Mage? Magic Engineer!-Chapter 57 - 54: Shattered, Dream, Forest of Flowing Fireflies
’I’m in a dream.’
Rorschach felt this clearly. Right now, he was like a phantom, passively observing everything that was happening:
A forest blotted out the sky. Giant trees toppled one by one, only for new ones to burst from the earth. The burning heavens rained down meteors of fire, which were, bizarrely, blocked by the seemingly fragile canopy.
The burning leaves scraped against the other standing trunks with a shuddering hum. Combined with the mournful groans of trees being crushed, the entire forest echoed with the cries of birds and beasts.
His perspective shifted passively, rising until he was no longer looking up at the forest of giant trees but looking down upon it. Everything in his field of view was a near-apocalyptic scene.
At the boundary between heaven and earth, the forest’s destruction and rebirth were happening simultaneously, as if two forces were locked in a desperate tug-of-war.
A dark green Giant Beast rose from the center of the forest and roared at the sky. In response, a more concentrated and ferocious volley of fire rained down from above.
A shriek even more terrifying than a beast king’s was drowned out by the sonic boom that tore through the air.
The Giant Beast’s scorched and torn wounds seeped purplish-black, foul blood, then healed with incredible speed, sprouting superfluous polyps.
This meant that with every injury, the Giant Beast grew more hideous and terrifying. Similarly, each time the canopy regenerated, the new giant trees became more chaotic and ostentatious. The trees around the Giant Beast had already transcended the category of plants, transforming into massive tentacles waving at the sky.
The power in the heavens seemed to realize the malignant transformation of the Giant Beast and the forest. The falling fire ceased, until a golden ray of light pierced through the Giant Beast, burning it continuously.
The deafening roars abruptly turned to silence. Rorschach couldn’t hear a thing anymore. He could only judge from the Giant Beast’s movements that it was still erupting with pain and fury. The calls of birds and beasts vanished as well. Everything was utterly still.
Not only could he not hear, but Rorschach also felt himself suffocating. He tried to expand his chest to inhale but to no avail. Only a heatwave poured into his lungs, bringing a desperate, searing pain.
His vision receded rapidly, finally pulling away from this strange battlefield. Amidst the silence and the heatwave, something seemed to precipitate out—crystalline and shattered.
In the final moment of retreat, Rorschach saw shimmering fragments fill the sky. The horizon collapsed, the earth shattered, and crimson tracts of land rose up.
Heaven and earth inverted, and the dream shattered.
’This dream was too vivid... Something’s definitely not right.’ Rorschach sat up, wanting to check the time.
"The felt is pretty thick. Not a single bit of light is getting in..."
When he lifted the temporary door flap, Rorschach realized it wasn’t that the blackout effect was good, but that there was no light at all.
Night had fallen, just like that.
Rorschach walked out of the cave dwelling and was surprised to find it pitch-black outside. Abruptly, tiny, hazy fluorescent lights appeared, scattered near and far.
He held up his hand and saw his five fingers—they too were draped in a milky-white fluorescence. It was precisely this weak, non-penetrating light that made the world seem even darker.
Rorschach didn’t rashly cast the [Light Technique]. He returned to his cave dwelling and waited in the darkness for his eyes to adjust. After a while, the outlines of the room gradually became visible.
When he went out again, he was no longer fumbling in complete darkness. He could at least see the rough ground. He walked cautiously toward the other fluorescent lights and discovered many human-shaped balls of light resting directly on the ground.
’No tents?’ He looked back. The cave dwellings were still there. He looked up at the highest point; the temporary clock tower was there too.
’These fluorescent lights... they’re the Mages and Apprentices. A few of the workers also have a fainter glow.’
Rorschach decided to find the human-shaped light that shone the brightest. Judging by its position, it had to be the team leader, Nemo.
But as Rorschach fumbled his way in that direction, a group of bouncing pink balls of light blocked his path.
Rorschach tried to step over them, but the pink balls of light immediately rolled under his feet, stopping him from walking toward Nemo.
Completely unsure of the origin and nature of these balls of light, Rorschach didn’t dare to step on them and retracted his foot. The pink balls of light immediately began to hop up and down, and Rorschach could surprisingly read an emotion of happiness from them.
’Where did all these things come from...’ Rorschach noticed that more and more of the little balls were appearing, forming a glowing path, like the illuminated runway that guides an airplane in for a landing at night.
Apparently, these little balls were also trying to guide Rorschach somewhere.
’A trap? They probably don’t mean any harm...’ While thinking this, Rorschach still roused his Magic Power, preparing for Casting. As he mobilized the Ether, he noticed the glow around his body growing brighter.
He walked under their guidance, trying to observe his surroundings along the way, but the other areas were still pitch-black, too dense to see clearly.
Rorschach could only feel that he was heading downward most of the time. After an unknown amount of time, he seemed to have arrived at the bottom of some ravine.
"You guys will take me back, right? I can’t find my way." Rorschach tried to communicate with the clearly sentient balls of light, but only received a single hop from one of them. He had no idea if it understood him or not, or whether it had agreed or not.
Rorschach raised his hand to look at his wrist. The round brass tag was still tied there, and the Dharma Seal within it was now also flashing with a fluorescent light. ’This should be Mage Nemo’s [Secret Magic Mark]... Is everything related to Ether being highlighted? Then what about these little balls of light... It’s a good thing I didn’t take the tag off for comfort before sleeping.’
A sharp turn brought a scene that had been hidden by an earthen cliff into Rorschach’s view:
A forest of blue trees, with a shimmering glow rippling through it, like... the Cherenkov radiation from a nuclear reactor starting up and running. Rorschach thought of a fitting, if not very magical, analogy.
Stepping into the silent forest, Rorschach could feel shadowy living things moving through the trees, casting furtive gazes upon him.
He wandered deeper into the forest, where a clear spring rippled outwards. It wasn’t connected to any outflowing streams; when the ripples reached the bank, they rose up as blue, flowing fireflies that covered the entire forest.
A shattered reflection flickered in the ripples. In the next instant, the owner of that reflection appeared before Rorschach. A tall, deer-headed being sat on the ground, draped in a robe woven from leaves. She was surrounded by the balls of light and small animals, like the Divine Spirit of this place—sublime and holy.
"Good afternoon, Exorcist."
The voice was elegant and solemn, yet extremely deep for a female voice. She spoke in the ancient Jabber Language. In her mouth, "Mage" seemed to mean "one who commands spirits."
"Hello... Ma’am. May I ask who you are? And where is this place?" His response was very halting.
The original Rorschach had been a farmer’s child and hadn’t had the opportunity to learn Yabu from a young age. Even though he had studied diligently at the Royal Academy, his skill level was about the same as the college student Rorschach’s "mute English."
"Who I am, and what this place is, has already been shown to you."
"My dream? You are that Giant Beast..."
"A remnant, an echo. This world was stripped from the place you came from, from the ’Desolation’ of the Deryats Forest."
The Deryats Forest. That was what the Ancient Scholars called the Black Forest on the border between the Empire and the Kingdom. This endlessly explorable forest seemed to have once had a master.
The deer’s eyes were veiled by long lashes. She lowered her gaze and no longer looked at Rorschach.
Rorschach followed her gaze. The deep spring reflected a new scene: on a crimson land, a pink sky was torn asunder, its contents pouring down into every plain and ravine.
"Outsiders from that other place, if you come unprepared, you will all become wandering spirits here."
