Ant Hell (4)
"Sapi."
I glanced around as I spoke.
"Why this team, of all teams?"
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"Well..."
I let my gaze drift slowly across our surroundings.
To the east, Kang Do-hyun had gathered the kind of names you'd recognize on hearing alone — heavy hitters, every last one of them. The north had been culled down to only the essentials: detection types, defense types, the people no team could afford to lose.
So where had everyone who didn't make those two cuts ended up? Every last one of them had washed westward.
Jeanne's team.
People covered head to toe in wounds. People whose hands wouldn't stop shaking. People without so much as a proper weapon to their name. People turned away for no other reason than the family they carried with them. People who watched the other teams with open envy in their eyes.
This wasn't a team the strong had chosen. It was where the unchosen had gathered, because there was nowhere else left to go.
And even so, Jeanne had not turned away a single one of them.
Granted, a few of the strong had joined after seeing it. But not nearly enough to tip the balance of power.
I stared at Sapi, unable to make sense of it.
"This is the most dangerous one here."
Sapi watched Jeanne for a moment, then smiled quietly.
"Just keep watching."
"Watch what?"
"How a hero gets made."
"...?"
"Heroes don't gather people."
Sapi's eyes shifted to Jeanne.
"A hero is someone who makes people gather on their own."
Jeanne walked slowly through the crowd. No grand speech — she simply stopped in front of one man.
"Hello there."
The startled young man pointed at himself.
"M-me? You mean me?"
"Yes."
Jeanne smiled.
"What's your name?"
"...Sansun."
"Sansun."
Jeanne repeated the name once, like she was etching it into memory.
"I'll be sure to remember it."
"...?"
"If we make it out of here alive—"
Jeanne held out her hand.
"—let's have a beer."
Sansun stared at her, dumbstruck, then snorted a laugh.
"...Sure."
Jeanne moved on. This time she stopped before a man in a conical bamboo hat.
"Your name?"
"Yaos, yo!"
"Looking forward to working with you."
"Never managed to awaken an ability myself, but my Ether's awake at least, see."
"That's more than enough."
"Haha."
Yaos laughed.
"We make it out alive, drinks are on me, yo!"
"No."
Jeanne laughed too.
"This round's mine."
A little distance away, a man half-turned to monster looked up from wiping down his blade.
"Soda."
Jeanne bowed her head.
"A pleasure to have you with us."
Soda rested her sword across her shoulder.
"My ability? Draw this sword, and everything around me freezes solid for three minutes."
Jeanne faltered slightly.
"Should you really be telling people that so easily...?"
Soda shrugged.
"What's the point of hiding it from people I might die next to?"
"..."
"If anything, it's knowing that keeps us alive."
Jeanne bowed her head, sincerely this time.
"Thank you."
And so Jeanne asked — one person, then another, then another — everyone's name. What their ability was, whether they had family, where they'd come from. She made no grand promises. She never swore to save them all.
But little by little, people began to smile.
People who hadn't known each other's names minutes ago were now calling one another by name, trading stories.
Talk that promised a future. Jokes about nothing at all. Brief, shared laughter.
And those tiny threads of connection were quietly becoming strength — the kind that would move each of them one step further, for one another's sake.
I watched it all without a word.
"..."
Beside me, Sapi spoke quietly.
"You see it now?"
"...See what?"
"The reason people gather."
I couldn't answer.
Minutes ago I'd written them off as a heap of stragglers. But it was different now. They were still weak — but they were no longer alone.
A short while later, Jeanne stood before them all. Every gaze converged on her as naturally as breathing. She drew a deep breath.
"We move out."
Two words. Yet no one asked a single question. No one complained. People who, minutes before, had been strangers to one another were now facing the same direction.
We'd been organized into five formations, A through E, built to punch through in a single line.
Formation A held the very front — cut down whatever stood in the way, and keep advancing. That was where Jeanne and Difrio went, along with the defensive ability users and anyone battle-ready: the people with outright overwhelming breakthrough power. Lebetri, of course, went with A as well, her overwhelming leaps and the Thousand Eyes Blessing letting her sense enemies before they closed in.
Formation B supported A from just behind the front line — my healing power, most notably, alongside people like Bitch who could bind enemies in place.
Formation C finished off anything the front lines failed to kill. Formation D was the rotation — whenever an A-formation member dropped out from exhaustion, they swapped in. This time, Robb and Kasai had been placed there. Formation E took anyone whose combat value was questionable or who'd taken a serious wound.
Maybe the safest spot of all. But if enemies emerged from behind, or if the front lines pushed too far too fast, E was also the formation that got left behind. Problems aside, for now, it was the safest place to be.
And so we set out from the heart of the domain.
The moment we left the center, what greeted us was an endless, writhing black tide.
Bugs. Ether-corrupted monsters blanketed the forest from end to end. But they were unmistakably different from a few days ago. Back then, the swarm had moved like an army under a single command. Now they were every bug for itself — beasts that had caught the scent of prey, hurling themselves at anything that came into view.
Sapi swept his eyes across our surroundings and muttered.
"...Looks like the one controlling them is gone."
Difrio stepped forward.
"Everyone, get behind me!"
He drew a deep breath, packing his lungs full of air, and in that instant a transparent barrier began to wrap itself around his body. Difrio's ability: while he held his breath, he gained absolute defense.
A sharp breath in—
—BOOM!!
Difrio plunged headlong into the swarm. The first to lunge at him were the fire bugs — their bodies swelled up like balloons, and then—
—KABOOOM!!
—a massive blast sent flame spraying in every direction. But Difrio didn't slow a single step. The fire simply broke and scattered against his barrier.
"...!"
One swing of his fist, and the fire bugs burst all at once. In that same instant, a colossal shadow crashed down over his head — a steel mantis, forelimbs hard as metal, slamming straight down at him.
—CRASH!!
The limb couldn't pierce the barrier. Difrio smirked.
"Left hand."
Power flooded into his gauntleted fist, and the metal began to glow red-hot.
"Ten percent."
—CRUNCH!!
His fist punched clean through the mantis's head. The hardened shell tore like paper, and the whole body came apart in pieces.
The remaining bugs were left to Formation A — Jeanne, Lebetri, Sansun, and the rest. Lebetri leapt in a straight line, shearing through bug after bug; Jeanne burned a path open with flame; Sansun swung his sword beside them through gritted teeth. And in the back, Sapi shifted his pistol into a sniper rifle.
—BANG!
The head of a giant hornet swooping in from long range burst apart mid-flight. Formation B, too, never stopped covering the front.
Then, as we inched forward — with no warning whatsoever—
—KABOOOM!!
A pillar of fire erupted beneath Sansun's feet.
"...Huh?"
The flames were over in an instant. His scream didn't even last that long.
"AAAAAAGH!!"
In a heartbeat, his whole body was engulfed. The smell of burning flesh blanketed the forest.
"Sansun!!"
A comrade walking beside him lunged forward like a madman — but Jeanne caught his arm.
"...Don't."
"Let go!! He might still be alive—"
"He's already... gone..."
When the flames died down, all that remained where he'd stood was a blackened corpse. The forest went quiet again.
The man who, minutes ago, had been laughing about a beer for when this was over. The man whose name Jeanne had sworn to remember. Just like that, Sansun was gone.
"..."
Difrio gritted his teeth.
"So this is... the Domain's rule."
Sapi spoke low, eyes fixed on the scorched ground.
"A byproduct of those rules."
"So they manifest as traps."
"Yes. And they trigger without the slightest warning."
Every face had hardened. More dangerous than the bugs right in front of them were the traps they couldn't see.
Jeanne stared for a long while at the spot where Sansun had been. The tips of her clenched fingers trembled. But in the end, she raised her head.
"...We move forward."
No one answered. But everyone started walking again.
"FRONT!"
Jeanne's shout rang through the forest.
"Giant wolf, dead ahead!"
Beyond the trees, a colossal wolf with ash-gray fur emerged, slow and unhurried. Its body was easily big enough to carry three grown men, and two blood-red eyes looked down at us.
Jeanne drew her sword at once.
"Everyone, stop!"
But Difrio was already walking out front.
"I've got this one."
"Wait!"
Jeanne shouted after him, urgent.
"That thing could be a byproduct of the Domain!"
"Doesn't matter."
Difrio smirked.
"Long as I keep my defense up, no matter how strong that thing is, it can't break through."
He inhaled, deep and slow, until his lungs were full. The transparent barrier sealed around his body. That was his absolute defense.
"Here I come!"
—BOOM!!
Difrio kicked off the ground and leapt. And in that very instant—
—PWAH!
—pale pink mist exploded from beneath his feet.
"...?"
Difrio's brow creased. A sweet floral scent. But he didn't stop.
That's all this is?
He only sped up.
"Right hand!"
The gauntlet flared red.
"Twenty percent power!"
The moment his fist came falling toward the wolf's head — the wolf vanished.
"...What?"
It was gone from his sight. No — it had moved. At a speed impossible for a body that size.
—CRUNCH!
"GRAAAAAH!!"
The wolf's jaws closed around Difrio's right leg and tore. The barrier—! It didn't activate—!Why?!
—RRIP!!
The leg came off whole. Blood painted the air.
"DIFRIO!!"
Kasai was the first one running. Jeanne raised her sword too — but the first thing she shouted was something else entirely.
"EVERYONE, COVER YOUR EARS!!"
In that instant, some clapped their hands over their ears; some sealed their hearing with Ether. A few just stood there, not understanding why.
Kasai drew in a huge breath.
"DANCE TIME."
And then music exploded through the entire forest.
—ba-dump! ba-dump!
The rhythm began to seize their bodies. Those who hadn't blocked their ears found themselves swaying without meaning to. And the wolf, too — its massive frame began to shake, and it started dancing. A bizarre, lurching dance. Its movements were severed completely.
"NOW!!"
Jeanne charged first. Soda came rushing in with her frozen blade drawn; Lebetri leapt in a straight line right behind her. All of Formation A hit it at once.
But the wolf was not weak. Every time the dance's hold slipped, it went berserk — and every time, someone died, and someone else was torn open. Difrio was dragged to the rear, missing a leg. Sapi healed without pause. Bitch bound its movements in honey. Robb hammered it with bombardment from behind.
How long did it last? After a desperate struggle stretching across dozens of minutes—
—THUD!!
—the ashen wolf finally went down.
But the price was far too steep. Six dead. Eleven gravely wounded. And Difrio's right leg. Sapi's ability mended every wound, of course — but the damage to their minds was another matter entirely.
Jeanne stared at the wolf's corpse for a long moment, then quietly sheathed her sword.
"...I'd like to rest."
She raised her head slowly.
"But we don't have that kind of time. Let's keep moving before the Domain's monsters reach us."
No one objected. Everyone understood by now. But a few of them understood in their heads and still couldn't make their bodies move — fear had nailed them to the ground. Seeing one of them, Difrio walked over and held out his fist.
"If you want to live, get behind me. There's nothing shameful about being scared."
"..."
"Protecting the scared — that's a hero's job."
"We found an exit!"
A man running with Formation A shouted, and the cry rang through the black forest. Hope flashed across every face at those words.
It didn't last. Collapsed rock, warped and twisted space — the exit had caved in so completely there was barely a trace left to recognize.
"...Damn it."
Difrio ground his teeth, low.
"This one's gone too."
Outwardly, his voice was as calm as he could make it. But his body was beginning to tremble, little by little. In that last fight, for the first time in his life, he had watched his defense fail. Once could be chance. But twice? Three times?
Next time, I might actually die.
The thought wouldn't leave his head. Difrio hid his face with a trembling hand. His expression was the one thing he refused to let anyone see.
"Then let's push on agai—"
And in that instant—
Someone's hand closed on his shoulder.
"...Jeanne?"
Jeanne looked at him in silence for a moment, then said, evenly:
"Move to Formation D."
"...What?"
"Go recover your strength."
Difrio shook his head at once.
"What are you talking about? You're the one who—"
His eyes traveled over her. Her armor hung in tatters, and burns from the traps and bites from the bugs covered her from head to toe. She was only still standing because Sapi kept healing her. Anyone could see who had taken the worst of it.
"You're the one who needs to rest—"
Jeanne cut him off.
"...It's hard, isn't it."
"..."
"You can rest now."
It was brief. But Difrio understood exactly what she meant. She wasn't talking about his body. She had noticed — that he was afraid.
Difrio stood in silence for a moment, then finally lowered his head.
"...Understood."
Jeanne turned away as if nothing had happened.
"Everyone."
She raised her sword.
"Next, we go north! We move on the northern exit!"
At her voice, they all began to walk again.
The road north was its own kind of hell. This time the entire forest was writhing black — a swarm with no end in sight, tens of thousands of enormous insects choking the path ahead.
Jeanne didn't hesitate for even a moment. She leveled her sword and roared:
"FORWARD!!"
And in the same breath, she was the first one running.
—BOOM!!
The first trap went off. A pillar of fire swallowed Jeanne whole — but she didn't stop.
—CRUNCH!
A giant beetle's mandibles clamped onto her shoulder and tore. Blood sprayed. Even so, her sword never stopped.
One. Two. Three. Jeanne kept carving the road open.
Watching her, the others gritted their teeth as well.
"We're going too!!"
"We can't just let our big brother hide in the back!"
"YOYO!! I'm coming too!"
One after another, they broke into a run. But not everyone.
"Are you insane?!"
"This isn't a charge, it's suicide!"
"Play hero all you want — you'll all die!"
Then a man running at the front shouted back without so much as turning his head.
"And if you just stand there, you think you won't die?"
"...!"
"People are dying up front as we speak!"
No one had an answer after that. They kept running. A colossal vibration bored into their ears — tens of thousands of wingbeats layered over one another until the whole forest rang, like one enormous monster breathing.
Even so, no one stopped.
—BOOM!!
Another trap erupted.
"GAAAAAAH!!"
A scream tore the forest apart. Someone fell. Someone else took their place. Onward like that — onward, and onward. After countless sacrifices—
—they finally broke through the swarm.
As Jeanne caught her breath, a hand settled on her shoulder. It was Sapi.
"Miss Jeanne."
"...What is it?"
"How about resting now?"
Jeanne shook her head.
"I'm fine."
"You are not."
Sapi's voice was calm.
"What you're doing right now is hopelessly inefficient."
Jeanne smiled, bitterly.
"You keep healing us, Sapi."
"Healing only closes wounds."
Sapi looked her dead in the eye.
"It doesn't give you your strength back."
A brief silence. Then Sapi asked again.
"Why... why do you push yourself this far?"
Jeanne was quiet for a moment. Then she answered, very briefly.
"...Because someone."
"...?"
"Having someone die in my place—"
Her hand clenched into a tight fist.
"—it's something I refuse to live through again."
Sapi said nothing for a while. He simply looked at her. And then, with a small sigh, he spoke in a low voice.
"...Yeah."
"...?"
"You—"
It was the first time Sapi had shed his polite tone.
"—were always a woman who never knew how to give up."
Jeanne's eyes shook violently.
"...You... don't tell me—"
Sapi turned his gaze away and answered, flat.
"Focus on the situation at hand, Jeanne?"
Jeanne couldn't say another word. She watched his back for a long moment — then quietly tightened her grip on her sword.
"...Right."
And once more, she stepped forward.