Chapter 248

The blinding white light that had taken everything away returned the lost senses to everyone present in the vast snowy field, fairly and equally.

First came hearing, with the sound of the rough wind.

Then came the sense of smell that made breathing feel like it would freeze the lungs, and the sense of touch that could feel the piercing cold.

And finally, sight.

"......"

Everyone could only stare blankly ahead.

There stood Baarma.

His torso and right arm had completely vanished, and Baarma had collapsed helplessly.

"Ah."

"Ah—"

Voices burst out in disbelief at the impossible sight.

A faint gasp came from the Allied Forces.

Among Baarma’s followers, there was a deep sense of dismay and sighs.

They all stared ahead as if entranced.

That eerie and quiet silence was shattered by the dismayed voice of one of Baarma’s followers.

A groan of disbelief, as if unable to accept the situation.

Clang— He dropped his weapon, and as he blankly stared at the dismembered Baarma whose torso and right arm had been blown away,

"Uwaaaaah~!"

He shook his head in denial again and again, then let out a shrill scream and turned to run away.

For someone who had roamed around massacring other races as Baarma’s follower, it was a pitiful sight.

However, that retreat quickly spread fear among the other followers.

"O—"

"Uwaa~"

Even the devout followers who had shown unshakable faith began to drop their weapons one by one and back away.

A tiny crack formed from a small shock.

In an instant, fear spread like an epidemic.

"Our... our god—"

"This can’t be—"

It spread everywhere.

"This... this doesn’t make sense."

"We can’t win, we’re going to lose—"

Continuously.

"Aaaaah!"

"Why is this happening!"

Endlessly.

"......"

This was not a situation where a fierce battle was raging.

Nor was it one where a blade hovered at their throats.

Even so, the followers ran more desperately than ever before.

The apostles who had directly received power from Baarma stood in their way to stop them.

But the crack that had already formed caused uncontrollable chaos.

The moment they saw the red wave scatter into the distance.

"Aaaaaah—"

From among the despairing Allied Forces, a small voice of disbelief slipped out.

"Did we... win?"

"Did we defeat Baarma?"

"......"

“Our god... brought us victory~!"

That astonishment quickly turned into a powerful hope that swept through the entire Allied Forces.

Cheers erupted like thunder.

A thrill spread across the battlefield.

The Allied Forces embraced each other without distinguishing race, weeping tears of joy.

"Marquis! Are you okay!?"

"......Feels like I’m dying, but I’m fine. At least I can still walk."

"Godfather."

"Rine, you did well."

"No. If you hadn’t stalled for time against Baarma, Godfather, hitting him would’ve been practically impossible."

Alon let out a soft sigh.

Just as he staggered over to Rine and Penia—

[Hehehehe~]

A voice was heard.

A terribly unpleasant voice.

Everyone who had been celebrating their victory turned to look toward the source.

There stood Baarma, missing his torso, smirking as he got back up.

[Hehe... So this is how it ended before I could summon them. Truly unfortunate. However—]

Baarma continued speaking as if the blood dripping from his lips meant nothing.

[—I don't really feel like just going down quietly.]

He reached his hand toward the mouth located on his right thigh.

Riiip—

|-!?

RIIIIIIIP~!!

!!!!!

He tore it open.

And then.

From the ripped mouth, a sudden explosion of the Abyss.

Before anyone realized it, it devoured the empty air and formed a massive circle.

Ruuuuumble~!!!!!

And began to absorb everything.

Grin—!

[A gift.]

With a twisted smile, Baarma said,

[Let’s see how you handle this.]

He hurled the dark abyss he had created toward the Allied Forces and was consumed by it.

The moment it started sucking in everything like a black hole, Alon frowned.

"Marquis~!"

Even in this dire moment, Penia, who had been deep in thought, shouted as if she had figured something out.

"That thing! It looks different, but it’s similar to the Strange Gate!"

"......!"

“It’s not a fully-formed space, but the essence is the same as the Strange Gate!”

"Then if we enter that—!"

"Yes, we can try! But—!"

Penia furrowed her brow and looked behind.

There stood the Allied Forces, staring blankly at the incoming abyss.

Can we do it?

A sudden doubt arose in Alon’s mind.

But the hesitation didn’t last long.

“Reverse Heaven (逆天).”

At Alon’s murmur, his body was wrapped in white radiance.

With countless stars rising above, he formed a seal of ice behind him.

Ice Seal.

Ten Forms.

Immediately, he formed a seal and expanded his mana, trying to halt the abyss’s path.

"Chup."

Unfortunately, he only managed to slightly tilt its trajectory downward.

The abyss continued to suck everything in.

CRACKKK!!!

Before it could reach the Allied Forces, the abyss slowly crashed into the ground, shattering the earth and drilling downward.

Naturally, the ground beneath Alon, Penia, and Rine also crumbled in an instant.

The three lost their balance and began to fall.

Magrina and Ryanga, watching them, were seen trying to force their frozen bodies into motion.

It was the same for Nangwon and Lia, who stared down in shock.

Ar too spread her still-tiny wings that weren’t fully grown.

But—

"Don’t come!"

Their actions halted at Alon’s single shout.

He looked up at the children staring down at him.

Then, using the still-active Reverse Heaven power, he delivered a final message to each of them.

"Marquis! I think we need to do it now?! If we get sucked in like this, there’ll be nothing left! We have to do it now! Right nowwwww!"

At Penia’s desperate shout as they continued falling—

"Hu—"

He finally calmed his breath.

Then recalled the formula Penia had told him earlier.

Without stopping the Reverse Heaven technique, he formed a seal.

And then, within the abyss that had been empty just moments before, as if shapes were being aligned, a violet world began to slowly take form.

“It’s... It’s working!”

Penia beamed with joy as she watched the slowly forming world.

Alon gritted his teeth and began reciting the incantations Penia had told him, one by one.

With each phrase, the abyss gradually began to be adorned in shades of violet.

The ground appeared.

The sky formed, buildings rose, and life emerged.

In reality, he was merely summoning shapes based on the rules Penia had deciphered, but it felt as if he were creating an entire world.

As he continued to speak the phrases—

“Huff, Marquis—we need to speed up a bit. The abyss is starting to shrink. We have to finish before that energy disappears!”

At Penia’s urging, Alon looked outside.

Just as she had said, the abyss that Baarma had thrown seemed to be losing power; the gray sky now overlapped with the violet world Alon was constructing.

A bizarre sight where time and space were twisted into chaos.

Seeing it, Alon quickened his incantations even more.

At that moment—

|-!!!

A blood-curdling sound tore through the ears of Alon, Penia, and Rine.

The three of them all looked up at once.

“No... No way—”

Penia’s voice trembled with shock.

|-!!!

"......!"

And they saw it—a maw, forcing its body through the black void between time and space, with pale white skin.

####

“There’s no way... This shouldn’t be possible.”

Penia muttered blankly, eyes wide in disbelief at the impossible sight.

"......!"

Rine, who had used all her strength to control Agathon, also frowned as she saw the maw squeezing through the partially formed space.

Alon, too, realized things had taken a turn for the absolute worst.

“It’s a shell!”

“What?”

Penia shouted.

“That maw—it’s just a shell with no intellect! I don’t sense any mind at all! It doesn’t even look like the one we saw last time...! I think it was caught in the debris of time and space!”

Even as his mind threatened to explode, Alon observed the creature while maintaining his seal.

The maw had already crossed more than halfway through the rift, tearing through the forming world.

As Penia had said, it looked very different from the one they had fought before.

Its size had grown absurdly large, but its movements were sluggish.

The face was the same one they had seen before, but its pale eyes only shimmered with basic survival instincts.

“We have to push it back! This space isn’t naturally formed—it’s artificially created and unstable! If that thing breaks through, the whole world will collapse~!”

“...I’ll do something about it.”

“No, Marquis! If you stop casting magic now, this world we’re building will collapse! And then it’s all over! We won’t be able to return to our original timeline!”

Penia immediately began channeling mana.

But her expression was grim.

She already knew.

With her power alone, there was no way to push back something that had already passed more than halfway through.

Alon hesitated for a split second.

His mind, strained from using the Reverse Heaven magic, was already overloaded.

He was at his limit.

And yet, there was still one method Alon hadn’t used.

A way to expel the maw from this space without collapsing it.

But he hesitated because of the risk.

Alon’s body was already at its breaking point.

If he took one more step beyond this, he might survive...but he would suffer permanent damage without question.

So he hesitated—just briefly.

“Huu—”

Then Alon made his decision.

Just as he opened his mouth to speak—

“Godfather, I’ll try something.”

Rine’s calm voice rang out.

“You can’t. Not right now.”

Alon answered without a moment’s hesitation.

If she were in her usual condition, it might have been possible.

But not now.

There wasn’t enough time to summon Pluton, which she could only call forth in limited form.

And the newly obtained Agathon was the same.

Yet despite Alon’s refusal, Rine smiled gently.

“Don’t worry, Godfather. I have a way.”

She turned her body toward the approaching maw that was tearing into the space,

and—

CRACKKK—!!!

She began firing golden coffins in all directions.

The coffins rapidly drew chaotic magic circles.

Between Alon and Rine, a massive barrier formed.

Watching from Alon’s side, Penia gasped.

“Lady Rine!? That’s a severance seal... and a sealing formation!”

Realizing the nature of the magic, her face turned pale.

“—!”

“......—!”

Alon’s eyes widened as well.

Rine looked at him calmly and whispered,

“...It’s nice.”

“What...?”

“Because I get to see your face, Godfather.”

Then she smiled brightly, as if something had been lifted from her heart.

“Honestly, I was a little jealous of Seolrang.”

The golden coffins formed a dizzying array of magical sigils.

They grew faster and faster, cutting off the space between Alon and Rine.

“Stop, Rine.”

“Don’t worry so much, Godfather. I’m not going to fall into some void in time. Baarma’s power is already gone, so I’ll probably just fall under the World Tree.”

The golden coffins forming the wall began covering Rine’s feet.

“You don’t have to sacrifice yourself.”

“No, I do. That thing’s going to crawl out instead of falling into the void. I need to keep it contained.”

The coffins reached Rine’s knees.

“I don’t want to sacrifice my family.”

“Is that so.”

“Yes, so—”

“That’s exactly why.”

The coffins reached her waist.

“What...?”

“Godfather, I don’t want to watch my family be sacrificed either. Especially you—you’re more special to me than anyone. And—”

The golden coffins reached just beneath Rine’s chest.

“This is something I want to do.”

“...Why?”

“Because, just like I think of you—”

As the coffins covered her collarbone, Rine gave a pure, serene smile with not a trace of regret.

“I want to be someone special to you too.”

She whispered softly,

“We’ll see each other again. Time doesn’t flow inside the seal.”

“So—”

Soon.

“Even if hundreds of years pass—”

The moment the golden coffins completely sealed off the space,

“—I’ll be waiting.”

Until you come find me.

With her final voice— the once-incomplete violet world was completed.