Chapter 4: Ice and Fire
Part 1
"Treasure?" Nyle said. He scoffed, placing a palm to his forehead. "Is that why you two are here? Sorry to say, there isn't any treasure here."
"Of course you'd say that," the first man retorted. "You just don't want us finding the treasure. Just so you know, we were here first!"
"These mines are dangerous, that's the reason they're closed, not because of some hidden treasure."
"Well, danger is nothing to us; ain't that right, Patrick?"
"That's right, Lenny."
"And anywho, why are you here? If these mines are as dangerous as you claim 'em to be, what brings you all here?"
"Er…well…" Nyle coughed lightly. "We were just…passing on through."
"Passing on through, huh? You can't trick me, dwarf. Listen, me and my buddy Patrick are going in and there's nothing you and your friends can do to stop us."
Nyle sighed. "If you two want to head in, go ahead, but don't say I didn't warn you."
"Heh. We were planning to even if you didn't say it. Come on, Patrick, let's go find that treasure."
As the two men bolted into the mine, Nyle sighed once again. "Those two are goners," he said.
"Shouldn't we have tried to stop them?" Kevin asked.
"Probably. But the fact of the matter is we still don't know who those two are and what they're capable of. I'd rather we didn't spend any unnecessary effort to try and do so."
"So now what?" Daichi said. "Aren't we going in there too?"
"We are. But I don't see why we don't let them go ahead; maybe they'll uncover some traps for us."
"Nyle-san," Kevin interjected, "please tell me you really aren't planning on using those two souls as bait."
The dwarf let out a heavy sigh. "They would've gone ahead if we arrived just a few minutes later, wouldn't they? The way I see it, this whole event might be quite fortuitous for us, like that goddess of yours might be manipulating events to our favor."
"Eris-sama wouldn't do such things at the expense of innocent souls. I suggest we follow them and make sure those men don't meet a grizzly fate."
"Alright, relax. It isn't like I was planning on letting them get killed; we have two Priests here, afterall."
Finally, we entered the mine; as we did, the surroundings seemed to grow colder…and darker; And no sooner than it did, did I go to cast Fireball to light the way and provide some much-needed warmth, but Inara had beaten me to it.
The moment she did, however, the front of the group disappeared. Before we could question it, the rest of us dropped into a sliding path and into a chasm below, nearly landing on top of the others.
"Argh." I rubbed my back as Darkness went to help me up.
"Guess there's no going back," Hurnus said, looking to the path high above us.
"The men must've fallen into this place as well," Kevin remarked.
"They shouldn't be too far ahead if they have," Daichi replied.
"Ugh." Inara groaned as the priest helped her to her feet. "I can't believe this drop was so obscured despite the light."
"Probably a measure to prevent anyone from going further in," Nyle said. "The signs must have gotten removed somehow."
"Or…someone removed them," Daichi said.
"Whatever the reason, we've no choice but to continue on. As your guide, allow me to apologize; I'll make sure I tread more carefully."
"We're fairly lucky the drop wasn't as bad," Inara said.
"Indeed," the priest said with a nod. "No one is worse for wear, are they?"
We checked ourselves, but aside from a few scratches and bruises, we were fine.
"A light?" Nyle said, looking to Inara.
"Ah, sure." Inara conjured another fireball, illuminating the area once more and revealing that we had fallen into another shaft.
"Let's keep moving."
We walked along the eerily quiet shaft for quite some time, with no sign of the previous two men. Just as I was about to say something, the Priest spoke.
"Where could they have gone? Surely, they must've come this way."
Nyle pondered quietly, a contemplative look on his face. "Nothing," he finally said. "No signs of them coming this way…but…that's impossible; you guys saw, there aren't any branches for them to have taken—at least, none before that fall."
"So…what does that mean?" Inara asked. "Did they not fall into the hole?"
"I'm not really sure, but I don't believe they could've circumvented that fall, not unless they doubled back."
"In which case they would run into us," I remarked.
Megumin spoke, her voice carrying a slightly apprehensive and fearful tone. "Y-, You don't think it's anything…sinister, do you?"
Nyle paused before replying. "Truth be told, these mines were closed by royal decree; no one is allowed access unless they were handed a Royal Waiver."
"So, those two men are here illegally?" the priest remarked.
"And so are we," Inara said.
"I think we get a pass," Nyle replied. "Afterall, I'm only using this route to fulfill His Majesty's request. But to answer your quest, Kevin, yes, those two are probably here illegally."
"Why did you let them enter if that was the case?"
"Who am I to stop them? If they want to dig their own graves, then that's their decision."
"Except we've already agreed that we'd help prevent that, haven't we, Nyle-san?" Kevin said, his voice tinged with sternness.
"Assuming we can find them, sure."
After that conversation, our groups continued on without much talking until we came across our first fork in the shaft.
"Left or right?" Daichi said.
"Nyle-san," Kevin interjected, "can you pick up their trail in either?"
Nyle took a moment to examine the paths; after about a minute or so, he turned to us and nodded. "The right path."
"They went right?"
"I believe so." He showed us his finger tips; they were dyed black. "Ash; recent too. They must've lit a torch somewhere around here."
"And they didn't before?" Daichi queried.
"They must have not had a need to; they didn't appear to need one outside either. Which means they probably used a Potion of Night SIght…or they're not as human as they might appear."
"They can't be undead or demons," I remarked. "This girl here would've said something if either was the case," I said, pointing at Aqua.
"Aqua-san can sense them?" the priest queried.
"Thanks to her gear," I quickly replied, cutting off any chance that Aqua could.
"That's some very interesting gear," Hurnus said. "Reminds me of Daichi's sword."
"Hurnus," Daichi said sternly. His, just as stern gaze, swiftly shut the dwarf up.
"Daichi's sword?" I glanced at the weapon at his side; despite being hidden within its sheathe, it was clearly a blade, but not like mine, not a katana. "It must be some sort of relic—like Mitsurugi's."
"In any case," Kevin interjected, "we should hurry before those men wander into something dangerous."
"Easy now," Nyle retorted. "We don't want to run into more dangerous stuff ourselves; it serves no one well for both our groups to end up being just another statistic for these mines to claim."
"He has a point, Kevin," Daichi remarked.
The priest let out a heavy sigh. "Very well. I understand…and I agree, we should probably tread carefully."
"Can we just get a move on?" Inara said. "This place is giving me an odd feeling."
Although no one said anything in reply, the look we all exchanged revealed the feeling was mutual.
As we wandered through more tunnels, the ambience within grew even colder…and even darker. There was still no sign of the two men themselves; that being said, Nyle was able to pick up on small markers that indicated which way they went.
In the tense trek, Megumin suddenly spoke, nearly causing me to jump out of my skin.
"Nyle-san."
"Hm? Yes, Ms. Megumin?"
"These mines, how long have they been closed for?"
"Oh…been a few decades now, I think."
"Decades? And you said you've been through these tunnels before, right?"
"I have. What is it you're implying, Ms. Megumin?"
"Nothing. I'm just wondering, if as many people have gone missing in these mines as you've said, how is it that you know where to go?"
All of us looked at Nyle.
He sighed. "I've been through these tunnels before they gained their infamous reputation. The paths are largely the same as when I came through all those years ago, but…I'd be lying if I said I wasn't perplexed by some of the changes."
"Like that fall?" I remarked.
"Certainly. I'm not sure when that happened, but whatever did, it was definitely after I visited this place."
"I sure hope so; I mean, it would be kinda weird if you fell into a hole you knew was there."
"Perhaps it isn't obvious, but I don't make a habit of falling down holes; it shouldn't come as a surprise, but we dwarves aren't the biggest fans of falling into them."
"Hold on," I said, turning to look at Aqua and Megumin.
"What?" Aqua remarked. "What is it? Do I have something on my face?" she asked, quickly passing a hand across it.
"Can't you guys see in the dark really well?"
"Yeah, what about it?"
"Then how is it we fell into that hole?!"
"I couldn't see it."
"You—?! You couldn't see it?! You couldn't see it? Really? And you?" I said, looking at Megumin. "What's your excuse?"
"I…I also couldn't see it."
"..."
"Y-You can't blame me! It didn't look like a drop from where I was standing."
"Me too!" Aqua retorted as my gaze shifted back to her. "And why are you getting mad?! Do you know how many times I've had to clean the floor after Kazuma-san missed the toilet bowl?! It's mostly in the morning so you can't say you couldn't see."
"W-What the heck are you saying?! What does that have to do with anything?!"
Kevin coughed loudly. "Now, now, Kazuma-san," the priest said gently, "I think you shouldn't be too harsh on the ladies; we all came out ok, and that's what matters, isn't it?"
I sighed deeply as I noticed the sideway glances being cast at me. Despite feeling some embarrassment, my brow was still knit in frustration.
Sometime later, after making it through multiple other paths and dead ends, the tunnels began to open up, but as they did, the temperature began to plummet. While it was fairly cold upon entering the mine, the temperature in this shaft was almost as cold as it was outside—perhaps even colder. Still, in spite of our wandering, there were no further signs of the men who entered before us, and as we continued deeper into the tunnels, an icy mist hovered over the ground—soon accompanied by the ground itself turning to ice with the ceiling and walls following thereafter.
"W-Why is it s-so cold?" I said, teeth chattering as I rubbed my arms for warmth. "S-Surely, it s-shouldn't be t-this cold."
"I've no idea," our dwarven guide replied. Despite lauding the hardiness of his species, he was faring no better than any of us, rubbing his hands together and occasionally blowing on them for the meager warmth in his breath.
"It d-doesn't make sense," Daichi remarked. "It s-shouldn't be this cold underground, r-right?"
"And w-w've yet to find the two men," the priest added. "N-Nyle-san, you d-don't think y-you've missed something, d-do you?"
"I think t-they're the l-lea-least of our worries, Kevin. Achoo!"
"Daichi's right," Hurnus replied. "If we haven't found 'em yet, then… Well, you can't really blame Nyle, now can you?"
"To be f-fair," Inara began, "it is their fault for h-heading into a c-closed-off mine despite kn-knowing the dangers."
Kevin sighed deeply. Perhaps it was the cold, but his fiery insistence had all but dissipated with his companions' replies.
I looked over my shoulder at the other three; the only one who wasn't trying to warm themselves in some fashion was Darkness—who continued to walk as if nothing at all was wrong. A normal person would've asked why, but I knew the different regimen of 'training' she did in order to build up such tolerances.
Suddenly, Nyle stopped. "This doesn't make any sense," he said, rubbing his hands a bit more furiously. "It shouldn't be anywhere near this cold in here."
"I-I thought th-that was obvious," I remarked.
"No, this is too cold; should explain why we haven't run into any of the typical wildlife in here."
"W-What could c-cause it?" Daichi queried.
"I'm not sure," Nyle replied. "The cold from outside should never reach this far down, but…this is even colder than that."
"Any ch-chance this could be magic-related?"
"Hmm…possibly."
"I don't sense any magic ahead, though," Megumin suddenly remarked.
"Neither do I," Inara said, adding her own input.
"So we can confidently rule out this cold being magic-related," Nyle replied.
"Do we head back?"
"No. We've spent too much time getting here, not to mention, our original way out isn't available to us anymore, remember? The whole point of coming into these mines was to find the path back into the burrow. Even if we did have a way back, returning to the surface would mean all of this would've been a colossal waste of time—and I don't think I have to remind you all that time isn't something we have a lot of."
"Sorry, N-Nyle-san," Daichi said, "but do you even know where we're g-going at this point?"
Nyle sighed. "Although it may seem as if I have no clue where I'm leading you all, rest assured, I have some semblance of direction. Like I previously stated, a lot has changed since my last foray into these mines. In any case, moving forward is our only option."
"W-What if we run into something dangerous?" Aqua asked out of nowhere.
Although I couldn't really take anything this girl says seriously, I had to—at this moment—agree with her. The rest all turned to Nyle, awaiting his reply to a question, they too, resonated with.
"I'll do my best to avoid steering us into such a situation."
His reply wasn't really the answer any of us was looking for, but he left us no choice but to accept it as is—for as he said it, he began to move on ahead.
We continued down through the tunnel. Like before, the further we moved into the mine shaft, the colder it got. At some point, the walls and ceiling of the tunnel became covered in a thick layer of ice with some protrusions of the very same thing forming on their surface.
"Be very careful," Nyle warned.
Despite having changed our footwear to accommodate the icy surface (and its lack of grip), the danger it presented was not to be understated; a fall here could instantly see someone subjected to a gruesome fate.
"Ugh." Inara groaned in frustration.
She held in her palm a large fireball; it provided us with much-needed warmth, but for some time now, its size began to ebb and flow, its light flickering.
"What's wrong?" Daichi asked.
"Stupid thing keeps shrinking. I keep feeding it more mana, but for some reason, it seems like it just wants to go out."
"Maybe the cold is making you lose your concentration."
"Maybe. Although…it's not as bad as before thanks to this flame. I'm just afraid it'll go out."
"Is it really that much of an issue, Inara-san?" Darkness queried.
"With as much mana as I'm pouring into this to keep it going…yes, it is. It won't be too long before I'm out."
"If mana is what you need this girl can give you some," I said, pointing at Aqua, who promptly showed a shocked expression.
"My mana isn't for the taking!" she retorted, shrinking away from me in defense.
Inara slowly distanced herself from me and then, chuckling somewhat nervously, said, "I appreciate the offer, Kazuma-san, but I'm fine."
I could only guess her reaction was due to the way those girls described the feeling of having their mana drained and transferred; I'll admit, it wasn't the best feeling, but it wasn't like she was gonna be the one being drained.
"Are you sure you'll be able to keep it up, Inara?" Daichi queried.
"I'll be fine…as long as the spell doesn't demand more of me."
"It's kinda looking like it might be," I remarked, noticing the flames from the spell flickering once more.
The fire grew as Inara poured more mana into it. She sighed exasperatedly. "It's fine. Daichi, don't you have some manatitie you brought along?"
"I do…but I thought it would be a better idea for us to hold onto them for more dire circumstances."
"More dire circumstances?" Inara sighed exasperatedly once again. "You always do this; always hoarding all the valuable items until some 'dire circumstance' happens—not that it ever does."
"What? I mean, it's not like we have so many we can just use them on a whim."
"Do you feel like freezing to death? No? Then I'd say this a pretty dire circumstance, wouldn't you? Unless you're somehow able to provide some heat for all of us."
"I…I guess." Daichi dug into his bag and withdrew a large piece of manatite. He took a moment to stare at it, and then, apprehensively handed it over to Inara. "I still believe it would be better served for a more dire situation."
"Yes, I'm sure we'll definitely need it for the inevitable dragon we'll have to face."
"Please don't joke like that," I immediately remarked.
Saying such things so carelessly… These people obviously didn't know about setting flags…or maybe that was just the Crimson Demon in Inara coming through.
Siphoning the energy within the manatite, Inara was able to keep the spell going without much issue.
After what felt like at least an hour or so, the tunnels opened up into a large chamber—and although there were still no signs of the men who entered these mines, there were some other signs.
"Nyle-san, look," Kevin said, pointing at the things in front of us.
Megumin tentatively spoke as she noticed their shapes. "Are those…?"
"Dargon's beard," Hurnus said as he eyed the scene before us.
Across the entire room were several dozen humanoid figures, all with varying levels of ice and frost, but all of them completely frozen.
"Is this…?" Daichi began to say.
"All of the people who came here," Nyle replied in disbelief.
"Then…"
"Are the two men here too?" Kevin queried.
"Better question is…why?" Megumin said in reply.
Indeed, why? Why was it that there were so many people frozen here?
"No…'what'," Nyle said in correction.
The implication quickly sent a shiver down my spine and I'm sure the others' as well.
"Nyle-san," I said, interrupting the momentary silence, "do we have to go through here? Isn't there some other way we can go? You know…this just seems like there might be something…dangerous here."
"There…there could be…but we'd be losing an incredible amount of time going back and searching. I know how it looks…but this is… We have to go through."
"I'll go!" Darkness suddenly declared.
Everyone turned to look at her.
"You'll go?" Daichi queried. "Why?"
"Aren't you the daughter of one of the noble houses of Belzerg?" Hurnus said. "Wouldn't it be an issue if something bad were to happen to you here?"
"He's right," Nyle followed up. "It might—"
"NONSENSE!" Darkness retorted. "I will not let my status get in the way of my duty and as a productive member of this party or this adventure."
Productive; I wonder what part of that word applied to her. She was, without a doubt, just trying to pursue her own fetish…though I struggled to imagine what freezing would accomplish in this regard.
"Darkness-san, are you sure?" Daichi queried.
She nodded. "If enduring pain and uncomfortable feelings is what one must be subjected to, then I believe I'm the most suited to undertake such a task."
They all exchanged glances, and then Daichi looked at me.
"Kazuma-san, she's a member of your party, so I believe you have as much say in this decision as Darkness-san herself."
Upon saying those things, Darkness cast me an expectant gaze. Although I knew what she was really volunteering for, I also knew that, of all of us, Darkness was the hardiest; it would take a lot to harm—or in this case—effort, to freeze her. And despite the dangers it carried, we needed information—especially if going through this place was our only option.
"Fine," I said, sighing thereafter.
Darkness smiled and then looked forward. "I'll make sure…"
"Make sure what?"
She shook her head, a smile still adorning her face. "Nothing. I believe in you, Kazuma."
"What?"
And with that cryptic remark, she stepped towards the icy mist just ahead of us.
Within seconds of doing so, a frost appeared and began creeping up her leg. It covered everything it touched in a pall of ice. All of us thought that Darkness was going to meet the same fate as the figures scattered across the room, but eventually the frost stopped just above her waist.
"Darkness, you ok?" I called out to her.
"Umu." She replied, nodding as she turned to face us.
Surprisingly, the ice did little to restrain her movement; in fact, Darkness moved as if the ice was merely water coating her skin, turning around to answer me without a hint of exertion on her part. Of course, the ice that grew over her lower body immediately shattered.
"Darkness, come on back."
With every step she took, the newly-formed ice shattered, again and again until she was back to where we were standing.
"It seems like the mist causes anyone or thing within it to freeze," Inara said.
"Though it seems like the ice that forms isn't that thick," Daichi remarked. "Darkness-san was able to move quite freely within it."
"Which means if we all keep moving the ice will never fully encase us."
"I mean, it also did stop around Darkness-san's waist; so maybe it won't encase us completely regardless."
"How would that explain the people here, then?" Nyle queried. "Sure, there are some dwarves amongst them, but some of them clearly aren't." He turned towards Darkness. "Ms. Darkness, you wouldn't happen to have some enchantments to prevent freezing, would you?"
"Ah! Come to think of it, I think this armor is resistant to all manner of damage; although, I'm not too sure about the specific resistances. Kazuma might know."
"Holt didn't say anything about the specific resistances the armor has," I replied, "and I'm pretty sure he didn't do any enchanting on it, but the Ojii-san smith in the Crimson Demon Village could've; if he did, never said anything about it, though."
"Perhaps I should go," the priest suggested.
"No, Kevin," Daichi replied. "It'd be bad if our healer got himself frozen."
"I would go," Hurnus said, "but—uh, well…I'm not keen on joinin' my kin so soon."
"Fine," Inara remarked, "I'll go."
"No." Daichi interjected. "I'll go. Inara, you're the only one of our group who can cast magic, so having you turn into a block of ice would be just as bad as having Kevin turn into one."
"Are you sure? It's not like having you turn into one would be great for morale either."
Daichi sighed. "I'm sure I'll be fine. I'll just take a quick walk through it. If anything starts going wrong, I'll head back immediately."
Inara sighed in reply. "Alright."
"Daichi, I'll be standing by just in case," Kevin remarked.
Daichi nodded at his friends and then at us.
"Here goes nothing," he said, and then he stepped forward, into the mist as Darkness had done so before.
And just like before, whatever the mist touched began to freeze; the moment it did, however, Daichi too, froze.
"Daichi, are you ok?" Kevin called out.
He appeared to be struggling, and no sooner than that, it became apparent that unlike Darkness, he couldn't just freely move about; as a matter of fact, he couldn't move at all. And where the ice had stopped at Darkness' waist, it slowly continued to creep past Daichi's.
"Hah-Help!" he yelled, panic setting into his voice.
His group sprinted towards him but quickly doubled back as the mist nearly claimed them as well.
"Dammit, what in Dargon's jewels do we do?!" Hurnus cried.
"HELP!" Daichi yelled once more.
Unfortunately, he couldn't even turn to see that his friends had tried.
Part 2
Before we could think of what to do, Darkness had run back into the icy haze. "I got you," she said, grabbing Daichi.
"Darkness-san?"
With seemingly little effort, she wrenched him from his icy prison and threw him over her shoulder. Although the ice tried desperately to cling to and restrain her, Darkness moved back towards safety with relative ease.
"Thank you…Darkness-san," Daichi said, clearly shaken from the experience. He looked back towards his companions. "Was I not shouting loud enough?" he asked, his brow knit in frustration.
"What?" Inara remarked in mild confusion.
"Why is it that Darkness-san had to come and help me?"
"We tried," Kevin replied.
"Unfortunately," Inara followed up, "the moment we had, we almost got stuck ourselves."
"They did," I said as Daichi looked to us for confirmation.
He took a deep breath and then sighed. "Sorry. I was just—"
"Afraid," Inara answered. "You were afraid that we were gonna leave you…right?"
"Ah…erm." Daichi nodded apprehensively. "Can't say I'd blame you if you did."
"Enough. Would you quit beating yourself up over something that happened in the past; none of us can change that."
"He was my brother, Inara."
"I understand—"
"Do you? Do you understand what it's like to lose a sibling, Inara? One you were so attached to? No…I don't think you do."
There was a brief moment of silence, before Inara let out a heavy sigh. "You're right, I don't know…but I did know Haruto a little bit…and I know he wouldn't want to see his brother beat himself up over something he couldn't do anything about."
"I think so too," Hurnus remarked.
"As do I," Kevin added.
Inara spoke. "What happened that day—"
"Isn't… It isn't something we should be talking about right now," Daichi said, cutting her off. "We should…just focus on getting the hell out of here. I'm tired of this cold. And I bet Kazuma and his group are too."
"That's good and all," Nyle said, "but how are we going to get past this mist? You all might have a chance to get through, but Hurnus and I wouldn't stand a stone's chance in Hell going through that."
"Actually," I said, rubbing my chin, "I think I have a way."
"You do?"
"Well aren't you full of surprises, Kazuma-san," Kevin said with a smile.
"Darkness," I said.
"Darkness?"
"Yes, as in our Darkness," I replied, pointing at the person in question.
"Me?"
"Yes, you. Since you're probably the only one who can move through that without becoming a cube of ice, we'll have you carry us across one by one."
"Can she do that?" Daichi queried.
"She just did it with you, so there shouldn't be any issues…I think."
"Anybody else got any ideas?" Inara asked.
Everyone else shook their heads.
"What about the people?" the priest queried.
"What do you mean? Do you want us to carry them too?" Daichi remarked.
"I mean…are we really going to leave them here? Surely, there's something we can do."
"A prayer and a wish," Nyle replied. "I know you're well-meaning, but there's not really anything we can realistically do for them in this scenario. If we make it out of here, I can relay what information we've managed to gather. Hopefully, it'll be enough to mount a rescue…or recovery…most likely."
Kevin sighed once again, and turning towards the many figures scattered about the area, said a quick prayer. "Very well. Let us continue. I do hope that the other two men are well and not amongst these."
"You're truly hopeful, but I suppose that's why you're a Priest and I'm not."
"Even the common man must have some hope, Nyle-san; I'm sure the gods are listening carefully for our pleas."
If only he knew. I couldn't help but glance at the supposed deity standing beside me.
"Who's going first?" Nyle asked.
"Probably best to have you and Hurnus cross first, no?" Daichi replied.
"Any objections?" The rest of us shook our heads. "Alright. Ms. Darkness, whenever you're ready."
"Umu." She nodded and then approached the dwarves.
Nyle gestured at her to kneel, afterwich, Darkness did. He clambered on to her and positioned himself comfortably on her shoulder.
"Err…" Hurnus, however, was hesitant.
"What's wrong, Hurnus?" Daichi asked.
"Uh, well…is it really alright for me to climb on top of a noble lady like Ms. Darkness, here?"
"It's fine," Darkness answered. "Please don't worry about my standing and think of me as just a normal adventurer."
Hurnus, understandably, looked over at the rest of us as if to get a second opinion.
"You're fine," I said. "Besides, Darkness is pretty terrible at being a noble anyway, isn't that right, you guys?"
"Darkness is quite the odd noble lady, yes," Megumin agreed.
"And she still hasn't found a rich, good-looking partner yet," Aqua added.
"Y-You guys?!" she whined.
"But, I think because of that, we can spend more time together, and I think she's a great friend for it."
"Umu," Megumin said with a nod. "She certainly values her companions and isn't one afraid to break the norms set by the aristocracy in their defense."
"Ohhh, is that so?" Hurnus said. "I guess I had her all mistakened."
"Hey, Darkness," I said with a grin, "what's wrong, you're all red."
"Guuuhhh. N-, Nothing."
"Maybe the cold is finally getting to her," Nyle said with a cheeky smirk of his own, and after chuckling a bit, he cleared his throat and said, "Now then, shall we get a move on?"
Hurnus, like Nyle before him, clambered on top of Darkness and then took position on her other shoulder.
"Are you alright, Ms. Darkness?" Nyle asked. "We're not too heavy, are we?"
"No, you're fine," she said, shaking her head.
"Alright, if anything goes wrong, be sure to toss us as far back to the edge as possible. At least one of us needs to make it."
"Hey," Hurnus remarked in objection.
Nyle chuckled. "I'm only joking, but it would be bad if both of us ended up getting frozen solid."
"Don't worry," Darkness interjected, "I'll be sure to get both of you to safety in case anything happens."
"Let's just hope nothing goes wrong, aye, you two?" Hurnus retorted.
"Sounds good," Nyle replied. "Anyway, we're good to go, Ms. Darkness."
With his confirmation, Darkness began walking into the mist.
Like before, whatever the haze touched began to freeze, and the ice that was born from it, spread. But even as the frost crept up Darkness' armor, she continued to walk forward unabated. She continued, forward, forward…forward, until she was gone from sight.
Though my eyes couldn't see her (with or without Farsight's aid) there were two others who could.
"She's gone," I said. "I can't see her."
"You can't?" Megumin queried in reply.
"What, you can?"
"Mhm. And it looks like everything is going alright, as far as I can see."
"So can I!" Aqua proudly interjected. "I keep forgetting Kazuma-san has terrible eyesight thanks to countless hours of sitting in front of a computer screen."
"Oi, my eyesight isn't bad. In fact, I can see that pimple growing out of your forehead just fine."
"Huh?! S-Stop lying! A goddess can't get any pimples."
"Eh? Makes total sense why'd you'd be getting one, then."
"Megumin, I don't have one, do I?!" Aqua desperately asked, tears dotting the corner of her eyes.
Megumin cast me a disapproving gaze and then sighed. "Your face is fine, Aqua."
"I know, I know, but I'm not getting any pimples or blemishes, right? Right?!"
"Ah, look, she's coming back," Megumin said, pointing at Darkness.
"Megumin?!"
"How'd it go?" I asked as Darkness approached us.
"I managed to drop them off."
"Drop them off, where?"
"There's another area like this one just beyond the fog," she explained as Daichi and his group came over.
"Thank Eris-sama; you're back, Darkness-san," Kevin said.
"And what of the dwarves?" Inara queried.
"I managed to drop them off in an area not too dissimilar to this one. The haze doesn't reach it, but there seems to be an area beyond it."
"I see," Daichi said, "so our journey through this place isn't over just yet."
"No, not yet, it seems."
"Who's next, then? We shouldn't keep them waiting."
We all traded glances.
"Probably best if you went next, Daichi-san," I remarked.
"Me? Why? Shouldn't Megumin-san go next on the account that she'd be easier to carry across?"
"Well, I was thinking it'd be better if they had someone to help them defend just in case something happens over there."
"Ah, you're right, I didn't think of that. Umu, not a bad idea. Alright, I'll go next—if you're ok with that, Darkness-san."
"I'm fine with it."
"Good. Let's go then."
"Got it."
"Right, so, how do I—ah, whoa!"
Darkness quickly swept him off his feet and carried him along like a knight carrying a princess; yes, Darkness was currently employing the highly-vaunted method of carrying someone, the 'Princess Carry'.
"Please hold on tight."
"Really, you should," I said. "Darkness is pretty clumsy."
"Wait, what?" Daichi replied in surprise.
However, Darkness sprinted off with him before anything more could be said.
"Be careful, Darkness!" Megumin said as they disappeared beyond the mist.
"There they go," Kevin remarked.
"Say, Kazuma-san," Inara said, "is that true? Is Darkness-san really clumsy?"
"She can be a klutz, yeah."
"You don't think—"
"Let's not think too much about it; it's not like we can do anything even if something did happen."
Seeing Inara's face twist with worry, Megumin quickly followed up my remark with one of her own. "I'm sure if anything were to happen, both Daichi-san and Darkness would find a way to overcome it."
"Right…yes, I'm sure you're right."
A few seconds later, Darkness reappeared, jogging back towards us through the fog.
"Daichi-san is safely across," she said once she returned.
"No hiccups, I guess," I said.
"Well, I almost tripped."
Inara didn't say anything, but her already pale complexion became somehow more pronounced, signaling her level of anxiety.
I placed a palm to my head and sighed. "Who's—?"
"I'll go," Inara interrupted.
The same continued as Darkness ferried everyone across to the other side. For whatever reason, I was the last one (probably 'cause I didn't really volunteer to go before anyone else did). The feeling of having to wait by myself on the opposite side made me feel nervous—especially given the frozen figures scattered about and the eerie quietness which accompanied them. Luckily, Darkness arrived just before my mind really began to wander off towards more chilling thoughts.
"Kazuma, are you ready?"
"Huh? Oh, yeah. I-I'm ready."
"Are you ok?"
"Yeah. Yeah, of course…I'm good. Let's go. So, right, do I just—?"
Just as she had done to Daichi, Darkness had swept me off my feet with no warning and cradled me within her arms.
The abruptness and embarrassing nature of it all left me somewhat speechless. That being said, I was no stranger to being princess carried; there was a time where Megumin had done so after I twisted my ankle; definitely embarrassing then, and still embarrassing now.
"Hold on tight, Kazuma."
"S-, Sure."
As she raced into the haze, I looked around; first, at the scenery, and then, at Darkness herself. There wouldn't normally be much to think about when it came to my feelings towards Darkness, but the look of determination she wore (and perhaps my slightly compromised state) made me hot in the ears. If only she was what she appeared as.
Suddenly, that steadfast gaze shattered as surprise overtook it. It took me a moment to understand why, but the moment I did, I too, was overtaken by surprise.
"You klutz!" I yelled as she lost her balance and sent us careening into the depths of the icy mist.
Within seconds of doing so, the heat from my entire body began to leave me. I quickly shot out of the frost as quickly as I could, but with little sense of direction it was only a matter of time before I joined the chilling scenery around me.
"Darkness!"
"Kazuma!" she yelled some distance away from me.
I tried moving towards her, but my feet were already frozen, planted to the ground, my legs soon to join them.
"I'm coming!" she said, making her way to me.
Although she could move, the ice still made it somewhat difficult for her. The brief moment she lay in the haze, recovering, must've been more than enough time for the ice to build on the joints of her armor.
She was a few meters away, but even at that distance, I was unsure whether or not she'd reach me before the frost had its way with me or not. I needed to find a way to stop the ice from consuming me.
Thinking quickly, I placed my hand near the spreading ice and said, "T-Tinder." I stuttered, the freezing temperatures now penetrating past any defense I had against it.
Despite a direct source of heat mere centimeters from it, the ice didn't even so much as slow its advance.
"F-F-Fireball."
Still, nothing.
As the ice drew past my chest and began affecting my hands and arms, I began to panic. "D-D-Darkness!" I yelled out to her.
She was so close, but the ice was closer still, its icy tendrils grasping at my neck.
"This is it, I'm about to freeze to death."
I closed my eyes. Perhaps the sensation would be as peaceful as I've heard.
"Kazuma! I got you!"
I felt a heavy force and a second later, the liberating sensation of being able to move; Darkness had tore me free from my frozen bonds.
"Whoa! Whoa! What are you doing?! What are you doing?!"
"I have you!" she yelled as I dangled high above her head.
"I get it! I get it! Now, put me down! Put me down!" Oddly enough, being held so precariously felt more dangerous than resting closer to the freezing mist. But that thought immediately went out the window as I said, "Not in the mist, you dumbass!"
Darkness flung me into the air once more almost on impulse.
"Not so high!"
"What do you want me to do?!"
"Just hold me like you were, you idiot!" Once she did, both of us glared at each other. "What possessed you to put me back down in the fog? Is your head full of it too?"
"I-I don't know. You were yelling at me so I just…panicked."
"Panicked, huh? You—"
"Kazuma?! Darkness?! Are you two ok?" Aqua yelled through the haze.
"We're fine!" I yelled back. "We're on our way!" I looked back at Darkness. "Let's get going before they start to get even more worried—and…don't go too fast, this time."
"Right," she said, somewhat melancholic.
"Oh, and before I forget…thanks for saving me."
And that melancholic expression melted slightly, revealing a subtle smile beneath it.
"What happened?" Megumin asked as we approached.
"Yeah," Aqua continued, "we heard all this screaming and then—"
"Nothing," I replied. "We made it, didn't we?"
"You say that but you're all covered in frost," Megumin retorted.
"Yeah, I'm covered in frost…in a place that's literally covered with a freezing mist and that's somehow weird?"
"Hm." Megumin stared at me wholly unconvinced by my response. "You can climb down now, by the way."
"Ah, right."
Honestly, I was sort of enjoying the experience of being carried around, but it would be kind of awkward to admit that in front of Daichi and the others and so, regrettably, I got down.
"Well, that was…interesting," Inara remarked.
"Quite," Nyle said. "But, we're finally past that obstacle. We should be getting close to the main chamber. If I remember correctly, one of the tunnels in the room leads to the burrow. It would have certainly been walled off to prevent passage to and from these mines."
"Then how are we getting in?" Kevin queried.
"There's always a way around—well, for Scouts, that is."
"I assume you have something in mind, then?" Daichi remarked.
"Of course."
"And what if you're not able to get past the wall?" Inara asked.
"Well… Let us hope it doesn't come down to that. Have faith that your guide will be able to get you through."
"Sure, but it's not a bad idea to have a contingency in place, just in case."
"And what makes you think I don't?"
"Fair enough."
"Anyhow, let's keep moving. It'd be a shame if my charges froze to death after getting this far, wouldn't it?"
With that said, we all continued down towards the path in front of us.
Despite leaving the freezing mist behind, the temperature in the tunnels didn't get any warmer; in fact, they became even colder. At this point, the cold was so potent that even with our gear enchanted to resist it the cold penetrated the very layers of those resistances: spell, fabric, flesh, and muscle and made it down to the core of our very bones. It was a cold so powerful that almost nothing we did or conjured could shake its frigid grasp.
"W-W-What is th-th-this?" Daichi stuttered.
"This is b-b-beyond w-what I'd-d-d expec-t-ted," Kevin remarked.
Nyle quietly rubbed his arms as we continued along; the cold was even starting to get to him.
"N-N-Nyle-san, I d-d…don't th-think we'll m-m-make it at th-this rate," Daichi stuttered.
"I…I hear you," he replied, taking a deep breath before continuing, "but if we head back now, there's a good chance we won't even make it past that mist, let alone make it out of the mine itself. I know it's difficult for you all, but please endure it for a little longer. We should almost be there."
Eventually, we made it to a large chamber. Within it, there were several other tunnels, but more importantly, there were more frozen figures…many more.
"Th-There's more," Inara remarked.
"L-Look at them all," Kevin said.
"Y-Yeah," I replied, "we're gonna j-join them if we don't g-get out of here s-soon."
"N-No, I mean, l-look at them. They s-seem to be reacting t-to something."
Taking a moment to actually observe the figures, I began to notice that some were recoiling while others were seemingly running from something before they were instantly frozen into their current forms. Only a few were gathered around the center of the chamber, the center of the chamber that contained a large mound of snow and ice. One of the figures seemed to be reaching for something before taking the form he had now.
"Hey, what's that?" Hurnus said, pointing towards the center of the mound.
There, just out of the frozen figure's reach, laying near the top of the snowy hill was a singular blue rock, one the size of a melon.
As we curiously stared at the object, Aqua wandered over to it.
"Oi!" I shouted.
"What?"
"G-Get away from it! You don't know what th-that thing is!"
"Huh?! I'm only looking!" she retorted, sniffling from the cold right after.
"We should probably go," Nyle said. "The tunnel is just beyond here."
"W-Which one?" I asked, rubbing my arms furiously.
"I don't really remember exactly which, but it should be one of those three over on the right. Follow me."
Following Nyle's instruction, we dipped into one of the tunnels on the eastern side of the chamber.
"Aha!" he said with a smile. "To think I'd get it on my first try. This is it."
"How c-can you tell?" Daichi queried.
"Come on now, surely you all must be feeling it too."
Once he said that, I instantly noticed that the temperature was rising once more; it was still freezing, but the temperature wasn't bone-piercingly frigid.
"The entrance should be at the end of this tunnel," Nyle continued.
Suddenly…
"WAAAAHHHHH! KAZUMA-SAN! K-KAZUMA-SAN! HEELLLLLLP!"
I whipped around to see a wailing goddess running down the tunnel towards us.
"What? What? What's going on?! What did you do now?!"
"The thing! The thing! It's—"
"What the hell is that?!" Daichi yelled, pointing at what could only be described as a walking mass of ice.
"It's alive!" Aqua yelled.
"An ice elemental?!" Inara said incredulously.
"How?!" Megumin replied. "I didn't sense any magic anywhere near here."
"We can figure it out later!" I yelled. "Nyle-san, get that door open!"
"R-Right!"
But just as he was about to turn to do just that, a shard of ice flew past us and crashed into the back of the tunnel, completely encasing the entire wall in a near-impenetrable layer of ice.
"Dammit! Now what?!" I yelled.
"Th-This way!" Nyle said, running down into an adjacent path.
We scrambled behind him as the towering bundle of ice slowly and menacingly made its way towards us.
"What did you do?!" I said, yelling furiously at the Aqua.
"I-I didn't do anything!" she retorted.
"Bullshit! I know you must've done something!"
"I'm telling you I didn't do anything!"
"You touched it, didn't you?! I know you did!"
"I-I didn't!"
"Stop lying!"
"Alright! Alright! I…may have…touched it—but I just wanted to get a closer look at it! How was I supposed to know it was some stupid ice elemental?!"
"Didn't I tell you to get away from it?! Why the hell weren't you with us?!"
"Ahhhh." Aqua covered her head as if doing so was gonna shut me up.
"You goddamn IDIOT!"
Part 3
"What now?" Daichi asked as we rounded yet another corner.
"Unless you can distract that thing long enough for me to scratch through that ice wall, I think our only option is to defeat it," Nyle replied.
"It all makes sense now," Inara remarked. "That thing must be what's causing the freezing temperatures and what must've frozen all these people."
"Something that powerful can't be a simple Ice Elemental," Kevin said.
"Then it must be—"
"A Greater Ice Elemental," Megumin said, answering in Inara's place.
"Still, I find it strange that Megumin-san and I didn't sense any magic coming from this place. A Greater Ice Elemental would've surely given some off."
"Even if it was dormant?" Hurnus said.
As Inara pondered on the answer to that reply, Daichi interrupted. "Dormant or not, we know what it is and what we have to do. Inara, I trust you have a spell strong enough to penetrate its defenses?"
Suddenly, Megumin chuckled. "Heh, heh, a spell strong enough to—"
"You'd better not say Explosion," I said, menacingly interrupting her.
She immediately shut up.
"Inferno should do it," Inara continued. "However, I don't know if I have enough mana to cast it at the moment. Do you still have some manatitie on hand?"
"Only smaller ones; I'm afraid I already gave you our most potent ones earlier."
As Daichi finished answering, we arrived back in the main chamber…and not too far from us, the elemental did as well.
The moment it did, we could feel the temperature around us begin to plummet once more.
"Daichi, it doesn't matter whether it's small, it would certainly still have its use."
"Huh? S-Sorry. What are we talking about, again?"
"The manatite. It doesn't matter whether they're small or not. Perhaps they'll add up to a larger one and grant me enough mana to cast Inferno."
"Whatever you decide to do, do it quick," Hurnus said, "that thing is coming our way."
Once again, Daichi dug into his pack and withdrew some manatite; these were smaller and far more occluded than the ones he brought out earlier—and it didn't take an experienced person to tell that these were low-grade manatite. Inara quickly grabbed them and absorbed the mana within.
"Ugh. Not enough," she said in mild frustration.
"Kazuma," Megumin said as she turned to me, "don't you have some manatite?"
"I don't. I gave you our last one when you blew up that ice worm."
"We're running out of time here, you guys," Hurnus said as he took a defensive position in front.
Inara grumbled. "I don't have enough to cast Inferno, but I should have enough for some fireballs."
"I mean," Megumin began, "it doesn't have to be a regular Explosion; I can cast Blazing Explo—"
"And possibly have the entire chamber collapse on us? Good one," I said, interrupting her yet again.
"We should also try to minimize the collateral damage, Megumin-san," Kevin said. "Don't forget that these figures here are people; there may yet be a way to rescue them from their current predicament."
"That's good and all, but we can't really do that if we're dead ourselves," Daichi remarked. "Everyone, prepare for battle. Tanks and dps to the front, magic users and healers to the rear!"
I didn't really like the idea of fighting something like this at close range, but I doubt I was gonna do any good with a bow and arrow—not that I could, even if I wanted to, for the cold had numbed my fingers to the point where I could barely feel them.
"Inara, do your thing," Daichi instructed.
"Got it!" She immediately conjured two fireballs and tossed them at the Ice Elemental.
They flew straight at the core of the elemental, but as they got closer and closer, the fireballs became smaller and smaller until they had completely fizzled out a meter or two before reaching it.
"What?" Inara said in complete surprise.
"What just happened?" Hurnus said.
"I'm not sure. I-, I'll try again."
She did so, hurling three fireballs at the elemental this time; however, the same happened. Each fireball merely fizzled into nothingness before they could even reach the elemental.
"What's going on?" Inara said in confusion. "Can magic not affect it?"
"Aren't elementals highly resistant to magic?" Darkness asked.
"They are, but they're also supposed to be highly susceptible to the element opposite to theirs. I-, I'll try something else. Lightning!"
A bolt of electricity shot out from her finger and struck the elemental straight in its core.
"It hit," Inara said, just as surprised as she was a moment earlier.
The impact of the spell had caused the elemental to stop for a moment…but then it very quickly recovered and continued its march toward us. Before we could keep the attack up, the elemental raised its massive glacial arms and began sending a wall of icicles in our direction.
All of us scattered to avoid the attack…all but one.
"Come at me you frozen monster!" Darkness yelled. "I shall show you what it means to strike against the bulwark of—"
"Shut up and get out of there, you idiot!" I yelled.
"I refuse!"
"What?!"
"I refuse! I shall protect these frozen figures against this creature's terrible onslaught—even if it should subject me to the most grievous injuries possible."
"H-, How noble," I could hear the priest say.
"Don't worry, Darkness, I'll heal you if anything happens," Aqua said from the safety of the deep rear.
"Don't encourage her, you dumbass! Oi, Darkness, quit joking around and come over here!"
However, my attempts of persuasion fell on deaf ears as Darkness began to engage the ice elemental.
"Over here! Come and get me!" she yelled as she tried to taunt it away from a group of frozen figures.
"We can't let Darkness-san fight it herself," Daichi said.
"Aye, I agree," Hurnus replied.
"Fine. I'll continue to hit it with lightning magic. Cover me," Inara declared as she ran out from the shelter of the tunnel we were in.
"Dammit!" I cursed silently. These idiots were always making a mess of things. "Oi, Megumin," I said, turning to her.
"Hm?"
"How small can you make a Blazing Explosion?"
Her face instantly lit up. "I-I can do it, I can fire off an Explosion?!"
"How small?"
"Small? I'm not sure—"
"Then forget it."
"No wait," she said, desperately grabbing my arm. "I can do it! I can make it small."
"How small?"
"Um, I…maybe the size of…the size of…—that mound! I can make it that small!"
"Hm, that's not exactly small…but it should be enough. Alright, when I give you the signal, hit the core. Make sure you don't hit anywhere else, alright?"
Megumin nodded with a wide grin on her face.
"Aqua," I said, turning to her now.
"Huh—what? What? I-I'm not responsible for this!"
"Shut up and listen. I need you to buff me with everything you got—every resistance you can think of."
"O-Ok."
As Aqua began doing so, I looked out to the others doing battle and assessed the situation. They were barely holding that thing back, and it didn't appear we were any closer to actually defeating it despite Inara's confirmed hits.
"Kazuma," Nyle said.
"Oh, Nyle-san. Kinda forgot you were here. What's up?"
"I get it now."
"Get what?"
"What that thing is…the core, everything."
"What do you mean?"
"It's not an Ice Elemental…and that thing that we thought was the core of one isn't what it first appears to be. That rock at its center is something called 'Lunatite'."
"Lunatite? Is that some backwards Coronatite?"
"Essentially. Where Coronatite releases tons of mana in the form of heat, Lunatite absorbs it. I had an inkling something was odd about it when we first saw, but when I saw Ms. Inara's Fireball fizzle into nothingness, that confirmed it."
"Wait, so if that's not an elemental…"
"It's a golem. The Lunatite is essentially imbuing its attacks with ice. The miners who were frozen here must've found the Lunatite way back when and unfortunately set up no precautions against it—not that I can blame them, Lunatite is incredibly rare, rarer than Coronatite."
And Coronatite was rare in and of itself.
"So now what?" Megumin asked, looking slightly worried. "Can I still use Explosion?"
"Only an overwhelming amount of fire could reach the Lunatite. That's not even mentioning the golem's own defenses. But, if it's you, Ms. Megumin, there's a good chance that your spell will be able to destroy it. Quite unfortunate, however, since the Lunatite would likely be destroyed in the process, but I can't really see any other way."
"Wait," Aqua said.
"What is it?" I replied, looking at her.
"Isn't that one of the things on Holt-san's list?"
"...You're right." If we destroyed the Lunatite now, it was likely we'd never see one again, but… "We don't really have a choice, though, do we?"
"Kazuma," Nyle said, "be careful; the closer you get to the Lunatite, the greater the freezing effect. Get too close and you'll turn to ice faster than you realize. Please let the others know. I'll stay here with Ms. Aqua and Ms. Megumin and provide what support I can from range."
"Got it."
I could hear Daichi's group yelling their plans and observations as I got closer. "The lightning doesn't seem to be working anymore, Inara!" Daichi himself exclaimed.
"I know! I'll try and switch to something else! Give me a moment!"
"Darkness-san, hang in there!"
"Daichi!" I shouted, finally closing the distance to him.
"Kazuma. Is the rest of your team in position?"
"No, listen. Nyle-san said that this thing isn't an Ice Elemental, it isn't an elemental at all; it's a golem and that thing at its center is something called 'Lunatite'."
"Lunatite?!" Hurnus said, completely astonished. "No wonder."
"Lunatite? What is that?" Daichi posed in response.
"Wind Curtain!" Inara's spell took effect mere seconds before an icicle could hit Darkness.
"Tch. Hold that thought. We have to get rid of this thing first. Inara, are you ready?"
"I'm running out of mana. I don't have many options for spells left!" she yelled back, still maintaining the barrier.
"Guess we'll have to close in and deal with it ourselves."
"No!" I said, grabbing Daichi's arm a moment before he was about to take off. "We can't get close to it. Nyle said that we'll freeze if we do. Lunatite absorbs mana from the air around it; he said that's what's causing the freezing temperatures in here, and the closer you get to it—"
"The greater the effect. I got it," Daichi said, giving up on his attempt to charge in.
"Darkness, get away from it!" I yelled out to her.
It was apparent by the amount of frost that had accumulated on her that she had gotten close to the golem.
"I-, I have this!" she replied.
"No, you idiot, stop being stubborn and get away from it! Staying close to it will freeze you solid!"
With her seemingly ignoring my order, I dug into my pack.
"Rope?" Kevin remarked. "What are you planning on—"
"Bind!"
The rope coiled itself around Darkness, instantly restraining her. Using the length that extended from it, I pulled her towards us.
"Was that really necessary, Kazuma-san?" the priest asked.
"Trust me, it was necessary."
Ignoring the now panting Crusader at our feet, we began to back away from the golem.
"Well then," Daichi said, as we all slowly backed away, "any ideas?"
"Only one."
"Is it that Archmage of yours?"
I nodded.
Daichi let out a brief but nervous chuckle. "Didn't take you for suicidal, Kazuma."
"I'm not. It's just I'm out of ideas, too."
"Wait," Inara said. "Kazuma-san, you can transfer mana using Drain Touch, right?"
"Yeah, I can; what are you thinking?"
"If you can feed enough mana to me, I can use Inferno. It won't have as much power as Explosion, but I'm fairly sure it'll be enough to overwhelm the golem's defenses."
"I hear ya, but who's gonna give up their mana?"
"I'll do it," Hurnus replied. "I'm not much use here, anyway."
"I'd rather use this idiot," I said, gesturing at the hopeless noblewoman trapped within coiled rope.
"Darkness-san already gave her mana up before, hasn't she?"
"Yeah, but—"
"Then allow me to, this time."
"Hurnus," Daichi said, "you know you don't have to do that, I can—"
"Pack it in, Daichi, I've got the most vitality out of all you; I'll be able to spare a bit."
"You guys," Inara said somewhat nervously.
The golem was getting closer to us and our room to back away was growing smaller and smaller.
"Alright. Seems like we don't have much of a choice. Kazuma, do your thing."
I quickly placed my hand around the back of Inara and Hurnus' necks and began transferring the mana.
"Ah, what a…an odd feeling," Hurnus said, fidgeting slightly.
"I can only imagine how bad it feels for you," Inara said. "I'm the one receiving the mana, but I can't help but feel somewhat disgusted."
"I can stop, you know," I remarked, somewhat annoyed by the comments.
"Ah, n-no, sorry. I'm almost ready. You don't mind, Hurnus, do you?"
"No, take as much as you need. If we can't get close to it, you're our only hope."
"D-Don't wanna alarm y-you guys," Daichi stuttered.
The golem was about a meter or two away, and being that close meant that we were beginning to feel the bone-chilling temperatures again; in fact, Daichi, who was in front, began to slowly freeze.
"I'm ready!" Inara shouted. "Out of the way, Daichi!" Just as he lunged away, she thrust her arm forward and yelled, "INFERNO!"
A primal blaze erupted in front of her and leapt towards the golem; the wall of flames was so large it completely engulfed the creature in the swathing blaze.
Whatever chill was present before was there no longer.
"Did you get it?" Hurnus queried as the flames began to die down.
"Looks like it," Inara replied.
The golem was a pile of rocks on the ground, the ice that had encapsulated its body, completely gone.
Inara let out a sigh of relief.
"Kazuma?!" Megumin ran over.
"What?!" I said. "Something else?!"
"No! I wanna know what happened! Wasn't I gonna use Explosion?!"
"Er, um…well, I mean…"
"Sorry, Megumin-san," Inara said with a polite bow, "I didn't mean to steal your thunder."
Megumin sighed. "The fault doesn't lie with you, Inara-san."
"You all!" Nyle yelled, still from the safety of the other tunnel.
Before any of us could realize, we were hit with a massive blast of cold air.
"It's still alive?!" I said incredulously.
The golem slammed its giant rocky fists into the ground sending everyone who was in front flying into the wall behind me and Megumin.
"You guys!" I said as I witnessed the brutal impact they took.
"Kazuma!" Megumin yelled, tugging on the hem of my sleeve.
I looked forward and noticed the ice was beginning to cover the golem once more.
"Shit," I cursed. I needed to lead it away from the others. "Oi, Darkness," I said as I quickly undid my Bind on her, "we need to lead it away. Come on!"
"Decoy!" Darkness shouted as she scrambled to her feet.
As the golem began to turn its attention towards Darkness and I, Megumin called after me. "Wait, Kazuma—"
"Stay with Aqua!" I yelled back.
"But what do you want me to do?"
"Be ready!" I retorted. "Aqua, go help them!" I yelled as Darkness and I began leading the golem away to the other side of the room.
"What do we do, Kazuma?" Darkness asked as we desperately trudged through the snow-ridden chamber.
It was a good question.
"Man, how I really wish I had some dynamite right about now."
Although, it really made me wonder how effective it would be in this situation; would it freeze before it exploded or would the fuse even light in these conditions?
Getting close to the golem was out of the question; I needed some way to attack it from range. Although the feeling in my fingers returned, I doubt an arrow would do much to the body of the golem—assuming the arrow itself wouldn't turn into a brittle piece of ice before it reached the thing.
"Kazuma," Darkness said, interrupting my thoughts, "go with the others; I'll hold the golem off."
"Are you stupid? You'll turn into a human ice sculpture before you could even hug that thing. Now be quiet and keep luring it this way."
Magic. I knew Fireball, Blade of Wind, and Lightning, but given that Inara, whose magic was magnitudes stronger than mine, failed to breach the golem's resistances—even with advanced magic—there was little chance I would be able to do anything to it using the same approach; I had to rely on more physical means.
Suddenly, it hit me.
More physical means, but still be able to attack something from range.
"Whoa!" Darkness suddenly crashed into me, causing us to fall into the knee-deep snow.
"Ugh! Would you get off already?!"
"Sorry."
As we got out of the snow, the golem raised its arm.
"Shit!"
Tanking was not my forte, that was more Darkness' job, but said person was still in the process of getting up. I still probably had a few of Aqua's buffs in effect. Regardless, at this range and against such an enemy… It would seem I didn't have a choice.
As the golem fired a lance of ice in my direction, I withdrew Chunchunmaru. I had no idea what I hoped to accomplish by doing so, but I think I did it simply on impulse. I wanted to close my eyes to avoid witnessing what would happen next, but there was only a fraction of a second to do so, and so, I had to witness what would come.
The icicle made contact…
And was vaporized immediately, the sudden shift in its state causing the cloud of snow that appeared to shower me and Darkness.
"What just happened?"
It took me a moment to realize what occurred—or more precisely—what caused it.
I looked down and saw as the air around the blade warped from the heat Chunchunmaru was letting off, the vibrant orange being produced from the Coronatite it was imbued with.
"It can melt the ice," I said in realization. "It can melt the ice!"
Perfect.
The fact that Chunchunmaru could do such a thing wasn't something I took into account, but perhaps it would make my idea work even better.
"Alright, you—oi wait!"
The golem didn't wait for me to finish what I wanted to say, instead it had already shot several icicles in my direction; luckily, they all turned to flurries of snow dust before making contact.
"Kazuma, let me handle this," Darkness said, trying to stand in front.
"No, what? Aren't you seeing what's happening right now?"
"Of course, but how long can you really keep that up; you're not a man really known for his stamina."
"Oi, what do you know about my stamina?! And is this really the time for such things?"
"I'm your Crusader, allow me to defend you as my oath demands."
"There's no need for you to—"
The next volley of icicles came as Darkness and I were arguing and, unfortunately, this girl was surprisingly agile when it came to throwing herself into danger. The icicles that were harmlessly turning into snow just moments earlier were now crashing into Darkness full sail…and she loved every second of it.
"Hah…hah…how refreshing," she said through heavy breaths.
"You dumbass, what the hell do you think you're doing?!"
"Come, you giant monster!" she yelled. "Send your icy lance and try to penetrate me!"
"Guh."
"Kazuma-san!" Aqua yelled from the other side of the room. "Everyone is fine over here. Also, Megumin says she's ready!"
Megumin was ready. That meant the next phase of my plan was set.
"Alright, hopefully—what the hell?!"
The golem was sprinting towards me and Darkness; the image of having such a towering construct charging at you with surprising agility was enough to make even the most stalwart adventurer hesitate.
"Haha! Yes, come at me!" Darkness said with arms wide open.
I wanted to do nothing else but punch her in the back of the head, but knowing her, she'd probably find such a punishment anything but.
There was little time to do anything; even if I wanted to run, the depth of the snow and the speed and distance of the golem meant that I'd still be in range of whatever it was planning to do. The only option left to me was to stand and fight…even if that meant meeting a grizzly end at its hands.
I shoved such thoughts to the back of my mind and held Chunchunmaru at the ready.
The golem raised both its arms.
"It's gonna slam them down!" I shouted at Darkness.
"Come!" she yelled once more.
I wanted to do something, something to prevent Darkness from getting pancaked by this thing, but there was no time; I could only watch as the massive sets of rock and ice came crashing down upon her body. The impact was so powerful that immediately after it made contact with her the wave of snow blinded me and the shockwave had sent me flying back several meters.
"Darkness!" As I scrambled to get out of the snow and see what became of her, I called out again. "Darkness!"
To my absolute astonishment, she was still in one piece; moreover, she was holding the golem in place, grappling and locking its arms over her shoulders. Of course, being in such close proximity to the Lunatite, she was beginning to freeze over. Nevertheless, Darkness still held on to it, a fierce grin on her face.
"Darkness!"
"Get it! Get it NOW!" she shouted.
I glanced over towards the other side of the room. I could give the signal and Megumin could unleash Explosion on the golem—very likely ending this sequence…one way or another, but…I wasn't one to sacrifice people for the sake of an idea—especially my friends.
"I hope this works," I said under my breath. "Darkness, hold it steady!"
Surprisingly, the giant construct seemed to be struggling to not only break free but also move; however, I knew it would only be a matter of time before Darkness' strength waned and she was completely frozen over. I had only one shot at this.
I closed my eyes and concentrated.
"Charged…SLASH!" I yelled.
A wave of fire erupted from my blade and swept towards the golem's torso.
But…the moment before it impacted, it shifted slightly in its struggle to break free, and the attack that was meant for the core, hit just slightly off its center.
The construct let out a piercing wail which I didn't think it was capable of, a sound so high-pitched that it shattered all the ice around it for several meters…and yes, this included some of the humanoid figures. As for Darkness, the golem, in its fury, broke her grip and swatted her across to the other side of the room. With nothing in between me and it, the machination turned its ire on me and charged.
"Shit!"
My adrenaline kicked in and I darted as quickly as I could towards the others.
"It's coming!" I shouted. "HELP!"
Part 4
As I crested the mound in the center of the room, the others turned to face me.
"Behind me!" I shouted. "It's behind me!"
But no sooner than those words left my mouth, did the very thing I was screaming about appear. The golem, apparently, leapt from the other side of the room and landed in front of me with an earth-shattering crash, one whose shockwave knocked me completely off my feet.
"Kazuma!" I could hear Megumin scream.
I was still somewhat dazed by the sudden attack, but I could just make out the golem approaching me. It was close; had it not been for Chunchunmaru's effect, I would've likely began freezing on the spot. That, however, was the least of my worries since the golem began raising its arms once more; I knew what was coming.
CHINK! A crossbolt buried itself into its arm and released a large but short-lived flame. This distracted the golem into trying to remove the nuisance, which in turn, bought me enough time to come to my senses. The wound that I gave it earlier was still present; the Lunatite was exposed.
"Hit it in the core!" I yelled.
"B-But you're in the way!" Megumin yelled back.
"Freeze this!" I heard Inara shout.
A second later, an azure fireball hit the golem straight in its core and exploded into fiery blue embers.
"You got it!"
The golem went still and then slowly teetered forward, falling…toward me.
"Wait! Wait! Wait!" I yelled, throwing my hands forward as if words alone were going to stop its descent.
CRASH! The golem in its entirety crumbled into a giant heap of ice and stone.
"Oh no," Nyle said. "It landed on top of him."
"Kazuma!" I yelled. "Aqua!"
"I know, I know, I'll go check. And don't worry, Megumin, if he's dead I can always revive him."
"That's not…ugh. Hurry, let's go see if he's fine."
As Aqua, Nyle, and I convened on the remains of the golem, Darkness, as well as Daichi's group joined us.
"I'm so sorry!" Inara said. "I didn't think it would've fallen on him!"
"Save it for after," Daichi said. "Let's just help them move these rocks."
As we removed the sizable boulders and pieces of ice, I steeled myself for the worst. I've had the displeasure of witnessing Kazuma's death a few times now, and everytime I did, it always left me feeling bad about it. It was a fairly long time since the last, so I don't know how I'd feel about it now that things have changed and the feelings we had for each other were more intimate.
Suddenly…
"Argh, get it off!"
"Kazuma?!" I went over to see the group dislodging a large piece of the golem from the pile, and beneath it was Kazuma, seemingly still in one piece…and alive.
"Get it off!" he yelled. "Get it off!"
"We're trying, Kazuma-san," Kevin replied. "Please hold on, we're almost there."
As we cleared the last few pieces, Kazuma leapt out of the pile with a flame sprouting from his chest. He quickly jumped into the mound of snow beside us.
"Kazuma!" I ran over to him. "What's wrong? Are you ok?"
"Kazuma-san, do you need healing?" the priest from Daichi's group asked.
"Burning," he said, lifting himself from the snow. "The sword." He pointed at Chunchunmaru, which lay beside the pile of the golem's remains.
"Chunchumaru? What about it?" I queried. "Oh, did you unlock some new sort of concealed power?"
"Power? No. When the damn golem fell on me, the sword was pressing against my chest. I'm surprised it didn't burn a hole through me," he said, checking the charred scraps of what was once clothing.
"Hey," Nyle said. We all looked in his direction. "Look. The Lunatite is still intact…mostly."
As he said, the thing that occupied the golem's core was laying a few meters away in the snow.
"What do we do with it?" Daichi said. "Do we destroy it?"
"Well, it's not like we can grab it with our bare hands," Hurnus said.
"Hold on," Kazuma interjected. "I kinda need it."
"Need it?" Nyle said. "What for, if you don't mind me asking?"
"It's something the Royal Smith of Belzerg asked us to get."
"The Royal Smith? Hmm. I see. Is he planning on forging something with it?"
"I think so."
"Is he the one that made that blade of yours?" Hurnus remarked.
"Yeah."
"Well," Nyle said, "if he's skilled enough to forge Coronatite then he might be skilled enough to forge Lunatite. Unfortunately, you heard Hurnus, we can't exactly pick up Lunatite with our bare hands. Despite having been blown into smaller pieces by Ms. Inara's lovely spell, Lunatite that size is still potent enough to freeze you solid in no time at all."
"I think I may have something that could work…maybe."
"Really? It takes special equipment to harvest Lunatite, and you're telling me you're carrying around such a thing, Kazuma?"
"Well, I'm not sure what special equipment you're talking about, but I have something I bought to handle Coronatite; I'm hoping it'll work with Lunatite as well."
I opened my pack, and when I did, a frightened feline leapt out.
"Whoa!"
Chomusuke immediately hopped into Megumin's arms. "Ah, there you are."
"Is that it?" Nyle said jokingly.
"No, that's not it." I rummaged through the bag until I finally found what I was looking for. "Here it is."
I withdrew a pair of Frost Troll gloves.
"Frost Troll hands?"
"Gloves," I corrected. "I mean, they are hands—well, were but they're gloves now."
"Interesting. I'm not too sure they'll be enough, however. Although…there's no real harm in trying…if you don't count turning into an ice sculpture, that is."
"Yeah, thanks for the vote of confidence, Nyle-san."
"Well, go for it. I'ms sure Ms. Inara will be ready to thaw you out should you fail."
"W-Wait!" Darkness suddenly stammered.
"Ms. Darkness?"
"Let me do it," she said, looking both desperate and anxious at the same time, her eyes locked to mine.
Of course. I knew she would ask to do something like this.
Honestly, I had no reason to say no to Darkness besides refusing to placate her in fulfilling her masochistic desires. This was a dangerous situation and—despite the strong feelings I had to actually say no to her—having Darkness go ahead and do this was probably the smartest and best option available; not only was her resistance to cold high enough that she could practically stand on top of a large piece of Lunatite without freezing instantly, she also had the most vitality out of all of us should she actually somehow freeze.
I sighed. "Fine." I presented the gloves to her. As she was about to grab them, I moved it just out of reach. "Quickly, ok? Just grab it and then place it inside one of the gloves."
"Ok," she said with a nod.
I passed her the gloves and watched as she donned them and went off towards the Lunatite.
"Kazuma." I looked to my side and saw Megumin holding Chunchunmaru out to me.
"Ah, thanks." I took it and placed it within its scabbard and then turned my attention back to Darkness.
"Ah, um…?"
"Darkness?" I said, somewhat worried by her response. She turned to us, revealing the Lunatite freezing over the glove it was contained in. "Oi, put it inside the other glove, quick!"
"I…I can't," she replied, trying to shake the Lunatite free.
"Take it off with your other hand!"
The moment she did, the other glove began to freeze and fuse to the Lunatite as well.
"Dammit," I cursed.
I quickly made my way over to Darkness.
"Kazuma?" she said in confusion. "What are you doing here? You shouldn't be here, you'll freeze."
"Shut up," I retorted. "I'll be fine," I said, hoping that I would indeed be. I withdrew Chunchunmaru once more; the moment I did, a constant trail of chilled vapors wafted off the blade and went around me. "Alright, listen, Darkness, I'm gonna use the sword to try and peel the Lunatite off; once I do, I want you to quickly toss it into the other glove. Got it?"
"I-I got it. To be honest, the bone-chilling cold feels kind of nice; it's almost starting to make my fingers go numb."
"Could you stop talking? Anyway, focus." I quickly—but carefully—placed Chunchunmaru close to the Lunatite. The vapors became more intense, almost to the point of blinding me, but I could see the ice start to melt and begin to froth and boil. "Now, Darkness!"
The rudeness certainly caught her off guard, but she quickly—albeit clumsily—adjusted and tossed the Lunatite into the glove.
"Quick, close it!" I ordered.
Once again, she quickly but clumsily did, afterwich, we both sighed.
I sheathed Chunchunmaru and grinned. "Good work."
"Umu."
"Dargon's jewels, you did it," Hurnus said as everyone came over.
"Not exactly how we'd handle it," Nyle said, "but I can't argue with the results."
"Yeah," I said with a nod. "Now, can we get the heck outta here?"
"I second that," Daichi remarked.
"My pleasure," Nyle said. "This way."
Suddenly, the ground began shaking—and with it, the cavern itself.
"W-What's going on?!" I said, looking around.
"An earthquake?!" Daichi queried.
The mound in the center of the room began to grow, and as the snow that was piled on top slid away, it revealed the mass of ore and minerals, jewels, and treasures…and the terrible thing that was hidden amongst it.
"You've got to be kidding me."
"Is that a—?"
"Dra…DRAGONNNNN!" Once again, the chamber was filled with an ear-splitting roar, this time by something even deadlier. "RUN!"
All of us turned and broke towards the tunnel entrance, but mere moments before we reached the opening, we were stopped by a wall of fire that flew over our heads.
"Sh—The other one! The other one!" Nyle yelled, pointing as he sprinted towards the next tunnel entrance.
We could hear the dragon sucking in air for its next breath attack, and just as we sprinted into the tunnel, Inara erected a wall of ice behind us. It was but a second or two before the ice melted away into nothingness and a torrent of flame rushed into the tunnel. Luckily, we managed to dash into another path and avoid being turned to ashes.
"A dragon?!" Daichi said incredulously. "Really?!"
"A Silver Dragon," Nyle said. "This must've been its den."
"It's den? How? I mean, how the hell did it even get in here?"
"I'm not too sure, but mines often have many ways in and out."
"One's big enough for a dragon?" I remarked.
"Not usually, no, but I have no other idea how it would've made it into these mines if there wasn't one."
"But, why here?" Inara asked. "Dragon's don't usually like the cold—especially if they're not Frost Dragons."
"...The silver," Nyle said after briefly rubbing his chin. "These mines were chalk-full of them before they closed. I believe that the dragon may have been present in these mines well before it opened."
"Wouldn't a dragon this close to a settlement cause trouble?" Daichi queried.
"Hmm…yes, usually; however, I think that the Lunatite prevented that from occurring. Golems aren't naturally-occuring creatures, they're constructs, which means—"
"Someone placed it here."
"Yes…for who knows what purpose. I believe the golem—or it's creator, must've done battle with the dragon and eventually—"
"It succumbed to the Lunatite," Inara said, finishing Nyle's sentence.
"Yes."
"So now that the Lunatite is gone," Daichi began.
"The dragon's awake and it's pissed," I said, doing as Inara did with Nyle.
"Precisely," Nyle remarked.
"So now what do we do?" Aqua whined.
It was a good question. If Iris was here she could've ended this dragon in one fell swoop but, unfortunately, she wasn't and none of us had any real experience in slaying dragons.
"We'll have to wrap around," Nyle said. "This tunnel doesn't lead directly over to the one we want to be in. The bad news is that we'll have to either approach the tunnel directly or enter from the tunnel on the right of it."
"So what's this about wrapping around, then?" Daichi retorted.
"We certainly don't want to go back the way we came in through, not unless you're looking to be part of the ash that decorates the walls of these tunnels, now. We'll have to use the adjacent tunnels to come out somewhere the dragon won't be expecting."
"Do we have to?" Aqua queried. "It's just a dumb oversized lizard; it's not like it'll actually know where we went."
"Oh, that couldn't be further from the truth, Ms. Aqua; dragons are extremely intelligent. I wouldn't be surprised if the darn thing is setting up its own plans for us."
All of us traded nervous glances. The possibility of something that powerful being intelligent enough to set ambushes was…frightening, to say the least.
"Ahem." Kevin cleared his throat. "Nyle-san, is there only one way into the underground from here? Do none of the other tunnels lead anywhere?"
"The only one I have any knowledge of. There's a chance some of the other tunnels could lead to the underground, but I wouldn't know which or where they lead to—if they do at all. I think you'd agree with me when I say that keeping to our best chances is…well, our best course of action."
"I understand."
"Good. In any case, I think we need to start moving before that dragon starts to get any ideas. We'll move along this path and take the tunnel it leads to, down to the next one."
Nyle moved on ahead and the rest of us followed him closely.
As we moved through the paths between the tunnels, there were moments where we could see the dragon peering into the tunnel, its giant reptilian eye watching intently for any sign of us. When it did occur, Nyle would have us stop and wait for the dragon to move away before having us continue.
"Ok," he said, just barely poking his head out to see. "It's moving again." He slowly stepped out into the path and then gestured for us to follow. "SH—Back! Back! Back! BACK!" he screamed, pushing us back into the pathway.
A moment later a wave of fire shot past the pathway, coating us in its sweltering heat.
While it was ironic that only a few minutes ago I would've welcomed this sort of heat, right now I missed the bone-chilling cold from the Lunatite.
"Dammit. That was close." Nyle let out a heavy sigh of relief.
"You weren't joking," Daichi remarked, "the bastards are smart."
"I certainly wish I was."
"Another path?" Inara asked.
Nyle took another glance down the tunnel and then sighed again. "Yes. It appears that it's remaining vigilant. Unfortunately, there aren't any other paths that would take us closer to the exit."
"So, what, we have to double back?" I replied.
Nyle nodded. "Unless you want to take your chances. If you do, please, be my guest."
"No thanks."
"I didn't think so."
As we carefully made our way back through the previous pathways and tunnels, I glanced over at Megumin.
"Oi, what's wrong?"
"Hm? Oh, nothing," she said, looking down rather stoically.
"You're gonna say that while looking the way you do? Really, what's up?"
"Nothing," she repeated, her brow knitting slightly now.
"You mad or something?"
She glanced at me out of the corner of her eyes and then sighed. "I might be if Kazuma keeps pestering me about my mood."
I raised an eyebrow in perplexity. What could Megumin be upset about? "Hmmm…is it that time of the month?"
The slight frustration on her face turned into a full-blown frown. "If it's Kazuma's intent to make me angry at him, he's succeeding."
"So, it's not that."
"I already said I wasn't angry."
"And I can tell that was complete 'b.s.'. Listen, you—"
"You need to focus on following Nyle-san; it would be a bad experience for everyone involved if we saw Kazuma stray into dragon fire."
Although she had a point, I felt uncomfortable leaving the situation as is; my experience in this relationship has taught me that leaving Megumin to slowly ruminate on her frustrations led to more trouble, sooner rather than later.
I sighed. "Fine. I'll drop it, but you better tell me if something is really bothering you; I'm not gonna take some outburst down the line just because you refuse to tell me."
Megumin pursed her lips in discomfort as the frown she wore let up ever so slightly. "I'll…I'll be fine," she said, looking away.
We moved ever so cautiously through the tunnels, trying to avoid the dragon's eye peering into the entrances and the periodic and random flame breaths it would shoot down said paths. While we were avoiding them, it would be wrong to say we were coming out of the occasions completely unharmed. Physically speaking, the worst we were getting were some singed clothing or hair, but the mental toll of seeing the tunnel in front or behind us suddenly being flooded by a torrent of flame did a number on our morale.
"Nyle-san," Inara whispered as he stopped to take a peek around the corner.
He signaled her to keep quiet, which she did. A few moments later, he turned to her. "What is it, Ms. Inara?"
"I was wondering if there isn't anything we can do about the dragon."
"Oh, so you want to fight a dragon now? Well, if you have any suggestions on how we can accomplish that without any one of us becoming charred remains, please, enlighten me."
"I-I don't—but maybe there's something we can do to distract it. I'm sure you're on edge as much as any of us. Finding some way to move about the tunnels without the threat of being burnt alive is something I'm sure you can agree would be preferable to our current situation, no?"
"As I said, if you have any suggestions, please, share them."
Inara looked down, almost as if she was embarrassed to admit that she had nothing to contribute on the subject.
"The eye," Daichi said.
"Yes, and what about it? Certainly, you're not suggesting what I think you are, are you?" Nyle replied.
"It might be our best shot. If we can blind it, we can—"
"Make it even more angry and cause it to go on a rampage inside the chamber which—I should add—is barely large enough to house the dragon itself."
"Sure…sure, that is a possibility—"
"A certainty."
"Even so, slinking along like we are…sooner or later… Our luck isn't infinite, Nyle-san."
Nyle stared at Daichi and then looked down as if he was forced to admit Daichi had a reason—and he did.
Nyle sighed. "Fine. Your plan, your shot," he said, handing Daichi his mini crossbow. "I don't want to be the target of a dragon's ire."
"I—" I quickly threw my hand over Darkness' mouth.
"Go on," I said, with a wry smile.
"Um, right." Daichi looked down at the crossbow in his hand.
"You'll have to be quick about it," Nyle informed. "The moment it sees what you're trying to do, it'll react accordingly. Also, don't forget that at these distances, the bolt will take some time to actually travel; although it's not that long of a time, in that fraction of a moment you must remember that it can blink. The bolt will be able to pierce its eye, but I'm unsure if it'll have enough power to pierce even the lid of its eyes."
"Ehhhhh?"
"Starting to sound fairly daunting, isn't it?"
"I'm just trying to find a way to get that thing off our backs."
"I understand…but did you really not believe that I didn't think about doing something like this? I don't fancy having to peek around the corner where a fire-breathing dragon is just waiting for us to come through, so I would've welcomed this idea if I thought it was any better than what we're currently doing."
"I…" We turned to look at Megumin. "I can do it."
"Like hell you can," I interjected.
"I can! Let me do it, Nyle-san."
"Are you sure about this, Megumin?" Aqua queried.
"I-I am."
"Kazuma?" Nyle said, looking to me for approval.
I glanced at Megumin, noticing her expectant gaze. I sighed heavily. "Give me a moment," I said. I pulled Megumin aside. "Oi, what are you getting at with this?"
"What does Kazuma mean?"
"What do you mean, what do I mean? Why are you suddenly volunteering to go attack a dragon? I know you can be pretty reckless, but I hoped this would be beyond even you."
"We need to do something, don't we? Daichi-san looks like he's second-guessing it, so—"
"So you thought it'd be a good idea for you, someone who has no training on range weapons, to go ahead and take an accurate shot on a dragon's eye?"
"I-I have some training. Just…let me do this."
I paused and stared at her, but Megumin's gaze kept darting back and forth between mine and elsewhere.
"Ah. I see." She wasn't doing it for any good reason at all; Megumin was simply being Megumin. I cleared my throat. "Hey, I'm pretty sure using magic doesn't count, so you can forget about it; I'm not letting you take the shot."
"What?! Why?!"
"I just explained why." I turned away and walked back to the rest of the group. "She's not doing it."
"Ah, alright then, so—"
"Wait!" Megumin shouted. "I—"
"Are not gonna do it," I interjected.
"But—"
"Oi, that's enough."
Megumin and I stared at each other, her mildly saddened look turning into a glare. She turned around and began walking away from me.
"I'll do it," I said. "I'll take the shot."
"What?" everyone else said.
"Wait. What?" Megumin said, turning to look at me in shock. "Why? How come you—"
"'Cause unlike you, I actually have training on ranged weapons."
"But—"
"No buts. I recall you saying that you'll follow my lead, and yet here you are going against that."
Megumin looked down somberly.
I placed a hand on her head and grinned. "Don't worry, you'll get your moment."
She looked up at me with surprise. "You—"
"Let's get this done quick," I said, turning towards Nyle and the others.
"Kazuma," Daichi began, "I can still—"
"Nope. I made up my mind, so I'm doing it. You guys be ready to move with Nyle-san the moment it happens."
"Why are you speaking like you're not planning on following?"
"Eh, is that what it sounds like? Heh."
Little did they know that I was probably gonna be the first one sprinting out of the line of fire the moment I let that arrow sail.
"I'll take a quick look for you and make sure it's still there," Nyle said. He did so and then looked at me a bit worriedly. "You know what you're doing, right?"
"Sure," I replied as confidently as I could.
"Well, here you go," he said, trying to hand me his crossbow.
"I'll use mine," I said. He looked around for it in confusion. "It's in my pack."
"Your pack?" He looked at said pack. Noticing its size, he raised an eyebrow in perplexity.
"Spatial magic," I remarked.
"Ah, I see."
"Kazuma-san, Kazuma-san," Aqua said, running over to me.
"What is it?"
"Make sure you don't allow that lizard to burn all of you to a crisp; I won't be able to revive you if you do."
I frowned. "Thanks, I'll keep that in mind." I took a deep breath and then faced the corner of the pathway. "Here it goes."
Part 5
I withdrew my bow and a single arrow; one would be enough, since I figured I wouldn't be getting a second chance if I failed. I closed my eyes and concentrated. After going through the incantation, I activated Light of Refraction and headed around the corner.
"Huh?"
When I stepped out, bowstring drawn, there was nothing at the end of the tunnel. I looked over at Nyle, but then I remembered, they couldn't see me.
Did the dragon move?
The moment that thought entered my mind, a giant clawed foot set itself at the tunnel's entrance.
"It's coming back."
I pulled back the bowstring and prepared to shoot; however, what came next wasn't its eye, but its mouth, wide open and beginning to glow.
"Shit!"
I darted back around the corner, nearly running into Aqua in the process. A second later, a river of flame ran down the tunnel.
"What happened?" Nyle asked.
"It surprised me," I replied, breathing a bit heavily from the existential dread I felt just moments earlier.
"What do you mean?"
"It wasn't there when I went out."
"What? But I checked."
"Yeah, but it must've moved because it wasn't there."
"Didn't hear a thing," Hurnus remarked.
"Me neither," Daichi said in agreement.
"Can a creature that large really mask the sound of its movements?" Inara queried.
"I'm not acutely aware of dragons being able to do that," Nyle replied. "Then again, I'm no dragon expert. In any case, this would mean that they're even more dangerous than we thought…which is a horrifying realization."
After recovering from the jitters of barely coming out alive from a situation, I took a deep breath and stood up straight. "I'll…I'll go again."
"You will?" Nyle remarked, voicing what the others, no doubt, wanted to say.
"Hold on," Aqua said. "Why is it that you're trying to go do something so dangerous? Since when did Kazuma-san grow a backbone?"
"If you don't want me to stretch that slandering mouth of yours to its breaking point I suggest you keep it shut. Right now, there really isn't anyone better suited for something like this. And as much as I don't wanna do it, I also don't wanna keep tip-toeing around this place just hoping we don't make a turn too early or too late."
"Kazuma," Daichi began to say, "if you don't wanna—"
"I don't…but I know you don't want to either—none of us really want to. Plus, I figure you might be better at using a sword, but I'm sure I'm better at using a bow."
Daichi fell silent; it seems like I really hit the mark with my comment.
"Kazuma." Darkness placed a hand on my shoulder.
"What? What is it, Darkness?"
"If you really want some support, I can go out—"
"Not a chance. I'll be more afraid if you come with me."
"What?! Why?! I-I'd protect you and—"
"No, I'm pretty sure you'd end up trying to take that fire breath head on. Even if you somehow decided to run away with me, I'm pretty sure your clumsiness would just end up getting us both turned into fine ash."
"Nonsense. Holt-san's armor is certainly—"
"We don't know that. Hell, even if it is, the armor would, but I don't think even you would be able to tank dragon fire from this distance."
Even though Darkness showed remarkable resistance in bearing attacks from many elements, it's one thing to take such attacks from mages who have no intention of killing you than from a beast whose sole intent is.
I continued. "Listen, I appreciate the support, but…I think if I sit on this any longer I might reconsider."
"Then—" Megumin tried to speak, but I immediately cut her off.
"Shush. Whether I go or not, you're still not—and that's not changing."
She gave me a sort of meek pout, but I figured that was better than her frowning or getting mad at me.
I took a quick peek around the corner to verify the dargon's location; it was there. Running the incantation to Light of Refraction once more, I looked down at my bow and then tightened my grip on it.
"Here we go again," I thought to myself and then, once again, stepped into the maws of danger.
At the end of the tunnel, a dragon's eye eagerly started back at me.
I nocked an arrow and then pulled the bowstring back as far as I could.
I held it steady, as with my breath, and then…exhaled, letting go of the bowstring as I did. The moment the arrow left I turned and ran.
There was no point in waiting to see if I hit the eye or not—it would hit the dragon. As for what part of it, I couldn't know nor did I care to know, the result would be the same: one very pissed off dragon.
As I sprinted around the corner, the unmistakable sound of a creature crying out in pain echoed throughout the tunnel and, indeed, the whole cavern.
"You got it?!" Nyle asked as I came back into view.
"Yeah, I think," I said, once again breathing heavily from all the unwelcome excitement.
"Sure sounds like you did," Daichi said, slightly flinching from the clamorous shrieks the dragon was making.
"Now's our chance," Nyle interrupted. "We need to move. Quickly!"
None of us dared to question him; we understood that from the moment the dragon was hit by the arrow there would be a small window of opportunity where we could move around relatively freely—and we did. The real problem only arose once we made it to the main chamber…where the dragon inhabited.
"Dargon's—Get back!" Nyle shouted as he backed us into the tunnel once again.
The dragon, now properly raging, set fire to every corner of the chamber. The ice that accompanied the area was nowhere to be seen, replaced, instead, by a sea of flames.
"The people," the priest said, completely despirited by the realization. "Eris-sama…"
It was a true shame to have lost all those who could've been saved, but as much as that was tragic, right now, I was more worried about us; the dragon effectively cut off any route for escape.
"What now?" Daichi queried.
"That's a good question," Nyle replied.
We looked about the chamber for some sort of route, but everything was either covered in fire, melting from the heat of the flames, or leading towards the dragon itself.
"Seems like you hit it square in the eye, Kazuma," Darkness remarked.
Indeed, upon closer inspection, I could see the toothpick-like splinter of wood sticking out from the dragon's closed eye.
"Guys," Hurnus said, "we need to do something quick; this place is gonna collapse under all this fire."
"If we don't end up choking from all this smoke, first," Inara said, covering her nose and mouth.
Suddenly, Megumin rushed past me.
"Oi!"
"Cover me!" she yelled.
"Wait! What are you— Dammit! Darkness, Aqua, come on!" I said, rushing in after Megumin.
I could hear Nyle call out after us, but I wasn't—no, I couldn't let Megumin get burnt to a crisp. No matter what was gonna happen, I couldn't see something bad happen to her…not again.
"Aqua, put out this fire! Quick!"
"What?!"
"I said put it out! I don't care if you flood this whole place! Put it out!"
"A-Alright."
As Aqua started an incantation, I looked at the Crusader of our party. "Oi, Darkness."
"Kazuma."
"I need you to draw that thing's attention—listen to me, that doesn't mean willingly get burned alive, you got it? I need you to actually do your job. Please." The seriousness of my plea seemed to slightly shock her, but once that shock wore off she simply nodded. "Good. I'm counting on you."
Once I finished giving her instruction, I took off towards Megumin. I could see her climbing atop a large stone column.
"Oi!" I yelled, nearly at the foot of said column. "What the hell do you think you're doing?!"
"Cover me!" she shouted once again.
"Hey! Quit messing around and get down from there, you idiot girl!"
Despite my angry remarks, she seemed to pay no attention to me, choosing instead to raise her staff towards the dragon.
"Hey. HEY! WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING?! STOP! MEGUMIN! Dammit!"
Seemingly ignoring my every command, I gave up on trying to talk her down and began climbing the column.
As I reached the top, I could hear Megumin talking.
"Heh heh, you call this fire?!" she yelled. "How disappointing. I thought a beast of your acclaim would have equally as acclaimed abilities. Bear witness! I am Megumin, the Crimson Annihilator, the Genius of the Crimson Demons, and Master of the Explosive Arts! I shall show you what a true flame is!"
"Oi! What the HELL do you think you're doing?!"
The deep growl and effusive glow coming from behind froze me to my core, and yet, Megumin only smiled as vibrant as the light coming from the crystal of her staff.
"Taste true flame! BLAZING EXPLOOOOSION!"
I was overwhelmed by a vortex of blistering heat and then…the cries of an injured creature. I turned around to see the dragon flailing around as fire danced across its face.
"WAHAHA! Did you see, Kazuma? My flame is greater than even a mighty dragon's! WAHAHA!"
"You idiot chunni brat!" I yelled, grabbing her cheeks and pulling on them.
"AHHHHHHHHH!"
"I should pull on these stupid cheeks of yours until they're a permanent frown! Maybe then you'll understand how I feel everytime you pull something this stupid!"
"Ahhh." Megumin pulled away from me and rubbed her cheeks. "I thought this is what Kazuma wanted."
"What?! How the hell did you get that idea?!"
"I thought you were giving me this opportunity to regain the spotlight. Didn't Kazuma say that I'd get my moment? I thought this was it."
"How the h—?" I was abruptly cut off by a large piece of rock falling nearby, then many more; the chamber was collapsing. "Sh— We need to go! Come on!" I said, grabbing Megumin's hand. "Oi, Darkness!"
"Kazuma!"
"Catch her!"
"What?"
"Wait, Kazuma!" Megumin said as I pulled her forward. I tossed her off the edge and watched as Darkness lined up teh catch down below.
I would be lying if I said I had complete confidence that she'd catch Megumin, but luckily my fears weren't realized and Megumin landed in Darkness' arms without issue.
Suddenly, the roof of the chamber collapsed entirely and a torrent of water came pouring through. The dragon, who was still flailing around, was caught by the downpour and completely disappeared under its sheer volume.
Knowing I had no time to climb down, I called out to Darkness once more. "Oi, I'm jumping down! Catch me!"
I jumped, admittedly, perhaps a bit too early since I came crashing down into the hard stone floor. I don't have to say what happened in response to that, just know that the pain was more than enough to knock someone out…unfortunately, I was not so lucky. While the pain didn't cause me to pass out, it was nauseatingly intense. I closed my eyes to the pain. And had I not covered my mouth, I was sure the stifled cries would've echoed as loudly as the dragon's earlier cries.
"Why did he do that?! Is that boy crazy?!" I heard Aqua yelling. "Hold him still, I'll heal—"
"The water is coming this way!" I heard someone who sounded like Daichi shout. "Get to someplace high!"
Someplace high; just hearing that made the pain worse, coupled with the fact that there was no need to jump down in the first place… I really wanted my mind to slip away and just erase the pain and embarrassment of this moment.
"We don't have time," Darkness said.
"We can climb back up," Megumin replied. "The rock is tall enough."
"I'll carry him, then."
"Aqua, come on!" Megumin said, and they, presumably, went ahead.
"Kazuma," Darkness said, grabbing my hand, "I'm going to carry you. It's going to hurt, but don't worry, I'll ease some of your pain." The grip around my hand tightened, and then I heard her say, "Siphon Pain". This girl… She never misses an opportunity, does she? That being said, the moment she activated the spell, my pain was almost entirely gone. I felt her flinch for a moment, and then she trembled.
"H-Hold on tight," she stuttered, though I couldn't tell whether it was from the pain or whether it was from pleasure.
As I opened my eyes, I could see the water rushing around the column. The entire chamber was flooded with water.
Once we reached the end of the climb, Megumin and Aqua helped Darkness and I onto the top.
"Don't worry, Kazuma," Megumin said, "we'll heal you."
"T-, Take your time," Darkness said with a lusty breath.
I wanted to punch her, despite knowing that would only make her happy and me angrier.
A minute or so later, I could feel sensations returning to my lower extremities, sensations that were not just exclusively pain. As I let out a small sigh of relief, it was eclipsed by a thunderous roar.
"It's still alive?!" Megumin said in astonishment.
"Oh no, what are we gonna do?!" Aqua whined. "Megumin?"
"Uh, sorry, I don't have enough mana for another Explosion."
As a few less-than-helpful thoughts were running through my head, the dragon flew into the air and through the hole in the roof of the cavern.
"It's gone," Darkness said, almost as if she didn't believe it herself.
We all sighed in relief.
"Are you all alright?!" Hurnus said, calling out to us from another corner of the cavern.
"We're ok!" Megumin replied.
"Guess everyone made it," Darkness remarked.
"Now what though? The entire chamber is covered in water."
"I'm sure the one who made this mess could undo it," I said, staring at Aqua.
"Huh? Oh. Oh, yeah." Aqua stood up. "Don't worry, I got this. Just watch," she said, striking her chest and smiling proudly.
I wonder where she got all her confidence from.
-A few minutes later…
"Umm…I got it all here, but…"
All the water that was scattered about the chamber was gone…but now it was all in an enormous ball of water suspended in the air, one about a quarter or so the size of the entire room.
"A-, Amazing; I've never seen such mastery over water before," Inara remarked, "especially from a cleric."
Aqua smiled proudly. "Well, you see, it's all thanks to—"
"Her gear!" I said, throwing my hands over her mouth once again.
"Her gear?" Daichi said with a slight look of surprise. "That too? Her gear must be master-crafted."
"Uhh…yeah, y-you could say that."
"Now what, though?" Nyle said. "It isn't like Ms. Aqua could just take that with her—and placing it back on the ground isn't really going to help."
"Good question," I replied, looking at the ball of water and then Aqua.
"Oh. I got it," she said.
"What is it?"
"You'll see," she replied with a smirk.
Aqua closed her eyes.
A moment later, she began to glow vibrantly. Her hair flowed like she was suspended in water as her body rose slightly into the air. Strings of water began to shoot out from the ball and orbit around the chamber. In a few minutes, the entire room was covered in beads of water that numbered in the thousands. All the while, Aqua was chanting something in some language; I had no clue what it was, but all I did know was that it filled me with an odd sense of calm.
Suddenly, the ball of water in the center of the room formed into a blooming flower and began to glow: softly, at first, but then blindingly bright.
I closed my eyes and shielded myself from the light, but just as I did, the light went away. When I opened my eyes, I was stunned by what I saw—the others too, for they were just as awestruck as I was.
"What… What did you…do?" Kevin asked.
Scattered about the chamber were many bodies.
"Isn't it obvious? I brought them back," Aqua replied with a childish smile.
Everyone, including me, looked at her in disbelief.
"You…sorry? You, you brought them back? All of them? All these people?" the priest said, gesturing to the tens of bodies. "How?"
"Mass Resurrection?" Inara said in a hushed voice.
"This…ability—no…this power…it isn't anything even the most prominent of Archpriests could claim to do. Aqua-san…what are you?"
"I told you you guys, it's—"
"THE GEAR!" I yelled, intervening yet again. At this point, they all looked wholly unconvinced by my answer. "Trust me, it's her gear."
"Kazuma-san—"
"I know you probably don't believe me, but…I can't say any more than that."
Kevin and the others all exchanged glances. "*sigh* I suppose we have little choice but to take you at your word—however, in all my years as a cleric, I have never seen anything remotely close to the abilities Aqua-san has just displayed. I dare say…there might not be anyone else besides Eris-sama herself capable of such a feat. Truly, you are blessed to have someone like her as a companion."
"Are they all actually alive?" Nyle said, walking over to some of the bodies. "Dargon's beard… They are."
"Are they sleeping?" Daichi queried.
"More like they're unconscious." Nyle smiled. "Seems like we can get that help for them, after all."
"Thank Eris—no, thank Aqua-san," Kevin said, correcting himself.
I looked over to my side and noticed Megumin was gone. As I frantically looked around, I caught sight of her crouched down near the center of the room.
"Oi, what are you doing?" I said as I approached her.
"Kazuma, look," she said.
"What? Wait, is that…?"
Gold…and silver. Formless—no doubt melted during the fire that engulfed the place, but gold and silver, nonetheless.
"This must've been the dragon's treasure. What do you say we take a little bit?"
"Huh?"
"Is Kazuma concerned about something?"
"I mean…do we really—"
"Kazuma." Darkness' voice nearly made me jump out of my skin.
"Oi, what the hell did you think you're doing coming up—"
"Why are you and Megumin all alone over here? What are you two doing?"
"Look, Darkness," Megumin said, pointing at the formless chunks of gold and silver.
"Is that…?"
"Gold and silver. I think it's from the dragon's treasure hoard."
"Oh, indeed, it may be."
"I was asking Kazuma about taking some with us."
"Hmmm, I don't know. Although it could be from the dragon's hoard, it could also be from the mine itself. I recall Nyle-san saying this mine contained precious metals when it was active; if that's the case, taking this would constitute stealing."
"She has a point," I remarked.
"But there's no way to tell, right?!" Megumin hastily replied.
"Hey, it's you guys!" Suddenly a familiar voice spoke. "Look, Patrick, it's them."
All of us quickly turned around to see the two men who raced into these tunnels quite a while ago.
"You two," Darkness said, her surprise milder than either mine or Megumin's.
"What the hell? Where did you guys come from?" I blurted out.
"Us? No, how did you guys get here before us?" the man named Patrick replied. "We went in before you, so what gives?"
"Hell if I know; maybe you guys were too slow or something? What I wanna know is how the hell did we not find you, we were searching all over the mines."
"Maybe you guys weren't searching hard enough! You guys are probably here to steal the treasure, aren't you?"
"Look, Patrick!" the other said, pointing at gold behind Megumin.
"Hah! See, I knew it! You guys were trying to cover it up."
"No, not really," I replied. "It's actually a coincid—"
"Sure it is. You think I'm dumb or something?! We caught you red-handed. We have claims to this treasure so hands off!"
"You two!" Daichi's healer, Kevin, rushed over. "You're alive."
"Of course we are—and what is it to you, priest?"
"Thank Eris-sama," he said, bowing his head in reverence. "No, you all don't understand what transpired in these mines; a series of…extraordinary events. I must admit…I didn't hold up much hope that you two would have still been alive—although, I'm glad to see that be proven wrong."
"Extraordinary events?"
"Ah, you two are still alive?" Nyle said as he and the others came over. "Or did Ms. Aqua's spell revive you as well?"
"What?"
"Take a look around," Inara said, "these people were all…well…not exactly with us."
"What? Why are these people here? I thought you said this place was closed, dwarf?"
"It is," Nyle replied with a slight frown. "Those people were all of the miners and adventurers that either worked here or came to investigate the disappearances. It's a really long story—"
"Oh, I'm sure. A long bundle of lies, just like the one you made when me and Lenny were about to enter. These guys are all probably in on the cover-up, I'm sure; the treasure there is proof enough!"
"Treasure?" Nyle glanced over to where the man gestured. "Gold. And Silver. Well, it's not surprising."
"Of course it isn't; your statements were all lies designed to keep others away from the treasure, but now that me and Lenny are here…"
"No," Nyle said, waving him off, "it's unsurprising because this place was mined for its precious metals…that…and well, a dragon came to make this place its roost."
"Dragon? Another lie. It's just lies after lies with you."
"Come on," Daichi said, cutting into the conversation, "even you guys must've heard it wherever the hell you were at."
The two men exchanged glances with each other and then frowned. "Look, I think Lenny and I are done listening to you guys and your lies, so either you pack up and leave or we'll make—"
"Drain Touch."
The two men instantly fell over.
Everyone looked at me.
"What? I can't be the only one who was tired of listening to them."
"You…didn't kill them, did you, Kazuma-san?" Kevin queried.
"Of course not, they're just unconscious."
Nyle sighed. "Well, hopefully those fools wake up with the rest; I'm sure they'll have a lot to share about their experiences."
"So we're just leaving these people here?" Kevin asked.
"The plan remains the same, we'll continue on. I'll relay the information on what happened here to others. I'm sure they'll send another team to conduct the rescue and relocation. Also, it's probably a good idea to get out of here before anything else goes wrong."
Leaving the cavern behind, we ventured back into the tunnel that contained the exit. After dealing with the seal present on the hidden entrance, the wall disappeared and gave way to a set of shifting rocks. A wave of stale air hit us as we entered, revealing to us just how long this tunnel was out of use.
"Stay close," Nyle said. "As far as everything goes, this is uncharted territory."
"What? Even you don't know?"
"I know the path…somewhat, but this place was sealed until just now. No dwarf would have set foot anywhere near here for…well, since it was sealed."
"Which was…?"
"Well over two decades ago." A time when I wasn't even a thought in any of my parents' heads. "Let's go."
"Lead the way."
And so he did, deep into the dark and ominous tunnel.
