Chapter 199
Entry
“……How does the situation look?”
At the words Elisha spoke while brushing her hair back, Morrigan fell silent.
No, rather.
How was she supposed to explain this?
The dragon race were humans who had mastered all kinds of forgotten ‘miracles,’ and that meant they possessed several techniques that even Elisha, a celestial, could not use.
One of those would be the kind of miracle that allowed them to observe the state of a person who was not present here in real time.
And if she were to describe the current state of Aiden Kellermain, whom she had been observing through such a technique—
“……He doesn’t look like he has any intention of stopping.”
“Stopping what.”
“It feels like he’s determined to see this through to the bitter end now that he’s angry.”
“…….”
Yes, he was that kind of man.
If left alone, he would just drift around absentmindedly, a harmless existence to the extreme.
But once someone touched his reverse scale, he would never rest until he saw things through to the very end.
And the reverse scale they had just touched was the concept of ‘family’ that he buried deepest in his heart.
‘……Wornil really went too far.’
She let out a bitter smile as she recalled the concept she had explained to Aiden.
They hadn’t just brushed against it—they had flipped it over and rubbed salt into it. There was no way he would simply stop; it was obvious he was coming to tear them apart completely.
“Where is he right now?”
“……It seems he’s entering now.”
“What?”
“It looks like he’s trying to enter the Void Zone right now.”
“…….”
Hmm.
Even so, the thought that this was far too fast crossed Elisha’s mind.
▣
“……So.”
The wedding had been carried out in such a rushed manner—no guests invited, an officiant who was practically on the verge of death, and nothing close to a traditional ceremony—that it had all happened in the blink of an eye.
Still, a wedding was a wedding.
“So it really did have an effect.”
Inside the rattling carriage, Rania looked around and said that.
As a priestess who served a god, she could see it clearly.
Every single person here had experienced a dramatic increase in the abilities related to the ‘divinity’ they carried within their bodies.
“……I can’t really feel it.”
Katya quietly looked down at her body as she said that.
Even if their divine-related abilities had strengthened compared to before, there was almost nothing she herself could actually feel, so the reaction was only natural.
At her words, Noel and Cretin nodded in agreement.
“Well, once we go in there, you’ll feel it anyway.”
Rania said that while glancing outside at the place the carriage had arrived at.
“Because this is the grave of a god.”
It could be considered the most poetic expression used to describe the Void Zone. Aiden let out a scoff as he thought that.
Even from the outside, black sparks crackled and rose, and an ominous aura surged upward so thickly that it made one not even want to approach.
“By the way, there’s something I didn’t get to hear until the end.”
Rania exhaled smoke from her pipe with a soft “Puu—” as she spoke.
“Why are you trying to rush in here like this?”
“……I told you. Wornil is going to come after me. And the fact that that’s possible means he’s already half-revived. If someone like that fully revives, it’ll become a massive crisis that throws the entire continent into chaos—”
“Yeah, yeah. Then instead of rushing in to smash his head right away, it would’ve been better to ask for help and organize a large-scale subjugation.”
“…….”
“No matter how much of a strange position you’re in, being able to freely draw on power related to gods, it doesn’t mean people who aren’t gods are useless.”
“I don’t want to drag others into this.”
“Are you sure that’s the only reason?”
“…….”
At the quiet yet firm question that fell with certainty, Aiden fell silent for a moment.
“There are… some personal reasons mixed in.”
“Like what?”
“That Wornil is trying to pressure me through the people around me.”
Before.
There was a time when Aiden suddenly saw a vision—one of his ‘mother.’
He had never told anyone about it, never shared it with anyone. The memory had been buried deep in the dust of his past, so the fact that it suddenly appeared before his eyes was unsettling in itself.
And the fact that it emerged in connection with Wornil, as if trying to protect him, bothered him more than he could say.
He had heard an explanation about it directly from Elisha not long ago.
“I thought it meant the god of the celestials was protecting me from Wornil… something like that. At first.”
“The god of the celestials? I’ve never heard of that.”
“It’s natural that you haven’t. Because they’re both Wornil.”
“……What?”
It was a brief theological lecture he had heard from Elisha.
“They said that whether it’s the god of the celestials or the god of the demonkind, their root is all the same—him.”
“……What?”
“You know, one has white wings and the other has black wings. I thought they were completely different races. But guess what.”
Both were branches of races that had split off from Wornil.
In other words, they were the same species with only different colors.
“…….”
“…….”
Wow, that’s harsh.
That was the thought everyone present came to in silence.
If they had served different gods, they could have at least cooperated with the opposing side that had put him through hell. But instead, they were struck from an unexpected angle.
Even Aiden had been utterly dumbfounded when he first heard it…
“……Then.”
At those words, Rania opened her mouth with a dumbfounded expression.
“So what, is he some kind of split personality? If they’re both the same god, why are they fighting over you?”
“That’s right. A split personality.”
“……What?”
“It seems he devoured so many gods that it turned into a side effect. I guess you could call him mentally unstable.”
“…….”
Hmm.
A mad god.
It was quite a poetic expression, but if something like that truly existed, it was so absurd that it was hard to even comment on it.
A being with divinity was supposed to be a transcendent existence above the timeline itself, one that created the world and watched over all creation.
And yet, something like that was suffering from a kind of madness that only humans should experience.
It might have sounded ridiculous, but the impression that came to everyone’s mind was rather the opposite.
‘……Just how many has he devoured?’
If a being powerful enough to be called an Outsider had consumed so many gods that it caused ‘side effects,’ then it was impossible to even estimate how much power he had accumulated by now.
In that case, it was obvious that Aiden trying to enter the Void Zone right away made no sense at all.
“You’re saying you’re going to hunt something like that? With just this group?”
“Yes.”
Aiden Kellermain answered immediately without even a moment’s delay.
“It would be more troublesome if there were more. They’d just get caught up in it.”
“…….”
“You asked earlier why I’m not requesting help from others.”
“I did.”
“It’s not that I’m going with just this group to hunt it. It’s that I have no choice but to go with only this group.”
I see.
So when he said he didn’t want to cause harm earlier, it seemed that was actually because having others around would prevent him from using his power freely.
“……Looks like you’ve got something planned?”
“Because there’s a way to win based on what I just said.”
The fact that such side effects existed was proof of how much power this god had accumulated.
But the fact that there was a weakness that could be clearly exploited—
“Well, anything always depends on how it starts.”
It was an attitude he had always held, even back when he was a con artist.
Bringing down a massive fortress always began from a tiny crack.
In other words—
If there was a crack, then bringing down a massive fortress wasn’t impossible.
And in Aiden’s eyes—
That so-called ‘side effect’ Wornil had right now…
Wasn’t just a crack, but a fatal weakness that, depending on how he used it, could uproot the entire pillar itself.
“……Well then, shall we go?”
Noel, who had been quietly listening, shrugged her shoulders from the coachman’s seat.
“No matter what anyone says, this guy won’t listen anyway.”
“…….”
“To be honest, the priestess tried really hard to explain things, but he was just letting it go in one ear and out the other. Aiden’s going to do whatever he wants anyway.”
“…….”
Hmm.
If there were an academic field dedicated to studying Aiden-related matters, her level of understanding felt like it could qualify her as a leading scholar.
As everyone present nodded in agreement, Noel casually urged the horses forward.
If they had been real, living horses, they would have panicked at the deathly aura pouring out of the Void Zone and refused to move forward. But the ones pulling this carriage were machines made through electronic engineering, so they creaked but continued advancing.
“……Alright, we’re in now.”
Passing through the boundary that separated the Void Zone from the outside surprisingly didn’t feel like anything at all.
Everyone inside the carriage simply blinked blankly, wondering if this really was that infamous place.
“That alone means you’ve already become far removed from being human.”
If Rania hadn’t said that while packing fresh tobacco into her pipe, they might have even started to think that all the records about the Void Zone had been exaggerated.
“A normal human would’ve had their entire body rot and decay the moment they entered here. There’s a reason such a strict barrier has been maintained for so long.”
“……Hearing you say that, I understand it in my head, but honestly, I still can’t really feel it.”
Cretin said that while examining her body.
It was an understandable reaction.
When Aria had descended into her body before, she had felt overwhelming power flowing through her down to the tips of her hairs. But now, even though they were supposedly strengthened, she couldn’t feel anything at all.
“That’s good, then.”
At those words from her older sister, Rania let out a small chuckle and replied.
“What?”
“Look over there. Something that’ll let you feel the difference.”
“…….”
Her younger sister clearly had a knack for saying ominous things with meaningful undertones.
Thinking that, Cretin opened her mouth to ask what she meant.
Or rather, she was about to.
-………….
She would have, if not for the unmistakable signs rushing in from all directions, so obvious that there was no need to ask.
The ground trembled. Beasts howled. The air tore, and the earth groaned.
“……Wow.”
Katya let out a sound that was almost pure admiration.
“How many are there?”
“……I don’t know, but get ready for battle!”
As a horde of beasts approached, covering both sky and land in black, the sound of Cretin hiccuping rang out vividly.
