The earth does not change.
It merely watches.
“Ooh… whoa!”
On the southern plains of the Terra Empire, Stone hurriedly rolled up before Boulder.
Boulder said,
“So, what did you just see?”
“Grandfather, Metalum— they say a dragon came out of Metalum!”
Unable to hide his excitement, Stone shouted toward Boulder.
Seeing Stone’s reaction, Boulder let out a laugh.
“Hohoho, I suppose that is worth being surprised over. Now Metalum has come to possess a dragon as well.”
Stone rolled once in place.
“But the fortunate thing is that Metalum can’t attack us directly, right? Then even if that dragon comes to us, it won’t be all that dangerous, will it?”
“Hm-hm. For now, I suppose so. It must be a White Dragon, no doubt—the dragon of Metalum.”
“Mm, yes. That’s what they say. By now, it seems to have already started moving. Where do you think it’s headed?”
Boulder was silent for a moment.
A little later, Boulder answered.
“It seems to be heading for Ignis.”
“Ignis… Ah!”
Stone sprang up.
“That’s right! If I were a dragon, I think I’d go attack Ignis too! Metalum has only ever been attacked by Ignis all this time. Wow, then at last…?”
“Hrm. Yes, it seems the opportunity for revenge has finally come.”
Stone tilted his body to the side.
“But why has Metalum never taken revenge until now? Or did they just choose not to?”
From deep within Boulder, a single breath sounded.
“Who knows. In truth, Ignis is an empire that advances quickly. Even as Metalum tempered itself, built structures, and trained its army, Ignis was always one or two steps ahead. In an already opposing relationship, Ignis held the advantage—and fire spreads without rest, after all.”
Boulder paused once, then continued.
“Of course, it was not that Metalum never dared. At last, they did gather their army and prepare to depart for Ignis. But soon after, a better offer came from this center first. To defend the center together.”
“Ah…”
Stone remembered that the army of the Metalum Empire had once stayed in the Terra Empire.
“Yes, that’s right. That did happen. Taking the center would be better than attacking Ignis. But then they suffered at Ignis’s hands once again…”
“It must have been because they were too arrogant. At the time, they seem to have believed they could do anything. They likely thought that even this center could not touch Metalum—but at that very moment, they had not expected Ignis to suddenly move.”
“Yes, I suppose so…”
Stone turned his body and looked up at the sky.
From Stone’s view, the White Dragon Aureus could not be seen.
Even so, Stone tried to feel the flow of the world.
Boulder asked Stone,
“Child, who do you think will win among them?”
In his heart, Stone was cheering for someone, but he did not bother voicing that thought.
“Mm… I’m not sure, but in the end, Ignis will probably manage to stop the dragon, won’t they? Our Montanus fell too, after all. Still, I think there will be a lot of damage.”
“Hm, yes. In truth, unless one side completely declines, there is no such thing as winning or losing. Ignis will suffer greatly from this incident, but that does not mean it will disappear.”
Stone straightened his body again.
“But what happens if Ignis loses the war? If even the fortress truly collapses?”
Boulder did not answer immediately.
A little later, Boulder spoke to Stone.
“That may not happen, unless matters become truly exceptional. If it really reaches that point, Terramont will not simply stand by and watch either. No matter how much one may hate an opponent, if that opponent disappears and the balance is lost, what will become of this world?”
At Boulder’s words, Stone stopped moving.
Stone, too, stood still and sank into thought.
Of course, rumors of the White Dragon Aureus of the Metalum Empire were spreading even within the Terra Empire.
“At last, a dragon has appeared. They say it’s a White Dragon.”
At one citizen’s words, several citizens turned their gazes toward him.
“Ah, in Metalum?”
“That’s right. And the direction it’s moving in now is Ignis.”
“Hrm.”
Another citizen glanced south.
“Ignis still doesn’t have a dragon, does it? It’ll be quite difficult to stop.”
“Our Montanus achieved tremendous results almost entirely on his own, didn’t he?”
“But perhaps…”
That citizen was still looking south.
“It will be an even fiercer battle than with Montanus. How much has Ignis tormented Metalum all this time? They are only now beginning a proper counterattack, and of all things, that counterattack is an assault using a dragon.”
The citizens of the earth murmured over the rumor, yet not one of them showed intense emotion.
Perhaps they instinctively knew.
A dragon moves of its own free will—but also what common purpose lies behind a dragon’s movements.
“At least it won’t come to this center…”
One citizen said as if muttering.
The citizen beside him added a word as well.
“Even if it came, what could it do? It isn’t in an opposing relationship with us.”
At that moment, a single mountain giant could be seen walking far in the distance.
The mountain giants were patrolling the silent earth within the Terra Empire.
The citizen spoke again.
“Even if not right now, it will come someday. Like how they brought an army to this center last time. In the end, all things in the world will gather at this center.”
The other citizens who heard his words flinched in surprise.
“What, wait. Are you saying this place will become the final battlefield?”
The citizen shook his head indifferently.
“Don’t misunderstand me. Is there any need for us to fight? In an age where even different attributes can fuse, I am looking at the possibility that all of us may fuse into one. In any case, that is only my thought. In the end, I believe our emperor will decide everything.”
Soon, the gathered citizens each dispersed.
They continued the work they had always done.
Some paved roads, some refined stones, and others engraved records into rock.
Beneath the earth, a heavy vibration sounded once more.
That vibration, brushing past beneath the citizens’ feet, reminded them that there was still a center that had not changed.
At that time, Emperor Terramont was sitting atop the fortress, looking southwest.
To the southwest, between the Ignis Empire and the Metalum Empire, an uproar had broken out due to Aureus’s appearance.
That uproar was gradually drawing closer to Ignis.
Without a word, Terramont rose and headed underground into the fortress.
The door to the conference room beneath the fortress opened, and Terramont entered.
The three retainers were seated in their respective places, waiting for him.
Terramont and his retainers sat around the circular table.
Terramont looked up at the ceiling.
The earth was still conveying faint vibrations.
“The White Dragon, Aureus, is moving.”
Gorban answered his words briefly.
“Yes… so it seems.”
Then Gaia spoke.
“At last, Metalum has succeeded in summoning a dragon as well. It seems another great upheaval will occur in this world.”
Gorban shook his head uneasily.
“In one sense, it makes me uneasy. The White Dragon itself will not harm the earth of the center. However, it will shake the balance of the world in another way. As Montanus did, it too appears to be moving without receiving anyone’s orders.”
Latos looked down at the map engraved on the table and said,
“The White Dragon has already moved. It is heading for Ignis now, is it not? The White Dragon is in a state of anger toward Ignis. Unlike Montanus, the White Dragon Aureus has already decided on its course of action. It has decided to take revenge on Ignis.”
Terramont kept silent for a long while.
After that silence passed, his voice flowed out from deep within his body.
“Collision is inevitable. Like Montanus, Aureus is moving in order to carry out what it must do. No one can defy a dragon’s decision.”
Once again, the atmosphere in the conference room sank heavily.
Gaia looked at Terramont.
“Then… are we unable to intervene in that situation? If Ignis were to fall…”
“That will not happen.”
Terramont’s voice was firm.
“It is already decided fate that Ignis will struggle greatly, but it is not so weak that it will disappear. The balance of the world will not be an issue.”
Terramont did not seem greatly worried about Aureus’s appearance.
Just as Montanus had fallen, Aureus would eventually fall as well.
And its energy would be absorbed beneath the earth of the world and be reborn as a metal core.
Perhaps Aureus’s appearance, too, would be a great but temporary incident.
Gorban asked cautiously,
“Are you saying we should simply watch…?”
Terramont answered.
“I am not saying we will stand by. It is simply not a situation in which we should intervene.”
He rose from his seat and walked around the conference room.
He wished to feel the vibrations of the earth transmitted from all directions.
“Is a dragon not the most complete existence that can be summoned through pure energy?”
There was something profoundly meaningful in Terramont’s statement.
“Therefore, we must not interfere with their decisions.”
Having finished speaking, Terramont slowly prepared to leave the conference room.
Gaia hurriedly asked him,
“Your Majesty, then, separate from the White Dragon, what must we prepare?”
“As always, strengthen the power of this center.”
Terramont left the conference room.
Following Terramont’s order, Gaia and Gorban summoned mountain giants from the barracks.
Terra was already capable of resummoning Montanus.
However, since they did not need a dragon immediately, they trained mountain giants and strengthened the center’s defensive power.
Latos constructed additional barracks and spent a large quantity of earth cores on increasing their forces.
Terra did not have a laboratory, let alone a research institute.
Even so, they still maintained their position at the center.
Instead, they held superiority in numbers.
It was the result of Terra silently growing the center while other empires fused cores and waged war against one another.
The mountain giants, created one by one, strode through Montera with their enormous bodies.
Now, they would leave Montera and protect the center across all of Terra.
Terramont was looking down at Terra’s territory from the top of the fortress.
“Even if the world shakes, the center alone does not.”
Each time the mountain giants walked, vibrations arose, but those were not signs of an abnormality.
The earth does not react to the movements of the mountain giants.
It was merely watching the movements of the White Dragon Aureus.
Before long, Aureus of the Metalum Empire would reach the border of the Ignis Empire to the south.
Now, Ignis had to answer its movements.