What could I even call that sight…?
'This is… a bit overwhelming.'
And how could it not be? In what life does an ordinary person ever experience such an immense gaze upon them?
Especially when each gaze was as vast as a star itself.
"What are you looking at?"
I decided to play it tough.
There was no benefit in letting myself be cowed by the situation.
Ssssss—!
My strong stance seemed to have some effect—the enormous eyes watching me stirred.
I could feel it.
The stars—the eyes—were all fixated on me.
For a normal person, just seeing this would be enough to make them pass out.
But the pressure wasn't just from the sight alone.
'This is… spine-chilling.'
Was this what it would feel like if a starving wild dog licked the inside of my brain?
Just by staring at me, those star-like eyes made me feel as though I were floating in the vast abyss of space.
'What… the hell is that?'
At first, I suspected it was some kind of mental trap set by the Church of Morte.
But no.
This… this feeling was beyond anything the Church of Morte was capable of.
'This isn't some mere "Thousand Eyes."'
Then what were they?
Those countless eyes peering down at me—what exactly were they?
At that moment—
[Bo noath rlda.]
It wasn't the eyes that spoke.
The surrounding ether acted as their messenger, delivering their words in their place.
BEEEEEEEEEEEEEP—
And just from that alone, I felt blood seeping from my eyes, ears, and every other opening in my body.
All from a simple, indirect transmission of intent.
'What in the world…'
My body felt as if it were about to burst apart.
And amidst the crimson-drenched chaos, I saw it.
The world around me… was collapsing.
Rumble, rumble, rumble—!
Like the end of an era, the stars that once floated in the sky began to fall all at once.
My own body, too, was breaking apart—dissolving as if down to the molecular level.
The world was ending.
No… I was ending.
And yet, those eyes gazing down at me… remained calm.
No, they were indifferent.
Like a person watching an insect perish.
'Damn… bastards…'
At last, my consciousness was swallowed by the darkness.
.
.
.
[You have glimpsed the fragments of ■■■. You are now capable of perceiving a portion of ■■■.]
[You have acquired 'Rift Space.']
When I opened my eyes again, what greeted me was a new system notification—
—And the corpses of Church of Morte followers.
I had returned to reality.
Fsssss…
The mysterious object that had dragged me into that mental world crumbled into dust, as if it had been waiting for this moment.
That meant I wouldn't be able to gather any clues about the object that had sent me there.
["Master? Are you awake?"]
"…Did I lose consciousness?"
["What do you mean? Don't you remember? You suddenly saw something flash, then collapsed on the spot!"]
"For how long?"
["Almost two hours!"]
"Two hours?"
Yet the time I spent in that mental world had only felt like a few minutes at most.
Two hours…
'Either time flowed differently there, or I was unconscious for much longer than I thought.'
Either way, it wasn't good news.
If a beast or monster had attacked me in that defenseless state, not even Esther's protection would have kept me from dying.
The only silver lining was that the Church of Morte didn't seem to have foreseen this outcome.
'If this was intentional, they would've used it as an attack.'
If their plan was to set a trap and leave me unconscious, they would have simply finished me off afterward.
The fact that they didn't meant that this incident was likely unforeseen, even for them.
'No… more fundamentally, what the hell was that?'
Even I didn't fully understand what had just happened.
The object I initially thought was a Church of Morte artifact turned out to be nothing of the sort—it had transported me to some unknown mental world before vanishing completely.
Any potential clue had now disappeared.
'…No. There is a clue.'
The new ability that had manifested after I faced those 'eyes.'
Or rather—the mere act of seeing them had granted me this power.
'Rift Space, huh…'
It was an ability I had never encountered before.
But considering the circumstances of how it came to be, I had a vague idea of what it might do.
'Let's test it.'
I reached out into empty space.
And concentrated.
['Rift Space' activates.]
In that moment—
Swish!
My hand, which had been reaching into thin air, was suddenly swallowed into nothingness, as if it had been sucked into a void.
Esther let out a horrified shriek.
["Wahhh! W-What is that?!"]
"I don't know."
["…You don't know, and yet you just shoved your hand in there?!"]
She was clearly still shaken.
"It's my ability."
["BUT YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT IT DOES!"]
Ignoring her protests, I started moving my hand around within the void to get a feel for it.
Swipe. Swipe.
'I think I get the gist of it.'
Rift Space.
If my assumption was correct, it created a rift leading to that unknown mental world.
Of course, it might have other functions, but that was my best guess for now.
'Should I try stepping in?'
For a moment, the thought crossed my mind.
But having even a rough understanding of what lay beyond, I wasn't eager to take that risk just yet.
'Rather than going in myself… maybe I can use it for something else?'
As an experiment, I picked up a nearby stone and tossed it into the Rift Space.
Then, without hesitation, I closed the rift.
Ripple—
The spatial distortion vanished.
'Can I retrieve it?'
I focused once more.
The fatigue was even worse than the first time, making it clear that this wasn't an ability I could use frequently.
['Rift Space' is activating.]
Crack, crack—
Once again, the rift opened, and I carefully reached my hand inside.
'It's there.'
Just as expected.
I could feel the texture of the pebble I had placed inside just moments ago.
Swoosh—
["…Did you just pull that out from there?"]
"Yeah."
["What exactly is inside that place?"]
"If you're curious, go in and see for yourself."
["Absolutely not! I'll pass. Just so we're clear, don't even think about forcing me. If you do, I swear I'll bite my tongue and die on the spot. "]
"You wouldn't die even if you did that."
["That's just a figure of speech! A figure of speech!"]
For some reason, it felt like a little devil inside me was whispering. But I had no intention of taking a risk that might cost me Esther just to satisfy a fleeting moment of sadism.
'At least, I can store objects inside.'
The first experiment was a success.
Naturally, the next step followed.
'What happens if I put a living creature inside?'
Based on my own experience, when my intangible consciousness entered the space, my entire body melted away—a rare and unsettling sensation.
So, what would happen if a physically tangible life form entered?
'I doubt it would come out unscathed… but testing it firsthand is the best way to know.'
Of course, I couldn't go in myself. Instead, I decided to use one of the corpses of a cultist.
'This should do.'
The entrance of the rift wasn't as large as I had expected, making it difficult to shove the cultist's body inside.
"…Don't just watch. Give me a hand."
["I told you; I don't want to touch those things."]
"And it's fine if I do?"
["Yes."]
"..."
Her absolute certainty left me momentarily speechless.
Regardless, I continued the experiment, closing and reopening the rift.
'No signs of structural collapse in the body.'
Of course, that might be because it was already a corpse.
It became clear that I needed to test it with something alive.
'The problem is… there's nothing nearby that would make a suitable test subject…'
No… now that I think about it, there was one.
A living organism conveniently close to me.
Chik!
The test subject would be part of Janus's bone tendrils.
Given their nature, even when severed from Janus, they could survive for a while. I intended to take advantage of that.
['Rift Space' is activating.]
I severed a portion of Janus's bone tendril and placed it inside the rift, waiting briefly before pulling it back out.
'Huh?'
That's when I noticed something unusual.
Normally, a severed bone tendril would cease all biological activity within approximately five minutes.
Yet, despite spending ten minutes inside the rift, the tendril twitched again the moment it exited.
This led me to a hypothesis.
'Time inside the Rift Space either flows extremely slowly… or doesn't flow at all.'
With this, I started to grasp its potential uses.
'Now, just one experiment remains.'
I had tested objects, corpses, and even living creatures.
The last step was to confirm whether my hypothesis was correct.
["…What are you doing now?"]
"Just another experiment."
I inflicted a small wound on my hand and placed it inside the rift.
Given the properties of my enhanced serum and the power of the serpent's emblem, a wound of this magnitude should heal instantly.
However—
'As I thought.'
After approximately thirty seconds, I pulled my hand out, and the wound remained unchanged.
But the moment it was back in normal space, it immediately began healing.
In other words, my hypothesis was correct. Time inside the Rift Space did not flow as it did in reality.
Either extremely slowly… or not at all.
["…Wow. You're really a monster. How does a wound heal that fast?"]
Esther seemed horrified, but that wasn't important right now.
'Summarizing the results of all my experiments…'
The purpose of the Rift Space was clear.
'An inventory.'
The Defense was a game without an inventory system.
To prove that, I had never been able to use one—always having to store my heavy weaponry in my hideout or leave it strapped to Horus's back.
But the Rift Space was different.
'I still don't know its true nature, but it's definitely usable as an inventory.'
With this, moving around outside the Ark would become much easier.
Even with Horus acting as a pack mule, his back had its limits. And if I lost my gear mid-combat, the consequences would be disastrous.
'Of course, there's no guarantee that objects won't disappear inside the Rift Space, but based on my experiments so far, that doesn't seem likely.'
A space detached from reality.
A static space where time barely moved—or didn't move at all.
That was my understanding of the Rift Space. And it was perfect for use as an inventory.
["…What exactly is making you look so satisfied right now?"]
"It's nothing."
["Anyone can see it's not nothing. You passed out, woke up, started doing weird experiments… Seriously, what's even going on…?"]
Ignoring her, I stored even the junk I would've normally left behind into the Rift Space.
The vastness I glimpsed earlier wasn't an illusion—no matter how much I put inside, it didn't feel like it would ever fill up.
'Alright… time to go.'
It was about time to regroup with the investigation team.
* * *
"Eek!"
A sudden shriek from Iris made Hildegard whip her head around, scanning the surroundings warily.
"What?! What happened?!"
"N-No… I just got chills all of a sudden…"