The most I can do is “Saak!” or “Shirit” or “Kiyaak, Haak!”
“How would a wyvern be any different? It was made so monsters could speak too, so it’s fine.”
‘Tell me any word to stop her!’
Even with my language talent, I couldn’t freely recall words I’d never heard before.
I tried copying the words Pelerian taught me.
“Shik Ki-”
It meant stop.
Chugota didn’t stop.
“Kiik, Kik!”
It meant angry.
I told her I was angry, but a mother trying to escape danger with her child wouldn’t stop.
“Ssut, Seke! Hiichi-”
I try saying words randomly.
Suddenly, Chugota stopped.
She reacted to the last word.
“Hiichi-!”
That word made Chugota stop.
Chugota suddenly stopped in place and looked around.
Her eyes looked ready to shoot flames, and an infrasonic growl flowed from her mouth.
‘Thief.’
That was the meaning of the Oboe word ‘hiichi’.
Chugota was now looking for the thief.
「Using Beam lv1.」
I hit the golem with a beam.
Not trying to deal damage.
Though I don’t know why she reacts to the word ‘thief’, I pointed out the golem as the thief.
Amazingly, Chugota responded.
With insane rage.
“Queee- Ta-!”
All three heads shouted simultaneously.
‘Give it back!’
Her massive body leaped and pounced on the golem.
The obelisk’s war machine tipped with a wobble.
This must be a threatening situation for it too.
It urgently discharged coolant as if trying to use super acceleration.
Chwiiiik!
Steam rises with terrifying intensity.
Once it finishes discharging heat, it will immediately use super acceleration.
Whether she noticed and judged this.
Or acted on instinct, I’m not sure.
But Chugota responded properly.
Destruction beam at point-blank range.
The three heads spewed beams without fear of the effects reaching themselves.
Kwakwakwa-!
The carefully cooled heat sinks must have heated up again.
Not only that. Chugota viciously bit and shook the sturdy golem.
During this time, I was able to escape.
Now was my chance while neither the golem nor Chugota were looking at me.
“Kuwak!”
Though Wyvern Mom looked at me.
“Saaak!”
I shouted.
‘Hurry and escape with the children!’
Though not my real mother, thank you for caring for me like one.
But our connection has reached its end.
If I go with Celeta, Chugota will chase after me again.
I ran toward the dungeon.
The golem and Chugota were too entangled in fighting to notice.
There was an entrance in the stone tower I approached.
More like windows than an entrance, several holes of unknown destination were opened.
I didn’t need to worry alone.
“Up there, go through that hole on the upper right!”
With a leap.
I slipped through the hole Pelerian indicated.
==
“Huu, huk.”
Zhanil Fezhe breathed heavily.
The composure that had been on his face was gone at some point.
Yes, to be precise, it was probably the moment when the dwarves finally forced open the door.
The moment the trap activated.
At first, he thought it was hardened sand pouring down.
He quickly realized they were freeze-dried monsters, bedbugs the size of millet.
The bedbugs that awoke from sleep clung to the dwarves’ bodies.
The dwarves screamed in a manner unbefitting them.
The millet-sized bedbugs’ bellies swelled up like red grapes in an instant.
With hundreds and thousands of them attached, death was unavoidable.
All the dwarves died instantly.
It was pure luck that Zhanil Fezhe and Doctor Robanton survived.
Rangers who survived long all had quick judgment and decision-making.
Zhanil Fezhe immediately smashed a special ampoule recently developed in the Empire against his forehead.
A liquid that smelled similar to fishy odor soaked his body.
Forgetting his dignity, he practically embraced Doctor Robanton as they dodged.
They say it gives off a stench that’s unbearable for monsters.
The ampoule really worked.
Though the floor was covered in bedbugs, a clean circle formed around the two.
The bedbugs wouldn’t approach beyond a certain distance.
“Slowly… take one step at a time.”
Robanton nodded while trembling.
When they took a step forward, the bedbugs scattered away.
Thankfully.
The bedbugs that had filled their bellies stayed still too.
When they had to step on them, blood burst out with a splat.
“We need to go inside. The effect won’t last forever.”
“What about getting out?”
“It’s fine, I have one more ampoule.”
They tried to enter through the opened door.
But at that moment.
Someone appeared out of thin air.
“Intruders.”
An elf.
However, an elf with un-elflike features.
The appearance of an old man.
His nose was hooked like a witch’s.
Un-elflike dirty gray beard had grown.
Among the features that could never be called harmonious, the most striking were his eyes.
Pitch black eyeballs.
Like the eyes of a rat crawling in darkness.
But his appearance couldn’t be called unsightly.
Rather, it was terrifying.
A robe made of premium silk fit for an emperor.
Runes embroidered with gold thread.
And luxurious accessories, rings that appeared to be magical tools.
He was unmistakable.
Despite over a hundred years passing since his active period…
“He, Heaven Defier.”
Zhanil Fezhe muttered that blasphemous title.
At the time, he was the continent’s strongest villain whom even the Empire’s emperor feared.
“Rats finally open the locked door and enter.”
“You were alive!”
The experienced ranger felt fear.
Heaven Defier was truly such a being.
One who could bring ruin with a single word, a single phrase.
“Though this isn’t the storehouse you were expecting… Go back. You won’t get even a grain of rice.”
A warning.
A warning to go back.
Unlike Zhanil Fezhe from the Empire, Doctor Robanton might not have properly known the fear of Heaven Defier.
Or perhaps he found something strange about that warning.
He irreverently reached for Heaven Defier’s clothes.
Zhanil Fezhe was prepared not to be surprised even if the doctor turned to ashes in an instant.
But the doctor’s hand just went through.
“…It’s an illusion.”
“…Ah!”
The suddenly appeared Heaven Defier was actually an illusion.
Zhanil felt a bit embarrassed.
Had he been too quick to fear Heaven Defier’s appearance?
“L-let’s go in.”
Hiding his confusion, he walked forward.
Passing through the illusion.
As they were about to just pass by.
“There are no riches or treasures here.”
Pelerian’s illusion kept speaking into the air.
“Only numbers, regret, and obsession remain… So turn back.”
But they couldn’t turn back after coming this far.
Zhanil Fezhe and Doctor Robanton kept going, deeper and deeper inside.
