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TL: ALT
Chapter 204 – Day 35 of Management Life
When I opened my eyes, I saw that the sky was clear and bright.
The sun was high in the sky. It was full daylight.
“Gah!”
It seemed as if black water had reached my stomach.
I checked my body for wounds or broken bones, but found none. My heart was beating steadily.
It seemed like I had only been buried in the ground for about half a day. Running around that southern port town must have worn me out.
Looking up, I saw that the same reality the white deer had shown me was unfolding.
The “Sealing Wedge”—that huge stake—was still there. Chel had transformed into a devil, and Hel and the others had joined forces.
The black water dragon was still mountain-sized, but smaller than it had been yesterday. It must have evaporated.
I stood up and brushed the dirt off my body.
Monster cries echoed from the distance. It seemed the “migrating” monsters were waiting outside the “Great Hole.”
Chel and the others hadn’t dealt a fatal blow to the black water dragon, and the dragon itself couldn’t eliminate them. The white deer had vanished, leaving only its footprints on my chest.
I’d confirmed the situation above and below ground.
All that remained was to act.
I aimed at Lipa, who was flying above the black water dragon, and leaped. More magical power surged through me than I’d intended, but I managed to grab the broom.
“Whoa! Makyo-san!”
“Sorry.”
“Where the hell have you been!?”
“Sleeping. Could you please go to the sorcerer’s hidden village and tell them to stop the incantation?”
“Understood.”
“And if you could grab a few magic-sealing stakes while you’re at it, that’d be a huge help!”
I watched Lipa fly off as I fell.
Using spirit medium techniques, I landed beside Hel, who was resurrecting monster bones from the ground. Brushing away the swirling dust, I saw Hel. Her entire body was stained dark red with mud and blood, and she stared at me with wide eyes.
“Hey, you can put the bones back now. Also, do you have any Arachnid Thread?”
“Of course I don’t! What the hell have you been doing!?”
“I just woke up. Don’t yell at me. Cut me some slack.”
“Cut you some slack? You should be apologizing to Chel for turning her into that!”
Chel, now sporting two pairs of wings, darted about, narrowly evading the water dragon’s attacks while unleashing magic. Her body was now completely that of a devil.
“We’ll switch later. Chel can still get back, right?”
“I don’t know! You were sleeping at a crucial moment!”
“Does Sylvia have Arachne’s thread?”
“Is it that important?”
“Of course it is. We need to pull out that stake.”
“The stake…? Isn’t it stopping the tectonic shifts? You want to pull it out!?”
“We’re pulling it out. The storm is sucking up all the magic. Human strength can’t do anything about it. All humans can do is stop other humans.”
Terrified of being yelled at by the mud- and blood-covered Hel, I quickly leaped toward Sylvia, who was hurling fireballs from atop the griffin.
“Hey!”
I meant it as a cheerful greeting, but Sylvia bared her fangs and bit me.
“Why the hell—? Ow!”
“What’s this surging magical power?”
Drinking my blood had awakened Sylvia.
“What the hell!? No, wait! Why did you bite me!?”
“What? Makyo’s still alive?”
“Don’t kill me without permission. See? My heart’s still beating.”
The moment I showed her my chest, she stabbed me with a bone knife without hesitation. The leather armor prevented a deep wound, but she’s dangerous.
“Stop! Why are you trying to kill me!?”
“Ah, it seems it’s not an illusion. If it were, I would have killed you properly.”
Does Sylvia try to kill me every time she checks to see if it’s an illusion?
Let’s get down to business.
“Do you have Arachne’s thread?”
“I don’t. Is that really important right now?”
“It is. We have to take care of that thing.”
I pointed at the black water dragon.
“Yeah, but… I don’t have it. Jennifer might have it.”
“Understood.”
Sylvia mounted the griffin and began hurling succulent plants that absorbed magic from the desert at the dragon. The “migrating” monsters had also started circling above the Great Hole, but Sylvia was holding them off for now.
Jennifer deflected the black water dragon’s attacks with a slime wall.
“What kind of attack is it? Corrosive?”
“No, it’s not corrosive. It’s more like mud mixed with ice. The power changes… Huh!? Eh!? Makyo-san!”
“Jennifer, do you have any Arachnid Thread?”
“I have it, but this isn’t the time for that! Look! Chel-san is transforming into a devil again, and it’s terrible!”
“The water dragon is the one in trouble. Chel will be fine. She hasn’t become a devil at her core.”
“But she’s moving around so much…”
“True, she has more stamina than I do after sleeping half the day. We need to switch soon. That’s why I need the Arachne thread.”
“It’s in my bag. It’s in rope form, so untie it and use it!”
“No, the rope is better. After that, you’ll just need some cloth that doesn’t conduct magic power.”
I pulled the rope made from Arachne’s thread out of Jennifer’s bag.
“I don’t carry everything around with me!”
“Can’t be helped. We’ll have to make do with this tattered inner garment. It tears easily.”
After giving the final instructions, I headed for the stake at the center of the “Great Hole.”
“Hey, Makyo-san! What about Chel-san? Aren’t you switching out?”
“It’ll take a little longer. Lipa is currently breaking the Water Dragon’s curse, so hang in there until then!”
“But…”
Everyone has their role, which depends on the time and situation.
That white deer wasn’t human, but surely it came to herald the time.
I’ll just do what I must.
Though it is called the “Sealing Wedge” by the Birdfolk and has been guarded all this time, the stake’s time to be pulled has come.
The stake itself is well-preserved, but the ground beneath it is cracked, showing severe deterioration over the years.
The Nushi sealed beneath it is also nearing the limits of its physical form. Over a thousand years have passed since the Yggdrasil folk sealed it. It’s time to awaken it from its long slumber.
That’s my assessment after examining the ground.
Beneath the massive stake lies a plump dragon, fast asleep. Unfazed by the flowing magma, the dragon sits enthroned within a hole where magical power erupts from the earth’s veins, becoming a mass of magic itself.
It seems the ancient Magic Sealing Clan never truly believed that enlarging the sealing stakes alone would suffice to contain the magic power flowing from the earth’s veins. They likely sealed it by placing a dragon capable of absorbing that magic power, and then putting the dragon to sleep. The dungeon-like structure in the northwest magic stone mine had inadvertently become just that.
The dragon regulated the erupting magic, altering the earth’s veins to suppress tectonic shifts.
This seems to have been the ancient plan. However, judging by the “Great Hole” a thousand years later and the cliff bordering the demonic land and Cliff Garuda, it doesn’t appear to be working well.
Above all, even if the continent were to split apart, it might not be such a problem for me now.
After all, the demonic land has little left that could be called civilization.
Wrapping Arachne’s rope around the stake, I sorted through my thoughts.
At the rope’s end, I tied my inner garment, which was now completely tattered and reduced to rags.
The black water dragon’s momentum was gradually fading, and its bones were fully exposed. Chel and the others’ attacks struck the bones, halting its movement.
“Makyo-san!”
Lipa returned from the sorcerer’s hidden village. The results of stopping the incantation were already evident.
“Whoa! Nice work! While you’re at it, help me pull this stake out!”
“Pull it out? No way! That’s the stake the Birdfolk have been protecting!”
“No, the ancients’ plan has failed. We have to pull it out.”
“Failed?”
“The demonic land’s civilization collapsed, didn’t it?”
“Yes, but…”
“Anyway, let’s see if we can lift it.”
The two of us channeled magic into the flying broom and tried to fly with all our might, but it didn’t move an inch. In fact, the plain cloth looked like it might tear. Twisting the cloth to strengthen it didn’t help either.
“Hey, Chel! Stop messing around and help us out here!”
Zuboff!
The moment Chel’s arm swung toward us, a massive flame shot over. The rope we had just tied was about to be charred, so we retreated. We poured all our magic into the flying broom and soared high into the sky.
“Siaooraaaaa!”
A battle-cry-like voice echoed.
I turned around and found myself grabbed by the head in both of Chel’s hands.
Thud!
I felt a headbutt slam into my forehead and stars dance before my eyes.
The devil’s horns pierced my flesh, the pain excruciating.
“Guh! Aaargh!”
A woman who hasn’t slept is dangerous. She spat black flames from her mouth and bared her fangs in a threatening growl. If I don’t get her to sleep soon, I might be the one who dies.
“All right! You can rest now! I understand why you’re so murderous after pulling all these all-nighters. But first, let’s break that devil transformation curse!”
Still gripping my head, Chel took a deep, sharp breath.
I could see black flames flickering deep in her throat. I didn’t know how powerful the curse’s flames were, but I could feel the moisture draining from my surroundings.
Hurriedly, I conjured a slimy mouth with magic and pressed it against Chel’s mouth as if performing CPR.
Boom!
I felt a burning sensation deep in my throat, but I extinguished it with mucus and forced it down into my stomach.
“Ugh, phew!”
I vomited black flames. It was disgusting enough to kill me, and my esophagus and stomach burned fiercely.
“Huh? Makyo, what are you doing?”
The devil in front of me had only its face restored to its usual self.
“Pull out that stake. The Water Dragon can barely hold its form anymore, right? It’s over.”
“Huh? Oh, you’re right.”
The Water Dragon’s form collapsed and reverted to a black pool with a beast’s head. It turned into a muddy torrent and began flowing back toward the center of the “Great Hole.”
“Is it okay to pull it?”
“Pull it. The continent won’t shatter all at once, will it? We can handle it bit by bit over here.”
“That’s true. All right!”
Chel looked at her own body, momentarily confused—”Whoa, what is this?”—but flew toward the stake.
As for me, I was falling. Lipa seemed to have been blown away by the impact of the headbutt.
Even though I created a magic cube, time wasn’t frozen within it, so I fell with it.
Soon, the black torrent closed in below me.
In response to my magic, the face of a black bear stretched out.
I punched it with a wind-imbued fist, and the bear’s face dispersed and vanished.
Still, the fall didn’t stop.
“Somebody, help me!”
Whoosh!
I heard the wind cutting through the air. Just before I hit the ground, a griffin grabbed me by the leg.
“Sylvia, throw me over here!”
The devil with Chel’s face said something.
I couldn’t believe it, but Sylvia ordered the griffin to throw me over.
The devil’s long, thin arm grabbed me roughly.
“Stop playing around! Send magic power!”
“Yes.”
I sent all my magic power into Chel.
Thud!
Chel’s arm creaked loudly. She spread her wings and flapped them, but the stake of the “Sealing Wedge” wouldn’t budge.
I landed on the ground and grabbed the stake with both arms.
I channeled magic only into the foot that was touching the ground; I used the magic just to hold the stake. If I had channeled magic into my arms, too, it would have been sucked away. However, it seemed that I could channel it into my torso.
I straightened my posture and pulled the stake out with all my might.
The black water was already reaching my feet. Unless I pulled the stake, however, the muddy torrent would have nowhere to go. From outside the “Great Hole,” I could hear the cries of the “migrating” monsters. Perhaps they had been waiting for this moment, too.
Ssssss…
The cry escaped me naturally.
Splash!
The stake that the Birdfolk had sworn to protect soared skyward.
Simultaneously, the black torrent surged forward.
I leaped toward the sky with all my might.
Chel grabbed me in midair.
Below, a gaping hole opened in the middle of the “Great Hole.” The muddy torrent vanished into the hole.
Pssh.
Though the sound was incredibly quiet, a pillar of light stretched from deep within the hole up to the distant sky, parting the muddy torrent. It was a pillar of immense magical power. Yet it, too, subsided in an instant.
KYEEEEEEEE!!!
A roar echoed from the hole. Surely the fat dragon had awakened.
Sizzle…
Black water evaporated from the heat of the magma. The muddy torrent had subsided unnoticed, forming puddles here and there within the “Great Hole.”
White smoke rose from the hole. Along with the smoke, one could sense magic filling the “Great Hole.”
Puff!
Round mushrooms sprouted, and bizarre rocks grew taller.
Insects swarmed from the puddles and took flight. Scattered bones reassembled and began moving while spewing flames.
A “migrating” griffin pecked at the insects.
The vast amount of magic emerging from the hole rapidly restored the original “Great Hole.”
The dragon that had been the lid of the Earth’s pulse seemed to have swum away into the magma and vanished.
When peering into the hole, heat and magic surged up, making it impossible to approach. Probing with magic revealed magma flowing to form a new lid, but it was unclear how long it would hold.
“Makyo, whatever happens, I’m not responsible.”
Hel, who was stained pitch black, approached.
“Migrating” monsters flew down from the sky, eating mushrooms and insects. Sylvia had returned the griffin she had been commanding to the “Great Hole.”
Lipa was filthy, but at least his flying broom seemed to be protected.
“For now, let’s get out of the ‘Great Hole.’ I’m kind of sleepy, you know.”
“Go sleep.”
Carrying the devil Chel, whose face was the only normal thing about her, we exited the Great Hole.
Only the clear autumn sky looked normal.
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