The Quark's Demonic Nature interference caused hallucinations.
There was no way to escape it.
It wouldn't matter if a high-ranking Cardinal from The Order's headquarters ca, if a five-star Hero with a diamond dal ca, or even if an Apostle, a ssenger of a Constellation, ca.
Even I, who had defied the laws of the world and regressed through ti, did not know the thod.
Just as Louis had said, the only person in the history of the Upper Plane who could be free from this nightmarish hallucination was the 'Saintess'.
『Cough-.』
『Brother…….』
“……”
The blood-soaked image of Cheong-yi in her final monts from the first tiline tugged at my arm.
『S-save …….』
『U-jin, you bastard… if only you, if only you survive…….』
A mber of the Suicide Squad begging for his life with his limbs severed, and another who was split in half in my place right before my eyes.
『Kahahahat-!!!!』
Even a madman, consud by a Demonic Species, cutting down his own comrades.
Intense and grueso mories floating in my subconscious densely filled my vision.
…It was the sa for .
Regressing didn't give a way to escape the hallucinations.
It was just that, having experienced the turmoil of emotions to the point of exhaustion during the process of watching every mber of the Suicide Squad die except for , my tattered humanity rely helped ignore it.
There was no fundantal way to escape.
『You… can do it.』
『If it's you, U-jin…….』
『…….』
Countless voices pressed down heavily on my shoulders.
Giving a rough nod to those voices I couldn't answer one by one, I ventured deeper and deeper.
I wasn't particularly tense.
The only thing I had to endure in here was the ntal attack from the hallucination-inducing Quark; if what I knew was correct, there would be no target to fight physically.
Teobeok teobeok-
Ssk-
As I walked, I glanced back.
I wondered what kind of hallucination he was seeing.
His teeth were gritting so hard that his whole body was trembling.
His eyes were filled with intense fury, and his tightly clenched fists were digging into his own tough skin, drawing blood, heedless of the pain from his fingernails.
Then.
Teok-
He soon raised both hands to cover his ears and eyes.
“…Tell when we arrive.”
It seed he intended to give up his vision altogether.
Of course, doing so wouldn't make the things he was seeing disappear, but it wasn't a useless act.
The intensity of a hallucination fundantally depends on the keenness of the five senses, and considering the acuity of his senses, simply blocking his sight and hearing would likely reduce the intensity of the hallucination quite a bit.
*Pfft-*
‘…He’s holding up better than I thought.’
Just as he had claid, his ntal strength was by no ans weak.
It was just that the intensity and chanism of the hallucinations here were so far removed from the norm that he couldn't help but fall into them.
If you brought in even veteran-level Heroes, eight or nine out of ten would start seeing hallucinations the mont they stepped inside the entrance.
So, the fact that he could endure the hallucinations like this and keep walking certainly ant his ntal strength was above average.
Repeatedly experiencing the most intense traumas of one's life was not sothing one could withstand with ordinary resilience.
Especially for soone like him, whose traumas ran so deep.
…Well.
I wouldn't have thought of bringing him in here in the first place if that weren't the case.
Jeobeok jeobeok-
How long had we been walking?
“We're here.”
Under the increasingly intense red light, we arrived at the end of the mine.
***
A scalenohedron, redder than blood.
Its color was at the very extre of red, to the point where I wondered if an object of such a color could actually exist.
‘…….’
It wasn't my first ti seeing it directly.
It seed a little redder and a little smaller than the image left in my mory.
“Is it up ahead?”
“See for yourself. Stop being a baby.”
“……”
“If you're fine after coming this far, nothing bad will happen from a quick look.”
I said, looking at the guy flailing his hands forward with his eyes closed.
“…I can't.”
“What do you an you can't—.”
“I started getting hungry the mont I covered my eyes.”
Flinch-
The guy turned his head towards and sniffed the air.
“You sll quite good.”
“Get lost.”
“……”
“Then just keep them closed.”
Pushing the back of the guy spouting strange(?) nonsense and pinning him to the wall, I approached the Source Stone of the Quark.
The unsettling feeling that subtly coated my skin grew stronger, and with it, a thought suddenly ca to mind.
I rembered the story I had heard about this Source Stone before my regression.
『The Darkest Dungeon itself might be the corpse of a Primordial Demonic Beast.』
『…What?』
『No, it would be more accurate to say it's sleeping rather than a corpse.』
The one who had served as the brains of the Suicide Squad, nicknad 'the Witch', had put forth a hypothesis that sounded utterly novel to at the ti.
The hypothesis that this Darkest Dungeon itself might be an ancient Primordial Demonic Beast.
『If you think of this dungeon as the body of a Primordial Demonic Beast, then the Quark's Source Stone is its digestive and excretory organ.』
『…….』
『Well, a Primordial Demonic Beast can't be perfectly analogized to a human structure like that, but that's the gist of it.』
I thought it was ridiculous at the ti, but thinking about it now, it was a rather plausible hypothesis.
『It lures, creates, digests, and absorbs Magical Beasts… and spits out the leftover dregs.』
Although describing Quark as the dregs of the Source Stone and explaining its autogenesis as a type of 'excretory activity' was sowhat crude, there was no particular flaw to be found in the logic's progression.
『Simply put, it's a mouth and an anus at the sa ti.』
『…Like you?』
Of course, Quark itself wasn't an item that deserved to be simply nicknad 'dregs'.
Although it was true that when it couldn't self-generate and beca full of Demonic Nature, its luring energy grew stronger, it at least possessed the core effect of absorbing Demonic Nature.
In reality, without Quark, Exorcists would not have been able to exert as much suppressive force on the activities of Demonic Species.
Perhaps, by failing to block the disturbances of those Demonic Species, the War against Demons might have ended long ago.
Shake shake-
‘…Anyway.’
That wasn't what was important.
Whether the Darkest Dungeon was related to a Primordial Demonic Beast or not.
That was sothing I could worry about after everything was over; the imdiate task was to detach this Source Stone in front of .
I couldn't gauge how long that guy Tom could last inside this madman's mine.
I needed to retrieve the Source Stone as quickly as possible.
Tup-
Therefore, without long deliberation, I grabbed the thumb-sized Source Stone embedded in the center of the mine wall.
And, putting strength into my hand, I pulled to pluck the Source Stone out—.
“…Uh.”
Once more.
Grip-
“…Huh.”
…There was a problem.
Grunt-
“…Why won't this co out?”
The bonding strength between the Source Stone and the Quark was greater than I had expected.
Even when I used both hands and pulled with all my might, the Source Stone wouldn't co out.
I even activated my Mana Circuit while pulling, but the Source Stone held its ground as if it wouldn't budge.
“……”
No, what expectation?
Who in the world would go to pull out a Quark's Source Stone thinking about its bonding strength?
This was a completely unexpected type of problem.
I had prepared for what to do if that guy Tom went crazy from the hallucinations and attacked , but I had never imagined a scenario like this.
To think I couldn't dig out the Quark with my own strength.
…Of course.
That didn't an I had to give up on the Quark here.
Although I was stuck in an unexpected place, there was still room to improvise.
“Tom.”
“…Why do you call.”
When I called out to the guy sitting facing the wall, he answered imdiately, seeming to be in a decent state for now.
“Still hungry?”
“…It's bearable.”
“Then co here and try pulling this out. It won't co out with my strength.”
Tom's brow furrowed as if he had misheard.
“…What did you say?”
“This, the Quark. It won't co out.”
I repeated myself to the questioning guy, and from beneath his hands covering his eyes, the corners of his mouth curled up into a smirk.
“So you have a weakness after all.”
“……”
“A man asking for help opening a bottle cap is only acceptable until he's ten. It's quite unseemly.”
“…What's unseemly about it when you have both eyes covered… and it's not a bottle cap, it's a Quark. A Source Stone.”
The guy stood up from his spot, looking satisfied, and slowly stepped forward, waving one hand in front of him.
“This is a favor you asked of . With this, I should be able to repay all my debts.”
“…Say that after you pull it out, punk.”
Pfft-
“Do you think I would be unable to pull out a re pebble like this?”
Having reached by following my voice, the guy spoke to , still waving his hand with both eyes closed.
“Where is it? This way?”
“No, the other side.”
Shake shake-
“Here?”
“A little lower.”
“This is it.”
“No, a little higher. It's smaller than you think.”
Was it due to the discrepancy from the difference in our body sizes?
Even at my word 'a little', the guy moved his hand in large strides, and even after fumbling for a long ti, he couldn't accurately grab the Source Stone.
Haa-
Unable to watch any longer, I grabbed his arm and guided it directly to the Source Stone.
“…This isn't so claw machine ga.”
Grip-
“That's it. Try pulling that. See if it cos out.”
“Is it very hard?”
“Quite.”
“Hmph-.”
A smile blood on his lips once more.
“Let show you the difference in our strength.”
Then, as if he had strongly activated his Mana Circuit, the muscles in his right arm bulged and veins popped out.
The Beastkin's unique physical enhancent technique.
It seed he was partially using 'Beastification'.
‘…….’
I did wonder if he really needed to go that far, but I didn't say it out loud.
Not only was it not my place to say anything since I couldn't pull it out myself, but he also seed quite pleased that I needed him.
He seed to think that with this, he could surely repay his debt of gratitude.
And so.
Bu-deu-deu-deuk-
The guy's arm, filled with strength, dug into the Quark.
And the mont he pulled out the Source Stone.
‘…Huh?’
Faced with the disaster, I felt the illusion that ti was slowing down.
Buuung-
He hadn't failed to pull out the Source Stone.
Perhaps it was just a lack of strength on my part, because the mont that guy Tom pulled with all his might, the Source Stone safely ca out from between the Quark.
…The problem was that the Source Stone, which had co out from between the Quark, was not in his hand.
He had succeeded in pulling out what was stuck between the Quark, but perhaps it had slipped due to excessive force, the Source Stone had escaped his hand.
*Hap-*
The escaped Quark flew towards my mouth as if it were aid.
The strong impact that hit my throat made reflexively swallow my saliva.
Gulp-
And with that, the Quark's Source Stone went into my stomach.
“……”
That was the problem.
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