The Great Mage Returns After 4000 Years

Side Story Chapter 1

Bottomless Pit.

This place, known as the hell without a bottom, was indeed a space where only darkness existed.

In the midst of it, Min Ha-rin remained silent.

‘…….’

Come to think of it, there's a contradiction in that expression just now.

Min Ha-rin, without a body, wasn't ‘being silent,’ but rather, ‘had no choice but to be silent,’ as if she had an option.

Of course, this fact didn't make her feel particularly stifled, nor did the sudden loss of her body lead to panic.

─It felt like being submerged in the pitch-black depths of the ocean.

The pressure, which gradually increased in intensity, initially caressed her entire body gently like a touch of life, but at some point, it changed its nature. It was like being caught in the grip of a ferocious giant. A feeling of her whole body being crushed.

Of course, all these thoughts were illusions. As reiterated, Min Ha-rin currently had no body.

Thus, in this situation, she wouldn't feel the stifling sensation that anyone would typically experience, nor would the growing intensity of it lead to madness.

Min Ha-rin remained calm and composed despite the unprecedented anomaly she was experiencing for the first time in her life.

…In the short term, it might not be a bad thing.

But thinking long-term.

‘Indeed. It's not a good situation.’

Min Ha-rin had no choice but to admit that fact honestly.

In the state where her mind and body were separated, the darkness spreading in the space was corroding her mind. The good news was that the speed was extremely slow, but the bad news was that it had never stopped even once.

At this rate, someday, inevitably.

Min Ha-rin's mind would be eroded by the darkness.

‘My self will be annihilated.’

[Stopping the act of thinking] and remaining in that state forever. It's a fate far more miserable than biological death.

Of course, there is a solution to overcome this life-and-death crisis.

That's why it's troubling.

‘Emotions…….’

Emotions are necessary.

It's an ironic thing.

The reason she was able to find a solution in this situation was because she lacked emotions. She could maintain her composure, allowing her to think coolly about other possibilities.

However, to be completely liberated from this state, emotions are needed instead…….

Drawing out emotions, igniting them like fireworks.

The mental explosion that occurs then is the only way to drive out or block the erosion of the darkness.

‘If I don't awaken my emotions, I'll die here.’

Indeed.

No matter how many times she thought about it, it wasn't a good situation.

The current situation was forcing Min Ha-rin to make a choice.

Could it be the first time?

That she felt she must retrieve the emotions she had abandoned of her own will.

‘It's not all bad.’

The Bottomless Pit was also the best training place for Min Ha-rin.

Time flowed much slower than outside, and it was quiet.

Moreover, due to the special situation where her body had disappeared, she might be able to grasp a clue to move on to the next stage.

A clue to becoming a Transcendent.

‘One by one, one by one.'

She would have to slowly figure it out.

Min Ha-rin does not tire.

Even if there were a hundred million doors spread out in parallel, and only one of them was the real door, she would not feel despair.

She would simply open and check each one, one by one.

Whether it was the first door she opened or the hundred millionth, the time spent and the level of concentration would be constant.

So, there's no need to worry. The speed of the darkness's erosion is extremely slow.

Min Ha-rin believed that she could find the answer in time.

* * *

Time passed.

If estimated with fairly good precision of internal time, it would have been decades.

And the situation was still not good.

‘…….’

Correction.

It wasn't just not good; it had worsened compared to before.

Min Ha-rin had no body. Naturally, she didn't need sleep, nor would she lose consciousness. Yet, even in such a state, her consciousness had already been cut off several times.

She knew what those signs meant. It was evidence that the darkness's erosion had progressed much deeper than Min Ha-rin had anticipated.

Since then, whenever she lost consciousness and woke up again, a certain thought would suddenly cross her mind.

Here.

Dying alone in a place where there's nothing.

She had even abandoned her emotions to fulfill her mission, making such a deal meaningless.

No. That's not all.

Death in this place would be remembered by no one.

‘Ah…….’

Fear.

Fragments of emotions, long forgotten, were felt.

Body and mind,

Two elements that originally couldn't be separated were divided, so did the deal with the ‘Bottom Universe' temporarily lose its effect?

She didn't know.

But despite finally feeling a part of the emotions she had so long desired, Min Ha-rin couldn't consider this as favorable.

‘If I die like this… will everything end?’

Fear halted her thoughts.

What she desired was an explosion of intense emotions like fireworks, but fear and terror were different. They were cold, chilling winds.

Her mind, exposed to the forgotten fear, began to shiver miserably. Even though she couldn't feel the cold, it felt as if she was placed in the center of a snowy field swept by a sudden cold wind.

What should I do……?

Is it impossible to escape, was it impossible from the start. Is this my end?

I…….

Whoosh-

Suddenly, the coldness faded.

And warmth.

A warmth she thought she couldn't feel gently melted her entire being.

Her thoughts stopped.

In the midst of the darkness, a small light flickered.

─At first, it's okay to lie.

Min Ha-rin's mind flinched.

─Lying to yourself has its merits. You can forgive yourself at any time.

She thought it was an illusion, but it wasn't.

The flickering light soon took on a faint form. It was as unstable as a light flickering in submerged water.

But, Min Ha-rin.

─Deceive yourself. Consider the trembling not as fear, but as excitement or anger.

She knew whose voice this was,

and what kind of person that form was.

─It won't be easy. At first, you won't be able to accept it yourself. So the most important thing is persistence. The thing you are best at right now.

The single beam of light that poured out in the pitch-darkness was so warm,

and the voice she heard was so gentle,

─You can do it. I believe in you. It was never an empty statement when I said you would become better than me.

If she had a body, she would have surely made a sound at this moment. It might have been a sob rather than a voice.

While Min Ha-rin remained frozen, the form disappeared. The light vanished, and the voice was no longer heard.

But the warmth still remained.

Min Ha-rin, lost in the lingering feeling, thought.

…Was it reassurance?

Because there wasn't completely nothing here,

Because there were small traces left by her teacher.

‘…I see.’

Her teacher had said the Bottomless Pit was a place where there was nothing, but faint traces of his footsteps were engraved here. Experiences and knowledge he had personally gone through were scattered around.

As if he was confident that they would be meaningful stimuli for Min Ha-rin, Lukas had set up the Bottomless Pit that way.

Just that alone made Min Ha-rin no longer fear this space.

And the first resolve, which seemed to have been forgotten for a very long time, was revived once more.

‘I….’

With slightly dark blonde hair, gentle eyes, and the last figure she saw.

Recalling all of that, Min Ha-rin thought.

‘I want to be like my teacher.’

And.

‘I want to see you again.’

Sincerely,

She desired a reunion.

***

Somewhere in a certain universe, on a certain planet, in a certain country, in a certain village.

It's not wordplay, but truly a place that could only be described as such. In such a place, Peran Jun was staying.

Buildings that had collapsed and been left abandoned for a long time, half-buried in the sand. In a place that should be called ruins rather than a village, the house with a relatively intact roof served as Peran's temporary shelter.

Crackle-

He lit a campfire and boiled water.

One pot was for stew, and the other for grilling lizard. Compared to recent meals, today’s was a feast.

While the stew was simmering to a thick consistency, he first chewed on the grilled lizard.

Crunch.

“Ugh.”

…Did some sand get mixed in? He frowned slightly but kept eating. As he finished the grilled lizard, Peran suddenly found his situation amusing and couldn't help but chuckle.

Since he was young, there were times when he couldn't understand his own actions or thoughts, but recently, it happened far too frequently.

He couldn't comprehend the source of the motivation driving him now.

─Was Lukas Trowman really this significant to me?

All he had achieved, built, and possessed in his life. The things he had fought for or inherited.

Was restoring Lukas’s lost honor so important to him that he would throw all that away?

No.

That wasn't it.

In some ways, Peran's journey might have resembled a form of ascetic practice.

He paid as much attention to his inner self as he did to observing the ‘outside’, and at some point, he was finally able to face the childish initial intentions he had long ignored.

‘At first, it was just an excuse.’

Since birth, he lacked nothing and easily obtained whatever he wanted or desired. Eventually, the praise and admiration of others started sounding like noise.

Around that time, he met Frey Blake at the academy.

For the first time, he thought he had met a man equal to him and felt drawn to him.

─But what happened after that?

Later, he realized that the guy, Frey, wasn’t looking at him.

Now he acknowledges that.

Frey was only thinking about fighting the Demigods and never stopped to achieve that.

And in the ensuing war against the Demigods, Peran wasn't called. The most intense battle in history proceeded without Peran and reached its conclusion.

…He understood.

The power Peran had at that time was less than that of an ant compared to the Demigods he had to fight against. It was a relief if he wasn't a hindrance.

But even so.

“I wished he had called me.”

He muttered softly.

When everyone had forgotten Frey Blake and Lukas Trowman,

When he was the only one who remembered his traces,

Peran believed that this time, he had been chosen by fate.

To save his only friend? No. There was no such noble idea.

Peran was still a child. The trauma of a wounded pride had become a lifelong scar, and without even being able to rein in the emotions that burst forth from it, he had recklessly tried to overcome it by sacrificing his life first—a fool.

He simply wanted to be equal.

He wanted to stand proudly next to the legendary figure.

Not to become a being like him,

But to become someone who could stand shoulder to shoulder with him.

However…

‘It’s far away.’

He couldn’t even imagine what kind of scenery that person was looking at now.

Was it really possible?

Was there something in this world that was simply unattainable?

Peran looked up at the sky with a frustrated heart.

And as if destined, he witnessed a strange sight.

─Something was falling from the sky.

Of course, it wasn’t unusual for things to fly across the teal night sky of this peculiar planet, but as he focused more and looked directly, he couldn't help but be astonished.

It was a creature he had never seen on this planet before.

A being with a torso, two long legs, two arms, and a protruding neck. A face the size of a palm with all the facial features.

In other words, it was a human.

And that wasn’t all.

“……!”

His entire body stiffened.

Fear rushed in without any warning. Peran's whole body trembled like an aspen tree, and his pupils shook violently. The fear was so overwhelming that his thoughts couldn’t function properly, making him feel like he might faint at any moment.

Boom!

While Peran was frozen, that human-like being completed its fall.

It almost crashed into the ground like a meteorite, so calling it a collision might be more accurate.

Only then was Peran able to shake off the fear.

In an instant, his entire body was drenched in sweat. Peran adjusted his disheveled clothes and looked toward the place where it had landed.

Somewhere in this village, and unfortunately, very close.

“…….”

He needed to check it out.

But recalling the fear he had just experienced, he couldn’t easily move his feet.

Smack!

It was a terribly crude shock therapy, but he slapped his own cheek hard. He couldn’t think of a better way. He hit himself so hard that the inside of his mouth tore, and blood flowed, but thanks to that, his stiff body loosened a bit.

Peran headed toward the landing site and soon found the fallen figure easily.

“…Cough.”

Alive.

Despite falling from such a great height, that person was alive.

And in good shape.

Maintaining his tension, Peran spoke up.

“…Are you alright?”

“…….”

The moment that person raised his head after, Peran's face stiffened.

*****

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