Subject Runes - V1 Chapter 12

By the time we got back to the swamp, a whole lot more venomous bugs had already crawled out of it.

After I wiped out the ones around our feet with Fire, I gave a quick explanation of the plan.

“Once I activate Wall, I’ll give the signal. When I do, Sasha-senpai, cast Water. Spread it as wide as you can, then everybody runs like hell.”

“Why the hell would I cast Water? …Fine, whatever. I’ll do it your way.”

Sasha-senpai and I took position at the front while the rest of the group hid behind the rock wall.

Once she finished chanting Water and was ready to cast at any moment, it was my turn.

I aimed Wall at the cave ceiling.

But instead of picturing “earth,” I imagined alkali metal elements like sodium and potassium.

To begin with, earth-attribute magic was magic that manipulated the so-called earth element, and the beginner spell Wall normally raised bedrock from the ground to create a barrier.

People in this world understood earth as an element, so when they formed the image in their minds to cast the spell, every last one of them pictured an earth element.

But that’s the thing.

The laws of physics in this world and my past life were the same, and there was no such thing as an element called earth. No matter how people in this era understood it, soil was just a mixture of substances—organic and inorganic compounds, including oxides of silicon, iron, and a bunch of other crap.

So instead of imagining earth itself, if I pictured an alkali metal contained within the soil as an actual element, then the material produced by the spell should change.

【Eternal Resting Place】

I activated the beginner earth spell Wall toward the ceiling.

A huge number of silver metal fragments rained down from above, glittering as they scattered out over the entire swamp.

Hell yes. It worked.

“Now! Water!”

Sasha-senpai immediately fired off Water.

The spray spread wide just as the sodium and potassium fragments landed in the swamp mud, coating the whole area evenly.

In the next instant, the entire swamp exploded.

“Fall back!”

We bolted from the area and ran through the twisting cave.

Explosions kept roaring from the swamp behind us, one after another, each caused by burning metal fragments scattering into the muck. On top of that, the hydrogen generated as a secondary reaction ignited from the heat and triggered hydrogen explosions too, turning the whole place into absolute hell.

“That’s a crazy explosion, but the cave’s not gonna collapse, right?”

The shock of the blasts traveled through the cave walls and the air itself, and yeah, it was scary as shit.

But compared to Explosion, each detonation wasn’t quite that powerful, so it was probably fine.

Still, it definitely felt like I might have overdone it, so all we could do was keep a safe distance, watch carefully for any signs of the ceiling or walls giving way, and wait for everything to finally stop.

Once the explosions were finally gone and the dust had settled enough, we went back toward the swamp.

“Jesus… this is bad.”

Mud blasted loose by the explosions, along with shredded insect corpses, had splattered all over the area. Chunks stuck to the cave walls and even the ceiling, then dropped down with wet, disgusting plops.

On top of that, the strong alkali produced—things like sodium hydroxide—was melting the corpses into a vile sludge.

“Ughhhh… I’m gonna puke.”

Marl’s face turned ghost-white the second she saw it, and she clung to my back.

“A-Anyway, we wiped out the bugs and the swamp with them. The operation was a success.”

The second I said that, Marl shot me a flat, icy glare.

“Ahem. Right. So. If we step into the swamp like this, our boots will melt, so I’m going to make a dirt bridge over it now. We’ll cross on top of that.”

Not just Marl—every single member of the party looked completely freaked out by me.

So, to salvage my reputation, I cast Wall again and built them a solid bridge. A narrow earthen path appeared along the cave wall, wide enough for one person to walk on, and above it I even added an overhang to block any falling splatter from the ceiling.

The aftercare was flawless, so I really wanted them to cut me a damn break now.

“All right. We move across the bridge.”

Careful not to lose our footing and fall into the alkali swamp filled with bug carcasses, we crossed one step at a time.

“Ughhh, this is so disgusting…”

Marl pressed her face into my back as she followed close behind me.

She probably didn’t want to look at the state of the swamp. Honestly, I didn’t want to look either, so I kept my eyes fixed only on the path under my feet and straight ahead.

Once everyone finally made it across, we started walking deeper into the cave again.

“Let’s get the hell away from this place already.”

“Marl, you’re way too close. I get it, but back off a little while you walk.”

Even though we were already pretty far from the swamp, Marl kept pressing her head into my back and shoving forward.

“Nope. Hurry up, Azoth.”

Meanwhile, in the dungeon inside Mount Bispor volcano, Party B—Cain’s group—was carrying out its own monster extermination.

They finally found one of their targets, the nest of a pair of Flamebirds, but the two birds were already on alert.

“Burn will use mid-level water magic, Ice Javelin, to shoot one Flamebird down. There’ll be a gap of over thirty seconds before he can finish chanting again for the second one, so just hold the line somehow until then.”

“Understood.”

Behind the two shield-bearers, Cain and Wolf, the first-year Rogers was trembling in fear.

At the beginning he’d been all fired up and strutted along at the very front, but when goblins showed up he couldn’t do a damn thing. After that, every time a magical beast appeared, he hid behind the two tankers and did nothing but run his mouth.

【Mid-Level Water Magic—Icｅ Javelin】

Ice Javelin pierced straight through one of the Flamebirds along with its nest.

Naturally, the surviving bird shrieked in fury and charged at them.

To draw its hate onto himself, Wolf instantly fired off the spell he had prepared in advance.

【Beginner Water Magic—Ice】

The enraged Flamebird turned toward Wolf and charged exactly as planned—but then an unexpected liability popped up inside the party itself.

“Wahhh! What the hell are you doing, idiot?! It’s coming this way—toward me! Awa-awawa—!”

Rogers panicked and ran like a bat out of hell.

“You moron, not that way!”

The place Rogers ran to was where Burn was in the middle of chanting Ice Javelin.

The second the Flamebird spotted Burn, it ignored Wolf, turned toward him instead, and came screaming in wrapped in flames.

“Shit! Protect Burn!”

Cain and Wolf both tried to rush back, but the Flamebird was too fast.

There was no way they’d make it in time.

“Damn it!”

The instant Wolf twisted his face in frustration, something unbelievable happened.

【Unique Non-Elemental Magic—Absolute Homeland Defense Zone】

Kiin!

A sharp metallic sound rang out, and then an invisible wall appeared around the entire party.

The Flamebird slammed straight into it and got thrown down to the ground by the recoil.

“Burn-san, chant while you still can.”

Since Wolf was too stunned to speak, Cain gave the order instead.

“Got it!”

Burn started chanting again, and his second Ice Javelin cleanly skewered the Flamebird just as it tried to take off again.

Target exterminated.

But the second his own life was no longer in danger, Rogers—brave only when flapping his damn mouth—turned on Cain.

“If you had a crazy spell like that, you should’ve used it from the start. Then I could’ve fought properly and shown what I can do without worrying.”

Cain answered by driving his fist straight into Rogers’s face.

BAGYAH!

“Shut up.”

“Guhaaaah!”

Rogers’s body flew through the air, slammed hard into the ground, then bounced and rolled several more times before finally coming to a stop.

“He’s more useful unconscious and not moving than he is awake. We move on like this.”

With that, Cain hoisted Rogers over his shoulder and started walking off alone, leaving the rest of the party frozen in shock.