The Dimensional Rift And The Egg

Inside a pitch-black space, I was drifting without even knowing up, down, left, or right.

I could not sense time either. I did not know where I was.

How long had it been since I was sucked into the Pope’s magic?

—Was it called Dimension Gate?

It seemed I had been sent somewhere.

—Why did this happen?

The Pope apparently considered me an obstacle, but he had also said the conflict with Fortis was a trivial matter.

Then why did he eliminate me?

I could not understand even after thinking about it. It felt like there was some other intention behind it.

Even so, it was dark. My surroundings were pitch black. There was no air nearby either.

By compressing my Holy Wave to ten meters, I was barely staying alive.

Perhaps thanks to the Holy Wave, only the area around me was faintly glowing.

I continued drifting. Since I could not see anything around me, I decided to at least make a light.

I pulled out my sword and poured Holy Wave into it.

“Hah!”

The instant I fired myself up, the sword was wrapped in smoke with a puff.

When the smoke cleared, a white-haired young man with a cute face appeared. Two horns grew from his head. Perhaps because he was wearing a large shirt despite his delicate body, his thin collarbones were visible.

He showed an intense smile on his handsome face, which still retained some childishness, and said,

“Hah-hah! The seal’s finally broken! I’m revived! Fwahahahaha!”

“The sword transformed!? Who are you!?”

“I am the demon god Magnaurus. Thanks for the magic power, Alec.”

“Demon god? What do you mean?”

Magnaurus clicked his tongue and glared at me.

“Do I have to explain from the beginning before you understand? What a pain. …Well, fine. This is the end anyway. I’ll tell you.”

“Yeah, please.”

“When I was living however I damn well pleased, that bastard God sealed me inside a sword. Said he’d turn me back if I changed my ways and helped people. —Honestly, just because I ate my fill of Heaven’s peaches and kidnapped a heavenly maiden to make her my woman, he went and did this to me.”

“That’s your fault. It’s only natural you were punished.”

“Shut up! I live without being bound by anything!”

Magnaurus threatened me despite his cute face.

I ignored that and asked my question.

“Why was the seal broken?”

“Because my magic power filled up, and because we came outside God’s range—to somewhere outside another world, so his influence disappeared.”

“I see.”

“That’s how it is. I thought it would take another thousand years for my magic power to fully recover, but thanks to you giving me a huge amount of magic power, I’m saved.”

“That’s good. Then how do I get back to my original world?”

“Hah? Like I’d go back. I’d turn back into a sword, wouldn’t I?”

“That’s a problem! Liricia and everyone else should be in trouble!”

I desperately pleaded with him, but Magnaurus put a smirk mocking people on his childish, handsome face.

“Not my problem! I’m gonna have fun rampaging around in this world! Hoo-hoo!”

“That’s too selfish! Hey, wait! At least tell me how I can get back by myself!”

Magnaurus showed a condescending smile and snorted.

“As if I’d know! You can drift in the darkness forever! See ya!”

Magnaurus showed a wicked smile, then kicked me and flew upward.

“H-hey! Wait a minute!”

I hurriedly reached out, but grabbed only empty space.

Magnaurus flew away like that, and about ten meters away from me, he suddenly began convulsing.

“Abebabububeba!”

I stretched out my right hand and extended the range of my Holy Wave. With the image of grabbing him with a large hand, I enveloped Magnaurus. Then I brought him back to my side.

—So I can move objects by using the density of Holy Wave too.

Magnaurus spoke with a pale face while breathing roughly.

“There’s no air or magic essence—wait, this isn’t another world, is it!”

“Then where is it?”

At my question, Magnaurus put a hand to his chin and sank into thought.

“Not another world… but not the Demon Realm or Purgatory either. It’s between worlds, a dimensional rift.”

“A dimensional rift… What is that?”

Magnaurus clicked his tongue and glared at me.

“To put it simply, imagine a tank filled with nothingness, with a bunch of balloons called worlds inside it. The dimensional rift is the gap between those worlds.”

“Can we go back?”

“If we could go back easily, we wouldn’t be suffering. Damn it, this has gotten boring.”

Magnaurus bit his nail without even trying to hide his irritation.

After drifting and thinking for a while, I asked,

“Could you search whether there is anything in this dimensional rift?”

“There’s no way there is.”

“No, there should be.”

“What?”

I looked at Magnaurus’s large, round double-lidded eyes and said,

“I don’t think I’m the first person sent here. People and things must have been sent here by the same magic before.”

“I see. You’re pretty sharp for you. But this is a place with no water or air. I think they’re already dead.”

“Even so, there may be a clue to escape. Until we escape from here, why don’t we cooperate?”

When I pleaded with him, Magnaurus twisted his childish face in disgust and groaned, “Gnununu.”

However, he soon placed a finger against his forehead and cast magic.

“Can’t be helped. I’ll do it. —Area Search—There’s something up to the upper right… A hut or carriage? Well, it’s pretty far away.”

“Let’s go. Hold on to me.”

I released Holy Wave from my hand and used it as propulsion.

We smoothly moved through the pitch-black darkness.

While occasionally making slight corrections to our direction according to Magnaurus’s instructions, we headed toward “something.”

Meanwhile, in Kou’s dungeon.

The dungeon illuminated by bluish-white light was flashing green.

In the hall just before the hall where Kou was, Liricia had collapsed while holding her stomach. Beside her were Sophia and Rāna, who were taking care of her.

“Are you all right, Liricia-san! This is a Puchi Elixir. Drink it. Drink it!”

Sophia helped the suffering Liricia sit up and pressed the Puchi Elixir bottle to her mouth.

Though her slender throat moved up and down as she drank the Puchi Elixir, her pained expression did not change.

“Ah, it hurts, it hurts!”

“Why on earth!? Neither magic nor Puchi Elixir works!”

“Liricia, hang in there! Liricia!”

Rāna desperately rubbed Liricia’s back and encouraged her.

Liricia let out an especially high scream.

“Aah—!”

All strength suddenly left Liricia’s entire body, and she collapsed limply.

Sophia, who had been holding her, sharply caught her breath.

“Huh? Did she die?”

Liricia muttered in a faint breath.

“No, I am alive… Something…”

Liricia gently slipped her hand inside her clothes.

When she brought her hand back from around her lower abdomen, there was a pure-white egg resting on her palm. It was about the size of a chicken egg.

Sophia opened her eyes wide in surprise.

“What! Angels reproduce through eggs!? They weren’t mammals, but birds all along!?”

“I am surprised myself… To think my love with Master would be born in this form.”

“Well, after doing the deed that much, of course one or two children would be born.”

Sophia said that in exasperation, but her face had relaxed slightly in relief.

Rāna clapped her hands and jumped up and down.

“Orb, orb! Kyaa!”

“But it is dear to me… I wonder what kind of child will be born.”

Liricia rubbed her cheek against the egg.

Rāna smiled and held out both hands together.

“Rāna wants the orb too!”

“Do not grip it too strongly.”

Liricia smiled and handed the egg to Rāna.

The delighted Rāna received the egg with a broad smile.

The next instant, she slammed the egg into the ground with tremendous force.

Gaaang!

With a violent sound, the egg cracked.

Liricia and Sophia screamed and scolded her.

“W-what are you doing, Rāna-chan!”

“Hey, Rāna-chan!”

From inside the cracked egg, a round orb rolled out.

It was a Jewel Orb releasing pale-blue sacred light.

The two angels were stunned and silently stared at the Jewel Orb with their mouths open.

Rāna, operating as usual without caring about the two’s surprise, lightly picked up the Jewel Orb and swallowed it in one bite.

“Kyuiiiii…”

Rāna’s body released pale-blue light. She gradually grew larger.

When the light vanished, Rāna had become a girl around fifteen years old.

Rāna thanked her with a smile.

“Liricia, thank you for the orb!”

“Huh… Why…?”

“Because orbs form where magic power of the same attribute gathers!”

Sophia said with an exasperated face,

“In other words, the place where sacred power gathered the most in the world was Liricia-san’s stomach.”

Liricia covered her bright-red face with both hands.

“No… Something like that… My emotions are a complete mess!”

Liricia lay face-down on the floor.

Rāna patted Liricia’s back.

“Don’t mind, Liricia. I mean, people aren’t born from eggs, you know?”

“I know! I know, but somehow this is frustrating!”

Still face-down, Liricia flailed her arms and legs. It was like a child throwing a tantrum.

Rāna had been smiling happily, but suddenly made a serious face and stood up.

She glared at the passage-side wall and clenched her fist.

At that instant, the entire dungeon was enveloped in red light.

In the inner hall, Kou shouted.

“Warning, warning! The enemy is attacking!”

By the time Liricia came back to herself with a start and stood up, a passage had already appeared in the wall, and monsters were flooding in.

Rāna leapt forward while making the short hem of her dress flutter.

“These are ones Rāna can defeat!”

There were many kinds of monsters, such as dogs with two heads and one-eyed giants, but Rāna punched them one after another. She defeated them in one hit.

Liricia swung her flail, and Sophia cut enemies apart with sacred wind magic.

Thanks also to the dungeon’s Holy Wave effect, the enemies’ movements were slow. They defeated them without danger.

However, the number of monsters flooding in was overwhelming, and corpses piled up faster than the dungeon floor could absorb them.

The three continued fighting, but gradually lost their composure.