CH 233

< Day 31, Month 8, Year 709 <Valley of Sleeping Heart >

[Day 31, Month 8, Year 709]

Aracelli returned to her original timeline and opened her eyes. Her blue eyes glinted and captured the world again. Slowly getting up from her seat, she approached the window and looked out at the world.

“Fyuuuh….”

Empress Sahar, who also returned to the present a beat later than Aracelli, approached Aracelli.

Sensing her presence, Aracelli opened her mouth. “Where is the time travel device located at?”

“In the Stella Horizon.”

“…is that the name of that gigantic ship that covered half of the sky?”

“That’s right. It was the center of all science, as well as the place where science began. It was also Partellian himself.”

“Yes? That’s….” As she was about to rebuke Sahar’s words, Aracelli remembered one protagonist she had met before. “…Do you mean that Partellian is an ‘artificial intelligence’?”

“That’s right. To be more precise, they said that ‘Forebrain (Mind Uploading)’ is something even magic can’t do.”

“Fo-forebrain…?”

“It is said that it was a technique that allows anyone to live forever by uploading their human mind to another virtual world created by science. Partellian succeeded in realizing that technology, and replaced his human body with the huge battleship called Stella Horizon.”

“What in the world…”

If the battleship itself was really the protagonist… It would be impossible to defeat it, even if both herself and Yoo Seodam work together.

“Just how could science do that?”

With magic, it was possible to make a passage to subspace. However, it was incomparable to that power of science, which could create another world where one can enter it to enjoy eternal life.

‘Partellian’s technology has already far surpassed my level of magic.’ Therefore, it was impossible for her to win against him. So, Yoo Seodam had to do all the work from the past if they wanted to stand a chance against Partellian. But, even that was not an easy task, since the androids could time travel freely.

“Don’t be overly concerned. Even Partelian cannot use time travel so willy nilly. Some functions of Stellar Horizon must’ve stopped working because of that one F-type android which they sent to 100 years ago.”

“Isn’t it possible that they discovered another energy source in the meantime?”

“No, that won’t be the case. We have confirmed that the planetary generator-which is energizing the Stellar Horizon–is still working in the Valley of the Sleeping Heart.”

Planetary Generator was a huge generator built in the valley of the sleeping heart. It was something which was built to extract energy from the world itself, and if it was destroyed, most of the functions of Stellar Horizon will be stopped.

But, will such important places have loose security?

“There is one thing we can use to attack.” Aracelli said.

“That is?”

“The only subject they have not conquered; space.” Aracelli put her hand on the window. The strange window, which through several twists and turns connects to another space, was created by space magic. And, Aracelli was a wizard who reached the pinnacle of such magic.

“They are the ones who rule time and even created a virtual world…”

Papat-!!

The landscape of the mirror that Aracelli caressed changed; It flickered and began to display another place in an instant. The place displayed on the mirror was none other than ‘Valley of Sleeping Heart’.

“But do they really know about the existence of another dimension?”

Empress Sahar approached the mirror without hiding her startled expression. It had been a long time since she arrived in the Vivienda Empire, so she had a good grasp of how normal wizards use space magic. In order for other wizards to link one place to another, they must go to the location, install a device there, and collect the coordinates for at least 12 hours. But that’s not all, they also need to use the spell in the two places at the exact same time for the spell to be successfully activated.

“…This is amazing.”

Aracelli closed her eyes and focused her mana. Thanks to her circle’s gradual recovery, she was able to use dimension magic in more various ways. In the state of her circle being frozen, she was someone who could use dimensional magic for dimensional movement. But, in her heyday, she was able to use it in a more colorful way, for example:

Opening the dimension high up in the sky, expelling her enemy out of the universe, or even summoning magma from deep in the ground to attack the enemy.

For her, the third dimension was no longer a barrier. No matter how far away it was, everything was as close as it was before her eyes. Therefore, everything that came into her sight was immediately within her grasp.

“There it is…” Finally, in the mirror, the true Valley of Sleeping Heart was reflected. A huge, transparent dome-shaped glass tube was encased in a strange red building, where a blue halo was glimmering like a mist. There were dozens of such domes around the place, and the power plant-like structure, which had a complex structure such as antennas and steel frames, is the ‘heart’.

“The mana nearby is twisting, so approaching till here with a mirror seems to be the limit.”

“That should be the case. They set up a base on top of the mana pulse, but they drained all the mana around and only ran it on some specific area. Therefore, it was said that it was almost impossible to use magic around there.”

In other words, it was an ‘Anti Mana Field’. It was a technology that nullifies the implementation of magic itself by generating a vortex of mana.

“Don’t worry about that. As long as you can control your mana within it, you can use any magic with ease.”

Of course it wasn’t as easy as how Aracelli portrayed it. However, as Aracelli was someone who had reached the realm of nine circles, she was certain that her mana control was second to none under the sky.

“My circle hasn’t fully recovered yet, but there’s an energy that I can use, isn’t there?”

“Energy?”

Aracelli pointed her finger at the top of the tower in the mine.

“There it is.”

The great hero who disappeared from this world 200 years ago, Aracelli Reinkal. The survivors of the Vivienda were still waiting for her, not giving up hopes.

“I can’t live up to that expectation, but I can at least make it worthwhile.”

After saying that, Aracelli crossed her legs. Then, a vortex of mana rushed in an instant. The amount of mana flowing out of her body wasn’t much, but it was enough to draw the energy of the ‘hyperspace rescue signal’ that was being sent from the top of the tower.

Moments later, as Aracelli covered her own left eye with her palm. A translucent eyeball appeared in the air in front of her.

“I’m sharing my familiar’s view with the mirror.” As those words fell, Empress Sahar was reflected in the mirror. It was due to the fact that Aracelli’s familiar was looking at her.

“I will go to the valley.” As Aracelli stirred the air, the position of the eyeball shifted in an instant to the Valley of Sleeping Heart. The view inside the huge glass tube, which had not been confirmed up until now, was clearly captured in the mirror.

“Ugh…” Because of the swirling vortex of mana. Aracelli had a slight cold sweat running down her body, but she didn’t seem to have any major problems. However, the problem was that the detection ability of science was greater than expected.

Wiing-!! Wiing-!! Wiing-!!

– Unidentified mana was detected.

– Finding the source to eliminate it.

Fortunately, the androids had not yet found her familiar. She painstakingly moved her familiar into the interior of the power plant.

Thankfully, she was someone who had been inside a spaceship with Yoo Seodam before, so she didn’t find it awkward here, which was made up of pipes, wires, monitors, and automatic doors that spewed steam all over the place.

“I can feel a huge wave of energy from somewhere close.”

Aracelli moved her familiar slowly, chasing after the source of her energy. Automatic doors opened and closed repeatedly in all directions, red lights flickered threateningly, and a mysterious technology called CCTV, a technology higher than familiar magic, was looking over every place.

Aracelli tried to hide her familiar’s face as much as possible to avoid their eyes, but they still ended up detecting her.

-Discovering a substance made up of mana.

-Confirmed that the material passes through the wall ignoring the physical force.

-Coating all walls in the power plant with anti-mana waves.

-Proceed with the coating.

Aracelli’s eyebrows twitched at those words. For the first time, the movement of the familiar was blocked by a wall!

“It’s okay, it’s okay… A wall like this can be jumped over with a short distance movement…”

Maintaining a familiar within the vortex of mana was daunting, and yet, she also had to be stealthy and teleport at the same time.

Even though blood dripped from her nose, Aracelli did not stop casting her magic.

‘A little bit, just a little bit more…!’ Some walls were still passable, while others were no longer passable. Aracelli moved as efficiently as possible, avoiding CCTV and android troops.

Finally, when her familiar reached the depths of the power plant…

“Keuk!”

“Unbelievable…”

The sight they saw was something they never thought they would see.

“Is that… the power plant that mines the energy of the world?”

Thump-!! Thump-!!

In the center of the power plant, a certain huge heart was beating. Around it, hundreds of gigantic eyeballs floated, and tentacles presumed to be its arms and legs were wriggling to all directions.

That’s not all. The walls were also lined with veins which pulsed as if they were alive. The pillars supporting the ceiling also wobbled as if a giant earthworm had stood upright, and the floor shook as if thousands of snakes were crawling on it.

Both Empress Sahar and Aracelli realized something was wrong with the place. It was a kind of space that shouldn’t exist in this world. Barely holding back the acid which rose up to her throat, Aracelli broke down in tears and disconnected from the familiar.

“Cough Cough Cough Cough…”

“Aracelli. Are you okay?”

“Yes, yes, I am fine.”

“You are not okay. Seems like the psychological wound was great… Get some rest.”

“Fyyyyuuuuuhhh…”

Even though Empress Sahar told her to do that, she too, had a pale, tired face. She had seen all kinds of things up to this point of her life, but it was the first time in her life that she had seen such a horrific sight. And it was also the same with Aracelli.

“What the heck is that, do you know?”

“Roughly… But, it doesn’t make sense…”

“Doesn’t make sense?”

Aracelli wiped her head with cold water and took a deep breath. Because she still couldn’t understand this situation.

“That’s…” Aracelli recalled the sight she had just seen. Although she had never seen it in person before, she had heard many stories about it from Yoo Seodam.

“That place is… called Hell Gate. Or at least, a part of it. It was a space where all debris from the universes go… I don’t know how it could be there…”

*

Somewhere inside the Hell Gate.

A man was sitting in a room which looked like an office. The man, for some reason, looked identical to Yoo Seodam. As if he didn’t like something, he continued to tap the desk with his restless fingers.

“It’s late.”

On his desk lay an ordinary, state-of-the-art, Earth computer. And on the monitor, all kinds of prompts were popping out.

[Thank you for loving 『On a Street Without Nobody』 until now. The epilogue will be serialized in the next episode.]

[Thank you for loving 『I Will Return and Become the Strongest』 until now. The epilogue will be serialized in the next episode.]

[Thank you for loving 『I fell into the magical world, but I only know how to use swordsmanship?』 until now. The epilogue will be serialized in the next episode…]

News of the completion of all kinds of works was coming in one after another. And each time it popped out, the landscape of Hell Gate gradually changed.

“Even if the story of such small worlds ends, it wouldn’t be much help.”

The man let out a breath and moved the cursor.

『Magic World, Ruled by Science!』

Even if the insects were small, they all had different sizes. Similarly, there were tall humans, little humans, wide continents, narrow continents, huge planets, small planets. Everything had a size, and so did the dimensions. 

Small dimensions hold less energy. So, it was more efficient to absorb the energy from the finished story of a large dimension. In particular, they would be able to absorb a large amount of energy from a huge dimension with an ultra-high civilization such as ‘Vivienda’.

By the way,

“That guy, Yoo Seodam… Why did he return to Vivienda?”

He knew that Yoo Seodam traveled through numerous dimensions to prevent the story’s completion. However, he had never come back to the world he had visited previously. Realizing the occurrence too late, he hastily consumed his ‘probability’ a lot and bestowed protagonist correction [Protagonist ‘Partellian’ could never be defeated by magic.] to the second protagonist of Vivienda.

However, judging from the movement of Yoo Seodam in Vivienda, he was sure that the protagonist would die soon. Annoyed, he leaned on his chair and called for someone.

“Reina. Are you there?”

A moment later, the door to the office opened, and a woman with golden hair and golden eyes entered. With a somewhat gloomy impression, she kept her cold expression on her face and lowered her head.

“Yes.”

“Do you know why I called you?”

“I don’t know.”

“Yoo Seodam, he’s currently at Vivienda. Didn’t I tell you not to transport him there?”

“That….” However, since she knew there was no point in making excuses, she decided to just bow her head.

“I apologize.”

“Whew…. I don’t know what you’re trying to do, but are you aware of the fact that it’s useless? Why are you so rebellious? You did everything you wanted.”

“Yes.”

“So, let’s do a little better from now on.”

“…”

The man was right. Yoo Seodam could never kill or stop the man in front of her. That’s why Reina thought that it would be good if Yoo Seodam just lived a happy life with the things he got through hunting the protagonist.

However, Yoo Seodam didn’t do that. His new life and acquired abilities were all used for one purpose: Hell Gate. To be precise, to meet her.

Looking at his action, how could she possibly say, ‘You’ll never be able to do it’?

“Editor… I’m just saying this just in case, you didn’t reveal your identity to him, didn’t you?”

“Of course not. I know best that Yoo Seodam will die if I do that.”

“That’s right. Be careful in the future. Because if he dies, I’m the one who will be in the most trouble.”

After saying that, the man waved his hand, so Reina walked out of her office.

– Hmm…. What did Aracelli say will happen in the year 609, again?

In one eye of hers, the image of Yoo Seodam traveling to another world and struggling to solve the story, was reflected.

Reina Ju could not hold out the stabbing grief she felt in her heart.