With more than 3500 words, and 15 pages of word doc.u.ment, this monster of a chapter is finally finished. The actions begin on the next chapter. There are so many information that my brain practically short-circuited after translating this lol. I hope this chapter is understandable for you guys! Enjoy, while I sleep like the dead~
TL: clover
ED: clover
We went down the stairs following the past Ann that we saw using the Urd Sight.
This was the eighth layer.
How far would we go down?
We went down to the next layer as usual, starting from the unchanging staircase.
However, the scene ahead was completely different from what we had seen in Ruins of Visitor so far.
It was full of the scent of death.
When we arrived, dead bodies of unfamiliar creatures were scattered about everywhere.
Blood covered beasts, chopped reptiles, crushed huge bugs.
Multipod monsters that had become charred, plenty of chopped meat—
I felt dizzy.
It was fortunate that we had not been exposed to such bad odor, as they had been subjected to simple preservation treatment.
There was no animal I recognized among the corpses, and it was fortunate that all the other monsters had irregular shapes.
Otherwise, I might not have been able to suppress the nausea.
Two filters, olfaction and vision, changed the scenery into an impression like seeing a game or a realistic movie.
You were useful in unexpected places, game brain.
Those thoughts were making myself smile unexpectedly in spite of the nauseating scene, keeping my mind from panicking.
"Uh……, are you alright, Erika?"
"I"m not alright, but I will be fine. What about Klaus-sama?"
"I"m familiar with this kind of scenery. See, going to the same places with my father, getting rid of monsters……"
"Your speech is becoming messy, Klaus-sama."
It was nice to have a conversation with a friend.
Shocking videos, too, were surprisingly less damaging when you watch them with other people.
But that meant the person who saw this alone was taking it harder than us—
"Let"s hurry. Ann should be there."
"Yes. I"m sure she would find it hard to feel fine."
Most of the pillars were knocked down, large holes were opened all over the walls.
Mechanism of huge gears to move the labyrinth was exposed, and there were also damaged parts.
It was a trace where the power of terrible destruction was demonstrated.
"This is why your older brother acc.u.mulated so much money."
"These monsters were his opponents."
"Although I intended to be armed perfectly when we left the simple base camp……I feel frightened when I think that all these carca.s.ses were living and moving."
When Klaus said that, shivers also ran over my spine.
What if the group of Edward-oniisama had not wiped out these monsters?
I didn"t know what would happen to the three of us.
The reason why the Ruins of Visitor was said to be the most dangerous area in Aurelia territory was finally felt by our skin.
How long had we been walking around?
Thanks to the creepy mountains of carca.s.ses, I felt like it was longer than the actual search time.
It felt like Edward-oniisama had guided us toward this situation.
We stopped in front of a room.
At the entrance of the room, there was a message written by Moonlight Gallnut Ink.
""Do not step on the stars. Otherwise"…huh? It disappears?"
"It seems that there is a thick cloud right now. The first row was "Do not step on the stars", wasn"t it?"
"It seems that way, but…"
"I don"t know what will happen if we step on it, but I haven"t seen the mark of stars yet in this layer, so I think we"re safe for now."
With Onii-sama"s note, this kind of warning was the first time, so I felt a bit nervous.
When going in and out of the room, we might have to observe carefully whether there was a mark of a star in the state of not emitting light.
In addition, since the Levitation effect time was almost over, we should swing the wand……
When I thought about such a thing, Klaus suddenly crouched on the spot and started to investigate something.
"Klaus-sama, is it a mark of a star?"
"No, it"s not……This is the eastern spell card. Magic of Alarm that narrowed the range and increased accuracy……That"s how this spell works."
Klaus suddenly stood up, stepping over the spot where the spell was casted, and took a step into the room.
"……Ann! Are you there!?"
It was a room with relatively few traces of destruction.
A small girl was crouching and trembling at the other side of Klaus.
She noticed us and raised her face.
Oh, good……we came in time……!
"……Klaus-oniisama? ……Ericsama!?"
The lamp attached to the end of the staff illuminated the little girl who looks like Klaus.
Ann Harvan"s face was ghastly pale with fatigue and fear.
I could see how hard this had been for her, just by looking at her face.
There were traces of tears tracks on Ann"s cheeks.
But the tears that flowed down her cheeks now were different from other tears.
Klaus ran to Ann and hugged her.
Ann also hugged Klaus back.
"Onii-sama……Onii-sama! ……Onii-sama, you idiot!"
"……It was bad. I was bad. Ann, I caused you a bitter hardship."
"I was lonely……I was really scared, you know……?"
"Aah, I"m really sorry."
It was probably because Ann"s tension thread broke after she joined Klaus.
She burst into tears with a loud voice.
Klaus gently stroked Ann"s head with a gentle face that I had never seen before.
While being stroked, Ann returned it with a warm-hearted punch like a spoiled child.
"I"m glad you"re okay……I was worried all the time."
"Mou……mou……that"s my line. You"re bothering Ericsama!"
"Aah, it"s all my fault. Ann, did you come to such dangerous ruins in order to stop me?"
"—Eh?"
"……Hm?"
"Ah—, yes. That"s right. I tried to bring you back without telling Otou-sama. Please appreciate it."
"I see. You used your mind……"
Ann……your eyes were swimming……
That"s right. I felt that way from the very beginning.
If it was only to stop Klaus, she could stop him when he used the sleeping magic.
As we talked about it during the dinner party, I wondered if her interest in the ruins came to her at that time.
These people were really siblings.
Once she finished crying, Ann left Klaus.
She wiped away her tears, stretched her spine and faced me.
"Ericsama, I"m sorry for having caused you trouble."
"I"m glad, Ann-sama. You are okay, I"m really glad."
"Ericsama……"
I cleaned the face of Ann who had fallen apart again with a beautiful handkerchief.
Her expression, it changed to the same smile as when I saw it in Knot Garden.
With this, I was finally at ease.
(I had a bad feeling when we arrived at this layer, but it seems to end in peace safely~~!!)
If the three of us could escape from this Ruins of Visitor, the death flag would have been successfully avoided–!
After this, it was a simple task of simply using the Pa.s.s Wall while rising up with Levitation, going through the transfer gate, and then sleep.
Aah, there was also a sermon by Otou-sama before going to bed…but compared with the fate of the death event that was waiting six years in the future, it was overwhelmingly better!
Klaus took out the magical recovery potions and let her drink it.
Ann also lost most of her magical power while searching the ruins.
Rather, it was amazing that she kept her magical power so far by herself.
The fact that her precision magic was better than wide area magic, was compatible with the characteristics of the labyrinth.
Now then, the excursion was an excursion until we went home.
It slipped through my mind now that we had joined with Ann, but I didn"t know what would happen on our way home.
First of all, until Ann could move, we would rest in this room—
"Hmm?"
Since a little while ago, I thought that the moving sounds of the mechanical labyrinth would be done.
This sound was the sound that I heard frequently since entering the Ruins of Visitor.
Therefore, I got used to it, and it was kept away from my consciousness.
But, somehow, wasn"t it too long?
I looked back to the way where we came from.
There was no particular change.
However, there were ruins devastated by battle and many dead bodies.
"What"s wrong, Erica?"
"No……somehow, I feel like there is something wrong……"
Far from stopping, the moving sounds were growing louder and louder.
Somehow, I felt like it was getting closer.
"By the way, Onii-sama, Ericsama - I have been worried for a long time, but what is that?"
""That"?
"Yes. I think that it is Moonlight Gallnut Ink……"
"Ha!? Erica! Hide the lamp!"
Klaus looked at the direction pointed by Ann, shouting like in a hurry.
He covered the lamp attached to his staff with the sleeve of his robe.
I also imitated him and put the lamp in my bag.
—Indeed, in the outside world the clouds that were covering the moon seemed to have cleared up.
A light bluish golden light shone on the whole floor of the room.
We were standing above the starry sky drawn with Moonlight Gallnut Ink.
In my mind, the warning message written at the entrance came to my mind.
Do not step on the stars. Otherwise— Otherwise, what would happen?
Fearfully, I shifted my shoes.
There was a mark of a star in the place where my shoes had stepped on.
Uwah, I, I was too lucky!?
"Ann! Erica! Hands–!"
The crumbling sound of the stones obstructed Klaus" cry.
The field of view tilted obliquely.
No, it was the floor of the labyrinth that was inclined.
I could see the hard stone floor swelling like a stormy sea.
Floor, wall, pillar, ceiling—-
The layer itself fell as it crumbled.
We were caught up in it and were thrown into the air.
(Uwah, this, in such a place? The three of us finally got it……!)
Ann who was close to Klaus barely caught in his arms.
However, I was watching the reunion of the brother and sister from a little distance away, so I was separated.
While protecting Ann, Klaus had hundreds of spell cards to shape like an umbrella.
It was a Protective Circle to protect themselves from the collapsed debris.
However, they were five meters or more away from me.
A trap of wide area magic interference - if that was the case, the Protective Circle wouldn"t reach me!
Uwah, what should I do!
"Calm down, Erica! The Pa.s.s Wall is still in effect!"
……As he told me, that was correct.
If I looked carefully, Klaus ignored the rubbles that fell on him, and the spell cards only repelled the rubbles that were likely to hit Ann.
Accelerated gravel stones. .h.i.t me and Klaus, but they all flew through us.
What a handy magic!
Edward-oniisama, thank you for preparing the immature scrolls!
The pit made by the collapse was deep and unexpectedly wide.
Although we should have fell down for quite some time, the bottom of the hole still couldn"t be seen.
I thought that we would plunge into the gigantic Creva.s.se that was made in the bedrocks when we pa.s.sed through the labyrinth.
But, on the walls of the surroundings, there were cavities to store the artificially made star crystal lamps.
It might be like a cathedral with a height of…several tens of meters, no, over 100 meters.
It would be safer to drop slowly and reach the bottom.
"Klaus-sama! The Wand of Feather Falling!"
"Oh, I understand."
I instructed Klaus briefly while pulling out the same wand.
Coordinated the timing to swing the wand with Klaus, I also used the Feather Falling.
Beneath us, magic circles like white thin membranes were deployed.
When jumping into it, the magic circle crumbled and disappeared into a shape of a small feather.
Fluffy, a feeling like being wrapped in a soft air wall, and my body was being held gently against the gravity.
The falling speed became very gentle.
The broken stones and the remnants of the mechanism of the mechanical labyrinth overtook us.
After a while, the collapsed layer dropped to the bottom of the hole and the sound of a rumble in the ground was echoing.
"Ann-sama! Are you alright?"
"Y-yes! Ericsama! Thanks to Onii-sama, there are no injuries!"
"Is Erica still alright?"
"Yes. Thank you for your patience."
Klaus and Ann were reaching out their hands to reach me.
However, since we were more than five meters away from each other, they wouldn"t reach me.
I took out a magical rope from the bag and ordered it.
"Stretch, like a snake! Tie, like a rope!
Like a snake that jumped over to its prey, the rope shrunk once like a spring and then quickly jumped out.
Flying with a loose parabola form, the rope firmly wrapped around the arm of Klaus.
"You"re really well prepared."
"Because I am an alchemist of Aurelia."
These were actually prepared by Onii-sama, though~.
When Klaus pulled the rope, I was drawn to his body.
With this, the three of us were finally be able to be together.
"What on earth was that? Was that a trap?"
"A trap…Rather than that, it may be caused by a malfunctioning trap."
"Malfunctioning?"
"Perhaps deep damages acc.u.mulated in the mechanism of the trap, the floor of the labyrinth, and the pillar itself, due to the battle of Onii-sama and his friends."
"Well, there certainly was a place where the broken gears are exposed, the mechanical labyrinth tried to work, but the labyrinth itself couldn"t bear that movement."
Thinking about it, there were other strange things.
Dead bodies of those monsters were almost left untouched.
In the higher layer, there was a golem for material recovery wandering around.
Maybe because he was aware that if the mechanical labyrinth operated the layer might collapse, Onii-sama didn"t install a golem in that layer.
But, Onii-sama……It was impossible to predict such a collapse accident with only that hint.
"Ah……"
"What is it, Ann?"
"No, somewhat, it"s beautiful……"
The star crystals contained in the wall were shining pale blue in response to our magical powers.
In such fantastic sight, we connected our hands, and fell down slowly in a circle.
"Ann, you…"
"I"m sorry to say that at such a time."
"No. It"s alright. I was just thinking about something similar."
That was true. Even if I care about it, I couldn"t help it.
If I thought about it, it was a wonderful experience if I limited it to only the pit of these star crystals.
It sounded like a movie from Studio Ghibli1.
If there was my star crystal necklace, it might become even more similar to that.
I was packing the star crystal lamp and hunting knife in my bag too!
……But I hoped there was no someone with a colonel position2.
Outside our anxiety and impression, the magic of Feather Falling softly brought us to the depth of the ruins.
After a while, we reached the bottom of the Ruins of Visitor.
The feeling of the structures and decorations was similar to the cathedral from the ancient times of Aurelia.
There was an arched entrance between the nave where we arrived at and the inner court.
On both sides of the arch, if it was a cathedral above the ground, there would be statues of the distinguished Duke of Aurelia of the past adorned, here there were statues of a legendary alchemist who was supposed to live in the era before we visited this continent.
However, the familiarity ended there, there were numerous differences with this cathedral in the labyrinth as deep as this.
First of all, the ceiling was a few hundred meters from the ruins that we had fallen from.
Naturally, there was no window.
On the wall of the side aisle where the windows should be, constellations which were imparted by the alchemist, which couldn"t be seen on this land, were engraved.
Mythological figures such as monsters, animals, and tools for navigation.
They became reliefs, star crystals were embedded in the part corresponding to the stars, and they were shining pale blue.
Well, it seemed that the carca.s.ses of the monsters from the labyrinth were scattered all around.
In addition to the carca.s.ses, fragments of debris falling from the eighth layer were also scattered around.
It was a force majeure, but it was a scene that my ancestors were likely to get angry at.
When I had thought of such a thing, some of the magic circles that surrounded the three of us turned into particles of light and disappeared.
I caught a glimpse of the silver pocket watch and checked.
It seemed that the effect of Pa.s.s Wall had expired.
"I"m glad that the collapse has subsided, if so many big rocks fall down, my Protective Circle might not be able to repel them."
"This seems to be an important place for the people of Aurelia and I feel sorry if it was ruined by the falling rocks."
"Yeah. It feels majestic. Erica, is this like a shrine?"
"Well, I guess that is probably the case…"
I looked around carefully.
In the inner palace of the cathedral - originally should be the place where the altar of St. Brentan was - there was a star crystal megalith instead.
There were several cracks running on the megalith due to the collapse just now.
I looked at it and tilted my head.
""The G.o.d of the Visitor, the Altar of Bren"……, but there is something weird……"
The materials were different, but this megalith was the altar of the worshiped G.o.d of Aurelia itself.
The altar of Aurelia"s founder Bren, or St. Brentan was decided as a megalith.
Originally in the West we worshiped the G.o.d named Bren, which was the G.o.d of voyage, star, and alchemy.
However, when consolidating with the other three countries on this continent, Aurelia also converted to the same religion in order to align the states with each other.
The religion of the union kingdom was a monotheism derived from the southern continent which was worshiped by Ignitia of the South.
The religion of Ignitia was tolerant to the G.o.d of other religions.
In this religion, as a part of the governance policy, we incorporate the G.o.ds of other people as angels and saints.
It might be a familiar way of thinking with the j.a.panese"s Daikokuten which was derived from Shiva3.
Thus Aurelia"s G.o.d Bren, which we still held faith today, became a saint, St. Brentan, and was serving the G.o.d of Ignitia.
(If it"s the game setting, shouldn"t there be a sealed ancient evil spirit? Although it seems as though the ancient G.o.ds are enshrined……)
If I looked closely, there were letters engraved on the star crystal megalith.
It was the letters of ancient Aurelia used in Aurelistyle scrolls and runestones.
In this way, I could barely read them myself as someone who was lacking in study.
""Crossing the ocean of the far away star, I will bury you here together with the long journey. Sleep peacefully, our no name friend. I hope that this abundant land will be your eternal cradle–""
When I read the poem that was engraved on the megalith, Klaus and Ann took a prayer stance.
"Not an altar, maybe it"s a repository. For Aurelia"s people who died before reaching this Ichthyes continent…"
"Somehow, it"s a sad inscription."
"That"s right. But, I wonder why my ancestors buried this person with the same rites as a G.o.d…"
I touched the inscription on the megalith with my finger without a care.
Huh? Was it only my imagination?
The place where my finger touched carelessly became corrupted—
—From far away, I heard a voice.
The air of the cathedral was trembling.
Sounds like treble and ba.s.s, string-like instruments and bra.s.s instruments were played and heard.
It was a sad voice like the sounds of a child weeping, like a sound of a whale singing.
Every time the voice echoed, the star crystal megalith turned black from the inside and became corrupted.
The star crystal which was shining blue was now dyed in black.
From the cracks on its surface, black water was overflowing.
It looked like the megalith was shedding tears.
"Eh……?"
The moist wind breathing the scent of tidal, shook my hair.
In response to the magical power rising in the cathedral, the star crystals on the walls and ceiling strengthened their lights.
Somehow, the overflowing black water covered the whole floor of the cathedral.
The black wave washed my boots.
Klaus, Ann, and I were perplexed as we looked around us.
We all saw the spectacle that couldn"t be seen at the bottom of the underground ruins.
There, the black sea which endlessly continued to the other side of the horizon, and the sky full of stars was spreading out.
1 In the raw it actually said ジ○リ but I know it was referring to Studio Ghibli.
2 These three sentences are actually referring to the movie Laputa: Castle in the Sky, a movie from Studio Ghibli. In the movie, Sheeta had an aetherium crystal necklace. And she was being chased by Colonel Muska for her necklace.
3 So, like the j.a.panese which incorporated Shiva as their own G.o.d, Daikokuten, the religion of Ignitia incorporated other countries" G.o.d as angels and saints. So, while in Aurelia Bren was a G.o.d, in the union kingdom he became St. Brentan, a saint. (please correct me if I"m wrong about the j.a.panese G.o.d)