TEOCH 87

“Your Majesty!”

Jet-black smoke completely encroached upon the right half of Tristan’s body. A black tattoo snaked its way up his pale skin. His face, contorted in pain, was clearly visible even from a distance. I immediately tried to approach him to check his condition, but Caron, who was holding me, instead tightened her grip with both talons, refusing to let me go.

“Caron, let me go to him! Hurry!”

—I do not know what kind of magic it is, but it is dangerous! If you approach recklessly, you might get caught up in it too. Right now, being wary of that monster is the priority!

Do not be ridiculous, how could there be any situation more important than his suffering right now! I desperately struggled, trying to get to Tristan, but there was no way for me to move in mid-air without Caron’s help. The feeling of helplessness at this moment was several times greater than when monsters were swarming from all sides.

I could not breathe properly; it felt like I would suffocate at any moment. It is not that I do not know. According to the system message, Tristan is currently obtaining a new skill, and I can guess that it is unlikely anything would go wrong in that situation. But, still, still…!

“Mr. Rohan, get a grip! An incredible amount of mana is being absorbed, centering on that monster!”

“That is right, Rohan! For now, escaping is the priority!”

Damian’s and Rehas’s urgent shouts barely brought me back to my senses. The two of them were right. If I did not escape from that monster’s rampage right now, all the effort we had put in so far would turn to nothing. Most of all, it would mean leaving him to die without being able to do anything for him. I cannot let that happen!

I struggled to even my breathing and turned my gaze to the monster. As Damian said, the situation was not ordinary.

“What, what is that…?!”

The monster’s body, at a glance, looked similar in state to Tristan’s. The only difference was that what was engraved on Tristan’s body was a tattoo with a strange, magic-circle-like shape, while what appeared on the monster’s body were bulging, black blood vessels. Its gaunt arms were so covered in jet-black veins that it was impossible to tell their original color.

Furthermore, from the monster’s injured right eye, which was dripping blood, a large amount of blood-red smoke was gushing out with a gurgling sound. I recalled the crimson fog that had thickly enveloped the island when the instant-death attack was activated earlier. The thought that maybe that too was an explosive substance flickered through a corner of my mind, and at that moment, Hezel shouted.

—That, that thing…! Don’t tell me it is planning to self-destruct?!

“Wait a minute, self-destruct?!”

—Even if it self-destructs, it will not die. A monster of that level must have incredible regenerative powers! But if that thing decides to self-destruct, an explosion on a scale incomparable to the last one will occur!

“Wh-what do we do? We cannot even use the magic of ‘Defense’ anymore!”

—Even if we could use the magic, it would have been useless! With that much mana, no matter how thick a barrier we put up, it would be pierced through…!

Skatha replied to the flustered Damian with a deep frown. My companions and the Harpies could only watch the monster’s transformation with anxious eyes. How do we get out of here now? As I was anxiously waiting, Iren, who had been hesitating, shouted to us in a voice that seemed to have made a firm resolve.

—For now, you guys get out of this area, humans! We will handle that thing somehow!

“Wait, what did you say?!”

—Are you serious, Iren?

—Well, what else can we do? Humans are so weak they will die if they take that explosion head-on! I cannot stand by and watch things go that monster’s way at this point!

—…!

—In the first place, it is also my fault for starting this without consulting my unnies…. It is my responsibility that things have come to this. You guys will not be of any more help hanging around here anyway, so do not butt in and get out!

I was so surprised that I stared at Iren with my mouth agape. Wait, really? I thought she, of all people, would be the biggest obstacle to us moving to the next area…. Iren glanced at us with a rather complicated look in her eyes. Her sisters, who had been looking at Iren with surprise for a moment, all nodded their heads as if they thought what she said made a good point.

—Shall we open the gate to the next area right now, unnie Caron?

—No, that will be difficult! That thing is absorbing all the mana in this vicinity, so even if we create a gate, it will collapse right away!

—Then what do we do?

—Ah, I have a good idea! How about we ask that bird for help?

At Skatha’s words, the Harpies’ faces brightened, but we, who did not understand the situation, were bewildered. A bird? What bird is she talking about?

—Yes, using that bird would definitely make it possible!

“Wait a minute, what bird?”

—Have you perhaps not seen it until now? There is a pretty large bird that flies between the islands.

“If you mean that, we used it often while moving between islands.”

—Wait a minute, you rode on that bird’s back?!

“How else did you think we moved between the islands?”

—There is a human with wings, right? Was it not that you relied on him to move? That bird does not usually let just any monster ride it!

For something that does not let just any monster ride it, it had a lot of flea-like bugs living on it…. I could not bring myself to say those words and just shrugged lightly. Meanwhile, Iren opened her mouth slightly and let out a high, sharp whistle. Then, from a distance, a long cry that seemed to answer it was heard. It was the sound of the giant bird we had always relied on.

Caron and the other Harpies started flying, carrying us in the direction of the sound. I did not know what was going on, but one thing was certain: we could go to the next area. I asked Caron, who was flying with her talons gripping my shoulders.

“So, what do we have to do now?”

—There is nothing you need to do. Just hold on tight to that bird’s back! It will get a little slippery, but you will be fine if you grab the fin!

“Wait, what? A fin? That aside, why suddenly this bird…?”

—That bird is not a creature belonging to our area! It happens to be staying here now, but it was originally a monster that belonged to the next area, so it should be able to move somehow even in this situation!

Wait, that thing was that kind of monster? I thought it was a strange bird, but this is the first I am hearing of this.

While I was dumbfounded, I began to see the giant bird flying towards us from afar. The Harpies set us down on the giant bird’s back. Iren conveyed some intention to the giant bird with a high whistle, and the giant bird let out a few short cries as if it understood her words.

As soon as my feet touched the giant bird’s back, I immediately ran towards Tristan. Tristan, who had been safely laid on the bird’s back with Iren’s help, was still writhing in pain and gasping for breath with difficulty. Without a moment to care about the gazes of others, I embraced him; his body was as cold as ice. Especially the right half of his body where the tattoo was engraved; just touching it felt like all warmth was being stolen away.

“I, I am fine, Rohan….”

“How is this fine! Your body is so cold!”

I held him in my arms and checked the skill window, but at the very end of Tristan’s skill list, only the sentence ‘UNDEFINED: Error 404 Character Not Found.’ was written. Damn it, it seems that error from the 1st stage has appeared again. At this rate, there is no way to know what danger he is in or what skill he has obtained! While I was frowning deeply, I heard Iren’s shout from behind me.

—This is not the time for that, human! If you do not hurry, you will get caught in the explosion too!

—Humans, Harpies, all die…!

Startled by those words, I looked at the Human Centipede. The monster was already covered in red fog and black lightning, its form no longer discernible. Judging by the situation, it looked like it would explode at any moment. I glanced back and saw that the Harpies were also flying at high speed, as if trying to get away from the explosion.

I held Tristan’s body tightly with one arm and grabbed the bird’s feathers with my other hand. My companions also hastily lay prone on the bird’s back and gripped the feathers tightly. When we had finished all our preparations, the giant bird spread its wings wide and began to glide down towards the area below the island. However.

“Wait a minute! This thing, it is diving into the sea right now!”

Rehas’s shout brought me to my senses, and indeed, the giant bird was flying towards the sea with us on its back. My companions clamored, shouting if it was trying to drown us. As someone who knew what the ‘next area’ was like, I knew that this giant bird was heading in the right direction, but….

But what on earth is it trying to do? It is just a bird, so if it goes into the sea, it will not be able to breathe and will die?!

“Wh-what is this…?!”

At that very moment, the feathers I was desperately holding onto suddenly began to melt away as if dissolving. Startled, I hurriedly reached out to grab other feathers, but the other feathers also melted away and disappeared limply, as if they had never existed in the first place. The rough back of the giant bird instantly shone with a smooth, silvery color, and on its back was….

“A fin?!”

Why is there a fin here, something that should be on a fish’s back? Without even a moment to think about such things, I immediately reached out and grabbed the fin. Only after confirming that my other companions had also grabbed the fin could I grasp the situation. The giant bird’s wings were long gone, and its tail, which had sported plausible feathers, now had a gray fin.

This monster, could it be that it was originally a fish?

“Mr. Rohan, if we keep going like this, we will fall into the sea! Should we not escape quickly?!”

“No, going into the sea is the right way! For now, hold on tight to this thing’s fin!”

Shouting that to my companions, I wrapped their bodies in the aura of purification to create a protective barrier. Of course, it was not strong enough to block attacks or anything, but it could serve the purpose of preventing seawater from directly touching their bodies and allowing them to maintain their breathing. These were absolutely necessary functions to survive in the next stage.

The giant bird, now a giant fish, straightened its body and threw itself towards the sea. If this were a normal situation, we would have been buried and eaten by the swarm of jellyfish that filled the sea’s surface, but when a blue aura erupted from the fish’s body, a large hole was punched open in the middle of the sea. The fish and we fell into the middle of the hole that was created.

—Die, all of you, all of you die…!

A voice filled with fury, and an explosion loud enough to drown out that voice, seemed to come from beyond the sky, but it felt faint, like hearing a sound from outside the water.

We were already sinking deep into the sea, following an endless underwater passage. Limp jellyfish and bizarrely shaped fish were swimming outside the passage, but they acted as if the passage itself did not exist. If this passage had not been there, those monsters would have torn us to pieces, leaving not a single scrap of flesh.

How many minutes passed like that? As the light pouring down from the surface of the water gradually faded, the surroundings were dyed in pitch-black darkness. The clamorous explosion that must have been happening outside could not be felt at all now. We remained silent in the pitch-dark sea, relying on the fish for our journey. I was worried about what might have happened to the Harpies, especially Caron, but we would no longer see them. Because….

[System: Welcome to the second stage, the ‘Abyssal Sea Labyrinth’!]

We had already moved to the next stage. I held Tristan’s body tightly and read the message that appeared before my eyes. In the distance, a jet-black exit, where not a single ray of light entered, was welcoming us.

Only the first stage was over, but I was so exhausted that not even a smile would come.