Chapter 210: ...Claw's Nest (11)

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We were running through the tunnels.

It was a disquieting experience.  Compared to the outside, which bustled with the wind howling in your ears when running at this speed; down here, where the air was still, it was quiet except for our grieves pounding against the floors of the spire.

We had fully escaped the tunnel system, and starting to see stairs.  These were no longer cavernous corridors with unpaved dirt, but more and more obsidian bricks made the way.

We were in the Spire.

Lety led the way, holding the compass in hand.

“Lock, is it me or are we going in circles?”  Kyrian asked.  I’m sure he wanted to whisper, but he was riding on top of Freier’s mount, holding on for dear life behind her.  As it was, he ended up yelling it.  A subtle message to me that he suspected that L’teya might be going in the wrong direction.

L’teya either didn’t hear, pretended not to hear, or didn’t care.

He was right.  We’ve been going in circles.

“Lety,”  I sped up, keeping pace next to her easily.  “Where’s the compass leading?”

“Slaveborn, the needle keeps spinning.”  She whined.

She couldn’t be serious.

“Damn it, tell me that earlier.”  I snapped, then speaking loud enough for Freier and Kyrian’s benefit, “Look for a way upstairs.”

“Why not downstairs?”  Lety asked.

“We just came from there, Barbarian.”  Freier chided, but the hooded priestess’ head was already turning around and searching for a way up.

“Over there, around the corner.”  Kyrian pointed, “There’s another hallway.”

I saw it.

“I’m taking point.”  I snatched the compass out of Lety’s hands and immediately sped up.

Turning the corner was a set of stairs.  I didn’t need the compass anymore.

I was hearing the sound of steel ringing…

The buried thoughts bubbled to the surface of my mind.  A feeling that I tried to deny, because in all my life I’ve never dared to have such a thing.  In MSS, there’s nothing as deadly as hope.  Because it kills, it crushes.  It’s what makes people stop playing.

It’s what makes people make stupid decisions.  Something as soft as this leads to the devastation of a Game Over, a Total Party Kill.

It’s called Hope.

I climbed the stairs two and three at a time, leaping over the last five with a burst of strength in my legs.  Exploding out of the small doorway, I took in the sight.

A huge auditorium, each side flattened into a wall, stretching towards the sky-high ceiling in a perfect square.  The floors were sloping down into the center, where another miniature rectangular piece of flattened ground was.  Halfway towards the ceiling, there were stage-sections filled with chairs –a mezzanine.

This wasn’t an auditorium.  This was a theatre.  So that no matter where you were in the room, the centerpiece, the chalice, was in view.  Spread out all across the first floor of the room were multiple entrances.  Dozens of them, equidistant from each other, all leading up here.

In the center of the room was a chalice.  It was about as tall as a grown man –maybe six feet, give or take– made of clear crystal, and was, for sure, the gimmick of  this room.

I was alerted by the footsteps that the rest of them had arrived.

“What… there’s nobody here.”  L’teya reached for the compass in my hand and I gave it to her.  Like a kid with a toy, she happily took it and began lifting it up.  “I thought I heard something.”

“I didn’t hear anything.”  Kyrian said, his eyes searching.  “Lock, those other entrances.”

“They’re all from downstairs.  This must be a chokepoint in the dungeon.  If we want to go higher,”  I hooked my thumb, pointing upwards, “We have to get through this room.”

The question was, what was the gimmick in this room?

I knew a lot.  It’s not farfetched to say I know everything there is about the MSS game.  But the world that I transmigrated to wasn’t the same as the game.  There were minute differences, subtle changes and big ones that rendered my knowledge useless at times.  I’ve been to Claw’s Nest before… but that was when the Autarch was still alive.

It had obviously changed since then.

Before, this room had been a simple boss fight.

I’d never seen this chalice before.

Not to mention…

“There were people here before us.  I heard it.”  Gods damn it, just where were my comrades?

Kyrian must have felt it too.  He put a hand on my shoulder.  “Let’s do what we can first.”

Words I say to myself again and again.  Focus on the task in front of me.

Of all the things I could do, what was the thing I should do?

Advance.

“Ok.  Let’s approach it.  Slowly.”  I muttered and as one group, the four of us slinked forward.

Right as I took a step forward, I forced all the weight I could onto my toes and threw myself towards my back.

In the same moment, an arbalest bolt embedded itself into the floor, passing through the air where my knee had been.

Immediately, I scrambled for cover while trying to yell at the top of my lungs.  But L’teya had been right behind me and we ended up in a tangle of limbs.  The loss of direction was almost deadly, as the air thrummed half a dozen more times as more bolts found themselves into the floor.

Then as I got to my feet, it began to drizzle.

｢Stolen Stars fall Silently casts [Spring Rain] ｣

｢It is now raining. ｣

I imagined the blue system window flashing the words that accompanied the [Nyeolbi] Core’s [Spring Rain] ability: [It is now raining].

And I got a chill.

[Spring Rain] can mean many things.  A drizzle.  A sudden downpour.  It’s a season where the cold front recedes and the warm summer winds start to take over.  A war between the two fronts…

And in some parts of the world, Earth, where I come from…

The drizzle instantly ramped up into a complete monsoon.

Water fell as if someone had opened up the sky.  It was the type of rain that would make cars slow down to a complete halt.  The one where you can’t see anything because the splashes against your window create enough of an aquatic curtain to shut off visibility; where no man built automobile lights can pierce through.  The type of downpour that could rip through umbrellas and clothes –the kind that hurts when it hits the top of your head.

This isn’t something [Dark Vision] can pierce through.

It’s a wall of water.

The sound of rain drowned out Lety’s scream as an arbalest bolt found itself embedded in her thigh.

“GGGGRRRAAAAHHH!”

L’teya’s scream turned into a roar as the elf barbarian’s body turned into stone.  She grabbed the bolt and snapped it off, plucking it out in one swoop.  She got up, looking left and right but her red hair was soaked and matted all over her face.

I tucked into a ball and rolled.

The rain had completely shut off visibility and sound.

[Sight] and [Hearing] stats were of no use here…

Unless you were truly, truly, truly exceptional.

An arbalest bolt bounced off of Lety’s head.  If she didn’t have the stone skin over her, she’d be dead.

And as talented as Stole was, the L’teya I knew was just as talented.

The barbarian didn’t need to see.  Overcome with sudden rage, the redhaired elf woman immediately pivoted and charged in –what seemed to me– a random direction.

“LETY DON’T KILL HER!”

Even while I screamed, I stayed down on the ground.

Fuck.  No visibility meant no [Share the Load].  No [Share the Load] meant no opening sequence to get my buff-chains started.  Which meant no [Defense] buffs to shrug off Stole’s bolts.

A small corner of my mind swelled with pride.

She was alive.

And she had become strong.

Not just strong.

But dangerous.

As my mind wandered over thoughts completely inappropriate for battle, the rain began to dwindle down.  At first, to a regular downpour, then to a drizzle and then it completely stopped.

First thing’s first.  

“Kyrian!”

“I’m here, Lock.”  

His voice came from way behind me.  Freier’s black-winged lion came paddling out, looking much smaller than before because all of its fur was soaked.  It sneezed once with a mournful look at its master. 

Freier’s dress clung to her.

I pried my eyes off of her and checked Kyrian.  He too, was uninjured, albeit looking overdressed for the pool and his friends threw him in.

Freier must’ve sensed the danger immediately, and run back into the tunnels where the stairs were.  Smart thinking.  Stole wouldn’t be able to shoot there.

“Slaveborn!”  Lety’s voice.

Lety had somehow jumped up to the mezzanine floor, despite the everything being slippery.  She was breathing hard, the muscles on her back standing out and throbbing with each breath.  The elf barbarian had a battleaxe in each hand, and stood facing out attacker.

Stole wore the same black-leather armor I’d seen her in last.  She had her teeth bared in a snarl, the too-big arbalest leaned against the wall behind her, and its bolt pointed at L’teya.

“Back off, Elf.”  She growled, a certain feral quality creeping into the vowels, “Or this goes through your head.”

L’teya leaned her head to the left and right, cracking it.  “My skin’s made of stone, dummy.”

“Your eye is not.”  Stole shot back.

“Yes it is.”  Lety countered.

Before it could get worse, I yelled out, “Stole.  Lower your arbalest.”

Upon hearing my voice, I saw a dozen emotions shift through the young beastgirl’s face.  Relief? Worry?  Distrust?  Then at last, it hardened.

“Nice try.  I don’t know who you are, but that’s a good impression.”  Stole spoke without taking her eyes off of L’teya.

Good.  Because the moment I spoke, L’teya’s calves flexed.  L’teya was ready to overpower the girl the moment she became distracted.

“Stole, it’s really me.”

“Oh really?  Then why are you traveling with her?”  She jerked her chin towards L’teya.  “Or better yet, her?”  Another jerk towards Freier.

“Stole,”  Kyrian got off of the mount and Freier immediately dismissed it.  “It’s me.  Kyrian.”

This time, Stole’s eyes did waver as it checked our faces.  Once more, L’teya’s legs flexed with power then stopped at the tone in Stole’s voice.

“...Kyrian?  Mister?”

And my heart fucking broke.

Those two words were contained everything that a teenager girl, who should be in high school for God’s sake, had experienced in the last three days while being forced to survive for herself.

And I knew.  I knew.

She’d killed.  She had to have killed.

She aimed at our heads.  

Not only had she killed, she’d killed a lot.

It would’ve been her first time killing.

People think, just because we’re MSS denizens that we’re used to killing.  Yes.  Maybe.

But kids?

They’re just like kids back on earth.

No one’s born a murderer.

“Stole, it’s me.”  I whispered and as proof, activated [King’s Guard].

For adventurers, it’s common to try and deceive one another with disguises.  There are plenty of Cores that allow you to do that.

One of the best ways to get rid of that suspicion is to show your party member a Core ability.  Because chances are, your opponent didn’t prepare that far ahead.  Especially if you own a very rare core, like the [Royal Oni] was.

“I’d summon some lightning but, well, I think she believes us now.”  Kyrian joked.

He didn’t need to.  She raced down the stairs and flung herself at us.

Finally, I found one of my comrades.

And she was alive.