Lightning magic was fatal to the monster submerged in water.
Even the wounds inflicted beforehand could not avoid the current flowing through them.
No matter how tough its hide, it was useless.
Through its wounds, through its severed tentacles, the current surged into the monster’s body.
It was an electric attack that had used up all the black stone attached to the spear.
And not just ordinary black stone, but the scout’s black stone.
Having expended all the energy of such a black stone, there was no way that attack was ordinary.
Even I, who hadn’t touched the water, felt my whole body tingle.
Kuaaaaah!
Sparks flew from the monster’s body, and the tentacles began to burn.
But the monster endured for a while.
Even amid the smoke and steam it had created, the monster formed new tentacles and punched holes all around.
The water rose faster still, and the monster was completely submerged.
Fzzzt!
The monster lasted long, but the current flowed even longer.
A twitch.
In the end, the monster was the first to stop.
Its tentacles went limp, and its black body began to sink into the water.
The current stopped as well.
All that remained was the surging water.
Even now, the water continued to rise.
“It’s been a while since an operation went exactly according to plan.”
There was no answer.
Sopeu seemed to have passed out.
I was exhausted, too.
I pulled out the spear embedded in the ceiling and jumped down.
Splash.
My feet didn’t touch the ground.
Water was rapidly rising in the slanted passage.
I clicked my tongue watching the monster sink further into the passage.
“What a waste… It can’t be helped.”
That scout monster drifting away would have black stones on it, too…
But I couldn’t follow the sunken monster just to find the black stones.
The passage still hadn’t stabilized, and there was no telling how high the water would rise.
I had to escape before it was too late.
I turned and began swimming toward the exit.
In that instant.
Something caught at my senses.
A long tentacle approaching rapidly through the water.
The thing still wasn’t dead.
Whether it had been playing dead or if it was a final death throe, I couldn’t tell, but the monster had shot a tentacle at me.
“Damn it!”
I swung my arms frantically, but I was underwater.
I couldn’t avoid the incoming tentacle.
Fwack!
I twisted my body in a hurry to avoid the first strike, but the tentacle didn’t stop.
Swish.
The tentacle coiled around my leg.
I swung my spear, but unlike outside, I couldn’t cut the tentacle.
The tentacle pulled me down.
*Cough. Keok.*
I gulped down a mouthful of water as I was dragged under.
The unexpected attack made it hard to keep my wits.
The spear was useless, and Sopeu had passed out.
It was hard to move underwater.
Szzzt.
Bracing for pain, I tried running current through the spear, but to no avail.
Only I was shocked.
With the last of my strength, I drove the spear into the wall.
And I hung on, holding fast.
The monster’s tentacle kept pulling me down, but I couldn’t be dragged any further.
The tentacle tightened around my leg.
My leg hurt as if it would snap.
My lungs felt ready to burst.
Time passed. I couldn’t tell how much.
Whether ten seconds, one minute, or ten minutes, in that immeasurable span of time, breathing grew harder.
The pain faded away.
My senses slowly faded.
Darkness crept into my vision.
Am I going to die here?
Just as I thought that, my vision suddenly brightened.
I wasn’t suffocating, nor could I feel pain.
I could see my surroundings.
This wasn’t underwater. It was outside.
Before me stretched a lush forest and a lake.
Was this the life-flashing-before-your-eyes they talk about?
No, this was a memory.
Sopeu’s memory, which I had seen before.
I was seeing the past again through Sopeu’s eyes.
I—no, Sopeu—was sitting by the lakeside.
Unlike the last memory, Sopeu was at ease.
His companions were the same.
The young mage I had seen before stood by the riverbank, casting a spell.
“Wow! This lake still has fish in it?”
Every time he used magic, fish floated up into the air.
Just as the young mage was catching fish one by one, the martial artist stood on the opposite shore and threw a punch at the air.
“Air Strike!”
Boom!
Water erupted, and fish soared into the sky.
A small tidal wave spread across the lake.
“Waah! What is this?!”
The young mage levitating fish on the opposite side was drenched.
Water poured down here, too.
But Sopeu sat and watched the water cascade from the sky.
The moment the falling water drenched him.
“Shield.”
A soft voice came from beside him.
A translucent barrier formed around them, blocking the falling water and sending it flowing around them.
Again, a voice came from beside him.
“Will this be our last rest?”
“We can rest when it’s over.”
Sopeu turned his head.
“I’ll make it so. Don’t worry.”
“Yes. I won’t worry.”
Despite her answer, the woman smiling softly looked somehow sad.
But Sopeu didn’t seem to realize it.
Sopeu rose from his seat and stretched the staff in his hand toward the lake.
Sopeu cast a spell.
Whoosh!
The lake water surged skyward.
It was as if a wall of water was rising from the lake.
“Run!”
“Aagh! The Archmage is picking on his allies!”
The terrified companions screamed and fled the lake.
“Hahaha.”
At the sight, Sopeu laughed heartily and lowered his staff.
The wall of water collapsed.
Waves surged in every direction, engulfing the companions.
Again, a voice laced with laughter came from beside him.
“You’re such a prankster.”
With those words, the barrier surrounding him vanished.
He, too, was swept up by the surging waves.
The world went dark.
The world spun, and foam rose from my mouth.
My body spun round and round.
Sopeu’s voice rang out.
[Pull yourself together! You only need to endure a little longer!]
It was different from Sopeu’s voice in the memory.
This was Sopeu’s voice from reality.
My mind snapped to attention.
My breath was ragged, and my chest throbbed anew.
Feeling pain in my limbs and throughout my body, it seemed my body was intact.
As I came to my senses, I could feel sensation again.
Fortunately, I still had the spear and backpack on me.
I forced my eyes open.
I couldn’t see anything.
But I could tell.
Swoosh!
I was still underwater.
I was being swept along by a rapid current.
Sopeu’s voice came again.
[Send more energy! I’m scraping together the remaining energy in the staff, but I don’t think I can hold out much longer.]
Reflexively, I pushed dark energy into the spear.
Vrrm.
The spear glowed, and the water around my face began to part.
[I’ve created an air layer in the water. It won’t be as easy to breathe as outside, but you should be able to hold out until we get out.]
It was just as Sopeu said.
Absurdly, I was able to breathe underwater.
I breathed raggedly and looked around.
It was too dark to see well, but my body was rapidly rising upward.
[What happened?]
Sopeu answered my question.
[I revived a memory. Didn’t you see?]
At Sopeu’s words, the scene I had just witnessed came to mind.
Sopeu had been resting with his companions by the lakeside.
In the end, Sopeu had lifted the entire lake into the air.
[Don’t tell me you remembered new magic?]
If not, the current situation wouldn’t make sense.
I, who should have died underwater, was surging upward to the surface with the rapid current.
Not only that, I was breathing underwater.
Until just moments ago, Sopeu had been unable to use such magic.
[That’s how it is. I’ve remembered water-related magic.]
It was welcome news, but Sopeu’s voice was heavy.
At that voice, I recalled the woman’s expression from the memory.
[Are you alright?]
[She was right. That was our last rest. I couldn’t keep my promise.]
At Sopeu’s words, I couldn’t say a word.
Sopeu, too, silently focused on his magic.
And so I continued to surge upward, ever upward, riding the rapid current.
I couldn’t tell if the water was rising faster, or if I had simply been underwater too long.
No matter how long I surged, I couldn’t break the surface.
Absurdly, even outside the cave was filled with water.
The base, which had been a basin, was submerged.
Then, I saw light above.
It was the water’s surface.
Fortunately, the surface was near.
Then, Sopeu’s voice spoke.
[…Then I’ll fall back asleep. I awoke because of the memory, but since I forced myself to act, I can’t endure any longer.]
With that, Sopeu fell back asleep.
The rapid current ceased, and the air layer vanished as well.
But it was fine. The surface was right before me.
I moved my arms and legs to rise to the surface.
I did my best to cut through the water with my arms and kick my legs…
Clack.
My legs wouldn’t move.
Startled, I looked at my legs and saw a tentacle wrapped around them.
‘My God. Don’t tell me I dragged that scout monster up with me?’
I couldn’t help but click my tongue at Sopeu’s reckless magic.
However, the problem was only beginning.
I moved my arms desperately, but my body didn’t rise.
Instead, it sank little by little.
Even moving my arms desperately, I still sank; even shaking my legs, the tentacle wouldn’t come loose.
Even striking with the spear, the tentacle wouldn’t sever.
I looked around frantically.
For something to grab, something that might help,
There had to be a way, somehow.
Then, I saw a rope descending from above.
A rope I had seen many times before—no, a whip.
I knew exactly what that whip was.
It was Magreta’s whip.
Right now, it was a lifeline sent from heaven.
I quickly snatched the approaching whip.
Snap!
The moment I grabbed the whip, it was pulled taut.
Jerk.
My sinking body stopped dead and began to rise again.
The surface rapidly approached.
“Puhaah!”
And soon I broke the surface.
The moment I broke the surface, I drew air deep into my lungs.
“He’s out! Pull harder!”
At Magreta’s words, Tom and Sergeant U pulled the whip, their faces turning red.
“We’re pulling! What’s making it so heavy? Just how much do you weigh, Captain?”
“Nngh, maybe the box has weight too.”
Hanna was clinging to the whip as well.
With the four of them pulling the whip with all their might, my body gradually moved toward the shore.
And then, at one point, the downward pull vanished.
‘Did the tentacle come loose?’
I was having such a leisurely thought, but the members all tumbled backward when the pulling force suddenly vanished.
“Waah!”
“Ouch!”
The members who had tumbled backward jumped up and ran to me.
I sat on the shore and watched them run toward me.
Their worried faces as they ran.
Seeing them made it feel real that I was alive.
I asked with a smile.
“Didn’t I tell you to wait at the rocky hill?”
“No, there was an earthquake and a lake formed, and you wanted us to just sit there?”
Magreta glared at me.
“If we hadn’t come, you would’ve been in big trouble. That was really dangerous just now.”
This time, Tom didn’t stay silent either.
Having nothing to say, I asked Sergeant U first.
“But how did you manage to help me at exactly the right time?”
At my words, Sergeant U pointed at Hanna.
“When the earthquake hit, Miss Hanna said we had to come this way.”
As Sergeant U finished, Magreta added.
“It was also Hanna who told us to put the whip in the water.”
It seemed Hanna had done everything.
When I looked at Hanna, she beamed.
“I saw light coming up from under the water.”
The others didn’t know what she meant, but I thought I understood.
“It was strange seeing the light pulling up a dark hole, but since it was a dead hole, I wasn’t scared. Just like now.”
The moment she finished speaking, a black object surged up from the center of the base, which had become a lake, behind me.
Whoosh!
“Waah!”
The members screamed and raised their spears.
I too turned to look at the monster that had surfaced.
What had surfaced was the black monster that had tormented me so—the corpse of the Akzar scout.