Outer World Story: Basilisk of Ice Sculpture

“Hah… damn it…”

From the pillars to the floor, everything is composed of metal, and a young man is rushing through the corridor with a resounding metallic clang.

The young man is dressed in what seems to be a military outfit with an emphasis on utility, and he has a sling around his waist that appears to be fashioned from leather with a number of metal balls serving as ammo connected to it.

“ーーーーー！”

“!?”

A faint animal-like cry can be heard coming from the rear of the passageway, and when the young man perceives it, he hastily endeavors to turn from the passageway he is currently running down into the nearest side path.
Even though he is slightly disoriented, he succeeds in entering a new passageway as he retains his speed.

“Hah hah… please let me make it…!”

“Burashaaaah!”

As soon as the young man slips into the shadow of the passageway, he begins to hide, holding his breath.
Simultaneously with the youth concealing himself, a huge quadruped with brush-like fangs on its head darts through the passageway where the youth had just been running, uttering bizarre cries.

“Damn… how did this happen…”

“ーーーーー！”

When the young man hears the cries fading away, he sinks deep into the ground and clutches his head as if lamenting the current situation.

Nonetheless, the fact that the young man is still alert to his surroundings is indicative of the level of training he has received.

Even so, the fact that he is so well-trained and is familiar with common knowledge and the rules of the game may make it even more disconcerting for him to accept his present situation.

The young man then looks back, pondering about how this situation transpired to him.

■■■■■

“Today is another peaceful day…”

“Isn’t it good being peaceful?”

With my long, thin rod in my left hand and a sling with its bullets at my waist, I and my partner, Beyta, are making the rounds of the downtown area of wooden one-story dwellings.

“Thank you for the peace today, Amaterasu-sama.”

“Well, I do understand that this peace is partly dependent on the power of Amaterasu-sama like you said, Beyta.”

Sighing more or less in agreement with Beyta, who is striking a prayer pose towards the sun in the middle of the road, I also affirm Beyta’s words.

The name of this world is “Milast”.

In this world, there seem to be several city-states, and each city has a number of gods who protect the city and its inhabitants.

And the name of the city we live in is Japoterasu, a city-state protected and administered by our main goddess, Amaterasu-sama.

“But you know what? I suppose we are the ones who actually protect this city.”

“That power to protect it was granted to us by Amaterasu-sama, wasn’t it?”

Having stopped praying, I return to the patrol with Beyta.

However, even if I said protecting, Amaterasu-sama does not actually descend and directly strike the criminals.

A God in this world is an entity who makes a contract with humans and offers a portion of their power in exchange for their prayers and other offerings.
The security organization to which Beyta and I belong aims to utilize this power to ensure the security of the city and to discover the entrance to a space called “Maze” and destroy the “Maze”.

“And this pool of water seems to be okay.”

“Then let’s move on.”

As we make our way to the back alley, Beyta uses the tip of the rod in his hand to probe the puddle’s surface to make sure it is a normal puddle.

“Oops, there’s another one over here.”

Beyta pokes the next puddle.

The “Maze”… is an existence that most people living in this world, let alone in this city, fear.

This is because, first of all, a maze suddenly materializes whenever there is a level surface that reflects light above a certain level, such as a puddle, a mirror, or a section of ore called a mirror stone.

And inside the maze is a complex maze, as the name suggests, however, I have never been inside so I can only speak from my understanding of it.

At the same time, it is said that misshapen creatures called “monsters” roam about and hunt down wandering creatures, and kill them should they venture into the maze.

Furthermore, it is reported that if left neglected, the structure inside the maze will gradually evolve into a more complex structure, while simultaneously the monsters will grow more vicious, and eventually, the monsters will even emerge outside the maze.

For this reason, we, the Security Organization, patrol the city on a daily basis and report any discoveries to our superiors, who subsequently dispatch the Security Organization’s eradication squad to destroy the maze.

“There’s one over here, too.”

Beyta pokes through puddles one after another.

Right.
The adversaries of our Security Organization are more often the mazes and the monsters that dwell there than the people who commit the crimes.

And it seems that the master of these monsters and the creator of the “Maze” have an adversarial relationship with Amaterasu-sama and other