"Demon King, Tell Them My Dying Wish" V7 Chapter 4 - Leaping Into The Light
"I bring forth, a tiny spirit!"
In response to his call a new little will-o-the-wisp appeared with a poof. It rose abruptly in the darkness, spreading branches of light to the blackened space that had so strongly oppressed itself. It wasn't very bright. About the same as a portable gas lamp, but it illuminated the darkened space nevertheless.
At the same time, he reached the bottom of the hole.
He let go of the rope — and jumped down. The floor was the same as the backstage floorboards above. In other words, the lid had fallen down the pit, too, and ended up on the floor. Fredin's corpse lay in the corner. It was completely crushed from falling from such a considerable height.
Orphen turned away from it — his back now facing him — and mumbled.
"You can get off now."
"Huh? Oh yeah?
Mädchen, who'd probably kept her eyes completely closed until now, suddenly realized the same thing and spoke up. She hurriedly jumped off his back.
Orphen rolled his stiff shoulders and looked up at the top of the hole.
Then he shouted.
"We're down!"
The voice seemed to bounce off the walls and reach all the way to the top. After a while, there was a brief exchange of words above — The rope was pulled hard, just once, and then began to swing periodically. Majic was starting to head down.
"... Fredin. Poor guy."
He heard Mädchen mutter. He looked over and saw her standing beside the corpse, a helpless look on her face.
"He was a skilled partner. They all were."
Orphen didn't understand what she was trying to say, or who she was trying to explain this to in the first place. When he looked at her, she was staring at him intently. It was like she was demanding an answer.
"Oh, uh..."
Orphen coughed, nodding vaguely.
"It wasn't your guys' fault."
He told her as he looked around.
There was a small side passageway opening out from the bottom of the hole. There was no light at the back, and it was closed off by the darkness.
"I..."
Orphen turned his head in the direction of Mädchen's voice. She continued to observe the wisp floating in the air.
"I don't know how I could possibly explain being the only one not slaughtered."
He wanted to say something, but he knew he shouldn't.
Still, Orphen suddenly had a flash of inspiration. For the time being, it'd be better to turn their conversation in a practical direction.
"Hey — You—, no, Mädchen. Where did you get your intel about this theater?"
"In town. I bought it. I can't tell you more than that."
"No, I don't really care, just... Did they tell you anything about it when you bought the information? Like what the origin of the theater is, or...?"
"I know the origin... or the story, as, well, anyone would know it. The theater was built for the performance of the famous play, "The Demon King," and when invited to the performance, the leader of the then Aristocratic Federation — the king — for some reason ordered the theater to be closed."
"But then the king ordered the theater to be torn down. Didn't you think that it was strange that it was still here?"
"I don't know—"
Mädchen let out a small sigh and straightened her head.
"That's just how legends about relics tend to go. People say they don't exist, but they're just sitting out there somewhere. So I didn't pay much attention to it. After all, it was 200 years ago, so even if the real Kamisunda Theater had been torn down, it may've been rebuilt in later generations..."
"... Well, maybe so..."
Once satisfied, Orphen continued.
"Did you know that this underground section was here?"
"No, my informant only said that there was something secret about it."
"Is that really all you needed? What kind of tomb raider are you?"
When Orphen raised his eyebrows, she lightly shrugged her shoulders, as if she didn't care.
"There's no way there'd be any treasure left in a ruin that's already been investigated."
"Maybe you're right, but..."
As he answered, Orphen took another look around. The actual depth of this vertical hole was about twenty to twenty-five meters if you counted backwards from the length of rope left over at the bottom of the hole.
"So this is an untouched ruin... It's going to be more troublesome than I thought, isn't it??"
With a click of his tongue, Orphen ruffled his hair.
Mädchen asked curiously.
"...Troublesome?"
"Of course — or maybe you don't know that. There've been many items left behind by the Celestials, things that go beyond the control of human beings. Up until now there've even been quite a few of them that could even wipe out an entire trained research team."
"............"
Mädchen didn't answer. Nodding to her, Orphen continued.
"I'm not an expert on the use or production of Celestial creations, so if I found one, I wouldn't know how to use it. I wouldn't even know what kind of effect it'd have — and I can't read the Wyrd Graphs either. I don't want to tango with something that might explode in the sunlight."
"You don't aspire for much..."
There wasn't a hair of tension in her voice when she said it — and Orphen looked away, more than a little annoyed.
"In any case, I'd rather just go home. Think of a good way out of here."
He said casually. Then, at the same time—
He felt a vague sense of unease, as if a white mist was rising in his chest. Orphen quickly shoved Mädchen away and ducked in the opposite direction, then looking up, he braced himself.
The light couldn't reach far enough. In other words, he couldn't see the ceiling when he looked up. Instead, all that spread out across his vision was a singular blackness — total darkness. Something was falling from the ceiling...
"AAAAAAAAHHHH!"
THUD!...
The impact vibrated throughout the bottom of the pit. It was Majic. After bracing himself for a moment, his legs numb from the impact, he suddenly raised his head.
"What were you thinking, Cleao!?"
The boy shouted up into the pit, and got an immediate answer.
"It's your fault for being so slow!"
Almost at soon as the boy had spoken, Cleao came down the rope. She landed with a light thud, and soon after, Leki came down, too. The black dragon deftly landed on top of Cleao's head.
Cleao pointed a finger at Majic and screamed.
"Orphen would be in danger if we left him alone with such an untrustworthy woman!"
"Free-falling five meters is dangerous enough for me!"
"... I should've just left them and moved on..."
Orphen grumbled with narrowed eyes as he turned his gaze away. He looked to the back of the passageway, illuminated by the demon fire. It was glowing a pale blue, like a ghostly gateway.
And suddenly he realized — for the first time. The entrance to the passage was a semicircle with a flat surface underneath. It was the silhouette of a dome. The passage itself seemed to continue in that shape. It was quite high, maybe three meters to the ceiling. At the top of the entrance there was a small plate.
Something was written on the rusty copper plate in a language now referred to as the ancient Kiesalhiman dialect. Orphen furrowed his brow and pulled the meaning of the words from his memory. He didn't have a clue about the grammar, but understood the words.
It read "Kamisunda Underground Theater." and two more words after that. "Sorting Corridor."
He couldn't help but recall the earlier example, about how everyday items that meant nothing to the Celestials could be...
If there were a light source that could function eternally and permanently without the need for gas or anything else, its value would be immeasurable. However, the Celestials could create such things even in their sleep.
The sorcery wielded by these women possessed such immense power.
If they were to create a weapon, it went without saying that it'd be quite dangerous.
Such was the significance of those words.
"As I said earlier, if the plaque was right and this were just a theater, underground or otherwise, there wouldn't be anything dangerous left here. Yet even still, there might be some magical safe guards left behind."
"What would happen...?"
Mädchen asked. Orphen replied in disgust.
"The so-called 'Dolls' created by the sorcery of the heavenly beings are inflexible. There are actually combat dolls ordered to kill sorcerers, but what if... such a doll were to remain intact, it would never forget those orders, no matter how many hundreds of years had passed since it was created. And the trouble is, they're inflexible, but they're also strangely intelligent. If the security dolls were still around, they'd do everything in their power to keep us out of the theater if we hadn't paid our admission fee — although I don't know if their vision of "removing us" would be to simply chase us out of the theater or to fold up our dead bodies and pickle them overnight in salt."
"I see..."
Mädchen nodded with a tone that didn't quite convey the crisis. He looked back into her eyes and suddenly had the urge to grab her by the head and shake her — but he managed to refrain. There'd be no point.
"The doll from earlier was probably a servant doll or something like that. That's why it had such a strange selection of Wyrd Graphs, like one that only made fire, or to transfer someone else's wounds to you. On the other hand, even such a simple doll held such incredible power. So there's utterly no point in fighting against a doll made for the thick of war."
Orphen added gloomily.
"Anyway, me and these Celestial Dolls just don't get along. Every time I run into them I get nothing but trou—"
Then—
Just as he was about to say that, Orphen bumped into something — when he looked he saw Majic had suddenly stopped. He couldn't see his expression since he was walking behind him, but he could tell the muscles in his back were stiff and rigid. He took half a step backward, reacting to the collision, and Cleao was standing there forming a wall with him.
"Why the hell'd you stop all of a sudden?"
Orphen complained, walking around to look at their faces. The wisp was in front of the group so that it could illuminate up ahead, making it look like he jumped into the light. When he looked at their faces—
"............?"
Orphen was stunned. Both Majic and Cleao's eyes were completely unfocused. They stood there like scarecrows, unbalanced, their mouths gaping open and their breathing slow and deep, as if they were sleeping...
A moment later, something flashed through his mind.
He turned and braced himself for the darkness beyond, illuminated by the pale blue glow — looking ahead of them to where the wisp was drifting along. Crouching down and sticking out his right hand, he shouted.
"I release, the Sword of Light!"
The white light burst forth, dancing in the space a few centimeters beyond his outstretched fingertip — the brilliance tore through the darkness in a straight line, leaping ahead in an instant. The photothermal wave pierced the darkness as it charged forwards, vibrating as if it was creating wakes in the passageway.
Then there was an explosion—
If it had hit its target, it would've been set ablaze. However, even though the sounds and vibrations of the explosion echoed out, the shockwave, which had turned to flames, disappeared as if enveloped by the darkness. But,
"Gyaaaaahhh...!"
Amidst the noise of the explosion, he heard a faint scream. He looked up. There was a response. The very next moment the sobs had already been replaced by the silence.
"W-what was that?"
Mädchen spoke up behind him. Without looking back, Orphen quietly held up his index finger.
"Quiet."
He whispered, his ears perking up.
Tmp, tmp, tmp... He heard the footsteps receded away from them, growing smaller and more distant — and then they disappeared all together.
"Did he just run away?"
Whoom. At that moment, Majic dropped, as if he'd been shot.
"!? — It hurts..."
He lost his balance and fell. Cleao managed to stay standing, but blinked her eyes in wonder. The only thing that happened when she almost fell was that Leki nearly slid off her head, and now flailed and struggled to hang on.
"Wh... What happened? Just now..."
"It's simple mind control, something that Dolls created by the Celestials often use."
Orphen answered bluntly and straightened up. He glanced toward the end of the hallway where the footsteps had disappeared.
"Thank god it wasn't that strong. When it comes to the more powerful dolls, they can take control of a large crowd in an instant. If it'd been different we would've been wiped out."
"Wiped out?"
Majic's eyes turned white in surprise. He gritted his teeth in frustration, then took a deep breath and continued.
"Damn — it—! It's not safe here! I've been telling you over and over, it's dangerous, it's dangerous, it's dangerous, it's dangerous, it's dangerous, it's dangerous, it's dangerous, it's dangerous, it's dangerous, it's dangerous, it's dangerous and again—"
Then, as if she couldn't hold her breath anymore, Cleao slipped up and surprisingly, she burst out laughing.
"But as long as we've got you, Orphen, I think we'll be all right—"
"I'm telling you, I don't have the nerves to stand up to those dolls forever!"
"Again though. Alenhatam seemed like such an easy victory. Even now, granted I didn't see it."
Orphen immediately snapped back at her carefree words.
"No — it — wasn't! There are different types of dolls! From the crude ones like Golems, which you might just be able to punch a hole through if you hit them with everything you've got, to the Killing Dolls, which I don't even have to explain! If we got jumped by a group of them, we'll be in over our heads!"
He ranted and stomped his feet, a hint of nervousness coming over both of their faces.
But then, their expressions easily changed from nervousness to disappointment.
"Why..."
Majic chuckled, and Cleao followed.
"How weak you must be, Orphen!"
Tch—
He could hear something twitching in the back of his mind. But — somehow, Orphen managed to maintain his self control, clenching his fist and smiling amiably.
"I-I'm not saying I can't do it. What I mean is, it's dangerous..."
"We're disappointed."
Cleao mumbled sullenly, posing with her hand on her cheek. Leki was, as usual, sitting on her blonde hair, scratching under his chin with his back foot.
Majic, of course, followed suit.
"I think I might want my money back—"
In spite of the muffled pop, like something fleshy had burst inside of his skull, he managed to calm himself again. Orphen, snapping his fingers, slowly crept closer to the two of them.
"B-but you see, it's not just that it's dangerous, it's that it's too dangerous — and you can't keep on living if you die..."
But they didn't seem to be listening.
"Yeah — but I'm so bored. My feet hurt. It's dark in here and it smells musty. Can't you do something about it—"
"Yeeeaaaahhh. What should I do? I'm paying a pretty sizable monthly tuition. How long do you think it'd take to get back to Taphrem if I leave now?"
Orphen calmly and with all his might grabbed Majic's chest and lifted him up. Then he shouted back and forth.
"This is me restraining myself!"
"... You're not even trying."
Mädchen calmly pointed out
"............"
With a snap, he stopped moving — without releasing his grip on Majic's chest — then closed his eyes. He inhaled deeply, paused, and exhaled slowly again.
After repeating the process three times, Orphen quietly mumbled.
"... I understand that, but this is just my nature, you know?"
"I don't think you're getting the point..."
He could hear Mädchen groaning with a troubled smile, but then she suddenly looked at him with a straight face.
"But that was a close call, wasn't it? You attacked them without even looking. What if that was one of my people who got separated standing up ahead of us there?"
"... It wasn't."
Orphen answered bluntly and dropped Majic. He turned to the monochromatic darkness of the passage, where no signs of it still remained, and closed his eyes.
He couldn't see through the darkness, but he could feel it.
"How do you know it wasn't?"
Mädchen asked him suspiciously. He opened his eyes in response.
Orphen nodded lightly.
"The photothermal wave that just hit that thing was three meters up in the air. It wouldn't have hit a human."
"Three... meters?"
Majic interjected, looking rather startled. His mouth twitched.
"Are they that big?"
"I don't know. Just—"
Orphen calmly replied as he put his hands on his hips. He spun the words slowly, trying to make himself clear.
"Just because it's big doesn't mean it's scary. If you're built for battle, it doesn't matter how big you are — after all, think of it this way. This is a theater, not a fortress. But then, why did the Celestials have to build this 'underground theater' under the above-ground theater? If we knew that..."
"So what if we knew?"
Cleao looked anxious, her face rather downcast. Orphen looked at her and, embraced by the darkness, answered calmly.
"Well. If we could figure that out, we'd automatically know what kind of danger to expect."
The passageway was a straight line. No matter how far they went, the walls and floors remained unchanged, without so much as a slope. He'd even counted the number of steps they'd taken, but gave up at eighty-seven because it was just too much trouble after all the commotion that'd just gone down. It didn't matter anyway.
He'd given in on the idea of proceeding — cautiously. They'd already been attacked once anyway.
He proceeded to pace himself, careful not to slow down his stride.
Then he gestured to the three people behind him — Stop. Then he stopped himself.
"Wait here."
"Huh!? But—"
But Orphen ignored their silence and ran. He lowered his stance as he did. Soon he passed by the wisp that'd preceded them and entered the darkness, but strangely enough, he wasn't anxious. He couldn't see anything, yet still didn't slow down. He closed his eyes once, and when he opened them, shades of gray appeared in his previously pitch-black vision. He'd been trained to be able to see at night, to some extent.
He continued to run in the darkness, relying somewhat on his intuition. He was starting to run out of breath — rather, he'd run for about ten seconds, maybe eighty meters.
Then he—
Stopped. He came to a complete stand still and looked behind him. In the far distance he could see the light of the wisp, and in its glow, could see the three figures.
Then, in silence, he caught his breath and waited patiently — watching the three of them. Eventually...
Without warning, another figure appeared in that light.
"GYAAAAHHH!?"
The three of them screamed as the figure suddenly appeared out of thin air, their voices echoing throughout the passageway.
"I knew it, you wanted to ambush us!"
With a click of his tongue, Orphen rushed off, this time in the opposite direction — back towards the three of them. Dashing as fast as he could, he wove his magical composition.
"I brandish!"
He focused his aim on the figure that appeared in the light.
"The Sword of the Devil!"
At the same time as his shout, a weight was placed in his right hand, as if he were actually holding a sword.
By that time, he'd already returned to the wisp. Illuminated by the light, he could clearly see the surprised expressions of all three of them and even the puppy, as well as the back of the new figure.
It was a doll. Just like the one he'd seen above — probably the same one.
"All right, you bastard!"
Orphen roared as he slammed the hollow sword in his hand against the doll's back. The sword exhibited extraordinary power from striking while he was dashing forward at such speed — and pierced through the doll's body.
"—!"
Without so much as a scream its body was thrown forward. The sword had completely pierced the doll's body and left a huge wound that could've cut it in two. The doll, when he put even more force into it, finally gave in to the force and collapsed on the spot.
At the same time, the effect of the sorcery was broken, and the weight of the hollow sword vanished from his hand. Then came Cleao's second scream.
"Eek—"
In half a second, it stopped. It stopped a little too abruptly.
"Wha...!?"
Before the chill could slither down his spine Orphen noticed a change in her expression. Her face, which was ready to scream, twitched as if in a fit — slowly losing its power and fading to a stunned expression. At the same time, Leki, who was on top of her head, blinked his eyes — puzzled by the fact that Cleao no longer seemed to possess her own will.
He looked down. The fallen doll was gripping her ankles, its eyes and mouth narrowed eerily, barely visible on its flat face. Then the doll's fingertips, smoothly and swiftly drew symbols of light on her ankle.
"Cleao!"
Majic screamed, but she didn't even respond.
"You!"
Orphen snapped, kicking the doll's wrist. The sturdy heel of his boots crushed the doll's slender arm. However, it didn't let go of her.
"You — bastard!"
The puppet's fingers loosened as he kicked it around two or three times.
Orphen shouted.
"Everyone, stand back!"
Majic and Mädchen blinked their eyes for a moment, as if they failed to understand the order, but seemed to react immediately after that. They looked up and flailed away from the scene in a panic.
He took a breath — a big one, to make up for shouting, and wove his magical composition. Then Orphen released his spell. He belted out his incantation as if to stab right through the fallen doll—
"Guide me, Deathcry Starling!"
Instantly, vibrational waves of great destructive force converged on the doll's wrist. The waves themselves weren't visible, but the audible noise made it clear that the doll's wrist was cracking in countless ways. Small fragments of it scattered all about. Numerous shallow lacerations also appeared on Cleao's leg, which the doll still clung to, but that couldn't be helped at this point.
The next strike of his heel shattered the doll's battered arm—
"Hiiiiiiiiiiiii!"
The doll writhed around, screaming and holding its broken arm, as if it could feel pain. As it rolled, an even bigger crack appeared deep in its torso, where he'd first struck it.
"I release, the Sword of—"
He wove the magical composition to fire a photothermal wave directly into the crack. A phosphorescent glow lit up his right hand as he raised it, shouting the incantation. At that moment—
"—!?"
Cleao, who was still standing at the edge of his field of vision, totally expressionless, suddenly disappeared. Leki along with her.
"Shit—!"
He clicked his tongue as he realized his blunder.
"Was that symbol you were writing just now a spatial transitioning spell!?"
The spike of emotion almost cut off the spell he was about to unleash. After Cleao had disappeared there was nothing left but the doll's broken arm. There was no trace of her. The dolls created by the Celestials were able to manipulate Wyrds— that is, written magic, at a similar level to the Celestials themselves, but if that were the case, the effective range of the transition spell was incredibly wide. If they made a mistake, she could've been suddenly transitioned 1,000 meters into the sky. Of course, they also could've buried her in a nearby wall.
"Where'd you send her?"
Orphen turned to the doll to ask, but at that time, the doll was already dragging itself by its elbows towards Majic and Mädchen, who were huddled close to each other, looking terrified... That also meant — it was ignoring him.
(This guy...)
Orphen was horrified as he looked down at the doll's chalky white back.
(I knew it. I'm not the one you're after...)
And then a scream from Mädchen interrupted his thoughts. That sob — just like the one Cleao had made earlier — abruptly cut off half-way through.
When he looked, both Mädchen and Majic were standing side by side, their expressions blank...
The doll continued to creep along, raising its unbroken arm to draw letters in the void. The trails traced by its fingers left a silvery sheen. The mysterious, runic letters gradually gained strength.
"Persistent...—"
Orphen mumbled bitterly. He caught up with the doll from behind and brought his heel down on the torso wound as hard as he could. With a dull thud, the doll's body broke. The Wyrd graphs it had drawn in the void fizzled out in that instant.
Quickly and silently, Orphen pulled a knife from his pocket. He held it in his opposite hand and, from behind, drove the blade into the back of the doll's rounded head — like a stake. When the sensation hit his arm it felt like he'd just stuck a spatula into hardened clay. The doll let out a loud scream.
He twisted the knife in his hand, continuing to gouge it. Perhaps the doll didn't have any vital points, internal organs and such, but it seemed to have an effect nonetheless, and the doll convulsed like a run-over snake. For a moment, the puppet flailed about, then gradually slowed down, and then, as if in a fit of rage, it began to scream.
Finally, it stopped moving completely.
There was a moment of silence. Then he looked up.
There stood Majic and Mädchen, side by side. The effects of the mental domination had worn off, and now they were shaking their heads, looking like they were sleepwalking. It was said that the more advanced and powerful mental domination was, the less physical fatigue would be felt after its application. He guessed from the pained looks on their faces that they weren't so masterfully controlled...
At that moment of relief, the two disappeared. Then at the same time, the collapsed doll also vanished.
"Wha...!"
He couldn't help but let out a cry of shock. The doll should've been completely destroyed, right? Even if it were still able to move, it shouldn't have had the strength left to teleport the two of them away. He looked down at his feet — at the floor where the doll had fallen — Orphen was stunned. There was no way to chase after it if it used spatial transition.
He thought of the last time he'd seen the doll...
Its body was split in two, a knife was plunged deep into its head, and it looked unfocused, staring off into the distance.
It was broken. It should have been broken.
(No way...)
With a start, Orphen turned around. He reached out his right hand and picked up the knife, which was the only thing left on the floor. He was more flustered than he'd expected, but he didn't drop it. He turned his back and sharpened his gaze—
The wisp was still floating in the distance. A huge figure stood waiting in the light, not even trying to hide.
"Is that the guy from earlier...!?"
Orphen, with a venomous grin, dropped to his haunches a little. He tilted his knife towards the enemy, exposing it towards their stomach.
The doll was almost as tall as the ceiling — nearly three meters. Despite being humanoid and of such height, it was rather stocky. In that respect, it was completely opposite of the doll he'd just destroyed. The arms and torso were thick. However, the hands were strangely small from the wrists down. Perhaps for the convenience of drawing the Wyrd Graphs.
The material of the body seemed the same, though. It had the sheen of hardened gelatin, but the luster of glass. Judging by the way it moved without any noticeable gimmicks in the joints, it probably wasn't a rigid material.
Part of his chest, which was about two meters off the floor, was covered in a thin layer of soot. It must've been caused by the first photothermal wave that'd hit the doll.
It stared down at him with narrowed eyes.
"... Well I'm fucked."
Orphen muttered to himself. Before, he'd managed to destroy the doll because he'd taken it by surprise from behind. However, there was little chance of winning a head-on battle with a doll that used the sorcery of the dragon race.
However, that wasn't the only reason he was so vexed.
The doll was standing in a way that almost blocked the passageway, but even so, it didn't fill that space to the brim. Through the gap between the doll's shoulder and the wall — he could see it. All the way down the passageway, standing in rows, were countless dolls of the same type.
(A dozen — no, maybe even dozens... of them.)
The space was so small that he probably couldn't be overrun, but there was no way he could deal with each and every one of them.
The huge size of the dolls made them seem less terrifying, but they were still eerie — and because of their size, it was unlikely that he'd be able to slip past them and get to the back. Looking up at the doll's face, Orphen suddenly realized that perhaps that was why they were shaped so strangely. In other words, they were built from the beginning to block the passageway...
As he stood unable to move, the doll in the lead mumbled in an indifferent tone,
"You have a choice."
"Life and death, huh?"
Orphen muttered back sarcastically. The dolls didn't take any notice of him, but simply continued their clarifications.
"Either we take you with us or you go on your own..."
"What the hell are you talking about!?"
What a ridiculous choice, he thought to himself — it was so obvious. For real, he was telling him that his choices were between being whisked away by spatial transitioning — wherever that may lead — or following along as he was told.
The doll, perhaps deciding that it didn't feel the need for an answer , said something else. Or maybe it had just memorized what it had to say, and said it was it was instructed.
"Do you not seek knowledge of the Flood of Manifestation?"
The doll's voice and expression showed no emotion, and it was impossible to guess what it really meant — Orphen asked back, suspiciously.
"What do you know about it...?"
The doll didn't answer. It only stared at him — with a creepy look to its eyes. Orphen, knowing that he was being asked a question, asked again.
"Aren't you going to answer my question?"
"... I can't, unless I know your true intentions."
"What intentions?"
"Do you not seek knowledge of the Flood of Manifestation?"
The doll repeated the previous question exactly as it had been spoken before, with the same inflection and speed.
(The Flood of... Manifestation?)
Even as he was ruminating over it in his chest he just couldn't drum up any recollection of such a thing — he recalled a few major floods in history, but that didn't seem to be what he meant.
(I'll just have to gamble then... right?)
Orphen nodded, ready to answer.
"Yes... I seek that knowledge."
"You're lying."
The doll replied instantly.
"You brought those humans with you."
"? — I'm human, too. Does that mean I'd have to come here alone?"
"You are not human. You're half Celestial."
"That may be so, but among us humans, it's basically the same thing!"
"The fact that you've brought humans with you only shows that you know nothing of the Manifestation."
The doll simply ignored the topic of the last few seconds — it was quite annoying, but now wasn't the time to get hung up on it. He had to get out.
"Where the hell did you take them — my friends!? My choice depends on your answer..."
"... The manufacturing room."
"The manufactu—huh?"
He skipped a beat from the other's reply, and then his voice turned hollow. He heard what he'd said, but didn't understand.
"The manufacturing room."
The doll reacted nonchalantly.
"Normally we'd kill intruders, however, one of our own were damaged in this battle. We must use humans as a base if we wish to make repairs..."
"What the hell!?"
Something popped in Orphen's head, and a moment later he was clutching the doll's body. Forgetting the knife in his hand entirely, he tried to push it over, but his opponent was so large that he couldn't even get his arms around it.
Not that it mattered, however. He slammed his hands against the doll's body and tried to release his spell at close range, or rather, point blank.
"I release—"
But by that time, a light flashed before his eyes. That light — it was silver. Like the graphs, an ornate symbol...
"You've made your choice."
The voice of the doll, emotionless to the end, still lingered in his ears. His magical composition was complete.
"the Sword of Light—"
In that instant the doll's body shattered, exploding in all directions.
All contact with the world disappeared from around his body.
"—Ngh!"
— Was all that came out at the end of the spell.
— In the blink of an eye, everything vanished — and then there he was.
"............"
His eyes widened in shock — it was no longer the passageway he'd been in just a moment before. It was much wider — and brighter. He was standing on a red velvet seat. One of many that fanned out in either direction. He was still in the same position as when he'd released his spell, facing the back of the room, the opposite direction of where his seat was facing.
The number of seats — they couldn't have been more than one or two hundred. Still, it was as large as a grand music hall, of which there were only one or two in the royal capital. He was standing right in the middle of it. Where his hand was outstretched — that is, towards the back of the room — there was a door. Normally, that'd be the entrance...
There were seats on the first and second floor. He was standing on the first, and from below, the second was just a blind spot so he couldn't see what was going on. It was quiet — deserted. Empty, with no sign of life. Not even the dolls. At least, not in the direction he was facing...
He slowly turned his shoulders to look behind him, his neck and face twisting.
Beyond where the seat was facing was a huge stage. There was a space between it and the audience seats, which was probably where you'd place an orchestra. The entire structure was almost identical to the one on the ground floor.
But regardless, he found himself staring at the stage. There, he saw a huge throne. Wide, with a small doll sitting upon it. A thin hand rested on the elbow rest. It had a small head, and small eyes.
It wasn't the body of a child, just a miniature human figure.
Other than the small size of its body there wasn't any distinctive difference from the dolls often made by the Celestials. The only odd thing was its eyes. Peering through the slender, upwards-slanting lids they were an incredibly deep blue...
It was looking back at him with this leisurely attitude.
(A king...?)
Orphen had to admit. He sat deep in his disproportionate throne and — atop his head — he was adorned with a crown.
"So ... Thou hast come. Normally ... Thou would hast to have traveled further down the passage thou were walking ... and gon'st down the stairs that coil down ... for thou to enter here..."
Its speech was slow — or rather, just awkward. Orphen, cautious and prepared, mumbled back.
"... It's crazy to have such long aisles."
"It is necessary... for the Corridor Keeper dolls to... judge thee. For, it is ... the Sorting Corridor..."
"Judge?"
Orphen asked again, but the other party didn't answer. The doll on the throne — he noticed that it seemed like it couldn't move from there, and he let his guard down a little.
Orphen let out a sigh and looked around again.
"... It feels weird to just get sent here in an instant."
"When thou vanishes ... from the timeline ... this must be ... instant — Traveling through time mustn't last ... more than a few seconds. That is how it must be."
Some of what he said he understood, but some he didn't. While he stood there, at a loss for words, the thing nodded a little belatedly. It was a slightly disjointed nod, almost as if its skeleton was different from that of a human.
Then, it spoke.
"Welcome ... Seventh Tribe. I am..."
At the same time, strange creatures appeared from the edges of the stage. The winged dogs he'd seen by the dozens out front.
They came in droves — two or three dozen of them. But the puppet on the throne didn't seem to notice them as he continued.
"I am thee Demon King Swedenboli..."
At those words, Orphen felt, for just a moment — rather dizzy.
It was almost a miracle that he didn't lose consciousness in the water — except this was the more painful alternative, granted it wasn't without its merits. Dortin was deep in thought as he was being swept helplessly through the water current.
(Why is it that my brother is always able to faint so easily at times like this?)
The raging, black water — the absurdity of it all made him angry as he struggled against the current through the pitch black underground. Still, his brother remained unconscious.
After earlier, the bottom of the pit had suddenly opened up with water pouring into it. At the end was a long, long dark waterway — that is, where he was now. He'd lost all sense of direction, being swept away by the raging waves. He knew that his brother was being tossed along somewhere nearby (because they kept bumping into each other), but he had no idea how far they'd been swept. However, it wasn't hard to predict that his brain would be in desperate need of oxygen soon and go into panic mode anyway.
(Actually, maybe it'd be better that way. I can't see anything anyway...)
But just as he was thinking that, he suddenly felt his surroundings brighten. Gradually, he could see a light, like an exit in their path.
In the end—
He was thrust into the light, without losing consciousness.
