Even as we continued absorbing the poison and healing everyone, the sprinklers just kept going.
It seems they really want us dead. We managed to keep everyone safe by wrapping them in a wind barrier, but……
「Tch. Now they’re coming from the walls!」
Just as Miranleil said, small holes had opened on the wall, with purple mist beginning to spew out.
I made my wind barrier even thicker in response, but we couldn’t stay like this forever. While I was trying to brainstorm a way out, Miranleil shouted in frustration before I could do anything.
「All these disgusting tricks, damn you……!」
She sounded incredibly irritated. Her friend Gazzol got tortured, and now the culprit was targeting her with poison. After experiencing these two incidents back to back, Miranleil could no longer control her anger.
「Calm down.」
「How can I be calm with all this shit!?」
Fran called out to Miranleil. If she left the wind barrier, she would just fall victim to the poison.
But it seems that was not enough to quell her frustrations.
Miranleil was a dragonkin, although one that looked similar to a human. Still, it was a bit hard for me to read her facial expressions.
That’s why I misjudged the extent of her anger.
It turns out she was actually so pissed that was she incapable of proper thought. Well, I guess she was already the type of person who tended to avoid thinking before acting……
Miranleil grinned back at Fran as she took up her bow. Then, she shouted in a tone reminiscent of blind fury.
「We can just blow open that door and get outta here, yeah? I’ll take care of it!」
『No! That’s……!』
I felt an enormous amount of mana emanating from her arrow. It seems to be specially made.
「Roaring Dragon Arrow!」
As soon as she pulled back the string, the arrow became enveloped in a pale blue flame. I only needed one look at the arrow’s mana to tell how much power it contained.
This must be Miranleil’s strongest move.
And if she unleashes such a destructive energy in a small room like this……
『Fran! Barriers now!』
「!」
Miranleil shot her arrow before Fran could respond to my shout.
BOOOOOOOOOM!
Dogsinger? More like Dragon’s Roar. The sonic boom left a constant ringing in our ears.
I quickly morphed my wind barrier into a spearhead shape.
If I hadn’t done that, it probably would’ve gotten shattered by the shockwaves.
The arrow struck the door as soon as I made the change.
As the deafening collision shook the room, the pale blue flames covered our entire field of view.
『She went way too far!』
「Mnh!」
We had to put all our effort into maintaining our barriers to not to get blown away by the blast.
If Fran and I hadn’t protected everyone, we could have been seriously wiped out. It was that powerful.
She made Numerae’s self-destruction look like a cheap magic trick.
The glass fragments scattered around the floor already melted, with the walls and floor beginning to melt as well. It was as if someone had covered the room in lava magic.
I should pat myself on the back for immediately recognizing Miranleil’s arrow as a fire-attributed attack. We might have been screwed without my Flame Barrier.
「What the hell, Dogsinger……? You didn’t need to go that far.」
「Oh, uh? S-Sorry.」
After one glance at the mess around us, Miranleil realized her mistake. She apologized while scratching her head.
That behavior made me doubt how sorry she actually was, but Bryne and the others didn’t seem that angry.
Maybe they didn’t really understand the gravity of the situation since Fran and I prevented any casualties. Besides, it’s true that she managed to break through the door.
That’s kinda a problem. The door should’ve been protected by a ward, but there was now gaping hole in it. The hole was circular and large enough for a person to slip through.
Her arrow must have punched a hole in the ward before eating away the door itself.
Now we can escape. But then……
Clank…… Whir……
I heard a metallic sound as if some device had been activated. Followed by a dull heavy sound, as if something was moving slowly.
The sound came from above our heads.
After a few seconds, a cracking could be heard mixed in with the whirring sound. As we continued staring up at the ceiling, we saw the cracks beginning to form.
It’s clearly about to collapse. I thought this was Miranleil’s fault at first, but it makes more sense if it was designed that way. The metallic noises we heard earlier were probably the activation of some device to drop the ceiling on us.
『Fran, this is bad! It’s collapsing!』
「Guys! Come to me! Hurry!」
「S-Sure!」
「I’m not liking the sound of this!」
Fran put up a barrier and I used my land magic, attempting to create a hole in the ceiling before it collapsed on us.
But I didn’t manage it in time.
The ceiling had already started falling by the time I activated my spell. All I could do now was desperately divert the avalanche of earth away from Fran and the others.
In the end, we managed to avoid getting buried alive, but we could not prevent the collapse.
After everything was over, we looked up at a sky covered in light clouds.
The people on the surface must have seen the ground suddenly caved in to form a huge hole.
That’s when I remembered the poison gas, but I couldn’t see any smoke anymore. Miranleil’s arrow must have incinerated all the poison too.
『Well…… At least we managed to prove that the underground room was in Sanatorium territory……』
Before us was a tall tower, stretching far into the cloudy sky.
