“What is this?” Fremy murmured. Upon closer inspection, the area around the fiends was scorched, too. They also found a few holes in the ground.
“…Nashetania was here,” muttered Adlet. When she summoned blades from the earth, her attacks made pits shaped like this. “She fought someone here. There was also a fiend that can use lightning attacks—though I couldn’t say if it was her friend or foe.”
“I wonder who she fought. Was this the work of Cargikk’s faction, too?” Fremy tilted her head. Now that she mentioned it, they still hadn’t solved the mystery behind the pile of bodies in that pit where Chamo was.
“If it fought with Nashetania, then does that mean it’s on our side?” wondered Adlet. “No, that can’t be. There’s no way we’d have any allies in the Howling Vilelands.”
“Let’s think about it later. Finding Nashetania is our top priority.”
The two of them left the bodies and continued their search. They had about two hours left.
When they emerged from the pit, they found Rolonia running across the rocky hills. She noticed them and came near.
“How are Chamo and the others?” asked Adlet.
“They’re safe,” Rolonia replied. “But…a bunch of fiends from the forest are lurking nearby. It doesn’t look like they’re going to attack. They seem to be keeping a close watch.”
That was weird. Why was Nashetania attacking in half measures like that?
“You didn’t fight?” asked Fremy.
“Hans said, ‘Don’t worry about us; just go look for Nashetania.’ He and Lady Mora were both…pretty anxious.” Rolonia looked despondent. “But I do have one piece of good news. It sounds like Lady Mora can extend the time Chamo can hold on by just a little bit.”
“How much?” asked Adlet.
“…About half an hour.”
It was good news, but Adlet couldn’t bring himself to feel glad. Chamo was still in danger. Besides, if Tgurneu brought its full forces to bear, that extra time would be meaningless. “Let’s hurry. That’s the only thing we can do right now,” he said.
Maybe there was something going on in another place, and maybe there were factors they couldn’t see, but they didn’t have the time to ruminate on it. They would find Nashetania and kill her. They couldn’t afford to focus on anything else.
Half an hour later, Adlet was crossing the lava zone by himself. He climbed a rock hill and scanned the area nearby, keeping his body low, and then he moved to another hill and searched again. He concentrated so as not to overlook a single shadow and listened intently for any sign of another being. Cautiously, slowly, he proceeded clockwise.
Fremy and Rolonia were not with him. Fremy was circling around counterclockwise, while Rolonia was searching closer to Chamo. They would surely be able to find Nashetania, no matter which way she had run.
Splitting up like this was dangerous, but considering the circumstances, they had no other choice. The plan was that if any of them found Nashetania or Goldof, they would immediately set off their signal flare to call the others. But Adlet had received no contact from the other two.
“!” Adlet heard a sound behind him and dashed toward it. But all he found at the bottom of the ditch were some steam and a tiny puddle of hot water. Realizing that the noise was only the discharge of a geyser, he clicked his tongue quietly.
Afterwards, he discovered two fiends. They were heading for the pit where Chamo lay. Adlet thought about killing them, but he changed his mind. Fighting the enemy was Hans and Mora’s job. He ignored them and continued the hunt for Nashetania.
“Adlet!” A voice called to him from just ahead, and there was Fremy.
He didn’t even have to ask, Did you find Nashetania? They’d already determined to call each other with a blast if they were successful. He approached Fremy and saw her expression was bitter. “You didn’t just miss her, did you?” he asked.
“Hardly. Were you really not able to find her?”
As they spoke, Rolonia came running up to them, too. Seeing their faces, she immediately caught on that they had failed. They couldn’t have overlooked Nashetania, not in this situation. They had searched every possible place she could have hidden.
It didn’t take long to figure out why they couldn’t find Goldof, though. This meant he had run outside the gem’s area of effect. But Nashetania had to be within the area they had searched.
“Why can’t we find her?” said Fremy. “It’s just a one-kilometer radius.”
“This makes me think she’s got to be hiding somewhere, but…was there anywhere she could’ve hidden?” Adlet asked, recalling the area’s topography. There was no such place.
“Maybe…Lady Mora’s analysis was wrong?” said Rolonia.
“Impossible,” said Fremy. “Mora is an incredibly talented Saint. I doubt she would ever misidentify the potency of a hieroform.”
“But…maybe there’s some way Nashetania could confuse her?” Rolonia suggested.
“If so, Mora would know it. Besides, Nashetania has only been a Saint for three years. I highly doubt she could use such a high-level technique.”
As the other two discussed, Adlet happened to catch sight of something strange. There was a fiend standing on top of a rock hill just a little ways away, waving an object in its right hand.
“…A white flag?” he murmured.
The fiend had a crow’s head and a yeti’s body. An old rag was wrapped around its waist, and it held a club. The bludgeon was wrapped with a piece of white cloth, and its owner was waving its impromptu white flag around as it slowly approached the trio.
“An enemy.” Fremy drew her gun and aimed at the yeti-fiend. The yeti-fiend flailed the white flag around, raising its hands to plead, Don’t shoot!
Rolonia cut in front of Fremy and said, “Please wait, Fremy. That’s a white flag.”
“What’s that?”
She doesn’t know what that is? Adlet thought, a little shocked. Fremy was ignorant about the strangest things from time to time. “It’s a sign on the battlefield that says you don’t want to fight. You
