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Chapter 358: Observers (8)

“…….”

It was as if an airship had torn through subspace and entered.

Oscar narrowed his eyes and stared at the illegal intruder into his subspace.

‘Devourer of the Void.’

Its appearance was unmistakably that of a fish.

However, it had no flesh—only bones drifting in place, giving it a slightly grotesque look.

At a glance, it even resembled a fish that had been picked clean down to the bone.

But one must not be deceived by that unimpressive exterior.

‘It’s strong.’

From it emanated an oppressive force so intense that his skin tingled incessantly.

Uuuung!

As expected, with nothing more than a light shake of its body, Devourer of Void tore the space apart.

If nothing else, there was one thing he could be certain of.

‘If I leave that thing alone, my subspace will be destroyed.’

Kwaaaaang!

At that moment, the mountain of books piled up was sucked into the gaps between Devourer of Void’s bones.

“W-What kind of insane fish is that?!”

Do you know how hard it was to move all of that over the past two days?!

As Oscar, startled out of his wits, raised his mana, Edna shouted from outside the subspace.

“Oscar! Come out immediately! Facing it is far too dangerous!”

“Then you’re saying we should just abandon all the materials we painstakingly moved?”

“Th-That’s….”

Edna’s words trailed off, her eyes trembling faintly.

Wow, honestly, that’s a bit touching.

To hesitate between records he had been willing to protect with his life and his own life.

Oscar put an end to her meaningless dilemma.

“And besides, I don’t really have a choice.”

The materials were important, sure—but more honestly, he couldn’t just sit back because of the subspace itself.

Now that his concerns about mana capacity had disappeared, his usage of subspace would only increase, not decrease.

But if that thing destroyed it completely, he wouldn’t even be able to use it.

“Putting it off won’t solve anything. I’ve got to see this through somehow.”

To give up subspace forever because he was afraid of a fish skeleton?

If Master Ado heard that, he’d clutch the back of his neck and faint for sure.

Oscar made a light gesture.

“First, let’s move locations.”

The subspace folded neatly in half.

The fish that had been swimming through the void paused blankly as the books that had been feeding its hunger disappeared.

A world dyed in pure white—the double-layered subspace.

Oscar loosened up lightly as he faced Devourer of Void.

‘This works out better.’

There was something he had wanted to test anyway.

Namely, his current combat power after gaining overwhelming mana.

‘My mana circuits are still only seven lines, but….’

Now that he possessed near-infinite mana, just how far could he push the destructive power of magic?

It felt like he had encountered the perfect opponent to answer that question.

—…!

Devourer of Void shook its body, unleashing a piercing high-frequency wave.

Its rage at losing its prey was directed entirely at the human before it.

‘It’s coming.’

Kwaaaaaaa!

Devourer of Void charged, slicing through space like a current of water.

Just from it brushing past, the double-layered subspace was torn open, revealing mountains of books through the gaps.

“How crude.”

Clicking his tongue, Oscar slowly drew up his mana.

Uuuung!

In an instant, it raced through his circuits, filling his entire body.

Compared to before—compared to before he consumed the Dragon Heart—the speed and density were on an entirely different level.

‘…Can I do something like this?’

As something came to mind, Oscar lightly raised his hand.

Kuuuuung!

With a deafening roar like a skyscraper collapsing, the head of the charging Devourer of Void was slammed into the ground.

From the recoil, its body flipped over, its tail pointing toward the sky before slowly falling back toward him.

“…So this works.”

Oscar muttered with a slightly puzzled expression.

What he had just used wasn’t even high-level magic.

He had simply created wind and pressed Devourer of Void’s head down.

But with overwhelming mana infused into it, that enormous body was tossed around like paper.

‘At this rate, I might actually be the more brute-force one here.’

With an awkward smile, Oscar clenched his fist.

At that, Devourer of Void’s massive tail, which had been falling toward him, stopped—and then its enormous body slowly began to rise.

—…!?

Perhaps it had never experienced anything like this in its life.

Caught in midair, Devourer of Void flailed and struggled.

It looked just like a fish hooked on a float.

“That’s enough to test the power of wind…”

After a brief moment of thought, Oscar grasped the threads of space.

Dozens of threads he had never even dared to try grasping before.

‘Should I pull?’

The moment he swallowed and tugged, space distorted.

Kkadeuk, kkadeudeuk!

Devourer of Void’s hard bones collided with each other, producing dull grinding sounds as they were crushed and twisted.

“…….”

It took only 32 seconds for the Devourer of the Void—the being Edna had warned him so carefully about—to be turned into a giant ball.

‘This is starting to feel a bit scary.’

Oscar clicked his tongue as he checked his remaining mana.

The mana he had used in this battle amounted to barely 10% of his total reserves.

What felt most unsettling was that he hadn’t even tried to conserve mana.

‘…Or maybe I just don’t know yet.’

Perhaps, having lived his entire life carefully rationing mana, he had instinctively held back.

Just like how a farmer wouldn’t suddenly spend money like a noble overnight just because he won the lottery.

As he trudged out of the subspace, Edna’s eyes widened.

“H-How did it go?”

“I won.”

“…….”

For a moment, complex emotions flickered across Edna’s eyes.

Lowering her head deeply, she bit her lip and asked,

“…How many layers?”

“Hm?”

“Doesn’t the time ratio of subspace increase tenfold with each layer? Just how many layers did you fight in?”

Oh—she seemed to be under a serious misunderstanding.

Oscar quickly shattered that emotional buildup.

“It was double-layered. I fought for about 40 seconds.”

“…You may speak honestly with me.”

“No, really. Do I suddenly look older or something?”

Even if the time ratio differed, the time spent inside still applied fully.

Like how Lloyd had come out of subspace training with his hair grown long.

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“…Let me see.”

Edna raised her head and stared at his face for a long time, even reaching out to touch it before blinking.

“…You don’t seem to have aged.”

“Told you.”

“Devourer of Void. The records described it as an extremely dangerous entity, but that will need to be corrected.”

“Hmm.”

Is that really necessary?

Oscar explained how the battle had unfolded.

Hearing this, Edna tilted her head.

“…Is it really possible just by increasing mana quantity?”

“You think it’s strange too, right? That’s why—I don’t think only the quantity increased.”

In fact, the first thing he felt when drawing up his mana was that its density had changed.

If his previous mana had been like light water, what he now possessed felt… heavier.

“That is likely because a dragon’s mana is 100% pure, without any impurities.”

“My mana wasn’t exactly impure before, though.”

If anything, it had been refined repeatedly through the Oscar Mana Method.

“But that is still clean only by human standards. Dragons are beings created by the Supreme Deity to govern the world, so no impurities accumulate in their bodies. More importantly, their know-how in accumulating pure mana has been built up over tens of billions of years.”

Even a neighborhood restaurant with decades of tradition earns praise—this was tradition spanning tens of billions of years.

Oscar nodded.

“So what’s inside me now is the purest mana in the world.”

“That’s correct. At least in terms of purity, there is now little difference between you and a dragon.”

Dragons were called the origin of magic.

Perhaps the greatest advantage of the Dragon Heart wasn’t the immense mana it granted, but the fact that consuming it converted one’s existing mana to 100% purity.

It was just that no one had ever properly consumed one before.

“I could probably make money just by extracting and selling my mana.”

“Be careful. If it becomes known that your mana is 100% pure, all kinds of lunatics will surely target your body.”

Of course, he wasn’t weak enough to be kidnapped and experimented on—but there was no need to invite trouble.

Oscar nodded.

“Let’s keep this between you and me.”

“Understood.”

The resumed task of transferring the materials was completed in two hours.

Perhaps because Devourer of Void had eaten some of the books, the subspace’s capacity had decreased, so there was no issue moving the remaining materials.

“What do we do about the materials it ate?”

“For now, we’ll check what remains, identify what’s missing, and try to restore as much as possible.”

At that moment, the red emergency power quietly shut down.

After quickly checking the entire facility, Edna nodded.

“System complete silence confirmed. If demons visit later, they’ll assume all records have been erased.”

“So there’s nothing left behind?”

“Yes, we’ve confirmed that all materials on the moon have been transferred into your subspace, Oscar—”

Before Edna could finish speaking—

Dududud!

The subspace, piled high with books like a mountain, began to shake as if struck by an earthquake.

‘Don’t tell me… Devourer of Void is still alive?’

Oscar’s eyes narrowed as his vigilance spiked instantly.

However, he could sense no sign of life within the subspace.

In other words, Devourer of Void was definitely dead.

‘Wait—its corpse is stored in the double-layered subspace, isn’t it?’

Then what was causing the vibrations here?

As the two stared anxiously into the subspace—

Kwaaaaaaang!

With a thunderous explosion, the interior of the subspace distorted.

Devourer of Void’s corpse exploded, and the double-layered subspace, unable to withstand the shock, collapsed—its boundaries breaking apart.

Oscar hastily deployed a barrier to protect himself and Edna.

“Ugh!”

“Th-The records… the records we barely managed to move!”

Edna’s eyes shook violently.

A tremendous shockwave swept through the entire subspace, erasing the mountain of books like dust.

“…….”

“…….”

After the shock passed, Oscar and Edna stepped into the aftermath.

Where there had once been mountains of books, nothing remained.

“A… Ah…”

Edna, who rarely showed emotional disturbance, collapsed to her knees.

With trembling hands, she picked up a single book that barely retained its form.

But the moment her fingers touched it, it crumbled with a rustling sound into dust.

“Ah….”

As Oscar looked at her with pity, he suddenly noticed something and shook her shoulder.

“Edna.”

“…Just a moment. Please let me be alone for a bit.”

“No—look at that.”

Edna turned toward where Oscar was pointing, her expression turning strange.

“That is… digitized records?”

The moment she finished speaking—

The clusters of light drifting above their heads began to embed themselves throughout the subspace, as if taking root.

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