Sepakai (GXG) (GIRLXGIRL) (GL)

61

Chapter 7
Section 12: Inverted Position
“……W-We have to go help them!!”

The words spontaneously sprang from my mouth. I shut the book and moved to leave the library. But before I could make it to the door, Aronda-san had moved and now stood in my way.

“It’s dangerous Iris-chan.”

“I know, and Toslin, Carol, and Rose-san are in the middle of that danger right now!! It’s already been four days, and they still aren’t back…….”

“Hadion-sama…… Please tell me something. Have you fought a ruby carbuncle before……..”

Aronda-san stayed where she was to keep me from running off and called out to Saluena.

“Only once. Iris. Gentle maiden. Are you aware of the power red stones such as rubies are said to house?”

It was easy to understand that by asking me as well, Saluena was trying to get me to restrain myself.

“…….”

I lost my head and was about to dive right into danger just like I did in the Swansea Forest. Back then though it was Carol who stopped me.

(I want to go help them……..right now. But……I won’t be any help if I were to go alone. No help…….)

Just like back then, I ordered myself to stay calm. Impatience kills possibility. What I should do now is calm myself down, and think. And then, find a way.

So I took a deep breath and answered.

“Red stones like amethysts and rubies……. The power they signify is…….life.¹”

The stones which we call gems are each said to carry a power within them. That power is the result of years of magic power emitted from the earth accumulating into them. And people have tried making that power their own by making and wearing jewelry out of those gems since ancient times.

“That’s right. However that is only true for the world that the Goddess envisioned. The Primordial World runs invertedly to the Goddess’s, so when a spirit takes in that energy, that power manifests in the inverted position.”

“The inverted position…….”

“The opposite of life…….is death.”

The whole room felt as if the temperature had dropped a few degrees, and a shiver ran up my spine.

“Death…..that…….what do you mean death?”

“Death is death Iris. Any carbunculus carrying within it a red gem holds the power of death itself.”

“Now that the fragment of the Grief Sphere has been stolen away, this carbuncle should be even more powerful than it was 300 years ago…….. Such a monster was sleeping in the ruins right next to Solretta Litta all this time……..”

Aronda-san pulled off her glasses and rubbed her glabella.

“Shall I send in a request to the central church to have them dispatch a contingent of priestess warriors…….”

Aronda-san nodded her head at Elzella-san’s proposal.

“Y-Yes. Let’s do it. The question is how we will survive the month it will take them to gather the necessary force…….”

“A-A month……..there’s no way we can wait that long!! Even as we speak, everyone is……”

“……I understand that. But, we don’t have any other options. We can’t recklessly send people to some ruins where an orange rank party wasn’t even able to return from.”