A Terror from the Past

We walked through the hidden passage for a while.

No monsters, nothing to pick up along the way.

My pulse had quickened the instant the hidden passage appeared, but this was turning into an anticlimax.

Just as I was thinking it would be a funny story if there turned out to be nothing at all, we reached a dead end.

Something was there. A glowing red object sat atop what looked like a small altar.

Perhaps this hidden passage had been built to house that red thing.

I signaled Azu to move closer for a better look.

As we walked, braziers along both sides of the path ignited one after another.

This had… a bad feeling to it.

"Azu, hold up and let's assess the—"

Before I could finish, the last brazier lit.

The darkness gave way to firelight, revealing the full scope of the space.

A round chamber. A gaping hole was visible in the ground.

Drag marks covered every surface, as if something had been crawling all over.

A sound. The noise of something crawling, drawing closer.

No, not quite. The sound of something walking while dragging itself along the ground. Many legs, with a body that scraped the floor.

Azu's face went hard as she drew her sword.

"It's coming."

The instant she spoke, something hauled itself out of the hole.

Black and long. A Giant Centipede.

"That's…"

Alexia's voice came through with a slight tremor. Right, she hated bugs.

Edgar had mentioned Bug Monsters, but I hadn't expected one this enormous.

No, it was because we'd come through that hidden mechanism. This was deeper than we were supposed to be.

A guardian of sorts, protecting whatever that red object was.

It had already spotted us and was closing the distance, scuttling across the walls and ceiling with terrifying agility.

It looked fast. Running without a fight might not be an option.

"Yohane-sama, that's it. I used the red gemstone I got from you on that same kind of monster."

"Mm."

Azu said this while keeping her sword raised.

Right. Something like that had happened.

I remembered her coming back in tatters.

When she'd nearly died, she'd clung to me and cried. I could still picture it.

Back then, Azu had been so fragile that simple errands were the best she could manage.

Even so, I'd figured I could at least have her mine burning stone.

But killing the Giant Centipede had made her dramatically stronger, and she'd obtained a weapon from it.

In a sense, this was the monster that had started it all.

"Think you can take it?"

"Of course. I'm not the same as I was back then. And I'm not alone anymore."

Azu turned back to face me as she said it.

Her expression was no longer that of the frail girl she'd once been. It radiated resolve and conviction.

Elza and Alexia had already shifted into battle formation.

"You two, stay back. I won't let it reach you."

"Got it. I'm counting on you."

"Yes. Leave it to me."

The moment I took Orleans's hand and pulled back from the Giant Centipede, it lunged toward us as though that were its signal.

Its segmented legs churned in rapid motion, propelling its massive body at startling speed.

Azu sprinted toward it. The centipede opened its maw and drove its fangs at her.

She leaped clear, landing on its back.

From there, she ran along its length, slashing at its back and legs with her sword.

Her strikes were landing. The centipede thrashed and veered, its charge losing direction and force.

"Elza-san, stop its charge!"

"Okie dokie!"

Elza called back and gripped her mace with both hands.

Elza with her blessings active was far stronger than she looked.

She'd stopped that bronze monstrosity in its tracks before.

"Heave-ho!"

Elza wound up with a huge backswing to the right, then drove her mace in a sweeping arc straight into the centipede's face.

The impact thundered through the labyrinth.

The charge had been weakened, but the collision still sent Elza skidding backward.

Her priest robe fluttered as she stuck the landing.

She seemed unhurt.

The centipede, on the other hand, had one of its massive fangs snapped clean off, and the point of impact was caved in, leaking fluid.

That had to hurt.

Whether it actually hurt or Azu hacking at its back was just annoying it, the centipede reared up, lifting the front portion of its body off the ground.

Its face looked like it was consumed with rage.

Azu dropped off its back at that exact moment, and Alexia's wall of fire spell engulfed it.

The flames seared and burned the centipede. Rearing up like that had made it a perfect target for Alexia.

She followed up by pounding fireball after fireball into it.

Azu had mentioned that the previous centipede had been killed using a fire gemstone.

It was likely weak to fire.

The centipede slammed its body against the wall to extinguish the flames clinging to it.

Its back was already torn to shreds, its face was crushed, and burns covered it from end to end. It had lost much of its earlier menace.

The same species that had once pushed Azu to the brink of death, yet to the current Azu and the others, it posed no real threat.

Magnificent coordination and skill. They'd grown even stronger since the trip to Spartia.

The centipede's endurance was formidable. Despite all that damage, it showed no signs of going down.

It studied Azu's group and then us, weighing its options.

Then, apparently deciding to pick off the weaker targets first, it ignored Azu and the others and barreled straight toward us.

Its speed had dropped — Azu must have severed some of its legs.

I grabbed Orleans's hand and tried to run.

Orleans stumbled and nearly fell.

At this rate, it would catch us. The instant I thought that—

Azu cut in between us and the centipede, Sealed Sword Grungaus at the ready.

Even from here, I could see the blade brimming with mana.

"This ends now!"

She cleaved the oncoming centipede from head down.

The force of the strike split its skull and gouged a line into the ground.

"Are you all right?"

As Azu turned to face us, I caught a faint shimmer of rainbow in her right eye.

She must have drawn on that power.

It came with a toll, so she couldn't use it freely, but Azu showed no ill effects.

The centipede's body kept twitching after losing its head, but soon went still.

It was dead.

"Well done."

"Thank you!"