Chapter 177: Savior in Green (2)

Hiiro nodded toward the enormous closed bud. "That’s the Oneiris?"

The woman did not answer immediately. She seized his arm and pulled it over her shoulders. Only then did Hiiro realize how tall she was.

Standing upright, the top of his head barely reached her temple. Her build made the difference seem even greater: broad shoulders beneath patched leather armor, powerful arms lined with old scars, and the kind of dense muscle that came from years of hauling things heavier than common sense recommended. She barely shifted when most of Hiiro’s weight dropped against her.

He took one unsteady step, then his knee buckled.

The woman cursed in a language he couldn’t understand, bent, and caught him around the waist. Before he understood her intention, she hauled him this time over one shoulder.

"Wait, what are you–"

The world rotated. One second he was standing, the next, his abdomen folded over her shoulder and he was staring upside down at the glowing cavern floor.

"Whoa! Put me down!"

"No."

"I have legs!"

"They don’t work."

"They’re just loading."

Her pace didn’t slow. "I don’t know meaning."

"It means put me down and let me try again."

"Means nothing then."

Then, she started running.

Hiiro bounced against her shoulder, his stomach taking the full punishment of every stride. The woman did not move with a trained fighter’s grace, but she covered ground with the powerful, sure-footed pace of someone accustomed to carrying injured companions over difficult terrain.

His dignity perished around the fourth step, then it died quietly. "Could you carry me like a person?"

"You are carried. Stop wriggling."

"This is how people transport stolen livestock."

"Livestock complains less."

"Livestock doesn’t have abdominal organs arranged this delicately."

She vaulted over a thick root as thick as his thigh. Her shoulder struck his stomach, driving the rest of the sentence out in a strangled grunt.

Hiiro went limp for a moment, cheek nearly brushing the back of her armor.

Then, something cracked behind them. The sound rolled through the cavern with enough force that made both of them froze.

Hiiro twisted enough to look behind them. One of the enormous flower’s petals unfolded. Blue light poured through the opening, washing across the ground. Every smaller blossom dimmed as though surrendering its glow to the thing inside.

Another petal peeled away, and the sound resembled thick leaves being torn apart beneath water.

The woman set him down hard enough that his weakened knees almost buckled again. She caught the front of his coat before he could fall, shoved him toward the narrow passage leading out of the cavern, and drew the curved sword from her back.

"Run."

Hiiro regained his balance and looked at her. "What about you?"

"Kill or slow."

"Those are extremely different plans."

Her head snapped toward him, her orange eyes flashed. "Pick which sounds less dumb and move."

"I was thinking we could workshop–"

"GO!" She growled.

The flower fully opened. Its petals spread with slow, delicate grace, revealing a pale body purled within their center. For a moment, Hiiro mistook it for a sleeping woman.

Then, its wings unfolded.

Four transparent structures rose from its back, long and narrow, patterned with shifting blue and violet light. The creature straightened upon legs too thin for its height. White hair drifted around translucent shoulders despite the absence of wind. Its skin was pale enough that Hiiro could see faint channels of blue light beneath it, pulsing from the center of its chest toward its throat and its limbs.

It unfolded onto two long and narrow legs.

The creature lifted its head. Its face was lovely in an uncomfortable manner of a doll made by someone who understood symmetry better than life. Four luminous eyes opened, its mouth followed. Rows of tiny needle-like teeth filled the dark space behind its lips.

「 〔WARNING〕

Elite-Class Monster Detected.

An Abnormal Variation has been identified.

Aberrant Oneiris has entered the battlefield.

Standard combat data may be unreliable. 」

For a moment, Hiiro forgot about the woman beside him.

"Aberrant?"

Surviving Exodus had not satisfied whatever cosmic quota existed for abnormal monsters.

Hiiro let out a breath somewhere between a laugh and a groan. "Oh, shit. We’re in deep trouble."

The goblin-like woman lifted her curved sword, both hands closed around the worn grip, and she lowered her weight over bent knees.

The Oneiris turned all four eyes toward Hiiro, then its smile widened.

A voice entered his mind without touching his ears. "Souta."

Everything inside him stopped. His stomach tightened hard enough to hurt. Cold traveled down his spine despite the humid cavern air, and for one disorienting second, Hiiro couldn’t hear anything except the echo of a name that no creature in this world should have known.

The woman noticed immediately. She struck the flat of her blade against his arm. "Don’t answer."

Hiiro flinched back to himself and looked at her. "I wasn’t going to."

"Come home, Souta." Ayame’s voice shaped every syllable, warm and gentle.

The cavern disappeared and for half a second, Hiiro stood in Masato’s hallway again. Ayame waited before him without bruises. Akihito leaned over the upstairs railing, grinning as their mother complained that dinner was getting cold. His father sat at the table sober.

There were no cameras outside, no broken glass on the floor, and no blood dried into the lines of Souta’s hands.

A home that had never existed waited for him.

Akihito smiled. "You did well."

The words found the oldest weakness in him.

For years, Souta had hurt himself trying to hear them. From his parents, his siblings, his coaches, anyone whose approval might purchase one peaceful evening.

This dream offered them too easily.

Hiiro’s sorrow sharpened into disgust. "Oh, fuck this shit."

Akihito’s smile twitched. Behind him, everyone went perfectly still.

Hiiro noticed it, so he grinned but there was nothing cheerful in it. "My family was never this peaceful. So if you’re going to weaponize my trauma, at least respect the source material!"

The illusion cracked, and the Oneiris screamed.

Its cry swept across the cavern with enough force to bend every flower. Hiiro clapped both hands over his ears, but the sound vibrated through his teeth and bones.

He staggered backward, but the goblin-like woman did not. Instead, she charged. She crossed the distance in a brutal rush and swung for the creature’s ribs. The Oneiris twisted, faster than its fragile appearance suggested, and struck the blade with one wing.

One translucent wing snapped sideways, and metal struck membrane. The impact lifted the woman from her feet and hurled her through a cluster of flowers. She struck the ground shoulder-first, rolled twice, and used her sword to stop herself.

Then, vines erupted around him.

Noticing this, Hiiro immediately shifted his stance and jumped aside. A thorned tendril snapped closed where his ankle had been, while another wound around the woman’s wrist. She reversed her sword and severed it before it could pull her down.

Another tore through the soil, and Hiiro pivoted away.

The glowing field around him burst into motion. Vines surfaced everywhere, thin ones and thick ones. Some were covered in hooked thorns, others smooth and muscular, contracting like constricting snakes.

One curled around his wrist. Hiiro twisted before it tightened and yanked his arm free.

A second swept low. He jumped, and his balance nearly failed when the lingering dream venom made his vision tilt.

His landing turned ugly. One foot struck first, his balance collapsed sideways, and he barely managed to convert the stumble into a short roll rather than allowing his face to experience the cavern floor personally.

"This is terrible level design."

The Oneiris spread all four wings, blue light intensified beneath its translucent skin. The flowers surrounding it pulsed in response.

The woman swore in goblin-language.

Hiiro turned her way. "What now?"

"Dream dust."

In the next instant, she dashed toward him. She grabbed his sleeve and pulled him behind a jagged stone outcrop just as the creature beat its wings.

A cloud exploded outward, and blue-white particles filled the cavern, and they glittered beautifully.

The woman pulled part of her tunic over her mouth. "No breathe."

Hiiro did the same with his sleeve, and held his breath.

The cloud passed around the rocks. Still his vision distorted. He knew for sure that it wasn’t poison since his Poison Resistance barely reacted. Instead, images flashed at the corners of his sight. A school hallway, Ayame’s kitchen, Akihito’s smile, his college apartment.

Hiiro clenched his jaw, and shook his head hard, then he peeked toward the Oneiris.

The creature floated above the flowers now, its wings moved silently, releasing another slow curtain of dream dust while vines writhed beneath it. The enormous blossom behind the monster continued pulsing in rhythm with the light running under its skin.

His thoughts immediately began reorganizing the battlefield into mechanics.

Then something cut through the air.

Swish!

Hiiro’s head snapped upward, and he caught an arrow streaked past the edge of the stone.

It was not an ordinary arrow. Fire wrapped around its shaft from tip to fletching, burning bright without consuming the wood. It crossed the cavern in a single glowing line and buried itself deep in a dense cluster of dream flowers.

For a moment, nothing happened.

Then, the field caught fire. Flames raced through the connected blossoms with unnatural speed.

The Oneiris shrieked, its hovering body lurched, and several vines collapsed immediately.

As for the woman beside him? She snapped her head toward the narrow passage, orange eyes widening. Recognition filled them, then irritation.

"KYLO!"

Hiiro followed her gaze, A figure stood upon a stone ledge, his bow raised, and another burning arrow rested against the string.

Kylo Stormcrow looked down at the burning cavern, then at the Oneiris, and finally at the two idiots crouched behind a rock in the middle of it.

"Tch." He drew the string farther back. "Mezeg, you done playing with the flowers, or do I have to kill the damn thing for you too?"