Chapter 78 – Under City (3)

At the wrinkled old woman’s words, everyone in the party became happy. They could return.

The old woman seemed to have already heard the outside story through Silvia’s telepathy.

“Hey granny, then send us back quickly!”

Michael stepped forward and shouted. The party felt sorry about his behavior, but everyone seemed to agree with his words.

Silvia, standing beside the old woman, glared at that sight. Having heard from Clara how the outside world had changed, she didn’t view favorably their attitude of wanting to return abandoning everyone.

The old woman patted Silvia’s hip.

“No. That won’t do.”

At her words, Silvia was startled and regained her composure. Because if she, a psychic ability user, lost her reason, she could cause harm to surroundings.

“Attention for a moment.”

The old woman who had calmed Silvia raised her hand to gather people’s gazes.

“As I said a moment ago, there’s a spatial ability user here. Unlike contaminated summoners, it takes time, but dimensional travel is possible too.”

She looked at each party member one by one and continued speaking.

“You worked hard coming here, so rest. I’ll tell people to prepare. Probably half a day of preparation will do.”

At the old woman’s words, Sun-woo’s expression became serious. It seemed the old woman knew well about summoners.

‘Did she see it through foresight? Or…’

“I also find it difficult talking with this many people. You all would be better off resting too…”

As she said, the party, especially the summoners whose most team members had died, clearly showed signs of mental and physical exhaustion.

“Then who would be good…”

The old woman looked around at everyone, then pointed to Sun-woo.

“You stay and keep this old person company.”

Sun-woo nodded when she pointed to him. Because he too had many things he wanted to ask her.

Nan-seol looked at Sun-woo with somewhat worried eyes, but Sun-woo showed her a smile.

When everyone left outside the building like that, the prophet old woman looked at Sun-woo and opened her mouth.

“Hoho, seeing you in person, you’re quite handsome.”

Her grumbling words were like an elegantly aged European noblewoman.

She stood up from her seat with Silvia’s support, then walked outside the house with Sun-woo.

“The others are considerate so only I live in such a house, but on the other hand, it’s quite troublesome at times. Too many people rely on me when I don’t have much time left.”

“Prophet-nim will live long. And thanks to Prophet-nim, we’re surviving. Please don’t say weak words.”

At the old woman’s words, Silvia shook her head and refuted her words.

When she left the house, from the even quieter surroundings and the two people’s conversation, Sun-woo thought he understood roughly the structure of this underground world.

Probably this underground world seemed to be maintained with the prophet before his eyes as leader.

‘Well, when there’s someone who knows the future, it would be difficult for politicians or power holders to grasp power.’

In a place mixed with many people and desires like the Empire, there would be many people to use her ability, but this underground was a refuge for the marginalized. If those with such greed had seized power, it would have been destroyed long ago.

“My ability isn’t as good as you all think. Because the future always changes, I see slightly different scenes depending on my choices, and it’s difficult to freely see the time and content I want. Should I call it a half ability… Finding the best content among them is what a prophet does.”

Though she called it a half ability, an ability to see the future couldn’t be a weak ability. And there was no way she left Sun-woo without any thought.

“What’s the reason you left me separately?”

At Sun-woo’s question, the prophet smiled.

“Foresight, as I said just before, doesn’t happen as I want. Plus, the future is made up of events around me. My life and death, our people’s safety, and the Empire’s future, but the further back, the more blurrily the future appears.”

The content she was saying seemed unrelated to Sun-woo’s question, but Sun-woo didn’t stop her words.

“Still, I think I’ve lived doing my best. When informing the Emperor of the Empire’s future from behind the curtain, when selected as a summoner crossing dimensions, ah, that might definitely have been the most enjoyable time.”

Certainly she was indeed a summoner. But a prophet as a summoner… Not combat ability, and as support ability it was somewhat ambiguous. Of course the ability itself was excellent, but as an ability to perform missions, it felt somewhat mismatched.

[Basically, I became a summoner because I’m a psychic ability user.]

The prophet’s voice was heard in Sun-woo’s head. It was the same method of voice as Silvia’s.

[A prophet is a kind of psychic ability user. Peeking into others’ minds and peeking into the future aren’t very different.]

Though he wasn’t sure what was similar, Sun-woo’s expression stiffened in another part.

It seemed she could read others’ thoughts.

‘Could it be?’

Sun-woo looked at Silvia with a puzzled expression, and Silvia made a bewildered expression at the sudden gaze.

[This child hasn’t fully grown yet. Listening to others’ stories and conveying her own stories is her limit. She’ll soon break through the limit, but she doesn’t know yet if others don’t convey it.]

At the prophet’s voice, Sun-woo sighed inwardly. Now she didn’t even hide that she was reading his mind.

“If you don’t want it known, use internal energy to place a barrier around your head. Do it the same way as blocking brainwashing-type ability users.”

Sun-woo, who had felt slightly unpleasant thoughts about his mind being visible, made a troubled expression at her words. Since she told him how to block it, it was difficult to get angry.

While Sun-woo raised internal energy to protect his head, the old woman stopped walking. Looking quite tired, even this much movement seemed difficult.

She stopped beside a small waterway crossing the underground city and continued speaking while looking down at the water.

“After doing summoner life and seeing at some moment the entire Empire become murky then perish, I came down to this underground. Because that future didn’t change whether I continued summoner life or prophesied to the Empire. The only thing I could escape was to leave summoner life and entrust myself to this underground.”

The water in the waterway at least didn’t smell and looked passably clean. Probably they purified it by some method of their own.

“Entrusting myself to this underground couldn’t prevent the Empire’s, no, this planet’s contamination either. Just the destruction that appeared after didn’t appear… And you kept appearing in that future.”

The old woman looked straight at Sun-woo.

“Though the people around you kept changing, you were there. At the time of saving this underground city, when I was conveying dreams to the next generation. And after that too…”

In a way, it might be seen as ‘Sun-woo’s hero declaration’, but Sun-woo didn’t think so. He rather felt like a tremendous difficult path had opened.

‘Should I take comfort that there’s no scene of dying?’

But there was no way she’d say there was a scene of dying in front of the person.

“You’ll know the events after that too.”

At the prophet’s words, Sun-woo nodded. From the deliberate contact in the Pied Piper mission in the sewers, to this time’s direct contact through Hayden. All were meetings made through her foresight.

“You can’t tell what will happen ahead?”

“Of course I can’t tell. The moment I speak, the future that will change isn’t very good.”

Since the prophet said so, Sun-woo had no choice but to follow. The prophet continued speaking while looking at the water.

“Now seeing this murky-looking water will be the last time.”

At her meaningful words, Sun-woo and Silvia also looked down below the waterway.

The water flowing in the waterway was revealing the bottom.

“W-water, the water is decreasing!”

With surprised Silvia’s words, commotion began starting in places throughout the city. People surprised seeing the drying water were shouting.

“There’s no water!”

“It’s not coming down from above!”

Now water was no longer visible in the waterway.

The only lifeline of this city, water, had dried up.

***

Erica was looking at the broken sewer purification facility with an indifferent expression.

This was the place where Sun-woo had eliminated the contamination source before, where this sewer’s water gathered and was purified.

But the purification stone responsible for purification had been shattered by Erica’s magic, and the large water tank made by digging the floor had all collapsed by magic so its form was unrecognizable.

“Is it okay? Breaking it up like this?”

The boss beside her was making a somewhat worried expression. Though contaminated so desires became prioritized, some sense remained to know it was bad if this place was ruined.

“No problem.”

Erica answered calmly to his words, but it couldn’t be fine. No, she didn’t know if it was fine or not fine, and had no intention of knowing. To her, however the city became wasn’t her concern.

Having learned enemies appeared in this city, she used the gang boss beside her to block all sewer exits and poured in massive personnel to search inside the sewers.

Meanwhile contaminated humans, especially superpower users, increased, so the search progressed quickly, but even during half a day passing, news of discovering enemies didn’t come in.

Instead, after hearing the story that humans living in the sewers weren’t visible at all, she heard the story about the city where scavengers lived.

And from a vagabond’s story of meeting enemies in the sewers a while ago, she came to this central sewer purification facility where they last headed.

Unfortunately, no traces remained here either, and no secret entrance going underground could be found.

Instead, through magic, she felt the flow of purified water flowing deep underground from inside the purification facility.

And she smashed the entire purification facility half as venting. Though this flowing purified water might not go to the scavengers’ city, she couldn’t just leave it if even a little possibility appeared.

If by chance she was lucky and the water flowing to the underground city was blocked and came up to this sewer, she might catch them.

But she couldn’t have great expectations.

“Do I have to wait for the next opportunity.”

Erica looking at the broken purification facility looked very sad.

***

More and more people were gathering by the waterway. A great commotion was happening in distant places, and though no commotion arose where the prophet was because of her, people were quietly whispering to each other with worried expressions.

“It seems deliberately blocked from the sewer side. Shall we send the reconnaissance team that withdrew again?”

And shortly after, a man of quite high position came running and reported to the prophet, but the prophet kept looking at Sun-woo.

“Did you see all the content? So that’s why I’m needed?”

Sun-woo opened his mouth toward the prophet.

“That depends on you…”

Sun-woo chuckled at her words, then jumped lightly into the waterway.

Water barely laying low on the floor.

When Sun-woo looked at the water, the water began moving here and there. Sun-woo’s water magic was unfolding. And at the same time, even sorcery began spreading underground.

‘Find it!’

As a magic circle floated low above the water, underground information poured into Sun-woo’s head.