Chapter III: A Generic NPC’s Valiant Struggle
Somewhere deep within the 89th floor, there was an octagonal room with exits on four sides. There was also a concealed room that existed on one side, in between two of the exits. It wasn’t terribly large, but it made for a great hiding spot. The entrance was camouflaged, so it was hard to spot from the outside.
Kouki and the others were currently cooped up inside, taking a short break. Everyone’s expressions were dark. Their minds were all preoccupied with the battle they’d just escaped from. Many of them still hadn’t had their wounds healed, and were grimacing in pain.
Normally this would be where Kouki roused his companions with one of his characteristically charismatic speeches. However, using Limit Break for that long had taken a serious toll on him. He silently sat against the wall, his lips utterly sealed.
Worse, the ever-cheerful class mascot Suzu was still unconscious. Her face was pale from blood loss, and she rested fitfully, her breathing ragged. Seeing her so weak was part of what had the class down.
Suzu’s legs were still petrified from the knees down, and Kaori was still working on healing her.
Fortunately, she’d already closed the wound on her thigh. All that was left to do was unpetrify the rest of her legs. Unfortunately, she’d already lost way too much blood. From the looks of it, the cat’s tentacles must have hit a major artery. It was only thanks to Kaori’s prodigious skill that Suzu was alive at all.
However, even Kaori couldn’t replace all of Suzu’s lost blood. At least not immediately, anyway. There was no magic that created blood, so the most she could do was feed Suzu blood replenishing potions. For all intents and purposes, Suzu was out of commission for the near future. The party needed somewhere safe to rest.
Because Kaori was so focused on keeping Suzu alive, she hadn’t had time to really heal the others. Naturally, that meant Saitou and Kondou were still petrified too.
Once Suzu’s condition was stable, Kaori would have to heal them next. And so, the party knew that they wouldn’t get to be healed for a while, and aside from a small minority, most of them were okay with that. Or maybe they just didn’t have the energy to complain.
Shizuku furrowed her brows and massaged her temples. She knew that she had to do something about everyone’s low morale, but she didn’t know how.
She was a fundamentally quiet person, unlike Suzu. Words didn’t come easy to her.
But Kouki was too exhausted to even stand, and Suzu was unconscious. She was the only one left in a position to act, and she’d always been afflicted with the never-ending need to help people. In many ways, Shizuku was more like a wise old lady than a high school girl.
On top of that, she possessed a will of iron. She was just as exhausted as the rest of them, but she didn’t rest. Tired of thinking about it, Shizuku decided to at least break the oppressive silence with a joke about how badly they’d been beaten. However, before she could, Tsuji and Nomura walked through the room’s entrance.
“Phew. I think we managed to camouflage it better than before. I’ve never done such precise spellcasting, so it was pretty difficult. I don’t think I can cast anymore.”
“Altering the entrance to look just like the rest of the wall is outside your area of expertise, after all. We had to draw that whole magic circle from scratch too. You did good.”
“You too. Thanks for fixing up my arm. It must have been rough.” Nomura hadn’t just camouflaged this room’s entrance. He was the one who’d made this room in the first place.
Geomancers’ affinity with earth magic generally extended to directly controlling the earth, not shaping and molding it like Synergists did. Because of that, precise work such as this was difficult for them. They could open giant cracks in the earth, send boulders flying, make spears out of the ground, and if they were strong enough, even petrify foes and create golems, but separating out specific minerals from alloys, fusing them together, and creating new objects with things that fell under the “earth” category was the sole domain of Synergists.
So while it was easy for a Geomancer to make a huge hole in the wall, doing something precise like then covering that hole up with earth that looked just like the wall around it was almost impossible. Nomura had needed to draw an entire magic circle from scratch to make it happen.
The reason Tsuji had gone with him was so she could finish unpetrifying his arm.
“Good work, Nomura-kun. You’ve bought us some time.”
“I just hope it works. All we can do now is pray she doesn’t find us before we finish healing. As for Kousuke... all we can do for him is pray too.”
“Don’t worry about Kousuke. No one’s as unnoticeable as him.”
“Hey Jugo, I know you’re trying to cheer us up, but that’s just depressing to hear...”
The despondent atmosphere cleared up a little when the students heard that they were safely hidden. Shizuku thanked Nomura for lightening the mood.
Nomura smiled bitterly and prayed for his best friend’s safety. Endou was the only one not inside the safety of their hidden room. He’d headed out alone to inform Captain Meld of what they’d encountered on the 90th floor. Even for an overpowered summoned hero like him, running through ten floors this deep down was paramount to suicide. The only reason Kouki and the others had had a somewhat easy time of it was because they’d worked together as a team of 15.
However, he had one rather cheap trick up his sleeve that would allow him to traverse the whole distance safely.
His ability to go unnoticed. Despite the fact that he was neither overly gloomy, nor a terribly quiet person, his friends often lost sight of him. And when they looked around in a panic, they’d be surprised to see him still standing there right next to them. His naturally weak presence, coupled with his Assassin skills would easily allow him to run all the way to the 70th floor where Captain Meld was without being noticed by a single monster. He’d already been a master of hiding back on earth, but he’d polished his skills to new heights since being summoned here. Even those with the Sense Presence skill couldn’t easily find him.
It was for that reason everyone had entrusted Endou with delivering this information.
When he’d left, Endou had been in tears. Nothing was more frustrating than leaving your comrades behind and running away alone. Though those tears may have been due to the way his friends had tried to convince him he was the best suited for this mission. Saying things like “no one is as unnoticeable as you,” or “I can’t even tell when you’re around sometimes, so there’s no way the monsters will,” or “you know, you’re so forgettable I actually forgot your name for a few seconds,” probably didn’t do much for his confidence.
In all honesty, Kouki and the others had wanted to retreat to a higher floor, but they hadn’t had any strength left to fight. With everyone covered in wounds, three of their party out of commission, and Kouki severely weakened, they wouldn’t have survived a battle with the monsters on this floor.
Of course, they didn’t think Captain Meld would be able to come down to rescue them.
Including him, only six knights even had the strength to survive the 70th floor. Even if they gathered all of the best knights and all the highest-ranked adventurers, Kouki knew they would at best be able to make it to the latter half of the 70s. Any more than that was impossible for the humans of this world. And even if Endou managed to convince everyone to follow him on such a dangerous trek, that would still require the rest of the students to climb at least 10 floors back to the 70s too.
The reason they’d sent Endou off was not to ask for reinforcements, but to inform Meld and the others of the demon they’d encountered, and the monster army she led.
Ishtar and the others already knew that demons were able to control monsters. And that they didn’t use simple brainwashing, but a method that allowed the monsters to maintain some semblance of their will. However, they had grossly miscalculated the strength of those monsters. The humans were worried about the numbers demons could bring to bear against people, not the strength of those individual monsters.
Yet the monsters the students had faced were strong enough to not only wipe out everything on the 90th floor with ease, they had even been able to beat back a party of cheat-endowed heroes. If the demons had always possessed such power, humanity would have been annihilated long ago.
In other words, Ishtar’s information hadn’t been mistaken at the time, but the demons had since leveled up their monster taming abilities.
Not only had they gained the advantage of numbers, but they also eclipsed humans in individual strength. Kouki and the others knew that information had to be passed along to the Holy Church as soon as possible.
“Shirasaki-san, I’ll leave unpetrifying Kondou-kun and Saitou-kun to you. It would take me too long to do it. I’ll start healing the other members instead.”
“Yeah, that’s fine. Don’t overdo it, Tsuji-san.”
“I’ll be fine. If anything, I should be saying that to you... Sorry. If I was stronger, you wouldn’t have to carry such a huge burden...” Tsuji had been downing mana potions one after the other while Nomura was talking. She’d recovered enough to start healing the others now.
Tsuji always pretended that she wasn’t bothered by the fact that her skills were far inferior to Kaori’s, but in truth her lack of skill constantly ate at her. She hated her own weakness and the burden it caused Kaori.
Kaori shook her head, but Tsuji just smiled bitterly and went to go heal her comrades. Seeing the pain vanish from their faces helped ease her own.
One again Nomura was dying to say something, but he didn’t want to interrupt Tsuji’s concentration while she was healing.
“We’re not even sure how much longer we can hold out. If there’s something you wanna say man, just say it.”
“Shove off.”
Nagayama watched Nomura with an amused expression, but Nomura sulkily turned away from him.
A few hours later. The students took naps in shifts, gradually recovering some of their strength.
Meanwhile, Endou made his way up the floors, avoiding contact with all monsters. Slowly but surely, he was approaching the 70th floor where Captain Meld was.
The monsters on 80th floor and below were all powerful enough that he could only take them on one at a time. If multiple came at him at once, he’d be overwhelmed. He moved as fast as he could without attracting attention, knowing every minute he spent on the lower floors was a risk. Fortunately, he was so well hidden that he could watch monsters go by right in front of him and not be worried.
Once the current group of monsters was out of sight, he dropped from the ceiling, silent as a spider. His artifacts all aided in his stealth, and he was wearing all black. He looked every bit the Assassin he was.
Had he wished to, Endou could easily have launched a surprise attack on the monsters that had passed him by, doing quite a bit of damage. Am I really that hard to notice? A tear glimmered in the corner of his eyes. It dripped to the ground, as silent as the rest of him.
“Anyway, I need to hurry...” Endou understood the importance of the task he’d been entrusted with. He also knew that they hadn’t sent him away just to inform the kingdom. His comrades had wanted him to survive, that was why they’d made him go. He was the only one who could escape. Nagayama and Nomura hadn’t said anything, but he could tell from their faces when they’d sent him off that they didn’t want him to come back.
Despite their wishes, he had every intention of returning to his friends once he’d completed his mission. He couldn’t bring himself to escape by himself when he knew his friends were struggling.
Though it disappointed him how invisible he was, he also knew that right now it was his greatest weapon. He sped up the escape route he knew by heart now, and safely made it back to the 70th floor.
Reining in his impatience, he cautiously made his way to the teleportation circle Captain Meld had made his base. Finally, he was close enough that he could sense six humans. No one else could make it this far down, so he was sure it was Captain Meld. He deactivated his Stealth, and got close enough that they should be able to sense him.
He rounded the last corner and walked into the room Captain Meld and the others were waiting in. Still, even though he was in plain sight, nobody seemed to take any notice of him.
He looked up at the captain with dead eyes and raised his voice to catch his attention. Not only was he annoyed that people still hadn’t noticed him, he was in a hurry to get back to his comrades.
“Captain! It’s me! Hello! We’re in big trouble!”
“Whoa!? What the!? Are we under attack!?” Captain Meld hurriedly drew his sword and leaped back. He looked around him warily. The other knights followed suit a heartbeat later.
“No, it’s me! Seriously, give me a break!”
“Huh? Oh, it’s just Kousuke. Don’t scare me like that. Wait, where’s everyone else? And how come you look all beat up?”
“Like I said, we’re in trouble! Big trouble!” Captain Meld had gotten used to Endou popping up out of nowhere, so he instantly relaxed when he realized it wasn’t an enemy.
A moment later, the fact that he’d returned earlier than scheduled, alone, and covered in wounds set alarm bells ringing in his head. He realized something catastrophic must have occurred and his expression grew serious.
He was a little hurt that even the country’s most elite knights couldn’t sense him unless he said something, but he also knew now wasn’t the time to worry about that. He quickly explained what had happened.
At first Captain Meld had just been confused, but as Endou’s story progressed, his expression grew steadily more grim.
Tears started streaming down Endou’s face as he finished his tale and explained why he’d escaped alone. Captain Meld gently patted his head and reassured him.
“Don’t cry, Kousuke. You did what you needed to do. Could anyone else make it up 20 floors this fast? Someone had to warn us, and you were the best person for the job. You did good, kid.”
“Captain... I-I’m going to go back. They said they’d make it back on their own somehow... and that they wouldn’t lose next time, but... Amanogawa used his Limit Break, so he’s exhausted. We barely managed to run away. Everyone’s tired from all the fighting... Even if they get healed up, next time the demon comes... next time those damn monsters show up, there’s no telling what’ll happen. We don’t even know if that was all of them... so please head back to the surface on your own.” Endou wiped away his tears and spoke to Captain Meld in a voice full of resolve.
The captain bit his lip in frustration and handed Endou his bag full of high-rank healing supplies. One by one, the other knights gave him all of their items and tools.
“I’m sorry, Kousuke. I’d like nothing more than to head there with you, but... I know I’d just slow you down.”
“Oh, don’t worry about it. We were running out of healing items, so these alone are a great help.”
Endou smiled and held up the pack Captain Meld had given him. He’d been trying to reassure the captain, but instead his expression only grew darker. It wasn’t just frustration at his inability to help, but also bitterness at what he knew he had to say.
“Kousuke. I’m going to ask you for something despicable. I don’t care if you hate me for it. In fact, maybe you should, but please promise me all the same.”
“Huh? What are you...”
“If things look bad, make sure you at least bring Kouki back with you.”
“Huh?” Endou stared at Captain Meld, a puzzled look on his face.
“Kousuke. If you’ve encountered monsters strong enough to beat you guys back, we’re in deep trouble... Without Kouki, humanity’s as good as lost. Of course, I believe the lot of you can all make it out of this alive, and I’d like nothing more than to see that happen, but as Heiligh’s knight commander, I need to think about what’s best for our kingdom too. If the worst should happen, I want you to promise you’ll focus on keeping Kouki alive above all else.”
“......” Endou’s expression transformed into one of shock. Captain Meld wanted him to abandon his friends for the sake of someone more important to humanity. Leaders sometimes had to make cruel choices. The kinds of things Captain Meld had to worry about were things that hadn’t even occurred to Endou. And that was precisely why Endou’s expression darkened.
“Are the rest of us just Amanogawa’s sidekicks to you?”
“That’s not what I meant. I wasn’t lying when I said I want you all to make it out of this alive. No, nothing I say will be able to convince you... Kousuke, if nothing else, can you at least promise to pass on these words to Shizuku and Ryutarou?”
“......” Captain Meld’s words had shaken Endou. All of the students had spent a great deal of time with the grizzly commander. He was the one who’d taught them the ways of this world. They all looked up to him as a reliable older brother, especially those in the vanguard. Among all the people they’d met in Tortus, he was the one they trusted the most, which was precisely why Endou felt so betrayed by him in that moment.
Yet, in a tiny corner of his mind, he realized there was logic in what Captain Meld had said. Though he wanted nothing more than to yell at the captain, he knew it would be wrong. He nodded sullenly and turned on his heels. But just as he did so...
“Kousuke!”
“Uwaaaaaaaaah!” Endou screamed in rage and frustration as he arrived on the 30th floor. Without a moment’s delay, he stabbed his dagger into the magic circle at his feet.
“Wh-What’s going on!? Hey, you, what are you doing!?”
“Stop that!”
“Someone, hold him down!”
The knights guarding the teleportation circle on the 30th were surprised when a black-robed boy suddenly appeared from its center. Though they were taken aback, they quickly recovered and tried to prevent Endou from destroying the circle.
These were the knights Captain Meld had left behind to guard the magic circle on this side. The ones he’d left behind were all too weak to accompany him past the 30th floor.
Endou struck a second time, then a third. Just before he’d destroyed the circle completely, the knights managed to pile on top of him. It was possibly the worst mistake of their lives.
“L-Let me go! I need to destroy this! If I don’t, they’ll follow me! Let me go!”
“Wait, you’re one of the heroes friends, aren’t you!? Why are you...”
The knights shouted in surprise as they realized the person who’d teleported in was a member of Kouki’s party. For just a second, their grips loosened. Endou took advantage of that to raise his dagger up again, but he was a second too late.
The magic circle began to glow. A second later, a blurry outline attacked Endou and the knights.
“Shit! Everyone, get back!”
“What’s happening!? Gwaaaaaaaaah!”
Endou leaped out of the way, barely dodging the Chimera’s attack. Unfortunately, one of the knights wasn’t able to react in time, and the Chimera’s claws tore right through his armor, mortally wounding him.
He slumped to the ground, blood spurting everywhere. The other knights stared in shock. Endou frantically called out to the rest of them.
“Enemy attack! Watch out for the places where the air looks warped! We have to destroy the magic circle or more of them will keep coming!” His shrill screams brought the rest of the knights back to their senses. But in that short time, another knight was torn to shreds.
There were seven knights guarding the 30th floor teleportation circle. Of those, two had already died.
Endou activated one of his Assassin skills, Shadow Dance, and leaped up toward the ceiling. He was planning on jumping behind the Chimera and destroying the circle with one final attack, but the Chimera realized his intentions and jumped up to stop him.
“Dammit, what the hell is this thing!?” The knights still hadn’t fully grasped the situation, but they knew they had to stop the Chimera. The five of them leaped at it all at once.
All they could see of the Chimera, was a blurry outline in the air, so they had no way of knowing what kind of weapons the monsters possessed, or what they should be wary of. Because of that, they were totally unprepared when the Chimera’s tail started biting at their necks, or when its wings started buffeting them away.
However, their concentrated attack did succeed in throwing the Chimera off-balance a little, allowing Endou to just barely dodge its fangs. They still grazed his shoulder, but Endou lopped off its tail in return as he fell past it.
The Chimera flapped its wings to regain its balance and landed a few feet away. At the same time, Endou landed on the ground and swung his dagger at the teleportation circle.
The Chimera used the recoil of its landing to launch itself at Endou with frightening speed, but it was too late. Endou’s dagger had already reached its target. There was a loud crack as the circle shattered. Its glow began to fade. The residual mana from the previous teleports scattered.
“Now we’re... Gaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!” Just as he breathed a sigh of relief, the Chimera clamped its jaws down on Endou’s right arm. Then, it yanked its jaws back, trying to tear Endou’s arm off.
“We won’t let you!”
“Get off of him!”
Luckily, the knights rushed at it, distracting the beast. The Chimera’s grip loosened as a short spear embedded itself in its flank.
Due to the blood that had sprayed out when he’d been bitten, most of the Chimera’s face was now visible. Endou used that opportunity to throw a dagger at its eye with his left arm while he freed his right.
The knights closed in to deal the finishing blow, and two of them were killed as the Chimera thrashed about in pain. Endou threw more daggers at it, but even with one eye gone, it used its supernatural senses to dodge out of the way.
Another one of the knights screamed. Endou cast a quick glance in his direction. It seemed even after being cut off, the Chimera’s tail could still move. It had leaped up and latched on to the knight’s neck. The skin around where he’d been bitten turned purple, and after a few more seconds of screaming, he died.
“Damn it all!” The last knight tried to crush the snake-tail for good, but that was a grave mistake on his part. The Chimera instantly pounced on him the moment he turned his back on it. Covered in wounds, Endou desperately squeezed out the last ounce of his strength. He aimed his strongest skill at the Chimera’s neck, hoping to kill it before it reached the knight.
“Dieeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!” He’d abandoned his comrades. He’d abandoned Captain Meld. He’d even let these knights be killed. He channeled all of that hatred and frustration into this one last attack. His blade struck true. He sliced through the back of the Chimera’s neck, slaying it instantly.
The force of his leap took him past the Chimera, so he hit the ground with considerable force, rolling a few meters forward.
Enduring the pain in his shoulder, right arm, and stomach, he propped himself up with his left arm and looked back to make sure the beast was really dead.
Its Camouflage had been dispelled, and there was a huge gash in its neck. As far as he could tell, it was done for. Still, rather than looking triumphant, Endou just cursed bitterly.
The last knight was a short distance away from the Chimera’s body. He was quite obviously dead. His right hand was still holding his sword, while his face was a swollen mass of purple. Next to him was the Chimera’s tail, cut in half. It seemed the knight had managed to cut down the tail right before the Chimera had reached him. However, just before the tail had died, it had shot its poison at the knight’s face.
In the end, all of the knights guarding the magic circle on the 30th floor had died. Endou wept, cursing himself for not managing to save even a single one of them.
Once his tears were all spent, he took out the strongest healing medicine he could find from Captain Meld’s bag and drank it. If he didn’t fix himself up quickly, he’d die of blood loss.
After he finished treating himself, he gathered all of the knights’ corpses and lined them up next to the broken teleportation circle. Then, he gazed at them for a few minutes before turning around and heading for the surface. His face was pale and his eyes empty.
Once again, he’d been the only one to survive.
That knowledge coiled about him like cold chains, weighing down his footsteps. The only thing keeping him going was the mission he’d been entrusted with by those who’d died. He ran mechanically, not thinking about anything else.
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