Alice was leaking all kinds of Alice-juices as Lithisia lifted her up with her shovel. “Wha?!”
“Alice, hurry and get Sir Miner!”
“Eeek?! I’d love to run, but!”
If Veknar called for her, Alice would lose control of her very soul. The only reason she had maintained herself thus far was Lithisia’s Shovel Powers (status restoration). (Actually, Alice got the feeling it was less restoration and more like overwriting, but whatever.) Either way, the second Alice left Lithisia’s side, she’d be under the god’s control.
“Don’t worry. I had a feeling this might happen, so I developed a completely autonomous shovel weapon!”
Lithisia whipped out something resembling a leotard. It was a pure angelic white and in Alice’s size, but on the inside were thousands of small protruding bits. These weren’t tentacles but in fact small shovel heads, in other words, way worse than tentacles—especially as these shovel heads actively sought out Alice’s skin.
“!!!”
SHIIIISCOOOOP!
(The sound of Alice’s spine quivering in fear.)
“It’s a Shovel Suit! Put it on, Alice!”
“No! Absolutely not!” If Alice wore that suit, her soul would be forever lost.
“With this, you can be scooped endlessly even when I’m not around! Come, Alice!” Lithisia held her red shovel in her left hand and the Shovel Suit in her right.
“STOP IIIIIIIIT!”
This was a complete disaster.
Amidst the chaos, Veknar finally made his move. “I see, so you’re the intermediary. I wonder what will happen once you’re gone?”
“Huh?”
“DEATH RAY.”
SHA-BAAAAAAAANG!
Veknar fired a beam from his finger. The red shovel in Lithisia’s left hand was obliterated.
All sound stopped for Lithisia. It felt like the entire world had ceased to move.
“Huh…?”
Her shovel. The precious shovel she had received from Sir Miner. The shovel, more precious than her life, humanity, or even all the universe…it was gone?
“Now you can’t use that technique of yours. This is the end.” Veknar pointed his finger at Lithisia.
SHA-BAAAAAAAANG!
This beam was even more fierce than the last.
This is bad…this is really, really bad!
The impact of losing her shovel sped up Princess Lithisia’s internal thought processes (as a human). She had dedicated over 99 percent of the resources in her brain to thinking about shovels, and now that it was gone, her former genius-level intellect had kicked back into gear. In other words, she was normally operating at less than 1 percent of her total mental capacity.
What can I do?!
She understood the entirety of her situation. It was bad. The worst, even.
Also, Lithisia recognized that beam of Veknar’s. It was the same as the beam Alan once used to destroy the bandits’ swords. In other words, she was facing someone on the same level as her Sir Miner—someone capable of breaking the laws of the world. There was no way she could win. She had to run. She had to somehow get Alan’s help…
Something strange was happening to Alice.
“Ah…”
Alice’s body slowly fell forward. Lithisia nearly fainted as she watched. Alice’s once silver form now produced dark energy. She was de-shoveling. The tug-of-war between Veknar and Alice’s internal shovel had come to a close. Alice was disappearing.
My belovedly shovely Alice will be no more… Is that really okay? My shovel won’t be a shovel anymore… Is that really okay?
“Not…” Lithisia murmured.
“Hrm?”
“Absoscooply not! I…I am a SHOVEL!” Of course it wasn’t okay! That was why Lithisia yelled at the top of her lungs: “CHARGE UP SEQUENCE, ACTIVATE!”
Lithisia held her hands in the shape of a triangle. She had no shovel to call her own, but so what? Everything in this world was a shovel. She had decided she herself was a shovel. She had to be one, lest Alice disappear forever.
I received my shovel from Sir Miner. That’s why I am a blade that pierces the very rules of this planet.
Lithisia Power: 120 percent. Safety Systems: all green.
“DIIIIIIIIG!”
KA-CHOOOOOOOOM!
“Ha!”
Lithisia fired a beam from the ends of her hands. It was much smaller than Alan’s, but it was without a doubt a Wave Motion Shovel Blast. It was a collection of Lithisia’s pure energies, fired by Lithisia herself. A weapon to pierce and dig through the rules of the world.
Veknar took the blast head-on.
A moment passed.
“Not bad at all. However, this is just the beginning.” Veknar raised his hand. “WORLD OF REFLECTION.”
SHINK!
Lithisia’s beam was reflected back at her.
“No way?!” As Lithisia watched her own beam careen toward her, she recalled Alan had once told her of beings beneath the surface who could reflect the Wave Motion Shovel Blast. That was why he took “safety first” so seriously. Ah…I’m so sorry, Sir Miner…
She had failed his teachings. Lithisia couldn’t be a shovel. She was a human woman who could do naught but despair over the beam of light advancing on her body.
“DIG!”
KA-CHOOOOOOOOM!
Another beam of light cut through the princess’s.
“Huh…?” Lithisia opened her eyes wide and found herself staring up at the back of a man standing before her.
It was the strong, sturdy back of the most dependable man in the world. The man with the shovel. He stood in front of Lithisia, protecting her from Veknar.
“Sorry to keep you waiting.”
It was Alan.
“Ah…”
Lithisia gazed at his back with her mouth half-open. She wanted to say something, but no words came out, just a series of sounds. The tears she had been holding back ran freely, blurring her vision. Her emotions overflowed. Her beloved shovel. Her overflowing shovel.
“Leave the rest to me.” Alan casually held out his shovel and turned to Veknar. “Even against the divine itself, my shovel won’t lose.”
Lithisia shed tears. Tears for her savior.
✦ ✦ ✦
“Who are you?” said Veknar, now facing Alan’s shovel.
Veknar didn’t let his guard down as Alan shook his head.
“I’m Alan the miner.”
“A miner… Ah, yes, I remember hearing of you now.” Veknar gave Alan a long hard look of great interest. “A human who overcame their own mortality. I heard tell of you from Asmodeus.”
“Enough with the chitchat. Are we doing this or not?”
“Not right now. Much like you, I err on the side of safety first.”
“…”
“Feel free to cause as much chaos on the surface as you’d like with my vessel and that little princess of yours.” Veknar began to hover in the air, his robes fluttering into darkness. “Hee hee, fascinating. You might very well be able to seize the Pantheon.”
“I don’t intend to.”
“It matters not what you desire. It is your fate.” And then Veknar vanished with these final words: “Let me give you one piece of advice… Asmodeus has your treasured orb.”
And so the robed Veknar left Alan, Lithisia, and the unconscious Alice behind in the shadows of the Great Cathedral.
“Um, Sir Miner…?”
Alan turned, causing Lithisia’s heart to leap. She didn’t know what to say to him. Wait, she had to apologize for leaving the battleground and getting in trouble against orders—not to mention getting her precious red shovel destroyed! As a believer and follower of the Holy Shovel Faith, she was ready to be punished with death. That was why she had to apologize first and…
“You have my gratitude. You did well, Lithisia.”
“Huh?”
For some reason, Alan thanked her. “It’s thanks to you that everyone ended up okay.”
“Wh-what?”
These words were entirely unexpected.
“That guy’s god-barrier meant I couldn’t get a lock on your location. Your Wave Motion Shovel Blast is what let me find you.”
“Huh? Um, er, um…”
“You did great, Lithisia.”
“Ah…aaauhhhh…”
Sir Miner praised me. I was useful to him at last!
“Ah…scoop…shovel…!”
This truth made Lithisia quite the happy little shovel.
She remained in this delirious state for a solid few minutes, all the way until Catria appeared and found the princess melting with delight, Alice catatonic on the floor in her Shovel Suit, and Alan digging up a barrier to guard against god-tier enemies.
✦ ✦ ✦
“By the way, Alan, which mountain are we freeing next?” asked Catria.
“We’re mostly done, actually. But according to some new intel, it seems the demons took the Purple Orb deep below.”
“Oh, right. We’re collecting orbs. I forgot about that.” Catria was so focused on saving the world from shovels she had lost track of their original objective.
“Which means it’s time to go to Hell.”
Catria thought for a few seconds before sighing. She was only surprised by the fact that his sentence didn’t surprise her in the slightest.
No, the fact that I recognize that means I’m still mostly human.
Catria nodded to herself firmly. Once she got back from Hell, she’d have to have a nice long chat with Odessa so she could regain some of her basic reason.
✦ ✦ ✦
Her shovel was only just beginning.