◈ Episode 307. Even If the World Abandoned Them (3)
Vast beyond measure.
Well, I suppose that was only natural.
Even just the Claudi lore I knew by heart was enough. ‘They can make dragons dance in the palms of their hands, after all…….’ And yet I couldn’t even begin to guess how lofty Claudi’s status had become after being realized on the Arcana Continent without my knowledge. Above all, weren’t they a great family acknowledged by the continent itself? And among such a family, Lord Granfell was an all-time head of the house. ‘How impressive. Truly.’ I didn’t know what sort of connection Mary had with the Claudi family.
But a great head of the house simply performed his role.
I spoke with perfect composure.
“You did not attend the banquet.”
Claudi’s invitation.
Its recipients were everyone on the Arcana Continent who knew of the Claudi family. Mary seemed to know of the Claudi family, so there was a high chance she had received an invitation. ‘Still, this is a bit too sudden.’ Seriously, this damned grudge-holding……!
Please, let it be that she hadn’t deliberately been absent, Mary.
Had my earnest wish reached her?
Mary’s sky-blue pupils trembled finely once more.
“Oh my……. Did you perhaps extend an invitation to me as well?”
“There are no exceptions to Claudi’s invitation.”
“My apologies. I never imagined you would have sent an invitation to me…….”
If Mary had been on the Arcana Continent, there was no way she wouldn’t have received the invitation, but after hearing what followed, I understood. Mary courteously explained the circumstances.
“I did not wish for you to see this…….”
Ssk—
With an expression that said she had no choice.
She revealed the right hand she had been hiding behind her back.
Between her fingers was a lit cigarette.
“……
Shamefully, I have become a body that cannot live even a single day without cigarettes. In order to cover the Gold Coins of Spacetime needed to purchase cigarettes, I briefly went to the Demon Realm to carry out a Spacetime request.”
Let’s set aside the confession of a cigarette addict for now.
“Gold coins, is it? You chased after an illusion.”
And let’s also put away, for now, that incorruptible purity that deemed wealth and glory useless.
The Demon Realm, she said.
It seemed I would be able to obtain precious information from Mary.
I knew at least a little about the Demon Realm.
The Demon Realm, which had existed only as a concept in the AAU database, had now been realized with settings even AAU didn’t know about. On top of that, I hadn’t forgotten what the demons, including the Demon Kings, had said. ‘Mongrels of the Demon Realm.’ The Seven Deadly Sins, great evils.
That was what they had called the 72 Demon Kings.
In that sense, this wasn’t something I could simply hear and let pass. ‘So it really was realized.’ It even meant there was a way to travel between the Arcana Continent and the Demon Realm. In Mary’s case, it had been a “Spacetime request.” In the Demon Realm, there ought to exist Demon Kings ranked within the top ten, incomparable to those swallowed in the belly of the Ominous Bird.
At that point, there was no way Granfell’s temperament would remain still.
“We shall discuss that matter later.”
“I shall obey your words.”
It had been a concise exchange.
And yet there was no conversation that made me worry more about the aftermath.
If it were Granfell, before an upper-ranked Demon King appeared on the Arcana Continent, he was the kind of person who would invade the Demon Realm first and then some. ‘I’m seriously not going to live out my natural lifespan like this.’ But as I said, that conversation had to wait until later.
Because the Ominous Bird was brazenly right before our eyes.
I looked at the Ominous Bird.
It was enormous, but as always, my head remained held high.
I never looked up in reverence.
Sreung—
I merely raised the Illusion Breaker slowly.
Mary spoke beside me.
“……
Please forgive me for being unable to dissuade you.”
She bit her lip.
I’m quick on the uptake, you know.
Seeing that, I understood what position Mary was in. ‘It seems she owes the Claudi family a tremendous debt.’ I, Lee Hoyeol.
A man possessed of a persistence that would collect any money lent, no matter what.
On top of that, there was the importance of give and take that Granfell emphasized.
Even so. ‘I don’t particularly want to know what sort of debt it is.’
Because in the process, I would inevitably end up dredging up dark history.
However, what mattered was this.
Just as the message that had appeared said, Mary had the will to settle her debt.
Yes, that was enough. Let’s calculate that we had exchanged sufficiently and move on.
“You have no need to apologize to me.”
“……
Pardon?”
“The past is something you need only settle together with the Ominous Bird.”
“……!”
At those words, Mary came to her senses and shifted her gaze toward the Ominous Bird. Was it thanks to the set effect of Dawn? The effect of morale having reached its maximum? No matter what I said, the reaction was dramatic.
But that was all the better.
“Thank you for saying so.”
Purple mana shimmered at Mary’s fingertips. Even seeing it again, it was unfamiliar magic. So much so that even with Granfell’s talent, I would have to observe it several more times before I could grasp its structure.
Sreung—
But it was good because it was different.
If Mary’s unfamiliar magic were added to the sword strike of the Illusion Breaker, would that not also be a kind of anomaly? And so, I swung the Illusion Breaker without delay.
Ssk—
There was no need to aim.
What was needed was destructive power capable of piercing that enormous Ominous Bird.
Are you living up to your name as well?
Gwicheol, whose manner of speech had changed subtly.
That voice burrowed into my head.
—Here I come, illusion. Can you withstand the true image?
For some reason.
Why did that true image (眞像).
Sound like another kind of “piece of work” to me……?
But such lingering thoughts soon vanished cleanly.
Swoooo—
Mary’s purple magic was added to my sword strike.
The unleashed blow reached the Ominous Bird.
Kwa-kwa-kwa-kwa-kwang!
It possessed enough destructive power to push both Mary and me backward.
Yet Mary muttered to herself.
“……
Why isn’t it working?”
The Ominous Bird didn’t budge.
Mary seemed not to know the reason.
But I realized it.
Because a message appeared.
[The attack has been rejected.]
At first, I wondered if that thing also had something like the [Blessing of the First World Tree].
But there was no way that could be.
Our opponent was not some noble being like the World Tree.
“Even a grub has a trick for rolling.”
To explain it in Granfell’s way of speaking……
Raymon Sean’s crude and worthless creation.
Nothing more than a prototype. ‘It isn’t some kind of buff.’ If that had been possible, with Raymon Sean’s petty personality, there was no way he would have gone through the trouble of slapping so many annoying conditions onto the Ominous Bird. As if to prove that, the quest objective flickered.
—Hunt the Ominous Bird. (In Progress)
●Subdue the Lesser Omens scattered across the continent. (In Progress)
I knew it. ‘There’s a preceding pattern.’
It was a pattern that threw a middle finger at me for trying to learn from experience and target the main body first. If I had been alone, I would undoubtedly have been toyed with. But didn’t I say it? I am not alone.
This is an Akshan-style diversionary operation.
I recited calmly.
“Do you still need it?”
“……
What are you referring to?”
Ssk.
From the Ominous Bird to Mary’s fingers.
To be precise, my gaze turned toward the cigarette.
“Ah…….”
Mary flinched, then looked at me.
Is this also your boomer spirit forcing someone to quit smoking, Granfell?
As always, cleaning up afterward was my responsibility.
I continued as shamelessly as possible.
“It may be of help to you.”
Float—
A teacup suddenly rose into the air.
“……?”
Mary extinguished her cigarette and accepted the teacup, yet she stared at me with a puzzled expression. There was nothing I could say even if she looked at me like that.
Because Granfell’s noble pride would never honestly admit that we needed to allocate our mana until the Akshan seniors finished the preceding pattern.
Clack—
It was an abrupt teatime, but there was no reason for it not to be natural.
As I looked at the buff message that appeared.
I blathered.
“Tea enjoyed by the seaside is not bad either.”
*
Hiel.
Diend.
The Iron Castle.
At Hoyeol’s command, the three divided up and surveyed the continent. To be precise, the writhing Lesser Omens. Gunner, who had relaunched from the Iron Castle and was piloting an airship, was startled.
“Oh no!”
Because he had spotted the soldiers of Antonium exposed to the threat of a small Ominous Bird. Antonium, allies of the Crusade Alliance—just as he grasped the airship’s controls to protect them.
Wriggle, wriggle!
“……
Iron Castle, do you read me?”
He noticed the change in the Ominous Bird.
He witnessed human forearms surging out from the Ominous Bird’s body.
It was not a phenomenon that occurred only to the Ominous Bird Gunner had witnessed.
“So it swallowed humans too, after all?”
“They’re alive. That’s a relief, but…….”
“D-Does it even make sense for them to tear their way out of that thing?”
“What in the world is happening inside that bastard’s belly?!”
The only ones who were not shaken were Hiel and Diend.
“They are my lord’s old dear friends.”
Hiel had gained knowledge about Akshan while serving Hoyeol as her lord. Moreover, the intuition of a {Unique Spirit}, comparable to a Spirit King, was more than enough to recognize the distinctive presence of demon hunters.
“I see.”
The darkness spirit, Diend, felt mana suited to him.
It made him intuit just how dark the past surrounding Akshan was. Diend nodded quietly. He acknowledged Akshan as possessing a brightness befitting the companions of his lord—a bottomlessly deep darkness.
Chainwalker muttered.
“……
Are we truly supposed to stand by and do nothing, Sir Hoyeol?”
The Ominous Bird, was it?
Across the continent, that thing was twitching. Perhaps it had failed while trying to flee, for it could not completely hide itself and was writhing in agony.
Chainwalker’s fist trembled. ‘The Iron Castle is crying.’
The Iron Castle’s mana cannon, which amplified mana extracted from high-purity mana stones through the essence of dwarven technology and fired it. No matter how it had swallowed the Demon King’s Castle in a single gulp, that creature should have had no means to withstand the power of the mana cannon.
“You truly call this a plan……?”
Did he truly believe in those writhing inside the Ominous Bird’s belly?
Just as Chainwalker fell into anguish.
New information came in from the airship that had sortied.
“……
A hand holding a sword surged out from the bastard’s body?”
For reference, every dwarf was a blacksmith.
Therefore, if something was made of mineral.
They could immediately recognize what mineral it was.
In other words.
“……
A silver sword?”
Chainwalker’s pupils shook violently.
It did not take long.
For him to realize the identity of those rampaging inside that belly.
Chainwalker shouted.
He rebuked himself.
“Damn it, Chainwalker! To think you failed to realize it yet again!”
It was them.
It was Akshan.
The ones rampaging inside the Ominous Bird’s belly.
The trusted allies Sir Hoyeol had spoken of.
They were Akshan, whom they had turned away from during the Holy War.
Chainwalker looked down at the continent.
“Yes, there is no mistake. It is certainly you……!!”
Whatever arrangement had made this possible.
The only ones on the Arcana Continent who would carry out such a reckless operation were Akshan.
Was it not only you?
Chainwalker relayed the news to the airships.
“Everyone, listen. Our comrades-in-arms who shared an oath with us, Akshan, have returned. Following the arrangement of Sir Hoyeol, Akshan’s last survivor, they are the ones rampaging within that creature’s body!”
A moment of silence.
And then came.
Communications at an overwhelming volume.
“Wh-What did you say?!”
“Akshan. Are you saying the humans inside that belly are truly them……?”
“If that is so, then this is no time for us to be standing around, Chainwalker!”
Chainwalker nodded.
“Indeed.”
Hoyeol had said.
That it was an arrangement, and there was nothing to worry about.
As befitted the last survivor, those had been Akshan-like words.
Akshan.
They never needed anyone’s help.
Nor did they desire compensation.
They had merely shouldered every burden entirely alone.
But had Chainwalker not witnessed it?
Akshan’s end.
He had sworn countless times never to repeat such a mistake again.
Even if they told him there was no need for them to step in.
He did not want to turn away from them ever again.
Chainwalker continued.
“All of you are seasoned dwarven warriors. According to your own judgment, support Akshan, our sworn comrades-in-arms.”
Dududududu!
At the same time, noise rang out all at once.
The sound of the airships accelerating.
Chainwalker declared.
“The opportunity has come for us to correct the mistakes of the Holy War!”
The airships charged toward the Ominous Bird.
“Damn it, it isn’t even budging!”
Even if they poured attacks onto it from the outside, they couldn’t so much as scratch it.
But they did not give up.
So long as Akshan was beyond that belly hide.
“Do not back down. It does not matter if we cannot damage it. We are buying time. We are drawing its attention so it cannot interfere with Akshan. Even if you end up crashing, do not stop flying!”
However, the dwarves did not anticipate it.
The abilities of the demon hunters who, for a time spanning several decades by the Arcana Continent’s reckoning.
Had waited inside the Ominous Bird’s belly for the moment of the diversionary operation.
Burning with tenacity.
Never ceasing their training for even a single instant.
And.
Kwajijijijijik!
The power of [Natural Enemy Relationship].
Activated when they encountered the Demon King.
Yes, it was just as Hoyeol had said.
Akshan, once it entered an operation, had no need for support.
Even Gunner.
A veteran pilot who had been through every hardship imaginable.
Stammered. ……
What in the world am I seeing?
“Ch-Chainwalker, are you listening?”
“I am listening, Gunner. What is the situation?”
“Would you tell me the properties of silver?”
The properties of silver, all of a sudden?
“Why, is it not a mineral weak to impact, prone to dulling, and inferior in practical use even to the common, ordinary ore that is iron? Unless for a special purpose, silver cannot be used, can it not?”
“……
Yes, that was so.”
“What on earth are you trying to say, Gunner?”
“Chainwalker, that thin, thin sword made of silver……!”
Gunner continued, his voice filled with astonishment.
“That enormous creature that even our mana cannon couldn’t affect……! It cut it in half! Can you believe it? The creature that swallowed the Demon King’s Castle was split cleanly in two!”
“……”