Chapter 90

Restraint (2)

"Well, it's about to end."

"Right."

"Is this acceptable?"

The man with glasses said this and glanced down.

Dozens of black mages and programmers, who had been moving in perfect unison just moments ago, were now mixed together, waiting for something.

Craig slowly nodded as he looked down at the scene with the man.

It was a fresh experience for him, who had lived as an elder of black magic, to see experts from two completely different fields working together toward a single goal.

If they had met at a different place and time, they might have produced even better results.

But now, it was meaningless.

"Those guys will leave here without knowing anything in the end."

"I always intended it that way."

Craig answered in a heavy voice.

"Knowledge that goes too deep only remains as sin."

"Isn't that a story you shouldn't tell in front of someone who worships sin as a god?"

"......Fanatics are incomprehensible. Can you call someone a fanatic because they can speak about their own doctrine like that?"

The man's attitude, who worships the incomprehensible existence known as disaster while introspecting himself, is truly bizarre.

Craig's gaze naturally turned to the small pendant hanging around the man's neck.

Inside the pendant, a giant dragon with a shark's head was intricately engraved.

"Maybe."

The man smiled and said.

"Perhaps for the fun of watching a moth like you, I can't stop my temporary apostasy from my faith."

"........."

Craig couldn't deny this, so he remained silent.

"Anyway, it's fine. In exchange for the data obtained from this experiment and the data on the deployment method of the artificial domain... I will personally guarantee the safety of those guys."

Yes, this is enough.

The remaining processes are now things he can handle alone.

There's no reason to increase unnecessary sacrifices now that the plan has been significantly derailed.

After all, this whole thing started from Craig's stubbornness.

"It's time. We need to leave before Evelyn Marcia arrives. If we get entangled with that monster, it will affect our proselytizing in Balkan."

The archer, known as the sharpest tooth among the city government's hounds.

From the moment she revealed herself in this matter, it wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that the success of the plan became completely uncertain.

"It was a mistake. I never expected a superhuman like her to get involved... It must have been the slush fund, right?"

"Isn't that the case?"

The man, speaking as if it were someone else's business.

Just as Craig was about to answer with a bitter smile,

[Let's wrap it up quickly, shall we?]

A loud voice echoed throughout the hideout.

Jaeun Odis, the leader of Palsion.

[The kids left at the main base can't hold out for long. There's a limit to how much time we can buy.]

"......You're quite something."

Jaeun Odis seems to value his comrades, but the ones he actually considers comrades are extremely few.

To him, the other members of Palsion are merely expendable pawns for money.

...No, perhaps Craig, who proposed a deal and borrowed strength from such a man, had no right to say anything.

"Then I'll take my leave here."

As the man adjusted his glasses and took out his phone to type a message, a strange phenomenon began to occur in the hideout after a short while.

Creeeeak....!!

A space in the hideout opened up with a sound like steel twisting, revealing a completely different landscape inside.

Craig's eyebrows twitched as he realized what this phenomenon meant.

'Transfer ritual... to use it without any warning like this.'

A spatial ritual capable of moving a large group of people, numbering in the dozens, all at once.

Normally, it would require a meticulous process at both the departure and arrival points, followed by a massive amount of incantation and expenditure to barely make it possible, but the man was doing it effortlessly.

It was more reasonable to think that he was borrowing the power of something rather than using his own strength, which had no magical or mechanical power.

And there was no need to say that the something was the power of the fanaticism they believed in.

"Come, Elder....!"

"You must come back!!"

Before entering the space with the crack, Craig saw the black mages calling out to him with earnest expressions and lifted the corners of his mouth.

"Don't worry."

Thinking it was the last time, he no longer felt the pain of lying.