Ch.7474. Contaminated City

Sherry’s body was being crushed by something.

Sharp fragments had pierced through her arm, and debris from the building was pressing down on her body, making it difficult to even breathe.

The pressure on her abdomen was especially intense, making her feel like her internal organs would be crushed at any moment.

Her legs had already been smashed, it seemed, as they hurt for a few minutes before all sensation disappeared.

‘Ah.’

All she could see was the sky.

Looking at the sky turning red seemed to clear her mind.

‘No.’

Something was wrong. This wasn’t right.

[Close your eyes.]

Occasionally, she heard whispers from an unknown source. She tried to ignore them by thinking of other things, but eventually, she would recognize the voice.

‘It hurts. Help me.’

[Close your eyes. Leave everything to me from now on.]

She felt like she would lose consciousness at any moment.

She didn’t understand what was happening. Everything was confusing.

But something kept trying to enter her mind. It hurt. It made her dizzy.

‘I want to feel at ease.’

[Close your eyes.]

She shouldn’t listen to those words.

She shouldn’t close her eyes.

‘He’ll come.’

That’s what she believed.

The kind human who always appeared to save her whenever she was in danger.

He would come to save her this time too.

So she wouldn’t give up.

He would come. He would definitely come.

‘Adel will definitely come.’

If she didn’t think that way…

She felt like she would completely fall apart.

***

We hurried toward the Labyrinth city.

We had been in the Elven Sanctuary forest. It would take several hours of running to reach the interior of the Labyrinth city.

‘To think the Demonic Blood could be felt even from that distance.’

Someone who couldn’t handle mana at all might have died from their body exploding.

Even ordinary people with a little mana would probably experience hallucinations.

‘That alone is already a disaster.’

Our first objective was to quickly rescue people and then gather priests to create shelters protected by holy power.

“We’ll reach the city soon,” said the guild leader, who was carrying Deneb on her back.

As she said, we were beginning to see the outskirts of the city.

‘So it begins.’

Even the wild monsters we encountered while passing through the forest were contaminated by the Demonic Blood.

If that was the case at some distance, what state would the city interior be in?

I hoped the explorers in the city were handling the situation well.

‘This is near where Rio lives.’

If possible, I wanted to visit Rio’s winery.

Since she rarely went out, there was a high possibility she was at the winery when the incident occurred.

“I’ll use mana detection first. We need to rescue anyone who might be hiding,” said Seirai, closing her eyes to use mana detection.

After a few seconds…

“…There’s no sign of people around. Either they’ve already evacuated, or they’re already dead.”

Seirai muttered quietly.

‘No sign of people.’

Could it be that even Rio had gone out?

“…Adel, wait a moment.”

Hearing this, Shiro sensed something strange and used mana detection herself.

I also felt something was off.

Rio rarely went out, maybe five times a year at most. Had she happened to go out today of all days?

“…I think there’s still someone left.”

“Huh? You found something I missed?”

In terms of magic, Seirai had overwhelmingly superior skills compared to Shiro.

It was almost impossible for Shiro to detect energy that Seirai couldn’t find.

So naturally, the correct interpretation would be that Shiro had misread the energy, but…

“I think so too. Shiro, do you sense mana coming from the direction of Rio’s winery?”

“Yes.”

As I thought. ‘That’ Rio wouldn’t go out.

“The mana is so faint I thought it might be a dead person, but Rio always emits that kind of energy, so it stuck in my memory.”

“…A person emitting the same wavelength as a corpse?”

Shiro nodded at Seirai’s words.

That’s probably why only Shiro, who had seen Rio in person, could sense her mana.

Seirai would have classified Rio’s mana as that of a corpse.

“Adel. Can you guide us there?”

“Yes, Guild Leader.”

As we were about to go rescue Rio…

-Boom!

A monster jumped out from a nearby building as it collapsed.

A Grade 4 monster, a Yeti.

“…What is that?”

Immediately, a fireball shot from Seirai’s hand.

-Kwaaang!

The Yeti died gloriously.

Well, it died without even fighting, so perhaps “gloriously” isn’t quite right.

“…Let’s go.”

It was a moment that made me realize just how strong the people beside me were.

‘Once I fill the remaining Sources, I should surpass that level.’

But first, I wondered if we could even enter the Labyrinth with the city in this state.

-Knock, knock.

“Rio. Are you in there?”

We arrived at the winery building, and I knocked on the door.

“Rio?”

…There was no answer even after waiting for dozens of seconds.

The door was locked, which suggested she was inside.

“Shiro. Could you use mana detection once more?”

“Sure, Adel.”

After a moment…

“…She’s there.”

“Is she alive? Could she be injured?”

“No, I don’t think so.”

Shiro had an ambiguous expression.

It was unsettling, but since she was alive, I decided to open the door first.

-Crash!

I punched through the door and turned the inside handle.

The winery looked the same as usual.

The only difference was that Rio was crouched behind the bar.

She seemed to have panicked, thinking we were monsters.

“Rio, what are you doing?”

“…?”

She peeked her head out from behind the long table.

“…I was hiding.”

“We could see you clearly.”

She seemed to think she had hidden completely, but her head was clearly visible from behind the table.

“But how did you get here? Is it okay for wanted criminals to be walking around the imperial territory like this?”

She seemed embarrassed and suddenly changed the subject, but the content was natural enough that I let it slide.

“Are you not aware of the situation outside?”

“I overslept, and when I woke up, there were monsters outside, so I hid in the house. What exactly happened out there?”

Sherry always worried about Rio’s sleeping habits, but ironically, those habits had saved her life.

“…You were lucky. Anyway, it’s difficult to explain the situation right now, but I’ll tell you as we move.”

I wanted to explain leisurely, but time was passing.

We had no time to waste.

“Let’s move.”

We began moving in a formation to protect Rio.

Kyle and I were at the front, with Shiro, Seirai, and Rio right behind us.

The guild leader decided to stay at the back to give overall orders and combat support.

As we advanced into the city, remaining vigilant of our surroundings…

I gave Rio a brief summary of what had happened so far.

“…I know it’s inconsiderate to ask this suddenly, but could we go to where Sherry is? She was probably waiting outside for me because of me…”

She spoke with a guilty tone.

“…Do you know where Sherry is?”

“Yes. We were supposed to meet at the Association building, but I overslept, so she’s probably still waiting there.”

The Association building happened to be on our route.

Being close to the city center, the Demonic Blood and monsters would have spread quickly there.

“…Can we increase our pace a bit?”

I asked everyone for their understanding.

Sherry was my benefactor.

If only my life were at stake, I would have run there without looking back—that’s how important she was to me.

But now, this wasn’t just about my life.

“Moving faster would be good. Deneb, get on my back again.”

“Yes, Guild Leader.”

Deneb climbed onto the guild leader’s back with a serious expression.

She rested her chin on the guild leader’s shoulder with a determined look.

The composition looked quite violent.

“Then who’s going to carry Rio? She’s a civilian and won’t be able to keep up if we run.”

“Ah, I’ll carry her.”

Seirai showed Rio her back with a mischievous expression.

“…Okay. Thank you.”

“No need to thank me. Just tell me anytime you want a ride.”

Seirai seemed to be enjoying the soft sensation on her back.

…It’s amazing she can be like this even in this situation.

“Then let’s run. We’ll match Shiro and Seirai’s pace, so please follow without pushing yourselves too hard.”

As I took the first step…

-Boom!

“?”

The ground cracked a little even though I had only stepped lightly.

It seemed the ground had become unstable due to the Demonic Blood.

‘I’ll have to step carefully.’

I moved while controlling my strength as much as possible.

“Kieeek!”

The frequency of monster appearances increased as we entered the city.

Moreover, the monsters’ strength increased exponentially.

-Thud!

I caught my breath after finishing a battle.

“That was definitely an upper Grade 3 monster, right?”

I looked at everyone as I continued.

“Whether it’s because of the Demonic Blood or not, it seemed at least mid-to-lower Grade 2. Do you agree?”

Everyone nodded.

The monsters had become much stronger, possibly due to the Demonic Blood.

“For now, it seems there’s no one around, so let’s continue.”

When we finally reached the vicinity of the Association, buildings had collapsed.

Given that Shiro and Rei couldn’t sense anything but Demonic Blood despite using mana detection, there were probably no survivors.

“Shiro. Can you sense any remnants of Sherry’s mana wavelength?”

Even when people die, traces of their mana usually remain, so I wanted to check that.

“No, I don’t sense anything at all.”

With the definitive answer from Shiro, who was the only one familiar with Sherry’s mana, we moved on.

‘…This is terrible.’

In front of the collapsed building ruins was a crushed, blood-stained armor.

The knight seemed to have died without even being able to resist, as there were no traces of battle.

“Let’s hurry on.”

We continued on, leaving that place behind.

There would be no survivors here.