Chapter 211 – Unification (2)

The sky, growing darker, was illuminated by a relentless light. The light continued unabated.

It was an absurd number of flashes.

Like lightning striking repeatedly.

If those were nuclear explosions, how many had been detonated?

By now, dozens of such flashes had occurred.

More explosions than when the nuclear missile had struck Pyongyang.

But the explosions didn’t stop.

“Good heavens. This is madness.”

I thought the same, but those weren’t my words.

It was Yelena, who was always calm, who spoke.

Her face pale, Yelena frantically moved her hands.

Before her, several small magic circles unfolded.

I wasn’t well-versed in magic, but those small circles looked like they were for some kind of calculation.

Magic circles?

Weren’t those nuclear explosions?

“Do you know what that is?”

I pointed at the flashes beneath the rising mushroom clouds.

But she shook her head at my question.

“I don’t know. How on earth is such immense power being harnessed?”

I couldn’t help but look puzzled at her words.

If she wasn’t shocked by the nuclear explosions, then what was she so alarmed about?

“Those are probably nuclear explosions… If not, what are you looking at?”

At my question, Yelena pointed at the northern sky with a stiff expression.

“An enormous magic is being cast there right now. A ridiculously large-scale magic I’ve never seen before!

Those flashes, or rather explosions, are fueling that magic.”

Her words gave me a sense of déjà vu.

If it was magic powered by nuclear explosions, I had seen something like it before.

“You’re saying the Demon King did this?”

“This is magic only the Demon King could perform.”

“Is it that powerful?”

Since the Demon King cast it, it must be extraordinary magic.

The last spell he used had brought most of Earth’s satellites crashing down.

But even that spell shouldn’t have drained the color from Yelena’s usually composed face.

Just how powerful was this magic?

However, Yelena’s explanation was different from what I expected.

“No, it’s not just powerful and immense. This is magic no human could ever cast.”

“What?”

Surprised, I looked at her, and Yelena, her face growing darker, erased the magic circles before her.

“That is undoubtedly a higher form of the gate magic that connects dimensions. A magic we in the dimensional studies field deemed theoretically impossible, so much so that we didn’t even consider banning its use. It’s a magic that merges dimensions.”

“Magic that merges dimensions?”

As a knight, I couldn’t grasp such magic, but looking at the mountain range rising on the northern horizon, I understood her words.

“Insane.”

On the horizon, a semi-transparent mountain range suddenly appeared, like a mirage.

In a desert, such a sight might be dismissed as a mirage caused by the nuclear explosions, but I couldn’t do that.

The mountain range on the horizon was one I recognized.

A mountain range I should never see in this world, one I shouldn’t even look at.

It was the northern mountain range of the Ea continent.

The massive mountain range that divided the Ea continent in half was now revealing itself in the northern sky.

It was an unbelievable sight.

I stumbled over my words.

“Are you saying… merging dimensions means Ea and Earth are merging?”

“No.”

She shook her head, but not in agreement.

“I checked hastily, so it’s not precise, but it’s not just two dimensions merging. That magic is merging Ea, Earth, and the land of the divine tree.”

At her words, I was left speechless.

What kind of madness was this?

“Wait. Did I understand correctly? That insane Demon King is using nuclear explosions to fuel a magic that merges three dimensions?”

“Yes. Well, to be precise, it’s merging the continents—no, the planets—of each dimension.”

“Is that even possible?”

“No one has tried, but we thought it impossible. Considering the mana required to cast such a spell, even the most powerful Demon King shouldn’t be able to do it.”

Merging three planets from different dimensions?

I never imagined such magic existed.

According to Yelena, even the Demon King shouldn’t be able to perform it.

I stared at the still-flashing northern sky.

This magic had clearly become possible because of those nuclear explosions.

“If the Demon King did this, those must be nuclear bombs taken from China.”

Or perhaps from Russia, which was already half-devoured.

In any case, the conclusion was the same.

The Demon King was truly bringing about the end of the world.

“We have to stop it. Even if the dimensions merge safely, almost no one will survive.”

That was obvious.

Though we called them worlds, scientifically speaking, it was the merging of three planets.

And not just merging—crushing their respective dimensions.

No matter how powerful the magic, life on those planets couldn’t survive such an event.

Rumble…

Even now, the ground was shaking.

‘Was the previous rift preparation for this?’

It had been strange when the rift connecting to another dimension appeared after we stopped the nuclear missile. Was this the practice run?

As I pondered this, Yelena lamented.

“I can’t understand it. Even the Demon King doesn’t need to destroy the world itself, does he? If he does this, even the undead won’t survive.”

We couldn’t know what the Demon King was thinking.

Perhaps the undead had some survival method we didn’t know about, or maybe things had gone so badly that he decided to just destroy everything.

But it didn’t matter what the Demon King was thinking.

We had only one task.

“We have to stop it. It won’t merge immediately, right?”

“No. It will take considerable time. This is an act that completely twists divine providence.”

“How long do you think it will take?”

“A week? Or a month?”

That was fortunate. We still had time.

But if it took that long, there was something I couldn’t understand.

“The Demon King doesn’t have that many nuclear bombs…”

“Ah, those explosions? Mana is only needed in large amounts at the start to activate the magic. Once it stabilizes, one explosion a day should suffice.”

Thirty for a month, seven for a week.

In my past life, I heard Russia had thousands of nuclear bombs, and China had hundreds. If he had gathered them, sustaining the magic for that long was entirely possible.

But what about the places where those explosions were happening?

“Pyongyang must be the worst.”

Even if the magic circles absorbed the nuclear explosions’ power, the ground wouldn’t remain unscathed.

By now, Pyongyang must be hell itself.

It was a situation where even a sigh felt out of place.

I looked at the gate, still trembling internally.

‘We can’t destroy the gate now.’

If we destroyed the last gate, we wouldn’t be able to receive help from those who had crossed over.

And our original plan of all of us crossing to Ea no longer made sense.

With three planets on the verge of destruction, retreating now would only mean death.

I didn’t want to charge forward, but I had no intention of dying.

I wanted to live long and prosper in my territory.

“We need to gather people and stop the Demon King. I’ll go to Ea and bring back reinforcements. I’m sorry I can’t keep my promise immediately.”

Beyond the gate were the two swordsmen, the surviving royal knights, and mages who had just crossed.

Their numbers weren’t large, but they would be a great help.

If we were lucky and could quickly create a portal, we might get support from elsewhere.

According to Yelena, we still had time.

If we gathered people and rushed north, we could stop the magic.

No, we had to stop it.

But at my words, Yelena made an unexpected expression.

A completely unforeseen look.

She looked shocked.

“Ah… the gate!”

“?”

“The Demon King’s magic is a higher form of gate magic. Even if it weren’t, the merging of dimensions means the gate won’t hold! The gate is intact now because the magic’s effects haven’t reached here yet, but once they do…”

Yelena couldn’t finish her sentence.

I had to turn my head before she could.

I felt an immense force, an enormous surge of mana, approaching.

The Demon King’s magic was reaching us.

“Irene! Help me!”

Yelena, regaining her senses, frantically cast spells at the gate.

I couldn’t tell what kind of magic it was, but judging by the mana flowing from her, it was no ordinary spell.

But was it too late?

The gate remained unchanged until the massive mana arrived.

And then, the next moment.

Boom.

The floating gate exploded in an instant.

Simultaneously, Yelena and Irene vomited blood and collapsed.

The completely shattered gate, and Yelena and Irene lying in pools of blood.

Even as a knight, I knew the gate to Ea wouldn’t open again.

The worst possible situation.

But I could smile.

Because beneath the shattered gate, I saw people groaning.

The elven mage, the Earth priest, and even the former thief soldier.

At the moment the gate was destroyed, my party members had crossed.

“Ugh, I feel dizzy… If we had crossed any later, I’d be dead.”

Yerim was slumped on the ground, retching, while Hoffman was sprawled on the floor, gasping.

“What’s going on? You called us so suddenly…”

Zahina managed to ask me a question, but she couldn’t finish.

“Good heavens…”

Her eyes widened as she looked at the northern sky.

I realized for the first time that an elf could be so shocked.

In the final moments before the gate was destroyed, Yelena had sent a message spell to the party members.

They had heard her message and, without hesitation, leaped through the gate.

And now, all my party members were gathered before me.

With the gate destroyed, we could no longer receive help from Ea.

And what lay before us was the destruction of three planets.

But I could smile.

Because my precious comrades were with me.