The Strange Adventure of a Broke Mercenary

Chapter 358: From Ascending To Retreat (1)

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Proofreader: Xemul

“What the hell is going on?”

The flat of the greatsword held above Loren’s head was being smashed by stone shards of all sizes.

The tremors around the area did not stop, and Loren could see the dark elves jumping up to the collapsed ceiling one after another and running away. Magna, who was not affected by the raining stones, was the last one to walk leisurely over the piling rubbles. 

Unable to follow in the tremors and falling stones, Loren shouted at his back.

“Hey! What are you going to do about that king?!”

“I’m not interested in what’s no longer needed. You’re all going to die here anyway.”

Loren wondered where such confidence came from, but Storm let out a grief-stricken sound just then, and he involuntarily turned his attention to him.

A huge stone was about to fall down on the king, who was covered in blood from being struck by the raining stones. Storm reached out to help, but the king did not react, and was crushed by the massive stone, sending a spray of red into the surrounding area.

Loren was thinking that the man would not have survived the incident when Lapis, whom he was holding closely and kept shielded under his greatsword, looked down at her feet and muttered.

“Loren, something’s coming from underneath.”

“What?! What is it?…”

“I don’t know. I’m not a prophet.”

Lapis replied reasonably, and Loren held her closer, wondering if they could get out through the hole in the ceiling, the one through which Magna and his cronies had left. However, without the agility of an elf or the protection of magical equipment like Magna, he had no hope of reaching the hole in the ceiling through the falling debris.

“Gula! Can you manage somehow?”

“I can for myself, but the thing coming from below, I have a feeling it’s trouble.”

Loren wanted to avoid being confronted by something that would be described as trouble by an Evil God, but even if he tried to escape, there was nowhere to do so.

The original entrance had been blocked by Lapis and Gula with the bodies of soldiers, and the debris that was pouring down had left the area in a terrible state; it was impossible to get out through there.

“We can only hope that whatever comes from below will make the castle collapse completely. Don’t worry, Loren, I’ll do my best to not let us die, even if we are pinned under the castle.”

“Yeah, if you set up a protective barrier, it will work.”

[‘Don’t worry, onii-san, I’m here too. Even if the entire castle is reduced to rubble, I’ll make sure you can get out.’]

If an Evil God, a demon and the King of Death all said so, Loren, who was only a human being, had no choice but to leave it to them and hoped that something would be done about it.

When Loren asked them to do something about Storm and his men, Lapis and Gula looked a bit annoyed, but they nodded in agreement, as if they felt bad about abandoning them.

“Everyone, if you don’t want to be crushed to death, come this way! We’ll put up some protective barriers!”

“Will that help?!”

Storm was stunned for a moment by the sight of the king dying before his eyes, but then, perhaps thinking that he could not stay stunned for long in the current situation, he rushed up to Loren’s group with his kights in tow at Lapis’ voice.

After seeing this, Gula slowly began to chant some kind of incantation, and the knights were impressed by the appearance of a shimmering force field around them.

“Let’s pray that this will manage somehow. There is no way we can guarantee that everything will be all right under these circumstances.”

“I must survive this at all costs and make sure that man gets what he deserves.”

As Loren, who was watching Storm gritting his teeth, thought that this was not the time for such thoughts, he noticed that the stones had stopped falling on him before he realized.

The tremors that shook the surroundings were still continuing, and various objects were still falling from above, but they were no longer hitting them because they were bounced off by the force field created by Gula.

Loren, who had faint hopes that they would be able to manage this, was knocked off his balance by the violent impact that came surging up from under his feet the next moment.

It was the same for the knights and Gula, who were shaken to the point of not being able to stand.

“Ah, this is bad.”

Just when Loren thought this was not working, he was hit by a powerful thrust from beneath his feet, and he saw the floor, walls, and ceiling blown apart. 

It was as if the castle had exploded from its foundations, and Loren almost gave up. As he felt a pressure pushing him down to the floor, he looked up to see the pitch-black night sky through the numerous pieces of flying debris.

Looking around, all he could see was the black night sky, and all he could hear was the sound of the wind howling in his ears.

Before Loren could understand what had happened, the floor crumbled beneath his feet, and he felt his hair stand on, as a new sight revealed itself between the cracks.

“We’ve been blown away!”

Loren’s eyes, which possessed a fraction of Shayna’s power, took in the distant ground beyond the darkness of the night.

Even though he did not know how high they were blown up, he knew that they were launched with tremendous force as he felt himself continue to elevate. 

If he had been hit by the impact that had launched them with such force, he would not have survived, no matter how sturdy his body was. The reason he did not die from the impact was probably due to the protective barrier that Gula had put around them just before they were blown away, but that barrier seemed to have disappeared, and that pale glow was nowhere to be seen.

As he hurriedly wrapped the greatsword in his hand in a cloth and put it back on his back, he wondered if it would be too difficult to stay alive when they were slammed back to the ground after the descent. Just then, he saw a huge shadow looming in the darkness of the night and strained his eyes to look closely at it.

“What the heck is that?…”

It looked like a castle or some kind of huge ship.

Loren wondered if it was the castle they had been in earlier, but there were no signs of destruction on its shape. After some thinking, he somehow came up with the idea that the huge structure had come out from under their feet, and that they, who were on top of it, had been blown away because of that.

He guessed that when it came out of the basement of the castle, it somehow blew away the ground above it, and as a result, the entire castle was blown away.

However, the fact that such an insight occurred to him did not change his current situation. If he did not do something, he would fall and hit the ground, and death would be the only outcome. Loren frantically thought, but even though he had done nothing, he felt himself being pulled up.

When he looked over to see what was going on, he saw countless threads fluttering in the wind, and he saw Nigg, who had apparently spit out the threads, holding on tightly to his shoulder.

As Loren looked on, wondering what the spider was going to do, the countless threads that Nig had spit out continued to pull Loren’s body with the wind, moving him out of the debris.

“I’m sorry, Nig! But there’s no way we can land safely from here!”

Even if the falling debris no longer crushed him, he would still be falling from the same height he had been launched to. Even though Nig’s threads could pull Loren’s body to the side, they did not seem to slow the speed of his fall. Just when Loren was thinking that it would not work, he heard Lapis’ voice.

“No no no, you’re doing a great job, Nig. It’s not easy even for me to pull Loren’s body out.”

At the same time as she spoke, Loren felt Lapis’ thin arms around his body, holding him close, and he peered into her face. 

As the ascent ended and the fall began, Lapis smiled when she saw Loren looking at her, her clothes and hair fluttering in the fierce wind.

“It’s great that you are alright, Loren. You don’t seem to be badly hurt.”

“You call this situation, alright?”

“I think we are relatively alright. Storm and his men were flattened when they crashed into the debris after we were launched. They were completely annihilated.”

“What about Gula?!”

“Well…”

Lapis, still holding Loren in her arms, let her gaze wander in the air. A certain point caught her eyes, and she announced to him.

“She is a little higher up than us.”

“Is she safe?!”

“I don’t think that an Evil God will fall and crash to her death.”

Loren was about to make further arguments to Lapis, who gave him a somewhat evasive answer, but before he could open his mouth, he noticed a light shining from below and turned his head in that direction.

He looked at the huge structure that could be seen under his feet in the distance and saw that it had begun to light up here and there, and those lights were starting to move.

“What the hell is that?”

“It seems to be a castle, or… some kind of fortress, but I think it’s a rather large magical structure.”

“It was buried there?”

“It seems like digging it up was Magna’s purpose from the start. Well, they couldn’t just go and ask the king to let them dig it up peacefully if it resulted in the king’s castle being blown up.”

Loren was about to raise his voice in protest at Lapis’ words, which seemed to show understanding of Magna’s actions, when he heard the sound of something exploding, and a large object passed by near them, the impact caused by it sent them spinning in the air. He swallowed the words he was about to say to avoid biting his tongue.

“What the hell was that?”

“I think it was a live round that was shot… at us. I don’t know how long it was buried in the ground, but it still works, doesn’t it?”

“What? This is no time to be impressed!”

“Even if you say so, we can’t even escape the present situation.”

While Lapis answered in a troubled manner, they continued to fall.

Loren began to wonder if he would survive the fall to the ground at such a speed, and Lapis whispered softly to him.

“Please hold on to me tightly for now. If you make a mistake and slip out of my grip, even you won’t survive. We will be on the ground in no time.”

“Will you be alright?”

“My real legs might break a little, but I have prosthetic legs now, so even if they break, it won’t be a big problem.”

“That doesn’t sound alright…”

“Keep your mouth closed. You’ll bite your tongue.”

Loren had no choice but to keep his mouth shut in response to Lapis’ warning. He clung to Lapis’ body, feeling somewhat pathetic.

Just as Loren thought he heard a sound like air escaping coming through the wind, Lapis’ feet landed on the ground. Loren was shaken violently, and he put all his strength into his arms around her, holding on desperately so that he wouldn’t be shaken off.

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