I’ve come to save you (2)

I’ve come to save you (2)

Just before I was about to pour the attacks I had gathered from the bishop into the Illusion Library, I gave Luna one order.

“I’ll draw Ember’s attention. You run around and gather information as appropriate.”

[Got it! Luna is good at hiding, disappearing… and searching, so I’ll do my best!]

I nodded while patting Luna’s head as she grumbled and steeled her resolve.

Then I poured the attacks I had gathered earlier directly into the Illusion Library.

‘But this alone might not be enough.’

I discreetly used penetration magic to make it possible to break through the protective barrier.

The protective barrier of the Illusion Library was breached more easily than I had expected.

‘It must be due to the effect of the penetration magic.’

It seemed that this conclusion was reached because once the barrier was breached, the magic formulas inside the barrier easily collapsed due to its characteristics.

‘The barrier is similar to a turtle, after all.’

Just as the shell is hard but the inside is made of soft flesh.

If it was possible to collapse the inside, breaking the protective barrier wasn’t that difficult.

Thinking it was completely destroyed, I put another bishop inside the mace again.

‘Well then, shall we go in now?’

Pondering how to capture Ember, I slowly headed towards the hole that had been made.

*

‘It seems they didn’t just come to rescue the bishop.’

I fell into thought as I watched countless believers carrying out looting and destruction in a more orderly manner than expected.

‘Seeing how they prioritize looting items even during battle, this might have been their main objective.’

It didn’t make sense even if they were regular soldiers, but for those whose primary goal was to follow the ‘Heaven God Cult’.

It was difficult to assume they were looting due to personal greed.

It was more likely that the Heaven God Cult had ordered them to loot first.

‘In other words… the Heaven God Cult must have known something about this Illusion Library.’

Well, thinking about it, it was obvious.

Considering the original novel, they had been connected to the Illusion Library from the beginning, as if they knew about it in advance.

While thinking about this and watching them, I cast a ‘Space Expansion’ spell around the area.

For now, I trapped them to prevent them from taking the items away.

‘Even if these items are useless to me, I’d rather not hand them over to those guys.’

With that thought, I decided to keep them trapped for now and slowly looked around.

Then I saw Ember running towards the center of the Illusion Library.

‘Found her.’

The moment I saw Ember’s back, I smiled and started following her.

Realizing this wasn’t going to work, Ember began to awaken golems and chimeras.

“Kwaaah!”

An intense wave of mana.

It seems that whoever created this illusory library had anticipated the shield being breached and prepared such defensive measures.

I noticed that each golem was stronger than expected and fell into contemplation for a moment.

‘If I leave them like this, the cultists won’t be able to catch up with Ember.’

Looking at the golems causing a literal massacre, I reluctantly decided to help those cultist fellows.

‘Normally, I would never do such a thing.’

To make the encounter with Ember more dramatic, I had no choice but to deal with the golems using penetration magic, and started pushing the cultists inside.

‘I never thought the day would come when I’d be helping the Heaven God Cult.’

Thinking that you never know how life will turn out, I quickly moved forward.

*

After that, I waited until Ember was on the brink of death.

At the moment I thought was right, I struck a cultist’s head with my mace and briefly said.

“I’ve come to save you.”

“……”

At my rescue, Ember had an expression on the verge of crying… no, it would be more accurate to say she was already crying.

Looking at Ember, who was half-collapsed and covered in tears, I slowly walked towards her and spoke.

“What on earth is going on here?”

“De… ren.”

At the voice that sounded more like clinging to me rather than drawing a line as usual, I inwardly laughed.

‘It’s not that I have any particular ill feelings towards Ember.’

I had a hunch that I would be able to gain everything I could from this incident.

‘Well, I do feel a bit sorry.’

I’ve decided to return everything except for some information and a few useful items.

Ember crawls over urgently, grabs my ankle, and speaks to me in a somewhat desperate voice.

“Please, please save the Illusion Library.”

“……”

I stay silent, not knowing what to say, as I didn’t expect it to be this serious.

Ember, perhaps interpreting my silence as a refusal,

speaks to me in an even more urgent voice.

“I-I’ll do anything if you save it, so please…”

Hearing those words, I slowly push Ember away and nod.

“I’ll help.”

At my words, Ember looks at me with wide eyes,

then wipes away tears with a hopeful expression and hurriedly says to me.

“Th-thank you.”

Finding it difficult to respond, I just nod slightly and tell Ember.

“Then you should rest for a while. No, actually, there’s something I need you to do for a moment.”

If I told her to rest, she might hang around trying to help unnecessarily.

I needed to give her something else to do to completely divert her attention.

After thinking for a moment about what to assign, I pulled out a book from my chest and said.

“Please transcribe this book.”

“… Pardon?”

Amber blinks and stares at me, perhaps because she received an unexpected request.

I offered a plausible excuse to Amber.

“They say transcribing helps calm the mind. So, just do some transcribing until I finish my work and come back.”

“Ah… yes, yes.”

Since it’s not entirely untrue, Amber, though puzzled, hurriedly takes the book.

From my perspective, Amber seems to accept what I’m telling her to do, perhaps because she ‘wants to turn her eyes away from reality,’ regardless of whether it’s right or wrong.

She immediately starts preparing to transcribe.

‘I guess I’ve bought some time for now.’

Now, what’s left is to steal items and information, and to take care of all those Heaven God Cult guys.

I pulled up my sleeves and left the mysterious room where Amber was.

*

While rescuing Amber, I called Luna to check how much information she had gathered.

Luna immediately appeared out of thin air, landing in my arms.

Then, dropping a scroll she had been holding in her mouth onto my palm, she proudly said.

[I got it!]

I wonder what she got.

Thinking I’d like a more detailed explanation, I unrolled the scroll and found some quite interesting stories.

[Reason for establishing the Illusion Library.]

The content written below this needed analysis, so I judged it would be ambiguous to check it right away.

For now, I carefully put it in my pocket and slowly looked around.

‘Judging by the magical energy and mana swirling and writhing around, it seems quite a number have invaded.’

Since it would be endless to handle them one by one.

I decided to handle it all at once, drew up mana, and began to scatter mana abundantly around.

‘Since Ember is the only one who needs to be kept alive here anyway.’

Deciding to shoot magic at all those who come in contact with my mana, I let it flow to spread as far as possible.

‘About two hundred people, is it.’

Since that’s just the number who came into the Illusion Library, if we count those outside, it would grow endlessly.

While thinking I can’t even guess how much damage the Celestial Order will take when I catch these guys this time, I manifested ‘Lightning Strike.’

‘Of course, lightning alone would have less of a chain effect.’

I decided to add the Illusion Maze I had learned before.

‘The method is simple.’

The fundamental structure of the Illusion Maze is to ‘materialize’ the illusion ‘when an attack hits the enemy’ after ‘shooting countless illusions.’

‘In other words.’

If I apply this to the mana I scattered earlier, it means lightning will automatically manifest the moment it touches the enemy.

Deciding to do so, I manifested the Illusion Maze to wrap around the entire Illusion Library.

Then I closed my eyes while manifesting that magic.

‘If they survive a penetrating lightning strike… they’re likely to be quite strong.’

While deciding to collect any survivors and dealing with all the intruders, around that time.

From one corner of the library, I felt what could be described as intense, fierce mana waves… no, not mana but a strange power spreading.

‘If not mana then magi? No, doesn’t seem like magi either.’

Seeing the pure white light spreading, I think it might be something like ‘holy power.’

Literally, this was just a guess, so I had some doubts since it wasn’t certain.

‘Come to think of it, I’ve seen magic, but I’ve never seen holy power.’

Since all official cults except the Heaven God Cult have lost their power.

It was even harder to see, so I wasn’t sure if that was really holy power, but I decided to approach it for now.