Chapter 8
SPOILED BY THE EASE of riding Pegasus, Mira traced the path on her map and looked up to the sky. The distant clouds were a hazy blue, and the birds disappearing into her periphery made her long for flight.
“Seems like we’ve made up our minds. Let’s get going,” Gilbert suggested.
“Right, Heinrich answered shortly.
Mira looked back to survey the other two. After some careful thinking, she began her summoning work.
[Evocation: Garuda]
A magic circle floated up between the two men, becoming a pillar of light that stretched upwards. The pillar shattered, its fragments dancing in the air as a warm current ran through the area like a spring breeze.
Gilbert and Heinrich looked up in confusion. Before them was an enormous bird with iridescent feathers, changing color depending on the angle of the observer.
“Is this…a monster?!” Heinrich put a hand on his sword.
“No. Those wings…” Gilbert put his hand on Heinrich’s pommel to stay his sword and narrowed his eyes imperceptibly, looking the beast up and down. “Hank, this is one of Mira’s summons.”
“What?!”
“Isn’t that right?” Gilbert asked, shooting Mira a glance. After a pause, Heinrich turned as well.
Mira smirked and replied, “That it is.”
“Truly?” Heinrich gasped. “I had no idea that summoning could be done so…instantaneously. I’m astonished.”
“Looks like Garuda,” Gilbert noted. “What’s the plan?”
Mira had surprised them, but she was quite satisfied by how their reactions differed from before—especially how Gilbert had so quickly figured it out. She puffed out her chest as if awaiting applause.
“I thought flying might make the trip faster.” Mira sauntered in front of Garuda, looking up at the bird standing an entire story taller than the surrounding trees. “It’s been a while, friend,” she addressed it. “Are you doing well?”
Garuda looked down at her in silence with the sharp eyes of a hawk. Its presence was intense, teetering on the edge of oppressive. A gust of wind emphasized the deep silence.
Has it…forgotten about me?!
Mira had a moment of panic, but she continued, “R-right… I was hoping to have you carry the three of us. Umm, but you don’t have to agree to it. I can’t force you…” She stared at the evocation stiffly.
The massive bird stooped down to the ground and hung its neck before Mira. It flicked its eyes for her to climb onto its back, seemingly willing to carry them. Mira sighed in relief and turned to the men.
“There you have it. Let us go by sky!”
Thank goodness, thought Mira. Thirty years was easily long enough to forget, but Garuda had not forgotten; it was simply silent by nature.
Mira had summoned mostly affectionate creatures since her return, so she’d unconsciously expected some sort of big reaction upon their reunion. What she failed to realize was that, as a creature who controlled wind, that warm breeze emanating from Garuda was its own special way of showing its joy.
***
“Thank you, friend,” Mira said as she climbed Garuda’s neck, pushing rainbow feathers aside to clamber up.
“This will be my first time flying,” Heinrich said, letting his boulder-like face crack into a smile as he solemnly approached.
“I’m all for saving time,” Gilbert added. He reached out his hand to board Garuda, but the creature immediately lifted its neck away from him.
“Hm. Miss Mira, how will we travel with you?” Heinrich asked, straining his neck to look up.
“I’m unsure. Garuda, what are you doing?”
While Mira sat at the base of Garuda’s neck and tried to command it to let the other two on, the enormous bird suddenly lurched as it lifted a log-sized leg and snatched up both Gilbert and Heinrich with one set of dexterous claws.
“Gaaah?! What’s going on?!” Heinrich screamed in confusion.
“Huh. Guess Garuda won’t let anyone but its master ride on its back,” Gilbert surmised, far calmer than he should have been. Standing on one leg, Garuda spread its vast wings and leapt into the sky, rocking every nearby tree in the process. “This is quite the sight. Even if it is a bit unsettling…”
Heinrich looked upon the scenery, having never seen the green forest stretching in all directions from above. The wind beat against him, but in a way it was strangely comforting. Unfortunately, he could not quite ignore the fact that he was dangling from a massive bird’s claws, perilously close to death.
As Garuda circled through the sky, the sunlight on its wings reflected in every hue of the rainbow, forming a colorful halo of light.
Riding Garuda was a different experience than Pegasus. Its feathers were as soft as dandelion down, but they were sturdy enough not to tear when clenched. Mira held the feathers like reins and pointed toward their destination with her free hand.
“There it is. The Stairway to the Sky is that way,” she directed. On her orders, Garuda shifted from circling to a direct path and accelerated.
“I feel like a captured mouse,” Gilbert muttered, gazing vacantly down at the trees as the wind battered him to and fro.
***
A few moments later, they arrived at a cavern that looked like a hole gouged out of the rock. This mode of travel might have been faster than walking, but Mira felt compelled to apologize to the two men once Garuda had been dismissed.
“Oh, we’re fine. Just messed up my hair a little,” Gilbert replied, running his fingers through his wind-buffeted mane.
Heinrich didn’t seem bothered, either; he simply called it a rare experience and began inspecting his gear to prepare for the dungeon ahead.
Behind them was a small clearing in the deep forest, and before them was an insurmountable precipice. The mountain was too steep to be scaled, but the cavern yawned wide, seeming to beckon them in. The endless darkness within echoed with indistinct growls.
“Well, let’s get going,” Gilbert called.
Heinrich finished his inspection and stood up. With the stern samurai in the lead, they stepped into the cavern. The chilly path within was blanketed in a darkness that neither lanterns nor magic could fully penetrate. The walls, ceiling, and floor reflected dim gray in the party’s faint lights.
“And you’re certain we can leave all the work to him?” Mira asked.
“He doesn’t mind,” Gilbert answered. “We haven’t even gotten to the dungeon proper yet, so Hank can take care of it. We’ll save my arrows and your mana for now. When the real action starts, we can jump in.”
“Indeed,” confirmed Heinrich, “I am enough for this.”
The group was now thirty minutes into their excursion. Any monsters that approached had been cut down by a single stroke of Heinrich’s katana.
Heinrich had claimed to be A-Rank, and his skill certainly backed it up. He seemed to have sharp hearing, as he reacted to every enemy as soon as they entered striking range. The man was a true samurai, and Mira watched him in awe.
They continued down the path without issue for a while until the light was wholly swallowed up by darkness. It seemed they’d entered a chamber. The light reached no further than a few steps in front of them, where they clearly saw something man-made: a stone gate that had collapsed.
The gate seemingly fused with the bedrock and was closed on one side. The other side had crumbled to rubble. Nearby, Mira spotted a familiar barrier crystal.
“Are we fully prepared?” Heinrich asked, producing his permit.
“Yep,” Gilbert assented.
“Ready any time,” Mira answered confidently.
As they stood before the barrier, Heinrich pressed his permit against it. The soap-bubble-thin barrier quivered as if wind had blown against it. Mira entered first, followed by Gilbert, then Heinrich.
When they stepped inside, the air was palpably different from the cavern they had just left. Wind blew at them head-on, as if trying to repel them. The Stairway to the Sky was the one path to the Celestial Ruins, cut deep within the mountains. It was an extremely long and dangerous dungeon, spanning ten floors.
The small space of the entrance was lit with flickering flames, spaced at regular intervals in the darkness. The stairs ahead seemed carved directly out of the rock. It was hard to tell if it was descending to the depths of the planet or rising into the heavens.
Ah, right. Now I remember this place.
Recalling how this worked in the formal route in the game, Mira sighed in exasperation.
“Now, here’s where the real trek begins,” Gilbert announced. “I hear this is a long one, so let me know if you two get tired. I’ll do the same, of course. Monsters don’t appear on staircases, but I hear they’re near infinite on each floor. If we arrive at a floor exhausted, we might end up dead.”
“Indeed,” Heinrich agreed. “I will take that into consideration.”
“Understood,” Mira sighed.
Heinrich must have had the stamina his class build suggested, as he’d never even broken a sweat on the way here. He didn’t so much as flinch at the sprawling staircase before him. Gilbert grinned wryly, as if this was more than he’d bargained for. Even Mira was getting cold feet.
***
An hour or so into the climb—the whole trek an endless cacophony of dull armored footsteps on the stairs—Gilbert sat down. “Whew… We should reach the first floor soon, so let’s take a break for now.”
“Right.” Heinrich removed the katana hanging from his hip and slowly followed. A chilly wind blew upon them, but as Gilbert and Heinrich were drenched in sweat, it was quite welcome.
“Hrmm, it is indeed long and very annoying,” Mira grumbled and hopped down from the shoulder of her silent porter: a Dark Knight.
Though Mira’s physical stamina was inferior to that of the men, she had ways to level the playing field. The Dark Knight was strong enough to do the work for both of them. She had clambered atop its shoulder and ordered it to walk—her endless stair-climbing machine.
She had offered them a ride as well, but when they saw her sitting on the Knight’s shoulder, they quickly shook their heads. No matter how bulky the knight was, only someone as small as her could fit on its shoulder. They would have to ride piggyback, carried like a princess, or sling themselves across the Knight’s arms. Even with the Knight doing the walking, that wouldn’t have been a restful ride.
“By the way, what brings you two to the Celestial Ruins?” Mira asked as they took a few bites of their rations and drank water to soothe their fatigue.
Gilbert washed down his dried meat with a swallow of water and answered, “Like I said before, I’m a scholar. I specialize in botany, so I’m here to study the vast forest at the Celestial Ruins. Hank is here to keep me alive, basically.”
“Hrmm, I see.”
The forest that Gilbert referred to extended beyond the Celestial Ruins. Its ecosystem was isolated from the rest of the world, and it was full of flora and fauna that had evolved in unique ways.
“More specifically, I’m studying strange occurrences in the forest. Speaking of, I have a question of my own: from what I’ve seen of your summoning, you must fly often, right?” Gilbert cupped his hands in the shape of a bowl. “If so, have you ever seen any stretches of forest where it seemed as though they had a hole scooped out of them with a spoon?”
If such a hole in the forest existed, it would be easy to spot from the sky. But Mira had no recollection of seeing such a thing. Then again, most of her attention was on clouds as she searched their shapes for the castle in the sky Cyril had told her about.
“I do fly often, but…I haven’t seen any. Is that related to your strange occurrences?”
“Yeah, it is. We call the phenomenon the Earth Eater. If you haven’t seen it, then that’s fine; I’ll explain.” Gilbert shrugged and a sly grin crept onto his face, like that of a predator who’d found its prey. As he began expounding on his subject, Heinrich muttered his condolences and suddenly became very busy maintaining his weapon.
“It all started twenty-five years ago. Part of a forest to the north of Grimdart disappeared overnight, leaving nothing but the crater-like hollow I mentioned. It was about…five hundred meters in diameter, I’d say. It happened just where they’d successfully cultivated honey apples. There was an uproar. People thought it was the spirits going crazy, some god’s trick, or even an invasion from another world. But it didn’t end there. The same thing started happening all over the continent. Parts of Ozstein Valley’s forest, the sweet berry fields east of Alisfarius, the Forest of the Devout at the north of the continent, and plenty of other forests and plains disappeared overnight. I’m investigating the mystery.”
“Earth Eater, hrmm? Quite the mysterious phenomenon.” Mira mused.
Gilbert’s grin widened. “Yeah. Isn’t it exciting? Just the other day, I learned that the forest next to the Celestial Ruins fell victim to the Earth Eater. I happened to be nearby, so I wanted to be first on the scene. And that brings us to now.”
Gilbert prattled on and pulled out his research notebook. It was scribbled full of endless notes with no apparent method of organization—a work only readable by the person who had penned it. As he nearly forced the notes into Mira’s hands, he talked on about his observations, expectations, goals, and more.
Realizing that she had blundered into an academic lion’s den, Mira was subjected to the metaphorical mauling that was Gilbert’s lecture.
“As a result of my research, I’ve proposed a hypothesis: everything started a year before what happened in the forest north of Grimdart. Do you know what transpired then?”
“Er, I do not—”
“Then allow me to inform you!”
“Oh, really, that’s not necessary…”
“It all began on a floating archipelago in the south of this continent—”
This was just too much for Mira. “I’ve had enough!” she screamed, clambering up her Dark Knight again to escape.
“I was just getting to the good part.” Gilbert crossed his arms, dissatisfied.
Once Heinrich was sure that the lecture was over, he finished maintaining his weapon and stood up. “Let us continue.”
“Why can’t either of you be interested at all?”
“Perhaps because your explanation is too in-depth. Gil, never be a teacher.”
“Hmph.”
They trudged up the stairs to catch up with Mira.
***
Meeting again after a short while, they continued up the dim stairway. Gilbert tried to continue his lecture, but Mira seized every opportunity to change the subject. They continued in peace until they arrived at a wide landing that extended off into the gloom.
The first floor was a long upward slope with forts of piled rocks scattered throughout. Red lights like bonfires shone here and there, but they weren’t enough to illuminate the whole floor. Hidden eyes seemed to be sizing up the party.
Near infinite was an exaggeration, but that didn’t mean there weren’t many monsters. With one Biometric Scan alone, Mira found at least thirty, and their only path was forward.
“Time to take out the trash,” Mira said, hopping down from the Knight’s shoulder.
“Yes, let’s,” Heinrich said, unsheathing his sword. “We arrived quickly thanks to Garuda, but the road ahead remains long. Gil’s lecture took up time, as well. Let’s be about it.”
He looked to Gilbert.
“Hey, knowledge is power. But as usual, I’ll strike first. Mira, just watch for a little while,” Gilbert ordered as he grabbed an arrow from his hip quiver. Strangely, Gilbert had no bow, nor did he seem to be taking one from his User’s Bangle.
The arrow he held was thick. Holding it in his right hand, he stepped back with his right leg and held the arrow beside his head, slightly behind his ear.
Mira watched in disbelief as his muscles seemed to expand for a moment as he launched the projectile. The arrow cut through the air, and in the distance there was a fountain-like spray of blood.
Gilbert fired a second and third arrow. Each one whistled through the wind like peregrine falcons seizing their prey.
Perfect accuracy. No arrow faltered in the slightest. They cut through monster brows and necks, mercifully ending their lives in a single instantaneous blow. As their comrades fell, other monsters roared, shaking the air with their rage. But in the next instant, their own heads were pierced, and they were abruptly silenced.
Simple, yet effective.
“Quite incredible, indeed,” Mira murmured in awe as Gilbert mowed down monsters.
Meanwhile, Heinrich’s own fighting spirit was stoked.
“They know we’re here now,” Gilbert said. “All yours, Hank.”
“I’ve got this!”
After losing ten of their number, the monsters finally screamed and rushed for the three adventurers. Even from afar, their malice saturated the air as they came.
Heinrich plunged into the fray. An agile, tiger-like monster swung at him, but he sliced the creature’s arm clean off a mere instant after he passed by it. Heinrich used the momentum of that swing to cut down the monsters behind it. With his katana at his side, he bent his knees slightly and channeled his fighting spirit.
As he released his next attack, every flash left by his sword became a blade of its own that attacked foes. It was like a small tornado, and anything caught in the vortex was turned into chunks of meat totally unrecognizable from their original form.
“Oho. A fundamental technique, but well practiced,” Mira said to herself as she watched Heinrich’s swordplay.
Just as there was specialized magic for each kind of mage, the warrior class had many fighting styles that one improved at with use. Heinrich had proven his power with one blow.
“I’d better contribute, too!” Mira ran forward, fully motivated by the performance. She was about to draw on her sage skill when she stopped abruptly.
Whew, that was close. I almost gave Meilin free advertising!
Having learned that lesson many times by now, Mira instead gave an order to her motionless Dark Knight.
“Exterminate them!” she called in a dignified voice.
The darkness enveloping the Knight grew deeper. Like flickering flames, its crimson eyes burned with bloodlust, and it sped into the fray like a bullet.
A death rattle rang out in the distance. The monster wasn’t cut down by the Knight’s sword; it was crushed by a body slam. The Dark Knight didn’t stop to gloat—it moved from foe to foe, massacring any living monsters left.
“You’re much more vicious than you look,” Gilbert noted with a chuckle as he sat back and watched the bloodshed.
“What horror…” Heinrich cried, running to join the fray. “Leave some for me!”
In just a few minutes, one man and one monster had cleared the room.
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