Chapter 290
Chapter 290
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Translator: Ace
Chapter: 290
Chapter Title: All Kinds of Variables (4)
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Freed from the tentacles, Amy reset her mind with Red Eyes. The tranquilizers made her nauseous, but she managed to enter the Spirit Zone.
Charging a decisive fireball, Amy leaped toward the door and swung her hand. The powerful fireball slammed into the organically intertwined door, shattering it to pieces.
By the time Zion realized he'd been tricked, the second door was already exploding.
"Damn it...!"
Zion vented his frustration on the blameless Armant.
"What the hell were you doing? We lost her!"
A typical display from an inexperienced user.
Armant could copy its user's brain to achieve intelligence, but strictly speaking, it was just a sword living in symbiosis with its master. It couldn't make decisions on his behalf.
So blaming Armant was no different from blaming his own foolish head.
"We have to follow. Let's go."
As if in response to Zion's words, countless tentacles shot out from the Adamant Armor and embedded themselves in the walls. Zion rose up, propelled by the tentacles, and swung forward like on a trapeze.
Reina stopped and listened, turning her ear toward the sound. Her Sound of Silence ability detected a massive vibration echoing from below ground.
The sound traveling through the walls was faint, to be sure. But for it to be audible this far away in a castle boasting the kingdom's greatest durability meant a tremendous impact had occurred at the source.
*'He's in the basement!'*
Reina threw herself toward the stairs in front of her.
Power capable of shaking the building was impossible for even a skilled swordsman. It had to be Shirone casting a spell.
The moment she set foot in the basement, she heard someone running from the end of the corridor. The rhythm of the footsteps suggested someone in an extremely agitated state.
Reina pressed herself flat against the wall, wary of the approaching figure. A person emerged from the curtain of darkness, running.
Spotting Amy, Reina quickly blocked her path.
"Amy!"
"Ah! You scared me! Reina?"
"What? Why are you here?"
"Just run for now!"
Amy grabbed Reina's arm as if there was no time to explain and started running. Reina activated her Schema to match Amy's pace.
*CRASH! CRASH!*
The sound of heavy impacts hitting the walls followed them.
Reina deactivated Sound of Silence. If she kept listening to the vibrations, her eardrums would burst.
"What is that? Is some kind of monster chasing us?"
Amy sighed. She wanted to tell the absurd story of what she'd been through, but finding Shirone was the priority.
"I'll tell you later. Where's Shirone?"
"This way. I heard the sound from over there."
The two took the left fork and saw a warehouse at the end of the single path. A sign hanging from the ceiling read "Food Storage."
Inside, the place was a mess, showing signs of a battle.
Flour was spilled everywhere, some of it hanging in the air like smoke, making it opaque. Chopped vegetables, as if leftover from slicing, were coated in flour. Amy was glad this wasn't the meat storage.
"Where's Shirone?"
As Amy looked around and took a step, Reina spread her arms to stop her.
"It's dangerous. Don't move."
Startled, Amy looked where Reina was glaring. Through the floury haze, countless spiderwebs were strung up.
"This is...!"
When she came to her senses and looked around, she saw they were surrounded by webs. It was a dreary sight, like a warehouse sealed for a hundred years.
"Why are there spiderwebs here? And they look like they were made by a huge spider."
"Be careful. Something's here."
Reina kept Amy behind her and slowly moved through the webs.
Just then, a faint voice came from the other side, where sacks were piled up.
"...un."
Reina and Amy lunged toward the sound at the same time.
Shirone was hanging upside down, caught in a giant spiderweb. His clothes were tattered, and his body was covered in numerous cuts.
Tears welled up in Amy's eyes.
"Shirone!"
"Run... This guy... is incredibly strong..."
"Hold on! I'll get you out of there!"
Amy immediately ran forward.
The mere thought of a stranger caught in a web was creepy enough, but the fact that it was Shirone was a shocking horror.
After examining the web for a moment, she saw no other way and tried to tear it with her bare hands. A sharp pain shot through her. She pulled her hand back and saw her palm was cleanly sliced.
"What kind of spiderweb is this?"
Shirone shouted with all his remaining strength.
"Amy! Run!"
At that moment, Reina grabbed Amy by the waist and threw them both aside. A sharp whistling sound, a sonic wave that only Reina's hearing could possibly detect.
Thrown to the floor, Amy looked back at Reina, confused. But Reina's gaze was fixed on a spot in the darkness.
"Hehe, not bad."
Zenoger descended, hanging upside down next to Shirone.
Amy and Reina flinched at the man's bizarre appearance. The torch was too far to see clearly, but he definitely had multiple eyes.
"When a string moves, it vibrates. With an ability to hear those vibrations, a simple two-dimensional slash certainly won't kill you. Yes, indeed."
Amy stepped forward and shouted.
"What did you do to Shirone! Let him go, now!"
Zenoger turned his head, still at eye level with the upside-down Shirone.
"Ah, this? I just caught him, hehe. As you felt, it's quite sharp. If he struggles, he'll be sliced to pieces. That's why he can't move a finger."
"You...!"
Just as Amy was about to burst with indignation, Zenoger spoke.
"Now, for a quiz. When did Shirone get those cuts? Number one, before he was caught in the web. Number two, after he was caught in the web."
Amy didn't understand why that was important right now.
But as she mulled over Zenoger's words, her face grew red with anger. If the answer was the latter, she was determined to wring Zenoger's neck, no matter what.
"I will never forgive you."
Amy's fury was some consolation to Zenoger. In fact, number two was his favorite game. Placing prey on the web and slowly cutting them would put them in a state where they could neither move nor stay still.
But unfortunately, the correct answer was number one.
Shirone's senses, which had detected the assassin's presence, were truly incredible even in Zenoger's eyes. It had taken a full ten-minute chase to finally capture him in the web.
Zion's voice came from the warehouse entrance.
"What, you're not done yet?"
Amy turned around with a look of dismay. Zion stood with his hands behind his back, tentacles dangling like octopus legs, looking down arrogantly.
Amy and Reina immediately turned, putting their backs to each other.
Shirone was captured by the assassin, and their escape route was blocked. Everything was turning against them.
But Zion paid the two women no mind.
Reina's pursuit was unexpected, but they were rats in a trap anyway. He was more interested in Shirone, caught in the web.
Zenoger landed on the ground and bowed respectfully.
"You've arrived, Your Highness. I was just about to finish up."
"Finish up? You're well past the agreed time. What happened?"
"My apologies."
Zenoger made no excuses. No matter how skilled an assassin he was, he could only grant one reprieve to the possessor of the *Last Scream of the Jaeger Family*, but the pride of a Spartoi came solely from skill.
Zion waved his hand in annoyance.
"Forget it, just finish the job. Cut off Shirone's head."
Zenoger immediately bowed his head and climbed onto the web holding Shirone. But as he was about to finish the job, someone came to mind.
"One of them is still missing, eh?"
He was talking about Arius.
But Zion wasn't concerned.
Flicker magic, the trademark of a Scale mage, was a short-range teleportation caused by extreme spacetime distortion.
Even if imprisoned, as long as there were no mana control devices, a Scale mage could instantly teleport to the other side.
Therefore, time and space weren't very important to Arius. He was probably lurking at some coordinate in spacetime, waiting for an opportunity to appear.
"He must be on standby. Now, hurry up and separate Shirone's head from his body."
"Understood."
Amy took a fighting stance and shouted.
"Don't make me laugh! You think we'll just let you?"
Zion finally turned to the women, radiating killing intent. Tentacles rose over his shoulders, ready to shoot out like a witch's claws.
Even as his consciousness faded, Shirone sensed that the armor surrounding Zion's body was Armant's true form.
The thought that they would all die if this continued made him struggle and shout, ignoring the pain of his flesh tearing.
"Run! Reina, take Amy and run!"
Amy didn't listen at all.
If Shirone died, what was the point of running away? Right now, their only option was to settle things with Zion.
Reina seemed to have reached the same conclusion, widening her stance and glaring at Zion.
The Ogent family revered the sword. Though she was unarmed, the skills she had honed since childhood were not to be underestimated.
Amy and Reina split to the left and right, attacking Zion in a pincer move. Unexpectedly, Armant's reaction weakened noticeably.
Even for a symbiote, all decisions were made by Zion. But with no combat experience, he couldn't respond properly to the pincer attack, and so Armant's tentacles couldn't find a precise target.
Amy noticed the change in her opponent immediately.
*'You underestimated me! I'll make you pay!'*
Zion gritted his teeth at the unexpected situation. Armant's tentacles were blocking the visible magic, but the unseen Reina was getting on his nerves.
"Damn it! These girls!"
Zion retreated as far as he could, blocking the doorway. If he couldn't subdue them, he at least had to block their escape route.
But that was exactly what the two of them wanted.
Reina took a wide detour around the warehouse, stepped on a sack, and leaped up.
"Over here!"
Any other knight wouldn't have turned at the sound of Reina's voice. Even a child knew who was more dangerous between Reina, a hand-to-hand combatant, and Amy, a magic user.
But in his panic, Zion turned, and Amy, aiming for his blind spot, cast Fire Strike.
*'It's over!'*
The moment Amy thought that, her body was suddenly seized by a strange force and sent flying. She struggled to break free from the inertia, but the force was irresistible.
As she flew through the air, she looked back at Reina and understood what was happening.
A bundle of thread shot out like a cannonball, unraveling into a spiderweb that enveloped Reina. Her body was plastered to the wall near the ceiling, along with the web.
Just as she registered that, Amy also slammed into a wall, a sharp pain shooting through her back.
She looked down at the spiderweb pressing against her. She tried to break it with brute force, but it was too tough.
If the web holding Shirone was like sharp wire, this was like a sticky slime.
Reina and Amy struggled with all their might, but Zenoger wasn't about to let them be.
Zenoger puffed up his torso like a balloon and spat out balls of web from his mouth.
The webs shot out one after another, spreading out mid-flight and continuously covering Reina and Amy.
"Grrrgh!"
With each layer of web that stuck, the restraint grew stronger.
After more than five layers, Amy was completely immobilized. It was the same for Reina, stuck to the opposite wall.
"Hehe, serves you right for acting up. Are you alright, Your Highness?"
Zion finally relaxed and stepped down to the floor. Seeing the three gnats bound and unable to even struggle was deeply satisfying.