Chapter Ninety-Three: A Troubled Beginning

Chapter Ninety-Three

So this is...

The Radiant One opened his eyes. His gaze skimmed over the blue-stone brick walls before him, pausing briefly on the flames burning in iron braziers along either side of the road. Then he looked around, searching for the companions who had been transported here with him.

"Well, that’s a relief. It worked."

A voice came from behind him. Amy turned on reflex and saw, just at the worst possible moment, the obnoxious fellow from the Dice House staggering to his feet, shaking his little head as he muttered something highly suspicious.

"As expected... none of those people in the technical department can be trusted..."

What did he mean, "a relief, it worked"?

Amy's brow twitched, though in the end he did not flare up.

"Wait, Ulysses, how did you wake up so quickly?" The beautiful young man who had only just been half-conscious snapped fully awake the moment he saw Amy's dark, water-dripping expression. He hurried to explain, "The human mind is affected to a certain degree during transfer, but in general there won't be any lasting effects beyond a brief fainting spell. At most you'll get a headache for a while. Nothing serious."

"I heard everything you said earlier," the Radiant One replied flatly. Then he looked away from him and fixed his gaze on the golden-haired girl lying on the ground like Sleeping Beauty. "How long until she wakes up?"

"Three to five minutes, maybe." Dick gave an imprecise answer.

"No exact time?"

Amy could not help frowning. From the situation before them, the transfer had likely succeeded. The place they were now in should be within the body of the strange being called Obadiah, the true headquarters of the House of the Lost, one of the three foundational pillars of the Lower District. From any angle, this was not a place where one could leisurely wait for a companion to wake.

"Sorry, no. The aftereffects of transfer vary from person to person. To put it simply, our world is a two-dimensional plane, and transfer is like folding that plane and punching a hole straight through the middle. Because human beings differ in their perception of space, the rejection responses can vary enormously. Some people may only feel dizzy for a while, while others may fall into unconsciousness."

"It sounds like Mia is the latter," the Radiant One said, having completely ignored the long-winded explanation and drawn only the final conclusion. "So, in other words, we'll be down one main combatant for the time being?"

"That’s correct," the Dice House apostle said with a nod.

"Wonderful. What a catastrophic opening," Amy remarked. There was not the slightest trace of fear in the black depths of his eyes. "But since the outcome of events cannot be altered, what we must do now is naturally minimize the damage it may cause."

"Then what do you plan to do?" Dick asked with interest.

"Before we discuss a response," the Radiant One said, looking at him and meeting those clear, jewel-like green eyes, "we must first gather and organize information. So what do you think, honored apostle of the Dice House?"

"I hardly deserve the title of honored." The blond, green-eyed youth shook his head. "But as for information, I can provide some. Although the House of the Lost is protected by Obadiah's special organizational structure, which makes it very difficult to infiltrate, over the years we have still planted a few eyes and ears here. Due to their rank, they can't learn anything truly valuable, but they can still collect some very practical, if not especially sensitive, information."

He paused to catch his breath.

"First, the most important point: Obadiah is alive. It possesses its own will. The House of the Lost is located within its body, and its various departments are completely independent. Only ministers have the authority to move freely between departments. Most importantly, there is no concept of routes here. The reason ministers can cross from one department to another is not because they know the way, but simply because they have permission."

"What do you mean?" Amy still did not quite understand.

"Perhaps I expressed that poorly." The youth's emerald eyes shifted before he continued, "You should have some understanding of Obadiah by now. It is a strange lifeform inaccessible to human beings, living in the cracks between dimensions. In our understanding, it appears as a giant castle, and the headquarters of the House of the Lost stands within it. But Obadiah is not an unchanging dead thing. Though what it shows to the outside world is some kind of castle-like structure, its essence is a strange phenomenon beyond human comprehension. The common sense familiar to humans cannot be applied to it directly. In fact, the terrain inside is assembled from templates. Every basic cell can be moved at any time and from any place. That is to say, unless Obadiah permits it, it is almost impossible to travel the correct path."

"I think I get it. Basically, it's a maze with no pattern, endlessly changing." The Radiant One understood his meaning, but precisely because he understood, he became uncertain. "By what you say, we can't possibly cross Obadiah's labyrinth and find Ignaty."

"Correct."

"So what countermeasures has the Dice House prepared?" Amy frowned unconsciously. For some reason, a bad premonition had already taken hold of him.

"So, we found you." The Dice House apostle answered rather cheerfully.

"What do you mean?" The Radiant One failed to react at once.

"It means exactly what it sounds like." Dick spread his hands. "Since we can't solve the problem, we outsourced it. Let someone else solve it."

"So you came to me?" Amy fixed the young man before him with a rather dangerous look. "Without even the most basic information, you dragged me into the body of Obadiah. If I'm not mistaken, there should be no way out of here by ordinary means."

He spoke in a tone of certainty.

Even a fool could tell that a rotten organization like the Dice House would not kindly prepare an escape route for him.

"Don't worry. You and I are in this together. You can't get away, and neither can I." The blond, green-eyed youth patted his shoulder. "As you said before, since the outcome is already beyond changing, what we must do now is naturally minimize the damage it may cause."

"..." The Radiant One fell silent.

His hand, resting beside the short sword at his waist, clenched and unclenched, then clenched again, repeating this three times before the fury in his heart finally subsided.

"Then, in the face of this disastrous situation, do you have any suggestions?" Amy let out a long breath, expelling the stale air from his lungs, and spoke the final words in a calm, icy voice. "My dear friend."

"If you mean suggestions, I don't have much to suggest. But opinions? Those I do have. Though are you sure you want to hear them?" Under the Radiant One's cold gaze, Dick awkwardly scratched his nose. "It's not good news, either. Inside Obadiah, there are measures to verify a visitor's authority, and the few of us are illegal entrants who forced our way in through sub-bodies..."

"You're saying we've been discovered." Amy could not help pressing a hand to his forehead. Bad luck upon bad luck; the old saying truly was not false. "But in a labyrinth that already possesses its own will and can change freely, even if we wanted to run, where could we run to?"

"Why not try to crush them head-on?" suggested the Dice House apostle.

"If there isn't combat power at the level of a killer, I think it should be doable." The proposal was simple, crude, and highly practical, but it also had a potentially fatal flaw. "In battle, I can't look after Mia, who is unconscious..."

He paused, then said without mercy, "And with you, I dare not be careless in the slightest."

"That does make things difficult." The blond, green-eyed youth revealed a troubled expression. "Although Obadiah's castle is vast, if the alarm mechanism is triggered, the rapid response forces of the House of the Lost can deploy combat power in a very short time by means of the freely shifting cells."

"I really feel like nothing good ever comes out of your mouth," the Radiant One said irritably.

"Well," Dick said, turning his head away, "we brought you here to solve a problem. As the hired side, you have a duty to resolve the difficulties facing your employer."

"But you force people to buy and sell against their will, while deliberately hiding the dangers involved," Amy said casually. He had utterly lost all trust in the Dice House. "Speaking of which, if the opening is this disastrous, you bear at least half the responsibility."

"There is no point in shifting blame at a time like this." The Dice House apostle shrugged, utterly unconcerned by the irate Radiant One. "What we should be considering are more practical, more urgent matters."

"For example," he said, looking toward the walls ahead, which had begun to change, and the dozen or so fully armed iron-clad warriors emerging from them, "a greeting from the House of the Lost."

"Damn it!"

Ulysses had no time to bother with the beautiful youth beside him. His eyes lingered briefly on the fully armed iron-clad warriors, then he shook his head.

What a joke. These were not ironclad suits at all.

They were powered armor—genuinely forbidden equipment. After the laws of physics had been eroded by chaos, steam engines, once robbed of their stability, had become even more ferocious, even harder to restrain.

That meant...

Compared with the era of the ancient kings, the ones before him were even more terrifying.

And worse still, his compatibility with these armored hulks was abysmal.

If only Mia were not unconscious.

A thought like that arose in the Radiant One's mind, and in the next instant he was startled by it.

Had he already become so accustomed to the other's presence? So accustomed to relying on that presence?

He gripped the sword in his hand, then—

Drew it!