"And that is what allows the Orthrus to live for long periods of time," the goblin finishes. I sigh as the tidal wave of information that hits me finally washes away.
"That's disgusting," I mutter, my tongue dragging my expression along with it. Though there's one glaring fact: As much as I seem like I'm in this conversation, my mind's already drifted to the silver-haired girl ahead of me. She walks like her spine's frozen stiff, but her arms are on fire.
I can't tell if that's a good description or not. Hm, maybe like an eel with legs.
Is that a good description?
Mah, whatever.
To be honest, I didn't think my outburst would get that kind of reaction out of her, but… I stand corrected. I forgot what kind of person she is.
"I shouldn't have blown up on her like that." I sigh, resting my hands behind my neck. My palms are hot. Well, hot from the shock collar on my neck, which still has lingering heat that it conducted from the flames.
Right. Forgot about that damned thing until now. I guess it's like braces. At first, it hurts and feels like you can't even talk, but then you slowly get used to it.
"...It is not your fault," the goblin says. "You were under extreme stress, and her reaction provoked you."
He pauses, tilting his head. "As for her—well, forgive me for assuming—but it seems she believed you were, for a lack of better terms, mentally stronger.. That you could brush something like that aside. I cannot entirely blame her for that."
My head turns toward him. Brows raised.
Why can't you blame her?
"Hah…?"
"Yes, I know how that sounds. But consider what we have seen. You've maintained a cheerful, upbeat demeanor, despite everything that has happened. She might have thought you were someone who was not so easily affected by such a situation, judging how long we have been together. "
"I see."
Taking Kyros's words at face value feels risky. He's not Navi's father, and he's only known her for a few days, but the way his confidence sits in every word makes me hesitate to doubt him. And well, given his previous track record.
'I'm fine.'
I kept saying that. Over and over. After throwing up because of using DD (Death's Detour)and the shock and pain that came after it. Even when we were hiding from the Orthrus on the previous layer. I froze, sure, but I laughed it off. I was doing just fine. They saw me as something. My hand drifts to my mouth, brows tightening. I was keeping a track record. A 'top record'. I was supposed to be steady. The reliable one. The one who laughs through it all. But I slipped. Lost the part for a moment.
That won't happen again.
"That's quite the scary face," the goblin comments.
I shake my head. "Mhm. Thanks, Kyros. For the heads-up." I force a grin. "Guess you're not just an encyclopedia anymore, you're a psychology book too."
"No, please don't take my statements as fact," he says quickly. "They're only observations. And, please, do not, well, confront her with them."
"—Haha, who do you think I am?"
He says something else, but my attention's already back on her. The silver-haired girl.
"I think she just needs some time to cool off," I mutter, half to myself. "I'll talk to her later… when she's not burning."
Silence hangs for a couple of beats. The conversation drifts into the wind, becoming just another figment of the past. Though if this quiet lasts any longer, I'll probably end up starting something new just to fill it.
That's just how I am. I can't stand the silence after an argument, especially if it involves me. That kind of tension gnaws at my chest, and I always feel the need to do something about it. I like rebuilding that house again, instead of letting the sun burn what's left of us.
As I walk, the sound of rustling leaves catches my ear. It isn't loud, but it cuts through the quiet. It's a needle drop in an empty room. My head tilts slightly left, curiosity twitching.
Actually, no. I didn't hear that. I refuse to have heard that. Probably just some nightmare creature waiting to sink its fangs into my skull. Who knows what the hell lurks here.
You know how horror movies always have that one idiot who investigates noises in the dark?
Yeah. .
I turn back forward, fully prepared to live another day.
"...Psst. The sound I just made was awfully suspicious, y'know? You should come check it out."
"..."
"..."
"......"
Can the flag get any redder!?!
Before I can even take a step forward, something happens.
I can feel something slam into my back, almost knocking the air out of me.
My body's thrown to the ground, flipped onto my stomach before I can even react. The world folds into black ink as my eyelids snap shut. My head hits the dirt.
"...."
"...Ah. I think he's out cold…"
_________________________________________________________________________________________________
You know how in cartoons, when someone gets knocked out, little stars or birds spin around their head? Well, right now I'm seeing the face of someone who's way too cheerful given the situation.
And it's not spinning.
Also, I'm not knocked out.
Not anymore, at least.
Why did I even bring up the cartoon example?
" —Uwah, Mr. Slave's come to!"
Arivia sits in front of me, staring like a child peering into a fish tank. So this is what fish deal with daily. No wonder they keep ramming into the glass.
Her bangs hang in front of her face, swaying with each movement she makes.
"It's a miracle he's alive," Asakawa retorts from behind. Her tone of voice stands out particularly.
Your tone makes it sound like it's a curse instead.
She stands behind Arivia, leaning on a tree, her gauntlets clenched onto that strange scabbard she's always holding. Her grip ooks strong enough to crush the hardest of metals.
To Arivias' left, Navi is seated on a stump, her back facing my direction. I can't tell what she's doing. Probably being all dark and brooding.
Kyros and Kors are rooted in a conversation next to her.
Right now, the shadows of leaves lingering in trees above blanket the entire area in a sea of entropy. The shadows are powerful, given the setting sun, causing them to stretch out further.
"It's been a while, Mr. Slave." The red-haired girl smiles. Her face has got quite the rosy tint to it, something that contrasts with her fair skin.
I groan loudly, the sound echoing across the area. I'm also holding my head in my hands as if it's going to roll off any second. Feels like I just jumped in front of a train. No, worse. Like a bullet train strapped to four rockets.
"How long… Was I...?"
She places her index finger on her lip, her eyes traveling skyward. "Hm, I'd say about half an hour."
She doesn't even let me finish my sentence. Well, at least I got my answer.
I'm sitting in the grass, cold, damp, and stabbing at my ass. (Hey, that rhymed.) It'd be cozy if the dirt wasn't freezing. As a matter of fact, it's getting quite cold. The only thing I'm wearing is a leather peasant's shirt, something that does not do a good job at keeping out the cold.
Can she move a bit so I can get up?
"What even happened?" I ask, leaning back in the grass. The memory's foggy. Something hit me, I think, but the rest's all water slipping through my fingers. It must have been quite the collision.
"Ahah… well, something hit you real hard, y'know?"
For a second, I think she's joking, but my eyes travel to her face.
She says it with such a straight expression, I'm convinced that if she stops breathing, she'll be no different than that David marble statue.
"Really? I thought I just fell asleep out of the blue."
"Oh yeah, that's what happened actually."
"My ass!!!"
Arivia winces slightly, one eye closed as she backs up.
Yeah, my breath stinks to liars!
"Sheesh, you don't need to scream." She mutters, raising her arms, as if shielding her body from my assault.
A second voice jumps into the conversation.
"Ari had tackled you, and you had proceeded to—" Asakawa's voice began, monotone. However, the sound travelling had been intercepted by Arivia's hand clamping over her mouth.
Asakawa had also managed to be next to us the whole time without me even taking notice.
Arivia's head quickly snaps towards me. A nervous smile proceeds to splay across the girl's features.
"—Never mind, please scream! As loud as you can would be great!"
"Don't try to silence the witness!"
I lunge forward, trying to pry her hand off Asakawa's mouth. It's like yanking open a sealed vent inside a vacuum. Jeez, her arm strength's insane.
Before I can even register, Arivia pulls out a familiar dial. The same one that had been utilized for 'correction'. Or, in short, the shock remote that was connected to my collar.
"200000 Volts it is..!"
"This must be some seriously damaging info!"
I can't even be bothered to care anymore, but the sole thing that's keeping me pulling her arm away is how desperate she is to hide that secret. So what if I get shocked? What's a few thousand volts?
"Gh, I can't press the remote with one hand!" Arivia whines.
Right now, the scene consists of me, almost falling over trying to pull away Arivia's hand, and Arivia, keeping her hand clamped over Asakawa's mouth. As for Asakawa herself, she's simply standing still, a monotone look on her face.
She's honestly no different than a robot.
"What is happening over here?"
Our heads spin towards the voice in unison, like a parliament of baby owls.
Kors.
His hands hang at his sides, completely dumbfounded by the sight. Honestly, I don't even blame him. Kyros stands beside him, up to his waist. Surprisingly enough, he looks like he's seen this kind of thing before.
A sudden pop echoes through the air, making me flinch. Asakawa had peeled Arivia's hand off her mouth with such casual strength I barely noticed.
"Arivia's trying to hide a stupid decision she made again." Asakawa states flatly. "She's avoiding telling the S l a v e that she was the cause of his unconsciousness."
"—Gwaahhh…" Arivia collapses like a deflated balloon.
"What's with the enunciation on slave!?"
"Because that is what you are," Asakawa replies instantly.
"Hop off!!" By now, I'm panting from all the yelling.
"I really need to tone that down," I mutter, swiping my forehead with my arm.
"Ya think?" Arivia's voice comes from below me.
I groan, sweeping my hair back.
Kors steps into my view, standing directly in front of me. "It's been a while, Mr. Kaito," the Wight says, contentment radiating from his tone. His hand is outstretched towards me.
I can't help but smile. Sitting upright, I extend my hand. Kors takes it firmly, pulling me up with little effort. His gloves feel rubbery against my skin. Maybe that's where the "firm" part comes from, the contact between rubber and skin.
"Likewise."
It's strange, really. When someone sees a skull, the first instinct should be fear, sincee it's a reflection of death itself..
—But looking into his empty sockets, I only see a fellow human being. It's weirdly comforting.
"So, what've you guys been up to so far?"
"Also, where are we?"
"We are just a few inches away from the outskirts of my village," Kyros answers, his familiar raspy voice breaking the air.
I turn to my left, tilting my head back. My eyes drift toward the enormous wall that had been looming here the whole time. The texture looks almost like cement, but covered in small cracks and indents that break up the surface.
The height, though, that's the insane part. For a couple of goblins living in what's basically a massive cave, this thing is impressive. Not that I'd ever say that out loud. Well, given that there's one in front of me right now.
"Oh, so we're here."
My head swivels toward Kors. "By the way, how'd you guys even get here?"
It's an obvious question. We're deep down here, and it had to take some time.
"Kalcifer had little to no difficulty carrying us all," Asakawa explains, pointing to the kobold gnawing on a bone nearby. Beside him lies a huge cow-like creature, its belly swollen like a balloon. Probably decomposing. If that thing pops, the stench will kill us faster than any monster.
"Poor guy's probably exhausted, though. Must've carried you three for days straight. What about food?"
"It actually took us only twelve hours," she replies.
"?!"
"That ain't no animal, that's a damn Jesko Absolut!"
What are they feeding that thing? I don't remember Kobolds being that fast.
"We covered most of the distance at night," Kors adds. "In darker areas where shadows can't reach, most Kobolds tend to move faster. This is because they are, in essence, cave-dwelling creatures that function better in the dark."
"I see…"
My gaze shifts back toward the massive wall. Just as my eyes move past it, I spot the silver-haired girl sitting off to the side. Then I turn back to Kors.
"So, what's the plan? We storming the place?"
"We've been discussing it," Kors says. "Kyros gave us a general overview, but much has changed since his absence from this place."
Kyros nods. "Given our numbers, we have enough force—excluding you, of course." He pauses. "...Our best chance is to enter from the main gate under an Umbryos Veil spell Arivia will cast."
Normally, I wouldn't question why we would enter from the front gate. I've seen how these people have dealt with those creatures, but there's one glaring issue.
I squint. "But wait, we can't be too confident. What about that ogre? These can't be normal goblins if they've got someone like that leading them." I glance at Kyros. "If he knows you left, he's probably expecting us. And even if he thinks you ever came back, he'd at least expect some company from people, especially since he's taking human—er, Sapient captives."
"You're right to be cautious," Kyros replies, "but this remains the best option. The wall is too tall to scale, and digging under it is impossible."
"About twenty-five percent of the town extends underground," he adds.
"Hm."
I place a hand on my chin, thinking. Too tall to climb. Too deep to dig. And if I recall, there's archers stationed at the gates. My hand travels to my neck, caressing it.
Still, maybe not impossible…
"Is there a spell that could get us up there? Like gravity magic, or something?" I ask.
"I could use Umbryos 11.Itt forms a hand that lifts us," Arivia says, legs crossed as she sits in the dirt. "But the wall's taller than the trees, and there's no shadow to cast from."
Right, shadow magic. Needs shadows.
"I could use Gravitas 1, but it is a higher-level Thauma spell, which will require copious amounts of energy. And even if I could handle the strain, the max capacity would be for one individual. I can't handle lifting that many people."
I nod.
My eyes drift to a particularly tall tree.
"I've got an idea."
____________________________________________________________________________________________
Later
"Mr. Slave, you look ridiculous right now…"
My hands grip the blade tight, sawing at the tree trunk. Splinters fly into my face, one nearly stabbing my eye. The massive chunk of wood that Kors helped me cut down lies in front of me.
"I'm cutting off the sides," I grunt. "Making a platform."
Arivia glances at Asakawa; both share the same confused look.
"Meh, you'll see," I mutter through my teeth. I'd borrowed Arivia's longsword for this, and somehow it's still in perfect condition despite the abuse.
Finally, I hack off the last piece and fall back on the dirt.
"Kors, can you get Kalcifer to lift this up?"
_________________________________________________________________________________________________
"Why are you carrying that dead Umbla?" Arivia asks, pinching her nose.
"I know, the corpse stinks," I reply through gritted teeth. I bend my back, attempting to put more strength into lifting it over me.. "But it's a necessary sacrifice."
"Hm?"
"You'll find out."
"...Jerk."
_________________________________________________________________________________________________
We're all sitting on the wooden platform now. Everyone's confused. I'm the only one with a grin.
"Alright, everyone!" I clap my hands.
"You're probably wondering why we're sitting on top of a platform that's sitting on top of a giant dead cow thing, right?"
"Well, you see—" I point toward a small hole in the wood. "That creature's been decomposing for a while. Its digestive tract's full of methane gas. Plus, it's inside a tight space, with little to no air."
"Now what happens," I say, grinning wide, "when you mix that with a little fire?"
"I see," Kyros says. "It explodes."
"Precisely."
Everyone goes silent, staring at me.
"If you're seriously intending to blow us sky-high with the corpse of an Umbla, there's something very wrong with you, Mr. Slave."
"Blah, blah. Navi, sparky thing."
Still facing away from me, she cracks a finger and mutters something under her breath. Her hand points toward the little hole and—
BOOM!
A grotesque explosion of guts and gore sprays across the ground below. Meanwhile, we get launched a good four meters into the air. The whistling wind scrapes past my ears, sharp enough to make me flinch.
We aren't as high as I hoped, but that's fine. My goal wasn't to fire six people over a wall with a corpse. I'm not insane.
"Asakawa! Gravity spell!" I grit, holding onto the platform. Obviously, the propulsion wasn't a perfect vertical. That's impossible.
We're starting to veer left, of course.
"Gravitas-1: Levitate."
The platform stops soaring and instead rises like an escalator. Still defying gravity, but… politely.
"What's your plan when we reach the top?!" Arivia yells.
"You're using your cloak thingie! After that—it's a free fall!"
The top of the wall approaches like a horizon swelling upward. Asakawa's face is pale, strained. This is probably tearing her insides apart.
"There's no shadow to use!"
I jab a finger at the long shadow our platform is casting over the wall. I made sure the sun was in the right place—timing this entire dumb idea around it.
"Just a bit more—!"
The moment the first hair on my head crests the top, I whip my gaze to Arivia.
"Now!"
Her eyes widen, but she obeys instantly. She bites a finger.
"Umbryos-5: Cloak."
The shadow stretched across the wall morphs, twisting alive. In an instant, it engulfs us like a blanket. Sound dies. Light dies. Everything dies except a small slit showing the real world.
A pocket dimension? Seriously?
Through that slit, I see crude wooden homes, little blobs sprinting between them. They're goblins, probably. But the structure in the center grabs my attention: a massive building with two jagged horns jutting upward like a devil's head. A town hall, which I can tell it is given that large dome splaying over the structure.
Before I can stare longer, something grabs my arm.
"Mr. Kaito, the descent will be rapid! Hold onto me!" Kors shouts.
I glance back.
Arivia grips the cloak overhead like some sort of parachute. We're sliding along a wall, not falling too fast.
What's he panicking abou—
My stomach drops. Wind screams into my ears like a tunnel collapsing, and I clamp my eyes shut. And then… nothing. No crash, no bone-snapping impact. We just hit the ground with muted force, like sound itself refused to exist.
It's a hard collision, however, which causes my body to bounce off the ground. The impact with the floor doesn't break anything important, I think.
It really hurt, though, that's for sure.
I lay on the ground for a moment, attempting to catch my breath.
Groaning, I push myself up. The cloak that had been covering our forms is gone now. Everyone seems to be intact, given some brushing dust off their shoulders, like that really matters right now.
Cool factor is apparently a higher priority than survival. Well, what do I expect from a bunch of people wearing jackets over armor?
We're in some alley-like gap behind a large building. Smells like fish, with food scraps and weird capsules scattered around.
"Everyone good?" I ask.
Thumbs-up and nods serve as a response towards me.
Kyros speaks. "From here, the town hall is about twenty meters. If memory serves, at least one guard barracks is stationed nearby." His tone is serious now, a stark contrast to moments prior.
"We will go and assassinate Tyrox," Kors says, drawing two revolvers, both sleek, dark, elegant death-machines.
Arivia, Navi, and Asakawa all unsheathe their weapons. Even Kyros flourishes those claw-like formations on his hands. Everyone's entered battle mode. Man, this is the kind of thing you'd see in typical fantasy stories.
I can't help but get a little hyped.
But this is dangerous.
….
As soon as the word dangerous crosses my mind, something else enters the fray.
D E A T H.
I don't want to die. Where's my last checkpoint even located? Is it still all the way back in the cave? No, no, I don't want to die, period. I'm going to avoid death like I've only got one life. It's not even the fact that I'm going to have to repeat my steps all over again, its the fact that it hurts so much. When you die, you feel as if you'd get crushed any second; you can't breathe. Every movement feels like your bones have turned into needles, piercing the inside layers of your skin.
The worst part, however, is that it changes every single time.
I never want to die, ever again.
All the members of Sable Veil pull on full masks, all with different designs, but sharing one key similarity: bearing a jagged row of red teeth along the bottom.
"What about me?"
"You stay here. You have no combat experience," Arivia says without turning her masked face toward me.
My fists clench on their own. A gnawing feeling eats away at my back.
"I can do recon or something," I argue.
"No. Better you remain safe," Kors adds before they turn away. "We will return in less than one hour."
"Tch…"
Why the hell do I have to be left behind? I did everything back there. I used my head. I'm the smart one. They need me, don't they? I know I'm not strong, but there's gotta be something I can do. Something only I can—
I kick a small morsel of trash aside, and—-
S O M E T H I N G
G R A B S
M E.
It clamps down hard. Hard enough that if I twitch even a millimeter, my entire torso will crack. Or worse, split clean in two.
There's no warmth. No breath. No presence. Just a cold pressure sinking straight through my ribs and into the marrow. Its fingers dig slowly into my skin, drawing blood. I would scream, but another hand clamps over my head, gripping it like a ball.
"—Any sudden movements, and I will crush his head like a fruit."
A deep, menacing voice bellows from somewhere above me.
"Mmhgg!!"
I can't see anything. Only my companions in front of me, bodies locked, ready, tense. Not trembling, not backing down. Just waiting.
A finger is poking into my eye, close to destroying it. I can't close my eyelid due to it already being inside, so I can only tear up as the finger digs deeper.
"I do not wish for any useless fighting. Instead, I offer a different alternative to gain the slaves that I possess."
Is this… Tyrox?
I can't see him. Yet something ancient, something primal, sinks under my skin. Shock liquefies, filling every inch of me. Ah, that familiar feeling that has swallowed me so many times.
Fear. Pure and unchanging.
The enemy has already caught me.
"Yes."
"—I challenge this boy, the weakest of you, to a game."