Ch#71
In front of the Armory.
Veil, who had leaped into the air, tumbled to the ground.
He rolled across the sandy floor before crashing into a pile of planks stacked in the corner.
“Damn it……!”
“Are you okay?!”
Raoul and Enzo rushed over to support Veil, but his gaze was fixed in one direction.
On the empty air about four meters off the ground.
“How the hell are we supposed to destroy it?! I can't even see it!”
Riper, the Grim Reaper leader watching, let out a sigh.
“Didn't I say it's impossible? Without Tesetan, we can't fully visualize the subspace.”
Elanes beside him drooped her brows in frustration as well.
“Yeah. No matter how hard we try, it doesn't work……? We'll have to give up on rescuing the factory chief.”
Veil ground his teeth.
He had thought they were saved when he heard reinforcements had arrived.
Without Trebaga, everything was pointless?
“Just so we're clear, you can't blame us later, right? This is all because Trebaga didn't show up?”
Elanes's follow-up words drained the strength from his legs.
He tossed the dagger in his hand far away.
He knew it too.
That Trebaga had no obligation to rescue Astie.
So Tesetan not coming might be inevitable.
But still…….
His gaze drifted emptily through the air.
It had already been half a day since Grim Reaper and Silvar's Scream arrived.
In that time, the mages from both mercenary groups had worked nonstop to visualize the subspace.
Yet no magic could reveal Krazar's subspace.
About an hour ago, faint, transparent scales had briefly shimmered in the air.
But the moment they tried a physical attack, the subspace vanished again.
“What will happen to the factory chief?”
“Will the elder really…….”
Sensing the end, the blacksmiths were slumping down one by one.
That wasn't the only concern.
“What if Krazar revives like this, leader?”
At vice-leader Gavern's words, Riper closed his eyes tightly.
A sigh of dismay rose.
‘It's not impossible.’
Eating people might be a way for Krazar to regain some strength.
But there were no precedents of a magic beast core reviving and attacking people.
‘What the hell is going on.’
Everything happening now had long surpassed common sense.
In other words, it meant the future was unpredictable.
“If that happens, it's not just a big deal…….”
“Quiet. We don't know yet.”
Riper's eyes grew cold.
The subspace clearly existed somewhere out there.
With the factory chief and Agavert's leader trapped inside.
They couldn't find it. Couldn't rescue them.
Riper narrowed his brow in frustration before turning away.
“Looks like it's a bust, so I'm heading out first.”
In truth, he lacked the confidence to watch any longer.
As Elanes said, this incident might be an opportunity for Riper.
A chance to push out Trebaga and score big points with the Imperial Family and Church.
But for some reason, he couldn't shake the bitter feeling.
‘Rankings and pride aside. We became mercenaries to save lives, after all.’
He always felt this way witnessing someone sacrificed to a magic beast.
As Riper forced himself to move,
“What is that?”
A mutter came from behind.
Turning, the blacksmiths were all pointing and buzzing at one spot.
Riper narrowed his eyes and looked where they pointed.
“……?”
Then he froze stiff in place.
The subspace surface, faintly visible before, had reappeared in the air.
But this time, the pattern was clearer, and the size larger.
“L-Leader. Look at that.”
Behind Gavern's urgent voice, the blacksmiths' buzz grew louder.
“It's spreading?”
“It's spreading! It's really spreading! The subspace is revealing itself!”
The blacksmiths jumped up one after another.
As they said, the subspace manifesting in the air was gradually expanding.
Just like the surface of water slowly freezing over.
“……Riper. What is it? Know something?”
Elanes, who had approached, whispered urgently.
But Riper forgot to reply and halted.
Then the next moment, he shouted to his members.
“Everyone, weapons ready!”
Elanes's eyes widened round.
Riper pushed past her and ran to his members, pointing at the emerging subspace.
“To your positions! The subspace is visible!”
The subspace surface revealing itself.
That meant they just had to pour all their power to destroy it now.
Elanes stared at him in disbelief from afar, but Riper ignored her and issued combat orders.
“Focus attacks on one point! If the power scatters, we can't breach the subspace!”
“Yes!”
From spearmen to members dragging large siege carts.
All held their breath, awaiting Riper's final command.
“Hold up!”
Someone cut in front of Riper.
It was Nordics.
On the subspace surface he pointed to, a small dot had appeared unnoticed.
“Wait, d-don't attack for a bit!”
Riper saw it too.
Something tiny wriggling on the subspace surface.
Narrowing his eyes, soon something abruptly protruded from between them.
“……What.”
It was a human finger.
But far thinner and shorter than an adult's.
As Riper gaped, the finger moved freely, slowly prying open the subspace gap.
Like soft fruit flesh being crushed, the dot split left and right, and something poked its head through.
“Auuung, Factowy Chief! Tie said not to push!”
A youthful face turning back with puffed cheeks.
And behind it,
“Good grief! I told you the gap was too narrow and there was no choice, Sovereign King!”
Factory chief Berugon as well.
As everyone froze in place.
Berugon, who had stuck his head out of the subspace and looked below, scowled fiercely.
He soon bellowed at the blacksmiths.
“What are you lot doing?! Can't you see the Sovereign King and I are about to get separated?! Get something—anything—here now!”
* * *
Tie looked around in a daze, wrapped in a blanket.
“See, I told you it was time to inspect the armory gear! This is all because you slacked on armory maintenance!”
“Armory maintenance isn't the issue right now! The elder's forehead won't stop bleeding!”
Berugon was venting at his chief disciples the moment he emerged from the subspace.
The blacksmiths were tending to his wounds (with Tie as the culprit).
Meanwhile, unfamiliar mercenaries were having some incomprehensible conversation off to the side.
“Gavern. Contact the Association first. The factory chief survived.”
“Yes!”
“Hold on, Riper. Before that, explain this to me. What do you mean Trebaga changed course en route?”
The surroundings bustled on a whole different level from before the subspace trap.
Tie's eyes shook accordingly.
‘Why are there so many people……?’
From what she overheard, they came to rescue her and the factory chief.
Which meant,
“What about Krazar?”
“Planning to confirm with the factory chief now. If the Sovereign King came out of the subspace, they must have annihilated it.”
“If they annihilated it, there should be a core.”
They had come to hunt Krazar too.
Tie hugged her Ppuppu-filled bag tightly, breaking into a cold sweat.
