“Are—cough—you all right?”
The mouth I opened to speak instantly lost all its moisture and went bone-dry. It felt as though I had finished a marathon without taking so much as a single sip of water.
“…Yeah.”
At the same time, Commandment, who had practically been trapped in my arms, took a step away from me. The purpose for which I had held her had already been accomplished, so I made no particular effort to keep hold of her.
“This heat is insane.”
Instead, I retrieved Ratel, which had wrapped around us like a cocoon. Ratel’s outer surface had melted into a limp mess, indirectly showing just how intense the wave of heat that had swept over us had been.
“Even the residual heat is painful.”
Then, the instant Ratel disappeared, the dried-out air came crashing down on us. My nose and mouth were already parched, and now it felt as though the air was openly slurping the moisture right out of them.
“Do you have water?”
“I do.”
I had brought a little drinking water with me just in case, and looking back on it now, that had been an extremely wise decision. I opened my inventory and searched for a waterskin with a somewhat hurried air.
“Now I can finally breathe again.”
While I was at it, I also took out the orb I had put away in my inventory. Whenever we fought demons, there were times when Demonic Energy overflowed, so I had stored it away in case it shattered… and considering the filter that had vanished entirely, that decision had been absolutely right as well.
My hand uncapped the waterskin I had taken out last.
“……?”
What the hell…