Chapter 58
By the light filtering through the broken window, the child examined the woman crouching before her.
The woman was dazzlingly beautiful. An ivory dress swathed in frills, vivid violet eyes. Her hair, cascading past her shoulders, was a sweet, candy-like pink.
The child had never seen someone so pretty and precious. She was like an elaborate doll from a city storefront. And that person was cupping her feet and smiling gently.
She came to save me? She’s asking my name. Am I already dead? The pungent smell of oil is so vivid and terrible, though.
It felt like a dream. The child stared blankly at her before mumbling a reply.
“Shai…”
“Shai? Is your name Shai?”
The child nodded faintly. Eki noticed the child’s trembling had lessened. Feeling relieved, she extended her other hand towards the child.
“Let’s get out of here together, Shai.”
“W-Where to…?”
“Somewhere safe. It’s dangerous here with all the oil, so we need to leave quickly.”
“B-But outside, there are people… Everyone’s angry…”
Shai whispered, tearfully. Eki smiled and replied.
“It’s alright. I’ll protect you. You don’t have to be afraid of anything.”
It was a casual, ordinary tone. The words, so effortlessly spoken, gave her a strong sense of conviction.
Her perfectly adorned appearance was surreal, clashing with the dilapidated barn where the smell of oil lingered and the reddish light of the torches flickered ominously. That appearance also added a strange weight to her words. It felt as though, no matter what happened, she would be at peace by her side.
Shai reached out as if possessed. Eki clasped the small hand that groped through the air, slowly approaching. The moment light entered the tear-stained eyes of the girl.
The air distorted. Cracked. Touched. The tip of gray hair first. And soon after, the child’s entire body was sucked in as if drawn in. The hand that had just touched slipped and fell away.
Eki glared and reflexively reached out. Too late. The distortion of space that had formed right behind the child swallowed her in an instant. Soon after, the space, distorted like a glass bead, grew larger. Eki, who had only grabbed empty air instead of the child’s hand, cursed and retreated out of range.
“Damn Node!”
It never appears when I need it! A sense of resentment, unable to find its target, surged up.
It seemed that Lakiageosa had appeared, sensing the change when she tried to save the Saintess, who had burned to death before the regression. As Bardelgiosa had guessed, the more she tried to change something, the higher the probability of a Node appearing seemed to be.
The Node grew rapidly. It had already swallowed almost the entire inside of the building. The place where it had appeared was a barn where they had poured oil to burn an innocent child to death, so the situation inside must be terrible.
Eki leaned against the wall, avoiding the swelling Node, and pondered. What should she do?
‘What else can you do? You have to go in. You promised to protect her.’
The deliberation ended in an instant. She wouldn’t die easily. The Nodes that had appeared on the battlefield hadn’t been a problem, had they? But that Sol race child, Shai, would surely die if left alone inside the Node.
Eki looked down at her hand that had held Shai’s hand. The child was small and thin. The Elgiosa Owner, the Saintess. Was it possible that she wouldn’t hate anyone, even in this situation?
Eki stopped thinking and gripped Amethyst tighter. But before she could jump in, Yuriene poked his head through the broken window.
“Ekinesia? What’s going on…!”
As soon as he saw the distorted interior, like a reflection in a bubble, he recognized it as a Node. His face turned pale.
Eki paused. She couldn’t show him that she was entering the Node of her own volition. Should she pretend to stumble again? A brief moment of conflict arose.
But her worries soon became meaningless.
Yuriene, having confirmed the Node, the vanished child, and Ekinesia leaning against the wall, braced himself on the window frame with one arm and jumped through the window in one swift motion.
Their eyes met for a moment. Sky-blue eyes stared at her. His eyes blinked. A bitter smile flashed for a moment. And then, before Eki could react, he had entered the Node.
“Yu…!”
Eki was stunned and tried to call his name, but swallowed it. She felt like her blood was freezing.
Was he crazy? Was he out of his mind? Did he know what was inside there before going in! No matter how much of a Master and a Giosa Owner he was, the inside of a Node operated under different laws than the world!
No one could guarantee what would happen. He could die, yet he walked into the Node of his own volition? Did he not value his life? Was he fearless? How did I manage to save you!!
Screaming thoughts swirled. So much that her head spun and ached.
In the midst of it all, she weighed two things on the scale in her mind. Taking the risk of being exposed as the Demon of the Demon Sword and going in to protect him and Shai, or not being exposed and quietly waiting outside the Node.
The scale tilted at once, making the consideration seem pointless. Ekinesia stepped into the Node.
The Node, which had swallowed three Giosa Owners, rapidly expanded its range. The distorted space greedily devoured the villagers who had gathered with torches, and even the entire inside of the valley, before disappearing without a trace.
* * *
The moment she entered the Node, a wave of heat washed over her. Eki shielded her face with her forearm and squinted.
“…I expected as much.”
[It’s amazing!]
The Node, separated from the valley, retained the terrain of the valley. Of course, the interior was completely different.
The trees inside the valley had grown three to four times their original size. The tops soared to dizzying heights, and the trunks were thicker than the pillars of a temple. The trees, like tall, thick pillars, rose densely, blocking the path and obscuring the view, making the inside of the Node look almost like a maze.
That wasn’t the end of it. The trunks and branches of the trees had all turned as black as charcoal, and each and every leaf had turned into a burning flame. The leaves above her head were all flames.
The sweltering heat seemed to be due to those flaming leaves. Eki quickly dodged the leaves falling like autumn leaves. The leaves that touched the ground rolled and ignited sparks when they touched the oil. Flames shot up with a whoosh.
“There’s even oil?”
She was horrified and examined the ground. Oil flowed across the dirt floor like a narrow stream. The fire that had spread from the leaves followed the stream of oil, turning into a trail of flames.
Following the pillar-like trees, there was even a path of oil that could turn into flames at any moment. There were no Monsters in sight, but the terrain itself was a sight to behold.
‘I can’t last long here.’
Eki frowned and thought. Even if there were no Monsters, it would be difficult to endure until the Node opened if there was nothing to eat. Something edible would have had to be sucked in with them for there to be food inside the Node, but this Node seemed to have nothing.
The trees had all become like burning iron pillars, and there was even a stream of oil flowing on the ground, so even if there was any food, it would all be burned. There was also a high probability that there was no water.
If it was impossible to endure inside, then the only option was to find the starting point, as she had done in the Node in White Raven Gorge last time, and stab it with a Giosa.
Fortunately, she knew exactly where the starting point was, so all she had to do was find it. The Node had started in the corner behind Shai, who had been huddled in the shelter.
‘At least it’s fortunate that I have Yuriene’s Rangiosa and Shai’s Elgiosa, so I don’t have to take out Bardelgiosa.’
For now, only the maze of fire was visible, and there were no Monsters or bizarre creatures, so it seemed she could hide that she was a Master and the Demon Sword.
She was right to come in after all. If she hadn’t come in, Yuriene or Shai might have died not from Monsters, but from starvation and thirst.
The surroundings were quiet except for the crackling of the flaming leaves. Eki drew Amethyst and began to walk. She heightened her senses as much as possible and searched for any sign of life.
After wandering around inside for a while, Eki realized that this Node was more dangerous than she had thought.
‘This really is a maze.’
She kept running into dead ends. The trees were incredibly tall and the sky was the same sea of fire, so she didn’t know where she was. She had looked down on the terrain inside the valley for over a week and was familiar with it, but she couldn’t tell where anything was.
[Master, doesn’t it feel like we’re going around in circles? Is it just my imagination?]
“I don’t think it’s your imagination.”
What should she do? Eki stopped in her tracks and pondered for a moment. At that moment, she heard a faint scream. The scream of a young girl. Shai was the only child in this Node.
Eki was startled and raised her head. The scream was short and not heard again.
“Shai! Shai! Where are you?”
She approached the direction from which the scream had come, calling out the child’s name in a loud voice.
She had expanded her senses as much as possible, but there was nothing. No, it felt like her detection range had narrowed compared to usual. It was similar to the feeling of having a blindfold covering her eyes, narrowing her field of vision. She didn’t know if it was because of the charcoal-covered iron walls of trees or if it was a characteristic of this Node itself.
There was no response to her call. Eki became anxious. A black, large tree blocked the direction from which the scream had come.
She placed her hand on the tree and tried to listen.
“Ugh, kuh.”
She took her hand away as soon as she touched it, but it was too late. The thin glove burned away in an instant, and her palm turned red. It was a burn.
The seemingly ordinary black tree trunk seemed to be so hot that it would burn the moment it was touched. Normally, she would be able to sense the heat before touching something so hot, but she hadn’t felt anything until her hand had completely touched it. It was because it was a space governed by laws separate from the normal world.
“Damn Node, it’s doing everything it can.”
[Hey, you can’t use your left hand now?]
“I can still use it if I have to.”
Eki endured the pain and let her burned hand hang down. Fortunately, it was her left hand. She tore off a part of the voluminous petticoat inside her dress and roughly wrapped it around her left hand. As she did so, she continued to listen and try to sense anything, but it was all dark.
“Shai! Can you hear me? Shai!”
She called out once more, but there was still no response.
If it was Yuriene, there would be nothing that could endanger his life in this Node other than starvation, but Shai was a helpless child. Something terrible must have happened. She became very anxious.
There was no time to go back and search for a path. Eki held up Amethyst in her right hand. She just swung it around just in case, but as expected, not even a scratch was made on the blackened tree trunk. With her skills, she could cut through most metals with just a sword.
She had no choice but to draw up Mana. A purple light flickered on the sword. Amethyst accepted the Mana well, as expected of a custom-made masterpiece.
Eki swung the sword, which was covered in Sword Energy, towards the pillar. Unlike before, the tree trunk was cut as softly as tofu.
It was cut so cleanly that it didn’t fall over as it was, but remained perched. She kicked the top of the tree with her boot, knocking it over. Fortunately, her feet didn’t get burned thanks to the high heels.
Shai was not visible even after passing over the pillar. Eki repeated the process twice more before finally finding Shai.
“What is that…?”
