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Chapter 288

It had slipped past even my senses, so I flinched and turned my head—only to find someone with a brazen expression standing there.

"Remiel?"

"Call me Lispa Elde, please. I’m not fond of the name Remiel."

That part was the same as Luna.

But still, why was she here, when she should’ve been in the Holy Kingdom?

As I stared at her with that question in mind, she clicked her tongue.

"I came to see Luna Basilin for a moment. But she’s nowhere to be seen."

She came to see Luna?

Now that’s surprising.

The two of them had barely interacted since that day.

Luna continued her usual life in the Cascadia Territory, while Remiel—rather, Lispa Elde —had been staying in the Holy Kingdom alongside High Priest Diablo.

Of course, given her nature—going nuts at the mere mention of personal matters—she wasn’t exactly living in the Holy Temple.

Officially, she was listed as a priestess of the Holy Kingdom, but in truth, she lived peacefully in a small village not far from the capital.

Even though she normally hated anything related to the Holy Kingdom, that little village was apparently an exception.

Why that village held meaning for her, I still didn’t know.

Nor had I felt the need to ask.

"I asked around, and all I got was that she’s away for now."

"Then are you heading back?"

"I was going to, but… it just so happens that I also have a favor to ask of you."

"Of me?"

"Yes. You and I—we need to investigate something together."

At her request, I made a circle with my thumb and forefinger.

"If there’s compensation involved, I’m open to paying in various forms. Is there something in particular you want?"

"You seem to know a lot about this."

She looked with a strangely wistful expression, reaching out toward the staff.

Despite being an archangel, she was different from the others in that she had the capacity for empathy.

Perhaps even that necromancer Kuralion had been one of those she could empathize with.

And then—her hand, which had been slowly stroking the staff, suddenly froze.

“...The hell. What kind of bastard did this to Kuralion’s relic?”

Whoa.

That’s some language coming from an archangel.

Clearly annoyed, she reached sharply toward the staff again.

BOOM!

She summoned a pure white light and slammed it into the staff.

CRACKLE!!!

A powerful sphere of light collided with the staff and slowly began to seep in—but it didn’t last long before being violently repelled.

“Ah…”

With a frown, Remiel looked down at her hand.

"...Did it not work?"

"In the past, I would've fixed it easily. But someone put a filter on the staff's data-transmission abilities. Maybe they thought it was unnecessary. As it stands, the only thing the staff can now output is destructive magic."

"...So making people’s heads explode is the default?"

To that, she shook her head.

"It’s something Kuralion hadn’t anticipated. But that issue has been resolved in a way. Anyone unable to endure the data transmission won’t receive even a single byte of it. Those who are worthy will be able to bear it without a problem."

So basically, only the strong can make use of it.

It’s a familiar story.

Like those legendary swords stuck in the ground.

Only those deemed worthy can pull them out.

The cultists must’ve tampered with the staff, willing to risk death for its benefits.

And in doing so, they likely filtered out what they considered “unnecessary” information.

It’s impressive, really—how far their obsession went.

After a moment of contemplation, she spoke to me again.

“I’ll fix it for you.”

“I don’t really need it fixed.”

She offered anyway.

“Come on, just help me out. If you want… I can help you with something else too.”

At this point, I was curious about what she really wanted.

“What are you trying to do?”

Clearly, she hadn’t shown up out of the blue for no reason.

“I’m trying to uncover a certain truth. And you’re not entirely unrelated to it, you know. Oh—and! There’s also a great gift for Luna Basilin we might come across.”

“A gift?”

She gave a slight chuckle.

“You’re preparing to propose to her, aren’t you? When I met her recently, she couldn’t stop bragging about it…”

So when she asked to borrow Baril for a little trip… she must’ve been going to see Remiel.

Clicking her tongue, Remiel added,

“You’re looking for a proposal gift, right? I know something she’d really like. It’s something Adam had been secretly preparing for her—a gift he never got to give, now hidden away beyond space.”

That was enough to tip the scale.

“Okay, now I’m interested.”

* * *

There were two real reasons why I agreed to her request.

First, I needed to learn more about the Red Moon.

Second, I thought it was time I looked further into the person Luna seemed to care so much about—Adam.

Remiel, too, had called me “Adam” when she first met me.

So what exactly was the connection between me and this Adam?

I had memories of my past life, so the idea that I might be Adam reincarnated briefly crossed my mind, but it was too absurd to draw any real conclusions.

After all, I had never witnessed the gods directly, so I had no means to prove or verify anything about such beings.

Could the reincarnation of a divine being even exist?

Even so, how should I explain the power of death I now possessed?

“You heard the rumors?”

We had left the Cascadia manor and were now heading to the central region of the mid-continent—a place known for its great forest.

Not exactly the “Mother Forest” where the elves lived, but somewhere nearby.

[Translator - Night]

[Proofreader - Gun]

“What rumors?”

“About the auroras. Auroras are appearing in places where they shouldn’t exist.”

Yeah, I’d heard that.

It did sound strange.

“I don’t know the details, but the space there is incredibly unstable right now. Dimensions and the very fabric of time and space are weakened. In that area, information that shouldn’t exist is present, and information that should exist is missing—a space of complete irregularity has formed.”

Baril, cutting across the sky, landed on a massive thicket.

A dense forest untouched by human feet.

But the moment she set foot on the ground, the blades of grass seemed to part on their own, as if making way for her.

Dressed lightly, she began walking forward slowly.

As if she knew exactly where her destination was.

Because this forest was so secluded, the presence of wild animals could be strongly felt.

Among them were fierce predators, but none dared approach directly—as if prey instinctively avoiding a predator.

Was it due to the influence of the aurora?

As I quietly followed behind Remiel, I manipulated the communication artifact to try and contact Luna.

But instead of a connection tone, a recorded message came through.

—I’m very busy. I’ll contact you when I’m free.

Her calm voice played back as a recording.

What timing…

Of course, I’d seen her disappear to random places now and then, but never quite as suddenly as this.

Just then, a strange sensation began to prickle at my senses.

When I looked up, I saw a green aurora now filling the sky—something that hadn’t been there just moments ago.

It hadn’t been visible until we stepped into this area.

The moment we entered, it suddenly appeared.

“I’d heard rumors, but it’s definitely not a normal aurora.”

“It’s the clash of an Archangel’s power and an Outer God's power. Not a direct clash, per se, but the Archangels act like a protective barrier surrounding this world.”

Lispa Elde’s explanation sparked a question in me.

“Two of the Archangels are missing now. Is that okay?”

“To be honest, it’s not really my concern. They probably thought everything was fine, which is why they kicked out Luna and me.”

There was a bitter smile on her face as she scoffed.

“In any case, because of the collision between these massive forces, time axes, spatial axes, and everything else have become entangled. Normally, you wouldn’t even be able to see these rifts. Among the Archangels, I’m probably the only one familiar with this space.”

Smiling brightly, as if guiding me, she gently tapped the air behind her with a pale hand.

Then the empty space began to ripple like the surface of water.

“The item I’m to give you is hidden inside this tangled space. I used to manage this place, after all.”

At some point, I realized I had stepped into a space that felt familiar yet completely different.

Thump!

“Don’t ever let go of my hand. If you get lost here, even I won’t be able to find you easily.”

She smiled playfully as she pointed into the void.

There was no floor, no ceiling, no gravity—yet strangely, there was no issue with breathing.

“So physical laws really can be distorted this much.”

“In most cases, people can’t even enter. And even if they do, they usually can’t breathe. There’s no air in this space.”

Waving her hand with practiced ease, she manipulated the space around us and soon summoned a large sphere of light.

“For now, I can’t give you the item immediately. I’ve locked it behind heavy security at Adam’s request, and it’ll take physical time to unlock.”

“How long will that take?”

“If I were at full strength, about three days. But in my current condition, it’ll take at least a month.”

“Staying here for a month is out of the question.”

I remained silent.

If she seriously expected us to wait a month, I was ready to launch a nuclear forehead flick and be done with it.

“Of course. I can’t last more than a week here myself.”

She lifted her hand to show me.

Her fingertips were wrapped in a faint glow.

I didn’t know what it was, but it didn’t look like a good sign.

“This is our only chance, and the max we can endure is a week. So let’s try to find everything we need within three days.”

“What do I need to do?”

“White blood cell extermination.”

I nodded at the simple answer.

“And remember.”

She gripped my hand.

“Everything you’re about to see from now on is real, yet not real. You must never interfere beyond a certain point.”

It didn’t take long to understand what she meant.

When she stretched her hand into the air, a sphere showing another world beyond the space began to approach us.

Inside the sphere, a beautiful forest landscape was reflected.

Remiel reached out and touched the space, then led me inside.

The place where we arrived was a lush forest, but there were no traces of reptiles or mammals—no sign of any living creatures.

It felt completely different from the aurora-lit ancient forest we had seen earlier.

[Translator - Night]

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