Death March to the Parallel World Rhapsody

This is Satou. At a classic film festival, I saw an old movie where someone shrinks down and ventures inside the human body. It might sound outlandish, but it was a concept I never would have thought of myself. It made me appreciate the diversity of human imagination.

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Moving with skystride in the void is dangerous if you don’t watch your speed. Even though there’s gravity, air resistance is almost zero, so you can move at several times the speed of sound without magical acceleration. Still, considering the acceleration time, you need to think carefully about braking, or it gets risky. I could really use advanced magic like inertia control or inertia cancel.

Once my skystride speed exceeded the speed of sound, I gained a new skill and two titles.

]"Acquired flashstride skill."

]"Title acquired: Swift One."

]"Title acquired: Conqueror of the Sky."

The flashstride skill I obtained this time is like a combination of skystride and earth shrinking. Although I only realized this after activating the skill, it’s probably more convenient than using the two separately because it allows smooth, flowing movement. Using skystride and earth shrinking separately tends to be linear. That can be risky against enemies like the Boar King who anticipate linear movement, so this is actually a good thing. Yes, it’s not a waste of points.

While convincing myself of that, I immediately used the flashstride skill to retrieve a World Tree branch that had broken off and was falling.

The jellyfish removal team up above seemed to be doing quite well so far.

It would be great if nothing else happened—but damn—it felt like Arisa would say this:

‘That’s a flag, you know?’

That phantom voice brushed past my ears, and at the same time, my danger sense reacted slightly. There were two points of reaction. I accelerated toward the closest one.

“Everyone, abandon your posts! Evacuate to the observation deck immediately!”

I heard Aarize’s urgent transmission to the Elves engaged in the operation via mass telephone communication. This was their top-priority evacuation order in case of a fatal failure.

The Elves were abandoning their jellyfish cages into the void and moving toward the observation deck. A Lightship was sent to the slow-moving golem tank to pick up only the crew.

The jellyfish that had been “asleep” just moments ago were slowly switching to “frenzy” mode, one after another.

The change started at two points—the same directions where my danger sense had triggered.

“I repeat: everyone, abandon your posts! Evacuate to the observation deck immediately!”

Aarize’s thoughts trembled with urgency.

I guessed it was because some Elves refused to evacuate in the direction I was heading. What a problem. The “value life” order is absolutely essential.

“Kiya, Doa! Forget about the golem tank and evacuate now!”

Oh, those two. They were Sotolineya’s mentors who treated their dilapidated golem tank like their own child. I’d also consulted with them a lot when making scarecrows.

I know they cherish that junk tank, but they have to follow the evacuation order.

“S-Sir Pendragon! You too, escape quickly. Don’t overestimate your strength! The World Tree’s attacks can incinerate even dragons!”

Just as I was feeling full of myself, Aarize issued a precise direct order. She didn’t have to use the family name. Just the name would suffice. Actually, please call me by my name.

From the round golem tank Kiya and Doa were in, a spherical lightning appeared in the space several hundred meters ahead.

I wonder if it will work.

“This massive tree! Decide if you’re a branch or root already!”

I slammed my thoughts into the nearest branch over telephone communication.

Apparently, the provocation worked.

Purple lightning extended like a living thing toward me from the ball of lightning.

Of course, I didn’t provoke without a plan. Aarize had told me the World Tree’s attacks were lightning strikes, so I activated the new magic power “lightning rod” to deflect the strikes.