Chapter 134 – Will Return Like Lightning

Wheeeeeeng!

The explosive engine roar of the magitech bike swept over the wilderness.

The bike, which had been sprinting while raising a dense dust storm, suddenly reduced its speed sharply at some point and automatically deployed magic.

-Deploying the soundproof barrier.

The noise circulated inside, and as it reduced speed, the dust cloud that had been rising densely also subsided significantly compared to before.

The bike that had been sprinting like that stopped on a high-rising ridge.

Visible below was a vast wilderness and the massive gate structure being erected upon it.

Dismounting from the bike, Rashid narrowed his brow as he scanned the gate visible far in the distance.

‘It feels like construction began only yesterday, yet it has already been erected to this extent.’

Estimating the progress rate, it looked to be approximately 70%.

“Fast.”

There was someone standing next to Rashid.

It was the subordinate inquisitor who had followed him.

Aria offered a rather blunt commentary.

“Yes, it is indeed fast. To the point of being completely dizzying.”

The reasons Rashid had brought her were twofold.

One was to check the progress rate of the gate together, and the other was to subtly show off the bike’s performance.

Casting a faint smile, Rashid asked,

“How is it? Incredibly fast, right? It’s probably on a completely different level from what you’ve ridden so far.”

Her expression was not entirely bright, and she replied half-heartedly out of politeness.

“Yes, it is.”

“We ran from the Capital to here almost in an instant. Did we run for about an hour? The only one capable of traversing that distance at this speed is probably that ride.”

“Probably. Since we ran so mindlessly.”

Forgetting about the bike, she stood beside him and looked at the gate.

Construction of the gate was still in full swing, and around the gate, a massive Yellow Dragon was seen flying and hovering, while below it, the iron-clad gorilla monster was visible.

That was about all that was visible to the naked eye, but when scanning inside with magical vision, the workers mobilized for the gate construction and the members of the Dharma Mage Division supervising and sometimes helping them could also be seen.

“You are saying we must stop that?”

“Yes. We will destroy it. With the improved Arcane Flower.”

The plan was already established.

He intended to blow that place up with a new model of Arcane Flower that had 10 times the original destructive power.

“By the way, what is that snake-like dragon flying in the sky over there?”

“That is Zodiac.”

“Was that Zodiac?”

The Yellow Dragon was a monster she was also seeing for the first time.

“Is it something like a monster?”

“It’s not a monster, but probably a divine beast. Since it is a holy spiritual creature in that world.”

“But if we touch the gate, that one named Zodiac won’t stay quiet either. How do we catch that Zodiac?”

“How else? We just have to catch him.”

“That monster?”

Not only was its size huge, but it also harbored thunderclouds, making it look difficult to easily gauge its combat power.

“I don’t know. Whether that monster can be caught.”

“I will do all the catching. You just need to worry about the rest of the small fry.”

“But will it be okay? Looking over there, it seems the Grand Dharma Officer is also together with him.”

It was a comment about the iron-clad gorilla monster.

Just as she said, the Grand Dharma Officer was also guarding the gate while wearing his demonic cloak.

“If we touch Zodiac, the Grand Dharma Officer will probably follow automatically, wouldn’t he?”

“Yes. We must catch both together.”

“Zodiac and a Grand Dharma Officer… will it be possible?”

“If we fail, the Evil God will descend. Then it’s over. So we must stop it even if we have to overexert ourselves.”

“The best bet for now… would be to blow up the gate.”

“We can’t view that as the best bet. In the end, if we fail to catch Zodiac, that gate will just be built again. The timing will merely be delayed.”

“With the Grand Dharma Officer also present, it somehow doesn’t seem easy. I think my limit would be just holding down a few Dharma Officers.”

The Grand Dharma Officer was a combat force on par with a grand mage, capable of deploying an independent field.

This field was the biggest problem.

Since it was his own space where all magic was neutralized.

“If we clash with the Grand Dharma Officer, a field will definitely be deployed. What do you plan to do about that?”

“We must fight taking that into account.”

She continued speaking, recalling him wearing the mana armor.

“Come to think of it, the Lord Chief Inquisitor didn’t learn magic? From what I know, Players learn magic in an instant.”

“Yes. Learning is in an instant. No deep understanding is needed either.”

“Yet you didn’t learn? Is there a reason I don’t know?”

There was a reason of its own for this.

‘Since magic has little utility starting from Kane. Kane can transmute Deep Jade Steel, and starting from Zodiac, a Grand Dharma Officer with a field accompanies him.’

“I didn’t learn because there is little effect compared to the effort put in. Even currently, just the Grand Dharma Officer alone possesses a field.”

Opening the armory and equipping his mana armor, Rashid opened his palm and showed a bundle of blue-glowing mana over it.

“Do you see?”

A strange light rose in her eyes.

“You can do that.”

Conceptualization, treating mana like physical matter.

It was a transcendent power that only someone equivalent to a Grand Dharma Officer could showcase, and in its own way, a authority.

“I heard that the conceptualization of mana is only possible for mages equivalent to a Grand Dharma Officer. But the person who can do that was just right beside me?”

“Even at this level, there’s no need to obsess over something like magic. Since magic is basically just a structure possessing a specific function in the base field anyway. Here they call this intent, right?”

“Yes, I know it as something not just anyone can do.”

The bundle of mana that was on Rashid’s palm soon began to transform into various shapes.

From a square to a regular hexagon.

Next, it became a small blade, and finally bloomed splendidly into a blue flower.

As Rashid showed this, her expression turned bright, unlike before.

She also regained the smile she had lost.

“Is that a gift you are giving me?”

“No, I am showing you that we will blow it up like this. This is the Arcane Flower.”

A hypothetical explosion occurred on his palm.

In tandem with the blue flower bursting splendidly, her expression quickly cooled down.

“More importantly, how is the land purchase going?”

“It is being purchased rather smoothly than expected.”

“The national bond price seemed to have risen more than before?”

“Yes, it rose further after problems occurred on the Allied Kingdoms’ side.”

Rashid, shedding his mana armor, mounted the bike, and she mounted behind him while asking,

“But when do you plan to target this place? It seems it will be completed if we wait just a little longer.”

“It’s tomorrow.”

“Tomorrow?”

“They said the Arcane Flower would be ready tonight at the earliest. In any case, the Arcane Flower must be ready. And since there’s no need to delay further, we strike tomorrow.”

“Tomorrow… I should clear my schedule then.”

Before departing,

Rashid felt a very familiar gaze reaching him.

That surveillance did not last long and soon departed somewhere.

‘For some reason, the gaze reaching me feels more accurate and delicate since I put on the insignia.’

Multiple thoughts flashed, but Rashid, ignoring them soon, accelerated the bike.

* * *

Zodiac, who had been flying as if hovering around the gate, returned to human form and stood in place.

He stood near the Grand Dharma Officer, and as he returned to human form, the Grand Dharma Officer also shed his demonic cloak and returned to his original form.

-It is smooth.

Even though the gate is almost fully built,

anyone interfering could not be found even when washing one’s eyes.

After all, who would interfere?

They probably wouldn’t even know for what purpose this gate is being built.

Even the Dharma Mage Division building the gate did not know its exact purpose.

They merely regarded it as a magical device for him to return to his homeland.

-At this rate, we will return soon.

The Grand Dharma Officer reacted.

“Perhaps if we had touched the inquisitor, the Order’s side might have interfered. But since we didn’t, no one will interfere with us. If so, the gate will be constructed peacefully.”

-In the end, was there no news?

It was a query asking about the missing Left Grand Dharma Officer and the remaining Dharma Officers.

“Yes, absolutely none so far.”

-Sayaka…

“However, I heard a story that they saw our Dharma Officers on the Balt Empire’s side. They probably moved to that side.”

-The reason?

“We do not know the reason. It’s just that recently, strange phenomena are said to be witnessed on the Kingdom’s side. They say that people babbling incoherently about having bloomed on their own, like a flower blooming, have become somewhat numerous. The details will be known only after going to inspect, but since it is unrelated to the affairs here, it seems safe to ignore it as is.”

-There is no need to know.

Once the gate was built, it was the end anyway.

Once the gate was built, he would achieve the purpose of his coming here.

Therefore, Zodiac decided to just forget various trivial things he couldn’t understand right now.

The moment he left this place,

they were all matters that could be forgotten.

“You will return soon.”

Where Zodiac directed his gaze was the Grand Dharma Officer showing as much respect as possible.

“We are also pleased that you are able to return to your homeland.”

-Carian. Are you wishing for this seat to leave even a day sooner?

“I do not commit mistakes such as daring to speak lies before a dignified one. Therefore, I shall not answer.”

-Right, suffer just a bit longer. Since I shall depart suddenly as you wish.

Zodiac fell into contemplation while looking at the massive gate structure with a round exterior.

-It is soon. Since I can return to that time soon.

The memory of that day was still as vivid as yesterday.

The day the Evil God arrived.

The sky split.

As the Evil God descended from the ink-colored rift, the mountain ranges bent their waists, and the rivers began to flow backward.

Hundreds of castles collapsed, and everyone’s screams reached the end of the sky.

Under the call of the Son of Heaven who had prophesied the descent of the Evil God in advance,

countless masters and heavenly immortals gathered in one place and deployed a massive array.

They sought to stop the Evil God with the Heaven-Sealing God-Locking Array, but it was a pathetic struggle.

As if laughing at everyone’s desperation,

the array they had barely completed was torn apart before lasting even two breaths, and the immortals deploying the array perished without leaving even a scream.

Even amid that grief,

everyone did not lose hope until the end and began to devise ways to save the world.

But with even the Heaven-Sealing God-Locking Array blocked, the choices given to them could not be very many.

The moment the conclusion was reached that they could not stop the Evil God,

they who struggled to live had no choice but to become more cruel than ever.

“If we cannot stop it. How about sending the Evil God elsewhere?”

Even at the words someone spat out as if discarding their conscience,

there was not a single person who rebuked them.

They became that cruel in front of the instinct of survival.

“If we lure the Evil God and deploy the Gate-Opening Array, a passage connecting to another world will open.”

“But opening only the gate of this world is meaningless. The gate of the other world must also open together.”

“To open the gate in the other world will require time? What use is it if we perish before then?”

“We can bind the world’s time briefly with the Time-Stopping Array of All Phenomena. If we open the gate of the other world in the meantime, it will be fully possible.”

Had a minority led it, it would be a crime,

but with the majority leading it, they could no longer call a crime a crime.

Before they knew it, they who had sold their conscience quickly established a plan, but

what actually became a problem was separate.

“If one goes to another world and opens the dimensional gate. That person will become an unforgivable World-Destroying Sinner who threw away the Evil God into that world. Who plans to do that?”

Even in the gathering where the most pure and rather well-known immortals met,

there was no one who stepped forward easily.

Since they had no confidence to take upon themselves that sin.

Then,

the one they revered as an extraordinary existence stepped forward suddenly.

Zodiac was it.

-Since someone must surely take upon themselves the sin of becoming a World-Destroying Sinner,

-if no one else will step forward, this seat will shoulder that name instead.

“Ah, O dignified Yellow Dragon!”

“O Cult Leader of the Yellow Dragon Divine Cult! Do you salvage us like this!”

Toward the Yellow Dragon who stood alone, everyone did not spare praise, calling him the guardian deity who would save the world.

Soon the Gate-Opening Array was prepared, and when the lured Evil God fell into the time trap called the Time-Stopping Array of All Phenomena,

everyone putting in all their strength saw off the departing Yellow Dragon, Zodiac, at the rift of time.

“O great and dignified Yellow Dragon. We believe you will return like lightning.”

“Please open the gate of the foreign world and salvage us who suffer under the Evil God!”

This was the last memory Zodiac possessed.

-I shall return soon.

Zodiac, knowing nothing,

looked at the Dharma Mage Division and the workers of this world building the massive gate structure solely for him.

He had no feeling of apology toward them.

Since once he decided to take upon himself the sinner’s name,

he had to become a malevolent god even worse than an Asura.