Chapter 487: Are You Crazy?!

Skadi slapped Aisha’s cheeks a few more times, muttering frantically.

"Come on, come on, wake up already! Don’t you dare die on us from brain shock, you genius idiot!"

When that didn’t work, she snatched her waterskin and splashed its contents straight onto Aisha’s face.

Aisha jolted upright with a startled gasp, blinking rapidly. Her soaked hair clung to her cheeks, and she looked around in utter confusion before her eyes landed on Cassius.

The moment they did, her expression froze.

She didn’t speak. She didn’t move. She just stared—like he wasn’t a man but something vast and terrifying.

The look in her eyes was a mix of reverence and fear, the kind one would give to a god—or a monster.

Cassius shifted awkwardly "Uh...you alright there, Aisha?"

But she didn’t answer.

Instead, she silently reached into her storage ring and pulled out a single sheet of silver-tinged paper etched with runes.

Holding it delicately, she murmured an incantation under her breath. Runes lit up along the talisman’s surface in intricate patterns until the whole sheet glowed faintly like moonlight.

Finally, she exhaled deeply, looking back at them with a tired smile.

"It’s done." She said quietly, her voice trembling slightly but steady enough. "We can finally go in now."

"Finally!" Skadi cheered, jumping up. "Thank the gods! I thought we’d be stuck here forever!"

Even Julie smiled in relief, nodding to Aisha approvingly.

But just as they started to move toward the barrier, Aisha froze mid-step.

Her smile faded.

Her eyes darted from the talisman to the mountain ahead—then back to the talisman.

She blinked twice, as if double-checking something. Then her face went completely blank.

"Oh, no..." She whispered.

Julie turned toward her, frowning. "What is it?"

Aisha’s breathing quickened.

"Y-You’ve got to be kidding me." She muttered. Her hands began to tremble. "You’ve got to be fucking kidding me."

Skadi’s tail flicked nervously. "Uh...Aisha?"

"This isn’t a joke anymore!" Aisha yelled suddenly, throwing her hands up. "This is actual bullshit! I swear, I’m going to lose my mind—what kind of punishment is this?!"

Julie blinked, startled. "Aisha! What’s wrong now?! Haven’t we—didn’t we just—what the hell is happening?!"

Tears of pure frustration welled in Aisha’s eyes as she jabbed a finger toward the barrier in front of them.

"We’ve stumbled on another hurdle, Captain! To activate the talisman, it has to be placed inside the damn barrier—at the nodal point itself! The core of the spell is inside there, which means the talisman won’t work from the outside!"

She clutched her head, nearly screaming.

"How the hell are we supposed to put it inside when the barrier is still functioning?!"

Both Julie and Skadi paled immediately.

"You mean we’d have to...go through the annihilation spell." Julie said slowly, her voice heavy.

Skadi’s ears drooped, her tail curling up close.

"Come on, come on! How many stupid tricks does this spell have? This is cheating! Absolute cheating! I hate this mountain! I hate these cultists! I hate magic!"

Aisha groaned loudly, gripping the talisman so tightly it crumpled a little.

"I swear, I’m this close—this close—to just slapping this stupid paper against the barrier and seeing what happens. I don’t even care anymore!"

But before she could make good on that threat, Julie suddenly spoke.

"Wait."

Her tone was calm, firm enough that all three turned to her.

Julie’s eyes were steady, and there was a quiet resolve in them.

"I’ll do it." She said simply.

"What?" Aisha and Skadi said in unison.

Julie stepped forward, meeting their stunned gazes.

"I’m the fastest among us. If there’s any chance of getting in and placing that talisman before it activates, I can do it. Maybe...Maybe I can get in and out before the spell reacts."

Aisha shook her head furiously.

"No, Captain! No matter how fast you are, you’ll still get obliterated the second you cross the threshold!...There’s no chance!"

Julie only smiled faintly.

"Then I’ll take that chance. If it means stopping the cult, I don’t mind risking my life."

Her words hung heavy in the air. Even Aisha fell silent, her frustration cracking into disbelief.

But then after a few seconds, Aisha clenched her fists and took a step forward.

"No. I’ll do it." She said firmly. "I’m the one who made this talisman. I know the layout, I know the runic sequence, and I know exactly where it has to go. This is my responsibility."

She held the talisman close to her chest, her eyes filled with determination.

But then Skadi immediately jumped between them, waving her arms.

"No way! Nope! Neither of you are doing this!" She barked. "Without you two, the whole Holy Guard falls apart! I’m just the muscle-for-hire here—it doesn’t matter if I go. I’ll do it instead!"

Julie’s brow furrowed. "Skadi, no. I’m the captain—it’s my job to protect the team."

Aisha frowned. "No, you’ll mess it up! You don’t even know how to read the runes!"

Skadi growled in protest. "I’m the dumb one, remember?! You still need your smart brains to deal with cult stuff later! If I die, it’s fine!"

"No, I’m going!" Julie snapped.

"Like hell you are!" Aisha shot back.

And just like that, the three of them devolved into a heated argument, voices rising as they each tried to out-shout the other.

But just then—Cassius called from behind them.

"Guys."

None of them heard.

"Guys." He repeated, a little louder this time.

Still nothing.

"Guys!" He said again, exasperation creeping into his tone.

They ignored him completely, too busy bickering.

Finally, his voice came sharper, firmer.

"Hey, idiots, look over here for one second!"

Aisha turned with an annoyed glare.

"What, Cassius?! Can’t you see we’re kind of in the middle of deciding who’s going to die here—"

Her words froze in her throat.

Her eyes went wide. Her entire face drained of color as she saw where Cassius was right now.

"...Oh. My. God."

Julie and Skadi turned too—and both of them gasped.

Cassius was standing inside the barrier.

On the other side of the shimmering field. Calmly. Casually. As if he were standing in the middle of an open field and not a death zone capable of erasing a person from existence.

The protective magic was supposedly around him, the air crackling with destructive energy—and yet, somehow, he stood untouched.

And that was the moment Aisha looked like she was about to faint again.

But just as she was about to do so, Julie’s voice tore through the air first.

"Cassius, you bastard! Are you crazy?! Are you stupid?! Why the hell did you go inside?!" She shouted, her voice filled with raw panic. "Do you have a death wish or something?!"

Skadi, on the other hand, looked like she was on the verge of tears.

"Master! Master, come back!" She whimpered, voice breaking. "Please, come back! That stupid death machine thing is gonna do something to you!"

She sniffled hard and looked absolutely pitiful.

"You can’t just die on us, Master! You promised you’d play fetch with me later! And—and who’s gonna take care of our future puppies if you die, huh? We can’t have puppies without the father! So you come back here right now!"

"...Skadi." Julie said flatly, looking at her in disbelief. "Now’s really not the time to say things like that."

But Skadi just buried her face in her hands and continued wailing.

"Noooo! Master, please don’t go towards the shiny death light! I don’t want to be a widow before I even get married!"

But Cassius just let out a small sigh and simply shook his head.

"It’s fine, you guys." He said, his voice firm but oddly gentle. "I told you, it’s completely alright."

"Like hell it is, Cassius!" Aisha’s voice cracked, half furious, half terrified. "Now, if you don’t come back right now, I swear I’ll—"

But before she could finish, Cassius raised a hand.

"Let me explain."

That stopped all three of them instantly.

He looked at Aisha.

"You said earlier that only things with mana inside them are affected by this spell, right? That anything with mana is what gets targeted by the annihilation field?"

Aisha blinked rapidly, confused by the question but answered anyway.

"Y-Yes, that’s true. But Cassius, that basically means everything! Every single living or moving thing in this world has mana inside it! Humans, demons, elves, beasts—even plants have some amount of mana flow through them!"

"Even undead or ghosts still have a residual mana signature! So there’s nothing—nothing—that doesn’t have mana."

"Exactly." Cassius said with a small smirk. "And that’s what makes this so convenient."

"Convenient?" Aisha frowned. "Cassius, what are you talking about—"

He chuckled softly.

"Because, unlike everything else in this world..."

He gestured at himself.

"...I don’t have a single ounce of mana in my body."

The silence that followed was so heavy it almost hurt.

Julie blinked once, twice, before stammering.

"That’s...That’s impossible." She shook her head furiously. "No, even I know that! Every living being—every single one—has mana in them. It’s how life exists here! There’s no such thing as someone without it!"

Cassius tilted his head. "Then check for yourself."

He extended his hand past the barrier toward Aisha.

Her hands trembled slightly as she stepped forward and wrapped her fingers around his wrist, channeling a stream of her own mana through him.

But almost immediately, she gasped, her face going pale as she stumbled back.

"It’s true..." She whispered, staring at her trembling hands. "It’s true! I can’t sense anything!"

Julie blinked. "You mean—?"

"There’s no mana in him." Aisha said, her voice almost trembling with disbelief. "Not even a drop. I thought it was just hidden or suppressed somehow, but no—it’s completely gone!"

"He’s like...a void."

Skadi’s tail puffed up.

"W-What?!" She yelped. "Master, what are you then?! Everyone has mana! Everyone! Even dumb things like bugs and worms! So if you don’t have any, then what are you?"

Cassius only smiled faintly but didn’t answer.

’Well, it’s only natural I don’t have mana in my body. I’m not from this world after all.’

He silently thought to himself while the other three were also starting to wonder the same as well, as he was simply to much of an anomaly to exist in the same world.