episode_0131

Opening the Door to a New World

“….Why is this here? This is an item from the Krentid World…”

“Moreover, this is my first time seeing a sphere of heavenly light this large.”

Opening the entrance to the secret passage and stepping inside, we were greatly flustered by the enormous sphere of heavenly light. At the same time, we realized that Aria couldn’t detect the secret passage no matter how powerful her abilities were because a sphere of heavenly light of this size was right in front of its entrance. We also wondered why an item from the Krentid World was in such an otherworldly facility. And if Aria, who had seen spheres of heavenly light before, was flustered… then what exactly is this?

“Haaah… Ugh…”

“…..Hm?”

The moment I questioned the giant sphere of heavenly light before my eyes, I was startled to see Aria suddenly let out a deep sigh, then sit down right there and begin to sob. Wh-why is Aria acting like this all of a sudden…?

“Ugh… It’s… it’s because I’m not good enough… Ugh… Because I’m not good enough, Sir Zeke has been suffering for over a month… If only I were stronger, I could have found the secret passage in an instant without being hindered by this object… I’m so, so sorry…”

“Don’t worry about it, Aria. Thanks to this, we even got to use new items and learn a new language. I even think it might be a blessing that we discovered the secret passage late, so you don’t have to dwell on it. It’s been fun using all the new inventions so far, right?”

“….But…”

“Don’t be like that, let’s cheer up. Look here, Aria.”

“Huh?… Hah!”

As I suddenly sat down beside her and told her to look, Aria raised her head and looked forward. Not missing that moment, I immediately took out my camera and snapped a picture of Aria and myself. When Aria saw the photo through the camera, her eyes began to sparkle.

“A picture of… Sir Zeke and I… stuck close together…!!”

“I thought it’d be nice to take it in celebration of finding the secret passage. You feel better now, right?”

“Yes!!! Looking at this picture, my energy is surging so much it feels like it could pierce the sky!!”

Seeing the picture of just the two of us, Aria sprang up from her spot and replied that she was overflowing with energy. I then smiled in relief, seeing Aria had regained her spirits, and turned my head back towards the sphere of heavenly light, asking:

“Aria, is this still working, by any chance?”

“Yes. Although it’s faintly visible, lightning is fluctuating inside. Even though it’s my first time seeing such a large sphere of heavenly light, judging by the lightning within, it definitely seems to be active. Moreover, considering it’s interfering with my detection abilities… it seems its effect is still remaining.”

“If so… if someone else has already discovered this place…”

“Then perhaps those Saints and Priests visited this place? Dorga is close to here, after all.”

“There’s certainly a possibility. After all, I also heard about the sphere of heavenly light from you, a fellow Saint. But that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s related to the Saint who visited Dorga. Didn’t you say a Saint visited Dorga 40 years ago? Even Mister Protega, who would have roughly grasped the situation in the Herlos region, discovered this place when Bivi-nim was about to give birth…”

I heard that dragon births are almost similar to human births. And even calculating the time for a baby dragon to hatch from an egg, 40 years is too long. This means that this place was discovered at least 2-3 years ago, which is too great a difference when recalling the tragedy of Dorga occurring 40 years ago. In other words, unless the Saint who visited Dorga is still alive, it’s possible that this place, which wouldn’t have existed at all at that time, was not visited.

“Then, by any chance… Aria, can you use your detection abilities again now?”

“As you command, Sir Zeke. Now…!”

I gazed intently at the sphere of heavenly light before my eyes. As a thought flashed through my mind, I immediately asked Aria if she could use her detection abilities again. Aria immediately plunged her staff into the ground and began to concentrate. Then, as if she felt something unusual, Aria looked flustered and asked me:

“It’s strange. I can’t detect anything beyond that passage.”

“….As expected, that means these spheres of heavenly light are scattered throughout this passage… How do you make these spheres of heavenly light, Aria?”

“You carve a Blessing Crystal, which is said to have received divine blessings, into a spherical shape like this, and then continuously condense divine power within it. Once the divine power inside the crystal is sufficiently condensed, you encase this crystal with divine power. This causes the immense divine power trapped inside the crystal to run wild, raging as if lightning is striking within it. This is a sphere of heavenly light, and it is also said to be used to store divine power.”

“I see… So it was originally used to store divine power…”

“Not only that, but a sphere of heavenly light is also a type of symbol and an amulet. The divine power emanating from a sphere of heavenly light repels evil energy, and it can also be used to inform other Saints or Priests that you are an ally when they are detecting evil presences nearby… However, I’ve never seen a sphere of heavenly light this massive, and there’s no need for a sphere of heavenly light to be this huge in the first place.”

Indeed… The sphere of heavenly light that Eli had was small enough to fit in one’s hand… Now that I understood the purpose of a sphere of heavenly light, I realized that the one before my eyes was excessively large. It must have been made this huge for some specific purpose…

“But… Hehehe… Sir Zeke, you don’t have to worry. Even without a sphere of heavenly light, I myself am a sphere of heavenly light for you…!!”

“I never even thought about wanting one in the first place… By the way, then who on earth created something this massive, and for what purpose?”

“Hmm… Should we try to use this in reverse? I think I might be able to tell how much divine power, identical to what’s inside this sphere, is present in this vicinity.”

Aria touched the sphere, examining it here and there, then suggested that by reversing the divine power inside the sphere, she might be able to detect how many similar divine power sources were in the vicinity of the sphere of heavenly light before us. I was greatly surprised. If she could do that, we could also figure out how the surrounding passages were structured!

“….! Really? Then I’ll ask you to, but… don’t overdo it, Aria.”

“….!! Hehehe… It’s strange, but because Sir Zeke is worrying about me, I want to try even harder and receive more praise from you~?”

“….Please just say that, don’t actually do it… Anyway, I’m counting on you.”

“Leave it to me~! Oh… Omniscient and Omnipotent one in the heavens. I seek to borrow your power to trace the light I wish to find, so please grant me permission to borrow your great strength. With this power, I shall surely advance on the path I wish to tread…!”

“…!! Whoaah!”

As Aria placed both hands on the sphere, asking to be entrusted, and recited a prayer, an immense light suddenly began to emanate from the sphere as if in response. The overwhelming light streaming from the sphere was blinding again, so I closed my eyes. Aria kept her eyes closed and continued to concentrate on the sphere. Whoaah! I’m facing blinding light twice today!! Then, feeling the light begin to fade, I opened my eyes and immediately worried about Aria.

“Aria, are you okay?”

“Hehehe… Something like this is simple for me! But… hmm… I did detect something, but the result was a bit… even I’m flustered by it.”

“W-what? A result that… even flusters *you*?!”

When Aria, who wouldn’t be surprised by most things, said that the result was enough to fluster even herself, I was dumbfounded. For Aria to be flustered… what kind of result came out?

“Well… it seems that there are easily over a hundred spheres of heavenly light, just as massive as this one, in this vicinity.”

“W-what?! Over a hundred of *these*?!”

Aria’s shocking detection result that there were over a hundred of these giant spheres of heavenly light in the vicinity left me speechless. Over a hundred of these? How many crystals did they mine and carve? And where did they get all that divine power? If there are over a hundred such massive spheres of heavenly light, wouldn’t that much divine power be needed…?

“Then, are Priests and Saints involved after all? But this is a secret passage, so it would have been hard to find…”

“If we assume that these weren’t here at that time… how about we hypothesize that some among them had detection abilities like mine, and they discovered this place?”

“….!!”

That makes sense. As Aria said, if there were Saints or Priests with detection abilities among them, they certainly could have discovered such a secret passage. And if they did something here and placed this gigantic sphere of heavenly light to thoroughly conceal the entrance to the secret passage…? It sounds plausible, but there’s not enough evidence to be certain. So, it would be better to investigate first…

“By the way, did you also figure out the layout of this place while reversing the sphere of heavenly light, Aria?”

“Yes. The spheres of heavenly light served as a kind of marker, so I was able to grasp the general layout of the surrounding paths. First, I will guide you to the nearest room.”

“Alright. Good work, Aria.”

“Hehe… It’s nothing…!!”

When I told her she did a good job, Aria was about to boast that it was nothing. However, when I took her hand, her triumphant posture instantly stiffened in surprise, and Aria, unable to understand why I had held her hand, began to feel confused.

“Eh…? Ehhh…?!”

“….? Oh, it’s just that the path is dark, so I thought it would be better to hold hands. Plus, there might be something in here, so we need to be careful. So wouldn’t it be better to hold hands?”

“Ah…. Ahh!! Th-that’s right! There might be… powerful beings capable of placing such massive spheres of heavenly light here! Hehehehe… Sir Zeke’s hand… it’s not exactly manly, but it’s soft and… Ehehehe…”

“….Stop feeling it and let’s go…”

As Aria began to get lost in the sensation of my hand, I frowned and urged her to move. Aria then tried to hide her joy and slowly began to lead me somewhere, pulling my hand. Meanwhile, I looked around and thought:

‘It feels like a dark tunnel… but one where all the surrounding walls are made of iron. By the way, for them to try to hide this place to the extent of creating such a secret passage and placing those spheres of heavenly light… what on earth is in here?’

“S-Sir Zeke. We’ve arrived. This is the room closest to the sphere of heavenly light in this vicinity.”

“I see…!!!”

The moment I was lost in thought about the secret passage and the sphere of heavenly light, Aria announced our arrival and stood before a door. I raised my head and examined the area around the door. Seeing the words I had so desired carved on the nameplate, I immediately opened the door. As Aria lit up the interior with the light emanating from her staff, I let out a hollow laugh and spoke:

“Hah… Hah… Ah, so that’s how it was… That’s why they created the secret passage… To prevent anyone from discovering this place… I finally found it… The research lab…!!”

Confirming that “Research Lab” was written on the nameplate next to the door, I looked inside and felt certain. The research lab was hidden and could only be accessed through the secret passage. And although I didn’t know what they were researching, the numerous mechanical devices inside, and even a strange human-sized glass cylinder, all convinced me that this was a research lab. Seeing the machines and suspicious items that weren’t visible from the outside, I was sure this was a research lab.

“Oh my. This room looks completely different from before. I truly didn’t expect there to be a research lab…”

“Indeed… But the problem is, we don’t know what these machines do… Let’s search the surroundings, Aria.”

“Understood, Sir Zeke.”

To first figure out the identities of the machines in the lab, Aria and I began searching every nook and cranny. But something was strange. Outside, there were scattered documents, albeit useless, but in this room, not a single such document was visible. Aria also searched the crevices between the machines and the walls, checking for fallen papers, but nothing of the sort appeared.

“…..Damn it… There’s nothing here…”

“Hmmmm… This seems to be a space used only by experts. Oh? Sir Zeke. It seems these glass cylinders are called test tubes. It’s written here on the side.”

“On the side?”

When Aria said she learned that the glass cylinders were called test tubes, I approached her and looked at the side of the test tubes. A piece of paper was stuck to the wall next to the test tubes, and though torn, the word “Test Tube” was clearly intact.

“Test tube… Test tube… I understand it’s a container for something… but what exactly is the purpose of this tool?”

“For now, shall I guide you to another room? It seems there’s nothing we can gain from here.”

“Yes. It would be good to do as you say. Guide me, Aria.”

Aria suggested moving to another room, saying there didn’t seem to be anything to gain from this one, and I agreed. As Aria and I headed to another room, Dio V Runner, who had similarly discovered a secret passage, was sighing deeply in a different research lab.

“Whooooooa… Where on earth did this research lab come from? Damn it… If it weren’t for this dimensional structure, I’d contact R.S. right away to figure out what this place is…”

Unable to discern the identity or origin of this place, Dio V Runner, frustrated, took out a device from his pocket and began to operate it. However, the device didn’t work as he wished, so he sighed deeply, put it back in his pocket, glanced to the side, and mumbled:

“Damn it… Even if it’s Aria, I hope Zeke doesn’t get surprised by this… But it seems there are definitely more of these in other places besides here…”

Dio V Runner sighed deeply as he leaned against the wall next to him, looking at the shriveled, mummified corpse. Meanwhile, in another research lab, I discovered a shriveled, mummified corpse lying on the floor and was greatly flustered.

“Th-this isn’t fake, is it, Aria…?”

“It seems to be a real corpse.”

“….Th-this is insane…”

Perhaps because I had seen many corpses through Cecilia’s memories, I didn’t feel nauseous. However, corpses were still horrifying, so I couldn’t help but be shocked by the unexpected discovery of the body, and I felt I needed to find out what on earth had happened here.