Death March to the Parallel World Rhapsody, Vol. 8

by Hiro Ainana

  “Understood.”

  The assistant elf was the only one to respond, but the other apprentices were all smiling, so I guess they had no objections.

  Thus, our group’s Magic Bags were renamed Fairy Packs.

  “Is Satou here?!”

  The peaceful mood in the Magic Bag workshop was interrupted when someone came bursting through the door.

  It was the engineer who’d promised to teach me how to make wands back at the magic-tool studio.

  “Yes, right here.”

  Something seemed to be the matter, so I raised a hand and walked over to the entrance.

  “Sorry, but can you come with me, please? Lady Aaze is—”

  “Yes, of course! Where do I need to go?!”

  I hadn’t seen Aialize in a few days. As soon as her name was mentioned, my composure went out the window.

  I zipped over to him with “Warp” and charged to the fairy ring before he could recover from his surprise.

  Wait for me, Aialize! I’m coming!

  The Void

  Satou here. There’s a saying about always tapping a stone bridge to test it before you cross it, but sometimes there’s just no time for that kind of caution. If you ask me, there are times where you just have to sprint across a mud bridge and hope for the best.

  “What’s the matter, Satou?”

  When I arrived out of breath at the observatory in the top part of the World Tree, Aialize was there waving at me with a carefree smile.

  I almost collapsed with relief, but I managed to stay upright by sending some magic into my knees.

  Now that I was a bit less frantic, I looked around.

  The observatory was basically a park covered in a transparent dome about three hundred feet in diameter.

  Beyond the dome stretched a vast starry sky. Not the kind of thing you’d expect to see in the middle of the day.

  In other words, the view outside the dome must be outer space.

  Several thick branches reached into the dark outside the dome. For some reason, they looked more like roots than anything.

  I didn’t run all the way up here, of course. The dryad’s teleportation covered most of the distance.

  “I heard that you asked for me, Lady Aialize, so I came running, but…”

  I trailed off before I could finish as I approached Miss Aialize.

  Her magic and stamina in my AR display were on the verge of running out. Evidently her smile hadn’t been carefree so much as exhausted.

  “No need to look so worried. I’ll be better soon.”

  “Please rest a little longer, Lady Aaze. I’ll explain things to Mr. Satou.”

  I gave Aialize a nutritional supplement and magic recovery potions from my pocket, then listened to Lua’s explanation.

  “I apologize for bringing you out all this way. You see…”

  As the shrine maiden spoke, I watched Aialize’s recovery on the AR out of the corner of my eye.

  “…and electrical discharge from the World Tree has left many elves stranded in the void.”

  Electrical discharge? The defense mechanism that was strong enough to repel even Hei Long the black dragon?

  We were in a different area from the ground or the lower parts of the World Tree, so I hurriedly used the Search Entire Map spell to get more information.

  The area of this map extended out in a spherical radius of several dozen miles from the observatory.

  I checked the dots signifying elves on the map.

  Quite a few of them were seriously injured, but none seemed to be fatally so.

  …Huh?

  There were countless red markers denoting enemies in the void.

  And yet, perhaps because of the light, I couldn’t see any enemies out there.

  According to the map information, the enemies were called Evil Jellies, and they ranged in level from 20 to 40. With an average level of 30, in theory they weren’t much of a threat, but there were so many of them.

  Roughly ten thousand, in fact.

  What a ridiculous number, especially for anything other than demi-goblins raised on gabo fruit. No wonder the elves were having such a hard time.

  These jellyfish-like creatures had the race-specific skills “Absorb,” “Synchronize,” and “Chain Rampage.”

  Looking closely, I saw that their category was not monster but cryptid.

  Fortunately, the Evil Jellies didn’t seem to be interested in the elves. They simply stuck to the branches of the World Tree and didn’t move an inch.

  If they weren’t going to prevent us from rescuing the elves in need, we could probably just deal with them later.

  “Are there any extra void suits?”

  “No, none ready to be re-dispatched right now.”

  Good thing I had a spare one in my Storage, then.

  It didn’t have the life-support magic circuit yet, but it was perfectly airtight, so I should be able to just use oxygen from Storage.

  Fortunately, I had plenty of that as a by-product of making a hydrogen air balloon to cross the Black Dragon Mountains.

  “All right. I’ll go rescue them.”

  “D-don’t be ridiculous, Mr. Satou. We called you here to ask for help repairing the magic tools for use in the void, not to send you on a reckless suicide mission!”

  Seeing me pull the void suit out of my Garage Bag, Lua the shrine maiden hurried to stop me.

  But wasn’t there a general rule that disaster relief had to take place within the first seventy-two hours?

  I didn’t know if that was applicable in a parallel world, but this “void” basically seemed to be outer space, so the time limit had to be short.

  Besides, some of the elves in need of help were people I’d become friendly with during our stay.

  “We can’t save lives by sitting around repairing things.”

  “But it’s too dangerous… We don’t even have any light ships that are functioning properly.”

  A light ship was an elf vehicle that could traverse space, similar to Hayato’s dimensional submarine, the Jules Verne.

  As Lua continued to try to dissuade me, a gentle hand touched her shoulder. It was Aialize.

  “It’s all right. I’m feeling much better. Satou of the Shiga Kingdom, though the journey will be a dangerous one, will you accompany me?”

  “Yes, of course.”

  Aialize looked guilty, but I took the hand she extended at once.

  “I’m a little low on spirits, though. Could I ask you to unleash your spirit light, Satou?”

  “As you wish, milady.”

  I was a little embarrassed with myself for saying such a corny line, but I managed with the help of my “Poker Face” skill.

  “Goodness, spirits are gathering from the atmosphere and the World Tree at an incredible rate… Thank you, Satou. These spirits will be more than enough.”

  With that, Aialize murmured a word or two, and a glowing green wind rose around her, carrying both of us into the air.

  Despite her claim that she’d recovered, her face still looked pale.

  “We’re going out there. Be careful not to leave my side.”

  Huh?

  Aialize’s hand touched the dome, and it shifted around her.

  Apparently, it was more like a mucous membrane than glass, and it was about seven feet thick.

  It didn’t come inside Aialize’s wind barrier, so I didn’t know what it felt like.

  Within a few seconds, we passed through the membrane and into the void.

  I didn’t feel weightless, so we must not be as far out as I thought.

  I was able to breathe inside the wind barrier, but if we wanted to rescue everyone quickly, it was probably better to act separately.

  Reluctantly, I let go of Aialize’s soft hand and used “Quick Change” to put on the void suit. Since it didn’t have a control unit, I would just have to use my own magic and the oxygen from Storage.

  “Let’s split up to rescue everyone. I’ll go this way.”

>   “W-wait!”

  I used “Skyrunning” to leave Aialize’s barrier.

  Before I could heed Aialize’s frantic warning, the electricity silently surrounding the World Tree’s branches crackled to life.

  Aialize was saying something, but I couldn’t hear her, since we were in a vacuum.

  Wanting to protect her, I produced some metal objects from Storage around myself as makeshift lightning rods.

  Then I used Magic Hand to move them so that the lightning wouldn’t reach her.

  In the next instant, a heavy electric shock assaulted my senses.

  Oof.

  Yeah, that hurt.

  I frantically turned my “Pain Resistance” skill back on.

  Those little electrons sure packed a punch.

  “Satou, don’t be so reckless!”

  A soft sensation soothed my body through the void suit.

  Aialize was embracing me.

  Strangely, as soon as she came close, the electric shock stopped.

  “The World Tree is on high alert right now, so if it detects a foreign object, it’ll try to eliminate it.”

  She explained that the World Tree considered high elves to be part of itself, so it wouldn’t try to attack one.

  Regular elves were considered subcomponents, too, so they wouldn’t be attacked as long as they didn’t make any careless moves.

  …Huh?

  Why wasn’t the World Tree eliminating the Evil Jellies on its branches, then?

  That question would have to wait, however.

  Rescuing the elves was more important right now.

  “Lady Aialize, please allow me to guide us toward the most seriously injured elves first.”

  “Yes, please do.”

  …I hadn’t expected her to understand and agree to that so readily.

  Aialize moved the wind barrier in accordance with my directions.

  “There are two inside that multi-legged golem.”

  We landed on the misshapen frame of a charred golem, and I produced the Holy Sword Durandal from Storage to cut through the exterior.

  Inside were Mr. Kiya and Miss Doa from the magic-tool workshop.

  “S-Satou?”

  “Lady Aialize and I are here to rescue you.”

  I used the Water Magic spell Aqua Heal to fix their injuries while extracting them with the help of Magic Hand.

  “Satou, can you recover the control tablet of the golem?”

  “All right.”

  Since we had other people to rescue, I cut the tablet free a bit roughly with Durandal.

  “Got it. Lady Aialize, let’s go to the branch up there next.”

  “Okay. And also, you can call me Aaze if you’d like. It’s much easier to say.”

  “Very well, erm… Miss Aaze.”

  For some reason, I hadn’t been this embarrassed to call a girl by her nickname since middle school, despite the fact that I’d used nicknames for women in college and at work all the time.

  “Satou of the Shiga Kingdom. We appreciate your assistance.”

  “Satou of the Shiga Kingdom. We admire your dedication.”

  “Satou of the Shiga Kingdom. We…”

  The day after the rescue in the void, I was in the meeting room at the base of the World Tree, receiving the thanks of the elders.

  In light of my help with the rescue and the other services I’d been providing, they had decided to grant me access to the entire World Tree, including the observatory.

  They even offered me the rank of an honorary elder, but I politely declined.

  I didn’t think I was old enough to be considered an “elder” by beings who lived hundreds of years.

  I received a catalog of extra rewards, including special materials and textiles that could be found only in the elf village, as well as other valuable resources.

  Although, to be honest, I thought including World Tree leaves and sap was a little bit much.

  My alchemy books listed those as too rare to acquire even for someone with a high rank or castle of their own.

  At any rate, once that was over, one of the elders guided me to a separate room.

  “Done already, Satou?”

  “Yes, thank you.”

  I was greeted there by Miss Aaze, the shrine maiden Lua, and Jia, the “gardener” who’d come to the sewing workshop to pick up the void suits before.

  “So may I presume this is about the situation I saw yesterday?”

  Miss Aaze nodded.

  “As you’ve probably realized already, we’re trying to combat the parasitic Evil Jellies that have latched on to the World Tree.”

  They must want me to exterminate them, then.

  I’d seen the Evil Jellies only from a distance and through the wind barrier during the rescue mission, but they looked to me like translucent jellyfish that contained sparkling gusts of Wind Magic. The elves seemed to call them “jellyfish,” too, so I’d just use that name from now on.

  If the only problem were the electric discharge of the World Tree, then I could probably just make an insulator suit and go out there to make quick work of them.

  But when I suggested this, the elves quickly shot it down.

  “If it were that simple, we wouldn’t be struggling so much,” Lua said.

  “The electric shocks also hurt the branches of the World Tree itself,” Jia explained. “The thick ones closest to the trunk are all right, but the thinner emerald branches can break very easily.”

  From what I was told in the observatory, the emerald branches of the World Tree were important branches that collected magic from the aether that flowed through the void.

  Our rescue mission took place near the roots, so I hadn’t actually seen the emerald branches yet.

  “So,” Lua concluded, “what we’d like to ask you to do is help repair the multi-legged golems that have been damaged in the incident and produce more void suits.”

  “And if you have any suggestions for exterminating the jellies, we’d love to hear them,” Jia added.

  I agreed to help with the former right away and said I’d do some thinking on the latter.

  First, there were a few things I needed to confirm.

  “Why exactly are the jellyfish attacking the World Tree in the first place?”

  “They use their tentacles to eat the mana that flows through the branches.”

  I nodded at Aaze’s explanation.

  If nearly ten thousand jellyfish were sucking up the World Tree’s mana, it could easily cause a shortage down on the ground.

  Lua contributed some additional information.

  “Some of them lay eggs on the branches, too. Worse yet, the viscous substance that protects the eggs pollutes the sap and weakens the World Tree.”

  So the jellyfishes’ goals were simply eating and breeding, then.

  “So why doesn’t the World Tree’s electrical shock system get rid of the jellyfish?”

  “The jellyfish seem to have some way of making the World Tree think they are a part of it, not a foreign object.”

  She added that they’d already attempted to correct this or put the World Tree to sleep so that the electric discharge would be suspended, but to no avail.

  “And since the area around the jellyfish creates a magic vacuum, we can’t use spells to put them to sleep or restrain them.”

  Furthermore, since it was impossible to maneuver in the void without magic, void suits or airtight golems were necessary to approach the jellyfish.

  Unlike regular magic, magic tools and devices that used Holytree Stone still worked near the jellyfish, although their rate of magic-power consumption rose drastically.

  “We have been using magic potions to put the jellies to sleep, then using golems to cut off and restrain the tentacles that are attached to the World Tree’s branches.”

  Aaze and others who could use Spirit Magic had been gathering all of the restrained jellyfish in one place.

  As I understood it, a pseudo-spirit created by a master could
exist near the jellyfish, at least for a while.

  “We planned to use that method to slowly but surely eliminate the jellyfish, but…”

  “We didn’t know that some of them had eggs.”

  Lua and Jia sighed in unison.

  As it turned out, if a jellyfish that was bearing eggs was eliminated, the nearby jellyfish would send the World Tree into high-alert mode, as was the case yesterday.

  And if more than a certain amount of jellyfish were destroyed or isolated, the rest would consume large amounts of the World Tree’s branches to multiply at an explosive rate.

  The jellyfish also multiplied in a wide-range chain reaction, so if they weren’t all eliminated at once, they would end up producing even more than the amount that was destroyed.

  A lot of this was presented as secondhand information, so I asked why.

  “Other World Trees have also been infected with Evil Jellies,” Lua responded. These other trees were taking even more damage than the one in the Bolenan Forest.

  “According to the records, the Evil Jellies have always appeared once every thousand years or so on the flow of the aether, but it was only ever a handful of them at a time.”

  Maybe something had happened farther up the aether stream that caused this huge amount of jellyfish to appear, or maybe a threat caused them to flee in large numbers.

  I couldn’t help wondering about it, but that wasn’t my highest priority right now.

  Since there was no point in speculating, I made a note to investigate after the present crisis was resolved.

  Next, I tried to sort through all the information I’d just gained.

  The goal: eliminate the jellyfish from the World Tree.

  There were several important points to note.

  Number one: Hurting the jellyfish would result in an electric shock from the World Tree. Jellyfish with eggs were especially susceptible.

  Number two: If a certain number of jellyfish were eliminated, they would reproduce at a massive rate and harm the World Tree in the process.

  Number three: There was a magic vacuum around the jellyfish, so spells wouldn’t work in their immediate vicinity.