"Come with me!"
Instructor Cattleya, her face pale, grabbed my hand and started running down the corridor.
"Wait, Instructor..."
"Shut up! Just come!"
The place I was dragged to was Shion's private room.
There, in Shion's private room,
"...Eh?"
Shion was lying sideways on the bed, not moving at all.
"...Eh?"
I let out a voice drained of hope twice.
Because it's clear he's not just sleeping.
His eyes are open, and he's completely still.
It's like he's... dead...
"All vital signs have stopped – breathing, pulse, heart sounds."
Platanus, who was in Shion's room, muttered this.
Looking around, I saw Instructor Cattleya, who had brought me here, along with Iris, Saffron, and Platanus in Shion's room.
Everyone, except for Platanus, had a look of profound grief on their faces.
"What? Eh? Shion...?"
I approached Shion, who was motionless on the bed.
"...!?"
He's not breathing!
Shion is not breathing!
In a panic, I grabbed Shion's hand, but it was chillingly cold.
"...This can't be... No... It's a lie!"
I shouted, pressing my ear against Shion's chest, but his heart had stopped too.
"It's a lie! It's a lie! This can't be happening!"
"Please calm down, Lord Crow. Lord Shion is not dead."
Platanus, the only one who seemed normal in the room, stated this calmly."Lord Crow, did you notice anything when you touched Lord Shion?"
"…?"
Prompted by Platanus, I gently touched Shion's body, feeling his forehead, arms, and legs.
"Eh?"
Shion's body was as cold as a corpse.
However, something was odd.
The texture of his body was strange.
There was no elasticity at all.
Even accounting for rigor mortis, it was unnaturally stiff.
It was as if,
"It feels like stone, doesn't it?"
"…Yes. So, he's not dead… he's solidified…?"
"To put it simply, yes. Whether we can say he is alive in this state is uncertain, but it's also not correct to say he is dead. What happens next is beyond our imagination."
Platanus, speaking in a calm manner, rested his chin in his hand, deep in thought.
"Lord Crow, you were said to be able to see the spirit residing in the Holy Sword, which is usually only visible to the hero, right?"
"Yes."
"Has this spirit mentioned anything about this condition?"
"No good… Holly isn't in front of me right now. I thought she'd be near Shion, but… she's not…"
"…It seems the situation is quite serious…"
I decided to ask everyone what had happened during my absence.
It appears that Shion was training as usual in the castle's courtyard, with Instructor Cattleya and Iris accompanying him.
Meanwhile, Platanus was listing potential lands suitable for increasing food production and was creating documents for it, with Saffron assisting in the survey and miscellaneous tasks.
While everyone was going about their usual business, the sky over the capital suddenly clouded over, and they noticed a gigantic dungeon floating above, leading to discusshions on how to respond.
Shion, the only one besides me who could see Holly, was the first to notice my absence and was visibly shaken.
Shion, having asked Holly to search for me, remained deeply withdrawn.
Unable to stand seeing Shion like this, everyone split up to search within the castle and around the capital, but with me in the deepest part of the dungeon, they couldn't possibly find me and returned empty-handed, only to find Shion in this state.
"…So, Holly disappeared because Shion became like this…"
The spirit Holly, residing in the Holy Sword, awakens with the hero and is supposed to enter a slumber upon the hero's death.In this scenario, considering the worst-case scenario means assuming Shion is dead, a terrifying thought I don't even want to entertain, so I'll exclude that possibility.
If there's even the slightest chance of that being true, we're all finished.
When the Demon Lord revives, all of humanity will be massacred together, and that would be the end.
If we consider Shion's current state as some form of suspended animation for some reason, Holly's disappearance and Shion's unconscious state make sense.
"…"
I touched Shion's body once more.
It truly felt solidified like stone, devoid of any human warmth.
I even thought it could be a well-made doll, but that wouldn't explain Holly's disappearance.
"Lord Crow. Lord Shion's condition clearly isn't something that could occur through normal means. There are two possibilities. A monster that emerged from one of the dungeons that have been appearing and disappearing around the world lately, possessing some special ability that harmed the hero. Or, it could be the work of the divine swords' saintly swords."
"I think it's the ability of the saintly swords. Shion looks like he's been frozen solid. My Ice Sword couldn't do anything like this, but I can't imagine anything other than the divine sword's power causing this situation."
"Hmm. But, can a saintly sword bearer really do something like this? We're talking about Shion here. Frankly, even if all the saintly sword bearers teamed up, they shouldn't be a match for Shion's strength."
Platanus, Iris, and Saffron each voiced their opinions, all making valid points.
Especially Iris's opinion seemed to carry the most conviction.
Saintly sword bearers acting against the hero is unprecedented, but I know of three individuals who have taken such actions.
And it's unimaginable for the hero to be bested by mere monsters.
If that were possible, the world would have perished long ago.
Therefore, let's assume it was an attack on Shion using the saintly swords' abilities.
Then, the answer comes quickly.
First, we can exclude everyone here and the saintly swords owned by Prince Heath.
I trust the people here, and even if, for the sake of argument, there was someone among us willing to betray me, I can confidently say there isn't a single person here who would harm the hero, knowing the Demon Lord's revival is imminent.Considering the abilities of the Explosive Flame Sword, Ice Sword, Thunder Sword, Vacuum Sword, and Distance Sword, it's impossible for any of them to petrify Shion into stone.
The closest phenomenon that could be produced is by Iris's Ice Sword, but Shion is clearly not frozen.
No offense to Iris, but both in terms of power and personality, it's impossible for her to harm Shion.
And the saintly swords possessed by Cinelaria, Jasmine, Amaranth — the Underworld Sword, Healing Sword, Demon God Sword, Rakshasa Sword, and Demon-Class Sword — don't have the ability to turn someone into stone either.
Of course, it's also impossible for the Pegasus Sword, which I wield.
That leaves us with the last saintly sword, the Time-Flow Sword, as the perpetrator.
It's a sinister saintly sword whose wielder has yet to reveal themselves.
The only saintly sword whose shape and abilities we have yet to see.
"…There's a saintly sword we don't know about called the Time-Flow Sword…"
As I murmured this, Platanus stared at me intently.
"What kind of ability does this saintly sword have?"
"It seems to control one's own time and that of others."
"Control time? Not just simply traveling to the past or future?"
"Yes. It seems it can't perform feats like traveling to different eras. The basic use involves accelerating one's own time for ultra-fast movement attacks and decelerating the opponent's time for disruption and weakening."
"…That's a very powerful, rather malevolent ability. To accelerate oneself while decelerating adversaries. It's not about attack, defense, healing, or support. It's a saintly sword specialized in enhancement and interference."
Platanus seemed to immediately grasp the horror of the Time-Flow Sword from the brief description I provided.
"It's shaped like a single-edged sword. Like a katana."
"…Even more terrifying. Being attacked by an opponent who moves much faster than oneself with a sharp blade is unimaginable."
"Wait a minute, Crow. Can this Time-Flow Sword really put Shion in this state?"
Instructor Cattleya interrupted the conversation between me and Platanus.