Chapter 231. Path Forward (6)
A massive force of more than two thousand experimental magical beasts had noticed the enemy attack, and was signaling their comrades.
Enoch sprinted through the hellish scene in which the metallic shrieks of enemies bellowing from every direction began rattling every tree and stretch of ground around him.
All the magical beasts around him were grinding the earth beneath them madly and beginning their approach at ruinous speed.
Glancing behind him, he saw magical beasts several times the size of a person all at once cutting through the rain, flinging their bodies about.
Instantly leaping on instinct, an enormous carapace lance plunged into the ground just where Enoch had been. The magical beast that had dropped there roared in fury at losing its target and lifted its head to glare at him.
In the midst of enemies bearing down from every direction by the moment, Enoch — who had been rapidly fleeing — stamped the ground with a heavy thud and pushed into another gear, accelerating further.
But at that instant his vision suddenly blurred, and his legs tangled; he nearly went over.
With the fatigue from executing Lethal Strike just moments earlier accumulating, his mental fortitude — which had already been straining against the erosion of memory — must have been worn down.
"Direct Lineage!"
A hand abruptly caught his shoulder, pulling with a fierce momentum. At the intense acceleration, his whole body was suddenly gripped by a sensation like riding a roller coaster.
When the punishing wind pressure briefly let up and he opened his eyes, Alicia was flying through the sky with Enoch's shoulder supported in her arm.
"Alicia……?"
"Direct Lineage, you're alright, right?!"
With her long hair whipping, Alicia was looking down at Enoch with an expression of pure worry.
When Enoch nodded, she closed her eyes briefly and let out a breath of relief. Then, with a serious face, she lifted her head and faced forward.
"This time, I'll help you!"
Using exposed rocks as footholds and kicking off the enormous tree trunks, she bounded through the air as if sprinting.
Their course truly swerved wildly every which way like reckless driving, but even amid all that, Enoch couldn't hold back his admiration for her.
Up to now he'd seen Alicia only through her bombardment-based firepower and flashy movements — but when she committed purely to sprinting, she possessed mobility this fast?
While her output in boosting herself through body-enhancement magic might not match Sirocco's, Alicia too had reached an impressive level as a mage.
Enoch gripped her tightly so as not to fall. He had to hold his mind together. The angry cries rising from every direction behind him were merging into one chilling roar. An alarm went off in his head.
The enemy — who had floundered in confusion at the ambush — was finally giving chase in earnest.
The threat from the fleet-footed experimental magical beasts was one thing, but if flying types pursued from above, even Alicia's mobility wouldn't be enough to outrun them.
Yet Alicia, unbothered by Enoch's worries, bounded from tree trunk to tree trunk at a gale's speed.
Because they were skimming so narrowly past the great trees, coarse leaves and small branches lashed past his cheeks.
As Alicia made a large jump, a flash of light suddenly flickered out from between the trees ahead of them.
Five flying-type magical beasts emerged head-on and came barreling at them.
"Ah, the magical beasts……!"
Alicia's urgent cry rang at his ear. Even before he could think that these must have been flying-type specimens stationed on the outskirts, the enemy was upon them.
And to make matters worse, since she was supporting Enoch, Alicia had slung her lance onto her back. A counterattack was impossible.
Just then, from the side, a sharp whistle cut through the air, and a silver beam bisected his view along a diagonal line. It wrapped rapidly around all the enemies at once and bound their wings up tight.
The moment the enemies lost their ability to fly and became defenseless, a second wire was launched. Silver wires that shredded in every direction like a blender raged about in a tempest, cleanly grinding the enemies to pieces.
The terrifying skill that struck down enemies mid-flight with pinpoint accuracy and brought them to their deaths sent a chill down his spine.
Turning toward the direction the wires had come from, he saw Lien — in her maid dress — sprinting along the trunk of a tall tree and making a great leap.
Her maid-dress skirt fluttered as she landed silently on the ground in front of them.
When Alicia — supporting Enoch by the shoulder — touched down, Lien said nothing, just stared at Enoch for a moment. For some reason, her expression turned slightly displeased.
Then, with cool eyes, she snapped her head to the side. Her long silver hair swayed coldly.
"This way. I have secured a retreat route."
"Ma, Maid! Thank you!!"
Alicia turned a wide smile toward her, her face brightening with relief.
Lien turned her head and glanced back behind them.
"Lady Alicia, please continue to support the Young Master. I shall clear the way at the front."
Lien lowered her gaze slightly, looking at Enoch — still being held upright — once, and quietly added,
"Surely, if it is the Young Master, you must already have prepared a means of escape."
At Lien's eyes seeking affirmation, Enoch silently nodded. He certainly had a method in mind.
From there, they dodged the enemies' pursuit through tens of minutes of urgent, high-speed movement.
Retracing the path they had come, a full one-eighty, the moment they broke free from the forest, the overcast sky, the drizzling rain, and the riverbank they had passed through earlier appeared below.
"There, behind that waterfall — there's a small cave!"
The place Enoch pointed to was the waterfall downstream from their current position.
"Understood!"
Alicia didn't so much as glance over, but as proof that she'd understood his intent, she suppressed her landing impact and sharply changed direction toward the waterfall.
Reaching the sky just in front of the waterfall in just three leaps, she looked at Enoch, nodded, and released her grip in midair.
Making use of his remaining momentum, Enoch tumbled through the air, spinning vertically twice in quick succession, and touched down on the ground — his heels dragging as he slid backward into a landing.
He dropped at once to one knee and let out a heavy breath.
Thanks to Alicia's help, his physical stamina was essentially untouched, but since intense actions were now directly tied to his mental fortitude, he needed to settle his breathing first.
"Young Master. Are you alright?"
Just then, a familiar voice rang at his ear. Glancing up, Lien had come up beside him and was peering down at Enoch as though it were the most natural thing in the world.
Staring absently at her greenish-blue eyes gazing at him from beneath the silver bangs, Enoch slowly nodded.
"……Let's go."
Lien, as if she'd been waiting for it, wordlessly extended her arm toward him. Enoch took her hand.
At the sensation of the skin of Lien's slender hand and her slightly cool body temperature, his mind cleared.
Hearing the rumble of pursuers resounding behind them, he gripped Lien's hand desperately and rose, passing through the narrow path behind the plunge pool and slamming through the curtain of spray.
Together with Lien, he slipped straight into the cave and hid.
Not even five seconds later, Alicia — reduced to a drowned-rat state — came dashing in, still gripping her lance.
"C, can we really hide in here and shake them off?"
"It's our only option."
"B, but! If they find us, our escape route is…!"
"Lady Alicia, with apologies. For now, silence."
At Lien's cool warning, Alicia flinched, pressed her mouth shut, and fell silent with a somewhat anxious look.
After that, the three of them hid in the cramped cave, breathing as quietly as they could, without a word.
The fine, shallow rise and fall of Enoch's shoulders gradually steadied. In contrast, the vibration of the ground caused by the experimental magical beasts was growing louder and clearer, shaking the world itself.
In front of them was the thundering curtain of the waterfall, and thanks to the rain, they wouldn't be tracked by scent. Enoch calmly looked upward.
Before long, the wailing cries passed by on their flank as the massive host of experimental magical beasts swept right past them. It didn't feel like being alive.
The cries echoed and receded beyond the waterfall via the Doppler effect. Just as he was about to breathe a sigh of relief, THUD — the ground shook heavily, and Alicia nearly tumbled toward the plunge pool. Enoch threw out both arms and caught her.
Pulling her up while enduring dizziness, once again came the thud. He burned up and his legs trembled. Cold sweat rose.
This time, an impossibly enormous experimental magical beast was walking toward them.
[The code name assigned to the currently present Monarch Class Experimental Subject leader is Anarchilon.]
Shepherd's words flashed through his mind.
Don't tell me, was this it?
The enemies' supreme commander, the Monarch Class specimen, Anarchilon.
With each low, deep breath the creature exhaled, the air shuddered, and the smell of soil and trees being torn up by some huge thing rushed at his nose.
It was the beast. Though he couldn't see its whole form, by its overwhelming presence he could tell it had come.
Right above the massive waterfall where Enoch's party was hidden, an indescribable, gigantic presence had settled.
What exactly did it look like?
His thoughts chased after each other.
He had seen it once during the previous battle, but that had only been distant silhouettes or movement through a nighttime field; only its most distinctive features had been visible.
He had never truly seen it up close and clearly.
Enoch looked down at Alicia, still held in his arms from where he'd pulled her up.
The pleading expression of Alicia — who had clasped both her hands in front of her chest within his arms — was easy enough to read.
Why's it doing that? What's it doing? Please, hurry up and go. Why isn't it moving?
Enoch, too, clenched his fist to keep from losing his composure. Could it be that it had noticed their location?
Just then the waterfall in front of them split apart with a crack, and something enormous jabbed into the plunge pool, sending a violent shockwave through the cavern.
For an instant, he thought a stone pillar had been rammed down from the sky.
It wasn't that. It was a leg.
One of the experimental magical beast's thick, massive legs had happened to stomp down into the pool. From that, it seemed it had not yet noticed their presence.
Enoch pressed his back flat against the cave wall. Before long, the enormous leg that had struck the plunge pool was lifted up, and the footfalls gradually receded.
Enoch sank down slowly against the cave wall.
Two hours passed from then, and while magical beasts approached intermittently, nothing reached the peril of Anarchilon's presence.
Wherever it had gone, now nothing could be heard but the sound of the flowing waterfall.
But now that they'd been spotted once, overall vigilance would be heightened. If they were detected again, the chance of escaping without engaging — as they had this time — was slim to none.
The three of them agreed to stay put here, without moving, until nightfall.
After waiting several more hours, the leaden sky — already overcast — had changed in the blink of an eye to deep blue, to dark navy, and now had turned to pitch-black darkness.
Then, beyond the stream of the waterfall, against the darkening sky, he spotted something towering glowing in his view.
Tracing it with his eyes, it seemed to be the location where Indiviltal had been. From there, a translucent pillar of light rose straight from the ground into the sky, visible even from here.
How lethal that effect had been to their side, Enoch knew well, and yet the sight was startlingly beautiful enough to strike him anew.
Just then, a small voice whispered beside him.
"Ah, that. Indiviltal's magic… yeah."
Glancing over, Alicia was sitting right in front of him inside the cave, hugging her knees and watching the sky.
Even she might not be able to see the flow of mana spread out like a thin spiderweb, but she had evidently seen the immense pillar the mana's concentration formed.
Then again, even at this distance, the magic circle was condensed enough in mana to be clearly visible.
Alicia watched the sky for a while, then tilted her head, seeming somewhat puzzled.
"But we definitely took care of Indiviltal. So why is that magic circle still…"
"Even though the caster died, residual mana remained in the magic circle itself, so it's still being maintained. It's barely holding its shape, though."
"Barely its shape?"
"Yes. It was an extensively deployed spell in the first place. But with the caster dead, it won't last long. It'll dissipate soon."
Enoch said that casually, then glanced at Alicia, whose eyes had gone wide beside him.
"What? Why that expression?"
"Ah! I, it's nothing! It's just that I was thinking, Lord Enoch, you really are knowledgeable about magic!"
"Is that so surprising?"
"Yes! Of course it is!"
Alicia looked intently at Enoch with her innocent expression, tilting her head.
And in the next moment, she asked in a voice so clear it sent a chill down Enoch's spine.
"Honestly, it's almost hard to understand why everyone thought of you as a non-mage before, Direct Lineage!"