Déjà Vu
The severed head rolled across the ground and bumped against my foot. The agony of her final moments was etched so deeply into Ria's face that it had twisted beyond recognition. Her eyes, still wide open, conveyed a heartbreaking despair that struck me like a physical blow.
"Fuck…."
I spat out every useless emotion—shock, tension, fear—along with a string of curses. Right now, survival was the only thing that mattered.
"Everyone, run!!!!"
"U-uwaaaaah!"
"I don't want to die!!"
At my shout, the team members snapped back to their senses and scattered in every direction, driven purely by the instinct to live. I grabbed Deborah's hand—she was still frozen in place—and yanked her forward.
"Deborah. Get a grip! If you stay like this, you'll die."
"But with my magic…."
"Your magic won't work on it! Shut up and follow me!"
It was ridiculous that she was even thinking about casting spells while panicking like this. Besides, illusion magic would be meaningless against that thing. It had already been completely consumed by demonic energy, tormented by endless bloodlust and madness. Ordinary illusions wouldn't affect it in the slightest.
I ignored Deborah's protests and forcibly dragged her away. Even as we fled, the Chimaera Sabre Tiger didn't move an inch from its spot.
Bastard. It's toying with us.
Its sense of smell was sharp enough to track prey from five kilometers away. As long as we remained on this mountain, there was no escaping it.
What the hell do I do?
My mind spun at full speed. I considered every possibility, discarded them, and repeated the process. My overheated brain screamed for mercy, but I didn't stop.
Then a familiar scream tore through the air.
"Uwaaaaaaaaagh!"
It was Gail. The Sabre Tiger had gone after him first. Who would be next? The fact that I was secretly hoping it would be Shane made me feel like shit.
Once my thoughts veered in that direction, another worry surfaced.
What about Abel?
Abel would eventually come to this mountain too. The story would likely unfold with him competing against Scadia over the Sabre Tiger. Even if there was some difference in outcome, I doubted the two of them would stand a chance if they encountered it now. They'd end up hunted just like us.
It felt like every path was blocked by walls. I was about to pick up the pace out of impatience when I noticed Deborah falling behind. When I glanced back, I saw her entire body drenched in sweat. Her breathing was ragged, as if she might collapse at any moment, and her legs trembled violently.
When our eyes met, she forced an awkward smile onto her terror-stricken face and shook her head.
"Haa… haa! I-I'm fine. I can still run."
The fear of being abandoned. That's what I saw in her expression.
I let out a long sigh.
At this rate, we'll be caught in no time.
There was no way we could escape with her speed. It was time to make a decision.
Having reached a conclusion quickly, I removed the gravity ring, tossed it into my subspace, and scooped Deborah up in both arms.
"Ah…!"
"Hold on tight. I'm going to run at full speed."
"Y-yes!"
Thud!
The moment I kicked off the ground, my body shot forward, slicing through the air. Even while carrying Deborah, I was much faster than before. My body, freed from all its shackles, had grown this strong.
Another scream echoed from behind as I sprinted.
"Uwaaaaaagh!"
Shane was dead. Now we were the targets.
Can we actually get off this mountain like this?
I couldn't be sure. Even if we escaped the mountain, there was no guarantee the beast would stop pursuing us. To make it completely give up the chase, we'd have to put an unimaginable distance between us in an instant.
We were just descending a steep slope when—
"Watch out!"
Deborah's eyes widened as she cried out in warning. The chilling sensation running down my spine left no room for hesitation. I threw myself to the side, and the Sabre Tiger's razor-sharp claws barely missed us.
It twisted once in midair and landed gracefully on the ground.
─Grrrrrrrr!
It bared its fangs in a mocking grin.
You fucking mutt. How dare you laugh at the pinnacle of creation? If I had the strength, I'd turn you into dog meat soup right this second.
Even as that thought crossed my mind, I turned without hesitation and ran from the beast. I poured every ounce of my strength into each stride, ignoring any thought of conserving stamina. Of course, the distance between us didn't shrink at all.
"To the right!"
Another warning. I leaped to the left according to Deborah's instructions. Once again, the Sabre Tiger's claws sliced through the air where I'd been.
Only then did I realize the truth.
I wasn't the one dodging.
More accurately, the Sabre Tiger was deliberately adjusting its attacks to let me dodge—so it could keep toying with us.
In the end, after being jerked around in every direction while fleeing from the Sabre Tiger, we reached the edge of a cliff. Far below, a valley swollen by rain churned with violent currents.
The sight gave me one good idea.
"Deborah. I have a good plan."
"Huh? W-what is it?"
"I can't tell you. But first, you need to trust me. Can you do that?"
"If I trust you, can we survive?"
"Yeah. We'll definitely live. How about it?"
"…Then I'll trust you."
"Good. Hold on tight so you don't fall."
With her consent, I scanned the cliffside. The moment I spotted what I was looking for, I held Deborah firmly and leaped off the edge.
─"Kyaaaaaaaaaah!"
Deborah's scream echoed across the cliff. I used my mana to protect my ears from her piercing cry while simultaneously pulling out threads of infinity and attaching them to the cliff wall. Then, running along the vertical surface, I swung like a web-slinger and dove through a hole in the middle of the cliff.
Inside was a steep slope. I wrapped my body around Deborah to shield her as we tumbled down it uncontrollably.
Rumble!
At the same time, the deafening sound of the wall collapsing behind us slammed into our ears.
You have entered the hidden sanctuary.
In a space completely shrouded in darkness, Deborah sat leaning against the wall, sniffling and crying.
"Hiiing… I thought I was going to die. I really thought I was going to die!"
"Sorry. But we survived, didn't we?"
"You should have told me beforehand! Do you know how scared I was?"
What would have happened if I had told her? I wasn't sure, but in the worst case, we might have wasted time arguing and ended up as the Sabre Tiger's next meal. Looking back, keeping it to myself had been the right choice.
As I nodded to myself, Deborah, who had been sulking until then, suddenly noticed the ring on her finger and let out a gasp.
"Ah! That's right. We have this!"
She voiced her regret at not thinking of it sooner, then quickly began manipulating the ring. She twisted the magic stone at its apex half a turn. A glow of mana bloomed, then began to flicker slowly—before vanishing completely.
"H-huh? Why isn't it working? The mana signal should have connected…?"
When it didn't go as planned, Deborah frantically manipulated the ring again. But for some reason, it wouldn't even activate this time. After repeated attempts, cracks finally spread across the magic stone, and it shattered.
Hope drained from her face.
"N-no. It's broken!"
Deborah buried her face in her knees. I had been watching quietly until then, but now I voiced my curiosity.
"What were you trying to do?"
"…I sent a signal to my master."
"To the Gray Magic Tower Master?"
"Yes. It's a magical tool she gave me to use in dangerous situations… Hic!"
Her faith in her master had been so strong that her disappointment was equally great. She couldn't easily regain her composure. I patted her on the shoulder.
"Get a hold of yourself. We're not dead yet."
"……."
"We might still get out of here without anything else happening. Why are you so scared? Cheer up."
After repeated words of comfort, Deborah slowly lifted her head.
"Aren't you scared, Luan? Aren't you afraid?"
"Of course I'm scared. I'm terrified. But what can I do? For now, I just have to do what I can."
Emotions are contagious. My calm seemed to spread to her as well. Deborah slowly stood up.
"But what do we do now? The entrance is completely blocked."
"We have to move forward. Unless you want to starve to death here."
The cave entrance we'd come through had collapsed in the blink of an eye. We'd barely made it through the hole despite the terrifying gravitational acceleration, only to be greeted by a steep slope that sent us tumbling in every direction. The moment we regained our senses, a thunderous roar had engulfed everything in darkness.
Right now, we were relying on the small flame Deborah had summoned to light up our immediate surroundings.
She stared into the endless darkness beyond the light with a gloomy expression.
"What if something comes out?"
"What else? We'll beat the shit out of it. Could anything be worse than that crazy Sabre Tiger?"
"Still…."
"Then what? Should we just wait here until rescue arrives? You think that's possible? Who would even check inside a cliff? If you don't want to go, you can stay here. I'll go alone."
I spat out something similar to what mothers say to children throwing tantrums in department stores, then turned my back and pretended to walk deeper into the cave. Deborah jumped in alarm and hurriedly chased after me, clinging tightly to my left arm.
"W-wait! Hold on!"
"Changed your mind about coming?"
"I-I don't like it, but… being alone is even scarier. Don't leave me behind."
Deborah clung to me completely, like a puppy following its mother. It was hard to believe this was the same person who had been calmly leading the entire team just moments ago.
Well, I can understand why.
If I hadn't always assumed the worst possible outcome, I probably would have lost my mind along with the others the moment Ria's head was torn off. The sensation of her head hitting my foot was still vividly clear.
Still, this is unexpected.
While recalling past memories, I glanced down at the pressure on my forearm. I'd never noticed because she always wore robes, but Deborah's breasts were surprisingly large. They were big enough that if I grabbed them with my hands, they'd fill them completely.
I enjoyed the sensation for a brief moment before shaking my arm, reminding myself this wasn't the time.
"Anyway, step back a bit. It's inconvenient for fighting like this."
"Ah! S-sorry!"
Only then did she seem to realize what she was doing. Deborah apologized and pulled away. Her cheeks were flushed red like ripe apples.
"It's fine now that you know. Leave the front to me. I'll block anything that comes out."
"Yes! I'll trust only in you, Luan!"
Having restored Deborah's spirit, I relied on the light and slowly advanced deeper into the cave. Suddenly, her earlier words came back to me.
Trust…
Ever since I raped Alissa, I had given up on building relationships of trust with anyone. The greater the expectation, the greater the shock when betrayed. The reaction my precious people would show upon learning I was a rapist was simply too terrifying to imagine.
I wondered what Deborah would do. Would this woman who was now following closely behind me and relying on me completely end up feeling betrayed and showing disgust once she learned the truth?
Because I didn't know, I couldn't comfort her when she was afraid, nor could I empathize with her sadness.
"Huu…."
I let out a long sigh.
Lost in those complicated thoughts, we arrived at a place that was no longer a simple cave.
"What… is this place?"
"I'm not sure. But I know one thing. Our chances of getting out have increased. There's no way this cave is just an entrance, so there must be another exit somewhere."
"You think so? Let's move quickly!"
In truth, I knew exactly where we were. If I hadn't, I wouldn't have done something as insane as jumping off that cliff with such certainty. The only problem was that this knowledge hadn't come from playing the game.
This area had been only half-implemented at the time, so everything I knew was nothing more than a hypothesis. One obsessive user had spent years digging into this place, determined to uncover its secrets. In the end, he discovered that it was a temple and altar dedicated to the Moon Goddess, who existed in another dimension.
That's why he named it the Sanctuary of the Moon. It might seem like a pathetic return for all the time invested, but the things he had to do to obtain that information were absurd. He had to restore every faded mural weathered by time and even decipher the language of another world—one with a completely different linguistic system from Earth's.
The fact that he succeeded proved that the user was a genius.
Anyway, back to the present. From now on, Deborah and I had to clear a dungeon that had never been conquered before.
Of course, despite my tension, it was possible that—like in the game—there would be no threats at all. However, my instincts, some unknown premonition, were warning me that a great danger lurked ahead.
Coming here might have been a mistake.