Divine power.
The moment I faced it, countless memories I'd pressed down deep rose back up.
A certain emotion rose along with them, and I barely managed to stamp it down and send it off beyond memory.
"Right now, first……."
I had to uncover the whole story of this.
'A rampage, it says.'
I looked at the system window that had risen in one corner of my vision the instant I entered the barrier.
[Sub Quest: Calm the Demon King's rampage!]
[Rewards for this quest vary according to the outcome.]
[Quest Reward: KP 300~6,500]
It seemed certain that something had gone wrong with Enoch.
First I raised magic power and shielded my whole body.
The shock of magic power and divine power colliding had already stained me with blood, but Regeneration was stopping the bleeding, so the wounds weren't a concern.
"That damn spirit…… how is this a rest period?"
Cursing the black ball of fur that was surely still down in the storeroom dusting shelves without a clue, I pressed forward.
Though waves of energy sharp enough to slice my skin were bursting out in every direction, Enoch's mansion was strangely serene.
That held true even after I struggled my way inside.
The red carpet crossing the center of the mansion, the fountain with its water trickling.
Entirely untouched in the middle of this chaos.
I couldn't understand what trick this was.
But soon Existence Analysis explained the scene before me.
'A measure Enoch put in place? Ah…… Blackie. That one did this.'
Of course, it surely wasn't aware of the fact.
The golems, granted dreams by it and moving on their own, appeared to be protecting the mansion with a barrier of dreams.
'So that's why they bustled around the mansion every single day.'
In any case, I forced my way forward through the fierce storm of magic power.
The storm grew more violent the closer I came to the mansion's center, and protecting my body with Magic Arts was nearing its limit.
Blood burst out here and there again, and the wounds ran deeper than before, but…….
'Here.'
Reaching Enoch's room, the center of all this, was not in itself a problem.
"Ngh……."
I grabbed the door handle with a blood-soaked hand and flung it open.
What lay beyond it?
Could he be locked in a bloody battle with a Heavenly Realm native?
Every kind of guess muddled my head.
Maybe that was why my head spun with dizziness.
No, this was simply from losing too much blood.
Whatever scene waited beyond, I couldn't delay any longer.
CREEEAK.
When I opened the door.
An astonishingly quiet stillness arrived.
As if the storm of a moment ago had been a lie, not a breath of wind could be felt.
'Like the eye of a storm.'
Inside Enoch's room, where the storm of magic power and divine power had settled.
It didn't take long to find Enoch.
"Ha."
Enoch.
Was down on one knee, clutching his chest.
And from his broad back, magic power and divine power were pouring out.
Like two imugi fighting over a single wish-granting orb.
The two immense energies spat out force to devour one another.
Yet within this room they had no effect at all, venting entirely out through the ceiling.
"What…… is this?"
Divine power, still vividly pouring out of Enoch's body.
'Why is divine power spilling out of Enoch's body?'
All sorts of guesses had run wild in my head on the way here, but I could never have imagined this case.
And the situation itself was flowing in a far worse direction than any guess I'd made.
Something had definitely gone wrong with Enoch.
'Divine power and magic power are clashing. And as a result…….'
A phenomenon I knew all too well was taking place.
A magic power rampage.
"……."
A magic power rampage on such a scale that the one I'd suffered as a newborn was mere child's play by comparison.
All the information I'd gathered and every experience I'd had before the regression tried to draw some conclusion, but.
Damn it, now wasn't the time to be thinking about that.
I went straight toward Enoch.
'What do I do?'
Divine power that had settled in Enoch's body for reasons unknown.
And a magic power rampage that came on a hundred-year cycle.
Probably…… it wouldn't matter if I left it alone.
Enoch had spoken of a month, so he could surely quell this rampage within it.
He'd surely been through this more than once or twice.
So even without my involvement, Enoch would come back to normal on his own.
But…….
'If he were perfectly fine, he wouldn't end up dying in the future.'
And there'd be no reason for the quest to appear either.
Behind everything that would happen from here on stood the Heavenly Realm.
And five hundred years ago, during the Heaven-Demon War fought in this dungeon, Enoch would have been guarding it as well.
Perhaps at the end of this phenomenon lay a thread leading to the answer I wanted.
'So what do I have to do right now?'
No need to even say it.
There was nothing but quelling that divine power.
'But is that even possible?'
Still…… this time even I couldn't move rashly.
If it were a problem of my own I could judge for myself, but this was Enoch's problem.
"……."
After thinking it over for a while, I reached a conclusion.
It was possible.
If it was me.
Divine power was an energy I had handled well enough before the regression.
More precisely, the "Holy Sword" itself was a weapon made of divine power.
Even at this moment, Existence Analysis was analyzing the divine power within the Holy Sword that remained on the far side of my memory.
As for magic power, I had the help of the Magic Arts I'd recently come to realize.
And that wasn't all.
The source of my magic power lay with none other than Enoch.
So with the magic power pouring out of his body, I could interfere to a degree.
This wasn't arrogance or stubbornness. Nor was it misjudgment.
Because there truly was a chance, I seized the two energies with both hands.
And.
FWOOOOOSH—
"Kuh, fuck."
I admitted my mistake.
Ahem. Hem.
"This damn divine power's pitching a fit at me too."
A chill ran down my spine in an instant.
The moment I grabbed the divine power, the magic power inside me began to seethe as well.
The price of grabbing two mutually opposed energies far too casually.
"Slowly…… let's try it bit by bit."
I murmured it as though soothing myself.
Enoch's magic power and divine power were not friendly toward me.
Though the magic power at least wasn't entirely hostile, perhaps thanks to the piece of Enoch's magic power I carried.
'So controlling both energies at once is greed…… what clearly has to go is the divine power.'
For whatever reason, the divine power lurking in Enoch's body was provoking the magic power and seething fiercely.
If I could quell that alone, the magic power would naturally settle too.
So how?
'Magic power moves along a road by its nature.'
I had to strike only the weak points so the divine power couldn't run wild, and guide the magic power there.
"Whew."
Not an easy task.
Even at this moment, Enoch's divine power was making my own magic power seethe.
And in the middle of that I had to protect myself, identify the divine power's weak points, and guide Enoch's magic power.
"Still, it has to be done."
I can do this.
I can.
Casting self-suggestions I'd never once used in my life, I began work with no telling when it would end.
At the very least, it wasn't going to finish within the day.
***
Hour one.
Began a probing engagement to find the divine power's weak points.
In the process I was exposed to the raging divine power and nearly went into a rampage myself.
…….
Hour four.
Started to grasp the flow of the divine power.
Entirely possible because of Existence Analysis.
Judged it still too dangerous to touch.
Put it off a little longer.
…….
Hour five.
Identified the divine power's weak point and guided Enoch's magic power to it.
Fortunately, his magic power followed my guidance well.
The problem is that the divine power has begun to recognize me as an enemy too.
…….
Hour eight.
That was a little dangerous.
Of all things, the divine power grazed my heart.
I barely forced down the magic power that tried to rampage, but I couldn't stop the heat pouring out of my whole body.
My left eye is slightly blurry too. That seems dangerous.
…….
Hour eleven.
My own magic power is getting dangerous now.
Fatigue has piled up from running it so long, and after repeated exposure to the divine power it feels ready to throw a fit at the slightest movement.
My nose went damp and a coppery taste filled my mouth. Both were blood.
…….
Hour seventeen.
Physical fatigue isn't the only danger. Now I'm at my mental limit as well.
Every single strand of divine power spreading in all directions looks to me like an impossibly sharp sword.
Ah, damn it.
My left shoulder got hit while I was thinking.
Fortunately, I'm right-handed.
…….
Hour twenty-one.
By this point I can't tell whether I'm alive or dead.
The one saving grace is that the divine power's force has dropped considerably.
My blurred eye and left shoulder are slowly recovering too.
…….
Fuck. How many hours has it been?
Anyway, I think I heard some kind of ding of a notification.
I can't remember it well.
I've given up counting the time.
I'm just…… moving magic power.
That's all.
***
The whirlpool of magic power that had raged like a storm began slowly to subside a full day later.
Enoch opened his eyes and quietly looked at the ceiling above the bed.
"……."
It was a matter from quite long ago.
A distant past that had grown hazy even in his memory.
Owing to a certain incident, divine power had begun to lurk in his body.
The magic power that composed his body rampaged in violent rejection.
That he could endure it was thanks to the height he had attained.
But that was strictly the domain of "enduring"; it did not mean a cure.
Day after day, every single day, he had to quell magic power that raged violently.
His magic power cared nothing for its owner's pain and spewed only ferocious hatred toward the divine power.
As a result, Enoch's body was collapsing slowly and steadily.
Thanks to that, one might say.
The divine power was readily subdued by the savage magic power, but it grew on a hundred-year cycle.
So the pain inflicted on Enoch swelled as time passed.
At some point it reached the stage where mental collapse would arrive before physical collapse.
In the distant past he had once pondered how to solve that problem.
But he could receive help from no one, and he found no solution on his own.
Enoch was given only two options.
Submit to the divine power.
Or rise to a higher rank.
But for Enoch there was no rank above his present one.
A rank higher than this would have meant joining the ranks of that being called the god of myth.
So only one result was left to him.
Death.
Enoch could not accept it.
If only for the duty given to him, he could not die so easily.
So Enoch chose an expedient.
To forget the body's pain.
More precisely, to make it impossible even to perceive, and thereby block the collapse of his mind.
And so Enoch erased his senses, his emotions, one by one.
What remained was only the duty: the Void's invasion must be stopped.
Why it had to be so.
Forgetting even that reason, he deferred for centuries.
And.
The end of the expedient came.
Now even his body was announcing its end.
And that time was not far off.
He knew the fact that it must not be allowed.
But with every emotion erased, Enoch could feel no sense of crisis.
Unnecessary struggling was not enough to produce effort in a man without emotion.
Perhaps he had been waiting for the end that approached.
And yet.
"……."
A change had come to the bodily state that had continued for centuries.
A state he had felt a very long time ago.
What word had he used to describe this?
Enoch labored over it on the spot for ten minutes.
And then he remembered.
"Re, freshed."
Refreshed.
Indeed. No expression fit better than that one.
Very long ago.
Just as his past self, now too faint to recall properly, had once been.
The freshness and lightness of waking from a deep sleep was rousing vigor through his whole body.
Of course, since his senses were cut off, he merely "perceived" his body's overall condition.
How had such a thing been possible?
That question was resolved before long.
"SNRRRRK……."
A human child, snoring strangely, asleep with his back propped against the side of the bed.
The very small being who had at some point begun calling him "Father."
The child's body was covered in dried blood, and on his cracked, torn fingertips there lingered a very faint residue of divine power.