“Uh…why, Cómmander?”
“The enemy.”
The eagle-fiend flew off immediately. Tgurneu dropped from its hammock, bit into the fig, and then picked up a club on the ground, squeezing it tight.
Nearby was the sound of a disturbance—like someone running.
They must have walked for about five hours after leaving the forest. The sun was already high in the sky. No fiends attacked the seven during their advance due westward. They had now covered two-fifths of the Howling Vilelands.
After crossing the plains, they were confronted with their next obstacle.
“Meooow! That’s huge! I’ve never seen nothin’ so big!” Hans cried out when he saw it, sounding delighted for some reason. Its massive size left Adlet speechless, and Mora, Rolonia, and Chamo’s eyes were wide with shock.
What lay in their path was a ravine.
It had to be nearly a hundred meters deep and at least a hundred and fifty wide, cutting straight north to south. Looking in either direction, they couldn’t even see the ends. The cliff was a vertical drop of smooth rock with no visible handholds. A boiling river lined the bottom, venting thick steam all the way up to where the seven stood and raising the ambient temperature by five degrees. Adlet had never seen such an enormous canyon in his life. Three days earlier, at the Bud of Eternity, Fremy had told him about this place, but it was far beyond what he had envisioned.
“I can’t believe it. Fiends carved out this whole thing?” said Rolonia, beside Adlet.
“The fiends have been preparing for their battle with the Braves of the Six Flowers for three hundred years,” said Fremy. “Digging a ravine like this is nothing to them.”
The colossal valley before them had not existed when the Saint of the Single Flower battled the Evil God, or when past generations of Braves had answered their calling. It was called Cargikk’s Canyon. The biggest moat in the world, it had been made by the fiend commander Cargikk. According to Fremy, the ravine divided the Howling Vilelands clean in two, and to reach the Weeping Hearth required a successful crossing.
But the sight of the great ravine transfixed all of them. Eventually, Mora glumly posed the question. “How will we cross it? Tgurneu will eventually notice our departure from the forest. The fiends will flood in, and we’ll be surrounded.”
“It won’t take us long to find a way. It’ll all work out,” Adlet said, pulling out a rope from the iron box on his back. He gave one end to Mora and climbed down the cliff face. But about seventy meters down, the rising steam became too suffocating, and he immediately scrambled back up to the top.
“It’s no use, Adlet,” Fremy said curtly. “Even with a Saint’s power, getting across this thing isn’t easy.”
“Isn’t there a bridge, Fremy?” he asked.
“There is,” she replied. “One at the northern end and another at the southern end. But I don’t think either one is an option. Cargikk’s minions are waiting for us there, and the bridges are set up to immediately self-destruct if we ever get close to crossing.”
“Hey, Fremy. Aren’t there any secret paths? Like some way to get across safely without the bridges?” asked Chamo.
“There’d be no need, would there?” Fremy retorted. “Since the fiends always use the bridges.”
“’S’pose you’re right…” Chamo crossed her arms and puzzled over the problem.
The rest of them tried to devise a way across the ravine, too, but no great plans were forthcoming.
“Rolonia’s whip…wouldn’t reach, I guess,” said Adlet.
Rolonia gave him a regretful nod. She had soaked the weapon with her own blood so she could manipulate it at will. But even with her powers, it wouldn’t work for a bridge. Her whip was only about thirty meters long. Even if they used Adlet’s rope to add to its length, it wouldn’t reach the other side.
“Do any of yer pets fly, Chamo?” asked Hans.
“If they did, we wouldn’t be worrying over this. Do you think Chamo is stupid, catboy?” she replied testily.
“If Athlay were here, she could have made us a bridge of ice,” Mora lamented, frustrated. The Saint of Ice had been well-known as a candidate for Brave but Fremy, the former Brave-killer, had assassinated her. Athlay had been dead.
“The reason I killed Athlay of Ice first was to prevent you from getting past this ravine. Tgurneu’s orders,” Fremy said bluntly.
After that the seven continued to discuss their options for a bit longer, but the only conclusion they reached was that the ravine was insurmountable. Digging a moat to prevent the enemy’s attack was such a simple and straightforward idea, but such banal stratagems really did tend to cause the most trouble. Standard tactics became standard precisely because they were effective. Cargikk could turn out to be an even tougher enemy than Tgurneu.
“Anyway, standing around talking won’t get us anywhere,” said Adlet. “We’ll split into three groups to look for a way across. Find us something we can work with, no matter how trivial. Hans and Mora, you go north. Me, Rolonia, and Goldof will go south. Chamo and Fremy, you stay here and guard our backs.”
“This is a more troublesome obstacle than I expected,” said Mora.
With a nonchalant expression, Adlet replied, “This Cargikk guy is shaping up to be a pretty tough opponent, too. If you guys didn’t bring the strongest man in the world along, you wouldn’t have a chance.”
“Oho, meow, it’s been a while since we heard your strongest man in the world spiel,” Hans said with a sarcastic smile.
“’Cause everyone knows it’s a fact by now, so I don’t need to go out of my way to say it.”
“You’re the only one who believes that stuff, Adlet,” Chamo retorted with some annoyance.
“I-I believe it. I believe Addy is the strongest man in the world,” said Rolonia, trying to be considerate and wondering if he would get angry.
“I believe so, too,” agreed Mora. “Adlet may indeed be the strongest in the world, in a way.”
“Not ‘in a way,’” protested Adlet. “I am the
