from Fremy’s cannonade. He climbed to a high point to scan the area with the power Mora had given him, but he didn’t find anything. Despairing, Adlet continued to run. He ascended and descended the rock hills, going up and down and up and down again. During his search, he encountered Fremy and Rolonia, who were still bombarding the ground.

“Addy! How are things going with you?” Rolonia called to him.

“Mora gave me the power to search for hieroforms! You can leave that part to me!” Adlet shouted back.

“You’re in the way, Adlet!” Fremy was about to throw a bomb near his feet. Flustered, Adlet scooted away.

He proceeded through the parts of the region that Fremy had already demolished. Now that the lines of rock hills had crumbled, the field of view was much more open. With each step, shattered rock crumbled under his feet, making the footing especially difficult to run on.

They had rearranged the terrain so dramatically, anyone attempting to hole up underground would not stand a chance. Even if Nashetania had been able to withstand the explosion, it was highly unlikely that she could stay hidden. And even if she was lucky enough to stay hidden, there should still be some kind of sign of her presence. Nashetania wouldn’t have been able to dig dozens of meters deep to take cover, either. She’d hit magma or the underground water vein.

Adlet kept his pace, and then finally, he found his goal. When he concentrated on his eyes, within the drifting steam and smoke, he could pick out a faint haze of light. This light was far less distinct than what he’d seen in Chamo’s stomach. Someone had used a hieroform here in the past.

He approached the shining vapor. This was where they had found the fiends that had died by lightning strike. Tgurneu had told them that Goldof, Nashetania, and Dozzu had disappeared on this spot.

Adlet looked around, but he couldn’t find a place where the light shone any brighter. There was no hieroform currently in use nearby, nor were there any other signs of a previous activation. Adlet dug up the ground and closely inspected the whole area, but he didn’t find Nashetania or any clues. But he knew one thing for sure now. Either Goldof or Nashetania had some kind of hieroform, and they had set it off.

He left the area to search further for Nashetania. There was no way they’d fail to find her. He was certain. If Nashetania had set up a hiding spot where she would never be discovered, she would have gone there immediately after activating the blade gem. But she had fought them briefly and then disappeared. In other words, in the middle of their fight, she had given up on running, which had forced her to conceal herself. So Adlet figured there must be a way to find her.

But he’d already searched more than two-thirds of the gem’s area of effect, and Fremy and Rolonia had already blown two-thirds of the circle to pieces. Whether Nashetania was lurking underground or using the power of a hieroform to hide, they had to uncover her soon.

Maybe she was moving around to different hiding spots, then? No, that was impossible. They would have found something like traces of a hieroform that had been used or an underground path.

Don’t panic, Adlet thought as he continued his search. The clock was ticking.

Meanwhile, Fremy and Rolonia were in Chamo’s pit. They were driving bombs into the trapezoid-shaped hill, blasting the ground little by little. Magma was pouring up from underground through a big hole they’d created. There was no sign of any fiends around—Rolonia, Fremy, and Hans had killed them all.

“Not here, either?” Fremy muttered as she looked up. They’d searched through every cavity dotting this area, but they didn’t find Nashetania, and neither did they find any signs that she’d dug a hole here.

Mora watched over her allies, in deep distress as she continued administering life support to the girl in her arms. Chamo already lacked the strength to pretend she was all right. Now even Mora didn’t know when the girl might die.

“Fremy,” said Hans, “any more searchin’ underground is a waste of time. Nashetania ain’t there.”

“…But there’s still places we haven’t searched,” Fremy said. “Maybe we overlooked her. Or she hid underground and then used some other kind of technique.”

Hans shook his head. “Forget it. If she was underground, then they’d be comin’ to stop ya diggin’. If nobody’s comin’ to attack us, that means yer guess is off,” he said.

Fremy ground her teeth in frustration.

“Don’t be feelin’ down. At the very least, now we neow fer sure she ain’t underground. That’s results.”

“But if she’s not underground, then where is she hiding? Addy hasn’t contacted us. So what should we do?” asked Rolonia.

“It’s Goldof,” said Mora. “He must hold a hieroform, after all. They’re using its power to hide.”

“Then Adlet should find them for us,” Fremy countered her.

“We got to rethink it all from square one,” said Hans. “Tgurneu must’ve been trickin’ y’all, after all. Forget everythin’ it said and take another look at the facts!”

“There’s no point,” said Fremy. “No matter what Tgurneu’s game is, Nashetania still has to be within one kilometer.”

“Then it has to be a fiend’s power that’s hiding her, after all,” said Rolonia. “It would make sense if there’s a species Fremy and Addy don’t know about, and it’s hiding her. There’s nothing else it could be…” The three of them shouted at one another as the debate simply went around in circles.

Chamo spurted blood again. Watching her, Hans asked, “Hey, Mora, ya really can’t meowve Chamo?”

“No,” replied Mora. “Moving her even a hundred meters would be too much for her to bear.”

“…Then I’ll help look for Nashetania. We ain’t gettin’ nowhere at this rate.”

“It looks like that’s our only option,” said Fremy.

Though they’d killed all the fiends in the area, more could still come later. If Hans was away at that moment, Mora alone might not be

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