Chapter 56

〈 Chapter 56 〉 Water Flea

*

A single bang of Pangongseong echoed.

No, maybe several times.

“Damn it! Damn it all!”

Apis suddenly burst out in frustration, throwing her empty quiver to the ground.

Broken arrows were scattered around like used matchsticks.

It was so obvious that all of this was a trace of failure just by looking at her sorrowful expression.

“I shot Spirit Bow and Explosive Bow, and it doesn’t budge at all!? What the hell is this wall made of, you raggedy rag bag wall!”

While her tone was a bit fierce, her argument was valid.

The power of the Spirit Magic, something that could be said to belong to elves, combined with Apis’s strength trained to the absolute limit, was comparable to a cannon.

Moreover, the Explosive Bow was so powerful it could pierce even the scales of a dragon in one shot—truly Apis’s trump card.

If it hadn’t been for the dire situation, it wouldn’t have been strange for me to shoot out a harsh retort about not shooting things like that in a city.

“How can you shoot such a monstrous thing in the city! What if someone gets hurt!?”

The Sister, cupping her hands over her ears as if a bomb were about to explode nearby, chastised Apis in a quavering tone.

“Ah! Shut up! What about it!? My comrade is trapped! Are you telling me to just sit here and watch!?”

Though Apis replied in quite a rough manner, her expression also showed a hint of distress.

It was undeniable that this black pillar, which devoured an entire building, was a type of ‘Dungeon’.

Dungeon.

A term for this space created when mana, which was scattered like air in the environment, extraordinarily coalesced in a specific area for unexplained reasons.

Since mana, which is the foundation of all existing abilities in this world, was the main agent.

The form and associated characteristics of dungeons are so varied and diverse that there’s no established definition even within the long history of this system.

Dungeons swarming with ferocious monsters like cockroaches were actually among the more benign forms.

It wouldn’t be surprising to find spaces where lava could wave like the ocean, gravity could twist, or time and space could misalign, continuously spewing poison or curses.

A capless bottle filled with all sorts of evilness.

That was the impression I had of dungeons.

Among those.

Endless towers.

Labyrinths with no exit.

Ships controlled by corpses.

There were also special forms of dungeons like those.

Among those unique dungeons that appeared every few hundred years and posed enough risk to shake the foundations of the world.

Humanity revered it as the ‘Demon King’.

“If only we could somehow get inside!”

Apis suddenly suggested a way, and I nodded silently in agreement.

The only way to annihilate a dungeon once it has appeared is to destroy its core located within.

This was a law that our party had personally verified through countless trials and tribulations.

A dungeon that loses its core enters a dormant period until it can recover it, and the length of this period is determined by the size and danger of the dungeon.

The short ones might only be a week, while the long ones could have dormant periods of several hundred years.

Humanity has managed to survive until now because every few hundred years, when a Demon King appears, a hero blessed by the Saint has shattered the core of the Demon King.

However, that was only possible when one could enter the dungeon.

I had seen many dungeons that became burdensome to exit once inside.

But this dungeon, which firmly refused external intrusion, was the first we had ever seen, even among those of us who prided ourselves on seeing the most types of dungeons.

Because of that.

With this bleak situation we faced, it was only natural for Apis to be anxious.

While we were hesitating outside the dungeon, nobody knew what danger the hero inside was facing.

But why was it?

As the gravity of the situation became clearer, my heart became increasingly calm.

As Apis relentlessly shot arrows at the black pillar.

The reason I merely stared at Apis’s diligent efforts was simply because.

I felt like I could do something.

That ambiguous feeling I could only describe as intuition surged within me like a wave.

Clomp clomp.

“Uh?”

“Priest?”

My act of walking silently toward the black pillar seemed quite perplexing.

Sister and Apis suddenly turned their gazes toward me.

And as soon as I placed my hand against the black wall in front of me, their expressions twisted in shock.

“Hey—!!!”

“Priest—!!”

Rumble.

Like tossing a small stone into a wide lake.

A faint ripple undulated across the entire black wall centered around the area I touched.

Then, the strange markings of the Saint that were scattered across my right arm began to shine brightly.

In that moment, I was able to have confidence in the vague intuition I had felt.

It’s responding, after all.

The faint white energy that dwelled within me was resonating with the power of the black wall in front of me.

The waveforms and branches of that power might be separate, but I could assert that they grew from the same root.

The reason I couldn’t explain well.

All of this was the result of instinctively throwing my body into something that felt right, no matter how riddled with holes my reasoning was.

Not instinct, nor intuition.

Could this be described as a sixth sense that originated from my soul?

Just then.

My hand began to be pulled deeper into the darkness.

“Hey! What are you doing right now!”

“Pr, Priest!”

It felt as if someone on the other side of the darkness was roughly pulling my hand.

A sense of helplessness was swallowing me, as if I were slowly sinking into a bottomless abyss.

Gasp!

Apis hastily grabbed my arm, but it was already too late.

My body, showing no sign of resistance, had long since been devoured by the black pillar before my eyes.

“Hey! Are you crazy!? What do you think is in there for you to crawl in alone!?”

“Y-Yeah… I’m regretting it right now…”

“No, more importantly, how! How did you get in there!? I shot dozens of arrows, and it didn’t even budge a little!”

“I borrowed the wisdom of the ancients: If pushing doesn’t work, try pulling…”

“You idiot! This isn’t the time for jokes! Shut your mouth and get out of there right now!”

Apis’s sudden rise in volume showed just how displeased she was with my nonchalant attitude as I was being slowly sucked into the wall.

“Ah, no! No! Priest!”

The late-arriving Sister appeared to want to help pull me out too.

But what one Sister could accomplish, when Apis’s strength couldn’t do it, was far too little to change the outcome.

It would be like putting an ant on top of an elephant trying to pull it.

“Do you even know where you’re going!? You’re weak! Are you not coming out right now!? You’ve seen what happened to Bigtim and Dawna, right?! Even in an ordinary dungeon, you were struggling! What can you do!? You’ve already used up today’s miracle!”

“Pr, Priest! Regis Priest! I-I’ll call for help! Just wait! Just wait a moment!”

Apis’s sharp rebuke was all true.

If the hero desperately needed help right now.

The difference in capabilities between me and the hero would be more of a discrepancy between a dinosaur and a water flea.

I was fully aware that even if I went to help her, I might just end up being a hindrance.

But.

“Apis.”

What could I do? My body had moved.

And who knows.

Maybe even a water flea can do something.

“I guess I lost the bet. There’s no post office around here, so I’ll personally deliver the letter to the hero.”

“You…!”

My awkward smile, forcedly stretched out, reflected in Apis’s golden eyes.

Since I was born a man, I wanted to appear dignified even in this possibly last moment, but trying to force something I never did usually ended up making my body creak.

Just how long had it been?

After what felt like an eternity of gazing into each other’s eyes, Apis seemed to sense something and slowly let go of my hand.

“If I die, then I’ll just die…”

“Ah, Apis!? Why are you taking your hand away!?”

Trying to reassure the stunned Sister about Apis’s actions was impossible since the darkness had already swallowed up to my lips, making it impossible to mediate.

So.

With just my eyes, I conveyed my gratitude to Apis, who had understood my intentions, and soon I unreservedly yielded myself to whatever lay beyond the darkness.

“Priest—!!!”

Sister’s muffled voice echoed as if from underwater, dampening my ears.

If I had known this would happen, I should have taken the chance to touch that chest.

Pwahaha.

Even in what could be my last moment, I couldn’t help but let out a self-mocking laugh at my own wandering thoughts.

The world went black.

*