"GROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO"
"GROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO"
"GROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO"
"GROOOOOOOOO"
From the spatial rift that the thrown spear had plunged into, a voice leaked out—one that could be interpreted as a scream, a war cry, or a roar of anger.
Whether that was simply because it echoed from the rift, or because it was the creature's natural biology, Rei couldn't say. But the screams reaching him weren't singular—they were layered, multiple voices crying out over one another.
"...For now, physical attacks are effective. And it seems they don't have the kind of flexible durability the tentacles do."
Vihera, who had finally evacuated from in front of the spatial rift, arrived beside the muttering Rei and shot him a look of exasperation.
"You hear those screams and that's what comes out of your mouth? You could stand to show a bit more of a reaction."
"Should I? Well, it's not like hearing their screams slowed me down any... and besides, this cry seems different from Set's skill. It's probably just a scream of pain."
At Rei's words, Vihera looked around—or more precisely, at the adventurers and Guards scattered throughout the Underground Space.
Just as Rei had said, some among those present were now able to move, and many were trying to get away and head for the surface.
They had noticed their own situation before Rei could say anything and had immediately begun evacuating.
That kind of judgment was likely only possible because they were outstanding individuals as adventurers and Guards.
In truth, it was probably because Vihera had shouted at them to evacuate earlier. The fact that they hadn't forgotten that even after hearing the war cry was worthy of praise.
At the very least, Vihera, who had been the one to shout, nodded in admiration as she watched those adventurers and Guards.
"It seems so... So, what are you going to do? Are you going to keep up the same attacks?"
She acknowledged Rei's words while implicitly making clear that she hardly thought the same approach would remain effective.
Considering that the disposable spears, unlike the Twilight Spear, couldn't pierce through the tentacles and could barely inflict minor wounds, Rei found her point convincing.
"For now, I don't know how much intelligence they have. There's a chance another attack or two might still work, so let's try it."
With that, Rei drew another disposable spear from his Misty Ring.
But at the very moment he readied himself to throw it, the screams from the spatial rift suddenly stopped. Tentacles began folding over one another as if to shield the rift.
And meticulously so—only in front of Rei.
"...Looks like they do have a fair amount of intelligence after all."
The tentacles had layered over each other multiple times, forming what could only be described as a shield of tentacles right in Rei's line of sight.
Even with the shield formed, Rei didn't break his throwing stance.
"Let's see how sturdy you are!"
With a sharp shout, Rei hurled the spear.
The swiftly released weapon tore through the air as it surged forward—
"Figured it wouldn't work."
The spear had pierced through a gap between the overlapping tentacles, but it stopped after burying about half its length. Then, as if unable to withstand the tentacles' pressure, it snapped in the middle of the shaft.
"What are you going to do?"
"...Right."
Muttering, Rei moved from where he stood.
If the tentacles were only forming a shield in his direction, he figured that changing position might let him bypass it. But whether they had anticipated his thinking or not, a massive number of new tentacles extended from the spatial rift, covering the entire surrounding area in a shield centered on the rift itself.
"I don't know how they're sensing me, but if they've got intelligence, it's only natural they'd react to me repositioning."
It could form a contract with a human, create countless Cobolts, and even manipulate them to some extent. It was only to be expected that it possessed high intelligence. Even so, looking at the pink tentacles—coated in some kind of viscous fluid—it was hard to believe they belonged to something intelligent.
"So, what's the plan?"
At Vihera's question as she came up beside him, Rei thought for a moment before answering.
"Thinking back to when I saved you earlier, the Twilight Spear should be able to at least partially pierce through that shield..."
"The Twilight Spear returns to your hand when you will it back, right? So why not throw it, use it to break through the shield of tentacles, and when their movement stops, call it back and throw it again?"
It was a proposal to essentially brute-force the attack, but in this particular situation, it wasn't entirely unreasonable.
"I don't know if that would actually defeat them... but it would probably let us injure them. Still, do you really think it's a good idea to kill them? If we carelessly defeat them here, what do you think happens to the contract or whatever they've formed with whoever's on the other side?"
"You're saying that now? We've already attacked them plenty. ...Coming from me, the one who got saved, I know it sounds rich."
"Ah... yeah, that's true. But thinking about it, yeah. Besides, we needed to help the others in this Underground Space."
As he spoke, Rei scanned the area and found that neither adventurers nor Guards remained. While he had been fighting the tentacles—no, the tentacle master—everyone must have evacuated.
In terms of drawing the tentacles' attention toward himself, Rei's choice had by no means been wrong. Whether he had been aiming for that or not was another matter entirely.
"Hmm. So what are you going to do now? Even if we don't fight, do you think they'll just quietly let us go?"
At Vihera's words, Rei turned his gaze back toward the tentacles—toward what had now taken the shape of a dome, a fortress of tentacles.
Looking at it from here, there was no sign of them coming to attack. If so, it seemed they could just leave them be. But it was also a fact that during the earlier fight, they had attacked the tentacles—or more precisely, the tentacle master—and angered it.
If that was the case, then even if they left now and things were fine for the moment, the likelihood of trouble down the line was extremely high.
"Maybe we should just defeat them... but I've got a feeling that carelessly doing so would lead to all sorts of complications. What do you think?"
"Asking me doesn't exactly help. But the fact that they've gone and done that means it's probably a pretty troublesome situation, don't you think? Even if we did try to defeat them, I imagine it would take considerable effort."
Rei agonized over what to do.
To begin with, when they had passed through this Underground Space earlier, the tentacles hadn't been there. The question of why they had suddenly appeared now lingered in his mind.
Maybe summoning the tentacles doesn't require some kind of key. Maybe they automatically appear at a certain time—something like that?
That was one of the possibilities Rei had inferred from the fact that no tentacles had appeared when he entered the Underground Space today. It wasn't the strongest possibility, but given the current situation, it was also the one that made the most sense.
If that's correct, then why were the Guards and adventurers gathered in such numbers in the Underground Space? And not all from a single mansion, but from several.
Scattered about the Underground Space were corpses reduced to nothing but skin and bone. Judging from the uniforms, armor, and weapons they wore, they were without a doubt the remains of Guards and adventurer escorts.
While puzzling over that, Rei decided to test something and gauge the enemy's reaction.
Making that call, he drew the Twilight Spear—not a disposable spear—from his Misty Ring and readied it. But the motion to throw it stopped in that instant.
"Rei-san! Please wait! Ranga-san is calling for you! He says not to lay a hand on those tentacles for now!"
A female Guard who had appeared from a distant staircase shouted at Rei, who had been on the very verge of hurling the Twilight Spear.
Had she called out a few seconds later, the weapon in his hand would without a doubt have been released toward the mass of tentacles.
A truly last-second timing.
Rei forcibly arrested his throwing motion, stumbling a few steps from the momentum.
"Whoa... phew."
"Whether your movement stopping here was a good thing or a bad thing... honestly, it's a close call."
There was a note of amusement in Vihera's voice as she watched him. She was probably thinking there might still be a chance for her to fight the tentacles.
Since she wasn't exactly wrong about that, all Rei could do was shoot her a look of exasperation.
Tearing his gaze away from Vihera, Rei—still holding the Twilight Spear—called out to the Guard making her way along the wall of the Underground Space, perhaps trying to minimize even slightly the risk of being attacked by tentacles.
"So we're supposed to just leave these tentacles as they are? That could lead to trouble later on."
The one who had created the current situation was in fact Rei himself, having thrown the spear into the spatial rift, but setting that aside, he put the question to the female Guard.
She opened her mouth apologetically.
"Ranga-san understands that as well. However, it seems that defeating this opponent under the current circumstances would be problematic for various reasons..."
"Problematic? Does that mean Ranga's obtained some kind of information about this thing?"
Saying that, Rei directed his gaze toward the staircase he had emerged from. It wasn't visible from where he stood, but the unconscious Javis should have been there.
Originally, Rei had brought the unconscious Javis along in order to extract various information from him. That information naturally included things pertaining to these tentacles and their master.
But if Ranga had already obtained information about this incident... Rei thought, then immediately shook his head.
Since Javis had been the mastermind behind this whole affair, the information he held wasn't limited to the tentacles. That was certain. Given that, Javis's value remained significant.
"So, what are you going to do? Keep fighting those tentacles? If so, I'm fine with that."
Next time, I'll do it right.
Vihera turned her gaze toward him with that thought written on her face.
The female Guard was slightly flustered by Vihera's attitude, but before she could speak again, Rei shook his head.
"No, let's hold off. Ranga is the highest authority in this forced search. If he's obtained some kind of information, there's no need to go out of our way to fight those tentacles here."
"Oh my."
Vihera muttered in disappointment. But the fact that she didn't try to force a fight with the tentacles suggested she had accepted Rei's reasoning—that Ranga, as the one in charge, had likely acquired important intelligence.
"Now that Vihera's on board, let's get out of here. As things stand, there's still a chance those tentacles might come after us again."
Rei muttered with his gaze fixed on the massive cluster of tentacles. Both the female Guard and Vihera nodded.
Confirming that, Rei—without lowering his guard against the tentacles—addressed the Guard.
"Is Ranga at the mansion with the staircase you came out of?"
"Yes. Ranga-san is waiting... He'd like you to come along, if possible."
Rei nodded.
"Understood. No problem on my end. ...Vihera?"
"I know. If we can't fight those tentacles, there's no point staying here. Let's go before they start moving. Wasting time here just means another chance for those things to act up."
The one who reacted most strongly to Vihera's words was, as expected, the female Guard.
Her own abilities were average for a Guard—she could handle ordinary citizens or drunken adventurers, but the pink tentacles in her line of sight were an entirely different matter. The color alone was bad enough, but their appearance, coated in some kind of viscous fluid, was more than enough to inspire disgust.
Being attacked by such things was something she wanted to avoid at all costs. With that thought firmly in mind, she led Rei and Vihera, quickly making their escape from the Underground Space.
Incidentally, for a brief moment Javis was nearly forgotten—but Rei didn't forget to hoist him up and carry him out.