Hermit Wizard

Wizard’s Name (8)

“Eaaaaarrrrrhhhh!”

Everything in my sight was shaken and shattered. The aftermath didn’t just stay in my eyes. Even the screams lost their continuity and threw off in several places.

I focused my mind even when my body turned upside down. I used desperate force to stabilized the Mana rushing to the Channel. The huge tentacle protruding from my chest whipped everywhere like crazy without worrying about me!

Parvache hastily pushed its will in.

[Gosh! That crazy Truth-Seeker just…]

Its thoughts stopped in the middle and intermittently cut off after that. Parvache’s words, mixed with abusive language, rolled from place to place. Soon after, there was a feeling that the source of telepathy was growing countless times.

I felt like I was listening to poorly tuned radio through hundreds of broken amplifiers. The will was conveyed to my mind over time difference in each direction. After combining all the meanings, I was able to make the following sentences.

The Song of Chaos was breaking up space to attack Gramiel!

-Qhuaaaaaarrrrrrrng!

It was only one of the numerous tentacles of the Song of Chaos that came to that world through the Channel. The phenomenon created by that single trunk was truly overwhelming. Like a bronze pillar dancing, it made various shapes and attacks. The target was that space itself, the territory that Gramiel created to capture me.

Funnily, I caught some emotion in the movement of the tentacles. Reason argued that there was no basis for my judgment and reacted skeptically to that fact. Nevertheless, I still had baseless convictions. There was no doubt.

From the Truth-Seeker of Silver Forest’s tentacle movement, which was devastatingly destroying the territory Gramiel made, I could feel irritation and annoyance.

Gramiel’s will burst from all directions.

=How can you… my space!=

=Do you think that the power to influence space only belongs to your kind? It’s funny. This ability was already studied in the 14th Middle Ages in my native civilization. It’s not easy, but if you know the principle, nothing can be impossible. Well, you who don’t know how your own kind was made before becoming a Truth-Seeker is no match for me…=

The emotion of Silver Forest’s Truth-seeker was mixed with a pathetic feeling.

Hearing the telepathy, I remembered the scenes I had seen with the Song of Chaos. The power that recognized me in the distance and brought me to its dwelling place, a huge Enchanted Wood tree several times my height, its power to penetrate without crashing even when approaching hard ground, and how my body quickly moved to an underground cavity when I got my sense back.

Gramiel shouted.

=What’s your right to disturb me?=

Instead of answering, the Song of Chaos swung its tentacle more vigorously. Another explosion. Everything in sight fell apart. I thought to myself without knowing. Wasn’t that what the end of the world looked like?

=Aaaaaarrrgh!=

Fragments of the shattered space poured out like a meteor shower. Gramiel screamed in all those pieces. That attack seemed to had hurt her as well. Her thoughts split into thousands of pieces, and I felt like she was digging my mind.

I also felt a strange feeling. It felt like Gramiel’s scream was mixed with the death of other beings. Whenever she was attacked, she was given the impression that there were countless waves of calm and countless strands of wind that the touch couldn’t feel.

While I focused on that feeling, the Song of Chaos responded leisurely beyond the Channel on my chest.

=Don’t you underestimate the value of this dimension too much, Shadow Thorn? That stupid thing. Many Truth-Seekers benefited from this dimension. Did you think they would wait and watch?=

=I am just trying to realize what you cannot do! I am the only one who has gathered enough souls to evolve this dimension! That’s why I am going to take this dimension. I’m just doing what I can!=

=Do you say ‘collect’ what you couldn’t absorb because your spirit veins were so small? Your standard of self-assessment is so benevolent.=

=Shut up! If you don’t like what I do, why don’t you do the same? Don’t you also put the souls in the spirit vein instead of digesting them all!=

=Admit it, Shadow Thorn. You got your hands dirty because of impatience.=

It laughed and asked.

=Have you ever thought about it? After growing this dimension to a higher level? If you move on to the next level without being prepared properly, you will only become food for higher-level Truth-Seekers. Soon, countless Channels will be opened, won’t they? At the moment of evolution, the Earth once again becomes the lowest of the same level dimension, but really, what is your price to defend by creating a dimensional barrier?=

=After evolving to a higher level, my level will rise! My spirit vein will also evolve!=

will of Silver Forest’s Truth-Seeker. Pathetic. Ridicule. Interest.

=Yeah, it’s true to some extent. However, in the end, many things are determined by natural qualities.=

The emotions of the Song of Chaos flowed one after another. Annoyance, a little anger, mockery, and a refreshing delight that didn’t suit the current situation.

=Then, Shadow Thorn, let me ask you…=

It asked with great pleasure.

=When was the last time you slept?=

Gramiel’s response to that question was bursting. She flowed down and filled that entire broken space with a murderous spirit and hatred.

=You, you bastaaaaaaaaaaaaaard!=

The enemy stabbed and shook everywhere.

=After connecting the Channel to this dimension, for a while, we all had to fall asleep without even trying. We needed time to digest after all. So, the Heart Fishes took a break for a while… yet it was somehow settled. But Shadow Thorn, how about you? When did you last fall asleep?=

=Shut up!=

=In the end, even after two evolutions, a shadow is still a shadow.=

=You crossed the line now, the Song of Chaos!=

Blind emotions flickered and resonated.

=It was you who crossed the line in the first place. This dimension is worth more than it looks. You needed to be more patient. Can’t you remember why I shared information about this guy in the first place?=

=My existence is too old to expect such an elusive delusion! In the prison of this time, in the pain of getting old, worn out, torture-like existence, to have such an expectation…=

=Ah… you stupid thing!=

Once again, it swung its tentacles loudly!

-Swoosh!

Long and deep scars remained in the air. Having allowed the attack again, Gramiel spread power for her counterattack. She drew the space and made a long wedge, a sharp attack created by a cramped space.

However, the Truth-Seeker broke the attempt so easily. All it did was a simple act of wrapping the spear with the tip of a tentacle and giving it strength. The movement was simple, but the result was powerful.

=Aaaaaarrrgggggghh!=

The echo of cracks wasn’t expressed by sound. There were cracks in fragments like broken windows as Gramiel burst into a painful will. At the same time, the invisible wind blew one more time, then…

I realized something when I was barely keeping my mind in the fight between the absolute.

‘… Ugh? Parvache! This is!’

The surrounding space where everything was mixed and flowed gradually began to show a distinct shape. The appearance of an unfamiliar city was rising opaquely.

Parvache’s knowledge left in my head informed me of the meaning of that phenomenon.

Currently, the area created by the Space Ghost was collapsing!

I thought while looking down the downtown lined with skyscrapers, but where was that?

The last place I was in was the basement of my house. However, what I saw was the sky above a city. Parvache’s will answered my question.

[As soon as she crossed the Channel, Gramiel would have used her abilities. Instead of getting to where we are, she would have chosen the easier way. She distorted the space, connected the place where she was and where we were, and tied it up in a separate space.]

That separate space was currently there. It was Gramiel’s space that was collapsing. Parvache said, looking at the distorted city beyond the yet-to-be-completely destroyed barrier of the space.

[Now that space is collapsing… It seems that the location of Gramiel determines the place where all of this space will be returned as a reference point. It’s not where we’re supposed to be.]

That meant…

I looked around more carefully. It was hard to identify as if I was looking beyond the broken and stained glass, but there was only one thing that shone like that through all dimensions.

‘It’s a Channel!’

However, it wasn’t Mapo Bridge. Apparently, it was the Channel Gramiel used when she moved into that world.

‘Then this is… Busan?!’

After being dragged into her space, I moved to Busan instead of Seoul.

The barriers in the space were gradually fading. Gramiel and the Song of Chaos exchanged attacks several times, but the Song of Chaos was overwhelming. I had to hide behind the Channel, so I didn’t have to be affected by the power.

The wind blew every time she was attacked. The Song of Chaos followed the end of the unknown energy, stroked the tentacle’s tip once, and said…

=I think I should wrap it up now. You’re tougher than I thought. You’re using an undigested soul as a shield, huh? It’s the worst way to use it. It’s a crime to waste like this. I can’t watch it anymore.=

After it decided something, a change occurred in its tentacle.

“… What, what?”

Hundreds of strange cracks appeared throughout its long, thick tentacle, covering the top of the tentacle stem tightly.

Close observation showed that many of the shapes made on the tentacle’s outer skin resembled the human mouth. The bronze skin cracked, the lips grew, and the teeth and tongue filled in between them.

However, not all of them were exactly the same as humans. Some mouths had no lips, some had a split tongue and long fangs that could never be seen outside, and some lips protruded.

Among those shapes were many things that couldn’t be seen as ‘mouth’ no matter how much I looked. It was a form that was unfamiliar to me. Not a mouth, but a long tube, and some grooves resembling the gills of fish were carved. Some parts also turned into the cornea with the transparent thin outer skin, and six tiny bumps sprang up.

[Ah… That’s…]

It was only after I heard Parvache’s explanation that I could know what they were. The shapes made on that tentacle were imitating the articulation organs of many native races!

Also, the Song of Chaos said through the will.

=Listen…=

Suddenly, the numerous vocal organs hung on the surface of the tentacle began to sound in unison. The human-like mouth moved his lips and rolled his tongue.

The tube-shaped organs sounded like a low, thick wind instrument. The grooves that looked like gills created a sound in the range that I couldn’t feel, and the transparent cornea spread reverberation by vibrating more than hundreds of times per second.

The six hard protrusions differed in the direction and number of bumps against each other, creating a brilliant xylophone-like performance.

covered over the body of the Truth-Seeker of Silver Forest produced that mimic the pronunciation organs of numerous native races spoke their own language.

As time passed, I realized that it wasn’t just an act of speech. The sounds produced by each ‘month’ had unique patterns and characteristics. Typically, the sound that a person’s mouth made had a rhythm and a melody. The unique pattern created the sound and harmony made by other articulation organs, and it was the chorus that couldn’t be made in one dimension.

I realized that the mouths of various species formed on that tentacle were singing in unison at that moment.