Was I Kidnapped?

Kuoooooo—!

A blaze of pure white light swallowed the Colosseum whole.

The detonation flared brighter than a star, erasing sound itself, and moments later it began devouring space as well. A tide of thick earthen dust surged across the sand like a tsunami, followed hard on its heels by a shockwave of overwhelming mana.

"Ghak…!"

"Heugh!"

The kingdom's knights, unable to endure the violent aftershock, collapsed all at once, gasping for breath. For soldiers already drained of strength, there was simply nothing left to withstand a shock of this magnitude.

The light….

That same radiant light came pouring down into the Shadow Captain's field of vision as well.

To him, it was not a light of destruction.

It was a flash that washed away sin. The radiance pouring through the opened gates of heaven.

Facing the oncoming light, he had worn a smile of rapture — and willingly let his consciousness slip away into that sacred brilliance.

"Wh-what in the—!"

The shockwave spared ‍‍‌‌⁠⁠‌‍‍‌⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠‌‌‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠no one, Marcus included. He was closest of all to the blast's epicenter, unable to wield even a scrap of mana — in short, the man in the most mortal danger of anyone present.

"Boss, I'll sa—!"

Pop!

The instant the blue magic circle inside the Titan flashed, Marcus was no longer in the cockpit. Rosetta's pre-installed 'Emergency Forced Recall' system had punched straight through the interference of the mist and triggered itself.

Kwaaaaaaa—!

A beat later, the shockwave slammed home, and even the massive cargo Titan staggered. It was far too huge and heavy to topple, but the mana shockwave scored its surface with countless scratches. If Marcus hadn't finished packing the goods into their containers so quickly, there was a very real chance even the cores and artifacts would have been damaged.

"Tch!"

Karinne drove the Titan's greatsword deep into the ground and held on. It was no easy feat for her either — she had been far closer to the blast than her soldiers, and had to bear that much more violent a shock of mana. Had she ignored the girl's warning and charged onto the battlefield, not even the captain of the Royal Guard would have come through unscathed.

What kind of mana…!

Two masses of condensed mana had collided, birthing that enormous sphere. Her vision had been wiped out by the blinding white flash, and her ears were so stopped up with ringing that, paradoxically, she could hear nothing at all. Gritting her teeth, she had endured on that queasy, churning sensation alone.

Before long, the light slowly died down. Her stolen vision returned, bit by bit.

"……."

What spread before Karinne's eyes was a scene of utter devastation.

A colossal crater. Blackened metal shards driven into the ground on every side like wedges. The armored monsters that had filled the Colosseum to bursting had vanished without so much as a skeleton left behind.

What on earth happened here?

Of course, the Titans nearby hadn't fared much better.

Hssss—. All six Titans caught in the blast lay toppled. The tailed Titan that had commanded them managed to remain standing, but with smoke pouring from its frame, it was hardly in better shape.

They're all broken….

An inevitable consequence of mana overload. That their exteriors were intact at all was nothing short of a miracle — that they hadn't been blown to pieces defied explanation.

And the pilots? Are they alive?

A mana explosion of this scale would rupture the internal organs of any knight inside from the aftershock alone. If the pilots caught squarely in the blast were ordinary humans, there was no way any of them could still be breathing.

"…!"

Clunk—.

Karinne's shoulders jolted. Without warning, the hatch of the tailed Titan had begun to rattle.

Yes — just like that time.

Just like the reaction when she had asked, after the trial was over: Would you open the cockpit for me?

Someone's inside.

A fresh wave of wrongness rose in her chest. Exposing oneself bare-skinned in the Abyss was madness. With the mist still lingering, and the residue of the explosion blanketing everything thickly, it was more than madness.

How could anyone survive in there?

Then what was it, emerging from within? Whoever had wielded that mechanical tail like their own four limbs might well be an unknown life-form dwelling in the Abyss.

…….

She knew, of course, that it was not her enemy. A benefactor who had sacrificed itself to save everyone's lives. Even if it turned out not to be human, she owed it the deepest of gratitude.

And yet, the grotesque appearance of that scrap-metal Titan, stitched together out of junk, made it impossible to swallow her dry throat.

Krrrrk-eeek—. At last the heavy hatch swung open, and from the thick smoke a single figure emerged.

There it is.

She held her breath and watched. Was it a monster? Or a being that wielded some supernatural power?

The smoke thinned at last, and the figure's owner came fully into view.

"……?"

Her thoughts simply stopped. What had stepped out of the Titan was a being so utterly unlike anything she had imagined.

Silver hair. A fragile frame. Even a face like an innocent child's — every part of the girl seemed unreal. Gone was the fierce warrior's bearing glimpsed in battle; gone, too, the aura of a saint sacrificing herself in sublime devotion. If anything, she was the polar opposite of all of it.

"Mmngh…gh."

A voice threaded with groans — achingly piteous. Her steps wobbled as though she might crumple at any moment, yet still she fought on with desperate willpower, pressing forward one step at a time.

Karinne could only ‍‍‌‌⁠⁠‌‍‍‌⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠‌‌‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠guess it was from her injuries. She had no way of knowing the girl was simply staggering with exhaustion.

"Th… muhn… deuul…."

In truth, Rosetta's consciousness was just now crossing the border into dreamland. Deep in her dream, she was waging a desperate last stand to guard her artifacts from those revolting loot-goblin bastards. Her iron resolve — they will never take it from me — was what kept her feet moving even past nine o'clock.

What is she trying to do?

Karinne watched, breath held, as the girl groped through the air like a blind woman, reaching yearningly forward, descending slowly toward the vast crater. A moment later, she reached its very center — where a crystal sphere the size of a human head rested. The relic the pack leader had carried.

"Heh, hehh… I… wunnn…."

No sooner had she claimed her dream-victory than the girl collapsed in a heap on the spot. Then, hugging the blue orb like a pillow, she lay down on the ground and did not move again.

……?

No — on closer look, she was moving. Faint snuffling breaths. A belly rising and falling. Now and then she let slip a satisfied-sounding murmur in her sleep, sinking into the most peaceful slumber in all the world.

She's asleep.

Snff. Snff.

The only sound ringing through the silent Colosseum was that steady breathing.

Who… is she?

Unable to step outside her own Titan, Karinne could do nothing but watch the girl from her cockpit for a very long time. Until the mist had lifted entirely, and even the last traces of mana had scattered into shimmering motes of light.

◇◇◇◆◇◇◇

It felt like being wrapped in the sea.

She wasn't suffocating. The blue orb cradled in her arms was radiating a pleasant warmth.

Yes — in her dream, having become a dragon, she was making the wretches who dared covet her cintamani pearl kneel in dogeza and read aloud their letters of apology. We shall never dare again, and so forth. Hmph. That's what you get for not retreating while I was being nice about it.

The sweet afterglow of victory — a dream she never wanted to wake from. But that pleasant feeling began to crack under a single sliver of light seeping through her eyelids.

Huh?

White light washed over the illusion of the blue deep. The dogeza-ing loot goblins vanished, and even the pearl in my arms disappeared.

"……."

In their place, a plush softness enveloped her entire body. She opened her eyes to an unfamiliar ceiling. The wide bed she lay on was, likewise, absurdly soft and cozy.

"What the—!"

She bolted upright, frantically glancing around. At first she thought it might be base camp. It wasn't — through the window blew a gentle breeze containing not a single mote of mana.

Why am I in a place like this?

She retraced her memories. She had definitely been in the heart of the Abyss. Racing the nine-o'clock time attack, about to take down the final boss, when one bastard jumped in out of nowhere and everything went to hell?

Right, and then….

There had been a massive mana explosion. Uncle Marcus had been forcibly recalled, and the rest of the Titans, myself included, had gone into overload and stopped dead. So in my half-sleep I'd wandered out unarmed to pick up the artifact, and….

No way. Did I get robbed?

"Son of a— my artifact!"

She frantically rummaged through the bed. Naturally, it wasn't there. She hastily opened her mana subspace — empty as well. And then, it dawned on her.