"Anthem... could he be under a lot of stress...?"
Anthem's rampage was so spectacular that even Lucia couldn't help watching him with something close to pity.
Kicking the swarming combat ants aside in every direction, Anthemy pushed forward. Trees and ants alike burst apart in spectacular fashion, crashing into the ground with thunderous booms.
Even someone who had known the old Anthem wouldn't guess that this was once that small, gentle young man (though his heart was still kind, even now).
"Probably, it's because Klye-san is here after so long that big brother's getting all fired up..."
Citry, who was handling the carriage, chimed in to cover for him — but was that really helping?
Tinno kicked a combat ant that had dodged Anthem's attack — with movements almost elegant enough to be called graceful — and shouted.
"Big sister, there are too many of them! Combat ants aren't the kind of monster that should appear in a forest like this!!"
Her voice was strained, but even amid her fierce movements, her expression still showed composure. Her growth had always been fast, but recently it was truly remarkable — as a senior, he felt both proud and a little lonely. She had even learned to operate the carpet before him...
Liliz, who had been taking out the stragglers from Anthem's rampage alongside Tinno, suddenly looked their way and called out.
"See, that's what I mean! Right, Klye?"
"Mm-hmm, that's right."
Monsters showing up where they shouldn't was common enough, and higher-tier species appearing wasn't unheard of either. Heroic tales, after all, were full of dramatic twists and turns.
Surrounded on all sides with enemies wherever he looked, Kryus wiped the sweat from his forehead while continuing to fire off offensive magic.
"...Hah, hah... w-well, it's still better than having a Chill Dragon appear in the middle of town, I guess."
Right? Right? Once you'd been through something terrible, everything else got compared to it.
Even he didn't always keep topping the rankings for dangerous incidents.
Still, just as he'd thought back when fighting that Demon Lord — their party really did have impressive offensive power.
The Mourning Specter had always been a party that excelled in destructive capability, but with Lapis and the others added — people who cast magic as naturally as breathing — they had achieved truly terrifying breakthrough power. The combat ants swarming from all sides couldn't even get close.
Even armed, they were ultimately just carrying swords — no match for the reach of magic. The mages of Star's Holy Thunder who fired off offensive magic were elegant, ruthless, and the very image of what humans imagined Spiritfolk to be.
"...So this is war, huh."
"Hmph. For monsters like this to appear in a forest managed by Spiritfolk... Moreover, I can sense a clear will trying to impede our movements. Thousand Transformations — do you know something about this?"
Lapis, who had just sliced five combat ants to pieces with blades of wind in a single sweep, glanced over at him.
Needless to say, he knew nothing about it — and besides, it wasn't his idea to enter the forest in the first place.
He was just about to open his mouth in protest when Elisa, who had overheard the conversation, cut in with a reproachful tone.
"This isn't the time for such discussions. We should hurry to the meeting point."
"...You're absolutely right. We'll have a thorough discussion once we reach Yugdra — tonight, if need be."
Should he call that a nice save, or mourn the lost opportunity to defend himself?
He briefly considered arguing, but the resulting spat was all too predictable, so he merely shrugged. He might even forget about the whole thing by nightfall...
"Still, the enemy's armed and all, and here's Luke turning to stone on us..."
"He did say he wanted to try the thousand-person slaying..."
Lucia said, manipulating water to ensnare the countless arrows fired in their direction.
What was going on? Luke's timing really was terrible this time.
"RRAAAAARGHHH!!"
"...Well, with Anthem going berserk like that, they can't exactly get through easily."
Anthem, who was bearing the brunt of their assault, let out a shuddering roar. That alone was enough to shake the clinging ants loose in droves, and he swatted them away with his massive arms and legs.
When Anthem went all out, his aim was actually pretty sloppy... The only one who could weave into the middle of his fighting was Lucia.
Citry, who had been at the reins, clapped her hands together and spoke up.
"It does seem their goal is to slow us down. Suicide soldiers, then... The carriage might make us too slow. Let's abandon it here."
"What!? Even if we ditch the carriage, what about the horses!?"
"? Our horses are trained to escape from monster swarms and return safely. Doesn't Star's Holy Thunder do the same?"
At Citry's words, Lapis furrowed her brow.
Horses that could pull a Hunter's carriage through monster-infested territory were rare. The ones pulling Star's Holy Thunder's carriage in particular were so beautiful that even he — who had little interest in such things — couldn't help but admire them. Abandoning them felt wrong.
Well, there was a slight error in Citry's statement. It wasn't so much that the horses were trained as that, through sheer survival of the fittest, only such horses remained. Their carriage got attacked far too often...
But this time, there was no need to leave them behind. They had Mimmy. The horses were large, but Mimmy's mouth was big enough to fit them if he squeezed a little. The carriage, though — they'd have to give that up.
He was glad the Treasure Weapon was proving useful for once. As expected, the Space-Time Bag really was the most outstanding Treasure Weapon of all.
He snapped his fingers and gave Mimmy his instructions.
§ § § "The first time we fought it, I thought the same thing — it's strong!! Overwhelming power. Seriously, what kind of species is that monster? More powerful than Zork... Where do they even live?"
Quint said, eyes shining, as he peered into the Gennin Mirror. Inside, a giant was scattering combat ants like they were nothing.
Combat ants were highly social monsters. Their coordination in battle rivaled that of seasoned human soldiers. Watching their sophisticated formations get smashed through by brute force was impressive, even from the enemy's perspective.
"All we know right now is that it's humanoid. Personally, I'm more curious about that treasure chest monster."
The sight of it gulping down a horse whole had been quite a shock. It didn't seem like feeding a monster, so it could probably put things in and take them out at will.
There were probably some restrictions, but its convenience rivaled that of the Gennin Mirror. If possible, he'd love to know where they'd obtained it.
As expected, their opponent's military strength was considerable. Lumping them together with those the Night Parade of a Thousand Demons had dealt with before would be a costly mistake.
The first and second battles had confirmed it. At the very least, Uno and the others currently lacked a decisive edge. Moreover, Thousand Transformations still hadn't made any clear moves.
But setting that aside, unknown monsters were exciting. As Uno and Quint discussed the topic with enthusiasm, Adler snorted irritably.
"But we managed to buy some time. Or rather... they let us be delayed? ...So this is the Divine Tree Circuit. It just looks like an old gate, though —"
Following the guide, they had traveled for several hours. The moss-covered stone gate that had appeared abruptly along the beast trail was strangely mystical, yet looked like nothing more than a ruin.
Beyond the gate, the forest continued, and the guide pointed toward the pathless depths beyond, deep into the thicket.
"A magical path, then... No sense of anything unusual from the outside. You wouldn't notice this one."
"But if you concentrate, you can feel the faintest hint of a strange force at work. There's definitely something there."
Inside the gate, the deep green forest was silent, with barely a sound of wind. That fact alone indicated that what lay beyond was no ordinary forest.
Adler, who had been narrowing his eyes and glaring into the depths of the forest, kicked a stone at his feet in frustration.
The Star-Eater coiled up nearby, waving the antennae protruding from its head as if to signal alarm.
For the Star-Eater Centipede, an ancient species, most monsters were nothing more than food.
"That's unusual... even the Star-Eater seems excited. It looks like what's waiting for us up ahead is a seriously tough enemy. You're ready, right?"
"Of course we are!"
"No turning back now, Your Majesty. We're subduing a monster stronger than the Immovable and Unchanging!"
Adler passed through the gate without hesitation, with Uno and Quint following close behind.
Zork shook the earth as he followed, and the Star-Eater howled, forcing its way through the gate.
The gate cracked and crumbled as the Star-Eater's hard armor collided with it. And then, silence fell.
§ § § Having abandoned the carriage, they pressed forward at full speed, kicking aside the swarming combat ants and other monsters.
The only thing that changed for him was whether he rode in the carriage or on top of Mimmy, but with that large burden gone, no one could stop Anthem and the others.
They were valiant, daring, and high-spirited. On top of that, Lapis and her group — who knew the forest well — were with them this time. Even for him, the magnet for trouble, there was no way problems would pop up so easily.
As he watched his childhood friend rampaging ahead, nodding approvingly from behind, there was a sudden, heavy thud — and Anthem, who had been cutting the path wide open, sank into the ground.
"?! Brother Anthem?!"
"...Ah, a pit trap..."
Combat ants began to appear in droves as Anthem was buried up to his head in an instant.
It seemed they had anticipated their direction of travel, dug a hole in advance, and waited. It wouldn't have made much difference to drop just Anthem when there were others in the party, but still — these were clever monsters.
Burly soldiers wielding various weapons appeared. For a moment, the battlefield fell silent.
But that silence was shattered almost immediately by a roar.
Mimmy took a startled hop backward, as though overwhelmed by the force of it.
The ground trembled, and a massive body launched out of the hole with incredible force. Anthem had jumped.
He looked incredibly heavy and actually was, but most of his Mana Material was allocated to physical strength (his healing power was first-rate too, thanks to sheer effort). He was anything but clumsy.
A pit trap couldn't stop him. Being buried couldn't stop him either. He'd actually been buried before.
There was a sickening crunch of hard things being crushed.
Anthem, having burst out, trampled the approaching ant soldiers underfoot, then swept his arms sideways, scattering the rest.
Neither the swords and spears of the advancing ants nor the rain of arrows fired from the shadows of the trees could breach his ironclad defense.
At this point, you really couldn't tell who the monsters were anymore...
Even if the enemy was composed of suicide soldiers as Citry had said, there were things in this world that sheer willpower couldn't overcome. Well, sometimes sheer willpower could overcome things too — but that was beside the point.
After mowing them all down, Anthemy resumed the march as if nothing had happened. The sight must have been quite a shock, because the color had drained from the faces of Star's Holy Thunder's members.
Glancing back, he saw that the path they'd passed through was piled high with an enormous number of monster corpses.
I really don't want to take this path on the way back...
Just as he was thinking that, Anthem — who hadn't stopped once until now — came to a halt.
Elisa approached him, where he sat atop Mimmy.
Her voice was calm. Her slightly vacant eyes looked up at him.
"Klye, we're here."
"Let me see..."
Elisa was new to the Mourning Specter, and he hadn't asked her to, but she always treated him as the party leader.
Well, it wasn't like he accompanied her on her adventures very often — but still.
He dismounted from Mimmy and headed in the direction Elisa indicated. At the tip of her outstretched finger lay a large mass of rock.
No — not just rock. It was clearly man-made. Moss-covered, yes, but shaped.
Elisa pulled the guide from her chest and held it up before them. The guide, attached to a cord, spun around and then stopped abruptly, pointing straight toward the collapsed gate.
Lapis approached with a grim expression.
"So we finally made it. This is the gate to the Divine Tree Circuit, huh... It's collapsed, but — no, more importantly, what happened to whoever was supposed to meet us?"
"I don't know. They were supposed to be waiting for us, but... Actually, this... It's collapsed. That's abnormal."
Elisa looked at him. What was she expecting from him?
As his childhood friend, he could usually guess what she was thinking, but there were still things about her he didn't understand.
Putting on a thoughtful expression for now, he was about to speak when Kryus furrowed his well-shaped brows.
"But if the gate's collapsed, can't we get in? Right? Hey, weakling?"
"No problem. The gate is just a marker. The proof is that the guide is pointing ahead."
"Good that it wasn't a total waste of a trip, but... We're supposed to be meeting someone, right? What do we do, Klye?"
Well... what could you do?
"...H-human... this is, without a doubt, your —"
One of Lapis's companions, who had been standing behind them, spoke in a trembling voice. Yeah, that's about what you'd expect — he thought, but Lapis cut in with an even more displeased tone than before.
"Enough. Have you forgotten? As long as you belong to the Clan, you agreed to show respect to the Clan Master — that is, to this man."
"...I know. My apologies, human."
The Spiritfolk companion fell silent, sulking. Lapis... so she had been looking out for him after all.
But he had certainly made things awkward. He didn't know if the gate's destruction or the absence of their greeter was the result of his actions (since there seemed to be no reason to destroy the gate), but they needed to assess the situation as quickly as possible.
He took the guide from Elisa, looked around at everyone, and spoke.
"...Well, in any case, let's go inside."
But Elisa's reaction to his hardboiled declaration was not what he had expected.
Her eyes went wide, and Elisa murmured in a daze.
"...Klye..."
"Y-you, weakling, that —"
"?! Big brother, what have you done now?!"
"Huh...??"
Everyone's eyes were fixed on his hands. He blinked and checked the guide he had just received.
The guide — which had been pointing steadily in one direction until the very moment he took it — was now spinning in circles without even a gust of wind.
His eyes went wide.
"Huh? Why...?"
"How should I know!?"
Not knowing what to do, he handed the guide back to Elisa, but the spinning didn't stop.
Could it be... broken? Just from being held?
"...T-this is a serious situation."
"You never fail, Klye..."
"Hmm..."
Even Citry, who was always smiling, had a strained expression, and Anthemy let out a groan laden with resignation.
Had he done something wrong? No, he hadn't. Besides, with his complete lack of any talent, even if he tried to do something, nothing would happen.
"This must be a natural phenomenon. They say compasses can go haywire in places with lots of mineral deposits, right?"
"That's not a compass!"
Well... true. It had been working fine until just a moment ago, after all.
He let out a small sigh and pulled a compass-type Treasure Weapon from his pocket.
Then he opened the lid, checked inside, and let out a deep sigh.
Sure enough, the needle was pointing toward the gate... Besides, with this atmosphere, it wasn't like they could just not go. If anything, being left behind would be worse — they'd die.
They had to go either way if they wanted to save Luke...
"Well, let's just get going. What should the formation be..."
The road ahead was supposedly a magical path. No ant monsters would appear there, and letting Anthem loose probably wasn't the best idea.
But leaving it to Liliz wasn't great either... His team members, who loved the unknown, had a habit of running wild.
As he was about to settle into some long-overdue leadership duties, Elisa stepped forward and — in a rare display of seriousness — declared.
"...Klye, I'll take the lead. This is not a game."