Volume 7 Chapter 2 Part 2 (1/2)
Clack, clack, clack.
Someone's heels echoed through the quiet church halls.
A smaller figure masked in a hood was walking down a path.
This figure eventually stopped in front of one of several similarly shaped doors. This was the room that Hermie rested in.
The door was open, and a man wearing armor was lying face down on the floor. He was unconscious.
”Pardon my intrusion.”
The voice of a young boy echoed. Or a young girl with a low voice. The voice's gender couldn't be identified just from listening to it.
There was a casualness to the hooded figure's gait, as if one were walking into the room of a close friend. Inside of the room, several others were unconscious, with no outside wounds. They were breathing with a stable rhythm, much like being in a deep sleep.
”Are you resting? I guess you're resting? Then off I go.”
The hooded figure confirmed that everyone in the room was asleep. They headed further in, to see another door inside. This door was opened, and a young girl was asleep next to two soldiers.
”Found you.”
The figure made sure that the girl sleeping near the bed was Hermie. As a hand reached out from the cloak towards Hermie, the sound of a gust of wind could be heard.
”Whoops.”
The cloaked figure grabbed the flying dagger between their fingers, without even glancing at it.
”Now now, color me surprised. You are still awake?”
”Who are you?”
The knight who stood up while uttering these words was Konig.
He had forced his unstable body to stand, just barely. Blood was dripping from his mouth because he had bitten his lips to maintain his consciousness.
”Oh yes, I didn't introduce myself, did I. Good evening, sir. My name is Milt, I'm a member of ”Ouroboros' Hollow”. I have come here to borrow Milady Hermie. Any resistance is futile, so it will be easier for you to stay quiet, you know?”
”Enough mockery!!”
Milt's introduction barely finished when Konig unsheathed his blade and attacked. The upper-cla.s.s chosen one stepped in forcefully, with speed unimaginable for the heavy armor he equipped.
Milt's speed however, exceeded his. The intruder's body appeared to lean just slightly, yet Konig's strike was avoided with ease.
Konig's sword slashed repeatedly through the small room, yet he didn't even manage to lay a finger on Milt, almost as if the unwanted visitor was but an illusion.
”Impressive attacks, as expected from an upper-cla.s.s chosen one.”
Milt commented with nonchalance while avoiding Konig's attacks. Even against an upper-cla.s.s chosen one such as Konig, his opponent did not show the slightest agitation.
”Kh”
Konig was swinging his sword despite drowsiness and powerlessness -of unknown origins- that were attempting to take over his body, while Milt seemed completely unaffected.
Who would emerge victorious was painfully clear.
”Yet, it's a shame. This isn't quite enough to stimulate my appet.i.te. I don't have much time to waste either, so I'll be taking my leave soon.”
After speaking, Milt suddenly vanished from Konig's sight; the invader had sneaked closer to Konig's chest, to deliver a blow that the drowsy Konig had no hope of parrying.
Milt's palm strike struck squarely against Konig's armor, and the resulting shock burst throughout the knight's body.
”Gwahgh”
Konig's breathing was momentarily stopped by the impact that propagated through his armor. The knight then collapsed to the ground and would not stand up again soon.
It was not a blow that would have normally defeated him, but the abnormal statuses that crippled Konig prevented him from defending against it.
”Okay then, now that there's no one in my way, I can get back to work.”
Milt made sure that Konig was out of commission and lifted the sleeping Hermie.
After setting up a certain mechanism, Milt left the room and headed towards Palmirack's entrance.
While walking through the empty corridors, Milt talked out loud.
”This was even too easysince this place was reactivated it means one of the Rokuten came back, so why was it so easy?”
For an infiltrator, nothing is more welcome than a lax security. Milt, however, seemed to be nothing but dissatisfied.
”The only member of the Rokuten involved in the Death Game should have been s.h.i.+n, but I can't imagine he'd let normal people inside Palmirack without doing anythingbut there's no way one of the other 5 came. And if s.h.i.+n had come here, it'd mean that he diedbut I just can't accept that someone killed him”
Milt kept walking on, while voicing complaint after complaint.
The present Palmirack had lowered security, in order to prevent danger for the people of the Church. Thanks to that, nothing would happen even if Milt simply walked out like this.
Milt had not actually ”infiltrated” Palmirack either. The Ouroboros' Hollow member had just walked through the front door, undisturbed.
”Aah, I want to meet s.h.i.+nif only he was here, I would be fulfilled even without having to do stuff like this”
Milt's words sounded like those of a maiden in love, or a boy dreaming about his hero, but hid something close to obsession within them.
Milt kept walking on towards the main entrance.
Listening to the sound of explosions in the distance, the intruder disappeared in the darkness once again.
s.h.i.+baid was the first to notice the anomaly.
After exterminating the undead monsters headed towards Sigurd, he searched the nearby presences and realized that Wilhelm's was nowhere to be found.
s.h.i.+baid's perception radius was smaller than s.h.i.+n's or Schnee's, but still much wider than an average chosen one. Despite that, he couldn't find any trace of Wilhelm's presence, no matter how much he searched.
He went to the location where Wilhelm was supposed to be, but could not find any clue.
Something must have happened to himit was just a matter of time before s.h.i.+baid reached this conclusion.
”(Things are taken care of on our end. How's the situation there?)”
”(The monsters have been exterminated. But something strange is going on.)”
Through the well-timed Mind Chat, s.h.i.+baid informed s.h.i.+n about Wilhelm's disappearance.
Thanks in part to the improvement of his weapons, Wilhelm's power had increased further after meeting s.h.i.+n. He was a warrior who had survived many deadly battles, he couldn't have been defeated by monsters of this level.
After taking care of the consequences of their battle in the surroundings, s.h.i.+n and Schnee joined s.h.i.+baid and investigated the surroundings.
Yet no matter how much they sharpened their focus, there was no trace of Wilhelm in their field of perception. They too headed to the place where Wilhelm was supposed to be, which s.h.i.+baid had already inspected, but could not find any traces of their comrade either.
”No sign of major fightingcan we then exclude the possibility that he fought someone and was taken away?”
”If the opponent was from the Summit Faction, it is possible that Wilhelm was prevented from resisting by means of a hostage. Alternatively, a Mind-type spell could have been used on him.”
With information as scarce as it was, speculating had its limits. The group was then joined by Tiera and Kagerou, who did not possess perception abilities as strong as s.h.i.+n and Schnee and had gone looking for clues by foot.
”Have you found anything?”
”Nothing, there's no presence in the surroundings after all. What about you?”
”.I couldn't find anything decisive, but there is one intriguing place.”
”An intriguing place?”
Tiera responded to s.h.i.+n's question with a brief silence. After letting out a small sigh, she answered.
”Follow my lead, I'll take you there.”
Tiera said just that and proceeded to give orders to Kagerou. The place they headed to, at a speed matched to s.h.i.+baid, the slowest member of the party, was an apparently ordinary grove.
From s.h.i.+n's standpoint, he couldn't sense anything unusual within the surroundings. It was the same with Schnee and s.h.i.+baid, in fact, their eyes gave off an expression of being utterly confused.
”It's here.”
Tiera descended from Kagerou and walked towards the center of the woods. Kagerou grew smaller and walked near Tiera's feet.
A few steps behind Tiera and Kagerou, s.h.i.+n's party too entered the woods.
After walking for several minutes, they reached a clearing. Tiera stopped just one step before entering it.
”Is this the place?”
”Yes. You might find it hard to believe, there was an extremely powerful Demon here until moments ago.”
”A Demon?”
s.h.i.+n's expression turned sour after hearing Tiera's words. Schnee and s.h.i.+baid reacted the same way, especially the latter; his battlefield had been the closest, after all.
However, no matter how high s.h.i.+baid's level and stats were, his enemy detection radius was not as wide as s.h.i.+n or Schnee's. If the enemy had used skills such as Hiding, it wouldn't have been strange for s.h.i.+baid not to notice anything.
”Could this Demon, have done something to Wilhelm?”
”If so, it must have been a considerably high-ranked individual. Possibly even a Named One.”
”Yes, in that case it could have infiltrated here unnoticed.”
Among the Demons with high rank, there were some that could match Schnee and s.h.i.+baid.
That considered, it wasn't improbable that Wilhelm had been taken away with little or no resistance.
”Er, do you really believe me?”
Looking at s.h.i.+n's party trusting her words without question, Tiera voiced her surprise.
”Huh? Why should we doubt you? You're not the type to spout lies or jokes in a situation like this, are you?”
”But it was just a feelingI have no proof or anything.”
”That may be so, but we at least trust you. That's why we believe you, even without proof.”
s.h.i.+n answered firmly to Tiera's whispered doubts.
In this world, after all, unexplainable phenomena such as magic and skills existed in large number. It wouldn't be incredible to be able to perceive miasma or Demons somehow. In addition, elves and pixies possessed a sixth sense, or intuition, known for its sharpness.
The target of such sharpness differed from person to person, but it was likely that Tiera's upbringing had made her sensitive to malice and ill intentions.
”It's faint, but I feel something close to lingering miasma here. What about you all?”
”I cannot feel anything.”
”I feel something different from miasma. But I don't think it is something malicious.”
Having come closer, s.h.i.+n and Schnee perceived a lingering presence.
s.h.i.+baid looked puzzled.
”It seems that you are perceiving different things.”
”What I'm feeling is probably something similar to what Tiera felt. I wonder what Schnee is feeling, though.”
s.h.i.+n had experience with miasma, so he was sure of what he had felt. He had no idea, however, of what the ”something different from miasma” Schnee felt could be.
”At the very least, it is not miasma. A peculiar item, maybeby the way, s.h.i.+n, you had powered up Wilhelm's weapon, didn't you? Couldn't it be that?”
”It's true that I changed Wilhelm's weapon to Beinot, but did it have an effect like that?”
s.h.i.+n tried to recall Beinot's characteristics.
True to its ”Holy Spear” moniker, Beinot was highly effective against the undead. It could affect Demons too, but just enough to be considered an added bonus.
It definitely did not have anything that could leave miasma behind this way.
”If anything, its grade changed.”
”The grade?”
”Yes, it went one grade up, from Mythology to Ancient. That could be the reason, I don't know the details though.”
Even so, there were no other clues leading them further as of now.
The party split to inspect the surroundings once more, but could not find anything; only time pa.s.sed.
”I've looked all over, but there really isn't anything here, huh.”
”I haven't found anything either.”
”Nor have I.”
”Nor I. There's no trace of fighting, so either he was captured or they used hostages. Those are my guesses.”
s.h.i.+n, Tiera, Schnee and s.h.i.+baid reported their findings after regrouping.
What they discovered was just the absolute lack of any clues.
”Nothing to do here, let's go back for now. It would be pointless to stay here longer, and I have a bad feeling”
Ever since Millie's abduction, they were always reacting to the enemy's initiatives.
That was probably why s.h.i.+n felt that this ordeal was far from over.
”What the!”
”W-what!?”
s.h.i.+n's sudden shout startled Tiera.
He had noticed Palmirack's abnormal situation as soon as they returned.
”Sleeping drug. It has been vaporized to affect the whole structure.”