[667] To Radum (2)
Of course, Shirone knew these were different from the corpse-eating monsters that haunted the Middle East.
They were still human—people who had chosen to eat human flesh.
Even without recalling Kanis's anecdote about eating filth, Shirone could picture Radum.
In a place built of iron and stone, the only things to eat would be a lost bird or the human beside you.
The thought of cannibalism made his skin crawl, but as captain of the mercenary unit Shirone responded calmly.
"Let's go in. Keep a watch formation in case anything happens."
As the twenty mercenaries passed the barricade and entered the alley, a sticky, murderous feeling rippled through the air.
It was only darkness, but it felt like being submerged in wet paint; black drips seemed to fall like the saliva of starving throats.
"This is Radum from here on."
Lupist said as they passed the straight alley where the barricade had been set.
That alley had been the guards' territory—one reason the ghouls had not dared approach the corpses.
Jane leaned in and whispered, "Shall we deal with them?"
If they left now, the guards' bodies would go down the ghouls' throats.
"No. Proceed."
Recovering the bodies and returning them to their families would be the mage association president's duty, but there was a more important task now.
'The kingdom's appendages.'
They were expendable parts the kingdom could waste to achieve its goal.
"Light the torches."
Not wanting to provoke with Shining magic, the heavily armored swordsman Baikon and survival expert Bromack took torches and skittered light across the alley.
Shadows skimmed along the edges of the light that pushed back the dark, darting and slipping into corners.
"This is odd."
Lupist stopped.
The ghouls' fixation was far stronger than expected.
No matter how hungry, they weren't stupid enough to fail to recognize a higher predator. Faced with a twenty-man mercenary unit, their instinct should have been to flee beyond the perimeter.
But they held the minimum distance and watched them intently.
"Annoying. Want me to sweep them away?"
Toto twirled his spear. Savage and uncontrollable, he was blacklisted in many places, but he'd joined because he ran four movement schemas and his spearplay was exceptional.
"Hey! Vermin! If you're gonna do something, hurry up and come out!"
Toto's voice echoed down the alley. Shirone frowned and turned.
"Lower your voice. If you provoke the enemy without permission, I'll take action."
Toto shrugged. "To hell with mere ghouls…"
Radum was dangerous, but this wasn't a unit that would be cowed by emaciated creatures.
"There's a trap."
Bromack crouched, thrust his torch into the alley, and said, "Wire-connected trip traps. They're trying to lure us."
"Aaaah!"
A ghoul tore out of the darkness with a scream like its throat was being ripped apart.
'They're fighting?' Shirone thought. Given their first survival rule, it was hard to believe.
"No need to tense up! They're just ghouls!"
Once the twenty formed ranks, Radum's inhabitants surged from the dark in all directions.
Mages instinctively cast Shining; spheres of light floated above and illuminated Radum's scene.
"Ugh!"
Horrible corpses lay everywhere.
Eviscerated bodies, corpses rotten down to bone, eyes hollow and empty—the sight alone turned the stomach.
"Ha ha ha! This is why I do mercenary work!"
The only one enjoying it was Toto; whenever his spear swung, ghouls flew aside.
While the mages hesitated on timing, Baikon and Wig held the flanks like gatekeepers and cut the ghouls down.
'They're weak, as expected. But…'
Their behavior was all wrong.
If anything, the ghouls looked terrified; it didn't feel like they were fighting at all.
"This is like…"
It felt like animals fleeing a wildfire, forced off a cliff.
"Kuok!"
After twin blades plunged into a ghoul's abdomen, it flinched and reached out. Shirone twisted the blades to slit its belly open—but the ghoul, as if dying, croaked words.
"Kill… me…"
"What?"
"This place… is… hell…!"
With crazed eyes the ghoul gaped and screamed.
"Daaaaaah!"
"Ugh!"
Backing up, Shirone swung the twin blades up and down and the ghoul split in two.
"Meirei!"
Following Lupist's order, Meirei clapped both hands over her ears and activated her divine frequency.
The ring she wore——triggered, and whatever she heard immediately reached the core members as well.
"Damn! What the hell is that!"
A massive wail washed over them like a tidal wave.
Would you hear such a scream if ten thousand people were locked up and set alight?
Inside that brain-paralyzing wave of sound a few words could be heard, but they were indecipherable.
- Carte mu cielre! Cartision be rabeca pervel!
'That's Ra Enemi's voice!'
It was thick and resonant, as if speaking through a swallowed rock.
'If you want to find me, find the hell within you.'
Only Meirei—a priest of Teraforce—and Shirone, linked to the Ultima System, could decode it.
- Struggle in illusory pain! Is there meaning in meaninglessness? Become a god!
"What's he saying?"
Even after decoding, it didn't make complete sense.
Rian cut down a resident who blocked Shirone's path and asked, "The ghouls have lost it. What does Ra Enemi mean by that?"
They must have met Ra Enemi here.
"Not sure yet. There's something beyond language we can't pick up."
Less than five minutes into the fight, the ghouls were annihilated.
It was an anticlimactic skirmish, but the mercenaries' faces were grim. They felt something unnerving too.
"What's wrong with these things? I feel dirty after that killing."
Baikon wiped blood from his blade as Bromack pointed down the alley under the Shining's glow.
"Look there. Everything's trapped."
Countless taut wires were woven like a spiderweb.
"When did they set these up?"
"Hmm. A veteran like me could finish it in an hour."
"An hour…"
Shagal would have passed through that place long ago.
Bromack turned to Shirone. "Two options: disarm or bypass. Which route?"
"This way."
Lupist indicated where the traps were concentrated.
"I see. Your call."
It was Shirone's decision.
"How long to disarm?"
"Disarming is harder than setting them. About an hour."
"Hmm."
Bromack smiled. "But if it were me, I could finish in under thirty minutes."
"Then let's disarm."
Their goal was the center by the shortest route; detouring from the entrance would waste time.
"Rest, then."
Bromack grabbed tools from the gearcase, put a blade between his teeth, and crawled along the ground toward the trapped area.
The knights kept watch. While they took a short breather, the archer Joshua sprang up and aimed her bow at a rotten wooden box.
"What is it?"
"Someone's in there."
Her eyes flared red.
"Nightshot?"
A sort of heat-detecting vision—an eye technique she hadn't shown during the evaluation. Looking into the box with Nightshot, she detected a human heat signature crouched inside.
"Come out. My arrow pierces iron."
"Eek!"
The box shook and someone crawled out of the hole behind it.
"P-please—have mercy."
Baikon grabbed the man by the collar and hauled him out.
"What are you doing? Why were you hiding?"
"I—I'm not a Radum resident. I designed the traps."
"Traps? Then…"
Baikon glanced toward Bromack, busy disarming, and asked again. "You set them up? Why? To capture us?"
"No! It wasn't for that! I don't even know why! A man hired me the day before yesterday. He asked me to install traps at Radum's entrance."
Shirone asked, "Who was this man?"
"He didn't give a name. He looked like a young man, not from this country."
Meirei kept her hands over her ears; the noise continued, the voice itself still unintelligible.
"Hmm, then…"
Just as Baikon was about to ask another question, the man trembled as if in shock.
"What's wrong with him?"
"Shi…ro…ne…"
A hoarse voice came from the man's open throat.
"Danger! Back off!"
Rian swung her greatsword to sever his throat, but Shirone reached out. "Wait!"
The man, bent backward like a drawn bow, slowly lifted his head and stared at Shirone.
"You have… an obligation to answer the questions left behind."
"Questions left behind?"
Shirone repeated, but the man didn't answer; he looked up at the sky.
His pupils spun rapidly in opposite directions, then the original voice burst out.
"No, no! Save me! Aaaah!"
The whirling eyes destroyed his optic nerves; bloody tears streamed down his face.
"A human trap?"
The ground trembled and the trap wires snapped with a vicious twang.
"Bromack! Get out of there!"
They shouted, but it was already too late—Bromack had been struck by the wires and bled out.
"Damn it! What is this?"
The trap triggered without time to rescue him.
"The space is folding."
Like sliding doors, the alley closed in. Bromack, fallen on the ground, reached out with one hand.
"Kraaaah!"
As wall met wall, the sound of bones crushing echoed.
Kargin scowled. "A survival expert, huh…"
Before they could absorb the absurdity, everyone looked around.
Radum's structure had been completely rearranged, and the walls were smeared with fibrous residue like intestinal remnants they had never seen.
Corpses that had stood motionless now lay utterly still, and on both sides of the newly formed alley statues of naked women fused with monsters stood like sculptures.
"The entrance is gone too. How is this possible?"
"Realization of the senses."
Lupist stared at the sky.
They could still see even after the Shining faded because a sun hung above—not the brilliant sun of their world, but a reddened, dying sun, like a bleeding sunset.
"We're trapped."
"What do you mean by 'trapped'?"
Lupist turned to Shirone. "Even if someone's brain were removed and put in a jar, we wouldn't be able to sense it."
"No way?"
"Yes. That's exactly what happened. This is probably what the ghouls had been watching. They used the brainwaves of the man who set the traps to project hell to us."
"Goddamn it! What the hell is this mess!"
Remo, an unregistered Rank-5 defense mage, shouted, "You think we followed you to hear an explanation? You should have a solution!"
"Calm down. I'm thinking."
"Cut the crap! I didn't like this from the start! You're the president of the Mage Association, right?"
Lupist didn't answer.
"I don't care about money or anything! Get me out of here! Or I'll sue—! Ugh!"
Remo's eyes rolled back, blood poured from his mouth, and he collapsed.
"Damn it!"
Kargin rushed over and tried a recovery spell, but Remo was already dead.
"What happened?"
Jane shook her head at Lupist as if protesting. "I didn't kill him. I meant to, though."
"Struggle in illusory pain."
Meirei stepped forward. "That's what Ra Enemi said. He also said to find meaning in meaninglessness. If this is a kind of oracle, we could interpret it like this—"
She raised a finger. "The moment you realize your death, you truly die."