Chapter 85: Fate Convergence - X

Watching Clementine grab Taylor’s shoulders and shake him, I found myself reassessing the surrounding waters.

Ever since I made contact with Clementine, <Fate> was at a slight loss.

Apparently, it wanted me in the Layers Beneath, but it wasn’t sure if it wanted me so close to its points of convergence. There was hesitation in the way it continued to weave the surrounding threads.

For example, the thing that was rising rapidly from the depths of this abyssal underground reservoir. It hadn’t been present in my initial scan of the area.

’Seems like <Fate> has been hiding this little guy for a future purpose.’

Now, it had to reveal a card a little earlier.

"Miss... Clemen...tine?"

Taylor’s voice was weak, still reeling from the abnormal properties of the surrounding waters. Unlike Clementine, who was an amphibious Snakespawn, and me, who had the <Power of the Sea>, Taylor had to suffer from interesting side effects.

It seemed to apply only to those who couldn’t breathe in water. Not a single trace of corrosion appeared from Clementine’s biological water breathing, nor had anything infiltrated my body from my magical water breathing.

Only Taylor, whose lungs had been filled with water and unable to process it, was now facing a seeping corrosion—his airways swelled and spasmed, while blood and fluid leaked out of his alveoli, creating a small pool of liquid where only air was supposed to be.

He was pale.

His lips had turned blue.

Blood was entering places it shouldn’t be in while also flowing out of his severed shoulder.

—Whoooommmmm...

Accompanied by the hum of boiling mana, a small glow appeared, visible even to normal human eyes.

It appeared directly below us, looking like a small star... at least at first.

—WHOOOOMMMM!

In this pitch-black darkness, the glow swiftly grew into an overbearing light.

Clementine completed her first aid—injecting a variety of venoms and anti-venoms that sent Taylor’s cells into a grand overdrive. Then, she placed Taylor’s severed arm back onto the torn stump and made full use of the momentary spike in his regenerative abilities.

Taylor, however, was not enjoying the process. He writhed and thrashed as the overbearing light grew fiercer and fiercer.

Still, he could not wrench himself from the grasp of a B-Rank Snakespawn.

Seeing that the most dire moment had passed, and a new one was swiftly approaching, I spoke.

"I think it’s time we leave."

Clementine gave Taylor one last glance over before nodding. When she looked down, her expression hardened

"Don’t tell me..." She paused, as if extending her senses downward. "An A-Rank Monster?" 𝘧𝓇ℯℴ𝓂

To this, I merely smiled.

A-Rank? Yeah. She could call one of its tentacles an A-Rank existence.

Let’s not send this Snakespawn into the depths of despair.

"Mhm."

"Let’s run then."

I just chuckled. "Of course. We’re heading straight up. Grab onto your friend."

Then, with a gesture, I commanded the surrounding waters.

—VWHOOOSH!

The sudden acceleration made my gut lurch. 6Gs of force acted upon my body as we surged up and away from the rapidly approaching entity.

Luckily, my Physique had gone beyond the average human limit.

As for Taylor and Clementine—the former’s cells were in overdrive, and the latter was a B-Ranker. Her Physique was already superhuman.

None of us blacked out.

—Splash!

Rocketing out of the water, Clementine grabbed my arm and made sure Taylor was secured to her back.

Light had returned to our vision, gleaming from the nearby bank.

A bunch of figures were patrolling the sliver of space between the abyssal, black reservoir and the pressure-welded stoneblock walls.

"Gnomes!"

Taylor shivered, dreading the existence of his kidnappers and realizing the familiarity of the location.

"Shush." Clementine clamped his mouth shut before he could yell any further.

Then.

[Burst Step].

With a single forceful motion, we shot towards the bank.

Moments before impact, Clementine threw us above her head, slowing our fall, while driving hers further into the group of gnomes undergoing a scolding.

"How the hell did you let a human of all things escape you! Huh? And you call yourselves Treasure Gnomes!? You lot should be executed—"

—BOOM!

Clementine turned the yelling Treasure Gnome into particulate matter, sending a spray of blood and flesh all around the area.

The gnomes in the midst of being scolded turned paler than they already were.

"Ru—Run—!"

One yelled.

But it was too late for them.

[Heart Seeker].

Clementine’s figure blurred as a faint poisonous fog trailed behind her.

The gnomes suddenly found small holes piercing straight through their chest and out the back. Their blood flow halted entirely.

And, in the next moment...

About a hundred thuds signalled the end of this group of failures.

Floating in the air, I commanded the winds to settle Taylor down on the blood-stained rocks.

"You good?" I asked my fellow human.

He looked up at me and opened his mouth to speak. However, nothing came out.

Clementine was slaughtering the gnomes all around us, annihilating their lives with a single stab of her rapier.

The gap was wide, after all. These gnomes were all in the range of D-Rank and C-Rank, and their main abilities comprised escape and deception.

Here, caught unaware, and completely within Clementine’s sharp senses...

There was only death.

"I..."

Taylor watched silently as the gnomes he had struggled against perished at Clementine’s blade. All of his earlier struggles suddenly felt...

Meaningless.

But that sentiment lasted only for a moment.

[Indomitable Human Spirit].

I watched as the <Trait> he’d awakened just a few minutes earlier displayed its influence.

"You what?" I asked; however, I already knew what was on his mind.

"...Ah, nothing. I just don’t know what to say."

The worries about his future.

The odd feeling of his emotions being restrained.

The invisible strength he could feel, developing deep in his heart.

And of course, the sheer immensity of his Will engulfing all of his doubts with a mystical layer of confidence.

’All I have to do is move forward forever.’

Suddenly, his dreams no longer seemed so daunting.

Taylor’s thoughts flickered, adapting to his newfound <Trait>.

’I must return the kindness that I have been shown a hundredfold. The memories of those who have passed on will live on through me.’

Reading his thoughts, I nodded inwardly. This was similar to Melia’s own conviction, and the words that rang powerfully in her mind after she awakened her own <Indomitable Human Spirit>.

But the thoughts did not interest me as much as the mechanism behind this mental-type <Trait>.

Thus, I looked deeper

[Absolute Awareness].

The freedom of proximity would certainly bring me great results, yes?

Here, from someone entangled so deeply by <Fate> and without the obstacle called distance, could I access the secrets of humanity’s inherent <Trait>?