Chapter 9 - Turning Point [4]
"Hey, how are things coming along?”
"Horrible."
"Oh, ahaha..."
"..."
"..."
Two hours have passed since we got sucked into another dimension, Aleph.
Due to the hostile environment, we took shelter while I attempted to find a way to escape using the Exitium stone.
Besides that, not much happened down here.
We didn't get to talk to each other due to the tense atmosphere between us.
“…”
“…”
"Hmm." I looked at Noah.
His face was as pale as a white sheet, caressing his elbow in guilt.
It was clear he was bothered by this whole situation, thinking this was his fault.
'...Tch, annoying.'
I shook my head and decided to get this over with, even if I had to derail the storyline.
"Noah Heavenfall."
I addressed him by his full name to emphasize the importance of my words.
"…Yeah?"
"You feel like this is all your fault, don't you?"
"..."
Noah's answer was clear when he responded with silence.
Despite being stronger, he's paler than I, the one contemplating their horrible decisions.
Since I have been fiddling with the Exitium stone, Noah sat in the corner, doing nothing.
I told him to stay on guard in case something happens, but he didn't consider that as doing something.
"I... of course, I feel bad, but-"
"Don't even try to lie to me. I don't need your gloomy eyes to see the expression written all over your face."
—Vooom…!
I infused more mana into the Exitium stone to activate the mechanism, refusing to give up.
Even if all hope was lost, there's still a chance to escape. It's times like these I'm grateful I retained my past knowledge.
—And that past knowledge revolved around him, the protagonist.
"Your eyes' origins, it's a curse from Xelthatl, the Eldritch God, is it not?"
"…!"
"The curse activates when you feel a sense of joy with an individual. Then by cruel fate, that person close to you dies from unknown causes days after."
"How did you..."
Noah, unable to hide his composure, bit his lips to prevent his frustration from leaking out.
It was a lifelong curse that followed him since childhood, the reason why he wasn't an approachable person in the novel.
How detestable. Truly.
When the curse didn't come from that wretched god, but from his ancestors.
"Hah, I'm joking. Do you really think such idiocracy exists?"
"…What?"
"That's a lie made by your ancestors. A way to guilt-trip their offspring to cover their shitty mistakes.”
“No… I don't believe it. How would I know if you're lying?”
“Then use your eyes-”
“My eyes only tell me if you're lying or not. It's not an omniscient ability.”
“Didn't you say to yourself that you felt something from me? Did you never ask how I knew everything you know and don't know? Theodore Heavenfall's descendant, the accursed heir who harboured a curse, the guardians who were tasked to guard the stones.”
“I…”
I pointed at my eyes, telling him to look at me properly while his eyes were active.
"Let's not make this a lengthy conversation and check if my statements were all lies instead."
"But… how could I tell if you're lying or not-"
"You don't have to. The situation you're in with me explains everything."
"..."
It's a life-and-death situation. There wasn't much time to explain before the Eldias found us.
Even if I have told him the truth he yearned for, used as a plot point far into the future, I'll do anything to live.
"…You're right." Noah hesitated and swallowed his saliva.
Heeding my words, his eyes glowed an even darker red.
His eyes' ability had many layers. The more he concentrated, the deeper he could go until eventually,
He could peer through my very soul.
‘I'm feeling chills again.’ I jittered.
It's the side effects of having my soul judged. It doesn't feel pleasant.
"…" Noah stared at me in silence, refusing to believe me.
For every second that passed by…
…
…
His face brightened gradually…
Until it bloomed into a smile.
…
…
"Haha…"
'…Hmph, looks like he found his answer.'
Noah's face morphed into a grin, and he covered it with his hand.
"Stop grinning like that, that's weird.”
"So it wasn't true… they were all wrong…"
“…”
Noah began to tear up a little.
‘This guy has been through a lot after all.'
Minding my own business, I looked away and kept experimenting with the Exitium stone.
I wasn't a big fan of emotional moments, so I left him alone and gave him some space.
It's an understatement to conclude his experiences in the future as 'tragic'. I found out about that after I met Noah in person.
Noah is fated to save the world at the cost of many things he deemed precious.
His family, his loved ones, and his sanity.
However, I must admit that writing characters with tragic backstories is quite enjoyable.
Isn't it fun to see a main character suffer from mistakes to learn from them afterward?
—Is it just me? Okay.
I shook my head and resumed fixing the stone, stopping when I recalled something significant.
Hmm… actually, isn't this kinda bad?
Did I tell him an essential piece of information that was meant to be revealed hundreds of chapters later?
'I… uhh, god dammit.' I sighed in disappointment.
To avoid thinking about the consequences, I resumed talking to Noah after a couple of minutes.
"So, how does it feel to find out the curse was fake while being stuck here for eternity?"
"I feel like shit. It took me this long to notice how they set me up now that I think about it.“
"Weren't you about to cry?"
"Hey, why can't you be nice for once?"
He lightly punched my shoulder as a joke, enough to push me back a little.
‘…That was a light punch?’ I acted like it didn't hurt at all.
Oh well, character development and all, this is a good thing.
If this made him stronger, no longer restricted by superstition… then that's a favourable outcome in my book.
"You know… if you weren't here, I'd probably die from going insane."
Noah looked at the surreal scenery above us.
He… wasn't entirely wrong about that, I'd say the same if I were alone in a vast space with the only solid familiar shapes being squares.
Well, they aren't necessarily squares; take a closer look, and they'll start resembling non-Euclidean shapes.
"Yeah… same here."
After Noah and the gang wrapped up their journey in Aleph, they escaped when they infused mana into the stone.
The problem was that it required pure mana, so people who closed their mana cores were stuck here forever without Noah.
I began to focus a little more on the Exitium stone after our talk.
Every time I did something new, the stone emitted a faint red glow, indicating that I had done something new.
This dimension definitely isn't Earth, a place where non-Euclidean shapes define its very existence.
Physics, as I knew it, was not in its right state.
If we were to leave, we would likely get lost due to the fluctuating gravity and laws that are not bound to Earth.
It's good I brought my backpack in case things go south.
Inside the bag were my IDs and the weapon I was eager to use— the magic firearm.
—Fwip…!
'Oh, and I forgot to pack these up.' I rummaged through the bag to see if there was anything useful.
Inside were oversized clothes that Erina had given to me as a gift six years ago.
—Irrelevant. I used them as fillers to make the bag look hefty and avoid suspicion.
The only good thing about this awful dimension was how abnormal mana is to an extreme degree.
By abnormal, I mean out of this world. Literally.
On Earth, magic is limited when it's used regularly around the world.
Here, space was infinitely expanding; the same concept applies to mana.
This means that our mana capacity right now is nearly infinite… that is, with minor drawbacks.
It's not a method usable from Earth, but things stopped making sense in a place like this.
I could absorb the mana in Aleph, where mana naturally regenerates.
But if I take in too much, I'll explode. Again, literally.
So I told Noah about this method and ordered him to make an earth fortress to at least protect us.
Even he was surprised by the quantity when he barely used any mana.
So if I do it right with these resources… I can figure out how this works, hopefully.
—Clink!
"Ah, did something."
"Really!? Can we get out of this place now?"
"Hmm, I honestly don't know…"
To figure it out, I moved the stone around.
Every time I did so in a particular direction, it flickered constantly.
In the original novel, Noah took years to figure out how to get back, but in my case, it took me an hour or so.
Is this talent, or is Noah plain stupid?
I looked at Noah with a pitiful gaze, perhaps proving my point right.
…It's too hard to tell.
"You don't?"
"A-Ahem! Of course I don't. Glowing red doesn't usually mean something good."
I kept rotating it, wondering where it leads.
"Hmm, you think it's trying to point in a direction?”
"Really?"
I took his advice to see if that was the case.
—Vooom… Vrrr…!!!
The Exitium stone reacted violently when I approached the area it was pointing to, as if it were trying to convey a message.
"Noah, break the wall in front of me. A small hole is fine."
"Roger!"
Noah nodded enthusiastically and obeyed my instructions without a second thought.
He looked more lively than usual despite our dire circumstances.
It's as if he broke out of the shackles he was born with.
“Fooo…!”
Noah took a deep breath and walked to the wall I pointed to, fully prepared to release his magic… fist?
"Haaah…!"
—BOOM!!!
Noah punched the wall instead of using magic, creating a giant gaping hole with the shape of his fist.
“How's that?” He made a peace sign with his fingers.
"Dude, did you really have to punch the wall?"
"No, I just wanted to do that for no reason."
He stretched his right arm around after that convenient warm up.
…I kept forgetting that this clown was the protagonist.
His personality, compared to his novel counterpart, is like night and day.
"…Anyways, can you check and see if there's anything from that direction?" I shook my head and focused on the present.
"Gotcha… hmm, all I see are squares on top of squares."
"Pardon?"
"Weird and random shapes that are on top of each other, shifting- oh wait… I see a giant red portal from a distance."
"A giant red portal…?!"
My eyes brightened and I shoved him aside to see where the portal was.
"Hey! Over there… are you telling me that we're supposed to go that… super ominous portal?"
"Probably? That's our only lead out of here anyway."
I don't trust what the stone was trying to tell us as well.
Still, hesitation at a time like this, when unknown entities could be around the corner, was far more concerning.
“Ugh… fine, I'll trust you.”
Noah nodded his head and agreed with what I said.
"Hoo…" A sigh of relief escaped from my breath.
…If I have to be frank, I was prepared to be stuck here forever and die from starvation.
"Hold on, before we go, stay still for a bit."
I picked up my bag and grabbed the oversized shirts I received as a gift.
To my surprise, these came in handy.
I give you my sincere thanks, Erina.
—Riiip!!!
"W-What are you…!?!"
—Riiiiiip!!
Without batting an eye, I ripped the shirts into long strips, tied them into a rope, and handed the other side to Noah.
"Doing…" His eyes twitched like he had witnessed the end of the world.
"Here, tie this tightly to your hand, and I'll tie mine on the other end."
I nonchalantly tied the makeshift rope to my left arm.
"If we get separated, then we're dead- hey, are you listening?"
"That… that looked expensive." Noah, the supposed stern protagonist, sulked.
"Seriously? There isn't any time to explain when our lives are on the line."
I grabbed one last thing from the bag. It's my magic firearm.
—Kachick!
'…To think I'll use this gun against Eldias already.'
It's nice that I finally got to use the gun… just not in a situation like this.
"Whoa, is that a gun? Where did you get that?"
Noah's eyes sparkled, forgetting about the shirts and was more curious about the magic firearm.
"But… what is that going to do in a place like this?"
"The gun? Nothing special compared to your mana core, just this."
—BOOOM!!!!
I shot the earth wall with immeasurable power, destroying everything within range.
"What the?!"
“Ah… oops. I forgot we have infinite mana here.”
Mana is bottomless here, so it wasn't my doing, destroying our temporary shelter like that.
Though it's reassuring to have a form of self-defence in a place like this.
'I hope this is enough firepower against those monsters….' I held the gun tightly.
"Come on, let's go quickly."
I navigated the area using the stone as a guide.
“…”
"Are you coming or what?"
"I'm just tired of being surprised by everything."
"I'll take that as a compliment."
"Very funny. Once we get back, you'd better explain yourself."
"No comment."
“…Are you doing this just to spite me?”
“No comment.”
“Kill yourself."
