13. Negotiate!
When did she start turning back?
“…Probability of returning to Earth… roll the dice…”
Yudahee’s eyes were half-closed.
Rolling the dice over and over again.
A long time ago… in the unfathomable universe where foreign news and ancient beings seemed to be rolling underfoot, Yudahee was only harboring one hope as she rolled the dice.
******
The summoning ritual recorded in the Necronomicon is to summon the beings from the outer world, using the coordinates of Earth as the reference point.
And the accompanying ritual is the banishment ritual that sends them back to the outer world.
Of course, from Yudahee’s experience, the majority of the beings that could be easily banished with a flick of a finger were… ironically, the ones she was pinning her hopes on.
She meticulously disassembled and reassembled the ritual in reverse.
Instead of summoning the foreign beings to Earth, she forcibly brought one of the surface things to this side from the outer world… and obtained the coordinates.
And instead of sending the target back with the obtained coordinates, she banished herself to that coordinate.
-The Plan-
However, the process was far from smooth.
What makes up the majority of the composition of the planet called Earth?
Days where summoning seawater or rocky chunks was a routine affair.
Just because water and rocks appeared out of the blue didn’t mean one could immediately banish them in that direction. There was also the possibility, if mishandled, of getting stuck right into the Mariana Trench… So, he endured, again and again.
If, unfortunately, an object overlapped, there was no time to figure out what to do; instant death.
Extreme caution was paramount.
Things useless in the extraterrestrial realm were sent back for the sake of stability in consciousness.
…The banishment was successful. Starting from objects as small as a fingernail, everything was sent back, including individuals of the same size as Yudahee himself.
But the real issue was the probability of what Yudahee desired appearing… or rather, the lack thereof.
As consciousness progressed endlessly, the result of materializing the probability of summoning objects on the surface was… truly despair itself.
[The probability of summoning an object on the Earth’s surface is…. (1/20)^1924.]
[Specify the target scale of the 20-sided die.]
[….1]
An alert that 1 appearing consecutively 1924 times was equivalent to the probability of a 20-sided die.
But Yudahee clenched his teeth and threw the die as if delighted.
“F***, as if the probability was nonexistent until now.”
[Dice Roll…!]
[…On the 5th 1D20, a 16 was rolled.]
[Obtained seawater (deep groundwater).]
…But being a 0 and not a 0 is a completely different law.
With hope in his heart, Yudahee continued the endless cycle.
…For countless hours.
[Rolling 1924 D20…]
A year has passed, how many times has it been rolled?
[Rolling 1924 D20…]
Ten years have passed, doubts began to arise in his mind.
Perhaps, what I’m rolling now isn’t actually Earth, but another secondary-dimensional planet with water and rocks?
[Rolling 1924 D20…]
100 years have passed… for the first time, something other than water or rocks was summoned.
“Damn it… Trash from the ocean… Who the hell threw this away…”
He threw it at the passing Old One’s head, and a fight broke out.
…Damn bastard.
[Rolling 1924 D20…]
1000… No, how much time has actually passed. An immeasurable time was flowing by.
And he realized.
Hope is the worst of all evils.
Where could anything be as evil as hope that never comes true,
They say those who live by hope alone will starve to death, but unfortunately, Yudahee’s body had already departed on a long journey.
His body, which received much attention from foreign reporters, did not die, and madness was not allowed either.
Accepting the Necronomicon into the mind through inevitable contact with foreign media, the disciplined spirit remains truly unchanging.
[Rolling the 1924 D20…]
Rolling.
[Rolling the 1924 D20…]
Rolling…
[Rolling the 1924 D20…]
Roll it…
However, once the unbroken mind surpasses a certain level, does it become shaky? Before the eyes of Yudahee, who rolled the dice with unleashed eyes, something dropped with a thud.
Almost thought it was an insignificant ordinary pebble… but it wasn’t.
A piece of asphalt with yellow stripes had fallen before Yudahee’s eyes.
Whether he was witnessing a fantasy or if his spirit, impervious even to foreign mental attacks, was finally collapsing with a light-hearted grin… it was uncertain. But the sensation of asphalt under his trembling hands and the burning smell of rubber were real.
It was the first time.
After countless attempts, at the very last moment of giving up hope, the desired opportunity had finally arrived.
[1924th …1]
The finally emerged last die confirmed the certainty and shouted towards the empty space.
“Uaaahahahahaha!”
Only silence echoed in the void, and a hopeful scream filled the emptiness.
From now on, it was a high-speed race.
From Noble mtl dot com
Setting coordinates about 2m above the place where the asphalt flew… forcibly warping space to eject.
Foreign media turned their heads in surprise at the sudden sound, and soon realized what Yudahee had done.
[Catch him—catch him—]
[Our understander, our leader, escapes—]
[Don’t go, don’t go, don’t go— I’ll kill you, I’ll kill you— Hate you, hate you, hate you—]
But it was already too late.
What they last saw was Yudahee, throwing herself into the fluctuation of space with a dagger clutched in both hands.
“Farewell, you damn bastards. It was filthy being with you, let’s never meet again.”
And so, Yudahee returned.
*****
The Mansinjeon Management Office was grappling with an unprecedented task.
The cause was the enormous hole pierced through the foundation planet of that arena.
They tried desperately to revive the planet, but it was futile.
It began to crumble under its own gravity.
Mikaela, looking at it, was also shrouded in silence.
Forcing the planet to hold on using her own divine power was possible, but it was akin to forcibly moving a decaying corpse using necromancy.
…It was a planet infused with blessings obtained through the cooperation of various gods within the reach of the Management Office’s gaze and a vast amount of divine power.
In terms of investment alone, it might have been the largest facility in the galaxy…
Gabriel, who had been on a mission, returned at the right time.
“Wow… The participants in the arena were a mess, huh? Those who died in the first strike were at least intact, but those who survived in the back degenerated as if they had turned into hamsters. Licking the floor and spinning a wheel in the air or something…”
The divine beings of the spiritual realm stepped forward to start the healing process, but it was estimated to take at least a month to return them to normal.
Moreover, since the incident occurred in the arena, all the treatment costs were to be borne by the Management Office.
Certainly, compared to the complete destruction of a planet, the cost of a single grain of sand on the white sandy beach is negligible.
“Well, there can’t be many beings capable of causing such an event… The observational results are as expected,” Gabriel remarked.
Ashen noise flickered at the tip of Gabriel’s fingers.
“The remnants of the great ancient being, Great Old One.”
“…Has a specific entity been identified?”
“It’s obvious when you see a hole of that magnitude in a planet. The weaver of galaxies, Atlach-Nacha.”
A monstrous spider, impossible according to the laws of physics, that would barely reach such heights if dozens of Earth-like planets were vertically aligned.
Commonly known as the weaver of galaxies, Atlach-Nacha.
“…I thought it ceased activity long ago and disappeared to the unreachable corner of the universe for observation. Was that not the case?”
With such sudden actions, Mikaela’s mind became intricate.
Was it a genuine invasion beyond the extraterrestrial? It seemed not.
If that were the case, instead of destroying planets like that, they would have used it as their base to send numerous offspring.
“…In the end, everything is known by the contractor, Yudahee.”
“Should we catch him?”
It was Gabriel seeking Mikaela’s consent with a gaze more coldly settled than mischievous eyes, but it was not realized.
Mikaela shook her head, her eyes holding the possibility of what might happen.
“Gabriel mentioned before, if an unmanageable deity is behind it, nothing is visible.”
“Is that Atlach-Nacha?”
“If you easily provoke him, Atlach-Nacha might reveal itself again.”
If the fear she felt through her omnipotence back then originated from there… it was a dangerous contact.
If it were the current Bureau of Divine Affairs, who had gathered high-ranking deities, they would never be defeated by Atllagnacha. But that didn’t mean they could envision winning.
At best, they could only hope to push back.
That was the existence of Great Old One.
If they were to expect more, it would undoubtedly result in significant damage, which was never the right choice.
“Instead, I will raise Yudahee’s surveillance level to Grade 2. Enter the Grade 2 monitoring system and watch carefully.”
A boundary level suitable for a divine being tainted with madness rampant in the galaxy.
It might be an excessive level for an ordinary human, but Mikael believed it was absolutely necessary.
“So, how will we proceed with future matches? If he repeats the same thing again, there will be no solution. The deities will all withdraw.”
“… It goes against the principle of fairness, but there’s no choice… We’ll have to impose restrictions on him. Of course, he must agree to it.”
“He’s really putting a bell on the cat’s neck.”
“Otherwise, we might as well prohibit his participation altogether.”
If he rejected all of that and tried to summon Atllagnacha again… being prepared for a full-on confrontation and swiftly killing him was also an option.
“And what about the arena? It won’t be easy to find a new place once it’s all over like that.”
“As for the location… I have something in mind.”
“… Did you secretly take a planet from the Bureau and set it up for this?”
Mikael, who was strict about principles, wouldn’t do that, but Gabriel still asked just in case.
“It’s not from the Bureau.”
“…..?”
As Gabriel looked at her with eyes full of doubt, someone burst in through the open door at the back.
“Prepare yourselves! You mere beings of the Bureau!”
The horned girl raised both hands and smiled widely.
“The Demon Lord Jang of Manma War Company will be your salvation!”