There Was a Mana Stone Mine in the Territory's Back Mountain (End)
"...If we approach it this way, it should work."
Standing before the writhing, colossal heart, I calmly finished explaining the strategy. Hector and Aurora listened with grim expressions, nodding along.
Hector's gaze flicked briefly toward Serin and her party in the distance, who were eyeing the heart with naked greed. Aurora, quick on the uptake, silently pinched his thigh.
That has to hurt.
I clicked my tongue inwardly. Off to the side, Serin kept glancing our way with the same sullen look, offering no reaction.
Just a short while ago, when I had suggested we discuss a strategy together, she had scoffed and said:
"Hmph. You lot are nothing but a ragtag bunch with no real combat ability, aren't you? I'll fight my own way."
She had put distance between us, radiating confidence that bordered on arrogance.
Well, it was the reaction I'd expected. She was basically saying that if she got anything, she wouldn't be sharing. Since my only goal was survival, I didn't particularly care.
"Are you ready?"
At my question, Hector and Aurora nodded with resolute faces. It was time to begin the final battle against this wretched ghost story.
We began carefully approaching the heart. As if sensing our advance, grotesque figures started crawling up from the ground around it.
They had once been human. Now they had spindly limbs like bare branches, skin hard and cracked like tree bark, and empty eye sockets leaking an eerie green light. They were beings fully corrupted and transformed by the ghost story Nature for the Lost.
"Graaaah…! Into nature's… embrace…!"
They charged us with those hideous cries. Their movements were sluggish, but there were so many of them—and more than anything, their very appearance inspired revulsion and dread.
Their weakness was clear: the joints that had not yet fully hardened into bark. Those were the spots we had to target.
"Sir Hector, if you would!"
"Leave it to me, Lord Ian!"
Hector was old, but he was a seasoned knight. Drawing his longsword, he charged to the front and began slicing through the knee and elbow joints of the aberrant creatures with precise, rapid cuts. His swordsmanship wasn't flashy, but it was the clean, economical movement of a man tempered in real combat.
"G-get away from me, you things!"
Aurora screamed in terror even as she bravely supported Hector from behind. She wasn't a proper mage, but she used basic binding and illusion spells—apparently picked up secondhand—to tangle the creatures' feet or scramble their attention, cleverly covering Hector's flanks.
More useful than I'd expected, honestly.
And as for me…
"Haaah!"
Fighting came down to guts. Ever since I'd fought aberrations during the Eclipse, I'd started to feel something like the grain of combat. I swung my blade along the "lines" that seemed to flicker into view before my eyes.
Combat Sense — Acquisition Progress: 87%
I narrowly dodged the creatures' attacks and stabbed my dagger cleanly into their joints whenever an opening appeared.
"Haha, Lord Ian! Your form with a sword is an absolute mess, but your instincts are extraordinary! Like some street rat who grew up brawling in the alleys!"
Hector called out from beside me, admiration and mockery mixed in his voice. I couldn't tell if it was a compliment or an insult, but I decided to take it positively.
The fierce fighting dragged on. The creatures kept pouring in, but our coordinated assault proved more effective than expected. Still, the numbers were against us. Just as exhaustion began to set in, Serin—who had been watching from the rear—finally moved.
"All right, everyone! Those fools have cleared the path for us. Now it's our turn to take that heart!"
She shouted with greedy eyes and led her caravan members in a charge against the creatures. Her people were clearly trained mercenaries. Moving in perfect unison, they struck the creatures' flanks and swung the battle in our favor in an instant.
Good. At this rate…!
Just as I thought we could push the monsters back far enough to reach the heart—
"Ian! Behind you!"
Aurora, supporting us with magic from the rear, cried out urgently. At the same moment, a cold killing intent prickled at my back.
— Thud!
A dull impact slammed into my back. My vision went black for an instant, and strength seemed to drain from my entire body.
"You've worked hard, kid."
Serin's voice reached my ear. I crumpled to the ground. Even as my consciousness blurred, I saw her vault over me and sprint toward the heart. She was screaming like a madwoman.
"That heart is ours! We're taking all of it! Everyone, charge!"
"Lord Ian!"
"Ian!"
I heard Hector and Aurora rushing over in a panic. They hauled me up and, just as we'd planned, quickly carried me as far from the heart as possible to a safe spot. There wasn't a shred of hesitation in their movements.
I let my body hang limp in their arms, as if I had truly taken a fatal wound.
"I-Ian… are you all right? There's b-blood…"
Aurora checked my back, her voice thick with genuine worry and distress. Nice acting.
"…We've moved you far enough, just like we promised."
She whispered in a trembling voice. And just like that, life returned to the body that had been hanging limp moments before.
"Whew… Thought I was actually going to die there."
I sat up lightly and brushed the dirt from my clothes. I had already anticipated that Serin would strike me from behind. A cunning woman like her would never pass up such a perfect opportunity.
"Remarkable. How did you do it? It certainly looked like you'd been stabbed."
Hector asked in admiration.
The moment she attacked, I had activated Hardening and reinforced the skin across my back. The impact still hurt, but I'd avoided a fatal wound. Serin probably thought her blade had reached my spine. Immediately afterward I released Hardening and played the part of a man gravely injured.
Of course, I couldn't reveal the ability itself to them. I had explained the entire plan to Hector and Aurora beforehand: when Serin attacked me, they were to act shocked, carry me to safety, and in the meantime let her approach the heart unhindered.
"I just got hit a little softly, that's all."
"Hah. A curious business."
Hector looked impressed for a moment, then his face darkened. A low voice escaped him.
"I half-doubted your words, Lord Ian… but I never imagined that woman Serin would be so cunning and ungrateful. Without us, she would have become feed for those wraiths long ago!"
"People blinded by money stop seeing anything else. This actually works out better for us. Now we don't have to lay a hand on that heart ourselves."
Serin was using the other survivors as bait to draw the wraiths' attention while she and her caravan charged straight for the giant heart.
"You said that heart-shaped thing would strike back."
"Yes."
No matter how stupid an aberration might be, it always had some kind of last-ditch countermeasure. And Serin, blinded by greed, would never be able to resist it. We would finish the aberration off while she was pinned down.
In other words, Serin would serve as both pathfinder and breakwater. That was the extent of our plan.
"It's all mine! Everything is mine!"
Serin let out a manic laugh and finally reached for the heart—
— KRAAAAAANG!
A massive explosion of mana erupted. I hurriedly shoved Aurora and Hector behind a mound of earth. Even with as much of my body hardened as possible, I felt a searing, prickling burn.
— KUUGOOOOOH!
A tremendous tremor shook the surroundings, as if the entire forest were quaking. I desperately wanted to turn my head and check the situation, but doing so would have burned my eyes right out of my skull.
We held out like that for a while.
"…Holy hell."
Everyone who looked toward where the heart had been was left speechless. It was as if nothing had ever been there at all. Everything was cleanly gone.
Except for one thing.
A single Chaos Crystal lay there—deep, vivid crimson, densely compressed. Judging by the scale of this ghost story, it was larger than a human fist.
"Ah—there are still wraiths over there!"
Aurora cried out as if screaming. A few that had been hiding in the corners of the space creaked upright. But they, too, soon collapsed like puppets with their strings cut, crumbling into dust and vanishing.
As if that had been a signal, a grinding, cracking sound rolled through the air.
What is that noise?
I tilted my head—and Hector suddenly shouted.
"We need to get out of here!"
"What?"
"That's the sound of trees collapsing! We're standing under one right now!"
…Right. We were under a tree the size of a house. And it was coming down?
"Kyaaaaah!"
Aurora was already screaming and sprinting for the exit. Hector followed right behind her.
"Wait a second!"
"Ian! There's no time to grab that!"
I hastily snatched up the Chaos Crystal and ran after them. Fragments of wood rained down with a clattering roar. We battered our way through them and burst free—
— KUUUNG!
I hit solid ground by a hair's breadth.
"Haaah… hah…"
I planted my hands on my knees and gasped for air. Hector shook his head and muttered,
"In a way, you might be greedier than that young lady Serin."
Was I? But to me, a Chaos Crystal was as good as life itself—the only currency I could use to bargain with aberrations. I couldn't afford to leave it behind.
"We'll split it three ways."
I held the Chaos Crystal out to Aurora and Hector. For a moment I wondered whether I should factor in the refugees Hector led as well—but they had been waiting outside. So they didn't count. It wasn't stinginess. It was philosophy. Those who do not work receive no reward.
But Hector and Aurora both shook their heads, clearly unhappy with my offer. Why?
"I wouldn't take that ominous thing even if you gave it to me."
"The energy on it is terrifying."
Ah. Fair enough—it did look pretty menacing. The color alone, plus whatever strange aura it was giving off.
"More importantly, without you we never would have escaped. That alone is reward enough."
"I agree."
…Ahem. Well, if they insisted.
I stopped declining and pocketed the crystal. Aurora and Hector collapsed onto the ground in exhaustion.
"By the way, I'm starving to death. We've been eating nothing but mushrooms for days."
"Agreed."
I made them a bold offer.
"In that case—there's a territory nearby. Allow me to treat you to a proper meal."
Color flooded back into their faces at once. Beyond them, the ominous, clammy fog that had blanketed the forest began to lift as if it had never existed. The distorted space settled back into place, and far to the east, the first light of dawn seeped gently through the bare branches.
It was the moment the ghost story Nature for the Lost was completely extinguished.
At the same time, a shout carried from far away. The instant we emerged from the ghost story, a familiar voice rang out from the forest entrance in the distance.
"Loooord! Iiiiaaan! Where the hell are youuu, nyang?!"
It was Anya. She was tearing through the woods, screaming my name at the top of her lungs. Her voice was completely hoarse from shouting.
I started walking toward the sound of her voice.
"Anya! Over here!"
"L-Lord?!"
Her blurry figure appeared in the distance—then she came rocketing toward me at full speed. Now it finally felt like I was back in reality.
I was about to walk toward her with a smile of relief when—
Whoosh—!
The ground beneath my feet suddenly gave way. I tumbled into a pitch-black pit with a scream. Even as I fell, I instinctively activated Hardening to protect myself. Thanks to that I wasn't badly hurt, but I still ended up sprawled at the bottom of the hole, covered head to toe in dirt.
"Wh-what the…"
Had someone dug a trap? Or had the ground simply collapsed when the ghost story unraveled? Either way, it was anything but welcome—
"Huh?"
The surroundings glowed blue. I rubbed my eyes with a creak. I rubbed them again. The blue light remained. And spread out before me in every direction were crystals shining with azure light.
It was the mana stone mine Serin had been so desperately hunting for.
"Heh."
A helpless laugh escaped me on its own.