Using the long-range communication device, Gordon had informed me of an unbelievable situation. I immediately gathered my companions and started discussing it.
“This Jinguuji Tomoya fellow betrayed the Holy Church and raided the cathedral’s innermost sanctum?” Gerbera said, her eyes wide in surprise. “And his goal is to destroy the Dimensional Cornerstones? Is that the case?”
“Sir Gordon isn’t the type of person to tell such terrible lies,” Katou said calmly.
“I suppose not,” Gerbera agreed. “If that is in fact true and there was an attack, isn’t it too late to contact us about it from so far away?”
“No, if it were too late already, we wouldn’t even be talking about it,” Lily joined in. “If the Dimensional Cornerstones were destroyed, the world would’ve ended shortly after.”
“I see. That makes sense... So what’s going on?” Gerbera cocked her head in confusion.
“Strictly speaking,” I said, “what’s hidden beneath the cathedral is only the door leading to the Dimensional Cornerstones.”
“Hm? The door?” Gerbera repeated, inclining her head further. “I don’t really get it. How is that different? A door leads to a room, right?”
“Not in this case. The only thing there is the door,” I explained. “It’s a magic tool called the Dimension Door. It doesn’t lead directly to the storage vault. It apparently opens the way to another fabricated world, different from the one we were sent to. You can’t get to the vault without passing through it.”
“So they have even more security. How thorough,” Gerbera said. “I suppose that’s natural when it comes to the existence of the world itself.”
“If entered through proper means, the storage vault is apparently right beyond the door, though,” I added. “When entered any other way, it leads to a dangerous world. It’s said it’ll take even a savior three days to cross it on foot. That is of course based on a savior traveling on their own. Jinguuji is accompanied by other visitors, so they’ll probably get through faster. If we’re unlucky, he might even reach it within the day.”
“It seems we have no time to waste,” Gerbera said, nodding.
“Even inside the Holy Church, the only ones who knew the truth were Harrison and Archbishop Gerd,” I continued. “But Gerd died trying to obstruct Jinguuji Tomoya. Harrison tried to save him, but took a hit when he was already suffering from severe injuries. Kouzu Asahi had noticed Jinguuji’s strange behavior and was with Harrison. He managed to get Harrison back to the church right away and get him treated, but Harrison isn’t going to be moving around anytime soon.”
“Unbelievable...” Gerbera muttered sourly, understanding how bad the situation was. “That means they have no leadership.”
She was right on the mark. The grand cathedral was a mess and no small number of civilians had been caught in the destruction. The imperial capital had been thrown into unprecedented chaos. The head archbishop was dead and the Holy Order’s marshal was out of action. That was extremely bad.
Still, thanks to their sacrifice, we’d been informed of Jinguuji’s goal. If not for that, we would never have learned of his intent to destroy the Dimensional Cornerstones, meaning we would’ve been far too slow to act against him. It was precisely because the world was at risk of ending that Harrison had ignored all pretense and had a message sent to me. Some of this still didn’t make sense, though.
“Harrison is apparently giving Sir Gordon directions from his sickbed,” I said. “They provided the exploration team with limited information about this case and asked for their cooperation.”
“So they’ve already made a request for the exploration team’s help?” Rose asked curiously, a dubious expression on her face. “I don’t understand what Harrison is thinking. If the exploration team is helping, wouldn’t they have more than enough strength as it is? I don’t believe there is any reason for them to go out of their way to ask us for help too.”
“That’s what I was thinking,” I agreed.
Rose had a point. We’d accumulated strength in this world, but we still couldn’t be compared with the exploration team. If the church had managed to borrow their power, they didn’t need to beg an enemy for help too. However, I could tell how serious Harrison was about this.
“We’ll have to ask about that too...” I said.
Just then, the situation changed. I sensed a peculiar wave of mana in front of me. This was the omen of the Fairy Ring, something I was starting to get familiar with.
“I’m back,” Shimazu said, smiling as she appeared out of a distortion in space.
Her expression was a little stiff, likely because she understood the dire calamity we were up against. Three others had come with her: one was a large bald man, the vice marshal of the Holy Order Gordon Cavill; another was a young man with graceful features, the exploration team’s leader Nakajima Kojirou; and the last was a man in a wheelchair, his entire body covered in wounds.
“I didn’t think we’d meet again so soon,” I said to this last man.
“Neither did I,” the marshal of the Holy Order, Harrison Addington, replied hoarsely.