[182] 4. Reversal of the Law (3)
After moving ten meters forward, the smell of blood grew stronger.
Tess, nerves spiking, was about to tell Shirone to slow down.
Suddenly the cave shuddered and blunt pillars burst from the walls. Not only their speed but their sheer size was enough to crush a person.
Shirone's group fell back on instinct.
From a distance it looked even stranger. Dozens of pillars jutting from the cave walls crossed and tangled with one another.
"Are you all right? Anyone hurt?"
When Shirone called out, Amy answered.
"Yeah. I don't think anyone's hurt. Shirone, you okay?"
"I'm fine. Could that have been a trap?"
"No. There's no sign the cave was tampered with. And if it were a trap, it triggered way too early."
Tess was right. If their intent had been to kill, they would have lured them to a point where escape was impossible before activating it. Instead, the pillars had sprung up as if to block anyone from approaching.
"If it's not a trap, then what is it?"
A boy's voice came from the far end of the cave.
"Identify yourselves! I won't miss this time!"
Shirone extended Shining to light the interior.
A boy about their age crouched with both hands on the floor. Behind him, a burly, bearded man sat with his legs outstretched, and blood showed between the fingers covering his stomach.
It was Gardrak, the guide of the Nor Shelter.
Gardrak, who had been sizing up Shirone's group, spoke to his apprentice.
"Clove, I told you not to use earth magic in a cave. If the ceiling collapses, we'll all die."
At his master's words, Clove rose slowly. Even so, his wary look didn't fade.
Shirone felt oddly familiar with their conversation, as if it belonged to his original world. He couldn't understand the Nor tongue fully, but the pronunciation and intonation were similar to the continent's common language.
Kanya stepped forward and spoke in Nor.
"You're Nor, right? We've been looking for you."
"Oh? So you turn out to be some worthy subjects. Well then, what business would the Meka tribe, which hates exploration and adventure, have here?"
"Well, naturally to get to the Nor Shelter—"
Kanya stopped mid-sentence and checked Gardrak's condition. His mouth smiled, but his complexion was pale.
Blood was flowing from his abdomen.
It was strange. In the Valley of the Swirling Serpents, where only a single Law held sway, what could cause an injury like this?
"Are you hurt? Don't tell me it was the Swirling Serpents—"
"No, not the Law. It was Kergo."
The name Kergo cut through Shirone's group. At first they thought they'd misheard, but when Kanya raised the Nor speech to a level they could grasp, the conversation translated itself in their heads.
"Kergo? You mean those things came hunting this far?"
"There aren't heretics living here, so it's not normal hunting. They clearly marked us. Luckily it wasn't fatal, but if the bleeding keeps up—who knows."
Shirone stepped into their conversation.
"You just said Kergo. What did they do?"
"Kergo are another kind of subject. The Valley is safe because no monsters live here, and because of that it's a common route heretics take to reach the Nor Shelter. Where heretics go, other hunters follow."
"So the Kergo hunt the heretics."
"They'll probably catch up soon. Their tracking is excellent. They even use giant techniques. Finding this place by scent, like Tess did, is no problem for them."
Shirone guessed the giant technique was something like Skymile. If that was true, this was no time for idle talk.
Arin tried telepathy directly on the Nor.
"Can you take us to the Nor Shelter?"
Gardrak and Clove's faces shifted to bewilderment. Though the words were alien, the meaning sank in without effort.
"What are these kids? Fairy powers?"
"No, people from the land of earth. They use magic like you. Maybe a bit different, but they seem descended from the Nor."
Kanya smoothed the situation to make the Nor more amenable to Shirone's group. To survive even a bit longer in Purgatory, joining the Nor community was the best option.
"So they're copies, then?"
Clove's look toward Shirone's group turned to disgust.
The Nor were naturally curious and thus some of the most obedient to the Law even in heaven. They knew more forbidden secrets than the Meka tribe did.
The land of earth was said to be a shadow imitating the perfect sky-world. Humans there were viewed as mere copies, modeled on heaven's people.
In Clove's mind, Shirone's group was inferior to anything in heaven. The gap between Nor and copy was as wide as that between creator and created.
"We're copies? What does that even mean?"
Ignoring Shirone, Clove pointed to the backpacks lined along the wall.
"Hey, you lot. Come over and carry the packs. One at a time."
There was no need for ceremony. Contempt laced Clove's tone. Amy, stung by his arrogant chin-tilt and the way he toyed with her hair, snapped.
"Why should we carry your bags?"
"Aren't you supposed to? We need to run, don't we?"
"So why should we carry them?"
"Because you're copies. If it weren't for us, you wouldn't even exist, right? You should follow us with gratitude."
Clove took their obedience for granted.
At the same time he leaned in and, as if testing, pawed at Amy's hair.
"For copies, not bad. How about coming to my place? Don't you want to live safely in Purgatory?"
Amy's eyes went cold.
Whether they were subjects or copies was a mindset she could overlook. But hands on her body were indefensible—just rude, rotten behavior.
"Hands off. I'll blow you away."
"Ha! You, blow me? Sure, you copies might use a little magic, but not against me."
"Cut it out, Clove."
The anger in his master's voice made Clove step back.
Only then did the mood clear. Shirone's group was being watched with lethal intent.
"What, what are you going to do if we stare back?"
"Clove, there's no time. Are you trying to get me killed here?"
Realizing his master was wounded, Clove hurried to support Gardrak. Gardrak rose, leaning on his apprentice's shoulder, and apologized on Clove's behalf.
"Sorry. Even I've rarely seen copies, so my reaction was off. Anyway, you're human too, I suppose. I'm Gardrak. It looks like I should leave this place soon. Could you help us a bit? You seem to have come searching for the Nor Shelter too. I can guide you."
Gardrak showed the prudence of a mage. Admitting a mistake before his apprentice wasn't easy, but he knew cooperation was essential for survival.
Shirone's group also judged lingering dangerous and hoisted the packs without argument.
They reached the place where Clove's pillars had tangled.
Supporting Gardrak, Clove had to sweat to get them through.
Amy snorted. It was satisfying to see someone fall for her magic, but she also thought Clove lacked foresight for not expecting such a backlash.
Shirone paid Clove little mind; he was thinking about the spell Clove had used.
A magic that tore pillars from the wall was violent and dynamic. But Shirone thought using it the way Clove had was terribly inefficient.
Perhaps ancient magic worked on different principles. With that in mind, Shirone asked Gardrak.
"What kind of magic was that?"
Clove cut in with a scoffing laugh.
"Ha! You can't do that? Come on. Earth magic is the basics—the basics of basics."
As he spoke he winked at Amy.
"I could teach you, y'know."
"Keep it. I don't want to make my friends suffer."
Amy's taunt made Clove flush.
Gardrak, too, was curious about Shirone's magic. A copy using such unusual magic piqued his interest.
As far as he knew, the glowing orb Shirone held was impossible to realize here—this cave was a realm of darkness.
Unless Shirone had contracted with a spirit of light, which seemed unlikely given the orb's lack of movement, it couldn't be that.
"Hmm. Hard to explain. You don't use magic like that, do you?"
"We use earth-based magic, but we don't have anything that makes pillars spring from cave walls."
"The principles might be different. We borrow the power embedded in nature: fire magic where fire exists, water magic where water does. Clove used earth magic for the same reason. He probably didn't think about the risk of collapse, though."
"No, Master. It was really urgent then."
Clove offered excuses, but Shirone's group wasn't listening. They were busy talking over the mental channel and had no patience for other chatter.
-Using the power of nature for magic. That's pretty unusual, Canis said.
-It was fairly destructive too. If this were the original world, Clove's spell would have been a high-difficulty technique. Yet he did it easily—even though he's such a screw-up.
Canis's comment prompted Amy to add:
-The advantage of borrowing nature's power isn't just raw force. One person can handle multiple elements. It's different from us choosing a specialty and training in it.
Arin pointed out a downside.
-But it seems less adaptable. You're bound to the environment. If the needed element isn't nearby, you can't cast.
Summed up, ancient magic is broad in scope, powerful, and capable of many elements—but it's heavily constrained by environment, and in some cases the magic itself can be nullified.
Which is more efficient—sky magic or earth magic—was still undecidable.
Once outside the cave, Kanya looked back at Gardrak and asked, "So where's the Nor Shelter?"
"That's not something I can tell the Meka tribe. Just know it's not here. You'd need magic to get there, but that's impossible from here. Follow me."
At that moment Rena, who had received the drone's signal, checked her retinal display and shouted.
"Sis! Big problem!"
Kanya closed one eye to take the drone feed. A group was rapidly approaching from a nearby valley.
"Oh no, it's the Kergo! We have to go now!"
Despair flickered in Gardrak's eyes.
"No. It's already too late. Their sense of smell is incredibly keen. They've picked up the scent of blood."
There was still no sound of them approaching. The fact they'd smelled blood meant at least one among them was a master of the senses.
"What do we do? What do we do, Master?"
Clove stamped his foot.
Gardrak had no clever plan.
According to Rena, about twenty trackers were closing in. Gardrak was wounded and Clove lacked field experience. If a clash happened now, they'd be wiped out.
"How about we do this?"
All eyes turned to Shirone.
@
A Kergo pursuit squad rode black horses, racing across a stream.
Their red armor flashed in the sun and their eyes gleamed like freshly forged blades.
When they reached the cave entrance, the captain raised a hand to halt the approach.
"Stop! Someone's in the cave!"
Twenty followers, led by the captain, came to a halt. A woman with a loose ponytail rode up to the captain's side.