Badge in Azure

Chapter 145: The World is a Cheese (Part 2)

Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio

The attack lasted for more than half an hour before the magic beasts along the river bank went away. Saleen felt that he had been too nervous. He was able to manipulate the water shield into going down even deeper, and yet he had chosen to wait patiently here.

Floating up, they made sure the coast was clear and that there was no danger waiting to ambush them before they climbed ashore.

Lex released a Cleaning spell to clear the puke off of her and Saleen’s bodies before feeling slightly better.

“Saleen!”

“Yes?”

“Do not breathe a word about today.” Lex rarely spoke this harshly to Saleen.

“If we can get out of here, I promise I won’t.” Saleen’s words were depressing. Get out? She did not even know where they were. Like Saleen, her brain was filled with an enormous amount of information, but it had not been completely internalized and when she needed it, it did not instantly come to her.

However, Lex knew that not even a god could create a perfect world inside of a pillar.

Saleen crouched down and grabbed a handful of dirt. There was enough moisture inside of it that he could use his icy sight to analyze it carefully. Even though he could not see beyond this world, Saleen knew that within this dirt, the six types of elements were coexisting.

Lex crouched down as well and plucked a small piece of grass. Removing a hairpin from her head, she used its sharp end to cut lines within the blade of grass.

The veins within the grass could be seen clearly. It was real.

The skies began to turn dark. Saleen pointed towards the horizon and said, “Lex, look.”

The mountain rage in the distance had white clouds swirling above it and the greenery there was lush. Having stayed in god’s hell for so long, this felt like the heaven described by disciples of faith. At the peak of the mountain, the sun was slowly setting, and its golden-red light spread out and gleamed on the water’s surface. Along the river bank, a white fish leapt up and splashed back into the water. The wind blew, bringing with it some vapor and a hint of coolness.

If this was an illusion, it was too real.

“I have no idea where this place is.” Lex shrugged her shoulders slightly, feeling helpless for the first time. If this was an illusion, even if she took the risk of completely destroying her god’s ring, they would not be able to leave this place.

“Let’s think carefully. You can set some magic arrays so that we won’t be ambushed by any magic beasts.” Saleen knew that waiting was fruitless, and he had too much information in his head. He needed to look through it carefully, and perhaps they might find a lead.

“Yes, go think.” Lex took out two metal discs from the god’s ring and set up a space of darkness. She took out the war puppets again to patrol their surroundings. Once everything was set up, she began to rummage through her memories for anything related to realistic fantasies.

The air seemed to grow quiet, and only the sound of river flowing could be heard. Saleen searched through his memories carefully, not only for knowledge on illusions but for anything related to magic spaces.

Only when he began to feel hungry did he stop. Saleen opened both his eyes and saw that Lex had already released an Illumination spell. Between the two of them was an oil cloth with black bread and smoked meat on it.

“What have you found?” Saleen asked Lex, taking a cup and creating some restorative water as he did so.

“A little, but not enough. You?”

“Me too.”

“Tell me.”

“In my memories, there aren’t many things related to illusions. Most of my knowledge comes from magic notes that are more than a thousand years old, but I have found a sentence that seems to be related to our current predicament.”

Lex began to butter Saleen’s black bread while she listened. She was a little surprised. The mages in Alchemy City were certainly wealthy to own magic notes from more than a thousand years ago.

“In one of the magic books, there is a description of the world. The mage says the world is a cheese.”

Lex perked up. Saleen was definitely smarter than he looked. She had not considered it from this perspective. However, the things she had thought of were definitely related to this seemingly ordinary sentence.

The world is a cheese. This sentence had been said by a legendary sorcerer. This sorcerer had been famous throughout the lands a thousand years ago. Back then, the Holy See had just begun to rise, and the holy knights had swept over nearly half the Mainland and only faced defeat at Holy Rock City. However, the conflict between mages and the Holy See had not started then. Even before that, a legendary sorcerer by the name of Raphael had been going against the Holy See. Among the students he’d had, more than twelve of them were sorcerers, and on the Myers Mainland, these sorcerers foiled the attacks of the Holy See again and again. Out of the seven oracles then, four of them died by the hands of Raphael.

The remaining three oracles died in battle at Holy Rock City. The might of the Holy See decreased, and in the end, the Tanggulasi Empire only obtained a quarter of the land on the Myers Mainland.

The world is a cheese. This was an unassuming sentence from a horrifying speech that Raphael had given. As mages had possessed a minimal understanding of spaces, Raphael had wanted to use the simplest and most easily understood method to explain what a dimension was.

Mages believed in magic formulae and were accustomed to deducing conclusions from basic knowledge. This theory by Raphael had been a top-down approach and had not provided any basic theories.

Raphael believed that every dimension was a piece of cheese with countless holes in it. Anyone inside the cheese would have no concept of the external structure of the cheese. From any hole, one could reach another dimension, and one could even reach the same dimension from different holes. This all depended on the fixed angles and periods of revolution between the dimensions.

In reality, dimensions were as fragile as cheese. If a mage wanted to live forever, they would need to create an eternal dimension. This dimension was known as the dimensions of the gods, and was what the Holy See had known as the heavens.

Aside from these things, Raphael had said many things which had blasphemed against the gods, and worst of all, he had included the Myers Goddess. Most mages had hated the God of Light, but when it came to the Myers Goddess, she was someone who mages had generally respected.

However, because of that, despite having contributed the most to the fight against the Holy See, many mages did not like him and his theories were looked down upon. Even when the Holy See captured Raphael, not many mages attempted to rescue him.

At that time, dozens of sorcerers were killed in the rescue attempt, and the second batch of oracles that the Holy See had nurtured were not spared either. Raphael was not saved, and the sacred Holy See had him executed in the Glorious Square.

Everyone believed that this legendary figure had died, as before this, the second pope of the Holy See, Duncan, had suddenly passed away. The head of the Holy See had fallen as well, and many people believed that all of these things were the price for capturing Raphael.

The pope had been the leader of the Holy See and had possessed three mythical weapons with him. The head of the Holy See had possessed one too. To say that two strong young men who had been Grade 9 elites had died from sickness, no one would have believed that.

Raphael disappeared and all of his theories were erased from the magic notes on the Myers Mainland. His disciples disappeared as well, never to be seen again.

The world is a cheese. This sounded like a joke, and yet to Saleen and Lex, it really seemed as though they had been sucked into a giant metal cheese.

The holes of the dimensions and the perfect independent space. There were the six elements, nights and days, rivers and mountains, plants and magic beasts.

The interdimensional space outside the metal pillar had been lacking but there was life within the pillar. All of these conditions fit what Raphael had said in wanting to create an eternal dimension. This pillar might have only been in its infant stages, and if the outside of the magic tower was destroyed, nothing would function properly within this magic pillar either. The existence of the magic tower depended on the lifespan of the interdimensional space.

Saleen and Lex had no idea if the god’s hell was slowly growing or being destroyed, but whatever the case was, this interdimensional space had a set lifespan. Raphael’s cheese idea had still only been a theory, but it was astounding enough. He had created a partially independent world that had exceeded all the powers of humans.

If a cheese was fragile, then it could be broken from the inside. Back then, humans had been able to cross through dimensions as they pleased because their strength had been greater than the toughness of the cheese. The cheese had just been too weak for them and had not been able to contain their bodies.

Lex understood this as well, but the problem was that both her and Saleen did not have enough power to cut open the cheese.

If they did not have such power, it was possible that finding the hole of the cheese would be a shortcut. The question was, would theory and reality be vastly different? It was just like Saleen’s study of the Figaro formula. If he was given enough time, he would be able to break down the sword aura of a golden grand swordmaster. However, the preparation time was far too long. Their current situation was exactly like that. Saleen and Lex looked up at the skies at the same time. It was already dark, and stars dotted the night sky. Each and every one of them could be a tunnel.

If they found the hole that had sucked the two of them in, it was possible that they would be able to find a way back. But how were they going to fly up to the skies?

In using the powers of her magic robe, Lex could only fly up a few hundred meters at most. This space was incredibly wide, and it was possible that she would not find the entrance even after flying tens of thousands of miles.

“Lex, what do you think of this world?”

“It’s very bad,” Lex answered begrudgingly. She had already been angry enough, being trapped in god’s hell. Now, it felt as though she had been trapped in a double-layered cage. Getting back to the Myers Mainland had just become even harder.

“I mean compared to the outside.” Saleen was not in a rush either. Seeing how Lex was a little unstable, he began to reason with her patiently.

Only then did Lex calm down and think carefully. “It’s just like this. The six types of elements in this world seem balanced, but there aren’t as much of them as there are in the interdimensional space. For a mage, training here would not be as good as training outside.”

“You’re right. This might have only been a toy of the owner of the magic tower.”

“A toy?” Lex did not understand.

“Yes, a toy. If you were unable to return to the Myers Mainland, would you rather spend your time in the horrible environment of the interdimensional space, or would you rather come here?”