Chapter 290: A Place of Memories

“W-What was that?! An explosion?!”

Turning back time a little—in the main hall where Queen Sharika stayed, a commotion started just as Eve fired her first shot. All of the Queen’s guards quickly moved, gathering around her for protection.

“Danger! Protect the Queen!”

“You! Quickly check what happened!”

“Gather more guards!”

As the guards were panicking, Queen Sharika only frowned on her throne.

She stared at the ceiling, almost as if she could see through the roof. Looking in the direction where the sound came from—the tower where Eve and the rest were.

After a few seconds of staring, she lowered her gaze and sighed.

“What is happening?” She asked casually, calm and collected.

“T-That…!”

Just when the guard was hesitating, unsure how to answer, another came running from outside, out of breath.

“T-There’s a fight!” He shouted. “The outsiders are messing up the Grunion Stadium!”

“What?!”

The guards raised their voices in shock and anger. They looked as if they were about to rush out to fight Axel and the others.

“Settle down.”

“…!”

But with just that one sentence from Queen Sharika, they all went quiet.

Of course, she knew Axel wouldn’t attack without reason. And the first thing she could think of as to why he’d do this was… her request for help. She had asked him to help her “clean up,” after all.

“King Axel Walker is simply moving to fulfill my request.” She whispered, closing her eyes in peace. “Thus, there’s no need to bother them over there. Instead, focus on strengthening our defenses and protecting the citizens!”

Queen Sharika might have been a weak queen, but her popularity couldn’t be ignored.

“Yes, my Queen!”

Thus, all the guards quickly saluted and ran to implement her commands. Only a select few were left behind, keeping the bare minimum of protection around her.

Watching her men move, she silently leaned back in her chair.

Of course, even if she believed in Axel, he was still a “stranger.” A hint of anxiety still lingered in her heart. But as a ruler, she wouldn’t dare let it show in her expression.

“Sir Axel…”

She whispered.

So quietly that nobody heard her at all.

…

“Navi! Navi! Tell us where Husband is!!!” “Mimir, do you know anything? Please speak! My king, he…!”

Back at the top of Eve’s avant-garde tower, she and Ria were pushing the two system spirits against the wall. Their intensity was so terrifying that even Navi looked pale!

[I-I’m trying, ladies! But for some reason, I can’t reach my contractor at all!] He said while shaking his head.

“Same with me.” Mimir added from the side, looking a little grumpy herself. “Although I can feel the connection with Sir Axel’s system lingering, I can’t pinpoint his location at all. We can’t even teleport to his system. Almost as if he’s nowhere…”

“Tsk!”

Eve clicked her tongue.

It had only been a few seconds since Axel and the new Seven Deadly Sin, Envy, disappeared. However, the girls were already in full panic mode looking for him.

They were worried.

Fighting a Deadly Sin wouldn’t be simple.

Axel, fighting against the Demon King Wrath’s clone, had almost failed to win even then. Now that he was facing the third-ranked demon, his victory wasn’t guaranteed at all.

And now, he was alone somewhere—in a place the girls didn’t even know about!

“We can’t just sit still…!” Eve bit her nails. “We have to find him!”

As she was slowly nibbling her nails away, her gaze landed on a familiar figure, and an idea popped into her head. “Right! Fenrir, the Gleipnir!”

“Huh…?”

Fenrir, who had been out of it since Axel disappeared, finally raised her head. She stared blankly at Eve, as if unable to understand what she’d just said.

“Gleipnir is always connected to Sir Axel, correct?! Then we can use it as a marker to find his location!”

Fenrir’s eyes opened wide in surprise. Theoretically, that sounded plausible, but…

“I can’t.” She shook her head, raising her chin.

The next moment, a golden chain appeared around her neck, trailing down. The links fell from her neck—about ten links long, just to the level of her waist—before vanishing like mist.

“Like this, if the distance is too great, Gleipnir turns ethereal. We can’t use it…”

“No! That’s it!” Although Fenrir said it was unusable, Ria seemed to have a different idea. “It’s ethereal now, right? But it should still connect your soul to Husband’s! Then, if we use the links we have through the Soul Seals… We can triangulate his location!”

“H-Huh…?”

Fenrir faltered.

No, everyone did.

The words she’d just spouted sounded so complicated that the girls couldn’t believe they were hearing them from the usually playful Ria. But at the same time, they could see the feasibility of her suggestion.

“That… sounds like a plan!”

Nina nodded, touching the tattoo-like mark around her neck. The others did the same, touching their necks and closing their eyes.

As soon as they did, their senses picked up on the “direction” of Axel’s location. Vague, but present.

“Navi! Mimir!”

Beatrix chimed in, turning to the two spirits. “With all of us doing this, the wavelength should be visible enough for you two, right? Please check where Sir Axel is!”

Navi looked awkward. [You’re asking for the impossible…] He knew no such functions, after all!

“Alright, leave it to me!”

But Mimir answered positively, making everyone nod firmly.

Mimir floated to the middle of the girls, basking in the “wavelengths” of their Soul Seals and Fenrir’s Gleipnir. As a spiritual entity, she could “feel” the spiritual connection between the girls and Axel. And using her own connection to Axel’s system as auxiliary, she quickly found the location.

An image flashed in her mind. A dim location—barren, empty, and red.

“This is…!”

And to her surprise, it was a familiar one.

…

Axel’s vision flashed for a moment. The usual transition during teleportation. Of course, this was also felt by the one he’d dragged with him—Envy.

In an instant, Axel arrived at a special location.

A place where, even if they fought to their heart’s content, he wouldn’t have to worry about collateral damage!

Looking around, he quickly noticed the dark skies. The barren, sandy earth, and the ruins of an extremely old fortress. One that was quite familiar to him.

“This place is…?”

Envy asked, raising a brow.

Despite being brought to a different location, he didn’t seem panicked at all. Rather, he seemed almost as if he were on vacation. His gestures were casual and relaxed, as if they weren’t in the middle of a battle!

“You don’t need to worry about the name of this place,” Axel grinned, drawing his holy sword once again. “After all, this’ll become your grave soon!”

Without waiting for the enemy to “recover” from the teleportation sickness—which usually took a few seconds if you weren’t used to it—Axel attacked.

He leapt forward, slashing his sword down from overhead.

A powerful slash loaded with a great deal of his mana. One backed by an instantaneous 1000% output of his Overdrive buff!

“TAKE THIS!”

The slash went straight, hitting Envy right in the middle of his jester mask. It was so powerful that the excess force created a crevice about a kilometer deep and a few dozen kilometers long!

Ring!

“…!”

But then, the next moment, Axel’s sword was left hanging alone mid-air. Envy’s body was about a meter away, completely safe from the attack!

“I see… A different dimension than where we were earlier, correct?”

And to make it worse, he was figuring out Axel’s actions too fast.

Yes, Axel had grabbed him and dragged him over to Witcheria in one go! He’d brought them to the furthest spot he had reached in the Red Zone—Hrimvalr’s Labyrinth, where Mimir had originally resided!

It was hundreds of kilometers away from any settlements, so it was the best choice Axel could think of.

The problem was that he only had one Return Scroll registered to this location. In short, the girls would have a hard time trying to catch up with him!

“HAAAAP!”

Axel swung his sword once more, this time ensuring the target was within reach. However—

Ring! Ring!

The sound of bells echoed as the sword “missed” its target once again. Envy was a meter further from the sword’s tip!

’This is… an enchantment?’ Axel quickly figured.

He was sure his attacks should’ve landed. He was also sure he wasn’t under any illusion or mental spell. Thus, there was only one explanation for why he kept missing.

“Those bells…”

Axel muttered, staring at the small golden bells attached to the ends of the Jester Mask’s “mane.”

“They’re interfering with cause and effect, right?”

“Oh?” Envy’s voice echoed with a hint of surprise and interest. “To think you’d figure that out so fast. I suppose I was looking down on you a tad too much~?”

Whenever the bell rang, he noticed the space warp—for a split of a split second. It was the briefest of moments, but a sensation he wouldn’t mistake. Fenrir bent space to her will often enough, after all.

’Damn! I should’ve brought Fenrir at least!’ Axel lamented, a little too late.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep