“Agh... Gah!” the ant shrieked.
In an instant, Datil had driven his sword into the ant’s back. He pulled his weapon out and plunged it in once more, this time into its head. The ant fell to the ground, unmoving.
Datil’s scary...
“Phew, I thought we were goners. I mean, I was certain that would be the end of us,” Datil sighed.
“The magician ant took me by surpriiise,” Fresa added.
Yeah, that magician surprised me, but there’s another part there that caught my attention.
“What do you mean?” Grida said.
Do you remember what was written on that stone signpost? It said, “The master and its spawn have fallen into slumber.” And this magician ant said it had to report this incident to the queen.
“Queen? So there must be a queen ant somewhere!”
Yeah, and it’s gotta be the boss of the whole colony. I’m not sure what “catastrophe” is supposed to mean in this world, but if this is supposed to be it, that’s almost funny.
Ding! “The bonus from the magician card will activate in 3...2...1... Activated.”
Oh, I wonder what bonus I’ll get!
“I’m excited too!”
Another announcement played. “A skill has been added. Would you like to hear a detailed explanation right now? Y/N.”
Fresa and Datil are checking their equipment, so now might be a good time. Yes.
Ding! “The skill you have obtained is ‘Turn Reversal.’ Any lasting damage from your magic can be nullified, with the exception of death.”
“Magic can be nullified?” Grida asked.
Ding! “Example one: you used a fire spell to burn down a house with four people inside.”
That’s a hell of an example.
“Immediately after casting, by declaring Turn Reversal, the destroyed house, its contents, and all of its surroundings will return to normal, and...”
Whoa! That’s a super useful ability!
“There will also be four unblemished corpses.”
That’s terrifying! Couldn’t you have phrased that bit a little nicer?
Ding! “Example two.”
Oh, there’s more?
“You use a spell that leads to a natural disaster, impacting a city with one hundred thousand people.”
The examples are getting worse! I won’t do that, okay?!
“Immediately after casting, by declaring Turn Reversal, the destroyed city and surrounding nature will return to normal, and...”
I don’t want to hear it! Nope! La la la!
“There will also be one hundred thousand unblemished corpses.”
I knew it!
Ding! “Example three.”
I got the idea! Stop making me a mass murderer!
“You use your water magic to heal a person that was near death. That person, in turn, heals a third person that was also near death.”
Why are there so many dying people?!
“By declaring Turn Reversal, the two people will immediately revert to their near-death state and will shortly die.”
Stop! Knock it off already!
“Furutsu, you’re an awful person...” Grida murmured.
Wait, Grida! These are just examples! I’ve never done anything like this, okay?!
She giggled. “I’m just kidding. You’re so cute!”
Just teasing, huh?
Ding! “To summarize: with Turn Reversal, all magical effects—and any subsequent chain reactions—except death can be reverted to their original state.”
“So the dead can’t be revived,” Grida said.
Seems like it. But if used carefully, this magic could be pretty useful.
“Ohhh? Apple-san, did something good happen to yooou?” Fresa said, cutting in.
How can she read my expressions so well?
“You don’t even have a face!” Grida said.
Yeah, she’s a weird one. Hm? Why’s she still looking at me?
“Hmmm, judging from the looks of it, it seems like something bad happened too,” she added.
How can she tell that much? She’s always so accurate.
“Do you think it’s about this thing, Fresa-san?” Datil was pointing at the magician ant’s corpse.
You’re half-right. If more of these big shot ants exist, they’re scurrying around to wake up the rest of the soldiers. The other half is that there’s most likely something even stronger than these guys.
“You mean the queen?” Grida said.
Yeah. At this rate, she might hear about us soon.
“Ack! What happens then?”
This is just a guess, but the queen might be able to wake up all the ants at once. That, or just throw a really strong ant at us.
“Th-That’s bad! We should do something quick!”
Agreed. There’s no time for us to mess around in all of these rooms. We should head straight to the deepest part of the colony and defeat the queen. I need to let those two know.
I went over to Fresa, who was trying to enter another little room.
Hmmm, how should I tell her, Grida? Any ideas?
“Aaaaack?!” Fresa cried out.
“What?! What’s wrong, Fresa?! I mean, Fresa-san?!”
Did an ant attack her from behind?! Grida, do you see anything?
“No, there’s nothing behind her,” Grida replied.
Huh? Then what’s she making all that racket about? A bunch of ants sitting in a room shouldn’t alarm her too much either.
“Th-Th-That-That’s...” Fresa stammered, pointing towards the other side of the room.
Hm? It’s ore, so what? Behind the ants were four ore deposits, piled high towards the ceiling. We’ve seen these before, haven’t we?
“D-D-D...” Fresa spluttered.
“Fresa-san, please calm down! What’s going on?!”
“Diamonds! That’s diamond ore!”
Seriously?! I’m surprised she saw that in this darkness!
There was a pause. “Please, don’t scare me like that,” Datil said, clearly irritated.
“Apple-san, don’t use the fire magic! You might burn theeem!”
Oh, I’ve heard of that before. Diamonds and charcoal have similar compositions, so if exposed to enough heat, they’ll vaporize. Apparently. Ugh, fine. I want to test out my new spell too, so I guess I’ll just put them all to sleep. Darkness from below will desire the Heavens.
Ding! “Spell confirmed. Activating at five percent strength.”
A dark cloud gathered around me.
Oooh, this makes me feel like an evil apple! Like the one that Snow White bites into or something!
“Heh heh, why do you seem so happy about that?” Grida said.
I’ve started to take pride in being an apple, you know? It’s starting to get fun! Look! Here comes my wave of darkness! I feel evil! I’m so evil! Yessss!
“Apple-san?! Did it just use the spell that the ant used?” Datil said, his eyes going wide with surprise.
That’s the reaction I’d expect.
“Heh heh, Apple-san can use any spell it experiences!” Fresa said proudly.
Not only do you seem surprisingly calm about this, but you also hit the bull’s-eye, Fresa. Are you sure you’re not listening in on us?
“Furutsu, I can’t see very well, but the ants in the other rooms are falling asleep too!” Grida said.
Really? This has pretty good range then.
Ring! Ring! “Warning! [37] monsters have resisted this spell.”
Good range, but not very effective, it seems.
“Seems like quite a few ants are still awake, Fresa-san,” Datil noted.
Yeah, maybe they resist it since it was originally their magic. Now what?
“What’s the matter? Even if you accidentally burn it with your magic, can’t you just turn it back to normal?” Grida asked.
Oh, you’re right. I’ve got Turn Reversal—guess I can test it out. Okay, Grida, go nuts! Could you use around three percent of your strength? Oh, but just in case, could you keep the damage to this room? If you hit the other room, the colony might collapse, and I wouldn’t have the chance to use my skill.
“Okay! Here I go! Remove the shackles of fire, traveler, at three percent strength!”
Ding! “Spell confirmed. Firing spell at multiple targets at three percent strength.”
A large number of fireballs burst out and flew towards the other side of the room.
“Huuuh?! Nooooo! Hey, Apple-san?!” Fresa cried.
Maybe three percent was overkill? The ants and the diamonds were both burned to a crisp. All right, now it’s time to surprise her! Turn Reversal activate!
Fresa was on her knees, her mouth opening and closing.
Ding! “Turn Reversal has been activated. The effects of the last used spell, ‘Darkness from below will desire the Heavens’ will now reverse. 3...2...1... Completed. Cost: 2, Recast cooldown: 10 seconds.”
Wait, my last used spell is the sleeping magic? Why?!
“Ack! The ants in the other room woke up!” Grida said.
More than half of the ants in front of me remained burnt to ashes.
Only the ants I put to sleep beforehand had their corpses restored.
“Could it be that you can only reverse spells you cast?”
That makes sense! So the ants in front of me must be dead, because otherwise they would have woken up again?
“It shouldn’t matter whether they’re asleep or awake. That’s so weird,” Grida said. She seemed half-surprised and half-unhappy with the result.
Well, at least we learned that Turn Reversal only works on my spells. We can’t return Fresa’s diamonds, and we woke up the ants I put to sleep though. These Cards of Fate should seriously come with more detailed explanations.
“I’m sorry I destroyed the diamonds, Furutsu.”
No, it’s not your fault, Grida. You did it under my instruction, and we learned a few things. I sort of feel bad for Fresa though. She’s crying her heart out staring at the ashes.
“Let’s go, Fresa-san!”
“Nooooo! My diamonds! My diamoooooonds!” Fresa cried as she threw me. She curled up in a ball and refused to move.
“What are you doing? Come on, let’s go,” Datil said.
She puffed her cheeks and turned her face away.
Are you a little kid?
“Okay, be that way. Then just stay here forever!” Datil replied, picking me up and walking towards another room.
Are you her mom?
“I feel sorry for Fresa-san,” Grida murmured.
No, we shouldn’t let her act so spoiled. She needs to know that some things won’t come back, no matter how much she cries and makes a fuss about it. Wait, we were just talking about Fresa specifically, right?
Beep Beep! “Warning! ‘Fresa’ on the safety settings list is out of range.”
What did the magician card just say?!
“Out of range?” Grida asked.
So the safety has a range? Seems fair. There’s no way everyone on the list could be invulnerable all the time.
I hopped out of Datil’s hand and rolled towards Fresa. “Hey, Apple-san!” he called.
Ding! “‘Fresa’ on the safety settings list is now in range.”
Hm, so the range is around twenty meters, give or take. I should remember this. At any rate, I did destroy the diamonds, so I suppose I should apologize.
“Apple-san?” Fresa said.
Roll. Roll. Roll. I rolled around Fresa a whole bunch of times. Roll. Roll. Roll. Roll. Roll.
She just stared at me in silence.