Chapter 58

It was a strange feeling.

The acrobat troupe members were chattering amongst themselves.

Their trained bodies and minds were unable to exert any strength.

They just muttered with dazed eyes.

Ominous words.

Collections of words that seemed to hint at something coming.

The fog was thick.

The humidity was dense, as if something with sticky skin was clinging to them.

The chirp of the birds had stopped.

Instead, a sound as if something was leaking out.

Coldly, like the wind blowing through a narrow crevice, sss, sss-sss, sss---.

“……”

Amidst the omens, my, Shion Pollinglight's, blue eyes were fervently blue.

Seventeen ‘Fantasy Fingers’ were already lingering around me.

So that if anything popped out, I could twist its neck instantly.

And, Mana Armor Valziart.

The black, clinging shadow armor.

From within it, a pile of ropes was spewed out.

It was the one I had hidden away earlier.

The black shadow covered the gripped rope.

Even a famous sword would not be able to cut it.

“…If I go back, it will come……”

“…That fog, that fog, that approaching……”

“…Come with us even to the West, come here……”

“…So that's what it was, it's coming……”

A strange word began to mix into the inconsistent clumps of words.

Vice-captain Helena, Henry Horbi, Pen-Houchil and the twins Roten and Rite and Poltel the strongman all mumbled their lips and then spoke in unison.

“…It's coming……”

“…It's coming……”

“…It's coming……”

Helena swept her scarred face.

Then she stuck a finger into the artificial eye of her left eye.

Blood flowed from her torn eyelid, pierced by her forceful action.

A whisper within the bloody tears.

“It's here.”

Sss, sss-sss, a low sound.

Was it passing by or being exhaled?

Sss, sss-sss-, sweeping through the darkness.

Rising fog, thick poisonous mist.

The members finally fell silent.

“……”

“……”

“……”

Something had come.

It had come.

I clicked my tongue.

The fog also enveloped me.

However, Septem Arcana.

The seven flames of my soul, which had even subjugated the nobles of the shadow dimension.

Fog and the like could not harm me.

‘Still, even before my regression, they were so much trouble.’

Something had approached from the darkness.

The Juet Acrobat Troupe members stood dazed, as if their souls had left their bodies.

They were my subordinates from before my regression and yet I was indebted to them.

I couldn't just leave them be.

Seventeen ‘Fantasy Fingers’ flew.

Each ‘Fantasy Finger’ had the power to crush steel.

Gathering over seventy acrobat troupe members together like luggage was done in an instant.

Having made my former subordinates avoid the danger, I growled and raised my head.

The valley was dark.

The members right in front of me were barely visible.

The damp and chilling wind pierced to the bone, making it even colder.

Even though it was so cold, damp, and dark, there was a sun in the sky.

The reddish-orange sunset beyond the fog looked like fresh blood.

A bridge was laid across the sky.

Something long and thick shot down from one side of the valley to the other.

As soon as it appeared, it had already twisted and turned several times.

It coiled around branches and slid over rocks, writhing in curves.

As it approached, its body was still draped over the top of the valley.

It was a monstrously long body.

The smell was terrible.

The closer it got, the worse it became.

Not just a stench, but the air clung heavily.

It was always like this when facing a monster that far surpassed humans.

I, Shion Pollinglight, licked my lips at the familiar sensation.

The monster, whose massive body twisted as it descended, did not easily reveal itself.

Only a sss, sss-sss- sound echoed through the darkness.

I couldn't follow all its traces.

Therefore, I kept the members, my former subordinates, behind me.

And, alone, I moved forward.

“Did you come out to greet a guest, owner of the valley?”

I swelled Valziart even more.

I took the form of a black beast.

Small protrusions even rose over the ropes.

If it touched human skin, it would tear it to shreds.

“You might as well introduce yourself, or at least show your face. You don't want to?”

“---Sss---.”

There was no answer.

Instead, only a deep breath.

I gripped the rope tightly.

Then I called out the name of the monster I had heard.

“You seem to be very shy, Lacrosha.”

***

The owner of the valley, Lacrosha, was a snake.

Its appearance was not much different from the snakes commonly seen on mountainsides.

If I had to list a few differences, it would be that all its scales were pure white, it had horns on its head, it was massive enough to swallow dozens of magic trains and still have room and it was over a thousand years old.

Other than that, there were only minor details, such as its ability to speak ancient Hotus and wield ancient magic of the four stars.

“---Sss, ugh---.”

My body stiffened at the presence moving through the fog.

For a moment, I saw the snake's eyes.

The moment I saw its vertically slit, bright yellow pupils, I immediately recognized its power.

I bit my lip and whipped my child's body, which desperately wanted to collapse.

Sss, sss-sss, sss---.

Sounds moved back and forth.

Its coiling body was long.

I felt it slowly approaching, circling around me and the Juet Acrobat Troupe members.

The air was heavy.

It was so heavy that my lungs felt full and my breathing was labored.

“-Laa-croshaah-.”

The snake's head was as large as a carriage.

Its white scales glittered like steel, and its two eyes were filled with power.

Three horns rose from its head.

I instinctively stepped back.

“T-that's, my na-ame, ri-ight.”

Ha.

Only a hollow laugh escaped.

‘…More than I thought……’

Facing the snake's face directly, I could clearly tell.

I couldn't help but tell.

‘…He's, much, much more of a monster……’

It was not just a mere magical beast.

It was worthy of praise even among mythical creatures.

In comparison, it didn't seem much different from Jeberk, the Great Witch's familiar, who had taken the form of a raw chicken.

However, unlike Jeberk, it would not obey the name of Pollinglight.

I glanced sideways at my former subordinates.

‘…I can't save everyone.’

No matter how much of a Shion I was, with only two of the seven secrets, it was not a monster I could possibly confront.

Still, I had to try as much as I could.

I gripped the rope in three layers.

It was because it seemed that a single layer could do nothing against that massive body.

“-You, uh-.”

The horned white snake slowly approached.

The heavy air was filled with a thick poisonous mist.

I slowly measured the distance.

The second flame blazed in my eyes.

The seven Ars born of the seven secrets.

The second.

‘The Unclosable Twenty Steps’.

“…Sss……?”

Lacrosha flicked its tongue.

It was because it was trying to approach me but couldn't.

No matter how powerful a monster it was, ‘The Unclosable Twenty Steps’ was effective.

I opened my eyes sharply.

‘Now!’

A rope shot out from the ground.

I instantly pulled the ropes I had hastily laid on the ground with my ‘Fantasy Finger’.

As if a fisherman were pulling up a net.

The ropes reinforced with Valziart pierced between the snake's scales.

“…Sst……?”

Seventeen ‘Fantasy Fingers’, with the power to crush steel, tightly bound the snake's head with ropes.

However, Lacrosha merely shook its head as if it had touched a spider web.

Even though it was a rope reinforced with Valziart, it snapped like thread, uselessly.

It was an absurd being.

It couldn't even bind a single head of that incredibly long body.

But it was as I had expected.

Distracting it for a moment was enough.

The white snake, having broken the ropes, searched for me, but I was not there.

I was already charging from beneath the snake's jaw.

I tied the remaining rope and ‘Fantasy Finger’ to the snake's lower fang and pulled.

A black thorn was long in my hand as I leaped into its gaping maw.

With it, I stabbed the inside of the snake's maw.

And then I pulled it out and stabbed it again.

I did so nine times before Lacrosha could shake me off.

The snake's blood splattered.

“-Sss, Saaaaah---!!”

Lacrosha shook its head in pain from the wound in its mouth.

I, who was sent flying in vain, crashed against a rock with a thud.

The mana armor couldn't completely block the impact either.

I'll be suffering for a few weeks, dammit.

Blood gushed from my neck.

‘…Heals, quickly, doesn't it.’

There was a wound I had left in Lacrosha's maw.

However, it soon disappeared.

The wound I had inflicted in the opening healed instantly.

In return, I was coughing up blood.

I fell.

I tried to get up somehow, but it wasn't easy.

“…Ah, damn it, really… this cursed child's body……”

To think I was still so weak even after having diligently trained myself ever since my regression.

I could only get up again by pulling myself up with my ‘Fantasy Finger’.

The horned white snake's yellow eyes glared fiercely at me.

“…You-u……”

“Why are you calling me, snake?”

“What-at is, your na-ame?”

“My name?”

The regressed prince wiped the blood and gave a bitter smile.

“Shion.”

“…Shi-on?”

“Yes. That's my real name.”

“So stra-ange.”

Lacrosha tilted its head.

“It's co-rrect. Then why-y did you attack me-?”

The giant snake rolled its equally giant eyeballs.

Its slit pupils scanned me up and down.

Since it was like this, I decided to buy some time to catch my breath and let it examine me as it pleased.

“Th-that's right. Bl-blonde hair, b-blue eyes. And even this s-soul that smells of lies-.”

“My soul doesn't smell.”

“No. It does. It reeks of rot. So much so that if I had hands, I'd want to cover my nose.”

“…Why do you only speak normally when you're insulting me?”

Lacrosha paid no attention and flicked its tongue.

“-You are, Shi-on Pollinglight, aren't you, so why?”

“…You know me?”

My face hardened instantly.

The horned white snake had spoken the surname Pollinglight.

It was a secret I had only whispered to Jeberk after my regression.

With one of my deep secrets exposed, I couldn't remain still.

The secret-keeper stood up.

If it knew Pollinglight, the situation was different from before.

The black armor creaked and covered my body again.

The horned white snake, baring hundreds of fangs, said.

“Of course, I know.”

Sss, sss-sss.

It took quite some time to realize that the sound like wind escaping was the snake's laughter.

The snake wriggled its body and laughed.

Its entire body, even the part hanging like a bridge high up on the valley wall, twisted and cackled with amusement.

“Because I was waiting for you-u. From that distant past, from the Hotus era, through a thousand winters---.”

The snake opened its maw.

Lacrosha, unable to contain its cackling, was about to let out a cry of joy but forced it down.

If it were to laugh that way, a deep poisonous breath would be exhaled, and then this kid, whom it had waited for so long, would die and fall.

It had just clashed with him a moment ago, and he seemed so frail that he would break with a slight touch.

“You, only you-u---.”

The snake grinned.

Thrusting its triangular head close to my nose, flicking its forked tongue, it savored a thousand years of waiting.

“---I was waiting for Shi-on Pollinglight.”

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