Chapter Season 2 742

It was a strange place.

It was not eerie merely because it was a barren wasteland where not even a trace of life could be found.

Quite the opposite. Though there was clearly nothing there, he constantly sensed presences around him. What his eyes saw did not align with what his other senses perceived, and it did not take long for that dissonance to become a subtle fear.

The occasional sound of the wind resembled someone weeping mournfully, and at times, he felt something brush past his hair or fingertips.

That was not all.

After about an hour, Peran grew strangely tired.

He should still have had plenty of energy. True, he had suffered from chronic fatigue since becoming a commander, but even in that condition, Peran could easily stay up all night.

Was this also the giant's influence?

Yet neither of his two companions showed any sign that something was wrong. Nor could he afford to request a rest under the circumstances, so Peran forced his gritty eyes open and kept walking.

Drip.

Just then, he felt something lukewarm on his upper lip.

“Huh?”

The moment Peran let out a dazed sound, Yang In-hyun stopped ahead of him. He gave Peran his usual lonely look, then took something from inside his robe and held it out.

“Wipe it.”

“...Ah.”

It was a handkerchief.

Only then did Peran realize that his nose was bleeding.

“S-sorry. That's strange.”

“...”

Peran wiped away the blood and was wondering whether he should return the now blood-soaked handkerchief when Yang In-hyun abruptly asked an unexpected question.

“Do you have a lover?”

“What?”

For a moment, Peran wondered if he had misheard and blinked stupidly. Only after Yang In-hyun had regarded him impassively for several seconds did he hasten to answer.

“No, I don't.”

“Family?”

“...I have a family.”

“Can you rely on them?”

It was a rather peculiar question, but Peran considered it carefully before nodding.

“I'm not sure what you mean by that... I suppose it would depend on the circumstances.”

“Then do you believe in God?”

His questions were growing stranger and stranger.

Peran considered how the questions might be connected, then shook his head.

“No.”

“I see.”

“But what is the point of these questions...?”

Yang In-hyun murmured as he gazed somewhere far away.

“I wanted to tell you what to watch out for before we encounter the giant.”

“Ah. I see.”

...Was that not a little late?

Peran also had no idea what the preceding questions had to do with those precautions.

“You need something to anchor your mind. Without it, what lies ahead will be even harder.”

“...”

“The fatigue you feel now and the blood you just shed are merely the beginning.”

“Ah...”

So the physical problems he was experiencing really were caused by the giant.

“It will be difficult to follow everything I am about to tell you, so you need not take it all too seriously. First, do not question anything you see more than necessary. Do not attempt to analyze it, either. But neither should you accept it as natural. Balance is what matters. Find it strange, but do not delve too deeply. Do you understand?”

“Ah, yes. I'll do my best to remember that.”

“You have many things left to do. What matters is keeping your mind intact, so there is only one final warning I will give you.”

Yang In-hyun spoke in a whisper.

“Do not go mad.”

Yang In-hyun was not a man who spoke idly. Peran had not known him long, but he understood that much. The man's calm advice was therefore more than enough to put him on edge.

Put another way, it also meant Peran had prepared himself well enough not to panic no matter what came at them.

How long had he endured the ghostly wails he could not grow accustomed to and the faint sound of footsteps echoing in the distance?

At some point, Peran spotted a figure slowly walking toward them from afar.

“...I think there's someone ahead of us.”

“So there is.”

Yang In-hyun answered as though it were nothing of consequence.

With his eyesight, the man had probably noticed it much earlier. In any case, Yang In-hyun's matter-of-fact reply reassured Peran enough to keep walking without much alarm.

He sensed something peculiar only after the figure came close enough to be clearly visible.

“Uh...”

His throat seemed to close, leaving him unable to speak.

A human and a fish. That was the simplest way to describe them.

The naked human crawled on all fours, its limbs so short that they seemed to have been abruptly severed halfway down. More precisely, its arms ended before the forearms, while its legs ended below the calves. Despite its condition, the human beamed happily. The fish was the one holding the leash around its neck.

The fish sat astride the human's back and possessed arms and legs of its own. They were not naturally formed. They looked like limbs torn from someone else and crudely attached to its body.

Because a fish's neck merged directly into its belly, it appeared to be craning its head toward the sky, so there was naturally no chance of meeting its gaze.

The fish suddenly shrieked.

“Where are you going?”

“Ah...”

It can speak?

No, of course it could. The Magic Planet had plenty of creatures even stranger in appearance. A fish with arms and legs was bizarre, and the sight of it treating a human as a mount was nauseating, but perhaps this was perfectly natural to them.

“We are heading toward the giant up ahead. We are a reconnaissance party from the Magic Planet...”

“Where are you going?”

“As I said, to the giant...”

“Where are you going?”

Peran's expression stiffened.

Over the course of its three questions, the creature had somehow drawn three steps closer.

“Wheeeere are you goiiing?!”

The next instant, the fish charged at them, foaming at the mouth. Of course, it was actually the human beneath it doing the running. Caught off guard, Peran froze without responding.

Slice.

With the sound of flesh being severed, the two monstrosities fell to pieces. As they collapsed into a splattering pool of blood, Peran stammered.

“W-what was that...?”

“...”

“Was that... ‘Destruction’?”

Yang In-hyun flicked the blood from his sword as he answered.

“I do not know where these things came from either. As you say, they may be ‘Destruction’, or they may simply be residents of the Unified World who were driven mad by the giant.”

“...”

“More monsters like these will continue to appear. Their appearances will have nothing in common. They may attack us like these did, or they may simply pass us by while babbling nonsense. I have divided them into two categories.”

Peran could not quite make sense of Yang In-hyun's explanation, but he nodded almost unconsciously.

“The first are those walking from the ‘giant's direction.’ Most of them drift in and out of lucidity. They look bizarre and spout incomprehensible words, but they are not particularly dangerous. It is the other kind we must watch out for.”

“By the other kind, you mean...?”

“Some of them are heading toward the giant, just as we are.”

Yang In-hyun glanced from side to side as he spoke.

“In other words, they are going toward the giant of their own accord, and they are considerably troublesome. Even I chose to flee when more than ten of them gathered.”

“...Mm.”

“So keep watching the path ahead. I must check both sides for any creatures walking in the same direction as us.”

“...Understood.”

Peran nodded, his face pale.

From that exact moment, the monsters they encountered grew more numerous.

Monsters with forms he had never seen or heard of spotted them from afar, then charged toward them like mad. Most were reduced to pools of blood by Yang In-hyun's sword before they could even approach, but the situation itself was taking a toll on Peran.

Incidentally, it was Yang In-hyun who stopped him from providing magical support.

“Conserve your mana whenever possible.”

“I still have plenty to spare...”

“I know. But now is not the time to use it.”

“...”

That was another strange thing to say.

If one asked who held greater strategic value in the current situation, Peran or Yang In-hyun, the answer was indisputably Yang In-hyun. Peran's magic would only become less useful the stronger their enemies grew... So would it not be more rational to use it against the relatively weak ‘fleeing monsters’?

“Not necessarily.”

Yang In-hyun said only that and fell silent. From then on, their forced march began.

They had called it a distance of ‘five days’, but they were approaching the giant even as it advanced toward them. In practice, they would encounter it within three days at most, or two if they were quick.

The monsters came without pause, depriving them of even the time to sleep. They had no choice but to take turns snatching brief naps, and from then on, Peran began having frequent nightmares.

Every dream ended the same way. Hideous monsters chased him down, finally caught him, and tore his entire body to pieces.

Yang In-hyun and the Red Knight seemed entirely unaffected by such influences. They cut down the oncoming monsters as impassively as machines, but Peran could not do the same.

“Bleargh...”

He vomited over and over. He retched until there was nothing left to bring up, and within barely half a day, his once-handsome face had grown gaunt.

Now his heart pounded and cold sweat covered him even when he was merely walking.

By this point, he truly understood what Yang In-hyun had told him at the beginning.

He needed an anchor.

An anchor capable of supporting a mind on the verge of shattering.

─Self-Righteousness is precisely the path we must pursue. It is the beam of a lighthouse barely visible through a storm, a single ray of moonlight shining through the branches of a dark forest. Only by holding on to your Self-Righteousness can you avoid losing yourself.

Peran's anchor was his master's final teaching.

That advice alone allowed him to endure.

...The longest and most horrific stretch of Peran's life passed.

Had a day passed, or two? He had no idea. Apart from snatching a little sleep, he had been too busy to rest or keep track of time.

He did realize that the sky had grown much darker and the footsteps much louder. The vibrations accompanying each step were now unmistakable.

The surrounding landscape had also changed slightly.

The open wasteland ended, giving way to rugged mountains. The environment remained barren, making it feel as though they were climbing mountains of solid stone. For some strange reason, the ascent was far from easy, and sweat streamed from his entire body. The one mercy was that no more monsters appeared after they entered the mountains.

Then, when they reached the summit of the highest mountain in the area, Peran finally saw it with his own eyes.

“...”

THOOOOM.

What did Peran feel the moment he faced it?

Dark. Huge. Terrifying. I don't want to see it. I want to close my eyes. That isn't enough. I should gouge them out. Then I'll never have to see it again. No. That's wrong. I have to run. But where? That thing will pursue me to the end of the world.

Ah. Right.

Then only death would bring true...

“Calm yourself.”

Yang In-hyun spoke for the first time in a long while and gently pressed down on Peran's shoulder.

THOOOOOOM.

The giant's footstep shook the earth once more, and Peran collapsed on the spot. The strength had left his legs without warning.

He wished he could simply lose consciousness.

“You must not look away. That is an enemy we must defeat. Keep your eyes open and face it directly.”

At the sound of Yang In-hyun's voice, Peran forced his head up.

There was a terrifying grandeur to it.

The giant took each meticulous step as though reaping a harvest, yet even from the summit of the highest mountain, its full body could not be seen. Peran could barely see as high as its waist, and even that was obscured by what might have been dark clouds.

Could any being ever behold its head? It was harder to imagine than a vista at the edge of the universe. Merely looking upon it seemed to paralyze his sense of distance.

At times, the giant seemed to be right before his eyes.

“Look a little lower.”

Peran lowered his gaze as Yang In-hyun instructed.

Several insects were racing toward the giant.

No. They were not insects. Their great distance and the sheer presence of the giant had momentarily deceived him.

Those things were...

“The monsters ‘heading toward the giant’...?”

Yang In-hyun nodded.

The monsters raced madly toward the giant, rapidly closing the distance.

“What are they... trying to do?”

“Who knows? Let us keep watching.”

One monster had already reached the giant's toe. Peran narrowed his eyes at it. He could not be certain, but it did not seem all that small, considering its outline was visible even from this distance.

It was a massive deer. Its entire body was wreathed in pure white light, making it resemble a Divine Beast more than any of the monsters they had encountered thus far. Even from this great distance, Peran could feel its spirit. Was it a stag? The antlers rising from its head looked as though they had been carved from gemstones.

The deer tried to ram the giant with its antlers, but in the next instant, holes were suddenly punched through its entire body. Its overwhelming momentum vanished in a flash, and it plummeted while spilling blood.

“...!”

What had just happened?

“Focus more closely.”

Yang In-hyun spoke in a whisper.

The other creatures arrived a moment later and launched another attack on the giant. They, too, were shaped like animals and radiated an aura similar to that of the deer that had tried to ram it.

At that moment, a violent gale erupted. Arrows of flame shot forth, and lightning struck. Spikes of ice pierced every inch of the charging animals' bodies.

Peran froze at the unimaginable sight.

“...My God.”

It took a moment for the words to come out.

It could not have been otherwise.

At that moment, Peran understood why Yang In-hyun had chosen ‘a mage of the Magic Planet’ as his companion.

The colossal giant whose full extent could not be seen, Destruction. What this being beyond comprehension was using was...

Magic.

*****

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