Collapsing Canyon
Back in my previous life, when I used to play online games—
> Press the ↑ key to move to the next area~
All I'd done was step through a portal sitting at the edge of a flat grassland, and instantly a vast, barren wasteland stretched out before me.
Different weather. Not a single blade of grass. Even the monsters that spawned were completely different.
And the questions didn't stop there.
Who built the portals? Why didn't monsters ever come through them? Wouldn't it be way more convenient to install one inside a village? And so on, and so on.
Not that any of it actually mattered for playing the game.
Anyway, among all those things, there was one I envied more than anything else.
"People in that world must have it so easy."
Wherever you wanted to go, you just hopped on the right portal and—bam—you were there.
No exhausting long-distance travel. No getting stuck in holiday traffic jams on the way home for the holidays.
Was there a more perfect mode of transportation anywhere?
"I'd love to ride one of those someday."
The moment I passed through the portal—
"Urgh…"
I clamped a hand over my mouth.
It felt like my entire body had been sucked underwater and then spat out whole on the other side.
The world spun in circles, and the bread I'd crammed down that morning surged all the way up my throat.
Still not digested, huh. If I'd known this would happen, maybe I should've run around a bit like the others. I've still got dinner to eat later…
Stomach contents are refluxing into the esophagus.
"I know."
So you don't need to narrate it.
"You all right?"
The instructor standing ahead of us asked.
"Yes. Still getting used to it, I guess."
"Everyone's like that the first time they take a portal. You'll be fine soon enough."
Honestly, shouldn't someone have mentioned that before we entered the Tower?
I'd also only found out that meals were provided on the 10th and 20th floors after stuffing myself with bread until my stomach was about to burst that morning.
Why do people always wait until after something happens to share the important information?
Anyway, the advice to eat a light breakfast was spot-on.
That bastard Ratman.
I took a few deep breaths and looked around.
The 30th floor was a massive underground canyon.
Black cliffs stretched endlessly on either side, and between them yawned a chasm so deep you couldn't even see the bottom.
The only things connecting the stone pillars were precarious, narrow rock paths.
Some stretches were so thin that two people could barely stand side by side.
And far in the distance—
An altar glowing with blue light.
"That is the objective of this raid."
The instructor pointed toward the altar.
"Once the central transfer altar is activated, you can move to the safe zone, Airotia. Avoid unnecessary combat and maintain formation."
Sounds easy enough when you put it like that.
Walk over there, activate the altar.
And today's schedule is done.
Sure, there were some rough paths and monsters mixed in along the way—but nothing that looked all that dangerous.
"Iris. Take the lead."
"Yes, sir."
Iris stepped forward, staff in hand.
The monsters on the 30th floor were a bit more annoying than the ones on the lower floors.
Winged lizards the size of a person. Armored insects that skittered along the walls. Scorpions that hid in rock crevices and fired poison stingers.
After dealing with a few rounds of those nuisances, the central altar—which had been nothing more than a faint blue glow in the distance—finally came into clear view.
Just a little farther and we'd be done.
The name "30.5th floor" still felt weird, but since we were heading straight back the moment we arrived, there was no point dwelling on it.
Crack.
A strange sound came from overhead.
What was that?
At first I thought a crack had formed somewhere on the cliff. But there was nothing where the sound had come from.
"What's that?"
Someone muttered, pointing at empty air.
A single thin black line floated there.
Then the scenery around the black line rippled like water, and the stone dust scattered across the ground began getting sucked into it.
Spatial vibration is rising sharply.
Localized spatial collapse is in progress.
"Everyone, halt!"
At the instructor's shout, the formation stopped.
CRACK-CRACK!
The black line split open to either side. The force pulling in the stone dust grew stronger by the second.
"It's a Spatial Rift!"
Iris raised her staff. She quickly scanned the rift's size and the mana flowing around it.
"The structure is the same as a small-scale rift. Destroying the core will close it."
"Confirm the number and positions of the cores first."
At the instructor's order, Iris prepared to cast a detection spell. Blue mana began to spread from the tip of her staff—
CRUNCH!
One side of the stone path tore away in a massive chunk.
The new recruits up front screamed and scrambled backward. The rift clearly had no intention of waiting around.
"…There's no time."
Iris dropped the detection spell.
"I'll destroy every core I can see!"
She planted her staff upright. Moisture from the surrounding air gathered into a single point, forming a blue spear.
"Ice Lance!"
A streak of blue light cut through the air.
CRASH!
A crimson crystal shattered into pieces.
The force that had been devouring stone and mana stopped, and the gaping black tear began slowly knitting itself shut from both edges.
Relief spilled from the ranks behind us.
"Sh-she did it!"
"That's Iris for you."
The instructor lowered his own staff as well.
"Quick thinking. Well done, Iris."
"Thank you."
Iris let out a cool breath and turned to look at me. Her shoulders were slightly squared, a faint smile playing at the corners of her mouth.
"Nothing to say?"
"…"
What is this. Does she want me to praise her again like last time?
Yeah, no. Hard pass.
Last time I said something nice and she twisted it however she wanted and got mad at me. In situations like this, staying quiet gets you halfway there.
Iris stared at my face for a long moment.
"…"
Silently. Continuously.
Haha. Would you look at that. Guess the old sayings really are never wrong.
"…I see. So this level of performance still doesn't even register me as competition."
You've got to be kidding me.
Now she's just interpreting things on her own even when I don't say a word.
"No, I didn't say anyth—"
Additional rift core detected.
My words cut off.
A single red line appeared where the shattered core had been.
The line didn't stay suspended in midair—it ran straight down beneath the stone path we were standing on.
"…Wait."
Iris's expression hardened.
Multi-layered rift structure confirmed.
Lower rift core is entering overload state.
The hidden core was embedded directly beneath the stretch of path where Iris was standing.
Apparently, when the upper core shattered, all the force that had gathered around it had funneled straight downward.
"There's another one underneath!"
Iris shouted. The instructor immediately swung his staff toward the ground.
"Everyone, fall back!"
Iris spun around as well.
But—
Thud.
A heavy tremor reached us from underfoot first.
Floor collapse in 1.3 seconds.
Black cracks spiderwebbed out from beneath Iris's feet. Before she could even take a step, the ground gave way.
"Kyaa!"
"Iris!"
There was no time to think. I dove straight in and grabbed her arm.
"L-Leon!"
"I didn't say anything earlier!"
"Is that really what you should be saying right now?!"
The moment I tried to pull her back, the remaining stretch of stone path crumbled entirely.
RUUUUMBLE!
Our bodies plunged downward.
Above, the instructor frantically threw up a barrier. The other recruits reached out toward us, but we were already far beyond their grasp.
"Leon!"
Iris called my name.
"What?!"
"My arm! My arm!!"
The arm I'd grabbed was slowly slipping from my grip.
I gathered what strength I had left and hauled Iris into my arms.
"Hold on tight!!!"
Black cliff walls surged upward, blotting out the sky above.
After that, my memory cut out.
"—on!"
Someone was calling me.
"Leon!"
"…Huh?"
When I opened my eyes, Iris's face was right in front of me.
Stone dust clung thickly to her pale blonde hair, and shallow scrapes marked her cheeks and arms.
"Are you with me?"
"…Yeah."
I tried to sit up and felt a dull ache in my lower back.
"Ugh…"
"Are you hurt anywhere?"
Iris immediately grabbed my shoulder.
"My back hurts a little."
Contusions confirmed on the right shoulder and lower back.
No critical damage detected.
"Doesn't seem like anything serious, though."
"…That's a relief."
I looked around.
We'd fallen into a wide cavern at the bottom of the canyon.
Above us, black mist and jutting rock formations blocked any view of the surface.
Off to one side, a slanted ice wall had shattered halfway down. Long scrape marks showed where we'd slid along its surface on the way down.
"You made that while we were falling?"
"It was a little difficult, but yes."
"That's impressive."
Iris gave me a complicated look.
I immediately shut my mouth. No point adding anything that she might twist into something weird again.
She pulled a communication magic tool from her waist.
"Instructor. Can you hear me?"
Crackle.
Nothing but static came back. She fed a little more mana into it.
"Instructor. This is Iris. Leon and I are both unharmed."
For a while, only sharp noise answered. Then a broken voice came through faintly.
{……ris…… Leon…… survival status……}
"We're both alive."
{……don't move…… rescue team……}
Something about that speech pattern reminds me of the strongest creature on Earth.
Crackle. Crackle-crackle!
Static burst from the communication tool and the voice cut out completely.
She poured mana into it several more times after that, but no reply came.
High-density Death Mana is interfering with communication signals.
"Death Mana?"
"…Death Mana?"
Iris looked up from the communication tool.
"You can sense Death Mana right now?"
"Yeah. Why, what is it?"
"You—pretending not to know again…"
"No, I genuinely don't know."
Iris stared at my face for a long moment, then let out a short sigh.
"Death Mana is mana that accumulates around dead creatures or the undead. When the concentration gets high enough, it interferes with the flow of other magic. That's probably why the communication cut out."
So the more dead things there are, the more noise gets into the surrounding mana. Like a bad cell signal, basically.
Correct.
Contact with the rescue team is not possible from the current location.
CRASH!
A rock falling from above smashed into the spot where I'd been lying just moments earlier.
"Wow. Thanks for waking me up. If I'd still been lying there, I'd be dead."
"…"
Iris didn't respond. She scanned the surroundings instead. Thin cracks were spreading across the cavern walls, and stone dust kept raining down from the ceiling.
She pointed toward a cave opening on one side.
"We need to take shelter deeper in."
"The instructor said to stay put."
BOOM!
This time a boulder the size of a person slammed down right next to us.
"People can't just sit around waiting forever."
"You're making jokes in a situation like this…?"
CRRRACK—!
Another rupture thundered overhead.
"Th-this is bad!"
"Hurry! Get inside, now!"
Before any more rocks could fall, we scrambled into the cave.