Chapter 31: A Lead (2)

One minute passed like an hour. The massive shadow that had covered the sky disappeared.

Even so, the Dark Forest remained dark. But since it was brighter than when the shadow blocked the light, they knew that “it” had not been a hallucination.

There had been a real shape, but as it moved on, its very existence seemed to dissolve like smoke.

“What… what did we just see?”

Lou Gehrig rubbed his eyes in confusion. Rowen blinked, and Hestia, relieved, wiped the sweat from her brow.

Nike, on the other hand, looked disappointed once the shadow was gone and simply said he was hungry.

“Is everyone alright?”

Rowen, who had shaken off her fear first, checked on her teammates.

The new recruits still looked tense.

A witch, a chimera, and now some enormous unknown thing. For rookies, Nike’s group had been through far too much.

Even without saying it, Rowen knew their mental strength was being worn down in real time. That was why the role of a senior mattered.

“…I-I’m o-o…”

Lou Gehrig struggled to answer as he trembled in fear.

Hestia answered only with a small nod.

“As for Nike… he is probably fine.”

Indeed, Nike had shown no reaction at all, even after seeing that overwhelming thing.

“…Typical Nike huh…”

Hestia muttered as she poked his side to bring him back to attention.

‘Hestia is already doing a good job at taking care of Nike, so I’ll take care of this guy.’

Rowen turned to Lou Gehrig, who looked on the verge of panic. Having lost his brother so recently, facing this now only made his panic worse.

“Whatever that was, nothing happened, so let’s forget it. Focus only on getting out safely.”

Rowen soothed Lou Gehrig and helped him up, but Nike suddenly cut in.

“We can’t leave.”

“Hmm?”

He pointed into the distance.

“Here. It became a maze again.”

“…?”

Rowen followed his finger, but all she saw was darkness.

“What do you mean?”

“Vice-boss. Potion.”

“Po… tion?”

Was he telling her to drink it? Rowen doubted Nike would ever be serious without reason, so she obeyed and drank.

Her muscles grew taut, her senses sharpened, veins rose around her eyes.

Once the drug that made humans into supermen coursed through her, Rowen finally understood Nike’s words.

“Damn it… so that’s what this is.”

“W-What’s wrong?”

As a veteran, Rowen realized quickly. She knew exactly what Nike meant.

“We are trapped in a maze. It’s a barrier made of mana.”

“…What?”

“…It’s the same as what Nike and I went through.”

Hestia had also drunk her potion by then, and she felt the familiar distortion of mana binding the area.

It was the very same barrier the Witch of Distortion had used to trap them.

“Is it really the same?”

She nodded firmly.

Rowen’s face tightened at her certainty.

A chimera’s appearance.

The giant shadow.

Now a magical barrier and warped mana.

The situation was becoming more ominous by the moment.

‘But the Witch of Distortion is definitely dead.’

Morgana had said so herself, and there was no way she had lied. If Sestria were alive, Nike would not even be here beside them.

And yet all of this felt like signs that the Witch of Distortion still lived.

“This is strange.”

“W-W-W-What do we do? That insane witch is gonna…!”

“...You’re loud, Lou Gehrig. Be quiet.”

“Eep.”

At Hestia’s sharp words, he fell silent.

Finally, with silence restored, Rowen asked Nike and Hestia.

“How did you get out last time? Was there any way?”

“No!”

“…Nike is right. No matter where we went, there was no escape—”

Until Sestria herself came, the barrier never disappeared.

“I see…”

Rowen folded her arms, eyes narrowing as she scanned the darkness.

‘There are two kinds of barriers.’

One to trap, and one to protect the caster’s body. This is clearly the first, and breaking out from inside is extremely difficult. Especially when the caster is a witch that lived for a long time.

“We’re trapped! Again!”

Lou Gehrig wailed, and Rowen and Hestia sighed softly.

Rowen soon spoke up with the authority of a senior.

“A barrier that traps usually leaves at least one way out. You guys learned this, correct?"

“…Yes.”

“Yes.”

“We still have plenty of food. We are supposed to report every day, so once a day passes, the Captain will notice something is wrong and come for us. Until then, let’s try to stay calm and endure.”

The rookies were reassured after hearing from the senior.

Only someone who had survived years of fighting witches could inspire such trust. Rowen lacked neither brains nor strength.

Just as Hestia and Lou Gehrig found new courage and began to stand, Nike cried out in excitement.

“I see it!”

“Hmm?”

“There! The exit!”

“What…?”

Without another word, he bolted. The three of them ran after him in panic.

“N-N-NNike! Wait for us!”

“I told you not to act alone!”

Swish!

His speed was so great it outstripped beasts.

When they finally caught up, Nike stood staring at a tree.

His eyes were red, but Rowen, who first saw them, quickly blocked the others from noticing.

Hestia already had an idea of what was going on, so only Lou Gehrig was left in the dark.

Rowen swallowed hard and asked.

“N-Nike? What did you find?”

“Exit.”

“Where…?”

At the place Nike called an exit, there was nothing but darkness and a withered tree.

Its branches stretched bare into the night, eerie but ordinary.

Naturally, the three stared in confusion. Even with the potion’s heightened senses, they saw no difference.

The flow of mana twisted bizarrely, knotted like tangled guts.

No human mind could understand such circuits.

It was pointless to look at.

‘But Nike is different…’

He had the witch’s eye.

A male witch who should not exist.

Rowen was not questioning him out of doubt, but out of true belief that he had found something.

“Here.”

Nike stretched his hand out to prove it.

“…!”

“Waaagh! N-Nike, your hand!”

His hand warped and vanished into nowhere.

Rowen grabbed his arm and pulled it back, and it returned unharmed.

“Heh~”

Nike grinned like a mischievous child who had found a new toy. He reached out again, confirming what he had seen.

“Insane…”

The space was warped.

Distorted.

His hand was sucked in, yet came back whole.

“It’s a portal…?”

* * *

Morgana had been teaching Nike bits of knowledge about witches and magic whenever she had time.

Since she could control her condemned thralls remotely, she could manage many things at once. As long as she had enough puppets, Morgana could be present in many places within the Order at the same time.

While forming her Golden Dawn Society investigation unit, she continued lessons with Nike.

To her eyes, he was a forbidden fruit, sweet and dripping with juice.

She knew he was dangerous to touch, but the curiosity that had driven her as a witch burned hotter and hotter, and she couldn't stop herself. Morgana was becoming obsessed.

[Nike. Are you feeling well? How is your body?]

She asked the smallest things first.

[Nike. Other than increased mana, has anything changed?]

She revealed her personal interest.

[Show me your mana. Please.]

Each time she met him, she quenched her witch’s thirst.

— No!

Nike resisted.

She did not believe him.

He did not know himself how remarkable his achievements already were.

Morgana trusted her intuition more than his words.

[No, Nike.]

— …

[Close your eyes and focus.]

Nike hated it, but he knew if he refused to follow her lessons, she would not let him leave. That was why he despised magic class most of all.

The one he hated most happened to be his superior by contract, so he couldn't say no either.

[Nike. Now that you have taken in two hundred years of wisdom, do you not feel something new?]

— I feeeeel… nothing…

He grit his teeth as he answered, shuddering in revulsion, but her voice slithered through his mind like a sweet whisper.

He was drawn in at once.

His concentration soared to its peak.

It was as if her voice echoed like a hallucination inside his mind, swimming through the darkness.

[For example, you are starting to see a world that was hidden before.]

* * *

After the battle with Sestria, Nike did not show it, but he knew Morgana was right. A lot had changed.

His increased mana and sharpened senses were obvious. But the greatest change was that his witch’s eye had begun to reveal another world.

It was more than seeing the flow of mana.

He glimpsed the vast cosmic order and rules between spaces.

He didn’t know exactly what it was.

But in truth, it was the ultimate knowledge Sestria had gained as the price for massacring countless humans.

Without knowing it, Nike had inherited that immense and twisted achievement.

Even if he wanted to deny it, Morgana was right.

New things had begun to appear in his eye.

And now.

He finally understood what his changed sight had been showing him all this time.

The Dark Forest was filled with warped spaces left by Sestria’s influence, and Nike alone could see those distortions.

Dots connected into lines.

Lines crossed into planes.

The structure of space itself revealed its pattern.

Though they were trapped in a magical barrier, this time the barrier couldn't hold him.

Because he could see its design clearly.

“A witch’s trick. I see through it!”

“…”

“…”

Rowen and Lou Gehrig froze in shock. Hestia stared, expressionless but deeply troubled, wondering what Nike truly was.

What was he?

There was no answer to that question.

Who could possibly understand a lunatic who shoved his arm deeper into the unknown without a hint of fear, not knowing what waited on the other side?

Even Hestia lost her composure for a moment as Nike laughed wildly.

“Let’s go in!”

“What? What are you saying!”

Rowen grabbed him desperately as he tried to push his head through the distortion.

Nike came back out, and the three stared at him with horrified faces, begging for some kind of explanation.

“Uh…?”

Nike scratched his head awkwardly. Did they really not understand?

Since coming to the training hall, he had slowly realized that he was different from the others. More than that, he was special.

He had slowly come to understand why he had been shunned by others for more than ten years, and now he realized that jealousy had been part of it as well.

Drunk on that small superiority, Nike said,

“Here.”

This hole! He shoved his finger in. The tip blurred and vanished.

“It smells like a witch. This is the only way out.”

His teammates’ shocked faces amused him.

So this was the thrill of it.

“It’s witch hunting time. Lou Gehrig, let’s take revenge.”

“Huh…? R-Really?”

“I never lie.”

Lou Gehrig swallowed nervously.

Rowen blinked.

Hestia stayed expressionless.

Because it was Nike who said it, they found themselves believing him.

After ten minutes of arguing, Rowen admitted there was no other way out and made her decision.

“Alright. Normally we should return and report first, but it will be better to bring back more certain information. Let’s go…!”

“Yeah!”

The moment Rowen finished speaking, Nike vanished into the distortion.

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