Chapter 613 - At the Bottom of the Earth
It's one thing for cracks to form and the ground to split, but for the floor to shatter and for us to fall means there's a large space below. That much is obvious, but—
"What kind of structure is this place…?!"
"I dunno, but it was kinda like this when I was coming back up!"
"There's a lot you don't know, huh?!"
Thrown from the chamber as not just the floor but the entire ceiling shattered at once, we descended through a massive vertical shaft, accompanied by the boss area's remains. The scale was so ridiculous that the term “great cavern” didn't even begin to cover it.
Of course, underground, where no sunlight reaches, it should have been pitch black.
The only reason we had any visibility on the way here and in the boss room was because the dragons' shells, which shared properties with the Gemlant Army, were acting as light sources. Even now, the ones falling with us were illuminating our immediate vicinity, but the inky blackness of the bottom was completely out of sight.
"Hey, how far does this go—"
Even for someone who can leap through the air, I need an accurate sense of distance to the ground to avoid an accident on landing. If the environment is the same as what Lux traversed, then there must be another layer below… but just as my urgent question formed, the sound of wind cut me off.
"Hup!"
Effortless and chantless, as always. Lux, wielding the special player skill that belongs to the highest tier of techniques, activated her magic with a single shout, stirring up a gale.
It caught the massive amount of rubble accompanying us on our journey to the bottom of the earth. The treasure-shelled light sources were launched downwards at high speed, their faint glow illuminating the path ahead—ah, I see it.
And now, I can see that too.
"Tch…—Sen!"
"Uwah?!"
As we fell, I shot a shadow thread at my self-proclaimed backup, who had been separated from me, and pulled her close. At the same time, I pinned her against my barely-movable right arm.
She was going on about being a lady, but that must have been my imagination. Securing the [Traveler] rather unceremoniously, like a sack of rice…
Ignite [Rocket]. And activate [Eyes Oculus].
The moment I kicked off the void towards the endpoint I'd spotted, a brilliant light, incomparable to the faint glow of the shells, raced through the vertical shaft.
Falling amongst the rubble was another—no, four other companions. A passionate approach from the party of [Feidran Tyrantinus], who seemed furious about their nest being destroyed.
To put it mildly, it was a scene from hell.
The countless spreading lasers fired from four cannons filled the shaft, a sight that even I would have found impossible to dodge without the attack prediction of my silver eye… and I had but one thought.
"You… how did you manage to do this three times and get through unscathed?!"
"Well, it's not like I fought them for real, so they weren't this worked up, and… hey, Har-kun, I'm a girl, you know. Isn't this a little rough?"
"You'll bite your tongue, so keep your mouth shut!"
Kicking off the air, kicking off rubble, kicking off the walls in a pinball-like maneuver.
While Lux, nestled in my arm, complained but still let out a carefree voice as if to say, “I’m safe now,” I was desperately trying to control my body, which was far from its best condition after a life-or-death battle.
And so, after what felt like a dozen seconds of dancing through the air as we fell from top to bottom,
"Which way?!"
"That way!"
I kicked off the final floor I had firmly landed on and leaped into the darkness of a horizontal tunnel, a crack in the wall far too large to be called a mere fissure. A few seconds later,
a sound and impact so intense it could have knocked a person in the real world unconscious exploded behind us. The mass of four great dragons shook the earth, and the rage of four great dragons vibrated through the air—
"They're… coming, aren't they?!"
The earth-shaking footsteps of four great dragons began to charge after their fleeing foe.
"What's with them, suddenly best friends?! They should be fighting like they were before!"
"Ah, that's just how it is. The master of a room seems to be completely intolerant of any 'intruders,' even of the same species. If you lead another one in, they'll turn on it in order of threat level, but after the room is destroyed, they all come at you like, 'This is your fault!'…"
"A perfectly reasonable accusation!"
They must be too preoccupied with chasing the hated pests, because they weren't using the 'eye' attack that forces them to stop. That was the biggest relief of all.
Whether they lacked the intelligence for one to pin me down while the others attacked, or they were just blinded by rage, I couldn't be sure—but either way, it was convenient.
Don't think you can catch me in a simple game of tag, you moles!
"So?! Is this just going to repeat forever?!"
"No way! The path is shining super bright! This is probably—"
As we raced through the vast horizontal tunnel, leaving the tsunami of pursuing dragons further and further behind, Lux, still attached to my right arm, cut herself off mid-sentence.
The silence was brief.
"—Har-kun, here! Down!"
She tugged on my clothes to stop me and pointed directly below.
"What's down?!"
"We're going down! Break through the floor!"
"Tch… If you say so…"
I tossed Lux aside and simultaneously summoned the massive weight of [Gravidon]. With the cheat-like power of [Naraka Gandharva], I threw it straight up with just my left hand and connected it with a shadow thread.
Ignite [Ignition]. And furthermore—
"Then that means I can break it!"
From just below the ceiling, the monstrous warhammer was slammed down by the retracting thread. The moment it touched the ground, I pulled the trigger on the handle with my shadow-thread fingers, activating the weapon's [Ignition] gimmick. The sound was less than the earlier collapses, but I was confident the focused impact was greater. The heavy blow exploded, and,
"Sen…!"
"I said, stop being so rough!"
I re-secured Lux to my right arm, shielding her from the flying debris, and plunged further down.
Swallowed by the hole the warhammer had smashed through the floor, our bodies, once again airborne,
were bathed not in darkness, but in a dazzling light.
""……""
An abnormal situation: even the [Traveler] was, along with me, rendered speechless.
We had broken through what was truly the final floor and reached the lowest level. The scale of the caves, chambers, and passages we had been through seemed minuscule in comparison. It was an otherworldly vastness.
A ridiculously huge space that rivaled, or perhaps even surpassed, the great craters where the Colored monsters sat.
We, had an audience with it.
Even though we were looking down from mid-air after breaking through the ceiling, we knew with certainty that we were in the presence of something superior.
It was, for lack of a better word, an egg—no, that's not right.
A cocoon—no, there's a more fitting expression.
A being that was alive in its entirety,
a body that pulsed as if awaiting its emergence. Its form was—
"A chrysalis…?"
Lux's dazed whisper was likely the correct answer.
A majestic, pale green form that filled the underground space, which must have been several kilometers in diameter.
And so, as the tiny players held their breath, consumed by its presence, into their vision—
[Novem, Dragon of the Earth's Command]
—the name of that being was displayed, cold and mechanical, by the system.