The bridge shuddered again—worse than before.
Hairline cracks crawled across the stone like living things, weaving outward from the Behemoth's pinned forelegs and the point where Hajime's transmutation clamp anchored into the bridge. Every bellow, every thrash sent tremors through the structure.
Hajime's arms shook from exertion, muscles trembling as mana poured out of him in a steady stream. Sweat slid down his chin and hit the stone with tiny taps.
"Just—stay—DOWN!" he growled through clenched teeth.
The clamp strained, its surface fracturing as the Behemoth's berserk mana surged. Deep red light bled through the cracks in its hide, illuminating the bridge in jagged pulses.
Its roar shook loose dust from the high cavern ribs overhead.
"HOLD IT!" Meld's voice boomed.
Spells rained down on the Behemoth's skull—fire, ice, stone spikes, blinding light. The air shivered with mana discharge. Knights braced shields, taking glancing hits from the monster's flailing horns.
Shizuku danced along the bridge edge, blade carving precise arcs that targeted exposed joints. Ryutarou slammed hammer-like gauntlets into the Behemoth's flank, shockwaves rippling out. Kouki's holy sword seared brilliant white lines across the monster's neck—clean hits but not deep enough.
"Damn it—!" Kouki hissed, tightening his stance. "Why won't this thing DIE!?"
"It's a Behemoth!" Meld shouted back. "Not a slime! Stop whining and CUT!"
Another pulse of dark mana cracked the bridge further.
Hajime's breathing hitched.
He wasn't afraid of the monster.
He was afraid of the math.
The load distribution.
The failing anchor points.
The structural fracture pattern.
The bridge won't last.
Even Resonance didn't need to tell him. He felt the stone weakening like brittle bones.
"Everyone—SHIFT BACK!" Hajime barked, trying to redistribute weight. "Move toward the center arches! Left side first—!"
A few knights heard him, but the formation was too locked in—too focused on the beast.
And behind them—
Hiyama froze.
His chest rose and fell, shallow and quick. Sweat trickled down from his hairline.
Kaori stood near the rear rank, healing circles glowing beneath her feet. She was chanting rapidly, eyes sharp with fear every time Hajime's mana pulsed violently through the bridge.
She was still looking at him.
Always him.
Hiyama's hands tightened around his staff.
(…Why him?)
Everything spiraled through his mind—Kaori leaving Hajime's room, the faint glow he'd glimpsed, the soft way she'd spoken to him this morning.
He remembered her glancing at Hajime after Meld mentioned glanz crystals—proposal gems.
He remembered Hajime calmly saving caster after caster in the battle.
And now—
Hajime was holding the Behemoth in place.
The weakest one.
The one who should've been useless.
The one she kept looking at.
A sharp, ugly emotion twisted inside Hiyama's chest.
He didn't want to be the villain.
He didn't want to hurt anyone.
He didn't want blood on his hands.
But he wanted Hajime gone.
He wanted Kaori to stop looking at anyone else.
He wanted—just once—to not feel like he was standing in someone else's shadow.
The Behemoth slammed its massive head sideways, horns scraping sparks off the stone.
Hajime gritted his teeth, reinforcing the clamp by brute force, arms trembling from the strain.
He was wide open.
Focused.
Stationary.
And the bridge beneath him—
Cracked.
Deeply.
All it would take—
Was a nudge.
A single spell.
One tiny force hitting the wrong fracture line.
Hiyama swallowed hard, throat dry.
His fingers shook as he raised his staff—not at the Behemoth, not at the skeletons, but at the sliver of broken bridge behind Hajime.
"Just… move… out of the way…" he whispered.
"Why won't you… just stop being in the way…"
His mana gathered.
A compressed sphere, tiny, sharp-edged, barely enough to break a boulder.
But enough to break a crack.
Kaori, mid-chant, felt a spike of wrongness in the air. And began searching for it.
He flinched.
His heart pounded.
He didn't meet her eyes.
"…Stone—" he breathed, voice barely audible.
Hajime's head snapped up.
His eyes widened—
"DON'T—!"
"—FRACTURE."
The spell fired.
A sharp crack—like a hammer on thin ice—rang through the bridge.
The already-fractured segment gave way.
The stone beneath Hajime's knees shattered.
The transmutation clamp ripped apart with a violent snap.
The Behemoth's weight shifted, dragging the entire anchored section with it.
"Hajime-kun!!" Kaori screamed.
Her voice tore through the cavern—and through Hajime's chest.
Time slowed.
His eyes locked with hers.
Her pendant pulsed—bright, terrified.
He felt—
Not her thoughts.
Not her emotions.
But the echo of her fear, transmitted through the paired Resonance crystal.
A dim, flickering heartbeat of panic.
"Kaori—"
He reached a hand toward her.
She reached back.
But the stone vanished.
The world tilted.
Gravity seized him.
The Behemoth's massive body slid with him, still entangled in broken stone.
The bridge ruptured, stone falling away like slabs of paper.
Below them—
Nothing.
A black abyss.
Hajime fell.
The Behemoth fell.
Broken stone spiraled around them like meteor fragments.
Kaori lunged forward, screaming his name—only for Shizuku and Kouki to grab her shoulders, holding her back before she threw herself off the collapsing edge.
"HAJIME—!!"
Her pendant dimmed suddenly—its glow flickering weakly as Hajime lost consciousness.
The Resonance link thinned.
Frayed.
Didn't break.
But dimmed to a trembling ember.
Hajime's last sight was the shrinking circle of faint blue glowstone above, surrounded by horrified faces—Kaori's the brightest among them, eyes brimming with tears and terror.
Then darkness swallowed him.
He plummeted.
Past Floor 70.
Past Floor 80.
Past Floor 90.
Past Floor 100.
Into the true depths of the Orcus Great Labyrinth.
The world disappeared.
The abyss took him.
And everything went black.
—END OF CHAPTER 10—
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Author: "Send me your stones!"
Reader: "Bro, this ain't happening outside of Ohio 💀."
Author: gets teleported to Cleveland against their will 🚀
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