New chapter of Nameless Hero is out! (2/3 chapters)
Awakening of Anti-Mana
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I wonder how long I was like that. I was writhing in pain for who knows how long it would last, rampaging around and destroying the walls around me. I banged my head against them again and again, slamming into them, somehow managing to hold back my sanity.
— A sound came from the right side as something broke with a loud crack.
As I continued this act of destruction, I heard a sound like something had been crushed from my right wrist. That sound snapped me back to the present, bringing me to my senses.
“…” (Jack)
It was the first gift I had ever received from someone important to me. My first symbol of living. It was the sound of that being destroyed. It was an old, outdated item, but I had planned to cherish it for the rest of my life. It was the thing that had given me both life and resolve.
— A follow-up crack sound echoed. It distorted further, changing shape, and then dug into my numb right arm.
Even though my mana still showed zero, the change in other readings had given me some courage. But now that was broken too. The proof of courage that Lindsey had given me.
The Managram that had been on my right hand was deformed. The display glass hadn’t shattered but had distorted into an oval shape and embedded itself into my right wrist and forearm. Wave-like cracks spread across it in multiple layers. Furthermore, the belt had torn, hanging limply, and the clasp that had fixed it had grown massive, merging with my right wrist.
My right arm had become deformed. From the wave-like cracks, countless particles of light were constantly being emitted from my right arm like tiny glowing fragments.
“Haa… haa…” (Jack)
It was shocking.
The first gift is always special. Even if I buy the same thing again, it would be something different. That old-style Managram might already be off the market, and now it is gone.
As if deriving from the fused machine, dark red lines like tattoos appeared on the back of my right hand, the entire length of my forearm and upper arm, and even on my shoulder, tracing the veins of my blood vessels. I couldn’t confirm it, but there might be lines running down the right side of my neck and face as well.
“Ku… uu… why…” (Jack)
Finally, I calmed down enough to speak. Looking around, the wall that had been filled with a holy atmosphere was now in ruins. It had been shattered and the emblem had cracks in it. Underneath, the goddess Kea was collapsed.
“Are… you okay?!” (Jack)
Maybe I had knocked her over while I was thrashing around. I rushed to her and touched her small body. If she weren’t called a Goddess, she would just look like a regular girl.
“Is it really Kea…?” (Jack)
Turning her body over, I saw places I shouldn’t look at. Even though she was a Goddess, it felt wrong to leave her like this. I covered her with the robe she had been wearing as an outer garment.
“Ah…” (Kea)
And immediately, Kea woke up. She had the face of a normal girl just waking up. Her eye color, which had been a swirling red-black, had changed to a rainbow-colored hue. That rainbow shine resembled the color of the magic stone I often saw.
“Ah…” (Kea)
“Huh?” (Jack)
“Ah…” (Kea)
Contrary to my first impression, she seemed to be unusually quiet.
“Are you okay?” (Jack)
“Yeah…” (Kea)
Good. The fact that she could respond meant she wasn’t losing her mind.
“What’s up with this right arm?” (Jack)
“Ah…” (Kea)
No, she’s definitely acting strange. Just a moment ago, she was talking fluently, using words I couldn’t understand.
“Ugh…” (Jack)
Kea made a troubled face. I felt troubled too.
“You’re Kea, right?” (Jack)
“Yeah…” (Kea)
“You can’t speak?” (Jack)
“No…” (Kea)
“Well, try saying something.” (Jack)
“Magic…” (Kea)
“Anything else?” (Jack)
“Gala…” (Kea)
She could only say single words! This isn’t a conversation.
“Do you know who I am?” (Jack)
“Third…” (Kea)
“Huh?” (Jack)
“Junior-san…” (Kea)
Why does she know that name…? Well, she’s a Goddess, so it would be pointless to start questioning things. I just have to assume that something happened, and Kea’s personality changed for some reason.
“Junior-san… escape…” (Kea)
“Escape?” (Jack)
“Yeah…” (Kea)
Right. This must be the deeper levels of the Gala Ruins.
Everyone from Liberta must be worried. If I showed up with all these tattoos, with a naked child wearing only a robe, there would probably be a lot of things to criticize, but I don’t care about that.
“But still…” (Jack)
I looked up. The wall stretched endlessly upwards. It was dark, and the top couldn’t be seen, but I must have been in a very deep layer from where I was just moments ago.
“This might be a dead end…” (Jack)
As I was feeling despair, Kea placed her hand on my right arm.
“Magic power…” (Kea)
“Magic?” (Jack)
Come to think of it, the reason I was in this state was because she said she was going to unlock some power or something. Does that mean I can use magic now? But I don’t know how to use it, and flying through the air is probably impossible.
“I don’t know what to do…” (Jack)
“Ah…” (Kea)
“Can’t we do something about this?” (Jack)
Kea gently rubbed my right arm.
“Put power into it…” (Kea)
“Power?” (Jack)
I squeezed my fist tightly as she told me. Then, the amount of light particles flowing from my right wrist suddenly increased.
“Is this the source of power?” (Jack)
“Yeah… more…” (Kea)
More?
Encouraged by her, I concentrated more force into my right arm. In that instant, the machine that used to be the Managram burst forth with a massive amount of light particles.
“Whoa!” (Jack)
The light pushed me forward, and my body was dragged along as my fist shot out toward the wall. Even though I had just punched it with my bare hand, a large dent appeared in the wall.
Yet my hand had no damage.
“If I use this upwards, I can ascend quickly…” (Jack)
But just as I was feeling impressed, I heard the sound of rocks collapsing from high above.
“It’s coming…” (Kea)
“Huh?!” (Jack)
As I looked up, large rocks were rapidly falling toward me, likely from the destruction caused by my punch earlier.
Is the structure that weak?!
More rocks were falling one after another from above.
“Junior-san, help!” (Kea)
“Wait, wait a minute!” (Jack)
Kea had said to do this, and now this is happening. How irresponsible! But there’s no time to argue.
“Ahh! Fine!” (Jack)
I held Kea under my arm and aimed my clenched fist upwards. Then, I shot it, only to see a massive rock approaching.
Damn it! I don’t have time to care. I’ll smash through it!
I focused my strength, and the deformed Managram scattered light and made a high-pitched noise. It sounded like exhaust being released. Maybe I had put too much power into it, because strange sounds were now coming from the exhaust holes. The particles of light shot out like a jet stream.
Then, I smashed my right arm into the rock, and with a huge noise, it split in two. I swiftly took Kea under my other arm and shot upwards. The speed of ascent was incredible. The pressure was so intense I couldn’t keep my eyes open properly.
However, even while ascending, rocks continued to fall from above. I squinted my eyes, scanning for the approaching targets. It no longer seemed like rocks were falling, but rather, it felt like the very ground was closing in on us, ready to crush us. I kept punching with my right fist, smashing through one rock after another, kicking walls as I climbed higher and higher.
“It’s endless!” (Jack)
The larger rocks might be impossible to break with just my fists.
“Junior-san, the sword! The sword!” (Kea)
Kea was shouting something with her eyes shut.
A sword? But I don’t have anything like that. The short sword I had carried during the Gala Ruins infiltration, I had given it to Alfred before I fell into the hole.
“Imagine! The sword!” (Kea)
Imagine? Could something like that just create a sword out of nowhere?! Can I really make something like that happen?
I let my guard down for a moment. And in that moment, the earth came rushing at us once again.
No, I’ll just have to keep punching!
At that moment, the lines on the back of my right hand began to glow a dark red. As if sinking into the ground, both Kea and I were pulled downward, with my right fist guiding us deeper. I wouldn’t be able to move like this. But the dark red lines on my hand grew brighter, and from the crumbling rock surface, a rough sword materialized.
“What is this?!” (Jack)
“Sword! Use it!” (Kea)
“Ah, I don’t have time to think!” (Jack)
I grasped the rough sword that had been generated from the rock and pulled it free. The hilt was terrible, but the blade was sharp and formed like a short sword made of earth. The blade seemed to pulse in time with the lines on my right arm.
What the hell is this? This sword is giving off a demonic aura. But there is no time for doubt.
With the cursed sword in hand, I recklessly swung it at the earth. To my surprise, it cut through with incredible sharpness, cleaving a giant boulder cleanly with just a single strike. I swung it several more times, and the boulders in front of me shattered into tiny pieces and fell deep into the underground.
Once the sword had fulfilled its purpose, it began to crumble, as though it had always been part of the earth, falling apart into sand-like fragments from the blade and vanishing into the depths below. It was almost like alchemy. Using the booster continuously shooting from my right wrist and the makeshift sword that materialized for me, I ascended higher and higher.
“Chijo!” (Kea)
“Huh?! Chijo?!” (Jack)
“Chijoooo!” (Kea)
Kea was shouting something.
The surface… are we close to it?
I looked up, and the ceiling was fast approaching. If it was the ground, I could probably break through it with a punch.
“Kea, let’s go!” (Jack)
“Yeah!” (Kea)
With a final punch, the hole to the surface was exposed wide, and sunlight flooded in, bathing my body. In an instant, we soared upward. The sunlight was painfully bright.
“Uwah…” (Jack)
A voice of amazement and surprise escaped me as I gazed at the view from above for the first time.
“Relax.” (Kea)
Kea warned me as she looked up at me. Following her instructions, I released the tension, and the booster lost its power, and my body started to fall freely.
“Junior-san!” (Kea)
“I got it!” (Jack)
This was the third time I’d fallen since coming to the Gala Ruins. No matter how many times I experienced this, the sensation of floating in mid-air was terrifying. But now, I had a way to slow my descent. I raised my fists upward and bent my elbows, adjusting the booster’s output downward, gradually negating the momentum of my fall. And then, I landed on the ground in a graceful landing… but instead, I collapsed in an unceremonious heap.
I fell with Kea in my arms, protecting her with my body, landing on my back.
“Hah… hah… did we make it back?” (Jack)
“Yeah.” (Kea)
“We did it!” (Jack)
It was all thanks to my right arm. But now, under the sunlight, I could clearly see just how deformed my right arm had become. The Managram, which had become a skeletal mess from the deformation and distortion, had fused with my right wrist. …I didn’t feel any particular pain. Moreover, from there, red-black lines like tattoos wrapped all the way up to my shoulder and neck.
Now that I think about it, the people from Liberta are still probably in the dungeon, right? I thought we’d just return to the second or first floor of the dungeon, but we ended up bursting through to the surface.
“Wh-where is everyone?!” (Jack)
I looked around for the Gala Ruins altar. It was a familiar sight. Scattered around the ruins were crumbling stone buildings. But as I observed, the scene had changed slightly since I last saw it. The stone altar that should have been there was gone, replaced by a large mound of earth.
It looked as if it had been disturbed.
“Why…?! With this, no one can get out!” (Jack)
I hurried toward the entrance, where the earth had piled up into a hill. There, I saw a signboard standing.
“Entry into the dungeon prohibited due to the collapse of the Gala Altar.”
That’s what it says. What does this mean? Did the collapse I caused in the lower levels earlier do this?
Even so, it was too fast to put up the sign, and the board looked weathered, as though it had been out in the rain and wind for a long time. If that’s the case, it almost seems like this sign had been here before Liberta’s party entered the dungeon.
“Why?! Why?!” (Jack)
I grabbed the sign with my distorted right hand and a child’s left hand and yelled in a confused voice. Every time I exerted force, the booster from my right arm would fire stronger. The red-black lines on my arm reacted, glowing more intensely.
— Screeeech….
The dark red glow transformed the signboard into a simple wooden sword.
“…!” (Jack)
The wooden sword had dark red lines on it, just like my right arm, and they were slowly blinking.
“Something like this…!” (Jack)
What happened to everyone? After I fell, did they somehow manage to follow me down? Or did they turn back? Either way, with the state of this altar, it’s possible that they’re still inside.
As I was lost in thought, Kea approached me from behind.
“…Junior-san” (Kea)
“Kea, explain what’s going on!” (Jack)
Kea stayed silent, not answering. That only made my anxiety grow.
“I have to go help them!” (Jack)
“…No.” (Kea)
“I’m going!” (Jack)
“They’re our friends, after all!”
I punched the raised earth with my right arm. The fist shot out with tremendous force, creating a large crater. I continued digging with my right arm, but no matter how much I dug, the ground simply compacted itself, and no hole appeared.
“Dammit!!” (Jack)
I accidentally activated the booster. Relentlessly, I was dragged by my right arm, sliding clumsily.
“…Ugh!” (Jack)
The sudden surge of power was hard to control. Seeing this, Kea came closer to me. Then, I felt something change in Kea’s presence. She stood up, brushing the dirt from her clothes and face.
“You’ve been inside for about half a year.” (Kea)
I turned around in shock at her calm voice. What I saw was the Kea I first met. Her eyes were no longer rainbow-colored but swirled with red-black hues. The flow of events she revealed was so surreal that I couldn’t process it that I didn’t feel anything.
“Half a year?” (Jack)
“In order to enhance the compatibility with mana of a special origin, it was necessary to change your physical composition.” (Kea)
“…” (Jack)
“Your right half was completed in four months. At that time, you regained consciousness, and for two months, you rampaged.” (Kea)
“What the hell?” (Jack)
“Your right arm was completed in about four months, and for two months, you rampaged.” (Kea)
That’s not what I wanted to hear. Half a year… Did she just say half a year? That single instant… was that really half a year? What have the people of Liberta been doing during that time? I fell into the hole, and half a year passed. Anyone else would have been dead by now. I have to let them know I’m safe, quickly.
“My body is fragile, and I couldn’t suppress your rampaging.” (Kea)
“I see. So, that’s why you collapsed.” (Jack)
“But with that right arm, it’s enough. Use that power—” (Kea)
Kea had started to say something, but I didn’t care about that and interrupted her.
“I’m going back to Liberta.” (Jack)
“Wait.” (Kea)
“No! I have to see everyone. Even if they’re mad at me for being gone for half a year, they’re definitely worried about me.” (Jack)
“…Before that, we need to seal that right arm of yours.” (Kea)
“Seal? You’re the one who brought it out, and now you’re talking about sealing it?” (Jack)
Kea looked straight at me and answered my question with calm eyes.
“You still can’t fully control that arm. Until you get used to its power, it needs to be temporarily sealed, only to be released when necessary.” (Kea)
“Necessary?” (Jack)
“That’s your role in this world. Now, come this way.” (Kea)
With those words, Kea turned on her heel and began walking swiftly.
“Hey! Wait!” (Jack)
I was frustrated with her selfish demands, so I chased after her and grabbed her shoulder roughly.
“Ah!” (Kea)
“…” (Jack)
Kea’s eyes had already changed back to the rainbow color. The closed eyes were a clear sign she was no longer the Goddess she had been before.
“…Come on, Junior-san.” (Kea)
Once again, Kea began walking. I had no choice but to follow. Once we sealed this right arm, I’d go back to everyone. If my arm keeps going out of control, it’ll be an inconvenience when I finally meet them.
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