CH 229

[Month 8 Day 31 Year 709 of Rinekal calendar.]

Whiing-!! Whiiing-!!

Aracelli traversed through the lush forest while dodging dozens of strange mechanical sensors floating in the sky. All the forests in the Vivienda Empire were cultivated by magic, therefore, all trees and plants grew uniformly.

-Magician has been found! Magician has been found!

When the soccer ball-sized spheres flying in the dark sky above her started to emit red light, a huge machine appeared in the sky again and fired a laser from its laser gun towards her.

Looking at the scene, even someone who wasn’t capable of thinking well could infer,

‘The machine is hunting magicians.’

As soon as the giant machine finished hunting the magician, it disappeared again into the darkness of the sky. Looking at the scene, Aracello wondered where the hell the giant machine was hiding.

‘Sigh…’

Aracelli let her breath out as she stepped on the grass. However at that moment,

Whiing-!!

A sphere suddenly appeared above his head.

“…!!!”

Aracelli held her breath once again and quickly hid under the tree. But belatedly, she had a thought. ‘Can I really hide from the machine that destroyed the magic civilization with just a tree?’

‘I have to hide my mana…!’ However, she had covered her entire body with mana in the process of traveling to this dimension. On top of that, even though she had returned to her home dimension, her frozen 9 circle had not yet become usable again. Therefore, if she had to fight the machine in her current situation, she would inevitably lose.

‘I have to run away!’

But, where?

Is there really a place to hide away from the gaze of those machines?

‘I think it will be better if I secretly intercept the machine that comes close to me…’

With that in mind, Aracelli channeled all the mana she could find in her body to her fingertips and slowly pointed to the strange machine which looked like a soccer ball floating some distance away from her.

Now she only needs to let it fly and it would annihilate the machine in front of her right away.

At that moment, however…

-Stop!!! Please wait for a moment!!!

Someone’s voice reverberated in Aracelli’s head. She immediately drained the mana on her finger and moved to trace the one who talked in her head. Once she located them, she moved her head to where the sender was and she sent back a reply.

‘Telepathy? Are you a magician?’ There, she could see someone draped in black outfit surrounded by a strange mana barrier watching her.

-Wh-what!?!?? How did you know my location… No, that’s not important. you! Are you a magician?

‘Yes I am.’

-As expected… She really showed up here.

The person muttered to herself. Then, she talked to Aracelli again.

– But wait a minute… If you are a magician, why did you do that? Did you go crazy and suddenly want to die?!’

Ring-!!

As the person shouted, a slight headache assaulted Aracelli. She frowned as she struggled to stay composed.

‘What happens if I attack them?’

-They’ll immediately detect your mana, find you and kill you. Those guys are connected to each other, so they will notice instantly if one of them disappears.

‘That’s close….’ Aracelli let out a sigh of relief again. She didn’t know that those objects were connected to each other; she was only a step away from being in great danger.

-First of all, come this way. Since I have found out that you’re a magician, I have the obligation to save you.

‘Okay.’ Aracelli said as she slowly approached the grass where the mysterious magician was hiding.

“This way, this way. Quickly!”

When Aracelli walked closely, a woman draped in black rag grabbed onto Aracelli’s arm and pulled her into her own arms..

“With this electromagnetic shielding cloak, your mana will not be detected by them.”

“Electromagnetic…”

“That’s right. You know about it, right?”

Although Aracelli had heard as well as seen a lot about science and technology as she traveled to many worlds with Yoo Seodam, she still didn’t know about the details; It’s still a study which felt foreign to her.

“I don’t know about it.”

“What kind of world did you live in until now? Why do you have no sense of crises… and… why aren’t you wearing clothes?”

Aracelli wondered what she should say at that moment. But then, she remembered the knowledge she got from her professor everytime they moved to a new world.

“I lost my memory.”

It was to lie first, think about it later.

*

Even in a magical world which had been occupied by science fiction, the magicians still somehow found a way to survive.

While walking through a secret tunnel located deep underground, Aracelli had a conversation with a wizard woman who was leading the way.

“Your name is?”

“Aracelli.”

“Aracelli? What a common name. The only difference will be the surname. I am Shewell. A magician of the 5th circle. You?”

“Uh… it’s the 3rd circle.”

“HUH!?!? How old are you now?”

“Uh… Well… Thirt– NO, seventeen…”

“To already reach that stage at such a young age… You are amazing.”

However, unlike other people who would either get arrogant or get embarrassed after being praised like that, Aracelli was calm. It was due to the fact that she had heard it at least a million times back in the academy.

“Then why did you try to do such a reckless thing earlier?”

“I didn’t really understand the situation because I had no memory.”

“SIgh… Then, what about your parents?”

“They are not here anymore.”

“Didn’t you say you don’t have memory? How come you know that?”

“Hehe.”

“Whew… okay. I’ll let it pass for now. After all, that ‘person’ said to bring you to her.”

That person, who?

No, in the first place, it has only been a few hours since she returned to this world, so who told her to bring her?

“And the fact that you did not respond to the sensor installed at the entrance means you are not an ‘android’.”

“Android…”

It was a word used by Yoo Seodam back when they were in outer space .

‘Did he say that an android was a human made of machines?’ Even the existence of a machine alone was nothing but a vague concept for Aracelli. That’s why the existence of a human made of machines was more difficult for her to imagine.

“Can I ask you something? How the hell did the world become like this?”

“…you really don’t know anything, huh? For now, follow me. There is someone you must meet first.”

The tunnel they traversed was long and dark. It was a maze-like structure reminiscent of an ant tunnel. Some spaces were wide, some were cramped, and some were closed. But they had something in common…

It was the presence of humans in every space. They were a mixture of people who could and could not use magic. All of them wore ragged clothes and were also famished, as it could be seen by how they couldn’t even eat properly. However, they still had smiles plastered on their faces even though they were forced to live this way.

“Come this way…”

As Aracelli followed Shewell and went into the deepest part of the tunnel, she instantly noticed that the gaze of people who were there was different from people in the previous room. They look exhausted as if they’d been stressed out, but their bloody vigilant eyes said that they would jump straight into fight if the need ever arose.

‘They are the warriors who protect this place.’ Probably they are battle magicians who have mastered magic to the limit.

“This is…”

“It’s the biggest room in the tunnel. You can’t even see the ceiling, right?”

“Wow…”

The place they finally arrived at was a gigantic city located in an underground cave. The buildings around were not bad, and it was clear that it was a city which used to be a coal mining city.

Under the ceiling that stretched out to the sky, dozens of holes were drilled in the walls of the cave, and dozens of coal mine rails were entangled like spider webs.

And, at the center of the coal mine, there was a tall tower.

“What is that?”

“That is where the ‘savior’ lives. She lived at the top of that tower, a place which was closest the ground above in this entire coal mine”

“No… Not that… That!” Aracelli pointed just above the tower. A place where whitish mist kept glimmering at a constant pace. And since Aracelli was a dimensional wanderer, she could recognize it at once.

“That… the dimension itself looks like it’s vibrating…?”

“…to recognize that fact after only a glance, the more I look at you, the more I find you amazing.”

Shewell looked at Aracelli curiously, but she didn’t ask any more.

“That is our hope. You can think of it as a kind of … ‘rescue signal’.”

“Oh, a rescue signal? To whom are you sending it to…?”

Shewell shut her mouth and looked around her. The splendid magic civilization had long since disappeared into the column of history. All that remains now are those who lived with a little hope for the future.

“Do you know why hope is called hope? It is because even though the chance of it happening is small, people are still hanging on to it.” Shewell sighed “About 200 years ago, there was one hero.”

“A hero?”

“Yes. She saved our world that was about to fall apart, and when peace finally came, she suddenly disappeared into the shadows of the world.”

“Wow… who is she?”

“Her name is Aracelli Rinekal.”

“Ye-YES!?!?!??”

“I didn’t call you. I was talking about the greatest magician in history, Aracelli Rinekal. A hero who saved the world from the demons 200 years ago..”

Having said that, Shewell then looked at Aracelli and smiled playfully. “Since then, more and more people have been using the name ‘Aracelli’. Your parents must have liked her too.”

“O-of course!!”

“Anyway, my thoughts are that she just slept for a while. She will return someday and set us free from the world of machines, just like how she freed us from the grasp of demons.”

And then, Shewell went silent. On the other hand, Aracelli bowed her head.

“Haha, that’s a silly idea, isn’t it?”

“…”

That moment, Aracelli remembered the machine that filled the night sky. Sooner or later, she will fully regain her original power of the 9th circle. But that doesn’t mean she will be able to destroy those machines with her own strength. Obviously, the 9th circle was similar to godly power. But it was far from enough to deal with the already-completed corps of machines.

On top of it, they were an ill-match for Aracelli as they were pros at hunting magicians while she, on the other hand, was ignorant to science.

‘I can’t save this world again.’

Shewell said what she was thinking when he saw Aracelli’s crestfallen expression.

“Don’t worry. It’s not like we’re only relying on that hope. We have another way.”

“Another? How?”

Before Aracelli could get the answer to her question, Shewell who walked in front of her stopped. They had finally arrived at the tall tower located in the center of the coal mine. Many wizards stood guard at the entrance, but when they saw Shewell, their expressions relaxed.

“Is that child… the child the savior spoke of?”

“That’s right. I found her in the forest, as expected.”

“Will she be able to do it, though? I don’t see anything exceptional except for her beauty…”

“Well… I don’t know. That person had never been wrong, though.”

“…”

Passing by the battle wizards standing on the entrance of the tower, Aracelli entered the tower and quickly poured a little mana to explore the surroundings.

‘Ordinary but thorough.’ The interior view of the tower was ordinary. It was built just like a lighthouse, but thorough protection magic was installed all over it.

“The person you will meet from now on is our savior and our real hope. So, be polite.”

“Absolutely. I had a moral score of 100.”

Aracelli said those words playfully to relieve her tension, and Shewell looked at her for a moment before taking a deep breath and then knocking in the air.

“Savior. I brought the child.”

– How many times have I told you not to call me that? Sigh… bring her in.

Eventually, a solid line of light flew into the air, and the space split open, revealing what was inside.

“I can’t go in.”

Shewell said so and backed away, and Aracelli nodded his head once and stepped inside.

And, inside, Aracelli could see a familiar woman with bright purple eyes and moonlight-like hair dangling down to her waist.

“Huh?” Aracelli pupils shook. After all, the woman she was currently looking at was someone she had met in a different world and different time.

“Empress Sahar Serenity?”

“Correct.”

She was someone Aracelli thought she would never meet again.

“It’s been a while, Aracelli.”

The woman who was once a regressor, a saintess, a duchees and an emperor greeted Aracelli with a beautiful smile that melted her soul.