Chapter 45: The Four Heavenly King!
Blue light covered the cave from the inside. Everywhere, flashes of blue reached
us.
It was enormous, as if the entire plateau had been hollowed out and only the
house of this ’monster’ was inside. ’Enormous’ fell short as a word to describe
it.
As we went deeper and deeper into the cave, our feet struck some stones—mana
stones of a very low grade.
In the distance, we could see a giant pile of trees all laid down on their
sides. Trees, some big and some small, were stacked up.
Weiss had completely suppressed her mana, and I had suppressed my presence as
best as I could as we both stepped through.
As we neared the pile of trees and saw its curve, realization hit me.
"Is this a nest?" I whispered.
"A nest? Like a bird’s nest?"
We went closer to the pile of trees and started climbing it. Since they were
laid flat, it was rather easy; I gave a hand to Weiss, and she followed along as
we made our way to the top. After what seemed like climbing at least five floors
in height, we finally reached the top.
Inside the enormous nest, with its neck craned along and its head resting well,
a monster slept. It had the body of an ogre, the head and claws of a lion, and
wings of a hawk spreading across its back. It was almost a hodgepodge variant of
a gryphon.
"Butler, what do we do about this thing?"
In its center were... eggs. Four different eggs that the beast seemed to be
incubating.
"It’s ugly," said Weiss.
"Should we just steal the mana stones and leave?"
We could have done that, but all the mana stones—the good quality ones—were at
the very base of the nest itself.
Even if we were to go down, it was risky.
"Can you just, like, lift them into the air and bring them out?" I asked her.
"There are a lot of mana stones down there, though, and of insanely good
quality. It would be better to check them and choose instead of just hoarding
and taking them all away."
"I will have to fly them all back to the palace. That’s exhausting. You carry
them."
Such was the fate of a butler, wasn’t it, mon ami?
Ah. Fuck it.
Whatever. There was no point in dragging this out. I reached into my bag and
pulled out a rope. Tying it to the trees, I asked Weiss to stay and jumped down.
The wind blew through my hair and ears as I fell freely all the way down, until
the rope suddenly tightened and broke my fall.
Weiss watched from the top, her eyes wide.
I gave a small bow. Such showmanship is common for a thief, Miss Witch!
"Behind you! Behind you!!"
I looked back, and there it was. Its eyes were the size of my body. The gryphon
was looking right at me.
"H-how did you sense me?" I asked the gryphon.
She called down from above, "I couldn’t hold in all my mana."
"So it’s your fault!"
"KRAAAAAAAAAAA!"
The gryphon’s cry shook the entire cave. Blue stones making up the cave wall lit
up.
It flapped its wings.
An ethereal circle formed on the ground right under my feet.
"A wind spell!?"
A gust of wind blew upward, sending me flying into the sky. The rope that I was
holding onto was the only thing that maintained my balance.
"Woooah~!"
I flew above the nest, then pushed my body outward to avoid falling face-first
onto the damn trees. With the rope still in hand, I fell (with style) to the
outer side of the nest and stopped my fall on a lower section.
"Butler! Are you okay?"
"Yes, Miss Witch!"
"You can just call me Weiss, you know?"
"Excuse me!?"
"KRAAAA!"
Fucking hell. This gryphon had no manners. I quickly climbed up with the rope
again and jumped next to Miss Witch, tossing a mana stone in my hand.
"Nice," she said.
"Thanks." I quickly tied a hook to the rope. We would have to go far.
Another magic circle formed behind the gryphon as it flapped its wings again. A
giant gust—no, a whole tornado—was making its way toward us.
The wind struck and sent us sliding back. I went with the wind while Weiss
raised her hand.
"[Rock Solid]," she muttered.
The walls of the cave curved. From the top, a giant stalactite formed and
crashed right into the beast’s torso. It smashed against its hardened skin and
sent it hurtling down. The gryphon quickly put its claws on the ground and
screamed.
Its body could have crushed the eggs!
"KRAAAAA!" The gryphon’s mouth opened once more, and a beam of black energy
started pouring out.
"Buy me a minute, Butler," said Weiss.
"Just call me Phantom, no?"
"Eek! Don’t distract me—"
I scooped her up by the waist and tossed the hook with all my strength. The hook
settled right on top of the monster’s wings.
"Uwa! Touching a lady!?"
Since when did she care about that?!
I ran and jumped forward, using the rope as our guide as we swung through the
air.
The place where we stood just moments ago turned to dust as the beam hit it,
then swept outward, destroying everything in its path. The gryphon lowered its
mouth to chase after us, but we were swinging along its own body.
I pulled the rope around my hand to go closer; we were flying over the eggs now,
making it difficult for it to hit us.
As the gryphon angrily flew to the skies, we were still below it.
"I am done," said Weiss.
I could sense a strange, small magic circle forming on her palm. It was unlike
anything I had seen before. The spell she had conjured was not one I could read.
Sky? Ground? What were all those sigils overlapping for? And in that small of a
space? Won’t the spell break apart?
The gryphon flew all the way out of the cave and turned inward again.
She cast it.
[Skyfall]
