Chapter 27. The Witch's Artifact
“Are you going to be okay?”
I had used almost all of the power of madness.
I had also nearly exhausted the power of my mind, leaving both my body and mind completely worn out.
On top of that, I still couldn't repair my arm.
My body and mind had not fully recovered from the shocking experience just moments ago, but I stood up once again.
I wanted to turn off the game and leave right now.
But if I left now, it felt like all the suffering I had endured until this point would become completely meaningless.
After all, I had already given up on so many things in my real life.
If I gave up even in a game like this, wouldn't my life be incredibly pitiful?
“Yeah, I'm okay after getting some rest.”
“You're not pushing yourself, right? You look like you're having a really hard time.”
Besides, staying here seemed better for calming my shaken mind than returning to reality.
What would I do if I went back?
I'd just be lying alone in my empty room, clutching my head and suffering by myself.
No matter how much I preferred being alone and disliked crowded places, there was nothing more depressing than being alone in an empty room when you were sick and struggling.
Besides, Pai, who normally casually threw sharp words at me, was actually this worried about me.
I had never experienced anything like this even once in my entire life.
And finally, as a gamer, a completely new event had occurred.
There was no way I could simply look away.
They might even give me a new title or something.
“From now on, I'll go with you too.”
“If it's something you don't think will kill you, then do that.”
Anyway, I had made up my mind.
So there was no reason to waste any more time.
However the process had gone, we had obtained the flying fish.
With the flying fish, we could break through this thick fog and reach a place where the artifact might be located directly from the high sky.
Although it looked like some cursed chimera straight out of a horror movie, it was actually an incredibly useful friend.
“It looks just like a bug.”
“Shut up! Don't call my child a bug!”
“Even though it walks around supporting itself with multiple arms?”
“It's playing with the other children! Are you seriously going to dismiss the flying fish's pure heart as that of a bug?”
“Yes.”
“!!!”
Of course!
Our child looked like some twisted monster straight out of various forms of media!
But still!
You shouldn't say it so directly!
“Does it jump by expelling air from the hole in its rear…? If you imagine it as a human, it is quite a ridiculous sight.”
“S-Shut up…!”
Well, whatever.
It didn't matter anymore.
We had to put everything aside and move while saving as much of our precious remaining time as possible.
“Everyone! Stop playing and get ready to leave!”
“G-Great Warrior! We're not playing right now! Waaaaaah!!!”
“It's flying! The flying bananaaaaa!!!”
“Good grief, I told you to stop playing.”
After barely calming the children down, I told the flying fish to put them inside its mouth.
It looked at me with the sorrowful expression of someone who had been betrayed by the entire world.
“Great Warrior…! Why?! Why are you doing this to us?!”
“You're noisy! If you ride on its back and fall, who's going to pick you up? I'm putting you in the safest place, so shut up and do as you're told!”
Leaving felt like going on a family trip where just getting everyone ready was exhausting.
I was desperately anxious because we were running out of time, while the family members seemed to wander around everywhere, wasting time as if none of it mattered.
Anyway, I'll skip the small details, such as painfully explaining to the unwilling Pai and putting the children inside the flying fish's mouth.
Only Oehorn and I climbed onto its back.
Then we took off into the sky.
Perhaps its ability to pierce through the fog had become even stronger after evolving.
A fairly wide area of fog was cleared, revealing a refreshing view.
“Hmm. Looking at it like this, this really is a demonic realm.”
The forest, now clearly visible through the opened-up view, was a land of killing and slaughter to such an extent that even Oehorn looked disgusted.
We had been there until just moments ago.
Yet all I could think was that we had somehow managed to survive until now.
“So, how are you planning to find it?”
“Who knows? I started without much of a plan, so I guess I'll rely on luck again this time.”
“You will probably lose another leg.”
“Maybe. If that happens, take Pai out with you.”
He didn't give me a particular answer.
Instead, he distorted his expression as if disgusted and clicked his tongue.
If he was going to react like that, he could have just said it out loud.
“Normally, the classic approach would be for the Witch's Artifact to be at the top or center of an enormous tree.”
“You're still looking for the classic approach in a place like this?”
I was about to answer cheerfully as usual to Oehorn's cold response.
But then I remembered that bizarre pit from earlier, and the words stopped in my throat.
Indeed.
This game itself was far from normal if I wanted to rely on conventional logic.
It wasn't even consistent.
“Hey, Oehorn. When I say ‘an enormous pit underground filled with all kinds of unknown things mixed together,’ does anything come to mind?”
“Nothing comes to mind, but I know a similar story. Do you know about Gu?”
Of course I knew.
I understood it as a type of curse or poison created by putting poisonous insects into a large jar, making them eat one another, and then using the single insect that survived until the end.
Hmm.
I hadn't gotten that feeling while actually looking at it, but I did wonder if it was somehow related to a curse.
It had tried to grab me when I was escaping.
It had also sent out corrupted text.
If that had been nothing more than a game effect, then the developers had done it frighteningly well.
Still, I thought making me actually feel pain was going too far.
“It didn't feel like they were killing each other. Isn't this forest more like that?”
“That isn't wrong. However, the difference is that a great curse called the Witch's Artifact is already sleeping here.”
“Who knows! Maybe something special will happen if we kill everything inside this fog?”
“We can try it later.”
We continued talking like this while leisurely floating above the fog.
This should have been a moment when I could recall the fantasy I had once held about a situation like this and admire it.
If only the fog had completely cleared and the scenery of the forest had become clearly visible, perhaps I could have genuinely admired it.
But although the shock from earlier had disappeared from my body, it still remained in my mind.
And it continued tormenting me.
“…Hey.”
“Hmm?”
“…I don't want to admit it, but over there… that's the enormous tree you mentioned.”
“…Why is it there?”
A part of an enormous tree, its branches extending beyond the fog, came into view.
Even though it was quite far away, it looked this large.
That meant the actual tree had to be so enormous that it would leave me speechless.
Personally, I had hoped for something a little cooler and more unique.
This was somewhat disappointing.
Of course, if they focused too much on uniqueness and reduced its mass appeal, the game's value as a commercial product would fall.
So it wasn't necessarily a bad choice.
Thinking about it that way, Pai probably wasn't an NPC who would appear in the main story, or she would have only a small role.
She was beautiful in my eyes, but she was quite different from the beautiful NPCs normally created in my country.
Still, I was such a timid person that I found it difficult enough to look someone in the face while talking to them.
Whether Pai was beautiful or not didn't matter much to me.
I had thought it would be okay because this was a game.
But in this incredibly realistic game, my instincts kept making me look away.
There was nothing I could do about it.
“What are you planning to do? Are you going to charge in?”
“We don't have time. Flying fish.”
I called out to the flying fish without saying anything else.
Perhaps it understood what I was thinking.
Its countless eyes curved as though they were smiling.
Then, with a happy sound, it soared even higher into the sky.
…What happens to the kids inside its mouth when it makes that sound?
“What are you trying to do?!”
“What else? We're going straight down from above! Whatever gimmick is inside, we don't have time! Charge! Charge again!”
“That is certainly the kind of idea one would expect from a human chosen by madness.”
“You won't catch me, so if you think you're going to fall and die, leave your last words now!”
