Chapter 17 — It Appears You Have Some Business to Resolve, So I Will Be Going On Ahead
A tall, thin man stood facing an enormous bear in the forest. It was far larger than seemed reasonable, and even though it was on all fours, he had to look up at it. In various places across its body, its fur had hardened like stone. The hardened fur made a spear on its head and blades on its knees and elbows, creating an impressively murderous appearance.
In contrast, the man held only a sword and shield, luxurious as they were. Though the glittering gems adorning his gear said nothing of their usefulness, it did make them look expensive. The armor he wore, on the other hand, was plain leather. The plain, almost poor-looking armor struck a dissonant chord with his other equipment.
“Um, excuse me! Could you please help? Like with that Goddess Beam or something?!” the poor man, Lynel, whined desperately.
He was a terribly unlucky man who had met Yogiri during the trial in the tower. The UEG had changed his luck for the better, which should have persisted through the world’s reset, but his luck wasn’t good enough to save him from having to fight a monster like this on his own, so he wasn’t exactly celebrating it.
“I don’t know, I don’t think it’s proper for a goddess to mess with human games.” A short distance away from Lynel and the bear, a woman sat idly on a rock, entirely uninterested in the events taking place before her. Wearing an outfit that barely covered any of her voluptuous body, she was the goddess Vahanato. Various spears, swords, and shields floated in the air around her, similar to the ones she had lent to Lynel.
In reality, Vahanato shouldn’t have been in the world at this point in time. When the world was reset, those who came from outside were forced to wait outside until the time they had entered the world the first time came around again, but Vahanato had used her connection with Lynel to force her way in early. For that reason, she couldn’t stray far from Lynel’s side. They were stuck together for now.
“Whoa!”
The bear moved with unbelievable speed, considering its massive body. Closing the distance between them in an instant, it struck Lynel with one of its paws. Lynel’s shield easily deflected the blow, the shield moving the hand wielding it rather than the other way around. With a cry, the bear leaped back. The paw that had struck the shield was smoking, a result of the shield fighting back on its own.
“See? With my weapons, you can fight this thing no problem. Hurry up and take care of it.”
“Easy for you to say...”
If the shield would protect him of its own accord, he could ignore defense and focus on attacking. That should be enough for him to win eventually. But Lynel was still hesitant. He had already lost to the pressure and bloodlust given off by his opponent. It saw him as nothing more than a meal, its eyes flashing with madness. Apparently, he looked quite delicious, as even now drool was pouring from its mouth, a strong musk filling the air.
“Come on! You don’t have to get close to it! Just point the tip at it!”
The bear reared up on its hind legs in a threatening posture.
“L-Like this? Whoa!” Still hesitant, Lynel timidly lifted his sword to point at the bear. The blade unleashed a burst of light, throwing him back onto his rear. Something had launched out of the sword, and he hadn’t been able to take the recoil.
Still seated, he looked up at the bear. Its right shoulder had vanished. Its right foreleg dropped to the ground, the shoulder and chest it had been connected to having vanished. It was almost as if some circle had passed through it, erasing everything it touched.
“Come on, aim properly.”
“I didn’t know it was going to shoot anything! And I don’t know the timing either!”
“It’s all in your head! Think something like, ‘I’m gonna kill this guy right now!’ and the timing will sort itself out!”
Surprisingly, despite being so wounded, the bear hadn’t lost the will to fight. It charged forward on two legs, lifting its remaining foreleg to attack. Lynel screamed, immediately giving in to panic. He lost all sense of what was going on, flailing his sword and shield around aimlessly.
“Ahhhhhh! Huh?”
After a while of swinging wildly with his eyes closed, he realized nothing was happening. Hesitantly, he opened his eyes. Most of the bear was gone. A small part of its legs was left, but so much was gone that no one would have been able to tell it was once a bear.
“See? You won’t lose to something like that. Why are you so scared of everything? It’s getting kind of annoying. And you call yourself one of my believers?” the goddess said, stepping over and looking down at him.
“Uh...I don’t remember ever saying that I was.”
“Then now’s the time! Declare your faith in the goddess Vahanato!”
“What?! No, I’m a member of the Axis Church...”
“Don’t worry, I’m very gracious! I’m fine with you having two beliefs! Now say it!”
“Ugh... I believe in Vahanato...”
In truth, he had no desire to follow such a wicked god. She couldn’t even exist here without his help, so if he rejected her now, he doubted she would kill him. But she would start sulking. That would almost be worse. He would rather declare his faith in her than face that.
“Very good! Now, stand up! We don’t have time to be sitting around here.”
Vahanato’s goal was revenge. She wanted to find the ones responsible for killing her and her darling Albagarma and kill them with her own hands. Lynel had been wrapped up in her quest, proving that even changing his luck for the better didn’t free him from his unlucky fate.
“Is this really the right way?”
They were in the Castle in the Sky field of Cavern Quest, in the forest at the entrance. Of course, they were here in search of Yogiri. A short time after they’d met, bizarre creatures had started raining from the sky. A man calling himself the Sage Van had sent a message to the entire world, inviting everyone to play his game Cavern Quest to avoid the demonic creatures.
Lynel had found the invitation suspicious and hadn’t joined the game. Luckily, with Vahanato at his side, he knew he could deal with the creatures. Yogiri would have been able to handle them as well, so he figured there was a good chance he was on the surface too. They’d decided to search the surface first but quickly learned they wouldn’t accomplish much by doing so. It had been entirely overrun by the mysterious creatures, becoming a living hell. No amount of searching through it seemed likely to net them any success.
As they began to think that, they had received a message from the Great Sage. He had explained about the world being reset and about everything Yogiri had done, informing people that he was an enemy of the world who absolutely needed to be defeated. The message also told them that Yogiri was in Cavern Quest, so Lynel and Vahanato had finally followed him in. Upon their arrival, rumors that Yogiri had left for the quest to defeat Lasbo were spreading like wildfire. Hearing that, the two immediately set out to follow him, bringing them to their present situation.
“Who knows? That building is the only thing here, right?” Being a goddess didn’t give Vahanato knowledge of everything. For a number of reasons, her power here was limited.
Lynel stood up, deciding to head upward. He walked slowly through the forest, Vahanato floating alongside him.
“Can you make me float too?”
“No way. Too much work. I have to save my power for the right time. I can’t waste it here!”
“Okay...”
At present, her abilities were limited to the beam of light she could fire, which she called her Goddess Beam, the weapons floating in the air around her, and the ability to float in the air herself. She may have been capable of more, but she was keeping those powers in reserve.
They slowly made their way out of the forest, arriving at a gray wall. It was an enormous pile of stone blocks, a structure the size of a mountain. It grew narrower as it went up, so it seemed to be some kind of pyramid.
“I’m guessing we can’t climb this.”
“Hmm...looks like there’s a barrier. You’ll be knocked down if you try to go up the outside.”
“Maybe there’s an entrance somewhere?” Lynel looked around, but as far as he could see, there were no doors.
“Okay then, go that way!” Vahanato snapped a finger in one direction.
“Is there a door over there?”
“No idea. It’s just my intuition as a goddess!”
Lynel sighed. But he had no clue which direction the door would be in either, so in the end he sided with Vahanato’s intuition. Walking along the wall, they found a square hole that looked like it could be an entrance. A woman was standing alone in front of it, wearing a pair of glasses. She had a calm air about her.
“Uhh, hello.”
“Hello.” She returned the greeting with a smile. At least she didn’t seem to be hostile.
“Umm, is this the entrance? You’re heading up too?”
“So it seems. It looks like the entrance to me. I’ve done what I can to investigate it, but you can’t see anything inside from here.”
Lynel walked up beside the woman, peering into the square hole. It was large enough for two people to walk through side by side, but it was unnaturally dark. There was no clue as to what lay ahead.
“Is anyone in there?!” Lynel tried shouting, but there was no impression of his voice reaching inside. It felt like he was shouting at a wall.
“My apologies. I have yet to introduce myself. My name is Celestina. I worked as a concierge at a hotel in Quenza. I guess now I am an adventurer.” Now that she mentioned it, her outfit did look like she was a staff member at a high-class hotel.
“Uh, nice to meet you. My name is Lynel. I’m not an adventurer or anything, so I guess I’m unemployed, ha ha.”
You’re not unemployed at all. Serving me is your job.
Looking towards the voice, he found Vahanato was gone. It seemed she didn’t want to show herself to other people.
“There were a number of other entrances, but they were all the same. It is too dark to see anything inside.”
I see. Try attacking it with that sword.
“Are you sure?! If there’s someone inside, they could get hurt!”
Bad luck for them. Hurry up and do it!
“Fine.”
The conversation made it look like Lynel was talking to himself, but Vahanato didn’t seem to care. Lynel reluctantly raised his sword towards the black square hole. He squeezed the hilt, imagining an attack. The sword shone, firing a ball of light. It sank into the blackness, but that was all. It didn’t illuminate the interior, and there was no sound of it striking anything. It felt like he hadn’t done anything at all.
Now try sticking the sword in it.
Lynel hesitantly poked the sword into the hole. It sank into the darkness, feeling like no more than empty air.
So we can still go inside. I guess we’ll have to just go in.
“Hold on; this is really suspicious!”
So what? We can’t just stick around here forever.
“That’s true, but...”
“Looks like someone else is here,” Celestina said, looking at the forest. Lynel turned to follow her gaze, where he saw a man stepping out from the trees.
“Oh? If it isn’t Lynel!”
“Huh? Rick? Oh no, stay away! Don’t come any closer!”
The new arrival was a man in silver armor. He had been a reliable ally during their trial in the tower, but meeting him here was terrible.
“Is something wrong?” Rick asked, confused. He likely hadn’t expected such a reaction from Lynel.
“Oh? What a coincidence to see you here. Seems like a good omen to me.” Vahanato had appeared again.
“You...” Rick was immediately on guard, glaring at the goddess. These two had a connection from the past. Before the reset, Rick had been the one to deal her the finishing blow.
“My apologies. It appears you have some business to resolve, so I will be going on ahead,” said Celestina.
“Ah, wait!”
But Celestina stepped into the darkness. As she’d said, Lynel and Rick’s situation was none of her business, so at the first sign of trouble, going on ahead may have been the correct choice. But Lynel still felt her response was a bit cold.
“Noooow then. How do we deal with you?” Vahanato was licking her lips.
It didn’t seem there was anything Lynel could do to stop her.
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