83. The Stability Is Different
Everyone stood perfectly still, yet the rumbling sound never ceased.
The vibration traveled through the body in time with the noise.
“H-Hold on. Calm down. Let’s calm ourselves.”
Even without knowing the cause, one had to heed the warning to flee the moment a sudden vibration was felt.
They needed to secure an escape route first.
Sugar picked up the map.
“Ah… There’s only one entrance to the underground prison, so if we just go out in the same direction we came from, that should work.”
While she stared at the map, someone poked her shoulder repeatedly.
It was Ryly.
“… Why?”
He pointed silently toward Sugar’s back—the path they had just walked.
Why was he pointing without a word, looking uneasy?
Feeling uneasy, Sugar glanced back.
There was no path.
“Aaaah!”
Exactly like this! Sugar jumped up and down.
“When? Since when did this suddenly happen?”
“I just realized after coming to my senses that there was a wall blocking the way…”
Ian answered.
“Is this… someone’s doing?”
Leon muttered while staring at the wall.
Meanwhile, Ryly, who had been feeling the wall, took out his staff.
“It’s Stille. If I interpret the magic covering the entire building, I can easily change the structure. No matter who it is, they probably used it. Everyone, get behind me.”
After saying that, he immediately began chanting the explosion magic incantation.
When he waved the staff, a small explosion sound accompanied the creation of a hole large enough for one person to pass through. He had reduced the power to the maximum for safety.
“Everyone here. Sugar, come this way.”
“But do we really have to break through the path? The path we were on is fine.”
“Then it would be considered being led, Ian-nim. Breaking through the blocked path might also be leading the action… but generally, this is the correct answer.”
Ryly answered Ian’s question while hugging Sugar tightly to his side.
After sending Ian and Leon out first, he came out of the hole carrying Sugar.
Sugar felt it from his embrace. The vibration of magic approaching from far away brushed against her skin.
The opposite side of the wall was a long corridor.
Just a long corridor. It was dark and the end was invisible.
Each of them held their staff to create light sources. Even so, the light didn’t reach the end at all.
“Oh…”
This strange situation was confusing. It felt like an adventure. Walking a path full of uncertainty was thrilling, but with friends bustling around, it felt stable.
I wanted this…
That was the reason Sugar had wanted to make Leon her friend.
Sugar walked while enjoying Ryly’s scent. Ryly had her wrapped in one arm, almost like he was holding her in his arms. Since the other side rarely initiated contact, it felt oddly good.
Ryly looked down at Sugar like that. Seeing her in this situation, it was unbelievable.
When their eyes met, he just smiled faintly.
What should I do about this? The man sighed.
“You…”
“Why?”
“No… It’s fine…”
Sugar and Ryly were in front, Ian and Leon following behind. The position and situation were different from before.
Ian was tense in sudden situations, but seeing the two in front, it was absurd. Seeing Sugar calmly smelling the male scent even in this situation, the unease lessened a bit.
It was funny.
“They’re really…”
“…”
Leon stared blankly ahead and then lowered his gaze.
So the four of them walked for a long time.
Walking and walking. Calculating by perceived time, they should have already exited the school building. But they were still in a dark prison-like corridor.
A corridor with no end. A completely sealed place with no sense of air flow.
The vibration that had been rumbling since earlier continued without stopping. It seemed to be getting even bigger than before, which was unsettling.
“It’s strange…”
Sugar, who had slightly peeked out from Ryly’s arms, looked around.
“It’s really strange, Ryly. I get it somehow?”
“I know it’s a big problem.”
Ryly stopped and pointed with his finger at the front. The wall about 2 meters away. The wall on the side where Ryly was standing had an X marked on it.
“That. I drew it at the beginning.”
“I’m dizzy…”
They were clearly walking in one direction but came back to the start. It meant the space was looping.
“Did we get caught in an illusion?”
“We won’t see the same illusion together. Something is deliberately making the path loop.”
“What should we do then? Go back the way we came? I know this is a way to break through traps. Every trap has an exit, right?”
Leon raised his hand and said.
“It’s not the only way. There are other methods too. As I said earlier, that would be being led…”
Ryly stopped talking and turned his head.
He narrowed his eyes and looked carefully at the corridor they had passed.
“… Run.”
After muttering one word, he released Sugar from his arms.
“Suddenly? What’s going on–”
There was no need to ask what was going on. The vibration that had been shaking the space since earlier had grown so much that it was shaking the insides.
At the same time, a scream-like sound that would tear the eardrums.
Kyaaaaaaa—!!
It sounded like a wind noise too. No matter what, an unpleasant sound came from far away.
Ryly immediately pointed his staff.
It’s too narrow. He clicked his tongue and muttered. If he mis-specified the magic range and the corridor collapsed, who knows what would happen. He might not be able to do anything inside the looping corridor.
The battle itself would be difficult. There was no space to dodge the opponent’s attacks, so it was like a tightrope.
Still, since Sugar was behind him, he had to step forward while grumbling.
“Step back.”
“But who are you?”
Ryly frowned.
He had stepped in front of the three of them, and there was someone who had to come in front.
Leon raised his staff and held his palm toward Ryly as if telling him to step back.
“Who are you. Step back. Don’t you feel any magic here? Are you blind?”
“You said you know other escape methods. Prepare a barrier quickly. I’ll buy time in the meantime.”
It didn’t sit well with him speaking calmly.
A guy without responsibility for the given burden. He looked at him with a mocking expression.
“… I thought this was the most appropriate for definite safety. You have to prepare the barrier. You can’t put the Tianzi and the woman in front either. So… this is what I have to do.”
“… Hah.”
He spoke quickly to match the urgent situation, but his pronunciation was clear, and the meaning reached clearly.
Ian, standing behind, looked at such Leon and repeated one sentence in her mind.
“But I can’t be that kind of person.”
“…”
When staring blankly, the white-haired girl standing beside her walked briskly forward.
There was a smile on her face. She looked very happy.
“Good, Leon. Very nice to look at.”
“Eh?”
“But it’s not your turn now.”
Sugar said boldly, holding her staff and standing at the very front in front of Leon.
“And Ryly. Why are you trying to fight alone.”
“Who are you.”
“I won’t hold you back by the foot. Don’t you remember what I said?”
Why did everyone like to step forward? When Ryly got annoyed, Sugar just pointed her staff forward.
As expected.
The magic in the air began to vibrate.
It was a different vibration from the one coming from the other side. Every magic particle existing in this area moved according to Sugar’s call like obedient children.
It looked like a meteor shower. It spewed out sound waves that whispered something like “pii-” and gathered in one place.
Ryly remembered seeing this before.
That night when the magic was scattered.
While reminiscing, the magic sphere expanded rapidly to fill the corridor and then shrank to the size of a small pebble.
Unlike the time when the compressed magic sphere expanded and compressed multiple times, one time was enough. The caster smiled faintly.
And, he extended his hand.
His right hand held the staff, so his left. Without looking back, he just extended his hand silently.
“…”
Ryly stepped next to Sugar, with Leon behind him.
When he held the small white hand, Sugar quickly changed the finger position and interlocked them.
Soon, blue light began to swirl around the magic sphere.
The being that had been making the vibration sound from far away revealed its form accordingly.
Even though it was a semi-transparent energy mass, its density was so high that it couldn’t control itself, and every time it moved, the space shook with a thud.
It was a ghost. A collection of ghosts. It had been trapped in the underground prison for hundreds of years. The owners of the labyrinth who gathered their strength out of instinct because they were afraid of the four sudden visitors.
Sugar opened her mouth slightly.
“Have you seen something like that?”
“A few times.”
“Are they strong?”
Ryly snorted at the innocent question.
“No way.”
Then, immediately, Sugar swung her staff.
Light filled the corridor.
The opposite side.
“… The stability feels different.”
It was the impression that came right after using it for the first time in a long time.
It was a technique she had practiced alone occasionally. Gather the surrounding magic and shoot. How simple.
Still, the core was with Ryly who would change the nature of the magic. Since he hadn’t been there for a while and was now together, the feeling was different.
Shooting a huge amount of magic at once caused a heavy burden on the body each time. Like the recoil when shooting a gun. But now, with a magic user supporting from the side, it was stable.
Additionally, adjusting the range so the corridor wouldn’t collapse. Controlling it finely and accurately was comfortable.
And the highest core. The magic, will, and warmth flowing from the intertwined hands were too good.
Sugar smiled wickedly.
Ryly squeezed her hand tightly as if telling her to concentrate.
After a while, the light stopped.
The front was filled with smoke from the magic’s soot. First, the magic emitted by the ghost collection wasn’t felt.
When she realized it, after blinking once, something strange happened.
“Here…”
In the middle of the underground prison.
It was the same place as the beginning, where there was no trace of the corridor labyrinth. Looking around, all three were fine.
It felt like being hypnotized. Anyway, it seemed they had successfully dealt with it.
“It’s fortunate…”
Sugar let out a sigh of relief. In contrast, Ian and Leon stared at Sugar and Ryly with their mouths wide open.
“Sugar… Was what you often used originally like this? So holding hands with Ryly… No, how did you even manage to use special magic like that?”
Since pure magic shows crazy stability in a bad way. Ian, who had seen Sugar use it alone in the Holy City a few times, asked.
“How did you pull the magic in the air? Is there some device?”
Leon also asked because what he had just seen didn’t seem believable.
Meanwhile, Sugar smiled proudly.
“It’s the power of love.”
Ryly, whose expression strangely annoyed, grabbed Sugar’s head and pushed it.
“Ouch! Why are you hitting! We were being so cozy…”
“Just annoying. What kind of love power.”
“But it’s true. I experimented with Ian-nim too, but the nature change didn’t work then. Of course, I have affection for Ian-nim too…”
Sugar trailed off and leaned into Ryly’s arms.
And drew circles with her fingers on his chest.
“Ehehe…”
“…”
Her cheeks flushed as she smiled up. Her hand movements were slow and seductive.
Ryly frowned and hugged Sugar tightly, pressing his lips to her ear.
“Stay. Protect. Why. Every time. Can’t get your mind together.”
“Ah, ang, why is this…! Whenever, they say it’s lewd…! I, am…!”
When she said each word with her breath full, Sugar’s body trembled slightly. Uncontrollable moans came out painfully.
“Ya, this… Ya, this…”
And. The Tianzi here wasn’t someone who would watch it quietly.
“Ya, you all who will be cursed-! Get off right now-!?”
Ian jumped up at the cruelly lewd scene.
Leon, who had been watching everything, just wanted to go back to the dormitory quickly.