Chapter 142
“Why did you like someone who hates you and try to look good to them? Are you a pervert?”
“I know, right? It feels like love-hate.”
After mulling over the conversation from a moment ago, my chest felt heavy again. Seeing Yuanna's unexpected hidden side and the truth left me very confused.
Besides, I couldn't learn all the secrets of the island just from Anata and Yuanna's conversation. There were still unsolved problems.
What is the relationship between the Rohade Family, the temple, and Zenas?
Also, what is the Dimensional Gate, and why does it exist?
What was the 'Gate' in Zenas's Cabin?
Sss-
Just then, Eunji, who was coiled around my shoulder, flicked her tongue. Thanks to her, I came back to my senses.
However, I immediately sensed a strange smell lingering around my nose. I belatedly remembered that the stone walls were full of Tentationem poisonous plants.
I used the candle I was holding to light up the wall next to the door. As I had seen in the hallucination, Red Flowers were densely blooming.
I gasped at the overwhelming visual.
At that moment, some of the yellow flower stamens entered my nose. I coughed without realizing it.
Cough.
With that, the yellow stamen powder spread out from the flowers that densely covered the wall. It was a huge amount of pollen.
“Damn it!”
I had already experienced severe side effects from just one flower that Luzef brought, but this was so many flowers.
I collapsed to the ground.
I don't know how Yuanna endured it here.
My head was already becoming muddled. My whole body was hot.
‘It hurts.’
It was on a different level from what I had experienced last time. The pain was several times greater than what I had felt then.
My mind was fading away. No, rather than fading away, it felt like I was going crazy.
It felt like the blood in my whole body was drying up. My hands and feet were trembling. I might be having a seizure.
I felt like I was being thrown into boiling lava and slowly melting away like scrap iron, and I was about to lose my mind from the leisurely pain.
I was suffering like that for a long time, barely holding on to the last thread of my sanity.
“So, you were here?”
An unfamiliar voice came from somewhere.
It sounded like a young boy's voice.
I desperately reached out towards the voice. I grabbed something like the hem of a garment with my fingers.
“Help… me…”
Then, I felt a hand embracing me.
As skin touched my body, a terrible thirst washed over me. I clung to that touch as desperately as a person dying of thirst.
“Stay like this. Please…”
Physical contact alone was not enough. I needed a stronger stimulus.
Otherwise, I felt like I would die.
If I was addicted to Tentationem, it was highly likely. I really might die.
Someone, please help me.
\ \ \
There is no way to cross the swamp ‘safely.’ Asdal and Yuanna had already failed and retreated several times in their attempt to cross the swamp.
They wanted to find another way to get to the North Island, but with the suspension bridge cut off, this was the only way.
“I think we need to find another way. I don't have any strength because I haven't eaten anything.”
Asdal sat down on the dirt floor and sighed. With a haggard look, he slumped down powerlessly. He no longer had the strength to walk or speak.
What good is it to know how to hunt? Neither he nor Yuanna knew how to prepare the prey.
“Is there no way?”
Yuanna also muttered with a face that clearly showed her exhaustion.
Seeing the woman, who always showed a relaxed appearance, looking dejected with a gloomy light in her eyes, Asdal also felt complicated.
Margaret and the rest of the group's lives were uncertain, and they couldn't even cross over to the North Island. It was the worst situation.
‘I hope Margaret is alive.’
As time passed, Asdal also lost his composure and began to feel increasingly anxious.
“It's called a swamp, but there are many trees. If we don't step on the ground, we might be able to cross it, but that won't be easy either.”
Unless the trees were close together, it would be difficult to move from one tree to another.
Yuanna, who had been listening quietly, clapped her hands together as if she had thought of something.
“I have a good idea.”
With that, she explained her plan.
After hearing the explanation, Asdal realized that Yuanna was originally somewhat crazy, but she was an even more firmly insane woman than he had thought.
“Lure Monsters into the swamp and step on them to cross? Do you know that's as good as suicide?”
“I don't value my life. I'll be the bait.”
Yuanna said with a face full of firm determination.
Asdal looked at her face with complicated feelings.
She was still suspicious, but Yuanna had definitely changed since Margaret's group fell into the river.
Like a different person.
Do people all change like different people when they are on this island? Margaret did, and now even Yuanna…
Asdal shook his head, rummaging through his hair.
“If I leave The Saintess as bait and survive alone, I'll live the rest of my life with terrible guilt. I may be incompetent, but I'm not such a fool as to abandon human pride.”
Asdal got up from his seat and straightened his clothes. Then, he looked at Yuanna and opened his mouth.
“Tell me in detail what you're trying to do. I'll cooperate.”
\ \ \
Zenas hummed as he headed to the Bunker.
He had planted seeds of distrust in the remaining Experimenters, so his job was done.
“Because it's the last experiment.”
I have to make sure.
Zenas muttered slowly and walked lightly. Now it was time to go see what Margaret was doing.
‘The last place I saw her was the underground side path, wasn't it.’
He had used the eyes of a rat-shaped Monster to track her location. He thought she would enter through the main gate, but he didn't expect her to enter through the side path that he had forgotten long ago.
Zenas burst into a joyful laugh.
“Anyway, it's fun.”
It was the first time in a thousand years.
An experiment to open a Dimensional Gate to another dimension with unique objects and various unique characters. He had tried thousands of times.
But not once had he succeeded in getting a person through the Dimensional Rift…
He didn't know how she came, where she came from, or what kind of person she was originally…
“Finally, success is at hand.”
He thought there were many ambiguous aspects to Margaret to explain it simply as a person changing.
But to think she was a person from another dimension.
Margaret, who had spent a night in Zenas's Cabin, had asked him about the 'Bunker.'
Unlike other maps, the map she had had the word 'bunker' written in the characters of another world. No one in the Empire would recognize that as an underground warehouse with the name 'Bunker.'
‘Unexpectedly, there are some clumsy parts. How cute.’
Zenas thought as he pushed through the dense bushes and went deeper into the mountains.
He couldn't use magic power unless he was in the cabin that was powered by Anata's magic power. So, having to move his body directly was quite a troublesome task.
After clearing away the messy branches and leaves, a flat stone wall covered with moss appeared.
It didn't look like a door on the outside, but there was a hidden doorknob. Zenas examined the keyhole carved into the doorknob and took out a Key from his pocket to easily open the door.
What he found in the underground was Margaret collapsed on Anata's magic circle.
Kyaak.
A trivial snake guarding her side revealed its sharp fangs at him. It was a small snake with silver scales.
“Ah, right, you. I was curious about you.”
The small snake slammed its tail on the ground as if it was very uncomfortable.
Zenas stared at the small snake with his arms crossed. As his red eyes scanned the snake thoroughly, it flinched in surprise. Then, it cautiously looked around, circled around Margaret, and hid its face on her shoulder.
“It's a Monster, alright.”
He had been able to see other Monsters through their eyes, but this was the reason why he couldn't do that with this one.
“It has an Imprint.”
A Monster Imprinting on a human.
Interesting. Margaret is interesting after all.
Zenas slowly knelt down on one knee on the magic circle where Margaret had fallen. Then, he swept her hair back with his small hand.
“…It hurts…”
Margaret let out a painful groan with a face that was flushed red. It seemed certain that she was addicted to Tentationem.
Zenas quietly picked up a book that had fallen at her feet. The words <More Important Than Survival> were written on the cover of the book.
He had been leaving it alone because he couldn't figure out why Anata had drawn the magic circle here. But in the meantime, it seemed that something interesting had happened because Margaret had discovered the magic circle.
Zenas stared blankly at the book and discovered the remnants of magic power surging over the magic circle.
“It seems the magic circle was activated…”
If left like this, someone else might steal the remaining magic power.
“I should absorb it instead.”
He soon placed his hand on the magic circle drawn below the collapsed Margaret. Blue light leaked out over the geometric patterns.
The leaked light seeped into Zenas's hand. The body of the crouching boy began to grow gradually.
Zenas, who had been in the body of a twelve-year-old boy, was now in the form of a young man in his late twenties.
The snow-white silver hair that swayed around his neck, the sharp eyes, and the red eyes within slowly regained their focus and shone coldly.
“Haa. Refreshing.”
His body is not complete. So, he usually had to be in the body of a child to protect his body. In that state, it was even difficult to have a conversation beyond a certain level.
By absorbing the magic power engraved in the magic circle and releasing the seal, he was finally able to return to his adult form.
Of course, he would shrink again the moment he used up all the absorbed magic power.
Zenas lazily stroked his chin and looked at Margaret, who was groaning in pain on the floor.
“Help…”
She reached out and grabbed his ankle.
Zenas watched her with interested eyes, but did not move.