!!!
The light voice seemed to have completely solidified the air in this area, restricting Lenny and Credo's bodies from moving. The presence that had silently appeared behind them was still talking.
"Ah~ as expected, you can understand. How does it feel to suddenly have a voice appear behind you? Isn't it fun?"
Bang!!!
Without any warning, Lenny suddenly pushed Credo, who was still standing on the edge, off the platform. In his ear, he could still hear the child's subconscious scream as he fell, but what happened after that was no longer something he could control.
Slowly turning around, Lenny saw the person who had suddenly spoken, the person who had not boarded the airship with his clan members to fight the Elf—disheveled, haphazardly cut silvery-gray hair, a fiery red single eye. Unlike the other Dwarf, he did not have long hair on his body. Just standing there, he exuded a dangerous aura like a ferocious beast.
[It's Lóni!]
[Why is he here??!]
Su'er's voice sounded in Lenny's mind at once, but at this point, knowing who the person was didn't matter to Lenny anymore.
As if leaning against an invisible wall in the air, Lóni stood there with his arms crossed in a strange posture, seemingly helplessly waving his hand as if he was shooing away an annoying mosquito.
"I was just trying it out, but when I found out that it was really the case, what is this feeling of regret in my heart?" Lóni sighed at length. "Why are you all using the Elf language? Can you use the Dwarf language? Ours isn't bad either, you know?"
"...Ah, actually using the Dwarf language is not impossible... Want to give it a try?" Forcing a smile, the language that came out of Lenny's mouth was the Dwarf language.
"How interesting. You remind me of that long-eared person who caused a huge commotion in our city, calmly escaped, and even left a friendly greeting in the end," Lóni raised an eyebrow and grinned. "I remember there was a guy similar to you next to her. What was he called?"
He seemed to be rubbing his head in distress, and Lóni showed a bloodthirsty smile.
"...Imanity?"
The sound of the wind in his ears was intensifying. Credo didn't know how long he would fall before he could find a foothold in this city that the Dwarf had dug out to an unknown depth, but by the time he did, he would definitely no longer have feet.
He didn't blame Lenny for pushing him out at that moment, because even before, when they had just jumped down to check the surroundings, they had seen that there was a steel pipe growing horizontally below in that direction. One of the exploration directions of the plan also started from there.
The only thing Credo couldn't let go of was one thing—Lenny chose to stay there alone.
He should have been the one to stay there, he who was always making mistakes.
He didn't even have a moment to blame himself. Lenny's push in a moment of desperation did not have enough force, and Credo, who reacted a little slowly, did not seize the opportunity to grab the steel pipe. He was falling, falling faster and faster.
Even with his limited knowledge, he knew that he couldn't keep going like this. Credo stretched out his arms toward the nearest steel platform—Snap.
"Ah!!!!"
The fragile bones were completely unable to withstand the potential energy brought by the fall. In an instant, without any resistance, with a crisp sound, Credo's arm that had just reached out snapped to an angle that a human could not reach, and the only thing he could let out was a short wail.
This collision happened in an instant, and this collision did indeed slow down Credo's falling speed and angle, and he crashed into a steel platform below.
Thump!
It was like a piece of dough being thrown onto a cutting board.
His consciousness seemed to have been disconnected. The pain restricted every tentacle of his thoughts. It was only after an unknown amount of time that he regained the right to think again, and Credo gradually realized where he was. Every muscle and bone from his back to his front was aching like pinpricks. He tried to sit up, but he only coughed and spat out gurgling blood.
The blood seeping from his body had already spread out like a small stream from the sides of his body, filling the patterns on the steel beneath him. He struggled many times but couldn't get up from the ground. An arm that was tragically twisted and hung to the side of his body made him lack the motivation to support himself.
He slowly shuffled his body, bit by bit, until his back could gradually touch a cold wall that was enough to temporarily support him. Credo's hands trembled as he took out the stone disc with the brilliance stone embedded in it from his bosom. The brilliance stone on it was spinning rapidly, constantly swirling, and he could not distinguish the real direction it was pointing. The Elves seemed to have become headless flies in this place of unknown depth, traversing aimlessly.
It was chilly. Credo let go of his hand and let the stone disc fall to the side of his body for now. He trembled as he used his still-intact hand to wipe his nose, only to find that what appeared on his palm was not red blood, but a transparent, water-like liquid.
Laughing meaninglessly, Credo fumbled in his bosom again until he took out a small cloth bag. His uncontrollably trembling hand shook as he tried to take out the item inside, but that small pocket, which was usually easy to access, seemed to have been sewn shut, and he couldn't open it at all.
The more anxious he became, the more he trembled. Credo even felt a strange, inexplicable irritability out of nowhere. He violently and powerlessly smashed his blood-soaked chest—and it finally opened.
The thing that looked like an ordinary white stone rolled onto Credo's chest, tumbled along his uneven body, brushed past the crook of his arm, and bumped against the steel platform before falling off the edge.
"..."
He watched this scene blankly and wordlessly. The hand that he had bent in a hurry could only grasp at air. Credo's outstretched palm was still Uselessly grasping, as if it could grab something that did not exist. Even his lips were trembling, and his blood-stained face became distorted. He seemed to be laughing, and he also seemed to be crying. A transparent liquid flowed from his eye sockets and the tip of his nose.
"...I messed up again, huh, me..."
"Useless, I am... I'm really useless..."
As if he had gone mad, the man lowered his head and muttered. What was flowing out of his body seemed to be not just the blood dripping from the edge of the steel platform, but also an invisible, unseen thing.