The Cross in the Forest
The lights of the watchers were drawing closer by the moment. Behind them, the hunting dogs with their noses pressed to the ground were steadily tightening the encirclement.
'Come out.'
Simon pulled a skeleton out of his subspace, commanded it to stay, and had it lie flat in the grass.
"Kami. Over here."
Gripping the trembling Camibarez by the wrist, Simon dropped low. Once another sweep of lantern light passed over them, he led her out from behind the tree and darted toward a broad boulder.
Then he summoned a second skeleton from his subspace and had it crouch as well. Two skeletons was the maximum Simon could control at the moment.
'Everything I've got, I have to use.'
While scooping stones off the ground into his subspace, Simon's eyes darted frantically as he packed as much situational intel into his head as he could.
How many watchers there were, and how many carried lanterns. Their weapons, the breed and habits of the dogs, the terrain, the direction of the wind, the sound of the valley stream.
The wind was at their backs for now, which had the dogs confused — but the wind could shift at any moment, in any direction.
It was time to make his gamble.
'Now!'
Simon's eyes flared wide. The skeleton crouched beneath the tree sprang up and broke into a run.
"There! Over there!"
The watchers reacted instantly, and the dogs tore off after the skeleton, barking at the top of their lungs.
"Only half of you chase it! The other half keep pushing forward!"
"The other dogs are still on the scent!"
True to their reputation as hunting experts, they weren't about to swallow a single decoy whole. So Simon sent the second skeleton — the one hunched by the boulder — sprinting as well.
"That one's the real one!"
"Get it!"
The watchers and hunters swarmed off to the flank in a rush.
"Kami, run!"
Now. Simon and Camibarez, who had been hiding behind the boulder, spun on their heels and bolted in the opposite direction.
'We didn't shake them completely. Some of them are still on us!'
In the chaos of the sprint, Simon glanced over his shoulder. A handful of watchers were keeping pace, right on their trail.
"Come on, Kami!"
"Yes!"
Yip! Yip!
The dogs that had caught their scent were cutting through the grass, closing in fast. No matter how fast a human ran, no human could outrun a dog.
"Kami! Anything works — spray some blood-flow magic toward where the dogs are coming from!"
"Okay!"
Camibarez cast her dark magic on the run. From a tiny magic circle that bloomed at the tip of her index finger, fresh blood surged upward.
She bent at the waist and flung her arm back, and the blood laced with jet-black rode the wind, spattering across the grass.
Yip! Yipyipyip!
Grrrrrrr!
Vampire blood was so fragrant it was used as an ingredient in high-grade perfumes.
The thick, heady scent of blood sent the dogs into a frenzy; whining and thrashing, they began tearing up the grass in search of the source. Seizing that opening, Simon and Camibarez poured on the speed and widened the gap.
Thump! Thump!
His heart hammered wildly from the tension. Simon was starting to worry about Camibarez's stamina, but she was digging deep, running on sheer grit to stay at his heels.
"There they are!"
A sweep of lantern light skimmed past Simon and Camibarez's backs. At the same instant came the creak of bowstrings drawn taut.
Thwip!
Thunk! Thunk!
Arrows came flying out of nowhere and buried themselves in the ground, and Camibarez let out a short scream.
"Th-they're actually shooting! What do we do?!"
"It's fine."
Simon said calmly.
"Look at our uniforms. No matter how it seems, a henchman can't injure a Kizen student."
Just as he said, the arrows were planting themselves well off from where the two were running. They were almost purely warning shots.
"Those brats……!"
"Stop! I told you to stop!"
Would you just let yourself get caught? Simon smirked and pulled an imaginary lever.
BOOM!
A subspace yawned open beneath the ground, and the stones he'd stashed away earlier sprayed out at full power. It was nothing more than a flung handful of rocks, but the oncoming watchers apparently took it for dark magic — they froze in their tracks and braced defensively.
"Kami, this way!"
"Yes!"
Thanks to Simon's quick thinking, they bought themselves a little more time.
It looked like they were running in aimless zigzags, but in truth Simon had been following the sound of water. At last, they reached the valley.
'Oh no.'
Of all things, it was a cliff. Far below, the valley stream babbled softly along its course, and the far cliff wall stood a considerable distance away.
"Kami! You remember that leaping technique from Magic Combat class? Can you use it?"
Pale as a sheet, she squeezed her eyes shut and shook her head.
She was one of the two students who had failed to clear the cliff during their Magic Combat lesson.
Yip! Yip!
But there was no time to hesitate. Even now, the barking and the lantern light were creeping closer.
"Simon. I'll be fine."
Camibarez managed a strained smile and pushed against Simon's chest.
"Go on without me. Even if they catch me, I'd never say a word about you, so——"
"Pardon me."
Simon closed the distance in a flash, scooped her up into his arms, and turned and tore off through the grass.
'Jet-Black Step!!'
BOOOOOM!
Black mist exploded from the soles of his feet like a detonation, and Simon soared into the sky.
Below him, a dizzying drop. Above him, a full moon risen enormous in the night sky.
The cold headwind, and the thrill of having nothing beneath his feet.
For one perfect moment, Simon savored the sensation as his body began to fall.
ShaaaAAAK!
Skimming the ground, he landed on the far slope by the narrowest of margins.
Simon quickly ran down the hillside slope and set Camibarez down. The two of them pressed themselves as flat against the ground as they could.
"Where are they?"
"Gone!"
Above their heads, they could see lantern lights sweeping back and forth. The lights combed the area thoroughly for several minutes, then at last withdrew.
"Let's try over that way."
"Move! They can't have gotten far!"
Yip! Yip! Yip!
The lights and the barking of the dogs grew more and more distant, until before long every trace of human presence vanished entirely. Only then did Simon let out a long breath of relief.
"Whewwww…… Kami, are you okay?"
Camibarez was wearing a strangely dazed expression. Then her eyes met Simon's, and tears began welling up in them.
"What's wrong? Are you hurt some——"
As a flustered Simon sat up, she shook her head and wiped her tears away with her sleeve.
"I really thought we were going to be caught. Thank you. Thank you for saving me……!"
And then she burst into sobs. Simon silently patted her shoulder.
'She was that terrified — and she was telling me to leave her behind?'
He felt like he was starting to understand what kind of person she was.
After a while, Camibarez calmed down as well. The two of them rose and brushed the dirt from their uniforms.
"Let's head back. We'll have to detour a bit to avoid the watchers. That all right?"
"Yes."
The two set off once more into the darkness-shrouded forest.
They decided against lighting a lantern for fear of being spotted by monsters or the watchers. Thankfully, the moon overhead was bright enough to see by.
They had been walking through the forest for about an hour.
'……Where on earth is this?'
They had wandered, it seemed, deeper into the forest than they'd meant to.
The surroundings were so bleak and eerie that Simon wondered if the forest had ever looked like this. The trees grew taller the farther they went, their dense canopy smothering the night sky, and here and there pairs of eyes — beasts or monsters, impossible to tell — flickered into view and vanished, again and again. Mournful cries in the dark made his shoulders flinch and his nerves stand on end.
The midnight forest stirred something primal and instinctive in the human soul — so much so that Simon half thought it might be better to just walk up to the watchers and surrender.
Even Camibarez, a vampire, seemed to have caught the fear; she clutched the hem of Simon's sleeve and kept glancing nervously around.
'The map is definitely in my head, and I still can't tell where we are.'
It felt as though some spirit had led them astray. No matter how far they walked, they seemed to keep circling the same spot.
'We're worn out, and our body temperature keeps dropping. What do we do?'
"……Simon."
Camibarez spoke, her face drained of color.
"Do you hear that sound?"
"An owl?"
"No."
Pressed close against Simon's side, she spoke in a voice soaked with dread.
"A person…… a voice……."
"……."
Simon fell silent and focused all his attention on his hearing.
There was no doubt about it.
Faintly — but it was there.
Whether it belonged to some wild animal, a monster, or a human, he couldn't tell — but some indistinct voice was repeating itself, over and over.
"Let's go."
Simon had heard that there were people living in Roc Island's forests. If it really was a person, they might be able to ask for help. The two nodded to each other and pressed forward, following the sound.
-#$#@%@#^@.
-@$%@^ have pity upon, o merciful……
-…cast away this fate…… @%#$^@ almighty @$@% Mother.
As they walked, they strained their ears. Little by little, little by little, the voice was growing clearer.
The voice was cold, monotonous, and parched.
What on earth is this?
Simon was furrowing his brow, concentrating hard on the voice —
"……Simon."
Simon flinched in spite of himself.
Camibarez was weeping, tears streaming down a face twisted with terror. And yet the corners of her mouth were turned upward, trembling violently — a sight so strange it bordered on the uncanny.
"What's wrong? Kami?"
"……We have to run."
"……We have to run. Now."
"Run? What are you talking about all of a sudden?"
"Ugh. Ah—gh. Aaah. Aaaaghh……!"
She convulsed, flailing in panic. Simon grabbed hold of her and ran in the direction away from the voice.
But the voice was only drawing closer.
Shoving through the undergrowth in a daze, Simon finally arrived at the source of the voice.
An altar came into view.
Someone in a long gray robe was prostrate on the ground.
Both arms were planted in the earth, palms turned up toward the heavens.
Hanging in clusters above the altar were unidentifiable objects and the entrails of beasts, and beneath them, offered as a sacrifice, an animal writhed with a dagger plunged into its chest. Sticky blood had stained the ground around it a vicious red.
And at the center of the altar.
Something enormous was placed there.
Simon knew exactly what it was — and simply could not believe it.
The one thing that must never, ever be on Roc Island.
The one thing that must never, ever be in Kizen.
A cross.
It was a cross. Why was there a cross here?
A nude woman hung upon it in a grotesque pose, a crown of thorns and brambles draped over her body.
The figure prostrate beneath the altar raised its upper body, chanted a line of prayer, then pressed itself back down to the earth in a full bow, palms lifted once more to the sky.
Simon felt the blood run ice-cold through his entire body.
'……A Priest!'
A Priest — here, in Kizen.
Kneeling in Kizen's territory. Bowing. Reciting prayers.
'We have to run.'
They had seen something they were never meant to see.
If they were discovered, it was over.
Camibarez, having laid eyes on that raw, naked scene, was paralyzed with terror, unable to move a muscle. Fortunately, she had both hands clamped over her mouth, so not a sound escaped.
Just as Simon wrapped an arm around her shoulder and turned to go —
Crunch.
A footstep on the grass.
The Priest mid-prayer froze.
"……."
"……."
His throat going bone-dry, Simon craned his neck around, slowly, to look behind him.
'!!!'
The Priest was standing, staring straight at them.
From within the darkness beneath the hood of that robe, the glint of two eyes seemed to shine.
Strength surged into Simon's legs.
"RUN!"