Fortress of Flames (5)
"So… you're saying there are people out there kidnapping spirits?"
After speaking with the salamanders, Felix relayed what he'd been told.
"According to them… they used to live in this lava. Then, at some point, they started vanishing one by one. They didn't leave for the Spirit Realm — they just disappeared without a trace. Figuring it had to be someone's doing, they abandoned the lava entirely and went into hiding."
—I'm scared…
—Ugh…
Even after the conversation had ended, the spirits still clung to Rosaria's side, covering their eyes with their hands and murmuring under their breath. Anyone could see they were terrified and shrinking into themselves.
"In that case, do you know where the spirits disappeared from?"
"Hold on… mm… I see… They say the deepest place?"
"The deepest place… meaning the bottom of this lava pool?"
"Judging by the circumstances, that seems right."
And so Rosaria's group learned that the spirits had been vanishing from the deepest reaches of the lava pool.
"But… then there's no way to get there, is there?"
Hearing that, Louis's expression turned grave.
"This lava pool is magma rising straight up from the mantle. Even with the pipes we've driven into it, we only reach a few dozen meters down! Anything deeper than that is nearly impossible to observe — and you want to go rummaging through the lava itself?"
Karak-Zar alone was already a vast underground city carved roughly a hundred thirty meters below the surface. The lava welling up from those depths was the dwarves' primary resource, and they drew on enormous quantities of it every day — yet even so, the surface level only dropped a few centimeters a year, and the occasional eruption simply filled it back up again.
Searching the interior of a lava system whose full extent no one even knew, armed with nothing more than the clue "the deepest place," was far too vast an undertaking.
"Can't magic solve this somehow?"
"My magic could keep someone intact inside the lava, sure… but combing through something this deep and wide? Mana aside, we simply don't have the manpower."
"Then… what about the dwarves? Don't they have anything?"
"They do put on protective gear and go into the lava now and then for pipe maintenance, but even that maxes out at about an hour — and only a few dozen meters down. Digging into the deep places is out of the question."
"Ugh…"
Faced with a situation neither magic nor technology could crack, Rosaria's group could only sigh once more.
"Isn't there anyone who could fall into lava without batting an eye and zip around inside it…?"
"Right… that would make things a lot easier."
"Where would you even find someone like that?"
"Exactly. So what do we do now?"
"………"
"………"
"………"
"…? Why is everyone suddenly looking at me?"
Then the three of them, astonished at how long it had taken them to notice, exchanged glances — and their eyes all settled on one person.
A living being that transcended both magic and technology was sitting right there on the floor beside them, staring back as if to ask what the fuss was about.
"Y-you're seriously making me do this?!"
Tene eyed the lava seething and boiling right beneath her feet, swallowed hard, and spun around to shout.
"There's no one else who can!"
"You won't die! Don't worry!"
"I mean, sure, but… I can't even swim…!"
Watching the Black Dragon — for whom lava was nothing — tear up as she looked at them, the three felt a twinge in their chests. Still, they steeled themselves and began cheering her on through her tears.
"We came all this way — we can't just leave empty-handed!"
"Hey, thinking about it, the only reason we even got this far is because of me. Do I really have to do this too?"
"Once this is over, I'll make you a custom weapon!!"
"Really?! Then I'll— wait, no! That weapon would be made from my own scales anyway!"
Tene had briefly taken the bait on that half-baked offer, only to realize she was the one getting the raw end of the deal — and she exploded.
"Come on, just this once! You're the great Black Dragon!"
"Yeah! For the Black Dragon, this is nothing!"
"Whoa! So cool! That's our Black Dragon! The strongest creature on earth, who shakes the land and mocks the heavens!"
"…H-hmph…! Th-that kind of praise doesn't affect me at all, you know…? H-hmph…!"
Faced with the trio's relentless, brainless flattery, Tene pretended not to care — while her shoulders gave a little bounce of pleasure.
"W-well! I suppose I have no choice! In a situation like this, it is only right that I, Tenebrix Nox, make my entrance! Fine — I'll do it!!"
"Yeah! So cool!!"
"Wooo! Lady Tenebrix Nox!!"
"Man… she's way too easy. I'm starting to feel bad for her."
"Honestly, it's a miracle she's never been scammed even once since coming to this world. Did she never even get ripped off in MapleStory as a kid?"
"Both of you shut up and just cheer!"
Watching Tene beam openly, declaring with grand self-importance that she simply had no choice, Rosaria and Louis found themselves genuinely grateful that Tene was Tenebrix Nox.
It was enough to make them think the world was still intact precisely because it was Tene — not anyone else — who had become the strongest creature alive. For all that she was possessed of world-ending power, her heart remained pure and hopelessly naive.
"Well then… I'm going in."
With the trio's cheers at her back, Tene set her face in a look of grim resolve, stepped forward, and gently touched a toe to the lava.
"Mm… ohh… mmm… perfect temperature for a half-body soak…"
Having tested it with just her big toe, Tene seemed to adjust to the heat and pushed her foot in up to the instep, muttering to herself.
Then, gripping a nearby pipe, she began slowly lowering herself into the lava.
"I'll… be… back…!!!!"
By the time the lava had reached her chest, Tene looked back at the three of them, gave a firm nod, then thrust a hand skyward in a thumbs-up and delivered that solemn parting line before vanishing beneath the surface.
"…What the hell was that?"
"Just look at her fondly. She's at that age."
"Honestly, though, if I had to dive into lava, I wouldn't be able to resist either."
Tene had clearly been trying to recreate a grand, deeply moving lava-entry scene of her own design — but to the three watching, the overall impression was more along the lines of Ahh… that. Of course.
"Pwah!"
Moments later, Tene's face burst back up through the surface.
"How is it? You okay?"
"Yep! It's exactly like a hot spring at a water park! I think I get why the spirits love it!"
They'd asked just in case, but of course — to the strongest creature alive, lava was nothing more than a pleasant hot-spring soak.
"Haha! As expected of me! The ultimate dragon who even blasphemes the gods!"
"Hey, wait! Your clothes! Your clothes!"
"Huh…? Kyaaah?!"
Caught up in the thrill of her own power and thrashing about even more vigorously, Tene suddenly realized she was completely bare from the waist up — and nearly jumped out of her skin.
Her body was fine. The clothes covering it, however, had been nothing more than ordinary fabric.
"Oh. C-cup."
"Don't say that!"
Louis, having just sized up the chest that had been bouncing right in front of her, watched Tene turn scarlet and shriek.
"It's fine. Still smaller than mine, anyway."
"I mean… well… that's true, but…"
Finding Tene's reaction adorable, Louis grinned and cupped her own underbust, pushing her chest together. And she wasn't wrong — her bust was so enormous it threatened Freya's long-uncontested throne, leaving Tene with nothing more to say.
"…Why am I suddenly so annoyed?"
Even in the middle of all this, Rosaria tilted her head, unable to understand why her skull was throbbing and her blood was rising for no apparent reason.
"Men, I swear… Anyway. Tene, listen carefully. Focus your eyes and swim through the lava. If anything feels even slightly off, go after it right away."
"Got it. I'll give it a shot."
Felix, cutting short the banter of the three who had once been men, briefed Tene on what to do while searching the lava. She flashed an okay sign and dove straight under.
"Think she'll find it? What if something happens down there?"
"Who's worrying about whom? Even if the world split in two, she'd outlive all of us."
"Fair point."
Something about Tene's vacant air had made Rosaria anxious, but Felix's rebuttal brought her around at once.
"Bubble-bubble-bubble. (Never thought I'd live to swim through lava.)"
Exploring the interior of the lava pool, Tene found the whole situation rather fascinating. In all her life, she had never once dreamed a day would come when she'd be paddling through molten rock.
Even swimming through lava this thick and viscous took no effort at all.
Fwoom—
"Mmph!? Bubble-bubble-bubble… (Whoa!? O-okay, careful…)"
If anything, the slightest application of force sent out massive shockwaves — her strength was almost impossible to control. Tene carefully kicked her feet and began zipping through the lava's interior.
Deeper and deeper she dove.
"Bubble? (Huh?)"
By the time she had gone so deep that no impurities were visible at all, Tene suddenly felt something alien.
Over there… just over there, the flow of the lava feels wrong.
From the outside it might have looked like a simple stagnant pool, but having thrown herself into the lava firsthand, Tene could tell. This magma moved according to rules of its own — flowing in regular currents, almost like a river.
But the presence she sensed far off in the distance was different. It was like pulling the plug on a full bathtub, the water all rushing toward a single point.
Sensing it, Tene kicked harder and headed straight for the source of that presence.
"Still no sign of her… She should be fine, right?"
Meanwhile, with Tene submerged in the lava, the trio had nothing better to do than stare blankly at the surface and kill time.
She was a dragon, so they weren't truly worried — but sending her off on such a vague lead left Rosaria feeling oddly guilty.
"It's not like we had any other options."
"But what if she still can't find anything?"
"Then… we go home, I guess."
As things stood, Tene was their only method, so all they could do was wait.
They were still waiting aimlessly when—
Pwah!
"Found it! I found it!!!"
"You found it?"
"Yes! Just like you said, Noona — I focused, and somehow I managed to track it down!"
The quiet surface of the lava suddenly churned, and Tene's face popped up, beaming with energy.
"But what exactly did you find?"
She said she'd found something, yet with only her face floating above the surface, there was no way to tell what it was.
"Well, uh… it's kind of big… so I need to haul it out…"
"Then get out here and show us."
"Yeah, about that… it's a little awkward…"
"Why?"
"…Because."
Tene hung her head and mumbled something about how hard it would be to bring her find out.
"What was that?"
"Because I'm naked…!"
"…………"
At Felix's follow-up, Tene flushed scarlet and shouted. Hauling whatever she'd found out of the lava would mean emerging completely bare — and she was far too embarrassed to do that.
"……Find her some clothes."
"On it."
Only after the three of them dug through their luggage and produced a spare set of clothes could Tene finally finish her long lava expedition and come home.