Episode 20 – Heart VI
No one inside Escondil Uterosaid a word—except for Dan. His quiet sobbing alone filled the entire space.
Meanwhile, Bramia shot Dan a dissatisfied glance before glaring at the view outside.
All he could see now was the crimson torrent completely flooding the outside world, yet even so, his eyes were still fixed in the direction where the man holding the Green Dragon Crescent Blade had stood moments earlier.
No one knew how long it had been since Nada’s figure was swallowed by that sea of red, but Dan had at least had enough time to treat the other adventurers here.
And still, Nada remained out of sight.
None of the adventurers knew what condition the “dragon” was currently in.
“Even so… why in the world did Nada-dono take such an action?”
Sitting cross-legged directly on the floor, Amarelo laced his fingers together, troubled. Dan had treated him earlier, so he had recovered enough to sit properly and speak.
“I’m sure Nada… must’ve had his own reasons…”
Dan answered in an attempt to defend Nada.
“Tch. Hell if I know—”
Bramia muttered curtly. Hearing that, Dan shrank back slightly and stopped crying altogether.
After that, no one spoke. Within Utero’s isolated space, the six of them simply stared as the dragon’s blood flowed past, avoiding their shelter like a river diverting around a rock.
But then, breaking the silence, Serena spoke.
“…It looked to me like he was fixated on the dragon’s heart.”
“Fixated… you say?”
Bramia’s brows shot up.
“Yes. From what I saw… that man—when we were fighting that ‘insect’ with our lives on the line—he treated it as nothing more than a nuisance. So when that nuisance disappeared, he immediately headed straight for his real target.”
“You’re saying he saw us as decoys, is that it!?”
“Th–that’s not what I—”
Unable to counter Bramia’s shout, Serena shrank back and closed her mouth.
“…Huh. I see how it is.”
“Corvo-senpai, what do you mean?”
Clarisse looked at Corvo, who was wearing a fearless grin. Even Bramia, who knew Corvo was among the academy’s top three adventurers, frowned as if sensing he had realized something.
“Nothing much. Just that Nada really acted like an ‘adventurer,’ that’s all.”
Corvo said with a dubious smile.
“Like… an adventurer?”
Clarisse tilted her head, and Bramia clicked his tongue loudly in irritation, openly showing his dislike for Nada.
But Corvo wasn’t bothered at all by Bramia’s hostility. His eyes remained fixed on the crimson torrent where Nada supposedly was.
“Yeah. Think about it. Why did Nada—and all of us—go to that place in the first place? Was our goal to kill the insect? Or to rendezvous with everyone? No. Our one true goal was to escape from the dragon. If that’s the case, then Nada’s actions were perfectly in line with that purpose—classic adventurer behavior.”
“Even if that’s true—! Even if it is, why the hell didn’t he wait for us to finish the damn bug!? If he was going to settle things with the dragon’s heart, he should’ve waited a bit longer! He definitely saw us fighting to the death out there. And instead of helping, he ignored everything and ran straight for the heart—THAT’S what pisses me off!!”
“Well, yeah, you’re right. I’m not praising Nada’s actions. I’m just stating them objectively. What he did fits an adventurer. But as a person—he’s a failure.”
Corvo told the furious Bramia plainly, showing no intention of apologizing—if anything, he looked amused by Nada’s behavior.
However, with those words, Bramia apparently felt a bit of his frustration ease, and like Corvo, he turned his gaze toward the heart where Nada should be.
The flood of blood still didn’t stop.
Blood kept pouring out from where the heart should be.
How long would this go on?
It was a question all six of them were thinking, yet none of them voiced it. Saying it wouldn’t solve anything—everyone knew that. All they could do now was wait until the flow stopped. The problem was simply that the dragon’s body was enormous; no one could guess how much time it would take.
—But Dan noticed something strange.
“Hey… isn’t something wrong?”
Dan had been staring with reddened eyes in the direction where Nada was.
Because of that, he was the first to notice the anomaly happening inside Serena’s ability.
“…Wait a moment! The space—it's being eroded.”
Amarelo was the next to notice.
Even though the blood gushing out from the heart flowed around them and streamed toward the back, avoiding the space they occupied, a tiny portion—mere droplets—were somehow intruding into Escondil Utero, Serena’s absolute domain.
“Why!?”
Naturally, Serena reacted the most.
Her own space—one where absolutely nothing should be able to intrude—was being pierced by the foreign substance called “blood.” But she had never experienced anything like this, so she had no idea why. All she could do was panic.
“Heee—so that’s what it is.”
Clarisse, who had lightly brushed her hand against the floor, grinned meaningfully.
“You figured something out?” Amarelo asked.
“Yes! I figured it out!”
“Then hurry up and explain!” Bramia barked.
“Okay, okay—first of all, you know how adventurers’ Abilities are said to be generated by the ‘Dark Matter’ inside the dungeon, right?”
“And?” Corvo urged her to continue, clearly interested.
“So here’s the thing—anything created from Dark Matter has pretty strong durability, and depending on the conditions, it can be completely unbreakable, like Serena-san’s ability. But there’s one weakness that every ability shares. Abilities. Gifts. Dragon fireballs. Basically—”
“—Dark Matter itself is the weakness?”
Dan answered wryly.
“Yep! That’s right. Since Dark Matter is the weakness, if the dragon’s blood contains Dark Matter, then… this space might actually break.”
“No way!”
Serena shouted.
She clearly had absolute faith in her Ability. Or more accurately, she had simply never experienced anything damaging it, so the current situation felt unreal to her.
That anxiety spread to everyone, and unrest began to ripple through Utero.
“So? What do we do to stop this, Clarisse?” Corvo asked, calm as always.
“Well… I don’t know either… how should I know something like that?”
Her answer was not what Corvo hoped for.
Clarisse clearly hadn’t anticipated this situation; her face twisted in panic.
“Hey, hey! It’s not just the walls—the floor looks bad too!”
Bramia pointed out that the bleeding walls weren’t the only problem—the floor was being eaten away even faster. The blood soaking into it looked far more dangerous.
“…Something feels off.”
Amarelo muttered.
He was concerned about Serena’s Ability possibly being breached, but more than that, he was troubled by the sensation that his body felt… weightless.
“…I don’t want to assume the worst, but Serena… there’s no chance this space is moving, right?”
Feeling the same floating sensation Amarelo had, Dan was already thinking about the next threat closing in.
“I don’t think so, but…”
“But you knooow—this whole space is being held in place by your Ability, right? So basically, if the thing anchoring it gets broken by Dark Matter—”
“Clarisse, that’s not funny—”
Corvo tried to scold Clarisse, but in reality, her prediction wasn’t wrong at all.
From the floor of Utero, which had been submerged in the torrent of blood the entire time, an unpleasant sound rose up. It was like fresh meat being peeled off bone, a noise that crawled deep inside the ear like writhing insects.
The sound grew louder with each passing moment—And then suddenly stopped.
“No way!”
Trapped inside her own ability with nothing else she could do, Serena could only scream.
Then, amidst the six people’s panic and chaos, Escondil Utero was ripped away from its fixed position by the dragon’s blood. Just like a ball tossed into a river, it was swept up by the raging current.
Taking the six people’s screams with it.
◆◆◆
In his haze of muddled consciousness—no, even without a coherent sense of self—Nada had one single mission burned into his brain.
Not escaping the dragon’s body, or even killing the “insect.”
Something far denser, purer, and yet—blacker.
—Dragon-slaying.
No—defeating the dragon itself wasn’t special to Nada.
Nada’s instincts simply demanded he kill anything that threatened his life. There was no reasoning, no calculation—only an animal’s pure will to survive.
That alone was why he drove the Green Dragon Crescent Blade into the dragon’s heart.
The blood gushing from it wrapped Nada’s entire body in a warm sensation.
Like human skin.
It held him gently, like a lover.
While Nada gripped his crescent blade with nothing but murderous intent, he felt an odd peace in being embraced by the dragon.
—Warm.
He felt it throughout his body, and slowly, consciousness began to return to him.
Covered entirely in dragon’s blood, Nada was breathing while swallowing the fluid, and the suffocation made him awaken.
What he recalled next were his origins, what he had done in his semi-conscious trance, and above all, his current situation.
Unable to open his eyes under the pressure of the surging blood, he sensed a deep, pounding vibration traveling through the Green Dragon Crescent Blade—proof that it still pierced the dragon’s massive heart.
What he sought lay beyond this.
With that thought, the strength in Nada’s hands tightened around the crescent blade.
But submerged in blood, his strength wouldn’t come.
He lacked oxygen.
To perform at his peak.
Gulg, gulg, gulg
He kept swallowing blood, making it even harder to breathe. Yet strangely, Nada no longer felt any pain in his body—despite how badly the insect had torn him apart. His bones should’ve been broken, his body covered in lacerations.
Was it the effect of the blood?
He had no idea.
But to Nada, it was a blessing.
With no pain, he could hold the Green Dragon Crescent Blade firmly. Even while being battered by the raging current, he was not swept away.
And so, he still hadn’t let go of the crescent blade.
“—I’ll kill you.”
Nada’s words never became a voice.
Drowning in blood, his voice reached nowhere.
But within his heart—within his will—it echoed deeply.
Was it the nature of an adventurer? Or a survival instinct? Or perhaps—
The only thing certain was that Nada, without a doubt, had resolved to kill the dragon.
Gulg, gulg, gulg
Having drifted in the sea of blood like a piece of kelp until now, he had even forgotten the feeling of suffocation. First, he planted his feet firmly on the floor of flesh.
The blood made it feel like he could slip at any moment, but he somehow held on by using both hands, gripping the Green Dragon Crescent Blade as support.
Then, along with another large gulp of blood, he drew in a small amount of oxygen.
Desperate, Nada used the oxygen he gained to brace himself solidly on both legs.
From there, starting from his lower body, he sent power up into his torso, then from his torso into both arms, and finally transferred it all into the Green Dragon Crescent Blade.
Putting his full strength into it, Nada drove the blade deeper, twisting as he forced it into the very depths of the dragon’s heart.
As a result, even more blood burst out from the heart, and the pressure tore many of its blood vessels apart. The flow of blood crashing onto Nada grew faster, and for some reason, the footing beneath him shook violently—eventually separating from the ground entirely.
The space around him shuddered violently, as if trying to shake Nada off.
He didn’t know the cause.
He couldn’t possibly have known.
That being pierced through the heart of all things would make the dragon thrash so violently that it slammed him up and down inside the sea of blood.
“Wha—”
And then, all of a sudden, Nada was freed from the waves of blood.
The Green Dragon Crescent Blade had been ripped free from the heart.
Nada was swept away inside the raging dragon’s body. Sunk deep by the torrent of blood, he finally—and completely—lost consciousness.
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