The Depths of the Crypt (2)
A short, stifled moan slipped from her lips.
His fingers, now fumbling again, slid past her thigh and traced the line of her groin. Slowly, but with a sticky, clinging touch. They seemed to seek the edge of her underwear, brushing against the soft flesh that peeked from beneath Ceres’s buried panties as they advanced.
“…I beseech you, spear that judges the enemy!”
The prayer ended rather quickly, but its power far exceeded expectations. Warm light flooded the dark passage. When the glow faded, only a skeleton with its upper body completely blown away remained before Dain’s eyes. Its bones, now released from their unnatural binding, clattered to the floor.
“Haa… haa… Ceres!”
Dain, who had watched the formidable foe fall until the very end, cried out in astonishment at the overwhelming force of the prayer and rushed toward her.
“Ceres! What was that?! That was incredible! How did you do it?”
Her face was slightly flushed, perhaps from the intensity of her prayer.
“Ah, ahaha. I-I think it’s because of my Authority. Suddenly my divine power… it grew so much stronger. Hehe…”
“Yeah, it was amazing. That thing was seriously strong.”
It truly was. Dain couldn’t claim vast experience, but among all the enemies he had faced, this one had been the strongest. If there were more creatures of this caliber, they would far exceed what he could handle alone.
“From now on, we’ll fight like this,” Zarco declared.
“That blue skeleton isn’t a demon, so my Authority won’t work on it. And it’s too much for you to face head-on, Dain. You focus on defense. In the meantime, Ceres will take them down one by one.”
It was a sound judgment. If he recklessly tried to mix in sword strikes, he might end up in the same dangerous position as before, vulnerable to a counterattack. Zarco’s decision was clearly correct.
Yet for some reason, the word “understood” didn’t come easily from Dain’s mouth.
“Don’t worry. You’re better at it, but I’ll protect Ceres.”
A strange confidence colored Zarco’s words. There was nothing wrong with what he said. And yet the way he spoke her name—Ceres—sounded slightly awkward to Dain’s ears.
“Alright. Let’s do that. Is that okay with you, Ceres?”
Ceres nodded a beat late, offering an awkward smile.
If there was any silver lining, it was that they had cleared so many enemies that for a while, no further presence could be felt ahead. Soon they reached a space large enough to rest, and the party began to regroup.
Ceres knelt and prayed, replenishing her divine power. Dain chewed medicinal herbs while wrapping a bandage around the injury on his left arm. Zarco, instead of his usual one-handed sword, drew the Hero’s Sword and swung it through the air several times. He looked around as if testing some sensation, then gave a short nod.
“Oh, does it feel like it’s working?”
“Probably.”
The Hero glanced briefly at Dain before sheathing the Hero’s Sword.
“Good. Then let’s move again.”
They had walked for quite a long time, yet the passage showed no sign of ending. At some point, the crude, timeworn walls transformed into smooth corridors that looked recently constructed. Though no one spoke, every member of the party sensed that the mastermind was close and steeled their hearts.
“Ceres.”
“Y-yes? Zarco…”
At Ceres’s strange reaction, Dain also turned to look back.
“Can you take off your gloves?”
“Huh? My gloves?”
“Yeah. I think hands would be better than thighs… don’t you agree?”
“Ah, aah! Right. I’ve been wearing the exact outfit Lady Lilias prepared for me. It would probably be better to remove the gloves, wouldn’t it?”
“Please.”
As soon as Ceres removed her long gloves, Zarco took her hand and pressed his own palm against it. It was the first time Ceres had ever placed her hand in a man’s like this. Ignoring how her ears were gradually turning red, he began to caress her hand.
“Wh-what…”
“How is it? Can you feel it?”
While Dain stammered, Zarco looked at Ceres first.
“Y-yes?”
“Your healing. Your Authority.”
When Ceres closed her eyes in embarrassment, she could feel a warm, wave-like light flowing from their joined hands. So this was it. Both healing and reinforcement were made possible by this light. Only now was Ceres certain.
“Yes. I understand.”
At her answer, Zarco released her fingers and lightly stroked her palm with his middle and ring fingers. It tickled, but it was also embarrassing. Ceres reflexively tried to pull her hand away, but soon relaxed and left it in Zarco’s care.
“Then let’s go.”
The Hero, having confirmed her Authority, spoke to Dain, who had been silently watching them.
At last, the end of the passage came into view. From the unadorned entrance, the presence of someone could be felt. Dain extinguished his torch, raised his shield, and approached cautiously. When he peered inside,
“Ah, I’ve known you were there for quite some time. There’s no need to hide.”
The person inside spoke.
“Just a moment. I’ll light the way for you.”
In an instant, the space brightened with a large blue light. The interior resembled a laboratory, filled with piles of skeletons. Behind them, a man looked at the party and smiled unpleasantly.
This is him. This bastard is the demon.
His appearance was no different from a human’s, but the two horns rising above his ears proved otherwise.
“I have been waiting for you, Hero’s party. I am Rufeus of the Demon King’s army. I am the researcher of this crypt, the one who will fill the kingdom with undead.”
“You talk too much…!”
“I had no intention of conversing either, but I matched your courtesy. What a surprising reaction.”
“What conversation could there possibly be between demons and humans? I’ll kill you.”
“Hehehe.”
Rufeus let out an unpleasant laugh.
“That whore Lemaris seems to have conveyed her own plan to His Majesty the Demon King, but my thoughts differ. Do you understand why I chose to settle in this remote village? Why I deliberately released the skeletons outside?”
Spouting words whose meaning was unclear, Rufeus slammed his hand on the table. The blue flames that had filled the room began to gather in front of him.
“If you all die here early on, that whore’s plan and the Hero will both vanish in vain.”
The blue light enveloped the pile of bones, and soon they began to clatter and assemble. The party’s gazes slowly rose upward. Thousands of bones formed a shape far more massive than the previous one. From the grotesquely pierced holes all over its body, unpleasant blue lights writhed as if alive.
“This… this can’t be…”
“Behold the essence of the necromancy I have researched! Taste it!”
The giant arm of the skeleton swept forward with a sickening roar. Dain quickly rolled to the side. It felt less like he had dodged and more like he had been pushed by the shockwave. Through the rising cloud of dust, it was still glaring at him.
Countless strategies flashed through his mind, but one premise settled over them all. If it hits me, it’s over.
“I’ll hold it!”
That was all Dain could say. Ceres’s prayer and the power of the Hero’s Sword. He would entrust everything to the Hero and the Saintess. His role was to risk his life and buy time. Once he made up his mind, the tension in his shoulders strangely loosened.
“…I’ll hold on.”
Each of the skeleton’s attacks was threatening. Even as he dodged back and forth, the wind pressure grazing his ears left his lips painfully dry. Now using both hands, the skeleton’s punches came down on Dain a little faster, a little heavier.
“…Spear that judges!”
A spear of light created by prayer flew toward the skeleton. Amid the loud explosion and rising dust, the skeleton glared at them from within a dark-red barrier, completely unharmed.
Rufeus slowly withdrew his outstretched hand and spoke.
“I have no talent for offense, but I have learned a fair amount of defensive magic. Hehe.”
The amusement vanished from Rufeus’s face in an instant. The blade of light condensed on the Hero’s Sword grew even larger, piercing through the laboratory’s ceiling. As if using the demon’s increasingly tense expression as a signal, Zarco swung his blade.
Rufeus hurriedly raised both hands. In the blink of an eye, the light swept past both the skeleton and Rufeus. Beyond the fading glow, the right arms of both the demon and the skeleton had vanished, leaving only scorched marks at the shoulders.
“Ah… ahahaha!”
Blood poured from his shoulder. Sweat poured down his face. Yet the demon began to laugh madly.
“I was right after all! I must kill you now!”
In the demon’s eyes, he saw the Hero staggering as if his strength was spent after launching the sword qi, and the Saintess breathing hard. The sword in the Hero’s hand gradually lost its radiance, and soon Zarco collapsed to the floor with a thud.
“It is fortunate that you are still immature. If you hadn’t missed, you might have killed me. Losing my right arm is regrettable, but I will now take the Hero’s life without fail!”
Clang—
A powerless sound rang out. It was the sound of Dain’s sword striking the skeleton’s shin. Rufeus looked at him with an expression as if staring at a worm.
“Step aside.”
The skeleton’s fist struck Dain. At first, the impact ran through his entire body. Then came the sharp pain from his slammed back, bursting out as a groan.
“Ugh!”
If he hadn’t blocked with his shield, he would have died. He gripped the shield in his left hand—which could no longer hold anything properly—tightly and rose on trembling legs.
“Heal him, Ceres!”
Restoring the Hero’s stamina was the Saintess’s role. The sword qi had clearly worked on the demon. At Dain’s shout, Rufeus frowned and manipulated the skeleton, but Dain, who had once again blocked the way, was an eyesore.
“You’re not going anywhere, you bastard.”
Dain was instinctively using his body to block the skeleton’s feet and legs. Once it started moving, there was no way to stop it. The only option was to suppress it as much as possible before it could move. And that method was effective.
Rufeus shouted with a face twisted in fury.
“I said move!”
“Zarco! Zarco!”
Ceres examined Zarco’s pale face. She immediately took his hand, but all she could feel was a faint pulse of his Authority.
“The healing… isn’t working…?”
There was no time to worry about anything else. She quickly placed Zarco’s hand on her thigh, but although the pulse grew only slightly stronger, Zarco showed no sign of opening his eyes.
“Even when he was cut, he recovered instantly…”
Though it had failed, considering the tremendous power the sword qi had displayed, it made sense that both his Authority and stamina were being consumed like this.
While the healing stagnated, a rough scream came from behind Ceres.
“D-Dain…”
His face was covered in blood, and his equipment looked as if it would shatter at any moment. Dain, body trembling violently, was enduring the skeleton’s mad punches without dodging. It felt like tears would fall.
She had to save Dain.
The Saintess carefully moved her hand toward the buttons of her top.