Chapter 191 - Stature (2)

["First."]

["A spell formula is defiance of heaven."]

"Wait—"

The being in the mirror had begun speaking without warning. Alon tried to engage him in conversation, but...

["Second."]

The man in the tattered coat looked distinctly different from Alon as he was now, yet there was something familiar about him. He did not stop speaking.

["Reflect upon the foreign thing."]

"Hold on—"

Alon tried addressing him again. But the being in the mirror continued his one-sided recitation, as though he had never intended to have an ordinary conversation.

["Third."]

["Recognize it."]

By then, Alon had given up. Instead, he began concentrating on what the being before him was saying.

He did not know what this mirror was or who the being reflected within it might be. But he had grasped one thing instinctively: that man's words would surely prove an important key. Whatever the being in the mirror was saying, it was undoubtedly important.

["Fourth."]

["Look it squarely in the face."]

["Fifth."]

["Do not run away."]

Even without a response from Alon, the being in the mirror continued explaining, as though delivering a pronouncement to him.

Then:

["For if you do, you will be able to reach it."]

With those final words, the being in the mirror began to fade, slowly disappearing from the ground up to his head.

Just then, Basiliora's voice came from behind him.

["What are you doing?"]

"... What do you mean?"

["You were looking into the mirror and saying something or other."]

Alon looked bewildered at Basiliora's sonorous words.

"I was?"

["Who else is here besides you?"]

"... No, there was definitely someone other than me in the mirror."

["What nonsense is that? From the moment I looked, there was nothing in it but your vacant face."]

"... Really?"

["Do you not believe me?"]

Dazed, Alon turned back toward the mirror. The man had vanished, leaving only his own reflection.

'What in the—'

He frowned faintly, unable to make sense of it.

GURGLE!

With an exceedingly strange sound, he felt the support beneath his feet disappear.

In the briefest instant—

["Oh no—!"]

["Kyuu!?"]

Basiliora's startled voice and Blackie's alarmed cry grew steadily more distant. Only then did Alon realize that he and the mirror were falling into a space that had suddenly opened beneath them.

"!"

Thinking quickly, Alon immediately reached out and grabbed a root.

CRACK!

Unable to bear his weight, the root snapped. Instead of saving him, it dragged him into the abyss beneath the Root.

["Damn it—!"]

Basiliora moved urgently, but the roots that had pulled Alon down seemed to have a will of their own. The instant he fell through, they completely sealed the opening through which the light had entered.

As Alon felt himself floating in the darkness, with all light cut off...

"?"

At some point, he felt a floor beneath his feet.

'I was definitely falling, wasn't I?'

He tapped his feet in the darkness, but he was unmistakably standing on solid ground. It felt as though all his senses had been thrown into utter confusion.

Alon contemplated this unknown space. Amid a vast darkness whose dimensions were as impossible to gauge as the universe, only the floor could be felt.

Nothing was visible in the pitch-black abyss. Paradoxically, however, he could see his own body normally.

'What is this...?'

It was an exceedingly bizarre situation. Feeling as though his perception was becoming distorted, Alon repeatedly looked between the abyss and his own body before setting off to find a way out.

He did not know what dangers might await him, but he could not simply stay here and wait.

How long had he wandered aimlessly?

"?"

Alon discovered writing at the far end of the abyss, where there had certainly been nothing before. The letters seemed both carved into something and suspended in midair.

He approached them.

'... Crude.'

The letters looked as though someone with no particular skill had simply gouged them roughly into a wall with a knife. Still, they were not especially difficult to read. As Alon quietly examined their contents, his eyes widened.

'... How to use stature.'

That was precisely what the inscription concerned.

####

[You who seek to understand stature, contemplate.]

[If, in doing so, you look directly upon it,]

[you will be able to leave this place.]

Alon silently reread the crude writing. A hint of dissatisfaction surfaced on his face.

It was indeed a method for using stature, but it was written like an impenetrable riddle.

'... I wish they'd just explained it plainly.'

Knowing there was no one here to indulge his complaints, Alon gave a small sigh. He briefly wondered who had written this, but...

"Whew..."

For now, he sat down. What mattered was finding a way out.

Alon slowly closed his eyes and maintained a calm state, as the writing instructed.

At the same time, he felt his mana stir. Although he had already expended considerable strength dealing with the Greed Mother, the threadlike remnants of mana began drifting through his body.

He was inwardly surprised.

'... It shouldn't be easy to enter such a deep contemplative state.'

Contemplating the mana circulating through his body was not particularly difficult for Alon. It would make no sense for a mage who wielded mana to be unable to observe it.

What surprised him was the depth of that contemplation. He was observing his mana far more deeply than usual. Normally, he could only discern where it was flowing and how much remained. Now, he could perceive even its finest texture.

His senses had become extraordinarily acute. His brief wonder at this level of detail—as though viewing a tiny microorganism magnified through a microscope—was interrupted.

"?"

At some point, Alon felt his mind expanding strangely. He grew dizzy and nauseated. Even so, he continued his contemplation, keeping himself as composed as possible.

Then, accompanied by a bizarre sensation of being drawn into something...

"...?"

Four spheres appeared before him, each a different color.

'Blue, green, red, white...?'

As Alon examined their colors from left to right, he instinctively understood that this was not mana, but divine stature.

Yet he was puzzled.

'... Four divine statures?'

Through the dragonkin, Alon had already become somewhat aware that he was receiving faith. But he had never imagined there would be as many as four kinds of divine stature. He was utterly bewildered.

'If my guess is right, one of these must be the divine stature of Kalanon, the Receiver of Lightning... But what are the other three?'

Divine statures of unknown origin and identity.

As his thoughts deepened...

"?"

Alon became aware of another sphere floating beside him.

It had merely been difficult to distinguish in this dark space. A sphere of such profound darkness that it seemed ready to merge with the abyss floated silently behind Alon's back.

'This is...?'

It was certainly similar in size to the other four spheres, but unlike them, this dark sphere was positioned behind him. In the abyss, it radiated a dangerous light, like a black hole.

Just then:

HUM...

Turning his attention forward at the sound vibrating through the air, he sensed that the green sphere was emitting a strange resonance unlike the others. It trembled faintly, as though urging him to choose it.

After a moment's consideration, Alon reached out and touched the green sphere.

At that instant, a blinding white light swept over him.

"!?"

Alon hurriedly opened his eyes. Realizing that his body was now shining with mingled green and gold light, he immediately rose to his feet.

Soon, he noticed something emitting a soft green glow within the crudely carved letters and reached toward it.

TAP.

The moment Alon's index finger touched the letters, sprouts burst forth from that spot.

Not just one.

Dozens.

Hundreds.

Thousands.

Tens of thousands—no.

"!"

Countless sprouts began to grow.

A fresh scent. Beautiful green hues.

The sprouts took over the abyss, filling him with an enchanting sensation. Spreading everywhere like a contagion, they devoured the darkness.

The space's true appearance slowly began to reveal itself.

At last...

"Ah."

It was fully revealed: an enormous garden filling Alon's vision, lush green leaves flourishing everywhere and an immense old tree standing at its center.

At the radiant sight, Alon let out an involuntary exclamation of wonder.

Just then, the enormous tree at the garden's center swayed gently, as though beckoning him.

Come this way.

He had heard neither spoken words nor a voice within his head. Yet, quite naturally, Alon sensed that this was what the tree was saying.

As though entranced, he approached it.

PLOP.

As if acknowledging his presence, something dropped from a branch the moment Alon stood beneath the tree, landing on his hand.

It was a fruit—a golden fruit about the size of an apple.

Thank you.

As he gazed at the fruit, another communication reached him with the rustling of the tree, as though being imprinted upon his mind.

Alon looked up at the tree. Discovering a winding spiral staircase behind it that led upward, he walked toward it without hesitation.

####

["Kyuu!"]

["Are you all right!?"]

Alon emerged at the top of the spiral staircase. Basiliora and Blackie approached him as though they had been waiting.

["No, wait—what is that?"]

"?"

["Why are you leaking divine stature like that?"]

Perhaps fifteen minutes had passed, for Basiliora had shrunk back into spirit form. At his intense reaction, Alon looked down at himself.

The green light surrounding his entire body had yet to fade.

Barely had he registered this when he looked around. The formerly barren depths beneath the Root were now filled with sprouts and flowers.

"... Incidentally, why did this place suddenly change like this?"

["It changed a little while after you went inside."]

What Alon had just experienced below had happened here as well.

Alon happened to notice the elves standing in the distance. Alongside the four Pagade who had accompanied him, their numbers had grown to more than twenty.

The newcomers were Black Leaves who had already followed him at a delay when he headed into the depths. But Alon had no way of knowing that.

'Did reinforcements arrive in that short time?'

With that guess, he approached them.

Since his business here was finished, Alon turned to Rim, who was staring blankly at him.

"Now, let's head back u—"

He was about to say that, but...

THUD!

Rim suddenly dropped to her knees.

"?"

What on earth was...?

THUD!

And that was not the end of it. As though by prior agreement, the elves all knelt before Alon.