Light of Arad: Forerunner

Chapter 55

They needed to create a rift in space-time once more.

And from that gap, they had to draw Diregie out.

Somehow, they had to make Diregie drag the user, that is, the adventurer, into the dimensional rift.

This was the flow of the main scenario quest and the way to correct the current contamination.

However, the question was, how exactly were they supposed to achieve this?

Physical attacks? Using Jinseong’s own skills?

It wasn’t something that could be accomplished with creatures or by throwing items.

By all logic, it should have been impossible. Most users would have thought so.

“I’ll fix the contamination. I can do it.”

But Jinseong was different.

Jinseong believed.

Open the rift. Open the gate of dimensions. Create a distortion in space-time.

It seemed impossible at a glance, something that one might give up on prematurely, but Jinseong didn’t give up.

“Open. Open it. You can open it. It will open.”

He had a solid reason for his unwavering belief.

Jinseong’s arm, which had turned completely black.

Jinseong, who was staring at the space where Diregie had disappeared, could feel it too.

He was aware that his arm was trembling, and that black energy was seeping out of it, just like his own arm.

“It’s not just because of . It’s not just because I was given that role.”

Jinseong was certain.

It hadn’t been long since he was possessed by the game Dungeon & Fighter, but he had already experienced some things.

Moreover, he possessed the knowledge and information about the game Dungeon & Fighter.

“I am…”

Jinseong knew himself.

More precisely, he understood the infinite potential of his current body.

And if he had the purpose and the will to manifest it!

“Because I’m a Dark Knight.”

Power was something to be unleashed.

Jinseong’s eyes turned pitch black.

Golden pupils flashed in those dark eyes.

* * *

Crunch, crumple…!

Space began to tear apart.

Azelia quickly raised her wand.

“No, something is wro—.”

───────────……!!!!

Without even a moment to give a warning, the rift in dimensions opened again.

“You vile Hilder’s blade!”

Diregie, who had been crushed and sucked into the rift, reappeared.

Though Diregie was glowing, it wasn’t to escape the rift.

Knowing he couldn’t escape from there on his own anyway, Diregie’s target, and what Jinseong had intended, was clear.

“If you were gone, Hilder’s prophecy would be disrupted! You wouldn’t be a bad companion for the journey!”

Diregie’s claws suddenly grew, grabbing the Female Ghost Knight user.

Whiiiish…

And then, Diregie and the adventurer were sucked into the rift.

The broken space was closing up as if nothing had happened.

“Adventurer! Adventurer! This can’t be…”

Before Michelle could finish speaking, the rift in dimensions closed completely.

Louise looked bewildered.

“What the… what just happened?”

She asked Azelia, but Azelia didn’t answer.

Instead, she looked at the space where the adventurer and Diregie had disappeared.

“Hilder… what the hell did you do…?”

She believed Hilder had sent Diregie into the dimensional rift.

Then, with anxious eyes, she suddenly turned around.

As if she had just remembered something or was seeking help, but what she sought was not there.

“…Where is Jinseong…?”

The one Azelia was seeking help from, Jinseong, was already gone from sight.

At the edge of her vision, Azelia caught sight of another broken space returning to its original state as it sealed up.

“Huh?”

Whether she had seen it correctly or not in that fleeting moment, Azelia wasn’t certain.

Thus, Louise, Michelle, and Azelia could only stand there, stunned and bewildered.

* * *

Crunch, crumple…!

“It worked!”

“Gurk!”

Jinseong was so overwhelmed with pride that he let out a sound without realizing it.

Believing in his own power and the sense of accomplishment when he achieved it made his chest swell with emotion.

“Yeah, of course it should work! Because it’s me! Because I’m a Dark Knight!”

If he was a Dark Knight, then surely it would be possible.

If the lore of the Dark Knight was correct, it would surely come to pass.

“The most! Perfect! Ghost Knight!”

A being that roamed in a dimension higher than the physical world.

A perfect Ghost Knight who roamed the time and space, evading even Kazan Syndrome!

Jinseong shouted triumphantly as he saw Diregie emerge from the rift in the broken space.

Now, it could be said that the contamination was over.

Most importantly, the user at this point couldn’t control the character on their own.

“Because it’s a quest cutscene. It’s impossible to dodge or anything. You just have to be dragged in by Diregie, no matter wha—.”

Crunch, crumple…

“Huh?”

Jinseong heard a strange noise just then, as he was recalling the flow of the main scenario quest.

The same sound he had heard moments ago.

The sound of space-time tearing, the sound of a dimensional rift forming.

“Gurk, gurrrrk?!”

The problem was that the sound was coming from behind Jinseong.

Jinseong immediately turned around.

His eyes, which had returned to their normal white and black state, widened in surprise.

“What the hell?! How—?”

A dimensional rift had appeared before his eyes.

What could he do right now?

Skills? No. Only items were available.

As he thought of the teleportation potion, Jinseong’s hand reached straight for [Inventory], but it hesitated.

No card had yet confirmed the contamination clearly.

───────────……!!!!

“Dammit—.”

The rift had already started to suck Jinseong in.

At another rift, Diregie, who had grabbed the user, was also being sucked into the rift.

“—Why me—.”

Though his strength had waned after the fierce battle, Jinseong couldn’t resist the dimensional pull that sucked in the Apostle Diregie.

Whoooosh…

A gust of wind swept through.

By that moment, Jinseong had already disappeared.

The torn space was returning to its original state.

Only then did Azelia’s gaze land on the spot. What she saw was the devastated town of Reshpon.

* * *

“Aaaaaah!”

“Gurrrrrrk!”

Jinseong and Tako could do nothing but scream.

At least for this moment, it was a situation so shocking that they couldn’t even worry about whether Jinseong’s words would appear in the user’s chat window or not.

“Gurrrk, gurrkrk—”

“It’s okay, it’s going to be okay, Tako!”

Even in that situation, Jinseong tried to calm Tako as he began to look around.

Although he had never done it before, he felt that this was what skydiving without a parachute might feel like, as his body spun wildly, yet what entered his view was clear.

“A dark purple— a passage? It looks like a passage. We’re not just falling aimlessly. We’re not just plummeting.”

If the swaying and lurching of his body was because he was being thrown somewhere…

And most of all, if Jinseong and Tako, who had entered the dimensional rift, were still in ‘intact form’…

“If Hilder absorbed Diregie into the dimensional rift, it was to prevent him from maintaining his physical form. Diregie, who kept trying to recreate his form with his vitality, was shattered and torn apart every moment… the dimensional rift is that kind of place. My body would have literally disappeared without a trace.”

The possibility of being okay existed.

Certainly, there was a significant risk, but at least for now, it seemed unlikely that Jinseong and Tako would be reduced to bone dust and disintegrate.

“Gurrrk, gurrrrk!”

“Dammit, brace for the impact anyway!”

Just as Jinseong managed to collect his thoughts, a stone wall appeared in sight.

If they collided with the stone wall while being tossed and thrown around, the impact would be severe. Jinseong first shielded his head.

“Surely that wall is some kind of safety net, and once I break through, my whole body will go boom— ugh?!”

While anxious thoughts spun in his mind, Jinseong actually felt his body spinning around.

Thud… then the orientation flipped.

He suddenly found himself standing on the stone surface he had thought was a wall just moments before.

“Huh?”

He couldn’t help but feel his thighs trembling.

It felt like he was firmly grounded, but the stone floor had visible gaps here and there.

Moreover, Jinseong was startled because he could see something through those gaps.

“…A Female Ghost Knight user. It’s like there’s a Female Ghost Knight user on a ‘lower floor’ beneath me. No, in that case, this place is…”

Far below Jinseong’s position, he could see the figure of the Female Ghost Knight user.

She wasn’t moving, but recalling how the Diregie quest usually concluded, there was only one implication of this place.

“This is the first awakening quest location.”

The place where users of each class undergo their awakening.

A kind of event dungeon designed to show the character’s associated memories, past traumas, and such, to instill a stronger will.

“That’s why it’s strange. The first awakening happens at level 50. That’s why the quest level requirement for the Diregie quest is 50.”

Jinseong’s level was still 38.

Normally, it would be impossible.

Therefore, Jinseong was filled with anticipation.

Since he had entered a dungeon with a required

level of 50, entered dungeons regardless of his level, or intervened in the user’s quest…

“Maybe I can do it too?! But Dark Knights don’t really have an awakening, it’s more like a realization…”

It was only natural for him to be filled with hope, but Jinseong soon had to stop thinking.

“Kyaaaaah—!”

“Whoa?!”

“Gurrrrk—!”

A scream echoed through the dimensional rift. Was it a shriek or a roar?

Startled by the hair-raising sound, Jinseong’s head naturally turned towards it.

And he saw it.

“Dire…gie.”

Diregie, who had begun the cycle of being torn and regenerating within the dimensional rift.

A body that doesn’t die.

So perfect and complete an immortal body that it was said even Diregie himself didn’t know how he could be killed within Plain: Arad.

“Kyaaaah, human! Do you think I will forgive you?!”

Jinseong instinctively took a step back.

Not just because he was overwhelmed by the wailing filled with resentment from Diregie.

“…It’s coming? It’s slowly approaching me!?”

Despite the process of being shattered and reformed, Diregie was slowly but surely approaching Jinseong.

The place where Jinseong stood felt like a stone-paved floor.

And Diregie’s place of torment was pure void, literally the rift of dimensions with no foothold.

There was about ten meters between the stone floor Jinseong stood on and where Diregie was suffering.

Jinseong felt it in his bones.

“If that pace continues and it reaches here…”

If the stone floor Jinseong was standing on was a kind of defense mechanism that blocked the forces of the dimensional rift, then if Diregie were to creep over to this floor, what might happen?

“I will never forgive you. I will never forgive you, adventurer!”

Moreover, Diregie’s resolve, swearing to obliterate everything in sight, wasn’t something that just grazed Jinseong’s skin!

Jinseong instinctively drew out .

Since he had no idea how to overcome this situation, there was likely only one option he could take.

“I will infect even the smallest fragment of your bones, inflicting an agony that will dissolve your very soul—”

“!”

Jinseong unleashed a spinning dark-element slash.

He wasn’t fully confident it would work, but fortunately, Diregie, whose body was shredded, was eventually pushed back by the attack.

Jinseong moved to the edge of the stone floor and thrust his sword.

“!”

A newly learned skill at level 35, an attack that caused an explosion of dark energy from the tip of the thrust sword.

The reason he was desperately struggling to prevent Diregie from approaching was simple.

“Kiii, you adventurer! I will make sure you—”

“W-Wait! Diregie!”

Jinseong shouted at Diregie.

Interrupting Diregie’s words for a moment, Jinseong pointed at himself and yelled loudly.

“Hey, I guess you don’t know, but I’m not that person from earlier!”

I’m not an adventurer.

So don’t attack me.

That was Jinseong’s plan.

Diregie, still shattering and reassembling, stared at Jinseong.

Then, the Sixth Apostle, the one who shed filthy blood, roared.

“That doesn’t matter! You will die, human foooool—!”

“Ah.”

Jinseong’s plan shattered instantly.