Rescue Fantasy (27)
Whooooosh—!
A fierce gust of wind whipped past my body. No—my body was slicing through the air as I plunged downward. The dizzying sense of weightlessness churned in my gut.
Celestia seemed completely panicked by the hopeless free fall, unable to make any rational decisions. I considered it a relief that at least she wasn't screaming at the top of her lungs. Thanks to that, I was barely able to maintain my composure.
If she had screamed, I would have been quick to follow, shrieking in a most embarrassing way.
The flashlight I'd desperately managed to turn on showed the landscape flashing by at high speed. It didn't show everything.
The space beneath the tower was so deep and vast that even the beam of light couldn't reach the end, making it feel as though we'd fallen into the abyssal depths of the ocean.
Anyone could predict that, if we kept falling like this, we'd not only be flattened but utterly burst and die. Somehow, we needed to reduce our speed.
'But how?'
I forced my tense, frozen brain to work. After sending Carry ahead, the only things in my hands were a polar impactor and Celestia herself.
I did have a spare plasma cutter, but I had no free hand to use it now. Even if I took it out, there was nowhere to use it at the moment, so I set that idea aside.
As we fell, it seemed the energy had charged up—the pile on the polar impactor was tinged a blueish glow. Seeing that, I stretched out my hand holding the device. But I didn't intend to use it just yet.
The situation wasn't right for that; what I meant to use was the suppression wave emitter. Whatever I did, I first needed to get closer to the wall.
We were falling. I couldn't properly control my direction, nor did I need to. Just nudging us to one side would be enough.
A flick of my thumb and—whoosh!—a burst of compressed air fired. It wasn't much, but the recoil pushed our bodies slightly back.
It wasn't enough to reach the wall. I had no idea how much farther we needed to go. Still, I didn't give up and kept firing suppression waves in succession—until every last bit of the cartridge was used up.
'Still not enough...!'
As continued recoil gradually pushed us along, the beam touched a wall. I saw that it was covered in plant roots. Just a little more. If I could go just a bit farther, change out one more cartridge, hope might survive.
"Celestia! Cartridge! Change the cartridge, quick! Or we'll die!"
"...!"
With great effort, Celestia snapped out of her daze and groped at my belt. We were still falling, and not knowing when the ground might suddenly meet us made her hands tremble violently.
Even so, Celestia didn't give up—and managed to replace the cartridge. I'd never been so grateful for that familiar click and lock.
I immediately burned through even the freshly replaced cartridge's energy. One wasn't enough, so Celestia kept swapping in new ones—each time bringing us closer to the wall. As the wall drew distinctly near, a way forward became apparent.
"If you've come around, brace yourself! It's going to shake—a lot...!"
Celestia silently clung to me, tightly enough that it was practically an embrace. With our constantly shifting center of gravity more stable, I gained a bit more freedom to move.
I drove the polar impactor's pile directly into the now close wall.
KWA-KRRRUNCH!
The wall ground away under the impact.
The pile, bearing the brunt of the fall, started to shatter at its tip. The immense recoil shot straight up my arm, making me grit my teeth hard. I'd half thought my arm would get ripped clean off at first contact.
Debris sprayed from the wall, pounding my entire body. When a sizable chunk battered my helmet, my vision wobbled, but the fortunate thing was that our speed was decreasing.
Still, it wasn't enough. We were braking, but our rate of descent remained alarmingly high. There was only one cartridge left in the suppression wave emitter. Maybe if I fired it downward, it would slow us further...
Just as fear of inevitable serious injury filled my mind—
... SPLASH!
I heard a sound—water splashing.
'Water!'
Although it was brief, I clearly heard the sound of water. Some debris that fell before us must have hit the bottom. If it had been hard ground waiting for us, death would have been certain—but there was a chance for survival now.
It was too soon to relax. Even hitting water didn't mean all the impact would be absorbed.
'The suit's shock absorption is all I can count on now!'
Focusing on the ambient sound, I waited for the watery splash to draw closer. Timing would be crucial. Miss it, and there'd be no next chance.
... SPLASH!
I didn't know how close we were, but as soon as the water's voice sped past us, I thrust with all my might against the wall, pushing away for distance.
I tossed aside the polar impactor I'd been holding. Its pile was fully snapped off and no longer usable anyway. I figured it was better to dump useless weight—at least for now.
Whoooooosh!
For a straight instant, moist wind curled around my body, and then I saw the water's surface, reflecting the flashlight in fragmented brilliance. I braced myself for the imminent impact, tensing my whole body. Celestia also realized the end was near and squeezed me even tighter.
'Hope the water's deep...'
Shallow water would mean broken legs.
SPLASH—!
A sound like a shell falling echoed through the dark cavern, and the flashlight's beam was swallowed by the turbulent spray. Even as the flashlight sank, it held out till the very end.
Countless bubbles surged around Celestia and me. Thankfully, the water was deep enough that our legs didn't break. Aside from the pain wracking my whole body as if I'd been flogged, my mind remained surprisingly clear.
The drag of the water tossed us about. I flailed to get to the surface, struggling even more with the unconscious Celestia in tow—it was absolute agony.
The pitch-black depths filled me with sudden dread. Who knew what might lurk below, or even beside us? Those thoughts made my heart pound uncontrollably.
My body reflexively stiffened. To snap myself out of my foggy trance, I bit down hard on my tongue. Warm blood filled my mouth. The pain brought some warmth back to my frozen body.
Thankfully, I'd sealed my suit in advance, so I had no trouble breathing. Otherwise, I'd have panicked for sure. Finally, I felt my hand reach a ledge.
Clutching at what felt like a railing, I hauled myself up with all my strength. The throbbing pain increased, but I forced myself to ignore it.
Splashhh—
Once I scrambled onto the solid ground, the water that had clung to my body fell away in shattering sheets.
"Puhah!"
I hadn't been out of air, but now it finally felt as if I was really breathing again. The oppressive sense of dread bearing down on me from all sides faded away.
"Ugh, damn...!"
I dragged the limp Celestia over and laid her beside me. Water poured out of her suit. Once I'd gotten her completely ashore, I immediately scanned the surroundings, staying alert.
Honestly, I wanted nothing more than to flop down beside her. My head was still spinning from taking the brunt of the impact for both of us.
But there was no choice. We'd survived by pure luck; if I let my guard down and got killed or badly hurt now, there'd be nothing more foolish.
'How far did we fall?'
I crouched and carefully swept the flashlight around. Above and below the waterline, massive roots dominated the space. To think such a vast chamber existed beneath the tower. This place was once sealed, but roots had punched through to open it up.
Splash—
KRRRASH—
Debris continued to crash down from above. The tower was collapsing in the wake of Lobelia's stunt, sending wreckage plummeting ceaselessly. The origin point was nowhere in sight. Maybe it was just so deep, or maybe the hole itself had completely closed.
"Huff... huff..."
I tried to steady my breath, which was scraping the bottom of my lungs, and drew my malfunctioning plasma cutter, ready to react if any monsters appeared.
'Anything...?'
Neither my senses nor the sensors picked up anything. Luckily, it seemed there were no mutants for now—at least, not at this moment.
'Who'd have thought it would come to this?'
I'd just managed to secure the biocell, only to find myself unable to actually return safely. The fact that just moments ago I had been way up above barely seemed real anymore. Sometimes I felt like, if I closed my eyes and opened them, Carry would appear right in front of me asking what I was up to.
'If I survive, I'll find out what I want to know?'
Through my dazed thoughts, something Lobelia had said as she dropped us below suddenly came back to me. How did she know what I wanted, enough to make such a statement? It didn't feel like an idle taunt.
Just as I was finally catching my breath, the limp Celestia suddenly shot upright in dead silence. She quickly scanned the area, then rushed toward me in a panic.
She nearly collapsed as her legs gave way, but I caught her before she could fall. We hadn't landed far apart, so it was an easy save.
"Celestia, we're not dead. Calm down."
"......"
"Are you back with us? Are you hurt anywhere?"
Celestia checked herself over with a quick hand gesture. She shook her head soon after, indicating she wasn't hurt.
"Thank goodness. The water at the bottom saved us. Still, you took quite an impact so don't try anything sudden; just rest for now."
Celestia made another hand gesture. It would have been more natural for her to speak, but she kept signaling silently, looking oddly out of place.
"... Are you speaking?"
It wasn't as if the language patch had disappeared, so why all the gestures? As I stared at her in confusion, Celestia hesitated for a moment.
She gestured again, as if trying to communicate something, and I still didn't get it—until she unlocked her helmet.
"... I must've hit something when we fell—my helmet broke. I kept talking, but..."
Celestia said she'd felt weird when she got no reaction, no matter how much she'd spoken, and now looked embarrassed.
Her face was a bit red, and it wasn't just from embarrassment—a small bump had formed on her brow. Tiny sparks still flickered from the now-unsealed helmet. The impact must've been harder than I thought. It looked likely she'd have aftereffects.
"The helmet still works, but I don't think we'll be able to talk in sealed mode anymore."
"We can't help that. Surviving is all that matters. I lost equipment too."
"Thanks to you, I lived, Hyun-woo. If I'd fallen alone..."
Celestia shuddered, as if even imagining it was unbearable. We'd both taken high-grade medicine earlier, in case aftereffects showed up suddenly.
As I swallowed, my stiff muscles began to relax. With intermediate-grade medicine and above, a sedative effect was included, and my racing heart was also gradually calming.
Now that we'd gotten our breath back, thoughts about what to do next immediately cropped up, filling me with dread.
Celestia and I stared blankly at each other. Even if we'd really fallen this far, it didn't feel real.
"... What do we do now?"
"Well... I think the first thing is to check our equipment. With all this water, if anything sinks, retrieving it will be hard. It looked extremely deep earlier."
"Equipment... Ah. Hyun-woo, look!"
Celestia's shout echoed louder than expected, and she jumped in surprise at her own voice. Covering her mouth with one hand, she pointed at a box floating a short way off.
The supply box Canna had told us about was slowly sinking, spitting bubbles. I thought we'd lost everything, but the box was sturdy and must have only been slightly damaged. It was welcome news.
I told her to wait while I retrieved it and dove into the water. There was a splash, and then the sound of swimming strokes.
Aside from the darkness, nothing seemed especially threatening, so I planned to get it quickly. As I swam to the box, I was able to retrieve the polar impactor I'd thrown away as well.
It had gotten caught on a surface root sticking out of the water, so it hadn't sunk. It was in terrible condition, but better than nothing.
I then turned and returned to the ledge where Celestia was waiting. My body felt as heavy as lead, though my suit hadn't absorbed much water.
As Celestia helped me haul up the box, she said she'd quickly checked our situation while I was moving.
"Hyun-woo, I checked my bracelet and the connection to the base is unstable."
"Unstable?"
"Yes. It's not completely cut off, but..."
Celestia thought that, until further action, most of the bracelet's functions would likely remain unavailable; she didn't expect improvement otherwise.
Thankfully, most of the basic military supplies inside the box weren't too damaged, which was a relief given the battered exterior.
Inside was a small amount of emergency rations—including drinking water—plus a handgun and ammo, a medical kit, five military combat knives, a small pouch of recharge-grade refined blue crystals, and a suit-attachable communicator.
"The communicator doesn't really help us. Even though it's military-grade, I can unlock its features with my clearance, but unless it's linked to the base or a relay, we can't secure a channel. If we're dealing with an encrypted channel, it might take extra work..."
At the bottom of the box was a relay device, probably the one Celestia had mentioned. It was a rectangular panel with a puncture mark driven through the center.
"It's broken."
"Yeah... that makes it basically useless."
Still, we decided to take it. We couldn't carry the whole box, so it was best to take everything usable. Most other equipment was destroyed or depleted, so there was plenty of storage space left.
"Eat this. There might not be another chance."
"... Okay."
Celestia forced herself to chew the emergency ration stick I handed her. As she regained her strength, we used up the purified water pouch and a few more supplies. I didn't feel like eating at all, but considering our state, replenishing energy was essential.
For a while, we silently chewed, separated from the whirlwind of thoughts by confronting reality. There was no denying that we'd been dropped down here by Lobelia's schemes.
Rather than dwell on why, it seemed more productive to focus on what to do next.
"We need to figure out how to get out of here."
"With these walls, climbing out looks impossible. And the hole we fell through seems closed too."
"So there's only one way to go."
Following my gaze, Celestia shone her flashlight down a dark passage. There, the writhing, creep-fused mutant plant roots awaited us.
-------------= Clacky's Corner -------------=
Will they find Lobelia's lab?
As Lobelia mentioned, Hyun-woo will find what he is looking for if he survives, I'm guessing Lobelia made arrangements.
【ദ്ദി(⩌ᴗ⩌)】