Opening the Door

-Transportation has arrived! Wow! There’s more than yesterday! Everyone must be working really hard.

I listened to Nadia’s cheerful voice while glancing up at the glass ceiling overhead.

“…Magnificent.”

A universe filled with countless stars.

Though calling them stars, they were probably nothing more than the debris of shattered planets… How could there be so many spread across such vastness? Just how massive had the planet been before it was torn to pieces?

-Philosopher’s Stone production is still a bit lacking. But lots of various magical materials have come in. Hmm… This should be just barely enough to face the Outer God’s apostle once more, I think? Oh, and tons of food came too! We won’t have to worry about provisions for a while. Hehe. I want to eat some too! There’s even cheese made from the precious milk of jelly cows?

“Good.”

Great. I was getting sick of eating wind-reed all the time, so jelly cow cheese sounds fantastic.

I decided to stop thinking right there. I tried not to think any further.

‘But… even from this distance, I can see stars constantly colliding with each other… How are they managing Transportation in this chaos?’

Ah, I started thinking again.

Refinement had said so. Don’t worry about the rear. Just look ahead and keep going. I’m still not good at that.

Though I suppose it’s fortunate? It seemed like there would be less and less reason to think about the rear anyway. We had enough problems right in front of us.

-But… it looks like resources are going to be consumed massively again.

“Still nothing?”

-No. I had hopes, but as expected, the Tower of Covenant is warped. According to records, there should definitely be a gate leading to the 40th floor here.

Nadia’s voice hardened with seriousness.

-It’s gone. Sigh… The world is getting more complicated by the day. To search for a new path will consume heavy resources and take a long time… Ugh. It’s really frustrating.

“…Let’s go out for now.”

Thud!

The Sky Bridge from the floating island dropped onto the desolate continent. As I descended the stairs, gritty dust blew in with the wind.

Yuria gracefully raised her head and sniffed the surroundings like a cat.

“Mud smell, burnt smell, rotting smell… A continent that collapsed about a month ago.”

“You can tell all that from smell? Sis… are you perhaps a dog?”

My joke to lighten the grim atmosphere created tremendous waves.

“Ghhk…! Even if you’re the Divine Wizard, you cannot insult our master…!”

First, Shilo de Medissa, the Wizard of Debt who proclaimed himself Yuria’s loyal servant, burst into indignation. Then Evan Petrov mocked Shilo de Medissa in response.

“Now I see who the real dog is?”

The equipment hanging all over Evan’s 6th-grade combat suit jingled and clanked along with his mockery.

“What? Say that again, butcher.”

The atmosphere heated up. But Yuria turned the situation around by responding to me with a mischievous smile without batting an eye. I could see blue magical light gleaming in her eyes.

“No way. Jun-woo. I’m better than a dog. I can find out far more things. For instance, you… I can faintly smell Tris on you? Mr. Jun-woo. Suspicious? Let me see… The scent is layered multiple times… twice today, once yesterday, three times the day before… Judging by how faint the smell is, it seems like you just brushed past each other… but isn’t this too frequent? Isn’t this someone unilaterally chasing after someone’s tail?”

What, what did she say?

I instinctively hunched my shoulders at the unexpected attack.

“Chasing after her tail? Tris always talks to me first!”

It wasn’t an excuse—that’s really how it was. Ever since I saved her, she comes running over like a duckling whenever she sees me. No. Yuria can’t possibly not know that. Why is she trying to link me with that kid?

But the power of the bait she threw was tremendous.

“…Disgusting. The age gap between you two isn’t that big, but… still, show some restraint. Beatrice was only thirteen just a few months ago.”

Evan, who had been growling at Shilo de Medissa moments before, suddenly looked down at me with contemptuous eyes.

This bastard? A non-mage talking shit to me?

“Hah—I know all about methods for seducing women. If you promise never to be rude to our master again, I might be willing to teach you a thing or two?”

Shilo de Medissa was being a complete asshole.

“The union of His Majesty and the Saint symbolizes the joining of Ragnarok and Truth Tower, separated for hundreds of years! How can you be so disrespectful when you should be celebrating?”

The fanatic Hwi Someong, who suddenly butted in, committed spectacular team-killing.

Looking at Yuria, who instigated all this chaos and stepped back with a chuckling laugh, made my skin crawl. Creating a whole setup to tease me with just one sentence? What’s this grand scheme about?

‘Did she even use [Simulation]?’

But the climax was Tris. The kid who’d been following behind stuck her small white head forward and interjected.

“Huh? I can’t talk to Jun-woo? But Jun-woo always gives me tasty things when we meet.”

I instantly became a scoundrel who lures children with food.

Puhahahaha!

Everyone except me burst into laughter. Seeing the laugh tears at the corners of Yuria’s eyes made her unbearably annoying.

“Oh no, this is terrible. I can see all sorts of things now. I’m starting to scare myself at this point. At this rate, I might start seeing mana like Jun-woo soon?”

She passed by me with a giggle. People followed, laughing as they descended the sky bridge.

“You’ve been insulted. If it were me, I would have demanded a duel.”

Yeon Gae-bu-so, the Guardian Martial Lord in charge of Society’s military power, passed by me with this useless advice. A faint smile hung on his lips too.

‘Damn, how harmonious.’

A pathfinder group mixing Truth Tower, Ragnarok, the Knights, and Society. At first, I worried whether these groups could blend well together… Who knew they’d unite in solidarity by teasing me?

Still, thanks to my sacrifice, everyone was able to set foot on the ruined continent with slightly lighter hearts.

But that was only true for our leadership. The regular mages and knights who followed us down were overwhelmed by the continent’s desolation.

“There really is nothing here…”

Where the ruins leading to the Tower of Covenant’s 40th floor should have been, only collapsed earth and debris lay tangled messily. Broken rocks and uprooted trees were mixed thick with soil, and buried corpses were fermenting, giving off sewer-like stench.

The mages and knights stirred restlessly.

“Just how many people died…”

“Is this what it means for the world to tear apart…”

“The Outer God wasn’t the only problem…”

“Damn. Fucking hell…”

“I still don’t get it. Is the path we’re taking really able to stop something like this?”

The knights were particularly vocal with their murmuring.

Originally, the Knights believed that the abuse of magic had brought about such disasters. They had opposed mages for countless ages based on this belief. While the knight leadership like Evan had naturally blended in with us, the rank-and-file knights below still seemed to be experiencing identity confusion.

Our leadership, who had been cheerful, instantly froze at their subordinates’ despondent mood.

“Maybe… we shouldn’t have come down? Feels like we only dampened morale…”

Monggu whispered while gauging the surroundings.

I didn’t answer but surveyed the ruins. Among them, I stared intently at where the gate connecting to the Tower of Covenant’s 40th floor had been.

I looked at Yuria, whose eyes were glowing blue beside me. The mischievous smile from earlier had completely vanished, replaced by a serious expression.

“Can you see it too, Yuria?”

“Mm-hmm… That part looks awkward. Like someone erased a pencil drawing and drew over it again… That must be where the gate was, right?”

I looked at Yuria with fresh amazement.

‘Wow… I suspected it might be possible, but she really saw it?’

Come to think of it, she had just said, “I might start seeing mana soon.” She said it like a joke, but there’s no such thing as a true joke from a mage. Now I’m getting genuinely excited.

‘What kind of god’s fragment is [Magic Eye]? What will its final form be?’

Setting aside how annoying she is, she’s always reliable. A smile bloomed on my face.

“So? Think you can do it?”

Yuria asked.

As expected.

Her intuition is excellent. She might not match Refinement in theoretical aspects, but the person who knows best what I can do is none other than her.

I nodded.

“Of course.”

I answered boldly and pulled out my necklace, pressing it against the bag in my hand.

Whoooom—

The magical exoskeleton <Samantha> embraced me with delighted response.

My realm, which had already reached the 8th Circle, instantly ascended to the 9th Circle. My perspective on the world changed, and my mind’s ability to discern the world transformed. The world that I could only glimpse through Monggu’s Gift [Dimensional Severance] now lay bare before my naked eyes.

“Senior Elder?”

“Divine Wizard…?”

The gaze of the murmuring mages and knights pierced into me. Overwhelmed by the presence I emanated, they couldn’t breathe and couldn’t continue their words. I reached out and [Grasped] the dimension.

Crack!

It wasn’t a sound heard by the ears. Vibrations from the dimensional distortion. Some people stumbled and fell on their bottoms from that bizarre sensation.

Crack! Crrrack!

I extended my other hand and grabbed the dimension. I pulled both sides apart. Thud! Thud! With thunderous sounds, the world warped. Between my spreading hands, blue sky and green grassland began appearing inch by inch.

Thud! Thud!

The Ki-blood inscribed on <Samantha>’s body exploded using the <Collapse Strike> principle.

CRASH!

With explosively amplified power, the twisted dimension finally shattered. Blue grassland wedged into the earth that had been filled with rotting soil like a misplaced puzzle piece. Just like in the distant past, when the world created by gods for mortals and the divine realm where gods dwelled overlapped here and there.

“…He opened a gate… with pure force?”

Yeon Gae-bu-so’s jaw dropped.

Even Yeon Gae-bu-so, who had reached 7th Circle and created a magical neural network, had never imagined such a miracle.

-As expected! Our administrator! You restored the connection between the divine realm and the material world!

At Nadia’s exaggerated admiration, Tris expressed doubt.

“Divine realm? Didn’t we just restore the connection to the Tower of Covenant?”

-That’s what they call it these days? But originally, it was the divine realm. It was the space where administrators lived and worked. Everything defined within the divine realm is projected into this material world, creating all existence.

“Wait… then if the gate collapsed! It wasn’t just the gate collapsing and ending there?”

-That’s right. It means the connection with the Divine Realm, the source of all things, was distorted… signifying one step closer to destruction. Now do you understand how amazing what our administrator just did was? He just reversed destruction! So… so… creation isn’t far away now!

Nadia was sobbing with emotion. …Embarrassingly so.

‘But…’

I looked around at the mages staring at me with admiration.

Among them, thirty mages had received magical exoskeletons. Of them, only Yuria had guessed that I would reopen the gate.

‘This is going to be trouble.’

How can you not know how amazing the treasure you’re carrying is? I already missed the theoretical mages like Refinement and Sonnet who had fallen back to defense.

“Hand-bag mages. Everyone gather here.”

The mages looked puzzled at my words. ‘Who are the hand-bag mages?’ Seeing their blank expressions made my anger surge.

‘Huh? I’m getting angry?’ The moment I thought that, the anger grew uncontrollably. The fire spirit Inggolli, merged with me through <Samantha>, spewed heat recklessly. I became more impulsive than usual and rougher than usual. The distant elation transformed into distant arrogance. These… these insect-like creatures?

“Get your pig hands carrying pearl-like bags and run over here right now! You! You! There, explain what I just did and how I did it!”

Rumble!

In response to my emotions, wind howled in the sky and lightning struck.

The highest-level mages and wizards who would receive the finest treatment anywhere in the Tower were startled and came rolling out, sweating profusely and rolling their eyes.

“From now on, I’ll expand the gate I opened! Opening it for the first time is hard, but expanding what’s already open isn’t difficult! Anyone who can’t show results within an hour—I’ll dissect you to find out the cause of that stupidity!”

“Hiiiieek!”

After letting out that sound…

I felt refreshed.

In the past, I would have understood those who couldn’t comprehend my words… but once the thought crossed my mind that there was no need to do so, once I started driving them like this…

‘This feels too good?’

The feeling of all the accumulated resentment from my lifetime being washed away. Containing the ecstasy bubbling up from the depths of my gut, I started pushing them hard. The fire spirit Inggolli and wind spirit Ari joyfully resonated with my emotions.

“Yeon Gae-bu-so! How can a 7th Circle who created a magical neural network not understand this?!”

I kicked Yeon Gae-bu-so’s butt.

“Tris! Dragon Hearts are too precious!”

“Waaaaah! Let go of this!”

“I’m holding gently! Break free with skill, kid!”

I pulled Tris’s cheeks.

“Sister Yuria! When are you becoming a wizard?! Does having good eyes mean everything?!”

“Hey! You bastard…! You’re dead!”

I ruffled Yuria’s hair.

…It wasn’t me doing this. My ego had mixed with the spirits, reflecting their straightforward and playful nature. It definitely wasn’t revenge from earlier.

“Sc… scary.”

“Ma… mages are living intensely too…”

“They’re working incredibly hard to fix the world…”

The knights who had been grumbling with complaints until earlier were now shrinking back, stealing glances at me.

“Evan! You come here too! Even if you’re a knight, you need to know the basics of magic!”

“Why should I…? I’m a knight? I hate magic? Hwaaaaak?!”

It was truly refreshing… no, beneficial training time.