Episode 404

Wouldn't I feel like this if I could use magic or witchcraft? It was a sense of omnipotence, the feeling that I could manipulate reality with just words.

It feels really good.Those mage bastards... Of course, I couldn't use magic. I had no aptitude, talent, or even interest for it, but I still understood the mechanism behind how magic manifested.

The words I had just uttered carried no real power, and not a single ripple of mana had stirred, so why did this fellow's tongue suddenly slam into the ground?

"Don't move... No. You can move, but don't lift your feet. Stand still. Are you listening? You aren't dead already, are you?"

The voice I heard again was unmistakably familiar. It was Seren.

Why is her voice coming from the communication crystal?

The communication crystals in the communication room were likely connected not only to the labor camp's headquarters but also to various other locations. Under normal circumstances, each crystal would have a nameplate identifying its destination to prevent confusion. Now, thanks to the chaos Tantata had caused, the room was in complete disarray, making it impossible to tell which crystal connected where.

In any case, I couldn't afford to open my mouth.

Tantata took his eyes away from me and glanced around.

Is it safe to speak as long as I don't lift my feet?

I wasn't sure, but if things continued like this, we would die anyway. Throwing caution to the wind, I shouted, "Shout Freeze!"

"H-huh?"

"Quickly!" I urged.

The people standing around in a daze started to shout it one after another.

"F-freeze?"

"Freeze...!"

Then, as though they had vanished from his sight entirely, Tantata lost interest in them and turned his gaze elsewhere. The guards who had tried to flee before hearing my warning were instantly impaled by his tongue. The sight was gruesome. The tongue resembled a skewer threading human bodies together.

Tantata shoved the human skewer into his mouth in a single bite. This time, the crunch of chewing echoed through the hall, suggesting he wasn't swallowing them whole immediately.

After slowly chewing and swallowing his meal, Tantata swept his gaze across the hallway. His eyes lingered on us as we stood frozen in place, then he finally turned and left.

Even after Tantata disappeared, we remained motionless for a while. I couldn't even bring myself to open my mouth.

I focused on Tantata's fading aura. Only when I became certain that he had completely left the first floor did I finally sigh in relief. "He is gone."

"R-really?"

"Yes. At least I can't feel his presence on the first floor," I replied.

"P-phew..." One of the guards' legs gave out, and he collapsed on the spot.

The moment I saw that, I quickly shouted, "Wait, don't raise your feet—"

I never finished my sentence because what happened next was absurd.

Craaack!

Ice started to form on the fallen man's skin. It seemed to rise directly from his skin. I couldn't fully explain what I was seeing, but that was exactly how it looked.

The ice spreading from his skin crystallized in an instant, enveloping the guard before he could make a sound. He was trapped inside the ice almost immediately. It was so transparent that I could clearly see his wide, terrified eyes. From a certain perspective, he resembled a mosquito trapped in amber.

Then the ice quickly cracked.

I instinctively reached out, but fractures spread before I could do anything. A sharp sound like shattering glass echoed as the ice broke apart, its fragments scattering through the air. The sight was dazzlingly beautiful. The only difference between it and a frozen sculpture was the human being sealed inside.

Crazy. The guard disappeared without a trace. Is this the penalty for breaking the rules? Being frozen solid, shattered into pieces, and erased without leaving anything behind?

If this was the outcome, then shouting "Freeze" had been a mistake on my part. It allowed me to avoid a direct clash with Tantata, but just standing still wouldn't solve anything. I hoped someone would escape, yet in this punishment building, there was no one I trusted more than myself.

I clicked my tongue and spoke toward the crystal. "You seem to know the rules in detail."

Seren let out a sigh of relief. "You're safe."

"So we just have to stay frozen like this until the game ends?"

"That isn't it. There is a way to release the frozen state," she said.

"What is it?" I pressed.

"A normal participant has to come up to you, touch you, and say, Tag."

So this is why it's called freeze tag. I finally understood the rules correctly.

The rules themselves were simple. The real question was whether any ordinary participant could make it this far. The route out of the punishment building led upward, not toward the first floor. At the moment, the chimney on the top floor seemed like the most likely escape route. In other words, anyone who still had their wits about them would never bother heading to the first floor, which was nothing more than a dead end.

I remained perfectly still while sharpening my senses to survey this floor. However, I felt no movement. The silence was unnerving enough to stir dark thoughts.

The worst-case scenario wasn't being abandoned here. It was the possibility that everyone else, aside from those who were frozen, had already been killed by Tantata.

Then what would happen to the frozen participants? Would Tantata stroll over with a smile and say, "T-the game is over now. You can go back! G-go carefully!"

Of course not. This was just my feeling, but I suspected our fate would end the same way as the guard who had frozen solid and shattered.

At that moment, a guard asked anxiously, "Should we continue like this? If there is a time limit and we die like that guy just now—"

"Quiet." I silenced the guard, then looked toward the door. "Someone is coming."

"C-could it be the demon king returning?"

"It doesn't seem like it," I replied.

This aura felt distinctively different. It was subtle and quiet, almost cautious.

The most reliable person in this tower surfaced in my mind: Verita. If she knew about my crisis, she would immediately come to me. Unfortunately, life rarely unfolded the way one expected. The person who appeared was rather unexpected.

So it's this guy... The man in prison clothing with a pale face was someone I recognized. It was the vampire Berwick, the notorious criminal known for drinking blood.

Berwick looked around in disbelief. "What...? I thought you were all dead, but more of you survived than I expected. What the hell happened here? What was that monster just now? How did you guys manage to survive?"

I told him, "That's enough. Come here."

Berwick looked confused.

"I said come here," I repeated. "Come to work."

Given the circumstances, the boundaries between Luzard and Luan were gradually fading. The situation was too urgent for anyone to care that my attitude had changed.

Berwick flinched before silently stepping closer to me. "What is it this time?"

"Touch me and say Tag," I said.

"What?"

"Hurry."

Berwick frowned and reached out, but stopped just before touching me. Then he looked around. "Why are you all standing here?"

This fellow was a notorious criminal in a big city like Airuga, with countless victims to his name. One trait defined him above all else: his cunningness.

Berwick pondered it before grinning. "Now I get it. You guys are under some kind of curse from that monster and can't move, right? The only way to break the curse is for me to touch you and say tag, right?"

He was slightly off, but his guess came close to the truth.

"Kukukuk. Don't you all look pathetic?"

Before I could say anything, Berwick seemed convinced by his own theory. The guards around me had probably given it away with their expressions.

The moment Berwick spoke, their faces turned pale, and I couldn't help sighing. These idiots can't control their expressions at all.

"Berwick, now is the time for us to work together. You don't seriously think you can handle that monster alone, do you?" I asked.

He shrugged casually. "I'm not planning to fight it. I'm just going to run away from here. Vampires have a little trick called Bat Transformation. The security system here has already been destroyed, so escaping shouldn't be too hard."

"The punishment building is sealed off from the outside world. Getting out won't be easy," I shot back.

Berwick stepped closer, studied me with a smirk, and openly mocked me. "That is for me to worry about, doesn't it? Don't you think so, lizardman? You are suddenly speaking a lot. Maybe you should have treated me better when you had the chance. We are both prisoners, after all. Funny how the arrogant model prisoner isn't looking so smug now."

Still grumbling, Berwick tapped my cheek with his fingers. "The damn guards are even worse. What is wrong with a vampire feeding on humans? Why drag me all the way here and force me into hard labor? What's so strange about a predator eating prey? How many pigs and chickens does the empire slaughter every day?

"In any case, this is how it is. I'm leaving now. Whether that monster kills you has nothing to do with me. Good luck."

I suddenly said, "There's just one thing."

"What now?"

"There's one thing you got wrong." I stared at Berwick. "The only thing that can't move is my feet. I can move the rest of my body."

Berwick tried to back away, but my hand shot out like a hook, and I seized his collar.

"W-wait a minute!"

Just wait, you bastard. I drove my fist into Berwick's chin.

***

A nun clad in black reached the punishment building's top floor alone and walked through the dark hallway.

Even Luan wouldn't have been able to see through this darkness without activating an eye technique, yet this nun's steps showed no hesitation at all. She could perceive her surroundings with her golden eyes that shone as if they absorbed the moonlight itself.

Her footsteps echoed through the area before she finally stopped in front of a huge hole.

Verita looked down at the huge hole left by Tantata's fall. The darkness within was unusually dense, so deep that she couldn't clearly see the bottom.

She stared into the depths for a moment before shifting her attention elsewhere: a confinement room. Five heinous criminals had been imprisoned on the top floor. One of them was Gustav, or the Green-Tongued Demon King Tantata. The other four were all the Dark Pope.

Verita entered the nearest confinement cell. Soon after, she stepped back into the hallway again. She entered the next room, emerged more quickly than before, and continued this pattern through all four remaining cells. Every time, she spent less time inside. By the final room, she just stepped in before immediately turning back out.

After checking every room, Verita smiled mockingly. "As expected."

Verita's gaze shifted downward again. Lowering her golden eyes, she stared directly into the abyss below. Then she disappeared into the dark hole.