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Chapter 357: Observers (7)

He had lived his entire life hating the demon race.

It was the same in his previous life, and it would likely be the same in this one.

And yet, to think that a demon race presence was being observed not anywhere else, but within his own soul.

“Urk!”

Oscar gagged again as the thought resurfaced.

The question, ‘Since when, exactly?’ refused to leave his mind.

‘The most likely point would be after death, during the process of entering little Oscar’s body.’

Since entering this body, there had been moments he had never experienced in his previous life.

Things like the second wave, or the red moon.

But the Saintess had said that the vessel of that residue was not the body, but the soul.

‘Then… did something mix in during the process of my soul settling into little Oscar’s body?’

And that something was this unidentified demon race presence?

His stomach churned again, and he felt another wave of nausea rising.

Watching him, Edna asked,

“Are you truly all right?”

“…Yeah, I’m fine.”

He quickly nodded at her concern.

If nothing else, his physical condition was flawless.

“If it isn’t an imposition, may I check?”

“Sure, go ahead.”

At his easy permission, she grasped his wrist.

Then, as she pushed mana into him, her expression changed dramatically.

Her eyes, which were always steady, widened in shock.

“Th-this is an enormous amount of mana. It’s increased by more than ten times compared to before…”

“Well, the Dragon Heart really is ridiculous.”

“No, that’s not the issue.”

Shaking her head, Edna continued,

“At this level… it means you’ve absorbed about 70% of the mana contained within the Dragon Heart.”

“Is that a lot?”

“You’re asking if that’s a lot? The absorption rate I originally assumed was less than 25%.”

“Uh…”

That meant he had absorbed an overwhelming amount of mana, far beyond Edna’s expectations.

No wonder—it had felt like his mana had increased far too much, even considering it was a Dragon Heart.

“Frankly, I can’t even begin to understand how a human body is containing this much mana. And not even a demi-god level 9 mage, but a level 7 mage at that.”

As Edna wore an uneasy expression, Oscar fell into thought.

‘Maybe…’

The darkness he had seen in his inner world—the residue of that demon.

Perhaps it had been devouring mana like mad.

Of course, it would have been for its own sake, but for now, they shared the same body and soul.

‘Tch… honestly, I can’t even tell if this is a good thing or a bad thing.’

His mana had increased to an extent that made comparison with before almost embarrassing, but it also felt like the demon’s influence had grown just as much.

Was that why?

He couldn’t shake the creeping unease rising within him.

“More importantly, with this level of mana, it’s comparable even to your previous life.”

“That’s true.”

Oscar nodded readily at Edna’s words.

Absurdly enough, in terms of raw mana alone, it was more than double compared to his previous life as a level 9 mage.

Of course, having an absurd amount of mana meant nothing if he didn’t have a way to use it…

‘But I do.’

There was a magic known as ‘Space,’ infamous for its extreme inefficiency in terms of mana.

Shaking off his unease, Oscar stood up.

For now, rather than figuring out how to eliminate the demon residing in his soul, he needed to focus on the task at hand.

“Let’s go. Time to collect the data.”

“Are you sure you don’t need more rest?”

“It’s already been four days, right? We don’t have the luxury to take it slow.”

Oscar gestured around him as he spoke.

The once brightly lit power chamber was now dim, illuminated only by red emergency lighting.

He had heard that this would last at most a week—time was tight.

“…Thank you for your consideration. Then let’s move immediately.”

As if she had been waiting for those words, Edna guided him forward.

Following behind her, Oscar asked,

“Just to confirm—you’re planning to move the data back here later, right?”

“That would likely be the case.”

“But by then, the facility will already be incapacitated. Wouldn’t that make it pointless?”

It wasn’t as if they could offer the Dragon Lord another heart.

At that question, Edna nodded.

“While you were consuming the Dragon Heart, I ran hundreds of simulations related to this. As a result, I concluded that it can be sufficiently replaced with the magic engineering battery that powers the airship, along with Ouroboros.”

“That actually works?”

“Yes. After all, we only need to convert solar thermal energy to sustain the entire moon.”

“I suppose.”

From that perspective, Ouroboros was indeed more suitable than the Dragon Heart.

The two returned to the information chamber they had first visited.

This place was less suffused with red light, thanks to the densely embedded luminous orbs.

“There’s something you need to know before we begin.”

Oscar spoke as he checked the number of threads needed to open the space.

“I’ll need to maintain the subspace for two days. I’ve never kept it open for that long before, and I’ve never stored something of this magnitude either.”

The largest thing he had stored before was perhaps an airship.

But what they were about to store now was the history of this star from the moment it was born—

A staggering 4.1 billion years of records.

It was uncertain whether the subspace could even contain it all.

“In the middle, we might run out of space and fail to store everything.”

“In other words, you mean we should prioritize storing the important data first.”

“Exactly.”

“I’ve already categorized that to some extent over the past four days.”

As expected of Edna. Sharp enough to handle things even without being told.

“Then shall we open it?”

“Yes.”

“Oh, and one more thing.”

“There’s more?”

What Oscar recalled was the monster lurking within the subspace.

To be honest, he still didn’t know the exact conditions for its appearance.

Ever since it had stared at him that one time, it hadn’t appeared again even once.

‘But assuming it’s gone would be far too optimistic.’

When Oscar mentioned the monster in the subspace, Edna responded,

“The entity you mentioned is likely the Devourer of the Void.”

“Devourer of the Void?”

“Yes. It drifts along the boundaries of space, consuming everything exposed there.”

“The boundaries of space…”

Now that he thought about it, the situation had been similar when he saw it before.

It had been when he maintained the subspace for a long time for the first time, and its structure had become unstable overall.

That probably caused the boundaries of space to be exposed.

‘After that, I used it carefully to avoid overexertion, so I never encountered it again?’

Of course, he would try to maintain the subspace stably this time as well.

But given the vast amount of information they were transferring, structural stability would inevitably decrease.

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‘We can’t rule out the possibility of encountering it again.’

Oscar asked,

“What about its weakness? If I fight it, can I win?”

“Hmm, I’ve read records related to it. It’s a massive and sturdy entity, but its movements are slow, so it wasn’t considered a major threat.”

“Really?”

It might be less impressive than he expected.

Come to think of it, when he had encountered it before, he had only been level 6.

Back then, even level 7 masters were no easy opponents.

‘More importantly… now…’

No matter who he faced, he was confident he wouldn’t lose.

Feeling at ease, Oscar grasped the threads of space.

“Then let’s begin.”

As space tore open and a pure white subspace unfolded, Edna placed her hand on the machinery.

“I’ll begin as well.”

Just this once, please let everything pass without incident.

Oscar tightly shut his eyes and prayed.

* * *

Perhaps gods really did exist.

For 52 hours after starting the work, there had not been a single crisis.

Rustle, rustle.

Oscar gazed at the books stacking neatly within the subspace.

Naturally, they couldn’t simply transfer the records stored in compressed form on the moon as they were.

How could one move something without physical form?

So Edna first converted all the records into books, then transferred them into the subspace—making the process take longer than expected.

‘But my mana consumption is negligible.’

It wasn’t that the mana required to maintain the subspace had decreased.

It was just that his total mana had increased to such a ridiculous extent that it barely showed.

“Oscar, are you tired or sleepy? Are your eyes dry?”

“…Didn’t you just ask me that?”

No exaggeration—she asked that about once every ten minutes.

It felt excessive, but considering what was at stake, perhaps it was natural.

For dragons, these records were something worth protecting even at the cost of their lives.

“…My apologies. Please hold on just a bit longer—the work is entering its final stage.”

“Yeah, yeah. I’m fine, so don’t worry.”

The records stored in the subspace were about 94% complete.

The finish line was now truly within reach.

‘More importantly, we stored the most critical data first…’

What remained was probably just trivial gossip-level material.

Maybe it was safe to relax a little.

Feeling somewhat at ease, Oscar examined his inner state.

The most encouraging aspect was, of course, his mana.

He had maintained the subspace nonstop for two days without even a second of rest, yet he hadn’t used even half of his total mana.

‘With this much mana… I could probably go head-on against Pentarion.’

That old man’s released world turned everything into gold once all mana was depleted.

Honestly, it felt like Pentarion would run out of gold before Oscar ran out of mana.

Just as stray thoughts began to drift through his mind—

“Hmm?”

The stable subspace suddenly trembled, as if an earthquake had struck.

Noticing this, Edna spoke,

“Oscar, don’t fall asleep. Should I slap your cheeks? I can do it back and forth.”

“No, I really didn’t fall asleep.”

He had briefly let his thoughts wander, but not enough to lose focus.

“I’ll go take a look.”

Oscar stepped forward and entered the subspace directly.

Inside, countless—perhaps tens or hundreds of millions—of books were piled up like mountains, leaving no space to step.

Boom!

The subspace trembled again.

‘Why? I’m maintaining the magic exactly the same.’

Frowning, Oscar observed his surroundings and noticed something strange.

Each time a new book was added, an existing book disappeared.

The vanished books turned into clusters of informational light, drifting aimlessly within the subspace.

‘Don’t tell me…’

A hypothesis flashed through his mind.

Perhaps this was the limit of the total material capacity the subspace could contain.

Otherwise, there was no reason for one book to disappear every time another was added.

“Edna!”

Just as he was about to tell her to stop the process—

KUUUUNG!

With a deafening roar far greater than before, the mountains of books collapsed like dominoes.

The entire subspace was exposed to a massive shock.

“…!”

Like a thin handkerchief tearing, one side of the subspace ripped open helplessly.

And through that tear, he began to feel a gaze he had once encountered before.

‘Devourer of the Void.’

He needed to seal the torn space first.

As Oscar hurriedly cast threads of space to stitch the gaping hole—

RIIIIP!

A massive entity, the size of a house, tore through those threads and invaded the subspace.

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