Vol 3. Chapter 111: An Unexpected Person

Continuing forward through the mine, Vinny had no idea how long he walked before he finally saw a thread of light ahead.

So I finally reached the exit?

Vinny stepped out of the mine. Having been in darkness for so long, his eyes didn’t adjust right away after leaving the cave. He raised a hand to shield the blood-red, stabbing sunset overhead.

Where am I now?

Vinny stared at the scene in the afterglow of the setting sun, and no matter how he tried, he couldn’t connect it to what he’d seen before he entered the mine.

Back then, the sky had been dim and pitch-black, black rain pouring down, and he’d been attacked by monsters.

After coming out of the mine, was it the next afternoon already...?

Obviously not. And this place looked nothing like the dead, silent buildings and streetlamps from before. It didn’t even feel like the same world.

Splash.

Vinny heard the sound of waves. He looked ahead. There was only a stone-slab road curving out of sight, disappearing around a corner that led who-knew-where. Other than that, mountains surrounded him on all sides, completely blocking his view—leaving only the blood-flower-like sunset blooming across the sky.

The crimson, bloodlike dying sun, the nearby sound of surf, the broken stone-slab road—together they painted an eerie, ruined landscape.

Why did it feel eerie?

Because the sunlight falling on him didn’t carry even the slightest warmth.

There was no other road ahead. Vinny glanced behind him at the pitch-black cave. Compared to this place, at least the outside had light. Even if that light had no warmth, just standing in the brightness and looking back made him not want to return to that gloomy darkness.

Reality didn’t give him time to hesitate, either. With a sharp crack, the mine behind him fully collapsed, sealed by mud and rock.

Vinny had only one choice: keep going.

He walked along the stone-slab road, passed the corner—then froze.

The road plunged into a bottomless expanse of dark water, leaving only a strip down the middle that hadn’t yet been swallowed.

Vinny looked forward. Water-mist filled everything in all directions. There was no outline. No end. Nothing.

He could only hear the water. Beyond that, he heard nothing at all. Only a half-submerged path lay before him, forcing him to walk.

The way back was already gone.

To be honest, Vinny still hadn’t figured out what the hell was going on. They’d been playing board games, and then a bizarre black cube had popped out and sent him into this surreal world.

What caused this? Was there something wrong with the Divine Authority Mission game they’d been playing in that room, or was it something else entirely?

Everything in this world felt like it had been randomly stitched together. A moment ago he’d been in a rain-soaked alley, and now he was at the sea.

The fog that hid everything around him pressed down on him like a weight, as if the sea would eventually rise and swallow the last bit of ground beneath his feet.

Tap. Tap.

Vinny stepped through the water. He felt like he was walking without purpose.

Before long, he couldn’t even see the mine he’d come out of. When he turned to look around, all he saw was an endless sheet of fog and ocean. No matter how far he walked, the scenery never changed—as if he’d fallen into some kind of endless °• N o v e l i g h t •° loop. He couldn’t even be sure he was moving forward.

Everything was the same. The only sound was the slap of water at his feet, like a single raging wave could drown him at any time.

If he kept walking like this, he was going to break sooner or later. All he could do was empty his mind as much as possible—stop thinking, stop trying to understand.

If it had been the Vinny from back when his willpower was brittle, he probably would’ve gone insane already.

The monsters in the rain alley and the mine were so grotesque that just looking at them felt like it would drain his sanity dry. And now this—this was obviously designed to crush someone’s mind.

“Damn it. Who the hell did this?” Vinny cursed under his breath. “If I find out whose prank this is, I’m smashing their head straight down into their shoulders!”

Part of it was venting. But the other part was for himself. In an oppressive place like this, if he didn’t curse out loud once in a while, his mind really wouldn’t be able to take the pressure.

“Wooooo—”

That spine-chilling echo sounded again. Just hearing it made his scalp prickle.

Vinny stopped.

It was the same sound he’d heard before, back in the rain alley—like the long horn a train used to blow right before it started moving.

And now, the sound that had clearly been distant before felt right next to him.

Vinny stared at the calm-looking surface of the water.

Don’t tell me there’s something under there...?

And just from the ear-splitting vibration, he could tell whatever it was had to be enormous.

Just imagining it made his scalp go numb.

BOOM!

With a massive burst of spray, several gigantic tentacles covered in suction cups rose from the water along the side of the stone-slab road. They burst out, dove back in on the other side, forming loop after loop—like a tunnel made of living flesh.

A few droplets splashed onto Vinny’s stiff face.

Yeah. Now he knew exactly how big that thing was.

The tentacles’ appearance seemed to trigger a change in the heavens. A few dull rumbles of thunder rolled overhead. Dark clouds churned and piled up. In an instant, a torrential downpour began.

“I swear to—!” Vinny shouted, drenched as the raindrops hammered the sea’s surface.

At this rainfall rate, the water level rising was only a matter of time. And who knew when the rain would stop?

Vinny quickened his pace, but the road was already submerged, making every step difficult. At the same time, tentacles larger than the palace’s load-bearing pillars erupted around the stone path—rising and plunging back down over and over.

The rain poured down in sheets. Vinny felt like he was about to be swallowed.

In the deluge, an eerie glow reflected up from the water’s surface—like the eye of a colossal beast resting beneath the sea.

It was as large as a sun.

Vinny’s heart shot up into his throat. Right now, he felt like he’d stumbled into a match that was way beyond his league—an exhaustion and helplessness rising inside him.

Only now did he truly understand the limits of the Magus realm. On the Tyrelis Continent, the Magus realm really was powerful. But in front of a terrifying supernatural creature that could control rainfall itself, it meant nothing.

I have to get out of here—now!

The rain was so heavy it felt like the whole world was being stabbed by short swords. One after another, they pounded into Vinny’s body. Soon, the water level reached his thighs. Under that resistance, even simply lifting his legs became painfully hard.

Compared to the unknown and powerlessness he’d felt against those grotesque monsters before, this was closer to despair—pure fear.

That enormous beast beneath the sea hadn’t even attacked him directly, but that only made it worse. Vinny couldn’t stop imagining what would happen if it did. Would he have absolutely no way to resist?

No. It wouldn’t even need to attack.

Maybe it hadn’t even noticed him. Maybe all it had to do was keep the rain falling—and it could pin him down.

Either he’d be filled with fear, give up, and drown alive...

Or he’d struggle to the last moment, and still drown alive.

Even now, he still couldn’t see land ahead.

Vinny gritted his teeth and sprang upward, leaping out of the water. He yanked off his ice-crystal earring, turning it into Frostfang. He slammed the butt of the spear down into the water—

A sheet of frost spread across the surface, and he was able to stand on solid ice.

Then he kept releasing [Congealed-Ice Shackles] to freeze the water, turning it into ground he could run across.

In his desperation, Vinny couldn’t afford to care that ice was slick. He’d only run a few steps when his footing slipped—

A massive wave slammed into him head-on and swallowed him whole.

Drowned by a tidal surge, Vinny tried with everything he had to force his mana out and freeze the water again, but he couldn’t breathe. He choked on seawater. His consciousness began to blur.

Is this it...?

Vinny felt like a thick layer of ash was smothering his mind.

That echo from the giant creature sounded again, but he couldn’t hear it clearly anymore.

In the haze, he felt himself drifting through gray seawater. Enormous shadows slipped past him again and again. Several “lanterns” the size of suns hung in the depths, so bright they felt like they could dry him out.

What... is this...?

“Cough—!”

Vinny opened his eyes again, coughing violently, spitting salty, fishy seawater in mouthfuls. His stomach churned like it was going to vomit up everything he’d eaten the day before yesterday—except he couldn’t even remember what that had been anymore.

He dragged his exhausted body up to his feet. Every piece of clothing on him was soaked through.

As his vision came into focus, Vinny realized he’d arrived in a desolate ruin.

Another completely unfamiliar scene. Another utterly foreign style of architecture.

His tired gaze swept across the war-scarred land. Staring at the huge, roadless ruins, Vinny fell into a long silence.

After a moment, he let out a dry laugh and muttered to himself, “At least I lived, didn’t I?”

He lived.

So don’t ask for too much.

As for where this place was—

Vinny started walking through the unfamiliar land.

He was nearly out of stamina. His body was covered in wounds. His academy uniform was torn to shreds—battle-wrecked.

Earlier, freezing the sea with ice magic had also cost him a lot of mana.

Vinny didn’t know how much longer he could keep going. He felt like someone who’d somehow made it to a master-level fight with only gold-level strength—not so weak he’d be instantly killed like a nobody, but with very little he could actually do.

If he ran into any more strange, aggressive creatures, he didn’t think he could hold out.

Crack!

The very next moment, Vinny cursed himself for being a jinx.

Inside a roofless building, a monster that had been chewing on something suddenly noticed him.

It had a humanoid body covered in scales, with fins growing from its back—a fantastical creature. Those large, yellowish eyes without pupils snapped wide when they saw Vinny, and it let out an indescribable shriek.

Damn it.

Vinny used Frostfang to brace his balance and clenched his jaw.

He knew he should run. This thing was calling its companions. But he’d been put through hell already, and now he was completely spent.

After the fish-headed monster screamed, noises erupted—Vinny felt things rushing toward him from all directions.

A swarm of fish-like monsters poured in. They had massive double jaws, teeth jutting past their lips, and faces shriveled and dried out. Their eyes seemed to have degenerated from long disuse—or because they didn’t need them at all. And on their foreheads hung a glowing lantern, making them look like deep-sea anglerfish that had grown arms and legs.

Vinny was surrounded.

He tightened his grip on the spear and pressed his lips together.

One wave hadn’t even settled before the next hit. He didn’t know whether, in his current state, he could still fight off these beasts.

So where the hell is this?

Why were there so many bizarre species he’d never even heard of?

With a mind that was already foggy, Vinny forced himself to think. Where had it gone wrong? What was the broken link?

Soon, he remembered a rumor from Kamov Mountain—more like a piece of folklore. Supposedly, this had once been the place where a powerful subordinate of a Demon Pillar had fallen. The dead volcano itself was, in essence, the demon’s remaining corpse.

Could this be connected to that?

In fact, Vinny had been carrying a thought in the back of his mind for a while.

Everything in this strange world didn’t feel purely fabricated. Take these buildings—architecture in a style he’d never seen. Rather than something this world created, they felt like things that belonged to other worlds.

Just like the bird-masked monster that fed on the voices of living things. Just like the two knights in the mine. Just like the monsters from before.

They were very likely from other worlds.

And if that was true, then this world might be—

Vinny’s thoughts were cut off.

The anglerfish monster opened its bloody maw and lunged at him.

Vinny frowned hard, about to cast magic—

When several immaculate, holy crosses suddenly formed around him.

The fish-headed monsters threw themselves forward one after another, slamming into the barrier made by those crosses of sacred light.

This is...?

Vinny’s expression shifted in surprise. He’d seen this familiar magic before. It belonged to a [Saintess] user.

Where had he seen it?

A longsword burning with golden brilliance dropped from above like a falling star, turning the closest fish-headed monster into raw fish in a single strike.

That magic was—[Stored-Light Smite]?

A [Saintess] user.

Then, in the very next moment, a fiery-red figure leapt down. She flashed in front of him, yanked the sword from the ground, and the blade in her hand bloomed into countless sword-flowers—forcing back every piece of “raw fish” trying to close in.

And in that brief instant, Vinny recognized the red-haired girl.

He blurted out in shock, “Fennia?”

“How is it you?” Vinny asked, stunned. “How did you end up here?”