Chapter 149
Yuna emerged through the mirror and woke up in the collapsed café. In that place, with tables and chairs strewn about and corpses fixed to the walls and floor like taxidermy, she gripped her staff tightly. The wooden staff responded to her will, scattering a faint light around her.
Vwoooom.
The light gradually widened its reach before finally illuminating the inside of the café. Revealed like that, it looked as though it had been abandoned for years, with not a single intact spot anywhere.
Wherever she stepped, obstacles crunched underfoot, and horribly dead corpses hung all around like decorations. Yuna studied one of them closely and let out a low groan.
"……Could it be the Godmother? Because time flows differently, is she already dead?"
"Unfortunately, she's still alive."
"Hieek!"
Yuna screamed at a voice she should never have heard.
Even so, Eunha, who had been resting behind the half-broken counter, poked her head out and met Yuna's gaze.
"You made it safely. I'm glad. I heard some strange noise in the middle, so I thought you'd crash-landed."
"S-strange noise...?"
"Hmm... roughly speaking, maybe the sound of glass breaking? Well, I only heard the noise and there wasn't any reaction, so it probably wasn't anything serious."
As Eunha answered, she tore open an instant coffee packet she had found lying in a corner. She had already taken off her gas mask.
"It's fine to take off the gas mask. I checked briefly with magic, and I didn't find any radiation or radioactive traces."
"R-right...? Then the food too..."
"Yes. It's fine to eat."
Glug.
Eunha poured the coffee powder into a paper cup and added hot water. Then she stirred the contents with a teaspoon she had brought from somewhere. Sugar, coffee, and water mixed together, and in an instant, cheap coffee was ready. She took a sip and nodded in satisfaction.
"It's delicious. My favorite coffee is Americano, personally, but this isn't bad once in a while."
"M-mine...?"
"I don't have any. I only found one."
"T-then let's share it. I like coffee too..."
"There's too little to share. Wouldn't it be better to find another one separately? There's a department store nearby, so if we search there, we should probably be able to find one. Want me to help you look?"
"……Sigh……."
Yuna let out a deep sigh and removed her gas mask. The air, which had only felt hot before, turned cold again, and the stuffiness vanished at once.
She didn't suddenly choke or spit up blood. Thankfully, the Godmother didn't seem to have lied.
"W-where is Ian...?"
Yuna asked as she sat down in a nearby chair. Eunha tilted her head.
"Mr. Ian hasn't arrived yet. Weren't you the second one to come through?"
"H-huh? No? I-I was the last one. Ian came through five seconds before I did."
"Pardon?"
"Huh?"
Their gazes collided in midair. A cold silence split the space between them. Cold sweat ran down their spines.
Abruptly!
Before anyone could say anything, Yuna and Eunha stood up at the same time. The paper cup they'd set down a moment ago tipped over and spilled coffee, but Eunha didn't care.
"How many seconds apart did you come in?"
"Five seconds. Yes, Ian came in five seconds after you did."
"And then you came in another five seconds after that."
"R-right."
"I've been here for about an hour. That means thirty minutes here equals five seconds in reality."
"T-then Ian, after he came in here..."
"That means thirty minutes have passed."
Thirty minutes.
A span of time that could be short or long, but at the very least it wasn't enough to guarantee safety in a situation exposed to the supernatural. Both of them grimaced hard.
"……Ian isn't that weak, but if the reptilians rush in, relying on numbers, then even he won't be able to take them down easily."
"H-he probably didn't die or get hurt."
"I think so too. But he may have been in danger."
Eunha muttered with a grave expression. The grimoire that had been hanging quietly at her waist until then added under its breath.
[Eunha, that bastard has two grimoires of the Outer God on him. There's no way he'd be taken down easily in a place like this.]
To be exact, there were three volumes, but because the Blue Shackles and the Book of Contract were specialized in stealth, even Lemegeton hadn't noticed its presence. But even so, the two volumes he already had were more than enough to break through the current situation.
[I don't know exactly what magic is recorded in the grimoire that bastard has, but the magic of the Outer God isn't anything ordinary or peaceful. It means that even if hundreds or thousands of lizards charge at him, he won't be easily thrown into danger.]
"Still, you never know."
"H-huh? What do you mean?"
Yuna tilted her head, thinking the words were directed at her. Eunha waved her hand.
"I wasn't talking to you."
[Eunha, worrying about a mage is the most useless thing in the world. Most mages take pretty good care of themselves. Besides, that man has exceptional talent as a mage. He may even be stronger than you.]
"Even so, he's someone who's only been a mage for less than a year. His judgment could be poor."
[No, that can't be. Do you think an Outer God's grimoire would be so easy to handle? Do you know how much mental fortitude and will it takes to keep your sanity while owning—]
"Solomon."
Eunha let out a long breath and looked down at the grimoire hanging from her waist.
"That kind of thing doesn't matter. I'm just worried about him. No conditions attached."
[……Eunha.]
"So stop adding extra commentary and just help me search. You've gathered a lot of ether, right?"
[……Tsk. Yes, enough has been stored.]
Unlike the other grimoires, the Lemegeton had built-in magic that could store ether.
A spell personally created by Solomon, the only one among the grimoire's ritual-type spells to center on intent-based magic.
Effect is as stated: storing ether. And through that, ceremonial magic could be cast instantly.
"Our Father in heaven. As your faithful servant, believer, and daughter, I ask You. Grant me the power and wisdom to punish the forces of evil."
A spell made of a sincere prayer to God. Brilliant light poured out from the Lemegeton and gathered in front of Eunha like beads. Without hesitation, Eunha grasped the beads in her hand and closed her eyes. Yuna instinctively took up the role of her guard.
"O eye of light. As one favored by God, I command you to become my eyes. And thus, find the person I seek."
Tzzzt.
Originally, it was Catholic-style magic that used bread and wine, fine earth, salt, and holy water as materials, but she boldly skipped all of that and brought forth only the result. The light dwelling in the orb gradually faded, and instead her pupils were dyed gold.
[Aaaaaaaagh!!]
Belial, the great demon contracted to her, screamed as the divine power seeped into her eyes.
She ignored it. Eunha focused all her mind on the vision, which had gone blurry for an instant before beginning to reflect something again.
"……."
And so she saw it.
A ruined city. Broken, shattered asphalt roads. Racing across them at high speed, a huge beast of ash gray and blood red.
"Ugh!"
Just staring at it made her head spin with pain. Because it was an eye of insight, it reacted even more sharply. But Eunha didn't close her eyes; instead, she opened them even wider and glared at the beast.
'They said there were only reptilians, so how is there a monster like that in the city too?'
For a moment, that thought flashed through her mind, but after thinking it over a bit, she realized it was nonsense.
Eunha had scouted this space through lower demons. And those demons relayed to her what they had heard, seen, and felt.
Demons are basically creatures that live on lies and mockery, but the ones contracted under Solomon and the Lord couldn't give Eunha false information.
Maybe if they were the 72 demons, that'd be another matter. The lower demons beneath them couldn't dare touch even a single hair on her head.
Could beings like that suddenly step into this place and become able to lie?
Ridiculous. Such a space couldn't possibly exist, and even if it did, neither Lemegeton nor Eunha would have failed to notice that the demons had changed.
So that being was highly likely a creature that should never have existed in the mirror world to begin with. If so, then what on earth had flown here—
"……?"
As she thought that, the beast's form gradually came into clearer focus in her vision. Thanks to that, she was also able to see someone lying on top of the beast.
A listless face. A blank yet languid expression. In those half-lidded eyes there was little trace of reason, and yet the irises were beautiful like obsidian. A fluttering coat. Three grimoires sprawled across his chest.
There were a few differences from the last time she had seen him, but Eunha recognized him at once.
"……Mr. Ian?"
The words slipped out before she knew it. As if in response, Ian, lying on the beast's back, met her gaze and gave a faint smile as he waved.
At that languid, swaying hand and his decadent gaze, Eunha's heart skipped a beat.
*
For twenty minutes now, Ian had been moving by lying on the circulator's back because walking was too much trouble. He felt Eunha's familiar magic and waved.
"Godmother, I'm here. Where are you? Can you hear me? Hello? Oh, Donghun. Eunha, what are you doing right now? Are you asleep? Outside...? Yes, outside."
As he spoke in a stream of consciousness, the grimoires clustered together and clung to his hand like magnets, as if to say, 'Don't look at other women.'
[Grrrrr!]
The circulator howled.
The circulator was ridiculously strong; among circulators, it was the strongest.
It had beaten the reptilians and the cultists too. It'd win even if they all came at it together.
[Krrrrraaaah!]
Anyway, it howled.