182 – Paradise – 2

Chapter 35. Paradise – 2

“Jun!”

“I will block it, so Tilla, take the others and escape to the back!”

—No, wait!

As Gi-jun was about to rush straight in, looking at that thing which was contracting while emitting a blinding glow—making him wonder if it would blow up at any moment—Lucy urgently stopped him.

—It is dangerous, so do not approach carelessly, Contractor. The creature’s authority is running wild! It seems to be because it mutated imperfectly…

“Authority?”

—I mean the subspace!

Come to think of it, that was true.

That lava worm possessed a subspace inside its body.

Even now, the way that giant lava worm’s body was contracting, as if being sucked into a specific point, truly felt like a spatial authority running wild.

—No one knows what will happen when a power that interferes with space runs wild. Being trapped in a closed subspace from which we cannot escape, or being teleported to an unknown other world…

“I have heard such stories as well.”

Wary of the unknown out-of-control phenomenon, Laura drew close to Gi-jun’s side and spoke, swallowing hard.

“It is no exaggeration to say that nearly half of the ghost stories on the continent of Leta are related to space magic. The closed space the spirit mentioned is one thing, but the rest are about a backside world where everything is identical but contains a fatally twisted element, or being sucked into a world where one exists all alone… In fact, incidents of people going missing after using unstable teleport gates continue to occur.”

He did not know he would hear about Liminal Spaces even after coming all the way here.

Or rather, since this was a world where space magic actually existed, maybe such ghost stories were all the more rampant.

Lucy warned again.

—Fall back, slowly. Don’t stimulate that. The lava worm is already dead, and that is merely the authority running wild.

“What about the experience points?”

—Won’t they be settled once the rampage is over?

Although it was regrettable, for now, he had no choice but to follow Lucy’s instructions.

However, right before backing away, Gi-jun recalled one fact.

“What about the evil spirit?”

—Give up.

Lucy said in a firm, cold voice.

—It is its own fault for being swallowed due to its recklessness when it could have just dealt with it safely. There is no reason for the Contractor to take a risk for such a thing.

—Perhaps it didn’t try to bind the Contractor because it knew it would go down in an instant by acting up like that, Lucy added, making Gi-jun frown.

No matter what Lucy thought about the evil spirit, it was a fact that the evil spirit had done its best to help Gi-jun, and Gi-jun could not give up on it so easily.

If he had been here alone, he would have leaped in without hesitation, but his party members were here.

It was one thing if he got hurt alone, but he could not stand to see his party members get injured by being swept up in it.

“……Let’s retreat.”

“Well, I don’t think that’s possible.”

However, Tilla denied it in a hollow voice, rendering his effort in swallowing his stubbornness meaningless.

Her gaze was already fixed on the golden energy condensed into a single point in the air.

“It seems we didn’t have time to run away in the first place… Everyone, gather behind Jun!”

At Tilla’s shrill shout, Gi-jun soon realized what he had to do.

Right after he hurriedly raised the Silver Moon of Contradiction and created a semicircular barrier of light mana wrapping around the entire party, the condensed point erupted in a fierce explosion.

Beyond his vision that was being dyed golden, Gi-jun confirmed a familiar system message rising.

—[Unfailing Body Clock (L)] strongly resists physical and mental interference.

—Partial resistance successful. A positive modifier (20%) is given to all skills and titles possessed.

—[Unfailing Body Clock (L)] strongly resists physical and mental interference.

—Partial resistance successful. A positive modifier (20%) is given to all skills and titles possessed.

And the golden light died down in an instant.

As he raised his head blankly, what was visible beyond was a sky with a setting sun.

He also saw low mountains rising here and there.

Realizing that they had already been teleported to a place other than the dungeon, Gi-jun lowered his shield and let out a hollow laugh.

“What on earth did I resist? We were affected just the same.”

—Perhaps there was some other trick besides the teleportation?

Nodding at Lucy’s speculation, a sudden thought crossed his mind, and he looked back at the party.

Fortunately, all of them were near him, but perhaps because they had been hit by the ‘other trick’ Lucy mentioned, everyone was lying unconscious.

—You can rest assured, Contractor. It is a temporary issue. However, it seems your abilities have temporarily decreased, but that is probably due to this field.

“Then I should resolve it immediately… Ah, wait.”

Gi-jun also recognized that he had been using the Fragment of Unique Territory too much like an all-purpose tool lately, and naturally, there were side effects to that.

Because he had used it recklessly without even processing it properly, too much mana had been consumed, causing it to temporarily lose its effect.

In fact, Glittertoss had also warned him in advance and said it would be better not to use it anymore until it was made into a shield, but Gi-jun had brought it out anyway, saying he did not know what the enemies would do in a situation where he and his party members were being targeted.

And in fact, it had played its part well by blocking the surprise attack of the Legendary-grade debuffer earlier—and as it had overloaded, it was now in a state of being a mere medal.

“It will revive if I charge it with mana, right?”

—It might take about a month of charging. The problem is whether we can escape from here in one piece.

For the time being, Gi-jun set up a barrier of light to secure the safety of his party members and looked around.

The time was evening, and low mountains that could just be called hills rose in the surroundings.

To be honest, it had a cozy atmosphere as if they had visited a countryside, a place where not a single trace of danger could be sensed.

“Could it be that we have even left Gratia…?”

—At least one thing is certain, it’s not that monster’s subspace. It seems to be somewhere hidden on the continent of Leta.

Lucy, who had no intention of even hiding that she possessed a tremendous amount of knowledge lately, quickly voiced her thoughts.

—As the Contractor also knows, the continent of Leta is quite dangerous, and there are quite a few cases where they surround an area with a special barrier to ensure safety. And this place—seems to be where space itself has been isolated.

“Isolating space itself.”

Hearing those words, something suddenly came to his mind: the Gratia Royal Palace hidden in Cor.

That place could also only be entered through a secret passage, and the royal palace itself was located in a separate subspace.

—The Contractor’s guess is correct.

“Then why did we, who were caught up in the rampage of a spatial authority, end up entering a place hidden away to such an extent?”

—To begin with, space magic is so abstruse and complex that it has not been fully understood despite constant research from long ago. If its principles were fully explained, wouldn’t the Summoned have returned to their own civilizations rather than spending their time fighting a Civilization War here?

“That makes perfect sense.”

—Perhaps because this place is hidden by space magic, it was all the easier to get caught in the rampage of space magic. Isolating and hiding a space in itself gives that space specificity.

Although Gi-jun was a layperson in magic, he could somehow understand what Lucy was saying.

It meant that while it would be hard to pinpoint if it were just some vague place on the continent of Leta, it became easier to specify coordinates if it were ‘somewhere hidden by space magic.’

And as a result of the lava worm’s subspace-manipulating authority running wild, the Lumen party was sucked into this space of all places.

“……Lucy, you know what I want to say right now, don’t you?”

—I know, Contractor. I know very well. You want to say how there could be such a series of coincidences, right?

“Yeah, it is absurd. I would rather believe that this was the subspace inside the lava worm’s stomach.”

—But among the things the Contractor has experienced so far, there are plenty that happened due to even more ridiculous coincidences.

With Lucy putting it that way, Gi-jun could not counter it.

He let out a sigh and said.

“I give up, Lucy. Let’s search the surroundings first. If someone isolated this space as you said, finding that person might mean they know a way to escape this place.”

—Knowing you would say that, I was already searching the vicinity. And right now—yes, I have just found a village.

“A village.”

—A village. The scale seems to be about a few hundred people.

“A few hundred.”

If so, just as Lucy said, it added credibility to the theory that people were living in hiding in this space.

Did the subspace inside the lava worm really run wild, resulting in a random group teleport that sent the Lumen party to a space hidden within a barrier somewhere on the continent of Leta?

—It wasn’t a normal lava worm, though. It was a lava worm that mutated by accepting the energy of two opposing gods. Oh, perhaps this region is related to those gods?

“Please don’t add an even more terrible hypothesis, Lucy.”

Gi-jun shuddered at Lucy’s words and carried Laura and Tilla on each of his shoulders.

“Ur, please take care of Eun-shin.”

—Kiii.

When Ur, who had enlarged to a size capable of carrying a person, bit Eun-shin’s scruff and placed him on his back, Lucy watched and suddenly asked.

—Can’t you just pile the rest of them on top of him too?

“If they find out they were treated like luggage just like a guy, they will pout when they wake up.”

—Why are you so attentive in such useless areas, Contractor?

He decided to ignore Lucy, who was nitpicking unnecessarily.

Even if he argued, she would surely say that was why they didn’t know their place and kept rubbing up against Gi-jun.

‘Still, I should show some consideration.’

Laura and Tilla would probably care more about being bundled together with Eun-shin rather than the luggage talk anyway.

In this manner, one light spirit, one fire spirit carrying a person on its back, and Gi-jun, who carried a woman on each shoulder, headed to the village together.

Leaving aside the consideration for his party, it was a sight that could make him look like a kidnapper to others, but Gi-jun had not yet thought that far.

“She’s not here either!”

“Where on earth did she go! Do you know how dangerous it is to go outside the barrier!”

“All shrine maidens, gather here! Lady Kurenai said she would search for her with a ritual!”

And whether by luck or misfortune, the village they approached seemed so busy that they wouldn’t even care about a kidnapper——.

“Kyaah?! An outsider!”

One of the girls running around frantically spotted Gi-jun and shrieked in fright.

Seeing the women carried like ‘luggage’ on both of his shoulders, she grew even more terrified.

“Don’t tell me you have Sakura?!”

“No, I——”

“An outsider!”

“An outsider broke through the barrier and came in!”

There was no time for Gi-jun to even offer an explanation.

Women wearing loose-fitting clothes similar to the shrine maiden outfits one would see in Japanese manga swarmed around upon discovering Gi-jun, shouting in a dizzying frenzy.

“Kidnapper!”

“It’s clear that man kidnapped Sakura!”

“Someone call Lady Kurenai——!”

Hmm, it was a total mess.

Gi-jun rubbed under his nose and decided to calm them all down for now.

There was, of course, only one way.

Luminescent Provocation.