"Where the hell are you flying!?"
She's so damned loud, Sassel thought silently. But she has a great body. Even her soul faithfully reflects that.
As she said this, the soaking-wet Miss Inquisitor was clinging to the black sorcerer's back, which was covered in a thin layer of scales. The bone-chilling sea wind was like a thousand dull, worn knives, pouring into her open mouth as she spoke, stabbing into her collar, and scraping at her neck, making Jeanne shiver with cold. Sassel's two bat-like wings, which spanned more than two meters when unfurled, beat against the air, soaring over a boundless, gray-black sea. Low, swirling black clouds covered the entire sky. In the distance, a dozen silent waterspouts moved slowly. Yes—silent. This bizarre place was completely dead. The only sound to be heard was their voices.
Sassel could feel the heavy pressure of this strange ocean, and the oppressive weight of the vortex of clouds that dominated his vision. It was as if a giant oil painting were slowly, endlessly changing its colors and outlines, destined to remain here until the end of time, just waiting for him to fly into it.
I hope time flows in this dream the same way it does in the labyrinth. I have no desire to stay here for too long.
He also had no desire to be a free mount in this place, but the dream corridor had been continuously collapsing. And so, when they were forced to open one of the doors to try and see what was on the other side, the corridor had vanished and the entire world had changed—they had fallen directly into this bone-chillingly cold sea.
Of course—to be precise, it was Jeanne alone who had plunged headfirst into the sea. His soul was already semi-demonized; he had simply unfurled his wings and hovered in mid-air.
Afterward, a sopping-wet Jeanne had grabbed Sassel's tail and climbed all the way up onto his back.
"I've roughly figured out a few things about our situation," the black sorcerer said, ignoring her complaint. "First, this labyrinth itself is perhaps an intersection of dream and reality, which is why all these inexplicable things are appearing. Second, if we fall asleep in here, our souls will likewise fall into the dreams of others. I just don't know if this dream belongs to the collective consciousness of many people or..."
As he spoke, he executed a sharp dive, skimming the surface of the sea. For a moment, his long, dark-red hair whipped across Jeanne's face. He scanned his surroundings. The dark horizon was like the mouth of a giant beast, the vortex of clouds above spun ceaselessly, and countless waterspouts stretched to the edge of his vision. Sassel saw no sun here, only the dark sea emitting a dim, faint, and almost imperceptible light.
"Black sorcerer, I'm freezing to death! Can you fly a little slower!?"
He sneered. What the fuck does your being cold have to do with me? "Please. You were the one who insisted on climbing up here. Did you think I was a free ride? And now you want to request additional services? If you're not satisfied, you can get down and swim yourself."
"Shut up. This is a subordinate's duty."
She said it with such a straight face.
Sassel cracked his neck. How can you be so shameless? he thought. "I've never heard of an inquisitor needing her knight protector to act as a free mount."
"What a coincidence. I've never heard of a black sorcerer with a half-demon soul crashing into the body of a Church knight, either," she jeered.
"Well, you're looking at one."
"Heh, and you're looking at one, too," she said with a cold laugh.
His face darkening, Sassel dove straight into the sea.
"I'm going to kill you! You beastly half-demon!" After bursting out of the sea again, the inquisitor, her mouth full of freezing seawater, spat a mixture of seawater and saliva all over his neck. She reached out, grabbed the black sorcerer's forked tongue, and pulled it out to a good hand's length.
This idiot!
With a splash, Sassel went into a spin, taking the inquisitor on his back with him as he plunged headfirst into the sea like an eagle that had just been shot down by a hunter.
This time, it was Jeanne who had dragged him down from behind.
She was floating, her stomach full of salty, bitter seawater.
Jeanne gasped and awoke with a start. The world seemed to be drowning her; the corridor felt like it was undulating beneath her. The cat's spine brushed against her face, a prickly sensation. She subconsciously spat seawater onto the floor, the taste of vomit in her mouth.
"You idiot..." Sassel also woke up, clutching his forehead. He sat up, leaning against the wall, his voice full of displeasure. "How are you still alive?"
How am I still alive?
Her pale golden pupils scanned Sassel from top to bottom. Then she answered, "By executing the justice of the Lord, and by leading my team to slaughter every cultist and dangerous heretic."
"Did your brain get waterlogged when you fell in the sea? That's not what I asked," Sassel spat. "Right now, my tongue is sprained because of your hand. What do you think that means?"
"What does your sprained tongue have to do with me?" Jeanne said, her face changing as she adopted a mocking tone.
"It means that injuries sustained in the dream are reflected in this labyrinth, you moron!" Sassel stuck out his tongue—not the forked, demonic tongue, but a human one. On it were several still-visible finger marks. He pointed at it. "Your finger marks are still on here. What the fuck did you think you were doing, playing tug-of-war?"
Jeanne snorted. She placed the cat on the floor, stood up, and stretched her stiff limbs. For one, she had been lying on the hard floor for too long. For another, the chill from falling into the sea in her dream was still spreading through her body. After a moment, the inquisitor said reluctantly, "I'll try to pull lighter next time."
"You want to pull it a second fucking time!?"
Just then, the cat named Viola stood up, trying not to make a sound. But Sassel and Jeanne noticed it was awake anyway. It walked between the black sorcerer and the inquisitor, stared at him for a moment, then at the inquisitor for a moment. Then it hesitated, opened its mouth, and seemed to want to offer its opinion:
"Um..."
"If you dare to offer a random opinion on this, I'll slaughter you."
The ill-intentioned tone made Viola shiver. It obediently shut its mouth.
"Lead the way," Sassel crouched down, placing a hand on the black cat's back and looking it straight in the eye. "We're going to kill the master of this house now. I need to gather souls and materials immediately to complete this body's demonization process."
The mind-control spell took effect quickly. Viola nodded and began to lead the way for them.