"S- So..?" Alec asked with a shaky voice. His distraught emotions were either knowingly ignored, or unnoticed by The Headmaster.

"I and Hunter established this place five years ago. We wrapped it under an unimaginably thick anti-memetic shell. Called it The Veil like its predecessor. Then we filled it with students of all kinds in hopes of replicating the conditions of summoning an otherworlder."

"That's... That's so frivolous. It's stupid! How could you bet your chances on something like-"

"What should we have done then, Otherworlder? Should we have sit on our asses, waiting to be taken over? We needed a miracle. And we did our best to grasp it. We established Lation Magical Academy."

"But-"

"Did it work?" Odiel cut him off once again. Indeed. It had worked. An otherworlder had come. It was Alec.

"It- It did but..." Alec tried answering. But he couldn't. "But all those demons, those people dead. Were they all intended?"

Suddenly, the corners of Odiel's mouth fell.

"No. Demons inside the academy? It absolutely shouldn't have happened," he said. "But I couldn't even understand what we had crafted. It was scrapped from The Veil. At least from its leftovers. Its autonomous systems went haywire. I knew it would mess with the project. It erased my presence, wiped people’s minds… Caused them to become demonized. It was more of a barrier than what you saw in that chamber. That’s why the places closer to the outer walls were more susceptible to random mind-wipes. Not to mention, the students were willing. If they didn’t allow it to, the project wouldn’t be able to use mind magic on them… But my hands were tied. I couldn't move, or the mana source would break."

"Mana source?" Alec asked with a frown. For the first time, Odiel averted his eyes in shame.

"The atmospheric mana is tainted by demons. What would power Project Lation?"

"Uh..."

"Humans. Mages. Legendary ones."

Alec thought back to those robed figures in the chamber.

"They were..."

"They all died," Odiel said tiredly. "Nine out of the last ten legendary mages were used up as mana batteries. With the autonomous systems broken, I would have died too. So thank you for acting fast."

Alec's heart skipped another beat. They had died for him. The weight of responsibility on his shoulders kept becoming heavier. However, he shook his head. He had no fault in this, after all. No fault.

"And I must admit my mistake," Odiel continued. "The last battery was... My wife. I couldn't bring myself to drain her when the time came. You see... Once a battery dies, the Project cycles. Switching to another power source takes time, and The Veil would weaken at those times. I can't exactly know what happened up there. But I am sorry for what I have brought upon you."

'So that's the reason... That's why the last cycle was so fucked up. He refused to kill his wife...' Alec thought. He wanted to get angry. He really did. But he couldn't bring himself to do so, seeing the tired man. He could see nothing but a burnt-out soul in those pupils of Odiel. He was already dead. What would it do to get angry at a dead man? Nothing.

Right as Alec was about to say something, he noticed the scenery outside change. They had gone past the clouds. Once he looked out, he realized the platform to be several kilometers above ground.

Red.

In every direction, endless red covered the ground. No mountains, no hills, no forests, no dead barks, nothing. Only red.

'Red soil?' Alec thought to himself. Odiel seemed to have guessed what he was thinking.

"It's not soil. It's carpet."

"Carpet?" Alec asked.

"Yes. As a detail, it is human carpet."

Alec averted his eyes. He didn't want to hear the rest, but Odiel continued anyway.

"Normal, low-leveled humans can't stay as individuals once they become demonized. They instead turn into what is called human carpet. Flesh that covers the planet's surface and saps away the minerals. No plant would grow where the carpet has stood for more than a year. That's what we say."

Then, Alec noticed some sort of commotion down on the surface, underneath them. Only then did he notice it.

It was a city. A city, full of industrial, metal-plated buildings, hundreds of floors tall, sprawling in every direction several tens of kilometers. Each meter... Scratch that. Each centimeter of the city was covered in buildings. Seemingly toxic, green gases gushed out of the city. Countless factories and homes, all stacked on top of each other...

"Last Bastion," Odiel suddenly interjected.

"What?"

"Last Bastion Hive City. One of the only few remaining cities on Planet Toalqesh. The protective and supplying city of Project Lation."

Alec didn't answer. He couldn't. The city underneath was covered by titanic, metal walls in every direction. The walls were hundreds of meters tall. Although they were still too far away to make out individual humans, Alec could see millions of people on top of the walls.

"Patrols," Odiel said shortly. Alec nodded. However, he then turned toward Odiel with a horrified expression.

"So... So what? I should... I have to save this planet? To save humankind? How?"

"I don't know," Odiel answered. "I don't know what your gift is. I know you have some amount of tenacity. To survive and come this far was hard. So please, Otherworlder. Tell me your gift," he asked. His pleading reached Alec's ears, but they registered slowly.

'Can I refuse? Can I do that?' he asked himself. If it had been several months ago, he would have hesitated a lot. He would have asked to go back. But now? There were people he valued in this place. People of unimaginable prospects had sacrificed themselves to bring him here. Could he really bring himself to make some snarky comments like: 'Did you ask when summoning me? Deal with it on your own!'

He couldn't. Especially knowing that all this might as well be his fault.

His eyes filled with an overbearing amount of decisiveness. One that made Odiel step back.

Alec took out The Author's Pen.

"This here. It's called The Author's Pen," he said. "When I write something, it makes it real by using up mana. I don't know how useful it is but-"

*Thud

However, Odiel went down on his knees out of nowhere.

"Do you know what the biggest problem in this war is, Otherworlder?" he asked.

"I- What?"

"Logistics. Food shortages. No progress on magic. Lack of materials," the man listed. His back slouched. Tears started trickling down his cheeks. The man… A legendary mage who had endured in a world of no hope for more than two hundred years… He had broken down in front of newfound hope. "All of it... It was worth it. This pen... You. You can save us."

Then, he wiped the tears from his face. He brought one of his knees forward, bowed his head, and slammed his fist on the ground.

"I greet the Otherworldly Custodian!" he saluted with utmost respect. Without letting Alec answer, he continued. "Please let me bestow upon you your Legendary Name."

"What? But I am not over 100 le-"

"No matter," the man shut him up. "Using my status as the current leader of mankind, I bestow upon the Custodian a legendary name. From today on, your name shall be known and revered as..."

"Alec the Author!"