DBOFS 34

Chapter 34

Suppressing a sense of foreboding, Jade spoke to the group of Anella’s gatherers.

“Anella, I think I need to go see Lord Harris right now!”

“Suddenly? Where ar—”

Before she could ask where, Anella flinched. So did the others.

Boom—!!

From beyond the forest, the sound of a collapsing castle echoed loudly.

“…I understand. Pedro!”

Anella quickly grasped the situation and sent Pedro with Jade.

Jade naturally climbed onto Pedro’s back (as she couldn’t use her legs in the final stages of her illness, being carried had become second nature) and asked,

“I’m not too heavy, am I?”

“W-What? Oh, no, not at all! You’re super light…”

The boy, who looked to be around sixteen, shook his head with a blushing face. His feet, however, moved rapidly, causing the terrain of the forest to blur past them.

“That’s good to hear.”

Jade smiled softly, but her heart remained uneasy.

Time limit: 1 hour. They had already lost nearly 20 minutes explaining and moving.

‘Please… please, let it not be a berserk state.’

I’d rather it be a rampage!

Jade swallowed her tears internally.

You might think berserk and rampage are the same thing, but in the world of <Divine Ghost>, they’re distinctly different.

Especially with Harris’s ability…

“…Huh?”

Jade stiffened. Pedro had stopped—though not because of her sudden jolt.

“W-What is this…?”

Pedro gasped. And rightly so—dozens of people were collapsed in front of them.

All of them covered in slimy, muddy goo.

“Cough.”

Oh, and they were alive.

If they’d been dead, Jade might’ve thought, ‘Did Harris do this again?!’ But seeing so many survivors shocked her instead.

“Pedro, let me down.”

Jade quickly got off and approached the people.

Some were unconscious, others awake but vomiting mud-like sludge. Their plate armor and weapons were soiled, and among the mess, the emblem of House Godwin stood out clearly.

“Knights sent by the late Duke Godwin?”

“…!”

Cough, cough.

A middle-aged woman, coughing violently, raised her head. Despite being covered in filth, the large woman in full plate armor clutching a sword was clearly a knight.

“W-Who are you? D-Don’t tell me… His Grace sent you to save us…?”

But Jade didn’t seem like someone sent by the Duke.

Her soft pink hair flowed down to her waist, her pale, delicate face met the woman’s eyes. Her pupils were a bright, clear blue, her lips plump and red like cherries. Slim limbs and a slender body…

‘…A fairy?’

The knight involuntarily recalled the extinct legendary beings.

Though Jade herself was quite disheveled from crawling through dungeons, it was nothing compared to the mud-caked state of the others.

In short, she looked completely out of place in such a hellish dungeon.

And if someone like that stood here unscathed…

‘…A demonic beast?!’

The knight, Parna, gripped her sword, bracing herself—

“Yes, I’m so glad to see you alive!”

Jade beamed with relief.

“….”

Parna paused. Jade placed her hand on her chest and let out a deep breath.

‘At least Harris didn’t kill our allies.’

If Harris truly had gone berserk, he would’ve killed without recognition.

Unlike a rampage—where pain and agony drive him out of control—berserk mode meant his ability completely consumed his consciousness.

Seeing survivors, especially Godwin’s people, calmed Jade’s fraying nerves a bit.

“So you’re saying… His Grace’s grandson came to save us? And you’re his guide?”

Parna asked after hearing Jade’s explanation.

“Yes, Lord Harris is a powerful psychic—”

“Ah, so that’s it!”

Parna relaxed her grip on her sword. Jade then heard the full story.

“So… we barely defeated the man-eating plant. But one of our party died…”

Quest failed.

As punishment, the surviving knights were immediately thrown into the dungeon’s core: the Castle Where Time Stands Still.

“……!”

Before they could even react, the next quest began seamlessly.

“…We failed.”

Parna wiped the mud off her face roughly as she spoke.

A castle is typically a stronghold surrounded by a moat. For some reason, when the knights fell in, the quiet moat swelled into a swamp.

To enter the castle, they had to cross the moat—but no way would the soldiers on the wall help them, so they were forced to cross the swamp.

But before they could even try—

“A swamp beast appeared, didn’t it.”

“Yes. And poison mist spread all around the area.”

The knights had already been injured from fighting the man-eating plant Danalkus.

Heavy armor, poisonous terrain, injuries—an awful combination.

The knights were wiped out. That was Parna’s last memory before the swamp swallowed her.

But then—

“Suddenly… the swamp beast screamed. And when I came to, we were all floating in the air.”

A force like dark magic had lifted the entire swamp into the air. What once threatened to crush them had vanished.

When Parna removed her helmet to clear her vision, the swamp beast was already dead, its head severed.

“I think the swamp beast was originally a fish living in the moat. But something must’ve happened in that castle—it rotted, and the fish transformed into a corrupted monster.”

And the one who killed it—

“He was a tall young man with black hair and a sturdy frame.”

It was Harris.

Harris was inside that castle. Jade stared up at it, overcome with dread.

“All we saw was his back. Before we could react, he had already entered the castle…”

“Yes, I’m pretty sure that was Lord Harris.”

“As expected… He was extraordinary. Truly a descendant of Godwin!”

It seemed the previous Duke had been well-respected, as Parna accepted Jade’s words without question.

“But… I heard His Grace’s grandson was bedridden in the old castle…”

“He’s all better now. And now that he’s recognized by His Grace, he’s come to rescue you all. Pedro!”

They had gathered all the necessary information. Jade stood up and called to Pedro.

“There are a lot of injured. Go to Anella and ask for help with healing. Parna, please organize the wounded.”

Though it was heartbreaking that these people had almost died—29 minutes had already passed!

Now burdened with the lives of everyone due to the quest, Jade quickly gave orders and sprinted toward the castle.

“Wait, it’s dangerous in there!”

“Even if you’re the guide…!”

Desperate voices called after her, but Jade heard none of it.

‘This is bad, very bad.’

There was no more poison mist. The swamp was gone.

This was one of Harris’s abilities.

Void.

“That which swallows endlessly and never fills—that is the Void.”

From the name alone, it was a terrifying ability—and it was, in fact, a living demonic beast.

More accurately: an ancient demonic beast.

The setting of <Divine Ghost> was the Ramses Empire.

And as with all fantasy empires, it was built by heroes who defeated the world-ending final boss.

The role of “Void” in this tale? The final boss.

Though the heroes defeated countless monsters, they failed to destroy the Void.

Yet they did not give up. They succeeded in sealing the Void to prevent its return.

The Void wasn’t evil—it didn’t return to destroy the world out of malice. It simply existed to consume all things into death.

Even sealed, it remained a threat.

One of the five heroes, Godwin, declared he would become the Void’s eternal gatekeeper and built a mansion atop the seal.

The other heroes, moved by his decision, settled nearby to guard against any future danger…

‘The problem was, that’s how the Empire got founded.’

Yup, the capital of the empire was built over the sealed Void. Congrats, you all live in a magical hazard zone.

Anyway, you’ve probably guessed it—but the prison where Harris screamed through the pain of his first awakening? Yup, it was right over the Void.

‘And the weakened seal let the Void swallow Harris.’

But Harris, chosen protagonist of <Divine Ghost>, didn’t die—he absorbed the Void instead.

“A fusion of his desperate will to live and the weakened Void after centuries of sealing,” as the game put it.

The weakened Void became part of Harris, swallowing his surging mana and awakening fever.

Astonishingly, the Void that once consumed life ended up saving Harris, who was on the brink of death.

‘Aaaah—!’

But the young Harris’s body couldn’t handle it, resulting in a catastrophic accident at the Godwin estate.

That’s the backstory—before scumbag Norman Godwin chained Harris in the castle’s underground prison.

‘Our Harris… it’s amazing he even survived all that…’

A truly heartbreaking tale—but the point wasn’t that.

What mattered was that Harris had never used his ability, Void, properly until now.

Void was incredibly, extremely, dangerously powerful. And such powers are usually uncontrollable.

‘Compared to that, the dark mana Harris has used up to now wasn’t even scratching the surface.’

And now, Jade saw signs of destruction throughout the castle.

Yet strangely few corpses. And everywhere, dark marks showed ferocious trails of magic.

‘…Harris has awakened the Void ability.’

The shock of seeing corpses and the horror of it all vanished, overwhelmed by that realization.

They say people become numb to emotion in the face of true catastrophe. That’s exactly how Jade felt.

“…?!”

Her head turned instinctively—as if something were pulling her.

“Jade.”

A lazy, melting voice. Crimson eyes looked down at her.

“Why are you only here now?”

You’re late.