Ch.1223If You Don’t Know, Get Hit

After ordering the rock monkeys to take a thirty-minute break, I sat on a rock that served as a chair and watched—no, not watched, but protected Ophelia from being disturbed.

Ophelia had her eyes closed and was busily wiggling her fingers, apparently concentrating on her magic. Occasionally, she would twitch her shoulders or furrow her brow, which made for quite an entertaining spectacle.

“Hmm… mmm… heave…”

This is seriously hilarious. The homunculus is the one digging, but why is she making faces like she’s the one doing the digging?

“Heave, heeave…!”

Now she’s even making grunting noises. Why aren’t there cameras in this world? I really need to record this and show it to her later.

Anyway, twenty minutes passed like that.

Finally, it seemed the strangely-shaped homunculus had reached the surface. After struggling for a while, Ophelia’s expression stiffened, she fell silent, and then opened her eyes.

I guess breaking the sight-sharing spell means she’s finished scouting? It took exactly 20 minutes. I stamped out the cigarette I’d been smoking and approached her.

“Finished?”

“Yes, well, I did see something, but…”

Ophelia turned to me and nodded slowly as she spoke.

“But what?”

“The situation is a bit… how should I put it… perplexing?”

Her trailing words and incoherent mumbling with a face that suggested she’d seen something unimaginable was quite puzzling.

What could she have seen up there? Was there a dancing orc ballerina or something?

“Perplexing? What on earth is up there?”

“Well… you know that orc we defeated before? The one named…”

“Caljarat?”

“Yes, Caljarat. He’s fighting with a giant up there.”

What? A giant?

Now it was my turn to be bewildered. The name Caljarat alone was unexpected enough, but why was that guy fighting a giant here?

“And, I’m not entirely sure, but I think Turangkai is there too…?”

“…Why is he there?”

Turangkai too? What kind of random combination is that?

It’s a relief to know he’s alive, but… I’m not sure if I should be happy about this.

Just yesterday at dawn, I had lied about him being on a special mission, and now he shows up like this after only a day or two. What is he thinking?

Fortunately, the others don’t know about this yet, but when they eventually find out, I’m going to be labeled as a tremendous liar.

“So, what do you want to do?”

“…Well, that’s not even a question.”

Of course, that’s something I can worry about later.

What I need to do now isn’t to worry about cleaning up the lie I’ve already told, but to save Turangkai’s life up there.

Even if not handling this properly could become troublesome, being alive is better than being found as a corpse. Much better.

– Click.

I drew Durandal from my waist, looked up at the cave ceiling that was still rumbling with aftershocks, and asked Ophelia:

“Ophelia, can you cast that sight-sharing spell on me too?”

“On you…?”

Ophelia tilted her head, thought for a moment, then shook her head.

“That would be difficult. Not only because of your mana resistance, but also because this spell wasn’t designed to connect with a third party who isn’t the caster.”

“Hah… then there’s no choice.”

So it’s not possible. I thought we might be able to handle this easily, but that’s unfortunate.

“Nigel, can you hear me? Tell Jahan to have the rock monkeys build as strong a barrier as possible. A battle is about to break out.”

“A battle… sir? Ah, yes! I’ll tell him right away!”

Well, if that’s the case, there’s no other way. Since we can’t take the easy route, I’ll have to rely partly on luck and just go for it.

“Ophelia, prepare defensive magic. The ceiling is about to collapse.”

“What are you planning to do?”

“What else? I’m going to do what I do best.”

I answered while channeling power into the sword in my grip.

I’d better not release my divine power… If I unleash that much power, those fighting above might sense my presence and respond.

– Whoooosh…!

The blade pulsed with a faint, undulating mist of golden and blue sacred light. The essence of the power I had achieved when I was still human was concentrated at the tip of the sword.

“Ophelia, where exactly are they now? And Turangkai?”

“I don’t know. I broke the connection because the homunculus seemed like it wouldn’t last much longer.”

Ah, is that so…? She really seems helpful but isn’t. Well, I didn’t expect much from her anyway, judging by her appearance.

“Then at least tell me what you saw right before breaking the connection. Just so I can get a rough idea.”

“That’s easy enough. Let’s see… about two thousand meters in this direction?”

Ophelia pointed her index finger upward. Not completely vertical, but at a very slight diagonal angle.

Two thousand meters in that direction. That would be quite a distance on the surface.

I slowly lowered the tip of Durandal and concentrated all my senses in the direction Ophelia had pointed.

I was trying to somehow detect the presence of the monsters fighting there.

Because we were deep underground, I hadn’t felt any presence until now, but if I knew the direction and distance and concentrated, maybe I could pick up something.

“……”

…But I can’t feel anything. If we were above ground, I might have been able to sense something vaguely, but it seems impossible from underground. Well, can’t be helped.

“And Turangkai?”

“He’s probably around there….”

Ophelia slightly adjusted her finger to point in a different direction.

Ah, so they’re not right next to each other.

That was expected. Anyone with sense would do the same. With his skills, if he got caught up in a battle between monsters, he’d be torn to shreds in an instant.

So let’s see, considering Ophelia’s information, the intervals and amplitude of the continuing aftershocks, Caljarat’s movements from our previous encounter, and the speed difference with Turangkai…

“…This should be about right. Ophelia, prepare a mana barrier. Deploy it as soon as the ceiling splits.”

“I see what you’re planning. Let’s hope Turangkai is lucky.”

Ophelia raised both arms toward the ceiling with a wry smile.

After confirming that geometric patterns of magical light appeared on her arms, I swung Durandal toward the ceiling and released the reins of power I had been holding back.

【 Defying Fate 】

Time froze. Yet my body and sword moved. The blade, shimmering with intermingled light, contained the secret of cutting through the world.

【 Sky Slash 】

A near-fatal strike that would be impossible to avoid if not detected in advance, or even if detected, without a means to counter it.

―――!

In a world devoid of sound, a mirage-like blue-gold trajectory cut through the underground depths, extending to the other side of the abyss.

======[ Naraka Surface ]======

A six-armed orc. An exiled giant. The king of monkeys born from rock.

The bloody battle between monsters that had changed the terrain and caused storms with blood and roars came to an end that none of the three had expected.

“KWAAAARGH!”

“UOOOOOOH!”

As Bergelmir’s axe was cut and shattered by Caljarat’s slash, and the handleless axe crushed Caljarat’s left side.

“Huh? Wait, something from below—”

Just as Turangkai, suddenly sensing a somehow familiar wave of power, looked down at the torn ground—

– KWAOOOOOOO―!

Time stopped for an instant and then began to flow again, spewing something like a flashing light into the world.

That light tore through everything in its path, splitting Naraka’s ceiling almost to the height of the ground level.

A space-time severing strike that was impossible to react to without predicting or recognizing it in advance. This was true even for demigod-level powerhouses.

“This, this power…!”

“Grr, OOOOOOH…!”

By the time they finally recognized the nature of the flash, the beam of light had already cut through its target and passed by. None of the three could respond to it.

“Damn it, I never thought they would attack first…!”

Caljarat immediately recognized whose sword had delivered that slash just by seeing the aftermath, but it was already too late.

His left side had been crushed by Bergelmir’s blow, with broken bones piercing through his flesh, and his right arms, all three of them, had been sliced off and were spinning through the air.

With all six of his arms in such a state, he couldn’t even dream of counterattacking, even knowing the identity of the attacker.

“Kuk, kuhak…! I’ve been, thoroughly, defeated…!”

In fact, he couldn’t even counterattack; he needed to somehow tend to his own body first. Not if he didn’t want to be killed by the same murderer he had come to seek revenge against.

‘How did he know my movements and already…? No way, could this monkey have been luring me into a trap from the beginning?!’

Even while clutching the stumps of his severed arms and coughing blood, Caljarat managed to turn his head and glare fiercely at Turangkai, who was falling after losing his foothold on the rocks.

“Why are you looking at me like that! I didn’t do anything. I’m just as shocked as you are!”

Turangkai, falling in an upside-down position, somehow noticed that gaze and shouted defensively.

It was true that he had been deceiving Caljarat, but the extent of his lie was merely taking a longer route deliberately to buy time for his allies to regroup.

Turangkai himself hadn’t imagined they would meet again in such a random place, nowhere near their secret base.

So he too was quite genuinely surprised.

“Grrrrrr… cowardly…”

Of course, his shock was nothing compared to Bergelmir’s, and Caljarat’s injuries were mere scratches compared to the giant’s.

The giant’s characteristic enormous body was the source of their tremendous strength and toughness, but as a trade-off for that power, they had a weakness to wide-range attacks.

Simply put, because of their huge size, they inevitably took attacks head-on—with their entire body—that someone with a human-sized body might have avoided.

Like now.

– KUUUUUNG…!

The giant’s upper body fell forward and crashed into the split ground, bleeding a waterfall of blood.

His lower body staggered back a couple of steps before collapsing backward, causing a small earthquake.

Thanks to the giant’s characteristic toughness, he was still breathing, but it was a fatal wound that prevented him not only from continuing to fight but even from fleeing.