Light of Arad: Forerunner

Chapter 56

Jinseong glanced down through the gap between the rocks.

The female Ghost Knight user started moving slowly.

“The First Awakening Quest has started. There’s not much to do anyway, and it should end quickly. My main worry was whether Diregie’s screams would somehow leak out, but—”

Judging by the current situation, it seemed the user couldn’t see or hear anything at all.

That was all he needed to confirm for now.

“Whether you’re an adventurer or not, the entire race will be crushed—”

“No, you can’t deal with me like that. !”

The reason Jinseong could afford some composure was because he had confirmed something.

The skill, whose cooldown had fully recovered, shot forward smoothly, once again pushing back the shattered fragments of Diregie!

“He won’t be able to come here anyway. Never. His powers won’t even work properly here. Right?”

There was no shortage of MP.

Considering Diregie’s movement speed and the rate at which Jinseong’s cooldown recovered, he wasn’t at a disadvantage.

Moreover, Diregie was unable to exert his power in this place.

Even now, with Azelia’s protective barrier completely severed, Diregie’s influence hadn’t reached Jinseong at all.

“So, let’s just talk. I really understand how you feel.”

Jinseong spoke as if he were capable of doing so.

Diregie kept his mouth shut.

Despite having one of the weakest physical bodies among the Apostles, he wasn’t a fool.

“I was just lying peacefully at home, thinking about a calm tomorrow, and then suddenly—?! Of course, I’d be pissed. I totally get it. I was furious, confused, and everything was just irritating.”

Realizing it was difficult to approach him, Diregie wondered what Jinseong was saying now.

Jinseong nodded as he crossed his arms.

Even while being torn apart by the dimensional rift, Diregie’s eyes still shone.

Jinseong briefly met those eyes, gulped, and spoke with a dry throat.

“I’m not pretending to know; I genuinely know. So, don’t doubt me. How do I know? Well, you were forcibly transferred by Hilder, right? I was forcibly transferred by ‘someone,’ too, and I’m struggling just like you. So I understand. Hilder has made a lot of people suffer, hasn’t she? Am I wrong?”

Diregie’s red eyes narrowed even further.

Even amid being torn apart and regenerating, and in the midst of all that pain, he spoke.

“Krrr… Are you also claiming to be used by Hilder, you pathetic human?”

Diregie’s initial resolve to kill Jinseong, who was of the same species as adventurers, must have been genuine.

However, shouldn’t there be someone else he should be more enraged at than mere adventurers or humans?

“Don’t I seem strange to you? I must look different from ordinary humans.”

All those emotions, the direction of Diregie’s wrath.

Jinseong knew from the start where that arrow was aimed.

“Specifically, it’s not Hilder herself, but it’s closely related to her. That’s why I’m doing this. That’s why I want to talk. You’ve heard about Hilder’s plans, right?”

Jinseong aligned his situation with Diregie’s and continued speaking in this way.

Diregie’s narrowed eyes twitched.

—

Diregie had pulled the user, or adventurer, into the dimensional rift for a simple reason.

He thought that was the way to disrupt Hilder’s plan.

Then, how did Diregie know about Hilder’s plan?

“…How could a mere human know about Hilder’s plan—how do you know something that I only heard from Shiroko?”

Shiroko’s consciousness, which had died in the ‘future,’ returned to the past and told him.

Ordinarily, this was something unimaginable. It was not something that could be said carelessly.

But Jinseong could say it.

“I told you, I was transferred too. I don’t think I need to prove anything more.”

It was part of the main scenario quest of the game Dungeon & Fighter, part of its flow, and one of the most important points—something Jinseong couldn’t not know.

“Our purposes are probably similar. In any case, it’s about screwing over Hilder. Right? Ideally, you’d want to kill her directly.”

To be precise, Jinseong’s objective wasn’t to screw over Hilder.

However, in the broader context, the direction was similar, so it wasn’t a lie.

Diregie replied immediately.

“Then release me. The rift of dimensions that swallowed me is certainly that bitch Hilder’s doing. I don’t know where or how you came in, but if you release me—”

“Ah, ah, but that’s not possible. First of all, the main issue is that I don’t even know how I got in here.”

Jinseong shook his head, cutting off Diregie’s words.

This was also the truth.

He didn’t know how to free Diregie, and even if he did, Jinseong couldn’t do it himself!

‘It’s madness. It’d be best to leave him stuck here forever… But well, as an immortal being… he’d eventually escape somehow. Even in the story.’

Above all, as the owner of , he couldn’t allow such a thing to happen.

Diregie’s eyes narrowed again.

“Then what’s the point of this talk? There’s nothing I can say to the likes of you—”

“Help me get out of here. That’s the first thing.”

“-Ridiculous!”

Diregie, finally losing his temper at Jinseong’s brazen attitude of throwing back his earlier demand, had to lash out.

However, Jinseong merely shrugged his shoulders, showing no sign of shrinking back.

“Do you think it’ll be easier for you to get out from there, or for me to get out from here? If you try using your power from there, maybe I could get out of here?”

The slight confidence Jinseong had stemmed from being a and possibly being able to once again use the power to open the gates of time, to bend space-time.

But was it possible?

Without certainty, Jinseong had no choice but to ask Diregie to try helping him out.

“Hilder couldn’t even kill me and just sent me here! How dare a human like you insult me!”

Naturally, to Diregie, it was nothing more than ripping open already shredded clothing once more.

Jinseong lowered his voice as he looked at Diregie, who shouted at him.

“…Aren’t you going to take revenge on Hilder?”

At that single phrase, Diregie’s voice, which had been filled with curses, died down.

Jinseong confidently faced Diregie.

He spoke slowly.

“You’ll find a way to escape here on your own. But at the very least… I’ll try to get out first and do what I can to twist Hilder’s plans.”

A sense of solidarity between those who had been transferred.

The intellect that knew Hilder’s plans.

Also, the anger to twist Hilder’s plans.

Jinseong used everything he had to speak to the 6th Apostle, Diregie of the Black Plague.

“Trust me, just once.”

For a moment, neither spoke.

They merely exchanged glances.

“Krrr, Krrrha… Ridiculous, so ridiculous!”

Then suddenly, Diregie burst into laughter.

Somehow, Jinseong felt he understood the meaning of that laughter.

“Something that could never happen in the Demon World, right? Over there, power is everything.”

“That’s right. And to trust? With a human like you? Trust? Hah, how absurd.”

Looking at Diregie snorting, Jinseong was about to speak.

But there was no need for him to.

“Rather than being absurd—”

“Moreover, my situation is utterly ridiculous. Dealing with a human like you… making a deal like this.”

Diregie was in the process of saying that he would accept Jinseong’s proposal.

Jinseong grinned and said.

“Exactly. The ludicrous Apostle and the ridiculous human are trying to make something work together. Got it?”

For now, the deal was made. They stood on equal terms.

Jinseong continued to speak without hesitation.

“I think you understood, so let me continue. You must be in pain even now, but you should still be able to use your power somehow, right? Let’s time it right and use your power with mine. Oh, and before that, remember how I said this was the first condition of the deal?”

“What pointless nonsense are you talking about now?”

“Pointless nonsense? That’s harsh. Naturally, I’m talking about the second condition.”

It was only natural that he would have another demand.

Above all, facing Diregie of the ‘Black Plague,’ having the chance to negotiate without being threatened—just escaping this space wouldn’t be enough for Jinseong!

“This lunatic—”

“Oh, listen before you get angry. This is something you can do really easily.”

Jinseong proposed.

He fished out something from his [Inventory] and then displayed it in the vacuum-like void.

Diregie’s glare was fiercer than ever, but unable to do anything but growl, he had no choice but to comply with Jinseong’s demand.

After some time had passed.

Diregie spoke.

“Do not even think of betraying me, human.”

“Why would I betray you? After all, I’m not going through all this just to betray.”

“Even if you do betray me, I might not be able to escape from here, but those Spongers who sucked up my power in this damn rift, fragments of my strength, and…

ultimately, the shattered parts of me… will surely pursue you.”

Diregie wasn’t lying.

The problem was, Jinseong already knew he wasn’t lying.

“Ah, yes. , , . Those things, right? I’ve already dealt with them all before.”

Monsters once seen in the game Dungeon & Fighter but now gone.

As for monsters related to Diregie, Jinseong knew them well enough to make his mouth water.

“…What? How? What?”

Of course, Diregie was baffled, but Jinseong did not answer every question.

For he already knew that the female Ghost Knight user was about to finish her First Awakening.

Jinseong gripped his sword and steadied his breath as he looked towards Diregie.

“Time it right. Focus.”

How did he get here?

Jinseong closed his eyes and thought.

‘It wasn’t just desperation. There was definitely a force at work. I don’t know how, but if that force is still within me…’

He could use it again.

Especially if Diregie’s power was added to the mix.

Jinseong peeked at the user through the cracks in the rock floor.

Soon, the female Ghost Knight user would use her First Awakening skill.

And that would cause the dimensional rift to open again.

‘At that moment, I will too.’

Jinseong gripped the hilt of his sword tightly.

Diregie’s blood-red eyes were fixed on Jinseong.

“Human, what’s your name?”

“Oh, did we not introduce ourselves? Jinseong.”

Jinseong casually answered and continued watching below.

Diregie’s torn lips slowly curled upward.

“Krr, arrogant—”

“Focus! Timing!”

The Apostle, caught off guard by the human who interrupted him, was flustered.

“-Y-You dare interrupt me when I’m speaking—”

“Now!”

Of course, whatever Diregie was doing didn’t matter to Jinseong.

At the very moment the female Ghost Knight user finally used her First Awakening skill!

Jinseong’s eyes turned black, and as his pupils shimmered with gold—

───────────……!!!!

The dimensional rift began to open again.

And it opened directly behind Jinseong.

Jinseong and Tacco were immediately sucked into it.

Diregie’s long tongue flicked as if it were tasting something, but his body remained immobile.

All he could do was wait while his body was torn and regenerated in the dimensional rift.

“Eyes… Krhr, I will remember. Human. Jinseong.”

He would remember the human who had tried to negotiate with him as an equal.

Diregie’s blood-red eyes glowed.

—

The dimensional rift opened once more.

Michelle couldn’t find her words.

“Adventurer, how…?”

“Adventurer, are you okay?”

“To have gone into the dimensional rift and returned, it must be nothing short of a miracle…”

With Louise’s question of concern for the user and Azelia’s voice trying to comprehend the situation.

Only after hearing their words did Jinseong let out a sigh of relief.

“Phew… It’s over, Tacco.”

“Croak.”

It was finally clear that the contamination, which had been more bewildering than ever, had ended.

Jinseong looked at what he held in his hand.

[Dimensional Rift (Contaminated)]

The card he had grabbed onto when he returned through the pathway he had traversed while entering the dimensional rift.

Looking at it, Jinseong sighed once more.

But this time, it wasn’t a sigh of relief.

‘A being that contaminates the dimensional rift.’

He now had a rough idea of how powerful the was.

‘…Anyway, I’m just grateful to have come back alive. Hehe, and I gained something too!’

Jinseong quickly pulled out a teleportation potion from his [Inventory].

As he gulped down the potion, his eyes met Azelia’s.

Azelia, who was about to leave after the quest ended, and Jinseong, who faced her.

They couldn’t speak anyway.

Jinseong merely spread his fingers and made a V sign.

Azelia tilted her head while gazing at Jinseong’s white eyes, but all she showed was a faint smile.

“Oh, right.”

Jinseong realized only after reaching the Wizard Guild that Azelia, who lived in Arad, couldn’t understand such a sign.

Dungeon Area: Northmyer Contamination.

The main scenario quest flow related to the 6th Apostle, Diregie of the Black Plague, had finally ended.