Chapter 28

28 Chapter – Backwards a Thousand Years (3)

“—!”

“I know. The energy is getting stronger.”

The earth spirit was panicking and warning us. As it said, the intense energy felt ahead was strong and dense enough for me, as well as Kai and Ian beside me, to sense it.

Especially Ian looked like he was about to throw up.

“Can you explain what it was? This is the first I’ve heard of it.”

“The first time I came here was when I left home, drawn by a voice. I knew this cave existed, but I’m sure it wasn’t here just a few years ago…”

As we moved, I urged Kai to tell us what was inside.

He shared what he encountered during his cursed temptations, his voice trembling with despair and sadness.

“It was like a massive pit. What sleeps within it must be the source of this dense magic. It was that pit which summoned the goblin monsters.”

Kai described what he saw as a pit. The strong curse emanating from a void of which the contents were unknown was the root cause of all this.

That was also what the earth spirit had warned us about. As we ran through the shallow cave, we came upon the pit that Kai had mentioned.

“What the heck is that…?”

Ian hesitated at the sight. While Kai’s description of a pit was not wrong, it was a bit different. That massive, dark void leading into the walls was not exactly a pit, but rather a sort of dimensional gate.

Black branches growing like tentacles extended around, eroding the surroundings and pulsing as if they had a heartbeat.

“Stay back.”

The energy emanating from that place created sparks around me. Realizing it was the power of the curse of corruption, the root of all this, I urged Kai and Ian, who had barely escaped the curse, to retreat.

“It’s definitely dangerous. We should just bring the cave down with it…!”

“We can’t eliminate it that way.”

Kai warned me it was dangerous, but I shook my head. I had a gut feeling that I was the only one who could eliminate that strange entity.

“Monsters!”

But the dark pit resisted by spitting out a horde of goblin monsters, as if it wouldn’t yield easily.

The monsters leapt out of the pit and revealed their teeth, growling at us as soon as they saw us. Like Kai moments before, they were imbued with an even more violent and powerful energy than ordinary goblins.

“Bring it down!”

I commanded the earth spirit to attack the monsters. In this cave, where everything was akin to being underground, the power of the earth spirit was maximized.

The earth burst apart as if overflowing with the accumulated rage through me, snapping it open and causing the charging goblins to tumble into their own mouths, unable to react.

Even an outstanding swordsman would struggle to evade an attack like this.

“I’ll do it as you beg for your lives.”

As the goblins shrieked, the earth that entombed them closed with a snap, and I walked towards the pit they had been trapped in.

“–?!”

Of course, as the earth spirit worried, my current power might have been slightly insufficient. But it was unavoidable.

If I didn’t act now, it was clear things would only get harder from here on out. The reason I had gone to such lengths to disguise myself and roam around wasn’t just for fun.

I had amassed considerable power and proficiency throughout that process. Even the strength that I thought was immature had grown significantly through that experience.

“Ugh…”

The moment I released the power I had drawn towards it, the two forces began to repulse each other fiercely, like opposing poles of a magnet.

The surging black energy thrashed wildly, and pure white sparks erupted everywhere.

As strong shocks threatened to send my body flying, I used the earth to bury my legs up to the ankles and summoned a stone pillar to support my back as I braced myself.

“It seems to be working?”

The pain from the explosions was excruciating, yet the sight of unexpected foes appearing made me want to laugh.

In the end, despite having utterly destroyed my world, this calamity was still around, trying to inflict suffering on those who now lived in a new world a thousand years later.

This desire to eradicate it was not simply ordinary rage.

‘It’s diminishing.’

With my rapidly draining power, the encroachment that had been carelessly extending began to shrink gradually. If this continued, it might be possible to completely eliminate it before my power ran out.

“Graaah!”

But just as the pit seemed unwilling to vanish that easily, it began to resist, and the screams echoed behind me instead of my unaffected self as it attempted to burrow in.

*

‘Was it a mistake?’

A sudden chill swept through my chest. Should I have sent them back immediately if I had been guided? Should I have never brought them in here in the first place?

A flurry of complicated thoughts crossed my mind in that brief moment when I glanced backward.

The curse that had cloaked Kai was something I had completely banished. But at this moment, Kai was overwhelmed by the curse again and rampaging.

Kai, attempting to resist, and Ian, who was bewildered, were at a loss for what to do, just stomping their feet.

“Get back, kid!”

And at that moment, an unexpected figure appeared. It was the fox spirit I remembered seeing a few times in the city. I had no idea when she had been following us, but she suddenly appeared with a rifle and a staff, nervously aiming the gun at Kai.

“Don’t!”

“It’s too late. If he loses consciousness and rampages, you and that person will be in danger too!”

She shouted at Ian, who was protecting herself with her own body, and then at me with a trembling voice. From her words and her expression, it seemed she had seen what had transpired outside.

“Stop it, Ian. The fox person’s words are correct. It’s already too late for me.”

“Sir!”

But before they could react, Kai moved first. He clenched his teeth, dropped his sword, and dashed toward me. I flinched, but he was not coming to attack me.

He squeezed his last remaining sanity to make his own choice.

“Do not misunderstand. You have not failed. Simply, in order to seal this horrific pit, my body must perish.”

He was sweating coldly, yet he smiled at my bewilderment.

“When I first came here and accepted the curse, it planted a seed within my body. That seed cannot be eradicated unless this body itself is destroyed, so this is the only way now.”

“Do you have no regrets? There might be other options.”

“I can no longer gamble and put others in danger.”

Kai looked determined, alternating glances between Ian and me. Having already fallen once and endangered many, he could not afford to make another mistake.

I understood his reasoning. More than anything, if this was his choice, I could not deny it.

“Ian, don’t you remember what I always told you? If something has already happened, don’t let it bind your life. I know you might not like it, but I too am paying for my failures through this body.”

Leaving this final message for Ian, he threw himself into the pit without hesitation. Ian’s scream could not stop him.

And as if that was the last remaining suppressor, the curse that had resisted my power began to weaken rapidly and fade away.

“…It’s over.”

Kai’s determination proved to be devastatingly effective against this mysterious foe. The dimensional gate that had once existed had completely vanished, and the gloomy presence that had pervaded the cave had also disappeared.

Mumbling in a daze, I extracted a small ore embedded in the wall. A deep black, akin to obsidian, this mineral was the only trace that still held faint magic.

“Divine one, who are you?”

However, there was still one obstacle remaining.

As I checked on Ian, who was despairingly sitting on the ground, she was staring at me with her tail standing stiff, as if she were tense.

“Must you really ask?”

“If it’s not rude, you clearly appear to be an elf. The ears you have, particularly the characteristic that they do not protrude, can only belong to elves among those with long, pointed ears.”

If it were someone else, they might not notice, but she seemed quite cautious. She was a scholar, and she knew a lot. The more someone knew, the less likely they were to be deceived by flimsy lies.

Indeed, she saw through my elven heritage instantly by utilizing details about the elves that even I didn’t know.

“However, none of the elves I know possess the power or appearance like yours. Please, tell me. The phenomenon we just discovered is a new kind of disaster not reported until now; otherwise, I will have no choice but to act in this emergency.”

Stabbing her staff into the ground and aiming the rifle at me, I couldn’t help but chuckle.

“I understand the sentiment of being wary of an unknown entity, but isn’t this a bit excessive? I’m the one who’s solving the unresolvable issue for you.”

“Th-That’s…”

“And how dare you point something like that at me.”

As I strode closer, she seemed panicked, unable to shoot the gun she had aimed at me. After all, even if she shot, it probably wouldn’t have worked on me.

As I approached her and swiftly seized the gun, my assumption turned out to be true. The grip felt as familiar as ever.

Perhaps it was because I had just come back from a reserves training right before being dragged to the tower, and I still retained a level of familiarity with the weapon.

‘This gun is not unlike me.’

Unable to pass into eternal rest, restored, and existing again in this land, it was like a comrade.

The gun I held in my hand was enveloped in a bright light and fell apart into fine particles. It was the same resolute power as when I restored the artifacts sealed by the corrupt power left by the tower.

Among the countless individuals who had entered the tower, I was now the only one left in this world, and with me was the power to awaken that era, as well as the force to suppress it.

Whether I wanted it or not, in the end, this was something permitted only to me. I looked at the scattering glowing particles of the gun and snickered.

I wondered if there was even a need to use it, but that gun I returned to the spirit realm could be restored again.

“Ah…”

Seeing it, she seemed to lose strength in her legs and collapsed into a sitting position.

Her pale face bore an expression that no longer even suggested she would dare to resist me.