Part 61:
The Princess Introduces Herself as a Scoop
WHEN CATRIA WOKE, the world had remade itself as a Shovel Hell.
“Really?”
That was the only way to describe it.
Catria recalled losing consciousness due to the orbs’ light, but she was no longer in a field near the Rostir capital. In fact, it could hardly be described as a field, considering the lack of plant life. Instead, billions of tiny shovels poked out of the ground. As they swayed back and forth in the wind, she could hear them going “shooovel… shooovel…”
“The laws of space are being contorted.”
But that was pretty common, so Catria scanned her surroundings. Where Lancelot and the Holy Shovel Knights had once stood was a hill, covered with countless shovels stuck in the ground. These shovels were as silver as the Holy Knights’ armor had been.
In other words, those shovels were what the knights had become. That meant the shovel wearing a black cape in front of Catria was probably Zeleburg.
Oh, I get it.
“Wait, what am I talking about?!” Catria gazed up at the sky as she bantered with herself.
As luck would have it, the sky was even more screwed up than the field. The sun still, uh, remained. But a giant shovel impaled it. Just how big did that thing have to be to do something like that?
The sun burned fiercely like a star approaching the end of its life, almost as though it’d burn away everything in this Shovel Hell.
After taking in her surroundings, Catria could handle it no longer and yelled. “Alan! Where are you?!”
She was half in tears. Quite frankly, she was scared, shaken to her core.
“Alan, don’t you dare leave me all alone in this damned Shovel Hell!” Catria was more than certain that she’d lose her mind if left alone in this world for more than three minutes. “Dammit! What were you thinking, Lithisia?!”
Zeleburg had said the orbs could only grant a wish of extreme desire and greed, one that no human could possibly make. He was exactly right. The only being capable of wishing for a world like this was Princess Lithisia, or perhaps, Princess Shovelthisia.
And where exactly had that princess gone? Was she one of the billions of shovels poking out of the ground? If she was, how was Catria to find her? And what would doing that even solve?
Argh, I just don’t get it! This is too much for one single human!
“I see you’re awake, Catria.”
The knight heard someone approaching her from behind. She turned to find a familiarly dressed princess.
“Your Highness?! …No.” Catria peered at the golden-haired girl and the perfect way she held herself. “Elise, huh?”
She must’ve made it through thanks to the lingering shreds of the Anti-Shovel Power treatment she received in Shoveland.
“Hrm, so you survived too.” Elise folded her arms and looked up at the sun impaled by a shovel. Her lips formed a fearless smile. “Catria, look at that. I’m sure you’ve noticed what’s wrong, yes?”
“If you’re talking about the bajillion shovels around us, then yeah.”
“This is World Modification. Something only a high-level being—a God-class entity—can do.”
All right. Okay. So the field of billions of shovels was apparently the work of a god. Great.
Elise wore a victorious expression. “Take a look at the giant shovel impaling the sun. Alan… This would mean that he’s surpassed the God-class entities of the Sun Pantheon. I’ll call him a Zero-Class entity for now. You see, the other gods would never simply allow this to transpire, if they had a choice.”
Shovel, shovel.
The shovels surrounding Elise swayed to and fro.
“Haaah…” Catria sighed. This poor girl has no idea what she’s talking about.
“You seem to have missed this, but this isn’t Alan’s doing,” said Catria. “It’s the princess’s.”
“It’s all the same. Is she not one of his lesser gods? She’s clearly neither human nor angel.”
“Well, that’s true.” It was hard for Catria to outright contradict Elise when part of what she said was in fact the case.
“But this is also the perfect chance!” Elise cried.
“For what?”
“This time, I won’t be interrupted during the important bits like at that theme park.” Elise was likely referring to the Shovelcom incident.
“What’s your point?”
“This is proof that he doesn’t have full control of his power.” Elise smirked. “This happened because his power’s been scattered across the world. Basically, you could say he’s been weakened. Right now, while his Zero-Class power is divided, I, the Demon of Reflection, might be able to copy him! Hee hee hee!”
Elise trembled, but not due to fear; she vibrated with pure excitement. “I had planned to copy the Demogorgon’s power, but now? Hee hee… I never thought the opportunity would present itself so quickly.”
“Stop it, seriously.” Catria’s warning was for real. If Elise continued down this path, Catria could see naught but a future in which Elise became a shovel. “Oh, and I know I’m repeating myself, but Alan isn’t a god.”
Catria knew the warning was pointless at this point, but it had to be made.
Elise regarded Catria for a time before curling her lips into a smile. “If that thing is truly just a human, then you should flee as soon as possible.”
“Pardon?”
“Remember what I said before? There’s no way the Sun God would permit such an atrocity.” Elise pointed at the currently impaled sun and smiled gleefully. “If a mere mortal has made fool of the sun, divine punishment will soon come.”
She wasn’t wrong. If the Pantheon of the Sun had anything to say about this, a big old serving of retribution was no doubt on the way.
“Eh, but given it’s Alan, I’m not sure that really matters,” said Catria.
Elise spun around like she was dancing and turned her back to Catria. She glanced over her shoulder and winked as she walked away. “Catch you later, Catria. Let us meet again, next time in a world that I rule—sha?!”
Thunk!
Elise had tripped on one of the field shovels because she wasn’t looking where she was walking. She tumbled forward and smacked her forehead on another one of the shovels. It looked like it hurt a lot.
“Gaaaaaaaaaah?!” Elise sat on her knees in agony.
“A-are you okay?”
“Th-this is nothing… Nothing!” Elise rubbed her forehead and disappeared. She likely intended to search for Lithisia and Alan.
“She’s nothing more than another victim of the shovel,” Catria sighed. But that didn’t mean Catria could do anything to help her.
Shoooooovel! This was the sound of the wind blowing through the open cavity of a shovel handle. Catria had been left all on her own.
“I…guess I’ll look for Alan too.”
In a way, Elise’s presence had helped calm Catria down. The thought of searching through a billion some-odd shovels made her want to pass out, but the fact that she and Elise were still okay meant that Alan might also still have his human form. Either way, nothing could be saved until Catria reunited with him.
She began to walk, walk and walk, until she came across a landmark.
“Wait, that’s…”
A shovel hill. A single large shovel had been stabbed into its very top. It looked much like the shovel Alan always carried around. The lady knight felt a chill run down the length of her body.
“No, that’s impossible. Not him of all people!” Deeply unsettled, Catria quickly closed in on the shovel.