Chapter 478 The Truth |
"By the way, I'm sorry, but I think our conversation kinda drifted off-topic for a bit."
It was around the time the black-haired official was quietly feeling the awkwardness. The mage in the hospital bed continued.
"Seonwoo Yeon, you were most curious about how the psychic, who had exhausted all their energy, was able to use their skills, right?"
"Yes."
"That entirely depends on the planet's choice."
"Choice?"
"Something you could call the source of magical power behaves almost like a living being—it shows preferences toward certain subjects. And if a person perfectly fits those preferences, the source will sometimes send its support directly to the spellcaster."
"What did you say?"
The idea that a massive entity like a planet could openly show favoritism left the Earthling with a look of disbelief. However, the archmage from the binary star system remained completely composed.
In a way, it was just an old-school mage recounting a traditional story—but there was no reason for Kim Giryeo to feel uncomfortable during it.
"And of course, I myself was one of those favored individuals standing before you, Seonwoo Yeon."
"Wait a moment."
At this, the civil servant didn't hold back their doubt.
"But Earth is completely different from your homeland, Kim Giryeo. How is it that you could receive the same kind of treatment from this planet as before?"
The question that followed was entirely reasonable. After all, if there really were something life-like within a planet, it wouldn't be strange at all for each individual to have a different temperament.
"That's because the selection of 'Guardians' is extremely strict..."
In his quick reply, Kim Giryeo had a fleeting thought. In fact, the logic that applied to this situation was very simple. The magic deity—or whatever the source of magical phenomena was—assumed to reside in the planet's core, was an existence far beyond ordinary comprehension, making it naturally very difficult to detect.
And that's exactly why it had such characteristics.
"Unless someone is a prodigy who understood magic before they even learned to walk, a mage simply cannot perceive it."
Unless someone is a prodigy who understood magic before they even learned to walk, a mage simply cannot perceive it. If you were an existence capable of offering support to someone, when choosing whom to lend your power to, would you really watch a being who couldn't understand a single gesture or signal you made?
Or would you choose a higher life-form—one that could interpret even the faintest fragment of your message? The answer was already obvious.
"The planet only supports once-in-a-generation geniuses, so I figured someone like me would do well anywhere..."
"My goodness."
"Besides, Earth has never once influenced Alphaut. In other words, the overall level of magitech here is considered to be what my homeworlds, so naturally, the competition for Guardians among this planet's lifeforms would be rather insignificant..."
In that case, the reason he had been reselected as a [Guardian] was, in truth, quite simple. In fact, when Kim Giryeo first set foot on Korean soil, he had once pondered this very question.
"What if Earth's structure is completely different from Alphaut?
After all, the idea that mana itself possesses agency had only ever been discussed on Alphaut. But not long after escaping his homeworld, he went through that experience, and his worries ultimately proved unfounded. By now, it had been confirmed that Earth was not so different from Alphaut after all.
In a way, going through hell while trying to switch to a new body in that abandoned building turned out to be a blessing in disguise."
It was a situation where the mere failure of switching vessels ended up proving the actual existence of this planet's core. In any case, Kim Giryeo—once left behind with nothing but his soul—had definitely received this information back then. It was a sensation difficult to describe properly, but one thing was certain: this land, too, had its ego buried deep underground.
"What's more, compared to Earth, Alphaut was practically like a more practicing silence. That's the only way to put it—the mana of this world has an existence that's far too distinct."
True to its magical nature, once he became fully aware of it in a way he had never imagined, he was thereafter able to sense its presence continuously.
That was why he had gone ahead and hunted the [Sadists] without any separate verification.
"Hm."
Tuk.
The blonde-haired man suddenly stopped moving. For a moment, his expression shifted subtly, revealing something difficult to read, but before finally spoke.
"But as for this so-called planetary core—any mage above a certain level should be able to perceive it. So I can't say I know the exact conditions for distinguishing a 'guardian' within it."
Kim Giryeo added a few more explanations after finishing his sentence.
"There weren't enough cases for me to grasp something as specific as the other party's preferences."
Even for someone like him—once overflowing with talent—it wasn't until he had extended his lifespan through techniques and continued his studies in magical science that he barely began to grasp the meaning of the core. But there was no way that a mage of such an extraordinary caliber could be born with every single generation.
"So the fact that I was able to borrow power once again on this planet was, in the end, also a matter of fate and the flow of fortune..."
Fortune. To think that things had been so difficult he had to rely on something as fickle as what people called luck.
So Kim Giryeo already knew how to use magic without limits even before coming to Earth. Then... why did he have to suffer so much in his previous life?"
Discovering the principle behind a phenomenon did not wipe away a person's curiosity entirely.
"With that overwhelming power he showed a few days ago, wouldn't he have been able to overcome any obstacle?"
It was at that moment that Seonwoo Yeon arrived at a certain thought. The one sitting on the hospital bed began to resolve the Earthling's questions of his own accord.
"By the way."
"Hm?"
"Unfortunately, even the precious aid I gained from this planet turns out to be useless at crucial moments."
"Really? To a complete layperson like me, it just feels so incredible it's almost unbelievable..."
Seonwoo Yeon interjected, but Kim Giryeo calmly countered.
"Of course, the sheer power of the magic does turn out to be quite extraordinary, just as you said. But this phenomenon doesn't actually improve the caster's own skill."
"Is that such a problem?"
"It becomes a serious problem when you're facing something like Alphaut mages, whose mana reserves are already monstrous."
"Why is that?"
"No matter how recklessly you borrow energy, a proper mage will eventually develop countermeasures to match it..."
"Aha."
"And if the guardian happens to be affected by something like a curse, then it's even more of a dead end. The entity beneath the ground doesn't act on its own will, after all."
At that moment, Kim Giryeo lightly spread his arms.
"Of course, one also can't overlook the fact that the moment you draw the attention of a celestial body, you end up hospitalized."
It was a simple motion, the stiffness peculiar to someone injured showed through in every small movement he made.
"In short, it does nothing more than artificially inflate your magic reserves—and in exchange, you're left weakened for several days."
"It wasn't just a matter of being weakened—you were originally supposed to be in the intensive care unit..."
"The method of drawing mana directly from the planet is, in truth, a double-edged sword. Unless you are absolutely certain that a single instance of its attention will 'wipe out all enemies,' it should never be used in principle."
Kim Giryeo, who had been dragging out his words as if complaining, suddenly finished his sambagan eyes.
"But this natural phenomenon, which is usually all but useless, has shown an extraordinary exception—under exactly one kind of circumstance..."
The man with heavy eyelids raised his voice at that point.
"An invasion by an alien species."
Kim Giryeo spoke with an expression even more triumphant than usual.
"The power driven by a planet's inner core is ten times—no, a hundred times more effective when it's used to strike down those who are not native to that planet."
"A hundred times?"
"Yes."
"No. What then, what you're saying is—"
"I think all of your guesses are correct, Seonwoo Yeon-ssi. I suppose it's time I admitted it. Being like me—extraterrestrial lifeforms—have a fatal weakness: if we ever come face to face with the wrong planetary guardian, we're slaughtered on the spot."
Slaughtered? Why on earth was he saying something so horrifying with such a pleased expression?
"E—excuse me?"
Normally, speaking to the land was something people only attempted in a panic—when their internal mana had been completely drained and they were desperately grasping for anything to survive. But in truth, there was a crucial immune response hidden within that act.
Experiments conducted on the issue of the extinct Beta species showed that, at the very least, beings born on a planet's satellite did not seem to be affected by this kind of celestial toxicity. The real problem lay only with pure aliens—those who had grown up under a completely different star.
"But don't worry too much about that."
"With things being like that, how could I not worry—"
"That only applies when I'm moving around in my original body. If I've completely possessed a native's body—like a ghost in a horror movie—it's actually quite safe."
"Was it really necessary to describe it as a ghost right now?"
Still, it seemed that the alien present here did, in his own way, have reason to feel reassured.
"No matter how much a guardian begins to manipulate external mana, a mage born and raised on that planet can always resist natural phenomena—depending on their skill."
"- -"
"And this system still applies even if you're only borrowing the body of a native mage."
Aliens, by nature, were completely swept away by the power of the core, without the slightest resistance.
"Hmm."
But, in this case, the species known as the Gsimche—could be considered the very archetype of an uninvited visitor.
"Come to think of it, the first time this body became aware of the planetary core was around the same time I had just encountered a Gsimche in its [Descend] form."
Those mind-consuming insects had actually gone through this kind of situation on the Alphaut planet, in the early stages, when they revealed their true forms through [Descend], they toyed with the native mages as if they were mere children.
But the moment someone whose name consisted of only two characters appeared, most of the Gsimche were horrified and destroyed. In truth, the Gsimche hadn't been destroyed by exposure to the planet's phenomena; they had perished solely because they came up against an overwhelmingly superior intelligence.
"But the reason I drew on the planet's magic back then was simply because I had used up all my own and I figured I might as well test existing theories..."
Yet, the third method he tried—just in case—obliterated the external threats in mere seconds. And since this amounted to discovering a weakness, there was no reason not to investigate further.
A certain mage had once exterminated the Gsimche more easily, thanks to the unique properties of their home planet. And it was precisely because of these past experiences that he could maintain a consistent perspective even now.
"But in any case, it's a good thing that such a function exists in the world."
Even here, he still didn't know why the core held that kind of will.
"Most mages went through life completely unaware of this precious fact, but in truth, the world has always been rooting for us, hasn't it?"
It was a rare moment of sentimentality for him. Kim Giryeo paused briefly and studied the figure before him. At that moment, Seonwoo Yeon's visibly frozen expression came into the alien's view.
"Seonwoo Yeon-ssi, by the way... sorry, but why does your expression look like that?"
A few sentences followed in quick succession.
"That's—"
"Yes."
"You said there's something transcendent beneath the ground I'm standing on. Honestly, it made a little scared..."
"What did you say?"
"Sure, we can say the planet is friendly to us, but couldn't that change suddenly someday?"
From the perspective of the universe, even the so-called masters of all living things are mere trivialities—so such worries were perfectly understandable. Yet upon hearing Seonwoo Yeon's words, the archmage was suddenly startled.
"No, think about it. That's not going to happen."
The topic in question could only be observed once the planet was split in two, so either way it was just theoretical—but Kim Giryeo spoke with an unusual emphasis.
"They stayed completely quiet even when the Alphaut drained their resources, and even when you Earthlings tried to commit mutual suicide through environmental pollution."
That definitely made sense. They had long since gone through extreme situations, so was there really any need to worry about a being that, at the very least, seemed to possess more patience than humans?
"Ah... yes, I suppose that's true..."
Seonwoo Yeon faltered, bewildered in the face of an unfamiliar cosmic terror. Meanwhile, as the black-haired human tried to sort out his complicated thoughts, the alien who had caused this anxiety quietly rolled its eyes.
"Where on earth has that Earthling been hearing all of this?"
For a moment, what came to Kim Giryeo's mind was a slight sense of annoyance—or perhaps curiosity.
"The source of magic always seems to favor native mages to a degree even I can't fully understand... and yet, someone could actually be afraid of this?"
For a mage of his age to be unable to comprehend his counterpart, the reason was really a matter of experience. Seeing once is better than hearing a hundred times.
And to add further explanation in line with this old saying, Esther—who had been present at the scene—already knew, without being told, that the so-called source was favorable. The day he arms poured out of the gate. Esther had confirmed this through the kind of intuition possessed by psychics.
"What is this..."
From the thin, unimpressive ground she would normally never have paid any attention to.
Moreover, the scene where immense magic surged from that soil and pile of rocks—designated as a restricted development zone and practically worthless—was striking. What's more, the magic flowing from the ground at that moment blatantly enveloped a nearby awakened being, clearly taking its side. Having experienced the full range of that will on Eflow, Esther was in a position to immediately understand the following.
"You really don't need to be afraid of it."
Whether it was because she had observed life and death together for so long, or simply some kind of attachment had formed, she spoke with calm certainty. After all, the source would lend its power to outsiders, just to protect a single mammalian species.
"Hm."
At this point, Kim Giryeo Seonwoo Yeon would find this story frightening too?"
In fact, he had already noticed this fact back when he tried to transfer his body at some abandoned factory.
"If I just explain what happened back then, it will immediately illustrate the kind of will that Earth's magic mass possesses."
This blue celestial body reacts by instantly trying to eliminate any alien soul it detects.
"If Alphaut was laissez-faire, Earth felt like a hyper-protective guardian..."
For reference, nothing like this ever occurred on the archmage's former home planet. The will of the Alphaut core was simply limited to not assisting wars between members of its own species. And if such a defense system against external beings had really existed, the Gsimche, often even without physical bodies, wouldn't have been able to land anywhere in the first place.
"At that abandoned factory, we really almost ended up on the path to oblivion."
He still didn't know exactly how the phenomenon that automatically alien souls would act on a living intruder. But the archmage interpreted, in his own way, why he had never consistently sensed the gaze of the Gsimche, and nodded to himself.
"The source of Earth... clearly values human mages after all."
Honestly, from his perspective, no other conclusion made sense.
"Above all, the attacks stopped immediately after I returned to Kim Giryeo's body. After all, how many people in the world would dare to shoot a kidnapper holding their own child hostage?"
Still, Seonwoo Yeon looked at us confused even as time passed. Kim Giryeo didn't add anything further and decided to end the conversation here.
"Don't be too afraid of that."
It seemed that the revelation of the source had left the Earthling feeling a little uneasy. But really—what did that matter now?
"Again, mana is always on the side of the mage."
The archmage focused his attention on only one thing. After all, the system that had driven the mind-consuming worms to destruction was still very much intact in this world.