Chapter 193
Chapter 193
Chapter 3: Meteor
When I came to my senses again, I was back in Berseum's house.
My companions were staring at me as if waiting for my next words.
“Sigh.”
Without realizing it, I let out a deep sigh and fanned my shirt.
'Last night and today... I feel like I've been breaking out in cold sweats a little too often lately.'
[Don't forget to stay hydrated.]
'You can still joke after seeing that future?'
[I was being serious.]
I rubbed my face dry with both hands.
Then Armelia spoke.
“Just how bleak was the future you saw this time for you to look like that?”
“Very bleak.”
I slowly described the scenes I had witnessed in the Future Diary in detail.
My companions' expressions became just as grim as mine.
After a brief silence, Kaid was the first to speak.
“Ahem. Then I'll be going.”
“What?”
“I mean, you said the world is going to be destroyed by a meteor impact. And all of you were there when the world was destroyed.”
“……”
“So the safest thing for me is to stay away from all of you.”
Just a moment ago, he had insisted on sticking to my side no matter what.
He really was consistent.
Berseum spoke cynically.
“And where exactly do you intend to go after leaving us? No matter where you hide in the world...”
“No, no. Mr. Mason didn't witness the world's destruction all the way to the end, did he? You said you died halfway through.”
“……”
“If I flee to the exact opposite side of the region, wouldn't I survive? And if even that doesn't work, then I'll just escape to Hell.”
Aina retorted,
“And how exactly are you going to escape to Hell? You don't even have a Teleportation Bead.”
“Uh... Aren't you all going to send me there? I naturally assumed you'd at least show me that much kindness.”
“……”
Thud!
Without warning, Louis kicked Kaid in the knee.
He grabbed his knee and hopped around in pain.
“I told you already. Please shut up. You're embarrassing.”
“Yes, ma'am……”
“Still, I never imagined a future where a meteor suddenly appeared. Why did a corner of the moon break off?”
“There's no way it was a natural phenomenon.”
Someone had maliciously destroyed part of the moon.
Ordinarily, such an idea would be ridiculous.
But when had our situation ever been ordinary?
We had already spent all this time immersed in the extraordinary.
Complaining about how unreasonable it was now would accomplish nothing.
“The first suspect that comes to mind is...”
“Edgar. Obviously.”
“Yes. But needless to say, Edgar doesn't have the ability to split off part of the moon.”
“……”
“Of course, neither does Odline, who's cooperating with him.”
Odline's true body was nothing more than a fragile maggot.
Although Odline possessed the troublesome omnipotence to turn monsters into slaves and cocoon them, he still didn't have the miraculous power I'd just witnessed in the Future Diary.
Which left only one possibility.
“Edgar may have even secured the cooperation of the First Territory's MVP.”
“What?”
“And the MVP... In other words, Abomination, may possess the omnipotence to split off part of the continent and hurl it into our world.”
“How could Edgar possibly get the MVP to cooperate?”
“He already managed to get Odline on his side. At this point, it wouldn't even be surprising.”
My companions found it difficult to believe.
To be honest, although I'd said that, I had no idea what trick Edgar could have used to persuade Abomination.
Which meant there was only one thing to do.
“I'll eavesdrop right now. I attached a Transmitter to Edgar.”
“Mm.”
“Just a moment.”
I searched through my pocket.
I'd put Edgar's Receiver in here yesterday.
Right here...
Hadn't I?
“Huh?”
“W-What's wrong?”
“I'm feeling two of them.”
“……?”
“There should only be the Receiver, so why...?”
I took the items out of my pocket.
The Receiver.
And the Transmitter.
Drip.
Cold sweat once again ran down my jawline.
“Why is the Transmitter here too?”
Magireta had said it before.
If the target carrying the Transmitter died, it would automatically return to its original owner.
Did that mean Edgar had died?
No.
No, that couldn't be.
I'd gladly welcome his death, but there was no way he'd die overnight without any warning.
That bastard was tougher than a cockroach.
Ah.
Wait.
“Come to think of it, yesterday I asked Magireta to keep an eye on Edgar because a broken Magireta might try to rescue him.”
“R-Right.”
“I don't know what the result was... But one thing is certain.”
I swallowed before continuing.
“Something unusual happened in the First Territory of Hell.”
“What could it have been?”
“Let's ask Magireta. If she watched Edgar as I requested, then she'll know what happened.”
Besides, I also needed to tell her that a piece of the moon was going to break off.
The moon was Hell.
It was Magireta's home.
I had to tell her that part of her house was going to collapse and warn her that the construction was defective so she could prepare countermeasures.
Magireta wouldn't want her home to be damaged either, so she'd surely do something.
If that happened, then the meteor impact I'd seen in the Future Diary wouldn't occur.
I shouted into the empty air.
“Big Sister Magireta!”
…….
There was no reply.
Nor did she appear.
What was going on?
This had never happened before.
“Big Sister Magireta?”
“Don't tell me she wants you to start calling her Elder Sister now. At this point.”
“Karin, read the room.”
“Jeez. I was reading the room. I was trying to lighten the mood.”
I kept calling Magireta for several more minutes.
She still didn't appear.
Everyone's expressions hardened.
Benjamin spoke.
“It seems something has gone very, very wrong.”
“I think so too. We can't just sit here.”
“What do you mean?”
“If we simply stand around doing nothing, the world will be destroyed by the meteor impact. If we can't get information from Magireta or warn her, then we'll have to take action ourselves.”
“You mean...”
“Yes.”
I took out a Teleportation Bead and said,
“Let's go to Hell.”
“But the First Territory is the True Land of Death.”
“I'm not saying we'll head straight to the First Territory. Let's go see Mr. Drod first. We'll decide what to do from there.”
Everyone nodded and stood up.
Just then, the Diary Book flipped open.
<Sudden Quest. Keep Armelia Kerr Dneroum alive from the ‘Meteor’.>
<Sudden Quest. Keep Aina Noel alive from the ‘Meteor’.>
<Sudden Quest. Keep Berseum Ferux alive from the ‘Meteor’.>
<Sudden Quest. Keep Sienne Katrin alive from the ‘Meteor’.>
<Sudden Quest. Keep Benjamin Noel alive from the ‘Meteor’.>
<Sudden Quest. Keep Karin Oblang alive from the ‘Meteor’.>
Here we go again.
Several hours earlier.
Magireta appeared before Edgar, who was struggling while buried inside Abomination's flesh.
More precisely, it was a 'broken' Magireta.
Edgar spoke with difficulty.
“Magireta……”
“Shh.”
Magireta placed her index finger over her lips.
Then she quietly approached Edgar...
Tap.
Riiip.
She pulled something out of his body.
It was the Transmitter Mason had attached to him before.
Magireta casually tossed it away.
The Transmitter vanished into thin air.
It returned to the side of its original counterpart, the Receiver...
In other words, to Mason's pocket.
After confirming that, Magireta spoke.
“You can talk now.”
“What was that just now?”
“Mason attached a Listening Device to you. It was the first-place reward from the Ninth Quest, ‘Intermediary Trade.’ It's an item that allows him to eavesdrop on every sound around you.”
Creak.
Edgar ground his teeth.
He immediately understood everything.
“So he attached it during the Popularity Poll Quest. He predicted I'd enter the First Territory, and planned to stay somewhere safe while extracting information.”
“That's right.”
“How could he...”
“Oh, wait a second. I'm disappearing now.”
“What?”
Fwoosh.
Sure enough, Magireta's body began to scatter like dust.
Shrugging with her one remaining shoulder, she said,
“This is what happens when I interfere with a first-place reward that I handed out to the participants.”
“……Is that another Hidden Rule?”
“It is.”
“If you disappear like this, I'll be in a difficult situation. I need someone to get me out of this mass of flesh.”
“How about thanking me before saying that? I practically gave up my life to remove that Listening Device for you.”
“You only did it because you wanted something from me anyway.”
Magireta smiled faintly as she spoke her final words.
“Just wait. Another me will come.”
With those words, Magireta disappeared completely.
However, Edgar found her final words somewhat doubtful.
He already knew from the previous incident that multiple 'broken' Magiretas could appear simultaneously.
He also knew they wanted to help him.
But would the 'normal' Magireta simply stand by and watch?
'...Wait. Then why didn't the normal Magireta interfere this time?'
Why had she turned a blind eye to the Listening Device being removed?
What was happening among the Magiretas?
…….
For the moment, Edgar decided to wait quietly.
In truth, there was nothing else he could do.
We traveled to the Second Territory and immediately met with Drod.
Fortunately, he seemed to be in quite a good mood.
“I enjoyed watching what happened last time. It seems you gave the monsters of my territory a proper beating.”
“You aren't angry?”
“Unlike the previous incident, this time you didn't disgrace me. If anything, I should be thanking you for providing such entertaining entertainment.”
“……”
“Of course, the other monsters are furious. You'd be wise not to wander around Hell carelessly for a while.”
I had no intention of doing so anyway.
Meanwhile, Aina asked,
“Where are your wife and daughter?”
“My daughter started whining that she was hungry, so the two of them went out on a little picnic.”
“She was hungry, so they went on a picnic?”
“They have to look for food.”
Damn.
The moment I understood what he meant, goosebumps spread across my skin, and I rubbed my arms.
Crossing his legs, Drod asked,
“So, what trouble have you come to stir up this time?”
“……”
“You're certainly an interesting fellow, but I'd appreciate it if you didn't keep causing disturbances in my territory.”
“Don't worry. I didn't come because I had business in the Second Territory this time.”
“Then?”
I briefly explained the situation.
I told him that, in the future I'd seen, part of the moon's edge would break away.
That the fragment of the moon would fall into our world.
That I had a strong intuition Edgar was deeply involved, and had most likely obtained Abomination's cooperation.
And finally, that Magireta was currently unreachable.
After listening quietly, Drod's eyes lit up.
“Abomination, huh. So that's why the monsters that entered the First Territory never returned. I'd assumed they'd simply died.”
“They were killed. However, it seems the First Territory's MVP absorbs the bodies of those it kills into itself.”
“Similar to Beat?”
“No. It doesn't devour them—it absorbs them. You could even call it a fusion.”
Using that ability, the MVP annihilated all of the monsters in the First Territory.
Then it made them part of its own body.
Over countless ages, it must have incorporated an unimaginable number of monsters into itself.
“I can't even begin to imagine how enormous the current MVP has become. Then again, we're talking about an unimaginably long span of time.”
“Hmm.”
“Edgar wants to escape that massive lump of flesh. He may have made a deal with Abomination, asking it to separate him from its body.”
But after that, I had no idea.
What kind of deal could possibly cause a corner of the moon to break away?
And how would that result in it falling into our world?
The two simply didn't connect at all.
Drod's expression also grew grim.
Quietly, I asked,
“Do you know anything about the First Territory?”