The tattooed woman landed solidly on the ground, still holding her younger sister in her arms, enveloped in the pitch-black darkness.
Behind them, the multicolored anglerfish landed with a heavy thud.
In the nearly impenetrable darkness, the woman pulled out a glass vial and began shaking it. The two sticky liquids inside slowly mixed, emitting a soft glow.
The gentle light illuminated her sister’s face, revealing that she had her eyes tightly shut and was clinging to her older sister.
Finding her sister’s reaction sowhat adorable, the woman tapped her gently on the nose.
The younger sister peeked through half-closed eyes, scanning her surroundings, and, realizing that everything seed safe, opened her eyes wide and let out a long sigh.
"That was so scary! Sis, those things were definitely trying to bite us, weren’t they?"
The woman nodded, her expression slightly gloomy.
"Yeah, they were. I thought the entrance would be safe, but that was my mistake. I should’ve considered the possibility that the alchemist might be dead."
The younger sister shook her head lightly in disagreent.
"It’s fine. I was startled, but I didn’t get hurt, right?"
Despite her brave words, she was still sweating heavily from the shock. Her heart was racing, small but fast, even though so ti had already passed.
The woman gently patted her sister on the back, comforting her until she felt calr.
Once her sister’s heartbeat steadied and her color returned, the woman lifted her onto her feet.
"Alright, let’s go find the alchemist’s workshop."
She raised the softly glowing potion bottle high and led the way forward.
After walking for what seed like an eternity through the dark cave, a strange city finally revealed itself before them.
While her younger sister marveled at the sight, the tattooed woman frowned and inspected the city carefully.
"It looks like a replica of the royal capital, but there are so differences. Is it from a different era than I rember? Or perhaps a completely different city?"
The architecture resembled that of her holand, yet there were small differences that led her to various hypotheses.
They descended into the eerily quiet, deserted city, hand in hand, as a precaution against any potential danger. But despite the stillness, nothing seed threatening.
The younger sister, now fully relaxed and excited, seed to be treating the experience like a sightseeing tour.
It didn’t feel right. There was no way the place could be this peaceful—it was too quiet, which only made the woman more uneasy.
"Sis, look at this!"
Her sister pointed toward a large cauldron.
It was a massive cauldron, clearly used for alchemy.
As the woman smiled at her sister’s excitent, sothing strange caught her eye.
There, on the ground, was a heap of white debris.
The reason this place had felt so safe was now clear.
The woman slowly approached the debris and inspected it.
It was a guardian, similar to the one that had been at the entrance, but this one had been gnawed on and rendered non-functional.
Although the guardian’s face was sowhat mangled, it was still intact enough to clearly display its human-like ears and teeth.
"Gross... Why do they look like this? Was the creator into weird stuff?"
Her younger sister, who had now joined her, frowned as she examined the wreckage.
"The muscles and ears could be a matter of taste, but the teeth? No way. Guardians don’t usually have human teeth, except in one specific case."
As the woman spoke, she pulled out the core she had used to create the multicolored anglerfish.
"That happens when a guardian swallows the core used to create it."
Her sister, hearing this, quickly covered the anglerfish’s mouth and said, "Don’t you dare eat it!"
Seeing her sister’s determination not to let their anglerfish grow grotesque teeth, the woman chuckled softly.
"Once a guardian consus the core, you can’t control it anymore. No sane alchemist would do that."
"Oh, so that’s why you said the alchemist might be dead," her sister clapped her hands softly in realization.
"Still, it looks like soone’s already been here. Whoever took down the guardian must be pretty capable."
There was a faint, lingering scent of human blood, barely detectable.
And with the destroyed guardian, the only group that could have entered before the woman would have to be from the governnt of this country.
It was impressive that they’d reached this level of expertise only thirty years after the discovery of magic.
"Co on, let’s hurry."
The woman took her sister’s hand again, and they began to proceed deeper into the alchemist’s dungeon.
We proudly marched through the streets after tearing apart the grotesque anglerfish statue.
Plod, plod.
The golden reapers and black reapers held hands, joyfully leading the way.
The mini reapers were all wearing white, mochi-like hats that looked soft and well-suited to them.
These hats were, in fact, tiny versions of the white anglerfish.
Shrunken down to miniature size, the anglerfish had been transford into hats atop the heads of the mini reapers.
Had the anglerfish risen in rank, from ergency rations and mounts to fashionable headgear? Though sotis the mini reapers still nibbled at the hats, so perhaps not much had changed.
Still, the anglerfish hats seed a bit happier than before, except for the one atop the red reaper.
That unfortunate anglerfish was constantly on fire, burning slowly and continuously thanks to the red reaper’s casual breath of flas.
Following the orange reapers who flew ahead to guide us, we crossed the city.
After passing through the lavish, golden buildings and those plucked straight from my mories, we were greeted by a strange structure.
A cliff that seed to drop off into infinity.
Above it were countless rails crisscrossing like those you’d find in an amusent park.
Near the edge of the cliff was what looked like a cable car station.
The station was filled with a variety of vehicles attached to intricate machinery.
The mini reapers, fascinated by the complex machines, sward around, poking and prodding at everything.
They jumped onto the levers, pulled them down, and repeatedly punched the buttons with their little fists.
Before long, a few of the vehicles, packed with mini reapers, shot out at rocket speed.
"Whoa."
I’d never seen the mini reapers act like this before.
There were plenty of machines in the lab, but they had never been interested in touching those. Why now?
Could it be that they didn’t want to break anything because they thought the humans would get mad?
Co to think of it, I’d never seen the mini reapers destroy anything in the lab, even though they must have seen break doors and walls on several occasions.
Even the black reaper, who couldn’t phase through solid objects, would turn into liquid and slip through cracks rather than breaking anything.
Poke, poke.
I felt sothing poke my cheek and turned to see a golden reaper beckoning to .
"You want to drive?"
The golden reaper, sensing my thoughts, tilted its head but kept motioning for to follow.
The reaper led to a row of vehicles lined up in a neat row.
Each vehicle had mini reapers of various kinds already seated inside.
The golden reapers had taken over one vehicle, hanging from all sorts of levers and buttons.
In the blue reapers’ vehicle, a large golem was at the wheel.
The black reapers’ vehicle had a similarly large black reaper at the wheel.
And in the final vehicle, the driver’s seat was empty, with the red and orange reapers waving at from the backseat.
Is this... a race?
I had a sinking feeling that I was going to lose spectacularly, but the cheerful faces of the red and orange reapers made it impossible for to back out.
The tattooed woman and her younger sister finally reached the cliff and the nurous rails stretching out above it.
"Rail capsules," the woman said, looking at the vehicles with a steady gaze.
"Wow."
The younger sister gazed at the capsules in awe.
The brass-adorned rail capsules had a vintage, artistic quality to them.
"Sis, it’s a dead-end. Do we really have to ride these?"
"Looks like it."
Her sister’s expression turned to one of dread as she examined the capsules, which seed precariously perched on the edge of the cliff, as if the slightest touch could send them tumbling into the abyss.
"These things look like they’re going to fall off. Are you sure they’re safe?"
"They’re designed to fall easily, but don’t worry, they’re safe."
The woman climbed into the capsule that looked to be in the best condition and examined their surroundings.
Though there were no footprints on the solid stone cliff, the faint traces left on the rail capsules indicated that soone had recently used them.
"Alright, hold on tight. We’re about to go."
The younger sister gulped and gripped the handles as tightly as she could.
When the woman pulled the lever, the capsule shot forward like a rocket.
Her sister, who had been holding back a scream, now clenched her teeth and kept her mouth shut, trying not to make a sound, as the woman had warned her it could be dangerous.
Then, the capsule jumped off the rail.
"Kyaaa!"
Unable to hold it in any longer, the younger sister scread as the capsule seed to plunge toward the bottom of the cliff.
But the capsule landed safely on another rail and continued its high-speed journey.
A vehicle that could jump between rails!
Her younger sister turned pale, looking as if she might faint at any mont.
"Ugh, I think I’m going to throw up. Sis..."
Thankfully, the ride ended just as the younger sister was about to pass out.
While the younger sister’s face was ghostly pale, the woman’s face was slightly flushed, as if she had enjoyed it.
"You’ll get used to it after a few more rides."
The woman patted her sister on the back as she gasped for breath, still dizzy.
"Absolutely not."
"You know you’ll have to ride it again on the way back, right?"
Her sister’s face, which had been slowly regaining its color, turned pale once again.
As her sister struggled to stay upright, the tattooed woman began inspecting their surroundings, casting light into the thick darkness that seed to swallow everything.
Through the impenetrable shadows, she could make out the outlines of large, endless bookshelves.
And behind them, she glimpsed sothing long and white—sothing resembling a stalk of sprouts lined with tightly packed human teeth.
Grumble.
The vibration of heavy machinery caused the dust in the room to stir, clouding the air slightly.
Dust covered the bed, the girl lying on it, and even the girl sitting silently beside the bed.
For the first ti in ages, sothing began to move in the still room, breaking the eerie silence.
With a creaking sound, as though long-stiffened liquid was finally being set in motion, the girl sitting beside the bed began to move.
She hopped down from the chair, her small figure barely reaching a ter in height.
The white silhouette of the girl resembled the "gray reaper" in many ways.
The white girl picked up a small, white orb and placed it in the hand of the blue-haired girl lying motionless on the bed.
The blue-haired girl’s hand was cold, yet still soft, as if she were alive.
Tock. Tock.
Tears, one by one, began to fall from the white girl’s face, staining the dust-covered blanket below.
Yet, not a single sound escaped her lips.
Then, the white girl silently left the room, walking slowly toward the door.
On her head were the limp antennae of an anglerfish.
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