Manus? Who Is He? (1)

‘Could it be that he’s trapped in a barrier?’

I activated the comm crystal—its light extinguished—and tried to contact Merus, but there was no response. Had something happened?

Having been trapped in a barrier in the Monster Belt before, I felt my worry deepen.

After a moment’s hesitation, I infused the comm crystal with divine power and called for the needed personnel.

“Lee Hyo-ju, Hazel, Mae Young-ryeong, Cheong—come to the terrace. Wear all your equipment!”

I didn’t wait for replies; I summoned Albom.

I ordered Albom, who stayed nearby at the mansion, to prepare a spell and waited for the party.

In under five minutes Hazel and Mae Young-ryeong arrived together. Lee Hyo-ju came next, then Cheong. I turned to Albom.

“Preparations are complete. It’s not a great distance, so the three of us tower masters are sufficient. No separate magic circle is necessary for this range.”

“Is that so? Then please proceed.”

“Yes.”

I beckoned the bewildered group, all fully equipped.

When the four of us were gathered, Albom and the tower masters murmured and began chanting spells.

“Partner…?”

“We’ll explain once we arrive. Merus is in danger.”

At the mention of Merus being in danger, their expressions hardened. They shed clueless looks, assumed combat stances, and drew their weapons.

“Move!” Albom shouted. My vision flashed white; when it cleared we were hovering above the courtyard in front of the library.

After everyone landed safely and I scanned the area, Hazel asked, “Partner, didn’t you say it was dangerous?”

I followed her pointing and saw Merus asleep, snoring on the dirt near the library steps.

“Haa…”

“Partner?”

“No—fortunately he’s fine. This is going to be a nuisance.”

Though the area was rarely visited, our midair arrival amid massive mana fluctuations drew attention. Since each of us had appeared fully armed, all eyes fixed on us.

Onlookers—continent folk and representatives alike—turned, and at their shouts a crowd swarmed toward us.

“It’s the Blessed Warrior!”

“Wow. The Azure Moon Empress is here too! She’s beautiful!”

“Huh? That’s Void Slasher herself! Hazel!!”

“That one is the Silent Saintess…”

It was like a pop group in scandalous outfits replacing the commander at a morale session; a crashing wave of people engulfed us.

We scrambled to handle the embarrassment.

“Hey? There’s someone lying over there?”

Someone had found Merus.

While everyone panicked, Lee Hyo-ju alone remained calm.

“Hello. A member of our legion suddenly disappeared, so we were looking for him and found him. Oh dear, I wonder what kind of day-drinking he had. Hoho.”

“Ho, hohoho! Y-yeah?”

Surprisingly, Hazel’s acting was terrible.

Thanks to Lee Hyo-ju’s quick thinking, we secured Merus safely. Legion members shielded the area and slapped him repeatedly—about ten times.

“Ugh…”

He groaned, and when he sat up he found himself surrounded by fierce gazes and towering legs.

“Ugh, am I still dreaming?”

A cold voice snapped him fully awake.

“Try to close your eyes again and I’ll make sure you never open them.”

Lee Hyo-ju’s warning cut through the crowd.

After that day Merus traded his grand title ‘Drunk Star’ for the embarrassing nickname ‘Still Drunk.’

His foolish antics made him a spectacle, but he wasn’t lying. The rarely visited library pulsed with an alien flow of divine power—bizarre and unsettling.

“What is this?”

“Ahem. That’s the ‘Timor’s Barrier.’ So…”

To summarize Merus’s long explanation: the gaping barrier had been created by someone who had become a god; to break it you must overpower the creator.

I approached the library door and, as usual, placed my hand on it. Zziiing—! A dense, murderous aura and otherworldly sensation tried to pierce my mind but was blocked with a scratching sound.

‘Master, I blocked it. Whatever low-grade hallucination—’

‘Technology “War God [Ex]” and trait “War” have completely defended against the mental attack.’

Arun 2 fell silent again. I didn’t have high expectations—perhaps that’s why it was named Arun 2.

The onrushing ferocity was thick and real, but compared to Bioss’s Deicide it was child’s play.

It was tolerable, so I tried to push the library door. True to its name, the barrier held and the door didn’t budge.

I sighed, stepped back, and returned to the party.

I nodded to Hazel, who looked worried, then stood by the door and considered.

Tch. No matter how much I thought it over, there was only one answer. I had tried the comm crystal repeatedly, but Shio hadn’t responded.

We could refrain from forcing entry or trying to contact the transcendants and simply wait. But given Fabrice’s appearance and that the fourth-year mark was less than ten days away, waiting posed risks.

I needed to meet those two before the slaughter began.

I assigned tasks, starting with Hazel.

“Hazel, partition off the surrounding space. Suppress the divine power flow to undetectable levels. And Cheong…”

“Yes.”

Cheong answered crisply with a bow.

“Set up totems. The library itself probably won’t collapse, but I’m worried about the surrounding buildings. Use what we deployed on the walls during the Monster Wave.”

While Cheong chanted with a strange rhythm, Hazel restructured the space. I drew a bow and arrows from my inventory and readied myself, breathing to ease the tension.

The difference in strength is not only a matter of quantity but also of method. How you impart the same power creates a clear difference for the recipient.

Even if I’d grown stronger, could I surpass Shio? I wasn’t confident.

Of course, that barrier might not represent Shio’s full strength, but it wouldn’t be broken by barbaric brute force.

Just as my shoulders felt almost weightless, the totems Cheong installed altered the courtyard’s floor and walls as if the molecular structure of the entire space had shifted. Even the air around us began to move more slowly.

The wall had resisted the combined approved magics of Arun and about a hundred tower elders and masters; Cheong’s totems explained why.

I exhaled and nocked a Responding Arrow on the Ager Skull Bow. Divine power and chaos swirled through my body, darkening the arrow until it looked like a flaming shaft.

A route appeared in my vision.

I poured in divine power until the arrow trembled from the excess, placed its tip at the route’s starting point, and released it.

Whoosh—thud!

Three sounds rang almost together.

There was no whistling of an arrow in flight. The first sound came from the arrow vanishing from sight as it passed through the barrier without obstruction. Simultaneously, the divine-wrapped arrow struck the library door, punching a larger-than-expected hole. Then—Kwahng!—the old library door shattered, fragments scattering like hidden weapons.

A wave of projectiles surged toward us. Thick chunks of the heavy wooden door screamed through the air from the shockwave alone, kicking dust up from the ground.

“Hahap!”

I hastily drew my now-empty right hand back and thrust it forward again, emitting a short kiai. My fist, cloaked in black waves of chaos, swelled and erased the oncoming fragments outright.

“Amazing,” Cheong breathed. The strain in his voice proved how fierce the onslaught had been.

I had poured so much force into it that there was no impact sound; the fragments turned to dust and vanished.

“Damn it! It was you?”

Shio stormed out cursing. He didn’t look normal—an arrow was impaled and hanging from his left arm. It was clearly identical to the Responding Arrow I’d fired.

“Return.”

On a whim I spoke the activation word, and the arrow hanging from Shio’s arm vanished in a burst of light. Blood had spurted like a fountain and then stopped. Thank God the arrow hadn’t contained Deicide.

“Are you alright?”

“No, but this bastard! You’ve gotten weird while I wasn’t looking? Does this look okay to you?”

He was furious.

Seeing him like that made me want to tease him more.

“Why are you taking that hit? You should’ve dodged.”

“What?! You bastard! It’s impressive you survived an arrow that suddenly aimed for your heart the moment you stepped out of the room!”

Mae Young-ryeong calmed him. She didn’t say much, but she stepped forward and quickly performed Healing on his wound.

“But what’s going on?”

“We haven’t been able to get any contact. It’s already been fifteen days.”

“Ah… is that so? Hmm. Well, it’s almost over anyway, so you can come in. Oh, by the way, the girls back there might be a bit… noticeable? These girls are healers, so it should be fine.”

If Shio put it that way, then something must be there.

I turned to Lee Hyo-ju and Hazel. Both nodded with determined expressions—they would come along.

When I looked back, Shio had already turned and was entering. Leading the party into the library, he waved his hand as if shooing flies.

Divine power stirred and a steady current flowed.

It’s a barrier.

“Timor’s Barrier?”

“Huh? How…? Ah, that lizardman over there must know; he’s Sophia’s representative. Yes, that’s it.”

“I see. That’s interesting. It feels like the door has been recreated.”

Shio, who had been glowering at me with a sulky face, grumbled in a sullen tone.

“What nonsense is that? Of course the door’s been remade. What does that have to do with a barrier? In times like these you’re a complete fool, honestly.”

He was clearly sulking—teasing scorn laced with prickly annoyance.

He grumbled as we passed between the bookshelves and entered a large room deeper in the library.

Once inside, sensations we hadn’t felt outside hit us all at once.

I understood why Shio hadn’t fully dodged the arrow. Even though the door was open, nothing outside could be sensed. It was as if the spaces on either side of the threshold were completely different worlds.

A sharp stench assaulted us: a mix of blood and vomit. The air felt thick and sticky with a ferocity that prickled the skin.

Talis and Bioss stood over an old man in solemn poses, bristling with intensity.

The man looked like ragged skin clung to bone. He wore no clothing, black hair plastered to his head as if soaked in sweat. Wounds pockmarked his body; his nails were broken and his mouth stained as if he’d vomited blood.

A mangled old man lay on the floor, gasping for breath.

“You’re here?” Talis greeted without even glancing our way.

“Who are you?”

“Oh? Ah, well, he’s changed so much he might not be recognizable. It’s Fabrice.”

I looked again at Talis’s words.

What I had seen earlier wasn’t an illusion. It was horrific. And above all, his hair wasn’t white but black.

“This… no, this is him?”

“Yes.”