203th Chapter
Ray was led by Luna into the crevice of space.
Only after entering the spatial gap did Ray understand what Ulte had previously meant.
This place was entirely a different concept from A-Space.
It was some kind of rift created in the pathways where spaces overlapped or adhered during the manifestation of Blink.
For Ray, it was a concept too difficult to fully grasp, and that vague description was as far as Ray’s understanding could go.
Drifting through the strange floating sensation of the spatial rift, after some time had passed, Luna guided Ray and Ulte back out.
Hooook!
The heat generated by the meteor still lingered in the air, greeting Ray.
The ground was still trembling slightly due to the aftershocks of the earthquake.
Amidst the dust cloud obscuring the view, Ray looked around.
The underground city, where the ceiling had collapsed, had been completely destroyed by the meteor impact, losing all form.
Without digging up the earth, it would be hard to find any trace that an underground city had ever existed.
The distance between the ‘underground city’ where Ray stood and the ‘underground fortress 2 km below,’ guarded by the Lord-class demon, was considerable.
‘Yet, this much damage reached here…’
A radius of over a hundred kilometers must have been devastated.
At minimum, several hundred kilometers likely suffered direct damage from the meteor.
As Ray wore a complex expression, Luna suddenly spat out blood.
“Huuep…!”
“Luna!”
Luna had pushed herself too far.
The Magic Circle overheated beyond its limits to achieve performance exceeding its threshold, sustaining partial damage.
Damaged Circles required time for self-recovery.
Separately, the injuries caused by the Circle’s overload pressing on her body needed immediate treatment with potions or similar remedies.
Ray took out a potion he had kept in his possession and opened it.
Obtained from Ernst, finding a better potion than this in the Empire would be nearly impossible.
After feeding the potion to Luna, her complexion gradually improved.
Once confirming Luna was calming down, Ray scanned the surroundings again.
Meteor was less about brute killing power compared to its appearance.
Of course, if struck directly by Meteor, no trick would save you.
No superhuman or fortress, however sturdy, could escape destruction.
However, Meteor went through a highly advanced magical process to manifest but ultimately resembled a pure mass weapon.
For knights and mages, attacks devoid of mana were relatively easier to counter.
Given their distance from the crater created by the Meteor…
A skilled knight or mage, assuming they prepared well, could survive without fatal consequences.
Moreover, demons generally possessed good recovery abilities.
Thus, they managed to survive, clawing their way out from beneath heaps of rocks onto the surface.
Crack!!!
Ray crushed the head of a demon barely surfacing from the ground.
Just in case, Ray stomped on the shattered demon’s head while sensing the mana in the air.
The originally corrupt energy akin to the Demonic Realm that permeated this area remained unchanged.
Clearly, something beyond mere physical force was necessary to “purify” this already corrupted land.
Ray sought Luna’s permission.
“Luna, let me take this.”
With the bracelet back on his wrist, Ray issued a command to Aptel.
“Aptel, scan for nearby signs of life.”
[Acknowledged.]
Upon checking, a few more Devil Worshippers were found buried underground, still alive.
It was better to eliminate them before they regained consciousness.
After entrusting Luna’s protection to Ulte, Ray located and removed the buried Devil Worshippers one by one.
Shortly after finishing, Ray pushed through the hazy vision and turned his steps toward Luna.
The Forbidden Forest could no longer be called a forest.
At best, it might earn the title of Forbidden Wasteland.
If this place was wrecked like this, there was no way the cities where people lived would remain unscathed.
How many civilian casualties would result from the aftermath of the meteor?
Counting them one by one would be overwhelming.
“…”
Was this truly a massacre?
No. It should never be called that.
Luna ended the situation with far fewer sacrifices than Ray had initially predicted.
She effectively stopped and annihilated the Devil Worshippers with significantly fewer losses, making her actions heroic and commendable.
Some might criticize this event as a massacre if they knew the truth.
But empty words without offering solutions were nothing more than meaningless nonsense.
Of course, Ray knew.
He knew that Luna’s value judgment in handling this matter prioritized Ray’s safety over anything else.
Ray understood this fact but couldn’t reproach Luna for it.
Ray didn’t love this world and was someone capable of enduring even more terrible sacrifices for just one person.
Condemning Luna would be laughable under these circumstances.
Luna looked at Ray with her silver eyes.
Luna was prepared to accept any reproach from Ray calmly.
Facing her silver gaze in silence, Ray eventually placed his hand on her blue hair.
“If you’re going to use magic on this scale next time, please give me a heads-up…”
“Sacrifices… should only be accepted when absolutely necessary. We shouldn’t impose sacrifices on others merely for convenience.”
“…Understood.”
“You’ve worked hard. Thanks to you, we averted a much larger disaster. But…”
Ray asked anxiously,
“If it becomes known that we dropped the meteor, things could get very complicated… Can we hide it?”
“We can testify that it was done by the Devil Worshippers.”
After infiltrating the core facility of the Devil Worshippers, they altered the landing point of the meteor the worshippers had prepared to drop at Alimo’s center.
Summarizing Luna’s argument:
Since all physical evidence has been obliterated at this point, others can only trust the most rational and common-sense statement.
Both Ray and Luna could obtain information from Aptel about the Empire and thus anticipate how the investigation team would proceed, allowing them to prepare accordingly.
Above all, Ray and Luna were war heroes in public opinion alone.
Unless Ernst suddenly betrayed them, the chances of being forcibly dragged away were low.
Having heard Luna’s explanation, Ray glanced at Ulte.
“In that case, Lord Gardi, all we need is your cooperation to align our stories.”
Ulte sighed deeply.
“Alright. I’ll cooperate.”
Though there was no binding obligation, Ulte pledged to assist Ray and Luna.
After causing such a massive incident, there was no way Ulte could walk away alone.
Moreover, if Ray’s true identity was indeed “Ray,” problems for Ray would mean the ruin of Phillips County and Titi’s potential survival difficulties.
For various reasons, Ulte was also in a position where he needed to cooperate with Ray.
While listening to Luna explain how to align their stories, Ulte noticed Valerius and furrowed his brow.
At first, he didn’t even recognize it as Valerius.
Valerius, who was supposed to be returned after one use, was almost completely shattered.
Thinking about this, Ulte adopted a world-weary expression.
Among the Artifacts he possessed, Valerius was the one with the highest tactical value, so his ruined state made Ulte struggle to maintain his composure.
Still, Ulte couldn’t protest.
Having just summoned a meteor that wiped out a 100-kilometer radius, it would be absurd for Ulte to question a mage about the Artifact’s condition.
Luna turned her gaze toward Valerius along with Ulte and spoke.
“…I’ll try to repair it.”
Ulte, familiar with mercenaries’ wordplay, thought retrieving Valerius was hopeless but decided not to argue.
Reflecting on it, both Ray and Luna seemed to act similarly mischievous, Ulte muttered silently.
Regardless, they now needed to return quickly.
Although the meteor had destroyed everything nearby, skilled Devil Worshippers outside the 20-kilometer radius from the underground fortress might have survived.
They needed to leave the area where the Forbidden Forest once stood before encountering them.
Ray carried Luna, who could barely move.
Air spirits pushed away the dense dust, briefly clearing the vision and easing breathing.
After determining the direction, Ray moved together with Ulte but soon frowned.
Thud
Something was approaching.
Its presence was peculiar, unlike that of a human.
Sharpening his senses to the maximum, Ray soon chuckled bitterly.
“No matter how strong you are… How could you survive a direct hit from the Meteor?”
A demon with six pairs of eyes was approaching.
Five of those pairs were gone, and the remaining two were murky.
Most of the demon’s body had melted away, replaced by fusions of ancient corpses.
“…”
The demon had made a wrong decision.
When Luna failed to perfectly control the mana and exposed the Meteor prematurely, it was undoubtedly a clear opportunity for the demon.
On reflection, a better judgment could have been made.
But the demon couldn’t abandon its madness and obsession with “oneness” and doubted the existence of the Meteor until it was struck directly inside the underground fortress.
In the final moments,
the demon fused itself as a framework with ancient corpses.
However, it wasn’t a proper fusion.
The result of the demon’s fusion was merely a byproduct of madness—a lump of moving corpses.
All traces of sanity were lost, leaving behind only emotions akin to hatred as the corpse lump approached Ray’s group.
Ray clicked his tongue.
Though this was no longer a lump of flesh capable of displaying the might of a Lord-class entity, the demonic authority was terrifyingly concentrated.
Even in peak condition, facing this would have been precarious, and the current situation made it an extremely challenging battle.
Ray gently set Luna down and turned to Ulte.
“Lord Gardi? Are you able to fight?”
“…I was about to faint.”
It was a serious response.
He was contemplating whether spirits or Ray would carry him if he fainted, but despite groaning, Ulte knew he had to tear apart that horrifying lump of flesh.
Receiving the potion Ray threw, Ulte drank it down while drawing Genesis.
Then, the sky thundered loudly.
Boom!!
Blue light surged in the sky before stretching down to the ground.
The sky, which had fractured once due to the Meteor, emitted strong energy waves during its few hours of recovery.
This energy wave could serve as a powerful signal detectable from afar.
Using this, it was possible to create an exit for a Gate close to the airspace where the sky had opened, though it wasn’t something achievable with ordinary magicians gathering in bulk.
“…Haha.”
Ray sharpened his senses but then laughed.
The first knight wearing armor emblazoned with the royal crest stepped onto the ground from the Gate connected to the sky.
Following him, powerful figures emerged in formation.
Isabel, the Mistress of the Blue Magic Tower, and three high-ranking mages under her.
Grandel, the Mistress of the Green Magic Tower, and fifteen regular mages under her.
Two high-ranking mages and twenty regular mages from the Royal Magic Tower.
Dakaus, granted field command authority, and three Royal Guards.
Shakhni, the Captain of the Eleun Knight Order, and twenty subordinates.
Twenty Templars officially recognized by the Church for status and skill.
And thirty troops urgently mobilized from the high nobility.
Elite forces classified among the top ranks of the Empire crossed over the temporarily created Gate.
Among them were faces familiar to Ray.
Shay, who had escorted Speira in the past, and Dillid Prisland, whom he met for the first time during the Warp Gate battle, were among them.
Royal Guard Dikaus confirmed the horrifying lump of flesh that was the demon and drew his sword.
“Carry out His Majesty the Emperor’s orders.”
Eliminating the Devil Worshippers.
Securing and protecting survivors from the intelligence operatives who entered the underground city for information collection.
Both were included in the tasks given to Dikaus by the Emperor.
Muttering that everyone arrived awfully quickly, Ray stepped back from the demon and grinned.
“Since you’ve come this far, I’ll let you finish it off.”
The mana fluctuated again amidst the swirling dust.
Annihilation (3)
