Chapter 457

“…We did it.”

Finally.

Ulrike spun around and held out his hand.

“Let’s go! It’s already been four and a half hours, but there’s hope now. We can do this.”

“…….”

Julia looked down at the hand, then simply smiled and held up his own. When Ulrike stared at the palm held out in front of him in confusion, Julia turned his friend’s hand around and folded it upward. Then he slapped Ulrike’s palm.

Ulrike realized what the gesture meant a moment later. It was something Julia often did with Lukas. Maybe it meant that, at this very moment, Julia trusted him completely as his partner. Ulrike curled up one corner of his mouth and nodded before turning around.

“We need to get inside before the royal mages come after us. Especially if those French cultists are involved. That’s our secret, after all.”

“…….”

“More importantly, these bastards actually went and put an entrance up in a tree.”

“Hahaha. It’s a bit rich for you to say that when you were the one surprised that Lukas calls them ‘those bastards.’”

“That’s different! I’ve always been like this. I’m not like Lukas.”

Ulrike pointed into the air with a little wag of his finger, then laughed nostalgically.

“He’s… like I’ve always said, he’s become such a model student over the past year. He always dresses neatly, keeps his hair properly groomed on his own unlike me, and even speaks so properly in front of the professors…”

But when he reached that point, his tongue seemed to freeze. Ulrike swallowed and pulled down the corners of his mouth. Everyone fell silent. He didn’t know whether he was reminiscing about a friend who had died or thinking of a friend stranded somewhere right now. If he was reminiscing about someone who had died, he didn’t want to do that right now.

“Anyway.”

Ulrike furrowed his brow, forcing down his expression as he muttered, “Looks like everyone becomes invisible from the outside when they’re in here. …I get it now. The culprits entered through this passage and spread the rampage drug throughout the two prison buildings and the guards’ quarters.”

They must have entered the buildings along this invisible path, revealed themselves, and then planted the substance. That was probably it―or so Ulrike was thinking when Julia swept his wand through the air and spoke.

“It’s surprising this could remain stable for so long. It’s blocked by barriers, and someone could easily get caught in it.”

“Yeah. Couldn’t this have been made with the kind of spatial magic we normally use?”

But if it wasn’t spatial magic, then how else could they have created a space like this? It was only natural for the question to arise. Unlike ordinary spatial magic, this space didn’t feel like something that had been ‘layered over’ the existing one. It felt as though a layer had been ‘peeled away from underneath’ it, which made it even stranger.

‘Could this be someone’s Special Ability?’

Special Abilities had to be registered with the government of every country. But resurrected members of Pleroma or foreigners who had entered the country illegally could slip through that administrative monitoring system. So perhaps someone from France had created this space using a principle even they themselves didn’t understand.

‘But what if it isn’t a Special Ability?’

Ulrike had no idea what kind of theory could possibly explain this space. Would Lukas know? He always seemed to come up with obscure knowledge from God knew where… But no. He probably wouldn’t know something like this either. Realizing that there was no point in thinking about it any further, Ulrike clapped his hands and came to a conclusion.

“For now, I think we can only say that they’re beyond our level of technical capabilities.”

“Interesting.”

“Interesting…”

Ulrike smiled as he slowly approached the spot where the rubble had been—and where some of it still remained. The smile vanished from his face in an instant.

A black liquid had pooled there. No, it almost looked like it was faintly boiling. Or perhaps it was something that had been boiling and was gradually cooling down. Ulrike ran a finger through the liquid. His skin stung as though he had been burned.

“…Vitriol. It’s vitriol! This…”

The important thing was that there had been no vitriol at the spot they had been pounding on earlier. As they could tell from the Bavarian mages passing right by them earlier, this space reflected the scene on the other side exactly, like tracing paper.

‘Then—! The vitriol at the original collapsed site was all cleared away. There’s no reason for there to be vitriol here—only here?!’

And yet, there was. How?

Just as his thoughts began to give him a headache, Julia narrowed his eyes slightly as he looked down at the puddle. Ulrike’s face hardened as well.

“…This looks like it used to be a person. People, actually. Did they get crushed to death? Why are they all blown apart?”

Julia immediately crouched down and reached his hand into the gaps between the stones beneath the remaining rubble. After feeling around for a while, he suddenly stood and searched through the rubble on the other side before shaking his head.

“Just like at the collapsed site we saw earlier, there’s nothing here. The only difference is the vitriol. Which means—?”

Julia slowly moved his hand in a circular motion, as if leading Ulrike toward the answer, and said, “When the air rippled slightly earlier, either someone really did come here and leave…”

Julia’s right hand moved toward the wand at his thigh. Ulrike glanced at the movement, then looked into his friend’s golden eyes. Without realizing it, he moved his lips to finish Julia’s thought.

“…or they’re still here. But then there’s a problem. Why is this vitriol here, in this exact spot? Why? What for?”

At that, Julia’s eyes narrowed, and the corners of his mouth lifted.

This was the building where Elias, Lukas, Leo, and the other mages had been. Leo had been injured, but fortunately, he had made it outside alive. Elias and Lukas should have been buried beneath this building along with the prisoners, yet all that remained on top of the rubble was a puddle of vitriol. Someone had poured it there afterward. The timing of it was undoubtedly…

“Julia! Follow me!”

Ulrike cast a soundproofing spell and gripped his staff with his other hand, then looked up. He struck the air where the vitriol should have fallen and lunged forward.

KRAAASH—…

A deafening roar rang out. The crack that had not yet fully healed in the air of the space split open, and a long streak of light shot upward into the sky, tearing it apart. Darkness spread beyond it. Or was it just his imagination? Ulrike felt himself falling into it.

THUD—…

Just before he opened his eyes again, another impact sounded from far away, near the oak tree where Ulrike and Julia had fallen. The confused voices of the Bavarian mages echoed faintly in the distance.

“Huh?! What?!”

“Everything just went black in front of us! Where are we…”

Consciousness returned to his body. Had even the Bavarian mages finally fallen into the ‘invisible space’? With that thought, Ulrike’s eyes flew open. He was lying somewhere completely different from before.

“…Hah.”

That breath wasn’t his own.

Ulrike abruptly raised his head. A little above him, he could see Julia’s face as he pushed the air apart on either side, as though tearing it open. Sparks of light crackled along the edges where the spatial magic had split apart. He was still standing back where Ulrike had been moments ago, holding the crack open so it would not close.

Judging by the fact that he was putting all that effort into keeping it open instead of coming straight through, Julia was probably thinking, What the hell did you expect to find beyond an entrance that vitriol chunks had been passing through? Why would you just jump in? At least, that was how it seemed to Ulrike.

Just as he was expecting to get an earful, he heard a faint laugh.

“…You’ve got some nerve, Luise.”

“…Right? I know! Thanks for the compliment.”

Ulrike chuckled and turned his expressionless face toward the ground where he had fallen.

‘Debris.’

He was lying on top of debris. This time, even the debris was still here. Just like it had been when the building collapsed. Even though the Bavarian mages had cleared almost all of this away.

‘Ah.’

This was another space, too. He had definitely seen the crack and fallen beneath it, but instead of exiting, they had fallen into yet another space.

‘…Wait. Was this actually like having two sheets of tracing paper layered over a map? And did I tear through one of them and come up through it?’

Since Julia was looking down at Ulrike from slightly above, maybe it wasn’t really correct to say they had “come up.” Either way, they had moved.

‘This is strange. There was a space in Bavaria that no one knew about…’

To think it went this far… Honestly, this space felt like something beyond human ability. Was that intuition even worth trusting? Shivering at the eerie feeling, Ulrike ran his hand across the floor. Then a thought suddenly struck him, and he sprang to his feet, feeling around the stones of the collapsed building. What if Lukas and Elias are under here? The prisoners, too…

“Elias! Lukas!”

Ulrike cast a soundproofing spell around the prison ruins and shouted at the top of his lungs.

Nothing.

Strangely, there wasn’t a single sign of anyone’s presence. There didn’t even seem to be any animals. Then again, there hadn’t been any signs of life before either, so what exactly was strange about it?

‘There’s an awful lot of vitriol, though.’

Compared to the puddle they’d found earlier, this place was practically covered in vitriol. Since the place they’d started in was the original coordinate system, they could call it the “original” for short. And in that original, the vitriol had been completely cleaned up.

But here, vitriol remained scattered throughout the streets and ruins, as though a long, grueling struggle had taken place. Some of it even looked slightly red, as if blood had mixed into the black liquid.

Ulrike looked farther down. There was actual blood dried onto the stones.

It was unmistakably the trace of an ordinary person, not a Rampager.

Ulrike had a sudden realization. Elias, Lukas, and Sir Nikolaus Ernst—perhaps even the other mages—had all been here! Just like the Rampagers were. Ulrike turned his head and looked at the Rampagers lying motionless in the distance.

‘Are they asleep?’

It was as though they had all fallen asleep at the exact same time. Almost as if someone had used divine power on them…

Ulrike ran a finger through the vitriol.

Crackle—

Unlike before, it was much less aggressive. It seemed to have already been weakened by divine power once. Ulrike muttered, “…Someone used divine power here. Was it Sir Ernst’s?”

Julia didn’t answer, but that didn’t matter. A thought suddenly flashed through Ulrike’s mind. If there had been divine power here, but no one was here anymore, that meant they had warped somewhere. Or escaped the spatial magic.

‘There was a fissure’

It hadn’t been created by Ulrike. It had already been there. All he’d done was open up a small gap in the existing fissure before it could fully heal. If they had come out through that fissure, Ulrike and Julia should have already encountered Elias, Lukas, and the other mages. But they hadn’t. Which meant…

‘They didn’t come out. They only went deeper in.’

Now he was certain. The crack had formed because whoever had been making the air ripple at the prison’s south gate had been coming and going through this place.

‘Then…’

Ulrike suddenly felt a chill run down the back of his neck. He jerked his head up and looked at his friend.

“They took them.”

“…….”

“Someone came in here and took our friends, Julia.”

Whether Julia had already sensed it or had figured it out long ago, he simply stared at Ulrike without a change in expression. But there was determination in those golden eyes—Ulrike could see it. He wanted to act on that determination immediately. We have to warp too, and words like that rose to the back of Ulrike’s throat.

“…….”

But he didn’t say them. The signs of battle stretched all the way to the main road beyond the prison. If his friends had been able to warp, they would have escaped to somewhere safe instead of fighting. They couldn’t warp because they didn’t know the warp formula for this world.

“Lord Zähringen! What happened?!”

Julia turned his head. Several Bavarian mages who had crossed over into this place came running straight to the crack.

‘Of all times, we have to be stuck with them now…’

If someone had taken them, it was obvious who that someone was. The possibility that it was the French Imperial Family had just become less likely, though that reason could wait for now. Whoever had taken his friends had to be that ‘someone from Heike’s relatives,’ the House of Einsiedel. But he couldn’t take these people along while going after them. What was he supposed to do?

Ulrike frowned instinctively, then his eyes widened as an idea struck him.

‘…No.’

He was thinking too narrowly. They needed help for now. The Bavarian mages took hold of the right side of the crack Julia was holding and pushed against it, reaching out their hands. Their voices came through with a low echo.

“We’ll hold the space open, Lord Kleist! Take my hand and climb up!”

They want us to come out after we’ve found another space? There was no way he could do that.

Ulrike shook his head and said firmly, “No! If you don’t mind, please wait here. Lord Zähringen and I will finish investigating and come back as quickly as we can.”

“No! Wait, first tell us what’s going on—”

“No! Please. We don’t have time. Leave this to us and wait here.”

Ignoring the Bavarian royal mages who had raised their hands to stop him, Ulrike continued speaking in a rapid-fire rush.

“If we let the culprit know that the Kingdom knows this space exists, then even if we find the people trapped under the building, we might lose any way of getting them out. Honestly, it’s dangerous even now. If the two of us die, then I’ll just leave it to my friend and me to handle things ourselves. No, sorry. I know that makes no sense, but—what I mean is, we’re not going to die that easily.”

Ah, Julia, Lukas, or Leo would be much better at talking to adults than I am! As Ulrike rambled on with that thought in mind, he could see Julia trying to hold back a laugh. The Kingdom mages looked down at Ulrike as if wondering what on earth this high school kid was talking about. Eventually, they slowly drew their wands.

“No, Lord Kleist. The Kingdom of Bavaria has a duty to protect foreigners visiting the kingdom.”

“Foreigners? We’re all Germans, aren’t we? But never mind that. Look at yourselves. You hit that oak tree in the original world and ended up in this ‘invisible space’ too, right? Do you know how to get out of this ‘invisible space’?”

“Hmm. The space you are calling an ‘invisible space’ is structured differently from ordinary spatial magic. We’ll have to start looking for a way out from here.”

“Exactly. That’s what we’re doing too. More precisely, we’re looking for a way to the other missing people, and we actually did find another passage leading somewhere.”

Creak—

Ulrike glanced at the fissure as it slowly began closing from the top, then shifted his gaze to the mages.

“That’s why we have to go now. We reopened a fissure that was already healing, and as you can see, it’s closing again.”

It was lucky that they had managed to enter just before it fully recovered. Which meant that ‘someone from the Einsiedel family’ had also just left this place. And so had their friends.

Ulrike looked around at the mages above him and said, “If we don’t come back, just pretend you never saw us here.”

The mages blocking the fissure looked startled at his words, their expressions twisting slightly.

“We cannot—”

“I share the same opinion.”

Julia’s figure standing outside the fissure was no longer visible, but his answer came through clearly. He was making sure that, whatever happened here, the mages outside wouldn’t be held accountable if they were questioned later. But Julia clearly didn’t think a simple request like that would be enough to make the Bavarian mages let the matter slide, so he called out to Ulrike. At least, that was how it seemed to Ulrike.

“Lord Kleist.”

“That’s right. I have a plan, so as an Imperial mage, I’ll take full responsibility for it. In return, I’d like you to help us as fellow mages, at least while we’re here. Do you have a rope? Or a mana cord?”

Ulrike deliberately rattled everything off without giving them a chance to interrupt.

“We don’t have a rope, but we have a mana cord.”

One of the mages pointed to the coil of cord hanging from his waist. It was a tool used to connect mana. Aside from being made of mana, it wasn’t all that different from an ordinary rope, but it could connect one spatial magic to another. The problem was that while it could be used to mark a path, it couldn’t actually be followed to get back out. Still, it would be useful for now.

“And we need to know where the warp magic leads. Can you do that now?”

“We have an artifact that can locate warp connection points, but since it’s portable, I can’t say it’s particularly accurate.”

“Good. Someone was here until just now. It looks like they either left this space or warped somewhere else. We might not know the formula, but… can you tell how far away they warped?”

Ulrike pointed to a spot where the soil had been slightly depressed, as though it had been struck by divine power with a staff.

One of the mages tied the cord around his waist and climbed down through the rift, then stood in front of the spot Ulrike had indicated. He closed his eyes and slowly moved his wand around—apparently, the wand itself was the artifact for locating warp connection points—then thrust it slowly in every direction before opening his eyes a while later.

“They definitely moved recently. Five minutes ago at most, I’d say. It seems they moved to a point roughly forty kilometers from here in the direction of Nuremberg. I can’t tell you exactly where. It could be forty-five kilometers, for all I know…”

The mage answered, rolling his eyes as he thought.

“Are you sure it’s in the direction of Nuremberg?”

“The coordinate system is different from the one we use, so I can’t say that with certainty based on the numbers alone. But I can sense the same mana they released upon arrival coming from that direction.”

“Great! Then I’ll leave the rest to you.”

Ulrike patted the Bavarian mage on the shoulder and took off running north without another word. From Giesing, Nuremberg was to the northwest. The Bavarian mages tried to stop him from behind, but he heard Julia, who had landed beneath the fissure, keeping them from following. As far as Ulrike was concerned, his attempt at persuasion had been a complete failure. Now it was time to put his faith in Julia’s way with words.

Not long after, someone grabbed Ulrike by the shoulder.

“Wait.”

“You made it? How’d the persuasion go?”

Ulrike answered without taking his eyes off the road ahead. Julia nodded toward the side.

“Success. They won’t follow us anymore. But are you seriously just going to run?”

“Then what?”

Julia tilted his head, wearing an expression that made it hard to tell whether he was smiling or not, and calmly said, “Why don’t we steal a bicycle or something?”

“Oh.”

Ulrike gave an awkward little smile, the corners of his mouth lifting.

Come to think of it, there was no way they could run forty kilometers like this! No matter how fast they could go by channeling mana into their bodies, it would drain their stamina far too quickly. It was obvious, but he had been so focused on getting away that his brain had completely stopped working.

If there had been anyone around to attack them, riding bicycles would have been out of the question. But it seemed all the Rampagers in the area were asleep, so they should be fine.

Julia was the first to grab an old bicycle from a nearby house. He gestured behind him, and Ulrike quickly climbed onto the back. Julia went around the fence, slipped out through the house’s yard, and headed toward central Munich.

It wasn’t hard to find a bicycle shop. There were bicycles everywhere, after all.

“Julia, over there!”

Before Julia had even fully slowed down, Ulrike jumped off, landed on the ground, and climbed onto a bicycle that looked sturdy enough. Julia switched to the bicycle beside it, and the two of them headed north through Munich.

As they passed north of Marienplatz, they heard a growling sound.

‘Rampagers.’

Ulrike ran his tongue over his lips. Perhaps the sleep magic hadn’t reached this far yet, because three or four Rampagers were still wandering around the city. There weren’t many of them, so they should be fine, but…

“Let’s be careful.”

Ulrike nodded at Julia’s words, then whispered, “I know we have to be careful, but let’s check at least once. Even if it means we have to abandon the bicycles.”

Julia raised an eyebrow, then chuckled.

“You mean be ready to ditch them and fight? Sure. We’ve got another forty kilometers to cover by bicycle, so we’d better make absolutely sure before we leave rather than waste all that effort…”

“Exactly. Elias! Lukas!”

Ulrike shouted while suppressing his mana as much as possible. Despite the empty city making his voice echo loudly, there was no answer.

[Graaagh….]

As expected, the only ones to respond were the Rampagers. Ulrike’s eyes met Julia’s for a moment. He let out a few quiet laughs, then bit down hard on his lip, lowered his body, and pedaled harder.

“Should we pick up the pace~?”

“You already are.”

Julia answered with a faint smile.

It didn’t take them long to cross the plaza, reach the northern part of Munich, and eventually leave the city altogether. The growls of the Rampagers who had failed to find them in the maze of streets gradually faded into the distance.