Editing Tasogare-iro no Uta Tsukai:Volume2 3rd Play (section)

===Part 5===

“……Even the folds on its clothes have been made this accurately.”

Without touching it, Zessel moved forward as close as he could to the stone statue in front of him.

There were around ten stone statues. Although he hadn’t seen it yet, Zessel felt that even the fibres of their clothing had been created perfectly. At first, simply seeing the look of fear on the statues’ faces had been enough. The statues portrayed a realism that couldn’t be matched by simple carvings.

“It seems like we were right.”

“These people have been turned to stone…… I can’t believe it……”

His colleague, the female teacher, staggered back. Patting her shoulder forcefully, Zessel advanced a step forward.

“Enne, don’t touch the statues. We don’t know what tricks there could be, so we need to be as careful as we can.”

“—I’ll contact the headmaster.”

Enne spoke like she had suddenly thought of it.

“Let’s wait until we have more to report.”

That’s right. After all, they still hadn’t gone beyond the entrance hall of the research institute. Beyond this, farther inside, what could have happened? At the very least, they needed to investigate the cause of this situation.

“……Right.”

A white light penetrated the darkness in the hall.

“Let’s go.”

In Enne’s left hand was a white sphere of light she had called out.

“Please, could you illuminate the way in front of us and slowly advance forward?”

Although it had the appearance of an inanimate object, it was actually a light fairy that was categorized under {{Furigana|Third Scale Recitations|Prime Aria}}. When it sensed danger, its light would turn off. It was a Recitation that the {{Furigana|White Reciter|Enne}} liked to use when exploring.

The light was able to illuminate up to ten meters ahead of them. Within that area, there were no more stone statues. At least they didn’t have to worry about that for now.

However, instead.

—What’s with this ash?

Gazing down the hallway, they slowed their steps.

Scattered in a corner of the hallway was a large amount of ash. Was it the remains of something burning? No, if that were the case, there should be burn marks inside the research institute. 

“I don’t know what it is, but we probably shouldn’t step on it.”

“That’s true— Huh?”

A sound suddenly reached Zessel’s eardrums. The scraping noise made him reflexively turn around.

“What’s wrong?”

Enne, who had been taking the lead, stopped. Before Zessel responded, he first needed to confirm if anything was behind them.

Nothing was there…… Was it his imagination? Was it just his nerves acting up?

“No, It’s nothing.”

As he spoke, the light of the light fairy suddenly vanished.

“Eh?”

At the same time as Enne spoke, their surroundings once again became engulfed in darkness.

The light fairy suddenly turned off? Moreover, it turned off quickly, too quickly.

Like they expected, something was in the research institute with them. Something alive!

——[{{Furigana|Keinez|Red Song}}]——

With the catalyst he held in his right hand, Zessel called out a handful of flames.

Although it wasn’t as bright as the light fairy, he could see a few meters ahead of him with this…………

At that moment, he couldn’t believe what he saw in front of him.

……Hey, wait a moment. ……What is it…?

From the wall beside Enne, who had been walking in front of him— Like it had been fused with the grey wall, a large snake with scales of the same grey color slithered forward.

“Enne, get down!”

“Eh?”

His sudden warning backfired. Taken aback, Enne turned to look in his direction. In other words, she turned her back to the mysterious snake. The snake lifted its head……

“Enne!”

Opening its mouth, the snake attacked.

There was no time to hesitate. With all of his strength, Zessel pushed his vulnerable colleague towards the opposite wall.

The sound of something piercing his shoulder echoed out. The sound was so amazingly detailed that there was no time for him to feel afraid. 

However, the sharp pain of the snake’s fangs piercing his shoulder was real.

“……Agh!”

“Z-Zessel!”

There was no time to respond to her call.

With his right hand, he grabbed the head of the snake that had bitten his left shoulder and refused to let go. Using all of his strength, he tried to pull it off. But the snake’s fangs tightly latched on.

“You……!”

He grabbed the flames that he had called out to use as a light, and thrust it directly at the snake’s head.

Burned by the flames, the snake floundered back and forth. Gripping the snake by the neck, Zessel quickly pulled it away from his shoulder. With all of his strength, he slammed the struggling snake onto the floor. The snake lay on the floor, paralyzed. Although it was still alive, it was unable to attack a second time.

When he shifted his gaze towards his shoulder to check the bleeding—

“……So that’s how it is. I finally see the trick behind this.”

“Zessel……Your shoulder!”

Enne yelled hoarsely.

His left shoulder was turning to ash-grey stone. There was no pain or discomfort. But just like it wasn’t his own arm, no matter how much strength he used, anything below his shoulder wouldn’t move.

So this was the cause of the stone statues in the entrance hall.

“Think about it later! First, we need to get out of here! This research institute is dangerous!”

They ran back through the hallway they had walked down, but after a few seconds, the two of them froze in their steps.

……There shouldn’t have been anything back here……

Grey reptiles filled the hallway they had come from. On the walls were snakes identical to the large snake that had attacked him. From even the ceiling to the side walls were bodies of snakes slithering forward. At the very least, there were ten of them.

He recalled the mountains of ash in the hallway. Had they been hiding inside? But there was one thing he couldn’t understand. What was the reason behind going so far to prevent intruders from leaving? 

If their purpose had been to prevent people from entering the research institute, then there would be no need to hide these Recited creatures. They should have acted threatening from the very beginning, in the entrance hall. Rather, it seemed like they had been inviting people inside the research institute—

“……I see.”

He gripped the shoulder of Enne, who remained standing.

“Zessel?”

The snakes blocked the exit and sealed off the path back. Naturally, there was only one path left for intruders.

That’s right. The rascal who created this was definitely urging them to go further into the research institute.

“Enne, we can escape inside!”

Giving Enne a push from behind, Zessel ran down the corridor.

Farther into the research institute.


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