9th Grade Civil Servant In Another World Chapter 215 - Salvation (2)

“Krhhhak!”

Did he use some kind of palm strike?

It felt like all my internal organs were shattered. Blood actually gurgled up from my mouth. But thanks to that, I was instantly propelled dozens of setins into the sky.

A whirlwind of mana enveloped me, and my body was hurled outside the aerial fortress.

Along with dizzying terror, my vision went white. Blood rushed through my veins so fast I could feel every blood vessel, my head pounded uncontrollably, and my heart felt ready to burst.

“Elizabeeeeeeth!!”

Falling rapidly through empty air, I screamed until my throat was raw. The mages urgently flew in pursuit, firing spells. Streaks of light brushed past my ears.

Whether I crashed into the ground and died or not, either way would be beneficial. As long as I wasn’t caught by those mages!

‘Haha, this is fun. If Damier kills me, if Ferint who serves the Supreme Leader kills me, how will the pact judge that?’

My face felt like it might tear apart, but I couldn’t stop grinning, and the sky was so blindingly blue I squeezed my eyes shut.

“Kaaaah!”

“What the hell is that? Hey! Lucas!”

Suddenly I thought I heard a dragon’s cry mixed with a faint shout of alarm.

Then something soft yet solid caught me. A second impact here—excruciating pain spread through my entire body.

“Krhhhhk!”

When I opened my eyes, beautiful green scales were glittering in the sunlight. Ah, that’s Elizabeth’s tail. Elizabeth carefully lowered me onto the cockpit.

“Ughhh… hah, cough! Cough! Cough!”

“Lucas! What the hell happened to you?!”

Someone embraced my agonized, coughing body and helped me sit up.

“Why did you suddenly fall from the sky? I thought you were dead!”

“I feel… like I’m dying…”

My blurred vision gradually cleared.

Oscar was looking at me with tears welling up. Beside him, Ian was gritting his teeth and pulling the reins. Elizabeth’s massive body soared into the sky, narrowly evading the mages’ pursuit.

“Are you okay?”

“Do I look okay…?”

I groaned and barely managed to straighten my posture.

“I was locked up in prison and just got released. I heard Elizabeth calling and jumped. I figured you guys would save me.”

“You call that reasoning?! If we hadn’t been flying here, if we’d missed catching you, what would you have done?!”

Oscar’s face was bright red as he exploded with anger.

“Doesn’t matter. Kruger would die either way. Actually, that would’ve been more certain…”

“What?”

“Now’s not a good time to explain. More importantly, am I too late? What’s the situation below? How’s the demonstration going?”

“No, get your body together first—”

“It’s urgent, so just tell me!”

“Well, it’s not good. Those crazy bastards started using cannons a while ago and many people died. Everyone barely escaped and hid between buildings, but they’re collapsing the buildings too. Ah, duck!”

This time a massive beam of light came flying with serious intent. Oscar grabbed the back of my head and slammed me to the floor.

Ratatatatang!

I heard him grabbing his rifle and unleashing fire at the mages.

“Damn, back off a bit!”

Elizabeth’s body flipped over as Oscar changed magazines and grumbled.

“Whew…”

Hanging upside down, I looked down at the blue light flashing between the clouds. From the movement of those light clusters, it seemed like Damier was drawing out all his power to fight.

“Let’s head to the surface first.”

Ian moved Elizabeth’s reins as he spoke, so I shook my head.

“Wait, I still have work to do.”

“What?”

“I think I know where that bastard Kruger is. Ian, if you have a gun, let me use it. Oscar needs to fight, so give me whatever you have left.”

“The magazine’s almost empty.”

“That’s fine.”

I gripped the pistol he handed me tightly. One shot would be enough.

“I need to go back down. You see that building? The spire at the very top of the castle. Drop me somewhere near there.”

“What about the rooftop?”

“No. I have business below. Come on, hurry.”

“Can’t guarantee anything. The interference is pretty intense.”

“The mages chasing us now? They probably can’t make fatal attacks. They’re afraid they might accidentally damage the Supreme Leader’s residence. They might kill me too. Anyway, please.”

“Got it.”

Ian gripped the reins tight.

“Elizabeth, dive!”

Like riding a roller coaster, my body floated up and my organs lurched downward. Elizabeth, executing a sharp drift, plunged toward the spire at terrifying speed.

“No!!”

“Kiiiiii!”

Suddenly, fierce winds swirled around us. Elizabeth, frozen mid-air, trembled all over and let out a horrible scream. The mages had formed an encirclement and shot light that transformed into a dense net, beginning to cover everything.

“Elizabeth!!”

“Damn, what do we do about this?”

I looked down anxiously at the stone steps leading to the spire. Not far. Maybe 5 setins at most? No time to think.

“Ian! Give me that!”

I shouted and snatched the reins Ian was clutching.

“Are you insane?!”

“No! Hold this, and buy me some time!”

I shoved away Ian, who was trying to grab my collar in shock, and quickly tied the long leather reins around my waist. Oscar, seeming to understand something, nodded and kicked me.

“Get going!”

My body slipped through the gaps between the light beams just as they closed in, falling toward the ground, and the net sealed shut behind me.

“Ugh!!”

Once again, after a wrenching impact, I dangled in midair. Looking up, I heard a snapping sound—the light net was burning through the drooping reins. The moment the reins snapped completely, I fell backward and rolled down the stone steps.

‘This hurts like hell!’

Groaning, I got up and staggered forward. The spire door was open as expected.

“Kii, kiik! Kaaaah!”

Elizabeth twisted her entire body and swung her front claws. Before I ran into the spire, the last thing I saw was mages being torn apart by dragon talons and sent flying.

***

When I closed the spire door, all outside sounds vanished like being sucked into a black hole.

“Whew…”

“You’ve arrived, Secretary.”

In a small hall decorated beautifully enough to be called a work of art, Supreme Leader Department official Julian Kaschtel greeted me with an anxious smile.

“Ah, you. I’m glad you were able to play your role. I was worried you might already be dead.”

“I was lucky.”

“Your colleagues?”

“They’re each hiding in safe places. Officially they should have moved to control the artillery positions, but it’s so chaotic that no one can pay attention.”

After Eve’s suicide, I heard that the Supreme Leader Department system she had controlled completely collapsed.

Julian was the one who infiltrated that gap. Within a week, he had either purged or seduced most of his subordinates and colleagues, seizing control of the Supreme Leader Department. He reported to me during my last meal delivery.

I had made a firm request to Julian back then.

First, when the time came, secretly open the first-floor door of the spire.

Second, keep the key safe.

“The key?”

“Here it is.”

As we rode the elevator down to the underground together, he held out a plain, crude-looking gold ring.

“Well done.”

Ding—with a cheerful sound, the elevator stopped.

A desolate underground corridor appeared, with no decorations at all. The peculiar thing was that it was completely blocked off in all directions with nowhere else to go.

I put on the ring Julian had given me and placed my hand against the wall. The wall that had looked solid melted away like an illusion. Without hesitation, we crossed through the wall and ran down the long staircase that stretched ahead.

Originally, this wouldn’t be a place you could enter so easily. This room should have had various obstacles installed, and the wall would have been sealed tight—even bringing a bomb wouldn’t have broken through.

But with just the key, I could enter comfortably. Thanks to Eve Clothier’s arrangements.

“Lucas Redan, become king.”

I grimaced and shook my head. Every time I remembered her final request, I felt disgustingly uneasy.

The staircase was excessively long. In Korean apartment terms, maybe 10 floors deep? With no torches and complete darkness, it took quite a while even running and gasping.

With Julian’s help, we ran down for a long time until a faint golden light began to appear. Finally, when the stairs ended, we found a door wrapped in light.

“Well, I’ll be back.”

“Be careful.”

I placed my ringed hand against the door once more, and it opened. Brilliant radiance poured out.

***

The enormous room, about the size of a sports field, was filled with an incredible amount of mana stones.

Neatly carved round mana stones emitted blue light, mixing with the golden light radiating from the center of the room to create an enchanting spectacle of colors that was almost too much for human senses to bear.

But I wasn’t interested in that stuff. Stepping on the mana stone field spread out like river pebbles, I hopped toward the center of the room.

There, a geometrical structure was spinning around. A perfect cage, or perhaps something like an armillary sphere. It rotated slowly, restraining the life form trapped inside from escaping.

At my footsteps, the human who had been spinning inside the sphere opened his eyes.

A man with all his limbs severed, his entire body hair shaved off, bound up tight. His wrinkled, aged skin was carved with golden letters like tattoos.

‘How horrible.’

Even someone ignorant could tell those were powerful magic spells.

“E… ve…”

The man made a very slow, slurred sound, as if his tongue had completely stiffened.

“I’m not Eve. But I came at Eve’s request.”

Eve Clothier had been with Kruger since before he became Supreme Leader, from when he was still a knight captain. According to her, she had served her master for 25 years. Naturally, she was by his side when Kruger built the aerial fortress.

The tender-hearted girl Eve couldn’t bear the existence of the man trapped in this sphere to support the aerial fortress.

Kruger squeezed his subordinate mages to develop unprecedented spells and created this strange prison. Then he built a room plastered with mana stones in the basement of the spire.

Before the construction was finished and they sealed the final wall. On one quiet night, Eve secretly visited this room. After a long conversation with the man, she made an oath—when the time came, she would definitely free him.

Perhaps Eve back then already knew that the kingdom of her beloved Supreme Leader would someday fall.

After spending 25 years under him, she would have forgotten by then.

This is essentially an engine room.

The most crucial facility built to support the aerial fortress and keep magic running smoothly. Only Kruger himself and Eve, who followed his orders, knew of its existence.

The mages who participated in construction became researchers working under Dr. Moritz Riepen, then all committed suicide recently. Failing to develop the second-generation Ferint and fearing the aftereffects.

‘No, now that Eve’s dead too, only Kruger remains.’

I felt sick.

Eve hanged herself before my eyes. And I came this far following her dying wish.

“Remember this?”

I held up my hand in front of the man’s face. Specifically, the ring on my middle finger. The man slowly nodded.

Eve had asked me to come here. She said there was a barrier but didn’t tell me how to break it before dying. After Kruger visited, her corpse was burned in a corner of the aerial fortress.

“Eve Clothier’s remains yielded this. She apparently swallowed it herself just before dying.”

Julian, who came to feed me, held out a plain ring with no decorations. Only then did I understand Eve’s intentions.

“A test to the very end. Even using her own death.”

An unpleasant laugh escaped.

Eve always wore a ring on her hand. So ordinary and faded that no one would notice. That was the key.

“Right, so Kruger didn’t catch on. He never would have imagined that the basement mage and the girl made a contract. He wouldn’t have cared what decorations were on that woman’s finger. He had no idea it was the only key that could bring down this castle…”

“The Supreme Leader’s downfall begins from his feet.”

Julian commented cynically.

“Right. A clear oversight. If the Supreme Leader had personally examined her final moments, or at least buried her properly instead of burning her, this key never would have been discovered by you.”

Eve gave Kruger one last chance. At the same time, she tested me—how much I had control over this aerial fortress, whether I could reach even her corpse, and above all, whether I could recognize the key.

She was truly a clever woman. Damn clever.

“I heard the story from Eve.”

I raised the pistol.

“Should I kill you?”

The man’s eyes gave his answer. So I pulled the trigger.

Bang!

Normally the sphere would have blocked the bullet. But once Eve’s will to keep her oath was invoked, that didn’t matter anymore.

On that night when Eve visited, the man had bound himself and her with magic, unknown even to the Supreme Leader, creating the key. So that Eve’s oath could be fulfilled more certainly.

The bullet easily passed through the sphere and embedded in the man’s head. The spinning sphere stopped. Then—

Rumble rumble rumble…

Paradise began to collapse.