ushernet Chapter 15.1
Chapter 15.1
They were caught off guard, but not in despair.
High-ranking knights undergo training to prepare for battles against magicians.
Their real-world experiences of being trapped in magical barriers were as numerous as their drills.
Thus, they all had a basic understanding of how to break such barriers.
And so, what felt like days turned into weeks, and weeks into a month.
“......”
“......”
Yet, the barrier remained unbroken.
“What kind of barrier is this?”
“It’s a barrier that twists and distorts space-time.”
“Maintaining such an expansive barrier for this long... This isn’t the work of an ordinary magician.”
Breaking a barrier is simple in theory.
You wander around within the barrier, searching for the subtle gap between reality and the barrier itself.
Once you find it, you infuse mana into that gap, forcing the barrier and reality apart.
Then, you strike the opening with a sword wrapped in aura to destroy it.
But no matter how much they searched, they couldn’t find that gap.
The reason was simple: the barrier was far too vast.
“We’re in trouble. Our food supply...”
Though they didn’t know how much time had passed in the outside world, time within the barrier flowed relentlessly for Arina and the knights.
Despite rationing their supplies as much as possible, their food reserves were depleted.
But their hardships weren’t over yet.
There’s always something worse waiting below rock bottom.
—
Hiiiiinnngg... thud!
One day, without warning, the elite horses pulling their carriage collapsed simultaneously.
“A curse! It’s a curse!”
“What? How?”
This was a world devoid of monsters, people, or even something as simple as berries on trees.
The horses had survived thus far by grazing on the sparse weeds that grew in the snowy fields and consuming snow.
Yet, despite being in better condition than the humans, they collapsed.
“Looks like those dark magicians have been meddling with us.”
“Could we be in danger too?”
“We’re highly trained superhumans who’ve mastered mana and the sword. If it were a curse potent enough to affect us, those bastards would’ve already revealed themselves.”
“Hmm... What kind of curse is it?”
These were no ordinary monsters but creatures found only in the abyss of the Demonic Realm.
Though they had lost their agility in undeath, their bodies were far more durable.
“Come at us, you damn bastards!”
“Renslet! Rune Renslet!”
They annihilated the undead horde.
It became clear why Arina and her knights had been so confident when leaving Haven.
“The end... It doesn’t seem to be in sight...”
Yet such determination couldn’t last forever.
The battles continued, the barrier remained intact, and their food had run out long ago.
The knights’ stamina and vitality were steadily waning.
“Will we... be able to survive?”
“Arad... I wish I could have Haven’s Arad Stew just one last time before I die.”
Their initial confidence had faded like the ash-gray snowfields around them.
Prolonged starvation and endless wandering within the barrier had driven them to the brink of panic.
“I just want to sleep... properly, even for a while.”
“If we die here, will it be peaceful? Or will we become undead, unable to rest even in death?”
Now they couldn’t even sleep properly.
Whenever they tried to rest, monsters would appear as if on cue.
Even Northerners, known for their resilience and survival instincts, had their limits.
“We’re in serious trouble. Our weapons and armor...”
“Even sharpening them isn’t slowing the rate of corrosion!”
Worst of all, their armor and weapons, the last bastion of their defense, were deteriorating.
Fighting undead monsters had gradually corroded their gear, further diminishing their already negligible combat effectiveness.
* * *
In front of the campfire.
Haggard and exhausted, Arina sat in a daze, staring at her sword.
Though it was a masterpiece forged from Northern cold steel, it now looked like scrap metal, worn from countless battles.
Gurgle
Her stomach growled, a painful reminder of her hunger.
Four days without food had pushed her beyond hunger into sheer agony.
To distract herself, she scooped some water from the pot boiling over the fire.
“This Arad salt... it’s almost gone too.”
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