Chapter 220: Becoming Aware of the Catastrophe

As part of the seal was released, half of Jun’s hair turned stark white, as if snow had fallen on it.

At the same time, he poured all the mana he had gathered into two skills:

[Steadfast Will]

[Unwavering Heart]

Both were skills that protected his mental strength. In addition to those, he also activated the essence of the World Tree.

[Senior?]

[What’s going on?]

[Leader, what are you doing now?!]

The essence of the World Tree also had the ability to share mental resilience with party members, which is why his comrades outside reacted to the dangerously wavering state of Jun’s mind.

But Jun had no time to respond to them.

This is…

An otherworldly being.

The God of Death.

It was staring directly at Jun.

With the gaze of a child who had discovered an interesting insect.

Though all Jun could see was a pitch-black eye, he could clearly feel the being’s emotion.

It’s coming…!

That interest was turning into action.

An immense death was drawing near.

The moment he felt it, the power of dreams instantly pulled Jun’s body away.

As mentioned before, it was attempting to forcibly sever his connection with the ancient spirit.

Jun’s vision stretched out as everything around him elongated.

“……!”

But the great death didn’t seem willing to let Jun go so easily.

Dozens or hundreds of black hands formed in an instant and chased after him.

It’s fast…!

He considered casting a spell, but the black hands reached for his wrist even faster.

In the end, he abandoned the spell and pushed something else forward.

Predator!

Screeeeeech!!!

The Predator, summoned just in time, blocked the black hands right before they reached him.

At that moment, the death-infused hands recoiled.

It seemed they sensed something disturbing.

But perhaps that curiosity, once sparked, wasn’t so easy to let go. A few of the black hands curved widely to the left and came in from the side to grab him.

They were so fast that, before Jun could even move the Predator, one of the hands grabbed his wrist.

“……!!!”

For a fleeting moment, he nearly lost consciousness.

Just touching it was enough to make him feel an overwhelming sense of death.

It was even more powerful than the [Cycle of the Forest] spell the Fairy Queen had unleashed in the Black Forest.

Countless deaths flashed before Jun’s eyes.

Screeeeech!!

At that moment, the Predator absorbed the energy within the black hand and Jun’s vision went completely dark.

“Haa… haa… haa…!!”

“Senior!!”

“Leader!”

“Leader!”

He heard Aiden, Maya, and Eleanor’s voices all at once.

Looking around, he saw that the countless black hands were gone, replaced once again by the torch-lit cave, the monument, and the people around him.

“Wh-What happened? One of the guards rushed in from outside, so I thought something had gone wrong…”

Kyler asked, but Jun had no energy to respond to everyone’s reactions.

The mental damage was severe.

So that was the power of an Outer God… and just a fragment of it. That one movement, born from nothing more than curiosity…

He already knew well enough that he was still weak compared to his true enemies.

That was why the Reincarnator had never told him he would give him time….he said he would earn it.

Honestly, Jun had been somewhat confident.

He’d survived countless brushes with death, and each time, he’d found the seeds of growth and advanced in ways others couldn’t even dream of.

But compared to what he had just faced, he felt like nothing more than a speck of dust.

To think… I might have to face something like that someday.

In the game, there had never been a storyline involving actually fighting the Outer Gods.

No…more precisely, the core of the story was about preventing the invasion of the Outer Gods.

But the place Jun was in now was reality, and anything could change at any time.

And the Reincarnator had said—

You must break the world that repeats endlessly.

What exactly did that mean?

He had a rough idea.

It’s not just about stopping them. Someday… the time may come when I’ll have to fight those monstrous beings too.

Could he really handle that?

…Yes. I can.

Arrogantly, that thought crossed his mind.

If he could reach what the Reincarnator had hoped for….the “end of magic” then maybe, just maybe, it would be possible.

“Phew…”

He looked down at the wrist that had touched Death.

It had clearly been a mental attack, yet a distinct handprint remained on his skin.

“Leader… just what did you see in there…?”

Eleanor, a high-ranking priest, could sense divinity lingering on Jun’s wrist.

Strictly speaking, it was only a residual trace of divinity. It no longer held any power. It was just the remnant of something that had once been there.

Yet the horrific aura she felt from it brought back memories of when an Outer God had once taken hold of her own body.

“For now… I just want to rest a little.”

“Ah! Of course. Please come this way. Should I call a healer?”

“No, that won’t be necessary.”

“Well, that’s a relief.”

Kyler held back her curiosity as much as she could and made sure Jun had space to recover.

About half a day passed.

“So, Leader. What did you see in there?”

“The God of Death. Probably.”

“You mean… you saw a god…?”

Had any priests heard that, they might have fainted on the spot, but no one here could take those words as a good thing.

Not when the word “god” was preceded by something so ominous.

The God of Death.

That wasn’t a name anyone would ever want to meet.

“That god is the one who sealed the ancient spirit into that monument. It seemed interested in me….maybe because I connected with the spirit.”

“G-Goodness…”

Jun gently stroked the Predator.

Thank you.

Thanks to this guy, he had survived.

However, it seemed that even for this guy, absorbing divinity had been quite a strain. There was no noticeable response.

Still, divinity must have been an unbelievably delicious meal for it.

Considering how dangerous it was, I gained quite a bit.

At the same time, he looked toward his dimensional bracelet.

Something inside it was asserting its presence.

It was the pocket watch the ancient spirit had given to Jun.

***

“Fortunately, I succeeded in translating it.”

“Y-You really did?”

Kyler, who hadn’t expected him to succeed in just a single day, looked at Jun with an expression of utter shock.

“However… it’s a bit different from the kind of holy relic you were hoping for, Captain Kyler.”

“…What do you mean by that?”

“That monument is apparently an object that marks the beginning of some catastrophe.”

“The beginning of a catastrophe…?”

“Yes. They say that from the moment it appears, a great disaster is not far behind.”

“……”

Kyler stared at Jun, as if she simply couldn’t believe what she was hearing.

And in truth, that reaction was only natural.

If what he said was true, it would mean that she and her party had personally brought a disaster into this territory.

“What do you mean by that…”

“Please, hear me out. It’s not all bad news.”

“…Alright, go on.”

“When the catastrophe begins, a certain monster appears. If you take it down, you’ll likely obtain the relic you’re looking for, Kyler.”

That part was true.

The relic Kyler sought was a relatively common item even in the game.

If one survived the unfolding catastrophe and defeated the boss monster, they would receive an item that could temporarily summon the soul of the dead.

Back then, I held onto it hoping it might be a hidden quest item or something.

Since it didn’t have any real use, it had always just been gathering dust in his storage.

“Haa…”

Even so, Kyler’s expression didn’t brighten.

Had anyone else said this, even someone as wise as she was would have had a hard time believing it.

She probably would’ve questioned their motives instead.

But…

I was the one who told my brother we could trust the White Whale Mercenaries.

Over time, Kyler had gathered a considerable amount of information on the White Whale Mercenaries.

Although she hadn’t been able to find a single trace of their members’ lives before joining the mercenary group, it hadn’t been difficult to collect data on their activities afterward.

And each and every one of those records was hard to believe.

Wasn’t it especially shocking that they had stopped a Dimension Reverse not just once, but twice?

Even Kyler herself had never achieved such a feat.

He has a natural talent for resolving situations that are on the verge of spiraling out of control.

And that wasn’t all. He had also collaborated with the Imperial family to prevent a disaster on Slayer’s Coast Island.

From what she’d heard, that incident had caused many nobles aligned with the Imperial faction to start speaking favorably of the White Whale Mercenaries. Even nobles from the opposing faction had reportedly begun showing support.

All of this had taken place in just the last two years.

So how could she possibly dismiss it when that very person was now warning of a coming catastrophe?

To ignore it would surely lead to sleepless nights haunted by nightmares.

“But, but…”

Still, could she really bring herself to pass this information on to her brother?

Her brother, who was already struggling daily over the missing seal….how could she now tell him that their own ambition might have put the territory in danger?

…No, I can’t.

There was a high chance he wouldn’t believe it.

In that case, should she just destroy the monument that was causing all this trouble?

“Unfortunately, as of now… there’s no known way to destroy the monument.”

“What do you mean by that?”

“They say it requires divinity. But not divinity from this world….some other kind.”

“…Are you talking about the power of the gods from Blackout?”

“Yes.”

Getting something like that wouldn’t be easy from the start.

There was no telling how long it might take to find such a thing now…

We’d probably need help from the Imperial family or the church just to get our hands on it.

The problem was, there was no way either of them would give up such power willingly.

Recklessly using that kind of power could lead to consequences no one could predict.

There’s actually a greater chance they’d leave the catastrophe alone and let it happen.

There had been a time in the past when using that kind of divinity had led to irreversible consequences. So it was understandable.

“Haa…”

All she’d wanted was to retrieve her family’s lost seal.

How had things gotten this out of hand?

Her head began to ache.

“Then… does that mean we can’t even tell when this so-called catastrophe will strike?”

“There is one way.”

“…! What is it?”

Kyler looked desperate, but Jun had no intention of telling her about the pocket watch.

It was an item absolutely necessary for dealing with the coming catastrophe.

Still, that didn’t mean he planned to hoard all the information for himself.

Jun lied without batting an eye.

“I felt a certain flow of magic while briefly communicating with an ancient soul. That magic, which felt utterly dreadful, was growing even during our conversation.”

“…Are you saying that’s the sign of the catastrophe beginning?”

“Yes. I suspect once it reaches a certain threshold, the very thing we fear will occur.”

Jun continued.

“We need to calculate the rate at which that magic is growing and when it might reach a critical point. That’ll likely take some time.”

“I see… How long do you estimate? I can offer personal assistance, so please don’t hesitate to tell me.”

“Roughly four days, I’d say.”

“Four days…”

Impressive.

It looked like an incredibly difficult task, yet he planned to handle it in just four days?

She felt a bit more at ease.

The man before her had worked with the Imperial family and lived to tell the tale, after all.

But there was one problem… This entire situation desperately needed the help of the mage standing in front of her.

But for something like this… what kind of compensation would be appropriate…?

Given the current worsening state of the territory, she couldn’t even begin to imagine what she could offer Jun in return for helping with something of this magnitude.

And Jun felt the same.

This is my chance. I need to squeeze out as much as I can. Tsk… But this territory’s condition really isn’t great either.

How much should he ask for?

Of course, considering the scale of the catastrophe, this wasn’t just a matter of one or two lives.

From a humanitarian perspective, it was only right to help…

But if I do that, we might not survive either.

Helping was one thing….but it was only right to gain everything he could in the process.

That said, both of them concluded that this wasn’t a problem that could be resolved immediately.

For now, the lord of this territory, Ron Camillo, the one who would be providing the compensation, had no idea what was happening… and Kyler, just a mere mercenary captain, couldn’t possibly handle it all on her own.

“Let’s think about the matter of compensation later. Right now, figuring out how to resolve this issue is far more important.”

“…Thank you for being so considerate.”

“Not at all. Thanks to you, Maya has been able to grow significantly, hasn’t she?”

“Haah… Anyway, if you need help, please don’t hesitate to ask. I’ll do everything I can.”

“Yes. Thank you.”

After that, Kyler left the tent wearing a deeply troubled expression and soon issued the order to withdraw.

From her perspective, this journey had cost her more than it had gained.