Chapter 460
Diana looked back at him, but Ian didn’t respond. He didn’t even meet her gaze.
Simple, my ass.
He took a drag from his cigarette, then closed the skill window with a swipe of his fingers. He tilted the water pouch, emptied its stale contents onto the ground, tossed the pouch into the metal storage box, and shut the lid with a clank.
It wasn’t until he pushed the box back into his pocket dimension that he realized Diana was still staring at him.
He glanced at her, briefly met her eyes, then placed the cigarette back to his lips and asked flatly, “What?”
“You can do it, right?” she asked, a hesitant smile tugging at her lips—hopeful, but fragile.
Ian didn't smile back. "Who knows? I have no idea."
"Huh?"
He exhaled smoke through his nose and shifted the cigarette between his fingers. “This is my first time trying anything like this too. And honestly, it’s not something meant to be done alone.”
"No... But..." Diana stammered, her lips moving uncertainly.She finally tilted her head slightly and asked, "You're a white mage, aren't you? The legendary..."
"It's true I can wield spells of various colors," Ian said, flicking ash from his cigarette and placing it back on his lips. “However, I have nothing to do with that legend. I haven’t mastered all forms of magic, nor am I an archmage.”
Diana's mouth fell open blankly. The hopeful smile had vanished from her face without a trace.
Rumble...
A low tremor rumbled through the floor beneath them, subtle but unmistakable.
Diana’s eyes widened as she hurriedly asked. “A-At least you know the spells you need, right?”
"That's what I'm about to find out."
Her face went blank again.
But Ian had already turned his gaze away from her, looking toward Lucia, who was standing on the opposite side of Diana. Even in this chaotic situation, Lucia hadn't stopped working; she was focused on strapping Seren's upper body securely to Moro's back.
Seren's torso and arms were bound so tightly it looked like the knots would be difficult to undo. Seren’s head, though, still wobbled slightly, no matter how tightly her body was bound.
“Finish up and follow me. I’ll go on ahead. I need some time to think about our next steps.”
Lucia readily nodded. "Okay. Take your time."
“I would like to, but I don’t believe that’s an option. You felt that rumbling just now, didn’t you?” Ian said, then immediately turned to leave.
"No... Wait a minute. Ian?" Diana called after him, but he didn’t stop. He didn’t even glance back. She stood there, frozen, watching his figure disappear into the shadows.
"Why do you keep getting sidetracked, Diana?" Lucia asked, stepping up beside her.
Diana, her gaze still fixed on the empty passage, mumbled, “No, it’s just... what Ian said just now… it felt really ominous...”
“Is there anything we can do to change what’s coming?”
"Huh?" Diana finally turned back to look at Lucia.
“There isn’t, right?” Lucia smiled at her, then nodded toward Seren’s lower body. “So let’s focus on what we can do. No matter how grim he sounded, Sir Ian will give it everything he has. And even if we don’t make it... we won’t die alone, will we?”
Diana’s lips parted slightly, speechless.
Lucia reached out and took the rope from Diana’s limp hands, calmly finishing the job of securing Seren’s lower half.
"I often think this… you’re not entirely sound of mind either, Lucia. But still… you’re not wrong." Diana finally let out a sigh of resignation, shook her head slowly, and then reached out her hands.
***
The layout of the underground temple wasn’t particularly complex. The largest chambers were connected in a straight line along the central corridor, with narrow passageways and smaller rooms branching off to the sides.
Thanks to that, Ian walked forward without looking around, unlike when he had been scouting the area. Of course, the calm was only on the surface.
Outwardly, he appeared calm and focused, but inside, his thoughts were a tangled knot.
Block, tear, lift, pull... Sounds easy when you say it but...
While he mentally rehearsed the steps he needed to take, his eyes were constantly scanning his skill window.
The underground temple was embedded diagonally within the earth's strata. For some unknown reason, the bedrock layer in this area had separated and shifted.
And it got pushed even deeper when the altar broke earlier.
In truth, the plan itself was simple: tear open the misaligned strata and lift the ground beneath the temple.
Rumble...
In that sense, the bedrock collapsing again just now might have actually been a stroke of luck. It looked like it could give way again at any moment, but at least now he knew exactly where to tear it open.
Of course, that didn’t mean the variables and problems had disappeared. The biggest issue was that there would be no second chance. Once the strata were torn apart, the crumbling old temple wouldn’t last long.
He had to consider every factor—the skills he needed to use, their levels, the casting order and speed, and even the amount of magic required. With all of that in mind, he had to succeed in a single attempt.
Even the bare minimum is an absurd drain on skill points.
Ian exhaled a long stream of cigarette smoke along with a sigh. He couldn't afford to skimp on skill points when his life was on the line, especially not now, when failure meant certain death for all of them. As much as he hated to spend the points, they weren't more precious than his life.
Rock Fortress, Ground Fissure, and Diastrophism are basic requirements. And just in case, maybe one point in Flow of Spell and Rapid Casting too... Shit.
Of course, the more he thought about it, the more it felt like his insides were burning.
As he exhaled a sigh laced with smoke, the surrounding space suddenly opened up. It was as spacious as a chapel, perhaps once served as some kind of gathering hall.
Across the slanted floor, rubble that had fallen from the ceiling, the walls, and the fractured bedrock completely blocked the far side off. It was where the collapse had begun.
At least there's plenty of material here for the fortress.
This was also Ian's destination. The other rooms connected by side passages were in similar states of disrepair, but none were as spacious as this one. Below the piles of debris, groundwater had pooled widely.
Ian finally stopped in front of the water's surface, which looked almost like a small, artificial pond. Perhaps the temple's original devotees had always used this groundwater. Or maybe, using too much of it for too long had been the very thing that triggered the collapse in the first place.
Clank—
Not that it mattered. That theory held no importance whatsoever.
Ian took the metal storage box from his pocket dimension and filled the empty water pouch he'd prepared earlier. He also refilled the newly drawn one to the brim. Regardless of how chaotic or hopeless everything felt, there were still tasks that needed doing.
"Ha..." As he lined the leather canteens up and moved to close their lids, Ian let out a short, hollow laugh and picked up one of the two liquor bottles tucked in the box's corner. It was the potato wine from Drag Velga.
Standing back up, he returned the storage box to his pocket dimension and stepped back a few paces. With a cigarette between his lips, he downed the liquor.
Fuck.
Ian lowered the bottle from his lips and let out a long stream of smoke, then finally opened his skill window. He fixed his gaze on the skills, staring as if he could burn holes through them. Then, slowly and deliberately, he began assigning his skill points one by one.
Clip-clop— Clip-clop—
It wasn't long before the sound of hooves reached his ears from behind him. However, Ian didn't even glance back. He kept exhaling cigarette smoke, raising the liquor bottle to his lips again and again, all while steadily upgrading his skills—every one of them, including the Vision skills that might help support the process, just in case.
I’m really screwed.
At last, having finished the entire allocation process, Ian brought the liquor bottle to his lips again. A faint, empty smile curved his lips. Almost all the skill points he'd painstakingly saved over the past year were now gone. There was no need to even mention the fact that this meant a farewell to transcendent tier magic.
Maybe breaking this vicious cycle was never possible to begin with.
It was similar to how he had ruined his character in the game. Most of the choices he made in dire situations followed this trajectory.
“Fuck.” He muttered it under his breath and downed the rest of the liquor in one go.
Then he tossed the empty bottle aside and bit down hard on the stub of his cigarette. A sudden surge of stubborn resolve rose within him. If it had come to this, he would survive—no matter what.
Clip-clop— Clip-clop—
Hearing the hoofbeats, now very close behind him, Ian finally turned around.
Under his unusually dark and heavy gaze, Diana flinched unknowingly.
"Are you ready?" Lucia, seated in Moro’s saddle beside her, asked in a subdued voice. She, too, seemed to have sensed that something about Ian was different from usual.
"Yeah." Ian nodded, taking a deep, steadying breath. He couldn't quite hide the bitterness that laced his voice.
His eyes settled on Seren, hanging limp and securely strapped beneath Moro’s neck, and continued, “Just like Diana said, I’ll tear open the bedrock and raise the ground. There are a lot of variables. We might not find a tunnel on the other side—or even if we do, it could already be collapsed. If that’s the case, we’ll have to raise this entire area to the surface.”
He looked over Lucia, Diana, and Moro one by one. "Of course, the whole thing might fail. This place could collapse completely before I succeed. Then, well, we die. But..."
Ian's gaze finally returned to Lucia. "If it works, in whatever way, and a path opens up, I want you to just run. Don't even look back. Not until you're absolutely safe."
"And leave you behind, Sir Ian?" Lucia asked, her brow furrowing.
Ian nodded, looking her straight in the eyes. "I'm not saying I'm going to die. Quite the opposite, actually. But even if it succeeds, I won't be able to hold it for long. As I said, there are too many variables. What I'm trying to say is, let's not drag each other down."
"If that's what you mean... I understand," Lucia said, nodding slowly.
Ian's gaze then shifted to Diana. Though she'd nodded, she hesitated under his gaze.
Ian held out what little was left of his cigarette. "Have a drag. Might be your last one in this life."
"There you go again with that kind of talk," Diana said, frowning. She quickly pulled her mask below her chin and took a deep drag from the cigarette.
Ian watched her for a moment, then added, "If something happens to me, don't abandon Lucy."
Diana looked at him, the cigarette still between her lips. Lucia frowned as well, looking from Ian to Diana.
Ian met Diana's eyes and continued, "Get her to the base, no matter what. That's all you have to do."
"I will," Diana said, looking away slightly as she exhaled a plume of smoke. "On my name and honor."
That's as good as saying she won't actually keep her word, isn't it?
“Are you saying you might get left behind? Or are you worried about magic exhaustion?” Lucia interjected.
“I’m just preparing for the worst. Even if I get buried, I might survive somehow. Just don’t waste time. And don’t come running back to die like last time. Wait at the stronghold until the Wall falls. If I survive, we’ll meet again at the temple. If not…”
Ian shrugged and added, “Someone has to make it out and tell the others what happened.”
Lucia's brow furrowed deeply as she gave no reply. As she and Ian locked eyes, Diana asked, "What's that supposed to mean?"
Exhaling another cloud of cigarette smoke, she looked back and forth between Ian and Lucia. “The Wall… I mean… this demonic barrier—it’s going to fall?”
She had clearly picked up on the certainty in Ian’s voice. Of course, Ian didn’t respond.
Rumble...
Just as another faint tremor rumbled from far away, Lucia finally nodded. “…Understood. But please—make sure that doesn’t happen, Sir Ian.”
Stubborn as always.
Ian let out a dry chuckle and nodded, then turned to Moro. As he held out his right hand, the beast snorted and stepped forward, lowering its horned head.
Ian placed his palm on it and quietly infused it with a handful of chaos power.
Growl...
Moro’s eyes narrowed, its mane rippling. A violet glow surged between the plates of the magic armor fused to its body, spreading outward like a rising tide.
Feels like I'm fueling it.
He patted Moro's head a couple of times, making it step back.
"When? How?" Diana asked cautiously.
As Ian turned to her, her pupils trembled like an earthquake, but she didn't avert her gaze. Well, of course. This wasn’t something she could simply ignore—it was practically her deepest wish.
"Later. For now, let's just focus on getting out of here alive." As Ian spoke in a subdued voice, Diana finally gave a slight nod and looked away.
She took one last, deep drag from the cigarette and then handed it back to him. Ian, putting the nearly finished cigarette to his lips, finally turned to face forward again.
Alright then...
As he turned, his eyes once again became dark and deeply sunken. A dot of violet spread across the center, and the magic gathering around quickly shifted in color—fading from its original hue into a warm, golden-tinged brown.
Shwaaaa—
With a deep breath of cigarette smoke, Ian completed the spell and instantly thrust his right hand forward. Magic radiated outward from his hand in a wide arc.
Krrrrrr— Rrrrrrumble—
Countless ripples spread across the surface of the underground pool. At the same time, the larger stones and shattered debris blocking the path ahead trembled all at once.
Then, as Ian slowly curled his outstretched fingers into a fist, the vibrating debris rose—one by one.
A moment later, he yanked his right arm back beside his face.
Lucia and Diana, who had stepped back, widened their eyes almost in unison. The floating debris, now weightless, suddenly shot toward them through the air as if being pulled by a powerful force.