Chapter 303 – Land of Disaster (Two)

Following the scenery that whizzed by, I reached the northwestern outskirts of the city.

In the distance, two vans were moving away into the wilderness. With a swift motion, Ray pulled off the tarp covering a large object nearby.

Whoosh!

What was revealed was a heavily armored jeep, modified for crossing the wilderness.

It was one of the vehicles Ray had hidden around the outskirts of the sector for pursuit.

Vroooom—!

He quickly boarded, started the engine, and floored the accelerator.

The jeep, which gained speed instantly, tore through the wind with a roar.

‘Two enemy vans.’

The unique wavelength of Bloodstones was detectable from both vehicles, which were gradually diverging in direction.

A diversion tactic, perhaps.

He couldn’t chase both.

Making a quick decision, Ray sharply turned the steering wheel and began pursuing the van to the right.

Screech! Screeeech!

He narrowly dodged all the Fireballs that were ceaselessly generated and flew at him from around the van.

Large craters formed in the earth were reflected in the rearview mirror.

After a furious chase, the distance to the van was now only a few meters.

‘So far, 32 children have gone missing in the city.’

Since no special Mana other than Bloodstones was detected from the van, it was presumed they were all confined in a place like a subspace.

At least, they weren’t on board the van right in front of him.

Meaning he could attack without worrying about hurting anyone.

In an instant, Ray overtook the van, used Telekinesis to lock the steering wheel and accelerator, and then launched his body out through the open roof.

Whoooosh—!

The wind brushing past his body like a wave.

The heat of Fireballs licking his skin.

And then.

Crash!

The next moment, he landed on top of the van.

Quickly regaining his balance, he tore off the roof above the driver’s seat with a Metallization-clad hand.

Crunch! Crumple!

A man was gripping the steering wheel.

A bowler hat, mask, coat, and a large build.

‘A Golem.’

Was the Doctor on board the other vehicle?

Or perhaps the driver over there was also a Golem, and the Doctor hadn’t stepped forward this time either.

Along with his speculation, Ray confirmed there were no other noteworthy passengers or objects inside the van besides the Golem.

Creak!

At that moment, the Golem turned its head at an uncanny angle to look at Ray on the roof.

Its face, revealed as the mask flew away in the wind, had its mouth wide open.

Inside, a vortex of red Mana was spinning violently.

Boom!

The Golem’s face was blown clean off by the shockwave Ray fired.

But that wasn’t the end.

He could feel a massive expansion of Mana from within the Golem’s body.

‘Explosion.’

The moment he recognized it, he kicked off and launched his body outside the roof.

In the brief moment his body hung in mid-air, many things came into Ray’s view.

The van speeding ahead.

The flames expanding in a circle centered on the Golem, and the jeep caught up and exploding with it.

And the flames that didn’t stop there, growing and coming towards him.

As Ray was about to cast a Ward, he sensed something rapidly approaching from behind him.

Changing his decision, he wrapped wind around the soles of his walkers, kicked against the air to push off, and created distance from the pursuing flames.

Whoosh!

He passed through a Ward flowing with White Mana that touched him from the back, and landed on the roof of some vehicle after a breakfall.

Lifting his head, he could see the pursuing flames failing to penetrate the Ward and dissipating.

A voice came from beside him.

“Are you okay?”

“I’m fine, Veronica. You arrived just in time.”

After receiving Healing Magic on his singed skin, Ray looked around.

His current location was on the roof of a bus, which was running while enveloped in a massive hemispherical Ward.

“Where’s Philip?”

“He’s driving right now, of course!”

Ray nodded.

Philip and Veronica, who had been patrolling the city outskirts by bus, had sensed the Mana vibrations and rushed over.

“Veronica, are you really sure about this? Chasing the Doctor will be incredibly dangerous.”

“Pff, when has it ever not been dangerous? Don’t worry. Philip and I came because we wanted to.”

Ray’s original plan to chase the Doctor alone had been changed due to the two of them showing no signs of backing down.

He was grateful, and he thought the probability they’d be a huge help was very high.

The Doctor’s kidnapping of the children had led him to speculate that pure emotion might be involved in passing through the Land of Disaster.

And Veronica and Philip were friends who possessed the purest emotions of anyone he’d met so far.

Ray descended from the roof with Veronica and headed towards Philip in the driver’s seat.

“Philip, this one was a decoy. We need to chase the other one.”

“I know, I saw where it went. Hold on tight. I don’t plan on hitting the brakes or anything from now on.”

With an engine roar loud enough to make ears ring, the bus sped across the wilderness.

Under the pale sky, the tire tracks of another van could be found.

“Ray, there’s still some distance. That one’s speed isn’t to be underestimated either.”

“It’s fine. Even if the enemy’s van is modified, it’s a model with limits compared to ours. There’s distance to the Land of Disaster, so we can catch up sufficiently before then.”

While Philip and Ray conversed looking through the windshield.

Veronica, looking at the items prepared in one corner of the bus, spoke.

“Fairy tales, toys, cassette tapes… We brought them because Lady Curie prepared them, but will things like these really help in passing through the Land of Disaster?”

Ray approached her side.

He answered while putting items disturbed by the bus’s speed back in their place.

“According to Rael, Fairies are the only race that didn’t participate in the war. He also said they maintained the purest emotions.”

A tense and heavy atmosphere.

Veronica wiggled her fingers, thinking she might play a little prank to lighten the mood.

“And he said they played so many pranks on other races that it was often troublesome.”

“Ah.”

Veronica’s finger, which was about to poke Ray’s nape, quickly withdrew.

“Pure emotion. Items mainly used by children. I don’t know the exact method, but they’ll definitely help. The Doctor prepared the same items too.”

“Hmm, right, right.”

It was then that a shout came from the driver’s seat.

“There! I see the enemy!”

Beyond the windshield, at the edge of the horizon, the rear end of a van was coming into view.

The bus broke through the dust trail left by the van’s path and rapidly closed the distance.

Ray and Veronica went up to the roof and were met with a fireball tens of meters in diameter, generated and ready to fly from atop the van.

‘Looks like they don’t plan to go down easily.’

An impossible size to counter or deflect. There was no need to worry.

Because on their side, they had a 4th Circle Wizard extremely specialized in defensive magic.

“Veronica, can you block it?”

“Yeah! Not in this lifetime, but maybe the next!”

Kwaaaaang—!

Along with the confident reply, the Ward exploded.

The momentarily destroyed Ward was immediately restored, but hundreds of Bloodstones that had slipped through the brief gap scattered through the hazy smoke and flew in.

Whoosh!

The red aura emanating from them.

Homunculi generated in an instant.

Most simply fell to the ground and were pushed behind the scenery, but given their sheer numbers, close to a hundred of them succeeded in clinging to the bus.

A fierce battle unfolded on the clattering roof as the stage, and the boy and girl danced clad in elemental attire.

Fire, ice, and Lightning swirled.

Winds that cut, repelled, and pushed swept across the battlefield.

The enemy’s numbers were many, but the duo’s coordination was as seamless as one body, and there was no problem in conducting the fight.

The fact that the Homunculi’s movements and magic were less refined than before also played a part.

‘The Doctor is clearly losing strength.’

A positive sign that the enemy was being cornered.

After looking around once, Ray spoke to Veronica behind him.

“Can you hold out alone here?”

“I’m fine here!”

Ray immediately launched his body and landed on the roof of the van, which had now closed the distance and was running side-by-side.

Perhaps because he was focused on controlling the Homunculi.

Inside the vehicle, the driver’s seat area was just quiet, showing no reaction.

‘Is this one a Golem too?’

Just as he reached out to tear off the roof.

Guoooooo—!

The surrounding space began to ripple like an angry wave.

It seemed he was trying to move the van itself via spatial leap.

—You think I’ll just take this lying down?! I won’t fall, you bastard!

Turning his head, he could see a Homunculus clinging to the bus’s windshield.

It was a crisis where the glass could shatter at any moment, putting Philip in danger.

A moment of choice.

The deliberation lasted less than a second.

Tap!

Kicking off, Ray returned to the bus and immediately incinerated the Homunculus on the windshield with Lightning, making it fall off.

Meanwhile, the van was sucked into a Spatial Rift and disappeared from its spot without a trace.

The battle that ensued over the next few minutes concluded, and the party got off the temporarily stopped bus to catch their breath.

“Uh… Did you miss the chance to catch the Doctor because you were helping me?”

“We’ll just chase him. The destination is fixed anyway. And it’s not even certain if the one riding was the real Doctor or a Golem.”

Ray shook his head at Philip’s restless appearance and spoke.

The bus, having finished maintenance, began running again, and the interrupted van’s tire tracks reappeared after no small amount of time.

However, the distance wasn’t easily closed, and the party spotted the van only after a long chase, past noon.

“Good grief, what in the world is this…?”

“I, I’ve never seen a place like this in my life.”

What surprised Philip and Veronica wasn’t the van sitting idle in the wilderness.

It was the indescribable array of massive natural phenomena raging before it.

Whoosh.

A firestorm rotating while emitting tremendous heat.

Kwarung—!

A mass of dark clouds drifting across the sky, striking down with violet lightning.

Whoooosh—

A blizzard raging, scattering freezing cold that could freeze one’s breath.

Besides these, phenomena whose nature couldn’t even be guessed at were moving about everywhere, intertwined like paints splattered across a single canvas.

Philip muttered in a dazed voice.

“Uh… Just being near here feels like my lifespan is being chunked away. And it’s not a narrow range, it’s a completely massive barrier level. How on earth do you cross a place like this?”

“There must be a way. The Doctor seems to have already gone inside.”

Ray said while checking the empty interior of the van.

Judging by the pressed marks on the driver’s and passenger’s seats, there were two occupants.

The luggage that had been in the back seats also seemed to have all been unloaded.

Thud.

He stood before the Land of Disaster.

A scene where an immeasurably vast amount of Mana was raging.

Yet, far from feeling confused, he instead felt a sense of calm.

‘I think I understand.’

The colorful Mana constituting the Disaster raged wildly, yet maintained its purity without mixing with each other.

And the screams of Mana that would ordinarily occur in such a supersaturated zone weren’t heard.

The sound the Mana was making as it collided now was, rather than screams.

‘Closer to laughter.’

And not the laughter of adults, but the innocent laughter of young children.

After briefly watching the flames before him, Ray reached his hand out towards them.

“What are you doing now…!”

“Ra, Ray, wait a moment!”

Philip and Veronica, who were about to rush over, stopped dead in their tracks.

Because the flames hadn’t burned Ray at all.

With a movement as if searching its target, it merely spread across his body without causing any harm.

It was then.

—Who are you?

That a voice came from the flames.