How to Survive as a Dungeon Manager in Another World

39 – The Spire of Arcasia (2)

“…”

A colossal gate fashioned from obsidian-like black marble barred our path.

Ancient glyphs inscribed upon the walls flickered faintly, then faded.

I attempted to decipher the script, but the more I scrutinized it, the more it dissolved into incomprehensible forms.

Arkan, observing this, let out a hollow laugh.

“…Forbidden tongue.”

Forbidden tongue; ancient script laden with curses that gnaw at the soul.

In other words, these bizarre glyphs carved into the gate were a sealing inscription designed to protect the spire.

Not entirely unexpected.

Usually, a Grand Labyrinth is sealed in this way.

The Spire of Arcasia, too, must have been designed so that one could only enter by reading the entire Forbidden tongue.

The problem is, the moment you read the Forbidden tongue correctly, you’re cursed, and your mind unravels…

“Rudene.”

“Huh?”

Of course, it meant nothing to me.

That’s why I brought Ludyne along, knowing it would be like this.

Ludyne was already tainted by the madness of a Heavenly Star of Slaughter.

A curse meant to shatter the mind wouldn’t work on someone already completely unhinged.

“Go, and read it.”

“Mm.”

Obeying my order, Ludyne approached the doorway and slowly began to decipher the inscribed letters.

That instant.

Kugugugung—!

All the characters etched into the wall began to glow simultaneously.

The emitted light grew ever more intense.

A suffocating pressure crushed my entire body.

Then, a screech!

With a deafening vibration, a new passageway leading into the spire’s interior opened.

As the door slowly swung inward, a chill emanated from within.

“Heeik…!”

Adina pricked up her ears, hiding behind Arkan.

Her trembling, violet eyes shone with an intense light.

Seeing the Spirit Eye react so violently, it seemed this spire itself was, in many ways, quite ominous.

“Any traces?”

“…It leads that way.”

She pointed to the interior of the spire with the tip of her finger.

Peering inside through the entrance, I saw hallways and staircases that defied the laws of geometry.

Structures that created an optical illusion, as if up and down were reversed, the inside turning outward.

Corridors that seemed to stretch on infinitely, like a Möbius strip.

As if the final reward wasn’t the Rune of Space, the gimmicks themselves were just as ridiculously named after the rune, in many ways.

The moment I stepped across the threshold, the flow of air shifted.

The atmosphere itself felt foreign.

I could feel it in my gut: the space was warped in an impossible way.

Then, Rudene’s voice cut through the air behind me.

“Luke.”

“What?”

“Didn’t they say the Grimoire was sealed beneath the Spire?”

“They did.”

“But… there are no stairs leading down.”

As Rudene said, the only staircase inside the Spire led towards the top.

We searched every nook and cranny, but it was the same everywhere.

No hidden passages, no trick architecture.

Only the bizarre, spiraling staircase climbing upwards.

Arcan wouldn’t have lied to me, and the Grimoire’s records couldn’t be wrong.

Which meant…

“That must be the ‘rule’ here.”

“…Rule?”

“Right, like I said before? The Domain isn’t beholden to the world’s order.”

A space that forces its own unique rules onto the world—that’s the essence of a Domain.

The Grimoire clearly stated ‘beneath,’ but in this place, ‘beneath’ might not be the ‘beneath’ we know.

A Domain isn’t a space where common sense applies.

I didn’t hesitate and started for the stairs.

“Follow me.”

The moment I took the first step, a strange sensation enveloped my entire body.

With each step up the staircase, the space twisted, distorting our perception.

It was when we reached the first floor after climbing the first spiral.

“Rudene, watch out!”

Adina’s urgent cry rang out.

I turned to see a bizarre sight unfolding.

The staircase we had just ascended was slowly folding inward, like a gigantic book shutting itself.

The problem was, Rudene was standing right in the middle of the collapsing stairs.

“Rudene!”

I reached out, but it was already too late.

The stairs folded completely, and the ground beneath her feet vanished.

But, contrary to expectation, Ludine didn’t fall.

The step her foot had been on became the ceiling, and Ludine remained, affixed to it, standing tall.

“…Huh?”

We all craned our necks, gazing up at Ludine clinging to the ceiling.

To her, it seemed as if the ceiling were the floor.

Her hair, the hem of her dress, all hung down towards the ceiling.

But to us, she appeared to be standing upside down.

“Ha, amusing.”

Arkan chuckled playfully, then abruptly took a step towards the wall. But her foot didn’t slip.

As if walking on flat ground, she strode along the wall.

We were all in the same space, but the surface that served as the floor was different for each of us.

For Adina and me, it was the ground beneath our feet, for Ludine it was the ceiling, and for Arkan, the wall.

“…This is a real head-scratcher.”

All the spaces were intertwined.

There was no distinction between up and down, inside and out.

As if someone had deliberately torn the space and patched it back together.

This place wasn’t merely disregarding the laws of geometry.

It was as if several spaces had been stitched together, each surface obeying a different set of rules.

I immediately called out to Adina.

“Adina, the traces?”

“…Up above, sir.”

“Lead the way. I’ll follow.”

“Hic! Damn it… Why me, of all people… Hic! Why did I have to come to a place like this…”

Ludine from the ceiling, Arkan from the wall, Adina and I from the floor.

We walked along our respective planes, advancing upwards.

After ascending for quite some time, we arrived at the seventh floor, where an even stranger spectacle unfolded.

Dozens of passages appeared before us.

Every passage looked identical, and there was no way to discern which one was the real one.

“…That way.”

Adina, without hesitation, pointed toward one of the countless passageways.

As if it were the correct answer, the passageway pulsed open, emitting a dark luminescence, and we proceeded onward.

Each time we passed through a passageway, a ringing echoed in my ears, and a sensation akin to the tearing of space enveloped my body.

A strange feeling, as if walking the boundary between reality and unreality.

How long did we walk like this?

Kugugugung-

The instant we passed through the end of the passage, my steps froze involuntarily.

Even Arkan, who had been following behind, widened his eyes and gasped.

The sight that unfolded before us… was a space beyond comprehension.

A spiraling abyss, stretching endlessly.

Yet, it was strange. Looking up, it seemed to lead down, and looking down, it appeared to lead up, creating an optical illusion.

It appeared as though everything was converging upon a single point, while simultaneously expanding infinitely.

‘Wait… Such a space existed in the original text…’

Suddenly, a passage from my memories flashed like lightning in my mind.

The place where the rules of the world converge.

Where the boundary between reality and the virtual collapses.

Where all existing spaces connect endlessly, yet ultimately converge on a single point – a paradox.

“Mujogeong…”

I muttered, unbidden.

As if all the spaces of the spire converged here, twisted geometric structures spiraled endlessly onward.

The world’s bottommost layer, the abyss to which all beings would ultimately arrive.

The ‘Underground’ written in the forbidden text, had been referring to Mujogeong.

And there, we finally found it.

A stone structure reminiscent of an altar.

And upon it, a single ancient tome, shining brilliantly.

“…The Holy Scripture.”

The Rune of Space.

Finally, we’ve found it.

“…”

Arkan, stepping from the passage, found herself beyond dumbfounded, bordering on disbelief.

From the moment she entered the spire, until the very passage she had just traversed.

Every experience had been, in truth, a chaos (混沌), an unknown (未知).

And now.

Even she, at this moment, could not help but be utterly aghast.

“…Madness.”

The Abyss Unfathomable.

A space itself, evolved into an oddity, the primal ‘Domain’ of forgotten ages.

It was a space bordering the edge of this world, or perhaps even deeper… touching the Outer Sea (外海).

And, directly before her eyes, lay the Scripture she had so diligently sought.

Arkan’s golden pupils narrowed into slits.

Her insight, that saw through the origin of all things, focused intently, attempting to decipher the Scripture.

“Gggh…!”

Unconsciously, Arkan clutched at her head, halting her deciphering.

Her instincts screamed a warning, that she was not worthy of probing such a thing.

Having lived for centuries and witnessed countless wonders, she had never felt such primal danger.

“Hrr… hrr…”

That thing… it was, quite literally, inhuman (寅畏).

The moment she realized it, every hair on her body stood on end, and she felt herself tremble uncontrollably.

This was no mere fear, but a visceral rejection, a reaction felt by life itself.

And behind the Scripture…

A colossal sphere of darkness floated.

*Tzzzhhh-*

A hairline fracture appeared on the sphere’s surface.

The crack grew, spreading until it permeated the entire rounded surface.

And.

*Pajjjjjjjjhhht—!*

The sphere shattered into a thousand pieces.

Simultaneously, a serpent appeared, devouring its own tail.

It split into two, then four, then eight… endlessly multiplying, devouring itself.

The infinitely repeating cycle of self-consumption drew an ever-widening circle, filling the void.

Within the ceaseless cycle of proliferation and destruction, it began to distort.

Countless eyes flickered between the scales of the serpent, and at its center, a bizarre sigil resembling an inverted Tree of Life pulsed with frantic energy.

As if realizing a diagram of the Qliphoth, a being embodying pure chaos.

An alien presence, slumbering in the depths of the world, hailing from beyond the outer sea.

A being embodying primordial chaos. An absolute, for whom even the laws of the world were meaningless.

“…Outer God.”

Outer God, Ouroboros.

Or, more precisely, a fragment thereof.

‘Dangerous.’

For the first time, she felt genuine danger.

This was a monster even she, a Grand Overlord, could not easily confront.

“Sixth Lord, we must withdraw.”

She spoke, but…

Thud. Thud.

Luke Richter was, slowly, taking steps.

He walked toward the altar where the Holy Book rested, as if on a leisurely stroll.

“Stop! That thing…”

But his pace did not falter.

Luke stood before the altar and slowly lifted the Holy Book.

At that moment.

“I absorb karma.”

He murmured something.

[ Pilgrim burdened with great karma, declare the purpose of thy visit to this holy ground. ]

An indescribable, grotesque voice sliced through her eardrums, reverberating in her brain.

“I force an offering.”

[ The sacrifice? ]

“A monstrosity of Ifrasia.”

[ Name the price for this offering. ]

“I demand the authority of the Domain.”

The instant the final word escaped him, the Ifrasia ring adorning Luke’s finger turned to ash, scattering into the void.

A moment later, everything around them was drenched in deepest black.

The countless stars embroidered across the emptiness stirred, as though possessed of their own sentience, and formed the shape of a tree.

Kreeeeaaak—!

The Grimoire pulsed with light, and a Runic sigil etched itself beneath Luke’s left eye.

‘This…’

Arkan found himself speechless.

A torrential golden cascade erupted from the Grimoire, flooding into his body.

It was a spectacle akin to the fundamental laws of the world taking root within the flesh of a single human.

And he, Luke, murmured something.

“Domain.”

A blue light blossomed from the tattoo beneath Luke’s left eye. The space around them began to warp.

As though a mirror shattering, fissures appeared in reality, and through those cracks glimpsed landscapes of another dimension.

The fissures spread, devouring reality.

Centered around Luke, the abyss of nothingness began to transform into another dimension.

The endless chasm morphed into a pristine, white expanse.

“Initialization.”

The tattoo beneath his right eye flared with the same blue light.

The two lights resonated with each other, drawing a colossal clockwork of bizarre design in the air.

Koo-ooo-ooong!

A deafening roar erupted as the clockwork’s hour and minute hands began to spin in reverse.

Time flowed backward, consuming the space around them.

Like the infinite multiplication of an ouroboros being rewound, everything returned to its origin.

“Void.”

Luke extended his hand.

A golden haze, erupting from his fingertips, enveloped the clockwork, and the space around them began to fold.

“Severance.”

In that instant, a massive, hairline crack cleaved through the pure white Domain.

It was no mere line, but an absolute severing that bisected space-time itself.

It was as if a colossal blade cleaved the world in twain.

KREEaaaK—!!

The line of fracture, etched through the form of the Ouroboros, began to widen slowly.

What lay beyond was utter emptiness.

A true nothingness, devoid of time, space, and existence itself.

“…What is this?”

The endlessly yawning fissure stretched to the very edge of the abyssal pit.

The domain itself was rent asunder, completely severing the Ouroboros’ form.

KWA-aaa—!!

Through the massive fissure that bisected the pitch-black abyss,

The world’s cross-section revealed itself.