In the end, lying aimlessly in the black space, I realized I wasn’t the only one trapped here and decided to go save the others.
That dark lich who ran away surely did the same to others as it did to me.
While I had already overcome it, I couldn’t assume others would fare as well.
Just like before, I cut through the space and jumped out, discovering Amy facing off against the lich.
[How…!! How can a human get this far!!]
The lich, mimicking a god, screamed.
Its torso, covered in beast skin, bore a massive wound, and black curses dripped like blood from it.
Although it didn’t have a life vessel containing a clear vulnerability like a typical lich, it screamed as if it was mortally wounded.
Despite the subject’s immortality, the essence of existence being cut down to inflict extreme pain was the most basic characteristic of the Aura Blade.
“This place is basically like this other space created from looking into my heart, right? Therefore, if I want to, I can do anything.”
I wasn’t sure if that was true, but that was the principle I grasped in this place.
It could be said that this space was created to replay incidents based on the memories of those trapped in it.
So, if I sincerely think about moving to someone, I can indeed move.
[It’s not a meaningless illusion!! To think you can do anything with just your thoughts is absolute nonsense!!]
“Well, it happened as I thought, so I’m right regardless.”
The lich shouted that it wasn’t true, but what could it do since that’s what I did?
I couldn’t explain how I did it, but I did, so I’m right.
[Don’t forget… that this is the other space I created!!]
Suddenly, I felt a wave of nausea.
The space twisted and tightened around my body.
The lich suddenly distorted the space, trapping me.
[UAAAAAH!!]
Having succeeded in trapping me, the lich emitted a thick curse from its hand.
A spell that would hit me without giving me a chance to move was indeed quite threatening.
But there was something it didn’t know.
If it was about twisting space, I was pretty good at that too.
As I slightly moved my feet, my line of sight instantly changed.
[Hurk?!]
Before the lich’s attack could reach me, the Aura Blade cleaved through it.
[I’ve been… preparing for a thousand years…. This cannot end here…!]
The lich writhed in agony as if it were encased in a mold.
“I’m not interested in your circumstances, so just disappear quickly.”
Thinking it might drag on, I struck down the Aura Blade once more onto the body of the lich, which was desperately flailing.
This time, the shattered lich didn’t even get a chance to escape and vanished.
It claimed to have waited a millennium, but its end was quite anticlimactic.
“This time, it’s really dead, right?”
-Guuhuhuhuh
Doubting if it was truly dead, I felt the other space beginning to collapse.
It seemed it really had vanished.
Though it mimicked a god, it was ultimately just a monster.
“Atlas… is it really you?”
“Of course, it’s me.”
Amy looked quite a mess.
Her blood-soaked clothes and staggering body indicated she had succeeded in overcoming the darkest moment of her past, leaving her in a state where everything else had disappeared into darkness.
It seemed she had pushed herself quite hard during that process.
If Amy’s past was as she thought… it would be that moment when she was nearly sacrificed to a demon.
It was remarkable that she had managed to overcome it.
“You really pushed yourself a lot… are you okay?”
“I don’t think I’m going to die.”
“That’s a relief.”
Still, everything that happened here isn’t real.
When we return to the original world, it will all be as if it never happened.
The wounds will heal, and her strength will return.
“Alright, then let’s go save the others.”
“There are others too??”
“Since you and I were in the same place, the other two must be around as well.”
I wondered whether Gemma or that cat beastman had managed to overcome the trial this space showed.
Once more, I cut through the space.
.
.
.
After defeating the god-mimicking lich, the incident wrapped up at an incredible speed.
I quickly escaped with Gemma and Irina, who were engulfed in a trance, and when we returned to the farm, only a blackened mummy of a corpse remained.
Going further inside, I discovered what appeared to be an altar, and there were four corpses, two of humans and two of beastmen, along with three beastmen that had been trapped.
They were from the Blue Cat Tribe and Parker’s people.
At the center of the altar lay a shattered artifact, which seemed to be the lich’s life vessel that had trapped us in this other space.
Although there were dead bodies, due to the appearance of the real culprit, the Blue Cat Tribe requested reconciliation with Parker again.
While Parker and the Blue Cat Tribe were discussing, Amy and I were circling around to root out the remnants of the demon cultists existing within Parker and the Blue Cat Tribe.
“There are about five, huh. Quite a lot.”
“To take advantage of people’s kindness… that’s too much.”
“That’s the method cultists use best.”
Three cultists were found in the Blue Cat Tribe, with two in Parker.
How we uncovered them, I’ll leave to your imagination.
Since they weren’t ones to sprinkle magic everywhere like evangelists, it was a rather annoying investigation based on scrutiny, and describing it in detail would be quite brutal.
They blended into the community before transporting one person at a time to their hideout.
The cultists found in the Blue Cat Tribe were cat beastmen from outside.
It seems they had an unyielding tradition of warmly welcoming fellow villagers lost in the plains, so no one suspected a thing.
“Where are we going?”
“This is the last suspected location.”
And now the two of us were exiting the village, walking towards another place.
I wasn’t certain where, but according to Amy, it was a suspected area that
