Book Eater

Chapter 416: Era of Peace (16)

What was the driving force behind the continued development of civilization?

That question had been answered by many people.

Some people said that it was war.

Others said it was due to the pursuit of convenience.

However, apart from the short-term development, there was only one driving force that could encompass all of human history:

Curiosity.

With it, there was the willingness to dig into the swamp of the unknown!

Since creatures with wisdom started walking with two feet in prehistoric times, It had been an instinct and impulse.

Why did fire burn?

Why did the wind blow?

Why did thunderbolts strike?

They were curious about what they saw with their own eyes, what they touched with their hands, and even what they stepped on. If they knew one thing, they would want to know two things. After knowing two things, they would want to know three.

After passing through an area full of predators, what type of scenery waited beyond the horizon?

Humanity, a weak race that once didn’t even have the power to defend themselves, eventually succeeded in conquering the surface of this planet.

Humans perfected maps to act in place of eyes that could see the heavenly world.

From a seated position, they could find out the height of a mountain thousands of kilometers away. In addition, no one believed that there was a cliff at the end of the horizon. They knew that the world was round and thus if they continued to move eastward, they would circle around and return to their starting point.

The knowledge accumulated by intellectuals over the years had raised the level of the entire race.

That was the power that made humanity the ruler of the planet.

Humans no longer wondered about what lay beyond the horizon, and now, there were only two unknowns left in this physical world.

The sky and the sea.

However, human civilization was not at a level where it could explore what lay beyond the sky, which was the universe. Even if people knew about its existence, they wouldn’t dare to challenge it.

Thus, the next destination of the present human race was determined.

The deep sea.

It was the deepest part of the planet where even the light of the sun couldn’t reach, a place where life on Earth couldn’t survive.

The deep sea had many words representing it, but among them, there was one that gave off a great sense of fear.

The Abyss.

The ‘Abyss’ was the world of demons and humans had linked the two together.

Of course, there were some parts that matched after some thought.

Both were worlds that light couldn’t reach, and were worlds where ugly, distorted creatures ate each other at the bottom. Above all, both were extreme worlds where humans couldn’t survive for even a second. At a depth of 10 km under water, the force exerted was 10,000 times that of the ground. This was enough to crumple mithril plates that were used for experiments.

Despite all of that, there was a being floating in the deep sea that seemed out of place.

“—He is late.”

Light that shouldn’t be seen spread throughout the darkness.

At the center the light that stretched out spherically, she stood there waiting.

She was a woman with hair that flowed like waves, fluorescent eyes, and a figure that seemed to have been carved by an artist. Only her reptile-like pupils hinted at her identity.

Sea Dragon Aquilo.

She was the ruler of the sea from birth, so she didn’t care about the pressure that was increased by 10,000 times. To a sea dragon, there was nothing more meaningless than discussing the harshness of the sea.

“Go away, you ugly guys.”

Deep-sea fish had flocked after sensing the alien presence, but they were torn to shreds with a single wave of her hand.

It was as if they had been crushed to death by a giant’s palm.

Manipulating the deep ocean currents at will was nothing to her.

There was a reason that sea dragons ran wild in the old days. After all, as far as the deep sea was concerned, sea dragons could display a combat power that exceeded lower gods or even a gold dragon.

‘...By any chance, am I stronger than him here?’

While bored, Aquilo suddenly had a dark thought.

Even a transcendent acknowledged by a dragon lord couldn’t be completely free from the pressure of the deep sea. On the other hand, she was five times more powerful than when she was on the surface. If so, wouldn’t she be able to overpower him?

His women wouldn’t live for 2,000 years anyway, so she had decided to wait for a while. However, if she could use this occasion to capture him—

Filled with desire, Aquilo licked her lips.

Like a snake in front of its prey, her bewitching eyes chased after Theodore, who wasn't here.

It happened at this moment.

Kukukukung!

The power given by the sea dragon, which was the power to rule the sea, reacted faster than anything else.

There was a manifestation of power equal to or above her!

Aquilo’s face stiffened as the sea parted above her head.

This was ridiculous.

She was at a depth of 9,000 meters. Here, the only beings that could directly interfere with seawater were sea dragons. In the current era, she was the only one left.

‘Then who is it?’

As if to answer her question, he appeared.

He was armed with artifacts as usual and was releasing a presence that made even dragons inadvertently back off.

Theodore, the world’s strongest magician, greeted her first.

“Sorry. I’m a bit late.”

“...Darling?”

“It took me a little longer to descend through the water. Next time, I’ll just come by magic.”

Aquilo muttered, her expression still dazed.

“How can this be?”

What she couldn’t figure out was a story that happened over a decade ago.

After clearing up the civil war in the Soldun Kingdom, Elsid, who was the crown prince at the time, gave the gift of the King’s Flagpole to Theodore.

The power that remained in it was the divine power of Poseidon, the god of the sea.

As a test, Theodore got a taste of the power to part a sea.

‘If the spear blade was attached, I would have been able to draw out all of the power of a main god. It is a bit of a pity.’

Among the numerous gods, the most powerful denominations were the sky, land, and sea. In addition, Poseidon was one of the three main gods of Olympus. If he obtained the entirety of the divine power, he would be able to hold all the oceans of the world in the palm of his hand.

On the other hand, Aquilo saw this scene and quickly changed her posture.

‘I was a bit crazy. How can I subdue this?’

Even an ancient-level sea dragon wouldn’t be able to defeat him.

Quickly grasping everything about the man in front of her, Aquilo’s eyes became filled with charm instead of desire.

She approached gently and linked her arm with his.

“Hmm, if you did something wrong, you have to make up for it, right?”

“You are still shrewd.”

The sensation of her right arm through the thin clothes was dizzying.

Theodore smiled wryly and looked away from her.

He had become used to it after experiencing it so much, but Aquilo’s temptation was as fatal as it was blatant.

[There is light.]

With a few words, a dazzling light unfolded, clearing away the darkness of the deep sea.

Startled by the sudden light, the deep-sea fish scattered in all directions, quickly leaving the area around the two of them quiet.

With the area revealed, he could see what Aquilo called ‘ruins.’

As soon as he saw it, Theodore expressed what came to mind.

“...A door?”

“I thought that as well,” Aquilo responded.

It was a huge door.

It was more than 100 meters long and was so huge that it would be hard to tell it was a door if they saw it from up close. No matter how he looked at it, this wasn’t a structure that should sink to the bottom of the deep sea.

Furthermore, Theodore didn’t know the letters engraved on the surface; not a single letter could be interpreted.

‘I wonder if I would’ve known if Gluttony had stayed.’

It was a meaningless thought.

Theodore’s eyes unknowingly sank. Next to him, Aquilo pointed to a place on the door.

“My Breath only dealt a small scratch to it. Adamantium isn’t as strong as this. It can’t be cut with a Water Jet either.”

/p>

The sea dragon’s Breath boasted the greatest destructive power in this deep sea. There was also no material in this world that couldn’t be cut by a jet of pressure at a depth of 9,000 meters.

If so, this giant gate was a structure from another world, or—

‘It is protected by a mysterious power.’

Theodore was intrigued and approached slowly.

As he approached, his super sensitivity didn’t feel any powers coming from the gate.

The same was true of the letters written on the surface. The engraving workmanship was amazing, but that was it. Theodore stared at it for a few minutes before stretching out his palm.

He was going to inject magic power into it to investigate it himself.

Then the moment that his palm touched the door—

The whole door vibrated and started to emit light!

“What?”

The phenomenon remained even when the bewildered Theodore withdrew his hand.

One by one, the letters on the door shone.

After seeing this, Theodore’s wisdom flashed.

“Divine letters!”

They were the result of lost history from the Age of Mythology. They could only be used by gods and different gods used different forms.

They were letters that could only be understood by beings with the appropriate divinity.

Naturally, no one could read them in this day and age.

“...At.”

However, Theodore could read them.

“At, lan, tis...?”

They spell out the name of the city on the other side of the gate.

He embraced the knowledge. A beat later, he became confused about how he knew the name and could read it.

But it wasn’t long before he realized why.

‘That’s right! Poseidon’s divinity!’

According to the divine letters, the ruin belonged to Olympus.

Perhaps Poseidon himself was involved in it.

It was only natural that it would respond to Theodore’s divinity.

“W-What? What’s going on?”

Not understanding what was occuring, Aquilo squirmed. Theodore just pulled her arm without saying anything else.

There was only one effect that the door would cause.

“Hold on tightly!”

The moment Theodore gave the warning, the giant door swung open.

Due to the difference in water pressure, enormous amounts of seawater, as well as Theodore and Aquilo, were drawn into the door.

The moment they were drawn in, the two saw what lay behind the door.

There was nothing.

They couldn’t see anything behind the door.

There was only a dark void devouring seawater.

This giant door didn’t lead to the deep sea. It was the passage to a world other than this one!

Soon, Theodore and Aquilo disappeared into the door.

Thump!

Shortly after that, the giant door closed its mouth like it had never opened.

A death-like silence came to the depths again.

***

“Kyah!’

“Keuk!”

It was easy to pass through the giant door, or rather, the dimensional door. The two people were poured out along with a huge amount of seawater onto the hard, damp ground.

They weren’t hurt, but they didn’t feel good.

“...I-I’ve never experienced anything like this before.”

No, Aquilo had fallen in Theodore’s arms and looked very satisfied. They brushed off the mud and water from their bodies and quickly looked around.

Theodore cocked his head.

“It is a strange space.”

“It feels like it isn’t here nor there, but it isn’t the Spirit World either.”

The connection with their physical world was faint but unbroken.

That was proof that this wasn’t a completely different dimension.

Moving the mana around him, Theodore confirmed that his abilities weren’t affected. He also found out that the composition of the atmosphere was the same, except for the fact that the mana here was a hundred times thicker than the standard concentration of the physical world.

He couldn’t feel any pressure though, so it wasn’t too bad.

Perhaps it was because the sudden change in environment was very unpleasant, but Aquilo clung to Theodore’s side and asked, “Darling, can you get out of here?”

“No problem. There is something here preventing space movement, but I can pierce through it with force.”

“Then it won’t be dangerous.”

Aquilo looked relieved. She took a few steps to look around.

The white floor was like white sand and felt quite strange.

There were coral reefs even though this wasn’t the sea and even what looked like the remains of starfish.

For an artificial space, the smell of nature was quite strong.

‘For what purpose was this place built?’

In order to intervene with a dimensional gap to this extent, it must be at least a transcendent or a god at an intermediate level or higher.

Furthermore, considering Poseidon’s involvement, the traces of divine power felt were faint.

Theodore frowned as he started feeling some doubts.

“...Darling?”

At this moment, Aquilo called out to him.

“Hm?”

“On the horizon. I’m not the only one who can see it, right?”

Theodore turned his attention in the direction she was pointing at.

With no obstructions, it was easy to see.

Soon, Theodore saw something like Aquilo and stiffened.

“It seems like the owners are angry?”

“Do you think so as well?”

Beyond the horizon where the two of them were looking, shadows that were dozens of meters high were gathering.