by Mamare Touno
She wasn’t thinking at all.
“Yes, Master. Coppélia will accompany you.”
“And you! Don’t unconsciously egg her on!”
In response to Coppélia’s bland agreement, Leonardo put in a perfunctory retort, but even so, he followed the slight shadow—in other words, he went after Kanami—across the mountainside.
3
“Inconceivable…”
Elias was stricken, and the voice that slipped from his throat sounded strangled.
“Maybe it is, but there’s nothing we can do about it.”
“I’m terribly sorry. I had no idea it was configured this way, either.”
They’d finally reached Sirius Grotto, but a huge bronze door inlaid with images of wolves blocked the entrance. Elias was kneeling in front of it.
Leonardo and Chun Lu both spoke to him, trying to comfort him, but they seemed a bit hesitant about it. Elias couldn’t understand their attitudes, and he pounded the ground with a fist.
“This is exclusively for parties ranging from four to six individuals with levels between eighty and ninety.”
“It’s an instance dungeon, huh? The sort that gets generated temporarily.”
Coppélia had checked a translucent window, and Kanami, who was peeking in from beside her, spoke up in agreement. For somebody who was handing down a sentence, her voice was pretty cheerful.
Elias understood, too. He was the one who’d tried to run in, before anyone else, after emerging from the precipitous mountains. However, this door, sealed by Adventurer sorcery, had refused him. He’d performed authentication again and again, and he had finally tried to shove it open by brute force, but it hadn’t budged.
According to the words of the girl priestess, Coppélia, it was a seal that was based on level—in other words, on combat rank.
“Am I to blame here…?”
“You know it’s not about blame, guy. C’mon.”
His sworn friend Leonardo spoke, his hands on his hips, but his words sounded vaguely false.
The blue sky was high and clear, and the cool wind peculiar to mountain regions was blowing, but Elias’s heart was gloomy. As he was now, even the aid he’d promised the Enchantress, one of his own kind, was out of his reach.
He’d acquired his level-100 strength to save the world and the People of the Earth. If he was being rejected precisely because of that strength, what was he supposed to do? What meaning had there been in his painful training and the agony he’d felt up until now? It was as if he’d been told there was no value in his existence.
Unable even to vent this suffering—which he felt certain they wouldn’t understand—on his companions, Elias groaned.
“I call first!”
“Coppélia will accompany you.”
“Huh? Uh? Hey, what are those looks for? I’m going, too?!”
“Do you mean you’re including me as well?”
Kanami had taken bouncing steps, pointing at her friends’ chests one by one for confirmation. However, when Elias looked up, feeling as if he was seeking salvation, he was hit with a merciless declaration: “You hold the fort, Eli-Eli! There’s no actual fort, but hold it anyway!”
“I have a mission to protect Ancients like myself. I must go to Bai Tao Shrine at the peak and defeat the magus, no matter what.”
“But, uh, you can’t get into the dungeon.”
Elias had pleaded desperately, but his wish was dealt with bluntly.
“Leonardo?! Were you not my friend?”
“This isn’t really about friendship, y’know?”
Leonardo glanced to the side, looking for agreement, but Kanami was all smiles, and Coppélia was absorbed in inspecting her dungeon equipment. Possibly because he’d understood this, Leonardo promised for them as well: “Hey, it’ll be fine. We’ll go see what’s up first, and if it looks ugly, we’ll be back.”
“So this is reconnaissance, then?”
“Yeah, that’s it, reconnaissance! Sightseeing!”
Kanami shouted cheerfully, and beside her, Coppélia impassively covered for her: “Master, sightseeing refers to tourism.” …Although it wasn’t clear whether that had actually covered anything for her.
Still, once they’d said that much to him, there was no help for it.
His heart, which sent mana to him with each beat, ached and smarted, but that didn’t make it all right to shove that pain onto his companions. The pride of an elvish knight wasn’t cheap.
Elias was a man, and a full-fledged elf. If asked whether he couldn’t resign himself to a single standby mission, the only possible answer was that he would show them by performing it magnificently. For all that, he did give a regretful sigh, but when Kanami—waving her hands wildly—and the others left, he managed to see them off.
Still, after that, Elias had too much time on his hands.
It might be a standby mission, but there was nothing he needed to do. The Adventurers routinely carried Magic Bags, and they put all their inventory in them. These bags could fit lots of things, negating weight and bulk, and they were an essential for Adventurers. Elias, an Ancient, also had a Magic Bag with higher-level mana. Naturally, Kanami and the others did as well.
Since that was the case, the party that had gone into the dungeon hadn’t left any equipment or belongings with Elias because the bag was “too heavy.” Since parting with KR, they hadn’t relied on horses or other mounts, so there was no need to tend to them. If there was no luggage and no beasts of burden, there was no particular need to set up camp.
In other words, he didn’t need to prepare or defend anything.
Elias leapt to the top of a boulder that seemed as if it would have a good view, sat down, turned his gaze to the enormous bronze door that served as the entrance to the dungeon, and stretched. His surroundings were filled with a chill that seemed to seep into his core, but the fairy blood in his veins kept it away.
Time passed slowly in the afternoons in this mountainous country. When the sun finally touched the ridgeline, it would probably go quickly, but at this point, it was only a little past noon.
“You know, this is…”
Elias smiled wryly, the corners of his mouth twisting. It was true that he had fairy blood and that he was under a curse. That was why he was strong. He had high cold resistance, and he could withstand even a Jotun’s universal freezing magic, the sort that made a mountain wind like this one feel like lukewarm water.
However, he’d never thought about what exactly that was, and about what fairies were. He’d been designed not to have to think about it.
Elias the Ancient thought nothing of the cold of the icy Londinium ocean, but even he hadn’t been able to shut out the chill from that other dimension. It had been self-mockery, nihilism, resignation. Every time he remembered the Words of Death, that alien chill crept up on him. It stole the momentum from his spirit, attempting to lead him toward a state of slow stillness. Everything he sensed grew indistinct, its texture draining away. It was a prison of the soul.
“No, no. That was close. No, you won’t get me that way.”
Elias shook his head vigorously, rejecting the thought.
His blond hair added color to the bleak Tian Mai foothills.
“Kanami gave me fire, didn’t she? I can’t let the Geniuses’ chill get me so easily. I must gather the few surviving Ancients and protect this world to the end.”
He filled the pit of his belly with strength, gripped the hilt of his beloved sword, and visualized the faces of his Ancient comrades in arms. They had all been good-natured companions. Ever since they’d disappeared into the Spatial Teleportation Device, he hadn’t been able to contact them, and he had no idea what had happened to them, but he hoped they were happy— Or, no, at least safe. There must be a means to save his companions hidden somewhere on this journey to Yamato, in the Far East.
“Lord Elias.”
“Miss Youren!”
Elias had been deep in thought, and he’d lost all sense of time wh
en, abruptly, a soft woman’s voice spoke to him. The figure, which was dressed in clothes so thin that it would have frozen if it had been a Person of the Earth, belonged to Enchantress Youren. Like a nun, she wore a veil that hid her eyes, and the slim, smooth contours of her red lips were visible below it. A murky, slightly sweet scent reached him on the wind.
“I’m so glad you’ve come. Now that there are no Fairy Rings, I’m sure it must have been a terribly harsh journey. Traveling on foot through the Tian Mai Mountains, the desolate backbone of Zhongyuan, and the demon-haunted Blackstone Desert… My gratitude is beyond measure.”
“Ha-ha-ha. No, that’s not true. This is a beautiful place,” Elias responded.
True, the journey from central Eured through the plains had brought home to him, again and again, just how enormous this world was. Wilderness that ran to the horizon, rocky desert that ran to the horizon, grassy plains with lingering snow that ran to the horizon. Still, there had been a stern beauty in them as well. He’d seen sunrises so brilliant that the contrast made the land itself sink into shadow. It had been a sight like blazing iron, something he’d never seen in the northern oceans.
“I’m terribly relieved that you are here, Lord Elias. Where are your companions?”
“Beyond the door… Apparently, this door sorts those who pass through it by their combat ranks. As a result…my fairy blood was rejected.”
Elias went on, gritting his teeth.
“My companions undertook the reconnaissance of Bai Tao Shrine, but I’m not sure how it will go.”
“Without the heroic Lord Elias, the knights who accompany you must seem rather uncertain.”
At Youren’s worried voice, Elias thought, I wonder about that.
Kanami used her fists and that bottomless energy to shatter any obstacle. Coppélia followed her wordlessly. His friend Leonardo was kept busy dealing with the aftermath. If the skilled Chun Lu was there as well, he couldn’t imagine they would lose to any old threat. Elias hadn’t been worried about anything of the sort, personally, so the idea caught him off guard.
“Having lost you, I imagine your companions must also feel quite forlorn.”
“Do you think so?”
“Of course I do.” Youren nodded kindly. In that case, Elias thought, there was no need to bother denying it any further. It was true that, even now, he wanted to race to join Kanami and the others, and if they were expecting that much from him, of course he’d be happy about it.
“…However, in that case, I have an idea.”
“Is there a way to release the seal?”
As if he’d been stung, Elias jumped down from the boulder and took the Enchantress’s hands.
“No, this seal is the core of Sirius Grotto. It isn’t the sort of thing that can be undone easily. Even so, although it is dangerous, there is one way to reach the Bai Tao Shrine.”
“Tell me, please. If there’s a way to save our fellow Ancients on the peak, I want to know, no matter what… In order to restore the Knights of the Red Branch, and also to wipe this calamity from the world.”
It wasn’t that he doubted Kanami and the others.
However, this was the Ancients’ crisis.
The magus was a mortal enemy who was shaking the world and had plunged his companions into the sleep of death.
If possible, he wanted to kill that magus. He also wanted to shake off this pathetic, horrible, demonic chill that had possessed his heart. Kanami’s fire might be protecting him, but as long as this cold existed, there would be no sunlit morning for Elias.
If he defeated the demons—the Geniuses—he could grasp it. Elias felt that, to break free from the fairy curse that made him unable to destroy enemies, it was vital do combat with the Geniuses.
“Yes, Lord Elias. So it shall be. You, a fairy swordsman of particular brilliance, even among the Thirteen Global Chivalric Orders, should be able to fight that villain who came from the east.”
“Please.”
Youren had politely offered to guide Elias, and agreeing, he set off, following her slender back. At some point, a white mist that seemed to have crept up from the foot of the mountain had gathered on the surface of Mount Lang Jun. The Enchantress and Elias walked through mist that reflected the evening sun like the water’s edge.
They were the very picture of a fairy summoning a sword-bearing hero to an adventure in an enchanted land.
Deserted, the great door to Sirius Grotto was eventually illuminated by starlight, and only icy cold air blew upon it.
4
Following Enchantress Youren, who skimmed up the rock face as lightly as a feather riding the wind, Elias ran up the same cliff. He was using a fairy martial art technique that used the air as footholds. It wasn’t on the level of a flight spell, but with Elias’s skill, it was easy to keep his balance in midair.
The scenery that spread above him was breathtaking.
The enormous gray rock face was as perpendicular and sheer as a standing screen. Dense green shrubs grew here and there, like ornaments, and trees with slim branches stretched out of them, as though seeking the air. Elias didn’t know it, but the odd landscape bore a strong resemblance to a shan shui brush-and-ink painting.
It looked as if they still had quite a ways to go, but Youren turned back, tilting her head, and Elias called to her.
“I never imagined that a route like this existed.”
“It isn’t grand enough to call a ‘route,’ but…”
The two of them were currently scaling the side of Mount Lang Jun. This was the way Enchantress Youren had spoken of, the only way to reach the peak without going through Sirius Grotto.
It seemed like the sort of thing that would have occurred to them easily if they’d given it a little thought, but neither Elias nor Leonardo, Kanami, or any of the others had thought of it, simply because of the “understanding” peculiar to Theldesia: Dungeons were routes, so there was probably no other way.
In fact, once they’d started, climbing the mountain this way wasn’t impossible.
The journey was extremely difficult, of course. At first, the two of them had traveled through a forest with precipitous slopes, but by the time the moon was beginning its trip down the sky, they were through that area and were looking at a hard, stony mountain, studded with sheer rock cliffs.
Now, in the stillness before dawn, they were gradually working their way up that rock face. Unless you were an Ancient or an Adventurer, and a very high-level one at that, it probably wouldn’t have been possible to choose this route.
The two of them strained their ears for a little while, listening to an owl’s distant cry, but once they were sure they couldn’t sense any monsters that would pose a threat, they tackled the rock face again.
Elias could run through midair, but he couldn’t float, and he couldn’t fly. Enchantress Youren seemed to be using a spell that canceled out her weight, or a unique ability that immobilized space.
Neither of them could stay in midair for long periods of time, so they ended up moving over the cliff face, from foothold to foothold. Of course, their speed and freedom of movement far surpassed that of the People of the Earth, but if they chose a fragile foothold, they wouldn’t be able to avoid losing their purchase and falling. They were managing without much trouble, even with the disadvantage of working by moonlight, simply because their skills were outstanding.
With a sudden, piercing shriek, a monstrous two-headed bird flew at them. Elias repelled it with his sword, and the weight of the feedback told him eloquently that the monster had been strong. However, Crystal Stream had been born from fairy magic, and its effect on flying enemies was enormous. A jet of water pursued the bird, slashing at it and hampering its movements.
Youren, who’d been holding her breath, gave a sigh of relief. “That was a Rui,” she explained. “They are magical, flame-attribute beasts that attack their prey with four legs.”
Elias nodded in understanding. That was why the monster had fled in a panic: Water wit
h ice mixed into it must have been pretty rough on its flame-attribute wings.
“You are truly a warrior without equal under heaven, Lord Elias.”
“No, that’s not true.”
Elias, who’d returned his great sword to the sheath on his back, smiled with a bitterness it would have been impossible to imagine from his normal expression. The attack he’d just launched at the bird had worked because his weapon’s attribute and the monster’s weakness had matched up. He had too much experience in combat to assume that it had been a product of his skill.
More than anything, that had been a nearly perfect opponent in terms of attribute, and even then, chasing it away had been all he could do.
Even now, the fairy curse trammeled Elias. That was why he wanted to fight the Geniuses. When he’d defeated Papus, the Genius of Healing, while he’d felt the usual impatience of not being able to end things, he actually had blown the thing’s slimy body away.
Just maybe…
Elias bit his lip.
A new strength might be waiting for him on the other side of this fight with the Geniuses. No, it had to be there. When faced with enemies from another world who’d stolen the lives of his comrades, even the fairy king—who hated fighting—would surely loosen his bonds.
“Lord Elias, where is your party bound, and for what do you travel?”
The voice spoke to Elias after they’d watched the monstrous bird go. He stood absorbed in his thoughts; he blinked two or three times before responding to the Enchantress.
“Now that you mention it, I suppose I hadn’t told you. Kanami invited us to Yamato, an island nation far in the east, and that’s where we’re headed.”
“Yamato…? Why?”
“It sounds as if the land is flooded with a magic power known as ‘Homesteading the Noosphere.’ It’s an ability that allows Adventurers to break through the upper limits of their combat rank. Not only that, but new spells, skills, and enemies await us there. An anomaly on that scale is occurring in that region. It may also hold a hint regarding a solution to this disaster.”