Everything Went Wrong! The Rune Curse That Swapped Everyone's Gender - Episode 4

The entrance to the Chemical Fog zone was quieter than expected. White mist curled slowly, filling the passage ahead. Not like ordinary fog. A sharp chemical smell stung the back of the nose. Eyes ached slightly too. Etsion Jace held the gas mask in her hand, staring at the boundary of the mist. (Once we get through here, it's Voidrow.) " Put on your mask. This fog causes unconsciousness in fifteen minutes without one." "Got it." Jace pressed the metal mask to her face. The filter smelled sharp. She tied the leather straps at the back of her head. Beside her, Carvel Victor was doing the same. Thin fingers worked the straps with practiced efficiency. He was fast at this kind of thing. " I probably don't need one anyway~" " Put it on. Jace's body will die." "…… Fine." He put it on without argument. Caitlin took the lead. " Visibility is only two meters. Don't get separated. Keep the person in front of you in sight at all times." " Understood." The four of them entered the mist. White. Truly white. She could barely make out Caitlin's back two meters ahead. Everything else was nothing. The stones beneath her feet shifted occasionally. Jace stepped carefully, one foot at a time. She still wasn't used to this body's center of gravity. But now wasn't the time to fall. The ground trembled slightly. " …… What was that?" " In this zone, the tunnels occasionally contract. It's not a problem if it doesn't continue." " Occasionally? I've been here before and it never happened." " There are four of us this time. The weight is different." Jace kept walking, unsure if that was actually a convincing explanation. (Filter smell. Mist moisture. Stone texture. I'm really here.) As a scientist, she had a habit of consciously confirming her senses. A method to avoid panic. Voidrow ruins. Rune letters. Stone mysteries. There was so much to do. No time to be afraid. The moment she thought that—— The back of her hand grew hot. Jace stopped. " …… What's wrong?" Victor's voice from behind. " My hand is…… again." She pulled off her glove and looked at the back of her hand. Even through the mask, in the dark mist, she could see it. A pale blue light. Thin lines rising from beneath the skin. Rune letter patterns. Just like before. But this time they didn't fade. " Show me." Victor took Jace's wrist. He pulled a small light from his pocket and illuminated the pattern. Slowly, examining it with a researcher's eye. " …… Same letters." " Huh?" " Part of the same letters that were on the tunnel wall. If depth and density are proportional—— then these letters appearing means we're getting considerably close to Voidrow." " So the stone's activation is getting stronger?" " We should hurry. That's all." Caitlin turned back. " Let's move. I don't want to stay in this fog any longer." " Yeah. Let's go." Victor released her hand. But for a moment, his fingertips lingered against her wrist. It might have been her imagination. It lasted less than a second. Jace faced forward. Her face felt slightly warm. She told herself it was the mask. Definitely the mask. The four of them started walking again. --- They emerged from the Chemical Fog zone. The white mist vanished suddenly, and the air transformed. (Beautiful.) Jace stopped involuntarily. Voidrow was nothing like she'd imagined. A natural stalactite cavern stretched before them. The ceiling was high. Ancient Rune civilization ruins were embedded in the walls, with stone pillars and structures shaped like collapsed altars scattered throughout. And the rune letters on those walls—— they glowed faintly. A pale blue light pulsed slowly across the entire wall. No chemical vapor. The air was clear. The temperature was constant, actually more comfortable than the surface. " See? It's beautiful, right! I love this place." " …… Air purification via rune technique. Just as the texts described." Even as Victor said this, his eyes were fixed on the rune letters on the wall. His tone was flat, but his feet naturally moved toward the wall. Jace watched his back and felt a small smile form. (So he really meant it when he said it had "academic value.") Victor approached the wall and removed his gloves. His fingertips slowly traced the glowing rune letters. Reading them. Concentrating. The "hurry up" atmosphere from before had vanished. " Victor, can you read it?" " …… Gradually. Fragments, but I can see connections. What's written here is—— a sealing technique." " Sealing? What did they seal?" " I don't know yet. But——" Victor stopped. " …… This uses the same letter system as the stone." All three turned to look at him at once. " That stone is part of this structure. No doubt about it." " What do you mean? The stone fell into the Academy's lab, but it's part of this place?" " Where it came from doesn't matter. It's about function. If this entire structure functioned as a single technique, the stone is one of its cores." Caitlin frowned. " So if we return the stone here, the swap will be reversed?" " …… It might not be that simple." Silence. The pattern on Jace's hand glowed slightly brighter. (The stone is still active. The swap is stage one. So stage two is——) Then she noticed. The light. Not just her hand. The rune letters on the entire Voidrow wall were clearly glowing stronger than before. The pulsing rhythm was accelerating. " Hey, the wall is——" " I see it." Victor quickly began reading the wall letters. His fingers moved across several characters. Reading, reading—— " …………This is bad." " Bad how?" " This technique is activating. The moment the stone interfered with the Hex crystal in the lab—— the entire structure reactivated. The swap is indeed stage one. Stage two is——" Jace looked directly at Victor. " …… We swap again." Boom. The ground shook. This time it was massive. Sand fell from the ceiling rocks. The rune letters on the wall blazed brightly all at once. Pale blue light flooded the cavern. " Run!" " Which way!" " The central altar. The technique's core should be there. If we're going to stop it——" He was already running. Jace pushed forward. Running in this body's center of gravity was still awkward. But there was no time for that. The wall light intensified. Her hand burned. The ground trembled beneath her feet. She could see Victor's coat ahead. She chased. She chased—— (Stage two swap. If it happens here now, who swaps with who?) She ran while thinking. The altar came into view. A crumbling stone platform. In its center, a hollow space. Just large enough for a fist—— a depression where a stone could fit. " Here!" " The stone isn't here." " We left it in the lab." " Why didn't you bring it!" " You said it was dangerous to bring it during the journey!" " That was about moving! I didn't think we'd need it here!" "Both of you are right!" The wall light grew even stronger. The entire cavern glowed pale blue. A sound began. Low and distant, a groaning hum. Jace stared at the altar's hollow. Where the stone should fit. Empty. (Go back for the stone? But the technique is activating now. Do we have time? From Voidrow to the lab—— how many hours to get back to the surface?) " Victor, is there a way to stop this technique? Without the stone?" Victor looked at the altar. At the wall. Thinking. " …… I don't know. I can read the letters, but I haven't grasped the entire structure yet." " Then read faster. I'll look too." " You can read rune letters?" " I can't, but I can recognize patterns. Hextech techniques have similar structural elements. Two people looking will be faster." A brief pause. " …… Come here." The two of them surrounded the altar. Victor pointed to the wall letters while explaining. Jace listened and compared it to her Hextech knowledge. Caitlin and Jynx kept watch around them. " This arrangement—— it's like an energy circulation structure. In Hextech terms, it resembles a closed-loop resonance type." " …… Exactly. This is a transcription technique using resonance, not a curse removal. The stone accumulates energy and transcribes it to a living body. The swap is a side effect. The original purpose is something else." " The original purpose?" Victor pointed to one spot. A letter in the center of the altar. " …… 'Record preservation.'" The cavern light flared brilliantly for an instant. Then—— it went quiet. The sound stopped. The trembling ceased. The rune letters' glow on the wall slowly dimmed. " …… It stopped?" " Temporarily." Victor looked at Jace. " Without the stone, the technique can't complete fully. So it paused temporarily. But——" He looked at her hand. The pattern was still there. " As long as the stone is in the lab, the connection to the structure continues. When it reactivates next time, what happens to your body—— we still don't know." Silence. Jace looked at the back of her own hand. The pale blue pattern. Thin lines. This was connected to "record preservation." What was being transcribed to this body, no one yet understood. " We need to go back and get the stone." " That's right." " …… But we made it here today. We saw the structure. Victor read it for us, and we understood how the technique works. We took a step forward." Victor said nothing. But he looked away. His ears were slightly red. Not from the chemical light this time. Only pale blue light existed here. Jace saw that and felt something warm bloom in her chest. (He really is a strange person.) Caitlin sighed. " …… Let's head back. Get the stone and come again. This time we'll be prepared." " Then I'll guide us again! I know a route that's even faster next time!" " Really?" " Probably!" " Probably?" " Like seventy percent sure!" Caitlin put her hand to her forehead. On the way back, Jace turned around once to look at Voidrow. The rune letters on the wall still glowed faintly. Pulsing. Slowly. Like something waiting. "Record preservation." What was that technique trying to preserve? Who created it? Why did the stone roll to the Academy—— The questions multiplied. But today, she'd touched the core. Definitely. Jace faced forward. Victor's back was visible. She walked beside it. The pattern on her hand hadn't faded. Neither warm nor cold. Just there. (Next time I'll bring the stone. Then everything will make sense.) A stone at her feet glowed pale blue for a moment—— then went dark.

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Episode 4

Name: Everything Went Wrong! The Rune Curse That Swapped Everyone's Gender
Author: Novelia

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