by Fujino Omori
Wasting no time, she withdrew a spherical crystal from her item pouch and rolled it at the Amazon coming toward her from farther down the hallway.
“…What’s this…?”
The moment the Amazon bent down to inspect the shiny object, Mikoto dropped down from the ceiling and landed directly behind her target. Before her victim knew what happened, Mikoto had her arm around her neck.
What’s more, the Ushiwakamaru blade was resting on top of the coppery skin of the Amazon’s throat.
“Where is Lady Haruhime?”
“F-fortieth floor. Close to the Floating Garden.”
That was all she needed to hear. She moved slightly to put her prisoner in a choke hold and, a moment later, the Amazon fell unconscious to the floor.
Mikoto wasted no time in dragging the limp warrior out of the hallway and into a room before disappearing without a trace. She was on her way to the fortieth floor.
“How dirty…” whispered Mikoto as she remembered Takemikazuchi’s face. It was true; an adventurer would never want to pull off such an underhanded ambush.
Finding a window, Mikoto climbed outside and started scaling the building.
Far above, she spotted light coming from an open window.
Haruhime was sitting in front of a certain window, trembling.
Just when she thought something unusual was going on, a report came in saying that the Little Rookie—Bell Cranell—had forced his way into the palace.
She stood up and made a break for the door but was caught by two Berbera and roughly escorted back to her seat. Now two of the intimidating warrior prostitutes stood on either side of her, watching her every movement with the same emotionless glare.
Haruhime had changed into a formal red kimono imported from the Far East. She cast her anxious gaze back out the window, her drooping golden tail twitching behind her chair.
“That boy did what…?”
No one had told her anything. The words involuntarily spilled out of her soft pink lips when her ears picked up the news from the conversations going on around her.
Thoughts like why, how, and please stop, among other fragmented thoughts, weakly spilled from her mouth.
Haruhime’s gaze fell to the floor as she wrapped her arms around her thin body like she was afraid of what was going to happen next.
“All of you go help out. I’ll stay here.”
Aisha issued orders to the other Berbera in the same room where Haruhime was trying to make herself as small as possible.
Aisha volunteered to stay behind and protect their person of interest, but a rather large woman was much more concerned about capturing Bell and voiced an even larger dissent.
“You ain’t leavin’ the group, Aisha. You’re comin’ with me on the rabbit hunnnt.”
“…Aahh?”
“Already forgotten the beatin’ you got at our hands when you smashed the first Killing Stone, Aishaaa?”
The overgrown frog out of water, Phryne, squared her shoulders in front of Aisha and looked down on the thinner Amazon.
“Plannin’ to use the chaos to let Haruhime escape, ehhhh? Can’t trust you. So I want you where I can see you.”
Other Amazons in the room seemed a bit confused by Phryne’s words.
“You idiot,” Aisha spat back. She felt the effects of Ishtar’s Charm far more than anyone else present in the room and couldn’t even think against her goddess at this point.
“The Little Rookie is an obvious decoy. The Eternal Shadow is comin’ here for Haruhime.”
“That’s what I’m sayin’. Let the others handle the Level Two, third-tier shrimmmp. They don’t need you or me.”
With the exception of Phryne and Aisha, all the Berbera in the room were Level 2.
Every single one of the second-tier adventurers was currently pursuing Bell, their Statuses matching his at Level 3.
Phryne’s nostrils flexed as she claimed with absolute confidence that someone at Mikoto’s level wouldn’t stand a chance against these numbers anyway.
“That girl used an unbelievable spell during the War Game. If she’s underestimated—”
“Shut up alreadyyy!”
Phryne bellowed loud enough to shake the room. The Berbera and Haruhime all recoiled in surprise.
Her bloodshot eyes once again fell onto a surprisingly unfazed Aisha.
“All you have to do is follow my orders. Or do you want me to smash in that faaace?”
Aisha did her best to ignore the incredible stench emerging from Phryne’s wide mouth as her face shifted into a frown.
When she destroyed the first Killing Stone, Aisha had been thoroughly “disciplined” by Phryne’s brutal methods before being dragged before Ishtar as a nearly lifeless wreck.
“Or perhaps…you’d like all your other little varmints to have a taste?”
Aisha’s stoic expression suddenly showed a flash of concern.
That, more than anything else, struck fear into the hearts of the other Berbera as they watched on.
Those Amazons trusted Aisha far more than their leader, Phryne. That was especially true for the younger ones. Aisha treated them like younger sisters—as she did with Haruhime—and looked after them.
“Did you forget, Aishaaa? Next time you stick a toe out of line, it won’t be just you who gets devoured. All the others get their turn…Lady Ishtar warned you herself, didn’t sheee?”
Ishtar had been testing Aisha’s loyalty. Perhaps “playing with it” would be a better way to describe her demeanor.
Despite being overwhelmingly Charmed by her goddess, Aisha still possessed her own free will and would never become a true puppet. However, that meant that she felt every ounce of fear as she was forced to choose between Haruhime and the well-being of her adopted younger siblings. She was constantly balancing a scale that would break her heart should either side fall.
This state of constant unease was Ishtar’s punishment for breaking the Killing Stone.
“Well?” came a pompous demand. Aisha’s lips twitched before she finally opened her mouth.
“…Fine.”
The gorgeous Amazon decided to follow orders.
“Ge-ge-ge-ge-ge-ge-geh!” Phyrne’s croaking laughter echoed throughout the room.
They equipped their weapons and prepared to find the intruder.
“Keep an eye on the time, then go to the altar. See to it that Haruhime is brought to Samira and the others when everything is set.”
Phryne turned to address the other Berbera just before leaving the room, and she issued her last orders.
Then the massive woman led Aisha and a group of her most trusted allies out the door.
“Oh? He broke in?”
The divine voice echoed on the top floor of the main tower inside Belit Babili, the goddess’s private quarters.
Ishtar sat on a lavish sofa and listened to a report on Bell’s sudden attack.
“It appears he’s running wild through the inside of the palace…All attempts to capture him thus far have failed.”
“Running wild, you say. No one charges into a lion’s den without a reason.”
Ishtar held her long oriental pipe in one hand, purple smoke emerging from one end. She listened to her assistant Tammuz’s report before taking a long drag from the pipe.
The windows on all four sides of her quarters had been opened. A light breeze blew the smoke from her lips and the tip of the pipe.
“Perhaps he left something behind…A woman who found her way into his heart?”
The goddess narrowed her eyes, deep in thought.
“He will be captured at once.”
“No, don’t. Call them back.”
Tammuz didn’t know what to say as Ishtar stood up from her comfortable sofa.
She didn’t pay any attention to her human follower. Instead, an ominous smile grew on her lips.
“This could be interesting. I’ll go myself.”
Standing up to her full height, the goddess didn’t say another
word as she descended the closest staircase toward the sounds of battle.
Bell had reached the thirtieth floor of the palace tower.
He was already more than a hundred meders above the ground. Frantically avoiding the incoming Berbera attacks, he made his way up a grand staircase.
The intense battle hadn’t lasted even ten minutes yet. Once he’d avoided capture for more than ten minutes, he decided he would give up without a fight. But for now, he had to keep pressing forward. It was his duty, his mission.
Every muscle burning, every sense screaming out in pain, he continued to evade every attack the second-tier-adventurer Berbera were throwing at him. Firebolt was proving to be an effective shield for the white rabbit as he recklessly poured all his energy into making it past the next obstacle alive.
Continuing to find openings in the net that the Level 3 Amazons had set for him, he saw visions of Haruhime’s and Mikoto’s faces sear themselves into his heart.
A trail of shattered stairs and walls in his wake, Bell’s dramatic run persisted as even more Berbera joined the hunt.
“—Outta the waaay!!”
“?!”
Bell heard the scarily familiar voice rain down from above from the center of the tower as he rounded another corner. It was followed almost immediately by the sound of destruction coming his way.
Something big and sharp was spinning at him with high speed—a grand war ax. Bell bent backward just in time. The tip of the blade sliced through a few strands of hair just in front of his eyes.
The heavy weapon continued on its way, turning the railing, floor, and even the wall into a gaping hole that went down another four floors.
A cold chill ran up his spine as Bell looked at the spot that he had moved through less than a second ago, now nothing but shards of wood and other debris.
He knew right away, she was here.
“Phryne…!”
Bell looked up at the path from which the grand war ax had come. Indeed, her two-meder frame was not hard to spot.
The frog-like Amazon bearing the title Androctonus, the Man Slayer, looked down on her prey with a hungry grin on her thick lips.
That was when Bell recognized someone else standing next to her—a heroic-looking female warrior with long black hair: Aisha.
“Did you miss me so much you came baaack? Ahh, how sweeeet!”
Other Amazons handed Phryne two more grand battle-axes before she narrowed her eyes at Bell.
A heartbeat later, she kicked off the floor.
“—!”
“I’m comin’ for yoooou!”
Bell wasted no time in turning tail and taking off at full speed as Phryne plummeted toward him.
His escape route brought him into the main hallway, with doors to many rooms lining the walls. The impact of the gargantuan Amazon’s landing nearly knocked him off his feet. A shock wave littered with debris blasted out of the doorway he’d just run through.
“Let that toad handle the rabbit. All of you, to the thirtieth floor!”
Aisha’s sharp orders cracked through the air like a whip. However, Bell didn’t have time to listen due to the living wrecking ball closing in from behind.
Muscles searing in pain, the young human didn’t care which direction he went anymore, just as long as it was away from Phryne.
Eyes frantically scanning the hallway, he caught a glimpse of the cloudy skyline. A window, a path away from the mass of impending doom only a few meders away. He dashed—when a familiar high-speed whistling sound reached his ears. Another ax.
“?!”
“Goin’ somewherrre?”
The grand battle-ax was closing in with blinding speed.
Bell dove to the floor, protecting his neck and bracing for impact as the ridiculously large weapon destroyed everything in its path. Walls, floor, ceiling, and finally the window—chunks of jagged wood showered his body as the blade passed over him. He looked up and saw Orario’s full skyline. The outer wall was gone.
There was no time to gawk at the damage.
A dark shadow fell over him where he lay.
“?!”
Phryne had closed the distance in a matter of seconds. The Amazon lifted her remaining grand battle-ax and brought it down.
Bell rolled to his left without a moment to spare. Another second later and the ax would have landed right between his shoulder blades.
Instead, the weapon plunged into the floor, causing the ground around her to cave in slightly. Phryne lost her balance for a moment. Bell desperately leaped up and thrust out his right arm toward the Amazon.
He didn’t have the luxury of lining up a shot or worrying about his remaining Mind. Bell pulled his magic’s trigger.
“FIREBOLT!!”
An electrified inferno burst forward from his palm.
It came together to form the sharp tip of the spear—that Phryne dodged with a quick backspin.
“No way…!”
Bell couldn’t believe his eyes.
Firebolt—missed?
At that distance?!
The bolt continued down the hallway, scorching the walls as it went. Bell was absently stunned that someone as large as Phryne could evade something like that so easily. However, his would-be target was back on the offensive.
“Tricky piece of magic you got there!”
With that, her ax became a blur as she took swipe after swipe at Bell. It was all Bell could do in his panicked state to get out of the way.
Bell couldn’t help but tremble at the knowledge that Phryne was fast enough to evade a lightning bolt with no warning. Her speed and agility didn’t match her body type in the slightest.
It didn’t make any sense.
Even as Bell evaded the weapon, the backlash from the air pressure cut into his skin. The true power of top-class adventurers hit home.
“You done yet?”
Phryne continued to take chunks out of the wide hallway as she forced Bell into the center of the tower.
The walls, ceiling, and floor bore deep gashes, the claw marks of a crazed beast. The expensive rugs and ornate magic-stone lamps were utterly destroyed by Phryne’s onslaught. However, she was enjoying herself like a cat that refused to kill a dying mouse. Bell had become her toy.
Argonaut—Bell had no time to charge his Skill. He couldn’t focus on it and fight against an opponent like her at the same time.
He would lose a limb the moment he thought about trying.
Phryne’s overwhelming figure filled his quivering eyes. His ace in the hole, the one and only backup plan, wouldn’t work. Only one option remained. Bell drew Ushiwakamaru-Nishiki to use with the Hestia Knife so he could attack—no, so he could defend—with a dual-blade style.
“KEHH!”
Shaking off his fear, he managed to guide a sideways swipe of the ax past his body.
With that came a series of un-dodgeable attacks, bringing forth visions of a different Amazon, the berserker Tiona, and her massive blade during his training on the city wall. Just as he did then, Bell took a defensive angle and slashed the incoming weapon out of the way.
High-pitched metallic screeches rang out every time the weapons collided. Short bursts of arcing sparks accompanied Ushiwakamaru-Nishiki’s screams.
However, Bell was quickly overpowered and kicked farther down the hallway when he was most vulnerable between swipes.
“GE-GE-GE-GE-GEH! So you can dance!!”
Phryne complimented the young human as he tumbled backward.
Flipping over two, three times, Bell rolled out of the hallway and into a larger chamber before finally coming to a stop.
Body covered in cuts, sweat, and bruises, Bell jumped back up to his feet.
What he saw next made his blood run cold.
“Miss Aisha…?!”
The chamber was completely filled with Berbera. Bell had rolled into a trap and was now surrounded on all sides.
The heroic Amazonian warrior stood tall, holding her favorite large wooden blade
against her shoulder, her gaze firmly locked on the boy.
“…You did good, getting this far.”
Aisha stood in front of a staircase leading to a higher floor, her voice loud enough to echo throughout the chamber.
A shock wave rumbled through the floorboards a second later. Phryne had arrived.
This particular chamber was decorated with fine artwork on the walls and ornate pillars framing each of the ceiling-high windows. With Aisha guarding the way up and Phryne preventing him from turning around, Bell had nowhere to run. That would’ve been bad enough without the countless other Amazons encircling him, bouncing their weapons against their shoulders with anticipation.
Oh shit…! Bell cursed to himself as he desperately looked for another way out. His mind raced almost to the point of bursting when suddenly:
“Back down, all of you.”
A powerful voice came from the top of the stairwell.
Every set of eyes in the chamber snapped in that direction in surprise. Slowly but surely, the figure of a bronze-skinned goddess, boasting a peerless level of beauty, descended into the chamber with an oriental pipe in her hand. A sweet scent strong enough to drive the strongest of mortals mad wafted into the room before her. It enveloped Bell, seemed to burn him from his nose. His unblinking ruby-red eyes were drawn to her body like magnets.
The Goddess of Beauty Ishtar seduced any observer with her divine figure, but nonetheless, she was thoroughly pleased seeing Bell’s reaction as she continued smoking.
“Wh-what’s the meanin’ of thisss, Lady Ishtar? Bargin’ in?”
Phryne wasted no time voicing her displeasure with her goddess. Ishtar looked toward her towering follower as her assistant Tammuz made his way down the stairs behind her.
The frog-like Amazon’s face turned a deep red, veins pulsing in her forehead.
“Did you not hear me, Phryne? I said back down.”
Her emotionless black amethyst eyes flashed. Her words conveyed one simple message from her divine will: obey.