You…….”

Viole was staring at Damon with clear shock, so he sighed and waved his hand.

Apparently, his displeasure had shown on his face.

“It is nothing. It just worked more easily than I thought.”

“Ah… r-right?”

As she watched Damon’s back heading deeper into the rift, a flicker of agitation briefly crossed Viole’s otherwise warm expression.

He clearly had not been lying when he said he could not use Holy Magic during the entrance exam because his Holy Power had only manifested recently.

But to realize immediately what his own ‘earnest wish’ was.

What kind of life had this guy lived?

“Could you tell me what kind of ‘earnest wish’ you made?”

“That?”

Damon turned his head slightly toward Viole, shrugged, and played dumb.

“It is a secret.”

No matter what, he could hardly say, ‘I wished to change the future.’

***

The environment inside a rift varied from one rift to another.

The monsters that appeared changed depending on the environment of the rift, and it was said that Saengterminum had designed things this way so that students entering rifts could develop adaptability to changing environments.

At the moment, Viole and I were wandering near the entrance of a ‘Forest Field’ with little environmental burden, eliminating monsters as we went.

Since it was only the entrance, nothing but goblins, low-rank monsters, had appeared so far, but that was not much of a problem to begin with, because we were waiting for Yulia anyway.

After easily taking down the goblin that had appeared just now with a mana dagger, I looked over at Viole.

CRUNCH!

The goblin’s head shattered completely, skull and all.

Grrk…….

Its body, taken down in a single blow, collapsed to the ground along with its ruined head.

Viole rested the heavy mace she had just swung against her shoulder and looked my way with a bright smile.

“Hmm? What is it?”

“It is nothing.”

Even seeing it again, I still could not get used to it.

She looked thin on the outside, but because she reinforced her body with Holy Power, she could display that kind of monstrous strength.

Having been trained by the Holy Order, she was quite capable in combat as well.

Even if I were not here, the goblins appearing near the entrance of the rift would not be able to leave so much as a scratch on her.

‘…The problem is that goblins are not the only things that show up here.’

I recalled the first time I saw Viole after enrolling in Saengterminum.

In the previous timeline as well, Viole had entered the Artificial Rift because she was worried about Yulia, who had fallen into it together with Lloyd, and wanted to find her.

At the time, I had been searching for the exit together with Yulia and Lloyd, and when the three of us reached the area near the exit, we saw Viole fighting monsters while gasping for breath.

In the end, Headmaster Levia, who had noticed that something strange had happened in the rift and hurried over, was the one who defeated the monster, but Viole was bedridden in the hospital for a week because of that battle.

Why bring that up now?

Because the monster that had given Viole so much trouble in the previous timeline was about to appear.

Rumble…….

The ground trembled.

Even if it was an artificially created rift, as long as it was still a rift that produced monsters, there was always a risk that variables could arise.

Even if it was only the entrance area.

Grrrrrr……!

The faint vibration in the ground gradually grew more violent.

The leaves of the surrounding trees brushed against one another, making a grim rustling sound.

Viole too was unable to hide her confusion at the sudden abnormality.

“…What is this?”

“Our luck is bad.”

Feigning unease, I glared ahead, and Viole followed my gaze.

The ground I had been watching split apart with a crack, and from within it, something long shot up and coiled onto the earth with a heavy THUD!

Its appearance resembled that of a snake.

Its body was covered in black scales, and its length alone was roughly ten meters.

The name of the monster surfaced naturally in my mind.

A snake-type Mid-Rank Monster, Ozen Serpent.