I Saw It Someday

Following the records of the Chaos Bloom research written in the book she once saw, Ellie headed to the Death Canyon, searching inside for the place where the Chaos Bloom had occurred. She diligently examined the surroundings, recalling the Chaos Bloom’s characteristic of stealing the colors of its surroundings and turning them black.

Ellie realized that if a Chaos Bloom with such unique characteristics existed along the canyon path, it would have already been on people’s lips. So, she used magic to find not the path that crossed the canyon, but side paths untouched by people or paths used by animals.

Finally, Ellie found a long-erased path and headed to its end. But the path abruptly ended, and a massive wall blocked Ellie’s way. Ellie, judging that the terrain had eroded and the path had disappeared, turned to find another path, but felt a faint elemental reaction from the wall and slowly reached out her hand towards it.

Wuuuung―

The massive wall was an elaborate fake wall made with magic. It even replicated the texture and feel, but when Ellie’s magic pushed away the elements, the hidden path appeared.

There must be a reason someone hid the path. Thinking so, Ellie took out her staff and cautiously walked along the path, wary of her surroundings. Because the fake wall had blocked the path for a very long time, there were no signs of anyone having entered.

The valley began to narrow as she went deeper inside. When more and more dirt clung to Ellie’s shoulders, the end of the valley finally came into view. When Ellie emerged from the valley, a wide space appeared before her eyes. It looked like a circular terrain created by a meteorite falling from the sky.

“That is….”

Suddenly, an old structure touched by human hands came into Ellie’s view. It vaguely resembled a temple. Ellie approached and opened the stone door with magic, entering inside. Ellie could tell from her past experiences. The Chaos Bloom she was looking for existed here.

“…Found it.”

Ellie’s intuition was correct. Ellie, who summoned light with magic and entered inside, soon discovered a black area that absorbed light.

The moment Ellie saw the Chaos Bloom with her own eyes, she felt a thrilling shiver that seemed to run through her entire body. Ellie could feel something that she could never have known through the memories Ross had passed on and the books.

The Chaos Bloom was not a naturally occurring phenomenon. This chaos was an elaborate arrangement and manipulation. It was a structure that forcibly held the element of darkness, where all elements combined into one color, in space.

Ellie took out a book from her bag and compared the records of the research with what she had seen, creating a pen with magic to revise and write new records. She used magic to test the properties of the Chaos Bloom and pondered whether there was a way to push it away.

Ellie’s ears perked up as she was lost in thought for a while. The alarm magic she had secretly installed in various places when coming here had been triggered. Ellie quickly put the book in her bag and immediately went outside the temple. And she pointed her staff at the valley, waiting for something approaching. It was too late to run away.

Ellie’s palms, holding the staff, became damp with sweat due to a strange sense of unease she suddenly felt. Ellie, who was preparing the most powerful synthetic magic by drawing up mana, suddenly felt darkness and lifted her head, then hurriedly threw herself to the side.

Kwaaaang―!

What fell from the sky was the bones of a living monster. The shattered bone fragments writhed as if they were alive. Ellie, trying to raise herself while pointing her staff, immediately used magic on something grabbing her ankle.

Kwaaaang―!

The corpse with rotten flesh attached to the places that grabbed Ellie’s ankle exploded. But that was the beginning. The ground around where Ellie was standing heaved, and the corpses buried beneath it awakened and rose up.

Ellie recalled facing the goblins on the second floor of the labyrinth and swung her staff, knocking down the corpses surrounding her.

Kwang-!

Ellie, realizing that the defensive magic protecting her rear, where she had no vision, had been activated, froze the corpse throwing itself in the air and turned around. There was a man. He was a man with no expression like a corpse, but he was definitely alive. He looked at Ellie with dead eyes and said.

“…You cannot escape this place. Intruder.”

Ellie instinctively realized that she had to get away from that man and used magic on the ground. A huge rock pierced through the floor and became Ellie’s foothold. Ellie, who continued to create footholds and move away from the man, stopped when she felt the hair on her body stand on end. That intuition was correct.

The foothold that Ellie had not stepped on was splitting apart along with the ground. Ellie, who almost lost her balance, knelt on one knee on the foothold and turned her head in the direction the sword energy had flown from.

“You’ve got good instincts, woman.”

The man approaching Ellie while saying that was not unfamiliar. He was someone Ellie had met recently. Not as an ally, but as an enemy… The man was Confession of the Order, who had faced the Golden King.

“…Arz.”

“A woman I’m meeting for the first time knows my name, so it seems we’re acquaintances.”

Ellie quickly grasped the situation. The Order had secretly hidden the Chaos Bloom phenomenon to prevent anyone from interfering with their plans. When an intruder appeared there, Confession appeared to eliminate the intruder.

As the situation turned out this way, Ellie rather gained confidence that her hypothesis was correct. She didn’t know when they had started planning this, but Ellie had the ability to overturn the Order’s plans.

…If she could survive here.

Ellie decided to focus only on escaping. There were two opponents. If she used magic, she could create enough distance―

“Disciple of the Sage. You lack caution.”

It wasn’t two people. Ellie gave a bitter smile at the sight of Confession and the Vice-Leader surrounding her. It was a trap…. Ellie had no way to escape against seven Transcendents. The Vice-Leader also knew that fact and said with a relaxed face.

“While we were waiting quietly, honey is falling from the sky in jars.”

The Vice-Leader flicked his finger.

“Put down your staff.”

“…Do I look like someone who will surrender so easily?”

The Vice-Leader’s cold eyes looked into Ellie’s eyes.

“Hehe, are you trying to hide your anxiety and fear with strong words?”

“…”

Ellie, whose inner thoughts were exposed, drew up mana, letting out a small breath instead of making excuses. The Vice-Leader, watching that, gestured with a faint smile.

“Keep the original form so that Cassis can use it.”

As soon as those words were finished, the corpses and Confession rushed at Ellie. Ellie poured out all her mana and immediately responded. She pushed away the rushing corpses with barriers of wind and water, and detonated the flying sword energy and magic by condensing mana.

Attacks were poured out endlessly towards Ellie, as if not giving her a chance to breathe. However, Ellie resisted diligently, to the point where the palm of her hand holding the staff was torn.

But it was impossible to block all directions without a single gap. Ellie, whose ankle was torn off by something, created a huge sphere of ice while sweating coldly and pushed away the swarming corpses once again. When Ellie, who had bought a moment of time, drew up mana while panting heavily, Ellie’s vision blurred and soon the hand holding the staff exploded.

“Kkeueuk…!!!”

Flesh was torn off, and the pure white hand bone inside was visible. The corpses that had been pushed away rushed at Ellie, who had lost her balance and fallen from the foothold. Ellie bit her lip tightly and closed her eyes, thinking of the pain that would soon come.

And a strange sound reached Ellie’s ears.

Pook pook pook-!

A sound like piercing something.

“Kyaaaaak-!”

The wailing of a corpse, and,

Poopook-! Peok peok peok peok-! Poook-!

A sound that was gradually moving away from her surroundings.

“…?”

Ellie, feeling something strange, slowly opened her closed eyes and could see. Ross’s back, which filled her vision as always.

“Hoo, I didn’t expect Lily to appear… Did she have a relationship with the Sage’s disciple?”

Ignoring the Vice-Leader’s words, Ross looked at the fallen Ellie over her shoulder. Ellie, feeling the gaze, said with difficulty.

“Ross… Lily. How did you get here…?”

Ellie changed her words when she realized that Ross was wearing the Lily mask. Fortunately, no one noticed except for Ross and Ellie.

“…Can you move?”

“No, sorry… I can’t move.”

Ellie tried to raise herself at Ross’s words, but she couldn’t move at all because she couldn’t put strength into her whole body. It seemed she had been poisoned by something when she injured her ankle.

“It’s okay. Because I’m here.”

“Hehe, did you think we would let Lily, who is called the Order’s nemesis, escape so easily?”

When the Vice-Leader raised his hand, a strange distortion occurred behind Confession. As if heat haze was rising, the space rippled and all the spatial coordinates that Ross had recognized began to collapse. They had drawn up the power of chaos to block spatial magic.

“We can’t miss an opportunity that won’t come again.”

Ellie, seeing the strength entering Ross’s hand, bit her lip and said.

“It can’t be helped… Abandon me and run away.”

“I wouldn’t have come to save you if I was going to do that.”

“That’s… Thank you, but we can’t both die. Just having this book will be a great help to you in the future.”

Ellie took out a book from her bag, but Ross didn’t receive it. Rather, she slowly drew up mana and prepared to fight. Ellie, seeing that, shouted.

“You idiot, abandon me and run away! That’s the only way there’s even a slight chance of survival….”

“I don’t want to.”

When Ellie distorted her face and was about to get angry at Ross’s answer, Ross’s next words reached Ellie’s ears and left her speechless.

“Because you are also a precious person to me.”

“…”

“So I won’t lose you anymore.”