Ch.102The Herald from the Past (2)

That strange bubble. Knemon called it the “Bubble of Erasure,” as written in the ancient ruins. How many dangers had he faced to obtain this Bubble of Erasure?

Knemon slowly shared the story of those days when he roamed the extra-dimensional contaminated zones with Ortes.

“…You probably knew that Ortes and I once exclusively took on deep contamination zone requests.”

“Of course. It’s why you two were secretly known as doomsday cultists.”

“Ha. By that logic, what about you, who was present wherever Ortes went?”

“I didn’t follow him. Ortes followed me and used me as a shield without permission!”

“Ha. If you say so.”

Ignoring Lampades’ protest, Knemon explained his adventure. It began with documents remaining in one contaminated zone ruin—information about research on extracting power from extra-dimensional forces.

“It was data suggesting ancient mage scholars had created something destructive by condensing extra-dimensional power. I was consumed by uncontrollable excitement.”

He could take revenge on the official magic towers that had trampled his family’s tower. Power that could burn the entire magic tower society was finally within reach.

Knemon believed this, and secretly proposed to Ortes, who was equally enthusiastic about the destruction extra-dimensional forces could bring.

Let’s find that artifact imbued with extra-dimensional power together.

Ortes and Knemon continuously solved deep exploration requests in extra-dimensional contaminated zones, gradually gathering more clues and venturing deeper.

“We obtained this Bubble of Erasure at the end of that journey. Though if I hadn’t fled, perhaps it wouldn’t have been the end.”

Knemon boasted exceptional skills even among the doomsday cultists secretly spread throughout the solver community. Despite everything, he was once an elite groomed as a magic tower successor, and solvers who had properly embodied magical training methods were rare.

Add to that the arcane knowledge of a vanished magic tower, and Knemon’s magical prowess was outstanding not just among doomsday cultists but among all solvers.

Ortes was a being who couldn’t be evaluated by magical standards. Something about him was misaligned.

He could solve any complex cipher at a glance and never fell into even the most lethal traps.

As a guide for breaking through dungeons and ruins, there was no one more skilled than Ortes. His only flaw, if it could be called that, was some peculiar quirk that kept him from using magic directly.

Knemon believed that with his and Ortes’ combination, no ruin in this world would be impenetrable.

And he was right. Even in spaces fractured into dozens of segments by extra-dimensional contamination, Ortes chose the correct path without a moment’s hesitation.

After gathering clues from dozens of ruins and finally entering the final ruin where the Bubble of Erasure was stored, Knemon felt an unprecedented thrill.

An artifact created with such dedication by ancient mages. How far would its power reach?

Destruction for the magical society, or at least the power to deliver a final blow to those who had taken everything from his family, would soon be in his grasp.

Knemon’s anticipation turned to as much bewilderment when he beheld the Bubble of Erasure.

The same reaction as when Lampades saw the Bubble of Erasure. Despite its grand name, it looked like a children’s toy that made soap bubbles.

As Knemon was bursting with frustration, he was stopped by Ortes, who was observing the Bubble of Erasure in quiet silence.

“Have you ever heard Ortes speak informally?”

“Informally? Ortes?”

Lampades shook his head. That faint smile always worn. The formal speech that chilled one’s core. Eyes so thin that emotions couldn’t be read.

While facial features might be forgotten, wasn’t that ominous eye-smile, mouth, and formal speech burned into memory like a brand?

They could be called the three essential elements that made up Ortes.

“…I have seen it.”

Knemon recalled the moment when Ortes told him to blow a bubble.

***

“Damn it! Were the ancients insane? They buried this trivial thing in a ruin!”

“Mr. Knemon. Why don’t you try blowing it?”

“What?”

“The bubble. Blow it.”

Blue irises were visible beneath Ortes’ characteristic narrowed eyes. That eerie glow carried an intimidating pressure that allowed no objection.

With a whoosh, the bubble inflated following the exhaled breath. The softly rainbow-colored bubble was no different from a toy children played with.

“Damn it all!”

Though he had hoped until the end, he still felt no special ability. If some ominous magical power had emanated from that bubble toy, Knemon might have been bewildered by its appearance but not disappointed.

But this was just a soap bubble. Neither the soap solution nor the bubble ring felt special in any way.

Ortes stood behind Knemon and instructed:

“Pop it.”

“What?”

“The bubble. Pop it.”

It was an incomprehensible instruction. Would something change by popping it? Knemon carefully examined the inside of the bubble.

‘What’s this? It’s been dozens of seconds since I blew the bubble.’

The bubble neither sank nor burst. It just floated in the air. As if entranced, Knemon moved his finger toward the endlessly drifting bubble.

The bubble burst the moment his finger touched it. Silently and swiftly.

And simultaneously with the bubble bursting, the scenery Knemon had been viewing through the bubble also blurred.

No, it wasn’t just the image in his vision that blurred. The scenery he had been looking at disappeared along with the bursting bubble.

Like a bubble itself.

Expectation and hope rose again. Knemon laughed without realizing it.

“Ha, haha. Kuhahahahahahaha!”

The barrier wall of the ruin, protected by ancient magic and impervious even to storms of attack spells, crumbled without a trace.

The stealth of leaving no trace of magical power that inevitably accompanies all magic. The ease with which it was accomplished and the destructive power that rendered any defense meaningless.

A thrilling shiver ran through Knemon’s entire body.

This is it. This is the power. The power to achieve the revenge I’ve been yearning for, finally in my hands!

“May I try it as well?”

“Ah, of course. We obtained this artifact thanks to you. Thank you, Ortes. You truly are the best companion.”

Ortes accepted the container and ring with his usual inscrutable smile. He slowly raised the container and examined it.

“Mr. Knemon.”

“Yes?”

“I’d like to conduct a small experiment. Let’s go up.”

It didn’t take long to retrace their steps out of the ruin. They had already disarmed all traps on the way in. Even if there were time-delayed traps that activated and isolated them, they could simply erase them with this artifact.

Upon reaching the surface, Ortes boldly blew a bubble. A palm-sized bubble floated up toward the sky.

“Mr. Knemon, how about targeting that mountain peak?”

The mountain summit, glowing with the murky five colors of extra-dimensional contamination, was faintly visible in the distance. Knemon carefully bent down to frame the mountain peak in his view and popped the bubble.

A storm raged.

All objects occupying the space around the mountain peak vanished simultaneously. Since not even air could escape the erasure, the atmospheric flow became massively entangled. The flow rushing in to fill the air turned into a violent whirlwind.

When the storm that had swept over the mountain peak subsided, the result became visible even to Knemon’s eyes.

The mountain had been deeply hollowed out in a circular shape.

A concave terrain reminiscent of a crater. Yet it was too smoothly carved to have been caused by a meteorite impact.

Knemon felt emotion beyond thrill.

This artifact seemed to have no limits. Just by reflecting a magic tower from afar and popping the bubble, he could cause an unprecedented catastrophe!

Immense joy swept through his entire body. Knemon turned his head toward Ortes, openly displaying his happiness.

Surely he too must be feeling the achievement of having grasped the power to overturn the world. The power to uproot and transform the stagnant magical society!

But Ortes was surprisingly cold. That didn’t mean his smile had disappeared.

A sneer filled with contempt and disgust. Though the corners of his mouth were still turned up, the atmosphere emanating from that expression was freezing to the point of being glacial.

Without a word, Ortes opened his palm. A gesture demanding the artifact.

Holding the bubble ring, Ortes said:

“Move far away.”

“Further away.”

“Further.”

Only when Ortes’ figure had nearly become a silhouette did Knemon stop moving. Knemon couldn’t even guess what Ortes was trying to do.

Knemon’s vision sharpened. The scene of Ortes blowing a bubble entered his magnified sight.

It wasn’t that large. Just big enough to cover one eye.

And then Ortes opened his eyes.

As an icily blue glow tore through Knemon’s retina, the bubble burst.

Crack—a sound that shouldn’t have been heard. Until now, the only sound from the bubble destruction experiments had been the wind from the aftermath.

Such a collapse sound shouldn’t have been heard.

Where on earth, what had begun to collapse?

Knemon looked down at the sky.

And then looked up at the ground.

Something was wrong.

It was inverted.

The order of earth and sky had collapsed. The dimensional wall had broken down, and the bizarre principles of extra-dimensions began pouring into the world. The truth that sky is above and earth is below crumbled, and the world became chaotically disordered.

In the depths of the extra-dimensional contaminated zone, the unstable boundary between dimensions collapsed.

It was like watching the world itself being put into a giant crusher and ground up. Witnessing the catastrophe from outside the boundary line Ortes had drawn, Knemon trembled with ecstasy.

From that terrible yet beautiful destruction, Knemon glimpsed the end of the magical world. Though he didn’t know how Ortes had implemented such a great destruction, with such power, they might truly be able to bring down the world.

It was only after a considerable time that he thought about Ortes’ well-being at the center of the destruction. By the time the collapsed dimensional wall was restored and the earth finally returned to below and the sky to above.

The site where the ruin had been was transformed into a barren plain. The remains of what had been the ruin were fragmented and mixed with the earth, scattered like a mosaic.

Fortunately, Ortes was standing calmly in the middle of the flattened land. With the Bubble of Erasure still in one hand.

Knemon ran over with a bright expression. It was the ultimate reward for his long struggle since losing his family’s magic tower and being driven out.

And then Knemon heard a single sentence that Ortes spat out as if grinding it between his teeth.

“I didn’t come to see this kind of thing.”

It was a terribly sharp tone. A voice so cutting it seemed it would slice through anything approaching.

Knemon dared not approach any closer.

Suddenly Ortes raised his head.

“Ah. Mr. Knemon. I’ve used it well.”

Ortes tossed the Bubble of Erasure as if it were nothing. Knemon hurriedly sprinted to catch the container.

“I ended up using more of what’s in the container than expected, but over half remains. I’ve used my share, so keep it.”

“K-keep it?”

“Yes. It’s an object I have no need for.”

Ortes stretched casually. As if he had just returned from a stroll somewhere.

“Well then, shall we look for the next artifact!”

“…What?”

Knemon didn’t understand Ortes’ words.

“The next extra-dimensional artifact. Something more than this—”

Knemon’s vision went white. He couldn’t properly hear what Ortes was saying or what plan he was talking about.

Even with an artifact that could cause the same great destruction as before, he wanted more?

Was he saying he wanted an even greater destruction, a more thorough annihilation?

Knemon became afraid of Ortes. That insatiable hunger. That madness that knew no satisfaction.

If his own desire for revenge was a torch, whatever Ortes harbored was like a forest fire. A conflagration that couldn’t be extinguished even by rain, that would only subside when there was nothing left to burn.

A world-incinerating fire.

When he came to his senses, Knemon had already fled from the extra-dimensional borderlands.