Vol 3: Chapter 56
When I woke up, I noticed a burnt smell. The surroundings were teeming with a dense concentration of mana.
Due to only a small amount of mana left in my body, I was struck by a sensation similar to sickness and my head was spinning. I hurriedly took out a potion out of the tool bag and gulped it down like an energy drink. The taste was awful, however. Like spinach and Japanese mustard spinach was crossbred and only the bitterness was passed down and extracted.
Mimino-san’s special “Super Mana Recovery Medicine”. By the way, the “Super” is referring to the effectiveness, not the taste.
「Ue, Gehogeho—」
Although I was choking, I noticed the back of the girl standing right in front of me.
Her clothes were sooty here and there. Her hair was uneven, like it was burnt. And her exposed skin had many burn marks. It was Her Highness Anastasia.
「Your Highness–」
Why are you here? …Before I could ask that, Her Highness looked back at me.
「Ah… I’m glad you woke up.」
Small flames burst like bubbles. That was all that manifested.
I heard Her Highness speaking properly for the first time. Her voice was too feeble and too weak.
【Fire Magic】manifests when Her Highness speaks out. That hasn’t changed. But even though she was speaking full words, there was only a faint flame.
「Your Highness!!」
I stood up and ran to her. I hugged Her Highness, who was about to fall on her back, with both arms—there was almost no mana left in Her Highness’ body.
Her Highness, who boasted such a colossal amount of mana, was out of mana? Just what in the world happened?
「Ah……」
I noticed as I looked up.
The red sky was cracked, and the night sky of this world was visible beyond. The small number of black dots that were falling like sprinkles seemed to be monsters.
The wilted snake anemone was still hanging from above, but then it fell as if its source rotted away. Despite being withered, it was still a ridiculous mass. When the head touched the ground, it splashed its own pool of blood. The rest of the withered body fell to the ground, destroying buildings spanning over a wide area again, kicking up a large cloud of dust and sending tremors across the land.
After the snake anemone was torn off, the red sky was diminished. The sky looked like cracked, chipped, fragments of glass, but the collapse stopped at that point.
「!!」
A gigantic golden eye appeared in the red sky.
Because it had horizontal pupils, the blackish pupils in the center of the golden eyes seemed closed. It felt incredibly mysterious. I instinctively thought it was the same as a goat’s pupil.
Speaking of the size of the eye, if that eye truly belonged to a goat, the snake anemone from a while ago would only be about the goat’s leg size.
(Don’t come, don’t come, don’t come…)
I was thinking only about that. The spread of the red sky had stopped. If there was a giant goat on the other side, it wouldn’t be able to get through that fragmented red part.
GAN!
It seemed that the giant goat was ramming at the gap to pass through. The shock wave reached all the way to where I was. I fell on my butt, still holding Her Highness.
GAN! GAN!
The vibrations felt like echoes of a huge bell tolling.
No, it might actually be a bell.
A bell signalling the end of this country.
What in heaven’s name is that monster even? If something like that appears, this country will be turned into a wasteland.
I hugged Her Highness, thinking that I should at least protect her. There was no other choice but to “run”. However, in a state of lacking mana, it was not possible for me to carry Her Highness on my back, let alone run.
I had no other choice but to wait patiently. Because Mimino-san’s medicine was working. My mana was gradually recovering.
《OAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE》
The frustrated giant goat bellowed. It was not a cute “Mee” like a regular goat’s bleat.
The moment it entered my ear, goosebumps ran all over my body. My pupils widened, and my head almost turned blank—such a fear striking voice.
Is it frustrated that it can’t come over to this side? Is it frustrated that it can’t break through the sky? Or is it just hungry, and frustrated that it can’t eat the prey right in front its eyes?
It’s okay. You’re okay. That giant goat will never come over to this side. All I have to do is to hold Her Highness and run away.
And I wasn’t the only one who thought that.
The crews of the airships, who were looking up at the sky in a daze, also started to move. Maybe they realized that the only thing they could do was run away from the giant goat, as they were making a sharp turn and flying away in the opposite direction.
I searched for the “Queen of the Night”–the ship where Lark was supposed to be, but it was nowhere to be seen. As expected of Lark’s companion. They escaped perfectly. …Although I couldn’t meet her, it was already a good harvest to find out that she was on board the “Queen of the Night”.
Behind me, the people of the giant airship also fled far away after getting off the ship. Someone was yelling at me, probably asking me to go with them.
「I… I’m comin–」
Just then, a cold chill ran down my spine.
《EEEEEEKEEEEEEEEEE》
The giant goat released some kind of mana. It was trying to interfere with the gap in the sky. Cracks of light ran across the sky again.
However, on the other hand, there was also a change in the pillars of light of the “Labyrinth of 9 Emotions” atop the cliffs. Even more intense light beamed up and interfered with the sky again.
Two enormous mana collided with each other. Thunder roared. Explosions broke out. The space was ripped and stitched back. New formulaic spells were generated and destroyed.
My ears hurt. Or that’s how it felt like.
The sound exceeded the audible range. It contained both low bass and thunderous roar simultaneously.
「Eh……」
A feeling that made my hair stand on end.
「Ehhh…?」
The smoke, the stones at my feet, the debris around, all floated.
「EHHHHHHHHHHH?!」
Even my body holding Her Highness floated into the air.
We were being sucked up.
To the sky.
「Grow!」
While holding Her Highness in my left arm, I took out a rope from the tool bag with my right hand and hurled one end. I then activated【Flower Magic】with my slightly recovered mana and firmly tied the rope to a pillar of a nearby building.
With this, we should not be sucked in.
「The hell?!」
I was too naive. The pillar, together with the ground itself, was pulled into the air.
My body soared into the sky with Her Highness.
A large amount of debris, big snakes from earlier, and two airships that were too late to escape were sucked up around us.
The giant goat in the sky was already gone. Either the space above is not connected to the space where the giant goat was, or the giant goat had disappeared.
We were continuously sucked in. Acceleratingly.
To the red space.
I could do nothing else but embrace Her Highness—I should keep at least this person alone safe.
At long last, she finally found a way to overcome her peculiar constitution.
If she does her best, she should be able to speak normally.
I only heard her voice a little bit.
Furthermore, it was only a faint voice.
I am sure that if Her Highness laughed, it would sound bright and cheerful.
At least this person alone should be protectedー.
My entire field of vision turned bright red, and my body was wrapped in the feeling of being hurled into the air.
