An Unfortunate Reunion
“Stop dawdling and write the damn thing already!”
“Ah, don’t rush me…”
Apis wanted me back in the party. I had no desire to meet the Hero. The compromise we reached after trying to bridge those two opposing wishes was for me to deliver a written explanation to the Hero—a reasonable justification for why I had no choice but to leave the party.
If the Hero accepted it, we would part ways cleanly, without regrets. If she didn’t, I would have to face her directly and talk it out. Given my consistently terrible luck, my personal creed had always been to avoid any gamble whose outcome was uncertain. Yet here I was.
Don’t run away.
Perhaps it was the sting of Apis’s fierce rebuke that had dulled my better judgment. In the end, I accepted her suggestion.
“But what’s wrong with her now?”
Apis jerked her chin toward the corner. There lay the nun, sprawled on the floor like a monster that had just vomited up random loot. She had scattered her belongings everywhere and remained in that exact state ever since the Ranobel priest left. It was a pitiful sight, but the only thing I could do for her right now was keep her as far from the window as possible. The shame of her own disgraceful behavior was hers to endure alone.
“Oh, Lord God… Why must you burden me with such a trial…?”
Pretending not to hear the nun’s sorrowful voice that kept wetting my ears was harder than it looked, but—
“Apis. When she gets like this, it’s best to just leave her be without—”
Just as I tried to drag my attention back to the letter in front of me, it happened.
A chill slammed through me, as if every drop of blood in my body had frozen solid. Then—
BOOM!
The violent tremor that followed felt like the entire world was being shaken apart. My body lurched sharply toward the floor.
“Kk!”
Luckily I grabbed the chair in time and avoided a humiliating fall, but my mind was so flooded with unprecedented danger that there was no room left for relief.
“Apis!”
“I know!”
By the time I called her name, she was already pricking up those long elven ears of hers, staring fixedly out the window. Her sharp, ready stance reminded me of a big cat that had spotted its natural enemy. Even while observing the distant scene, her hands never left her bow and quiver. It wasn’t hard to tell she had entered the same state of extreme tension I was feeling.
“Goddamn it…”
Apis, who had realized the situation a second before me, spat out a curse. I didn’t swear aloud, but my feelings were no different.
It looked like a miniature model of a vast city—except someone had violently jammed a single building slathered in black crayon right into the middle. The sight was so alien it swallowed my entire field of vision. It resembled the dark of night that had been hiding from the blinding sun suddenly surging upward like oil from a well, stretching a massive, pitch-black hand across the sky.
Yes. Exactly like a shadow trying to devour the sun.
“Sister, seal off the surrounding area immediately and recall every high-ranking priest currently on external duty.”
“Wh-what’s happening…?”
She must have sensed the gravity of the situation from my unusually grave tone. The nun quickly pulled herself together and asked in a voice thick with anxiety. It didn’t take long for her face to drain of color once she heard my answer.
“It looks like a dungeon has opened…”
We sprinted through streets packed with panicked crowds until we reached the exact spot I had seen from the window moments earlier—the epicenter of the tremor that had shaken heaven and earth, where that sudden black pillar had taken root.
“Hero! Dawna! Victim!”
Apis shouted their names with desperate urgency, not even pausing to catch her breath. Her earnest voice flew straight toward the colossal black pillar that had swallowed an entire building.
If my memory served, that building had housed one of the more popular inns for travelers in this area. The more the ominous possibility solidified in my head, the paler my face became.
“Apis! Is that true?! You’re saying the entire party was staying there?!”
I had meant to ask calmly for the full story, but the words that left my mouth came out sharp and agitated, laced with raw emotion.
“P-Priest…”
The nun who had come with us flinched, clearly frightened by my demeanor, but I was about to press on when—
“Kyaaah!”
“Look over there! There are still people near that black thing!”
“Someone run and fetch a cleric, quick!”
The terrified onlookers pointed as one. There, a massive man lay collapsed, cradling a much smaller figure in his arms.
“Victim!”
No one needed to say it first. The unidentified structure could be hiding any number of dangers. Approaching someone sprawled beside it was an insanely risky move. A moment of hesitation would have been perfectly understandable, yet neither Apis nor I showed even a trace of doubt.
“Priest!”
I violently shook off the nun’s hand as she tried to stop my reckless charge and sprinted to my fallen comrade.
“Victim! Hey! Are you okay?! This is…!”
“Out of the way, Apis!”
He was still breathing, thank goodness. But the way Apis was panting anxiously after checking him first told me everything. He was in critical condition. I didn’t even need to examine him myself to know.
“Victim! Can you hear me?!”
“Ugh…”
“This is…!”
The person Victim had been shielding was an unconscious Dawna. It was obvious he had thrown himself between her and whatever horror had come from that black pillar. But right now there were more urgent matters. The proper order of events could wait.
“Hurry! Hurry!”
“O Lord God. I am your finger. A mere lamb. Under your divine authority I shall grant rest to all things upon this land. All glory shall be offered unto you.”
I left Apis’s frantic urging behind and began reciting the prayer at full speed. Black spots covered both Victim’s and Dawna’s bodies. There was no question what they were.
A curse. And an extremely potent one. Victim was a first-rate tanker with powerful resistance to every poison and curse imaginable—though not quite on the level of his all-immune little sister. For him to be hovering on death’s door like this… Even though I needed to focus entirely on the prayer, the mere thought of what could have cast such a curse sent an involuntary chill down my spine. It was infuriating.
Thankfully, unlike the critically afflicted Victim, the curse that had seeped into Dawna was nowhere near as severe. No doubt thanks to Victim shielding her with his own body. An unexpected stroke of luck. Healing curses that had already invaded the body was difficult enough with one person; doing multiple at once was nearly impossible. I had been terrified Dawna would be just as bad, but at this level I could treat both of them together while focusing on Victim.
“H-how is it?! Can you save them?!”
“Don’t talk to me. I’m concentrating.”
I let Apis’s impatient demands slide in one ear and out the other while devoting myself to the prayer. Then a very logical question suddenly crossed my mind.
Hadn’t I already used today’s prayer when I healed Apis’s broken hand…?
“Ugh!”
“V-Victim!”
“Victim! Are you—!”
Before the question could fully form, Victim—covered in those black stains—grimaced and let out a pained groan. The all-too-familiar sight dragged a heavy fragment of the past up from the swamp of my memory and thrust it before my eyes.
Who the hell are you?! What have you done to my sister?!
The vision hit so hard it nearly stopped my heart and made me forget the prayer entirely. I shook my head violently, tearing the stubborn distractions out of my thoughts.
“S-Sister…”
“V-Victim! Are you okay?! Are you awake?!”
“Victim! You don’t have to speak! No—don’t speak at all!”
At that moment, Victim’s dry lips moved.
“Sister… She’s still inside…”
Right then, my dazed gaze snapped toward the black pillar.