I observe the large urban islands passing by. They're just like those found near Whakamutu, but there's not a single Vengeful Spirit around. Presumably, they've all been eaten already.

I see a mountain island that looks like it's had a chunk bitten off of it. A half-eaten meal of the Maw.

I can't deny that I'm a bit nervous. This is a monster that not even all the Celestial Horns working together could defeat. Perhaps it's so powerful that only a fully-charged [Explosion] would be enough to hurt it.

Suddenly, I feel a familiar and warm softness wrapping around the back of my head.

"Ciel?" I reflexively ask and turn around, only to not see anything there, then Ciel's angelic giggles echo inside my mind.

"This is fun," she titters through [Bind]. I focus on what she's doing and realize that her bare cow udders are squished against the back of Alissa's head. "Ah, how mean."

"You asked for this," I say, then I assume direct control of Alissa and pounce on Ciel.

 

After punishing Ciel twice, I stop Alissa's attack and turn my focus back on flying, then I see that a Celestial Horn is waiting right next to the Looping Winds. This must mean that the Maw is close.

Ciel hurriedly dresses herself while blushing, ashamed about succumbing to lust while I'm off on a dangerous mission.

"It was her idea," she protests, and I make Alissa poke her for reading my thoughts. Ciel pouts and adds, "You can't really stop us anymore. We're all too curious about what you're thinking to hold ourselves back."

"You're as much my toy as I'm yours," Alissa says to me, and although Ciel doesn't approve of her words, she can't deny them, either.

"Every time you lay with someone, who do you think is always watching?" Roxanne asks, and she smirks internally.

"Everyone?" I reply.

Roxanne chuckles. "Well, you're not completely wrong… but the correct answer is Hana."

"Hey! Snitch!" Hana yells.

"I'm always watching, too. I like how it feels inside a woman," Aoi comments.

"I wish I had a tool like yours. It feels amazing to do a woman with one," Hana adds.

"I'm not giving you one made of spirit again. I feel like that might cause things to easily spiral out of control," I nervously point out.

"Bah!" Hana complains.

"I'm fine. I prefer to spy on you while you're doing it," Aoi says.

"Same," Roxanne adds.

"I feel like there's something really wrong with how [Bind] actually works," I comment and smile internally.

"Well, I think that you're using it completely wrong, though," Alissa replies.

"It's a spell of domination, not to share senses while having fun," Roxanne adds.

"As much as Wolfy likes to act domineering, he doesn't really want to dominate us," Lina says.

My mind is immediately filled with "aww~'s," so I poke them all until they go quiet.

 

Soon after, the Holly flying above the Gull spots the Gaping Maw. A gigantic light red cloud in the shape of a bundle of coiled rope.

Fuck me, that's hu~ge. Will this small gem actually do anything to it…? Well, I guess it's supposed to give it a tummy ache, not kill it, so it might be enough.

I keep my eyes locked ahead, and eventually, I manage to spot the red cloud in the distance. It stands out due to its size and its color contrasting against this morning's starry sky.

A few minutes later, it grows enough in my sight that I can start to discern its rope-like shape.

"I've spotted the Maw," I say to the bird.

"Understood. Put me on your lap so that I can see it, too," Hukarere responds.

Hihiriwa gives the order, and the fleet moves up and away from the Looping Winds and towards the island they've chosen. Our ship stays near the Looping Winds since there's no need for them to follow the rest of the fleet anymore.

Over the course of the next half-hour, I stare at the Maw in silence as the small cloud grows larger and larger in my vision until it dwarfs me completely and gives me an intense feeling of megalophobia.

We need to get within one kilometer of it, and to measure the distance, I use the small stadia rangefinder they gave me back when we started this expedition. It's calibrated to range the Carrier, but since they know the height of the Maw, and I only need to reach a specific distance, they just converted the distances manually for me.

"Can this catapult really throw the gem that far?" I ask.

"Now you're asking this? What if I answered 'no'?" Hukarere questions me with a sassy tone, then Kaata gives her a glare, and she bites her tongue.

I shrug. "Bad question. Better one: is there something else besides the catapult that will aid the gem in its flight?"

She holds back her smirk and responds in a formal tone, "Yes, there is. Once the reaction begins, the mana being ejected will propel the gem forward, and we estimate that it should hit the Maw right on the nose."

"Good to know, but wouldn't a ballista be a better choice to launch the gem, then?"

"'Ballista'?" She questions.

"'Crossbow'? Like, a bow that you use horizontally with a mechanism that locks the bow in a drawn position."

She frowns. "I assume it's a weapon you land-dwellers use? We rarely use bows, so I know very little about them."

I guess the Chimeras are good enchanters, but bad engineers.

I shrug and reply, "Whatever. Let's focus on the now. We'll be in range soon."

 

We get close enough that I manage to see the portal through the Holly. It's as big as our ship, which is nothing but an ant beside the mountain that is the Maw.

Beyond the portal, I can see a bright blue sky and a sparkly red ground, but I don't know what it's made of. I have to get through that portal, then teleport the girls to me.

"Who goes there?" A deep, slow voice asks inside my mind in Reo.

"What?" I question through [Bind].

"What?" Alissa returns my question, and all the girls share their confusion, then they tense up in fear.

"A humanoid? Oh… are you here to hurt me…?" The voice continues.

I freeze, utterly stunned, then I realize that the voice isn't talking inside my soul space through [Bind], but rather, it's actually inside my ears.

"Who are you?" I ask out loud, my inner finger hovering over the [Gate] button inside my mind.

"Who're you talking to?" Hukarere asks.

I recognize the pleasurable "tickling" inside my ear of someone with high "Charisma" as the deep voice gently replies, "I call myself Pua… but I think you humanoids call me 'Gaping Maw.'"

"Holy shit," I mutter.

"Holy shit," the girls echo in unison. Yunia looks at Lina in confusion, then Lina starts explaining what's going on.

"Are you going to attack me?" I blurt out.

Hukarere's confusion just increases.

"No… are you going to attack me?" It replies meekly.

"This is unexpected… what do I say?" I ask for help through [Bind].

"That you won't attack, obviously. If we can get past it without angering it, then we must," Ciel immediately answers.

"Right, right…"

"No, but I need to get near you," I tell the Maw.

"What for…?" It asks, a hint of childish curiosity in its tone.

"I need to get to that portal beside you."

"Okay… just don't throw that gem near me," it responds with a slightly annoyed tone.

"Question it further. Aberrants that don't attack humans are rare," Yunia whispers to Lina.

"You're a monster, so why don't you want to attack me?" I ask the Maw.

I hear a snort, then it answers with an annoyed grumble, "Humanoids taste bad, even worse than the white gems. I like green gems."

Oof, now that's a bit chilling…

"Do you eat Chimeras?" I ask.

"No… unless they prickle me." -Its voice becomes soft and sad- "I don't like being prickled…"

Hihiriwa presses Hukarere, and she reports about what I'm talking about.

It's like a child.

"Do you hate them?" I ask.

"They're annoying…" It grouses, and I can just feel the pout in its tone.

I try to sound gentle and friendly, I ask, "Can you stay away for a little while? I don't want you to fight the Chimeras."

"Okay…" It calmly agrees.

Suddenly, I sense a burst of mana, then the Gull shakes for a moment. I look up and see the Light gem shooting forward like a comet. It starts to glow and releases a frightening amount of mana. I recognize the flavor of that mana being very similar to Ciel's [Judgment].

Ah, fuck...

"Oh… someone doesn't want you to cross through the portal…" The maw whispers casually.

My view is quickly covered in darkness as the red cloud snaps towards me like a whip, but [Battlefield Perception] doesn't activate, so I hesitate, not casting [Gate] just yet.

I'm pressed into my seat as the Gull suddenly accelerates to a ludicrous speed. I hear loud snapping as the framework of the Gull is crushed by the Maw's body, and I see the portal approaching rapidly.

Suddenly, the pressure eases off, and the illumination changes completely. A sparkly red fills more and more of my view, then I realize that it's sand. The gull's anti-crash enchantment activates, and a cloud of dust shrouds the cockpit as the Gull tumbles across the sand.

The Holly that was shadowing the Gull is still on the other side of the portal, too slow to follow me through. It gets blinded by the light being released by the gem, then it starts to receive damage.

The gem cracks and explodes, burning the eye of the Holly and nearly killing it, then it hears a deep, angry roar mixed with a sharp hiss that makes its bones tremble.

A light pierces through the dust cloud and blinds me, too. I cast [Heal] on my eyes and body, then I wait for the dust to clear away.

I'm still strapped into my seat, and the anti-crash enchantment protected the cabin from getting crushed in the impact, but the rest of the Gull has become a wreck of cloth and metal. Hukarere's bird wasn't strapped down to a seat, so it's now a mangled mess, it's head bent in the wrong direction.

Oritiki hears the roar and looks over at the deck of our ship, then she frowns and quietly murmurs something.

The dust cloud clears, and I can only see a clear blue sky with a harsh sun beating down on me. The portal that I just crossed through isn't there anymore.

"Wolf?! What happened! Wolf?! My bird is dead!" Hukarere yells desperately.

"Check with the Horns, has he teleported back to his ship?" Hihiriwa asks.

"H-he's not here…" Oritiki immediately responds, fear and anxiety seeping into her voice.

"His summoned bird is still here, so he's not dead," Kaiia says.

I cut through the straps of my seat with a dagger-tail and cast [Earth Bullet] at the cockpit window, breaking it open, then I get out and look around. There's just sparkly red sand as far as the eye can see, and the sun above is hurting my skin just like it did in the first level of this dungeon.

Hana sneaks behind the tent, then jumps off the ship and flies underneath it. She pulls out a wide plank from her [Item Box], and I open a [Gate] on it.

Ciel casts [Wind Hammer] on Paraaone's back, forcing him off the ship, then Hana slaps the plank against the ship's hull, teleporting it to me, and I summon her with [Bind].

Paraaone turns around in surprise, then stares in confusion at where our ship was just a second ago. "Wha-…?" His question dies in his throat. He looks at Oritiki and she shrugs, completely flabbergasted.

One of the comms officers reports, "His ship is… gone. It was teleported away."

Oritiki starts yelling at Hihiriwa, asking what happened, and orders the Horns to assemble. Her reaction is enough to tell us that she wasn't involved in this betrayal.

Hihiriwa's eyes are locked with my bird's, but he doesn't say anything, not even to Oritiki.

"The Maw is seemingly wounded, and it's moving away from us," another comms officer reports.

I float up to the deck of our ship and let Alissa inspect my body. She did well in keeping it together when shit hit the fan, so now we'll let her pamper me as much as she wants.

While Lina explains to Yunia what just happened, I pull out a sheet of paper and a magic pen, then I start writing a note.

 

"This is Wolf. We're safe, and we're fine. The Maw attacked the Gull and destroyed it, but I survived. I don't think it was actually trying to kill me, but instead, it simply pushed me away from the runaway mana reaction.

I had managed to start a conversation with the Maw, and I don't think that it's hostile to humanoids like monsters normally are, so the next time you have to interact with it, try to talk to it before attacking. Unfortunately, my conversation with it was cut short by a malfunction with the catapult, which launched the gem without my command.

I've teleported the ship already, and the "distraction" was successful, so we're not going back, and this is the last time we'll talk. We'll continue on our journey, but we'll always keep you in our hearts.

Oritiki, it was a pleasure getting to know you and the Horns. Also, tell Hukarere and Ririmu that we're fine and we'll miss them, too.

The Ryder family says goodbye. Until next time."

 

"It's good enough," Yunia says.

"Why aren't we accusing someone of activating the catapult?!" Hana angrily questions.

"Can we prove it?" Yunia calmly asks.

We take a look at the Gull. The catapult is a mangled mess, and even the [Fly] gem was cracked.

"It's better to not cause undue friction unless it's advantageous to us," Yunia continues.

"It's not like we're going to see them again," Hana replies with a shrug.

I frown and say, "Actually, I think we might. Once we reach the dungeon's core, there may be a way to take them out of here."

"Hm… do you want to recruit them, or something?" Hana asks.

I shrug. "Perhaps. We'll see what they want when the time comes."

"We'll have to be more careful with Hihiriwa when we negotiate with him. He certainly outplayed us this time," Yunia comments.

"This is why I dislike dealing with spirits. They tend to gradually become increasingly irrational and violent after they die," Ciel says.

"Gih," Gify chirps.

"So, it's like they turn feral?" I question, and Gify nods.

"We don't know if that's the case with Hihiriwa, though," Yunia adds.

Hana purses her lips and lets it go.

I summon a small wind elemental and give it the letter, then I open a [Gate] to the Carrier's infirmary, and the elemental crosses through. The shortstack doctor gets surprised by the sudden gust of wind, but she doesn't see anything.

The elemental flies through the Carrier and gets outside through a Cannon Room, then it searches for Oritiki. It sees the Winch latching onto a huge island covered with overgrown grass. The ship unfurls all of its sails, then enchantments light up all over its deck and underside, and wind blows into them. It leaks so much stray mana that the wind elemental can easily feel it, and it's probably over 1 km away from the source.

After a few minutes, the elemental finds Oritiki, and they stop in front of each other.

She points her glaive at the elemental and glares at it suspiciously. "Wolf? Is this one of yours?" She asks.

The elemental offers the letter and bows. Paraaone stops and hovers beside Oritiki, pointing his glaive at the elemental too.

"I guess it is…" Oritiki mutters, then cautiously accepts the letter and reads it.

Her expression shifts from concerned, to angry, to soft, and ends with sad. She gives it to Paraaone to read, then his posture immediately relaxes as he grins.

She glides closer to the elemental and says, "I don't believe in this 'malfunction' even a little bit. I admit that I don't know why Hihiriwa wanted to enrage the Maw, but I'll find a way to talk and make peace with it."

Nobody seems to know anything about the portal, so perhaps it was another "forbidden topic." Regardless, her interpretation is convenient for us, so we'll let things stay this way.

I unsummon the wind elemental, and we wait for a short while until Oritiki enters the Carrier's bridge.

She ignores Hihiriwa and simply hands the letter to the distraught Hukarere. There was no way for her to talk to us because the comms box doesn't work anymore, so she could only wait anxiously until something happened. She quickly calms down as she reads and smiles, then she starts petting the bird.

Oritiki glares at Hihiriwa as she says, "The Ryders are safe. The Gull was destroyed, so he teleported their ship to save himself. Since the Maw has flown away, they'll continue their journey on their own."

"Have you confirmed that it was destroyed?" Hihiriwa calmly asks.

"No, but I trust them," she responds coldly.

He nods. "Then I shall as well." He turns to the bird and gently says, "Goodbye, Ryders. It was a pleasure to have you with us."

I wish that Hukarere could keep the bird, but I need to learn to let go, so I unsummon it and all the Hollys that I have there.

I sigh and take a moment to work through my sadness. Hihiriwa made things difficult for us. If it weren't for him, we could still go back without a problem, but now, it'll be really awkward and a bit dangerous to try to patch up our relationship.

I click my tongue and jump off our ship. I land on the hot, soft red sand and awkwardly walk over to Lina.

"Anything salvageable?" I ask.

"The gem and the emellanat, but the gem will need to be re-enchanted before it's usable again," Lina answers.

"Can you study the gem and learn how to improve ours?"

She shakes her head, and her bangs sway gently. "This one was designed for heavy lifting, and the empire's ships are already proficient at that, including ours. If we had a Wasp, though…"

I purse my lips. "If I knew he was going to betray us like this, I'd have stolen one."

She turns to me and tilts her head, then shields her eyes from the harsh sun. "Didn't Faium improve their [Fly] gems? They might be comparable to the Chimeras, now."

"True… it might be easier to buy some and make our own Wasps than to steal some from them."

"Can we even bring this Gull outside of the dungeon? We don't know what's real matter and what isn't."

"The gem is the most important part, so let's remove it, and I can try to store the Gull in my 'Items.'"

She nods emphatically and crawls into the wreck, then she uses [Manipulate Metal] to get open a path towards the gem and free it from the mangled metal frame. We pull the gem out with [Telekinesis], then I store a small piece of the Gull in my "Items."

The entry "Metal beam" appears in my "Items," so this means that the Gull isn't a dungeon mana solidification. I store the rest of the wreck, then I take a look at the gem.

It's unsafe to put a cracked gem inside an [Item Box], and I don't want to risk it with my "Items," so we take it to the hold and secure it with some rope.

I was afraid of messing too much with our ship because it could "dissolve" if it was made of dungeon mana, but now that our feet are on solid ground again, I decide to test it.

I take a splinter out of our ship and store it in my "Items," and the entry "Wood splinter" appears. I almost clap my fingers in excitement like Roxanne. The ship is real, though the [Fly] gem could still be a fake.

I get out of the hold and look up at the sky. This dungeon has some pretty amazing views, but I have to set my [Breeze] enchantment to the max for this floor. This red desert may be beautiful, but I want to get us under some shade as soon as I can. Unfortunately, there don't seem to be any obvious clues regarding which direction we should search in.

I summon nine Hollys and tell them to spread out in all directions, including up, then I walk to the bridge, and we lift off. Destination: wherever we can hide from this infernal sun.