“Captain, the head engineer is waiting for you. A meeting has been arranged”

A random guard approached Helgi.

“Very well. lead the way”

Helgi nodded at the guard who led him away into a deeper part of the building. Helgi squinted his eyes at Yuri while walking away,

Noticing his look, Yuri nodded slightly in acknowledgement,  before looking back at Hikaru and Ahab.

“We need to get to the airship, ready it for flight, and open a passage to exit from before Helgi reaches that meeting and our cover is blown!”

She whispered loudly.

“Shall i dispose of all the guards and clear open a path?”

Hikaru asked.

“No! Usually that would be a great plan, but if we do that, they might shoot the airships balloon once we board it. We need to do it without them finding out. So Ahab since you’re the most proficient with airships..you will be the one preparing that armoured airship for flying, got it?”

She nodded at the big steel plate covered airship at the bottom.

“But how am i goin to get past whatever guards they have and actually make em let meh do work on it..!?”

Ahab was feeling more nervous by the second.

“I will take care of that part..i have my ways~” She winked.

“So while i talk to the guards the distract them..Hikaru i want you to do something else without anyone noticing..”

Quickly whispering a few things to Hikaru, who nodded in understanding. Yuri grabbed Ahab and started climbing down the stairs toward the airship.

Whilst Yuri and Ahab were busy walking down the long flight of stairs. In another part of the hangar building, Helgi was doing his best to play his part as an upset snobby captain.

“What are you talking about! The ships you gave me were faulty! Why else would they be so slow!”

Helgi was yelling at a greasy man who was holding a wrench.

“And i’m telling you, it was the incompetence of your own men that caused the ships to fly slower!”

The greasy man yelled back.

“My men are trained professionals with years of experience handling airships, there was no incompetence to speak of!”

“Obviously a few years too short i say! How can someone experienced fail so miserably at handling a simple airship! It was MADE so even the dullest could operate it easily!”

Continuing to yell back at Helgi, the greasy man hit his wrench onto a nearby table.

“Are you calling my men dull!?”

Helgi walked closer to the greasy man, looking him in the eye.

“Damn right i am. Now get out before i restrict all further access of airships to your platoon!”

Folding his arms, the greasy man stared back into Helgis eyes with conviction.

“Very well. But someone of higher ranking than you WILL hear of this.”

Smiling bitterly at the greasy man. Helgi turned around and began walking away. Hiding the relief at his pretentious pretending being over for now.

“Hey hang on..your uniform..”

Helgi was stopped by the greasy man behind him.

“What about it. Did you manage to dirty my uniform without even touching it. The insolence.”

Sighing, Helgi turned around towards his conversation partner.

“No. Your uniform is clean. Unfortunately. But the strips on your shoulders. I thought everyone from your platoon and below are supposed to be off duty for this week..?”

The greasy man raised an eyebrow.

(Crap. This is probably why i found this uniform. The guy who should be wearing it is off duty..!)

“...Yes well some things came up and i decided to pass over taking a break just yet.”

Shrugging slightly, Helgi looked at the greasy man with a look that said ‘None of your business’.

“Well alright. What’s your name captain. I need to write it down, since i got a complaint from you”

The greasy took out some smudged paper and a pen.

“Of course. It’s William Redgen.”

Helgi said with a nod of affirmation.

The pen paused after Helgi mentioned the name ‘Redgen’.

“One of the Redgens..? I heard about what happened. I’m terribly sorry about your grandfather.”

Pating Helgi on his shoulder, the greasy man wore an apologetic look on his face.

(What..? There’s actually a family with that name around here? I just chose that at random. Shit.I can’t pretend to not be part of the family he’s referencing. I mean how many Redgens are there anyway.)

“Right. Well. He lived a long life.”

Helgi answered vaguely.

“That he did. Terrible for it to end like that though, after all he’s been through”

The greasy man nodded.

“Yes well..everyone has to die eventually.”

Helgi tried answering grimly in order to end the conversation.

“Dying..!? I thought he only lost all of his companies and went bankrupt! Did he kill himself!?”

The greasy man opened his eyes wide shock.

“Uh. Yes. It was very unfortunate.” Helgi went with flow.

“How did he end it. That damn crazy bastard..”

“Well. I rather not talk about it..” Helgi averted his eyes.

“Yes i understand..” The greasy man nodded. “Well i’ll let you be on your way. Sorry for your loss again.”

Helgi began to walk away again when a guard ran up to the greasy man holding a letter.

“Sir! Rik Redgen is waiting outside, he told me to give this to you and asked for you. Said it was important, about borrowing money?”

The guard said and ran off after delivering his message.

“...Rik is alive..?” The greasy man opened the letter and looked at it for confirmation.

Meanwhile Helgi was slowly sneaking away from the room.

“Your grandfather is alive! Wait he’s probably not even your grandfather..! Guards! GUARDS! Intruder! We have an imposter posing as a captain! Lock the doors!”

The greasy man began yelling at all the guards around him.

By that point, Helgi was in a full sprint down the stairs, several guards already on his tail.

“Crap crap crap..! Yuri please have the ship done by now..!” He breathed out to himself while running.

--

“-So that’s how i ended up being called the dine dasher! I refuse to pay for an overpriced meal, but i sure as hell will eat it! Since i am the great Yuri after all, no dinner is safe!”

Yuri was bragging to a bunch of guards who seemed fairly amused by her stories after having been bored out of their minds being on guard duty.

“Ey..Yuri..that name sounds awfully familiar..” One of the guards stroked his chin thoughtfully.

“Well of course you have! I used to be very famous when i was younger! didn’t you listen! I was known as the illusive dine dasher! Those may not have been my glory days, but they were fun days. Miss being that young”

The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

She reminisced slightly while bragging.

“Girl, you aren’t nearly old enough to be missing being young, once you get to my age you’ll see! And boy do i have stories from my younger days to tell that would outshine your little escapades!”

An older guard slapped his own chest while also bragging.

“I doubt they could be any better than my stories, after all, i’m the legendary Yuri!” She denied his claims.

“Oh yeah!? Well then let’s see which one of us everyone thinks has had better adventures as kids! You’re still a kid so i doubt you’ve had as many as me!”

“Oh you’re on..” Narrowing her eyes, Yuri prepared her best stories from her childhood while more guards gathered around them to watch this duel of bragging.

Which gave Ahab the perfect chance to sneak onto the armour plated airship and begin working on it.

“...Good job Lass...but i sure wish yah wouldn’t just spout out yah name like that since yer a wanted person..” Muttering, Ahab set to work on the ship, getting it into flying condition.

During this, Hikaru was slowly jumping from cover to cover, occasionally drawing his sword and swinging it at the ground without actually striking it, as if pretending to strike, or perhaps practicing where he would strike.

“Yuri! WE NEED TO GO, NOW!”

Helgi was heard before he was seen rushing down the long stairs, the entire force of the guards stationed in this building gathered behind him in a frantic chase.

“Everybody catch this man! It’s an imposter and a spy!” The guards chasing Helgi yelled.

“Intruder!? He called for someone called Yuri..”

The guards surrounding Yuri slowly looked at her, finally realising something.

“You’re the wanted terrorist..!!!”

But they were too late in realising this, Yuri had already jumped up and escaped despite being surrounded by guards. Swiftly stepping on their heads and using them to walk over the human barricade of guards.

“Ahab! Light the lanterns! We’re leaving!”

She said at the frantic Ahab who was busy tinkering with seven things at once.

“But the ship isn’t ready yet!?”

He spoke while pulling a rope with his teeth as his hands were busy doing something else.

“Well get it ready, because we are leaving now regardless!” Yuri turned around and stood at the front of the ship.

“Hikaru! Do it!”

Appearing from behind some storage crates. Hikaru quickly sprinted around the airship, continuously swinging his sword at the ground. He looked like a firefly with his tail of sparks coming from his sword slicing through metal.

“Done.”

He jumped onto the airship once he had done a full circle around it.

“Helgi you better get your ass down here because we don’t have time!”

Yuri yelled out.

The guards around them were pulling out their bows, preparing to fire at them, specifically the balloon of the airship. Which despite being made of tougher material, as this was meant to be a warship, would still end up being punctured if enough arrows were fired at it.

One of the guards prematurely fired an arrow at the same time as Yuri had jumped up from the airship into midair.

Activating her gauntlet which she now wore. One of the runic spells recorded in it shone to life with a deep bright red.

“If i’m still a kid..then i guess this will be a good story to tell huh!?”

Lifting her gauntlet up, Yuri clenched her fist and threw a punch directed below her.

A mass of compressed air shot out from her gauntlet. As it headed down, it crossed paths with the previously fired arrow, crushing it into mere splinters while continuing on its path.

Once it reached the metal floor of the building. The compressed mass of air exploded outward.

BOOM! FWOOSH!

Immediately following the explosion was the mass of air that slowed into powerful winds, pushing all the guards around them into the walls of the building.

The explosion didn’t only push to the sides. But it also pushed downwards. Now barely able to withstand the sudden force of the explosion. The small platform which Hikaru had cut out beneath the airship detached itself from the rest of the building. Slowly beginning to fall down along with the airship still situated on it.

“Wait for me!!”

Helgi jumped down from the staircase. Taking out a small metal plate, he activated the spell drawn on it, shooting off water to propel him towards the airship. luckily he managed to land on the airships balloon which softened his landing.

Yuri climbed her way up onto the airship again.

“Come on Ahab what are you waiting for!?”

“I..i can’t do it! I don’t got enough arms to do it! There’s still louda things before i can make dah balloon work! Aye need to get these ropes around it so it doesn’t get detached from the airship!!!”

Working as fast as his old body allowed him, Ahab was pulling on ropes and tying them to the ship, while the ship quickly fell down into the darkness below, the building above them slowly becoming smaller.

Yuri and Hikaru both grabbed onto some ropes and began tying them onto the ship.

“Helgi get the hell down here and help..!”

Yuri yelled up at the balloon.

Helgi responded by sliding down the balloon and landing onto the ship flat on his stomach.

“...Ow.”

Despite being covered in armour, their ship was slowly getting dented in, similiar to how a can gets crushed in underwater pressure.

“What’s going on!?, Ahab? Hikaru!?”

Looking at both of the locals of this world for answers. Yuri was still holding onto some rope, tightly pulling the balloon stable.

“I ain’t got no clue! What i do know is if we don’t stop fallin we’ll end up like a fat cats litter! Flattened..!”

Despite being completely out of breath, Ahab still managed to push a joke into their situation. His will was stronger than he let on.

“Agreed.” Hikaru kept tying ropes.

Eventually, Helgi also joined in helping them, his face red from getting smacked onto the ship.

By sheer force of will and desperation. Partially aided with the ribbon on Hikaru’s sword, which offered its aid by wrapping its ribbons around the balloon and ship.

They managed to finally stabilise the ship.

They slowly floated in the middle of nothing. Surrounded by nothing other than complete darkness. Even the air felt empty, free of any scent or particular heat difference. It was somehow the exact same temperature as each of their bodies. Truly giving them the illusion of being surrounded by nothing at all.

The only light for many miles around, was the lights from the several lanterns keeping the ships balloon filled with hot air.

They collapsed onto the their backs. Exhausted after doing the work that would have taken fifty men several hours, in a mere several minutes.

“Good job. You have graciously saved us once again.”

Hikaru gently rubbed the ribbon, which vibrated happily.

“What about meee...i also did a good job dammit...i don’t have the muscle for this kind of crap anymore..”

Yuri moaned half heartedly, not having the energy to complain properly.

“You have also worked hard, good job Yuri.” She was patted on her head slowly by Hikaru.

“Of course i did..i’m the leader after all..without me you would all be lost..” She yawned.

“Indeed..” He patted her until she slowly fell asleep. Lightly lifting the now completely passed out Yuri, Hikaru placed her head onto his lap to make sure her sleep was comfortable.

“...Ain’t she a lucky gal. the world ain’t fair at all..” Ahab muttered while also laying on his back, his limbs refusing to move.

“What? You wanted to sleep on Hikaru’s lap first?”

Helgi smirked at him from where he was laying right beside him.

“Ain’t in the mood to throw a comeback lad..imagin i said something clever” Ahab sighed.

“Well that’s going to be quite difficult.” Helgi kept the smirk on his face motionless and constant. Too tired to actually make a more natural expression.

“Yer a cheeky lad. Remind me of myself when i was yer age. Except less handsome of course.”

“You’ve gone senile, old man”

This idle conversation between Helgi and Ahab continued while Yuri snoozed on Hikaru’s lap. Everyone recharging for a while, still floating in the middle of of a pitch black void.

Eventually they had their fill of rest and got up.

“Yuri. We should get moving. We are wasting lantern oil.”

Hikaru moved Yuri’s hair from her face with a careful touch.

“Mmm..? but it’s still night...let me sleep..”

Yuri complained when she glanced around and noticed the darkness surrounding them.

“Yuri. It’s always night here. Come on.”

Hikaru lifted her up and forced her on her feet while she leaned on him, trying to get even a second of sleep.

“Come on princess! We need to find that beast and the treasure it has!”

Helgi yelled at her while he inspected the damage to the ship.

“Treasure!” Her eyes opened wide “And don’t ever call me that!” She threw a piece of loose metal at Helgi.

“Hey stop that! It could be an important part of the ship!” Narrowly dodging her throw, Helgi continued with his inspections.

“By the way..what the hell was that earlier. Destroying the ship.”

She referred to how their ship was slowly imploding while travelling down.

“...Not sure..but it acted exactly how it would if we were surrounded by water. Yet clearly we’re not.” Helgi slowly traced his fingers on the indentations of the ship.

“..I might have an idea. Despite me not being proficient in magical studies. I have lived for long enough to have learned to..feel the changes in the air.”

Hikaru closed his eyes.

“It was difficult to ascertain when we were panicking. But now i’m sure. This air. It’s filled with mana. No actually. The mana is moving..being dragged out of the air….down below.”

“So..it’s the mana that is causing this..?” Yuri asked.

“..Maybe. Whatever is sucking up all that mana is doing it very effectively. So there is a lot of mana surrounding us right now. Thick enough that if we were more magically attuned..we might be experiencing the symptoms of drowning.”

“If there’s so much mana, i should be able to use my dagger again..!” Yuri took out her dagger and instantly drew a rune.

“Still not working..”

“I suppose whatever is sucking in the mana is doing it fast enough that it steals it before it gets imbued into your rune..”

“Damn it..i guess i still have my five spells on my gauntlet..”

Sighing softly, Yuri looked over at Ahab and Helgi.

“Well what are you waiting for! Let’s get down there already!”

“I’ve been doing work while you were asleep and chatting. so why don’t you go and lower the output of the lanterns..”

Helgi kept checking the hull of the ship of further damage while Yuri slowly began to lower the amount of hot air in the balloon, making them sink down.

After several hours of slow descending, they noticed a sudden spike in the air. The temperature dropped to freezing, and even the incredibly magically unattuned Yuri could feel mana being sucked away from around them.

She felt as if she was standing in the middle of a flowing river, desperately trying to stand against the powerful current.

“Let’s see how far down we’ve really gone..”

A slim metal card was retrieved from Helgis pocket, which he promptly activated, lighting the card on fire.

Before it could burn his fingers, Helgi dropped it outside of the airship.

Everyone watched the single dot of light slowly decreasing in size as it reached deeper depths.

“Ugh...we still haven’t even gotten anywhere..” Yuri began complaining but was cut off by Helgi.

“Look.”

He pointed at the tiny dot of light, barely visible in the darkness below.

“Yeah. It’s falling down. I wonder if there even is a bottom to this place..” She sighed.

“It isn't. Look again. It isn’t disappearing or decreasing in size.”

“It’s stopped..!” Yuri began jumping excitedly.

“Well let’s go to the bottom!!” Turning towards Hikaru, she tugged at his sleeve.

“Let’s go! Carry me and jump down! I’m sure you can survive a fall if it’s just a few kilometers..! Let’s go let’s go!”

“Yuri..i don’t think even Hikaru is able to survive something like that..”

Helgi added with a worried smile.

“Aye. The lad is strong as all seven hells, but no one is immune to turnin to a pancake..!” Ahab agreed.

“Psh! Hikaru is! I’m sure he can do it, so come on, i don’t want to wait any longer! You can do it, right Hikaru?”

Tugging his sleeve again, she received no response from him.

“..Hikaru..? Whatcha doing..?”

Looking at his face, she found him looking into the infinite darkness in front of the airship.

“Whatcha looking at..? Even your eyes can’t see in this darkness, stop messing around Hikaru..”

Yuri squinted in the same direction Hikaru was looking.

As she expected, she could see nothing but absolute darkness.

But...the more she looked. The more she could tell..some of the darkness. Was darker than the rest. As if it was sucking up whatever little light was coming from their airship. She also noted that was the direction the mana was getting pulled towards.

“Hikaru..what is that…”

She mumbled quietly. Despite being loud just a moment ago, she now felt a strange fear that the darkness would somehow...hear her.

“....I am….unsure…” His tone shook slightly. It was very rare for Yuri to see Hikaru behave this way.

Concentrating her eyes to their limits. Yuri could make out that it was not a singular darkness ahead of them, but two. Two points that absorbed anything and everything around them. Two points of darkness that seemed to almost..be looking at them. Like eyes.

“...I..cAnT  bElIeVe yOu hAve forGoTTEN me alReAdY...yEt yOU fiNallY reTuRn..”

Something entered their mind, speaking these words. Calling it a voice would be incorrect. It did not know language, whatever it was. It simply pushed its thoughts, intrusively, into everyone’s minds. Vile incomprehensible thoughts. That made what it wanted to say twist and turn, like a cancer invading their minds.

The vileness associated with simply receiving these simple few words into their minds made them dizzy and sick. The body wishing to rid itself of this poison by throwing it out, despite it not being a physical poison that could be gotten rid of.

It was so intense, that everyone ended up momentarily sinking to the floor. Their bodies refusing to function. Everyone except for Hikaru, who stood calmly.

Despite his calm demeanour. His expression..it betrayed the completely unhidden true feelings.

Feelings that could not be comprehended by any human. If one had to translate these emotions to human ones. The only ones roughly similar would be..shocked horror. Although that did not do the emotions Hikaru was feeling any justice, it was the closest plausible example.

“....How..how can this be..”