Chapter 7: A Battle to an Excavation

Chapter 7:
A Battle to an Excavation

 

“THE PLAN IS SIMPLE. This passage connects to where the chief is holed up. Ms. Cornet will lead the fairies to break the barrier. We’ll follow the corridor, make contact with the chief, and fight him—and that should be the end of it.”

“You make it sound so easy…not that there’s anything else we can do, really.”

Loren and Lapis stood before the passageway, ready to fulfill Cornet’s request. Feuille had been left behind with the other fairies, as agreed.

“Now listen here. Don’t let Feuille follow us no matter what.” Loren needed to hammer this point home. “On the million-to-one chance he does come, we’ll give up on killing the chief and run.”

Cornet thumped her own chest, simply brimming with confidence. “Leave it to me. Worse comes to worst, I’ll cast Petrification to stop him.”

“You can be pretty vicious if you want to be, huh…”

This spell that Cornet so casually brought up was not the sort one typically used to detain a person. Petrification could turn living things to stone, and its victims were liable to spend an eternity as a statue unless it was dispelled. In short, it was a bona fide attack.

The fairies were better than the elves at magic, and Cornet seemed to be quite powerful among her people—if she cast a spell like that, Feuille would be done for before he went two steps.

“I’m sure I don’t need to say this, but please don’t kill him.”

“Leave it to me!” Cornet agreed airily.

Loren didn’t know how much he could trust a fairy taking that tone. A smidge of anxiety lingered.

“That aside, are you prepared, Mr. Loren?” Lapis asked.

Loren looked down to check himself over. He didn’t need to prepare anything in particular. He always wore his clothes, boots, and leather armor. Aside from that, a black coat and the sword in his hands were all the equipment to his name.

The few other supplies he’d brought had been soaked during their unexpected swim. He doubted they’d be of any use in his fight with the chieftain, so he left them with Feuille.

“All clear on my end,” he told Lapis.

“I see. Then Ms. Cornet, if you will.”

“All right, here we go.”

On Cornet’s order, the magicians of the hidden village amassed their strength. Apparently. Loren could feel a pressure in the air, but there weren’t any great beams of light, or explosions, or anything like that. How much magic they gathered, whatever that might mean, was well beyond him.

<That’s just how magic is, Mister. It’s pretty amazing to already feel pressure like this when it isn’t an offensive spell.>

Loren was sure Scena’s explanation was just fine, but he still didn’t get it.

<Fine, there’s no helping it,> she muttered, then opened her sense of sight to him.

Just a moment ago, Loren hadn’t seen so much as a mystical sparkle, but now, it was as if the air itself warped around Cornet while she concentrated intently. The distortion rose so high that Loren had to look up to see the whole of it. Despite Cornet’s small size, it was clear she was gathering something powerful.

<That’s the mana she’s amassing.>

“I understand now. This is pretty convenient.”

<I have to completely synchronize my senses, so I can’t pull it off for long. It chips away at your sanity,> Scena said, immediately severing the link. Loren’s sight snapped back to normal.

“All right, here we go!”

Something fired from Cornet’s body. Loren couldn’t see it now, but from what he could tell, all the mana she had pulled in around her was released all at once. The shot rocketed down the corridor, and soon a sour stench began leaking out from farther in. Loren and Lapis instinctively turned their faces away, burying their noses in their raised sleeves.

“The barrier is broken!” Cornet wasn’t flying so freely anymore. She teetered in the air, looking fatigued.

Mission accomplished, the path to the chieftain was revealed, but Loren sported quite the frown. “Why does it stink this bad?”

“I presume this putrid air is being emitted from their chieftain,” Lapis said. “But…I really don’t want to trace this back to its source.”

Cornet panicked. “H-hey! That would dump me in a lot of hot water!”

“I’m only joking,” Lapis said with a carefree laugh. “Now, Mr. Loren. Why don’t you go ahead?”

“Hey, now. I know I’m the front-line fighter, but…”

Loren couldn’t make a priest take point when they didn’t know what awaited them, but that didn’t mean he was going to forge bravely onward with a skip in his step. He also knew standing around would get him nowhere, so he girded his loins and took the first step—and Lapis followed just behind.

That glowing moss was sprouting from the walls off this corridor as well. There was no darkness to keep them paranoid, but that pungent odor grew stronger with each passing moment.

This smell is almost enough to break my will to fight, Loren thought, and that was when the passage opened up.

“Is this where the chief’s supposed to be?”

Loren stepped warily into the new cave, his nose scrunched up in helpless protest at the wafting miasma. He’d assumed they’d recognize the source of the awful smell once they got close enough. But even though the chief had to be near, Loren hadn’t the slightest idea what could be letting off such a stench.

It reminded him of the body odor of his mercenary comrades, especially after they had been ordered to attack day in and day out without any chance to clean themselves or their clothing, leading the aroma to concentrate and congeal ever further.

“Sweat, grime… There’s a hint of something like rotten food mixed in.” Lapis tried her best to identify the notes even as she covered her mouth and nose.

Perhaps there were other things mixed in there too, but determining that would mean further investigation, which they didn’t have the time or the stomach for.

Lapis was the first to notice something meaningful. It was by the wall farthest from the entrance to the cave; at first, she couldn’t tell what it was. After examining it for a long moment, she realized that perhaps it was what had become of a certain someone. She tugged on Loren’s sleeve.

“Mr. Loren, is that… Just maybe…”

Loren followed her pointing finger, but the thing left him speechless.

What he saw was a skin-colored mountain. The wide cavern was also quite high, but the thing was so massive that Loren could imagine its top scraped the celling. What the hell could it be?

“Umm? No, it isn’t… It can’t be, right?”

The skin-colored mass was slick with some greasy substance. Wrinkles and folds sectioned off lumps of its greater mass, and its biggest section rose and fell steadily. This was, without a doubt, a breathing life-form.

As for what sort of creature it was, Loren had no answer. It was simply too foreign and grotesque, like a bulbous flesh plant had taken root in the gloom.

“Must be where the smell is coming from.”

Its body glistened as if coated in oil, and the idea of touching it repulsed Loren. He reluctantly approached, prodding a distended bit with the tip of his boot. Lapis tried to stop him to no avail; he had drawn the giant organism’s attention.

“Who… You who…?”

“It talks?!” Loren exclaimed.

It was undoubtedly a voice, but Loren had zero clue what part of the thing the voice had come out of. The blob had reacted to his poking, and though its words were disjointed, it spoke with purpose. Loren slowly backed off to whisper to Lapis, who was more than happy to get some distance from it.

“Lapis, what is that thing?”

“We came here to find the fairy chief, so I think you can answer your own question.”

Loren wasn’t completely clueless. But when he compared Cornet’s report with this lump of flesh, well, he did the math and really didn’t like the answer.

“You gotta be kidding me. This is the fairy chief?”

Sure, they’d been expecting to run into the chief down here, but all the fairies they’d met in the village had been palm-sized kids like Cornet. He couldn’t imagine such dainty things taking on such a towering form.

“This is crazy! How in the hell is this supposed to be a fairy?!”

“Don’t ask me,” Lapis said.

Loren could only connect a few of the dots. “He gorged himself and fattened up…”

Neither of them had ever seen a fairy chieftain before, so they didn’t know if he’d been a robust sort to begin with. He was a fairy, though, so they could assume a few things. Maybe he’d done this to himself eating all the food plundered from the elven settlements.

“But this is a bit much, don’t you think?”

“He’s passed the size where he can move on his own.”

“Don’t you think we could end this pretty easily, then?”

They had been told they’d be up against a fairy far stronger than any other in the hidden village. Loren had prepared himself for a demanding battle. Seeing as their opponent couldn’t even move, the whole business was looking a lot easier.

In the next instant, that hope was snuffed out. Several red balls collided with the floor where Loren had stood just a moment before, sending out waves of spark and flame.

“It looks like he’s not going down without a fight.”

As it turned out, whether or not the fairy chieftain could move was totally irrelevant. The chief was a magician; as long as he was conscious, he could make full use of plenty of spells.

“It’ll be the end of us if we don’t take this seriously,” Loren muttered, readying his sword.

The lump of flesh, either nervous for battle or gleeful to have found new food before it, jiggled its massive body. Its vile odor blossomed throughout the cave.

They had conceded the first blow to the fairy chieftain, but Loren’s counterattack was vicious and swift. Lapis retreated a step to observe the situation as Loren rushed out with his sword aloft, slicing down at the mass.

The flesh didn’t look hard to cut, but Loren had learned plenty about the strength of magical protections. He made sure to put considerable strength into the first blow.

“Gree…?” The chieftain’s response didn’t even amount to a scream. Loren’s slash cut deep, showering the area with blood.

“Looks like my attacks work. But…” He quickly dodged back.

The flesh around the cut swelled and slammed down where Loren had been standing. It made a sound like a wet rag slapped against the floor. The wound that Loren inflicted had widened on impact, covering the ground with even more flesh and blood, but the chief was undeterred.

“His senses are dulled, and he’s so big,” Loren said. “It doesn’t seem like the attack did anything.”

“Guh…yurt…”

It at least seemed aware that it had been wounded. It took every muscle in the chief’s body for it to inch back from Loren. Loren was surprised to see it could move at all. He rushed in to follow up with another strike, but the chief paid him no heed and continued crawling along the floor.

“Is that supposed to be an attempt at running away?”

“I think so.”

Lapis pointed at a nearby mountain of stuff that stood about as high as the chieftain. Loren had been so distracted by the monstrosity that he hadn’t noticed anything else, but on closer inspection, it was a mound of animal carcasses from the Black Forest—elf corpses included—and it no doubt contributed to the horrid smell.

“I got a bad feeling about this.”

“It’s not even a feeling. It’s a reality.”

Lapis’s expression was scrunched up into something unpleasant. The chief paid his visitors no heed, crawling up to the mountain and shoving its face into it. It clung to the sides as if for dear life, filling the air with godawful noises as it chewed through all manner of substances hard and soft.

“It’s eating…right?”

“There’s no doubt about it.”

When injured, it sought out food for recovery. That was understandable, in a way, but not the sort of thing to do when your enemies were still standing around. Loren, looking at his foe, felt rather fed up himself.

“I understand why you’re making that face,” said Lapis. “But look, the cuts are closing up.”

She was right—the wounds Loren had inflicted sealed themselves closed at unimaginable rates. New flesh spanned the gashes left by his sword, bulging out and around until the chief was left whole and even larger than before.

“Is this thing immortal as long as it keeps eating?” Loren asked.

“I’m not so sure. In any case, it doesn’t have an endless supply of food.”

Wrestling with the detestable notion that he would have to keep chipping away until it ran out of snacks, Loren unleashed another attack on the chief’s body. His blade cleaved through flesh, forming a gouge that sealed itself up before Loren’s eyes as the chief continued to binge. The second round of healing made the chief bigger yet.

Maybe cutting isn’t enough, Loren thought. After his next slice, he turned his blade sideways and carved down. This both widened the wound and lopped off a portion of the giant’s body, sending a massive hunk of meat flying through the air. That should hurt him more than a slash.

The moment the severed flesh hit the ground, it split into several smaller segments. Each formed into palm-sized fairies, and each fairy launched itself at Loren to attack. Loren hadn’t expected enemies to birth themselves from a blob of fat, and he failed to counter them in time. He was forced to take his left hand off his blade to try to protect his neck.

Several newly born fairies bit into his arm all at once.

<Energy drain!> Scena cried the moment before their small teeth could pierce his skin.

She stole enough life energy to instantaneously halt their vital processes. They fell to the ground like flies, and Loren immediately backed off, offering Scena his thanks.

“This is more trouble than it’s worth. Cut something off and it becomes a fairy.”

“Let it swirl before mine eyes, o crimson flames, ye storm and burst. Firestorm!”

As Loren cursed, Lapis unleashed the magic she had been preparing behind him. A whirlwind of flames burst from the ground, coiling around the chief’s body, and Loren was forced to hold up his hand to shield his face from the heat.

Beyond his hand was the thoroughly scorched chief, and yet Lapis frowned somberly even before the spell ended.

“Too much moisture. He’s not burning.”

Sure enough, the giant still stood even after the flames receded. His skin was crisped, and parts of him were charcoaled and crumbling, but new flesh simply welled up from beneath. His blackened bits sloughed off to reveal new skin, glossy and damp.

“What do we do about this? Do I just keep carving him up?”

“Can you do anything with Ms. Scena’s energy drain?” Lapis suggested.

As energy drain sucked away life force without inflicting any wounds, perhaps it would work against such a massive monster as well.

Despite the skill’s theoretical potential, Scena insisted that she couldn’t—rather, that she wouldn’t.

<Please cut me some slack! I’ll use it to defend you from the smaller fairies, but… Sorry, Mister. I really don’t want to use it on the main body,> she pleaded feebly.

The chief rained down more flaming bullets as he ate. Loren took a few with the flat of his blade while pushing Scena to explain the problem.

<I figured it out when I sucked the fairies dry… The chief’s life force isn’t the best. To be blunt, he tastes disgusting.>

Lapis couldn’t hear Scena, so Loren was on his own; he had no idea how to make his case. This was the first time she’d said anything about life energy having a flavor—and what did she mean by disgusting? A living man like him couldn’t possibly imagine it.

<It’s a first for me too, so I don’t know how to word it… Umm, do you want me to try explaining?>

“Forget it.”

What point was there in making her thoroughly detail how terrible it was? There was nothing to be gained. Still, Loren was shocked that the fairy chieftain possessed life force so off-putting that even a Lifeless King didn’t want it.

“What’s the word, Mr. Loren?”

“This guy apparently tastes awful.”

“Oh… Then tell her not to force herself.”

Lapis gave up on the idea so easily that Loren had to wonder why.

“You’re just accepting that explanation?”

“Why wouldn’t I?”

Meanwhile, the chief continued his meal, but also continued shooting rounds of fireballs at the new pests. Lapis drew a quick seal in front of her chest and softly chanted, “O god of knowledge, safeguard us from those that mean us harm. Protection from Magic.”

A faintly glowing semi-transparent membrane bubbled up around them. When the chieftain’s fireballs hit the barrier, they fizzled out like sparks hitting a bucket of water.

The hulking mass shook irritably as the chief realized his attacks were pointless, but Lapis chanted on. “May god’s invisible hand smite down our foes. Force. ”

Her chant summoned a fragment of a miracle. A massive ball of power, proportional to her devotion, struck the chief’s body. It was as if a god had truly lowered a fist from on high; the impact formed a crater and sent blood splashes to every corner. Yet Lapis, who had unleashed such an attack, seemed dissatisfied.

“I failed to crush him. I lack discipline, it seems.”

“Is it that sort of blessing?”

It would be impossible to crush this giant without considerable force; the spell’s incantation seemed a little too short for it to be that useful.

“Oh, not at all. The blessing normally deals about as much damage as a macho man punching with all his might.”

“Why would you expect it to crush this thing, then?”

“I mean, you know, I’m such a pious and faithful young priest, after all.”

Look who’s talking, thought Loren as he dealt more blows. Each strike cut deftly into the chief’s body, yet the flesh immediately regenerated. He couldn’t shake off the feeling that this was a fruitless endeavor.

“You won’t find many priests out there as strongly devoted as I. Honest.”

“You make a good point.”

The god of knowledge was a bit different from his divine peers. As long as Loren kept that in mind, he could see Lapis being a priest who was a cut above the rest.

“All right then. Slicing doesn’t work, smacking doesn’t work. What now?”

“Well, I’d really like to try burning it again, but…” Lapis trailed off, glancing around.

Loren cut through another part of the chief’s body that had been coming down to crush them. He didn’t know why she was holding back.

“If we were outside, I wouldn’t hesitate to use my full firepower.”

“Oh. Yeah… This ain’t the place for that.”

They weren’t completely sealed off from the world, but the cave’s ventilation wasn’t the best. If Lapis mustered enough strength to burn something that large, the heat and stagnant air would do terrible things to them.

“But then what… Ah?”

Loren stopped himself. Lapis followed his gaze, wondering what had happened, and saw that the food—though one hesitated to call it that—had nearly run dry. It was impressive that the chieftain had eaten such a staggering amount while fighting them, but now that the hoard was gone, there was only one place for him to turn his appetite.

“You think we’re next on the menu?”

“If only it weren’t so.”

Up to that point, the chief had barely seemed to have a grasp on his surroundings or the fight. He was wounded, he healed himself, and healing made him hungry, but he hadn’t appeared to think of anything beyond that cycle. Now that the food was gone, there was nothing left to shove into his gaping maw.

His attacks would grow fiercer. That wasn’t a welcome development when they still didn’t have a plan.

“Seriously, what do we do?”

There was no telling where the chief’s eyes were in that mass of flesh, but they could feel his attention gradually shift toward them. Lapis sounded truly troubled as she looked up at the encroaching creature.

“This is no time to just stare at the thing!”

Loren grabbed Lapis and jumped. Some protrusion of the chief’s body crashed down where she had been, hitting so hard, the protrusion burst into blood. Loren swung, cutting off another large chunk. The chunk fell, bursting into countless fairies that darted after them.

<Energy drain… Erk… This is terrible…> Scena complained, but her powers did promptly get rid of the fairy problem.

However, the chieftain wormed his way over to the fallen fairies, absorbing them into his mass.

“He’s finally started eating himself.”

“This is getting more pointless by the second,” Lapis murmured from under Loren’s arm. She sounded as if it had nothing to do with her, and Loren hardly had time to answer her.

He was busy using his left hand, again and again, slicing through the arms of flesh coming at him. If he managed to sever those pieces, they instantly turned into fairies that fired at him like bullets. There was no end in sight.

<I know I can’t actually vomit in this state, but I feel like I’m going to…>

With no physical form, Scena had no means to relieve her nausea. If she did manage to throw up, astrally speaking, she might, at most, vent off some of the chieftain’s life force, but the disgusting feeling would remain.

“We won’t get anywhere without a plan!”

Cut and cut as Loren may, it was as if the giant had no sense of pain. The chieftain was rather impressive for attacking at such a rapid rate, though Loren was nothing to scoff at either, using only his left hand to swing his heavy weapon and block every attempt.

The sound of flesh against steel rang out without pause, bits of fat and blood flying. The aftermath dashed red stains onto Lapis’s white robes.

“I’ll have to buy new ones when we get back…”

“Is this really the time to talk about that?!”

“Vestments are pretty expensive, you know. They use high-quality cloth.”

“Worry about your life more than your clothes!”

Loren wanted to gain more distance before he let go of Lapis and used both hands, but the chieftain’s attacks gave him no chance. The moment they began trading blows, he could no longer stop. He considered just dropping her, but if he abandoned Lapis in the midst of the chief’s endless assault, she’d become a target. Her slender body didn’t look up to handling the sheer mass of it.

She was a demon, of course, and it was just as likely that she could fend off the attacks with a pinky finger. Loren couldn’t say for sure, and he couldn’t bring himself to take the bet. Her life was too much to gamble with.

“Lay off a bit, would you?!” he shouted.

A strange sensation was beginning to elbow its way into his mind. When this feeling overcame him, Loren could push himself to perform much greater feats of offensive prowess than usual, but it would also place a time limit on the fight. That would all be well and good if he could defeat the chieftain before he collapsed; if he couldn’t, he would be left unable to move or, really, to do anything about being devoured.

“Mr. Loren, why don’t you follow my instructions for a bit?” Lapis proposed, looking up from under his arm. He barely glanced at her, keeping his eyes on the fight. She twisted her body, straining herself into quite a difficult posture to place a hand on his chest.

“I’m going to do something a little reckless. If you can learn this technique, your combat abilities will grow by leaps and bounds.”

“What are you getting at?! You’re not modifying me, are you?”

“I’m not. I couldn’t without the proper tools and facilities, anyway. What do you think I am?” she grumbled, her hand fumbling around his torso. It felt a bit ticklish at first, though soon he began to feel the warmth from her palm.

It was a warmth beyond body heat, piercing through his skin and muscles into the hollows of his body. It felt as if she were pulling something out from deep within him, and though he never stopped defending himself from the chieftain’s attacks, he shuddered.

“What’s this…?”

“From what I’ve seen, that last-resort rampage of yours converts your life force and stamina into energy. However, the conversion process rapidly depletes your strength, and it’s actually quite dangerous for you.”

The hilt of his sword let out a harsh grating noise: the sound of Loren gripping it stronger than he ever had before. The next attack he unleashed at the chieftain was faster, more powerful.

As if to back up Lapis’s hypothesis, this slash tore far deeper into the barriers of flesh, and the chief winced in pain for the first time. The mass retreated ever so slightly, allowing Loren some breathing room.

“Wh-whoa.”

“This is the sort of self-reinforcement any demon could pull off. It’s not quite as good as a blessing, since you can only do it to yourself, but memorize this feeling.”

In the time his attack bought them, Lapis slipped out of his hold and jumped behind him. She knew Loren would have a hard time exhibiting his full might while carting her around—it was time to leave this to him.

“Once you remember how the mana feels as it courses through your body, you should be able to call it up again on your own. I forced the process out of you this time, but don’t forget the sensation.”

Taking care to heed her explanation and the feeling she’d drawn through him, Loren took a sharp step toward the chief and loosed an upward swing with both hands on his sword. Whether he had too much momentum or had merely misjudged the distance, the sword’s tip dug into the ground and raised sparks as the blade was practically sucked into the chief’s body, leaving a long, deep slice.

“Yurt! I yurt!”

“Shut it! I’ll carve you up, so quit running!”

Striking upward took too much time and energy, so this time, Loren sliced from top to bottom. Two parallel slashes lopped off another large chunk of flesh. As before, it transformed into fairies. They all rushed at Loren to bite him, but Loren used the flat of his blade to intercept them.

The sword became a two-ton flyswatter. One swing flattened their small bodies.

With another step forward, Loren stabbed deep into the chief and mercilessly twisted the blade. The chieftain winced back, his screech rising in volume and pitch. Loren stayed there a while before pulling out his blade. He nearly dropped the sword entirely when he noticed a human hand grasped around the midpoint of the sword.

“What the hell?!”

Given the size, the hand couldn’t have belonged to a fairy. It was about as large as Lapis’s. Loren shuddered a bit, but continued pulling the blade back. For some reason, the blade’s edge didn’t break the hand’s skin. It followed the sword smoothly as he pulled his weapon from the gaping hole he’d carved.

“This is grossing me out…”

“Mr. Loren, what are you pulling out of the chieftain’s body?”

A lone right arm stretched out of the chieftain, who, eerily enough, had stopped attacking. The arm’s skin was smooth and not terribly muscular. Just going off the shape, Loren presumed it belonged to a woman, but to see it sprouting from within that giant thing was off-putting no matter how he sliced it.

“What do I do about this?”

“Do you…really have any option besides pulling on it?”

Loren peeked up at the chieftain. It was as if all those previous attacks had been a dream—the massive lump of flesh was frozen, not even twitching. He remained a tad disturbed by the woman’s hand extending from the wound, but seeing no other course of action, he buried his sword into the chief’s flesh and hesitantly grabbed the arm with both hands. Then he braced his knees and pulled.

The chief’s body didn’t put up much resistance, and the owner of the arm obviously wanted to escape. It wasn’t long before the muscles and fat had been torn through. The hand gave way to a shoulder, then a head.

This head, covered in blood and grease, sported blonde hair, nearly white. As they burst into a violent coughing fit, spitting up blood and who knew what else, Loren hurriedly let go, retrieved his sword, and retreated to Lapis.

The person he had pulled out of the fairy chieftain continued vomiting and emitting sounds that weren’t the least bit elegant. Once she had spit everything up, panting heavily, she wiped off her mouth with her free hand and suddenly pulled herself out up to the waist.

Her body was obviously, or perhaps expectedly, naked, and she possessed all the features of a young woman.

She made no effort to hide her shapely curves as she wiped the viscera off her face and sniffed her hands. Eventually, she braced her palms against the fairy chieftain’s flesh and hauled herself the rest of the way out.

“Wowee, this is just terrible. I reek, I’m slimy, I’m all covered in blood. What a waste of my good looks, eh?”

The woman twisted about to look herself over. Soon, her eyes turned to Loren and Lapis.

“Thanks a bunch, sir and madam,” she called out to them with a jovial smile. “I can’t tell you how worried I was when I was released from my seal only to end up in there. Seems these folks here hardly cook their food at all—they eat it raw, I’m telling you. And they eat rotten things, kitchen waste! I thought I was gonna die, eating all that garbage.”

She laughed, but Loren readied his sword the moment he saw her eyes. She looked human enough, but those irises were a vivid purple.

“Oh, don’t be like that. I’m not plannin’ on doin’ nothin’ here. Not when I’m feelin’ all grateful. If you didn’t haul me out, I’d have had to stay with the big guy for all eternity.”

Loren couldn’t bring himself to speak.

“Might I ask your name?” Lapis asked.

The woman looked at Lapis curiously before folding her arms in front of her chest. “We got an odd one here, but whatever. I’m Gula Gluttonia. They used to call me the dark god of gluttony or somethin’, and some adventurer sealed me away because of it. Now here I am, revived. That a good enough answer for you?”

Lapis nodded and piled on another question. “You don’t have any intention of quietly letting yourself be resealed, do you?”

“Not really. I wanna wash my mouth out after eatin’ so much filth, and I’ve been sealed for such a long time, you know? Can’t I stretch out a bit?”

Lapis stared at the woman called Gula for a bit, but eventually cast down her eyes and replied, “As you wish.”

“That so? Then I’ll be takin’ my leave. Oh, right, right. What’s yer name, mister?”

The conversation was suddenly jerked in Loren’s direction. He was taken aback, but he answered sincerely, “It’s Loren.”

“Loren… So you’re Loren, eh? Then Loren, I really am grateful for what you did today. I’ll repay you one of these days. Well, see ya.”

Before he could say anything else, Gula smiled, waved, and sank into the solid ground as if it were a pool of water. She was gone without a trace.

All that remained was the body of the fairy chieftain, crumbling and rotting as if it had been left there for days. Its liquefied, rancid meat began to ooze along the ground.

“Why’s it doing that?” Loren asked.

“Who knows? He was almost fully assimilated with that dark god. Now that the connection to her has been severed, it seems the chieftain went and died on us.”

And it was just as she said: the fairy chieftain was a lump of rotting meat. The scent the carcass emitted made Loren want to run, not investigate further. If they stuck around, they’d experience sights and smells that would scar them for life, so the pair hastily retreated back down the passage from which they had come.