As the group stood around goggling at the unfamiliar planet below them, Luna declared, “My lord! My wings are on that moon over there!”
The moon in question was so conspicuous that everyone could immediately tell what she was talking about. With how greedily it was absorbing outer mana, presumably to feed the numerous layers of magic formations that it was enveloped within, there really was no way to miss it. If Luna hadn’t called it a moon, however, the others might not have. It honestly looked more like a massive spell on the verge of being activated.
“Guess that’s where we’re going, then,” said Sol.
Luna promptly summoned an Astral, the party got on, and off they went. Sol thought it a bit careless to approach the moon without knowing anything about it, but they didn’t have much choice if Luna’s organa was inside. And since he had approved the decision, no one voiced any objections.
Without encountering any notable obstacles, the group reached the moon and landed on its surface. The gravity there was weaker than what they were used to, but not to the point where they were at risk of accidentally launching themselves into space. However, because they were standing on the side of the moon that faced the planet, it looked like it was constantly hanging over their heads and about to fall on them at any moment, making it hard to relax.
Sol, apparently, did not share this sentiment. On the contrary, he took such a liking to this bizarre view that he promptly started musing over how he could reproduce it back home. The simplest way would be to bring his floating island up to stratospheric altitude and turn it over, but if that wasn’t possible, he was thinking of asking Gawain to modify it accordingly. There was no doubt their blue planet would look quite different hanging overhead as opposed to being spread out below.
The fact that this was what Sol was thinking about and that Luna, despite her agitation, properly remembered to spice up the summoning of her Astral with more effects than before spoke volumes about the nerves of steel that this master and servant pair had. Then again, Reen, Julia, and Rosalind weren’t much better, seeing as they were taking advantage of the low gravity to leap into the air without the use of spells and otherwise having a ton of fun. In situations like these, Frederica and Eliza had a tendency to be left out due to generally being more sensible than the others.
It was notable, however, that the monsters, who were usually the most laid-back in the group, now had the gravest faces.
Little Alshunna got down from Sol’s head and landed on the surface of the moon. She placed a hand on the ground, then said solemnly, “There’s something incredibly powerful bound here.”
“Luna’s wings, right?” Sol asked.
The fake moon in their own world held Luna’s Augoeides. It was maybe a simpleminded leap in logic to make, but it stood to reason the one here held a part of her. He saw the Four Great Dungeons as trials to clear in order to restore the All Dragon to her complete form. However, the way Little Alshunna spoke seemed to imply that the situation was not quite so straightforward.
“To be exact,” said Luna, “my wings are being used to keep something bound here.”
As it turned out, what was bound here weren’t her wings themselves but something else that her wings were keeping suppressed. This world had as much outer mana in the air as their own world after the Elven Queen’s restoration, and organas were organs possessed by monsters to draw in outer mana to use for themselves. None were as effective as one from the All Dragon, the pinnacle of all magic beings.
“I see... And even you can’t tell what it is, Luna?”
“I’m terribly sorry, my lord.”
“No need to apologize. Even my display only has it labeled as ‘Unknown.’”
For a brief moment, Sol had held out hope that Luna might be able to tell what was bound here on account of part of her body being used, but it wasn’t that easy. Come to think of it, a part that was separated from someone and used for some purpose was no longer part of that person, be they dragon or human.
“I can actually retrieve the wings,” said Luna. She made it sound simple, but the fact that she could not only tell exactly where they were but also take them back and reattach them to herself vividly portrayed how incredible magic beings were.
Sol frowned. “But if you do, the unknown thing would be set free?”
It was good news that Luna could reclaim her wings even though they’d been converted into a magic tool. The worst-case scenario would be her knowing they were her wings but being unable to ever regain their use, as it would mean her fully restored Augoeides was forever lost. The actual situation was not as dire, but if her wings were being used to keep something bound, taking them away would logically mean letting that thing loose—a thing neither the All Dragon, the Elven Queen, the Demon Lord, nor even Player could identify. A thing that could not be kept subdued with anything less than an organa from the All Dragon. Chances were high that this thing was hostile—not only to Sol’s party but to the world. To all worlds.
Luna nodded. “What do you want me to do?”
What she was actually asking was whether Sol wanted her to take back her wings and fight the unknown being that would be set free. They didn’t know for sure that it would be hostile, after all. It might even be thankful to be liberated and decide to join Sol, as Luna, Aina’noa, and Alshunna had.
“Sorry, Luna. I don’t want to take this risk without being as prepared as I can be.”
“I’m entirely fine with whatever you decide!”
“Thank you.”
Sol sounded apologetic but certain. If their lives depended on this and there was no other way, he wasn’t beyond taking the leap. Such moments came every so often for adventurers, and sometimes the inability to make that snap judgment could lead to death. However, that wasn’t the case here.
“Our priority is now to find our way back...though I admit I’m very curious about this planet.”
“I agree,” said Frederica. “Let’s first confirm that we can freely travel to and from here.”
If they had the knowledge of how to do so, they could easily come back to explore when they were better equipped.
“Do you remember where the magic circle is, Luna?”
“Of course.” Luna nodded confidently.
“That’s likely the only way for us to return to our world. I don’t know if this is a faraway planet or our planet in another dimension, but either way, it’s probably beyond the reach of Aina’noa’s World Tree, much less our own magic.”
The dejected note that Aina’noa sang confirmed Sol’s conjecture. Her authority over all the ley lines of their world did not extend here, be it a different planet or dimension.
“I would venture to guess that we can come and go with no trouble. That’s what that setup is for, and the Ward showed up to stop us because it works.” Sol didn’t think the situation warranted alarm and was quite sure that they could easily go back the way they had come.
He was quickly proven right. When the group returned to the magic circle, it promptly started up like before and brought them back to their own world.
“Guess our first order of business is to get as far inside the other Great Dungeons as we did Abyss.” Sol rubbed his chin thoughtfully. “Wait, no, before that, let’s try to fully clear a normal dungeon.”
“What if the normal dungeon ends up being like Abyss too?” asked Frederica.
Sol shook his head. “Three organas were taken from Luna, so there should be only two more dungeons in the same state as Abyss. Even if there is something bound at the end of the normal dungeon, we should be able to handle it with ease.”
“That makes sense.”
“Something else I can do is to find the two remaining cards I saw—the Lifeless Divine Beast and the Cursed Hero—and get them to join me. But sadly, I have no information on either of them at the moment.”
Put simply, Sol was now prioritizing building up his strength. It was the logical response to learning of the existence of a potentially very powerful enemy. He had the leeway to do so, as the threat wasn’t imminent.
“Isn’t there a possibility that they are the bound entities?”
“Yes, which is another reason to check out the other Great Dungeons.”
Despite what he said, Sol thought the likelihood very low. Clearly, the numbers didn’t match. Then again, the number of remaining Great Dungeons and missing organas weren’t the same either, so one of them might be entirely different from Abyss. In any case, it was imperative that they conquer the others as quickly as possible. Until then, there was too little information to make any informed decisions.
“What we find there might change things, but I also have a hunch that I will need us all to be stronger, not just the monsters. My gut tells me we need Luna’s Augoeides in full form to beat those that her organas are restraining.”
Frederica froze. “That...is a problem.”
“Yes, it is.”
If that was the case, they had a paradox on their hands. Without retrieving all three organas scattered in three different places, there would be no beating the beings those organas bound. However, they would be finding themselves facing the first two while still incomplete. Until a solution to break this paradox presented itself, they were at an impasse. And from the look of things, the conundrum was something they had to resolve before they could get any further.
Several ideas had already occurred to Sol. Therefore, instead of frowning in distress, he was beaming like a child who had figured out the answer to a riddle. He was an adventurer, one who would risk his life to make the unknown known, and this was just the kind of thing that set his heart racing.
Perhaps the adventurers who had first discovered Pandora’s box, the box that was never to be opened, would have smiled just like he was if they had been in his shoes.