Ch.164164. Turning Point (2)

“…teacher?”

Ellia’s puzzled voice came from beside me.

She must be wondering why I suddenly froze in place when a formidable spirit entity appeared right in front of us.

< System Message >

[ The aura of ‘White Demon’ has been detected! ]

[ ‘Seal of Fallen Heaven’ is responding! ]

!!! Alert !!!!

[ Emergency event triggered! ]

[ Target ‘White Demon’ is involved! ]

[ Failure will result in losing your ‘soul’! ]

There’s one fact I’ve been feeling particularly acutely these days.

The truly dangerous situations are the ones that come at times and in forms I never expect.

So.

When a window like this pops up, it’s quite natural to instinctively recognize it as a life-or-death crisis before I can even consciously process what it means.

A chilling sensation runs down my spine as my consciousness grows heavy.

“…”

Actually, the warning windows with exclamation marks don’t always appear during truly dangerous moments, but regardless, seeing the White Demon’s aura when I’m “not wearing my mask” is a death sentence in itself.

The White Demon is different from the others.

If going berserk basically means the vessel losing rationality and rampaging after being consumed by a demon’s malice, the White Demon moves with very clear purpose and intent.

I’ve mentioned this before.

A demon’s affection often has a twisted direction compared to what normal people would consider emotions.

There are crazy bitches scattered everywhere who “raise” people by keeping them captive and claim to be happy just being together with them.

This one is the prime example.

In other words.

If I don’t take action right now.

I die.

Not in the sense of my life force being extinguished, but my “life” as I know it ends.

I might still be breathing, but I’ll be robbed of most values that make me human.

‘Time remaining, 20 seconds.’

I don’t know where, how, or in what form it will approach me.

But based on my experience, when your “face” is exposed to the White Demon in Sera, the grace period you get is exactly that long.

‘…Stay calm.’

Everyone has the ability to learn.

When you experience the same thing multiple times, you naturally develop an optimized behavioral routine.

I know better than anyone that panicking doesn’t help in situations like this.

Despite the sense of crisis, I calmly check my surroundings with a cooling mind.

“…teacher?”

Ellia, who clearly noticed that something was wrong with me, spoke up again with a slightly more anxious tone.

“…”

Normally, she would be the only one I could rely on in this situation.

But the problem is that this is a life-or-death situation, and despite her stat buffs, she might not be much help against a special threat like the White Demon.

If I had the Holy Sword it might be different, but I don’t have that right now.

“…teacher? What’s wrong…?”

She asks again as I stand there silently, staring blankly.

Watching her, I grit my teeth.

Originally, she would have proceeded with the main quest on her own even without me.

But the flow of events in this world has long since changed to revolve around me.

As the system window told me before, it’s the butterfly effect.

If I disappear from that flow.

The world will end.

It wouldn’t be strange at all if some demon went berserk somewhere and devoured the world.

‘…Time remaining, 10 seconds.’

I look around, gritting my teeth.

At this rate, I’m done for.

There must be a way…!

“I hate to say this, but!”

As I desperately accelerate my thoughts, Lana’s voice pierces my ears as she draws her twin blades.

“This is no time to be spacing out with a spirit entity right in front of us!”

And.

Upon hearing that shout.

My gaze flies to the spirit entity right in front of me.

The thought entity spewing black magical energy floats around threateningly, hissing.

Thinking back to the game, it’s a thought entity that normally initiates combat immediately, aiming to subdue opponents and devour their “mental energy.”

But the ones here are all extraordinary, so they hesitate to attack first.

Even I, the weakest among us, boast fairly solid mental defenses thanks to the anti-demon stats I got from Yuria. For a thought entity, this is troublesome—

‘Thought entity.’

That word pounds in my head.

I recall the game settings.

A being from another world with its own “mental realm.”

As I continue to recall those settings.

Something flashes in my mind.

“…”

There is a way.

Just one.

It’s a complete gamble, but certainly better than a 100% chance of death.

“Teacher? Why are you suddenly…”

“Hey.”

I answer with a sigh to Ellia, who’s expressing her anxiety.

“Promise me one thing.”

“What?”

I continue with a bitter smile to Ellia, who responds with a trembling voice.

“You can manage on your own, right?”

“What do you mean by that?”

I mean exactly what I said.

The method I’m about to use is the only way I can survive the White Demon, but.

A significant portion of this “main quest” will have to be carried out by her “alone.”

In other words.

Until I “return,” she needs to play the protagonist role without me.

“…I’m counting on you, Ellia.”

I wouldn’t normally do this either.

But I have no choice right now.

Saying that, I activate Soul Linker.

However, this time I’m not calling Calivan.

[…Darwood?]

To the Boy King who wakes up with a puzzled voice, I speak with a bitter smile.

‘Valkarsus. I need to ask you for one favor.’

As always when calling this person, I need to use alchemy.

< Skill Info >

[ Alchemy: Seal ] [ 5 Strokes ]

[ Restricts the target’s skill usage for a certain period of time. ]

[ Duration is 0.3 seconds. ]

This one.

However.

[…Are you serious? You want me to use it like that?]

I nod to the Boy King who responds with disbelief after hearing my “request.”

‘I must. Otherwise, I’ll die.’

[…I’ll trust that you know what you’re doing!]

Fortunately, he agrees without further questioning.

I check the time.

The timing needs to be exact. It has to coincide precisely with when the White Demon is about to engulf me.

I carefully watch the second hand.

3, 2, 1 until the creature tears out my soul.

‘Valkarsus, now!’

With that shout, I leap forward in front of Lana and Ellia who have drawn their weapons. As I move, the alchemical marks engraved on my body glow.

“Wait, Darwood?! What are you doing?!”

“Teacher?!”

As confused voices echo behind me in a duet.

All the “power” I can use disappears.

Because I designated myself as the target of the alchemy.

So that the spirit entity in front of me can target and attack me directly.

-!

As expected, the spirit entity immediately lunges at me with terrifying momentum.

And at the exact same moment the spirit entity takes this action.

Something “appears” before my eyes, as if rising up.

There’s no sense of “movement” at all.

It’s as if the process of the action is omitted, leaving only the beginning and the result.

“…”

My blood runs dry.

Just looking at it feels like I might go blind.

The appearance is Yuria. The one who’s always timid and awkward, yet capable of viciously slicing anything that approaches.

However.

Now, her entire body is white.

She’s emitting a piercing, pure white color from her whole body that’s almost blinding.

“Aah…”

Eventually, her mouth opened and she let out an excited sigh.

She slowly extends her hand toward my face, as if I’m something precious.

“…I found you.”

And as the spirit entity rushes toward me with a terrifying aura and makes contact with my body.

Yuria’s slowly extended fingertips also touch my face.

“Together, forever.”

With those words.

A rising “white mist” engulfed me.

●

As soon as Yuria placed her hand on Darwood’s face, both of them collapsed.

As if their consciousness had been cut off simultaneously.

And at the same time.

—!!!

Chaos erupted around them.

People “hiding” everywhere jumped out simultaneously, which was quite a comical sight in a way.

“…That crazy bastard-!”

The first to react was Talker, who had been quietly observing the situation.

As he got up in shock, Serath and Grand Chancellor Sullivan, who were with him, revealed themselves with similar expressions.

The original plan was for them to somehow “prevent” the White Demon from devouring that guy’s “soul” while it was attempting to do so.

The plan was based on their confidence that, given what he had shown so far, he wouldn’t be immediately devoured by the White Demon until they could take appropriate “measures.”

But that insane guy had willingly erased all his abilities with his own hands!

“…Darwood!”

Next, Elnore rushed down from the upper floor.

“Damn it, why would you do something like-!”

Riru suddenly popped up from the floor, though it was unclear where she had been hiding.

While Ellia, who couldn’t properly grasp what was happening, looked around with blank eyes, Lana spoke with an incredulous expression.

“…Were this many people hiding in this small space?”

“…”

“…”

“…”

An awkward silence briefly passed as they looked at each other.

It was unclear how all these people had gathered here at once, but what was certain was that they had all assembled for one purpose.

For Darwood Campbell’s well-being.

“…We’ll get explanations later, let’s take care of this man first!”

As Elnore was the first to realize this fact, Sullivan followed with an urgent tone.

“This is ‘Servant Designation,’ one of the demon’s powers. If we don’t act quickly, he might never regain consciousness-!”

However, making his urgent explanation meaningless.

Darwood immediately opened his eyes.

“…”

“…”

“…”

Sullivan fell silent, uncharacteristically flustered.

“T-this can’t be…”

“…The name ‘Iron-Blooded Chancellor’ must be weeping. What a foolish appearance.”

With an incredulous voice

“…Are you alright? Are you hurt anywhere? Do you feel any strange sensations?”

At those words, Darwood blinked blankly.

He looked at Elnore who approached him, then surveyed all the people gathered around him. Everyone was waiting for his answer with tense expressions.

“I don’t feel anything strange… but first.”

Darwood opened his mouth with a dazed voice.

“…Where am I?”

A look of relief flashed across Elnore’s face.

She had really thought something would happen, but seeing him speak properly, he seemed to be fine.

“You’re in the deepest part of the dungeon for the first trial of the Hero Selection Test. There was a small accident—”

“Hero Selection Test? Dungeon? What’s that?”

“…”

Elnore closed her mouth.

A sense that something was wrong was gradually creeping up her spine.

She wasn’t the only one feeling it, as the expressions of the people around were slowly changing into strange ones.

“…Um, Darwood.”

Elnore tried to squeeze out an additional question.

But before she could complete her sentence, another answer flew in.

“…Darwood? Is that my name?”

Elnore’s jaw dropped.

While the others each expressed their shock.

“No, actually.”

Another sentence followed.

“Who are you people?”

What was contained in those eyes.

Was truly the look of someone seeing “strangers” for the first time.

●