Surviving as a Barbarian in a Fantasy World

[Translator - Night]

[Proofreader - Gun]

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Chapter 355: Peace - Aftermath (3)

Magnarein was incredibly vast.

So vast, in fact, it could rival a major city in size.

Judging by the scale of the underground area, it could easily accommodate thousands of people.

The mere existence of such a place underground astonished Ketal.

But there was no trace of any presence in the wide expanse.

It was filled with nothing but silence.

Magnarein was in ruins.

“Am I too late?”

Ketal clicked his tongue as he stepped forward.

Everything that once made up Magnarein had been destroyed.

It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to call it a wasteland.

However, it wasn’t the result of ordinary destruction.

“What… is this?”

Ketal stared at something in front of him.

Judging by its location at the entrance of Magnarein, it was likely a checkpoint or something similar.

But it was hard to tell what it originally looked like.

The structure was twisted and shriveled, like a rag wrung dry to its limits and then left to rot.

And it wasn’t the only one.

The fences that should have stood guard beside the checkpoint.

The countless buildings within Magnarein.

All of them were the same.

Twisted and distorted structures jutted out of the ground like ancient, withered trees thousands of years old.

“What the hell is this?”

Ketal grimaced.

It wasn’t just because the sight was grotesque and alien.

He recognized what caused this devastation.

[…What is this?]

Even the monstrosity murmured softly, as if it had a guess.

[Judging by its form… this is that creature’s authority.]

“It certainly looks like it, but weren’t they too busy fighting each other?”

[That’s what I thought as well. There’s no way their battle has ended. What is this? A mimicry?]

“It’s too exact to be an imitation.”

Shriveled, ancient tree-like appearances.

It was hard to believe anyone could replicate such a sight.

Ketal reached out and touched one of the twisted structures.

He felt a strange energy emanating from within.

“…It seems like it’s them, but…”

Something was off.

It felt like something else had been added.

Ketal withdrew his hand after contemplating the sensation.

“For now, I need to figure out what happened.”

To do that, he needed to talk to someone who had witnessed the events firsthand.

Hundreds of twisted things lined the streets, which were likely once living people.

They must have been struck directly by the authority of something, leaving them distorted.

Most of them were dead.

But not all.

Ketal’s senses told him there were survivors hiding within the twisted buildings.

He began moving.

Near the outskirts of Magnarein, he found a door embedded in the ground.

It led to a basement.

Ketal grabbed the door and opened it.

Rumble!

With a rattling sound, noise emerged from inside.

“Eeeek!”

“D-Don’t come closer!”

A man’s voice.

And a woman’s voice.

Ketal spoke calmly.

“Relax. I am not your enemy.”

“Ah, aaaah!”

“Ugh, eek!”

But they showed no sign of believing Ketal’s words.

With a resigned expression, Ketal descended into the basement.

His eyes widened.

The reason was simple.

The survivors in the basement were people Ketal knew.

“Kasan? And Cassandra.”

The man was Kasan Hawk, a thief from the Thieves’ Guild with whom Ketal had first formed a party in the Barkan Territory.

The woman was Cassandra, the bandit leader he had fought when heading to the sacred grounds of Kalosia.

He knew they were residents of Magnarein, but he hadn’t expected to meet them like this.

Ketal smiled in relief.

“You’re alive! That’s a relief!”

But they didn’t respond to Ketal’s words.

Or rather, they couldn’t.

“Eeeek!”

“Ugh, aaah!”

They were rubbing themselves against the walls like crazed rats, oblivious to Ketal’s voice.

Watching them for a moment, Ketal frowned.

“…Their minds are broken.”

Encountering such grotesque and twisted things had shattered their sanity completely.

Recovery seemed impossible.

“Hmm.”

If that was the case, he would break them further.

Ketal grabbed Kasan and Cassandra by their shoulders and spoke in a low voice.

“Look at me.”

With his calm words, Ketal’s energy enveloped the two.

“Ah…”

“Ugh, ah.”

Their trembling bodies froze and shuddered violently, like broken wooden puppets.

Their already shattered minds completely crumbled under the weight of a stronger force.

“Calm down. You are here.”

And then, using his overwhelming energy, Ketal forcibly pieced their broken minds back together.

Life slowly returned to Kasan and Cassandra’s eyes.

“Huh…? Ketal…?”

“Y-You…?”

“You’ve come to your senses? That’s good.”

Ketal smiled gently.

“Ketal…?”

Kasan, the thief, looked at Ketal with a bewildered expression.

He seemed unsure why Ketal was here.

“I lost contact with you, so I figured something must be wrong and came to help. Though it seems I’m too late.”

“Ah, I see…”

“You… You’re the one who fought the Demon King…”

Cassandra looked at Ketal with a confused expression.

Ketal smiled warmly.

“It’s nice to see you again, Cassandra. How have you been?”

“I, I…”

[Translator - Night]

[Proofreader - Gun]

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“Well, I suppose I don’t need to hear the answer.”

The state of Magnarein was answer enough.

Cassandra’s face darkened instantly.

“Y-you came to help? Are there other survivors too?”

“No. There are none. The only ones I sensed were the two of you.”

“…Ah. Father.”

Cassandra collapsed in despair.

Ketal calmly asked,

“What happened here?”

“…Uh, uh.”

The moment they heard that question, their bodies began to tremble again.

Ketal forcibly restored their minds, ensuring there were no further mental issues.

However, their reactions suggested that even recalling the memories terrified them to the core.

Summoning courage, Kasan finally spoke.

“About three days ago, something entered Magnarein.”

“An enemy?”

“No, it wasn’t an enemy. It was a being who entered with rightful credentials. I remember it because it had been a long time since an outsider came inside Magnarein.”

“Now that you mention it...”

When Ketal entered, Magnarein’s entrance was intact, suggesting the intruder had entered through proper means.

“Who was it?”

“I don’t know. But considering the preparations the master of Magnarein made to receive them, they must have been someone of significant stature. We were all curious.”

They had all gathered near the entrance, eager to glimpse this visitor.

And there, a catastrophe unfolded.

“…The thing that entered wasn’t human.”

It was something so horrifying that merely remembering it was difficult.

Kasan swallowed hard and explained.

“It started attacking us immediately. Naturally, we didn’t just sit still. We fought back with everything we had. But, but it was all useless.”

Their powers, everything they had, were twisted and destroyed.

“It felt as though our strength meant nothing at all.”

Like paints of various colors smeared into black and erased, they were reduced to meaningless, dried husks.

“The master of Magnarein, realizing the gravity of the situation, personally intervened. But… even then, they couldn’t stop it.”

Not even a hero-class magician could halt the monstrous being.

The aftermath of the battle alone destroyed Magnarein.

“In the end, the master dragged the entity deep into Magnarein. Whether they won or lost, I don’t know.”

“It seems they didn’t win.”

Ketal turned his gaze toward the depths of Magnarein.

Although his view was obstructed, it posed no issue to him.

“I can’t sense any human presence. It seems they sacrificed themselves to seal it somehow.”

“…Ah, ah.”

The master of Magnarein was dead.

Kasan and Cassandra’s expressions crumbled.

“Still, you managed to survive.”

“…Senior members of the Thieves’ Guild sacrificed themselves to help me escape to this place.”

“The same for me. My father risked his life to seal me here. Haha. He should’ve just let me die with him.”

Their relatives, their affiliations—everything was gone.

Kasan and Cassandra wore expressions of emptiness.

But they had survived.

As survivors, they had a duty to fulfill.

Ketal opened his mouth to speak.

“It would be best to leave this place for now.”

Magnarein was already ruined.

There was no reason to remain.

The survivors had to go outside and inform others of what had happened.

“Ah…”

“U-uh.”

But the two found it difficult to move.

The immense fear kept them from stepping out of the underground chambers.

Only after Ketal cast a protective spell on their bodies did they hesitantly start moving.

They followed Ketal and headed toward the entrance of Magnarein.

As they reached the broken passageway, Kasan looked back and noticed Ketal wasn’t following them.

“Mr. Ketal, aren’t you coming with us?”

“You go ahead first.”

Ketal gazed at Magnarein and spoke calmly.

“I think I need to settle things here.”

“What?”

Just as Kasan was about to ask what he meant, Magnarein began to tremble.

A powerful vibration resonated.

“…Ah.”

“Uh, ah.”

Kasan and Cassandra’s faces turned pale.

“Stand back. I’m not sure what will happen.”

Ketal closed the shattered door and stepped further into Magnarein.

Soon, the sound of destruction erupted, and something emerged from within.

“Hahaha! Hahaha! That was quite entertaining, Grand Mage!”

It was a middle-aged man.

At first glance, he appeared human.

But Ketal could tell it was only an illusion.

Its essence was twisted and broken, no longer something that could be called life.

Ketal muttered,

“Something that was once human, now corrupted. Looks like an apostle.”

The creature, laughing maniacally, glared at Ketal.

“…And who are you?”

“I am Ketal.”

“Ketal? I don’t care! What’s a barbarian doing here?”

“You don’t know who I am?”

Ketal was famous on the surface.

Even Cassandra, a resident of Magnarein, had recognized him as the one who fought the Demon King.

It was almost unthinkable that someone didn’t know of him.

The only explanation was that the creature wasn’t of this world.

Or it had come from a place completely cut off from the war against Hell.

“Since we can talk, let me ask you a question. You don’t have to answer. I’ll make you talk.”

Ketal asked,

“What’s your connection to the old man?”

The middle-aged man before him carried the old man’s authority.

At Ketal’s question, the man tilted his head.

“Old man?”

“Maybe that’s not the right term.”

Ketal started to speak but then shook his head.

“No. It doesn’t matter if you don’t answer now. You won’t answer anyway. That’s fine.”

After all, he could simply break the creature’s limbs and force it to answer.

Ketal smirked as he gripped his axe.

His killing intent rose sharply, piercing the air like blades.

[Translator - Night]

[Proofreader - Gun]

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