Chapter 17 - Crisis

I heard about the current situation from Levia.

"A spirit is attacking the people from the magic tower right now?"

"Yes... It's a very urgent situation."

"And there's a battle happening at the church now?"

"Yes, that's right."

Today, while the people from the magic tower were activating the magic circle, a spirit finally appeared.

The magic tower people were happy about the spirit's appearance, but the spirit didn't seem very friendly.

Upon seeing the magic tower people, it became agitated as if displeased and started attacking. Now a battle is taking place.

"I'll go there right away."

"Be careful."

"I will."

I should stop this, right? 

I immediately ran towards the church. I planned to do something about the spirit before it was too late.

It would be troublesome if the village gets destroyed like this.

This was clearly the village where I lived. It would be problematic if this village got destroyed.

Moreover, it was attacking the church where Levia stayed, right? I couldn’t let it destroy the church where Levia stayed, even if I didn’t care about other people's houses.

I can't let the hero party's mage get hurt.

Above all, it would be very problematic if Daphne, the mage of the hero’s party, got hurt. She was the one who needed to defeat the Demon King later. If she happened to die here, this world might really be doomed.

In the end, it seemed I had to do something about it.

It seems the spirit came because of me.

Well, I couldn't say I was completely blameless in this, right? A spirit that didn't appear in the original story had now come like this. The cause must be my existence, no matter how I thought about it.

"It'll be okay, right?"

But I wasn’t particularly worried. Even if I had to fight the spirit, I had the Spirit Sword, right? If worst comes to worst, I could sweep it away with Magic Release.

With such thoughts, I ran straight to the church.

***

After running for about 10 minutes, I finally arrived at the church.

Is everything okay?

But given the distance, I didn't arrive as quickly as I had hoped. I couldn't help but worry that the situation might have already ended, but...

It seemed there was no need to worry for now.

It looks better than I expected?

The three mage from the magic tower seemed to be mostly fine. The male mage, Alex, seemed to be injured and was receiving treatment in a corner, but Daphne and Kailyn had no wounds at all.

Is the situation over? 

I thought, but...

But what's that?

There was something strange that made it hard to say the situation was over. A huge black sphere enveloping the church. It looked very suspicious.

What could that be, enveloping the church? 

With these questions in mind, I approached the mage.

"Is everyone alright?"

"Ah...! Mr. Davian. You've come."

As I arrived, Daphne welcomed me. She bowed politely.

"..."

In contrast, Kailyn glanced at me once and then turned her eyes away as if uninterested.

"Daphne. I'll research that separately."

"Ah...! Okay. I understand."

Then, as if she had something to do, she started examining the black sphere on her own.

"What is this?"

I wasn't interested in Kailyn anyway. Ignoring Kailyn, I asked Daphne about this black sphere. I asked her to tell me what it was and why it was clinging to the church.

But Daphne didn't seem to know the details either.

"Um... We're not sure either. While we were fighting the spirit, its form changed and became like that."

Daphne, as if she had seen something bewildering, could only explain the situation at that time.

"The spirit changed?"

"Yes..."

"I see."

The spirit changed... 

Then is that the spirit? 

I couldn't be sure, but the current situation seemed very troublesome.

"Mr. Davian. We really don't know what to do..."

Daphne sighed deeply as she complained to me. She continued speaking as if very perplexed.

"We can't attack the spirit we've finally seen."

Finding spirits and using their power was one of the magic tower's big projects. Of course, it was a project that had always failed because spirits never revealed themselves. This situation was finally the fruition of that project.

In this situation, they couldn't attack the spirit.

"But we can't just leave it alone either."

But they couldn't just ignore it either. Who knew what the spirit might do if they left it alone. In a situation where they didn’t know if the spirit was friendly or not, the magic tower, which summoned the spirit, had to do something.

"But if we attack, the church will be destroyed..."

But they couldn't attack either. Because if they attacked, the church would be destroyed along with the spirit. That was a very significant problem.

Apart from the cost of rebuilding the church, destroying a church itself would cause religious issues. It would inevitably lead to friction with the church in some way.

"And we're not sure if we can win."

And the biggest problem was that they haven't fully grasped the spirit's power yet. Since there's no guarantee they would win if they fight, it's ambiguous how to proceed.

"Mr. Davian. What should we do?"

It was a situation where many problems were complexly piled up. What should we do... She was asking for my advice with a tearful expression.

How would I know?

Of course, I didn't know either. Although I was a reincarnator and knew most of the solutions to events from the original story, this wasn't an event from the original story, right?

Of course, I couldn't know.

"Hang in there."

"Hmm..."

I comforted her halfheartedly. It didn't seem to be much comfort, as Daphne still looked tearful. Then...

A clue to solve this problem emerged.

"Daphne. I found it. A way to solve the problem."

Kailyn, who had said she would investigate separately earlier, came back. And she told Daphne there was a way to solve the situation.

"What? Kailyn? Is that true?"

"Yes, it's true."

"Wow...!"

At Kailyn's words, Daphne's expression was like someone who had found an oasis in a desert.

"Then what is it? What are you going to do?" Daphne asked what she was planning to do. 

Kailyn revealed what she had discovered.

"There's an entrance over there."

"An entrance?"

"Yes. The magic flow is different only there. Come and see."

In just one spot on the black sphere, something was different, she said. That place was the entrance.

Since Daphne couldn't understand this at once, Kailyn showed her the place she had discovered, as if to demonstrate directly.

"Hmm... It's true?"

Daphne seemed to recognize that it was real.

"Right? It's different?"

"Yes. It's different. This place is very different."

"It's like an entrance, isn't it?"

"That's right."

Feeling the magic at the place Kailyn pointed out, Daphne realized it was really different. A place where the magic flow was noticeably lower, as if inviting entry through here. They called this place the entrance.

"Then can't we just go in?"

Wasn't the situation all resolved then? I interjected into their conversation. I said if they had found the entrance, couldn’t they just go inside and say something?

But it didn’t seem to be that simple.

"...We can't enter."

Kailyn finally looked at me directly. She said flatly that they couldn't do that.

"Why?"

"It doesn't allow us. We can't enter without permission... I tried to enter earlier. But I wasn't granted permission."

She meant that even though they found the entrance, the door wouldn't open for them. It seemed Kailyn had already tried to enter once. But she couldn't get in.

Because the owner of the house didn't open the door. So she came looking for Daphne, wondering if she might be able to enter.

"Hmm... I can't get in either."

But it seemed Daphne couldn't enter either. Like Kailyn, Daphne looked troubled as she couldn't penetrate the entrance. She tried a few more times, but ultimately failed to enter.

"You can't get in either..."

"Ugh... This puts us back to square one."

In the end, nothing had changed. They knew there was an entrance, but with no one able to enter... As they were feeling perplexed...

"But I can get in?"

When I tried touching the entrance experimentally, my body slipped inside smoothly.

"You can enter...!!!?"

Seeing this, the two of them showed expressions of complete surprise.