Eldritch... Fear...?
Apostle of...
「 Ｂｒａｎｄｒ？ 」
The Hero's voice is soft.
Disbelief has taken over his face.
His eyes dart back and forth, looking for more signs of life...
but the elf remains still, dazed, breathing, and blinking,
unresponsive to the world around him.
So The Hero carefully reaches out to his friend's unmoving shoulder to try shaking it,
but seeing that... causes the phantom frostbite grip in our spines to tighten and twist.
Without thinking, we immediately shoot our arms out to push his arm away,
and in doing so, the eldritch pain relieves slightly, sending a... different kind of shiver
through our spines in its place. ...It takes a lot of effort to keep our lips shut.
「 ‥？ 」
『『 ... 』』
The Hero's gaze seeks an explanation.
We let go, and Crier daintily pulls the second stone cup from the ground.
Without missing a beat, we hover the palms that haven't been cut over it,
and slice them, bleeding steadily into it with a fresh trickle of red.
...There's no actual point to doing this.
It's just to give The Hero something to look at.
Our heads were just about to meltdown from being stared at, you know?!
You want us to come up with answers under those kinds of conditions?
Impossible! Absolutely not! That's some kind of sick joke!
At least, until this cup fills, we'll have some room to breathe...
So... what is the problem, and how do we fix it?
The problem is, this elf just experienced hell and is going to wake up insane,
just like we did when we first reincarnated with Eldritch Fear.
We can reason that The Hero will blame us for the aforementioned insanity
because the elf was made to drink our suspicious blood, in a sketchy ritual.
In which case, The Hero will most likely think of us as enemies, and...
well... that spine twisting death sense pain spike says it all.
Alright! So, solutions?
...Ah.
The cup is full.
We pull our hands up and lick the leftover residue on our palms
while The Hero's... perpetually prying eyes...
cause our hairs to stand on end...
So annoying...!
We carefully, and intently pick up the blood-filled cup,
and offer it to The Hero as a drink.
He pauses-
then points at his own face as if to ask, "For me?"
We close our eyes and smile.
「 … 」
『『 ... 』』
He's not taking it.
Tch, charisma roll failed... he's wary.
We let our smiles slowly fall away,
and timidly pull the cup back a bit.
Our eyes wander down to the ground,
with that kind of expression.
You know, the, "Oh... you don't trust us... I see..."
That kind of deceitful expression.
「 ▯▯▯▯。」
The Hero raises his hand, half reaching for the cup.
We halt to look up at him.
He raises his other arm as well
to take the cup in both hands.
「 …▯'▯▯ ▯▯▯▯▯ ▯▯。」
We intentionally wait a few seconds,
to give off the impression we're reconsidering him,
before extending the cup to him once more.
He's hesitant, but ultimately,
he decides to commit and take it.
So easy.
The Hero brings it up to his face and looks down into the crimson liquid.
His lips are somewhat pursed, widening his mouth into a slight frown.
...He brings it up to his nose to smell it.
His brow furrows with confusion and he pulls his head back,
but only briefly. He returns to reevaluate and this time, doesn't seem appalled.
There's actually a kind of intrigued look on his face now.
He looks back at us.
We blink.
「 … 」
He takes one breath through his mouth,
then takes a quick sip, squeezing his eyes shut.
...The Hero swallows it,
then opens his eyes to bewilderment.
「 ▯▯▯▯▯▯？」
He smacks his lips,
then takes another sip.
Then, a swig.
『『 ... 』』
Letting out a breath,
he looks down into the cup again.
「 …▯▯'▯ ▯▯▯▯。」
A comment? On our blood?
His inflexion seems to imply something like that,
but we're just going to note how creepy it is to receive a comment
about how your blood tastes in a language you don't understand.
It feels quite uncomfortable.
The Hero finishes the last of the liquid
and sets the cup down at his knees.
...A moment of silence passes.
He looks at his gloved hand, then opens and closes it.
It seems as though he's testing for negative effects.
...
Can he not use « Identify »?
Magic isn't illegal or something is it?
No... even if it was, he probably still would have used it.
After all, his friend and even his own life just now were on the line.
And players level ten and under have to say the names of their skills to use them so,
that would really mean he can't use « Identify », right? He's level seven...
Then... maybe it's a carry-over skill from Myriad Worlds Online?
That would mean anyone we meet in the future who uses « Identify »
is someone who came from our world...
Actually, in the first place, are we the only ones who reincarnated?
That's unlikely, isn't it? ...Is it? We absorbed The Immortal Soul in the game,
maybe that had something to do with it? In which case we'd be the only ones...
Ah, no, maybe the admins created a copy to give to that bishoujo hero
from back then... in which case, there's a possibility of her too, right?
She also could have shared it with other people...
And there's also-
「 ▯▯▯▯▯ ▯▯▯▯▯▯ ▯▯▯▯▯▯▯ ▯▯ ▯▯▯▯▯▯▯▯▯。」「 Ｗｏｒｄｓ ｃａｎｎｏｔ ｅｘｐｒｅｓｓ ｍｙ ｇｒａｔｉｔｕｄｅ。」
What. What is happening.
Why are we hearing two voices.
「 ▯▯ ▯▯▯ ▯▯ ▯▯▯▯ ▯▯▯▯，▯▯▯▯▯▯ ▯▯▯▯▯▯ 。「 Ｗｅ ａｒｅ ｉｎ ｙｏｕｒ ｄｅｂｔ，ｄｉｖｉｎｅ ｂｅｉｎｇｓ。
「 ▯ ▯▯▯▯▯ ▯▯▯ ▯▯▯ ▯▯▯▯▯…」 Ｉ ｐｌｅａｄ ｆｏｒ ｔｈｙ ｎａｍｅｓ…」
The sound of The Hero speaking in a reverberating Agehatate-like omni-voice
is being overlapped by the sound of him speaking in his native language.
The Hero himself has one hand over the other in a praying position,
and his mouth is moving, indicating he's speaking out loud...
Is he... is he just... praying out loud then?
Is this what happens when people pray out loud?
It's kind of really hard to understand what he's saying!
Well, we can sort of hear...
He's asking for our names, we think?
Does that mean... he's not suspicious of us anymore?
『 ...Sing. 』『 Crier. 』
He smiles.
「 ▯ ▯▯▯▯ ▯▯▯▯▯ ▯▯▯▯ ▯▯▯▯ ▯▯▯ ▯▯▯… 」
And of course, he continues by not praying...
「 …▯▯▯▯▯▯▯▯▯ Ｓｉｎｇ，▯▯▯▯▯▯▯▯▯ Ｃｒｉｅｒ。 」
...Wait a minute.
That... that sounded familiar.
He said, "...Alphaezai Sing, Alphaezai Crier."
Alphae... means... "master," right?
Jing'ra made us say it back when we first woke up...
but what is this "-zai" thing he added to the end?
Maybe... it's just a coincidence it sounded similar?
...
We just smile in response.
The Hero nods, then looks down at his friend.
「 ▯ ▯▯▯▯ ▯▯▯▯ ▯▯▯ ▯▯▯▯ ▯▯▯ ▯▯▯▯ ▯▯ ▯▯▯▯▯▯▯。
「 ▯ ▯▯▯▯ ▯▯▯▯▯▯ ▯▯▯▯▯▯ ▯▯▯▯▯▯▯，
「 ▯▯▯▯▯▯ ▯▯▯▯▯ ▯▯▯▯ ▯▯▯。」
For the first two-thirds of his speech, The Hero holds a clenched fist over his chest.
For the last third, he makes an open-palmed "stay here" motion,
that he directs at his dazed elf friend while looking at us.
..."Make sure he stays here"?
Is The Hero going somewhere?
As if to answer,
The Hero lifts himself off the ground and begins hiking away.
Our eyes widen.
"Where are you going?"
"How long do we have to watch over him?"
We want to just ask basic questions like that...
But...
『『 ...Come back. 』』
Despite practically mumbling, The Hero's rabbit ears twitch.
He looks over his shoulder and makes eye contact with us.
...He briefly raises a straightened hand to just above his eye in a
salute-like gesture -- then drops it, continuing on his way.
『『 ... 』』
The language barrier makes asking basic questions a monumental task.
We can't both ask questions and maintain this divine veil...
We look down at the elf boy, Brandr.
His equipment is tattered and filthy, like The Hero's,
but he doesn't appear to have any metal armour like him;
the gaps in his gear suggest they were removed.
...
As for what to do with him...
Well, there isn't much we can do, is there?
He has Eldritch Fear.
Any intent to do unsavoury things could inflame his death sense,
and then we'd have an even bigger problem on our hands.
Merely considering what to do is a problem in itself...
Ah... what are we supposed to do with him then...?
『 « Identify » 』
Sing targets herself.
Eldritch Serendipity [LV.10]
Ugh... if Agehatate were here...
...
Can we pray to her?
Maybe we couldn't pray to The Hero because he was just a boy.
If it were Agehatate though... it would work, right?
Polimion prayed to her right? So we could too?
Then...
We press our hands together, palm to palm.
...Ageha, are you there?
...
It's not working...
Maybe we need to try harder?
If Polimion could do it, there has to be some working method...
We try to focus on an image of her.
Her glowing blue eyes, flowing fur, fluffy tails...
...Ageha? Can you hear us?
...
「 ...o...s... ...nt... 」
Eh?! It's working?! We heard something!
But it's way too faint to make any words out...
It's very hard to hear.
「 ...Sh... 」
Unintelligible...
Are we missing something?
Is this not the proper praying position?
Or is there some kind of ritual we need as well...?
We try praying with one hand over the other as The Hero did.
No success.
We try praying on one knee.
No success.
Standing, cross-legged, with intertwined fingers,
with hands not touching at all... but...
they don't seem to help in the slightest.
The sound quality only gets worse.
Maybe... something to do with the stone shrine?
Agehatate just said it would help,
not that it'd help with anything in particular,
so maybe...? It's worth a shot...
We try praying to the stone shrine.
Hello?
...
Now we can't hear Agehatate at all.
...Maybe we still need to focus on her?
We try praying through the stone shrine, to Agehatate,
imagining the message travelling through it kind of like a wi-fi router.
Hello?
「 Hello. 」
Ageha?!
「 Yes, I am Agehatate.
「 Might I be wrong to think my voice reaches you two? 」
We can hear you now! It was really faint but-
「 Goddesses should not pray to other goddesses. 」
Huh?
What is she... talking about?
She's not talking about... us, is she?
「 ...However, an exception will be made this time.
「 I am... quite pleased to hear you two again. 」
H...How are we supposed to respond to that...
「 ... 」
Um... y...you too?
「 My... my... you two warm my heart. 」
Is she being sarcastic?!
「 What ails you two this evening?
「 I cannot quite conclude this was all you two imagined. 」
Um... right...
The original problem...
So... The Hero of this world came...
and we revived his friend... but now his friend has Eldritch Fear.
He's dazed but, when he wakes up... we'll have a problem...
「 ...Are you two sure it was The Hero who came to visit? 」
...Yes? We used «Identify» to check, and...
「 Allegedly, The Hero is on the other side of the known realm. ※¹
「 Thus, when Polimion prays to you two at the next full moon,
「 if you would... tell her what you two told me. 」
Oh... okay? But, wait, how and why would she pray to us?
Couldn't you just tell her? Or why not have her just pray to you?
「 ... 」
...Ageha?
「 ... 」
Wait, no-
No no no no no no no!
Don't be silent! Is this a death flag?!
Ageha?!
「 Mana... permeates all living things in this world... 」
No. Stop.
This better not be a final lesson.
This seriously better not be that, or else.
「 It is for that reason, mortals refer to it as, life energy.
「 However, I see it as, living energy. That is, energy with a life of its own.
「 It is attracted to organization, and structure; magic circles, talismans,
「 rituals, repetition... it longs to be liquids, flames, bolts, crystals, plants...
「 monsters... all things that have form, mana longs to become it. 」
...
「 The soul -- is mana. When I speak, I do not use my mouth, I speak with my soul.
「 You, Polimion, Setsuna, you all understand me, because mana longs for structure.
「 I speak malleable ideas, and your souls structure them into the form of words.
「 Thus, to speak to Setsuna, you must either master this method of speaking,
「 or Setsuna must meet you halfway, by becoming a better listener. 」
Ageha, where are you right now?
「 To hear Setsuna is a much simpler process, she only need learn to pray.
「 Your soul will hear her. It, after all, has practised listening to me. 」
Ageha where-!
「 Do you two wish to die? 」
Our Eldritch Serendipity rises eight levels.
「 Is this what you two would like to do today? 」
...
Eldritch Serendipity [LV.18] ...is not level one hundred.
She's not bluffing, but the odds aren't as bad as she's making them out to be...
...Jing'ra died watching over us. Polimion crossed the world to bring us here.
To let Agehatate just... disappear after all that...
It's disgraceful.
To inherit all this power, and sit on it...
I-It's not that we want to die for you or anything!
There's just a responsibility to do something, you know?!
Don't misunderstand!
「 ... 」
W-Well? Where are you?
Don't underestimate us.
We weren't called-
「 -The Demon King's Devil Twin Generals, for nothing? 」
...
There's silence,
but it feels like she's laughing.
「 Fair! You two may have the wisdom of children...
「 but you have arrived in this world with knowledge rivalling my own.
「 ...Know this, you two are ancient demons, thousands of years young.
「 Attaching "The Demon King" to your title, is belittling. 」
I...Is that so...
「 ...As for the circumstances.
「 There is nothing you two can do to prevent my death. 」
Huh? But-
「 Were the threat neutralized perfectly, and us unscathed,
「 I would be forced to kill myself afterwards, wasting the effort. 」
Wha...
For what reason?!
「 I witnessed your instant-kill. 」
...?!
「 Did I not mention this before?
「 That trait of yours kills all who bear witness, ※²
「 the only exceptions are those FATE blinds at the last moment.
「 Polimion was one such person. I... was not so privileged. 」
N...No way...
So we're...
「 My constitution and experience merely afforded me time.
「 ...If you two wish to aid me, it will have to be with my last life. 」
Last... life...
That's... that's right... Agehatate had nine tails...
When she's killed, she loses a tail, and the fight goes to her next phase...
So... since... she has two tails left...
Wait, if the instant-kill is something that's persisted this long...
Couldn't it... kill you on your last life as well?
「 No, however, you two will have to remember why on your journey here.
「 The time has come. Veil yourselves from mortal eyes and flee from my sight. 」
The time has... huh?
Wait a second! We still don't know where you are!
「 Downstream. If all is lost, cut off your hands. 」
Hah?!
What the heck is that supposed to mean?!
Is now the time to be speaking in riddles?!
「 ...Lastly, two treasures will release upon my death.
「 I know you two will attempt for them...
「 but... be careful, understood? 」
...
We understand...
「 Good... good...
「 All the world calls for you, my children... 」
『『 ... 』』
We open our eyes.
Eldritch Serendipity[LV.22]
It feels like there are cracks in our spines.
Looking behind us, the elf boy still seems to be dazed.
It makes us wonder exactly how long we spent dazed, back then.
...
He will probably be fine if we leave.
After all, we spent a week here, and Setsuna was the only threat.
He doesn't have the mana to escape from this island either,
so all he needs is for The Hero to return.
...We stand up,
take the woven tarp of leaves Agehatate had given us several days ago for rain,
and begin our march to the edge of the island, in the same direction as the river's flow.
" Veil yourselves from mortal eyes and flee from my sight. "
Taking her seriously... she probably wants us to conceal ourselves from strangers
while entirely avoiding contact with herself...
Imagining the worst-case scenario for why she would want us to steer clear...
she could witness our instant-killing trait a second time while on her last life.
If such a thing were to happen... it would be all our fault, her permadeath.
Crier lifts the leafy tarp over her head and shoulders,
wearing it like a cheap Halloween ghost costume.
This won't stop the instant-kill from affecting Agehatate,
but it should help keep us from standing out too much...
Yes, it'd be best not to underestimate how dangerous those
aforementioned "mortals" could be either.
We absolutely must not add to the problem.
This is our chance to prove this was all worth it.
...Arriving at the island's edge,
Sing kneels down and brings her face close to the frothing surface.
『 Setsuna... 』
...
Sing dunks her head into the cold whitewater.
『 Setsuna! 』
An orange tendril presses on Sing's forehead, pushing her out of the water.
Moments later, the top half of Setsuna's head rises from the foam.
She stares at Sing, then her eyes dart to Crier -- peeking out from under the tarp.
「 ... 」
Despite not making any particular facial expressions,
Setsuna seems to give off an air of... agitation?
Hmm? Is she... stiffer, or something?
...Maybe she's hungry.
We haven't eaten in a while either;
Agehatate's been gone since this morning.
Eldritch Serendipity[LV.23]
Sing extends her arm.
『 Setsuna. 』
「 ... 」
Sing wiggles her arm to entice her,
but the orange kraken stays put.
『 Setsuna, we have to go. 』
「 ... 」
Eldritch Serendipity[LV.24]
Setsuna's stare seems to pierce through Sing.
It feels as though all her curiosity has been exchanged for solemnity.
The rising pain of Sing's death sense only adds to the unease.
『 Setsuna? 』
She doesn't even look at Crier.
Eldritch Serendipity[LV.25]
『 Did you want to fight or something?
『 Grab onto my arm, Setsuna. 』
Eldritch Serendipity[LV.27]
『 Setsuna, please. 』
Eldritch Serendipity[LV.30]
Eldritch Serendipity[LV.38]
Eldritch Serendipity[LV.52]
A crushing deep phantom frostbite grip
abruptly twists and pulls at Sing's spine.
As if reflexively pulling away from a papercut,
Sing autonomously stands up -- and turns around.
There, about a meter away,
is the elf -- with bloodshot hazel eyes.
His left arm is reaching forward
towards Sing, as if to grasp her.
It wasn't Setsuna.
He's the threat.
Sing immediately backsteps towards the water,
but the open-mouthed elf advances twice as fast.
Why did he wake up?
How long has he been awake?
The distance between Sing's face
and the elf's fingers has halved.
It halves again.
Eldritch Serendipity[LV.73]
Our pupils shrink.
Sing holds her breath and falls backwards.
His arm nudges forward,
and he grasps Sing's side tail.
Eldritch Serendipity[LV.88]
『『 No! 』』
Sing whips her arm up
and runs her nails through her side tail, cutting it off.
At the same time, cold, soaked, and hardened tendrils wrap around us.
Half a second later-
Boom. Crack.
An orange blur knocks on the elf's diaphragm.
The impact is loud and brutal.
The last thing we see is his body sent flying
before we're both roughly yanked down into the whitewater river.
We shut our eyes
and hold our breaths,
moving with the current.
『『 ...Fwah! 』』
The moment our heads rise above the surface,
we immediately refill our lungs,
then wipe at our eyes.
In the distance, the small spec that is the elf writhes on the ground.
Any sounds he might be making are being overpowered by the river.
...Our breaths are ragged.
Eldritch Serendipity[LV.68]
Eldritch Serendipity[LV.45]
Eldritch Serendipity[LV.33]
We shiver.
Looking over our shoulders, we spot Setsuna's head just above the water.
She's staring forward intensely, unblinking, at the elf.
She must have been watching him this whole time...
...
We try turning our bodies towards her,
but her tensed up tentacles make that impossible.
They're like... masses of muscle, we're like toothpicks comparatively.
『『 ...Setsuna? 』』
She blinks,
looks at us briefly,
then turns her back to us.
Although her grip remains tight,
her tendrils soften a smidge.
『『 Thanks... 』』
「 ... 」
Crier takes the opportunity to wiggle free the leaf woven tarp
from the submerged mass of tangled orange appendages.
It takes some effort, and tearing, but,
eventually, Setsuna concedes it.
We bring the damaged tarp over our heads,
and work ourselves into forward-facing positions.
This tangles us in tendrils further, but that's the least of our concerns.
Why did that elf boy wake up and attack Sing?
He must have done so because he was driven to by his Eldritch Fear, right?
But why us? We weren't a threat to him...
Ah, but, maybe...
us leaving could have been what set him off?
Considering our ability to heal and revive,
losing us could certainly make him feel threatened...
Ugh, that's unpleasant to think about...
Let's just focus on what's going to be happening next...
In particular... with our first objective, finding Agehatate.
To that end, we're already heading downriver and keeping our eyes out.
We don't know where Setsuna is taking us exactly, but that shouldn't matter.
As long as she's heading "downstream," we're following directions.
After we find her though...
What we do next will be a much more delicate problem...
"Wait, if the instant-kill is something that's persisted this long...
Couldn't it... kill you on your last life as well?"
"No, however, you two will have to remember why on your journey here."
『『 ... 』』
We sink a bit further into the water,
keeping as low a profile as possible.
Have to remember... she says...
Is it that big of a deal...?
As we travel, descending in elevation,
the land becomes more and more violent.
Cliffs, chasms, canyons, each time we look, there seem to be more.
Tilted rock formations jut from the ground and cliffs as if to strike each other,
and the rocky forests that once surrounded us have steadily been replaced
by multi-level thickets.
It's like a more chaotic version of Sal'venakai down here.
However, there are still no signs of Agehatate.
...Were we lied to?
We glance at Setsuna.
She still seems to be swimming vigorously.
『『 ... 』』
We shake our heads and keep looking.
Keep planning.
Remembering.
『『 ...Setsuna. 』』
She flinches and turns around.
We look and point to the side of the river.
Her attention follows... but she sees nothing but trees,
slightly darkened with the daylight running dry.
『『 Drop us off, Setsuna. 』』
「 ... 」
We're not sure if it's reluctance or confusion,
but she takes her time swimming us to land.
Once there, we wriggle and reach for the ground,
to give Setsuna the idea we want off.
...Some kind of clicking noise sounds from her chest.
『『 Setsuna. 』』
She releases us at the edge of the water,
and supports us as we pull ourselves out.
Sing's side tail has grown back at this point,
enough to be soaked and dripping to match her silk dress.
With the amount of water our hair and clothes have absorbed
it feels as though our weight has doubled
...but it's fine.
We walk ahead
to the cliff at the end of the river.
There -- we see a massive canyon.
A canyon large enough to house clouds within it.
It's not a completely vertical cliff, sizable forestlands stick out on the way down,
but compared to the sheer scale of the canyon, they appear much thinner than they are.
From where we stand, we can just barely make out the greens and cyans of the bottom.
All manner of flying creatures can be found, primarily monsters,
but we don't immediately recognize any.
As a whole, it's probably beautiful when the sun is out,
but the faded light adds a terror aspect.
...The river pours into this canyon.
Specifically, it pours into a giant pothole bore into a rocky outcropping,
attached to a much larger forest plate which sticks out of a wall in the canyon.
Which is to say, we only have ideas of where it might go.
The hole is pitch black, it's a waterfall into darkness.
Effectively a leap of no return.
We look at Setsuna.
She stares at us from the river.
『『 ... 』』
We walk over to her,
and carefully lower ourselves back into the river.
Her tentacles catch us to prevent us from drifting away,
but she doesn't wrap them around us immediately.
She just sort of... stares at us.
『『 What? 』』
「 ... 」
『『 ... 』』
We look away to the waterfall,
but we can feel her eyes still on us.
It's kind of agitating.
『『 Can you, Setsuna? Handle that waterfall? 』』
...
『『 Well-? 』』
She suddenly wraps her tendrils around us,
pressing us against her body,
and rushes to the edge.
...She leaps off.
Air rushes by our ears.
Quickly, Setsuna's free tendrils branch out,
and she uses her underside to create a parachute effect.
She's much too heavy to totally slow to safety,
but we imagine every bit should help.
We hear a distant roar.
A wyvern-like creature breaks away from its aerie,
and initiates a dive to intercept our fall.
Our Eldritch Serendipity rises.
『『 Setsuna! 』』
She follows our eyes to the threat,
then rotates to face it head-on.
Seconds pass.
It reaches the half-way point.
Setsuna decides to pull the trigger,
covering our ears, and opening her chest cavity.
「⭘◔◑◕⬤⬤⬤⬤⬤⬤⬤ ! 」
She lets rip an ascending screech.
The wyvern quickly shakes its head
before steering away, deeper into the canyon.
Our Eldritch Serendipity levels drop to 24.
As we fall further and further, we can
begin to make out individual trees
situated around the pothole.
At about that time, Setsuna hastily
shifts her bottom tendrils into an
inverted teardrop shape.
Her grip around us tightens.
Seconds remain.
...The blackness of the hole
widens and rises above us,
and we fall into a cavern,
before we shut our eyes,
vanishing into its
dark waters.
We resurface,
and immediately gasp for air.
Setsuna brings us to the shore as we catch our breath,
and while we wipe our eyes clear of water, she rests her head on the cave floor.
『『 Ha... hah... 』』
That was... hastier than we expected...
For her to just blitz the cliff like that...
What compelled her to do that?
Honestly, what was she thinking?
...We look at Setsuna.
Her eyes are closed, she seems to be resting.
『『 ... 』』
We don't pull ourselves out of the water just yet,
instead, we cross our arms over the shore, next to Setsuna, and look around.
We've fallen into a cavern, a dark and damp cavern.
The pond we're resting in is illuminated by the light from the wide hole in the ceiling.
It seems to drain through a river that flows down into the depths of the underground.
It's difficult to discern any other details from the cave as our eyes are still adjusting.
...?
A huge object shines in the dark.
We stare at it.
...It's an airship.
...Eh?
Why is there...
We see a light moving within it.
We gasp and look for the leaf tarp.
It's gone -- and also would not hide us at all.
We grab Setsuna instead and pull ourselves back underwater.
Under the surface, Setsuna looks around confused.
We point to the subterranean river.
She glances to it, then back at us.
We squeeze her tendrils.
We need to hurry, because...
we're not actually hidden underwater at all.
We're buoyant, we float, our backs are touching the air.
「 ... 」
We glare at her.
She wraps her tendrils around us,
and rushes to, then down, the river.
...
...
After just ten seconds, we have to go back up for air,
but we make it quick and immediately resubmerge.
Setsuna stops and looks at us underwater in confusion.
We give her an angry expression and point down the river.
...She continues pulling us with the current.
...
...
We resurface, and cough as we catch our breath.
We tug on Setsuna's tendrils as well to get her to stop.
She pops out of the water, befuddled,
while we wipe our eyes and look around.
...Good, we can't see the airship from here.
That light in the airship was probably a person...
Agehatate warned us about them.
They'll most likely be hostile.
We look back at Setsuna,
who stares at us.
『『 ... 』』
「 ... 」
Agehatate can't be much further.
We lightly squeeze her tendrils -- and smile.
...She doesn't seem to entirely know what that's supposed to mean,
but she decides to continue swimming downstream,
albeit with much less urgency.
That's fine...
We travel for about a minute in increasing darkness.
Setsuna's pace slows to a crawl in turn.
Is Agehatate really in here?
...Why?
The cave rumbles.
An accompanying boom ruptures from the depths.
『『 ...Hurry. 』』
We squeeze Setsuna's tendrils tightly,
but she doesn't know what to do.
Sing points down the river.
Setsuna backs up a bit instead.
It's pitch black. She can't see.
...Sing plants her pointing finger on Setsuna's shoulder,
and runs her arm forward, letting Setsuna feel her pointing arm.
『 Setsuna. 』
「 ... 」
Slowly, steadily...
she decides to press on.
We're almost there.
Just a bit more.
...Then we see it, a shimmer.
The faintest light, reflecting off distant waters.
Arriving, we find a large lit opening in the cave walls.
Enough light seeps from it to illuminate the river
and a small clearing littered with stalagmites.
Agehatate could fit through it, we think.
Setsuna swims to the shore and lifts us onto land.
She almost gets up to follow us, but we hold a hand out to stop her.
It'd be better for her to take this time to rest.
...We crouch down and take deep, silent breaths.
Okay.
We begin gently creeping along the wall.
With every step, we can see further into the passageway.
Step by step... inch by inch...
We approach on the balls of our feet...
Until we notice a long shadow inside.
We stop to make sure it's not moving-
...then, continue.
Our eyes follow the shadow.
We trace it to... an adventurer-looking person,
leaning against the lit passage walls.
They're looking further in.
We hear talking.
...We take the slightest steps forward,
bracing ourselves to freeze at any time.
We see more adventurers.
They're all just standing around...
listening to someone talking...
We take another step forward,
manually breathing.
We see a leg, Agehatate's leg.
...
We can't step forward anymore.
We don't know how many tails she has.
She could be on her last life...
We take a step back.
...
We clasp our hands together,
plant a vivid image of Agehatate in our minds, and begin to pray.
Agehatate... are you there?
...Can you hear us?
...
...Ageha?
Why isn't she replying?
Does this not work at all without a shrine?
Are we just not close enough to pray without one?
We try closing our eyes briefly as well.
Ageha.
...
Why is this not-
We hear a shout.
A shout from a woman in a different language,
but, somehow, there's an uncanny familiarity to her voice.
Following the shout, we hear footsteps, and equipment clanking.
The shadows seem to be moving further in, towards Agehatate...
We cover our mouths.
...Crackling and burning fade into prominence.
They're followed by the roar of flame pillars rising from the ground.
Agehatate's twin foxes are being summoned,
she has two tails, she's not on her last life...
We breathe out.
The ringing of blades and magic echo through the passageway.
It's still not quite safe to peek around the corner,
there could be other mortals not engaged in combat.
Still, this should be enough clatter for us to whisper, at least.
『『 « Identify » 』』
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
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LV.8 ▬ Sing '' Streya
ᵈᵢBlack-Lamb Pure-Demon
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
_____HP ▐ 85/85
_____MP ▐ 288673417214
_____SP ▐ 125/125
_ P.ATK ▐ 10
_ P.DEF ▐ 108
__M.ATK ▐ 15
__M.DEF ▐ 105
Effects ▐ ◈ ᵈᵢⓈ∞
________▐ ◈ Suppressed Demonic Miasma
________▐ ◈ Pure Demonic Blood
________▐ ◈ Ruptured Mana Pool
________▐ Eldritch Serendipity[LV.25]
_Titles ▐ 「 Prophet of Joy 」「 Feral 」 「 Demon Slayer 」
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Both of our mana levels are exactly the same.
Two hundred and eighty-eight thousand mana,
where the hundreds fluctuate too quickly to read.
We smile...
The jigsaw pieces are in...
We get it. It makes sense now...
We reach down and start drawing in the ground.
...Ruptured Mana Pool doesn't simply mean we can't hold our own mana.
It means... our mana is instead equal to whatever mana is in the environment.
It all makes sense...!
Mana is attracted to structure, repetition and such, right?
That's pretty much exactly what monsters are, a lot of rules and fixed attacks.
Agehatate even told us explicitly, that mana "longs to be" monsters.
So when a monster trigger goes off... and they lose autonomy...
it's not a stretch to think they could attract mana like magnets, right?
Agehatate's overflowing mana is proof of that!
At the island, when she was completely autonomous, doing as she liked,
our mana levels sat at pitiful amounts around her, like, tens, and twenties...
At the temple, however, while we fought her, and here while she's being attacked...
Our mana levels are at these absolutely ludicrous amounts!
It's because of her monster trigger!
She's overflowing with mana!
...There!
This... this will get rid of them...
This is a very nasty magic circle,
both in effect, and difficulty to draw.
Luckily... we both happen to be experts.
It's a shame we don't have the time to draw something even better...
But whatever, let's get on with it!
...Eh?
Wha... wait...
Why... is our mana down to...
11... 17... 14... it's fluctuating at these levels again...
We carefully lean over to view the passageway,
and find that the adventurers... have returned to it.
They just... stopped fighting...?
...Huh?
Wait... huh?!
What just happened?!
Did they... restore Agehatate's autonomy somehow?
It's as if she was reset back to her neutral state...
Our hands ball into fists.
...We focus on our breathing,
and exhale silently.
They're talking again.
...
The same woman from before shouts,
and they all march back in to try again.
They know how monsters work.
They're manipulating her autonomy to get used to her pattern.
Anytime it looks like someone might be in danger, they can reset,
and start over without any repercussions.
...Not anymore they won't.
Sing cuts off her side tail once again.
It falls onto the circle, along with blood dripping from the severing.
Immediately, we place our hands flat on the magic circle and whisper.
『『 ...«Ouroboromagias» 』』
A burning sensation courses through our veins,
and the glassy sounds of magic begin to ascend through the air.
The lines of the magic circle illuminate with black light and outline in pearly white,
while two tiny red dots each situated in the centre of an inner circle begin to grow.
The burning sensation is hot to the point of pain.
It feels like tiny needles are travelling through our shoulders down to our wrists.
We grip the ground, and grit our teeth through it.
But that's not all.
...
Eldritch Serendipity[LV.75]
Indescribable pain perpetually tears our spines to pieces.
Crier turns her head reflexively,
looking towards the passageway.
There's a person standing there.
A man with a greatsword.
His eyes are wide with bewilderment.
His left hand rests on the handle of his blade.
Eldritch Serendipity[LV.81]
His left hand tightens around it.
Eldritch Serendipity[LV.83]
Him͢ before me.
Him befo͢r̶e ҉m̴e.
H̊i͛ͪm̍͛̑ ͆͜b̎e̛ͤḟ̨ͧ̀̑ͮ͋òͫ͗̐̎͢r͛͜eͯ̽̍ͩ̂ͫ҉ me.
H͖̃̀͠į̼̩̹̯̪̥̈́̑̒̓ͯ̎͊ͅm̙͙̦̼̯̬̕ͅ ̻̄̌ͪ̇̽̚b̹͇̫͖̃̃̀e̥͍͉̽̓͜f͖̳̮̣̤̅͐̾ͬ́̍̕o̰̮ͧͭ̈́ͫr̘̗̰̭̮͌e̖͖͕ ̫̩̗̗̥͇͇ͫm͖̙͖͘ë͔̞̥͔̰̙̱́ͯͯ̓ͬ!͖̘̟͚
Sing lines up her forearm with the two expanded red inner circles.
Giant phantom fangs erupt from the magic circle and bite all the way through her arm,
before fading into a black smoke that emits from where the wounds would be.
Without missing a beat, Sing raises her open hand at the man as if to say "stop."
For a half second, he actually does.
Eldritch Serendipity[LV.94]
...Sing crushes her hand into a fist.
A titanic black serpent erupts from the smoke of Sing's forearm,
and crunches the upper half of his body in its maw.
A euphoric shiver runs through our bodies.
Eldritch Serendipity divebombs down to level 18.
Our heads go blank.
...
Sing releases her hand.
The serpent releases a corpse.
Our pupils shrink.
We stare at it.
Our breaths quicken.
They quicken more.
All the redness seems to blur.
Our chests hurt.
Huh?
...We hear distant shouting.
Where is it coming from?
Sing squeezes her eyes shut and winces at the pain in her arm.
Her forearm feels deadened.
Hyperventilation.
It's hard to focus.
...
Crier squeezes her head between her hands,
shakes it, then blinks harshly a few times.
She sees Sing kneeling over, holding her smoking arm.
In front of her, is a crushed body.
We try not to look at it further.
Crier shivers.
Once it passes, she looks up at the passageway again.
There's shouting.
Two shadows are running up the passageway.
Our mana has dropped again,
which means Agehatate was reset.
Sing raises her arm, points at the passage's opening,
and opens and closes her hand a few times.
The titanic serpent snakes into the entryway and begins snapping its jaws.
We can't let them see us...
Make them believe it's a real serpent.
...Sing rests her smoking arm on top of her normal one,
then slithers it back and forth, guarding the passage.
The shadows back away.
『『 Ha... hah... 』』
「 ...«𝄞◑◑◕◕◑◑◑◑»! 」
A melodic sound rings out from the passageway,
ebbing and wavering, like a voice through a turbine.
It almost sounds exactly like Setsuna's.
...A few seconds pass.
A giant X-shaped heat spire erupts from the passageway,
passing over the clearing, and the river, striking the wall on the other side.
With the serpent overpowered, it dissipates into smoke, returning to Sing's forearm.
The spell just cast was «Exalwick».
Setsuna popped her head out of the water the moment she heard a voice like her own.
Early enough to witness the slicing spire blowtorch an X-shaped crack into the cave wall.
...What level are these adventurers?
The spire will stay for a fixed duration,
during which, there likely won't be anyone running through,
but we also don't have the mana to bring out Sing's serpent again...
We have to come up with a backup plan by then...
If only... we could coordinate something with Agehatate...
...
No, focus...!
This is nothing, we're...
...we're The Devil Twins, this is a trivial task.
We won't be out-casted by some random adventurers.
Setsuna's mana isn't even necessary,
just ten of Agehatate's mana will be enough...
Crier begins carving a new magic circle.
We have about a dozen seconds until «Exalwick» times out...
『 ...«Agitating Anthem» 』
Crier cuts off a few strands of her side tail,
then flattens them on the hand-sized magic circle.
...
«Exalwick» ends.
A silly off-tune melody begins to emanate from the magic circle.
Our mana spikes back over the two hundred thousand range.
...Ahaha! Perfect!
Agitating Anthem - Plays an annoying ten-second song that aggravates nearby
creatures, turning them aggressive as if they were attacked.
This is a joke skill, a fun party trick you use to troll your friends
by aggravating a high-level mob and running towards them, or something.
You don't need this skill, you could do it with a rock, which is why it's cheap,
but it's a lot more amusing to use this skill.
In this particular case, being in a cave...
gives it a bit more range than a rock.
...We hear the twin flame pillars.
The marked foxes will be appearing soon.
Now that Sing has mana as well,
she can reawaken her serpent.
Sing raises her smoking arm to the opening once more.
The serpent follows, hissing with its fangs bared.
And now... the adventurers are caught between...
a fox god, and a snake god...
Fwa...
Go ahead... reset Agehatate...
Try it again and see what happens...!
Sing grabs her smoking wrist as if to choke it.
We can't see it, but the serpent should begin spewing toxic clouds.
We close our eyes and focus on slowing our breaths...
Let's not get overconfident...
Crier, carve another magic circle.
...Our mana drops again.
Crier briefly stops her carving to reactivate the aggression-drawing skill.
『 «Agitating Anthem» 』
Our mana returns.
No more resting, adventurers...
If you want to challenge her, do it properly.
Resetting her is cheating -- if you want to fight, be ready to die.
...
The cave rumbles.
We hear the grinding of rock against rock coming from the passageway;
it sounds as if a landslide is taking place.
Our mana drops... to zero.
Crier repeats the process,
severing a few strands of hair,
and pressing her hand against the circle.
『 «Agitating Anthem» 』
The song plays, but this time, our mana doesn't return.
They must have blocked the passageway then...
That's probably what that landslide-like sound was...
Sing drags herself to the side slowly to get a better sightline on the passageway.
The debilitating effects on her smoking forearm make even this much movement
extremely draining on her stamina points, but it's fine to move slowly.
We still have to be careful not to be seen, after all.
...Sing confirms it.
A giant wall of stone is blocking the passageway.
They've sealed themselves in with Agehatate.
『『 ... 』』
Sing could probably break that wall, but... she'd have to get closer...
and doing so would expose her to the adventurers, as well as Agehatate...
That's not a risk we can afford to take...
Will we need Setsuna after all...?
The dead body catches Sing's eye.
She covers her mouth and looks away.
...
Scavenging is...
out of the question...
and it's not worth the risk to go in.
Fine, if Agehatate was willing to open up to us for help,
we'll open up to Setsuna for help.
Losing is more shameful than relying on fr...allies.
That was almost a Demon King level line...
『 Setsuna! 』
Crier glances at Setsuna
who is already staring back.
『 Can... you come here, Setsuna? 』
She pats the ground.
The orange kraken hastily pulls herself out of the river
and scuttles over to where we are, somewhat ungracefully.
...It's relieving to see she didn't have her monster trigger pulled by «Agitating Anthem».
We were fairly certain it wouldn't because it wasn't pulled when Crier kicked her
the other day, but there was a possibility something different would happen
since she was in the water this time. ※³
Setsuna arrives carefully watching Sing's black serpent.
Her tendrils are tensed up, she seems wary...
Sing smiles at her.
Unfortunately, the magic circle isn't done yet.
With Sing debilitated by her smoking arm, she wouldn't be very accurate,
so it's only Crier carving, which means it's going to take some time...
On the bright side, time is something we've made a lot of.
On top of the time it takes to kill Agehatate,
they most certainly spent some time discussing a plan with us in mind.
That's just the cost of organization; coordination takes time.
Sing weakly places her normal hand over
one of Setsuna's tendrils to calm her.
It wraps around her fingers.
Let's make this count.
『 ...«Neverending Ravenling» 』
「 «𝄞◑◑◑◔◔◑◑◔◔◔◔ ◕◕◑◑◑◔◔◔◔» 」
Setsuna winces.
The magic circle lights up with black lines and pearly white outlines.
This time, however, a single expanding red dot lies in the centre.
...In response to this,
Setsuna presses down harder on the magic circle as a low grumble leaves her chest.
It sort of looks as if she's attempting to fight the magic circle.
『 ... 』
We keep our lips shut.
Once the expanding red circle reaches its peak,
it glows, and Crier immediately places her hand directly on it.
Black roots extend from the magic circle on cue, weaving between her fingers.
As this happens, Crier makes sure to smile, to let Setsuna know it's fine.
We wait until the roots climb up to her wrist, then pull away.
The head of an ethereal raven follows, poking through the magic circle.
Crier stands and raises her arm as if to pull it out, and it rises accordingly.
It ascends into the air and floats, beating its wings extremely slowly.
It's a totally black bird, reflecting no light.
Afterimages of its movements are left behind as it hovers,
while black feathers endlessly burn off its body.
Unlike the serpent, it is a normal sized bird.
It's certainly weaker than the serpent,
given that Setsuna has "only" seven hundred mana,
but to call it a regular bird... would also be laughable.
『 Thanks again... Setsuna. 』
She watches the ravenling curiously.
Crier slowly walks over to where Sing is,
and aims her rooted arm directly where she's looking, a top corner of the stone wall.
Once we're set, Crier points with her index finger.
She then moves her hand in a circle, and as she does so,
blackened afterimages of her hand are left behind.
When the full circle is drawn,
Crier changes her hand posture to that of a finger gun.
『 Bang. 』
An afterimage of the ravenling flies through the circle,
leaving behind a trail of feathers evaporating into the air.
On contact with the stone wall,
the cry of a raven echoes,
and the cave rumbles.
A black tornado-like apparition continues where the afterimage left off
and rips into the wall, crumbling pieces of it away into nothing.
It eats and eats and eats away,
until a scored hole is created through it into the red-lit room.
It seems that they're quite a ways into fighting her...
There's a lot of shouting,
it seems they noticed the hole.
It doesn't matter, we have mana now.
Crier draws a pentagram with her pointing finger,
then another, and another, in triangular formation.
『 Bang. Bang. Bang. 』
She feels the sting of mana burning away in her arm.
Those will probably destroy the wall.
We both step back, out of view.
...The cave rumbles,
as echoing ravenling cries fill the passageway.
Crier immediately crouches down
and begins working on yet another magic circle.
Our mana drops.
They reset her again...
Crier uses the «Agitating Anthem» magic circle.
Our mana returns.
That was a desperation reset.
This is over.
Sing raises her smoking arm and chokes her wrist.
The titanic serpent snakes into the passageway and releases toxic clouds.
We can hear several voices barking orders at once in there. It's chaotic.
At this rate, Agehatate will have to finish herself off...
...We see shadows approaching.
Are they trying to escape?
Eldritch Serendipity[LV.32]
No, they're trying to kill us.
Sing swings her arm from side to side.
The serpent lashes its body against the cave walls.
We shiver as our Eldritch Serendipity levels drop.
『『 ... 』』
「 Leave. 」
We freeze.
...Ageha?
「 As if I should have mercy for brigands -- vandals.
「 Flee as I lay fire upon you, and the serpent fills your lungs with death. 」
The serpent...
Is she talking to those adventurers?
Did... we win? Have they surrendered?
...We don't hear any more talking,
just a lot of equipment rattling.
「 Hold, serpent. 」
There she goes saying serpent again...
Ah, is she hiding our identities?
She's telling us to wait, then?
Sing lowers her smoking arm to the ground,
causing the black serpent to rest its head.
...We suppose we'll wait then.
「 ...You three, come here. 」
We sit up straight.
Is... is she upset?
...
Setsuna tugs on our arms.
We slowly stand up and follow her with our heads down,
putting in an effort to not look at anything we don't have to.
...The light is bluish now,
illuminating the passageway with a sort of nighttime ambience.
The ground is quite cold, but... it's comfortable for our adapted legs...
Along with the cool air... it feels like there's an opening to the outside ahead.
We clench our fists,
as we walk...
and walk...
and walk...
and walk...
...until Agehatate sweeps us up with her tails,
pressing us against her warm fluffy body, along with Setsuna.
『『 ... 』』
「 ... 」
「 ... 」
No one says anything.
She just hugs us, for a bit.
We hear her heart beating.
「 ...Are you two aware of how many people just died? 」
『『 ... 』』
We feel our strength leaving our bodies.
She's definitely... upset with us...
「 ...How do you two feel about what you've done? 」
『『 ... 』』
We press our faces into her fur.
We feel tired.
『『 Sorry... 』』
There might have been...
a more elegant solution...
to all that... we think...
「 ...Could you two revive him for me? 」
『『 ...Eh? 』』
「 The one that died. 」
The... one?
Just one?
Huh?
We turn around.
From the heat spire, the broken stone wall,
the dents and rubble from our serpent...
the passageway is filled with debris,
and only debris, there are no bodies...
...except for -- the one at the opening.
『『 ... 』』
「 Is that a no? 」
『『 W...Well... it's... 』』
「 You two have never truly killed someone before, have you?
「 ...If you two revive him, I will care for him. 」
『『 But Eldritch... 』』
「 I will care for him. 」
...We wipe at our eyes.
『『 Okay... 』』
She lets us go.
「 Setsuna, would you help her? 」
「 ... 」
Setsuna follows us as we walk back through the passageway.
She doesn't seem particularly phased by anything that's happened,
but it's impossible to figure out what she's thinking.
...The body is very hard to look at.
We swallow our breaths.
There's not... much to say.
He was crunched...
But... as long as there's a mouth...
『 «Identify» 』
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
LV.39 ▬ Waiszodf '' Öagura
Human
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
HP ▐ 0/3900
MP ▐ 0/480
SP ▐ 0/624
P.ATK ▐ 2413
P.DEF ▐ 525
M.ATK ▐ 0
M.DEF ▐ 180
Effects ▐ ◈ Death
▐ Crippled
Titles ▐ 「 Merrymaker 」 「 Demon Slayer 」 「 Ally of Humans 」
「 Ally of Elves 」「 Ally of Beasts 」「 Philanthropist 」
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
...We kneel down around his head,
and cut our palms over his mouth.
The Crippled status effect doesn't do damage,
it just impairs your capabilities and ability to heal.
It also goes away with healing though, so...
...
He has brown eyes and messy hair.
His face is slender, and his jaw is sharp.
He's in shape, muscular... he probably trains a lot.
His face also has some red marks... but we're not sure if they're birthmarks or old burns...
Well, in any case... he's healed now, revived with Eldritch Fear[LV.1].
Like that elf, Brandr, he also has that Apostle of Death title...
Seeing this title really rubs us the wroO-
...
We shivered.
Seeing this title really rubs us the wrong way...
『 ...Setsuna? 』
She flinches, waking from her daze,
then carefully scoops him up in her tentacles.
We head back to Agehatate.
Now that we're looking up,
we notice that a large horizontal strip of the wall behind Agehatate
has been destroyed, exposing the cave to the canyon skies.
Looking at Agehatate herself, we notice her eyes are closed.
Setsuna sets him down in front of her.
「 ...You three are quite the miracles. 」
She leans her head close to his resting body,
as if to examine him, before returning to neutral.
「 Rest assured. 」
...We look down at our feet.
『『 So... 』』
「 ... 」
We fidget.
『『 Are... you going to forget us? 』』
「 ...Why do you two say that? 」
...
17:26:47 Princess Agehatate's Soul burns Princess Agehatate
for 12,500 damage.
17:26:47 Princess Agehatate: Nnh.
17:26:47 All players return from the spirit world.
Princess Agehatate
LV.100 | The Twin Tailed Fox
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HP 0 / 200,000
17:26:48 Princess Agehatate forgets.
17:26:49 Chisakari burns away.
17:26:49 Princess Agehatate's second tail burns away.
17:26:55 Princess Agehatate: ...
『 Princess Agehatate... forgets, when she dies. ※⁴ 』
『 Each one of her tails holds a story, a life she lived...
『 So when she loses a tail... she forgets the life that came with it.
『 That's... the quest everyone went on when they challenged your raid.
『 To make you forget, so the souls in your temple could pass on. 』
『 They couldn't while... you were remembering them... 』
「 ...So you two remembered. 」
『『 ... 』』
「 It's true. 」
We tense up.
「 This is why your instant kill will not kill me on my last life.
「 However... they grow back. 」
...We puff out our cheeks.
「 Unfortunately, my time will be limited, as I will remember your instant kill as well,
「 but I have made great strides in advancing my techniques, and mastery.
「 Each time, I will remain a bit longer, and one day, I will become immune.
「 My soul simply needs time to learn exactly what you two are. That is all. 」
『『 ... 』』
「 ...Setsuna. 」
She blinks in response.
「 Are you happy with what you have learned thus far? 」
...She pauses, then swings her head up, then down.
In other words, she does a really big nod.
「 You, Sing, and Crier, may not get along in the future.
「 If that happens, be patient, and pay attention, understand? 」
...She blinks, then does a much smaller nod.
It gives us the impression she understands, just, a lot less.
「 Good... 」
Wait, your eyes are closed.
What do you mean good?!
How do you even know what she replied?!
『『 Ageha? 』』
「 Mm? 」
『『 What did you mean before by...
『『 "If all is lost, cut off your hands"?
『『 How would that help at all? 』』
She stretches her neck to one side.
「 Your miasma. 」
We tilt our heads.
「 It is suppressed, is it not? 」
Yeah, but that's because-
we're... not wearing... rings...?
The demonic miasma suppressant rings Jing'ra gave us are gone...
「 You will have to ask Polimion for the details,
「 but each of you have one of your hands imbued with a suppressing agent.
「 I do not know which ones, and Polimion may not either. 」
She returns her posture to a neutral position.
「 After The World Fall, the components used to create miasma suppressants became
「 extremely rare. This means the loss of your suppressants may be irreversible.
「 I should not need to state why this would be detrimental. 」
We look down at our hands.
「 However, you two should know this:
「 The person who requested this specific arrangement, was The Dream Eater, Jing'ra.
「 So if you two feel compelled to make that irreversible decision,
「 do so with consideration. It was his idea that I raise you two. 」
『『 U...Understood... 』』
That's... pretty spooky...
On multiple levels...
「 In regards to the treasures that will release upon my death,
「 they shall appear before sunrise. I recommend you three venture out into the world,
「 find somewhere safe to rest, then have Setsuna return briefly to retrieve them. 」
『『 Do we... have to go now? 』』
「 ...I will need time to prepare. 」
『『 Can you... prepare while we wait near the opening? 』』
「 ... 」
Agehatate lowers her head,
and sweeps us up with her tails.
She feels fluffier and warmer every time.
We already feel like falling asleep...
We hug her snout.
『『 We'll miss you. 』』
「 As will I, my children... as will I... 」
...
...We stand at the edge of the river.
Setsuna waits in the water, staring up at us.
We look over our shoulders.
Agehatate has her back turned,
she's sitting, watching the canyon sky.
『『 ...Bye bye, Ageha. 』』
She looks over her shoulder,
and smiles with her eyes closed.
「 Bye bye, my children. Be good. 」
[https://i.imgur.com/oKTvQ1x.png]
SING CRIER
CH.30 - Antediluvian Acrimonies
We bow -- and wave.
She waves her tails.
Her white fur glows in the moonlight.
[END]