The Abyss's Threshold Calls
Ray charged forward without a single squeak, drawn to Viola's words as if yanked by invisible strings.
She stood there in perfect, rigid posture—pitiful yet somehow hilarious at the same time.
"Hey, just relax."
"I-I'm trying to… but it feels…"
What, exactly, did "training" even mean to Ray?
It had to be brutal, like someone had fed her to a pack of starving wolves and dared her not to fight back.
"You said your team's three members, right?"
"Yeah, that's us."
"Hmm…"
Viola trailed off, resting her chin on her fist while lost in thought.
She murmured something under her breath.
"Should I just take everyone?"
"I'm fine… I mean, I can handle it."
"Yeah? Since you have no choice anyway, and you're coming with us whether you like it or not?"
Viola pointed at me with her empty hand—the one not supporting her chin.
It was as casual as deciding the weather: you go, no debate needed.
"Huh? R-really? Roman?"
"I didn't say anything."
Ray glared at Viola, ready to fight, but the glare lasted only a second before it fizzled out.
"No can do. Not for anyone else, but you—you're definitely joining. You found the shortcut. One of us has to be there."
"There are others too. Luke, Elowen, and our whole team of three."
"The wanderer is injured. Elowen? I don't like that elf. And if it's your team, then you have the most at stake."
Viola's logic was airtight, delivered with a smug little smile that made any argument feel pointless.
"But there's the Lion Cup too. Might as well take everyone. Go grab the last member. I hate repeating myself."
Ray and I locked eyes.
What now?
Well, we had to go.
It happened in the blink of an eye.
Leaf arrived like he'd been waiting in the wings.
"Ah, hello."
The sharp, no-nonsense Elowen who sent him off had vanished.
"You?"
"…Yeah?"
The reply was laced with thick tension.
Viola chuckled. "Don't get too worked up. I'm one of a kind, sure, but I don't go around messing with just anyone."
"…I don't mind rough stuff."
"Bad training back then?"
Ray twitched like she'd been shocked by static electricity at the sight of Viola's clenched fists.
"Story time can wait. No time, so let's keep it short."
Viola laced her fingers and held them in front of her face.
She looked like she was about to climb onto something.
"The second layer's search-and-destroy order came down from the Alliance. I handled the overall operation, and under my command we're forming a temporary expeditionary force to start the mission. Target: the shortcut suspected to be in the Sentinel's territory, and its closure."
She paused there.
I jumped in. "Can it actually be closed?"
"No."
"I can't erase the shortcut itself."
"Then…?"
"Cast a magical seal on the shortcut, block the passage, and trigger a collapse. Make it a dead end in practice."
Oh, that made sense.
Pairing magic with raw physical force would make reversing it a nightmare.
"Don't worry. At the second layer, once I step in, it's basically over. Consider it a trial run."
Viola's confidence wasn't bravado to hype us up or ease our nerves.
It was simple fact born from absolute power.
Pioneers.
They were the ones pushing humanity's awareness deeper into the Abyss's core.
This world had already sent countless challengers down, reaching the seventh layer.
Threshold.
The Pioneers' playground.
Throwing a Pioneer into a second-layer op was like using a meat cleaver to shuck a chicken.
The Alliance's fury over the rampaging Abyss Worshippers had finally dragged out the heavy artillery.
"It'll be a good experience. Worth seeing once in a while."
Viola stood, wrapping up.
"To the point the wanderers long to reach."
The words struck deep.
The goal was clear.
The method was clear.
But how far it was, we had no idea.
Viola's advice to just watch was more than enough to pull me in.
"Three days from now, noon. We'll leave then. Start at the main point in the first layer—be there by then. Late and you're left behind."
The door was open.
Whether you walked through it was up to you.
Viola turned and walked away without a backward glance.
Leaving a trail of strong aftershocks behind, she vanished into the Telema School.
"Ah, why no water for guests here? There's great stuff over there. Hecate, when you come back next time, that display shelf's gonna get wiped clean."
Gone.
"…All that water, and I can't drink any of it."
Drinking nothing left me cursing under my breath. When I came back, I'd fill every glass to the brim and make her pay.
§
"Puha~ Now I feel alive!"
Even the Pioneers couldn't touch the rare drink of Telema School's water. Ray took a long, satisfying swig, then wiped her mouth and grinned wide.
"Was it that good?"
"Of course! Ah… just thinking about it makes my body tingle. I can't believe how hard it was."
Hmm. Getting hit by a Pioneer and still in one piece meant incredible control, didn't it?
And there was more.
"Asher too."
"Ah, no, I get it. I went through the same thing."
Asher's face darkened, voice dropping low.
The Asher who always carried himself with such poise had reacted that hard? How brutal had his training really been?
"That harsh?"
"Don't remind me."
"I don't know. I never had anyone else to learn from besides my master."
That surprised me.
"You're a mage."
"True."
"The Frontier Guild leader is not a mage."
"Exactly."
"So where did you learn magic?"
"My magic comes from bloodline awakening. It's not like normal mages who study textbooks. It's instinct and experience. Sharing the same spell with an ancestor is best, but with my situation, it wasn't possible."
We fell silent.
Normally bloodline awakening passed from parent to child—or at least close family.
Our team had inherited magic from the altar of the floaters, but it was an extremely rare case.
Which meant Asher had lost the ancestor who taught him magic—the parent or master who passed first.
"Don't make that face. I don't even remember it."
"Really?"
Talk about tragic. How many wanderers had normal families?
Our entire team was orphans.
I, whose parents were still alive, became a dimension-jumping orphan overnight.
Ray, who lost her parents and older brother to a family massacre, was a street orphan.
Leaf, who didn't even know if his parents were alive or dead, only knew they existed.
Sharing that kind of pain had bonded us tighter than anything.
It made perfect sense that I felt closer to Asher than the others—roommates and all.
"You've been through a lot."
"Don't act like you're the only one."
"So you're coming too?"
"Sure. I'm his direct disciple anyway. And I want you all there."
Was it loyalty? Or the selfish wish to fight side by side in the Abyss again?
But the stronger pull was the genuine desire to help.
"Master is strong. Watch it with your own eyes like she said."
Ray could only mumble in agreement.
"Then I'll head out too. Master gave me time, but it's been long enough. I'm getting lazy. Hecate School Head, I drank the water."
"Eh, mhm."
Hecate's pupils trembled wildly.
Under Viola's guidance, how could such a solid disciple appear? That question gnawed at her mind.
Asher politely handed back the empty glass and left.
I called after his back.
"See you in three days."
"…Yeah. See you."
Everyone else had gone. Time for us.
"Staying at the inn feels weird… Hecate School Head, mind if we borrow the underground training room?"
"Yeah, go ahead."
With Hecate's permission, we headed down.
"Uwa~ Underground training. It feels like boot camp."
"No comments from the second layer?"
"Different vibe entirely."
While Ray and I traded pointless banter, Leaf stayed quiet.
He was always the quietest anyway, but today he was practically mute.
Maybe the promise to do something today had weighed on him heavily.
"Leaf."
"…Ah, yeah?"
He jolted back a beat late.
He looked like he was thinking hard.
"If it's too hard, we can do it later."
"Ah, no! It's not that… I just don't know where to start…"
We sat in the training room's chairs.
It was smart that Hecate had prepared three; she might have come back.
Sitting in a triangle, Leaf pulled off his hood and rubbed his ears.
Sharp, short ears.
Touching the elven ears that symbolized half-elves, Leaf began his story.
"I'm… a high elf."
Huh?
That made him royalty, right…?
"And maybe… the last high elf left in the world."