Kikel and I ran while constantly scanning our surroundings, with longsword and harpoon drawn in preparation for any possible ambush.
We couldn’t sense any presence other than ourselves, but we couldn’t completely let our guard down either.
“Wait! Stop for a moment! Oh, seriously!”
In contrast, Amy ran in a straight line chasing after Bolton.
He clearly looked intent on smashing the altar, so she seemed determined to try and stop him somehow before he could destroy it.
Of course, since Bolton was much faster than Amy, it seemed unlikely she would be able to stop him, but…
“In that case…!”
She had one last resort to stop Bolton.
“Hiyah!”
When the distance to Bolton wasn’t closing no matter how much she ran, Amy bit her lip hard, widened her eyes, then lifted the staff she was holding above her shoulder and threw it.
Whoosh!
The wooden staff with metal fittings on the end flew with a fierce sound of cutting air and-
Thwack!
Struck Bolton’s back like a bullet.
“Guk…!”
Hit in the back by the sudden attack, Bolton lost his balance, fell forward, and rolled.
If it had been a throwing spear instead of a staff, it would have been a blow that could have pierced through his back. It was impressive enough to draw admiration.
“Well done! You should get a harpoon too!”
Kikel actually expressed his admiration.
Anyway, while Bolton was down, Kikel and I immediately ran up beside him and kept watch on the surroundings, while Amy arrived a bit later, grabbed Bolton’s shoulder while gasping for breath.
“Haa…. Haa…. Priest Bolton. I’m sorry for hitting your back, but you haven’t forgotten our contract, right? This altar clearly looks suspicious, shouldn’t we check it out before destroying it?”
“Ugh… I’m ashamed… but…!”
Bolton replied with his head bowed.
It was hard to tell if he was really bowing his head in shame or if he was hunched over in pain.
“Kikel. I need to investigate that altar a bit, so in the meantime, keep watch over Priest Bolton.”
Amy said with a sigh. It was phrased as an order to keep watch, but in reality, it meant to hold him down so he couldn’t do anything rash.
“Understood!”
“Hilde, you stay by my side and protect me. There don’t seem to be any monsters, but… you never know, right?”
“Yeah, that sounds good.”
I approached the altar while guarding Amy’s side, with my drawn longsword resting slightly on my shoulder.
* * *
“As I thought, I can tell now that I see it up close. This is a trace of immortality worship.”
Amy, who had been observing the altar with narrowed eyes, nodded as if she had gained certainty and explained the identity of the altar.
“Immortality worship?”
“I mean undead. Since a corpse that has risen again won’t die of old age, they worship that as immortality.”
Amy continued speaking, pointing at the stone table placed on top of the altar.
The table, just the right size to lay a person on, was discolored black on top, and even just standing nearby, the smell of blood and rotten corpses was strong enough to sting the nose.
It was a stench that hinted at the table’s purpose.
“You see this phrase here? ‘Mors bis non venit… Death does not come twice’. This is a maxim of those who practice necromancy.”
So that’s what it meant.
I had read the maxim itself before.
It was a phrase often uttered by those who specialized in necromancy among the Abyss Priests appearing in the novel.
I didn’t know what it meant since the meaning wasn’t explained, though.
“So this altar is like a ritual place they used when raising corpses as undead.”
“Which means…”
“Yes. I was wrong. This dungeon has been touched by an Abyss Priest. …Though it seems they’re not here right now.”
Amy let out a deep sigh. A hint of relief-like emotion was glimpsed in her sigh.
I could understand her relief because I felt similarly.
If it wasn’t a situation where the Abyss Priest was absent, we could all have been annihilated on the spot.
“…We should retreat.”
In other words, the moment the Abyss Priest returns, we would inevitably face an unprecedented crisis.
“Yeah, this isn’t something we can handle. Let’s go back. If we inform the guild, Magic Tower, and temple, they’ll take care of it.”
Amy also nodded as if agreeing.
That was fortunate. I had been worrying about what to do if she insisted on trying to catch the Abyss Priest too.
“But before that… we should at least destroy this table before we go. Kikel! Come over here for a moment!”
“You called me? Coming right away!”
Kikel, who had been holding Bolton to prevent him from having a fit, walked over with large strides.
Amy briefly summarized the current situation for him as well, then pointed at the table and instructed him to split it in half.
“Got it. Will use strength!”
Kikel nodded, gripped his hand axe with both hands and raised it high, then brought it down like lightning with a fierce shout.
“Kyaaaak!”
A strike fully loaded with the lizardman’s strength.
Crash!
The stone table split with a scream as the axe blade embedded into it, crumbling down. Dried blood mixed with dust shot up.
“Well done.”
“Kachak!”
Amy, who had stepped back, waved her sleeve to disperse the dust, then bent down and reached towards the remains of the shattered table.
“Let’s see…”
And then, as if looking for something, she rummaged through the debris and—
“Ah, yes. As I thought, it’s here. I knew it.”
From within, she found and pulled out a book with a black cover. It was a book that gave an inexplicably eerie feeling just looking at it.
“Book of Necromancy. It looks like a crude mass-produced item at first glance… but it’s definitely a grimoire. Alright. Mission complete.”
Amy spoke while carefully examining just the cover without opening the book, then immediately stuffed it into her backpack.
“Now let’s go back. As quickly as possible.”
There was no one to object to those words.
“Let me… let me smash some more…!”
Bolton expressed deep regret at having to leave the statues behind after only managing to destroy the table, but…
“…With a long spear?”
We couldn’t stay to smash statues just to satisfy his fanatical destructive urge.
“That would probably take about three hours.”
If we were to run into the returning Abyss Priest while doing that, we might become new statues ourselves.
For these reasons, we quickly ran out of the room and dashed towards the surface without rest.
With Kikel carrying Bolton on his back as he ran out of stamina, and me likewise carrying Amy on my back.
The two of them were a bit embarrassed, but this was the best option. It would have been too harsh a demand for those two to keep up with Kikel’s and my full-speed run.
* * *
Fortunately, climbing back up through the dungeon was an incredibly easy and simple task unlike going down.
We had dealt with most of the monsters, so there was no reason to waste time on combat, and…
“Here, this is right, isn’t it?”
“Right! The right corridor is faster!”
We just had to retrace the shortest route we remembered without needing to wander through the maze-like corridors.
For these reasons, it was only about two hours later that we faced the sun on the surface again.
“Haa…! Haa…! Water, someone give me water…!”
“Kaaak…! Not cold at all…! Did I beat the cold…?”
Of course, as a price for that, Kikel and I collapsed from exhaustion as soon as we reached the surface.
We had covered in just one-tenth of the time a distance that had taken us a day and a half to explore, so it was only natural that we were exhausted.
“Here, drink this.”
I downed all the water Amy handed me, then forced myself to get up while massaging my still shaky legs despite having received Bolton’s healing.
I wanted to just lie down flat and fall asleep right there, but… I couldn’t do that. We weren’t in a situation where we could relax yet.
Even if we rest, shouldn’t we rest in a safer place? At the very least, we had to reach the carriage that would be waiting for us outside the ruins.
“…Can you move?”
“Kishaaah… cold again… cold too strong…!”
Although Kikel complained as if his body temperature had already cooled down, he didn’t stop walking. I too kept walking while dragging my feet.
Fortunately, the carriage wasn’t too far away, so I managed to reach it and climb in before collapsing from exhaustion.
“My, what happened to all of you? Your appearance is…”
The coachman who had been waiting, surprised to see us dripping with cold sweat from exhaustion, spoke to us.
“Don’t worry about it and just start. Quickly. As fast as possible.”
Amy cut off his words as if telling him to shut up and just start, leaning back on the carriage seat.
“You’re tired, right? You worked hard. Now rest a bit.”
Then, patting her thigh covered by her robe with her palm, she stretched out her other hand to pull my head. As if telling me to lie down and sleep on her lap.
“Haah…”
I had no energy left to refuse. Nor the presence of mind.
With a soft sigh, I tilted my waist and laid down using Amy’s thigh as a pillow.
It was surprisingly soft.
So much so that I could imagine the sensation even though I was wearing a helmet.
Once I laid down like that, sleepiness rushed in like a tidal wave, and there was no way to resist it with a clear mind.
“Huaaah…”
I closed my eyes while letting out a yawn.
It didn’t seem to take long to fall asleep after that.