Beyond the Eternity

[You have defeated all appointed magicians on your own]

[You have passed the Sub Story.]

[As the main contributor, you have received 3000 coins as compensation.]

[You have received the qualifications to enter the secret room.]

Finally, I managed to take out all the girls that had been brainwashed. Naturally, I did not kill them and only knocked them out but it seems to be enough to pass the sub nightmare.

Fortunately, that guy was not specific enough and an <Error> was created as a result. Thus, I made use of that error to pass the trial. More importantly...

"I only received 3000 coins? Tck! I thought I would get around 10,000 coins at least."

[The constellations says you should not be too greedy.]

Perhaps I was being too greedy. In the first place, taking out these girls was just a sub Trial, not the main Nightmare. Expecting to get 10,000 coins in a sub nightmare was a sweet delusion.

[A few constellations are pleased with your performance.]

[The constellations has sponsored 1,500 coins.]

[Constellation 'Judge of War and Wisdom' is pleased with your decision.]

[Constellation 'Great Duke of the East' is looking at you.]

[Constellation 'Mother of Dragons' is asking why you doing something so meaningless.]

Meaningless, you say? I guess that's correct.

I looked at the number of unconscious bodies that filled the corrider. Each one of those girls tried to blow me apart using those dangerous beams of theirs and yet, I chose to just incapacitate them. Maybe I would have been rewarded more coins if I killed them.

Even though that was something I already knew, I couldn't bear the weight of taking their lives. In this ruined world, I had to maintain my sense of mortality somehow if I didn't want to be ruined.

Truthfully speaking, I was afraid there was a hidden trap. What if I killed them and they exploded?

That was the kind of cliche I didn't want to face.

"The problem is that it took me around an hour to catch all of them. That bastard really programmed them to hunt down the enemy at the expense of their life, huh?"

I glanced at the unconscious highschool girls one last time before letting out a long sigh. Soon enough, I began moving.

The entire point of entering this territory was to obtain the [Yellow Dragon Sword], which would be given as a reward for killing the master of that Territory, Ollerus Izzard. But If all of the Intruders were killed instead, he would be the one to obtain the sword of the emperor.

The rules were simple. As the players search for the entrance of the hidden room, the master would create obstacles to block those players. But the master must not leave that space or else he would face the penalty.

To reach the master of the territory, we had to enter the <Secret Room> which can only be accessed if we pass through the <Doors>. There were multiple <Doors> to that personal space. However, the problem was that all of them would change locations every now and then.

Thus, the <Doors> does not remain at the same place for too long and It would be troublesome to locate the other ones once they disappear.

Even so, there had to be an entrance that would not change locations which would be the <Main Entrance> while the other doors would be the <Back Doors>

...Finding the Main Entrance would be much harder than finding the Back Doors though. And it's not like it's going to be hidden somewhere obvious. Even that guy won't be that careless. He must have hidden somewhere where the players won't think to look. The classrooms? The restroom?

Maybe the teacher's office? Tck! If I took the time to check all those places, I would be struck here during the start of the Holy Grail Showdown. It would have been better if I could learn mana control. Unfortunately, I wasn't born into the protagonist role.

I walked through the Second Level of the North Block and pondered. The World card allows the user to create Another World which is cut out from the Normal World. Once the World is created, Boundary Lines would also be created. As such, this entire building would be overflowing with Mana Lines.

Mana Control is required to sense those Mana Lines, but the problem was that the skill was not easy to learn until after the 10th Fable. Of course, there would be exceptions like Soo Jinyoung and Song Jaewon who already possessed the skill from the get-go.

I sighed. "Maybe my life would have been much easier if I was born as the protagonist. Hmm? What's this?"

A strange scene was waiting for me as I climbed the emergency staircase and reached the Third Floor.

There were a ton of bodies scattered around the corrider. Upon closer inspection, those bodies belonged to the Highschool girls. Their uniforms was torn in several places and there was the sight of bruises. Considering the state of their bodies and the corrider, they seemed to have hit by something akin to a cannon. Somehow they were alive but unconsious.

[The constellations are looking at the remnants of a great battle.]

You call that a great battle? Isn't this a one sided massacre?

While thinking the constellations were strange, a question suddenly oozed its way into my mind. Who could have done something like this?

... Was it possible that the other players passed here? No, that's not right. I didn't see anyone else during the hour I spent wandering around, so it couldn't have been the other players. Was it Kagura? Considering that all these girls are just unconscious, this is most likely her handiwork.

Kagura and Lee Dokho. I seperated from them an hour ago while we were being chased by the relentless students of Sookmyung Girls High. Did they pass through here?

I observed the bodies of the unconscious girls one by one. It seemed their injuries were still fresh so those guys wouldn't have gone too far.

I continued moving while swinging my head around the long corridor in an attempt to find any clues about those guys whereabouts. I couldn't pass through the Main Entrance without them after all.

...Wait, isn't that?

Noticing two bodies too familiar to ignore, I rushed towards them as if fearing for the worst case scenario. Fortunately, It seemed both of them were alive as I felt a purse in their wrists.

At that moment, a long sigh of relief escaped my lips. Even so, something was wrong. Why were they lying on the floor? It seemed as though they were completely knocked out.

Something was wrong.

...Why are they passed out on the floor? Did they exhaust themselves while fighting these girls? No, that's not right. Their breathing pattern is stable and there are no visible injuries on their bodies too. Is someone else responsible for this? No wait, it couldn't be, right?

The girls were not strong enough to inflict harm on these people and other players couldn't have been responsible too. In other words, there could have been only one person that was responsible for this.

"Tck! That bastard! Don't tell me he left the secret room. No, the question is why would he want to leave that place to begin with? Isn't he afraid of the <Causality Storm> caused by said actions?"

Seeing how he chose to leave them alive, he must be also aware of the consequences. Essentially, he must have done something else apart from physical violence.

"Hey, Hey! Wake up! This is no time to be sleeping!"

First, I began slapping Lee Dokho's face to wake him up somehow. I could only hope I was not dealing with a case of mental damage.

"Huh? Wah..."

I stopped moving my hand when I noticed Lee Dokho beginning to regain consciousness. He stood up and scratched the back of his head.

"Lee Dokho, what happened? Why were you passed out?"

"Lee Dokho? Who's that? Ugh... Why does my head hurts?"

"What? What do you mean by that? Your name is Lee Dokho."

"Lee Dokho?" He tilted his head as if confused, "What kind of stupid name is that? Who are you anyways? And why am I? Huh? What's up with all those bodies?"

My eyes slowly widened as Lee Dokho was looking around the corridor with a stupid expression. It was worse than I thought. I'm dealing with a case of complete memory loss.

...No, let's calm down. I don't know how severe his condition truly is. Let's gather more information and see how I can resolve the situation.

"Listen to me, you have to focus. Do you remember anything that happened before you passed out?"

He frowned and rubbed his temple, "I remember reading a novel on the train. I was going to an interview in Monosoft and then, there was a sound of the train stopping. Ugh... I don't really remember what happened next."

I see. So he only remembers what happened before the Stories came into reality, huh?

I glanced over at Kagura who was still unconscious on the floor. If this guy was affected, then she would obviously be in the same condition.

What should I do? Perhaps I could <EoN> to cure Kagura. But what about Lee Dokho? <EoN> does not work on him since he's an entity outside the story.

"Tck! That bastard, now I have to deal with a troublesome situation because of him."

I clicked my tongue and scratched the back of my head. What were the ways for someone to recover from memory loss? Normally, It would be better to allow the patient to recover naturally on their own. But that was impossible right now. Would he regain his memories if I hit him at the back of his head?

"Eh?"

It was here something truly happened before my eyes.

"Uaak! What the hell?! I see now."

Lee Dokho, who was rubbing his temple, cried out and started muttering something under his breath.

"Hey, are you okay?"

"I think I remember everything now. Tck! That bastard, he truly erased my memories, huh?"

"You remember everything?"

My eyebrow was raised. Didn't he say he couldn't remember anything a few minutes ago?

"Ah, yes deputy-nim. That bastard Ollerus appeared and wiped out my memory. I had to use a special method or else I would have truly forgotten everything as he said."

A special method? Ah, I see. He must have used his reader's benefit to restore his memories somehow. But why wasn't he able to save himself in such a situation? Perhaps he was caught by surprise.

I glanced at the still unconsious Kagura and opened my mouth, "What about her? Did she lose her memories?"

"Don't worry about that. I knocked her out before she could be affected by the master's authority. But I couldn't save myself as a result."

I let out a sigh of relief. At least he managed to save Kagura from the memory loss. It would have been troublesome to deal with two amnesiac companions. Although I wondered how his benefit worked, I decided to ask him about it later.

"Alright. In that case..." I knelt down next to Kagura, "We need to wake her up. We can't afford to stay here any longer."

"Ah, yes."

As I gently shook Kagura's shoulder, I kept an eye on the corridor. The eerie silence and the sight of the unconscious students made the situation feel even more unsettling. It was as if we were standing in the eye of a storm, with danger lurking just beyond the walls.

Kagura slowly stirred and her fluttered open. She looked confused at first but her gaze soon focused on me.

"Kim Jakga-nim?"

"That's right."

"Ugh... What happened? And why does my head hurt?"

"It's a long story..." I said while helping her up from the floor, "But I'll summarise the story. Ollerus Izzard tried to wipe your memory and Lee Dokho prevented that from happening, but the Fool couldn't save himself."

"What?"

Kagura's eyes widened and looked at Lee Dokho. However, the man only spoke with an assuring smile.

"You don't have to look at me like that. I'm fine really. Although I did lose my memories for a bit." Then a serious expression formed on his face, "But we need to move. That bastard might still be around somewhere."

"That reminds me..." I spoke, "Why did he attack you people directly? Did he say anything when he confronted you?"

"Now that you said it, I remember him saying he was looking for someone."

"What? That doesn't make any sense. As a Lord, he should have complete control over his Territory. Therefore, knowing exactly how many people entered and where they are. Even though he's just an Half-Lord, It doesn't make any sense why he would be searching for anyone."

"I was also confused at first. But he said that person defeated one of his clones. Do you know anything about that, deputy-nim?"

A clone, was it? That 'thing' back then couldn't be called a clone to be exact. It was more akin to a robot installed with specific instructions than a human clone. In any case...

"Yeah. I do remember confronting something that looked like him."

"I see, so you were the one he was looking for as I thought. In any case, It seemed like he was in a hurry and left immediately after he dealt with us."

He was in a hurry. I see. So he was affected by the Causality Storm after all. For some reason, It seems he can't locate me using the Lord's authority.

"Wait, did he know you guys came with me?"

"Ah, about that..." Lee Dokho awkwardly scratched his cheek, "I tried to lie but he saw through my act. Why are you asking though?"

"...!"

If Ollerus Izzard cannot locate me using the World authority, that means I would appear as a terrifying anomaly that must be removed in his eyes. If that was the case, wouldn't he set up a trap to get rid off such an anomaly?

"Shit! We have to... !"

Abruptly, I stopped talking. I had no reason to stop but the sight infront of me was so absurd that I had to stop to process everything.

Infront of me, the bodies of the unconscious girls were swelling up and before long, the forces from within popped out at once.

With the roar of flames sucking in oxygen, a massive Inferno erupted from the unconscious girls. What was truly horrifying was that there was no scream. Their bodies were completely swallowed up in an instant as the giant mass of fire manifested in the corridor.

At the heart of the crimson-like silhouette, something dark and viscous, like fuel oil, pulsed and dripped. It was in the form of a human, but It didn't seem like something that would be called a human. It seemed to be eternally burning like a tanker after a terrible accident.

Despite being 15 metres apart, I could still feel the intense heat that 'thing' was emitting. In fact, It felt like the entire corridor was melting. Instinctually, I raised my hand to protect my face.

[Exclusive skill 'Omniscient Wall' Is forcefully activating.]

"Tck! Damn it all!"

The name of that creature was [Ignis] which means flame and Its Aspect was Absolute Destruction.

The giant flame god who possessed the appearance of certain death spread its arms and charged towards us like a bullet.

Kwang!

The hand of the flame god was swung and the entire sound in the corridor was swallowed up by a giant explosion.