Collapse, Showdown, the Spell for Crossing Worlds – Part 09

“Ugh, those two!”

Despite her complaints, Serika didn’t have the energy to run.

Paula and Selyse’s decision to run was based solely on Sara’s intuition. But if there was a chance something had happened to Hikaru, they had to act.

Paula and Selyse, in particular, would not think twice about risking their lives for Silver Face—for Hikaru. He had saved Selyse’s life, and Paula’s situation was similar from what she’d heard.

Still, Serika wanted to go if she could. After all the help she had received earlier.

In all honesty, she had thought the battle earlier was dangerous. She constantly considered a retreat. The only reason they didn’t have to flee was thanks to Hikaru’s cover and a bit of luck.

“I’m going too,” Sara said. “What troublesome young ladies.”

“That’s good to hear. Actually, they went because of what you said!”

Sara made a show of hitting her head with her fist and sticking out her tongue, something she learned in Japan. She then dashed down the slope with a light gait, as if her earlier injuries had never been.

“Are you sure about letting them go back to where the monsters are?” Granryuk asked.

“It’s fine! We always retreat when we have to.”

Despite her words, Serika couldn’t help but watch with concern.

---

As they ran, Selyse glanced at Paula, who was struggling to keep up. Paula, a cleric, had the endurance but was not particularly fast. Yet she pushed herself to move as quickly as possible, driven by the urgency to reach Hikaru.

Selyse, though exhausted and out of breath, pushed herself for Hikaru. If she didn’t push herself now, when would she?

“Paula.”

“Y-Yes?”

“We won’t make it at this pace. We need to go faster.”

“O-Okay.”

Paula, thinking she would be left behind, nodded with a look of distress.

“You can wait here if you want. It’s only going to get more dangerous ahead.”

“I-I can’t! If Lord Hikaru is hurt, I have to heal him. I don’t care if I die. My life belongs to Lord Hikaru!”

Selyse hadn’t spoken much with Paula before, but seeing her dedication to Hikaru, she felt a kindred spirit. Hikaru had someone he loved—Lavia—and he wouldn’t look at anyone else. But even so, if there was anything she could do for Hikaru, she would do it without a second thought.

Selyse’s heart trembled. She realized they were the same. It didn’t matter what happened to her; if he was in danger, she wanted to save him.

“I am a sword. A single sword.”

“..What?”

“A sword meant to cut down anyone who stands in Silver Face’s way. That’s all I wish to be.”

“Selyse.”

As they ran, Selyse lightly patted Paula’s back.

“Follow in my footsteps. I’ll stay in the shadows, find a way to climb higher, and lower a rope.”

“O-Okay!”

“That’s good, right, Sara?”

“Huh?”

Astonished, Paula turned to see Sara running silently behind them.

“It’s fine. I’ve still got rope in my toolbox. You two seemed to be sharing a moment, so I didn’t wanna interrupt.”

Selyse laughed. “We’re kindred souls supporting Silver Face from the shadows. Right, Paula?”

“K-Kindred souls. Y-Yeah!”

“All right, I’m going ahead.”

Selyse quickened her pace, with Sara close behind.

This is bad.

It would take some time to find a route to climb while staying hidden. But with monsters nearby, there was no other choice.

The monsters had already begun scaling the walls of the labyrinth.

Will we make it? Hurry, hurry, hurry!

Her heart pounded so hard it felt like it might burst. Every cell in her body screamed for oxygen. Her breathing was ragged.

No adventurer would recognize this frantic side of Selyse, who had always led the Four Eastern Stars with cool elegance, carrying herself like a noble. Not even Sandra, the leader of Beyond Dawn, nor Marius, the veteran adventurer, had seen her like this.

Selyse took a slight detour to avoid being noticed by the monsters, but she eventually reached the outer wall of the Great Labyrinth of Runay-aas, which was slowly sinking into the ground.

From here, the wall looked like a sheer cliff. It was over a hundred meters high and sinking at a rate of about a centimeter per second.

Despite the steepness, there were some indentations and protrusions. Selyse clung to the wall and began to climb. Sara followed silently. She probably had a lot to say, that Silver Face might already be safe, or that chasing monsters was foolish, or that as adventurers, they should be using this time to harvest materials from the dead monsters and escape.

All of that was true. But Sara said nothing.

She let Selyse do as she wished. Of course, Sara likely felt responsible for making them trust her intuition, but she also understood that if they made the wrong decision here, they might regret it for the rest of their lives.

Selyse and Sara could easily scale the cliff, but Paula couldn’t. Each time they found a place to rest, Sara drove a wedge into the rock and lowered a rope. Selyse couldn’t afford to pay attention to that. She focused solely on climbing higher.

It must have taken ten, maybe twenty minutes, until Selyse finally grasped the edge at the top of the labyrinth. She tightened her grip. She could barely feel her hands anymore from the cold and exhaustion, but she could still pull herself up.

“We’ve made it.”

Selyse saw something she couldn’t believe. No, she saw something she had desperately hoped not to see.

The wide, open space and the turrets were just as they had been earlier, except now, the area was filled with monsters.

Cyclopes roamed in groups, and Chimeras wandered nearby, sniffing the ground.

“Silver Face.”

Selyse spotted a boy lying beside a golden magical device unlike anything she’d ever seen before.

“Silver Face!”

But before she could clamber up and rush to him, a monstrous bird swooped down, its talons sinking into her left shoulder. She had just lifted her upper body over the edge of the labyrinth, and the impact threw her off balance.

“Ah!”

She slipped and began to fall.

“Selyse!”

Sara immediately grabbed Selyse’s cloak, but the weight pulled her down as well.

“Ugh. Sara!”

Both of them managed to catch the rope they had lowered earlier. Their bodies jerked to a sudden stop, spinning around the taut rope as they slammed into the wall. But they were alive.

“A-Are you okay?!”

They were now a little below halfway down. Farther below on the ground, Paula had just arrived, panting heavily.

“Selyse is hurt! Paula, get up here!”

“C-Coming!”

“I-I’m fine. But we have to hurry!”

Selyse had just seen it.

“Silver Face is in danger!”

A monster was closing in on the collapsed boy.

---

Hikaru thought he heard someone call out, “Silver Face.”

His consciousness, buried deep in darkness, suddenly resurfaced.

Pain. Where had he let his guard down?

The moment awareness returned, a wave of regret hit him hard. He’d made a critical mistake. Hikaru quickly realized that Soaarunay had struck him from behind.

His head spun, and he couldn’t move a finger. All he could do was lie there. The situation was dire. Downright grim. He could hear the heavy footsteps of something moving nearby, and through his blurred vision, he saw massive feet.

How long had he been out?

He couldn’t do anything. He couldn’t even speak. He had activated Stealth, but it was too late. He had been discovered and was now the focus of attention. In this bright space, there was nowhere to hide, nothing to distract hostiles.

Was he just going to lie here and die?

Am I… going to die?

In a place like this? Backstabbed by Soaarunay?

Where… did she go?

Soaarunay was nowhere to be seen. Hikaru couldn’t understand why she didn’t finish him off. Maybe she was watching from afar, savoring the moment? But that wasn’t like her. Soaarunay was an unhinged magic researcher, but she was not one to revel in such gory delights. Did she flee, then? Did the monsters return before she could land the final blow?

He didn’t know. But even if he found out, it wouldn’t change anything.

The footsteps stopped close by. The giants—those Cyclopes he had so easily shot earlier—were now looming over him. Did they realize he was the sniper? He couldn’t tell, but he knew they weren’t going to let him live.

A distant thud, followed by a roar that didn’t belong to the Cyclopes. Friends of the winged dragons, maybe. The slithering sound was probably a giant snake.

A monster gathering. Were they all here to finish him off? How idiotic.

No, I’m the idiot.

He showed his unguarded back to Soaarunay.

Did I let my guard down just because we worked together for a while? Did I actually think I could trust her?

Soaarunay pretended to be impressed by his skills, deceiving him completely.

I’m the idiot!

He had lost sight of his ultimate goal. What he needed was to make the spell for crossing worlds usable. Instead, he got caught up in fighting monsters.

He should have forced Soaarunay to undo the magic by all costs. He should have sliced off one or both of her arms if that’s what it took to get the truth out of her. Even if it meant the destruction of the Man Gnomes’ home.

All of this was his fault for letting his guard down.