Chapter 148

〈 Episode 148 〉Unexpected Ending, and Return

Each Tentacle possessed tremendous physical strength, but the sight of dozens of them focusing all their attacks on one spot was truly terrifying.

The sound of dozens of Tentacles slamming against the Barrier, using their own bodies as projectiles, was enough to make one’s skin crawl. The Barrier rapidly diminished under the relentless assault, a firepower too cruel for any single person to endure.

“Wait, surrender, I surrender!”

“What?”

Asha involuntarily stopped her attack at the unexpected words. As the Tentacles retreated from the Barrier, the Man inside, on the verge of collapse, came into view. Asha watched him warily, but he made no suspicious moves and raised both hands.

“I can’t possibly win. Just spare my life.”

“U-uhm…”

While Asha was bewildered by the unexpected surrender, Sejin, who had been rummaging through his space, stopped and approached the Man. And then,

Crack!

Sejin shattered the Barrier in one go and smashed the Man’s head with her Tentacle.

“U-uwaah!”

Asha was startled as the corpse, with nothing left above the neck, collapsed. The body, soaked in thick blood, soon vanished from the space, disappearing with a rustle.

“He’s dead?! Sejin! What have you done?!”

“Are you stupid? How do you know what he’s going to do if you leave him alone? You’re supposed to kill guys like that before they try anything.”

Sejin frowned, rubbing her forehead as if she had a headache.

“Even so…”

Asha found Sejin, who had suddenly killed the Man without hesitation, unfamiliar. Seeing her, whom she had thought of as another version of herself, displaying such ruthlessness, Asha hesitated to approach.

“Ugh…”

However, Asha’s unease vanished as she saw Sejin trembling slightly. She hurriedly supported Sejin, who was about to collapse.

“Sejin, are you okay?!”

“That, that bastard, really tried to kill me… ugh.”

Sejin was shaking like an aspen leaf.

“Ah…”

Unlike Asha, this was Sejin’s first time fighting someone for her life. Moreover, unlike herself, Sejin had been directly threatened with death several times. Asha understood why Sejin had killed the Man as soon as she had the chance.

“I’m sorry, I was only thinking about myself… you were the one whose life was really in danger.”

“It’s okay, it’s nothing.”

Sejin noticed Asha’s initial hesitation but brushed it off coolly with a shake of her head.

“But how did you manage to attack successfully?”

The Man had been unable to show the same resistance as before and had been overwhelmed and killed without being able to do anything. Asha still hadn’t figured out what Sejin had done.

“I told you, Event Manipulation. I don’t know exactly, but maybe it manipulates the probability, the possibility of all events occurring. The storm he summoned before wasn’t because he cast some Magic. He just manipulated the possibility of a storm forming. Or maybe that’s what Magic really is.”

Asha was stunned by the Man’s abilities, which were beyond her imagination.

“Huh? Then how do we win? Can’t he just manipulate it so that he doesn’t get hit by any attacks?”

“If he could do that without any cost, we wouldn’t be winning. He was absorbing Mana, so he couldn’t attack. He must have needed to accurately observe the probability of an event occurring in order to use his ability to manipulate it.”

Asha realized that the Magic the Man had been using was probably Observation magic. And she realized that even knowing that, it would be difficult for her to use it.

“Then we wouldn’t be able to use an ability like Event Manipulation even if we had it.”

“That’s right. That guy was constantly observing the probabilities around him using his Magic. Conversely, when it became difficult to observe, he simply attacked with his Magic.”

As Asha seemed to understand, Sejin nodded and continued.

“What I was doing earlier was an extension of that. I kept creating things that affected the surrounding environment all around. Self-igniting Light sphere, Vibration stone, things that spread light everywhere, all sorts of things. Because the Man ran out of Mana, he could no longer measure the probabilities of events happening all around him, and he couldn’t even defend himself.”

“I see… I wouldn’t have been able to cope at all if I hadn’t known.”

Asha thought it was fortunate that the Man had come to this place swarming with Tentacles. If she had met him in the real world, she wouldn’t have been able to find a way to deal with him and would have collapsed.

‘No, Lucy is here too, so you never know?’

“Huh?”

Asha turned to look at Sejin as she felt her consciousness fading. Sejin saw Asha’s figure fading and realized it was time for her to return.

“I knew that guy summoned you. Be careful, see you next time.”

“Sejin, see you again!”

Asha waved to Sejin. Sejin lowered her hand as Asha’s figure disappeared.

“She’s gone…”

Alone again in the space, Sejin stared blankly at the ceiling and sighed.

“Hoo…”

In the silence, she created a blanket and curled up to sleep without a word.

“Mom, are you still sleeping?”

“Ugh…”

Asha couldn’t resist Lucia’s nagging and woke up. Seeing her daughter after so long, she smiled unconsciously.

“Mom, why are you smiling?”

“Just because. Because my daughter is pretty.”

As Asha hugged her, Lucia reluctantly accepted the embrace. She felt her daughter’s touch and realized that she had returned.

“Lucy, how many hours have passed since Mom fell asleep?”

“About seven hours? It hasn’t been that long.”

“Only?”

Asha felt dumbfounded that only a few hours had passed when she felt like she had been fighting Sejin in that space for over two weeks.

‘Is this some kind of hyperbolic time chamber… Ugh, I should think of it as a good thing, I guess.’

In fact, if Asha had really slept here for two weeks, Lucia and Anet would have been in considerable trouble.

“Did you have a peaceful night?”

“Uh, yeah… I don’t know if it was peaceful, but I slept well.”

Asha answered Anet’s question with a wry smile. Asha’s body felt light, but her head throbbed from the aftermath of fighting with Sejin and battling the Man for days in Sejin’s space. Anet asked with a worried expression as Asha’s complexion was not good.

“Is there anything troubling you?”

“There was something, but it’s gone now. You don’t have to worry. How much further to the Nest? Are we almost there?”

Anet nodded at Asha’s question.

“As you said, we will be out of the Elf territory in a few hours.”

“Ugh, it took so long for something so trivial. Let’s go quickly!”

“Yes!”

Asha, Lucia, and Anet set out on their journey again after a long time.

“You’re saying that three people, a commanding entity and two humans, roamed through the kingdom’s territory? No one stopped them, but there were no casualties?”

“I am sorry, Guardian…”

The Elf commander couldn’t lift his head in front of Aether, as if he himself found it absurd. Aether was puzzled by the unexpected report.

What made bees scary was that each individual was powerful and the sheer number of them combined to make them terrifying, but it was beyond her comprehension that hundreds of Elves couldn’t handle just three people.

“Do you have the records?”

“Of course.”

Aether immediately received a Crystal ball from the commander and checked the recorded video. She was intrigued by the unexpected person.

“This person is…”

“Do you know this human?”

“The face is familiar. I don’t know if it’s the same person.”

Aether smiled slightly at the unexpectedly connected relationship. The Crystal ball showed Asha enduring the Flame storm with a nonchalant expression. Seeing Asha’s characteristic scantily clad appearance, Aether couldn’t help but smile wryly.

‘To be this strong, I thought it was someone else, but it seems you are the one, Asha. Even after coming this far, you are still…’

Aether found her attire difficult to understand, but she had to do her job.

With the bees targeting them from the outside and Asha wreaking havoc inside, many Elves were confused and unable to find their way. The Elves had been silent, unable to bring themselves to tell their Guardian about their shameful appearance.

However, as even the ongoing rescue operation was in danger of being unsustainable, they finally requested support from Aether. The Wind Witch, who had been rescuing Elves, finally recognized Asha. The Wind Witch, who had been silent, rose from her seat and set out to stop Asha.