* * *

“RAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!”

Covered in 【Black Tentacles】, transformed into a human-sized projectile, I flew straight ahead, powered by mana jet propulsion!

And then, I immediately felt a—DOPUN—sensation.

Although I can’t see my surroundings while I’m a projectile, I can easily imagine what happened.

I’ve entered the sludge.

‘The Happy Sludge’, Kolmallya, is trying to stop me by clinging to me.

But I know!

I now have!

The power to repel the sludge!

<What power is that!?>

“It’s centrifugal force!!”

I increased my rotation speed, and flew straight, straight ahead!

Although I’m losing some mana, the sludge can’t cling to me very well because I’m spinning, so there’s not much damage.

The weakness of mud-attribute enemies is centrifugal force!

This will be the new standard for fantasy in the future!

<I see, so we’re a single bullet, pioneering a new era!>

“AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!”

While saying those stupid things, I felt the impact of hitting something hard several times—GATSUUN, GATSUUN.

It’s probably the walls of the Great Prison of Delenezo.

But those walls aren’t that sturdy.

I’ll just break through them, and keep moving forward!

<Those walls were built assuming there was barrier reinforcement, and they were probably already weakened and become brittle by the sludge’s erosion!>

GATSUUN, DOPUN, GATSUUN, DOPUN, GATSUUN!!

I don’t know how far I’ve advanced, repeatedly breaking through walls and entering the sludge.

Probably less than a minute has passed.

But I’ve consumed a lot of mana.

The mana I absorbed, while spitting blood, is running out again.

I’m almost at my limit!

Just as I felt a sense of crisis—

DOPUN!!

After that last sensation, like breaking through a membrane.

I no longer felt any resistance to moving forward.

In other words!

<We’ve broken through the sludge! We’re outside the Great Prison of Delenezo!>

“RAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!”

I spun with the last of my strength!

I shook off what I think are drops of sludge clinging to the exterior made of 【Black Tentacles】, and then—Bashu—one last mana jet propulsion!

After that, I continued to fly through the air from inertia… and pulled by gravity, I landed on the ground.

DOSASASASASAAAAHHH!!

Sliding straight ahead, pushing aside the fine grains of sand, I eventually came to a stop.

GUUUUUUUUUUU!

Listening to the cries of my stomach, I deactivated the 【Black Tentacles】 covering my body.

And then, what immediately assaulted me—

Is the heat of the sand, and the sunlight!

“AAAH!? HOT!? BRIGHT!?”

I quickly covered my hands and feet with 【Black Tentacles】 again.

<If it wasn’t for your body, Emi, you would have been severely burned.>

Ah, it’s good to be sturdy!

“…………”

And then, my feet sinking into the unfamiliar sand, I somehow managed to stand up.

Narrowing my eyes, I looked around, and what I saw was the same scenery I saw through the ventilation duct when I first came to the Great Prison of Delenezo a month ago.

In other words, nothing but sand.

A desert, shining white under the cloudless blue sky, bathed in sunlight.

That scenery continues… all the way to the horizon.

There’s nothing else in my view, except for “one exception”.

…“One exception”.

That is the Great Prison of Delenezo, where I was just imprisoned.

It’s a giant stone tower, hundreds of meters away, still towering over me…

The tower, built with stones of a similar color to the surrounding white desert, despite its sturdy appearance, is creaking ominously from within.

Why?

<It’s obviously because of the sludge.>

I was able to break through and escape.

Probably, ‘The Happy Sludge’, Kolmallya, which had been confined within the Great Prison of Delenezo by the barrier…

Thinking that far.

As expected, it happened.

Along with unpleasant creaking and cracking sounds—Mishi, gishi, bishi—large cracks started appearing on the white outer walls of the Great Prison of Delenezo.

And from those cracks, a large amount of sludge started leaking out.

The sludge, overflowing, quickly enveloped the Great Prison of Delenezo.

The once beautiful Great Prison of Delenezo has now become a sludge fountain.

A dirty brown.

Constantly emitting a foul odor.

The gurgling sound of the sludge gushing out was also unpleasant.

A giant sludge fountain that no one would want to approach.

“!!”

There was movement in the sludge fountain.

The top part swelled up, forming a sphere.

And then, gently narrowed eyes appeared on the sphere, a well-formed nose appeared, and a smiling mouth appeared.

It’s a woman’s face, with a beautiful, gentle expression.

The sludge turned that face towards me, and then—moco, moco—created a left arm.

And then, using that left arm—

It beckoned me—Come, come.

It beckoned me.