Riyo was the one who took it on. She spun diagonally, sweeping the slave soldier aside with her long leg. Though she had really sent it flying, it quickly got back up and came at her. But it didn’t need to go to her, because Riyo was rushing at the slave soldier on her own.
Yori undid the gate bar and tried to open the gate. Two orcs working together had struggled with it, though. There was no way it would open easily.
“E’Lumiaris, Oss’lumi, Edemm’lumi, E’Lumiaris...”
Manato heard something.
“Haru.” He tried to draw attention to it, but Haru was already looking around.
“This is bad. It’s a holy song. One of Lumiaris’s.”
“Lumi na oss’desiz, Lumi na oss’redez, Lumi eua shen qu’aix...”
Singing. Manato had heard it at the ruins of Deadhead Watching Keep too. It was the same song. This time, however, the style of singing was different. Totally different. In the ruins, they had each been mumbling the lyrics to themselves. That wasn’t what the singing he heard now was like.
“Lumi na qu’aix, E’Lumiaris, Enshen lumi, Miras lumi...”
Their voices were joined as one, rising high. The only reason the sound wasn’t loud was because they were a good distance away.
“Lumi na parri, E’Lumiaris, Me’lumi, E’Lumiaris...”
They were still far off. But they were getting closer.
“Put me down!”
Manato escaped the arms holding him, and Haru let him go without resistance. Once he was standing on his own, he felt much better than he had earlier. His arms and legs had their strength back. He didn’t feel the need to cough either.
Haru glanced at Manato, checking how he was holding up, but then looked at Riyo who was fighting a flashy battle with the slave soldier.
“You stop Yori! I’ll finish off the slave soldier!”
“E’Lumiaris, Oss’lumi, Edemm’lumi, E’Lumiaris, Lumi na oss’desiz...”
The singing was pressing in toward them.
“Lumi na qu’aix, E’Lumiaris, Enshen lumi, Miras lumi...”
Manato ran toward the gate.
“Lumi na parri, E’Lumiaris, Me’lumi, E’Lumiaris...”
His legs were tired, giving him a weird gait, and his body ached here and there, but he could handle it.
“Yori! Hey, Yori! Let’s get out of here for now, okay?!”
“Just help me get this thing open!”
“I’m wounded here, sorta.”
“Yeah, but you ran over here, sorta!”
“Well, yeah, but—”
“I’m doing this because I’ve got an idea! I’m not being reckless! So help!”
“Huh? Really? Okay!”
Manato started pulling the gate open next to Yori. Looking down, he saw the lower edge of the gate doors were digging into the ground. Were they going to be able to get it open like this? The orcs had managed it earlier, so it wasn’t like it was impossible.
“Nghhhhhhhhhhhhh!” Manato grunted.
“Don’t overwork yourself, okay?!” Yori said.
“You’re the one...who said I should help...you know?!”
“Sure, but—”
“Ah, I think we can open it! It’s stuck on something, but if we can get past it, we’ll be all good!”
“Then let’s give it one big pull! Hungh!”
Working together with Yori, he got the gate past the obstruction, and then it went relatively smoothly from there. There were two gate doors, and the cage cart wouldn’t have fit through the gateway without both of them open, but a person would only need one open to get through.
“So, what now?!”
“Riyo! Haruhiro!”
Yori stayed outside the farm as she called to the other two. The slave soldier was down. Manato didn’t know if it was dead or not. It seemed like slave soldiers whose bodies had turned fully malignant might have been unable to die. Was it the slave soldier that couldn’t die, or was it the malignancy? Haru had given them an explanation about all of that, and Manato had thought that he’d understood, but it was all a jumble inside his head. Regardless, the slave soldier wasn’t just down. Its head and arms had been severed from its torso or pulverized, so it wouldn’t be getting back up.
Of course, Riyo and Haru were fine. The moment Yori called her name, Riyo came running without a word.
“We need to hurry and get out of here!” Haru grumbled as he rushed over too.
“E’Lumiaris, Oss’lumi, Edemm’lumi, E’Lumiaris...”
The singing was a lot closer now.
“Lumi na oss’desiz, Lumi na oss’redez, Lumi eua shen qu’aix...”
The converted weren’t in sight yet, but it felt like they would be soon.
“Lumi na qu’aix, E’Lumiaris, Enshen lumi, Miras lumi...”
“Everyone get inside!” Yori urged them before rushing through the gate. Riyo followed Yori without hesitation, and Manato went along with them. A moment later, Haru rushed into the farm too.
The pit before them, which Haru had mentioned earlier, didn’t take up the entire space within the walls. There was a perimeter around six or seven steps wide that was level with the outside terrain until it dropped off like a sheer cliff. How were they supposed to get down? There was some scaffolding made of wood or something a short distance from the gate. It looked like they could reach the bottom from there.
It hadn’t been all that noticeable from outside the walls, but the stench in the air that they were now having to deal with was unspeakably awful, and needless to say, its source was the massive pit in front of them.
The hole wasn’t that deep. Its depth looked to be about the same as Manato’s height. If they’d felt like it, the goblins probably could have clambered up the sides, so why didn’t they attempt to escape? Inside the hole, there were some elevated spots, and in other places, there were pools of terribly filthy water. The scrawny, naked goblins were gathered on the higher points, either sitting down or lying around. There were a few that were eating something in a crouching position too. A couple goblins off to one side looked like they were wrestling, though they might have actually been copulating instead of fighting. And as for the sitting goblins, it wasn’t as though they were totally still. They were moving their mouths, chewing on something, apparently.