< 173. Hate to Hate (11) >
The Endellions had denied the existence of gods a long time ago.
Thus, the phrase Del inwardly shouted, "Oh, God!" was not truly a cry of belief in a deity. Its meaning was stronger than a mere exclamation.
Del had just cursed.
"What? Escape? Who? Me? Escape? With whom? What?"
Anger surged in her eyes.
"Of course, it's true that I made mistakes in the past, but why insult me like this?"
Treating the Endellion princess as an escape route.
It wasn't even possible! It seemed to be nothing more than a hateful comment intended to belittle her.
Meanwhile...
"······."
The man who could read the expression of the tentacled creature better than anyone in the universe felt a sense of doubt from her reaction.
There was agitation mixed with the emotions Del displayed. It seemed she had misunderstood the meaning of the words.
But how could she not know?
He spoke without softening his ice-cold expression.
"You're the Endellion princess, aren't you?"
Cough! Behind him, the sound of a dragon fainting and gasping was heard.
"······?!"
The Endellion hesitated to respond. Min-jun felt he understood how the situation was unfolding.
"The succession is in progress, but it's not perfect. Not all secrets have been revealed to you."
Why was this happening despite her official princess status? The answer came easily.
"There must be some unresolved disqualifications."
Del was the first and only prisoner in Endellion history. That made her a special existence.
And specialness is often interpreted as inferiority.
"Right, that's it. Now I understand."
Min-jun gave up further elaboration. There was no time, and from now on, it was an area that Yuntus or Ha-eun would not need to know.
He was firmly set on using her as an escape route, and there were two methods of persuasion: gentle and harsh.
Choosing the latter had its risks for him as well, so he would give her one last chance. He implanted a sharp thought into the Endellion's mind.
"Do you really not know? This secret has not been revealed to you yet. Are you hiding it deliberately because you're afraid of your immediate action upon enlightenment?"
=···Were you not trying to insult me? But there's no way there could be another method besides the launch pad.=
It seemed Del had also started to realize something was off. Min-jun immediately conveyed the information, and Del was astonished by the speed.
It was similar to Endellion's communication speed—a highly advanced form of an ancient method, compressing long sentences into a single character and flowing into the mind. This method, thought to have been used since prehistoric times, had been highly developed.
Yet, Min-jun was incredibly adept at it.
Had the primordial race ever communicated with the Endellions in this way before?
That question was swept away by the flood of meanings pouring in like waves. The conversation occurred at the speed of thought.
"So you understand. To cross dimensions, you need the launch pad? You're bound by the very fixed notions you created. But in reality, the launch pad is both a means of transportation and a shackle."
A constraint that only allows crossing to another dimension through it.
"In the past, one could cross dimensions without such a ship. Before you were born, before your race had fully awakened."
=Dimensional leap magic!=
"Right, that spell isn't easy, but it's not entirely out of reach. In the past, elderly dragons could use it. What was the secret to the dragon race spreading throughout the central dimensions and becoming rulers? When their land was insufficient, they migrated to other worlds. Even before the committee and the launch pads existed."
This was also known history to Del.
However, many things changed after the victory disguised as a truce.
The treaty presented to the dragon race by the committee included a clause to discard all records of that magic and to swear against its invocation and transmission using magic words.
It was a natural step taken by those who had gained unilateral and overwhelming power.
When the subjugated beings organized and united on their own, managing them became troublesome. So, they took away their freedom of movement.
"Only under the committee's surveillance and permission can they move."
Many people forget the official name of the committee because it is often abbreviated.
The official name is the Interdimensional Intelligence Relocation Committee.
At first glance, it seems to be created to promote the exchange of intelligent beings, but the name hides a different intention.
It means they alone plan and control the relocation.
"But like all oaths, magic words can be broken. If one is prepared to face the consequences. So, the committee created another means of control."
At that time, there were already dimensional walls blocking dimensions, and the dragons' leap magic was a spell to breach them. There was significant resistance in crossing them, and only the ancient dragons could endure it.
However, that wasn't sufficient for the committee.
So, what did they do?
=···They added another wall to make the original wall even stronger. A much sturdier wall.=
People generally call it the dimensional wall, but in reality, it is two overlapping walls.
Let's classify the original as Dimensional Wall-1 and the additional one by the committee as Dimensional Wall-2.
Passing through Dimensional Wall-2 is only possible with the launch pad. The magical tool equipped with the leap code weakens the resistance of Dimensional Wall-2 the moment it touches it. It needs to be armed with a special barrier to pass through.
However, the resistance is weakened, not completely eliminated. Creating a clean hole would take a long time to repair and affect the entire wall.
=So you're saying I should breach the wall with leap magic? I don't know such a spell. Ah, you might know. But the dimensional wall created by the committee was made to prevent that!=
"No, that wall doesn't stop you."
=······?!=
"Sometimes the resistance is not sufficiently weakened, causing accidents where the launch pad shatters. But as the greatest accountant of the dimensional realm, you should know. Has an Endellion ever died from such an accident? You, hot-tempered anxiety patients, rarely leave your safe homeland dimension, but when you do, it's usually high-ranking officials?"
=No way?=
"Yes. The committee manages a special code besides the general leap code. It weakens the committee's wall significantly. The resistance gets close to zero. But not all vessels can use that code. To prevent too many holes from being created and collapsing the dimensional wall, it is permitted only to a very few, selected individuals. Like royalty."
Min-jun looked deeply into Del's eyes and said.
"You are that code."
Del organized Min-jun's information in her mind.
To prevent the high-ranking ancient race from dying while crossing dimensions, there is a special code?
It was a plausible story.
But even so, there must be a reason why the Endellions still use the launch pad instead of crossing dimensions bare. Besides the complete extinction of leap magic, there must be another reason.
=So the dimensional wall created by the committee can be breached with my code. But it wouldn't affect the 'natural' dimensional wall that existed from the beginning, right? Like the ancient dragons, I'd have to endure and cross it bare.=
A natural dimensional wall? Though a misleading term, Min-jun didn't correct it.
The dimensional wall that only the strongest ancient dragons could endure and cross from the very beginning. It still remains as an obstacle.
However, now there was an existence in front of Min-jun with a body that could endure without aging like the ancient dragons.
A momentary conversation.
The Endellion had already made a resolute decision.
=One more question.=
The mental wave that followed inevitably carried a sense of anticipation she couldn't hide.
=Why me in particular?=
There must be a way to seize the launch pad from the terminal.
Why did he seek her specifically?
In response to the question, Min-jun answered firmly.
"The jump gates left at the New York terminal seem like bait, no matter how I think about it."
Even though there were excuses about the magic preventing them from being taken out of the terminal and the barrier being the safest, he couldn't trust it. To place escape tools right near the exit? It was unbelievable what might have been done to them.
Another reason.
"And."
Min-jun declared through telepathy, as if announcing to Del.
"You're the most useful hostage I can get right now."
At the same time, you're also the most useful mount available. He swallowed the next words that almost came out.
Del then turned her gaze to the magical footage. Even at this moment, various magical bombardments were pouring down on the terminal. She knew that this wasn't Min-jun's doing.
"Have you allied with the dragons?"
Min-jun didn't answer. Del continued with telepathy.
"Is the jump magic being chanted by those dragons?"
He still didn't answer. Del hadn't confirmed it yet. He tightened his grip on the Asif-1.
"I have some concerns."
Following this, the telepathy conveyed, along with the intention to accept Min-jun's offer and willingly become a hostage... a question was added.
"Does the committee believe that all of this is the work of just one person, like you? Really? It seems... too excessive to be just you."
She asked this while observing the massive firepower raining down on the terminal. Hearing this, Min-jun truly realized that she was a half-baked successor. A princess lacking the most crucial virtues that define an Endelion... or a princess severely lacking.
Was she a member of the royalty who hadn't inherited everything?
He answered the former consort.
"Don't worry about that."
After everything on Earth was settled and Min-jun had completed his escape, the committee would investigate the scene. They would listen to testimonies about the magic that ravaged the terminal, check the footage, and examine how the Earth's representative office was breached.
And then they would finally be relieved.
That the memories he had found so far were, fortunately, nothing more than insignificant fragments.
At that moment, when the high dragons completed a long-prepared spell.
The terminal's prisoner, William Evans, gaped.
"William! What's happening outside right now? I've never felt anything like this before!"
The dragon on the other side of the glass wall was panicking, but William had no mental capacity to respond.
He looked out the window. The building where the dragon was detained was attached to the control tower, but it was quite distant from where the phenomenon was occurring. Yet, he couldn't take his eyes off it.
With a panicked expression, he stared at the blue plasma gathering in the sky. The magic that had been pouring into the base so far seemed like child's play compared to this threatening magic.
Moreover, the location where it was generated was...
"The Guidance Tower!"
Though it was installed in a distant corner away from other major facilities, it was the place with the most powerful barrier within the terminal.
The core facility that made the jump terminal function as a terminal.
Even if Asif-666 were to commit terrorism, he thought it would never touch that place as it was essential for escape.
"If they were aiming for that from the beginning?!"
But touching New York's guidance tower would block the escape route for Asif-666.
All other terminals had ceased functioning.
"...!"
William then conceived a possibility. He recalled a conversation with a troll when he first arrived on Earth.
The ship he was on arrived here after the Earth lockdown began. The committee had allowed his landing.
"I should be grateful. They broke their principles and permitted entry to save me, right?"
"Well, whether it was solely for the value of one prisoner or because they didn't want to waste a perfectly good jump gate is uncertain."
The jump gate, which had already started its jump.
If the guidance had been cut off and the slots blocked just before arriving on Earth, the ship he was on would have disintegrated.
A jump gate is not a magician who chants spells by itself; it relies on coordinates provided by guiding devices.
What happens if it loses its guidance? It would follow its path, breach resistance, and crash into a wrong place without even opening the final gate.
And those on board...
"Asif-666. Could it be they've given up on escaping to another dimension?"
William realized. Asif-666, with the mindset of sacrificing flesh to gain bones, was trying to kill as many enemies as possible like a water ghost.
The struggle of those reaching the dead-end wall had begun.
"It's certain!"
The person involved would scoff if they heard this.
At that moment.
------!
The energy gathered above the guidance tower exploded in a fierce burst of light.
Min-jun watched as Del concentrated and chanted the spell.
Though he had warned against any tricks, Del seemed to have no such intentions from the beginning. Chanting such a complex spell naturally left her in an unguarded state. Once the spell was started, she had already stepped onto an irreversible path.
She didn't have the ability to cleverly alter the spell. She would risk being caught between dimensions and dying. Thus, there was no choice but to trust and activate the spell as it was.
When she forced the high-level spell into her mind, Del almost fainted. The level of telepathy was different from before and had far surpassed the typical Endelion's.
A technique to make the recipient understand high-level concepts all at once. It was a miracle that seemed to appear only in their ancient scriptures preserved for historical and literary value, no longer serving as religious texts.
She shouted a powerful thought (translated as "Oh gods!" or, more literally, "Great tentacle enveloping the stars!") that was strong enough to be heard by Min-jun and then focused on it.
Whoooom!
Magic surged and enveloped the surroundings. And the light flashed.
He was prepared to switch to "rough persuasion" immediately if any odd signs appeared, but everything was still going smoothly.
"The spell is functioning correctly."
Monitoring the flow, Min-jun examined the people who would jump dimensions with him.
Counting only those who were conscious, it was a bizarre party consisting of the former consort, a debtor, and a believer. Each seemed to symbolize a failed marriage, failed asset management, and a failed revenge scheme.
The roles they were assigned made the composition even stranger. They were hostages and mounts, scouts and riddles to solve, walking medical devices and pantries.
He never imagined he would escape Earth with these people just a month ago.
Whooom! Whooom whooom!
Ah, there's one more thing.
His creation. A cooking tool and brainwashing device, a sword and frying pan—soul fragment.
Feeling the vibrations it transmitted through the handle, Min-jun gazed at the rising flashes around him.
The journey to recover what he had lost for so long was now within reach.
< 173. Hate to Hate (11 > End