Chapter 161: Butterfly Effect

The stronghold of the Mystics—the temple.
My companions and I were charging through it, continuing our battle.

“Left!”

At my shout, a pillar on the left clattered open.
A torrent of flames burst out but was countered by Xenia’s magic.

Xenia turned to me with a surprised look.
Her eyes were asking how I could possibly know all the traps in the heart of the Mystics, starting with the elder dragon’s magic.

‘Of course I know them.’

I’ve played the Blazing Butterfly arc more times than I can count.
And the Mystic episode was the one I died in the most.

‘Traps made of mystery.’

These were highly elaborate traps, created with clear malice by the developers to torment the players.

It was a notoriously difficult episode where you had to avoid all of them.

Sure, there was a difficulty adjustment option for players.
But that only kicked in after you failed your attempt to infiltrate the Mystics.

As if the game was mocking you.
‘Seems hard? Why not lower the difficulty!’—like that.

I ignored that and pushed through on hard mode.
I died repeatedly and memorized every trap in the Mystic temple.

‘Now that this is reality, of course I’d rather play on easy.’

But for the game to offer that option, I’d have to fail once here.
And failure, naturally, means death.

‘As if I’m going to die.’

In reality, I get only one chance.
So I visualized every trap in my mind and dismantled them one by one without pause.

Soon, the Mystic side began showing signs of confusion.
We were breaking through the temple much faster than they expected.

They must have planned to stall for time and feed us to the Earth Dragon.

Even someone like White Wood Duke can only buy time against an Earth Dragon.
It’s a battle of endurance when it’s impossible to defeat.

And that means we can flip the logic.

‘They also have a reason they can’t escape just yet.’

While the Earth Dragon is distracted, they have something to do.
And it wasn’t hard to figure out what.

‘Vulcan is probably planning to absorb Narea.’

Even with only half his power, absorbing Narea would make a difference.
To do that, he’d need the Mystical Energy prepared in the temple—hence this whole setup.

Right then, I dashed forward, dodging molten metal and poison pouring from the ceiling.
Based on the traps, I could guess how far we’d come.

“R-Ryu! Even if you’re amazing, is this really something we can do on our own?!”

Xenia cried out in a flustered voice.
The Mystics were pouring all their strength into stopping us.

Each time, Centriol and White Wood Duke’s attendants swiftly took them down.
They were both elite forces, no doubt about it.

Still, Xenia seemed unsure whether we could take down the entire Mystic force without White Wood Duke herself.

We couldn’t bring a large force this time.
Saintess Acrede couldn’t let the Holy Kingdom know she was cooperating to take down the Mystics.

The Holy Kingdom was split between the royalist faction and the clergy faction.
Neither would likely approve of this.

But Acrede had her reasons, and we needed her to find the Mystics.

So, for now, we had no choice but to act with a small team.

For now, at least.

“Of course, we’re not the only ones moving.”

This scenario was different from the original flow.
So I prepared the necessary support accordingly.

“The Blue Tower and the Royal Guard are also in motion.”
“The Blue Tower and the Royal Guard?”
“Yeah. I asked the First Prince and the Tower Master for help.”

Xenia’s eyes widened in shock.
She hadn’t expected that level of power to be involved.

The Mystics are a group with a long-standing notorious reputation.
Even if they’d vanished once, their name still carried immense weight.

If word got out that the Mystics had been wiped out, it would be a national-level achievement.

And those vying for power wouldn’t sit still.

Of course not.
Which is exactly why the First Prince stepped in.

In fact, in the original story, the First Prince was always meant to get involved in the Mystic purge.
The Mystic storyline revolved around shaking up the Duke of Robliaju.

Watching Lucas closely, the First Prince becomes aware of the incident between Lucas and the Saintess.

The Saintess is at the center of the Holy Kingdom’s power struggle.

Even for someone like Lucas, the scale of this is too much to handle alone.

At this point, the First Prince plays his card.
He declares that he’ll take full responsibility for the Mystic affair—so Lucas can go all out.

As a result, after saving Xenia from danger, Lucas directly storms the Mystic stronghold to rescue Acrede, who was taken by Vulcan.

Lucas defeats Vulcan, and the entire Mystic group is captured.
All of that becomes the First Prince’s official achievement.

In addition, the First Prince handles the disgraceful incidents that occurred within the Holy Kingdom, strengthening ties with the Holy Order.

This brings great turmoil to the power struggle for the throne.
The Duke of Robliaju is even driven to borrow the power of Evil to counter the growing influence of the First Prince.

That’s the storyline of Act 5.

But this time, everything is under White Wood Duke’s direction.
Not even the First Prince can carelessly interfere with something White Wood Duke is leading.

That’s why I played the card.

Something I once told the First Prince.
I won’t let the Duke of Robliaju become emperor.

If he helped with that goal, I’d let him take the credit for this entire operation.

The Blue Tower? That goes without saying.
If his daughter’s fiancé wants to pull off some heroic feats, of course he’d lend his support.

Father-in-law Emperadion will help with anything involving magic.

Politics is like walking a tightrope—dangerous but fast.
And if we’re moving faster, we need seatbelts too.

The Blue Tower and the Royal Knights—
Two forces even White Wood Duke wouldn’t dare move lightly.

I stirred them into action.

You could say I’ve prepared two safety harnesses.

Xenia’s eyes trembled violently.
Her face said she no longer knew what kind of person I was.

“…Didn’t you say you were just a retainer?”
“At the time, I figured I should hide my identity as much as possible. So I lied a bit.”

I pressed on the enchanted bandages of the veil.
My appearance changed—my height shrank, and jet-black hair scattered down.

The moment red slowly spread across my eyes, Xenia’s eyes went wide.

“Nice to meet you, Xenia. My name is Hanon Airei, currently enrolled at Zeryon Academy.”
“Hanon Airei…”

Xenia already knew the name.
It was already well-known that I had been taken to the royal palace after using elder dragon magic.

“The fiancé of the Blue Tower Master’s daughter.”

Of course, I was famous for that too.

“Took you long enough to come clean.”

Isabel commented as she swung her sword beside me.

“Haah, I thought I was going to die from the suspense! Hanon, I can call you by your name now, right?”
“Yes, Lady Acrede, please do.”

As Acrede, still being carried on Centriol’s back, cried out cheerfully, I gave a carefree shrug.
Xenia looked at me in stunned silence.

From White Wood Duke and the Saintess, to the First Prince and the Tower Master—
I was connected to all the major figures of the world.

It was no wonder Xenia was reacting like that.

“Sen…senior, what are you, really?”

She must be calling me ‘senior’ since she’ll be entering the academy next year.
I smiled gently, thinking how polite she was.

“A second-year martial arts student at Zeryon Academy.”

Xenia’s brows furrowed slightly—not the answer she was hoping for.
But there was no time to explain.

Before we knew it, we had reached the end of the temple lined with countless pillars.
There stood an endless staircase rising high, with an eerie darkness flowing where there should’ve been a wall behind the columns.

Amid that darkness, a chilling light flickered like a firefly.

“We’re here.”

As Musica came to a halt, the rest of us stopped as well.
She lightly dismounted from her skeletal horse.

“Souls are chaotically mixed together here—there’s an extremely dangerous aura swirling around.”

She revealed a troubled expression.
As she said, the steel body and remnants of the elder dragon were reacting more intensely than ever.

“Get them!”
“Don’t let them reach the altar!”

Just then, the Mystic followers caught up from behind.

“Go ahead.”

One of White Wood Duke’s attendants unsheathed their sword and turned to face them.
He should be more than capable of holding them off.

“Let’s move.”

At my signal, everyone began climbing the stairs.

Strangely, the higher we climbed, the more the height of each step changed.
Some steps could be taken in a single stride, while others had to be scaled like cliffs.

But by now, we were all beyond being hindered by something like height.

Xenia flew with magic, Isabel with the wings of a goddess.
Musica rode her skeletal horse, while Centriol and I ascended through sheer physical ability.

“Hiiieeek!”

Only Acrede let out startled squeals mid-jump, surprised by each leap.
The higher we went, the more overwhelming pressure wrapped around our entire bodies.

A bad feeling slowly began to take root.

Vulcan, sensing White Wood Duke as a threat, had rushed his actions.
He’d been preparing feverishly—he even went as far as awakening an earth dragon.

‘Vulcan’s sudden moves… even I can’t predict how far he’s willing to go.’

That’s why I had forced things forward without regard for method or means.

Thud—

At that moment, I had the distinct feeling of something like a cartwheel turning somewhere in the distance.

The wheel of fate was turning—laden with unavoidable force.

Fate is only something you can twist when you’ve been granted the strength to twist it.
And everything I’d done up to now—was it truly so small?

Shiver—

For the first time in a while, a chilling shiver crept across my skin.
Ever since I started losing emotion thanks to the veil’s bandages, I’d forgotten how to care about myself.

So for me to feel a chill like that—it was a rare thing.
It wasn’t emotion. It was instinct.

“Damn it.”

And then, I heard Musica muttering a curse under her breath.

It was then I realized—
While I had been rushing forward with the scenario, there was one thing I had failed to address.

No—
It wasn’t just one thing.

To fill the void left by Lucas, I had used countless methods to forcibly keep the plot moving.
And in the process, I interfered with many threads, all for the sake of steering toward the happy ending I desired.

That triggered a chain of butterfly effects, which ultimately brought the storm to completion.

The darkness hanging over the ceiling began to split open.
From within, a skeletal hand—one I had seen before—tore through the darkness and began to descend.

Thud—

At the appearance of the skeletal hand, everyone’s expression hardened.

And beneath that hand—stood a lone man.

The leader of the Mystics.
Vulcan Zebra.

A prince cast aside by the Illusion Kingdom—Zebra Kingdom—a man treated as filthy blood.

He had made a contract with the Abominable One.