by Hiro Ainana
Guess he’s making his move.
“Is it an evil omen of some sort?” I heard Liza murmur.
“No, don’t worry,” I reassured her lightly.
Minimizing the menu that had taken up all of my vision, I saw that most of the group members were trembling and clinging to me.
There weren’t many earthquakes in this world, so even a magnitude three was probably enough to scare them.
Arisa was clearly just taking advantage of the moment, so I flicked her forehead, and we decided to turn in for the night once everyone had calmed down a little.
I thought about going to the Sealtower Island now but decided against it.
The Skeleton King might come after Rei while I was gone, and it would be annoying to run around being one step behind him anyway, so I figured it would be easier to destroy the Sea Lord and the Divine Wrath Cannon after Lalakie had been revived.
Although I planned to do my best to stop him before that happened, of course.
“Let’s look for tropical fruits tomorrow!”
“Mm, agree.”
“Arisa, I wish to play split the watermelon, I request.”
“All right, we can do that in the afternoon.”
Despite their earlier unease, everyone was back to normal before long, largely thanks to Arisa.
At first, they were all staying awake and chatting even after we’d laid down to sleep on beds of banana leaves, but by the time the moon was gleaming gently in the sky, they were all sound asleep, no doubt tired from playing during the day.
Then, late at night…
I woke up feeling as if something was calling to me.
With my “Night Vision” skill, I quickly realized what was wrong.
Rei was gone.
On my radar, I saw that Rei’s dot was moving toward the mountain in the center of the island.
Being careful not to wake anyone up, I extracted myself from bed and followed Rei on her unexpected evening walk.
The soothing cries of nocturnal creatures echoed through the tropical rain forest, along with the gentle rustling of the leaves.
“There she is.”
I was chasing her from above the trees using “Skyrunning,” so I caught up to her very quickly.
Wandering along unsteadily, Rei looked like she was sleepwalking.
I continued to follow her, looking after her from above.
When Rei reached the rock face of the mountainside and extended her hand, a gear-like magic circle appeared over the rock, and I heard a voice similar to the one that came from the Box in Lalagi.
“
“
Rei identified herself in a trance state.
That might’ve been the first time I’d heard anyone in this world use a middle name.
“
The rock fell apart like sand, revealing a small towerlike structure beneath.
The top of the tower was inlaid with a crystal like the Lalakie crest.
“
The crystal on top of the tower flashed.
“<…Queen…?>”
With that murmur, Rei suddenly fainted on the spot.
“Rei!”
I rushed over at once, but the central control core created a defensive barrier around her.
“Get out of my way.”
With a wave of my arm, I effortlessly broke the barrier into fragments of light.
“
I picked up Rei and prepared to block the tower’s attack with Flexible Shield.
“
The tower must have detected the Silent Bell of Bolenan on my belt.
“
“”
The crystal began to blink like an electrical device that was low on battery.
“<…Fellowship acknowledged. Lalakie is currently in magic-conservation mode and therefore cannot safely guide Queen Reiaane to the central control room. Envoy, requesting that you escort Queen Reiaane…to the central…control room…>”
With that, the crystal fell silent.
Its voice sounded strange at the end; maybe it really was running out of magic power.
I pried open the door and used “Search Entire Map,” since we’d entered a new area.
So this is the entrance to Lalakie.
The map name read Lalakie: Ruins.
That meant I had fulfilled my mission of bringing Rei back to Lalakie, but it sounded like I needed to bring her to this “central control room” to completely restore her memories.
Maybe this was like a follow-up mission to bring her to the main control room.
Anyway, I brought my attention back to the map.
It was much bigger than I thought—so large that it could encompass all of Tokyo. There was no one inside the ruins, not even any monsters or golems.
True to its name, the central control room seemed to be right in the middle of the enormous ruins.
I checked the time on my menu.
“It’s almost morning…”
I returned to the campsite with “Skyrunning,” laid Rei down on the bed, and started preparing breakfast.
There didn’t seem to be any danger inside the ruins, so I figured I could take the whole group with me to explore on the way to the central control room.
“Yikes, this staircase is looong!”
Arisa looked down the spiral staircase, which descended so far that light didn’t reach the bottom.
“ … Create Wisp Makoudama Souzou.”
With the ball of light that Mia created using Spirit Magic going on some thirty feet ahead, we had Nana use her Foundation ability Mana Light and take the lead.
In the middle of the group, Lulu was carrying a lantern with the same Mana Light magic. This was a farewell gift from Inenimaana, the witch’s apprentice we’d met in Kuhanou County.
I was also able to use Mana Light, since I’d learned it from a scroll, but my version of it was so bright, it would ruin the exploratory atmosphere, so I refrained.
In case of an emergency, I had our flying ship ready in Storage.
“Ugh, it’s waaay too long…,” Arisa grumbled, sounding bored now.
The rearguard and Rei had quickly gotten too tired to walk, so they were sitting on a Floating Board I’d produced from Storage that followed along with us.
Lulu and Mia still seemed all right, but the board could carry four people as easily as it could two, so I had them ride it, too, to increase our speed.
“Not looong?”
“I heard the rock before I got to two, so we’re almost there, sir.”
The pair was gauging our progress by dropping small stones from Tama’s pocket down the length of the spiral staircase and counting how long it took to hear them hit the bottom.
I doubted they understood gravitational acceleration and other such calculations, but they seemed to be able to get a general idea.
“Mm. Hall.”
Mia sent the wisp ahead, illuminating a hall at the bottom of the staircase.
It was a fairly empty place with a single door.
Immediately, Tama and Pochi sprinted toward the exit.
“Doooor?”
“Can we open it, sir?”
Reaching the double doors, they looked back at me.
“Go ahead.”
As soon as I gave them the okay, Tama and Pochi pushed the doors open with all their weight.
Light shone through from the other side.
“Wooow?”
“Amazingly amazing, sir!”
Tumbling into the next room, Tama and Pochi frantically beckoned us over.
Curious, I stepped through the exit into the large open space and was greeted by a completely unexpected sight.
“Master, the ocean is above us!”
“Master, I can see the sun through the ocean, I report.”
Both the serious Liza and the usually sensible Nana were looking up in surprise.
Sure enough, the only ceiling was the ocean, with no visible barrier between us. There was probably either a highly transparent resin or some kind of Foundation magic creating the illusion.
On the other side of this ceiling, colorful sea life swam along rhythmically, almost like an aquarium exhibit.
According to my map, this was the central residential area of Lalakie.
The space was so enormous that I couldn’t see the other side.
“It’s beautiful…”
“It is beautiful! It’s so very, very pretty. It’s as pretty as watching spirits dance; it really is!”
“But doesn’t it seem as if the ceiling could collapse? It’s a little unnerving.”
Lulu released an admiring sigh, Mia went on one of her rare excited rants, and Liza looked up worriedly.
As for Arisa…
“Grrr, it’s like an aquarium where stupid normie couples would go on their stupid dates…”
Better leave her alone. She seemed to be remembering something unpleasant.
“
Entering a trance, Rei explained the workings of the ceiling.
It was a little different from the information in my AR display, but that wasn’t a big deal, so I didn’t bother correcting her.
“Is the tower over there the central control room?”
“
Arisa and Rei were looking at a thick tower at the center of the residential area.
It was made from orichalcum that glittered gold in the light.
As we continued through the wide room, we happened upon a grate-like floor from which a draft was blowing.
The mischievous wind lifted Lulu’s and Mia’s skirts, revealing a glimpse of white and stripes.
“<…Wind.>”
Rei’s murmur made me think of something, so I trusted my intuition and used Clairvoyance to check on the three remaining Sealtower Islands.
Another one of them had produced a tower, which was glowing green.
Of course, the Skeleton King and Yuuneia were nowhere to be seen.
“Another shake… This one was pretty weak. Magnitude two, maybe?”
“Yes, around that.”
The tremors weren’t as noticeable this time, so the rest of the group didn’t get as scared as before.
Lulu and Liza tugged on my sleeves, and the younger girls grabbed my hands, but that was all.
“Master, there are people, I report.”
The far end of the enormous space tapered into a cliff of sorts, looking out on the townscape of Lalakie.
There were indeed a large amount of humanoid figures where Nana was pointing.
However…
“Something seems off, no?”
The people were semitransparent, and they were all young adults—no children, no seniors, not even anyone middle-aged.
“
So a half-ghost wasn’t a child of a human and a ghost—it was a state somewhere between human and ghost.
As usual, it seemed like any civilization that ruled the world in glory ended up striving for eternal youth.
“Huh… It’s better than being turned into a bolt in some distant galaxy, I guess, but is being a disembodied soul really any fun?”
“
Rei’s face was expressionless, but tears were pouring down her cheeks.
That explained why my AR described them as Lalakie apparitions, treating them like undead monsters.
Nana and Mia wiped the tears from Rei’s face with handkerchiefs.
After taking a moment of silent prayer for the transparent figures, we left them behind.
The Purifying Mausoleum that we passed through on the way looked similar to the elves’ sleeping tanks, but while the elves in the tanks looked healthy as they slept, the people in the glass cylinders of the mausoleum were dried up like mummies.
As we made for the central control room, some of the passages had been submerged in water by broken waterwork pipes, but we used Water Breathing and Resist Water Pressure to walk right through.
“<…Water.>”
That was fast. The third Sealtower Island had been unlocked.
The earthquake that followed must have opened up a hole; a sudden fast current formed, so I used Magic Hand to hold on to everyone until we made it to our destination.
“Scaryyyy?”
“I thought I would be washed away, sir.”
I used the Practical Magic spell Dry to deal with all our soaked clothing, and we hurried toward the control room.
If possible, I wanted to restore Rei’s memories before the final seal was broken.
Both sides of the huge hallway leading to the central control room were lined with black sheetlike stone pillars. The hall was so large that a giant could walk through it.
There were murals on the stone pillars flanking the hallway.
“Whoa, these are some pretty grim light-versus-darkness murals.”
Half of them showed how Lalakie controlled the world, prospering at the expense of the land-dwelling people.
“Looks like the land people didn’t take it lying down, though.”
Farther down the hall, the latter half slowly changed into a war against the rebels, until in the end, the Dogheaded Demon Lord brought destruction on the world.
“…What’s this?”
One of them caught my attention so much that I stopped without thinking.
“What is the matter, master?”
“Some girls and some octopuses?”
Arisa’s summary of the mural was a little oversimplified.
It showed sacrifices being thrown off a cliff into an ocean, where octopus monsters lay in wait.
“
If I remembered right, Rei had a Sacrificial Maiden title, too.
Were the events in this image part of her past?
“
Looking closely, I saw that the girls in the picture were bound in chains, being thrown almost like fishing bait.
; I knew that lots of places used some extreme methods when they were about to lose a war, but just looking at it made my chest burn with anger.
In the next image, the controlled spawn were causing tidal waves, destroying the enemies’ ships and harbors.
“
The next few images showed an island that was probably Lalakie being dragged into the sea by the Sea Lord, which was about equal to it in size.
It was probably an exaggeration, but I still would have preferred not to fight an island-size giant octopus.
The final six images showed the Flame and Ground Lords being sealed and the end of Doghead’s reign.
“What’s this giant cone-shaped creature? A faceless ghost?”
“
The gods’ apostles, huh?
Rei made it sound like these “apostles” crushed Doghead’s kin effortlessly, but the images showed a single lord being surrounded by a dozen or more apostles.
This part was probably drawn after Lalakie sank into the sea.
“What about the seven pillars of light surrounding a wolf and a person here?”
“
Huh? Do those numbers add up?
I doubted the evil god who created the demon lord joined in to defeat him, so maybe the dragon god joined instead?
Since the dragon god taught the goddess Parion the Hero Summoning magic, they seemed to get along well enough.
Besides, since dragons loved battling so much, I bet the dragon god would’ve shown up for a fight either way.
“
When we arrived in front of the central control room, an orb above the door glowed, and the voice of the central control core spoke.