CH 96

I jumped into the darkness of the canyon.

Gravity dragged me along with the sound of ripping through the air. As I fell to the depths in an instant, my field of vision was engulfed in darkness.

“Pure Light.”

Shaaa!

A ray of light shone down on the floor.

However, the darkness of the canyon had a predatory nature and the light of the ultimate skill was swallowed up in pitch-black darkness.

“Well, that was expected.”

I couldn’t tell the distance to the bottom with my eyes, but I wasn’t too embarrassed.

Because there was another way.

[<System> Warning. ‘Pandora’s Plague’ has reached stage 2.]

[<System> Warning. ‘Pandora’s Plague’ has reached stage 3.]

[<System> Warning. ‘Pandora’s Plague’……]

The more I fell, the faster the message was updated.

Gradually, the air inhaled through my nose turned into poisonous gas. A fever vigorously rose in my airways and esophagus.

<Ellet!>

I didn’t have time to answer because I was holding my breath.

More. A little more. Just a bit more!

[<System> Warning. ‘Pandora’s Plague’ has reached stage 9.]

Yes, now!

Kwajik! Quadduck!

I cleaved Europe, which I had taken out after a long time, into the cliff face and set it as my brake. My arm muscles screamed as I resisted the staggering speed of the fall.

Dudududud……dut.

Soon the fall stopped. Having roughly estimated the height with my gut feeling, I pulled out Europe and landed on the floor at the same time.

Tak.

“Whoa, it was doable wasn’t it?”

<……Yes, indeed, my disciple.>

[<System> Warning. ‘Pandora’s Plague’ has reached the highest stage.]

With every breath I took, I could feel the aura of the plague trying to corrode my respiratory organs.

If I don’t pour regular heals, I might end up with a ruthless show of bleeding my guts out.

“Heal.”

Originally, Holy Power would emit a holy white light when cast, but that effect was removed due to the darkness of this light-eating canyon.

It was really dark. It was so dark that even if I outstretched my hands in front of me I could not distinguish them.

<Even if you can avoid obstacles with your gut feeling, how can you find Thesilid in such a dark place?>

“If that’s the case, don’t worry.”

<Huh?>

“I’ve used my hands in advance.” 

I raised my left hand.

I can’t see it because of the darkness, but now my fingers had a string wound around them like a thread.

One end of it extended all the way to the other side of the canyon. 

“When Thesilid was free diving, I wrapped the Spirit King’s Harp String around his wrist. We just have to follow this.”

<Wow, you did a good job.>

[‘The World-building God’ commends you for your cleverness.]

‘The Scales that Judges the Soul’ admires that all Transmigrators have plans.]

I pulled the wire with my fingertips and moved in the direction I felt the tension.

Suddenly, a thought crossed my mind.

“Ah. Come to think of it.”

<What?>

“Right now, I’m connected to Thesilid by the string, right? Then wouldn’t this be possible?”

<What would?>

“Heal!”

I could feel the healing power expressed in my hands flowing through the string.

Is it working? I think it’s working. It will, right?

[‘The World-building God’ tells you that things are flowing well.]

[‘The Eyes that watch over the chaos of all things’ says that the skill level is high and the ability to deliver is incredible.]

[‘The Critic who adjusts the balance’ argues that it should be nerfed.]

“It’s a success. I cured Thesilid.”

<Oh, that’s great. Clap, clap, clap, clap!>

Agnes applauded with her mouth.

“I should have used heals from above the canyon.”

<He would be glad enough if you used it even now.>

“Right? In the first place, people feel more gratitude when they are on the brink.”

When I was convinced that I had prevented Thesilid to bleed his guts out, my steps relaxed a bit. 

I shouted as I walked across the pitch-black darkness. 

“Terry! Answer me when you hear it. Terry!”

Right then, a fine vibration was transmitted to the fingertips connected to the string.

“Ellet……?”

“Terry!”

I immediately ran in the direction the voice was heard.

When I thought I had gotten close enough, I put a brake in my legs and stretched out my hands in the dark.

“Ellet……”

I touched soft hair at the height of my waist.

He seemed to be kneeling on the floor. I lowered my posture to match Thesilid’s.

“Are you okay?” 

The only senses that could feel his presence in the dark were hearing and touch. While waiting for an answer to come, I did not let go of my hand that had touched him.

And I slowly swept my hands down from his cheek to his shoulder……

……what?

Embarrassed, I lifted my hand a little.

<What’s wrong?>

I just felt like his hair was running through my hand……

With a puzzled heart, I brought my hand to his face again. It felt a bit cold as if it were frozen, but the smooth texture of his cheeks was felt.

……Was it an illusion?

The momentary sense of incongruity quickly evaporated.

It was because Thesilid tilted his head and put his left cheek deep into my hand.

“Ellet……”

It was a muffled voice.

<He doesn’t look very good.>

“You said that you could do it alone.”

<Well, it looks like he did find the core of the dungeon.>

It was only after listening to Agnes that I realized it. There was a small metal box in Thesilid’s hands.

I gave him a small scolding. 

“If you found the box, come up quickly. Why are you spacing out here?” 

In fact, I can guess why. 

“Because it’s dark.” 

“……”

“I can’t move.”

“……”

I thought that falling asleep with the lights on at night was just because he liked bright things. But now I see that he was afraid of the dark.

“So, I thought I was going to die while vomiting blood like this……but you came.”

“You’re thankful, right?” 

“No.”

……What?

[‘The World-building God’ snorts, telling you to throw him away right away.]

[‘The Spoiler Inspector’ likes the iron wall of the main character.]

“Plague, Death, Hope.”

It was then that Thesilid spoke of the key keywords that made up this dungeon.

“Yeah, hope……vain hope.”

“……”

“Ellet, are you a vain hope?”

“……”

I didn’t know what to say to the sudden question. But one thing was certain.

“Calm down, Terry.”

Darkness was consuming his mind.

“You have to get out of here. Get up right now.”

“……Ah.”

“You can’t walk? Do you want me to carry you?” 

“No, thank you.”

I was relieved to hear his serious voice. He seemed to be much more spirited than before.

“I was acting ugly a while back. Forget it.”

“Yes.”

In the dark, I could hear him sweep his face with one hand. I patiently waited for him to regain his composure by washing his face dry.

Soon he brought up the story in an orderly voice. 

“You must have come to find me because I was late.”

“Yes.”

“Thank you.”

The shameless reply of not thanking me earlier would also be included in the ugliness, so I forgot about it with my broad generosity.

“It was nothing.”

“I’m sorry, Ellet, but to get out of the canyon, I have to do it myself. That’s the only way the hard work so far becomes meaningful.”

“That’s very frustrating.”

“Don’t worry. I’ll be right up.” 

“How?”

“Your string, can I borrow it for a moment?”

“Sure, I guess?”

I gladly handed the Spirit King’s Harp String. Thesilid took it over with his free hand.

Having recovered his aura to some extent, he had no problem handling the string.

Shh!

I could hear the wire cutting through the air. After a while, he spoke in a slightly embarrassed voice.

“Excuse me, Ellet.”

“Yes. I know roughly what you are asking for.”

I hugged the neck of the most handsome man in this faithful and conservative worldview.

“Let’s go up, Sir Thesilid.”

“……Yes.”

Soon after, the wire contracted and pulled us up. After feeling the motion against gravity, I could see light soon after.

Whirlik.

As we came up to the ground, the dying Knights of the Pillar of Light greeted us. 

“……!”

Still with their snouts sealed, they found Thesilid and their eyes widened in astonishment.

“Wow, hoops?! Cof! Whoops!”

“Koo-eup, cof……Kueup! Hmng!”

It seemed like they were voicing evil remarks about how Thesilid came back alive, not believing it, telling him to die, why didn’t he die, and so on.

It was fortunate that the Push Over Free Pass filtered it out because of the silent debuff.

Thesilid, who was looking into the face of the Knights, opened his mouth.

“Ellet, I knew you were going to use your hands, but I didn’t expect this much.”

“Oh, it’s a bit unfair to say that. It’s not my fault that their immune system fell due to bleeding from wounds and they got sick.” 

“I said this after seeing Vice-Captain Lecto.” 

Lecto had all of his senses maximized due to the Hispenril’s Aura operation method.

He was now wriggling on the floor and groaning. He seemed to be ‘savoring’ the pain.

I pretended not to know and changed the subject.

“More than that, Terry, you should close the dungeon.”

“Oh, right.”

“Go on. I’ll be taking care of these guys.”

“Okay.”

Thesilid obediently nodded and headed towards the Black Arc de Triumph.

If you look closely at the center of the arc, there was a small groove. It was a kind of puzzle hole, and the puzzle piece was none other than Pandora’s box.

The dungeon is closed by simply inserting the box into the groove. It was a simple task, but it was time-consuming because of its slow progress. 

From now on, Thesilid will be held up in the closing ceremony for a few minutes. In the meantime, I had work to do.

They couldn’t die, so I approached the 18 members of the Knights, who were still holding their breath.

The silence debuff that had been on them was lifted with a single gesture of stirring my hand.

I said in the coldest voice I could make.

“Now that Thesilid has come back alive, all you guys have left to do is go to the Inquisition.”

“Hick …!”

“Th-the Inquisition……!”

“Go and confess that you have dishonored Thesilid with false testimony, and reveal what happened in the dungeon in detail. Understand?”

“Oh, no…I can not……”

“Oh, that’s right. When the case of that dungeon is made public, your trial will be supervised by the Inquisition Office, more precisely, the Heretic Judgment Bureau. Because you guys made a deal with the devil. Right?”

“Gulp……!”

“Ho-how do you know about that……!”

“B-be quiet, punk!”

Gadville, who had come to his senses before I knew it, shouted in anger.

“Ev-Everyone, shut up! W-we……! Cof! We’ve never had a deal with the devil……! This is a conspiracy……!”

“Enough with the excuses. There is evidence.”

“Evidence……?”

“I know that the gold coins you lot got from selling Thesilid cannot be thrown away.”

“……!”