Chapter 53: Unraveling the Spatial Mystery

I was utterly astonished, scarcely believing my ears as such a reply issued from their lips.

Ever since I confirmed that Sally and I were definitively no longer within the Asante Kingdom, I had unequivocally attributed this bizarre encounter to a ‘transmigration’ event.

Even if it wasn’t a cross-world journey, but merely a transit within the same world, I hadn’t harbored the slightest doubt about this conclusion.

Yet now, Alfred was telling me this wasn’t a spatial transfer at all, which left me utterly bewildered.

Wait, if it wasn’t a spatial transfer…

“Is it time then? Do you mean we’ve traveled through time?”

I ventured to ask them, my mind, heavily influenced by countless online dramas and films, swiftly conjuring another possibility for such an occurrence.

If it were merely a temporal displacement, it would make perfect sense—perhaps we had arrived thousands or tens of thousands of years after, or even before, we accepted the mission in the Royal Capital.

However, returning would then prove even more arduous.

“No… you’re overthinking it,” Alfred replied, a wry, almost exasperated smile playing on his lips, evidently not expecting my mind to leap to time travel.

“My apologies, perhaps I didn’t articulate myself clearly just now.”

He then reiterated his point.

“It wasn’t that you traversed space in the sky; rather, space itself carried you along.”

“Space carried us along?” Sally and I echoed in unison, like repeating machines.

Though my mind struggled to grasp the concept at first, his clarification instantly sparked a realization within me.

Truth be told, “traversing space” and “space carrying us along” seemed, at first glance, to convey the same meaning.

However, a moment’s reflection revealed subtle yet significant distinctions.

Traversing space typically implies actively passing through a spatial rift or channel to reach another dimension, signifying a deliberate journey.

Conversely, “space carrying us along” suggests that a pocket of space moved me to another dimension, denoting a passive transmission.

While both methods could effectively achieve spatial displacement, their underlying principles diverged slightly.

I had always believed Sally and I had experienced the former, inadvertently and actively crossing a spatial rift to arrive here.

The truth, however, was the latter: we had been passively transported to this location.

“So, what you’re saying is… a pocket of space brought us here?” From Sally’s expression, it was evident that she hadn’t quite grasped the concept yet.

“Then why did we feel nothing while we were in the sky?”

“No, it wasn’t in the sky.”

I shook my head, a potential answer to our transmigration location already forming in my mind, following this new line of thought.

“If I’m not mistaken… we were already transported to this dark continent while we were still in Tedles Town?”

“Precisely!” Alfred affirmed with an approving nod, seemingly impressed by my swift deduction.

“That also explains how the dark corruption in Tedles Town came to be.”

I exhaled slowly, turning to Sally.

Though she hadn’t initially grasped it either, Amos and the others were explaining it to her, and she quickly caught on.

“Those dark elements have always existed within this dark continent.

It’s only because the entirety of Tedles Town was abruptly transported here that it became susceptible to the surrounding dark elements, which were the true culprit behind so many people falling ill.”

This deduction perfectly elucidated why, when the dark elements suddenly intensified last night, they seemed to emanate from all directions.

“In fact, the mountain range where Tedles Town was situated should have been heavily vegetated, strikingly different from the terrain of this continent.

Had you not flown above the clouds, you would likely have noticed the anomaly as you passed the boundary of the transfer.”

Alfred pinpointed a crucial oversight in our experience: it was precisely because we perceived the sky to be overcast, anticipating rain, that Sally urged me to ascend, causing us to miss the opportunity to observe the changes on the ground below.

“That’s not necessarily true! Visibility beneath the clouds was so poor, and it was night.

In the pitch black, we might not have seen anything at all.” Sally, predictably, bristled at this, interjecting her rebuttal.

Yet, her point held merit.

Even after we descended below the clouds, it was only by flying close to the ground that we realized the terrain was entirely different.

“But then another question arises: if Tedles Town was transferred to this barren land, it must have occupied a significant portion of space.

So where did the original space it once occupied go? Could it be…”

A new, previously overlooked blind spot suddenly occurred to me.

“Did the spaces swap?”

“Exactly! You’ve finally figured it out,” Amos interjected at that moment, smiling as he spoke to me.

“Haven’t you been asking how I got to this place? Well, this is the answer; this is how we arrived.”

“Now, Blanche, perhaps you can recount what happened on your side.”

Seeing that Sally and I had largely understood the situation, Alfred gestured for Blanche, who had remained mostly silent, to become their spokesperson and narrate their experiences.

“Understood, Captain.” Blanche, upon hearing this, immediately cleared her throat and began to speak, her voice measured.

“Since the onset of this monster attack, our Fifth Legion’s primary objective has been to proceed to the border regions and assist other legions in combat.”

“However, just as we were nearing the border where the Second Legion was stationed, while passing through the Atlus Canyon in the Kaja Mountains, we were abruptly ambushed by a vast horde of monsters, incurring immense losses.”

“The Kaja Mountains? Atlus Canyon?” I furrowed my brow at these place names, completely unfamiliar with them and unsure of their location.

“The Kaja Mountains are a range stretching nearly a thousand kilometers, traversing the entire Asante Kingdom in a southeast-to-northwest direction.

Its northernmost extremity, Atlus Canyon, lies just within the border, precisely near our Fifth Legion’s encampment.”

“Tedles Town, coincidentally, is also located within this mountain range, to the southeast of Atlus Canyon, separated by a vast mountainous area spanning approximately 150 kilometers.”

Noticing my confusion, Amos took the initiative to explain the details of these two geographical locations.

Once I indicated my understanding, Blanche resumed her narration.

“Though we suffered considerable casualties before finally achieving a successful retreat, it became imperative to ascertain how those monsters managed to bypass the border guards and reach our rear.

Investigations revealed that this might be a tactic employed by the enemy, utilizing spatial magic for surprise attacks.

Consequently, we swiftly coordinated with other legions to launch a rapid encirclement of the enemy’s base within Atlus Canyon.

The operation met with tenacious resistance from a multitude of monsters, and while we ultimately annihilated nearly all of them, the cost was indeed devastating.”

“We had believed the matter concluded then, but strange occurrences began.

The very next day, reports emerged from a nearby town in the mountainous region south of Atlus Canyon, again stating the discovery of numerous monsters fleeing in disarray.

Although the local garrison successfully intercepted and annihilated them, monsters reappeared on the third day, this time even further south… In essence, it felt as though the teleportation exit point was steadily moving southward.”

“This turn of events rendered our initial hypothesis—that the enemy was opening spatial portals with magic to transport monsters—somewhat untenable.

Such magic typically demands immense energy, possesses a short duration, cannot accommodate large armies, and has an unpredictable destination with considerable error margins.

In short, it’s fraught with numerous limitations.”

“Therefore, the enemy’s strategy of constantly moving, large-scale guerrilla warfare clearly contradicted our conventional understanding of spatial magic.

To put it simply, even if the enemy could freely teleport armies, why would they insist on teleporting along a continuous route?

Why not transport them to more distant regions, instead of confining themselves to the Kaja Mountains?”

“Hence, we suspected that the enemy might be carrying a magical device capable of precisely pinpointing spatial locations and increasing the volume of teleportation, moving steadily southward.

Wherever this device went, that was where the teleportation point opened.”

“Thus, to confirm this fact and seize that magical device, the Legion not only alerted garrisons in nearby towns along the suspected route but also dispatched multiple pursuit teams.

Our own squad was among them, and after an arduous journey day and night, we finally caught up with the enemy near the Hynib Valley in the Kaja Mountains.”

“This Hynib Valley is located less than 100 kilometers northwest of Tedles Town…”

Upon hearing the name “Hynib Valley,” I perplexedly pulled out my mission card, searching for it on the rudimentary map.

Amos immediately pointed out its approximate location.

“It’s right around here.”

“After reaching Hynib Valley, we soon discovered an enormous underground cavern hidden within the jungle.

We had never known that such a colossal subterranean structure lay concealed within this valley; my companions and I were utterly astounded.

The cavern walls were carved with numerous tunnels spiraling around the hollow.

At the time, we didn’t detect many monsters, only a few cave dwellers within, so we resolved to venture into the cavern and investigate further…”

“Wait… I feel like I’ve seen this cavern you’re describing before.” I interrupted Blanche, a vivid memory quickly surfacing in my mind due to its striking familiarity.

“Could it be the one in the center of this city?”

“Precisely, that very cavern.” They smiled at me, confirming my suspicion, and then continued their account.

“However, just as we stepped within its confines, Erica, who was at the rear, was the first to sense something amiss.

She witnessed numerous slender, towering structures suddenly materialize in the sky.

We immediately initiated a full retreat, but upon returning to the surface, we discovered that the surrounding mountains and forests had vanished, replaced instead by a dense cluster of buildings.”

“Confronted by such a monumental transformation, we dared not descend back into the pit.

We could only conceal ourselves temporarily within those structures.

It was only after subsequent investigation that we realized we were, in fact, within a city controlled by monsters.”

“So that’s how you all arrived here…” Upon hearing this, a profound realization finally dawned upon me.

It was no wonder they had so easily discerned the truth; they had, after all, been transported along with the cavern itself, witnessing every step of the transformation firsthand.