Orleans's Crest

The two Bull Monsters charged straight at Azu.

They seemed to prioritize the nearest enemy.

Azu gripped her sword in both hands and used her running momentum to leap.

While sailing over the Bull Monsters, she aimed for one of their necks and slashed.

Her blade bit deep into the thick muscle covering its neck, dealing a serious wound.

As she followed through with the swing, blood erupted from the gash.

The one Azu had cut halted its charge and wheeled around toward where she'd landed.

The other ignored Azu's new position and kept coming our way.

However, Alexia had already been chanting fire magic and had her sights locked on it.

Her fireball collided with the monster.

Flames engulfed the Bull Monster's head, but it kept charging without flinching.

Elza had finished casting blessings on everyone and stepped forward to fill her role as mid-guard, her hands now free.

Mace in hand, priest robe billowing.

With each successive fireball that connected, the Bull Monster's momentum weakened.

Even so, it lowered its head and charged on, trying to ram its tusks into Elza.

"Hup!"

She raised her mace overhead and brought it crashing down with a shout.

A dull crunch echoed as she caved in the Bull Monster's skull.

Strength utterly at odds with her appearance, as always.

Her battle cry was practically cute, though.

"Looks like that side's done too."

At Alexia's words, I looked over at Azu. The Bull Monster had collapsed on the ground.

Azu had finished it off solo. She flicked the blood from her blade and sheathed it.

Then jogged back to us.

She had blood splatter on her face, so I wiped it off for her. She looked pleased.

"That's all of them."

"Looks like it."

"Then shall we head back? I'd rather not linger."

"We've got enough, so shall we? … Hm?"

Elza seemed to have noticed something.

She pointed toward the far wall of the room.

"Alexia-chan, light up that wall."

"If you say so."

Alexia conjured another illumination spell and directed it at the wall.

We'd been too focused on the Bull Monsters to notice, but there appeared to be a mural painted on it.

It covered the entire wall.

Looking up to take in the full image, I saw it depicted a massive monster.

A Dragon, maybe?

A Dragon soaring through the sky, breathing fire in all directions.

Come to think of it, I recalled seeing a Fire Dragon subjugation quest at the Adventurer's Guild.

Maybe Fire Dragons visited this area periodically.

"When do you think this was painted?"

"Hard to say. If someone painted it, I'd assume it was after the labyrinth went dead."

An impressive mural, but that was all.

There didn't seem to be anything else here. Time to head back.

"Um, over there…"

Orleans pointed timidly.

Following her finger, there was another mural at the far edge.

A painting of a girl praying to the Dragon.

Her back was bared, and on it was a crest I recognized.

It was the same one on Orleans's back.

Did it mean something?

"Looks like a sacrifice."

"Yeah, I thought the same. Maybe she played a role in appeasing the Dragon."

As I said this and glanced at Orleans, she was hunched over in pain, sinking to the ground.

"Hey, you all right?"

"My back… It's been burning ever since I saw that painting."

I rubbed Orleans's back and, sure enough, felt heat radiating from it.

"I'm going to take this off."

Without waiting for an answer, I removed her outer layer to expose her back. Her crest was glowing red.

The heat was definitely coming from the crest, but why so suddenly?

"Alexia, get some water on this handkerchief."

I turned toward Alexia to wet a handkerchief and cool her back, but she had a grim expression on her face.

Now what.

"Hey, what's wrong?"

"The crest on the mural is reacting. The flow of mana in this area is shifting…"

I listened to Alexia while reluctantly using water from my canteen to dampen the handkerchief, then pressed it to Orleans's back to cool her down.

But the heat showed no sign of fading.

"It's hot…"

"Elza, come over here and heal Orleans."

"Yes."

Elza directed her healing miracle at Orleans, and it seemed to ease things.

A bit of color returned to her face.

"What is going on?"

Azu already had her right hand on her sword's hilt, scanning our surroundings for any threat.

Once the crest on the mural's girl stopped glowing, the heat on Orleans's back began to subside as well.

"Has it stopped?"

"… No, this is only the beginning."

"Elza?"

I was about to ask Elza what she meant by that, but before I could, the passageway we'd entered through sealed shut.

Some mechanism had been triggered.

Wasn't this supposed to be a dead labyrinth?

A rumbling like an earthquake sounded, and the wall with the mural split apart, pulling open to both sides.

Apparently it had been designed to open when certain conditions were met.

"Looks like we have no choice but to go forward."

"Right. Orleans, can you walk?"

"Yes, Azu-sama. I'm fine now."

Orleans said this as she fixed her clothes and stood up.

If she said she was fine, I had to take her at her word.

What lay beyond? With no other path available, going forward was our only option.

We advanced with Azu in the lead.

A wide corridor. More like a cavern, really.

No monsters along the way.

The labyrinth's dead state seemed to extend to the deeper sections as well.

Our footsteps echoed unnervingly loud.

"By the way, Elza, what did you mean earlier?"

"Did I say something?"

"You said 'this is only the beginning.'"

At that, Elza made a show of thinking for a moment before deflecting.

"Did I?"