About twenty meters away, Adlet, Fremy, and Rolonia were having a discussion. The fiend was certain they wouldn’t figure out its true nature. There was also no indication that Hans and Mora would come out of that pit, so no problems on that front, either. The only issue was Goldof. He was running the circumference of the area of effect in search of something. He might have deduced the fiend’s ability to cloak itself.
Two hundred years ago, Tgurneu had told the fiend that its ability was weak. It could vanish for just over ten seconds. It was intensely exhausting, and once it had used the skill, it would be unable to do so again for a while. What’s more, it couldn’t even vanish perfectly, and once its opponents found out how to overcome the hypnosis, it was useless.
At most, it would only serve catch the Braves of the Six Flowers by surprise. And Tgurneu had said that even if it startled them, it probably wouldn’t be able to defeat a warrior strong enough to be chosen as a Brave.
But Tgurneu had also said that this power had potential. Even simple concealment might lead to the death of all the Six Braves, depending on how it was used. The fiend joined the group known as the specialists, and the number given to it was twenty-six.
It could only make the stealth effects last for a few scant moments. No matter how much it evolved, it couldn’t change that. So then it had an idea. If the effect held for only a dozen-odd seconds, it should just trigger it multiple times in succession—just use it continuously tens, hundreds, thousands of times. But after triggering its illusion, there was a cooldown of a few minutes, and no matter how much it developed the talent, it couldn’t improve this, either.
So then it thought it should just make more of itself. It should split itself into thousands, tens of thousands of bodies. It remade its form and mutated itself to create a new organ inside itself: an ovary. By splitting its core, it acquired the ability to spawn eggs. The children it bore were about one centimeter long and one millimeter in diameter. They had no organs for eating, and neither could they drink water. Once the children were born, they would die in about a day.
Like their parent, the offspring could use the same drug and sound wave. The offspring would hypnotize nearby humans, hiding themselves and their parent by altering their perception. The fiend had dispersed about fifty thousand children across approximately three kilometers throughout the rocky plain. When one offspring’s hypnosis wore off, another would immediately pick up the slack. When the second round ended, another offspring would instantly trigger its ability, and it was by repeating that over and over that the fiend remained hidden. Fremy’s bombs had killed many of the offspring. The fiend itself had also been wounded by the blasts. But still, enough remained to maintain the illusion.
Goldof must have already realized that the fiend was using this stealth ability. But its hypnosis was far from weak. He would not be able to reveal his foe easily, even if he injured himself to do it. He’d never be able to break through the hallucination unless he focused on one spot and stared continuously at it. It wasn’t possible to find the fiend in a mobile search, like he was doing now.
Thirty minutes left. The fiend’s powers would hold until then.
“…Goldof. He has the key. I can’t think of anything else,” said Adlet.
Adlet, Fremy, and Rolonia, who had been conversing nearby, seemed to have come to a conclusion. Foolish. They were trying to go look for clues, totally unaware that their target was right beside them.
But right as Adlet and the others ran off, suddenly two explosions occurred in succession. Boiling water burst from the earth. All Fremy’s blasting had disturbed the magma and water vein underground. It was startling, but no serious cause for concern, or so the fiend thought.
Nashetania was biding her time inside her prison for an opportunity to communicate her position to Goldof, hoping for a hint as to her position. Pretending she was unconscious, she waited to hear something.
Her throat had already recovered somewhat, and speaking was entirely possible for her. But once she’d spoken, she would immediately be strangled again. She could only give Goldof a brief message.
“…Goldof. He has the key. I can’t think of anything else.”
She heard Adlet and the others talking. They were close by. She thought about telling Goldof that—but that wouldn’t be enough. Was there no information that would help him pin down her location?
That was when Nashetania heard the double explosions. For a moment she didn’t understand what they were. Then she realized the sound belonged to hot water spraying up from the ground. She made up her mind. If she was going to relay something to Goldof, this was it.
“Goldof. Just now, close by, two geysers went off,” she said quietly, and the moment the words left her mouth, the tentacle around her neck constricted, sending her mind careening into instant darkness.
Goldof was still on the prowl for the stealth-fiend when he heard a voice. After many hours, Nashetania had fed him information again.
“Goldof. Just now, close by, two geysers went off.” Her voice was so hoarse, he almost couldn’t believe it was her.
He immediately dashed off. Fortunately, there was no sign of Adlet’s trio within the gem’s area of effect. It seemed they were looking for something beyond the boundary. Goldof would probably be discovered within ten minutes. He had no choice but to find Nashetania and save her before his time was up.
He hurtled across the ground. He found one geyser, but not another spray of steam nearby. He ran farther and found another. Not this one, either.
