Kakon. Kakon. Kakon. Kakon.
The longer I looked at them, the more they looked like sparks.
Mycena showed me once before what happens when you strike a red hot iron with a hammer.
I remember how proudly she declared that she was making her own nails to build up the skeletal frame for the house we were going to live in together.
Well, putting that second part aside, the two red lights I’m seeing in the darkness are exactly like the sparks I saw splattering off the hot iron after it was struck.
[Iris]: “What is…..?”
When I voiced my curiosity, Lapris quickly replied.
[Lapris]: “I’ll be damned, they’re gnomes.”
[Iris]: “Gnomes? The earth spirits? That’s what you mean?”
The two red lights continued to bounce around at the center of the dome-shaped hall.
Gnomes. I haven’t heard that word since I ran into Grandpa when he was buying that book from my family’s store.
As spirits of the earth, you can find gnomes anywhere you would find a lot of soil, stones, or rocks. It is rare to find one because of how quick they are to hide themselves, but they’re supposed to be a relatively friendly spirit.
And yet, here they are. Bouncing around in the darkness while emitting a light I’ve never seen before.
Gnomes are always depicted as young girls in my adventure novels, but it’s too dark for me to check and make sure.
[Lapris]: “It feels like there’s something wrong with them. They aren’t normal.”
[Saluena]: “I feel the same. I smell the Primordial World coming off of them.”
When not just Lapris is saying it, but Saluena as well, the credibility of the information skyrockets.
[Iris]: “Primordial……could that mean something is controlling them like the shadow spirits at St. Noglint?”
[Saluena]: “Perhaps. Or perhaps the gnomes themselves strayed from the Goddess’s law and regained their Primordial power.”
Saluena drew her sword from her hip.
Kakon. Kakon. Kakon. Kakon.
[Saluena]: “They’re coming. Take the front Rosa. Leave Iris’s protection to me.”
[Rose]: “Yes Oneesama.”
Rose-san raised her mace and readied her shield. She then took a stance directly in front to protect us.
[Toslin]: “Carol”
[Carol]: “Right, I got it. I’ll watch from here, so hang in there.”
[Toslin]: “You get up there and fight with Rose!! It’s our job!!”
Toslin walked to the front as well, but not before kicking Carol’s butt to get her moving too.
Kakon. Kakon. Kakon. Kakon.
As the two lights rolled closer, they became bigger and more intense. It wasn’t until the sound grew so deafening that it made not just my eardrums but my entire body quake that it became impossible for me to look directly at them.
[Toslin]: “Come on seriously, isn’t this way too bright!? My eyes were just getting used to the darkness, and now this…….”
[Carol]: “If you just squint, it’s not really a problem?”
[Toslin]: “I’m an elf!! Don’t lump me in with a werewolf like you!!”
[Saluena]: “How are you handling it Rosa?”
[Rose]: “My apologies. Like Toslin-san, the light is too strong……”
Kakon. Kakon. Kakon. Kakon.
That eerie, inorganic sound continued to grow louder and louder as it approached even as we tried to adjust our eyes to the light. Whether you are an orange rank adventurer or not, if you can’t see your opponent, you won’t know what it’s doing. And if you don’t know what it’s doing, you won’t know how to counter it.
[Iris]: “I now…….release the bonds of this world!!”
In that case, I just need to make our enemies visible.
If our enemies are using a bright light to block our vision, we’ll do the same.
[Iris]: “The Goddess Illya overwrites reason as commanded by Iris Calvafon!!”
I raise my left hand to my mouth.
I bring my little finger to my lips. A pale light burst forth from the white porcelain ring, soon giving way to a strange grimoire materializing in my grasp.
[Iris]: “Absolute law established in the name of the Almighty. Holy spirit born from an ancient age, virgin guardian, mare clad in sacred water.”
A pure, blessed white grimoire. Pulling open the cover, I vigorously recite the pale lettering that floated off of its pages.
[Toslin]: “Carol! Buy us some time until Iris has finished her chant!!”
[Carol]: “Yeppers~. Woah, what’s with these guys? They’re huge!”
Carol was the only one who could see anything with this blinding light, so she jumped to the front.
But to my eyes, it looked like she had simply jumped into a world of white and disappeared completely.
[Iris]: “Please deliver unto us an age of peace and safety! Fiercely defend us from malice and impurity!”
The grimoire was white, and so it began to shine with its own powerful white light.
[Iris]: “My life, my name as a step, come forth. Unicorn!”
The light spilling from the grimoire’s pages converged, and the stuffed unicorn Lapris was riding morphed into a fully grown Unicorn.
[Iris]: “Get ready to move!! And no matter what you do, don’t look this way!!”
I instantly spread my magic power throughout my body like I had done in the lab’s gym and transferred it over to Unicorn.
When I did, Unicorn’s mane transformed from its usual violet color to a brilliant, glittering white.
[Lapris]: “GyaaaaaAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!”
A shrill scream filled the room………unfortunately, it was Lapris’s.
[Iris]: “That’s why I said not to look!!”
[Lapris]: “She’s literally right in front of me!? Even if I close my eyes it’s going to blind me!!”
Unicorn’s body shined like the sun, illuminating the dome-shaped room as bright as a sunny day at noon.
[Toslin]: “Oh? I can see.”
[Rose]: “Me too. Thank you Iris-san.”
[Carol]: “Really? If you can see now, how about getting over here and helping me out? These guys are kinda…….really annoying.”
Carol’s voice called out as she fought the gnomes, bringing our attention back to the front.
Our light offset there’s, so I looked around for Carol and the gnomes inside the now lit room.
No, ‘look around’ probably isn’t the right term when they’re pretty much right there in front of me.
[Iris]: “……wait, what……those are gnomes?”
Carol made a grand jump backwards.
Then, a second later, a big, boulder-like fist came down hard where she had just been standing.
[Iris]: “Those are gnomes…….are you sure they aren’t golems? Why does this dungeon have so many golems?”
Kakon. Kakon. Kakon. Kakon.
That noise we’ve been hearing was probably coming from their footsteps.
Their bodies are huge, and they have these thick arms. It looks like they are made of……stone?
Their legs look too thin and unreliable to be carrying all that weight though.
They taper off the further down you go, coming to a point like a needle. It created a light clanging noise each time it touched the ground.
That light was coming from the golem’s abdomen. A round window-like lens was fixed in the center, and the light was pouring out from it.
[Saluena]: “No, they’re certainly gnomes. I remember seeing some a thousand years ago.”
[Iris]: “Eh? Really? But, it’s a well-established theory that gnomes are all cute girls………”
[Saluena]: “They’re in there. Be careful. A gnome that has regained its primordial power would be incredibly hard.”
Just as Saluena said that though……
*Gakiiiiin!!*
[Toslin]: “Uwoah!?”
Toslin’s sorrowful bawl rang out.
I hurriedly turned my gaze back towards the action where I found the sword-wielding Toslin dumbly standing there stunned.
Immediately afterwards, I heard something hard hitting the floor and rolling away.
[Iris]: “No way……”
It was Toslin’s sword…….or the blade at least.
Her favorite sword, which had been able to cut through a dragon’s scales, had snapped in half.
[Lapris]: “Oi, her sword……it’s broken!!”
Kakon. Kakon. Kakon. Kakon.
The longer I looked at them, the more they looked like sparks.
Mycena showed me once before what happens when you strike a red hot iron with a hammer.
I remember how proudly she declared that she was making her own nails to build up the skeletal frame for the house we were going to live in together.
Well, putting that second part aside, the two red lights I’m seeing in the darkness are exactly like the sparks I saw splattering off the hot iron after it was struck.
[Iris]: “What is…..?”
When I voiced my curiosity, Lapris quickly replied.
[Lapris]: “I’ll be damned, they’re gnomes.”
[Iris]: “Gnomes? The earth spirits? That’s what you mean?”
The two red lights continued to bounce around at the center of the dome-shaped hall.
Gnomes. I haven’t heard that word since I ran into Grandpa when he was buying that book from my family’s store.
As spirits of the earth, you can find gnomes anywhere you would find a lot of soil, stones, or rocks. It is rare to find one because of how quick they are to hide themselves, but they’re supposed to be a relatively friendly spirit.
And yet, here they are. Bouncing around in the darkness while emitting a light I’ve never seen before.
Gnomes are always depicted as young girls in my adventure novels, but it’s too dark for me to check and make sure.
[Lapris]: “It feels like there’s something wrong with them. They aren’t normal.”
[Saluena]: “I feel the same. I smell the Primordial World coming off of them.”
When not just Lapris is saying it, but Saluena as well, the credibility of the information skyrockets.
[Iris]: “Primordial……could that mean something is controlling them like the shadow spirits at St. Noglint?”
[Saluena]: “Perhaps. Or perhaps the gnomes themselves strayed from the Goddess’s law and regained their Primordial power.”
Saluena drew her sword from her hip.
Kakon. Kakon. Kakon. Kakon.
[Saluena]: “They’re coming. Take the front Rosa. Leave Iris’s protection to me.”
[Rose]: “Yes Oneesama.”
Rose-san raised her mace and readied her shield. She then took a stance directly in front to protect us.
[Toslin]: “Carol”
[Carol]: “Right, I got it. I’ll watch from here, so hang in there.”
[Toslin]: “You get up there and fight with Rose!! It’s our job!!”
Toslin walked to the front as well, but not before kicking Carol’s butt to get her moving too.
Kakon. Kakon. Kakon. Kakon.
As the two lights rolled closer, they became bigger and more intense. It wasn’t until the sound grew so deafening that it made not just my eardrums but my entire body quake that it became impossible for me to look directly at them.
[Toslin]: “Come on seriously, isn’t this way too bright!? My eyes were just getting used to the darkness, and now this…….”
[Carol]: “If you just squint, it’s not really a problem?”
[Toslin]: “I’m an elf!! Don’t lump me in with a werewolf like you!!”
[Saluena]: “How are you handling it Rosa?”
[Rose]: “My apologies. Like Toslin-san, the light is too strong……”
Kakon. Kakon. Kakon. Kakon.
That eerie, inorganic sound continued to grow louder and louder as it approached even as we tried to adjust our eyes to the light. Whether you are an orange rank adventurer or not, if you can’t see your opponent, you won’t know what it’s doing. And if you don’t know what it’s doing, you won’t know how to counter it.
[Iris]: “I now…….release the bonds of this world!!”
In that case, I just need to make our enemies visible.
If our enemies are using a bright light to block our vision, we’ll do the same.
[Iris]: “The Goddess Illya overwrites reason as commanded by Iris Calvafon!!”
I raise my left hand to my mouth.
I bring my little finger to my lips. A pale light burst forth from the white porcelain ring, soon giving way to a strange grimoire materializing in my grasp.
[Iris]: “Absolute law established in the name of the Almighty. Holy spirit born from an ancient age, virgin guardian, mare clad in sacred water.”
A pure, blessed white grimoire. Pulling open the cover, I vigorously recite the pale lettering that floated off of its pages.
[Toslin]: “Carol! Buy us some time until Iris has finished her chant!!”
[Carol]: “Yeppers~. Woah, what’s with these guys? They’re huge!”
Carol was the only one who could see anything with this blinding light, so she jumped to the front.
But to my eyes, it looked like she had simply jumped into a world of white and disappeared completely.
[Iris]: “Please deliver unto us an age of peace and safety! Fiercely defend us from malice and impurity!”
The grimoire was white, and so it began to shine with its own powerful white light.
[Iris]: “My life, my name as a step, come forth. Unicorn!”
The light spilling from the grimoire’s pages converged, and the stuffed unicorn Lapris was riding morphed into a fully grown Unicorn.
[Iris]: “Get ready to move!! And no matter what you do, don’t look this way!!”
I instantly spread my magic power throughout my body like I had done in the lab’s gym and transferred it over to Unicorn.
When I did, Unicorn’s mane transformed from its usual violet color to a brilliant, glittering white.
[Lapris]: “GyaaaaaAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!”
A shrill scream filled the room………unfortunately, it was Lapris’s.
[Iris]: “That’s why I said not to look!!”
[Lapris]: “She’s literally right in front of me!? Even if I close my eyes it’s going to blind me!!”
Unicorn’s body shined like the sun, illuminating the dome-shaped room as bright as a sunny day at noon.
[Toslin]: “Oh? I can see.”
[Rose]: “Me too. Thank you Iris-san.”
[Carol]: “Really? If you can see now, how about getting over here and helping me out? These guys are kinda…….really annoying.”
Carol’s voice called out as she fought the gnomes, bringing our attention back to the front.
Our light offset there’s, so I looked around for Carol and the gnomes inside the now lit room.
No, ‘look around’ probably isn’t the right term when they’re pretty much right there in front of me.
[Iris]: “……wait, what……those are gnomes?”
Carol made a grand jump backwards.
Then, a second later, a big, boulder-like fist came down hard where she had just been standing.
[Iris]: “Those are gnomes…….are you sure they aren’t golems? Why does this dungeon have so many golems?”
Kakon. Kakon. Kakon. Kakon.
That noise we’ve been hearing was probably coming from their footsteps.
Their bodies are huge, and they have these thick arms. It looks like they are made of……stone?
Their legs look too thin and unreliable to be carrying all that weight though.
They taper off the further down you go, coming to a point like a needle. It created a light clanging noise each time it touched the ground.
That light was coming from the golem’s abdomen. A round window-like lens was fixed in the center, and the light was pouring out from it.
[Saluena]: “No, they’re certainly gnomes. I remember seeing some a thousand years ago.”
[Iris]: “Eh? Really? But, it’s a well-established theory that gnomes are all cute girls………”
[Saluena]: “They’re in there. Be careful. A gnome that has regained its primordial power would be incredibly hard.”
Just as Saluena said that though……
*Gakiiiiin!!*
[Toslin]: “Uwoah!?”
Toslin’s sorrowful bawl rang out.
I hurriedly turned my gaze back towards the action where I found the sword-wielding Toslin dumbly standing there stunned.
Immediately afterwards, I heard something hard hitting the floor and rolling away.
[Iris]: “No way……”
It was Toslin’s sword…….or the blade at least.
Her favorite sword, which had been able to cut through a dragon’s scales, had snapped in half.
[Lapris]: “Oi, her sword……it’s broken!!”
