By Zephyria =======
「What…」
As Silver asked back, he suddenly realized. Words lined up in his head. Distortion. Unkindness. Rules.
Then all of this was…
An indescribable sense of foreboding seeped through his entire body. In a daze, Silver happened to look up into the air and froze. He saw ‘it.’ High in the sky, at a distance so great it was barely visible. A skeleton monster, wearing a girl’s face like a mask, was looking down haughtily while riding a three-headed hound.
Silver couldn’t move a single finger. It was the first time since he had learned his own name that he had experienced being crushed by fear simply by the act of seeing something.
That monster, how long has it been here?
“Silver! What are you doing!”
A fierce voice flew toward him. Turning around, he saw Black Weasel waving his hand from a distance. He had a look on his face as if he were about to eat someone alive. The Eyepatch Woman was standing beside him. She was panting heavily, gripping the crutch she leaned on.
“Silver, what do you think you’re doing right now? Does this look like a joke to you? As for the Prince and the Attendant…”
「Uncle! Aunt!」
Wolf raised his voice. Black Weasel and the Eyepatch Woman flinched.
「Don’t fall for the trick! The voice and the fairies never told us to ‘run fast’!」
The area under Black Weasel’s eyes twitched. Red Eagle’s eyes also widened as he looked at Wolf. After exchanging glances, Black Weasel and the Eyepatch Woman turned toward them. Unlike Black Weasel, who ran quickly, the Eyepatch Woman trudged along. Her physical strength had reached its limit.
Silver clenched his fists and steadied his breathing. Wolf was right. The fairies and the voice had never once said ‘run fast.’ They had only said ‘go back home.’
Black Weasel, having approached, aimed his axe at Wolf.
「Now, explain. If you can’t convince me properly, you Attendant, your head is going to roll.」
「They manipulated people subtly. It’s a kind of psychological distortion,」 Wolf countered without hesitation. 「Uncle, you know it too. Skeleton wraiths are unkind. They don’t tell you the important rules or the punishments.」
「So you’re saying we have to go back to a snail’s pace? And if we do that, we’ll reach the door? When? Around the time my magnificent mustache grows two more spans? Or by the time a loaf of bread is baked?」
Black Weasel’s axe touched Wolf’s Adam’s apple. Wolf lowered his eyes.
「I… don’t know that far. However, considering the cause and effect, the fact that the skeleton wraith gave us plenty of food means this task is physically demanding…」
「Aaaagh!」
Suddenly, Red Eagle let out a scream.
「The door… the d-door…」
Silver turned around quickly and felt a chill run through his entire body. It felt as if ice water were flowing through his veins. The door had moved further away. That door, which had seemed reachable if he just held his breath and ran twenty times just a moment ago.
That said, it wasn’t absurdly far. This time, it was a distance reachable if he held his breath and ran forty times. The warriors came to a sudden halt. Several warriors could be seen staggering and collapsing. Everyone looked devastated by the sudden distancing of the door.
“Hah!”
Red Eagle gasped loudly. The door had suddenly moved closer again. Now, it was a distance reachable by holding one’s breath and running only ten times.
“Damn it!”
“Are you mocking us!”
Curses erupted from everywhere. Even so, some warriors started running again. Those who had momentarily collapsed staggered to their feet. The fox fairies followed the warriors, clapping their front paws.
〔Cheer up! You can see your family!〕
〔The door is right in front of you! You can go back home!〕
Only then did the Eyepatch Woman arrive. Her face was covered in sweat.
「I can’t run anymore. Those sprightly warrior brats might be able to run day and night, but I’m an old beggar.」
「…Fine. Let’s just walk.」
Black Weasel withdrew the axe from Wolf’s neck. By then, all the warriors were running again. However, the formation was a mess. Their running speeds were all different. Some ran for their lives. Some ran while moderately catching their breath. Some walked slightly fast, as if they had decided to endure only until the hourglass was flipped three times.
Black Weasel took a step forward.
「Then we’ll go at a snail’s pace like before. Oh, and if possible, taking a rest wouldn’t be a bad—」
His words were cut short. For a moment, Silver blinked. What was this?
Black Weasel, who had been a flat drawing, suddenly changed into a human. A shadow had appeared. Before he could even be glad, the ground beneath his feet began to bulge and writhe. Before fear could even be recognized, cracks spread across the floor. A single sharp, thin line. And then silence, very briefly. Following that, a piercing crack sound.
Countless hairline fractures spread across the floor like ripples. Screams erupted from all sides. Red Eagle collapsed toward Silver. Wolf fell, slamming his head into Black Weasel’s waist. The Eyepatch Woman rolled backward, clutching her crutch. It felt as if a giant were swinging a hammer beneath the floor.
K-crack! A roar like thousands of thunders striking simultaneously echoed. The floor was instantly shattered into countless pieces like islands. The width of each piece was just enough for one person to lie down with their limbs stretched out. The gap between pieces was about five or six steps. It was a sight as if hundreds of thin rods had been laid out at regular intervals.
No word other than ‘stone needle’ came to mind to describe this bizarre shape. The stone needles began to tilt slowly. All at once to the left. The angle became steep in an instant.
“Silver!”
Red Eagle wailed, clutching the hem of Silver’s robe. Silver pressed his body against the stone needle floor.
“Hold onto the edge of the floor tightly!”
The stone needles suddenly changed direction. Right. They stopped for a moment and then went left again. Repeat. It felt like being hanging from a giant pinwheel spinning violently. In the midst of this, Silver scanned the surroundings with his eyes. Where was the Ice Armor Warrior? Where was Wolf? He couldn’t see them. He only saw the Eyepatch Woman standing alone on a stone needle a short distance to the left. She was spitting and raising her middle finger toward the skeleton wraith.
“Eat this!”
Then, she drew a dagger and plunged it straight into her carotid artery. Blood gushed out. The crutch fell from the Eyepatch Woman’s side. The corpse plummeted beneath the stone needle. It was a quiet movement.
An unknown heat surged. Memories of singing together with arms around each other while drunk sliced through his mind like a blade. The mourning for a comrade did not last long. A chill spread through Silver’s entire body. Below, where the Eyepatch Woman was swallowed…
There was only a bottomless darkness. A place where one felt they would never reach the end no matter how infinitely they fell.
“Help me!”
“No—!”
Screams brought Silver back to his senses. Because of how the stone needles moved, the warriors who had been far away were now close. They looked like sailors screaming on a sinking shipwreck. One by one, unable to hold on, they fell.
“U… uwaaaagh!”
“Aaaagh!”
The stone needles moved in succession. Collision. Rotation. Flipping. One warrior was thrown off a stone needle, spun once in the air, and vanished straight into the darkness. Another warrior was crushed between two stone needles. Some warriors let go of their grip and jumped toward death on their own.
「Wolf! Wolf!」
Red Eagle cried out desperately while clutching the stone needle. Silver gritted his teeth and looked around. Neither Black Weasel nor Wolf were visible anywhere. Damn it, could it be that both of them…
“Silver!”
Black Weasel’s shout flew over. Silver looked up. In the direction the voice came from, he saw only the densely lined stone needles.
“Silver! Silver!”
Black Weasel again. The voice sounded quieter than before. The stone needle he was clinging to was moving away from here.
「Silver! Prince!」
This time it was Wolf. Red Eagle snapped his head up.
「Wolf! Wolf! I’m here!」
Like a baby looking for its mother, the Prince called out anxiously for the Attendant. But there was no answer. Given Wolf’s personality, he should have shouted ‘Prince!’, but he was silent. It was one of two things: he had fallen, or the stone needle had moved far away.
「Wol… uwaaaagh!」
The stone needle shot up. It soared at an immense speed and then fell rapidly. Silver’s vision shook. This terrible sensation of falling endlessly. It felt as if it would not stop until the day he died.
A loud thump sounded. Silver’s consciousness cut off.
51 – Hell Execution Order