Hermit Wizard

* * *

Master woke up to the strange sound of blind spots.

‘Where is this place? ’

The last place I remember was Incheon Airport. A strange object wrapped around him, and his whole body was paralyzed and then he was unconscious.

‘This smell is · · ·. ’

Afterwards, the auditory olfactory returned. A familiar, creamy scent that stimulates the tip of the nose. Sweet.

It was then a limited touch. I felt a frozen sensation all over my body. But I can't move.

I wanted to feel like I had a face on my neck. Master only opened his eyes. It was a faint light, but violently bright to the cornea that became accustomed to darkness.

He blinked his eyes a few times in tears and tried to look around. Only the pupil returned close, and within that range there was nothing noticeable. It was also impossible to turn your head because your neck did not move.

‘Where is this place? ’

It did not resemble any of the environments it had been in for hundreds of years. There was a mixture of faint light and stained darkness around him, and he was wealthy. All of those landscapes are permeated with a purple filter.

“You opened your eyes, too. ”

I could not even guess the direction of the voice being heard. There was still nothing on the front of the fixed gaze.

Master later realizes that one sensation has not yet returned. I couldn't feel the magic.

Of course, there is no sense left to detect the presence of his horsepower. Either the magic circuit itself has been sealed, or all the remaining magic power in the body has been taken, or it has been sealed, or both.

Anyway, it was the worst.

“Are you busy rolling your head? ”

A voice pretending to be kind said. It was a strange language, but I could understand it somehow.

“Well, who are you? ”

Master remembered the power that an object in the form of a jellyfish tentacle felt when it struck itself. It was not like the power of the creature itself. No, in the first place, the tentacles felt more like a tool of manoeuvre than as one independent creature.

“Hi? I'm Gramiel. ”

A voice introducing himself was drowned in laughter.

Magical detection was impossible, but Master felt a huge presence. A reverberation that can be detected even if the horsepower circuit is not working.

Master reminded me of someone in memory. This kind of pressure on the transcendent was limited to what he knew.

“Are you a soothsayer?

“Exactly. ”

“So this is · · ·. ”

“It's the dimension I manage. ”

Master suppressed the feeling of wanting to spit a curse.

He remembered what he had heard before he lost his mind. I could have guessed, but I asked.

“What channel are you connected to? · ·. ”

“You called the city Busan. ”

Master groans. Ah, of course.

GIBW's apprentices entered the area in the name of relief in the devastated Busan. However, some of the mixed traffickers collected traces of Yoon Min-jun near Busan Channel instead of handing out groceries to the refugees or empowering them with medical activities and temporary shelter construction, and analyzed the trails left by the fight against the strange creatures that came out of it.

He said he was watching us go and go near the channel. ’

The soothsayer who manages the world beyond Busan Channel.

Saburo knew what had happened in Korea. On the day the Busan Channel opened, a few words resounded in the minds of everyone on the Korean peninsula. I think I'm having a conversation with someone, but I can't hear their response. The owner of that voice is probably the savior now.

“What do you want from me? ”

Why did the Savior of the other world abduct the wicked of the earth?

Master had an ominous feeling.

“I told you, I want the secrets your world has to hide. And I want to know what the savior of your world was all about. ”

Master felt his body wet with sweat.

Yes, the Saviors of other worlds would not have noticed the absence of the Black Keeper earlier. Eugene predicted.

However, no savior had intervened in this way because he knew it. Everyone would be busy joyfully picking up the souls pouring through the pierced channel.

“The savior of your world, yes. It was called the Black Keeper. I wondered what he was up to. ”

How do you know his name?

Master tried to hide his face but did not open his mouth.

“I'm guessing. ”

Gramiel raises and asks.

“His signature is not a burn. In that closed world, who can kill you? It wasn't encroached upon by the gods, it was a place like an iron castle where no other Savior could intervene. The Black Keeper killed himself. It separates the body from the soul. Isn't that right?”

Master did not answer with his mouth full.

“Just as the gods need flesh, so is the body essential to the Savior. There is no savior who can exercise his full power with his soul alone. When you lose your body, you won't be able to intervene in the world. Even a savior from a race that is not based on substance needs a vessel that contains a soul. The difference between substance and non-substance, even if there is a difference in its share. Broadly speaking, the mind is also a kind of body. But your savior is from the dragon, isn't he? It's a race based on matter, so we don't need to talk about it anymore. ”

The Old Testament speaks.

“It's just as dangerous for a species with a physical body to abandon itself. After a long time with only one soul left, you may be dismayed by a lowly being like a spirit. But why did the Black Keeper have such an adventure? ”

Master thought about it and said,

“· · · I don't know It's just a useless question to ask me. ”

Gramiel laughed.

“I'm sorry, but I didn't ask you. ”

At that moment, Master felt his neck warming. The paralysis, which was completely stiffened under the chin, loosened a little. He slid his neck close, or he could move a little. It is clear that the torturer gave that permission.

But why now?

Master turns his head quietly. And faced an unimaginable scene.

The sweet smell that clings to your nose as soon as you wake up. A familiar, damp fragrance. Master later realized his identity.

He was bleeding from his left shoulder. The source was another head that had risen above the shoulder.

“Valentine! ”

Valentine's head attached to his body was severely damaged. I don't have long hair. No, I lost my scalp and skull before I discussed my hair.

With the pink brain outside, not all the blood vessels bounded by the forehead, Valentine twitched with her eyes turned upside down.

Twinkling, twinkling.

The surface of the brain was crawling with a pale purple mucus mass. Like aphids covered with thick stalks, or like maggots twisted in rotten meat, they moved in flocks. It was a miniature version of the jellyfish tentacles I saw at the airport. Some of them were twitching and digging into the brain. In the process, a few tiny holes are noticeable.

“Hey, what are you doing! ”

Gramiel is bold.

“I woke him up first because he was a two-man head, but he didn't listen to me very well. So we chose a convenient way. ”

I urge you to speak.

“Now, talk to me. Why did the Black Keeper separate himself from his soul? ”

A twinkling Valentine opened her mouth.

“Because I felt my own limitations. ”

There was no resistance to that answer.

“Valentine!”

The head on the left shoulder did not react to him, although he cried out bitterly.

Master desperately tried to move his body. I don't know what Gramiel's ultimate purpose is, but I thought we shouldn't leave the information out like this. I'd rather cut off the blood vessels and airways connected to Valentine and decide to necross him.

But the body did not move as intended.

“Hoo.”

Valentine replied, "The presence that permeated the air has darkened. His words seemed to attract Gramiel's attention.

“What was the limit? ”

“This is the limit of the race of origin. ”

Although invisible, Gramiel must be watching Valentine's head, which is parasitic to Master's body, be pierced. The flow of space was such that it fluctuated momentarily. It was the savior who made that change, of course.

This information is very important to Gramiel. Master thought so.

“If you're of African descent, you're a dragon. A dragon's limit?”

“The dragon is not a self-evolving species. ”

“· · · Yes? ”

Gramiel's voice was slightly lower.

“The Black Keeper says, the dragon is forced to evolve. They were manipulated by monsters called pioneers. The dragon's body is full of trails left by pioneers. ”

“ · · · · · ·. ”

The Savior urges the next words, killing his breath.

“The trail was a driving force for the dragon, but it was also a shackle that prevented it from moving on to the next step. Nevertheless, the Black Keeper was transcended beyond the wall through a tremendous possibility, and through a more difficult process he became a savior. Close to the miracle of the race. But it was even harder to grow your own bowl after you became a savior. ”

Like a doll who has lost her will, Valentine calmly answers. A small purple mucus crawls out from the flipped edge of the eye, revealing a white magenta.

“After becoming a Savior, the physical characteristics of the race of origin are maintained. To completely remove the trail left by the pioneers, the Black Keeper decided to abandon his original body. After separating the soul from the body, I decided to create a new body. ”

“You'll die after you build a new body. Why did you reverse the order? ”

“It wasn't about creating a whole new body, it was about reconstructing it on the basis of an existing body. In addition, it was not possible to maintain the life of the body during the work. ”

Master desperately tried to stop Valentine's mouth, but it was useless. Gramiel continued to ask questions as if he was bored with the story.

“What kind of work was that? ”

“The body of a dragon possessed by the Black Savior. Before the pioneers manipulated it, they had to reverse guess what shape they had in their time. Next, we envisioned what would have happened if the pure body, which became a circle, had evolved into pure magnetism without the intervention of pioneers. It was about simulating a body evolved by the magnetic force of a species called a dragon, and creating a new body for it. ”

“· · · ah! ”

Gramiel wins.

“'He who has not evolved himself is not entitled to move on to the next stage.’ Yes, the chances of success are lower than any other race. Even the next step in becoming a savior. Yeah, that's why! ”

The voice of the oracle was slightly but felt like trembling.

“Yes. Both species did not meet the conditions of evolution. Probably. No, definitely. ”

There was a mix of excitement and anger in his voice.

“What did all those souls do when the old body's territory ate away? The soul you ate would not have been consumed. This world has never evolved. But you didn't even widen your bowl. ”

“A bottle containing a soul. ”

“What?”

“I made a bottle containing my soul. We kept together the souls of the transcendent human beings that the Old Testament could not eat, and the souls of countless human beings who ate before they died. ”

“Where is the bottle that contains the soul? ”

Valentine explained what happened at the headquarters of the torturer.

“Yeah, that's him. ”

Gramiel smiles low.

“One more. I understand you didn't widen the bowl. But with that many souls, why didn't you evolve the world? ”

“It didn't evolve. ”

“· · · What? ”

Valentine talked about the world's nucleus. There were also words about the strange human soul that the distant old Black Savior encountered.

Then Gramiel bursts into laughter for a very long, delightful moment.

“Like an exploding rainbow, a spectacular soul with poor eyes?! ”

Gramiel laughed for a while and whispered.

“Did you think you could find what you didn't find before you died? ”

“I don't even know that. It was said that there was a way to be resurrected at a time when the world was full of souls for more than a year, to get a new body, to find the nucleus of the world, and to close all the channels that were already open. ”

Gramiel is silent for a moment.

“Ah, you have no idea. If you think about it from the point of view of the Old Testament, you get no answer. I'm guessing you know how to find the nucleus. The man named Black Keeper, he really went right before he succeeded. I went right before, but you really missed it right in front of your nose. If I reach out a little longer, I've lost something I can hold onto! ”

After the wave of cheer knocked on the space a few more times, Gramiel said.

“I heard you. I offer my condolences to the Black Keeper. And that plan, I'll write it down. ”

# 226