No matter how differently things happen in this world compared to the common sense of the world I lived in, to be honest, I really couldn’t grasp the current situation.
“Claire, I’ll leave the back to you!”
“Got it!”
With Leo’s shout, Claire ran straight to the rear. It seemed a bit unsettling to have Roti with her firearms and Mia with her magic in close combat behind.
Moreover, what was charging at us was—
“Cough!”
Claire’s swing of her sword left thick scratches on the ground and walls of the ruins. Then, naturally, a few dogs caught in between let out their unique sounds of distress into the air, as if they were under attack.
“Glasseista!”
Mia’s shout resonated just as the sound of a gunshot went off.
One of the two dogs that had been lifted into the air was pierced by an ice spear, while the other fell with a bullet to the head, blood spraying everywhere. If an animal protection agency from my world had seen it, they would have fainted.
We didn’t have time to be startled by each and every scene, though.
Click.
I heard a magazine being loaded into a pistol next to me.
Rena calmly swapped the empty magazine and fired two shots straight ahead. Two blue fireballs erupted in front of the large wolf that seemed to weigh more than both me and Rena combined, who had blue fur.
In an instant, smoke rose from the wolf’s face, followed by a roar that anyone could tell was extremely angry: “Grrrooooo!”
The wolf immediately leapt up—
Thud!
It crashed to the ground after being hit by my shot.
Not the Marmaros gun. A special round made with increased gunpowder for my rifle. Still enough penetration power to pierce through the wolf’s skull.
“This won’t end anytime soon!”
Alice shouted.
If the passage had been a bit narrower, we could have placed warriors wielding swords both in front and behind, and centered our firepower and support teams. But even though the ruins were large, they were overwhelmingly spacious.
It was enough room for ten people to form a circle, and there was even more space left; with beasts charging from all directions, it was difficult for just six swordsmen—myself, Rena, Mia, and Roti—to protect everyone.
I could still rewind time and had two pistols on me, so there was no problem there. Rena also had her pistol and submachine gun, so there shouldn’t be any issues in close combat.
But Roti’s rifle was a bolt-action rifle, and Mia needed time to cast spells. Thanks to those two managing to shoot down the beasts charging from afar, the number approaching us wasn’t overwhelming, but it was far from a level to feel secure.
“How on earth are there so many beasts living underground in Lutetia!?”
“Sorry, Princess. But I don’t think they’re actually ‘living’ down there.”
As Charlotte swung her rapier, she said so, and Jake, also swinging his sword nearby, chimed in.
Indeed, as Jake said, the beasts had collars around their necks like dog leashes. Some even had tags attached.
In the original story, such beasts poured out from the later dungeons, making it easy to obtain Marmaros—
—But back then, it was surely part of the Emperor’s plan to use even those beasts as weapons.
Besides, if the situation remained as is…
I shot down a few more dogs running toward us and, while pouring bullets into my rifle from a speedloader that looked like a cigarette pack, I glanced over at Sophia.
While swinging her sword imbued with light, Sophia had an extremely complicated expression. It must have been hard for her to comprehend why so many beasts were overflowing from the position of the nation she belonged to.
“Let’s take a moment to regroup.”
I spoke up.
“If we go further, there should be an empty room ahead… Even if there are other troops inside, we can handle them all and close the door to rest for a bit.”
In the previous game, there was no ‘auto-save’, so players had to manually save every time they felt uneasy, but with the transition to this new world, auto-save points seemed to have emerged. Usually, those points appeared in areas with some dialogue events or recovery devices set up.
Just like the recovery devices we saw in the Northwood ruins.
…Now that I think about it, I’ve only been to a ruin once. There must be many more than what I saw.
I felt like I was experiencing a condensed version of the series’ story all at once. It seemed like a few narratives had been skipped along the way… Well, even in the original, not all ruins appeared, and it wasn’t even possible to collect all the treasures.
But that’s not something to be thinking about right now.
What I really needed to seriously contemplate was this situation.
Clearly, the closer we got to the cathedral, the more formidable beasts would appear.
I’m not sure if reconfiguring the strategy would be meaningful, but at the very least, we needed a short break. Especially as the bodies of those swinging swords were gradually getting soaked with sweat.
A few people whose eyes met mine nodded.
Even those who couldn’t nod would probably follow us if we moved.
“This way!”
I shouted and turned my body to start running.
*
“Phew…”
Standing before the recovery device, Claire let out a long sigh. I could see a few of the minor wounds on Claire’s body disappearing in an instant.
Not just Claire; the injuries on the bodies of those who entered the room were also vanishing.
“What is this…?”
Charlotte muttered blankly as she watched her own wounds disappear.
“…”
Sophia didn’t say anything. I couldn’t tell whether she was at a loss for words because she knew about this device or if she was genuinely unaware since she was still at a lower rank.
“Roti, are you okay?”
“Yes, I have no injuries. But I wonder if the ammunition will be enough…”
“I have spare ammunition.”
I took off my coat covering my back. Under the coat was an exosuit that looked like it belonged in sci-fi novels, but upon closer inspection, it was made more of brass than steel, with gears spinning constantly in various places. Some of the visible gears even had a few scratches on them.
Though labeled a prototype, it was quite useful.
Perhaps it was scheduled to make a proper appearance again in a sequel when another war broke out. For now, it seemed impossible for mass production.
I placed the metal box I had strapped to my back on the ground.
“Roti, Rena, take what you need.”
“Thank you!”
Rena replied immediately. Roti hesitated for a moment before saying, “Then I won’t hold back.”
Saying that, she approached me.
I was glad that I had brought bullets of various calibers just in case. I didn’t think my considerations about whether or not to use the submachine gun would come in handy.
Honestly, I had simply loaded everything onto the train because I was too lazy to search and take each item out.
I was already carrying a rifle for elephant hunting on my back, and there were bullets strapped to my waist, abdomen, and even thighs, so I was feeling a bit heavy. Even in this state with such special gear.
“…Those beasts we encountered until now.”
While the two chose the right caliber bullets for their guns, Alice finally spoke up.
“Those things were all raised by people, right?”
“That’s correct.”
Perhaps they were even ‘created’.
There exists magic like that. More precisely, there are artifacts that make such magic possible. Opening doors to a world completely different from this one, contaminating ‘beasts’ to make them into colossal monsters, and even drawing in monsters from beyond to dominate them.
In the original work, it was magic the Emperor used in the later stages. So, in the late dungeons, beasts and monsters filled with Marmaros would pour out, and by spinning through certain intervals a few times, characters could finish their final setups.
Of course, in this world, just capturing beasts or monsters didn’t drop them on the ground like bags of marbles; that wouldn’t be of any use at this point.
The ancient relic itself was one of those that the Papal State had secured and was hiding, and it was a development where the Emperor would seize it and use it… but the Papal State would treat this ‘magic’ as ominous, right?
Because it goes against the perfect world created by the Goddess.
Then, if the Emperor…
No.
It’s not like that yet. If the Emperor had taken control of the underground, the Papal State wouldn’t be this quiet.
And there was no reason to use that magic in the underground of Lutetia. If he wanted to use that power, he would have gone straight to the Papal State. It’s a way to deliver a significant blow to an opponent opposed to the Empire without provoking a world war.
Then that would mean the Papal State used this magic.
“…Did you recall something?”
I raised my head at Alice’s voice.
Looking around, my friends were all staring at me. They all had anxious expressions.
“…”
Yeah, at this point, if I kept my thoughts to myself, it might interfere with future events. Emotional turbulence can greatly affect combat.
“I think the Papal State was preparing for war.”
So I decided to be honest and say it straightforwardly.
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