38. Water Knows the Answer.
In the swirling dust, Niala Totep looked down at the shattered Formalthaute.
“Whew, this taste, as expected.”
On the other hand, Ktu was staring blankly at his dispersing planet, like a wandering beggar whose spirit had departed.
What remained was just a small fragment, barely 30% of its original size, lingering in the spot where the planet once existed.
Yoo Da-hee could only silently watch, muttering to herself, “Insane, completely insane…” as she tightly wrapped the artifact cutter in her arms, wondering if Niallatotep, the one responsible for this situation, would pull another unexpected move.
Whether it was for better or worse, Niallatotep approached Yoo Da-hee with a gleeful smile, extending his hand.
“This is it… extraterrestrial energy… the power of stars…! How about it, aren’t you interested?”
“No, not at all. I’ll pass.”
Even if it was an excuse for training, why bother with how much he would manipulate it again? Disappointed, Niallatotep withdrew his hand, as if each one’s anticipation was predictably incorrect.
Looking at the artifact cutter that emerged from the artifact, the transformed Formhalte, Yoo Da-hee observed the faint trembling of the artifact.
Oh… come to think of it, for the artifact, this wasn’t home, was it? Yoo Da-hee sensed a crisis signal passing through her mind rather than any signs of danger.
From the artifact’s perspective, it was as if an unfamiliar outsider suddenly called in a thug, turned the house into chaos, and then completely destroyed everything with industrial iron, racking balls, after making a mess.
“How should we handle him now? The house has evaporated, hasn’t it?”
Making a puzzled expression while holding the trembling artifact, Niallatotep hesitated for a moment before breaking into a wide smile.
“…Wanna take him and raise him?”
“No, it’s not like he’s a lost puppy of the Great Old Ones. Why would I take him and raise him?”
“Well… Yog might not say anything, right? Maybe he’ll even like it?”
The emptiness that was once solitary became a bit more lively.
Sigh.
Facing this chaotic situation, all I can do is helplessly gaze at this vast universe.
“…But now, it seems like we should be worried about what’s to come.”
“Hmm? Ah, well, in any case, Kthuga is probably still brooding in that gloomy state, gathering fragments for at least a thousand years, don’t you think?”
“No, it’s not Kthuga who’s speaking…”
They couldn’t bring themselves to continue.
Chillingly, a dagger pierced their heart.
Yog Sothoth, whose scattered white hair resembled a nest of evil spirits, stood with an expressionless face behind Nyarlathotep, who was grinning widely.
Yudahee was merely a pawn, while the true purpose of the visit to this planet was none other than Yog Sothoth.
But to summon Nyarlathotep out of the blue and even attempt to destroy the planet?
“Ny-ar-la-tho-tep.”
Quickly realizing the situation, Nyarlathotep tried to retreat into his oblique form, but it was too late.
Gulp.
He was seized by the neck as though his life depended on it.
“No, Yog, that’s not what I meant… There seems to be a misunderstanding. What’s this about Kthuga and my sanctuary from before-“
Mumbling and a trickle of sweat running down his spine couldn’t hide Nyarlathotep’s confusion and desperation.
Looking at Yog Sothoth clenching his fist, Yudahee closed her eyes and simply prayed for a peaceful resolution.
May I be born in the next life as a trouble-free outsider…!
Pakinn…!
Yog Sothoth’s full concentration unleashed the power of spatial collapse.
—–
Even a mere brush could be fatal…!
It was Yudahee who repeated the meaning of those words once again.
The space, rather than being sharply cut by the trajectory of Barisada, seemed to be distorted frighteningly as it was crushed by a massive hammer, reaching Penelope’s fingertips and toes.
Certainly, it was as if wielding a sword, but it felt more like the pressure of swinging a giant mace, creating a discord and absurdity.
Just once, Yudahee cautiously confronted Parashu, and it was a secret that the handle almost burst.
“The attack interval is about this much…”
Yudahee, who picked up a spare bow left by a contractee who had become a cold corpse, ran while inserting her hand into the bowstring. Simultaneously, she took out four arrows.
Then, she strung them along with the bowstring, carried them for a while, and then released them.
Something unfamiliar, something that could never be done unless you were used to it—the arrows followed the trajectory towards Penelope.
Head, chest, legs, and the empty space above the head where nothing was.
Yudahee wasn’t aiming for the arrow hits, but she was watching the trajectory.
Curiosity about how the gravitational field directly protecting Penelope’s body would work—.
The arrows, as if they were toothpicks, stretched out and all bounced away without even grazing Penelope’s body.
If the purpose of the arrows was to hit—! It was a situation where the phrase “clearly a failure” came to mind, but that wasn’t what Yudahee was hoping for.
The arrows were faithfully playing their role of drawing various trajectories.
Let’s shoot a few more times, not just once, and the outline will be somewhat visible.
And finally, when the sand on the ground was scattered, the flowing structure was firmly imprinted in her mind.
It was a form resembling the structure of the sun.
Why isn’t it like that?
The surface of the sun emitting light, the photosphere, has a lower temperature than expected. On the contrary, as it passes through the chromosphere and rises to the corona part, the temperature rises sharply. The gravitational field was similarly the same.
The area around the body, about 20cm, is the safe zone, but beyond that is a magic that transforms the outer part into a steel ball just like a fist, only the nails remaining! Even saying so wouldn’t be too strange.
If one were to brush against the blade of Barisada, where gravity is most concentrated, it would be crushed instantly.
However, Yudahee, looking at Penelope in that way, seems to have a rather satisfied expression.
Before… a long time ago, there was an encounter with a monster with abilities similar to Penelope’s… no, even more monstrous than that.
An extraterrestrial monster with gravity control abilities enough to easily crush a small district.
Nyalatotep just mentioned it as a basic skill test, as a normal physical training, but could it be just that?
That bastard drooled at me just by looking at me, saying he would confront me if it weren’t for Azathoth’s command… a crazy bastard who might have fallen into a meal as a thing of the past if it weren’t for Azathoth’s command.
“Kidding? Hey, how the hell do you catch that?”
“What’s so difficult about it? You’re treating the opponent too much like a monster. Even a mere chick becomes a monster if treated like one, you know?”
“It’s a real monster! What chick manipulates gravity like that?”
“Well, I can’t help it. I can only show you.”
Nyalatotep grabbed Yudahee’s hand, then slowly drew an invisible track with his fingertips.
“Well, think lightly of it. The opponent just handles gravity well, definitely not like a black hole. 24 hours a day, there’s no way to project in all directions, right?”
With Nyalatotep’s vision and cooperation, little by little… very, very slowly, there was a passage in the air that seemed shallow.
And along with the inhalation and exhalation, the gravitational aura took on a visible form.
But…
“Is it barely enough for one finger to go in…?”
“That’s the important part, closing that gap firmly. It’s like a kind of… cerebral vein thrombosis. If the familiar flow is blocked, the opponent will feel discomfort, and the flow will be tangled for a moment, right?”
If that happens, it means you can enter inside.
-But what can I use to block it?
Even getting closer is an extremely perilous journey, with various rocks being propelled by gravity and the wind ripping the flesh apart due to atmospheric pressure.
It’s not something that can be easily opened and closed like a king’s lid ramen…
Yeah, let’s say I did a great job finding the gap in gravity that moves on its own and isn’t visible, without any help from you, Niallatotep.
What the heck are you blocking it with?
I don’t even have a means to block space…!
-Huh? How would I know? You should figure it out on your own.
-Oh.
This really seems like an unusual case, teacher…!
-It’s not like you’re going to die anyway, so what’s the big deal? The things you can do are simple, right?
Thud.
Isn’t Niallatotep just pushing me off the cliff like a lion dropping its cub?
Losing balance, I fell backward.
-If it doesn’t work, keep trying until it does. It’s a very simple maxim of life.
-You freaking…!!!
There was a past like that.
But perhaps Niallatotep just dismissed it as an accident that could happen as part of training…
“….”
Come to think of it, this is making me angry.
It was Yoo Dahee who looked at Niallatotep and Shub, who were reshaping the terrain with a resounding boom, from a distance.
*Sigh.*
Nevertheless, I decided to let it go for now, since she was working hard. I looked at Penelope, who was fiercely pursuing me.
It was like she was advancing by plunging through any obstacles in front of her, as if she were a boss character from some horror game.
“Mamang… Mamang…!”
She seemed no different from him in how she spoke.
One might think that after breaking through the forest, Penelope would corner Yudahee at a cliff…! But that was only Penelope’s thought, and reality was quite the opposite.
The ground where I stepped began to crumble.
Normally, I might have been able to fly up into the sky as I had done before… But could I handle power that was not my own so easily?
I tried to abolish the gravitational field altogether and propel myself, but Penelope followed too closely.
Yudahee couldn’t afford to miss such a crucial opportunity, and the arrow that was shot hindered her escape, prompting the reactivation of the gravitational field.
Inevitably, to avoid the arrow, she had to unfold a massive gravitational field, accelerating her fall… and soon, she crashed into the ground below.
So, if someone were to ask how she had once captured that monster in the past, Yudahee would answer like this.
An ordinary human has only one means of making the gravitational field tangible and finding a gap as small as a fingernail to block it.
“[Water knows the answer]”
Penelope, this is not H-E-L-P, but W-A-T-E-R. Memorize it.