Penia Crysinne was an 8th-tier mage.

Though not yet perfect, she possessed her own Origin and had power great enough to effectively reach the position of a tower master.

And that was not all.

She had received Alon’s blessing and could use the magic of a True Mage, and now, given enough time, she could cast it quite skillfully.

Without exaggeration, at this point in time, she was confident she would rank among the top ten mages in the Allied Kingdoms, including the tower masters of every tower.

Yes.

That was certainly true, and yet—

Kuwaaaaaaa—!

Penia was drowning in despair.

“......”

She looked up at the sky.

And her vision flickered.

A sky where not even stars had risen was flashing as though blinking.

What she heard were deafening roars and explosions.

Then, with a peoseok—, Alon’s body fell to the ground, while the Karma Throne of War crashed into the distant ruins.

Kwaaaang—!

Unfortunately, that was the only moment Penia managed to witness the two fighting.

Other than that, she could not grasp even a single thing about the battle currently unfolding.

It was not for any complicated reason.

The reason was simple.

Because Penia was weak.

Weak to the point where she could not provide even the slightest help in this battle.

......That was all.

“......”

Together with despair, Penia felt helplessness.

She could not see it, but she knew how Alon was fighting right now.

His head exploding apart.

His heart being crushed.

His limbs being torn away.

“......”

Of course, no one died inside here.

But that did not mean the pain disappeared as well.

Alon was enduring all of that while fighting the throne, and because of that, she felt powerless.

Because she herself was nothing more than baggage.

That was why—

‘I have to break through this wall somehow......!’

—she tried to help Alon in her own way.

Since she herself was completely useless as combat strength, she would break through this wall and receive additional support from outside.

But—

“!”

Unfortunately, she could not break through the wall.

No, more accurately—

Penia realized that breaking through the wall was impossible.

‘This isn’t a wall...... it’s distortion—!’

The thing isolating this space from the outside world certainly looked like a wall, but in reality, it was closer to a field of distortion.

In other words, it was impossible to break through physically.

Even if attacks came from outside, this distortion field would not be damaged in the slightest and would instead redirect all of those attacks somewhere into countless dimensions.

The moment she grasped the true structure, Penia saw Alon and the Karma Throne of War standing still.

[......Have you reached your limit?]

Penia’s mind began spinning faster than ever before.

Because instinctively, she realized it.

That if she could not do something here—

Alon would meet death.

“-”

Her thoughts spun madly.

Countless possibilities that could let them escape this moment and save Alon chaotically appeared and disappeared over and over.

And at the final moment.

Penia realized one thing.

That she had seen this distortion phenomenon somewhere before.

And the instant she recognized it, she remembered at the same time—

that this distortion field resembled the strange text phenomenon.

Woooooong—!

Recognition and action happened simultaneously.

Penia immediately raised her hand and began eroding the distortion field.

The time it took was barely a single second.

She poured in all the mana she had, but the erosion did not happen easily.

The mana itself could not touch the distorted surface.

Yet Penia did not give up.

Even as she projected mana far beyond her limits, causing her internal circuits to convulse until bloody tears began flowing from her eyes.

Even as red blood began pouring from all over her arms.

She did not stop.

And then—

Kiiiiiiing—!

Through the effort of repeatedly projecting mana into the distortion field until she nearly exhausted herself several times over, Penia finally reached the end of the distortion field.

Woooooong—!

A grotesque resonance rang out, and the empty wall space that had contained absolutely nothing until just moments ago instantly twisted and distorted, creating the strange text phenomenon.

As though that had been the beginning, the strange text phenomenon spread throughout the entire space in an instant.

The Karma Throne of War, which had been watching this, flinched in surprise for a moment.

[Ha—]

But soon it smiled as though amused.

[I never expected a mere tool to possess a trick like this.]

Even though Penia had caught it off guard, the throne laughed as though the situation itself was entertaining.

And then—

looking at Penia as she pulled her body backward to fall into the strange text—

[To underestimate one’s opponent in war is to insult one’s opponent. Allow me to apologize. You were not a tool, but a member of the battlefield.]

“!”

Before they realized it, it had already arrived directly in front of Penia and Alon.

“Uht—!”

While falling backward into the strange text with Alon embraced from behind, Penia reflexively raised her free right hand and deployed barriers.

Thirty barriers instantly appeared between Alon and the throne.

However—

Kwajijijik—!

Those thirty barriers began to shatter far too meaninglessly.

    Dozens of barriers shattered in less than a second after being deployed.

At that, Alon instinctively tried to raise his hand as well, but his trembling body froze against his will.

And at the moment Penia tried to deploy another barrier—

“Ah—”

A low gasp escaped from between her lips.

Because Penia’s hand had been struck by the throne and blown away.

Fresh blood burst out.

A fleeting instant too fast to even feel pain.

Yet at that moment, Penia could see the throne strangely clearly.

More precisely, she could see the trajectory of the fist it was swinging.

That fist heading toward Alon’s heart.

At that sight, Penia clenched her teeth—

Crack—!

—and the body of Penia, who had been falling slowly, was suddenly shoved backward.

And then what she saw next was—

[!]

—the Karma Throne of War, staring in shock as though it had never expected this—

“I bet you never saw this coming.”

—and Evan, who had pushed Penia and Alon far backward while speaking with his own heart pierced through in their place.

“I was trying to block it, kuh-luck—!”

“Evan!”

Blood spraying from his mouth, and Penia’s voice bursting out as though torn apart.

Even though he had taken a defensive stance, Evan looked at the throne’s fist that had effortlessly shattered his heart, coughed up a mouthful of blood, and then immediately threw himself backward without hesitation.

[!]

The throne belatedly tried to seize Evan, but Penia pulled it with mana instead.

And all of them fell together into the strange text.

And then—

[Why are the laws—]

The throne, descending below them, briefly wore an expression as though staring at something strange.

[!]

Then its eyes widened as though it had realized something.

[Ha, hahahahahaha—!!]

Soon wearing a smile of uncontrollable delight, it leaped toward the strange text the same way Alon’s group had vanished into it.

And with that—

Kwajijijijik—!

The distortion phenomenon that had transformed into strange text slowly began returning to the shape of a wall once more, before finally bursting apart with a pajik—.

And silence descended upon the academy.

####

At some point, Alon regained consciousness.

“......Ugh.”

The first thing that escaped him the moment he woke was a painful groan.

Pain lingered through his entire body as though it had been torn apart and reassembled countless times, making him frown for a moment.

But soon, since he could not properly remember why he was in this condition, he groaned quietly—

“......!”

—and then suddenly remembered his final memory.

The memory of just before he had been struck down by the Karma Throne of War.

“Kgh—!”

The moment he recalled that far, Alon hurriedly forced his body upright.

His entire body screamed in pain as though warning him not to move right now, but Alon still forced his upper body up and looked around.

“......Penia, Evan.”

Soon, he confirmed Penia and Evan collapsed nearby.

“Hoo—”

Alon let out a sigh of relief.

Unlike in his final memory, neither of them appeared injured anywhere, and after quickly confirming that both were alive, he leaned against the dark cave wall as though relieved.

And after some time—

“Mgh—”

“Ugh—”

Penia and Evan began waking up as well, groaning similarly.

Just like Alon, they frowned as though feeling intense pain too.

“!”

But after opening their eyes and staring blankly for a moment, the two widened their eyes just like Alon had and looked around.

“......You’re awake.”

““Sir Alon!””

And finally, the group was able to exchange light greetings after waking.

And after that—

Alon was not particularly surprised to hear an explanation of the current situation from Penia.

“......So you eroded the distortion phenomenon and temporarily created a strange text phenomenon.”

“That’s right. It would’ve been nice if I could’ve broken through it...... but unfortunately, that didn’t seem possible.”

Penia nodded at Alon’s words, then looked toward Evan.

“But thankfully, we survived. Honestly, I thought we were going to die.”

“Hm? Me?”

At Evan’s bewildered question, Penia nodded.

“Yes. The laws broke in the middle of it. That’s why we were able to escape, right?”

“......And?”

“Well, obviously if the law against escaping broke, then the law preventing death should’ve broken too, right?”

Penia’s words.

“Uegh—!”

Only then did Evan seem to recognize the fact as he hurriedly clutched at his own heart in alarm.

“......Don’t worry. It seems the law of immortality didn’t break. I don’t know why, though.”

At the explanation that followed, Evan let out a deep breath of relief.

“......Thank you.”

Watching Penia and Evan casually carry on that conversation, Alon spoke quietly.

Because he knew.

That if they had not risked their lives to save him, he would have died there.

And at those words of gratitude—

“Ahem— now come on, Sir Alon! There’s no need for that. It was obvious.”

“That’s right.”

Evan grinned boldly as though there had never been any need to think twice about it, and Penia nodded in agreement.

Seeing that, Alon unknowingly smiled for a moment.

“Then did we come to the past again this time?”

“If things went the way I expected, then probably. Though as for which point in the past this is......”

At Penia’s words, Alon stroked his chin.

“Is this the same situation as before?”

“......Before?”

“I’m asking whether you memorized the coordinates to return like last time.”

“Ah, yes. I definitely memorized them. I even wrote them down so I wouldn’t forget.”

Alon glanced at the small diary she subtly raised and nodded.

“Then let’s go outside first.”

Alon soon rose from his seat.

“Are you really alright to move right now?”

“That’s right, Sir Alon. You should at least get some rest......”

Penia and Evan spoke with concern.

However, Alon shook his head.

At present, including Alon himself, the group was stranded, and none of them were in particularly good condition.

On top of that, they did not even have a place where they could comfortably rest, nor did they have food to eat immediately, so they had to move now.

Once their strength faded later, it would become even harder to move.

That was why—

“......For now, let’s get out of here. We need to at least figure out what point in time this is.”

And with that, Alon began walking toward the outside of the cave together with Penia and Evan.

“But is this really the past?”

“It probably is. We came over like this before too.”

As they began walking through the cave, Evan and Penia’s voices echoed out.

“Wow— this is amazing.”

“Is this really the time to be saying something so carefree?”

“But it is amazing, isn’t it?”

Evan spoke nonsense while Penia sighed.

However, Alon noticed that Evan’s tone was more exaggerated than usual, and vaguely realized that he was trying to ease the heavy atmosphere.

Whether they liked it or not, they were stranded, and they had no clue how to return.

“Honestly......”

Penia seemed to understand Evan’s intentions as well, and her expression relaxed somewhat.

Soon, they could see the cave’s exit in the distance.

“Oh—!”

Evan quickened his steps slightly as he saw the exit.

And then—

“Now then, let’s see what the past loo......ks......like......”

The moment Evan stuck his head out of the cave, his voice gradually grew quieter.

As though something had stolen his gaze.

And then, seeing Evan like that, Penia also raised her gaze toward the sky at the same time.

“Ugh.......”

She unknowingly gagged.

Finally, Alon stepped out of the cave as well.

“......What the hell is that.”

The words escaped him without thinking.

Because the sky Alon saw above him was not blue.

Rather, it was closer to a sickening red.

And in the sky, instead of clouds—

“......”

something resembling an enormous mass of organs filled the heavens completely.

Pulsating continuously as though alive.