It was almost simultaneous—Rei diving into the stairwell and the tentacles slamming into the wall right beside it.
That alone proved just how much speed and power the pink tentacles extending from the spatial rift possessed when attacking their target.
"……Phew."
Stowing the Death Scythe and Twilight Spear—both of which had slightly sliced into the stairwell walls—into his Misty Ring, Rei let out a breath of relief.
It seemed the tentacles wouldn't come after him while he was in the stairwell.
"Saved, huh. …But considering the length of those tentacles, you'd think they could've reached us here," one of the Guards behind him murmured.
In truth, no one knew exactly how long the tentacles extending from the spatial rift were.
Well, perhaps someone well-versed in those tentacles… someone involved in causing the current Cobolt incident might know. But unfortunately, no one here, including Rei, had that knowledge.
"Just a guess, but maybe those tentacles can move freely only within the underground space, and once they step even a single pace outside it, they're helpless?"
"Yeah, that could be possible. Even the one orchestrating this whole affair—I can't imagine they'd let something that dangerous roam around freely."
One of the Guards nodded in agreement with Rei's words.
Indeed, considering that the tip of a tentacle didn't pierce… no, considering that there had been no wound at all, the tentacles were absurd creatures that drained bodily fluids, internal organs, and flesh from their target upon mere contact. Allowing such a dangerous entity to move about freely would be far too risky.
Taking those circumstances into consideration, it was understandable that they would be prevented from leaving the underground space.
"Anyway, should we head back up? We're probably fine here, but that's no guarantee. If our guess is wrong, I absolutely do not want to fight those tentacles in a cramped space like this."
Both the Death Scythe and the Twilight Spear were long-reach weapons.
With an ordinary long weapon, one would close the distance to deal with it, but for someone of Rei's skill level, handling an opponent who closed the distance wouldn't be difficult.
However… in a stairwell like this, he couldn't even swing the Death Scythe or the Twilight Spear in the first place.
In fact, when Rei had dove into the stairwell earlier, the Death Scythe and Twilight Spear he carried hadn't fit inside and had sliced into the walls instead.
(Being easier to cut through than those tentacles is honestly a bit concerning, isn't it?)
Looking at the sliced marks, Rei once again reflected on the sheer abnormality of the tentacles.
It wasn't simply that they were sturdy—they possessed strong elasticity, like rubber, and yet were also durable. That troublesome combination was the nature of those tentacles.
He had been able to fight without particular issues this time, but what would happen if he found himself in a similar situation again? If he were attacked in a narrow space like the one they were currently in, it wasn't that he wouldn't be able to handle it, but it would certainly be a struggle.
Whether in agreement with Rei's suggestion or not, the Guards said nothing further and began climbing the stairs.
The conversation held while climbing was, naturally enough, about the tentacles they had just encountered.
"So, do you think those tentacles are connected to the Cobolt incident?"
Rei spoke while keeping a wary eye behind him, in case the tentacles might give chase, and the Guards pondered.
"Uh… I wonder. If you think about it normally, that would be the case, but… do you think those tentacles could control Cobolts or something like that? For that matter, what kind of connection do you think those tentacles and Cobolts even have?"
If what had emerged from the spatial rift had been something resembling a dog or a wolf, they might have been able to accept a connection to Cobolts.
But what came out of the spatial rift were pink tentacles. Tentacles that were wet with some kind of fluid, appearing almost obscene enough that calling them such wouldn't be strange.
Rei simply could not believe that those tentacles had any kind of relationship with Cobolts.
"Those tentacles, huh. Right. No matter how I look at it, I can't see them having any connection to Cobolts. …Which means, could it be that those tentacles actually have nothing to do with the Cobolt situation?"
"No, the Cobolt incident alone is already a massive crisis. Despite that, would they simultaneously push forward with some kind of ritual to deal with such a dangerous existence? Thinking about it normally, there's no doubt the tentacles are connected to the Cobolt incident."
"Hmm… I can't say either way. With only the information we have now, it's clearly not enough no matter how you look at it. If that's the case, we should gather more solid information before making a judgment."
Three different opinions from three different people.
Proof that just because everyone was a Guard didn't mean their opinions would necessarily converge into one.
While watching his back, Rei found himself oddly impressed by this.
Ultimately, without being attacked by the tentacles from behind again, they arrived at the room with the hidden staircase…
"!?"
The Guard leading the way peeked out and sharply inhaled, but immediately showed a look of relief.
The reason was the sight of their fellow Guards who had gathered in the room while Rei and the others were in the underground space.
"Don't scare us like that. I seriously thought those people were lying in wait for us."
With that one remark, the Guards behind him and Rei as well must have understood who was inside the room. They entered with looks of relief.
Inside the room were five Guards.
Among them, whether by good timing or not, was even the one who had told Rei about finding that large number of skin-and-bone corpses.
"Why are you all here?"
"We were searching through the mansion and found a destroyed wall in this room. We were debating what to do when you came through."
Another Guard answered the question, and the Guard who was said to have come through nodded in confirmation.
"I see. …You were really lucky you didn't come down the stairs."
"What happened?"
The Guard's colleague spoke those words with deep feeling, as if murmuring from the bottom of his heart, and the Guard directed a questioning look at him.
As colleagues, they knew each other's personalities, which was exactly why hearing him say something like that naturally aroused curiosity.
The Guard who was asked hesitated over how to describe what he had experienced… and as if to rescue him from that, Rei, who had been listening beside them, opened his mouth.
"Those skin-and-bone corpses you found. We went and saw with our own eyes how they were made."
"That's…"
The Guard who had found the skin-and-bone corpses in this mansion didn't know what to say in response to Rei's words.
In truth, not knowing how such corpses could be created, there was perhaps some curiosity involved.
But looking at the state of the Guards who had come up the stairs with Rei, he hesitated over whether it was wise to ask carelessly… Seeing that, the Guard shook his head as if to say not to hold back, and then began explaining what he had witnessed underground.
The underground space that extended not only beneath this mansion but to the grounds of surrounding mansions as well.
The stairs continuing from the underground space likely connected to those nearby mansions too.
And that from a different staircase than the one Rei and his group had used, members of Red Cloth who had lost their sense of self were brought in, bound by rope and led by a single man.
They captured the man who brought them and obtained information that he belonged to the King's Faction, but at that very moment, the space near the center of the underground space tore open.
Pink tentacles emerged from that spatial rift, and the King's Faction man whose body their tips touched had all of his internal organs, bodily fluids, and muscles drained, reduced to skin and bone.
The mindless Red Cloth members were killed just like the man, and Rei and the Guards had barely managed to escape.
"In the end, whether the tentacles are bound by some restriction preventing them from leaving the underground space or not, once we entered the stairwell, they didn't pursue us any further."
He concluded with that after telling everything.
The Guards who had been listening wore expressions of genuine distaste.
Partly because the Guard telling the story had been oddly skilled at it, they could easily imagine the scene Rei and the others had witnessed.
…No, human imagination could sometimes provide a greater sense of presence than seeing something with one's own eyes.
In that sense, it wouldn't have been strange if the Guards had been struck with a fear even stronger than what Rei and the others had experienced firsthand.
"Well, there were some slightly exaggerated parts, but that's the gist of it. Those tentacles were hard enough that even my Death Scythe felt some resistance… or rather, they had elasticity, so considering that, it would be difficult for an ordinary adventurer to fight them."
At Rei's words, continuing from the Guard's account, the Guards' expressions turned sour once again.
However, that sour expression was not the imagined kind the others had felt earlier, but rather the practical concern of what to do if they encountered tentacles that were difficult to cut even with Rei's Death Scythe.
At the very least, it was certain that the skills and weapons of the Guards present were no match for those tentacles.
"Really?" one of the Guards in the room asked, almost involuntarily.
Knowing Rei's strength, even hearing it from the man himself was unbelievable… no, not wanting to believe it was probably the honest truth.
But not only Rei—the Guard who had acted alongside Rei also shook his head.
"Unfortunately, what Rei says is true. For one thing, the tentacles' movement speed… flight speed, maybe? was quite fast, and just touching them means death for us. For people like us, they're beyond our capabilities."
"…Troublesome."
"The one saving grace is that it wasn't instant death upon the tentacle tip touching you—it was more like having various things drained from inside your body. So maybe… and this is a real maybe, but if you could somehow break away from the tentacle immediately after touching it, you might not die. …Though I absolutely don't want to test that."
Having seen the tentacles kill people, the Guard's words carried strong conviction.
The Guard who had been listening swallowed hard before speaking again.
"So, what do we do now? If something that dangerous is down there, we can't just leave it be. Whether it's connected to the Cobolt incident or not."
"For now, it's almost certain that this mansion and the surrounding mansions have staircases leading to the underground space. In that case, don't we have justifiable cause to mobilize the Guards on a large scale? I don't know how long that spatial rift will last, but—"
At Rei's words, some of the Guards showed bright expressions indicating agreement, while others showed expressions of opposition.
"Probably, I think it would be fine. I think so, but… still, it's not certain, so I can't say for sure."
"But if we go to the underground space, there are definitely corpses there. Wouldn't that alone be sufficient reason for the Guards to act?"
"If only the tentacles were still there, it would be certain…"
The one in a position opposing large-scale Guard mobilization said so in response to Rei's words.
However, the tentacles Rei had cut had turned to dust and vanished, leaving not even fragments behind.
If there had been remnants of the tentacles, they could have served as evidence, but…
(Could it be that the master of those tentacles had considered that as well? …No way. It didn't seem to possess any intelligence. Ah, but given the high likelihood that it's involved in the Cobolt incident, there's no saying it lacks intelligence. Besides…)
Though already dead, the man who had brought the Red Cloth members had stated that the tentacles were connected to the Cobolt incident.
The problem was that the man who had provided that testimony had been reduced to a skin-and-bone corpse by the tentacles.
Because of that, the only ones who heard it were Rei and the Guards, making it weak to treat as evidence.
Deeply regretting that the man had been killed by the tentacles, Rei opened his mouth.
"Anyway, we found some documents as well, and there's the underground space incident on top of that. With those, could you get the higher-ups to mobilize the Guards? If needed, I could talk to Lord Daskar directly."
"…No, we appreciate the sentiment, Rei, but you'd better not do that. If you did, there's a possibility it could cause various problems later on."
At the Guard's words, Rei wondered if that was how things worked, but since a professional Guard was saying so, he accepted it for the time being, and they agreed to report the underground space incident to their superiors.