novelThe Silver Girl and the Plan of Darkness (1)
| ← Ch.046 | Ch.048 → |
A scene of two people in a sharp fall. However, Kazuki didn't regret it at all.
...If he didn't do this, Koyuki, who currently couldn't use magic would simply die for sure.
But as long as the defensive magic power worked, a pure physical impact wouldn't be a problem. The impact of the landing would be eradicated in its entirety due to the defensive magic's reality distortion.
That was why setting aside his own safety, he embraced Koyuki strongly.
He had to turn himself to be the one that was pinned on the bottom side of this free fall without fail.
And then after they continued to fall for several seconds―Kazuki and Koyuki crashed into the bottom of the hole.
◇ ◇ ◇ ◇
Large blue magic power shined, but the lack of pain that he felt was a normal matter.
The defensive magic power was unperturbed against a mere physical impact that didn't itself contain magical power. Without a doubt, this was the reason conventional weapons of this era were powerless.
"Hiakari-san, are you okay?"
Kazuki had embraced Koyuki so tightly that he couldn't feel his own arms.
"H, here is...?"
Koyuki leaked out a frail voice inside Kazuki's arms.
"I'll say it from the start, but this is not heaven."
Koyuki's awareness had flown away due to the impact, she was blinking her eyes in wonder.
"Hell...?"
"Hiakari-san is not the kind of person who will fall into hell."
Koyuki's pupils were regaining their focus gradually, she was staring fixedly at Kazuki. And then perhaps from finally feeling that her life had been saved for real, she gripped Kazuki's clothes in his chest tightly.
"...Was Kazuki the one who saved me...?"
While confirming nervously with an upward glance, a heart mark flew from her chest.
Kazuki continued to embrace Koyuki tightly just like that. They fell into silence together with their bodies laying against each other.
"U, uhmm, I'm fine already so can you release me?"
"I also want to do that, but...because I hugged you too tightly before, my arms are numb and can't be moved."
Though of course he didn't use Enchant Aura, so he didn't embrace her so strongly that her delicate body would be crushed. But because he felt a strong nervousness in their fall, his muscles had stiffened too much.
"Eh? ...Eeeeehh!?"
Koyuki's face turned bright red while being embraced tightly against his chest like a doll as it were.
"P, please loosen your tension quickly, this makes me troubled!"
"That's, when I think that I am hugging Hiakari-san so tightly, it makes my heart beat too much, perhaps I should say my body totally cannot calm down, how troubling."
"Stupid! Being excited by something like me, what kind of lies are you saying!"
"It's not a lie. Hiakari-san is cute, so no matter what kind of man it is, when embracing Hiakari-san because of an act of god like this, of course he would get excited without fail."
"What kind of stupid things are you saying with a serious face like that!? Anyway, can you just loosen your arm already!?"
Koyuki said with a troubled face, so Kazuki felt a little mischievous.
"If Hiakari-san chanted a spell like [Throb throb fly away~, chichin pui-pui nya nya nya nya~n☆] while patting my head gently, I think the strength could be drained from my entire body."
"Wh, what, that spell sounds so stupid..."
It was the influence of a certain idiot little sister. Because he always set out together with Kanae and messed around.
"Because it sounds so stupid that it could drain the entire strength from the body! Now, hurry!"
Kazuki said strongly making Koyuki's flustered gaze wander around.
"E, errr I'm sorry, how did you say it again?"
"[Throb throb fly away~, chichin pui-pui nya nya nya nya~n☆] while Hiakari-san also pats my head gently."
"Thr, Throb throb fly away~, chichin pui-pui nya nya nya nya~n..."
Her small hand was going pat pat on Kazuki's head with utmost effort, and Koyuki chanted the spell with a blushing red face.
"Uwa―, how calming―"
Kazuki said in monotone while unfastening his hands.
The truth was that his nervousness had already faded a while ago.
While Koyuki raised her body slowly, she watched Kazuki resentfully with some heat still left behind on her cheeks.
"...Recently, you have had no hesitation about toying around with me, haven't you? For that reason you are telling lies without even batting an eye. Are you misunderstanding me as a certain fumbling character?"
"I want to see Hiakari-san's various faces even against my better judgment."
"It's fine for my face to stay just like this. I don't want to expose any kind of strange face."
Koyuki turned her face to the side with a 'puih'. But an angry face like that was also very cute.
"Hiakari-san, there is dirt on you."
When Kazuki wiped the dust on her white cheek softly, Koyuki's face turned red again and she looked down.
"...Well then, rather than that kind of thing, this situation is more important. Hiakari-san, by some chance, are you unable to use magic now?"
After joking around a little, they returned to reality once again.
Koyuki's expression clouded gloomily.
"...Yes. Somehow I cannot knead strong magic power very well right now. I can barely perform Access, but standard magic and chanting Summoning Magic are..."
When he watched her carefully, her Magic Dress was also different than the usual.
Originally the Diva's contractor was decorated with appropriate majestic appearance, but her appearance now was lacking in one part, it only looked like a mere white school swimsuit.
Even that minimum part that was covering her body, at times it was wavering like a disordered mirage.
"Since when you were like this?"
"I think it was from when I woke up from the magic intoxication."
When he thought about it, as expected, perhaps the origin was from that time. Magic intoxication induced a change in the state of the heart. After collapsing for two days from magic intoxication, it wasn't strange that there was some kind of after-effect that was still left behind.
Everything would be fine if this was only temporary like someone who was just half awake, but...
"Even when I cleaned my body, I couldn't use magic skillfully, at that time I noticed the abnormality, but..."
"If you noticed it, why were you accompanying us until now then?"
Kazuki didn't intend to criticize her, but Koyuki's shoulders jolted in shock, her gaze turned away like she was trying to find an escape.
―There was no way to escape.
She recognized her own careless action, and that she couldn't avoid facing Kazuki.
"...I cannot, I, who is an elf couldn't, couldn't come to believe that I could not use magic. I, whose only worth was just my magic...to not be able to use magic and become useless in battle, that..."
Koyuki who talked while straining her voice continued with "I'm sorry."
Kazuki thought that he could understand that feeling as well. He also relied on his pride of his kenjutsu. If he lost it out of nowhere, there was no doubt that he would want to run from reality with [I don't want to believe it]. Then if such an escape became a source of trouble for someone else, for certain he would receive a shock that he could never recover from.
That was why he mustn't condemn Koyuki.
(I must protect her till the end!)
"It's okay Hiakari-san. If this is because of magic intoxication's influence, then surely this is just temporary. A person's heart is formless after all, it's not like the physical body that cannot be healed once it got hurt and wrecked. It only depends on one's frame of mind, after a little bit of some kind of impetus, it should return back to normal for sure."
"...You are not angry?"
Koyuki watched Kazuki intently with eyes that looked a bit scared.
"No such thing, I'm not angry. Just thinking that Hiakari-san wanted to help me, just that feeling of yours is enough to make me extremely happy."
Her sad appearance because of being in the way of others was the proof that she cared about Kazuki. Even more than something like the number of her positivity level, such a nonchalant act and appearance made him far happier.
"...Although, we must find some way to escape from here safely somehow."
Kazuki said while looking around.
They were in the bottom of the trap hole. But the space where they were at was not a closed room, the walls and floor that were made from concrete were organized forming the whole level, a road was continuing ahead in their path.
Even the electric lamp was turned on properly.
When they looked over their head, there was one hole that was opened up in the ceiling from where they fell. If they could ascend through this hole, it looks like they would be able to return to the former level.
The exit and entrance to the surface ground was only located at the upper level, that's why first they thought about going through this hole rather than advancing forward down the path.
"Couldn't Kazuki use Blazing Wings to fly through this hole?"
"The hole is too narrow. If there is no space to even flap the wings, we won't be able to use wings to fly."
Even for the firebird Phoenix, if he couldn't flap his wings then he wouldn't be able to do anything.
Kazuki didn't only have Mio's magic, he could also use Lotte's magic up to level 5.
There was still no chance to use it until now, but Lotte's level 5 magic made it possible to fly to the sky. But that magic equipped the user with a large armament, so it wouldn't be able to slip through the width of this hole.
The hole became narrower the deeper it went, it was easy to fall and hard to climb. They could feel the wickedness of this clever disposition from the person who prepared this trap.
It seems it was impossible to escape through this hole with the current magic Kazuki had in hand.
"...If only I can use magic, "
Koyuki whispered in a subdued tone.
"If I summon a tsunami here and manipulate it...no, the amount of water might not be enough for this depth..."
Filling this space with ocean water and swimming inside it to rise to the surface, was that what she meant?
"What if I use the same magic and the amount of the water is doubled?"
"Now that you mention it, the ability of Kazuki's Diva is to copy magic right? However it looks like you are unable to copy my magic. Is there a condition to that ability?"
It was not exactly copying actually, but he explained it to Koyuki like that before this.
"The condition so I can copy magic is to raise the positivity level of the girl."
"...Ha? You are lying again, are you planning to toy around with my reaction?"
"No, this is the truth. That's why I can use Mio's magic the most, and the next is Lotte, Kaguya-senpai's magic can also be used a little."
Kazuki was the strongest at using Mio's magic in the first place was because Mio's positivity level was plainly the highest. Koyuki was flustered at feeling the persuasiveness of that fact.
"Is, is that really true? That kind of stupid ability..."
"It's the truth. What do you mean by stupid, it's not stupid."
At Kazuki's side, the one who bestowed the aforementioned stupid ability, Leme appeared and talked.
"You have heard the story between Leme and Futsunushi no Kami, didn't you? The story that you haven't been told is something quite hard to swallow but, Leme is the King of Solomon's 72 Pillars. In the same way Leme is accompanied by 72 Pillars, if Kazuki also makes the contractor of the 72 Pillars accompany him then he would be able to use that ability skillfully."
"Accompanied...by that you mean positivity level?"
"That's right, if the King couldn't get a hold of humans' hearts in his hand, then he wouldn't be able to use that authority."
Koyuki comprehended the explanation with a complicated expression. Kazuki asked Koyuki once again.
"...If we could climb the hole, could Vepar's magic smash the ceiling? That ceiling was not made from adamantite, but only made from concrete after all."
While in the middle of falling down, Kazuki had confirmed that the trap hole had been blocked once more.
Not only climbing up the hole, but they also had to smash the ceiling apart to escape.
However Mio and Lotte's magic were not suited for physical destruction.
If they tried to melt the ceiling with magic flame, the large amount of melted concrete from the heat of the magical power wouldn't have any place to escape and it would pour down on them, washing them away again to the bottom of the hole.
"If we could climb the hole, we could pulverize something like concrete with Ice Buster."
"Using ice to destroy concrete, could it be done? It feels somehow absurd trying to imagine it though."
"Concrete's hardness diverged depending on the material used, but it's around 4 until 5. This unit to measure hardness is called the Mohs' hardness scale. The hardness of ice at 0 °C is around 1. 5, but the more the temperature is lowered, the hardness will increase along with its transparency, at minus 100 °C, the hardness will become more than six times."
"...Ice is really awesome."
"O Our King, this kind of knowledge that will be useful in battle should be learned more habitually you know."
Thereupon, it means things like this.
"If Hiakari-san's power of magic returned, on top of that if I raise Hiakari-san's positivity level, then we will be able to return to the former level!"
"...A, are you serious? Raising positivity level in this kind of dungeon?"
Until now he had to raise positivity level in order to defeat a strong enemy.
However this time, he had to raise positivity level in order to escape from this closed space!
"Raising positivity level in this kind of situation, moreover while both of us are being aware of each other, even for me, I don't really know what is a good way to do that, but...well, for the time being let's just follow down this path."
But I'm also worried about Mio and Lotte...
Though it was a silver lining in the dark cloud that those two could make a compatible combination with Lotte as the vanguard and Mio as the rearguard.
{Kazuki, I don't want Hiakari Koyuki to know about this so I'm telling you through telepathy, but if it's some way to confirm the safety of Amasaki Mio and the others then you have it. }
...Really?
{The first is obvious, but you could check it from the positivity level. The appearance of their name and number are proof that the link between your minds are still preserved. }
Kazuki charged his ring with magic power and it displayed the positivity levels.
Amasaki Mio―134 Lotte―110 Hiakari Koyuki―59
I see, when Leme said it, it's really obvious. A dead person's positivity level wouldn't be displayed.
{Next there is one more...because you also conquered Lotte, Leme has grown considerably, Leme has recovered one more of her powers. }
...Which reminds him, before Leme said that [My ability is by no means only this much]. Does she mean that one part of her power had been liberated?
{Kazuki, charge the Solomon Ring with magic power while thinking about Mio and Lotte strongly, try to grasp their hearts and see. }
Just as he was told, Kazuki held the ring with his hand and pray silently about perceiving Mio and Lotte.
Thereupon...he felt a sensation like his heart was connected with Mio and Lotte's heart by a line.
About how long the line was and which direction it was going to, he could perceive that line spatially.
A new vision floated up in front of Kazuki's eyes. This time it was not a graph of the positivity level.
{If until now it was a positivity level of galge, this time it is an action selection map stage. When you see this map, you will understand in a glance who you could meet at where you are going to, see?}
The vision that was floating in front of Kazuki's eyes was a three dimensional map.
Three lights were blinking on top of that three dimensional coordinates. One is himself. Then on the fairly above direction was two lights that were in moving. There was no doubt that these were Mio and Lotte.
It was not a map of the path of these underground passages. Rather than a map, there were three lights floating inside a cube where he could make a distinction of their position and distance, something like a three dimensional radar.
{By the way, this light will only appear when the other party are latently wishing for Kazuki. For example if Amasaki Mio enter a toilet, her state of mind will latently work that she doesn't want Kazuki to perceive her whereabouts, the link of magic power will be cut off and you will become unable to know where she is. Solomon's 72 Pillars had even taken into consideration the privacy of our contractor, aren't we really friendly Divas?}
After informing him up to that point, Leme cut off the telepathy.
"...Kazuki, why did you suddenly become quiet?"
Koyuki asked dishearteningly towards Kazuki who had gone quiet for awhile.
"No, it's nothing. Leme was telling me various things inside my head. We will go back above for sure, so let's advance to uncover the secrets of this place!"
◇ ◇ ◇ ◇
Kazuki stood in front of Koyuki, he advanced ahead while looking around with deep caution.
The current Koyuki who couldn't use magic power was an extremely brittle existence. With only one attack reaching her, she wouldn't even fall into magic intoxication and might lose her life instantly instead.
The passages of this level were also long and narrow, it was the most suitable place to protect Koyuki while fighting.
"...Somehow it feels suffocating here."
Damp moisture and moldy smells mixed in the air, the air conditioning was not working at all making the air hot and humid. Kazuki glanced back for a second.
"What is it?"
"No, Hiakari-san's atmosphere is refreshing, so."
Just by seeing the girl in a glance, his chest felt like it became less crowded. A cooling sight.
"...Kazuki, I have a request though."
"What kind of request?"
"When we are in a real emergency, please abandon me here. The me right now is just baggage. Someone who cannot be useful in battle has no value whatsoever in being protected."
...Why is she proposing such a self-torturing thing like that for? (self-destructive?)
"What kind of stupid thing are you saying? I'm not deciding a person's worth only by how useful they are. Even though Hiakari-san cannot fight, you are still very valuable. I will protect Hiakari-san's life!"
Koyuki made a wondering face from Kazuki's words.
"Please stop it. You are just thinking to raise my positivity level by saying that. Why can't you focus on your own survival, stupid."
On the contrary of those dishonest words, relief was mixing inside Koyuki's tone of voice.
Perhaps she wanted to hear the words of [I will absolutely protect you], maybe that's why she proposed this kind of thing. Surely she was feeling uneasy with the current situation, it couldn't be helped.
"...Are you really, planning to raise my positivity level from now on?"
Again, Koyuki asked him with a nervous feeling.
"Regarding that, it's also not good to put yourself on guard too much, let's just do it naturally. Rather than that, what's important is to protect Hiakari-san first."
After we kept walking for a while, the passage divided in two.
Kazuki peeked out his face from the turning point and examined the situation in the left and right. At that moment, a black shadow leaped out from the corner of passage in an ambush.
Enemy attack!
Kazuki immediately took a back step while a beam of light streaked from the mouth of his sheath. The principle of Iai was originally a counter attack technique in an instant of time. Kazuki's first and second slash carved up the black shadow roughly into pieces.
'beshari', with a wet sound, the thing that was cut by Kazuki fell on the floor.
"...What is this?"
Kazuki spontaneously groaned when he saw the dead body of the thing that attacked him.
The thing that was ceasing to function there was a grotesque organism that was hard to describe.
He couldn't possibly believe that this kind of organism existed in the ecosystem of earth.
If he expressed it strongly, this organism was a lot of tentacles that were bundled together like a bouquet of flowers. It resembled an octopus. The tentacles were attached with countless suction pads for the sake of capturing its prey. The root of this thing was a bloodshot eyeball, rough breaths were released painfully from its tusked lips.
It resembled an octopus, but it looks slimy in pink color, its size was around the size of one person. It was a disgusting organism that made him feel like he would lose his sanity just by looking at it.
The sliced organism was wriggling about for a while, and then it disappeared by turning into the blue light of magical power.
It was a Demon Beast.
"...What kind of Mythology had that kind of Demon Beast, what bad taste. Come out here, the Diva that's in charge."
The things called Demon Beasts came in a large variety, they could discover the source of the Demon Beasts among the numerous Mythologies out there.
But he didn't know about the existence of such an eerie organism like this in the scope of the Mythologies he had learned.
"Cthulhu Mythos...?"
Koyuki whispered in a low tone.
"Cthu...what?"
"Cthulhu Mythos...there is a Mythology that is called that. A monster that grows tentacles is a monster of this Mythology...Or perhaps I should say, it's thought to be the feature of the evil god."
"But I never heard about that kind of Mythology."
"As far as my investigation go, there shouldn't be any confirmation of the sighting of Demon Beasts and Divas that are derived from the Cthulhu Mythos until now."
"...In short, this place is an extremely rare Haunted Ground?"
"...Strictly speaking, Cthulhu Mythos is an [original setting] that was created by an author named Lovecraft for the purpose of spinning a story. Lovecraft's fellow authors also shared this and wrote their work using this setting, the world view of this work was developed rapidly, finally it turned into a large scale systematic world that was fitting to be called a Mythology. However in the end it was supposed to be nothing more than a setting for the purpose of literary creation. It's rare, or, how should I put it...is this kind of thing even possible?"
"A story setting? That's different from a Mythology, right? No, maybe Mythology too is something that looks like a story."
Kazuki didn't understand how to measure the line between a story and Mythology.
In the first place, the concept of Mythology was still not well-understood. The relation of Demon Beasts and Divas with Mythologies still hadn't come out of the realm of human's own convenient hypothesis despite all the research that had been done.
In this world that had transformed into a place that overturned science, mankind was living while groping around in the dark, being led around by the nose by grand beings of unknown nature.
While they were talking, 'zururi', 'zururi', they could hear disgusting sounds from both passages that were diverging to the left and right.
When they turned their heads to the sounds, the eerie tentacle Demon Beasts were forming a group and crawling their way.
It was excessively disgusting how the Demon Beasts crawled nearing them in strangely fast movements despite their size.
"Hiakari-san, fall back!"
While removing Koyuki to the back, Kazuki started to chant his spell.
———————
"I'm going to melt this concrete floor with Phoenix's flame! Lotte, step back!!"
After Kazuki fell into the trap hole, Mio insisted in a great panic.
Toward Mio's insistence, Lotte made an objection carefully.
"But, this concrete floor is quite thick. If this floor is melted and a hole is made, then a large amount of melted concrete will fall desu. Concrete that is melted with magic will be wrapped in the heat of magic power. If the end of this trap hole is a closed space then..."
"...If it's Kazuki then he'll do something or another using defensive magic. Though now that you said it, it certainly will be really scary for a large amount of concrete wrapped in magic power to come falling down."
"It was only for just an instant, but the moment when Koyuki-oneesan fell into the trap hole, she was in a state that couldn't use magic desu. I think there will be quite a risk if this floor is melted and fell."
"Mu―....Rather than taking an imprudent risk, we should be going forward collecting information of this dungeon?"
"It's really lonely that Kazuki-oniisan is not here desu, but let's do that. I'll be the vanguard desu."
"...Thank you. I'll also raise the speed of my chant with all my strength, I'll protect you from behind."
"Yes, let's do our best!"
Lotte grasped Mio's hand tightly."Ehehe" she laughed.
"We are close friends aren't we desu?"
Lotte sensed Mio's discouragement through telepathy. That's why she behaved cheerfully to encourage Mio.
"Stop it already, it's awkward. Let's go right away!"
Although her mouth said that, Mio walked forward without releasing Lotte's hand.
Without knowing what was lurking in their path, they faced toward the darkness of the labyrinth...
| ← Ch. 046 | Ch. 048 → |