Book 2: Chapter 491
After the one guest and one unwelcome guest left, the space was tinged with silence.
Iris slowly lowered her gaze. Faint traces of destruction were left in the place she arbitrarily called ‘the inside of God’s skull’. The sight added to the gloominess.
As she didn’t like it, she waved her hand.
Shak-
The destroyed ground, the spilt bookshelves, and the library that had been left in a mess all began to gradually recover. The number of damaged books was by no means small, but that was fine. It would be fine even if a fire was to cover the entire library and burn all the books to ashes.
The things recorded in the Akashic Records were all the original forms of the information. Even if a force strong enough to wipe out a universe was used, they wouldn’t disappear.
“…”
Reaching out, she picked up one of the fallen books. Then, Iris noticed that her fingertips were trembling.
She suddenly had a thought.
Had Lukas noticed her agitation?
She wasn’t sure. She focused on the beat of her own heart.
Please notice, please don’t notice.
Such conflicting thoughts filled her head, but she soon shook her head. The movement was slow, but at the same time, it seemed to be filled with certainty as if she was reassuring herself.
After her hair, which looked as if it had been soaked in black ink, swayed a few times.
Smack!
Iris slapped herself on her cheek.
“…good.”
Then, she thought of the blue haired young woman. She intentionally erased the memories of her pulling Lukas and only paid attention to that woman’s identity and goal.
“Not good.”
If things were to continue at this rate, it was bound to end badly.
As she stood in front of a certain bookcase, Iris Peacefinder made up her mind.
Her twirling fingers eventually pulled out a book.
* * *
Shortly after leaving the Akashic Records.
[How interesting. The Akashic Records, kukuku.]
Lukas frowned as the Lightning God’s voice resounded in his head. This guy always showed his presence when he was about to forget him.
If possible, he’d prefer to not talk to him when Pale was around.
‘What is interesting about it? Was that your first time entering the Akashic Records?’
[That’s not it. What I’m interested in is Iris Peacefinder’s aim.]
‘Her aim?’
[Right.]
‘…you know her aim that even I don’t know?’
[If you take a few steps back, you’d be able to see the wider picture.]
Although those words were right.
‘What is it? Iris’ aim.”
[There’s no reason for me to answer.]
He couldn’t help but think that his timing to say that was right.
Lukas clicked his tongue inwardly and decided to ignore the Lightning God the next time he tried to talk to him.
…Dammit. Even as he had those trivial thoughts, his heart pounded as if he had been sprinting. He found it hard to calm down.
He recalled his helpless appearance just now in the Void Records.
When Iris and Pale were about to fight, although it was only for an instant, Lukas simply watched the situation. Fortunately, it didn’t continue till the end.
If,
If the fight had continued, if it really became intense to the point of either side dying.
If that did happen, whose side would Lukas take?
Generally speaking, it would be Iris. Although his feelings towards Pale were better than before, he still couldn’t trust her fully.
However.
-You forgot your oath. Did you know? It’s much harder and crueller to forget a promise than to break it! But every single one of you betrayed Lukas.
…Pale’s words made his heart thump heavily. Those were the words Lukas’ pride didn’t allow him to utter.
God’s doing? The rules of the world? They forgot him just because of that?
Him, who had abandoned everything for them, for humans.
Now that he had regained his humanity, he was up to his neck in childish whining, which never happened when he was an Absolute.
That was why Lukas couldn’t help but feel grateful to Pale. She said what he couldn’t say in his place. In all honesty, it made him feel relieved.
‘Huhu.’
He let out a chuckle.
Once more, he realised what state he was in.
The current him… was pathetic.
Lukas turned around.
The crack in space was disappearing. Stretching out his hand, he tried to read the coordinate values from the disappearing space.
It didn’t work.
‘It’s Iris’ doing.’
She had deliberately twisted the space in a complex manner. This made it impossible for him to enter that space again even though he had entered it before. As expected, the authority over space that she’d obtained had advanced by leaps and bounds.
“Huu.”
He didn’t know Iris’ aim.
However, he could at least tell what she was thinking.
She had learned about Lukas again, but she didn’t feel any emotion. Knowing that was enough.
It was at that moment that he felt a sudden impact on his back. Turning around, he saw Pale with her palm unfolded and a smile on her face.
“Fix your face!”
Pale had slapped his back with her palm.
Of course, her aim wasn’t to attack him… Was she comforting him?
“Are you upset because you met your ex lover?”
“Ex lov-… no. Not. That.”
“Heh? I see.”
Giggling as if she was satisfied, she closed the distance.
Her blue eyes shined brightly through her unkempt hair.
Pale looked up at Lukas with an expressionless face for a moment before the corners of her mouth raised. It was a smile that would better be described as cool rather than beautiful.
“-you know.”
Her whispered voice tickled his neck like a feather.
“I, surprisingly, don’t like the leftovers of others.”
“…you’re saying.”
“Right. I’m saying you haven’t been eaten yet.”
The moment her brightly coloured tongue darted out, Lukas unwittingly took a few steps backwards.
At that, Pale giggled and took a few steps back as well.
“I’m joking, then, since you’re done with your business here, let’s go up.”
Although he was a bit confused by Pale’s previous attitude, Lukas replied.
“Now that I think about it, you said the ‘top’ is noisy. What happened?”
“Huh? It seemed like a fight.”
…A fight?
Was it Yang In-hyun, Dok Go-yun, or someone else?
It was hard to believe.
Dok Go-yun’s martial prowess was so high that it was hard for him to find an opponent not just among humans, but in this entire Great Universe. Even a dozen martial artists who would be regarded as experts wherever they went would not be able to deal with Dok Go-yun. Not to mention Yang In-hyun.
Pitter patter…
Suddenly, dust fell from the ceiling.
It was caused by vibrations that came from the surface, in other words, it was the aftermath of a fight.
It was as Pale said. Lukas could sense a fierce battle going on above.
“Let’s head up.”
“Yes.”
Pale, who was a few steps away, strode over and grabbed Lukas’ hand. With both hands. After a moment, she looked up at him, smiled, and said.
“We have to be touching to move together, don’t we?”
Although that was true, she had never been this active before.
Lukas forcibly swallowed what he wanted to say. It would be difficult to reach the surface in one go, so he would have to separate the spatial leap into two parts.
‘I still need to think about what to do with the people in the mine.’
The humans in this place, who had already lost their human intellect.
They couldn’t be fixed. At the very least, it was impossible for Lukas.
Then should he just leave them like this? Was it right to leave them to endlessly repeating labour?
Shuk-
The first movement ended.
It was a layer filled with the scent of blood, the same layer where he’d killed Twohands.
He could see the people who were indistinguishable from monsters. Despite Lukas’ sudden reemergence, they continued to be preoccupied with their work.
It was a sight that he didn’t want to see again for a long time.
Just as Lukas was about to space leap again.
“Huh? Wait.”
Letting go of his hand, Pale walked off in a direction. It was towards the body of Twohands.
Did she want to eat more because she didn’t eat enough? Lukas thought about a way to refuse. Right. He could say that Iris had served him a meal before she arrived.
But the excuse Lukas came up with was not needed. Because it seemed that Pale’s goal was not a meal.
Standing in front of Twohands’ corpse was an indistinct figure. He was about to draw upon his mana, but Pale stopped him with one hand.
“Hey, what are you doing?”
“…”
The indistinct figure was gradually revealed.
It was a child.
A little girl who was probably less than 10 years old.
But she wasn’t human. She had red skin, white hair, sharp teeth, and deformed horns sprouting from both temples. She also had hook-like fingers.
“Hiss…”
Hissing like a cat, the girl raised her claws. Her vertically slit pupils were filled with vigilance.
But Pale reached out without a care.
Crack! Lukas was startled. This was because the girl bit Pale’s hand. He was worried about her attitude, which was no different from that of an animal. Of course, rather than Pale’s hand, he worried about what would happen to the girl afterward.
He couldn’t imagine what the expression of Pale, whose hand was suddenly bitten, looked like.
“That was a mistake.”
But Pale spoke with a gentle smile.
“There are better things to eat here than me.”
It was very much like Pale to classify even herself as food. No, it wasn’t that. Pale forced the girl’s mouth open before pointing her head towards Twohands’ corpse.
“These are leftovers. Eat.”
“…”
“Quickly.”
It seemed like some kind of rapport developed between them.
After hesitating for a while, the girl once more began to eat Twohands’ corpse.
“Aha, ahahah.”
Pale suddenly burst out laughing as if she was having fun.
Then, looking at Lukas, she said.
“I’m taking this kid.”
* * *
He didn’t refuse.
No, it would be more accurate to say that he couldn’t. In any case, that wasn’t that important right now. After the girl finished eating, she fell asleep in Pale’s arms.
Lukas looked at the sleeping girl.
Was she originally a human or a monster? He couldn’t tell. Perhaps Cairo didn’t know either.
What he was more curious about was why Pale took this girl in.
Sympathy?
He wasn’t sure. Pale, of course, was a being with human emotions, but… she was not someone who possessed a good enough character to show kindness to the weak.
“Huah. As expected, the air outside is best.”
Upon arriving on the surface, Pale stretched her back as she said this. But the air in this place couldn’t be called good. Because there was still the thick black fog outside.
Now that Cairo was dead, no more black fog would be produced. In other words, if the fog that was currently settled was blown away, the uniquely gloomy atmosphere of the mine would disappear.
He could do it now. It wouldn’t be difficult. One large scale wind spell would be enough.
‘No.’
First of all, he needed to figure out what was happening on the surface.
He didn’t even need to look around for long. He could feel the two strong energies clashing not so far away.
Lukas’ expression suddenly became strange.
Dok Go-yun.
This man, who was fairly skilled, was now locked in combat with someone else.
The fight was quite fierce. In other words, this meant that the opponent was another Peak Master like Dok Go-yun.
Lukas walked towards the battlefield.
“…”
Before suddenly stopping.
His body became stiff as if he was soaked in cold water. He could almost feel his neck becoming stiff.
“…dammit.”
Eventually, he let out a swear for a reason even he didn’t know.
However, Lukas no longer tried to get closer, and even went on to hide his presence.
He didn’t know what kind of day this was. But relationships that he’d thought he’d put aside were rushing in one after the other without any warning.
It wasn’t that he wasn’t happy. And it wasn’t like he didn’t want to meet them.
However, Lukas suddenly looked down at himself.
His robe was stained with blood. It was probably Bullseye, Twohands, or Cairo’s.
Even if he tried to brush it off with his hand, as it had already hardened, it would not come off.
Bloodstains were naturally like that. They were easy to apply but difficult to remove.
He didn’t want to appear like this. Especially in front of that child.
Boom!
In the meantime, the fight was escalating.
Whenever the fist and palm connected, the ground shook as if there was an earthquake.
The more he looked on, the more he realised.
‘He grew stronger.’
It was so hard to believe that it was like he was a completely different person.
The boy, who had once been dominated by his past trauma, had overcome his flaws and become an undeniably powerful being. In addition, he wasn’t losing at all despite facing Dok Go-yun, the proxy of the Heavenly Demon.
But this wasn’t the time to feel moved.
The gradually heating fight was approaching its end.
Both sides could be seen putting all of their remaining energy into their fists. They intended to end the contest with the next blow.
‘Dangerous.’
When that much power collided, one side would surely die.
And Lukas didn’t want either side to die. There was no time to hesitate. Just as Lukas was about to step in between them, Yang In-hyun appeared like a phantom and brushed off their attacks. It was an intervention that was perfect enough to be admired.
“—. —.”
“—? —.”
Soon after, he heard them start talking about something. It was at this moment that Lukas got a bit closer and overheard their conversation.
“If that is the case, then you…”
“Yes. I came here as a member of the Trowman Rings. To subjugate the Demon of the Mine.”
“On your own?”
“No.”
The young man,
Leo Freeman, shake his head.
“There is one more person.”
At those words, Lukas spread out his senses.
And soon, he was able to find the ‘other person’ Leo mentioned.
[Kuhaha… if it isn’t a nostalgic face.]
The Lightning God burst into laughter.
A few kilometres away, outside of the black fog’s influence, was Venian Argento.
[Hey, Madman.]
‘…what is it?’
The Lightning God spoke in a mocking voice.
[If you encounter that being now, you’ll definitely die.]