Chapter 140
“This is…”
The entrance to the basement.
Alice felt as if even her body temperature was dropping from the cool energy flowing from the door.
She involuntarily shivered before finally opening the basement door.
Creeak—
The door made a sound as if it hadn’t been oiled for a long time.
It was an ordinary sound, but perhaps due to the dark energy, Alice’s entire body tensed, her hair standing on end.
It felt just like the moment before trouble breaks out in a horror movie.
This was truly incompatible with someone who had abhorred ghost movies since childhood… but she couldn’t avoid it either.
Alice took a deep breath, as if overcoming her instinctual fear, and went through the door.
Fortunately, magic lamps were attached to the basement stairway walls, so the path was not dark.
Slowly descending the stairs, Alice finally reached the basement and froze in place.
It wasn’t because she had found the storage room emitting the dark energy, nor was she surprised by the basement’s larger-than-expected size.
What shocked her was none other than the massive magic circle drawn on the basement floor.
Her body automatically froze at the tremendous dark energy emanating from that magic circle.
“That’s… the dark specter…”
Indeed.
The dark specter was not sealed in a small object but in a massive magic circle on the floor of the Empress’s basement.
The fact that no one had mentioned such a massive magic circle until now… it must be visible only to her eyes, like the black energy.
“But how do I… eliminate this?”
Despite completing the mission of finding the dark specter, Alice was not at all happy. Rather, she was so perplexed that her mind felt numb.
It was clearly a massive magic circle that exceeded even the deity’s expectations.
And I’m supposed to eliminate this enormous monstrosity?
“…Insane.”
Just as Alice uttered an expletive she couldn’t hold back, footsteps suddenly echoed from the basement stairs.
Alice flinched and turned her head toward the stairs.
Someone was apparently coming down the stairs, as their shadow could be seen on the wall.
Whoever was coming down, being discovered here would do her no good.
A maid alone in a basement after the search and cleaning had been completed—wasn’t that extremely suspicious?
Alice took out the yellow magic scroll she had hidden in her clothes.
She had already found the dark specter, so today’s mission was essentially complete.
As the footsteps drew nearer, Alice tore the scroll without hesitation.
Just as Alice disappeared from the basement.
The servant who had nearly reached the bottom of the stairs discovered a man leaning against the wall at the foot of the stairs and hastily bowed his head.
“Your Grace.”
The man the servant discovered, who had come down for a final inspection, was Kylus Dearrut.
Kylus didn’t look at the servant despite his startled voice.
He merely stared at the spot where the maid had been standing without saying a word, then eventually left the basement with a rigid face.
Alice, who had safely returned to the deity’s sanctuary via the magic scroll, hurriedly tried to call Helios.
Or rather, she tried to.
“Heli… ugh…”
If only the nausea, a side effect of teleportation, hadn’t risen up.
She had thought it would be better the second time, but it was even more deathly than the first.
“Urgh.”
Alice ended up clutching the foot of the Helios statue and dry heaving.
At that moment, with a “tsk” sound, her churning internal organs quickly settled. It was holy power.
When she raised her head, she saw the small Helios standing beside the statue, looking at her with narrowed brows.
“Haah… Now I feel like I might live. Thank you, Lord Helios.”
“To think you would try to vomit specifically on my feet in this spacious sanctuary. I couldn’t bear to witness such a sight.”
The deity shook his head as if dealing with an inadequate child was giving him heartburn.
“Oh my, surely you don’t think I was really going to vomit on Lord Helios’s feet? I was in such a hurry that I grabbed onto anything, and it happened to be your feet.”
Alice casually retorted to the deity’s now familiar criticism.
She now knew that the deity didn’t say such things because he truly disliked her.
Even now, he stayed here waiting for me instead of returning to the divine realm because he was worried about me.
Since she had failed to call the deity, he must have been waiting for her here all along.
Not just subtly but openly tsundere.
Ah, that’s not important right now.
Recalling the important fact, Alice urgently said to Helios:
“Lord Helios, I found the dark specter!”
The eyes of the deity, who had been looking at Alice with a sour expression, widened.
“Really? I didn’t think you would find it so easily… To think you actually found it.”
His face showed genuine surprise, as if he truly hadn’t expected Alice to find the dark specter.
That’s somewhat offensive. It seems like he didn’t believe in me at all.
Was this how the deity felt when looking at Alice, who didn’t believe despite being told to believe?
Alice felt somewhat dejected, but her feelings weren’t the issue now. The dark specter. That was the bigger problem.
Alice quickly said to the surprised deity:
“But the fragment of the dark specter wasn’t an object.”
The deity paused and looked at her.
“Not an object? What do you mean?”
“A magic circle. The ancient magic circle you mentioned, the one that sealed the dark specter, was on the floor of the Empress’s basement.”
Alice trembled as she recalled the magic circle from which the creepy energy had been rising.
Even thinking about it again gave her goosebumps.
“What? How is that…”
The deity opened his eyes wide as if he couldn’t believe it.
“I clearly ordered all my priests to destroy all ancient magic circles back then, but could it be… that he betrayed me…”
The deity muttered incomprehensible words in a low voice with a hardened face.
Though she couldn’t understand the content, one thing was clear.
As she had expected, even the deity hadn’t thought that what was in the Empress’s palace wasn’t a fragment but the ancient magic circle itself, which had sealed the main body of the dark specter.
Alice cautiously asked:
“…I still have to eliminate the dark specter as planned, right…?”
Honestly, she wasn’t confident.
The moment she discovered the magic circle, she had the intuition: Ah, this is not something I can handle.
She had thought that and returned to the temple, but now that she was face to face with the deity, she couldn’t readily say she couldn’t do it.
Because the deity had said that only she could save this world.
If I can’t do it… who will?
At that moment, the deity, who had slightly lowered his gaze, raised his head. He spoke to Alice with a resolute look:
“Your power could never destroy that magic circle.”
“Yes, of course I have to do it… What?”
Alice was nodding, then stopped.
Did I hear wrong…?
He just said I absolutely couldn’t do it with my power.
Alice wondered if she had somehow heard the deity’s words in reverse.
“If the ancient magic circle that sealed the main body of the dark specter wasn’t destroyed back then and has remained until now, then numerous hosts would have already weakened the seal by offering blood to the magic circle. So now, simply removing the magic circle won’t eliminate the specter.”
But as if she hadn’t heard wrong, the deity said with a deep sigh:
“It will have accumulated power by hiding under the magic circle for a long time. It has probably regained almost all of its power.”
It would have already contaminated not only the Empress but everything around her.
As the situation seemed more serious than before, Alice swallowed dryly, and the deity continued with a hardened face:
“Therefore, to completely eliminate it, we must extract the specter sealed within the magic circle and directly eliminate it. It’s impossible with your current power.”
Not just the Empress’s palace but half the Imperial Palace would need to be destroyed. How could such large palaces be demolished?
Alice finally understood a hundred times over why the deity had said it was impossible with her power.
But what happens if I can’t do it?
Will this world be destroyed by the dark specter as it was in the past?
Alice urgently asked:
“Then what should we do? You said only I could save this world. If I can’t do it… doesn’t it mean it will be destroyed again?”
“For now… that’s right.”
The deity spoke as if discussing someone else’s affairs. Alice momentarily felt incredulous.
When he first told her to save this world, he had spoken as if he cherished the world he had created immensely.
Was he going to give up so easily now?
Even I, a mere human, have resolved to fight the dark specter for this world. If he was going to give up so quickly, he shouldn’t have told me about it in the first place.
“What do you mean ‘that’s right’?! Are you talking as if this is someone else’s problem? It’s your world, Lord Helios. This world you regressed by breaking even the taboo that gods should not break!”
Alice, with a surge of indignation, raised her voice to the deity:
“But now you say that since my power isn’t enough, you’ll just wait for destruction? If you were going to give up so easily, you shouldn’t have initiated the regression in the first place!”
The deity, who had been watching Alice exhale rough breaths, suddenly let out a light laugh, “Pfft.”
“I thought you were doing this reluctantly because you didn’t want to die, but it seems you do have affection for this world.”
“Of course! Do you know how hard I’ve worked to survive here? And now… I have precious people I don’t want to lose.”
Kylus, Sienna, the Third Prince. Even the servants of the ducal household.
They were now indispensable to her.
Her own life was important, but she had agreed to follow the deity’s will because she didn’t want them to die.
“Having something precious is a joyous thing. That’s fortunate. It seems you’ve adapted well to this world, which I brought you to at my whim.”
“No, now is not the time for such carefree talk…”
“No, I know. And I never said I was giving up on this world. You inadequate thing.”
The deity clicked his tongue, cutting off Alice’s words.
“If you’re not giving up… does that mean there’s another way?”
“There is exactly one method. That is for me to descend to earth and fight the dark specter directly. For me to seal it again and completely eliminate it once and for all.”
Alice was about to nod, then stopped and made a face that said, “What nonsense are you talking about?”
“That’s impossible, isn’t it? You said you received punishment at the divine trial, unable to use your power in this world for ten thousand years.”
“I did. However, there’s not absolutely no method.”
As Alice displayed a puzzled look, the deity explained in a low voice:
“At the moment when the dark specter awakens from its seal, I can manifest on earth by borrowing someone else’s body.”
