Chapter 20: Let’s Step into the Dungeon of Instant Death, Part 5

「By the way, what exactly is this cloth? It’s so warm that it almost burns.」

Zana touches the cloak that is wrapped around them, sticking closer to Aur’s chest like a cat who’s nestling close to its owner’s to keep itself warm at night. This strange fabric made it so that the cold from outside didn’t bother her at all, warming the both of them up as if they were in front of a fireplace bellowing with flames.

「It’s a frost-resistant cloak made form the shed skin of the salamander that was given to Marina as an offering.」

「You are forbidden from speaking of other women when we are alone together.」

Zana said while grabbing Aur’s thing rather forcefully.

「You.. don’t tell me you’re being jealous of the deity you’re serving?」

「Look, I’m not telling you to get rid of your harem when it is already so firmly established. It’s just.. since you’ll be doing it with other girls anyway, then I want you to focus entirely on me when we are alone from now on.」

Zana kissed Aur’s chest while her fingertips gently played with the sack containing his manly essence.

「..Anyway. All you need to know is that it’s a cloak that is resistant to extremely low temperatures, so the cold shouldn’t bother us as long as we’re wrapped in it.」

「If you say so.」

With that explanation out of the way, Zana tried to straddle Aur’s fleshy pole while snuggling against him.

「Oi, Zana ..」

「What? Don’t tell me you cannot do it when you’re already this hard.. nnngh..!」

Teasing his now completely hard cock with her opening, Zana slowly lowered herself on it, squeezing it with her fleshy walls while moans of pleasure escaped her mouth.

「I don’t mind doing it right now, but the others are going to be here soon.」

As soon as he said that, the icy wall slowly began to crack.

「I’m not fond of such boner-killers either, but for now let’s just focus on getting out of here in one piece.」

Even though Zana understood that this was the most sensible thing to do, she was still a little angry when she saw Mari’s face popping through the ice on the other side.

「Geez, getting to you was a lot of work, you know? Right then, let’s fix that wall now.」

While they were all standing in the icy passage, Mari channels Rames’ magical power to stretch the wall with Aur’s pattern further and then she left the rest to Eldav. Thanks to that, they will be able to proceed further now that the rest of the group has reunited with Aur and Zana.

Zana was honestly surprised how well Mari was able to do it, although the speed of her ice creation was not comparable to hers by any means.

「Why are you able to do it? I thought only Aur and I were capable of that.」

「Well, maybe that’s because I’m always watching him.」

Mari responds as if it was the most natural thing in the world to do, but the truth is that such a technique is not something that could be imitated purely by watching. To start with, Mari essentially had to do three people’s amount of work all by herself at the same time, including her own work. It was the same as doing three separate tasks with three separate hands, meaning that it was something that no ordinary human should be able to pull off.

「Honestly, the only thing that sets you apart from Aur now is the preciseness and dexterity of your magic.」

「Ehehe, thank you very much, Zana, but I still have long ways to go. If you want to keep going, then be my guest, I don’t really mind.」

「It’s good to be modest but having too much modesty is almost as bad as not having it at all. Be more confident in yourself, Mari.」

Aur strokes Mari’s head, immediately lifting her mood. Seeing that peaceful scene, Zana cracks a smile.

「Now, Master. Shall I do it?」

「Yes, do it.」

Zana then shook her arm, and when she did, every snowflake that has been blowing through the area stopped in the air, as if the time itself has been frozen.

「Wow! Amazing!」

Such a feat was possible only with the combination of Zana’s casting speed and Aur’s accuracy. Mari was utterly amazed at the sight of a phenomenon that she saw for the first time in her life.

「Now let us kick things into high gear!」

With such a bold declaration Zana started creating her ice walls at a tremendous speed, sending them far ahead of her. But it was completely different from what she was creating when she was sulking earlier. She accepted Aur’s power and attuned herself to it, accordingly, creating the ice that was moving as if it had a will of its own.

As a result, the burden placed on Aur was decreased while Zana’s speed was even further increased. The ice created in this way moved forward while it assimilated itself with everything that surrounded it, bringing forth a new type of landscape, swallowing up everything that tried to stand in their way, be it a trap, an enemy or the weather itself.

A brand new world made of fields of fresh, uninhabited whiteness.

「Hey, those people who attacked you earlier were the citizens of your country, right? You sure it’s all right to just freeze them like that?」

「It’s going to be all right. This is a special ice imbued with the power of the Goddess. Everything that has been frozen by it won’t die but return to normal after the ice melts away. Besides, my people only pointed their blades at me because they were being manipulated by the enemy. There is no need for me to punish them for a crime they didn’t commit of their own accord.」

「A wise decision. It’s good to see that emotions are not clouding your judgement.」

Mari, who was walking beside Rames simply smirked and silently nodded her head.

「What is it, Mari-chan?」

He asks, noticing her smug gazes.

「Nothing. I’m just happy to see that you started breaking out of that shell of yours, that’s all.」

「Breaking out of.. Listen, I don’t know what kind of assumption you’ve made up in that head of yours, but I am not as impertinent not to give credit where it is due. Nothing more, nothing less.」

Rames’ reply was more serious than usual, totally unlike the usual him when Mari was teasing him for fun. She had no idea what it was, but Rames was evidently worried about something.

「Ra-chan..」

The cause of his worries became obvious on the morning of the next day, when they have finally left the Ice Dungeon behind and found the next obstacle on their way.

Uzermart’s Stone Dungeon.

「Instead of a Dungeon, this vile thing is far more suited to be a grave.」

Zana presents her opinion about the Dungeon made of huge chunks of desert stones.

「A grave?」

Mari raised her brow at that disturbing word.

「Yes, my child. This place is neither a royal castle nor partresidence. The royal bloodline of Sahara has gone extinct long..」

「Zana.」

Preventing Zana from speaking any further, Rames stares at her.

「What? It is a common knowledge for anyone unfortunate enough to be born in this desolate land.」

Zana rebukes his words harshly.

「Zana, Rames, we have to keep going. We don’t have time for such petty squabbles.」

Aur ordered the two who were at the verge of going at each other’s throats to stand down.

The passageways in the pyramid were too narrow for them to be going side by side. Whether they liked it or not, they will have to go one by one.

「Thankfully the overall structure didn’t change. This is still the entrance to the underground corridor.」

Rames whispered while he touched the stones that made up the wall.

「So you know where we are?」

「Yes. When you were escaping from being captive, you broke the ceiling of the room below us to run away from me.」

Oh, so basically Mari’s been here before. Regrettably she won’t be able to guide them through it, because even when she tried to memorize layout of the corridors, they changed when Rames was chasing after her.

「Good. I will guide you through here. Follow after me and proceed exactly as instructed. First, make a right at the third crossroads.」

Unlike Zana’s castle, which was fairly straightforward, Uzermart’s pyramid was a true labyrinth in every sense of the word. In terms of complexity of the intertwining passages, it might be designed even better than Aur’s own Dungeon.

「Be careful now. The guards should start appearing anytime now.」

Right when he finished speaking, one of the walls crumbled into pieces, revealing a human with a head of an eagle wrapped in dirty bandages who came at them with a hoarse roar. Zana tried to freeze him, but her power was of little use in the dry pyramid. He brandished his oversized curved sword and clashed with Hoseli, completely ignoring the myriad of shurikens she threw his way.

Even though she was a shinobi who prided herself with her mobility and evasive abilities, the battlefield itself made it impossible for her to put those skills to a proper use. She was not weak, but the sheer force of their weapons colliding with one another pushed her back a bit and made her knees tremble.

「Don’t let yourself be fooled by his appearance. The pyramid guards are the same as my Immortal Sand Soldiers. Each one is worth at least a dozen soldiers in combat.」

Rames explained that calmly, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world, like a fact that the sun rises in the east and sets in the west.

「Allow me to help!」

「Thank you, Mari-dono!」

Mari pulls out two of her swords to prevent a blow from the Sand Soldier, but it not only connected, but also broke through her guard.

「No way, it didn’t work?!」

Unsettled, she tried to regain her composure and get the second pair of her magic swords, but they didn’t answered to any of her commands, as if all the magic has been sucked out of it.

「Looks like the effectiveness of all the magic has been reduced due to the Sun God’s influence.」

With a loud band, the Sand Soldier who tried to swing his sword at Mari has been blown backwards by Rames’ flames. Even though he was struck with a fireball straight to the chest, his body bore no signs of burn marks.

「Why didn’t you say that sooner you moron?!」

Zana roars at Rames while she lets Hoseli lean on her shoulder. Rather than being completely unusable it looks like both the power and the output of their magic is being greatly reduced, but that doesn’t change the fact that the enemy in front of them cannot be stopped.

「If that is the case then all we have to do is to defeat it without using magic.」

Saying that, Aur opened his leather bag, out of which a single single-edged sword sprung forward. It passed over Eldav’s head, grazed Zana’s ear and Hoseli’s arm until it finally pierced the guard’s neck, nearly cutting it off in the process.

Then the sword returned to the bag as if nothing had happened apart from the three people who were too dumbfounded to be angry about what happened.

「Brother, your swordsmanship is as dirty as usual.」

Kicking the soldier to check if it was still moving or not Hoseli gave her evaluation that might have been both a praise and an insult.