WorldEnd: What Do You Do at the End of the World? Are You Busy? Will You Save Us?, Vol. 3

by Akira Kareno

  “Is the research adviser here?”

  He came to the equipment vault. He pushed open the semi-airtight door and began searching for someone who might fit the description.

  And there was Glick, clad in heavy gear meant for venturing on the surface.

  “…What?”

  “…Huh?”

  The two men stood staring at each other, an indescribable air enveloping them.

  “What we call our theories come from an accumulation of all our rules of thumb.” Glick muttered his grievances, his bad mood apparent. “Like, we know how easily it can get mixed up with superstition. There are definitely some theories that I’m unsure of myself. Like, they say flatten your ears if the sounds of water stop underground, and I get it if you’re, like, an ailuanthrope or something, but what should races like us do?”

  Maybe they should just be happy they’re at least not being told to “curl your tails.”

  “By ‘rules of thumb,’ do you mean big groups that go under never come back?”

  “It’s not always. There’s a clear drop-off in survival rates when groups get to about seven people. That’s why civilian salvagers don’t really do work in big groups.”

  That made sense. He didn’t manage to ask how many people that simple first officer was planning to send down, but he probably wouldn’t cut people from the group.

  “I see. Now I know why you’re mad.” Willem nodded. “Next question: What’s this?”

  “Dust-proof cloak, muffler, and goggles.”

  “Why’re you giving them to me?”

  “The sandstorm’s pretty bad today. You’re screwed if you go out without preparing.”

  “But why are we going out?”

  “Today’s the only day we can go underground.”

  How did that make sense?

  “Since you’re here anyway, there’s a treasure I wanna show you. Can’t bring it up to the surface, though, so we’ll have to go down to where it is.”

  “Why are you making me do this?”

  “Just come with. I never thought I’d come down here to the land to run into you, y’know. The Visitors’re blessing us. We’ll be punished if we don’t take this opportunity.”

  How did that make sense?

  “—Oh, hey, perfect timing. You wanna come along, missy?” Glick looked up and called out to someone behind Willem.

  Thinking Nopht or someone had come by, Willem turned around to see none other than Chtholly’s back as she was trying to slip away undetected.

  Chtholly turned around slowly, her expression suggesting she didn’t know what to do.

  (…Ah, shit.)

  Willem again recalled what happened last night, and his own expression became vague, his eyes darting around, unsure where to look.

  But Glick remained blissfully unaware of the tension between them.

  “You’re a secretary, right? So Willem’s support is part of your job. Three’s the perfect number for going underground. We get less blind spots, and the other two can cover for any blunders the third makes. We could also leave someone on the surface for backup.”

  He cheerfully pulled out another set of dust-proof cloak, muffler, and goggles.

  It seemed there was quite the crustal deformation in the past five hundred years.

  The research team had apparently found this underground structure on the first day, and its present condition was vastly different from the way it used to be. The walls and ceilings had caved in, unable to withstand the twisting ground around them, and the original hallways had been sealed up only to create new ones. There were gaps here and there in the outer wall, and the soil and water made the pathways even more difficult to navigate.

  They followed the paths down, relying on the faint light the small illumination crystal produced. As Willem watched Glick proceed without hesitation through the interweaving paths ahead of him, he sensed his genuine dignity as a seasoned salvager.

  His breath came out in white clouds. The air was as frigid as that of an ice room.

  With every level they went down, the temperature dropped, too. They came to the fourth level belowground. Water dripping in from a nearby water vein pooled on the floor and froze on the spot. They had to be even more careful when they walked so they didn’t slip.

  “As you can tell by what you’ve already seen, most of the stuff on the surface has basically been weathered away, so it’s not really good for treasure hunting. But here, underground, lots of stuff is still the way it used to be. The real salvaging happens once we dive in.”

  Willem paid no attention to Glick’s commentary.

  “This thing has at least four floors, and every floor is huge. Never thought this mazelike thing would be around my hometown.”

  He felt strange.

  Maybe it had been here ever since he lived in the orphanage. Or maybe it was built after he left to become a Quasi Brave. Though now, five hundred years after the fact, there was no way to check.

  “You all right back there?”

  “Yeah, I’m fine.”

  When he turned to see how Chtholly was doing, she didn’t seem to be having any particular trouble, even with the uneven footing in the dark. She was, after all, the girl recognized by Seniorious.

  “—Oh yeah, the girls.”

  “Hmm?”

  “It was just like you told me—they’re good kids.”

  “Yeah.”

  Nopht and Rhantolk—Willem still didn’t know them very well, but if Glick said so, and he’d been fraternizing with them for a while now, then it was probably true.

  Willem somehow felt like Glick had gotten ahead of him, and he felt a bit salty.

  “I’m not giving ’em to you.”

  “Hey, c’mon, where did that come from?”

  They cackled together.

  “If they want, then you’re gonna have to go through me first.”

  “Seriously, where did that come from? And you really need to cut it out with that serious look on your face. It’s creeping me out.”

  “What on earth are you two talking about?” Chtholly smiled slightly, exasperated.

  A puff of white breath floated in the cool air of the underground and vanished.

  “—Wait, hold on. The way’s blocked.”

  Willem saw the back of Glick’s head stop moving in the small field of vision provided by the lighting crystal.

  He narrowed his eyes and peered at the path ahead of them. He could see a small pile of debris of all shapes and sizes. Even if they wanted to break it to keep going, putting any unnecessary pressure on it might cause the ceiling to collapse.

  “Damn. I guess we came all this way just to head back.”

  “There were plenty of side routes on the way here, though, right? Can’t we go around?”

  “The paths are too mixed up. It would take too much time to study each and every one. And there’s also a Timere nest around here; I don’t wanna just walk aimlessly and irritate them.”

  “I guess so.” Willem thought for a moment. “A what nest?”

  “Timere, Beast Number Six.” Glick spoke lightly. “About ten of ’em get together and build their nests in the ground. They usually just sleep like regular plants when they’re in their nests, but that’s why if you wander nearby unguarded, they’ll wake up and attack you, even if that’s only in really rare cases.”

  Number Six, Timere—the only Beast that could get to Regule Aire by drifting in the air. The very reason why the disposable weapons that were the faeries existed.

  —Why don’t we just burn ’em all now?

  The question almost made its way out of Willem’s mouth, but he quickly swallowed it. They had to drag out Carillons against them because they weren’t enemies that could be dealt with by such simple methods.

  Then should they make Nephren and the others attack now, while they knew their chances of a sneak attack were almost guaranteed?

  No, they couldn’t. It was out of the question. They were in an enclosed space, where t
hey would have to completely abandon their advantage of having wings. Tens of Beasts had even more duplication power, making for a depressing difference in number. When faced with these realities, it wasn’t actually that advantageous to surprise attack them.

  The one good point was the enclosed space and high density of enemies meant favorable conditions for the “self-destruct” that was the faeries’ final attack. He didn’t want to think about actually executing it, though.

  “…Er, do you mind?”

  Willem heard Chtholly’s voice and snapped back to reality.

  “I don’t really know how to explain my reasoning, but…can we go in through this path?”

  Since they wouldn’t have accomplished anything if they turned back now, they decided to give the path a go.

  They traversed along the twisting, winding path for what seemed like forever. Whenever there was a fork in the road, Chtholly would stop, strain her ears, then pick one of the paths without a moment’s hesitation.

  “I don’t know how to explain it, but it feels like someone’s calling me.”

  That was how she expressed it. It wasn’t entirely reliable as a compass for people trying to push their way deep into a natural labyrinth. But since they didn’t have anything else to guide them at the moment, there was really no reason for them to stop her.

  It was almost impossible to tell how long they had been walking.

  They arrived at a room, and their vision opened up before them.

  “…For real?” Glick murmured in admiration. “We made it. This is what I wanted to show you.”

  “Huh?” Willem spun around, looking at his surroundings. “There’s nothing here, man. What did you want to show me?”

  “It’s in front of you.”

  Despite what he said, the only thing in front of them was a wall.

  No, wait. On closer inspection, it wasn’t a wall but a giant block of ice.

  “Almost the entire room was encased in ice at first, but I’ve managed to work my way this far.” Glick lightly tapped the block of ice with his knuckle.

  There was something in the ice.

  Willem raised the illumination crystal up to it.

  He could see a brilliant crimson color inside the unnaturally transparent ice.

  He gulped.

  “…This is…”

  “Surprised, eh? I was, too. Never thought I’d find treasure like this twice in my short life.”

  It was a young child—young even when compared to the little ones at the faerie warehouse.

  Her hair was a long crimson, frozen in place as though it had been fluttering gently in the wind.

  It was hard to see her expression, but she looked to be resting peacefully.

  And in her chest…

  …was a gaping sword wound.

  She looked alive. She looked like she was just in a serene slumber. But there was no mistaking that this was a corpse.

  “She’s not…an acquaintance from long ago or anything, is she?”

  “Uhhh…” He checked her face again. “I don’t think so.”

  “Okay. It was a lot like the time when I found you, so I just thought, maybe, you know?”

  Right. This situation wasn’t the first time for Glick. Willem was once hidden away so elaborately—petrified, sunk in water, then encased in ice. It was Glick and his other salvager buddies who’d picked him up and revived him.

  “Could you save her like you did me?”

  “I don’t think that’s possible.” Glick shook his head slightly. “In your case, you were petrified because of a curse, so we could save you because you weren’t totally dead yet. No matter how you look at it, this kid’s just plain old dead.”

  That was true. There wasn’t a single emnetwiht who could live with a heart cut in two.

  “Just hold on a second.”

  Willem activated a slight bit of venenum and gave his eyes Sight.

  “…Yeah, I thought so.”

  “Hmm?”

  “There’s some kind of curse on the wound.”

  He gazed steadily at it, enduring the throbbing pain in his head. He could clearly see a strong curse deeply carved into the small body.

  “Seriously?”

  “Seriously. It doesn’t seem like something that’ll bring her back to life if we lift it, though.”

  The world contained curses meant to be cast on dead bodies. Those were the kind that made corpses move to put them to work, or only made the mouth move to spew wisdom, or to create ties with its blood relatives to infect them with the curse—things like that. And of course, by lifting them, the cursed corpses would just become uncursed corpses. They wouldn’t be brought back to life.

  “…Hmm?”

  That aside, he thought he’d seen this curse somewhere before.

  He looked closer. This was probably a kind of orthodox transmutation curse—the kind that turned people into frogs or a delicious meal into stone. Something about how the power entwined and twisted with things—stuff like that. But he couldn’t remember where he’d seen it before. Either way, his pounding headache was preventing him from making a coherent thought.

  He stopped the Sight. His headache wasn’t going away anytime soon.

  “I wanted to put her to rest in a brighter place, instead of letting her sleep in this creepy hole… But I guess if she’s cursed, then should we lift that first?”

  Glick was mumbling about something.

  “What, you’re not gonna sell it off as a treasure to some creepy collector?”

  “I’m not really into that kind of stuff. She seems so comfortable resting now, so I just want to do the compassionate thing and let her rest.”

  Somehow, when Glick said compassionate, that convinced him.

  Willem turned back to the girl.

  “Well, whatever we decide to do, we’ve got to get her out of this ice first. This kinda curse keeps the victim semi-permanently fixed. So she probably won’t rot or get eaten even if we take her out of the—”

  First, a shiver ran down his spine.

  “—Huh?”

  A moment afterward, a baseless sense of fear bubbled up from deep inside his gut. As though he was being propelled into action, he looked for the source. He whirled around. He found it immediately.

  Chtholly stood there in astonishment, gazing at the girl in the ice.

  He could see the storm of venenum quietly overflowing throughout her whole body.

  “Wha…?”

  Her hair began to change color before his very eyes.

  From blue to red—Chtholly Nota Seniorious was vanishing.

  “What the hell?! What are you doing?!”

  He gripped her shoulders and shook her. He smacked her cheeks several times. But the kindled venenum did not subside. Her gaze was not fixed on any particular thing, and it was hard to tell if she was even conscious. Willem understood that if he didn’t do something now, it would already be too late. He made his palm in the shape of a wedge, and pierced the spot beside Chtholly’s heart as hard as he could.

  An expression of agony briefly crossed the girl’s face. Her blood flow was agitated, her lungs crushed, her activated venenum forcefully scattered, and her fuzzy consciousness forcibly shut off.

  “Sorry, talk later! We have to go back up, now!”

  “O-okay.”

  Though Glick sounded hesitant, he must have seen how the situation had changed. Glick nodded obediently and immediately led them back on the path they had come from.

  3. The Tattered, Antiquated Clock

  The next day.

  Just as announced, the first officer went underground with a big group of thirteen Guardsmen in tow. The ones left behind were now forced to continue with their original loading work, even without the manpower of thirteen people.

  They returned much earlier than sunset.

  “See, not a single lick of danger down there!” the first officer boasted. Either the thirteen he’d brought along were exceptionally skilled, or they brought resu
lts back that warranted such boasting.

  By the way, let’s talk a little bit about Beast Number Six, the Deeply Buried Timere.

  They are typically amorphous. They also grow and divide quickly. Though the chances of it happening are extremely rare, they are the only Beast that can be encountered in the sky.

  When they’re not in the sky, the creatures make nests underground. They find caves that are relatively spacious and damp, attach themselves firmly to the walls and ceilings, and slowly increase their numbers.

  As for how terrifying Sixes’ nests seem, they’re sometimes not actually all that dangerous. There are more than a few stories of salvagers getting lost smack in the middle of their nests only to return home unharmed. Nesting Sixes don’t respond to only one or two intruders. They stay dormant, almost as though they’re still asleep.

  It is unknown what causes them to come alive.

  There are actually some people who think that’s impossible. They think Sixes are completely irrational, running about causing havoc without any regard for the races of Regule Aire, spreading tragedy wherever they want. There is no point in thinking why or when they are awake or asleep, since that is their nature.

  But in reality, that train of thought is wrong.

  Though it isn’t for certain, there are several conditions that act as keys to undoing their slumber. For example, if a whole group of living creatures gets close enough. Then, when one or more conditions are met, several nesting Sixes will slowly wake from their sleep and begin to act, looking for living victims.

  A small hole popped open on the sandy surface as the unrelenting wind washed over it.

  And then, another one.

  And after that, another one.

  And another one, and another one, and another one.

  And another one, and another one, and another one. And another one, and another one, and another one. And another one, and another one, and another one. And another one, and another one, and another one. And another one, and another one, and another one. And another one, and another one, and another one. And another one, and another one, and another one.

  It was like a spring of water.

  Slowly, a liquefied substance oozed out from each hole.