Antagonist Protection Service-Chapter 274: Antagonist of Earth (19)

Red eyes that appeared as if they were glowing.

It was merely a natural result of their contained magic energy, but on the contrary, the sense it induced was not one of ’naturality’ at all.

Attention that was pinned on her. Eyes that were glued to her.

Rather than a creature with eyes, that thing was more akin to something more.

Whether that ’something’ was a monster. A ghost or spirit even. Or something else entirely―the details were irrelevant.

What mattered was one thing.

’It’... was, without a shadow of a doubt, the thing responsible.

That is, for the killing of her teammate and party leader, John Charleston Pierce.

"..."

"..."

"..."

The world that was slowed down to a near halt continued to move sluggishly.

However, things certainly could remain as such forever.

The duration of Sophie’s ability was only finite, after all, and more importantly, she knew instinctively.

The thing blankly staring back at her at that moment... likewise wouldn’t remain idle forever.

With everything being so sudden, there was only one course of action that dominated her mind.

’――We have to run.’

And so, while the world around her was still slow to catch up, she moved.

With a jerk of her body that could only have seemed like an abrupt explosion of power from the outside, Sophie forced herself to turn her back on the terribly eerie presence below, no matter how reluctant her body was, and swiped the yet unreactive Anders into her arms, who himself was still firmly holding the resting Phoenix familiar, carrying it like a lump of luggage under one arm before leaping up.

Reaching her free arm out to grab onto the dead trunk of a tree high up, she pulled the two of them up together, wasting no time in jumping again to the next tree, landing easily on her feet and launching herself up again.

Continuing like this all whilst the world was yet slowed, her movements would have appeared even less than a blur, and before a double digit amount of seconds had passed, she had already successfully made it to the edge of the island.

Of course, there was no stopping there―leaping up off of the final tree trunk, the one closest to the edge of them all, Sophie’s hand seized one of the myriad thick roots connecting this island to the next, pulling their whole party up with one arm and digging her feet into the roots to continue climbing further.

The roots tethering the islands together were strong, so there was not so much a need to worry about it snapping or breaking, and it was also a great relief that the roots were held almost taut a fair distance above the raging river below, or maybe more exactly, to the side.

However, what did have a limit was time.

Aiming to create as much distance as possible before her ability’s duration ran out and ’that thing’ could reach them, Sophie pushed herself, even more so than that time they were running for their lives from a colossal monster they couldn’t possibly beat, even more so than that time they had gotten stuck in a dastardly trap and starved for days, even more so than that time her small town had been attacked by a wild monster shortly after the emergence of the Augury Tower and――

"Ngh-! Tch..."

"Ah! Sophie; it’s alright, put me down, I can--"

"...! Watch out!"

All of a sudden, Sophie yanked Anders to the side, just in time to avoid a vicious blast of air that whistled through where he was just positioned.

They had just about made it to the next island before her ability timer ran out and the temporarily slow-flowing world returned to normalcy, but now this...

Glancing up simultaneously to follow the trajectory of whatever that was that almost blast right through Anders’ body, the two party members subconsciously gulped as they saw a line of trees above them utterly smashed through with what could have only been that very same projectile.

Accordingly, a recollection of what happened to John Pierce flickered in their mind, and Sophie grit her teeth.

Glancing down to where ’it’ must have fired that attack from, she naturally found that very same monster standing atop a tree near the edge of the previous island, covered head-to-toe in black as if imitating a shadow with the sole exception of that pair of unsettling red jewels.

’Hm...?’

The whole image was purely sinister, but for a split-second, Sophie clocked something white in that figure’s hands that she could have sworn wasn’t there previously.

Keeping the highly likely possibility that it was a weapon as a warning in her mind, she momentarily shifted her focus back on climbing. She clutched Anders by the back of his robe, and with a wind of her arm, chucked him up the short remaining distance to the next island, confirming he landed safely before following herself.

However――

"!"

Death.

For the briefest instant, her vision flashed black and white; an imminent consequence projected right before her eyes.

At the same time, the world grinded to an almost nonexistent pass once again, allowing just enough time for her to avoid what was just about to impact the back of her head.

Within that single moment, she turned her head enough to catch a glimpse of it―an astoundingly tiny projectile brimming with magic energy, or perhaps one that was comprised solely of the tightly compressed energy, so much so that it appeared to subtly, yet violently twist the air around it as it whizzed by, possessing an extreme speed that almost didn’t seem to care for the slowing of the world around it.

For not a second longer was her ability active, the projectile immediately resuming its previous pace and vanishing in a blink, its presence only making itself known when another small line of trees further up the island were once again pierced through.

"Khhi-!"

Subconsciously gritting her teeth, Sophie only belatedly realised she had stopped breathing, her lungs knocking themselves back into action while she concentrated power in her legs.

’Go, go... Go...! We need to get out of here...!’

Running was all that occupied her mind, at least, assuming survival was included in that.

Or well, rather than ’running’, the chain of vertical islands were still such that it was more a matter of ’jumping and climbing’.

Either way, thankfully, her physical strength had been mostly conserved due to the only enemies prior to that colossal eel monster being those white worms, which they should have already cleared out.

Meaning, she could focus all she had on escaping the new threat.

A competing Challenger, who, as far as things currently stood, appeared more wraith than human.

’Why...?! What do you want...!’

Sophie couldn’t help but have her mind gradually fill with such questions even while she fled.

Frankly speaking, it wasn’t as if there weren’t people who didn’t like her.

Naturally. After all, out of everyone in the world, she was one of just two people in the same party as John Pierce―the man who was currently known as the most talented Challenger―and the only woman.

Not many people in the public were aware, but there were plenty of Frontliners and even Challengers in general who knew.

Of course, being the closest woman to someone like that, it was inevitable for some to get jealous.

Still, that was no reason for hunting her down, for one, and more importantly, it didn’t explain why they shot John Pierce and felled him from the air.

It wasn’t yet clear if this person was the only one after them, but at least for now, the priority definitely was.

’We have to stop them...!’

Glancing up above her with a determined glint reflected in her bright, blue eyes, she nodded, spinning around atop a girthy tree trunk to face the expanse of the void, spread out like an endless sky above the tethered islands.

Not missing a beat, she raised her voice.

"Anders!"

Currently, he was still positioned further up the island than her. He carried John Pierce’s Phoenix, and physically-speaking, he was undoubtedly weaker than she was.

Nevertheless, he was capable.

Without saying anything more, and without receiving any sort of reply from her comrade, Sophie pinned her narrowing gaze down below, watching their shadowy adversary like a hawk.

It was impossible to tell what sort of emotions or expressions lay behind that mask, but at least they seemed to recognise that she was skilled enough to more or less consistently dodge that scarily powerful ranged attack, rather standing still down there, just likewise staring up at her, almost resembling a faceless mannequin.

Although, each use of her ability would consume a ’not insignificant’ amount of magic energy, so it wasn’t like she could go on forever...

...Fortunately, she didn’t need ’forever’.

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