Chapter 773 – Sephira’s Key
000
The moment they passed through the dimensional door leading to the gap between the two dimensions, Laila and Cleon felt pain passing through their entire bodies, as if their whole bodies were being torn apart.
No, maybe it really did happen that way. Limbs were torn off, bones and muscles separated, nerves burned and then regenerated by invisible hands and claws, teeth and scales.
At the moment of rebirth, as if they were changing into a new body, the two people felt the passage of time, as if the boundaries between self and others became blurred, and they even forgot who they were. The colorful colors seen in the gap of the dimension. Within, we discovered each other’s light.
Beyond that light, Cleon saw Lila, and Lila saw Cleon.
And through each other’s eyes, we were able to see and remember each other’s appearances.
At that moment, the consciousness that had drifted away was pulled back into the body, and the two people stood at the end of the coordinates they had arrived at the same time as the door they had passed through disappeared.
＂… What just happened─＂
After Cleon looked down at his hand and saw that she was still there, Lila touched her forehead and responded with a slightly displeased expression.
＂Even in the gap between two dimensions, I passed through a place where the concentration of magical power was even stronger. The moment we came in, our existence was denied and our bodies and minds were separated…”
And by recognizing the existence of each other, we were able to overcome that phenomenon and return to our original form.
＂It seems that this place was not originally intended for a physical human being to enter, or that this place was designated as the place to seal the key, assuming that two or more people would enter together.＂
If you think about it that way, being able to use avatar magic is ultimately necessary as a minimum condition to enter this place.
If it is avatar magic that temporarily becomes the body of a magical body, it will be able to withstand the separation of mind and body to some extent, and even if you do not use avatar magic, if there is a wedge that will tie your existence to reality, you can open a dimensional door with that object. You can avoid danger by passing.
Somehow, it was thanks to both parties coming in satisfied that we were able to survive like this.
“… Really! Ignis!?”
When Lila, who remembered her original purpose for coming here, which had been forgotten due to the impact of her entrance, raised her voice like that, Cleon slightly turned his head and raised her arm.
There, Ignis was lying on the ground, glaring at me in pain, contaminated by the magic of another dimension, like black oil sticking to his body.
＂… Even if it is a pure elemental body, can it become contaminated in an instant like that? ＂
When Cleon expressed his sentiments in that way, a growling cry of anger flowed from Ignis’ mouth.
“Out of it! You guys… Showed up three days after you put me in here…!”
＂3 days…? Ah. Because it is a dimensional gap, the flow of time is different.”
Lyla nodded her head as if she understood Ignis’ words, but she moved towards Ignis, wrapping a shield of her magical power over her and Cleon’s bodies to block the erosion. 〉
Looking closely, his legs had already lost their flames and were hanging limply, as if they had been infected with magic from another dimension and had rotted away.
“… He can’t fight anymore with that body. It would be a big problem if he ran rampant in the space where the coordinates were and was contaminated by the magic of this place and transformed into a strange monster. I was planning to end it here, but〉”
With the magic connection with the Magic Tower severed and no means of recovery left, Ignis had only two options left.
One is to ask Laila to show her mercy and die before his entire body is contaminated by magic.
Another thing is, they say there is no need for such mercy, and here their whole body is contaminated, and they become monsters of egoless instincts, wandering forever through the gaps in the dimension.
Even in such a terrible, hopeless situation, Ignis somehow managed to raise his body and wriggled as if he wanted to bite and burn Lila and Cleon, who was guarding her side.
It was so pitiful and miserable that it even aroused sympathy that was not there before.
Even so – it was Cleon and Lila’s common understanding that they couldn’t leave him like this.
“Damn it… I was deceived by your grandfather and spent decades sealed in a small complex… Is the ending that comes after finally being released, like this, extinction…!”
Ignis himself must have realized his own fate, but he finally stopped and roared.
＂Is that okay with your last will? For a spirit king, he’s quite narrow-minded.”
And when Lila pointed her staff at his head, Ignis’ eyes widened in response to Lila’s provocation, but perhaps he had already been considerably eroded by her other-dimensional magic, and his red eyes were also tinged with black. Br〉
A moment of silence between the two.
It was at this moment that Cleon was placing his hand on the sword at his waist so that he could respond immediately if anything happened.
＂… Huh?＂
When Cleon raises his head as if he has discovered something.
There, floating there, was a geometric pattern made up of lines and circles that seemed to symbolize something resembling a tree.
The translucent sphere surrounding it was protecting the pattern, perhaps to prevent it from being eroded by magic from another dimension.
＂That is…＂
As Cleon mumbled while looking at the pattern that suddenly appeared in the space, Ignis and Lila’s gaze naturally turned towards it.
＂Key!＂
And Lila immediately raised her voice as if she knew what it was, and Ignis also opened her eyes wide.
＂That’s Sephira’s…! Hehe… Is that really so…! The means to destroy the magic tower that he discovered…!”
＂Sephira…? Do you know what that key is?!”
Lyla reacted immediately after hearing Ignis’ words, and pointed her staff at him as if telling him what she knew, but Ignis raised her voice as if she were mocking Lyla’s words.
＂Not yet! Lastly, I will not bring you despair…!”
However, before Ignis could finish his words, it was Cleon who made the first move.
Although he was distracted by the key for a moment, he never let go of Galatea.
If you swing a flash of lightning, the black sword imbued with magical power will snap at the thick neck as if cutting through butter without any resistance, separating the body from the body.
Ignis’ voice and breathing ended there. No, it had to end.
However, a body contaminated by the erosion of another dimension was given persistent vitality even if the body had suffered irreparable damage.
Ironically, the erosion that drove him to extinction is what saved his life, if only for a brief moment.
The common sense that a detached neck cannot move on its own was briefly overturned at that moment.
It would be better to say that it was an unexpected situation for both Lila and Cleon.
Instead of the lava blood that should have flowed from the fallen Ignis’ neck, the lava is burned and used as driving force.
With the force of a rocket, Ignis’ head rose high into the sky and touched Lila’s key.
And, for a moment, the mouth that was open touched the barrier protecting the key-
Kwasik! It broke the barrier of the key while making a sound.
＂What are you doing, you crazy lizard!?＂
Lila was taken aback by the moment and said harsh words, but her spell was activated in response to those words.
When the flame magic that flowed from her hit Ignis’s head, his body was burned, causing damage that no matter how much his life force had been strengthened due to erosion, he could not handle it.
With that, Ignis’ head disappeared, leaving only his torso, and he no longer moved.
＂What is the key!?＂
As Lila withdrew the flames, she looked at the imprint that was floating in the air. Fortunately, there seemed to be no problem with the imprint itself.
What Ignis broke was the shell-like protective shield that surrounded the imprint.
“Ha… I’m glad…”
Lila sighs as if she is relieved, but Cleon remains silent for a moment and then speaks to Lila.
＂No… I don’t think so… ＂
＂Huh?＂
After hearing Cleon’s words, Lila looked up at the sky again and saw the imprint floating in the air slowly rotating clockwise.
“… Is the shield broken and about to fall?”
When Lila spoke like that, as if denying her reality, Galatea, who was hanging around Cleon’s waist, raised her voice.
[That can’t be possible, you idiot! As the shield disappeared, the magical power of the other dimension began to erode the imprint!]
As soon as Galatea finished saying those words, the highly concentrated magic power of the surrounding gap began to gather around the imprint, and the light of the imprint changed to red.
When the colors of the circle began to shine in various colors like the scenery of a gap and menacing magical power began to emanate, both Lila and Cleon had to hold on with their respective weapons on the ground to avoid being pushed out.
＂Uuuuu…!＂
Moreover, when the magical pressure even tries to break the shield protecting the two people’s bodies, Cleon stretches out her hand and calls her name.
＂Caliburn!＂
The next moment, when you think you hear a ‘cracking’ sound, a pure white holy sword appears as the space opens.
If it flies in and is caught by Cleon, it will unfold a new barrier of divine magic that protects Lila and Cleon.
[It’s always dangerous when you’re called out suddenly~]
Although Caliburn spoke so leisurely, she could see that even her divine magic barrier was slowly being chipped away by the overflowing magic of the other dimension.
However, what is even more worrying than that is that the remaining body of Ignis, who had fallen directly below, was also completely consumed by the magic of the dimensional gap, falling to the place where the imprint was and starting to fuse.
＂No, the key is…!＂
As Lila speaks like that, she almost reaches out her hand beyond her barrier without realizing it, but Cleon grabs her hand and speaks.
“Calm down, Lila! … Because I will definitely get it back.”
＂…!＂
At Cleon’s words, she seemed to have finally calmed down, nodding her head and tightening her grip on her staff once again, drawing out her magic with all her might and strengthening Caliburn’s barrier. 〉
And the next moment.
Once, a large wave of magical energy hits the two, and in the aftermath, Cleon and Lila are pushed back.
After the imprint of the other-dimensional magic that spread like a black fog was released, a monster with a strange humanoid upper body that seemed to be made of black tentacles appeared in Ignis’ decapitated body.
And, the imprint that had been in the sky until now had changed color and was shining upside down on the monster’s chest.
＂What is that… The devil…?＂
When Lila speaks as if she has never seen anything more than a devil, the product of such a terrible imagination, Galatea answers.
[… That thing is neither a devil nor a spirit. It is literally an indescribable monster created from a contaminated and reversed concept.]
＂Is it alive?＂
Seeing him moving her shoulders little by little as if breathing, Galatea agrees to Cleon’s question.
[The heart, all internal organs, and all external muscles are made of magical power, but it is a monster that is still in the process of growing. If it is now, we can still kill it.]
“I see. In that case, I have no choice but to cut it down. Cut it down and retrieve Lila’s key. And then go back to Helix.”
When Cleon said that and stepped forward, holding Galatea and Caliburn tightly, as if to protect Laila, Laila also nodded.
“Of course… I can’t go back with her grandfather’s legacy turned into such a monster…!”
The next moment, the monster with the lower body of a lizard let out a huge roar, and the tentacles that made up its arms changed shape.
One arm had a huge lizard face similar to the one Ignis had cut off earlier, and the other was a staff filled with black flames.
＂… Is that an imitation of grandfather’s cane…?＂
Lila was taken aback by the sight, but she quickly shook her head and confronted the monster, igniting her wand with flames.
“If I just defeat this guy… It’s really over!”
When Lila shouted like that, the monster responded by running towards the two.
001
“Is it Qliphoth’s monster?”
From somewhere, Belle, the demon who had made a contract with Lila, was watching her like that, and a smile appeared on her face as she muttered quietly.
She had been watching the fight against the Spirit King, but she was a little bored because none of the magic that Lila had shown so far was anything special.
It made her heart flutter to think that maybe, if she was that level of a monster, she might be able to bring out new possibilities in her.
“… You really have to be prepared to die this time, Laila. Whether that death is yours or – that of the magic swordsman by your side…”
The cunning devil mutters like this, folding his hands in anticipation of the fun that will soon begin.
The Grand Guignol of monsters, wizards, and magic swordsmen begins now.
