Before the sun had even risen, we set out toward the marshlands at the northwestern edge.
Only two days remained until their attack. We didn't have a single moment to spare. We had to arrive in one day at the very least. I wanted to pick up the pace, but...
This speed was the absolute limit for Chato and the others. As I thought, maybe it would have been better if I had searched for the strongest being on my own. The surprising one was Rami. While everyone else was exhausted, she kept up with my pace without breaking a single drop of sweat.
At any rate, the others were at their limit. It was time for a short break.
As we leaned against a massive tree to rest,
"Hey, but is that strongest being really in those marshlands?"
Bū asked the very question I feared most.
"Yeah, probably."
"Probably? Are you guys seriously searching based on something that vague?"
Smiling wryly at Rami, who voiced her natural disbelief,
"Still, I believe he's there."
Right now, I believed he was at the northwestern edge. I had convinced the others that there was a high possibility he was here simply because it was an unexplored area, but the truth was different.
He had frequently used the word "game" in that dream. Under normal circumstances, that would refer to a serious contest between me and Aldebaran's side. Since he was a spectator of the game rather than a player, the probability of him being on the game board truly wasn't high by ordinary logic. However, our opponent was a supernatural entity. It was entirely possible that he had set up a special space or barrier to spectate from within the game itself. In that sense, my reasoning was contradictory.
Then why had I narrowed our destination down to the northwest and continued toward it without hesitation? Honestly, I didn't entirely understand it myself. It was just that my intuition strongly insisted he was at the northwestern edge of Northground. This was a conviction I had felt deeply ever since that prophetic dream.
Though terribly contradictory, I was certain that if we reached the northwestern edge, I would be able to meet him.
"How on earth can you guys follow someone whose head is so in the clouds? In the first place, you're monsters, and he's a human, right?"
At Rami's point,
"Hearing you say that really stings, you know."
Chato scratched his head awkwardly, and
"That's true. If it were me from a little while ago, I would have fiercely opposed it."
Tama agreed as well.
"Well, it's coming from Gil. I'm sure he has his reasons."
"Yeah. The situation has always managed to turn around in the end, after all."
Rami looked at them as though staring at bizarre creatures, but,
"You guys are seriously insane."
She squeezed out the words, clearly meaning them from the bottom of her heart.
After our break ended, we resumed our march.
"We're completely in their Territory now. Stay cautious."
When I quietly warned them, they nodded firmly with resolute expressions.
Only Rami gave a wide yawn. Letting out a small sigh at her lack of vigilance, I took a few steps forward—when suddenly, an odd sensation washed over me, as if I had been submerged in water.
A sharp, wrenching pain seized my stomach, accompanied by an unbearable, oppressive gloom. This was definitely a barrier. And an exceptionally vile one at that.
I looked back at the others.
"What's wrong, Gil?"
Chato asked with a furrowed brow. In contrast—
"This is bad!"
A complete reversal from her relaxed attitude moments ago, her face was pale and rigid with extreme dread.
"I know. It looks like we've been caught in the Demon King Army's barrier!"
"No! This isn't the Demon King Army!"
Rami screamed in a cracked voice.
"Too baaad, so saaaad. This whole area is inside Achiki's belly, you seeee."
At the end of Rami's gaze stood a female figure with the head of a bright red sea bream, wearing a military uniform and cap. Her arms contorted and her torso twisted awkwardly in a bow-legged stance as she peered down at us.
It was the very figure from the nightmare at the end of that dream—
"Urokoonu...!"
An encounter at the worst possible time. I thought terror would overwhelm me, but instead, what tore from my throat was a voice dripping with sheer hatred.
"Myyy, to think you know Achiki's name, aren't you quite the polite little monkey?"
Still frozen in that grotesque pose, Urokoonu rolled her exposed, bulbous fish eyes to appraise us.
From that alone, Chato, Tama, and even Bū—who normally feared nothing—trembled violently, unable to lift a single finger.
"Urokoonu?! Isn't that the Lieutenant Colonel of the Evil Army under Forneus's command?! No way! Absolutely no way!
There's no way we can escape from that—"
"You're being a little too noisy, you knowww."
As Rami panicked with bloodshot eyes, Urokoonu suddenly materialized before her and delivered a brutal slap across her face.
Rami shot back in a straight line at tremendous speed, plowing through the trees before vanishing into the dim forest.
"Myyy, knocked out cold from just one hold-back slap. Fragile little gnats as alwaaays."
A stream of purple liquid carried Rami back, and Urokoonu clamped her right hand around the girl's neck. Rami's left cheek was swollen tight, her eyes rolled back into her head, and her entire body twitched with spasms. Even by the most generous estimate, she was on the verge of death.
I can't let her do as she pleases anymore! If I don't give this everything I have, we won't be able to escape—we'll be slaughtered in an instant.
Instantly invoking Mimicry of the strongest being, I drew the Flame at my waist and brought it crashing down onto the crown of her head with all my might.
The Flame unleashed a raging inferno, but after doing nothing more than scorching the surface of her skin, the blade shattered into pieces.
Urokoonu tossed Rami to the ground and patted her scorched head with both hands. Thick, grotesque veins bulged across her fish-like face.
"Insolent crawling maggots...!"
As her fury erupted, my vision was dyed pure crimson. The next moment, I was slammed facedown into the dirt, an agonizing pain tearing through me as if my body were being ripped apart.
Barely able to move, I forced my head up—only to see the mangled, scattered remains of what used to be my companions.
"N-No... it can't be..."
A single roar, and we had been wiped out. Such senseless brutality was impossible! It couldn't be real!
"You're out of luck, you seeee. I won't kill you right away like those bugs, nooo."
With those words, a long, agonizing hell began for me.