Side Story - Hochi (5)
← Ch.457 | Ch.459 → |
A narrow and dark passage.
I felt like I knew where this was.
1st floor of the tutorial.
It looked similar there.
[You have entered the Trial Hall. ]
According to Lee Ho-jae's memory, I remember a message saying 'Welcome to the Entry Hall' appearing here.
Again, it didn't look exactly the same as the tutorial.
He entered this space that was created to limit the God of Order so he could approach the God of Order.
Safely.
Although the Old Man was breathing hard and our Yong-yong was crying, no one was hurt in any way.
"Hoo."
A deep sigh came out.
The theme of the first floor of the tutorial was an arrow trap.
Arrows will not fly in the same way from here in the trial hall.
Perhaps much more awaits.
However, the outline structure was the same.
'For example, there is no danger at the beginning. '
I remembered the information Kirikiri had put in my head.
Looking back at the memories, I shuddered again.
Kirikiri handed over the information about this place.
It was not communicated verbally, nor was I given a handwritten note.
She just put the memory of 'information' into my head.
Thanks to this, I was able to recall information about this place in my head as if I knew it originally.
That's why I remembered the deadliest warning that Kirikiri had ever given.
'That's what I designed. But the God of Order must have remodeled it after it got out of my control. Much more deadly'
I felt suffocated.
Judging from the information on the 'Trial Chapter' that Kirikiri gave to me, the difficulty level was so extreme that it could literally dismiss the Hell difficulty of the tutorial as a 'tutorial'.
There must have been a modification from the God of Order added to that.
The purpose of this ordeal was ultimately to subdue the God of Order.
If the God of Order, the target of suppression, touched the difficulty of this place.......
It's obvious.
It must have been made so that it would never be cleared.
Perhaps we may not be able to feel safe even in the beginning.
With that thought in mind, I looked at myself.
My physical condition and magical powers remained the same.
[Eye of the Sky]
[Not available. ]
The power could not be used.
The power to borrow the power of another god.
It's not my own divine power, so I thought I might be able to use it.
It wasn't.
[All kinds of divine powers are sealed. ]
The message confirmed it.
'All kinds of divinity and divine powers are excluded. The same goes for power. Even if it is not one's own divine power, the power itself is the ability to represent the identity of a certain god. '
Kirikiri's advice that I remembered in my head said the same thing.
Does that mean I have to get through this place without divinity?
I sighed again.
"Old Man."
The old man lifted his head and looked at me.
"Are you okay? How are you?"
"It's okay."
The Old Man said so with a face that didn't look all right.
"It's just that I consumed too much power. If I rest a little, I'll be fine."
Surely Old Man has consumed a lot of energy.
In the days of being a god, no matter how much power was consumed, it could have been restored casually, but now the Old Man that has lost godhood will be fatally exhausted.
"Yong-yong..."
I was going to ask if he was okay.
I didn't think there was any need to ask the crying child with his face in my chest if he was okay.
Yong-yong wasn't okay.
I barely managed to stop sighing again.
Kirikiri didn't let us go well.
Kirikiri, who was talking with Yong-Yong, said she would check something and suddenly tried to attack me.
I couldn't even respond and stood dumbfounded, but Old Man and Yongyong were different.
They immediately blocked Kirikiri and counterattacked.
It was a gruesome sight.
A battle that was difficult for me to understand continued.
Kirikiri defeated all obstacles and eventually succeeded in attacking me.
Twice.
Kirikiri's golden blade, which cut the lava giant sword of Old Man in two and annihilated all the illusions summoned by Yong-yong, did no harm to me.
The second time she swung the golden blade at me, the golden blade broke instead of ripping through my body.
'Undying mortals....... '
Kirikiri muttered like that.
And she sent us here.
What did it mean
Is it the same as the story that Yong-yong kept telling me that I have no causality?
I couldn't figure it out
What is certain is that none of our party was injured.
But the Old Man was very tired, and Yong-yong was upset.
"Yong-yong, it's okay. Stop crying."
I patted Yongyong on the back.
Yong-yong couldn't stop crying.
Like a little child, he was sobbing quietly, exhausted from crying.
He mumbled sometimes.
"... Kirikiri is naughty."
Yes, she is naughty.
Who knew she would attack so suddenly.
"I'll scold her..."
Yong-yong, I think that would be a bit difficult.
She was a lot stronger than I thought.
She wasn't just a rabbit who likes cakes.
The battle between Yong-yong, Old Man, and Kirikiri was immense.
It's hard enough for me to understand properly.
But I could see who took the initiative in the battle and who had the upper hand.
In the end, Kirikiri overcame Yong-yong and Old Man's interference and succeeded in attacking me.
I still have the feeling of the golden blade hitting my neck.
I was appalled.
Yong-yong continued to pour out his resentment towards Kirikiri.
They weren't bloody words, they were just the kind of stories a child who had been taken away would whine about.
"Yong-yong liked Kirikiri though."
"No."
No? What is it?
Every time they met, they held hands and went round and round and liked each other.
"No, I hated her from the start!"
So, that must have been the case.
"It's true. Sniff."
As Yong-yong was talking, he raised his cries again, probably because of his sorrow.
As soon as he got his energy back, he started crying again.
A very loud wailing.
"Dad hates Kirikiri too!"
Yong-yong shouted loudly.
I don't think so.
I hugged Yong-yong tightly.
I knew why Yong-yong was crying so sadly.
It wasn't that he was suddenly attacked.
It wasn't even because he was betrayed by Kirikiri, whom he was close with.
In order to prevent Kirikiri's attack, Yongyong was forced to reveal his true self.
Not the appearance of a small child, but the appearance of a dragon that has matured.
Yong-yong hates showing his true self.
From a young age, he thought he was strictly a child, but as time passed, that aspect became more prominent.
He hadn't been a hatchling since he learned polymorphing and took human form.
However, by blocking Kirikiri, Yong-yong had to reveal himself.
In the end, Yong-yong, who revealed his true self during the battle, continued to look at me.
Thanks to that, there was a gap.
A gap that was clear enough for me to notice.
Kirikiri dug into that gap and stabed me with the blade she swung.
Maybe that's why.
Why is Yong-yong crying?
"Uncle, I'm sorry..."
As expected.
It was a kind of guilt.
I was going to tell him that I'm fine.
"I'm not cute..."
"Uh...... ?"
"I'm not cute. I'm sorry, Uncle..."
Yong-yong said that, and he started crying again.
This time he bawled his eyes out.
I'm sorry I'm not cute.
Then, who is this cute child who is cuddling and crying in my arms?
I stopped trying to tell Yong-yong, 'No, Yong-yong is cute'.
We, Ho-jae and I always told Yong-yong that he was cute.
Because he was actually cute.
However, the compliments we gave to Yong-Yong at that time were not just compliments.
Yong-yong's existence at that time was hope, salvation, and rest for us.
It was more desperate than warmth.
We hoped that this little one could guide us.
Perhaps the word cute for Yong-yong was not just a compliment, but more like a compulsion that he should be like this.
Each time, I thought of the burden this child must have felt, even if it was late.
I have felt the same pressure.
At that time, I hated the burden and ran away.
I felt guilty and sorry.
I hugged Yong-yong even tighter.
"Yong-yong, you don't have to worry. Dad and Uncle love Yong-yong. It's not because you're cute, but because you're Yong-yong."
I don't know.
How will my heart be conveyed?
I hugged Yong-yong and comforted him.
Yong-yong was a blessing to us by his very existence.
I also wanted to remain that kind of person to Yong-yong.
He will always be by my side, a good family I can trust.
"So don't worry."
Yong-yong's breathing slowly calmed down.
"... and Yong-yong is cute."
This was the eternal truth.
It will be the same even if our Yong-yong becomes a giant dragon bigger than Mount Tai.
Yong-yong fell asleep.
I shook him slightly, but there was no sign of getting up.
"Is he asleep?"
Old Man asked.
I nodded.
"Hmm..."
The Old Man, who had been silently watching from the side, raised his hand and patted Yong-yong on the back once or twice.
Then he lifted his hand again and leaned against the wall as if nothing had happened.
When I looked at the Old Man, he coughed and avoided my gaze.
As Yong-yong fell asleep, the atmosphere suddenly became quiet.
There were uninvited guests who seemed to not like the atmosphere.
It was a spider.
Of course, spiders aren't a threat in themselves, but those spiders are a little different.
First of all, it is the size of a human being, and it fills the walls and ceilings with their large numbers.
The problem was that the spiders had golden blades of familiar colors attached to the tips of their paws.
Isn't that what Kirikiri was wielding?
Last problem.
Kwakwakwakwang!
A shock wave hit my body.
I had to roll myself and Old Man on the floor.
Protecting the sleeping Yong-yong, I quickly got up from my spot.
Shit.
The peaceful hallway suddenly turned into hell.
The terrible magic felt from the spiders made us realize what kind of disaster they were.
There are a lot of people who can destroy the world with just one attack.
'A dimensional species of spider that inhabit the dimensional rift. There is no threat of a surprise attack because a shock wave is generated when they tear through the dimension, but because they are monsters that survive the pressure of the dimension gap... It's just very risky. '
Kirikiri's information replayed in my head.
Among Kirikiri's information, there was no mention of the golden blades on the front paws of those spiders.
This means that it is a setting added by the God of Order.
"How long does it take for the child to wake up!"
Old Man asked.
"I don't know!"
I really don't know.
Yong-yong was still a hatchling's age.
Hatchlings can't control their sleep.
Ho-jae reduced the sleep time as much as possible with a magical treatment, but it did not completely eliminate the sleep time.
Of course, if I force him to wake up, I can wake him up.
Because Yong-yong wasn't the usual hatchling.
However.
I didn't want to push the child who still wanted to remain a child.
I handed Yong-yong to the Old Man.
Old Man hugged Yong-Yong in an awkward way.
Old Man has not yet regained his power.
Yong-yong is asleep.
"What are you going to do!"
Ignoring the Old Man's cry, I moved forward.
Undying mortal.
Those who do not belong to the causal category.
What those words meant, I understood.
One day Ho-jae said
'You are me. At the same time, you are not, I don't know how this happened, but you're important anyway. '
The spiders began to approach me, releasing hostile magical energy as I approached them.
I had no powers, and the magical powers that I had were not particularly special here.
It was self-explanatory what I had to do to fight those monsters.
I didn't want it to look like this.
But now that Yong-yong is upset for the same reason, I can't just keep holding on to my weakness.
'I'm sorry, but you are nothing. Fortunately, you can be anything. '
Ho-jae said.
'But why do you keep imitating me? Do you feel bad? Do you want to die?'
Well, you damn bastard.
I once again cursed Ho-jae in my memory.
Okay, it's time to put this down for a while.
Ho-jae's face, Ho-jae's body shape, everything started moving with him and my body.
Soon my body was out of human form.
To defeat the enemy, I had to become the most powerful being I knew.
It wasn't hard to remember.
The Old Man said, Kirikiri's golden blade is the same as that of the God of Order.
In appearance and performance.
The God of Order was said to be a machine god with numerous blades and mechanical legs with blades attached to them.
I had never seen it with my own eyes, but it was enough information to imitate.
[Kieek-]
The cries of spiders.
Even those little creatures were perplexed.
I imitated the golden mechanical god, said to have transcended all gods.
← Ch. 457 | Ch. 459 → |