Chapter 235

Chapter 235:

The Abyss of the Deep Valley, Erebore – Chapter 235: The Abyss of the Deep Valley, Erebore #5

After a brief rest by the bonfire, we set off again.

Was it the warmth and light from the bright fire that had any effect? It felt as though our pace had a little more strength and the confidence on our shoulders had grown slightly.

“Like this, I doubt we’ll find Elpride’s party.”

Of course, not everything was going perfectly.

We had no idea where we were, and we didn’t even see a single trace of where Elpride’s party might have been stranded.

We’ve only been trapped here for about a day and already we’re facing such dangers.

With three days already passed since Elpride’s party entered this place, it’s easy to imagine what situation they’re in.

It might already be too late.

We may not even find their remains.

Such thoughts swirled in my head. Perhaps the best course of action would simply be to find a way out.

Since I’m thinking this much, surely the party leader, Hippolyte, must be filled with many concerns as well.

Our supplies are insufficient, and darkness surrounds us, threatening unknown dangers from all sides.

Anyone could see; this isn’t a good situation.

Just as we were moving forward with a vague sense of direction, strange markings and patterns began to appear under our feet by the light of the torch.

“Big sister, look at this.”

The first to react to the markings was Antiope. Perhaps the patterns and logos fascinated her, as someone who has tattoos on her body.

“Hmm…”

“Pretty interesting design, isn’t it?”

We all stopped walking and inspected the large pattern drawn on the ground beneath our feet.

Etched into the floor, there was a circular pattern about the size of a school playground. An assortment of characters and drawings was irregularly scattered within it.

It’s like a giant pizza pie carved onto the floor.

Pizza? What am I thinking about?

While I was trying to refocus, Hippolyte, with her arms crossed, swiped the markings on the ground with her finger.

Of course, nothing happened to the markings.

“Know what this is? Is it related to the exit?”

“It looks like a magic circle. It kind of reminds me of something I’ve seen at the knight’s order… Ah, what was it? Something related to the landlordists, maybe.”

“Landlordists?”

“Heretics who have been gaining prominence in the past few years. They believe this material world and physical body is corrupted by evil and are on a quest for some perfect spiritual world somewhere.”

“So, they think this world is evil? Fascinating bunch.”

“They even consider the gods who created the world as demons and seek to exterminate everything they see. The leaders of that group are proving difficult to find and are causing quite the headache.”

As Antiope explained, I recalled the sight of shrine knights hunting down heretics.

It seems their duties include not only dealing with cultists of Pluto but also eliminating anything that threatens the kingdom and the established theological worldview.

Landlordism…

Believing the existing material world is wicked and calling the gods who created it demons…

Is there a more blasphemous heresy for people in this world, who value religion and faith so highly?

While I was musing over this, Antiope, who was rubbing the magic circle with her sandals, added:

“Their greatest problem is that they truly believe somewhere beyond this material world lies a perfect spiritual realm made of pure goodness—a completely different world.”

“An interesting perspective.”

“Yeah. But that’s not all. The real problem is they keep trying to tear open cracks into other dimensions and universes. This? It’s probably a gate.”

“Gate?”

“A massive one. A summoning circle. This abyss belongs to the landlordists. d*mn, I don’t even know what they were trying to do.”

And with that, Antiope shivered as she finished her explanation.

At that exact moment, Elpride, who was kneeling on the floor tracing the circle with her palm, spoke up.

“This summoning circle has already lost its power. There’s no mana left flowing through it, meaning something has likely been summoned into this world through it.”

Elpride, who has considerable expertise in handling mana as a mage, gripped the torch tighter after hearing her words.

Something massive must have emerged from this circle, the size of a small playground.

I can’t even begin to imagine what it could be.

Just as I was getting goosebumps, Hippolyte seemed to sum everything up.

“Such a large summoning circle, they must’ve been trying to summon a god from another world.”

“No,” corrected Antiope.

“A god? According to them, it would be a demon.”

And with that, the discussion about the magic circle came to an end. Antiope seemed like she wanted to say more but held back, perhaps fearing to bring upon bad luck.

It wasn’t the moment to dwell on the matter anyway.

Fsssschh…

Suddenly, red eyes started glowing around us.

Shshh…

Hippolyte drew her sword from its sheath at her waist. Contrary to her previous gloomy demeanor, the moment she gripped the sword, her face lit up with determination.

“Finally, you abyssal mongrels have shown yourselves.”

“Looks like you’re a bit late. Big sis, I’ll take the rear as planned! Make sure to hold the front line strong!”

Antiope also drew her short sword from her waist and took aim with it, looking all around. Sparks crackled at the tip of her blade—a massive electric current crackled like thunder.

“Wait, you just used…!”

Hippolyte’s sentence was left unfinished.

In the dark, the red-eyed creatures launched themselves towards us.

Gheekh!

They emitted terrifying howls.

The light of the torch revealed their forms, which were utterly horrific. They seemed to be the upper torsos of humans, as if the lower halves had been severed at the waist—what remained was grotesque.

Their skin was as pale as ash, perhaps from never being exposed to sunlight. Their hairless heads featured faces devoid of discernable eyes, nose, or a mouth. The sight of such bizarre and grotesque beings gave me chills.

“sh*t, there are so many d*mn Boltmorts!”

The creatures used their arms to crawl swiftly and attacked me with alarming speed. Before I knew it, they had reached me and were climbing up my legs.

The feeling of these half-bodied creatures scraping against me was absolutely terrifying—one of the worst sensations I’d ever experienced in my life.

“Get off me, you bastards!”

I had no choice but to kick and swing my club to fend them off.

I kicked the one clinging to my right leg off and sent it flying, creating a crack and splattering sounds as its skull broke.

For all their fearsome appearance, they didn’t seem particularly durable.

Can I handle this?

As I thought that, a surge of confidence filled me.

“f*ck off, you bastards!”

Just as I was about to smash one of the creatures’ heads with all my might, crackling electricity sounds began to grow louder, seemingly reaching their peak.

Then Antiope threw her spear over her shoulder toward the creatures, shouting:

“Judgment!”

Zzzzzap!

The spear flew forward, glowing with white light, cutting through the heads of the monsters while releasing lightning in all directions. The electric energy passed through the creatures, frying everything within reach in a chain reaction. It was quite a powerful sight, even to me.

Whoosh.

Antiope extended her palm toward the empty sky—expecting some kind of bl**d vortex to s*ck in all the remnants of the monsters, maybe? Unfortunately, her spear merely returned.

Thinking about it, wasn’t there some enchantment on her spear, Ganlonga, that allowed it to return automatically?

“Perfect. I can get stronger.”

ZZzzzap, ZZZzap!

Antiope swiped her spear, Ganlonga, from top to bottom, sparking another electric current along its length. Though it was an impressive display, it made me somewhat uncomfortable, like it could cause some unintended arousal. How could such a power be so sensually mesmerizing?

“God’s Judgment!”

Once again, Antiope hurled her spear forward like a flash.

…

…

…

The creatures we had defeated were called Dusts. They were born from negative thoughts and dust accumulated in the abyss.

The total number of Dusts we had defeated amounted to fifty-three: three by me and fifty by the women, most of which were exterminated under the name of testing her new power by Antiope.

Previously, I was a little worried about finding a way through this darkness, but seeing this, I realized my concerns were unfounded.

It’s a really strong party.

I remembered when Antiope had mentioned how luxurious the party members were just before we set out.

“Nothing useful here.”

Hippolyte kicked and examined the carcasses of the Dust monsters. Nothing particularly useful seemed to be among them, as she had said.

“Of course not. These are D-rank monster kills. How useful can they be? They’ve been corrupted by the abyss; you can’t even make equipment with their materials.”

Despite our considerable hunting spree, the Dust monsters ended up being nothing more than trivial monsters. They were incredibly grotesque, though.

I took out the half-blunt dagger I’d used earlier and sliced into the back and spine of one of these grotesque monsters. Revealed in the gap between the muscles was an impressive white bone.

The bones seemed to be quite usable. It would surely make for excellent undead creatures.

Of course, raising Bone Goblins in such a situation could cause chaos, so I refrained from doing so.

“The remains must be collected to be burned. We don’t know what might happen.”

Following Hippolyte’s orders, the bodies of the creatures were burned to ashes, leaving me without options to collect anything.

We continued encountering Dust monsters, but they were all the same.

“Hotan, how many torches are left?”

“Only one is left.”

“d*mn, just one. Even if the Dust types are small fries, who knows what could happen if we keep being eroded by this abyss.”

With the torches about to run out, Hippolyte showed signs of stress as we kept encountering small monsters.

“Antiope, how many more times can you use your electrical ability? It was pretty fascinating.”

“Well, I need to experiment to find out.”

“Is that so? Hmm, there’s a lot to consider.”

As the party leader, Hippolyte naturally has much more on her mind than others.

Meanwhile, I felt quite comfortable, with Antiope, Hippolyte, and Elpride by my side, so I wasn’t exerting as much mental or physical energy as others.

At this rate, I might actually fall asleep sitting on the bus.

Is there anything I can do in this situation? Just as I thought that, a sudden idea struck me, and I turned to Hippolyte with a request.

“Can I borrow your hand for a moment? Remove your gauntlet.”

“My hand? Why do you need it?”

“I’ll give it a massage.”

“A massage? Of my hand?”

“It might make you feel better.”

“With others around? Here you’re saying you’ll massage my hand?”

“It’s just a massage. What’s the problem?”

“Hmm, well, no, there’s no problem…”

Hippolyte finally removed her gauntlet from her right hand. The hand beneath revealed itself, drenched in sweat.

She wiped the hand hurriedly on her greaves, as if embarrassed.

“…Alright, here, take it.”

Thus, Hippolyte’s palm was extended toward me, and I pressed it thoroughly. To my surprise, her palm was unexpectedly soft for someone who made a living with a sword.

“You don’t have any calluses on your palm. Do you get regular hand treatments?”

“Of course. For Amazons like me, strength itself is beauty, and beauty itself is strength. Thus, we don’t neglect our daily training or grooming.”

That makes sense.

Even Luna, out of sight, applied various face masks and practiced foot baths.

Apparently, Hippolyte also made efforts to care for her appearance in places where we couldn’t see.

Anyway, that doesn’t matter now.

The darkness seemed to cloud our minds, so I decided to perform some finger pressure with added force, as if to wake someone from their slumber.

“Aaaaahh….”

As I pressed her pressure points, Hippolyte cried out in surprise, trembling slightly.

“Hm, my spine feels tingly. I’ve noticed this before but… your unique touch is…”

“Eh? Why are you giving it only to Big Sister? Do me too!”

Seeing this, Antiope complained with a growl. Eventually, I took Antiope’s hand and started pressing it as well.

Antiope’s hand, unlike Hippolyte’s, had calluses, evidence of her hard work.

“Aaaaahhh!”

Despite the calluses, Antiope was incredibly sensitive, like Hippolyte. She screamed as if her hand was being crushed, even with a light touch.

“It hurts! It hurts so much!”

That only made Hippolyte scoff disapprovingly.

“Quit whining, Antiope. It’s a sign you’re still far from being as strong as me.”

“M-my mind… it’s suddenly clear! Stop! Please, stop!”

Because Antiope was reacting so excessively, the massage was over quickly. Seeing her shed a tear, it seemed her spirit was refreshed, even if she looked quite worn out.

The only one left was Elpride.

As I turned toward her,

she flinched unexpectedly.

“Why? Do you need it too?”

[End of Chapter]

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