"Thank you," I replied around the lump in my throat and smiled, then thrust my right hand toward Agnes.
She didn't turn down the offer. She gripped my hand and was pushing herself up, when a sudden urge engulfed my heart. Instead of ignoring it, I decided to follow my instincts.
â¬The Eye Overseeing All Chaos gasps.â
"Ailette?"
Perhaps it was a bit reckless of me, but I knew another chance wouldn't come if I didn't do it now. My heart swelled as I pulled my mentor into my arms.
I'm going to remember this warmth. I'm going to keep it as one of my fondest memories. My friend, my mentor, my Agnes.
"Will we be able to duel each other again?"
"I hope so..." She stroked my head with her free hand.
The kind gesture made my chest tighten, and I knew it was another memory I would treasure. I savored the moment for as long as it lingered until the tightness of the hug began to dissipate. Flashes of golden light scattered away from my eyes like the fluttering of butterfly wings as Agnes faded from existence.
With that, I lowered my arms, stood straight, and looked up to the sky with a bit of sadness lingering in my heart.
â¬The Voice that Shapes the World advises that Agnes is only making a short trip to the Shrine of Saints.â
â¬The Eye Overseeing All Chaos' eyes glint and they say that it'd be great if Agnes could bring the deacon saintess with her on her way back.â
That was when a system message wedged itself between the messages from the gods.
â¬Â«System» Congratulations. You have acquired the right to pass the last gate of [The Pilgrim's Path]. Would you like to collect your reward?â
"Yes."
This time, what I received wasn't a map but a box with a question mark on it.
â¬Â«System» The quest, [Pilgrimage of Enlightenment (40-day course)] has successfully been completed.â
I was finally allowed to leave the dungeon. A large exit gate instantly formed in front of my eyes as if to prove this. It was time to go back, but I reached into my inventory before I left the dungeon. Placing the box I received as a reward inside, I proceeded to pull out the notebook. I had not had a chance to open it in a while, and I wanted to check if Tesilid had written to me again.
"Huh?"
Although I didn't expect anything, there was a new message that advised me of his well being, written five days after his last entry. Unfortunately, it was not good news, and what I read sent a chill down my spine.
â¦There's a problem, Allie. I think the Walpurgis Night has already started.â§
I almost dropped the notebook in shock. Once again, the original story proved to be an unreliable source of information, and disaster had struck sooner than I had expected.
With a trembling voice, I asked, "Is this... true?"
â¬The Voice that Shapes the World remains silent.â
Their silence was answer enough. The Walpurgis Night could only take place when the three moons of the Demon Realm rose at once, so I'd excluded the possibility of the date changing, since its occurrence depended on an astronomical phenomenon.
Reed... I was nibbling on the inside of my mouth, when the Grand Priest of Voiceism quest was automatically renewed to give me a new calling.
â¬Â«Quest» Sixth [Calling of the Grand Priest of Voiceism] (Difficulty Level: SS)
Stop the Walpurgis Night.
Reward Upon Success: ???
Failure Penalty: World destruction.â
"Whew..."
I no longer had a cross to carry, yet the weight on my shoulders felt heavier than ever. Taking a deep breath to prepare myself for what was to come, I began walking toward the exit gate.
â
The reason Reed triggered the disaster much sooner than expected was simpleâhis opponent was a version of himself who had lived past Loop One Hundred, which meant he needed to make moves that his future self would not be able to predict.
A man who looked like the statue of a fallen angel was standing on the rooftop of the Mage Tower. He welcomed the harsh wind on his face as he bent down and looked over at Gehenid, a city full of people who were thrashing beneath a thick layer of dark green poisonous gas. The shrieks and wails they let out as they died reached all the way up to where he stood, shrouded by the night, some surprisingly crying out for God despite this being a nation of atheists.
Unfortunately, in a world that had been abandoned by its god, Chaos and Evil was the only one to hear their desperate prayers.
"I shall kill millions this way."
Heat simmered in his eager crimson eyes as the man, the embodiment of evil, crossed an irreversible line.
The Grand Festival of the Demons
Ailette and Tesilid's acquaintances immediately gathered at the grand duke's castle the moment the destruction of Wevrille Island was made public. An uneasy atmosphere filled the living room until Grand Duke Heathfenrir boldly broke the silence.
"I'm sure both of them are alive."
With a brief nod, Bianca agreed, "Indeed, Your Grace. It is suspected that Wevrille Island had been destroyed due to the eruption of an SS-class dungeon burst, however the boss had already been subjugated, and the gate closed by the time Lord Wallenstein investigated the scene. Since the situation has been settled, we don't have much to worry about."
As everyone knew how close Bianca was to Ailette, her confidence despite the seemingly dire situation served as a great comfort to the rest of the group.
Grand Duke Heathfenrir, Elthea, Leonard, Prinz, and Hilde all looked slightly more relieved, when the three men from the Silver Citadel knight division chimed in as well.
"Indeed. Everything is going to be fine, especially since they're together."
"I agree with Brother Ephael."
"As do I. I bet Ailette and Tesilid entered the dungeon to see if they could collect more goods."
As Prinz and other members of the royal knight division were also present, Raewyn stepped forward with a sincere look on his face and spoke with a noticeably more respectful tone, mindful of Grand Duke Heathfenrir and Ailette's parents.
"The servants of our duchy are still investigating the location of the dungeon gate. We will inform you as soon as there are any updates."
The plan was to earn some credibility by emphasizing the influence of his family, but the response was rather discouraging.
"Thank you, Lord Wallenstein. I shall trust you with all my heart when it comes to my granddaughter and her husband's wellbeing."
Raewyn looked visibly disappointed at Grand Duke Heathfenrir's use of the word "husband" to describe Tesilid. Noticing this, Prinz silently nudged Raewyn's shoulder encouragingly, while the three men of the Silver Citadel knight division whispered amongst themselves.
"Tesilid beat Lord Wallenstein."
"Who would've known that he was a prince? But then that means he may no longer be able to support a matrilocal arrangement."
"Whew... I'm glad I didn't pick sides back then."
Their conversation seemed to be over and Grand Duke Heathfenrir was just about to stand up from the couch and signal the end of the meeting when Edgar swung the door open and dashed in.
"We have a problem, Your Grace!"
"Edgar? What's the matter?"
Considering how contrastingly frantic the old man seemed, everyone could tell that something terrible must have just happened.
"A dungeon gate appeared at the eastern plaza of Feronsa."
"What?!"
Everyone's eyes widened in shock, but Edgar's report wasn't over.
"Fumes causing hemoptysis are flowing out of the gate. It looks like it's a dungeon drain."
â
A dungeon gate had appeared in the middle of the city, but this strange phenomenon didn't just take place in Feronsa, the capital of the Duchy of Heathfenrirâthe same thing was happening in all the capitals across the Continent of Serentra.
In Gehenid, the capital of Ragneif Republic of Magic, a gust of wind suddenly formed in the middle of the central plaza that was closest to the Mage Tower before splitting into five distinct whirlwinds that emitted a disturbing energy. The citizens of Gehenid gathered around to take a look at what was going on, which was ultimately a fatal error.
"I-It's a dungeon gate!"
"Oh no! S-Something is seeping out of it!"
"What is that? It looks like dark green smokeâ Ah! Ugh!"
The sound of hacking filled the plaza as blood began exploding out of the noses and mouths of those who inhaled the dark green smoke. The crowd was mostly full of civilians who hadn't awakened the Three Great Powers, but the mages present who had resistance to the poison instantly determined what was going on.
"It's a dungeon drain! Poison is seeping out of the dungeon!"
"Everyone, block your nose and mouth!"
"Wind! If we create wind with magic, we can blow the fumes away!"
As the Mage Tower was nearby, Aeromancers, mages who could manipulate air, began pouring out their magic to create a great wind. Unfortunately, the effect was only temporary, as the gate continued to release a flood of poison. As Gehenid was a well-planned city with large and clean roads that stretched out radially from the central plaza, the streets helped funnel the spread of the gas like veins carrying blood from a heart. It was a matter of minutes before the entire city was full of patients suffering from critical respiratory issues.
"What about treatment? Can it be treated?"
"Nothing is working!"
Even white wizard's skills and supreme-grade potions were barely curbing the symptoms. There was no standard treatment for necrosis of the respiratory organs, so the deaths piled up exponentially due to excessive bleeding and suffocation.
To make matters worse, the infectiousness of the disease led to even further devastation with time. Only one in a hundred thousand individuals had awakened the Three Great Powers in the entire population of the Continent of Serentra. There was quite a concentration of mages in Gehenid because it was where the Mage tower was located, but even that number was only in the thousands. At this rate, it was going to be a miracle if even three percent of the entire population of this large city survived, as the deadly smoke continued to crawl out of the gate with no sign of stopping.
With the way things were, there was only one solution.
"We have to block the hole."
In place of Count Ghast Nauzen, the temporary Master of the Mage Tower, Laxadora Ruwell, a Tier 7 mage, made the decision.
"All mage knights, prepare to clear the dungeon and bring the civilians to safety."
Closing the dungeon would be the most immediate solution to saving as many people as possible.
Upon giving the command, Marchioness Ruwell added more wrinkles to her already aged face as she murmured, "It was a mistake to start a conflict with the Nighthawks now, even if they might have killed the Master of the Mage Tower... If only we had the Chimera Researcher with us right now."