Hermit Wizard

Superior or Inferior (9)

“Cough… cough!”

Hwang Soo-rim looked back several times while running.

In the meantime, she made and marked all over the base with Mana. She actually couldn’t understand at first what the ritual meant. It wasn’t a proper magic circle, and she felt that her combined Mana had also disappeared over time.

When she asked about that, Eraser replied. He said that no matter how long had passed and the Mana traces evaporated faintly, the ‘great being’ could recognize them.

She was running towards the exit, the opposite side of where the change would begin. She looked back and forth over and over again to recognize the beginning of the moment.

How long did she run like that?

“It’s started!”

Hwang Soo-rim shouted sharply. Kim Kyung-hwan, who was barely running after her, also turned his head, then his face turned white.

***

After finishing my business in the dormitory, I came out of the building, then I flew into the air and quickly moved toward the exit.

-Ghrrrrrrrrrrrrrh!

I could feel the distortion of space. I turned my head towards the source.

“It’s started!”

I sped up the flight.

The pattern of Mana planted by Hwang Soo-rim was a kind of hymn dedicated to God. It naturally scattered away once planted in the ground, and the Kaifu or other trainees didn’t notice it, but the senses of God could recognize it.

The song of hymn marked on the Earth said that.

-Dear God, please, take it slowly from that side in turn.

In terms of relationship with the mortals, Kylgeniapros stood in perfect opposition to Kaidemos, the ‘Contract of Faith.’

Kaidemos was a god that gave no spells to wizards and only gave power to priests who offered their faith.

On the other hand, Kylgeniapros didn’t demand faith from mortals and didn’t have priests. It gave a spell to anyone who recognized its existence and made an offering.

Why was Kylgeniapros’ spell only the ‘sanctuary’ alone? Why did God not mind the hassle of advent with only the low price of human intestines? It was too much for the favor given to ordinary human beings that were neither apostles nor priests.

The answer was that Kylgeniapros was a god who ate all matter, including time and space. It easily responded to the summons since there was something it lusted for in the place where it was summoned.

I turned my head once again. From the farthest border, isolated under the red sky, space was collapsing.

-Ghrrrrrrrrrrrrrh!

The bloody sky was torn, the building and the ground soared into the air and separated like an island. There was a crack in the air, and all the space was sucked into it. It was a scene similar to when the bodies of apprentices were eaten into the knives.

The difference was that the dimension itself was the one being torn at that time.

“I’m disconnected from the senses of God!”

My two apprentices were waiting on the opposite border. The sense of detecting them disappeared. God reaped the favor he had given me. It was useless to pray anymore.

That was the end of God’s waiting. Momentarily it was only faithful to its purpose in this world.

[A little faster!]

“I know!”

As the speed increased, the wind hit my cheeks.

-Ghrrrrrrrrrrrrrh!

Its presence raged ferociously, but thanks to the preparation, the entire space was prevented from collapsing at the same time. It was proceeding sequentially from a distance according to the mark.

The pattern created by Hwang Soo-rim conveyed a more primitive type of signal than human thought. In its origin, it was a god who had already closed its ears. Hence, it was starting to eat by following the hymn left on the Hun-neung.

“We’re here.”

When I reached the barrier, I got down to the ground. That was the exit. It was the last point that Kylgeniapros would eat according to the mark.

At that moment, we had to escape in less than a few minutes.

“You’re here!”

Mrs. Pearl was glowing and welcoming me. Seol held the wizard that lost his consciousness and looked at the distant sight with a firm expression.

“Now, let’s get out of here.”

-Ghrrrrrrrrrrrrrh!

The tenacious will I felt behind my back was even more violent.

Did God had a higher reason? Was God reasonable, benevolent, and wise?

I didn’t know the definite answer to that question. However, God’s apparent will that made my body throb gave me enlightenment.

It wasn’t willing to show its own higher reason, rational thinking, or benevolent and wise attitude to mortals like us, at least there and for the time being.

It was like a beast, moving violently and instinctively following the guidance of the hymn.

-Ghrrrrrrrrrrrrrh!

The sky sank, and the Earth broke. Space twisted and folded, and time flowed like raindrops.

A whole five-story building rose to the sky and was divided into molecular units as if it was experiencing the weathering of tens of thousands of years of times. After a while, the entire building collapsed like a sandcastle.

The streetlight bent like malt and then collapsed in the wind. The garden turned over, overlapped with the asphalt road, wrenched like a twist, and then evaporated to nothing.

I looked at the movement of the reddish cloud with a tired expression. At first glance, it felt as if only clouds were moving, but in fact, the entire space that could be called the sky around it was distorted and folded.

The greedy God’s teeth hurt the dimension like tearing the flesh of its prey.

The space the base existed until now gradually disappeared. Wherever the red energy of God passed, a miracle of extinction continued. The joyful emotions it felt rose like steam. I could feel that, even though I am no longer connected to God.

“Rather, it’s a good thing to lose the senses. In this situation, if God’s emotions contaminated me, I would have gone crazy.”

Kylgeniapros, the ‘Edacious World,’ went beyond encroaching on the dimension in which it was summoned, and entered the next step, gluttony.

The dimension with a radius of 2 kilometers drawn by the barrier was eaten entirely by that God.

***

“Eraser!”

I heard a screaming cry from behind my back as I was getting ready.

I turned my head and checked. It was Hwang Soo-rim and Kim Kyung-hwan, and fortunately, both arrived without dying.

If the two died by being swept away by the sanctuary spell I cast, I would be the reason for their cause of death. It meant that I was violating the contract. With that, the burden of the penalty disappeared. Those two should be saved and let go.

“You are here. I’m coming close and waiting.”

Hwang Soo-rim approached me and confirmed the existence of the surroundings, then her face hardened.

“F-Fox?”

Although the flame was no longer around, the image of Mrs. Pearl was extraordinary. Each strand of her hair was shimmering like glass; at a glance, you could see that it wasn’t an ordinary animal.

Furthermore…

Hwang Soo-rim looked next to her and murmured.

“… Bear?”

A black bear held a heavily tanned man. Hwang Soo-rim sighed, capturing the image in her right eye.

“I’ve seen all the bizarre scenes here today, but I didn’t expect a fox and a bear.”

Hwang Soo-rim whispered with a bleak expression. Seol only looked at her lightly and didn’t respond, while Mrs. Pearl giggled and laughed as if saying it also didn’t hear anything from me.

I pointed to the two inhabitants of White Deer and responded calmly to Hwang Soo-rim.

“Neither of these are subject to mention to third parties. It’s the same as me.”

It simply meant that any information about Seol and Mrs. Pearl couldn’t be told to anyone based on the contract. Those details were automatically entered into the contract linked to Hwang Soo-rim and Kim Kyung-hwan’s soul.

Currently, there seemed to be a guy who cared about something other than a fox and a bear.

“E-Eraser!”

Kim Kyung-hwan called me in a trembling voice. His face was messy, and it wasn’t just about scars and burns, including facial expressions. Everything was messed up.

“I… I… you… why the hell?!”

There seemed to be a pile of things he wanted to ask me, but I lifted my palm and held him back.

“Wait. We’ll talk later.”

His face was distorted with tears on his face, and I was cold in my attitude, different from his usual dream. Hwang Soo-rim made a sarcastic comment beside him. “Hey, couldn’t you make any sense? Couldn’t you see that behind you?”

After hearing her, Kim Kyung-hwan turned his head and confirmed with both eyes the phenomenon he had forgotten for a moment. The barrier line where the entire space collapsed was gradually approaching that side.

We had to escape before it got closer.

“Everyone be quiet.”

I gathered Mana toward my chest.

At that moment, the inside of the barrier was engulfed by another dimension. It was completely cut off from the outside. It was hard to be able to walk safely while messages and teleports didn’t go through.

In order to escape, we shouldn’t reap the barriers surrounding the Hun-neung. If the line collapsed, Kylgeniapros would recognize the space beyond the barrier, then the scope of gluttony would spread widely in that world, and it was really unbearable.

That was the reason why wizards couldn’t use it efficiently, even though they could get the ‘Sanctuary’ spell and made the offering. It was good to have a god advent and borrow abilities for a while, but as a result, parts of the world were eaten.

I wouldn’t have been able to use that magic without the barriers that Parvache taught me. The barrier that played such an important role shouldn’t be touched.

So, I decided to use another method.

In response to the rushing Mana, a portal opened in my chest. The hidden spell was broken, and a blue crack was engraved on the body. The mouths of Hwang Soo-rim and Kim Kyung-hwan opened up when they saw the scene.

“Channel!”

The color of light that didn’t exist in that world might’ve been familiar to their eyes.

Mrs. Pearl saw that for the first time and observed it with curious eyes. Seol nodded as if it was interesting.

“Hoo… it was opened like that.”

Hwang Soo-rim’s eyes grew even wider, and she muttered in a tiny voice.

“… Does it know how to speak?

Space began to change once more before she could even finish her words. The Channel on my chest turned into a circle and connected to an arbitrary dimension.

The red sky created by Kylgeniapros and the dark blue night sky the Earth originally had crossed and mixed together.

I muttered quietly.

“Good. It’s done.”

What I had done now was create a crack between the overlapping gaps.

Originally, the Kylgeniapros dimension completely covered the Earth dimension and eroded it. The two-dimensional metaphor was childish, but the Earth was invisible since the red-colored paper called Kylgeniapros covered Earth’s transparent paper.

However, I created a crack called a Channel to create a floating gap between the two dimensions. The overlapping of the dimensions encroached on without a gap between the waters was disorganized, and a very small evacuation route was created for us to escape from.

The Kylgeniapros dimension was shaken for a while, and the space outside the barrier was visible.

I couldn’t keep that for long. God would begin to encroach on that little space again.

“Everyone, run!”

Everyone ran hurriedly, according to my voice. The barrier itself had no physical force. It was already close to the border, so it took enough time to inhale and exhale to cross the line. As soon as everyone came out, the gap that had occurred for a while disappeared again.

The place inside the barrier we were, until just before, was covered in a red mist so that we couldn’t see inside.

I sighed out loud.

“Oh, that’s the end.”

A cool sense of freedom swept through my heart.

Mrs. Pearl approached me with a few tails and said in a faint voice.

“I’m glad it’s ended safely.”

Hwang Soo-rim muttered, “Hey, the fox also speaks. It’s not surprising anymore…” as she stared at Mrs. Pearl.

“Tell everyone. We still need to maintain the barrier until the red mist disappears completely.”

“Yes, everyone knows, but I’ll tell them again.”

We had to wait until the God who had eaten up all the space in there disappeared somewhere we didn’t know.

We hid into the mountains, cast the concealment magic, and waited. Soldiers and police who arrived belatedly surrounded the barrier and observed, but there was nothing they could do. They were just observing the red fog outside the line.

The time had passed…

“… Ah!”

Kim Kyung-hwan said in a trembling voice.

“What the hell is that?”

It was the first time I saw it. I whispered to Parvache in my heart.

‘Kylgeniapros, who had finished gluttony, has left this dimension.’

I thanked the Ancient God.

Parvache responded to my mixed thoughts.

[Yeah… that’s been a while since I’ve seen it too.]

It had been a while? I kept his answer in my mind.

“Oh, My God.”

Mrs. Pearl’s shocking voice flowed through the wind.

Nothing remained in that place where Kylgeniapros ate that world as much as the sphere of the barrier. Perhaps the verb ‘remained’ wasn’t an appropriate expression. Still, there was no suitable word in my language to describe the existence of non-existence, nor in Parvache’s language, who taught me magic.

If I hadn’t deceived the Kylgeniapros’ eyes and drew a line with barriers, he would’ve eaten the world at random, to the extent causation permits. However, thanks to the barriers’ proper functioning, the world lost was only a 2 kilometers radius of space-time.

A world that lost its part immediately triggered resilience, but there was one problem there. There could be no consequences where there was no cause. Where there was no possibility, certainty didn’t exist. The world hadn’t been able to fill the lost realm with a stabilized existence.

According to the theory of magic, as I understand it, nothingness was extreme instability—uncertainty with no space, no time, and nothing. The world hadn’t been able to close the gap between existence and non-existence, and the restoration had ended incompletely.

As a result, filling the place where the Hun-neung base used to be now was a sphere of chaos where time and space were mixed up in a mess.

“I’ve never seen such a weird thing before…” Mrs. Pearl muttered.

“Obviously, these two eyes perceive it as a black sphere, but in one corner of my head, it is felt like fifty thousand colors are mixed and flowing. Although the surface clearly looks smooth, on the other hand, it is perceived as a scene where strange and ugly beings unite and scream.”

I heard Parvache’s will and delivered them to it.

“We have been looking at it for so long that there is nothing good about it.”

That female fox took her gaze as she listened to me. She might’ve noticed that the nothingness already influenced her mind. Mrs. Pearl told my words to the residents waiting all over the mountain.

“Please tell them to avoid seeing that sight, and tell them that there’s no need to maintain the barrier anymore.”

As it was delivered, the Mana that filled the area around Hun-neung disappeared in an instant. The barrier vanished.

Mrs. Pearl looked at me with shaking eyes and said, “There’s no way that ugly thing will come outside, right?”

“That’s not going to happen. The chaos was filled only as much as the place Kylgeniapros ate.”

With that answer, I approached Kim Kyung-hwan and slammed him in the back of his head! That guy was coughing and rolled on the ground. It seemed that he kept looking at the chaotic sphere even though I told him not to and went to the brink of mental contamination.

I looked around and said, “Now, then…”

It was a word I said to them, but on the contrary, it was also a word of commitment to myself.

“Let’s go back and get some rest.”