Brock, who had killed the Spider Woman, was so mentally shaken that his legs gave out, and he couldn't move.
"Are you alright, Sir Brock?"
Zebeck supported Brock.
"I-I'm sorry. I've shown you such a disgraceful sight."
"The emotional toll must be great. But still…"
The danger wasn't over yet.
'And that danger… is likely your wife.'
Zebeck couldn't bring himself to say it out loud.
Then suddenly, all sound vanished from the surroundings. Like cotton absorbing water, it felt as though the sounds were being sucked into something.
Everyone instinctively looked up at the sky. Above the thick mist, a mountain became visible. The mountain, emerging above the fog blanketing the ground like clouds, was so majestic it felt unreal.
But then—
The mountain moved.
"Is that… a monster of the Nether?"
Azadin furrowed his brows.
It was a massive beast covered in fur. Cloaked in gray hair, its shape resembled a human—though perhaps more like a very hairy man, or a bear.
The difference, however, lay in its overwhelming size and the unmistakable sense of wrongness that radiated from it. The feeling that this thing shouldn't exist in this world made the hairs on one's body stand on end.
The creature then raised something like a foreleg. Or rather, they could tell it was trying to raise it. It was so massive that from this distance, its movement seemed sluggish.
And then, a gale swept up from the ground.
"Damn it! I-it's coming!"
Azadin and his companions immediately took shelter next to a stone wall. But could a man-made structure really withstand a blow from such a massive beast?
Of course not. The monster's enormous foreleg raked the ground and passed right through the wall—striking Brock, who hadn't yet managed to flee.
"Hiik!?"
Brock shuddered in fear… but nothing happened.
Like a mirage or a hallucination, the monster's massive foreleg simply passed through him.
—GROOOAAARRRR!
But a powerful gust followed, and Brock was tossed like a pebble across the ground. Swept away by the wind, he crashed into a discarded roof beam.
"Guh!"
"Oh, dear god! A monster from the Nether! It hasn't fully manifested in our world yet, but it's close! If the wind is reacting, it won't be long now!"
The orc necromancer, Scott McGreen, shouted from his reclaimed wheelchair, gripping the floor ropes.
"That thing… it's going to manifest? Soon?"
Azadin was aghast as he looked at the mountain-like monster.
The only reason Brock was still alive was that the creature hadn't taken on a material form yet. But once it did…
Its existence alone would be a threat. If it took even one or two steps and stumbled, earthquakes would erupt.
"We have to kill the caster before it manifests! Otherwise, everything in this area, including us, will be wiped out!"
"But the… the caster is…"
Brock struggled to his feet. Though he'd been flung by the gale conjured by that monster, his full-plate armor was of such quality that it had protected his body.
"You're saying we have to kill my wife?!"
"..."
Everyone turned pale, staring at Brock.
"If you had properly managed your household to begin with, none of this would've happened!"
Brand snapped at him.
"I know this is my fault! But this is too much! Everyone else does the same things, so why is something this cruel happening only to me?!"
"You're still just a brat, huh?"
Then, the howl of a wolf echoed in the distance. As the wind blew, the massive monster—this creature of the Nether—turned transparent and then vanished once more.
"It disappeared?"
"It didn't disappear! It just can't fully manifest in this world yet. The light of the king's virtue is preventing its existence from crossing over!"
As Scott explained, the spiderwebs suddenly began to freeze. Black mana gathered around the corpses of the nagas and the wererats that had been caught in the webs, and then those corpses began to rise again.
"Ne-necromancy!"
"It's not me."
Scott clarified, just as the corpses began to mutate.
—Crack, crunch…
Their bones broke, skin split, and thick, coarse fur—like that of a Kerim mountain goat—grew out from within. Horns sprouted from their heads. And from their breath, a chilling cold radiated outward.
"So that's what was freezing everything…"
A monster, looking like a miniature version of the massive creature from the Nether, appeared before them.
***
"…and that's what happened."
Azadin explained the whole situation to Shati and then drew the sword from his hip to inspect the blade. The edge was dulled, and the blade bent—completely unusable.
"So that's why you came here?"
"Yeah. Whatever that Karagala bell tower thing was, it was nothing in comparison. That mountain was moving."
"The Karagala Bell Tower is huge too, okay?!"
"Sure, sure. But have you ever seen it with your own eyes? It collapsed when the Naga Empire fell, so you probably haven't seen it since."
"Ugh… still…"
"Now's not the time for a pride contest between ancient Naga-era buildings and that monster. If that thing manifests, it won't be about the war between the Yaegas Divine Clan and the Kurt Divine Clan anymore."
Azadin flicked the flat of his broken blade with his finger, clicked his tongue, and propped the sword against the wall. He then looked at the trapdoor entrance where Shati had come in.
The trapdoor at the top of the stairs was too small for Azadin, Ishmael, and Midiam's Kerim mountain goats to pass through, let alone the knights' horses.
"Sweater, you stay here and keep watch. And hmm…"
Azadin pulled out weapons from his saddlebag. He hesitated between a gleaming longsword and a decent steel sword before strapping both to his waist.
"Their hides are so thick, they ruin blades too easily."
He then pulled out a short spear and handed it to Brand, whose weapon had also broken during the battle.
"Thanks."
"No, I should be the one thanking you. Sir Zebeck…?"
"I'd appreciate a replacement weapon as well."
Zebeck's steel sword had gone dull. It could be salvaged with some sharpening, but there was no time for that right now.
"Ugh, our weapon stock's running out fast."
Azadin grumbled as he pulled more gear from his goat's saddlebag and handed it out to the party. The now-lightened Kerim mountain goat pranced happily.
"I'm hungry. Got anything to eat?"
Even in this situation, Scott was looking for food.
"Well, shall we try the underground passage? Sir Brock, since you're the lord here, would you lead the way?"
"I don't know it well either. When I inherited this fief from my father, I did go through the underground passage once, but I was only told that an ancient city sank beneath the current one, and it became the underground waterways and sewers."
"You don't know the layout inside?"
"There's a map carved into a large bronze plate stored in each section. If we can copy it, we shouldn't get lost."
"Hm. I see. Does your wife know the layout?"
"I think she probably does."
"That's bad news."
Azadin's group pulled supplies from their horses and mountain goats' saddlebags, rearmed and reorganized, then hacked off the arms and necks of the fallen naga corpses with axes.
"Let's go!"
***
"So, who are you people, anyway?"
Brock looked curiously at Azadin's party.
"I've been wondering that myself."
Guillaumevalt was also curious about them.
"Hehe. We are seekers of knighthood."
Brand puffed out his chest and said proudly.
"..."
"Tch. Nonsense…"
Shati grumbled, brushing her hair back.
"Well, this one's a prisoner, and that one over there converted and agreed to work as a mercenary instead of being treated as a prisoner."
"Eh? Why's the orc and I getting treated differently?"
"You ran away again, didn't you?"
"I treated your wounds, didn't I?"
"Which is why you're still alive. Otherwise, I'd have killed you already."
"Even if you say that, if you think about it, that means you don't really want to kill me. Hoo. Well, I do tend to enchant humans with my beauty."
"Alright, quiet. In the underground passage, if we're not silent, they'll know we're coming."
With that, Azadin began walking quietly. When Azadin, Ishmael, and Midiam walked silently, not even the sound of their steps could be heard.
However…
—Clatter.
—Clank.
No matter how hard they tried to walk silently, the knights in metal armor couldn't reduce their noise by much.
The real spectacle was Brand. He wore makeshift armor—old leather with iron plates strapped over it—and every step he took sounded like a pile of junk being rattled.
"…Guess we'll have to give up on stealth."
Azadin quickly gave up and marched forward.
"Are you alright? It's pitch dark in here."
"Ah…"
Azadin could see through the darkness, but most others couldn't. Even Ishmael and Midiam, who were also from Aragasa, couldn't see in such pitch-black places like Azadin could.
"Here."
Scott picked up a stone from the ground, cast a spell, and made it glow. It was a simple colorless magic, but he enchanted several stones with the light spell and handed them out to the group.
Judging by his carefree attitude about mana usage, this level of magic was nothing to him.
'Well, he does go on about being a genius, so I guess he's not entirely without skill.'
Azadin took the glowing stone and walked forward with it in hand.
Normally, the underground passages should've been damp from seeping surface water, reeking of moss and mold… but there was no smell. The freezing air had frozen the water, the moss, and the mold on the walls, turning them all brittle and flaky.
"It's cold."
"The cold seems to be pooling below. It's even colder further down."
"The floor's iced over."
Azadin's group carefully tightened their collars and ventured deeper inside.
Before long, they reached a confluence point where the underground tunnels merged. A large joining chamber where surface wastewater and groundwater flowed in and combined. Inside, an orc sat leaning on a halberd.
Opposite him stood a Bruma woman with black hair, black skin, and a voluptuous figure.
"Liz!"
Brock recognized her and called out her name.
"How dare you call my name, Brock!"
"I-I was wrong!"
"Do you even know what you did wrong?!"
"That is…"
"Alright, enough. Bigger things are happening than your domestic issues. Let's calm down first."
Azadin stepped in to stop the emotionally charged clash between husband and wife. Meanwhile, the orc necromancer Scott recognized the orc standing off against the lady of the mansion.
"Walter, is that you?"
"And you're Scott, huh? You rascal, you used to ride around in a wheelchair just to avoid gaining muscle, but looks like you've bulked up a bit."
"Been busy. What happened here?"
"Ask that woman. Ah, but if you step in between us right now, it's gonna be bad."
"…Excuse me."
Scott picked up a stone from the ground and tossed it between the orc and the noblewoman.
—Crack!
A spark of lightning burst out as the stone exploded. Just imagining what would happen to a person entering that space was terrifying—if a stone could be obliterated like that.