Flames move not by calculation, but by reaction.
The southern research institute of the Ignis Empire.
Now that the Golden Core, the first dual-attribute core, had revealed its existence to the world, that place was no longer a secret research institute.
At present, the institute was operating under a new name: the Fusion Center.
As its name suggested, the Fusion Center was a facility that fused two different kinds of cores to create dual-attribute cores.
After the successful fusion of the Golden Core, the researchers of Ignis had come to possess that technology, but due to a shortage of metal cores to use as materials, the production of additional Golden Cores had been halted.
Instead, they were conducting new experiments with the life cores they had seized from Silva without authorization.
“Fire grows greater atop wood…”
Lexa, a researcher at the Fusion Center, murmured as she set a flame core and a life core together and stared at them.
Beside her, another researcher, Caltheon, spoke.
“I applied the same method we used when researching Metallum’s cores, but I’m not sure whether this phenomenon is good or bad. They do seem to be absorbing each other’s energy, but the core from Silva is turning black.”
Lexa nodded.
“That’s a natural reaction. The question is whether a core that changes like that has any use.”
Caltheon fell silent in thought.
To begin with, the two cores had not fused.
Only the color of the life core had changed.
After a moment, he said to Lexa,
“If Silva’s core simply burns up in ours and that’s the end of it, the result doesn’t seem very useful. Wouldn’t it be better if it maintained a state where the flame of our flame core kept burning?”
“I suppose so.”
Lexa answered as she lightly touched the life core.
Crackle, hiss. Hiss-crackle.
When she drew her hand back, only the part of the life core Lexa had touched was slightly scorched.
She examined the life core closely.
“Too much reactivity is a problem as well. At this rate, the reaction ends before anything can even happen. No wonder the cores the soldiers brought back all looked to be in poor condition.”
“Still, it doesn’t seem as if they’ve been rendered completely unusable.”
“That’s a relief. Compared to how many of Metallum’s cores were ruined during the research process.”
After thinking for a moment, Lexa continued.
“Our heat and their growth. We should be able to expect synergy. There must be a way.”
As if crimson flame and blue life waves had crossed one another, the two kinds of cores were showing a brief vibration.
The strategy room inside Volcanium Fortress.
Vulcanus slowly took his seat.
Around him were Varkas, Ragdor, Pellos, and Lexa.
Vulcanus opened his mouth.
“How is the training of the new troop type progressing?”
Varkas answered first.
“Approximately sixty members of the Crimson Flame Knights have completed training. Their mobility has improved to roughly twice that of our existing flame spearmen, and their striking power has been increased through combustion reactions.”
Vulcanus nodded.
“This time, we will secure more metal cores from Metallum. Only then can we build our Golden Barracks and train a Golden Army.”
At that moment, Ragdor spoke quietly.
“Your Majesty, I have information to report. It is said that Terra approached Metallum not long ago.”
“Hmm?”
Vulcanus, as well as the other retainers, looked at Ragdor with expressions of surprise.
Vulcanus asked him,
“What happened?”
“To begin from the start, Terra’s army suddenly invaded Aqua. It was an invasion powerful enough to bring down as many as three of Aqua’s regions.”
Vulcanus stroked his chin.
“That is truly strange. Why would they do something beneficial for us? When I went to Terramont in person long ago and spoke with him, all he did was ignore me… In any case, that is that. And after attacking Aqua like that, they went to Metallum? What intention lies behind that?”
Ragdor answered cautiously again.
“Of course, during the invasion, Aqua had a considerable number of cores taken by Terra. But Terra delivered the Aqua cores they seized in that manner straight to Metallum. I do not know whether it was all of them, but in any case, it was no small amount.”
For an instant, the heat in the strategy room wavered.
No one could immediately continue speaking.
Varkas quietly opened his mouth.
“Has Terra joined hands with Metallum?”
“Impossible.”
Vulcanus cut him off firmly.
“As far as I know, Terramont is a hidebound fellow who loves interfering in other people’s affairs, yet never moves when others actually seek his help. And such a man struck Aqua and offered all the cores he seized to Metallum? Could this be…”
The flames flowing along his skin glowed an even deeper red.
“Could this be a scheme to drive us into a corner in another sense? Since Aqua currently shows no sign of trying to keep us in check, has he assigned that role to Metallum?!”
Pellos nodded and spoke in a quiet, low voice.
“It would seem he intends to empower Metallum while making them suppress us.”
Vulcanus fell silent in thought.
Terramont was a man slow as soil and unchanging as stone.
Such a man had moved.
And that movement was not like dust in the wind, but deep and rough like an earthquake.
Lexa also spoke carefully.
“But Metallum will not be able to use Aqua’s cores immediately. Until they fuse those cores with their own, it seems we still have time…”
Vulcanus’s expression remained grave.
A small flame rose from the tips of his fingers.
“Terramont. How should I punish that man? Damn it, so his attack on Aqua wasn’t simply good news after all. Did he really have to go that far to interfere with our use of the Golden Core?”
Pellos frowned slightly and said,
“I still do not fully understand Terra’s actions. For now, our Golden Core cannot harm them at all. It is an outstanding core capable of keeping both Silva and Metallum in check at once, but it poses no particular threat to Terra or Aqua. So why would Terra react…?”
“Because it is Terramont!”
Vulcanus looked at Pellos.
“That is the kind of man Terramont has always been. They claim to stand at the center because they are at the center of this land, and then go meddling here and there, saying they must maintain the balance of the world. Of course, until now it was all just words, so I thought there was no need to pay much attention. But I never imagined he would move like this. I never imagined he would try to check us in the most foolish way possible.”
Lexa spoke again.
“We will accelerate our core research. If the fusion of the flame core and Silva’s core succeeds, that core will become a far more direct threat to Terra. What’s more, Silva’s life cores can be obtained in any quantity from Silva without even needing to wage war…”
“Hmm, that is true. Silva’s life cores are, in effect, ours as well.”
Vulcanus looked around and said,
“In any case, the faster dual-attribute core research proceeds, the better. At this point, possessing dual-attribute cores directly affects national power. We have already produced the Golden Core, so creating a new core should not be difficult, should it?”
Lexa hesitated before answering.
“Ah, yes… That is correct. The research will be completed more quickly. Please wait just a little longer.”
“Very well.”
Vulcanus smiled sinisterly as he thought of something.
“Yes, soil is opposed by wood. But Silva is also passive in its movements, leaving enemies before its eyes alone. Yet what would happen if we came to possess Silva’s attribute? They, too, would find themselves in a difficult position. Whether one speaks of mutual generation or balance, in the end, the goal of all of us is the conquest of the world. That is the natural flow and order in the growth of an empire.”
Varkas gauged his expression and asked,
“Are you perhaps thinking of attacking Terra as well?”
“Well, there is no reason we cannot. It is merely not for the immediate moment. Terramont—that man may think I have no way to act against him… No. Rather, he may have approached Metallum because he knew we possessed cores with the energy of wood. In any case, we have ample justification to attack Terra. We will consider that side once we create the new dual-attribute core.”
When Vulcanus finished speaking, silence settled over the strategy room.
Even his retainers could not easily guess his true intentions.
Vulcanus’s eyes burned hotly as he spoke in a low voice.
“What we possess is swift flame. A charge instead of calculation, speed instead of a shield. What the battlefield needs is not a fire that grows slowly, but a flame that, once it leaps, spreads to the very end.”
Dozens of Crimson Flame Knights stood in a line, waiting beneath the inner wall of Volcanium.
Flame patterns flowed across their red armor.
Their gazes did not waver, and in their armed hands they held enormous crimson swords.
At a glance, the weapons appeared heavy, but they were ready to move with unrestrained speed.
From afar, citizens watching the knights from beyond the wall murmured among themselves.
“What is this, a sortie?”
“But it doesn’t look like the Golden Unit, does it?”
“Right. Those knights are flame-type, like us.”
“Are the Golden Knights not coming out yet?”
“They say there aren’t even barracks to train the golden type right now. To build barracks, they need more Golden Cores, and the materials for those cores are still Metallum’s cores.”
“Hm, complicated. So they’re attacking Metallum again now to get those materials, right?”
“Yeah, that’s what I heard. But that speed… It’s like a fireball running.”
A short while later, the gate at the border opened, and the vanguard commander Kaelos raised his hand high.
“Crimson Flame Knights, sortie!”
The knights began to race forward on feet wreathed in flame.
With sounds that burst as they shoved the wind aside, they swiftly stretched out toward the northwest.
Watching that scene from within the fortress, Vulcanus nodded and muttered softly to himself.
“It is not only fire that spreads. Iron and wood, too, will soon mix with our flames and spread. Soil as well, and if possible, even water. Now, we shall become the foundation.”
The flames of Ignis began to spread rapidly toward Metallum.
While speed and heat covered the battlefield, another movement was taking place far to the north.
This time, it was not a quiet movement.
A long time had passed since the currents of the deep sea overlapped with the breath of life.
And at last, the time had come for a new wave to be born from that overlapping.