The Great Earthquake
Satisfied with Sonic's performance, I headed back with her to where the rest of the party was waiting.
"Huh?"
The place where my party members had been was littered with corpses. Among them were several bodies that clearly belonged to Masters — unlike the identically uniformed soldiers, they wore distinctive, high-quality gear that gave them away at a glance.
"...You're back?"
Kanisia had instinctively raised her spear the moment we appeared, but she lowered it again once she recognized Sonic and me. She waved, her face etched with exhaustion.
"Looks like the enemy paid you a visit too?"
"Yeah... a whole lot of them."
Kanisia nodded weakly at my question, then sank straight to the ground. She must have been completely spent.
"You have returned, Master."
"Hiiing! Master, why'd you take so long! Oralisa's arms huuurt!"
"Nngh..."
Aquaril, Oralisa, and Abraham came over as well. Oralisa, our ranged DPS, didn't have a scratch on her — but Aquaril and Abraham were covered in wounds. Abraham, our party's tank, had taken the worst of it.
Even without Sonic and me, they'd held their own against a far larger force — and then some. They'd wiped them all out. I didn't know how strong those enemies had been, but my party members had grown every bit as much as Sonic had.
A soft, rushing glow washed over them.
"You all did well."
Multi Heal
Lv.32 / Advanced
The wounds covering their bodies began to close at a visible rate.
The skill's leveling up nicely.
I knew I shouldn't think this way, but thanks to my party members getting hurt, Multi Heal's experience bar had filled up fast. By the time everyone was fully healed, it had gone up a level.
Multi Heal
Lv.32 → Lv.33
"Let's move first. There's too much ash flying around."
A good portion of the wheat had burned, sending ash drifting everywhere. On top of that, we were surrounded by flames — just standing still was enough to soak us in sweat. They nodded and got to their feet. Together, we relocated to a spot the fire hadn't reached yet.
"Take a breather and drink some water. And I hate to say it, but once you've rested, we're going back to fighting."
"Haa... yeah, okay."
"You rest up too, Sonic. Recover your stamina."
"Yes, Master."
Unlike me, with my bloated Stamina stat, the rest of the party was still sitting at a typical 5-star level. They needed the rest.
"Alright, you all rest. I'm gonna go set some more fires around here."
"Again? Alan, aren't you tired?"
"Oppa here's not a weakling like you, Kanichan."
"...You are so annoying."
"Annoying but impossible not to love — that's my charm."
"....."
I shrugged with a sly grin, and Kanisia's face went completely deadpan. She turned away like she couldn't even be bothered to respond. That cute reaction made me burst out laughing as I stood up to go start more fires.
"Master! Are you leaving Oralisa behind and going somewhere again?"
Oralisa, who'd been sitting on the ground resting, came scampering over and clung to my back. I naturally scooped a hand under her ass to support her.
"I told you, I'm just going to set some fires."
"Can't Oralisa come too?"
"Why not? But aren't you tired? Wouldn't it be better to just rest?"
"Hehe! Being with Master is rest for Oralisa!"
"Heh! Alright then. Come along."
"Yay~!"
She must have really loved being with me — Oralisa beamed and threw her arms around me. Together, we went around dumping oil and setting fires, then headed back to the others.
About twenty minutes later, I got the party back on their feet.
"Time to move. We've still got a lot to do."
And so we roamed the burning wheat fields, killing every last one of the Blood King's subordinates we came across. Our levels shot up.
We were still in the middle of combat when it happened.
Rumbleeeee—!
"...Huh?"
The ground suddenly began to shake.
"...Found it."
While Falcones and Aman ran wild on the surface, drawing the enemy's attention, Zoldik had slipped unnoticed into a hidden chamber beneath the granary — and at last, he'd found what he was looking for.
Getting here had taken Zoldik to the brink of death more times than he could count. His entire body was covered in wounds, and the top-tier items Montblanc had gifted him were wrecked beyond any practical use.
What made it even more remarkable was that Zoldik hadn't fought a single battle to get this battered. The thing that had done this to him was the trap system installed throughout the underground chamber.
These were traps so lethal that even an 8-star Fairy had to stake his life just to get through them. Traps like this belonged in an S-Rank Dungeon — the highest difficulty, a graveyard for Masters and Fairies alike.
Zoldik had risked everything to push through those deathtraps to the very end.
Why?
Because his Master, Montblanc, wanted something that was here.
A brown orb sat atop an altar carved from marble. An unknown power flowed from the orb, linked to the altar itself. Zoldik climbed the steps, took hold of the brown orb — and the light enveloping the altar vanished.
"Time to head back..."
Orb in hand, Zoldik turned to leave.
Rumbleeeeeee—!
"....."
The moment the brown orb left the altar, the earth began to rumble. Chunks of stone rained down from the ceiling.
"Shit."
Instinctively grasping the catastrophe about to unfold, Zoldik broke into a sprint.
CRASHHHHH—!
The instant Zoldik threw himself forward, the altar collapsed. And from that point, the ceiling caved in and the ground began to give way.
Even an 8-star superhuman like Zoldik wouldn't survive being buried alive. He'd gotten what Montblanc wanted. He couldn't die here. Zoldik fled with everything he had.
CRASHHHHH—!
The ground shook and crumbled as if an earthquake had struck.
"Wait, not 'as if' — this is an earthquake! Fuck, run!"
"Kyaaaaah! Why is there an earthquake all of a sudden?!"
"Waaah! Master!"
I'd been fighting the Blood King's men. Now I ran with my party.
"R-run!"
"Aaaaaaah!"
The enemies weren't chasing us either — they were screaming and fleeing in the opposite direction. At least that meant we only had the earthquake to worry about.
"What are you doing, Abraham! Run faster!"
"I am already running with all my might!"
At Kanisia's frantic shout I glanced back and saw Abraham lagging far behind. He had the lowest Agility stat in the party, so of course he was slow.
"Go on ahead, Kanisia!"
"But Abraham...!"
"I'll take care of him, just run!"
"Kh... okay!"
I sent Kanisia running again before she could turn back for Abraham, then sprinted toward him myself.
"I apologize... wh-what?!"
I hoisted the apologizing Abraham onto my shoulder and tore after the others with everything I had. I caught up in no time.
"Holy shit! Don't look back, just run!"
"Why... huh? Waaah! Master! Save Oralisa!"
"I said don't look back!"
Oralisa ignored my warning, looked back, and screamed. The ground we'd been standing on three seconds ago was collapsing beneath us. The earth kept sinking, one section after another, like falling dominos.
"Kyah?!"
That was when Oralisa, not watching her feet, caught a rock and went down. I shot my left hand out and caught her around the waist just before she hit the ground.
"You clumsy little—!"
"Th-thank you for saving Oralisa, Master."
With Abraham on my right shoulder and Oralisa on my left, I ran like a madman.
What the hell is even happening right now!
"Hah... this should be safe enough. Let's rest, everyone."
"Y-yeah..."
"I can run no farther, Master..."
We'd barely made it out of the earthquake's range. After confirming the ground wasn't sinking anymore, we collapsed. The rumbling had actually stopped a while back, but we'd kept running just in case.
"You may set me down now, Lord Alan."
"Huh? Oh, right."
I'd been running so frantically I'd forgotten I was still carrying him. At his words, I set Abraham down.
"I thank you for saving my life. Had it not been for you, Lord Alan, I would not have survived."
"Ah, hell! We're family! Of course I'd save you."
"...I am truly grateful, Lord Alan."
I clapped him on the shoulder with a hearty grin, and Abraham smiled.
"You get down too, Oralisa."
"Okay... uugh... Master, Oralisa huuurts..."
Oralisa plopped onto the ground, clutching her stomach with a pained pout. She'd been bouncing against my shoulder the whole time we were running.
"I really thought we were gonna die... wait, fuck."
I'd just confirmed everyone in the party was safe and let out a sigh of relief when something I'd forgotten hit me.
Nemea! And Avalon's Fairies!
I'd left Avalon's Fairies with Nemea while I moved separately with the party. Nemea would've been fine thanks to her Untearable Leather trait — not a scratch on her. But Avalon's Fairies were another story.
They were the spoils I'd won from Avalon. I was planning to make them my Fairies soon enough.
Fuck! Are they okay?
Izabella, Kanna, Reizle, Hisoka. All four were far too valuable to lose.
"Alan, where are you going!"
"Master?"
"Just a second!"
I climbed the tallest tree I could find. I scaled it so fast a monkey would've begged me to teach it a thing or two.
"....."
From the treetop, I looked out over the Paniotipa Granary. And I couldn't believe what I was seeing.
"The land... it's gone?"
The entire vast Paniotipa Granary had vanished. Like a blue hole, nothing remained. All that was left was a pit so deep I couldn't see the bottom.
What happened to Nemea? Can I summon her again?
Faced with a sight more horrifying than anything I'd ever witnessed, I was more worried about Nemea now than Avalon's Fairies. Even if her trait kept her from getting wounded, falling that deep was dangerous. The trait prevented external injuries. It didn't do a damn thing about internal ones.
Nemea had a limited amount of time she could exist in the real world. When that timer ran out, she'd be reverse-summoned and return to me.
But there was one problem.
If Nemea died... would she still come back to me?
If she died, would she enter a reverse-summoned state? Or would she just... stay dead?
"....."
My chest tightened, aching like someone had reached in and started squeezing my heart.