The darkness great spirit, Miss Sheryl.
There are three great spirits, and it would get a little complicated, so she told us her name, and that’s what we’ll call her from now on.
Sheryl takes us inside her temple, but contrary to what the word would imply, the interior is beautiful, with white pillars and walls.
The lit candles create a nice mood, and it kind of makes me think of the last dungeon of a videogame.
“Ooh…”
There are bronze statues here and there that seem to have been modeled after gargoyles, and fantastical looking emblems. And along the way there’s a staircase that splits in two directions. It really tickles the chunnibyou inside a guy.
And is that a treasure chest?
I start to wonder why there’s a treasure chest plopped inside a temple, but I don’t question it.
I’m sure it’s what they call beauty of form.
This all makes me excited on the inside, and then Miss Sheryl turns around and looks exasperated.
“You keep looking around my home… Are things here really that strange?”
“Yes. They’re not things I’d usually see where I come from.”
In Japan at least, there are ceremonial halls modeled after temples, but I’ve never seen one so deep like a dungeon.
When I was there, there were light novels that talked about VR games expanding, but in reality, it was not possible to experience actually going inside a game.
“I don’t think there’s a guy that wouldn’t feel excited in here.”
“Those words… Are just the worst. How about you die?”
“Why!?”
“No Arata… Katima thinks that’s awful too.”
“But why!?”
It’s exciting! Wouldn’t it be super exciting if there was some cool background music playing here!?
The cold eyes from Miss Sheryl and Katima are scary… Save me, Reina…
“Katima’ll say one thing, Arata.”
“…Yes.”
“If Reina was here, she’d be looking at you with even colder eyes.”
“Really…”
I don’t understand anything anymore. But I guess I said something rude.
As I think that I need to be more careful from now on, I also feel like I need to do something about this uncomfortable mood, so I change the subject.
“By the way, why are the fire great spirit and earth great spirit here? They have their own places, right?”
“Yes… It’s a very, very worthless reason.”
Her sigh tells me she doesn’t want to get into that, and she just keeps walking forward.
Katima and I look at each other, and both tilt our heads.
We’re taken to a circular area, that reminds me of an old colosseum. It’s surrounded by seats for an audience, and a black globe hovers in the middle.
The amount of magic energy in it is so immense, that even I find it a little scary.
According to Reina, this island has a lot of strong monsters, but I’ve never really felt scared.
I’m positive that this body will get me through pretty much everything, but… There have been rare occasions, like when I stood in front of people like Suzaku and Wil, where I felt a tingle in my spine.
Miss Sheryl also fits that category, and now I’m feeling it from this sphere she probably created.
And I think the overall air of a queen that surrounds her is scary too.
“What is…?”
“A colosseum to pass the time. I usually catch monsters and have them fight to the death, but…”
I’m surprised to hear that out of nowhere, and whisper in Katima’s ear.
“Hey Katima, what she said makes her pretty scary.”
“Arata, what do you think would happen if Katima said that’s scary? Katima would die.”
“S-sorry.”
I apologize reflexively to Katima, who is looking up at me without light in her eyes.
“I can hear you.”
““…!?””
We look at Miss Sheryl while straightening our backs.
It feels like there’s this presence to her as one of the strongest here, but more importantly, there’s this air around her that tells me we shouldn’t defy her any more.
“Of course, I couldn’t have those fools fight here, so I tossed them into a prison of darkness.”
“Those fools?”
“The fire and earth great spirits.”
When I hear that, I feel like I understand. It’s like a sensor inside me is reacting.
“That confirms that they’re safe, so we should probably get going soon.”
“Arata… Even if there’s something unpleasant, you need the courage to face it.”
“It’s all right, I’ll stay in the alfar village for a while and chase away the monsters.”
I feel like we shouldn’t stay here.
I mean, Miss Sheryl is looking at me with the sharp eyes of a predator.
“You said your name is Arata, correct?”
“Well then Miss Sheryl, it was a pleasure.”
“It seems you are not normal. Convince those two fools in there.”
Suddenly I lose my footing, and when I look down, I see I’m above the colosseum, and I’m going to go inside the sphere if I keep falling like this.
But I can actually fly. I learned it from Wil’s floating magic.
“All right…”
“Fall.”
“Eh?”
At that moment, I feel an impact like there’s something tremendously heavy on my shoulders, and accelerate towards the ground.
This is probably gravity magic.
I’m basing that on knowledge I got from videogames, and as I think about how Miss Sheryl really is scary, I’m sucked into the sphere.
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