༺ Sisters Are The Closest Friends! (6) ༻
“…Are we really in the right place? Free time is almost over. Shouldn’t we head back to the park? Right?”
Barrrrr—
Elizabeth shivered with tension and cold.
The ‘compass’ made of Molumolu’s fur led them to this underground.
A place where only cold stone walls stretched endlessly.
May.
Even though it was the blooming season of spring, not a single ray of sun penetrated this underground.
Having descended endless stairs, there was no telling how deep they had come.
「2 Miles」
Something was written on the wall in old paint, but Elizabeth couldn’t understand it.
“Ugh, cold.”
Was it a mistake not to bring a coat on a sunny spring day picnic?
Cold air like a snake kept creeping out from between the stone walls, coiling around their legs, shoulders, and necks.
But the cold wasn’t really the problem.
More than the cold, what frightened the children’s hearts was something more primal.
“It’s so dark, I can hardly see anything…!”
Darkness.
It was like a heavy blanket pressing down on the children’s bodies.
The 1-syllable spell, ‘fire’, that Tywin had cast.
Its candle-like brightness only illuminated the ground at their feet.
“Tywin, can’t you make the spell shine brighter?”
Elizabeth asked in fear.
Endless stone walls.
It felt like something would jump out from the end at any moment.
Like an enormous, hairy spider monster…!
Of course, even for Tywin, her current brightness was the best she could do.
“Don’t make noise.”
Though she said so, Tywin was also slightly tense.
The firmly closed door of the laboratory.
Entering through a door barely opened by Naru’s ‘lockpick’, they encountered an underground that was said not to exist in this lab.
The underground at the end of the endless stairs was so dark and gloomy, it felt like walking in the dried innards of a giant building.
‘Why is there such a place under the lab? It seems to be very old.’
It felt long neglected.
And then, it seemed like Naru remembered seeing a similar place recently.
Naru said about this.
“Here feels similar to the cellar under our house! The underground with the strange statues! Could there be statues here too?”
Naru thought this place resembled the 「Nocturne’s Old Sanctuary」 located under the basement of the Junk Mansion.
The darkness and coldness, the fullness of old flat stone walls were similar.
Maybe Naru’s friend ‘Molumolu’ thought this underground resembled the mansion’s basement and hid somewhere there.
Naru shouted towards the darkness.
“Molumolu…!”
They needed to find Molumolu and hurry back.
After all, there were snacks to eat on the bus ride home from the picnic!
Rustle—
At that moment, a presence was felt at the end of the corridor.
It was the sound of something moving.
━Molumolumolumo!
“…Did you just hear that? Someone far away mimicked Naru’s call!”
Elizabeth startled, asked the children.
When all the children without exception went shh- and closed their mouths.
A clanking metal sound came from the far end of the corridor.
Clank— Clank—
The noise stimulated the children’s imaginations in various ways.
While everyone was feeling puzzled by the situation, Naru tilted her head and mumbled.
“Could it be that Molumolu has evolved? Into a steel Molumolu…!”
Otherwise, such a metallic sound would be impossible.
But Cecily, with her noble instincts, keenly felt a presence in the darkness.
“It’s too big to be Molumolu. Judging by the sound of the steps, it has at least two legs and seems quite lightweight…”
It was a reasonably specific assumption.
Hearing this, Elizabeth was slightly amazed and exclaimed, “Cecily! That’s incredible!”, and Cecily too admired her own skill.
Hunting was a sort of noble pastime.
Her tracking abilities were something she had learned from her mother, which came flooding back in this darkness.
Moreover, the darkness did not seem so dark to Cecily.
And that was all thanks to Cecily’s skill, 「Cat Eye」.
What Cecily saw at the end of the dark corridor was a gigantic figure.
Wearing rusted armor and a horned helmet, but peculiarly, the body inside that armor was somehow similar to a shining white skeleton.
Its body was very long.
Like an enormous centipede.
A monster made of bones connected like a centipede.
Cecily felt she might faint on the spot.
She was relieved the other children hadn’t seen this sight, but tensely instructed them,
“Don’t talk or make any noise. Don’t move…! Beings that live in the darkness usually don’t have good eyesight. If we don’t make noise, we won’t be found…! Stick as close to the wall as possible…!”
The children did not even nod at Cecily’s words.
Sticking to the wall like pillars of salt, the children remained still.
The skeletal centipede crawled closer, clanking, reaching out its limbs toward the children.
━Molumolumolumolumolumolumolumolumolumo.
That dreadful creature mimicked the name Naru had called out in a chilling manner, moving its hands.
Clatter— Click—
It seemed to be searching for something.
Fortunately, the children were small enough to avoid being touched by the skeleton’s hands.
But they couldn’t even imagine what would happen if they made any noise or touched that giant, horrific skeleton.
━Molumolu?
After those hellish few seconds passed,
Clink— Clink—
The skeleton centipede moved on, its rusted armor clashing.
By the time its sound faded to inaudibility, Elizabeth raised her hair on end and cried out softly.
“W-What we just saw…!? What on earth is that…! We need to get out of here…! Let’s go back to where the adults are…!”
Elizabeth nearly fainted.
The fact that she hadn’t wet herself when the skeleton reached out was commendable.
Though turning back seemed very sensible, Tywin shook her head.
“No, we might not be able to go back.”
Tywin said, her ears tuned to the direction they had come from.
Numerous presences were crudely mingling, echoing off the stone walls.
As if everything in this underground had awakened.
Scritch— Scritttch—
Creak— Creak— Snap—
Rumbleeeee—
Ingingyaing—
Indistinct noises filled the darkness.
Elizabeth was so tense she could hardly breathe.
“M-Medicine…”
Elizabeth pulled out a round, candy-sized sedative from her pocket.
She chewed and swallowed the incredibly bitter medicine, which steadied her nerves a bit.
With her mind now calmer and clearer than usual, she assessed the situation─.
“We’re all in big trouble…!”
The fact that they were in big trouble was clear.
Pop—
Then, Naru saw something shining in the distance.
“There’s light!”
A light in the darkness.
While Naru was happy to see it, Tywin felt extreme tension instead.
It reminded her of deep-sea anglers luring prey with their bioluminescent organs.
* * *
“A Demiurge’s sanctuary?”
Brigitte frowned upon hearing Elle’s words.
A Demiurge’s sanctuary, of all things.
Who would have thought such a thing existed beneath the Frisia Institute?
“Why is there something like that under the institute?”
“They built the institute over it because of the underground presence of the Demiurge’s waves. They hold amazing power. They can cause what you might call ‘miracles’ to happen.”
“But not all miracles of the Demiurges can be good…!”
Apart from the god of light, Yahbach, Demiurges generally had a dual nature.
For example, the goddess Epar, whom the mages worship and follow, could be cited.
The goddess Epar once bestowed an artifact that granted wishes, the 「Nymph Hand」, to her priestess.
Its effect was astonishing to grant five wishes.
The first wish of the priestess, who had lived in poverty all her life, was to become rich─.
As she wished, a finger bone on the “Nymph Hand” snapped, and at the same time, an earthquake revealed a golden relic buried beneath the priestess’s house.
It was a colossal pile of gold coins.
However, the story goes that the priestess lost her footing in the earthquake, fell into the golden ruins, and broke her neck on the pile of gold, meeting her end.
The conclusion of that story was to ‘wish carefully.
And ‘not to try to understand Demiurges with human intellect.
Knowing that there is a ‘sanctuary’ deeply associated with such beings underground, yet still open the research facility to the public or designate it as a picnic spot for children?
Brigitte couldn’t understand.
However, Elle Cladeco seemed to have something to say about this.
“Wouldn’t there be chaos if people realized what was down there? And the tomb is sealed 3.5 kilometers underground, behind a Level 0 sealed iron door. No one can step foot in there. It’s under perfect control.”
Sealed iron door.
Could it be that the children have broken into it?
But why?
There was a sense of wonder, but the answer to ‘how they entered’ seemed clear.
Naru probably unlocked it with her headband.
“Professor Brigitte, there’s much to say, but let’s focus our efforts on finding the children. The underground is vast, spanning several kilometers, so we must work together to save them.”
It was sound reasoning.
Brigitte thought she should hurry to the research facility.
But instead of rushing, Elle Cladeco rolled up the carpet in her headmaster’s office.
Swish—
Beneath the carpet was the magic circle of the 12 constellations.
Brigitte, now granted color, quickly understood what it was.
“A dimensional gate?”
“As expected of a child of Walpurgis. Yes, it’s a dimensional gate. Connected to the deep underground. I will activate it. You may feel nauseous, but please hold back any vomit. There are things underground attracted to the smell.”
Whirl—
The magic circle on the floor shone.
For a moment, Brigitte’s body was shaken by an unnatural sensation, as if her internal organs were being rearranged from top to bottom.
When she regained her composure, Brigitte found herself in the darkness, surrounded by dark stone walls.
“Flame.”
Whoosh—
True to her nature as a mage accustomed to darkness, Brigitte summoned a flame above her palm.
The bright light revealed ancient bricks inscribed with old texts all around.
“…What is written here?”
Ancient texts so difficult to read that even Brigitte, despite her research as a mage, struggled.
Such texts were densely covering the walls, giving off an eerie feeling.
Swoosh—
Cladeco’s hand rested on Brigitte’s shoulder.
“First, let’s find the children. I heard that Tywin was with them. That’s a silver lining, I suppose.”
Elle rummaged through her pocket and pulled out something like a glasses case.
Instead of glasses, the case contained a few strands of hair, which Elle held in her hand and murmured “Compass.” softly as the hair emitted a light and pointed in a direction.
“Fortunately, they’re not far off.”
“……”
Brigitte silently watched the scene.
She was well-versed in the magic of compass-making, after all.
That must be Tywin’s hair.
I’m sure the direction is correct, but…
━Molumolumolumolumolu.
Then, something appeared in front of Brigitte.
It was a bizarre-looking creature.
Could it really be defined as a creature, simply because it moved?
“…Why is it saying Molumolu? Is it related to Naru?”
It resembled a snake or centipede, made up of endlessly connected human bones.
Its length was at least tens of meters.
The danger level was clearly at least of the gold-rank subjugation level.
Its form, which caused a visceral aversion in women, prompted Brigitte to quickly cast a destructive magic spell, compressing six chants into a single word.
“Spear of Destruction, Brünhak!”
Fwoooosh—!
The lance of light ejected from Brigitte’s palm shattered and pierced through the bone centipede.
Elle watched and marveled at the sight.
“Your skills are remarkable. Indeed, the mage from the party that defeated the Demon King.”
“Stop with the praise now. What was that just now? That’s not a monster you’d find in a ‘sanctuary’, right? At the very least, I can tell that there are more of those things down here.”
Brigitte sensed several presences.
It was clear that this underground area was filled with terrifying monsters like the one from before.
This was not an ordinary sanctuary.
The ancient characters Brigitte had read but not deciphered.
Now she felt like she understood a bit.
It was a ‘warning’.
A warning not to set foot in this underground.
When Brigitte demanded an explanation from Elle Cladeco about the situation, Cladeco, with her glasses gleaming in magical flames, replied seriously.
“This is a tomb. The tomb of the errant Nocturne. I discovered this place 12 years ago…, around the age Brigitte, the professor, is now.”
Nocturne’s Tomb.
At those words, Brigitte was startled.
The mighty god Nocturne being torn apart and killed by other Demiurges and their champions- was a myth widely known.
However, the exact location on the Pangaea continent where Nocturne died—had been a main topic of debate among theologians.
The place where a ‘god’ had died.
Brigitte was now standing in the place that adventurers and mystics had spent their entire lives searching for in pursuit of glory and miracles.
As a mage who revered miracles, Brigitte couldn’t help but feel intrigued.
Then Elle Cladeco said.
“However, to be precise, it is not a tomb. Nocturne did not die. Only his ‘vessel’ did. Nocturne’s essence was sealed beyond through a ‘gate’ set up here.”
“…A gate?”
“Do you believe in the existence of other worlds, Professor Brigitte? Beyond the religious notions of heaven and hell, a completely different world.”
“……”
A completely different world.
The original Brigitte might not have been much interested in such things.
But recently, on a rooftop where two moons had risen, Brigitte remembered hearing quite a surprising story.
—A world with only one moon—.
The veiled homeland where Judas, shrouded in mystery, had lived.
Someday, that man might up and return to that other world, leaving everything behind once more.
As she thought about it, Elle Cladeco spoke.
“I thought you were like my sister Bathory, Professor Brigitte. I was wrong. You’re not like my sister. You’re just like me when I was younger. Even in the way you fell in love with a man from another world.”
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