Volume 2 - CH 14.2

Chapter 14: Let’s Incite the Coward, Part 2

「RUN!」

「Eh?! EHHHHH?!」

Sofia hurriedly jumps out of the room in accordance to Aur’s orders.

「Capture her!」

「Ehhhh, eh,eeeeehhhhhh!?」

Zana shouted her order, and the soldiers immediately gave chase after Sofia, who was clutching Aur’s cube tightly to her chest. Due to her small frame, she was able to avoid the arms that were stretching towards her in an attempt to capture her.

「Wait, stop right there!」

However, she was just a small girl. She might’ve gained the ability to function normally even outside of the Dungeon, but she could utilize her full power over it only if she was in its area. She would have taken control over the Dungeon if she could, but in order to do that, the main Dungeon had to be near her current location. If it was, she could’ve dig herself a tunnel connecting both places to escape, but that was now impossible to achieve.

And she was now being surrounded from all sides without any means of further escape.

「Ah, this is…!」

She suddenly noticed something as the men were closing in on her.

As she muttered, they were blown away and rolled on the ground.

「Wha…! What happened?!」

The captain of the soldiers squinted his eyes as he observed Sofia’s surroundings from the safe distance, trying to understand how she was able to blow his men away. But he was unable to understand her method at all. Even though she waved her hands around, she wasn’t casting any spells. Even the Ice Queen, who was able to perform chants at super high speed had to do it with a small chant beforehand, but this girl had no need for such things at all.

And he was still unable to discern what was attacking his men. There was no sudden gusts of wind or flashes of light.

Then perhaps they should just attack faster, he thought. But that was out of the question when the spear of one of the soldiers simply bounced off of some kind of invisible wall a few centimeters before the girl’s face.

But at that moment he understood what was going on here.

「I understand now!」

And when he tried to shout that, he suddenly lost consciousness.

「I’m sorry, please, get out of my way!」

The girl’s voice echoed in the corridor that was densely populated by soldiers.

「Stop, please, move aside, don’t get in my way!」

With her every word, another soldier is being blown away and rolls on the floor.

One of them jumped from behind her and prepared his bow to shoot.

「Waaaah!」

Sofia screamed in surprise as the arrow bounced off of her back. So she could also block attacks aimed at the blind spots.

「It’s a giant!」

Shouted one of the soldiers.

「An invisible giant is protecting her!」

Her blows were so strong that they even sent the trained soldiers in full sets of armor flying. Wind magic, even the most powerful, should be unable to do something like that so easily. So the explanation with the invisible giant, however ridiculous, was the most probable.

Sofia was now being attacked from all four directions at once.

But the result was the same as before.

「She has two more of them!」

Someone shouted such an information.

「Everybody, duck!」

A female soldier in a robe shouted as she prepared a spell by combining a lot of complicated marks. When she finished, a blast of freezing cold air was emitted from the palms of her hands, freezing Sofia in place.

「Eh, eeeh, what?!」

Sofia shouted as the air itself started to freeze around her, sealing her ability to move.

「What is this?!」

The air was also freezing around the being that protected Sofia, allowing the soldiers to roughly see its appearance. They thought that it was a giant with a shield with no sword and maybe a set of armor. But in reality it was a monster that looked like a grotesque amalgamation of countless tentacles that protected Sofia from harm and attacked anyone who tried to harm her.

It was the cube that Aur created. A weapon that only he was capable of using properly, a small portable Dungeon. What was now active was its offensive-defensive mechanism.

「Wha, what’s the meaning of this?」

When Sofia ordered it, one of the tentacles swooped in and send another batch of soldiers flying. But it was not exactly a tentacle, to tell you the truth. It was a compressed Dungeon passage.

Outside of her Dungeon Sofia was just a little girl unable to use complex magic or any martial arts.

However, there was one exception.

If the Dungeon was given permission by its owner, it could be rented to someone, allowing them to manipulate as they saw fit. And since Sofia was the embodiment of the Dungeon, Something like that came as naturally as breathing to her.

And that was the result. The passages were flailing around like strong arms, acting like both a sword and a shield for her. Even the freezing technique was meaningless, as the ice melted soon enough due to having no moisture to absorb from the air.

Aur perfected it so much that it was able to take on over a thousand different forms. And Sofia was beginning to grasp exactly how to use them all to her advantage.

Sofia was the Dungeon, and the Dungeon was Sofia. It transformed and moved according to her will. She was even able to pull stunts that were impossible for Aur to perform, and the current situation was the prime example of that.

「It’s hopeless! Retreat, retreat you fools!」

When they retreated, Sofia squatted on the ground, hugging the cube to her chest and shivering all over. Even though she was safe with the portable dungeon beside her, for a little girl like her, being chased and attacked by soldiers was still not a pleasant experience.

「Maybe, this will be the right way.」

Using her memories from the previous walk, she tried to retrace her way to the room where Mari and the others were supposed to be. She didn’t know the exact location, as they were guided separately at some point to get to the meeting directly.

The castle was big, but it was not a labyrinth. The aisles were not created to make people stray, and the rooms’ layout was very straightforward. So she should be able to find Mari’s room if only she searches enough.

Their meeting was held in the deepest part of the castle, and logically thinking, guest rooms should be located somewhere near the entrance. There was no reason to build them in other places. So in the best case scenario, she had to scale the whole castle from the top to the bottom. Just thinking about that made her shook involuntarily.

The soldiers retreated for now, but they were by no means going to give up. Aur and the others were their enemies now, it would seem. But even if Sofia was to be left alone, she had to escape this sticky situation.

「What should I do?」

Her lonely voice echoed in the icy passageway ahead.