Chapter 104 – Episode 103. The Way to You (3)
It felt like I was dreaming of something.
After Astrid hadn’t slept properly for several hours, she woke up from an unknown nightmare.
What she hated even more was that she couldn’t remember what the dream was, even though she obviously had a very unpleasant and unpleasant dream.
Thanks to that, even after she woke up and had breakfast, that uneasy feeling did not go away.
“Why is your expression like that, sister?”
“I had a dream, but I can’t remember what it was.”
“Isn’t that often the case? I have dreams like that sometimes.”
Perhaps the dream that Ashley is talking about is literally just a dog dream.
Astrid stared at me and then faced Ashley, who was munching on the salad and shoving it into her mouth.
“I think it’s a bit different from the dream you’re talking about. It was a kind of, very sticky and unpleasant dream. But when I wake up, I don’t even think about it.”
“What kind of a bad dream was that? Do you remember anything at all?”
Somehow, he wanted to eat a salad, but Ashley took a bite and started eating only the grilled meat instead of the leftover salad.
Seeing that, Astrid sighed and served her salad, then took some of her meat and put it on Ashley’s plate.
“I have no idea. I just think of that endlessly uncomfortable feeling.”
“What’s not a dream?”
“Is that right?”
“Don’t say that. Anyway, I’m leaving in two hours. Please relax your body a bit too. I mean, I have to walk again.”
In fact, I wasn’t even sure how far it would be good to walk.
That was the location of the tower.
Vaguely, really vaguely.
Even if you want to see it just by looking at it, you can’t get a sense of where it is.
As a result, no matter how close you get, you always seem to be far away, and the tower is invisible at all.
“Yeah, I got it right away.”
Astrid shoved the last piece of meat into her mouth and stood up with her plate.
As if following her, Ashley stood up with her tray, and her brother and sister left her tent.
*
“Is that it?”
“Yes, can you see?”
“You look good.”
“In the meantime, it’s gotten bigger.”
Bai Zeke narrowed his eyes at the vague shadow of the tower in the distance.
They said that the horse is a tower, but it is actually something like an altar, but now I see that the horse is an altar, but it is actually a tower.
It was a tower so huge that even a few people could climb it.
Even though it was a silhouette that could be seen from this distance away, it was quite large, so it could not be called an altar if you judge the size.
“Is that an altar?”
“You said it got bigger while you couldn’t see it.”
It probably won’t be an ordinary thing.
Not only Wolfgang, but also Weizik’s face hardened.
At first, I thought it wouldn’t be a big deal.
Even if it’s a growing tower, it’ll collapse on its own after a few rounds of magic, and then it’s full of thoughts to make fun of Wolfgang for having a hard time with this, but looking at the shape of that tower now, I have to change my mind did.
Clearly, that’s a bit problematic.
“How much was that originally?”
Astrid, who was following behind, also took a step forward and looked at the tower.
Where do you see that altar? They said it was about the size of an altar, but it wasn’t.
Astrid also looked at the tower with her eyes narrowed.
Isn’t it quite grand even from a distance?
【It looks like I saw it somewhere… 】
It was unexpected.
Astrid’s expression hardened at the sound of the real Astrid muttering in her head.
‘Where did you see it?’
【I don’t remember that. But where have you seen that? It’s just that shape… 】
‘No, you don’t have to remember. What the hell is that?’
Indeed, the enlisted soldiers of the Grand Duchess of Mitterien, who had marched this far, were clearly nervous.
It’s been a few weeks, and in the meantime, the altar has become a tower.
Even quite large.
At such a bizarre sight, fear slowly began to spread among the soldiers, black like ink on white paper.
But it’s still fine.
It was a fear that could be suppressed with courage, and a fear that could be overcome.
“… Let’s go a little closer.”
“Okay, maybe we can get a little closer.”
Weizik and Wolfgang chatted and started walking again.
Baijik has also been walking quite a bit, but surprisingly doesn’t look tired.
“Old man, aren’t you tired? I took a long look.”
As Ashley approached and asked Baizik, he burst out laughing and tapped Ashley on the shoulder.
“It’s okay, Ashley. My stamina is still good enough to walk like this. Don’t worry. Thank you for worrying about me.”
“How can you show off your stamina while wearing lightweight artifacts all over your body?”
Wolfgang, dissatisfied with such Weizik, grumbled.
In the eyes of Wolfgang, who was a pure body type, Bai Zik, who raised his physical abilities by almost covering his entire body with all kinds of magic tools, was nothing but disapproval.
“Anyway, let’s go some more. Even my magic won’t reach that range.”
“Is it. How close do I have to go?”
“You know that, too. At least you have to figure out how big the target is and how far you need to go. What can you tell from a distance like this?”
“Useless.”
“It’s better than a groundhog that hasn’t even been close.”
Back and forth, while bickering like the two of them in their youth, Wolfgang and Weizik started walking side by side.
And Astrid and Ashley started walking after the two, followed by the enlisted men.
It took over two hours from there.
Walking on the snowy field was more physically demanding than I thought.
It’s a snowy field that sinks in every step you take, and even if you’re wearing snowshoes, it’s much more difficult than walking on flat ground.
We walked for two hours, taking short breaks in between.
I left early in the morning, but it was already lunch time.
Even so, it was only to the extent that I wondered if the tower was a little closer now, compared to how I had seen it a few hours ago, it was only a feeling that I was a little closer, but it was not coming any further.
【Ah, that’s really strange. I’m sure I’ve seen that before… I can’t remember where I saw it… 】
‘I still can’t remember?’
This is the sound all the time
I saw it somewhere even as I was walking, I definitely saw it somewhere… I just kept saying that.
“Now, let’s go a little further.”
Wolfgang’s booming voice came.
Baijik, who was sitting next to him, looked tired as if he was very tired now.
“Hey, I don’t know what the hell is going on. Let’s just take a shot here.”
“I guess.”
Wolfgang nodded as if he had been waiting for those words.
Weizik glanced sideways at Wolfgang for a while, then smoothed his beard and smoothed his voice.
“Ruler… Let’s see.”
It is all pure white snow.
Among the rocks sticking out his middle head, Bai Zik found a place to stand on.
“Is it okay here? Where… “
Standing on a rather flat and wide stone slab, Bai Zeke raised both of his hands.
– Zuuuuung…
‘… What is that?’
A round red ring formed between the empty palms of Baizik.
What emerges from the ring is a brown staff with a round head.
A wand that gradually reveals its appearance as if it were born between them when you slowly open your close hands.
Grabbing lightly the wand that finally revealed itself, Baizik closed his eyes while holding the wand.
“Behold, there is an enemy of ignorance there, who seeks to resist me, to break his false courage here. I call from this place with my will, answer my call from the holy mountain of mana.”
As the chanting began, the red orb that appeared above the head of the staff increased its momentum as the chanting continued, getting bigger and bigger and starting to burn.
“Oh, the warmth… “
Like the sun rising in the high sky, the red orb, as large as the faint sun, was swollen with flames gushing out on the surface.
It was around that time that the snow piled up around the stone slab on which Baizik was standing began to melt and reveal the floor, and soldiers began to gather around it without my knowledge due to the warmth.
“Finally punished in this place, go! Prominence!”
A huge fireball soared into the sky as if it were going to make a fluffy sound.
A fireball soaring high enough to make one think there might be two suns in the sky— Prominence.
The sphere, engulfed in red flames, wanted to stay in the sky for a while, but finally flew like a darting toward a tower in the distance.
– Bang!
But I couldn’t even reach the top.
Prominence, which fell through the sky, struck the ground in the distance and caused a huge explosion, as if its momentum had failed to reach even near the tower.
Along with the explosion, the shock wave shook the heavens and the earth, burning the trees around the crash site, and then quickly fading away. As if to show off its power, a large crater on the ground could be seen even from far away.
“It’s ignorant power no matter how you look at it.”
Wolfgang looked at the scene for a moment, then looked at Weizik.
Weizik also smirked at Wolfgang.
“Yes?”
“Okay. It’s definitely powerful. If you get it right, that is.”
“What?”
Between the growls of the two middle-aged men trying to engage in a war of nerves, Ashley’s panicked voice flew in.
“Who, sister! Where have you been?! Sister?!”
There was nothing left where Astrid had stood.
Only her footprints remain, revealing that someone was standing here.
There was no one.
