Volume 1 - CH 35

‘Loewe, that’s enough! Let me down already!’

Rururi struggled in Loewe’s arms, which finally brought him to a halt. Or, perhaps more precisely, he ran out of strength. Panting heavily, he slumped to the stone floor. He had run at full speed through the dark dungeon, from the fourth floor down to the second, carrying Rururi over his shoulder the entire way. For the black mage Loewe, whose physical abilities weren’t that great to begin with, this was his limit.

Leaning against the wall like a sack of flour, he wiped the sweat from his neck.

‘Loewe! Do you realise what you’ve just done!!?’

Rururi shouted.

Loewe didn’t answer, his head hanging low in silence. Seeing him like this, Rururi pushed the persecution.

‘Why did you leave Jade behind!? Why did only we escape!? If we leave him like that, Jade will die! If we don’t return, he will, Jade will—’

‘What could we possibly do if we returned!!?’

Hearing Loewe snarl in anger, Rururi swallowed her words.

‘You want to go back!? I won’t let you! Do you want to make a lie of the chief’s resolve!? He risked his life to pave the path of our retreat! What else could we do but flee!?’

At a loss for words, Rururi did nought but bite her lip in frustration.

She understood. That against that Demon God, the likes of them were nothing more than a hindrance. That sacrificing someone and fleeing the scene of battle was the only way to avoid their total destruction.

‘Even if we returned, the chief would have sealed the door with “Ironclad Guardian”! Do you think we can break through that? Now that things have come to this, there’s nothing we can do!’

Loewe’s voice grew hoarse as he spoke, as if he had to force the words out. When Rururi saw his face, pale, bloodless, she understood. Loewe hadn’t wanted to do this, either. He’d wanted to find a solution where all three of them could get out alive, together. But reality left him no choice.

Rururi sank to the floor as strength failed her legs. Loewe’s face warped in bitter contortions. Before she knew it, a tear rolled down her cheek.

‘Is Jade going to… die?’

Rururi asked, her voice like gravel, but Loewe only looked away. She clung to his robes with trembling hands, forcing a question out, as if begging him to answer in the negative:

‘Is he going to die?’

Silence was his answer. The truth was as clear as day. Jade alone was no match for the Demon God. He was on the brink of death already.

Rururi bit her lip as she recalled Jade’s figure when she had last seen him. His wounds, which were so deep that were a normal adventurer to suffer them, he would have died twice over. And she, who could do nothing but watch.

She was powerless.

She was a healer, yet she couldn’t do anything when she was needed the most.

So utterly powerless.

Tear after tear fell from her hanging head onto her hand pressed to the cold floor.

Jade did his duty as a tank. He faced the unknown enemy to the very end, risking his own life to protect his party members. He remained the brilliant leader of the Silver Blades until the last.

But before being their leader, before being a brilliant tank, to her and Loewe he was a dear friend who they didn’t want to die.

‘Someone. Please, someone. Save Jade.’

Rururi muttered as if in prayer to some divine entity. Be it God, be it the Devil, be it the Grim Reaper of souls, as long as they can save Jade, as long as they can do what they could not…

Someone, please, save my dearest friend.

‘There is nothing we can do. But,’

Loewe muttered.

‘there is someone who could.’

When Rururi raised her head, her face was caressed by a soft, gentle light.

Loewe pulled out the necklace hanging from his neck. The Shard of Guidance, the special item that only the Silver Blades were allowed to carry, cast a pale green light into the dark dungeon.

Rururi, too, realised what Loewe was getting at.

‘With the chief wounded as he is, it makes sense that it would react. If she notices—’

GRRR

But just then, as if to snuff out their last glimmer of hope, a low growl rang through the dungeon.

They looked around to see a large monster appear from the darkness. A four-footed beast, its massive body covered in bulging muscles, two enormous horns protruding from its head—a Behemoth.

The beast held its head low, as if taking careful aim at its prey, the two adventurers reflected in its eyes which gleamed with ravenous hunger.

‘Tsk!’

As Loewe shielded Rururi behind his back and readied his rod, the Behemoth bared its fangs and charged headlong at them.

Such speed! Rururi swallowed hard, picturing the worst would come to pass. By taking them by surprise, the enemy had stolen the initiative and was one step ahead of them. It takes several seconds before a magic attack to be invoked. Would it fire before the Behemoth could attack?

‘Ignis—’

Bam!

The dungeon shook with a sound that was neither that of the Behemoth tearing Loewe to pieces, nor that of his black magic flames scorching the air.

Before either could happen, something came flying into the fray. That something struck the Behemoth in its flank, sending its massive body sailing into the darkness.

A short, pathetic whelp was the last that was heard of the beast before its body convulsed in a fit of spasm before it dissolved into a black haze.

Whatever it was that struck the monster to death landed, skirt fluttering, in front of the stunned pair. It was a lone girl, dressed in the cute uniform of the receptionist.

But in her hands she held a fearsome warhammer, its silver head dripping with the fresh blood of its slain foe. Even her uniform, normally so elegant, and her shapely face were streaked with gore. If anything, she looked like a homicidal lunatic.

But the two adventurers saw in her not a dangerous maniac, but their saviour.

‘‘Alina!!!’’

When Alina glanced at the Shard of Guidance dangling from her neck and saw that its light wasn’t pointing in the their direction, she breathed a sigh of relief.

‘Thank God. You’re both safe.’

Even as she said this, her expression remained stiff. The faint green glow of the crystal fragment pointed further, deeper into the dungeon.

‘Which would mean the light is pointing to—’

‘Alina, please safe Jade!’

Despite her usual reserve, which she had foregone some time ago, Rururi clung to Alina.

‘Jade… Jade is going to die!’

Seeing Rururi’s face drenched with tears as she appealed to her, Alina seemed to grasp the severity of the situation, and her expression stiffened further.

‘The chief is fighting the humanoid monster—no, the Demon God Silva—in the deepest part of the fourth floor, in the direction the light is pointing.’

Loewe, on Rururi’s behalf, calmly explained the current situation.

‘A Demon God? Not a monster?’

‘That guy is probably a relic.’

‘A relic?’

‘I saw the same mark of Dia carved into his body as is carved into relics. At the very least, I can say with certainty that he was created by the Ancestors. He is animated by consuming human souls, and he uses several Dia skills.’

‘…’

‘The legend of old, about the special relic you can get from a hidden quest, is probably about this Demon God. The chief should’ve sealed the boss room and trapped that guy together with himself, to buy us time to escape. He’s probably prepared to die.’

‘I see.’

As if that was all she needed to hear, Alina turned in the direction the light was pointing.

‘I understand. Leave the rest to me.’