Chapter 153
Chapter 153
An Overwhelming Advance (2)>
“It's collapsing.”
The Imperial Princess admired the rocky mountain as it crumbled and disappeared beneath the clouds. I felt much the same, but I didn't have the luxury of worrying about that right now.
“Hm.”
I looked at the Dream Bird. Originally, I was supposed to buy its horn from that homeless old man in exchange for a jumpsuit. Then I was meant to come here and travel by climbing each rocky mountain.
I'd thought that was the only way, but after thinking it over, there was another option.
“You can fly, can't you?”
There was no verbal reply, but the Dream Bird nodded.
Good. At least it understood me.
I stroked its neck.
“You're planning to ride that creature?”
“Ah? Ah. Yes, Her Imperial Highness.”
The Imperial Princess had already walked over before asking. The Dream Bird didn't reject the hand she slowly reached out with.
The wariness it had shown at first had vanished without a trace. The Imperial Princess gently stroked its coarse but thick feathers.
“Wait here for a moment.”
She then began searching through her belongings. The Imperial Princess's collection contained many things. As far as I knew, there were seventy-four items in total.
Forty of them were weapons, while the rest were pouches containing various artifacts. It was only possible because of the Imperial Princess's unique ability, which reduced not only the size but even the mass of whatever she carried.
A moment later, she handed me an artifact.
“It's a rather unusual saddle. You should be able to make use of it.”
“Thank you, Her Imperial Highness.”
I quickly accepted it with both hands.
It looked like an ordinary horse saddle, but it wasn't. Strange symbols had been engraved all over it.
I slowly approached the Dream Bird.
The Dream Bird showed great interest in the unfamiliar object I was holding. It kept poking at it with its beak, which was rather bothersome, but there was nothing I could do about it.
“Can you stay still for me?”
After finally calming it down, I quickly fastened the saddle onto its back.
Normally, a saddle was made for horses.
Yet, for some reason, this unusual saddle fit the Dream Bird perfectly.
“What are you planning to do with that?”
“I'd like to take a look at the other rocky mountains.”
At my answer, the Imperial Princess looked around.
There was a way to create a path using the Vice-Commander, but the rocky mountains were too far away.
It wasn't impossible, but considering the wind and the wyverns' attacks, it would have been no different from suicide.
“Must you really do that?”
“We could just go back, but I think the other members of the Religious Order are doing something.”
“They're doing something?”
“Yes. As far as I know, those rocky mountains collapsing means the dream itself is collapsing. Something external is having a major influence on it.”
The Imperial Princess stared at me in silence.
Worden and the Vice-Commander also turned their attention toward me.
“You know quite a lot.”
“I heard the details from the person who gave me the mission.”
“It could be dangerous. Have you ever ridden one before?”
At my claim that the homeless old man had explained everything, Worden tilted his head in confusion.
Still, he wisely chose not to ask any questions.
The Imperial Princess, surprisingly, showed concern. I merely shrugged.
“I'll be fine. Thank you for your concern.”
“If you say so, then very well.”
With that, the Imperial Princess stepped back.
As I stroked the Dream Bird, I quietly muttered,
“Let's fly together.”
The Dream Bird understood my words and spread its wings.
It wasn't fully grown yet, so it wasn't especially large.
Still, it was big enough for me to ride.
I carefully climbed onto the saddle.
“Let's go.”
I lightly tapped its neck.
The Dream Bird burst into a run.
The next instant, it felt as though we were falling off the rocky mountain, but then some powerful force lifted us upward.
Spreading its wings wide, the Dream Bird gracefully rode the wind through the sky.
I intended to head toward the nearest rocky mountain.
The problem was...
I had absolutely no idea how to steer the Dream Bird.
“Heeey! To! The! Nearest! One!”
The wind was so powerful that my voice barely carried.
I could barely keep my eyes open, and the destination I wanted drifted farther and farther away.
Excited by its first flight, the Dream Bird happily performed aerial acrobatics in every direction.
Every single maneuver made me feel like I was about to die.
“There! Over there!”
I shifted my attention to the closest rocky mountain for the time being.
I physically turned the Dream Bird's head and pointed out the mountain I wanted.
Only then did it understand and change direction.
I gritted my teeth and clung tightly to the saddle.
Its acrobatic flying was terrifying enough to make my heart stop.
“Good grief.”
As soon as we landed on the rocky mountain, I quickly climbed off the Dream Bird.
Only after my feet touched solid ground did I finally feel relieved.
But I only rested for a brief moment.
I quickly regained my focus and created a sword using Blood Magic.
If my prediction was correct, the rocky mountains would collapse one after another.
Whenever you accepted the quest from the homeless old man and destroyed a jewel, another rocky mountain collapsed.
Once all of them had collapsed, the true boss—the one we were actually meant to fight—would finally appear.
The normal method of clearing this area was to defeat it together with the Dream Bird.
Before every rocky mountain collapsed, however, I had to find what had been hidden inside them.
-Kieeeek!
The rocky mountain was a wyvern nest.
One of those rocky mountains had just collapsed, so the wyverns that had lost their nests became enraged.
The mountain I had landed on also housed wyverns.
The moment they saw me and the Dream Bird appear out of nowhere, they let out savage screeches.
Grinning viciously, I charged straight at them.
“Not happening.”
There were two wyverns.
Wyverns were formidable opponents because they were vicious giant monsters capable of flight.
But a wyvern that wasn't flying was nothing more than a large target.
I quickly moved behind one of them and lightly tapped its chest twice.
-Kieeeeeee!
The wyvern screamed as searing pain suddenly erupted from its back.
Its massive body—five times larger than the Dream Bird's—twisted in agony.
I immediately drove my sword into the neck of the wyvern I had climbed onto.
At the same time, I released the Chill of Paillet toward the other one as it charged at me with its jaws wide open.
The creature froze solid.
I dodged its attack with ease.
Having lost its target, the frozen wyvern continued forward under its own momentum before plummeting downward.
-Boom.
I engraved the Thunder Horn Mark onto the Blood Magic sword and detonated it.
Watching the wyvern's head fly off, I turned toward the Dream Bird.
The timid creature had retreated into a corner, ready to flee at any moment.
Then it watched me kill both wyverns in an instant and could only gape in astonishment.
“Seriously.”
The fact that it had been preparing to abandon me left me speechless.
I quickly looked away and searched the wyvern nest.
Just as expected, it contained exactly what I had been looking for.
Inside the nest was what appeared to be a fragment of some kind.
I hurriedly grabbed it and approached the Dream Bird.
I handed over what looked like a fragment of a stone tablet.
-Mwiaaa~
The Dream Bird became overjoyed the moment it saw the fragment and eagerly swallowed it whole.
Its body glowed briefly.
Then a voice emerged from the Dream Bird.
The Dream Bird's voice, freed from its seal, was so beautiful that merely hearing it was enchanting.
I immediately climbed back onto its back.
I still had four more fragments to recover before the Dream Bird regained its entire voice.
Just as I was about to hurry onward, another rocky mountain began collapsing.
“...That's way too fast.”
The ground team's progress was much faster than I had expected.
Finding the path wasn't easy, and there were plenty of monsters guarding it.
Then a thought occurred to me.
Perhaps time flowed differently here.
If time on the surface passed more quickly, then it would make sense.
“Hurry! At this rate they'll all collapse!”
-Mwiaaa~
Unlike my growing panic, the Dream Bird simply sang in its beautiful voice, clearly delighted.
---
“Phew~ That's the last one~”
Canis wiped the sweat from her forehead.
Even for her, dealing with four consecutive monster waves had been exhausting.
Since Aro and Winter were focused primarily on support, Canis naturally had to shoulder much more of the fighting.
Still, Aro's fox-shaped bombs had been an enormous help.
“Another pit appeared.”
When they had destroyed the first jewel, a massive pit had opened beneath them, nearly swallowing the entire party.
Had Aro not saved everyone with her astonishing reflexes, they would have fallen straight in.
None of them had any desire to climb into another pit.
Just like before, destroying the fourth jewel caused another enormous pit to appear.
“Big Sis~ Did you figure anything out?”
At Canis's question, Aro, who had been examining the jewel, nodded.
“I thought the magic was simply seeping underground, but that's not it.”
“Then~?”
“It's not going underground. It's going somewhere else. I think there's a hidden place. It might be connected to these pits.”
Each time they shattered a jewel, Aro carefully traced the flow of the released magic.
She had initially believed it was merely sinking into the ground.
Instead, the magical energy abruptly disappeared, as though it had been sucked into another dimension.
“Hm~ Let's go back to the homeless grandpa now~”
“We're supposed to destroy all of them, right?”
“Probably~ Though we've already destroyed them all anyway~”
Canis answered Winter's question optimistically.
Even so, Winter couldn't shake the uneasy feeling creeping over her.
“Let's rest first. We've run around enough today.”
With that, Aro plopped down onto the ground.
Since all the jewels had been scattered around the outskirts of the Floating Island, simply traveling between them had been exhausting.
Without Canis's Astrology guiding them, they would have also needed to search for the correct routes.
If that had happened, there was no way they could have finished everything in a single day.
“By the way... who exactly is that homeless man?”
Sitting beside Aro, Winter quietly asked.
Aro shook her head.
With her exceptionally sensitive sense of smell, she had been overwhelmed by the homeless man's terrible stench.
Had Winter not brought a gas mask midway through, Aro probably would have fainted.
“Who knows~ We can just ask him directly~”
After handing Aro a canteen, Canis replied.
The three of them passed the canteen around, taking turns drinking while catching their breath.
The trip back was much easier thanks to Winter.
“Shall we go now?”
“Ah, yes. Just a moment.”
As Aro stood up, Winter took out her flag.
She swung it through the air in the shape of an X.
The entire group immediately put on their gas masks.
“No matter how many times I see it~ it's amazing~”
“...I think that movement technique is amazing too.”
As space shattered apart to reveal an entirely new passage, Canis admired the sight.
Winter answered with a slightly sulky expression.
Beyond the opening, the homeless old man stood frozen with his mouth hanging open as he stared at them.
“Homeless Grandpa~ We're back~”
Canis cheerfully greeted him as she stepped through the opening.
The homeless old man still stood there with his mouth agape, unable to process what he was seeing.
These were merely Academy students.
Yet one of them possessed the ability to connect spaces.
Winter quietly sighed.
She had already demonstrated this technique in front of many people during the second attack incident.
As a result, the Academy Director had personally summoned her afterward to question her about it.
“We destroyed all the jewels~ Is there anything else you can tell us~?”
“Heh.”
At Canis's question, the homeless old man laughed in disbelief.
Without even trying to hide his incredulous chuckle, he took something from his clothes and handed it over.
“A wyvern?”
It was another worn piece of paper, just like before.
After accepting it, Aro looked at the writing with a puzzled expression.
“You've all done this much for me. I suppose it's time for me to step in as well.”
The homeless old man brushed himself off and stood.
The three girls tilted their heads in confusion as they looked at him.
“I shall guide you. Let us head to the administration building at the center of the Floating Island. Now then, quickly, let's mo—”
“Over here?”
The homeless old man abruptly fell silent.
Winter had waved her flag once more, revealing the central administration building beyond the fractured space.
“I've been there once before...”
Misunderstanding the homeless old man's stare, Winter nervously offered an explanation.
The homeless old man simply shook his head repeatedly and waved his hand.
“It's fine. If anything, this is a good thing.”
“Ah~ Just a moment~”
Just as the homeless old man was about to step through the portal, Canis stopped him.
She politely asked for a moment before casting a spell on him.
The filthy appearance of the homeless old man, with grime practically dripping from him, became completely clean.
“......”
“Ah~ It's just... you smelled really bad~ Sorry~”
The homeless old man let out another helpless laugh at Canis's apology.