Chapter 1045 – Which Side Is Mia?

000

“The last signal was cut off… You were completely defeated, Madam.”

The old gentleman, who was quietly looking at the screen of her monitor, brushed off his handsome beard as he spoke.

In her voice, there was a mixture of regret for her colleague’s failure and at the same time, confidence, as if she had expected this to happen.

And his voice, Madame quietly putting down her teacup, sounded to Darwin like an irritating noise similar to fingernails scraping a blackboard.

“I still can’t get over my habit of saying things that get on people’s nerves. Descartes, whose side are you on now?”

“Of course, you and the Returner are allies.”

As he said that, he lightly touched his face and shook his head in a somewhat smoky manner.

He was speaking with that expression of sorrow and sighing.

“It’s a pity, the fusion of the ‘weapons’ I prepared and the ‘clones’ you created was annihilated in such a short period of time… Who is it?”

“Looking at the reaction of magical power, it is obvious… That ‘magic swordsman’… Must be Cleon, Adam’s archenemy.”

At Darwin’s words, Descartes nodded his head as if he understood.

“I’ve never encountered one in person, and I’m not good at magic, so isn’t it inevitable that it’s difficult to tell? Hehe.”

“Tch… I’m proud of that.”

Darwin still complains as if he is not satisfied with Descartes’ excuse, which is not an excuse, and gets up from his chair while making a squeak sound.

“I guess I should get ready.”

“Huh. What?”

When Descartes questions Darwin’s muttering, Darwin turns his head and looks at the old gentleman.

“He will come, so we must prepare to meet him.”

“Demon Swordsman Cleon… He was the one who even destroyed that undersea fortress, so does he have effective means against him?”

“After clashing with each other several times so far… A lot of data has been accumulated on this side as well. Accordingly, it is time to take out the ‘card’ that is specialized for killing only the magic swordsman Cleon.”

Hearing Darwin’s confident voice, Descartes said, “Hoo.” And react.

“That’s it? In that case, wouldn’t it have been better to use it right away and nip the danger in the bud?”

“There are various circumstances here as well.”

Darwin leisurely left the monitor room while saying that.

Looking at her back, Descartes just smiled leisurely and refilled his teacup.

“You seem to be in a hurry, madam. Not like you. I guess he is too… Because the blade in the darkness is close to his neck.”

Over a long period of time, the blade in the darkness followed the longer shadow and arrived right in front of us.

Descartes had already noticed that Darwin was feeling the shadow of ‘death’ like never before.

“Now then… My old friend. What kind of consequences will the destruction you bring? Should we pray that the God of Fate will smile on us?”

Descartes turning his head towards the monitor.

When he presses a few buttons, the displays on the remaining monitors change with noise.

Then, there was a response with the word ‘Laplace’ written there, which had not been displayed until now.

001

“Hey… Mr. Laila…”

“Yes, I know, Sasha. Wait… Don’t say anything.”

Leila let out her sigh, blocking Sasha from trying to raise her voice.

The situation they are in now, and the looks of suspicion from others.

The surrounding scenery doesn’t seem to change no matter where you go.

Even if I didn’t like it, I could tell that I was circling the same place several times.

All things considered, Sasha and Layla made sense.

So, Lila lets out her sigh.

“We… Are lost, right?”

“I told you not to do it…”

In the end, Lila sat down on the ground because even though she didn’t want to admit what Sasha had said, it didn’t change her situation.

To be honest, it must have been about 10 minutes ago that Sasha realized that fact.

However, Lila has a safe route extracted from ‘Laplace’ in her head, so if she says ‘right’, she is correct.

Thinking like that, Sasha followed Laila without doubting her.

Ah, but reality is heartless, and the world is heartless.

In her doubtful situation, someone who puts his thoughts into her mouth can take her own life.

Because it was too late to realize it, Sasha looked at Layla in tears, and Artis, who was standing behind Layla and Sasha, could not help but let out a hollow laugh.

“What happened…!? Why do I keep circling the same place from before!”

Of course, it would have been the craziest thing for Lila, who could be said to be the one holding the map.

She raised her voice as she grabbed her own hair with both hands and messed with it.

“Aren’t you under some kind of illusion spell?”

“No! That can’t be true. If that were the case, do you think I wouldn’t notice?”

Attis asks that question, but Lila denies it.

After entering Inryong Mountain, I walked forward along her route for 30 minutes.

Fortunately, the desperate danger that the guardian warned about did not appear, but thanks to that… Or should I say that’s the reason.

It was an undeniable fact that on this peaceful road, she let down her guard a little.

Nevertheless, Lila talks.

Here, ‘genjutsu’ does not exist.

“Illusion magic isn’t that easy. Controlling a person’s mind or creating an illusion in front of their eyes. Things like that rarely work against wizards who have magical knowledge.”

“You’re not an expert in illusion magic.”

When Artis spoke in a rebuttal to Layla’s words, Layla naturally responded with a rebuttal.

“Even if that’s the case! Listen carefully, when it comes to magic, the side with higher magic power tends to overwhelm the side with lower magic power. Whether it’s the side using offensive magic or the side using defensive magic. When magic collides, It is the ‘law’ of this world that stronger magic with a greater amount of magic power used wins.”

Of course, determining victory or defeat based only on the amount of magical power is a kind of ‘general theory’, but if it is a match between magicians of equal skill, what Lila said is correct.

“Wizards like me know that illusion magic is troublesome, so they always protect their minds with a certain amount of ‘magic power’. It’s to resist surprise attacks with illusion magic. Do you know why this is effective? It’s a lower amount than the magic power I applied. The low-quality illusion magic that used magic power was blocked and disappeared, and the illusion magic that used more magic power than the magic power I was wearing pierced through my defense.”

“… Then didn’t we lose after all?”

When Sasha asked an innocent question about Layla’s words, Layla shook her head once.

“Ugh. Wizards can sense that their defenses are down. That’s because it’s something that happens to their own bodies.”

In other words, you may not notice that illusion magic was used in the former, but rather notice that illusion magic was used in the latter.

Of course, even in the former case, you can respond by continuing to use magical power detection down to the smallest details.

“Neither the magic protection nor the magic detection that I am using now. They say that genjutsu does not exist in this space.”

“Well, indeed… So, we can say succinctly that illusions do not exist.”

Sasha also nodded her head as if she understood what Lila said.

However, when Artis heard those words, he sighed loudly and said, ‘Haa’.

“Hey, even if you say that, doesn’t that somehow solve the situation? In the end, it means that we’re going to be circling this space forever… Is there any way to combat something like this, Mr. Quartz?”

While saying that, Artis turns his head towards where the quartz was just a moment ago.

Since Artis was in front of her, her Quartz was also following nearby, a little behind, to protect her.

“…?”

But, Artis will tilt her head.

This is because she was not where Quartz was walking just a moment ago.

“What…? Where did you go?”

“Really? I think I was behind… Until just now.”

When Attis realized that Lila also did not know her whereabouts, Attis silenced her for a moment.

“What about other half-ghosts?”

“… Now that I think about it.”

The group confirmed that her subordinates and disciples, including Quartz, had also disappeared.

“Has anyone seen where Mr. Quartz went?”

Attis asked that question, but no one raised their hand to speak.

Not only the disciples of Attis, but also the members of another expedition.

“There’s no way that Mr. Quartz could have gone missing by leaving us without saying a word… Moreover, we don’t know what happened…”

Lila placed her hand on her forehead and couldn’t help but frown.

If she sensed something and left her post, she would have at least said something to Artis or Layla.

Then what you can think of is…

“… Could it be that Mr. Quartz and the Bangui Corps were attacked by the enemy…?”

When Sasha speaks in a worried voice, Lila says nothing for a moment and then nods her head.

“I don’t want to think that way, but… It might be natural to think that way…”

“Ugh…”

Sasha reacted to Lila’s answer as if she was a little scared, but then shook her head and tightened her grip on her bow.

As for the sense of threat, she was probably the second-best player on this expedition team after Sasha, but she was attacked without a word.

If so, she has no choice but to do it herself somehow.

“Okay, I’m going to look around a little bit and come back!”

As she said that, she immediately started moving her feet.

“Wait a minute Sasha…!”

Lila tried to call Sasha out, but Sasha ran away as fast as the wind.

As she sees Sasha quickly disappearing from sight, Laila sighs deeply.

“First, let’s gather together. Even if someone disappears, we’ll know right away.”

“… I think that would be good.”

Lila closes her eyes as she says this, and she sends her voice to Kuon and Amelia, who were at the center and back of the expedition.

[Quon, Amelia. Please come to the front first. I think it would be better to get together and resolve this situation.]

[Yes, I understand. As expected, we were circling the same place.]

Amelia responds immediately to Lila’s words.

However, unlike her, Kuon’s voice does not return.

“… Huh?”

Lila will feel another sense of discomfort there.

And as she did when she fell out with Cleon, she reaches out within her magical senses and moves to find Cuon, but-

There, she clearly had her thread connected to Kuon, but the moment she touched it and tried to sense it.

It passed through her hand and disappeared as if it wasn’t there.

It was my first time seeing such a reaction, even if it was Laila.

She’s not so far away that she’s out of reach.

A connection with Kuon that is there but seems not to be there.

“What on earth is happening?”

Even when I called out to Amelia and asked her to find Kuon, all I got back was that she wasn’t in the middle of the expedition.

002

“Haa… Haa…”

The sound of rough breathing echoes.

There is also the sound of something being cut by a sharp iron.

Every time I took a breath, I could feel the circulating blood leaving my body little by little, trying to somehow move my tired body.

Quartz grabbed his sword again, feeling the heat from the wounds on his cheeks, arms, and legs.

She could see that the tree trunk that had been tying her other arm and leg a moment ago had been cut and fell to the ground.

“I’ll help you recover now!”

And then, a girl’s voice comes from behind.

Then, as a refreshing and cool wind blows, a sense of ‘gentle magic’ envelops Quartz’s entire body.

The recovery magic was activated, and the scratches on her body disappeared without a trace.

“Whew. Thank you.”

Even the small wounds on her body become shackles that constantly hold her back.

If it weren’t for Kuon’s help, Quartz’s body would have suffered large and small bleeding wounds all over her body by now.

“Ugh~! Kuon-nim! Me too!”

“I’m sorry, Kuon… I also… Please!”

And, just when I thought I heard another request for help from Kuon, I saw members of the Anti-Ghost Unit walking around the area, swinging their swords from a little further away than Quartz.

Kuon nodded her head at Dry and Ain’s request, and put more of her power into the staff she was holding.

Then, green magic appeared and the blessing of healing appeared to them at the same time.

“… Indeed. The guardian’s warning was not a bluff.”

Quartz said this while wiping her sweat with the back of her hand.

When you look around, what you see are ‘living plants’ that are flocking in to fill your field of vision.

And, the form that walked on two legs and slowly moved with two arms looked somewhat human-like.

Looking at its appearance, Kuon naturally reminded me of the plant golems influenced by the seasonal trees seen in the forest of Elessia.

Not long after the expedition team entered Inryong Mountain, they suddenly appeared from the forest.

No, let me say it again.

‘The forest moved and approached the expedition.’

It may be more accurate to describe it this way.

The expedition tried to respond immediately to the countless plants, but what the party faced at the next moment was.

I was so drowsy that I couldn’t keep my eyes open properly.

It wasn’t magic.

It had that effect on the pollen scattered by living plants.

It could also be said to be a kind of ‘poison’.

As a result, Kuon quickly used the Wind of Purification to protect his body, and—

Except for Quartz and Bangui, whose falling asleep could be suppressed with medicine, all the expedition members fell asleep and collapsed one after another.

The plants grabbed the fallen expedition team and dragged it to the ground.

As a result-.

Right now, the sight reflected in the eyes of Kuon and Banguidae was somehow ‘a scene where you can’t laugh, but you can’t help but laugh out loud.’

Laila and the other members of the expedition, with only their faces sticking out of the ground, so they could breathe, looked like crops growing in a field.

Then, the plants approached with bodies made of branches, flowers, and vines, saying they would make the remaining four people look the same.

They are wielding those monsters whose identities cannot be determined with the knowledge they have.

[…

In the distance, a phantom appeared as if floating in the air with her eyes covered by a visor, ‘a woman with a goddess-like aura with hair sparkling with emerald light’ – probably a guardian.

With a benevolent smile on her lips, she looked down at her companions and was about to take their lives.