It was stabbed into the ground almost like a tombstone of sorts, and unfortunately, it was most definitely Alan’s shovel. But that wasn’t all; something was actually buried in the ground.
Catria trembled with despair. Buried there was Alan’s head.
“?!”
His head was the only thing poking out from the dirt. Alan’s expression was peaceful, almost as if he were sleeping under the watchful eye of the shovel.
No, this can’t be! Alan can’t be dead! Catria fell to her knees and reached out to his head with trembling hands.
Woop.
The Alan head casually opened its eyes. “Hrm, you’re finally awake, Catria?”
“EEEEEEEEEEEEEEK!”
And just like that, Alan emerged from the ground and wiped the ashen dirt off his body. “Hm, it’s been a while since I was last buried alive. Not since the battle against the Demogorgon.”
Alan’s whole body was present and accounted for. He was alive, like any normal person. Once Catria fully realized this, she broke into sobs as she thumped Alan on the chest with her hands. You big, dumb, stupid, dummy!
“Enough with the crappy jokes, you big jerk!” she cried.
“Hey, don’t hold me like that. I’m covered in dirt.”
To be fair, from Catria’s point of view, he had been a total goner. Though relieved, she still had a runny nose.
“Why are you crying?”
“’Cuz you were acting all dead! What the hell were you thinking?!” Catria yelled as she fought back her tears. I mean, I’m glad he’s alive! I am! I am, but, argh! I’m going to get him for tricking me like this!
“Ah, you mean me being buried? I wasn’t pretending to be dead.” Alan casually pulled his shovel out from the dirt, and for a moment, it looked like it was glowing light blue. “By burying myself in the ground, I charged my Shovel Power.”
“None of those words make any sense!”
“I was preparing for a battle with a fierce enemy.”
“Jeez, you’re such a dummy!”
Despite the tears in her eyes, Catria smiled; she really was happy that this was the same old Alan, so much so that she let out a sigh of relief.
As Alan gently ran his hand across Catria’s head, his expression grew serious. “Catria, this is going to be one hell of a fight. I’m going to need your strength (shovel).”
“You think I didn’t hear ‘shovel,’ but I totally did!”
“I might not be able to handle this alone. It’s possible that the orbs have taken a significant portion of my power.”
Alan gripped his shovel. His whole body projected a light blue Shovel Aura, but it wasn’t nearly as fierce as before. Perhaps Elise had been right when she said his power had been scattered.
“Before you woke up, I was gathering the Shovel Power that’s been strewn across the globe, but…”
Alan gazed past Catria. She turned, only to find a castle in the distance, one that sat where Rostir Castle should’ve been. However, something was clearly different about it. It was a steel tower that nearly pierced the heavens—in the shape of a shovel, no less. There could be no doubt about the identity of the one who waited within those walls.
“I don’t know if I can save Lithisia all by myself,” Alan said, looking grave.
“I…see…” Catria wasn’t really sure what she “saw,” but she chuckled and gripped the Holy Knight Blade on her back. Alan was asking for her help. The invincible Alan, asking a fallen knight such as herself. In that case, there was but one answer. “I understand. Leave it to me. What do you need me to do?”
“Help me maintain my sanity.”
“Excuse me?”
“If I spoke to Lithisia as she is now, even I might get corrupted.”
“Even you…? I’m not sure I can help if it’s really that bad.”
Alan shook his head. “Whenever you play the straight woman, it helps me stay calm.”
“That’s my role?!”
Catria had thought Alan was leaving her to guard his back, but instead he wanted the stupidest favor imaginable. That said, Catria had already agreed to help, so there was no turning back.
“We must hurry, Catria. If we take too much time, things’ll only get worse.”
“How is that even possible at this point?”
“Currently, this Shovel Hell is limited to only Rostir. What we should worry about resides elsewhere.” Alan pointed to the impaled sun up above. “That’s the real sun, and it’s currently being blatantly desecrated by the shovel.”
“I suppose that’s one way of putting it.”
“If the Sun God notices, there’ll be a new kind of hell to pay.”
“Elise said as much earlier…”
Divine retribution. Now that Catria thought about it, didn’t Lucy and Gabriella serve the Sun God? Alan had said something about how if he ever had to face a greater God-class entity, his chances of winning were slim. Of course, the fact that they were slim and not nonexistent was ridiculous in and of itself.
“I asked Lucy and Gabriella to try and keep the Sun God busy for now,” Alan said. At this point, it seemed safe to say that the two of them were proper Shovel Angels now. “I don’t know how long they’ll be able to hold out. We must hurry.”
Alan dug his feet into the Shovel Ground (it was hard) and began to walk quickly. Their objective was the former capital of Rostir, now known as the capital of Shovelir, and the Ashen Shopalace, where they would once more face Lithisia.
“Alan, what are you planning on saying to the princess?”
“I don’t know.” The one dude in the world who was impossible to understand was saying that he didn’t know something. “I still don’t understand what Lithisia wants from me—or any of this.”
It was true that no mortal could possibly understand any of what Lithisia was thinking, but one thing was clear as day to Catria, at least: Lithisia loved Alan.
“That’s why the first thing I need to do is listen to her demands and go from there. I may not know what she’s after, but I’ll do everything within my power to give it to her,” Alan whispered to himself as he stared off toward the shining Shopalace. He seemed calm, but his underlying anxieties slipped through the cracks.
Catria could tell he cared a great deal about Lithisia, and she couldn’t help but feel a little jealous of the princess.
Alan turned to Catria. “Do you know what she wants?”
Catria struggled with this question for a moment. In the end, she chose honesty. “Doesn’t she want to marry you?”
Seriously, just marry her already.
“If that’s what she truly desires, I wouldn’t object,” Alan replied.
“Seriously?”
“But that can’t be the only thing she’s after. Her request has to be something beyond the understanding of humanity.”
“You might be right…”
The wish the orbs granted…what could it have been?
Lithisia’s feelings for Alan were supposed to be like that of a young maiden’s, but when Catria looked at the sun impaled by a shovel, or the Shopalace, or the field of shovels, she wasn’t so confident in that assessment. Rostir had transformed into a Shovel Hell, befitting the name Shovelir. A nation for shovels, not humans, composed of a billion small shovels. No matter how you looked at it, this wasn’t the work of a young maiden in love. Nor was it the work of a god, despite what Elise thought. If anything—
“We might end up doing battle with the princess…”
It was the work of a lord of Hell.