Mage? Magic Engineer!-Chapter 58 - 55: The Indeterminate Calamity Descends

Rorschach stared at the water’s surface and said slowly, "Can’t we just leave this place?"

"The surge of the Unstable Crystal Sea is upon you. You are powerless to stop it."

A withered, slender hand extended from beneath the leafy robe. With a tap of a finger on the water, the scene zoomed in. Rorschach saw the sky filled with pink crystal particles, dancing wildly like a sandstorm. Upon contact with the ground, they immediately disintegrated into even smaller motes of light. Not only that, but the very soil began to distort, liquefying or erupting in a way that resembled the Earth Element Rorschach had activated. The entire landscape looked as if the very earth was boiling.

A small beast appeared in the image. It tried to dig a burrow to escape the "sandstorm," but soon, the crystal particles landed on it, dyeing its fur pink. Then it began to swell. As a constant stream of particles struck its body and disintegrated, parts of it swelled up while others festered and caved in. Pus and tumors soon followed...

In the end, the beast’s original form was completely unrecognizable. There was only a pool of bright pink flesh, constantly writhing and evaporating, breaking down into tiny points of light just like the crystals that fell to the ground. As it finished evaporating, a small cluster of pink light gathered, bounced around aimlessly, and then disappeared into a deep valley.

Rorschach looked at the clusters of pink light gathered around him, then looked up at the tall, deer-headed creature. "You knew we were coming here, and you also know we can’t go back."

"There is no need for anger. I can only communicate within your dreams and could not warn you all in time. However, there is a sliver of hope for outsiders."

The water’s surface changed again, sketching out a complex pattern. It was formed by a chaotic jumble of coarse lines—far too complex to be a Dharma Seal, yet it lacked the regular geometric shapes and outer circle of a Magic Array. Once the outline was complete, the Deer-headed God raised a finger, and the mark floated up to merge with Rorschach’s body.

"Draw it with Blood, and it may yet protect you all." The deer’s eyes swiveled. "I expect you won’t remember it. When you draw it, chant my name: Deryats. You will be guided."

’You didn’t even give me time to memorize it,’ Rorschach thought, but he said aloud, "Thank you for your help."

"I do not need your thanks. I need you to do one thing."

"Just something for me to do?" Rorschach noted that Deryats had not used the plural form of "you."

"Only you. I will grant you my Blessing to kill me—to kill the corpse of Deryats in the Realm of Reality. Otherwise, the crystal tide will persist until the corpse is buried once more."

Rorschach had no interest in being forced into a boss battle. "Can’t we just wait for the crystal... surge to recede on its own?"

"You all, and other, more powerful Exorcists, are mistaken, believing this place has always been peaceful." The deer head was expressionless. "The crystal tide surges when my corpse struggles to break free, and it recedes only when my corpse is buried again. That could take a hundred years, or a thousand. Can you all hide for that long?"

’The investigative methods of these Great Mages are a complete joke!’ Rorschach felt like spitting on every High Tier Mage who had entered this Sub-plane over the past year. And he’d spit twice on that fatso who promised he wouldn’t screw over his own students—his face was a bigger target!

"Hold on to this. It will guide you and aid you."

A smooth, warm stone appeared in Rorschach’s hand. He raised his hand and saw it was a piece of amber, encasing an insect with intricate patterns.

"Disaster is imminent. May you succeed." A blue light blossomed, and Rorschach involuntarily fell into the heart of the spring.

Everything shattered once more.

’So... it was still a dream,’ Rorschach thought just before he woke up.

...

"Mage Rorschach? Mage Rorschach? It’s time to eat."

François shook Rorschach awake.

"François... what time is it?" Rorschach asked as he woke up. The bed felt too hard, and his body was still a little sore. Only after his thoughts cleared did the fragments of the dream begin to drift back to him.

"François, what time is it?" Rorschach grabbed his arms urgently.

François was taken aback by Rorschach’s sudden urgency. "It should be noon, Main Plane time. The bells just struck for the ninth time. If you want the exact time, I have a Pocket Watch. On one condition: let go of me..."

Rorschach let go. "Why didn’t you wake me up this morning?" 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝙚𝔀𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝒐𝒎

"You were the one who didn’t wake up! The chiming clock’s six o’clock bell is the loudest, and you slept right through it." François was getting a little annoyed. "So don’t blame me. Mage Yina said you used up too much energy mastering a new Magic yesterday, so out of kindness, we let you sleep in."

’Looks like I need to buy an alarm clock. This is bad, this is bad! In this day and age, clocks are luxury items, "accessories" and "ornaments" for fashionable gentlemen. Rorschach had seen that a clock with a timer cost over ten gold, and with a free bell tower and wake-up calls from the Tower Spirit, he’d never bothered to spend the money.’

"Sorry, François! It’s an emergency, I need to find Team Leader Nemo!"

"Team Leader Nemo left this morning with the apprentices." As he said this, François patted Rorschach’s shoulder. "Thanks to you, our construction is a little ahead of schedule. The team leader went to survey the surrounding terrain to prepare for the next settlement. The rest of us stayed behind to keep digging the caves."

Rorschach had no time for this. He pulled François outside, asking as they walked, "Then who can contact him now? What about Mage Yina?"

"I’m here." At some point, three huge, long tables had appeared outside the camp. They were fashioned from red earth, and all the workers and the apprentices who hadn’t left were eating at them, like an open-air cafeteria. And in a corner of this "cafeteria" near Rorschach’s cave, Yina was sipping her tea.

"Did you rest well, Mage Rorschach?"

There was no time for pleasantries. Rorschach got straight to the point. "Mage Yina, did the team leader leave you with a way to communicate with him instantly? We’re facing an extremely urgent situation!"

Rorschach briefly recounted his dream about a being calling itself the Divine Spirit "Deryats," emphasizing the vision of pink crystals raining from the sky.

To avoid causing a panic, Rorschach addressed only the other two mages present. Yina’s expression grew grave, and François said worriedly, "You mentioned a magical pattern between a Dharma Seal and a Magic Array? Can you reproduce it now? And call upon its name as it instructed?"

Yina stopped him at once. "A powerful being communicated with Rorschach through a dream. Whether it’s a god or not, recklessly calling its name is extremely dangerous. Besides, drawing it with Blood sounds like a ritual sacrifice. As far as I know, the fallen Forest God was Silvanos, not this Deryats."

Yina wasn’t one to simply sit and wait for disaster. She infused Magic Power into a round brass medallion on her wrist. The medallion lit up, pulsing with a red glow.

"I’ve already sent a warning to Team Leader Nemo. He’ll bring the others back."

Rorschach recalled the scene from his dream. "I remember the pink crystals also transformed the soil when they touched the ground, but I think it only affected the topsoil. We can expand the caves and use them as a shelter."

"Rorschach, that’s a last resort. Are we really going to do exactly what some being from a dream says?" François slammed his fist on the table. "Let’s see if we can get the Teleportation Array back home working first!"