Chapter 198

01 Siegmund was beside himself. “M… Mariela!” Not much time had passed since Mariela had run away from home. With his Spirit Eye open, Sieg scoured every nook and cranny of Sunlight’s Canopy for Mariela. Unable to just sit by and watch, one of the regulars, Old Man Ghark, called to him. “What’s the matter, sonny?” “Mari… Mari… Mariela!” “So that’s it. Your wife’s gone and run out on ya.” “No, Mr. Gordon. Mr. Sieg hasn’t proposed to Miss Mari yet.” Sieg, who had promptly begun saying nothing but “Mariela” despite the fact that not much time had passed since she’d left, was incapable of explaining, so Gordon had drawn his own conclusions. Sherry, who’d returned from school, made a cruel amendment to the explanation. Merle, the housewife intelligence agent, also latched onto this conversation. “Oh? Weren’t you plannin’ to propose soon? I was wonderin’ if you’d made a complete mess of it and got dumped.” “!!!” It was nothing short of what one would expect from a person in the know. She’d delivered the topic Sieg least wanted anyone to touch on with exquisite timing. At this, Sieg’s face paled. It had been a year since the Labyrinth was killed. Things had been extremely busy back then. Although the number of alchemists in the Labyrinth City had increased, Mariela was the only one who could create special-grade potions. She was still a rare breed, and the groups trying to have her work for them via kidnapping, blackmail, false friendship, or seduction were too numerous to count. Of course, Sieg stopped these things before they happened, either single-handedly or with the help of Margrave Schutzenwald or the Aguinas family. Sieg had tried his best to keep Mariela safe, but maybe he’d been a bit too overprotective. Although Mariela had been in many dangerous situations, she never experienced the suspension bridge effect because Sieg always safeguarded her from behind the scenes. She’d grown quite comfortable with Sieg, who was something like a parent watching over their child. Far from the relationship being carefree, it had become careless. At a glance, the relationship between the two seemed rather harmonious. Although they weren’t hitched, they had a calmness like an old couple who’d been married for a long time. There’s no point in saying Sieg was too lazy—after all, the regulars of Sunlight’s Canopy, including Sherry, Emily, and Merle, had been saying that plenty. Maybe he was nervous about the way things were going, or perhaps his facade was cracking just a little, leading him to ask himself if he could even take any more of this. Siegmund, who had appeared to think he had all the time in the world, finally got off his laurels. In the year since the subjugation of the Labyrinth, Mariela’s alchemist training goals and stock of special-grade potions were more or less in order, and Sieg had intended to make a move to improve their worn-out relationship when Mariela’s life had settled down. Had Sieg failed, or did he make a mistake in the preliminary step? Even the intelligence agent Merle couldn’t understand Sieg’s explanation when all he spoke was Mariela-ese, but news like “Siegmund got dumped” running amok through the Labyrinth City would be awful for the poor hunter. This was no time for Sieg to be forgetting what he’d fought, bled, and killed for. “M… M… M… N… Not yet. We just had a little fight…” “Ah, he spoke.” “In that case, go after her right now and make up! She’ll surely forgive you if you offer a heartfelt apology.” Amber lit a fire under Sieg, who had finally regained his words and his wits. “I understand.” Sieg nodded vigorously. Amber often told off her husband, Dick, who repeatedly did stupid things, but she always accepted his earnest apologies. Her words carried weight with Sieg. “Siggy, do you know where Mari is?” Emily asked, puzzled. Sieg nodded, said, “Don’t worry. I have my ways,” then headed for the rear garden. “Illuminaria! Illuminaria, I need your help!” —What is it? Geez…— After wasting his Spirit Eye and summoning the sacred tree spirit Illuminaria, Sieg rushed to make preparations to pursue Mariela. “Siggy sure is slow, isn’t he?” “Right? And I can’t believe he got so carried away he made Miss Mari angry enough to run away from home in the first place.” “Right? I heard women hate men who act like their boyfriend right away.” “Right?” As Sieg grumbled quietly after Emily and Sherry deliberately badmouthed him loud enough for him to hear, he finally departed Sunlight’s Canopy. 02 “I knew it’d be here…” Mariela and the others had made their way to the first floor after the fire in the carrion caves went out. It must have been around noon by the time they’d reached the first floor of the southeast tower after cooling and ventilating the nearly airtight cave system. Koo had come through the tunnels after Donnino had made them wide and tall enough for a raptor. After trekking through the hot caverns, Mariela urged the others to rest, saying, “It’s probably safe from here on.” She searched the rooms in the vicinity of this tower by herself and soon found what she’d been looking for. This tower had Mariela’s workshop from Sunlight’s Canopy. She’d thought there was no doubt it would also have this room, where she’d spent a very long time and learned alchemy. “I lost it without warning in the Stampede… Brings back memories.” The cottage in the Fell Forest where Mariela had lived with her master two hundred years ago. It was there, the same as it had been. The dim, confined abode was made more cramped by the medicinal herbs off-handedly left here and there. Yet it lacked even the bare minimum of household items necessary for daily life, and it was a dreary place that resembled a storage shed. To Mariela, it had only been a few years since she’d lived in that little cottage all alone, but when she stood in this place once more, all she recalled were the hectic and joyous days she’d spent with her master when she was very young. Compared with now, her life back then was rather uneventful, but she also felt that was when she was most content. Was it really this dark…? Mariela felt like it had been far brighter and warmer when her master was there. In which case, this place was likely a reproduction of the room from when Mariela lived alone. Although Sunlight’s Canopy, where she lived with Sieg, was chilly and made of stone, for some reason it was very cozy and comforting. She’d almost forgotten what it felt like being here. Most of Mariela’s life had been spent at this cottage, so it was full of memories and utterly sentimental. But she neither wanted to go back to it nor felt like she had come home. This little cottage in the Fell Forest was an important place that remained in Mariela’s memories, but she accepted with a strange feeling that it was no longer her home. “No matter what kind of world this is, the potions made here have an effect for sure, so I gotta use what I can… Oh, there it is!” Mariela took out a bundle wrapped several times around in cloth from the top of the food storage cabinet near the sink. This object that leaked cool air was Ice Spirit’s Kiss. It was a frost-like plant that clung to things like tree trunks and windows on frosty mornings. Since it melted when sunlight touched it, Mariela got up early on chilly winter mornings before the sun rose and went around checking for it. Collecting it was frigid, tough work, but processing and selling Ice Spirit’s Kiss had provided her a good source of income in the summer. The name was based on the legend “If an ice spirit kisses you, it will steal your body heat, and you’ll die,” and the object did indeed steal heat. The aboveground parts resembling semitransparent vines were cold as ice, but they melted and disappeared if a certain amount of heat was applied to them after collection. Since the material was sensitive to both light and heat, you had to store it securely, but Icy Wind Potions, which improved the effects of Ice Spirit’s Kiss, had been sold at a reasonable price in the summer as potions that could cool the air in a room for about half a day. “There were no magical cooling tools two hundred years ago, after all.” Since there were devices for keeping rooms comfortable now, the potions were hardly necessary anymore, but two hundred years ago, they were an essential revenue source for Mariela during the hotter months of the year. “Still, this pantry’s pretty bare.” The cooling box the Ice Spirit’s Kiss had been stored in was made to preserve food with ice. With the Ice Spirit’s Kiss taking up space in the container, however, there was only a small area in it where food could be kept. Ironically, Mariela’s diet had been so poor that she hadn’t even needed the entire available spot in the cooling box. It wasn’t so bad when her master was there and they had charred monster meat and souvenirs she’d brought from somewhere, but Mariela had lived very modestly when she was by herself. “I feel like the things in it were slightly more varied when my master was there, but still, it was nothing but weird monster meat… Even so, every day was fun with her around, you know?” “Rawr.” The salamander on Mariela’s neck responded to her mutterings. Hectic, precious days gone. A warm time in her life. I have to repay her… Mariela made a note of this and set about making an Icy Wind Potion. Night came yet again—one of many by this point. Mariela and the others confirmed it was now dark outside the windows and passed through the door leading to the entrance hall, where the tree monster, the Necklace, was encamped. Since it had roots, it couldn’t travel itself, but it was a fashionable tree monster that manipulated vines as hard as steel and tried to catch people by the neck and decorate itself with them. Much like humans who enjoyed excessive decorations, this Necklace, too, had a slightly peculiar hobby: keeping hairy caterpillar monsters as pets. No one knew if they were famous among tree monsters as rare pets, but Mariela and the others hardly enjoyed the nasty bugs. In particular, the experience of being chased by hairy caterpillars seemed to have left Yuric deeply scarred, and their current strategy was tailored to avoid as much fighting as possible. As though it took the term beauty sleep seriously, the tree monster slept soundly and returned to being just a plant while the sun was down. Mariela’s group slowly and quietly approached the door at the center of the entrance so as not to rouse the fearsome monster. The solid door, much taller than Mariela and the others, opened outward without a sound when they pushed it. The party had traveled along the top of the outer wall many times over, and it wasn’t the first time they’d been outside. Still, they felt suffocated by the heavy air. It was more than the fact that it was heavy and damp. They were underwater. Everything in this world of water had drifted down from the surface and accumulated here. Dark madness mingled with the moist air. Mariela, Yuric, and Donnino could no longer feel the kindness of the water that reflected light and nurtured monsters. A white building with many jade, dome-shaped ceilings piled on top of each other towered at the center of the courtyard. Now that there was no illumination, it was utterly dark and oppressive, as though it were leaning on them. “That’s gotta be the temple.” Mariela had felt that way since she’d first seen the building. But what on earth was it a temple to? Surely the answers to everything awaited them inside the structure. Unfortunately, that wasn’t where they were headed. “It’s over there. Let’s move,” Donnino called to Mariela, who was looking up at the temple. They left the path leading to the temple and made for the east side of the courtyard. That was where they hoped to find the trapped Grandel. As the group proceeded through the damp, oppressive air, black monsters appeared around them like sludge swirling up from the bottom of the water. The creatures lifted their bodies like rolling, muddy goo, and Mariela, Yuric, and Donnino hurled fire bottles at them. “We can’t waste time on the small fries. Hurry up.” Their goal was the base of the east tower. The raptor carrying Mariela and Yuric matched Donnino’s pace as he ran with his heavy hammer, and the girls tossed alchemical explosives at the black monsters to keep them in check. “I see it! Grandel’s armor!” “The lamia’s there, too! The night is short, so let’s hurry!” The lamia slowly lifted her head as she scowled at the uninvited guests. Seeing how big she was from up close took their breath away. “Shaa, sha.” The lamia made menacing sounds, and Donnino kept her in check with his hammer as Mariela and Yuric threw potions at her. The concoctions sapped her body heat and hindered her movement, but they weren’t enough to stop such a powerful monster. Donnino raised his hammer overhead and struck at the lamia. Mariela and Yuric seized that opening to throw more Icy Wind Potions at the creature’s tail and body. The numerous Icy Wind Potions freely hurled at the lamia worked well enough that even Donnino could dodge her attacks. He avoided or deflected strikes from the lamia’s six arms with his hammer as he slowly drew her away from Grandel. “Now! The tail’s separated from the armor!” The instant the lamia’s tail, which had been twined around Grandel’s heavy armor, released it, Yuric and Mariela rushed forward. The pair jumped from the raptor and past the half-frozen lamia, though the giant creature still tried to stop them with its tail. Yuric used her whip to parry the attack, and Mariela took that opportunity to open Grandel’s heavy armor from the outside. “Mr. Grandel! Hurry!” The armor, custom-made by Donnino, had been built to affix to a raptor with Grandel inside. Grandel couldn’t move around while wearing it, but it came with two hatches that could be opened both from the inside and outside. Mariela opened the outside lock on one of them and told Grandel they’d come to help him. That was when… “Shhhaaaaa!” “Guh!” Mariela turned her head at the lamia’s menacing sound that shook the courtyard and saw the monster blow Donnino away with a single attack. Now free of distraction, it turned its attention to Yuric, who’d been handling the tail, attacking her with water magic. “Yuric!!!” Mariela cried. No one had expected the lamia to be capable of casting spells. The many half-moon-shaped water attacks launched at Yuric were likely sharp blades of liquid. Yuric instinctively ducked and avoided the lamia’s spells. Not a moment later, Yuric came to realize that she hadn’t necessarily avoided them. Behind Yuric, who had desperately jumped away, black shadows resembling people on horses rose and didn’t show a hint of flinching upon taking a blow from the sharp water blades. 03 When Mariela and the others had opened the door to that shrine in that marshland in the Fell Forest, the end of the rope they’d pulled on the door with was fastened to the heavy armor Grandel was holed up in. They’d used it as a weight. If he’d gotten out of his iron suit back then, Grandel probably wouldn’t have been sitting at the bottom of the water in the courtyard for days. Unfortunately, he’d been pulled into this world of water in his heavy armor, along with everyone else. “Ohhh. What is happening?” All Grandel could do was watch as everyone sank toward the bottom of the water. Even when he’d tried to escape, he couldn’t open the armor on his own, perhaps due to water pressure. The other mysterious thing was that although this metal suit was sophisticated, it had an opening for visibility, and the joints weren’t airtight. Yet no water entered it. When Grandel had calmly examined the situation to discern what was happening, it seemed to him that his comrades were sinking. It was as though they were all being carried in the same direction toward a temple of a style that Grandel had never seen before, surrounded by ramparts and six towers. As they got closer to the structure, one party member, then another, was carried to the top floor of a tower. “It appears everyone is being taken to the top level of a different tower. Hrm, so I am going to that one?” Perhaps his comrades had been overwhelmed by the water and rendered unconscious, because they didn’t fight against the current as they disappeared into the towers through open windows at the top of each. “They don’t appear to be terribly complicated buildings. If so, we will be able to come together again before long.” Just as Grandel murmured this… Bam. Grandel’s heavy armor got stuck in a window. “Oh? I’m not going in?” The armor was massive. It had been carried diagonally and should have smoothly entered the tower through the window, but it got stuck with a thud and then scraped the tower’s outer wall as it sank toward the courtyard on the first floor. His comrades in the Black Iron Freight Corps had mocked the metallic suit Grandel used for being “box armor” and the like. At a glance, it was awkward, rough, full-body metal protection, the likes of which might be worn by heavy infantry. Moreover, it was enormous. It was so big that the slender Grandel could have fit two of himself inside it, and it was even too tall for him. The surface, the underside, and the joints were all made of metal plates. Any knowledgeable eye looking over the armor would realize that the joints, which should have been crafted with ease of movement as a priority, had a particular gimmick to them. To tell the truth, the armor Grandel wore was not expected to move at all. Its sophisticated design allowed it to be affixed on the back of a raptor and had the joints move on their own to match the raptor’s movements and keep balance. Although its structure allowed one to escape from it if they so chose, it wasn’t so different from being packed in a box. Grandel was so physically frail that he couldn’t even hold a shield. If he couldn’t move with even moderate equipment, then prioritizing survival regardless of the avenue of attack was clearly the way to go. With this in mind, Donnino had put his hobby to full use and had completed this heavy, boxlike armor. Although the product forced inconvenience on Grandel, livability was taken into consideration accordingly: The interior was lined with a soft and fluffy material, and a stockpile of food, albeit a small one, was built in. The box-shaped container even included a small window for exchanging goods. As luck would have it, edible aquatic plants also grew in this courtyard, and Grandel, who had a small appetite to begin with and ate mainly vegetables, didn’t starve. “I’m bored…” During the day, the place filled with water, and Grandel couldn’t leave the armor due to the pressure. At night, black monsters surrounded him, meaning he couldn’t risk leaving then, either. Fortunately, Grandel’s shield skills seemed to be effective against the inky creatures, as they didn’t enter through gaps in the armor or attack, but even though he was safe, Grandel was also stuck. It was a small, lone snake that brought him comfort. “A monster, I believe. Still, it’s quite charming.” The white serpent had a pair of pectoral fin-shaped protrusions, and the tip of its tail, its fins, and the area around its head were all pale pink. It was a very, very small snake, only long enough to circle one of Grandel’s slender arms once. It had probably gotten lost not long after it was born. Although tiny, the creature threatened Grandel with shaa, shaa sounds. When he tore up some meat from his rations and fed it to the creature, its abdomen swelled, and it curled up in Grandel’s hand, where it fell asleep. It was only one day that Grandel had direct contact with the serpent. The following day, it had grown so large it couldn’t fit into the aperture in the armor anymore. Did it think of Grandel as its parent for giving it food, or did it understand it wouldn’t be attacked if it coiled around his armor? The snake eventually wrapped around Grandel and stayed there, eating those memory stealers. Every time morning came, monsters were born and the world became an ocean. Grandel watched the black creatures disappear like sludge dissolving and the newborn monsters eating them and growing rapidly. At night, the inky creatures surged from the north and both ate and were eaten by the new monsters, and most of the latter died out during the night. However, only the snake, protected by Grandel’s shield skills, survived repeated encounters with the black blobs, and it continued to grow at such a rate that it would be more accurate to say it was evolving. How many days had passed by the time the tail that had once barely fit around Grandel’s slender arm grew large enough to twine around his armor over and over? How long had it been since the last time Grandel saw another human peek through a hatch in his armor? How much time had gone by before the ebon creatures resembling a group of cavalry materialized to rout the black monsters the lamia was effortlessly defeating? Day by day, the lamia was growing into an immense and powerful monster. However, the ebon cavalry swallowed both the surrounding monsters and the inky memory thieves like a surging tide, and the battle repeated every night. It was as though they didn’t know what it was to perish, and they knew no retreat. The ebon cavalry was like the ravages of war born from foolish humans. The shadow of war closed in. When dawn broke and the water returned, the dark raiders curled up their bodies and stopped moving as though balking at being melted by the water, but when night arrived, they awoke without fail and overran the area. Perhaps because they were getting practice, their movements sharpened every night. No matter how much stronger the lamia became, she couldn’t bring down the ebon cavalry. Exactly how long this had been happening was unclear by the eve when Mariela’s group appeared before Grandel and the lamia. 04 Mariela thought the black shadows that appeared behind Yuric looked like a troop of horseback riders standing out against backlight. Even when they were at a standstill, the way their shapes changed moment to moment made them seem more like a mass of multiple people than a uniform group. The humanoid upper bodies, straddling shadows with multiple legs reminiscent of horses, carried long weapons akin to spears. Invaders…? It’s like a war… Mariela had already realized these shadowy monsters were the incarnation of a past calamity. She’d seen famine and plague. This new entity was the ravages of an ancient war. Before the dark raiders’ weapons could strike Yuric, the lamia’s water blades pummeled them repeatedly. The liquid razors tore the cavalry’s front row to pieces. However, the line behind it immediately replaced them, and the company’s numbers didn’t change. Their ranks had seemingly replenished when no one was looking. The shadowy figures readied their spears. They probably decided the lamia was their enemy, as the cavalry unleashed spear attacks at her in perfect coordination. “Shhaaa, sha!” The lamia tried to mow down the attacks with her tail, but it had grown stiff due to the Icy Wind Potions and couldn’t move properly, so the only thing she accomplished was being a shield against the spears. “Mariela, get Grandel now!” Yuric’s shout brought Mariela back to her senses. She opened the door on the back of Grandel’s heavy armor and called to him. “Mr. Grandel, Mr. Grandel, hurry!” “Oh, it’s Miss Mariela. My apologies, but would you have a potion handy? I’ve been in this position for a long time and am unable to move.” Grandel’s face appeared from within the metal container. His voice was extremely low, and his slender frame seemed even thinner now. He’d lived on preserved food and aquatic plants for a long while. That he was so weakened was only logical. Even so, Grandel understood well enough what was going on. He drained the potion he was given with a bleak expression, then smoothly slipped out of his armor with umbrella in hand. “Let’s go now.” Grandel began running toward the lamia. Although he’d recovered with the potion, that didn’t mean he regained his lost body weight. Grandel’s legs were weak, and his breath was ragged after only a bit of movement. He was so frail that he should have taken the opportunity to retreat while the lamia and the black monsters were fighting. But Grandel had broken into a run. The normal monsters born during the day attacked the black creatures that came at night, but that didn’t mean they were allies. Mariela and Yuric knew that well from their miserable time being chased by the Necklace and the hairy caterpillars. Grandel was a former member of the Labyrinth Suppression Forces and had faced many fearsome beings as part of the Black Iron Freight Corps. At the end of the day, monsters were monsters, and Grandel understood they couldn’t coexist with humans. However, even knowing all that, he’d started running. Because in the days Grandel had spent with the lamia, he had a feeling the creature possessed some power of communication. The glances he’d exchanged with the massive thing made him sure of it. Maybe it was only that their interests had coincidentally aligned. But the lamia hadn’t tried to hurt Grandel. If she’d constricted him with that powerful tail, there was no doubt his heavy armor would have been crushed the moment his skill ran out. That was enough to spur on Grandel. He was a gentleman and a “legendary hero.” “Shield.” The ebon cavalry changed and rained countless spears down on Grandel as he rushed toward the lamia. Using his opened umbrella in place of a shield, he warded off the polearms, but the cloth of the umbrella was torn to pieces from just that one attack, and the impact sent Grandel flying. Toward the lamia. Grandel’s shield skills were powerful, but the man himself was light and frail. So even if he could defend against a strike, he couldn’t reciprocate that energy. Grandel controlled the angle at which he took the attack and even made use of the impact that sent him flying so he would come to rest in front of the lamia. “That did the trick. Earth Wall, Shield.” He could no longer use the umbrella. Grandel, clad in lightweight equipment like an ordinary citizen might wear to go harvesting, formed a wall with earth magic, then used his Shield skill to construct a simple barrier from the top. Grandel’s Shield skill completely blocked the attack from the dark raiders, which should have finished the lamia off. Unfortunately, Grandel wasn’t a mage, so his conjured barricade was fragile. It collapsed after absorbing the impact of the many spears. The lamia used the dust cloud from the collapsing wall of earth as a smoke screen to rain down blades of water on the charging soldiers. Although the ebon cavalry was torn to pieces, they didn’t seem agitated in the least, and they were already preparing their next assault. Grandel’s assistance had improved the situation for the moment, but how much longer could he endure the attacks from the shadowy army? “Guess we got no choice. We’ll help you, Grandel. Hey now, don’t hiss at me, snake lady.” With a sidelong glance at the lamia giving a short, menacing sound, Donnino got in position next to Grandel. Mariela and Yuric also moved next to the snakelike monster as they threw fire bottles to keep the gathering inky blob creatures in check. Grandel’s Earth Wall and Shield skill blocked the dark raiders’ attacks aimed at the lamia, and the lamia’s water blades and Donnino’s hammer counterattacked. Mariela and Yuric hurled fire bottles at the slime-like black monsters, which were steadily increasing in number, to keep them in check so they wouldn’t surround the group. The viscous memory stealers burned well. The entire courtyard was already a sea of fire, and the shadowy riders emerging from it were like an advancing army. “!!” A sound loud enough to rupture one’s eardrums reverberated through the courtyard. It was the bellow of the ebon cavalry—a war cry and the howl of beasts. The thunderous roar shook the air and caused Mariela to freeze. When she looked around, she saw that the amorphous, shadowy cavalry quivered as its members roused themselves and stood from within the flames. “G-goblins…?” Smirking black shadows carried weapons that were somewhere between swords and poles. Mariela thought the figures, mad with the pleasure of pillaging, the excitement of murder, and the joy of devastation, were like an attacking swarm of goblins. “No. Those things, those kinda things, could surely only be humans,” Yuric disagreed. The flames from the likes of fire bottles burned up their fuel and could only last a short time. The army trampled over and extinguished the weakened blaze as they surrounded Mariela and Yuric, and there was no way Yuric could deal with the likes of them alone. Grandel, who was defending against the black raiders’ attacks, was probably close to his magical power and stamina’s limits. The wounds Donnino and the lamia suffered were steadily getting worse, and the circle of monsters surrounding Mariela and Yuric was gradually tightening. I can at least heal them… Mariela turned around to use restorative potions on Donnino and the lamia. There she saw the dark raiders, which still should have been farther away, closing in like a tsunami. Grin. Mariela thought the ebon things, which seemed to lack eyes and noses, were contorting their faces with glee. Black spears rained down. The many polearms easily crushed Grandel’s Earth Wall. Just as their blades were about to pierce Donnino, Grandel, and the lamia, however… “Eek ook!” Something descended from the sky. 05 “Eek ook, eek, eek ook, ook!” “Whaaaaaa—?!” “…He’s finally gone back to the wild?” The one who came from the sky, or to be precise, from the northeast tower via the outer wall, was a monkey. Wait, no, it was Edgan, who should have been human. “Why is he saying ‘eek, eek’?” “He probably lost too much of his memory and went back to bein’ a monkey!” What in the world? Did people revert to monkeys when they lost too much of themselves? Or was that only the case for Edgan? Edgan still had to count as a member of the human race, technically. He was a bit dirty, but it was unmistakably him. The fact that he was drooling slightly was not because he’d become a beast, but because his eyes were locked on the lamia’s chest. Even if he had turned into a monkey, he held his dual swords properly in his hands and slashed at the dark raiders with flames surrounding his left arm and wind on his right—his Dual Sword Elements skill. “Edgan, to think you would have learned how to shorten your skill chants! That’s our captain!” Grandel exclaimed, offering a compliment that would have pleased Edgan had he been lucid. “No, that ain’t what’s surprisin’,” Donnino replied calmly. “Hrm. It is important to be aware that chanting is not language, but a recitation…,” Grandel murmured thoughtfully. “That may be true, but that’s not what I’m talkin’ about, either! Meg-ham!” As he quipped, Donnino spoke an abbreviated Mega Hammer that was either intoned in a strange accent or a simple mispronunciation. Regardless, the skill was executed beautifully. As one might’ve expected from the guy in charge of maintaining the armored carriages in the Black Iron Freight Corps, Donnino seemed quite dexterous, but it was embarrassing for the people nearby to hear this chanting. Perhaps the man himself also thought it was unacceptable, as he corrected himself back to saying the usual “Mega Hammer” from the second attack onward. “Hum. I can’t let myself be outdone! Wall Shield.” Grandel, being who he was, chanted the earth magic Earth Wall and the shield skill Shield in combination to form a magnificent barrier of dirt and stone. After having come this far, you might say it was a new composite skill. That was a “legendary hero” for you. His potential was staggering. Although he didn’t speak in a human tongue, the A-Ranker’s appearance seemed to be heartening to everyone. The sight of Edgan springing around with inhuman jumping power and routing the dark raiders seemed to give everyone their strength back. Mariela said, “I’m sorry for attacking you before,” and sprinkled a potion on the lamia to heal her wounds. She didn’t know whether the creature forgave her and Yuric for their earlier friendly fire, but the lamia kept attacking the ebon cavalry while Grandel deftly protected her from any incoming attacks. Donnino and Yuric mowed down the approaching infantry, and Mariela threw fire bottles. The tables had turned. “Ook!” There was even leeway for Edgan to blow a kiss at the lamia in his spare moments and for the lamia to hiss a genuine threat to him in return as she wriggled her six arms. “Eek ook!” He certainly was ook-cited. He was having a ball. “Not that! The enemy, the black monsters are closin’ in!!!” Could Yuric, as an animal tamer, somehow understand Edgan’s monkey speech? When everyone looked at the area around the collapsed outer wall to the north where Yuric pointed, they saw creatures darker than night surging into the courtyard where Mariela and the others were. Had Edgan come running to help the two girls, Mariela and Yuric, as well as his comrades in the Black Iron Freight Corps, or had he simply wanted to get acquainted with the feminine lamia? Either way, it doesn’t do well to dwell on the likes of Erotigan’s easy to understand behavioral principles, but there was no doubt that everyone owed the man their lives. However, he’d been protecting the north side, and due to his absence, the inky memory stealers were heading for this courtyard. They looked to be moving for the temple in the center. The things surged like water that had just broken through a dam.