Collapse, Showdown, the Spell for Crossing Worlds – Part 07

“Next round.”

He loaded the next bullet and fired.

When he destroyed a Cyclops’ head, the bullet also pierced through another one behind it, killing both in one shot.

Even the Earth Dragon, which had been burrowing underground, was sniped the moment it surfaced. Hikaru’s Soul Rank hadn’t increased yet, but it felt close.

This pace is incredible. If I can get my Projectile skill to 5, hitting every target might just be possible.

But the end was near. The monsters were already dangerously close. The ground was trembling so violently that it was starting to affect his aim.

We’ll retreat after two or three more shots.

“Next round.”

He took the bullet from Soaarunay and peered through the scope.

“…”

Her voice was drowned out by the rumbling. Hikaru didn’t hear what she said, but Soaarunay definitely said something.

He couldn’t process the words, nor could he hear them. He was completely exposed as he peered through the scope.

A sharp pain shot through his head, and everything went dark.

---

The rock in her hands slipped to the ground with a heavy thud.

Soaarunay was breathing heavily. Her bony hands were trembling.

As a magic researcher, she never imagined she’d take down her arch-enemy, Silver Face, by hitting him with a piece of rubble. Like the rest of the Saak family, she believed in testing every spell she created, but that was only within the realm of sorcery. This was the first time she’d resorted to raw, physical violence.

It was utterly barbaric. And that’s precisely why it worked.

The experience left Soaarunay feeling shattered, like her world had crumbled. She never wanted to do anything like this again.

But she had done it. She had taken down Silver Face with her own hands.

“Is he dead?”

He was probably just unconscious from the blow to the head, but his stillness was concerning. Though she was too afraid to check.

The tremors grew stronger. The monsters were closing in. Soon, they’d reach this spot, and Silver Face would likely be killed. If that happened, so be it. She didn’t have the nerve to finish him off herself.

The items scattered around him belonged to the labyrinth, but Soaarunay lacked the energy to retrieve them. She just wanted to shut herself in the labyrinth immediately. She would lie low as it slowly sank. Though she knew the location of the Man Gnome village, she had no desire to attack it. She was too shaken by what she had done—defeating an enemy not with sorcery, but with sheer violence. Even in victory, it felt like she had lost.

The Man Gnomes weren’t foolish; they would likely flee elsewhere. If so, the chase would begin anew. But that was fine. The conflict with the Man Gnomes didn’t require her to be out there. She was done risking her life on the front lines.

Soaarunay had been wary of Silver Face from the start, never lowering her guard. She knew he had some secret—or ability—that allowed him to return to the surface from the 37th floor.

Even when Silver Face began shooting monsters with his rifle, Soaarunay stayed cautious. She had been flustered—that much was a fact—but she used that to come across as harmless and align herself with him. That way, Silver Face would let down his guard, enough to turn his back on her, an inexperienced combatant.

In the end, Soaarunay’s strategy paid off, and she managed to strike down Silver Face.

She felt heavy. Very heavy. Was it exhaustion? Or was it the shock of resorting to violence? No, it wasn’t that simple.

Silver Face had first appeared before her when she was living as Ayano Sasakura in Japan. Chasing after him had given Soaarunay hope that she could find her way back to this world, to the Great Labyrinth of Runay-aas. Eventually, she discovered a high-density mana crystal on Mt. Midori.

It was purely by chance that Silver Face ended up following her to this world. Intrigued by what a man with knowledge of sorcery might do, she had abandoned him on the 37th floor. But his actions defied her expectations.

He returned to the surface.

Soaarunay was a descendant of the Saak family, the clan that managed the Great Labyrinth of Runay-aas. She held an unshakable belief that the magic within the labyrinth was the pinnacle of the world—unique and unmatched. To her, this wasn’t arrogance; it was a simple fact. Anyone with even a basic understanding of sorcery should have been captivated by its power.

And yet, Silver Face ascended to the 36th floor without a second thought and headed straight for the surface. Not only that, but he passed through areas extremely difficult for humans to navigate, taking almost the shortest possible route. There shouldn’t be any master adventurers with profound magical knowledge in this world, but the fact remained that he had made it back to the surface.

Soaarunay glanced at the boy lying unconscious nearby.

After wandering as a soul for what felt like an eternity, she eventually found Ayano Sasakura’s body. But that world was in a different dimension. Silver Face was the one who granted her wish to return to this world, and yet, he disregarded the Saak family’s greatest magical masterpiece and left.

And to bring him down, she used not sorcery, but violence. Her emotions were a tangled mess.

“Enough. I’ll forget all of this. I’ll get plenty of sleep and immerse myself in research. If I bury myself in magic for ten days, a hundred days, or even a thousand days, I’ll forget about him,” Soaarunay told herself. “Goodbye.”

She repeated the word she’d whispered when she brought the piece of rubble down on Silver Face’s head.

As she touched the rifle, it tilted upward and fired a shot into the distance. A faint vibration accompanied the gunshot, but nothing more. Soaarunay marveled at the craftsmanship of the magical weapon.

That might have been the signal she was waiting for. Soaarunay turned her back on Hikaru and walked away. There was no looking back now.

Her steps were slow, but eventually, she reached the stone chamber with the elevator. She pressed the elevator button.

“Don’t move.”

But she found she couldn’t.

A blade, as cold as ice, was pressed against the back of her neck.

For a moment, she thought Silver Face had gotten up, but a quick glance confirmed he was still lying beside the rifle. Besides, the voice was different.

“Are you the warden of this labyrinth?”

Soaarunay fell into thought. All the adventurers should have already escaped.

Then who could this person be?

---

The reconnaissance team from the United Nations of Forestia’s Jarazack had stopped their horses on a small hill. They had no choice but to stop.

A blinding light had erupted from the mountaintop, followed by the labyrinth crashing down. To make matters worse, monsters began streaming out of the labyrinth. Even the brave warriors of Jarazack were paralyzed when they saw the monsters from afar.

The sky was filled with winged dragons and monstrous birds, and the ground was overrun with massive creatures. Facing even one would be a struggle, and there were well over a hundred in total.

The reconnaissance team, which had already sent one member back to the fortress for an initial report, witnessed an even more unbelievable sight from their vantage point.

“Is that… Is that an arrow?!”

A projectile nearly struck a dragon, causing it to lose its balance.

“Can you shoot something that high up? It couldn’t have been an arrow. Even if it reached, it wouldn’t have had much power left.”

“It looked like it came from the fallen labyrinth.”

“That’s impossible. The labyrinth is about a kilometer away—wait, what?”

But the next attack clearly targeted the dragon, and it was unmistakably launched from the labyrinth, as everyone present could clearly see.

“W-Was that a fire arrow?”

The projectile, fired by a magical explosion and heated by air compression, had a faint golden glow. It was easy to mistake it for a fire arrow.

“That can’t be. Only a bow drawn by a giant could shoot something with such speed and over that distance.”

“But captain. You saw it burning, didn’t you? Besides, there aren’t any giants around where it was shot from.”

“Could it be magic?”

“I’ve never seen or heard of such magic.”

“Look, the dragon’s charging in!”

Having spotted the source of the attack, the winged dragon attempted to glide toward the labyrinth, but it was shot down. The Jarazack team fell silent.

“It’s dead.”

“That thing is enormous.”

The astonishment didn’t end there. Fire arrows continued to be launched, taking down dragons and giant birds. Even the usually aggressive flying monsters began to flee when only a few remained.

“The monsters are retreating into the labyrinth!”

The monsters on the ground were heading back inside. This was great news for Jarazack, which had a fortress and city a few days’ journey away by horse.

“Did it stop shooting?”

The attacks from the labyrinth had ceased. Whether this was a good sign or a bad one, they couldn’t tell.