Chapter 248
Lumen’s health, displayed there, told Cadel he was on the verge of death. He pushed himself to the limit, and in doing so, saved everyone. This was the result.
Cadel, pale and gasping for air, looked around impatiently.
‘Is there any way to go up?’
If the tower collapsed completely, Lumen would surely die. He needed to find him before he was crushed by the tower’s rubble, but he couldn’t see beyond the collapsed ceiling to the upper floors. Nor any way out of this place.
‘I can’t go down, let alone up!’
They were completely isolated. Rocky chunks of ice were falling from above, and the floor was tilting along with the crumbling tower. Cadel tried to find a way out, but time would not wait for him.
“Is this how I die…….”
Cadel’s face scrunched up as he cursed at Elvie. He looked around but saw no way out. Beyond the ceiling, floor, and walls was nothing but the darkness of the abyss. It was unlikely that going in there would get him out.
There was nothing he could do, and time was running out, so he would have to enlist the help of others. Deciding, he grabbed the pendant of his necklace and called out Kunra’s name.
“Come on, save us!”
The kinds of Kunra’s powers he could wield were limited. The only way to get help beyond his capabilities was to call upon the power’s master himself. As Cadel infused the mana, the pendant glowed red and began to resonate. Seconds later.
“……Hoo. It looks like something quite interesting happened while this one was looking away.”
In front of Cadel, a humanoid Kunra appeared. He was leisurely looking at the collapsing tower with his back turned, then turned his gaze to Cadel, who urgently grabbed his shoulder.
“We have to hurry. I need to get my comrades out before the tower collapses. Do you know a way out of here?”
“The inside seems to be blocked by a special barrier.”
“Do you know how to break it?!”
Kunra snorted at the dry retort, his eyes shining. When he turned to face Cadel, it wasn’t displeasure or irritation, but rather an amused smirk.
“There comes a day in my life when I get yelled at by humans.”
“…….”
“Of course, I know. It’s a painstaking arrangement, but to this one, it’s child’s play. The power I’ve given you should be enough to break it.”
“Please do me a favor and hurry up.”
There was no telling how much time Lumen had left. Even now, he was probably dying a little. No matter how much Cadel tried not to regret it, he kept looking back at his past choices. If only he had gone up then. If only he had stuck to his guns and left Lumen behind.
‘Please stay alive.’
With Cadel’s fervent prayers, Kunra’s work began. Baring his fangs, he bit down on his thumb and let the dripping blood fall to the floor, where it glowed faintly before quickly soaking into the floor and forming a pattern.
A magic circle was completed in an instant. Kunra spread his palms over it and breathed his energy into it.
Red hair flowed gently in the wake of the energy, and the pupils of the eyes turned white. White eyes rolled gently, as if searching for something, and then stopped moving at a certain point.
“Be careful not to fall, halfling.”
The next moment, the walls of the tower burst open with a vast explosion. A violent vibration pounded the floor, unparalleled in intensity to that of a moment ago, and Cadel’s body shook with no sense of strength in his legs.
Eventually, unable to handle the steep incline, Cadel rolled to the bottom. Sliding endlessly with nowhere to hold on to, he hit something and bounced off into thin air, beyond the smoke of the explosion he’d escaped.
“Uh…….”
Into his barely perceptible field of vision, he saw crumbling towers and vast snowfields. The whole scene flashed by in slow motion. Scattering ice shards, strong snow flurries, and the white snowy ground that was slowly approaching.
Cadel was falling.
“Uargh! Sa, save me―”
Startled by the sudden fall, Cadel flailed his arms and legs desperately, and something fierce and flying caught him. As he reflexively closed his eyes and stopped breathing, he heard a familiar voice.
“Since the barrier has been lifted, they will come out on their own. I’ll catch the one who falls.”
It was Kunra who picked up the falling Cadel. He was no longer in human form. Kunra was flying around the tower in his true form as a scarlet dragon, flapping his massive wings.
Realizing he was on Kunra’s back, Cadel let out the breath he’d been holding.
“I thought I was going to die…….”
“Where did you sell your faith in this one?”
Grumbling disgruntledly, Kunra abruptly lowered his altitude and began his descent. Cadel, clutching Kunra’s scales at the angle of the dip, leaned in close. Clinging tightly to his back, he felt the plummet and heard a welcome voice along with the speed gradually slowing down.
“Knight Commander?”
“……Garuel?”
As if Kunra had caught what had just fallen, Garuel, who had landed on the scarlet dragon’s back, was looking at Cadel with a puzzled face.
“Are…… Are you okay?”
“Of course. It didn’t last as long as I thought.”
Fortunately, Garuel was in better shape than Cadel feared. A few tears in his uniform, but not much else. Garuel seemed to have similar thoughts as he raised the corners of his mouth as he examined Cadel’s condition.
“Judging by the collapse of the tower, it looks like you’ve defeated the demon safely. You’ve done a great job, but you don’t seem to have any visible injuries, which is good.”
Cadel couldn’t return Garuel’s smile. Garuel obviously thought he’d broken Elvie’s heart.
“I didn’t break it.”
“Pardon?”
“It wasn’t me, it was Lumen―”
Just as Cadel was about to correct him, a loud shout came from the distance.
“Cadel!”
It was Lydon, approaching Kunra at a rapid pace with a cheerful smile that could be seen from a distance, and in his left hand, a grim-faced Van was held.
Lydon caught up to Kunra in a flash and naturally landed on his back.
“Do you know how hard it was for me to drag Van here, darling? He was so rebellious!”
“I was in a bad mood because you tried to manipulate me without any explanation. Commander, are you hurt anywhere?”
Neither Van nor Lydon had any apparently serious wounds. Only the fatigue of battle remained. Relieved, Cadel’s expression still did not lift, because there was still no sign of Lumen among the gathering members.
“Now, if you all have any wounds, show them to me. I’m going to be very gentle with you.”
“Not required.”
“Stay away.”
Even as he looked up and down, there was no sign of Lumen leaving the tower. Leaving his noisy subordinates behind, Cadel moved towards Kunra’s neck.
“Kunra, I don’t see the last one. I think he has already fallen down. Did you miss him?”
“This is ridiculous. Do you think this one can’t take a single human and drop him? He hasn’t come out yet.”
Lumen hadn’t gotten out yet. The tower’s barrier had been broken, and there was an opening, but if he hadn’t gotten out, that meant he was immobilized.
‘Is he unconscious, or is he really…….’
An unthinkable scenario flashed through his mind. Cadel’s mind wandered, and he called urgently for Lydon.
“Lumen is still inside, Lydon. Go to the top floor and bring Lumen back.”
“Hmm? The top floor?”
“It’s Lumen who broke Elvie’s heart. He’s badly hurt, and he’s in danger if we don’t get him out quickly.”
Cadel’s grim demeanor caused the others to stiffen slightly. Everyone had assumed that it was Cadel who had broken the heart, so the fact that it was Lumen who was left on the top floor was a bit disconcerting.
Seeing the desperation in Cadel’s eyes, Lydon didn’t inquire further and headed straight for the top floor. Kunra’s size wouldn’t allow him to fit inside the tower, so the rest of them would have to wait for their return below the top floor.
“Lumen! Don’t you know that sleeping in the cold makes your mouth paralyzed? Where the hell are you sleeping?”
The top floor was badly damaged, having taken the brunt of the impact. Lydon dodged the sliding chunks of ice and rolled his eyes in search of Lumen.
Soon, a familiar silhouette caught the corner of his vision. Lumen had been pushed to the edge of the hall. A moment longer and he would have been bounced out of the room altogether.
“Ahaha! You must have been really badly hurt. What happened to you to cause this―”
Lydon flew in front of Lumen in a flash, his voice filled with his usual chuckle, but he didn’t finish his sentence. His smile slowly faded as he looked down at Lumen.
“……Lumen?”
Lydon, who carefully called his name, picked up Lumen, who had collapsed with a completely stiff face. He immediately left the tower, quickly found Kunra’s location, and flew at top speed. His eyes, fixed on Garuel, were filled with confusion and shock.
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