7. Ruler of Lagrang>
With the road to Lagrang opened without their having to expend much strength, they were now moving swiftly toward it.
There was nothing good about a war dragging on. It had to be ended in one swift stroke.
The Fifth Elder, who had come to sit in his current position because of that incident, spoke in a monotonous voice, though there was a faint bitterness somewhere in his expression.
Perhaps because of the aftereffects of reincarnation, their energy constantly shifted in a fluid manner, so tracking them by their aura would be difficult even for a Pa-Harijan.
But Kirat was different.
His face had already been exposed.
Someone at the level of Pa-Harijan often would not be bound by such grudges and debts, but because they could not predict what might happen, Kirat had been living in hiding ever since that incident. If he was found, he might die.
The Fifth Elder recalled Kirat’s resolute expression when he left and felt, for some reason, that it might be difficult to see him again. Still, he answered that he understood and moved on to the next subject.
The most important matter, and the one immediately before their eyes.
After those words, the Third Elder and Fifth Elder gazed at the distant Lagrang region with deeply moved expressions.
At last, they had arrived at Lagrang, the sacred land they had been forced to leave four hundred years ago—no, in their own language,
With this, they, the Granain, would be able to recover the divinity they had lost and obtain their domain.
More than four hundred years ago, their race had settled and lived below the Sky Mountains, in what was now the Lagrang region.
There was no other special reason they lived there.
It was because their sacred land, “Gran-Latra,” was located there.
Ravne, the Spring of Souls that was their origin. Gran-Latra existed around it, and they had settled with it as their center.
Their race communicated through the Spring of Souls, and when they died, they returned to the Spring of Souls.
In other words, unlike humans, who believed they reincarnated through a place called the afterlife, they truly reincarnated through “Ravne,” living endless lives and pursuing wisdom.
Other races could not reincarnate through the spring. Only they, the Granain, could do so, and that was why they believed themselves chosen.
Their own power was also immense, and so they had coexisted with the Empire to some extent.
But when war broke out with the Kal-Gul tribe, the situation changed completely.
Only they, the Granain, could effectively respond to the great sorcery of the Kal-Gul tribe.
That was why they decided to cooperate with the Empire. If the Empire fell, there would be few beings left who could stand against the Kal-Gul tribe.
But they had never imagined that returning would take… four hundred years.
Because their connection to the Spring of Souls had been severed, they, the Granain, had even lost the cycle of reincarnation.
The emptiness and sense of loss were far too great. In fact, among those who had reincarnated and been reborn for a long time, some could not endure that hollowness and fear and even took their own lives.
But the relatively young members of their race, those who had not yet reincarnated many times, did not give up.
No, they desperately descended toward the Spring of Souls. To reclaim the Spring of Souls and find the root of their race once more…….
They were too far away to reincarnate, but they could still feel its existence.
That was why they had endured for four hundred years. With only that in sight, they had led their race onward.
As they fought and fought their way down, everyone grew stronger. No, it would be more accurate to say that all the weak had died, and only the strong had survived.
Even amid all that, the Great Elder and the Second Elder, who had reached the realm of Pa-Harijan… even they, who were said to have transcended the mortal world, could not turn their backs on the wish of their race.
But once they broke through the hellish Great Forest, there was a problem.
Humans had settled in their territory.
Gran-Latra, a blessed land of incomparable fertility because of the Spring of Souls, must have looked irresistibly tempting to humans.
The fact that the Kingdom of Taran, feared by humans, had established itself there was no problem at all.
If the Great Elder and Second Elder stepped forward, those people would be swept away like ants in a flood.
The problem was the human coiled above it, in the sacred ground of Ravne.
No, he was no longer human. In human terms, he was a La-Vander, a superhuman.
A human who, after Taran devoured Lagrang, the sacred land, trained there, ascended to La-Vander, and had remained in the sacred land for nearly two hundred years without leaving.
They had to remove him.
But the Great Elder and Second Elder had seen him from afar and sensed it.
A razor-thin match. Even if the two joined forces, they would be evenly matched.
That was why they could not carelessly use their strength against small fry.
It would only show their hand to the opponent and give him time to study them.
The humans had brought them information about this Stantal, but… what meaning could information on a superhuman observed through human eyes possibly have? The Great Elder had told them to throw it away as soon as he saw it.
They had to escort the Great Elder and Second Elder right before him. So they could strike down this Stantal with their full strength intact.
That was why they, the Granain, needed someone who would help them.
Without the two elders, their own strength alone could not take them to Lagrang.
That was why they joined hands with the human called Narasha. And they made a deal.
They would reclaim Ravne, and Narasha’s side would take the abundant resources produced by the sacred land Gran-Latra—what they called the Lagrang region.
And they would aid and protect each other.
The one called Narasha had done far better than expected.
At last, Gran-Latra was visible before their eyes.
Now all that remained was for the Great Elder and Second Elder to perform well.
It meant nothing for them to do well.
If that man called Stantal won, the Spring of Souls would remain theirs. If the elders won, they would fulfill their four-hundred-year wish.
That was all.
The other side had probably finished thinking along similar lines. That was why they had opened the road.
Thinking of their fate, which would be decided by the coming war of superhumans, the Third Elder gazed at distant Gran-Latra, and at Ravne above it, with eyes filled with complicated emotions.
☆ ☆ ☆
“Wow… So something like that was there.”
As Sian gazed at Lagrang in the distance, he finally began to understand what all the sensations he had felt until now had been pointing toward.
Above the Lagrang region, if one left the downtown area and walked toward the Sky Mountains, there was a small spring.
It was a small spring located beside a stream that flowed into the Lagrang region, so no one paid it any attention.
Because the remains of an old site where ancient people were said to have lived still existed there, tourists and scholars occasionally came to survey the nearby ruins, but even they did not go as far as this ordinary-looking spring a short distance away.
Beside that spring stood a small house.
The little house, the sort a woodcutter might live in, bore clear traces here and there of additions, as though it had been remodeled and repaired many times since it was first built.
Behind that house, a woman was crouching as she stared at the spring.
Even beneath her roughly thrown-on clothes, her body looked as if it might burst from its curves. At first glance, she had a fierce impression, but she was a beautiful woman with a tall height and strong frame, exuding a fully wild charm.
She did not feel like a person, but rather like a lioness.
The woman staring at the small spring kept looking into it and muttering, as if she found something terribly amusing.
No, perhaps she was not looking into the spring.
After all, someone trying to look inside would not have their eyes closed.
After remaining like that for a long while, the woman suddenly flopped backward where she was.
She had only been crouching, and yet, for whatever reason, her face was full of exhaustion.
After lying spread-eagled for a while, the woman suddenly muttered words that were difficult to understand.
“Hoo… I broke this one too. Does that mean there are three left inside the spring now…….”
The woman, who looked tired but refreshed, sprang up and crouched before the spring once again.
“Seven in one hundred seventy years… Now three remain… Still, I should be able to enjoy myself for another hundred years or so……. I just hope I’m alive until then…….”
After spitting out absurd numbers, the woman shut her eyes again as if she had no time to rest and began glaring at the spring.
The expression “glaring at the spring with her eyes closed” made no sense, but reality was that way, so there was nothing to be done.
Then, suddenly, the woman’s eyes snapped open.
She whipped her head around and looked down the mountain.
No, to be precise, she looked below the mountain, at the walls surrounding Lagrang, and beyond them.
From there, something intense was walking toward her.
“Woohoohoohoo… What’s this? So there were still some interesting fellows left besides Groin.”
That fellow Groin had to deal with those little shit-pups in the north and would not play with her, so she had no choice but to play with the things inside the spring.
In the mortal world, there was no longer anyone other than Groin who could be her match.
Of course, dealing with the ones inside the spring was plenty entertaining.
But how could that compare to the fun of trading blows with living opponents… and snapping their necks!
She had given up, thinking none would appear for nearly a hundred years, but now they had come looking for her like this!
What made it even more enjoyable was… those two were evenly matched with her.
If they had used their power even once within Taran’s territory, she would have noticed. It was amazing that they had come this far without using their power even once.
“Hah… No matter how little attention I paid, haven’t these fellows gotten too lax…….”
The fact that those fellows had come all the way here without using their power even once meant Taran had lost the battle of nerves.
They must have believed she would take care of it in the first place, which was why they were camped all the way over there in a corner far from Lagrang.
“Cute little things… Normally, I’d have to snap their necks, but… since they brought fellows like that all the way before me in perfect condition… I suppose I’ll let them off.”
With her old temperament, she would have snapped their necks one after another, but since they had brought such precious opponents to her, she could overlook it.
Having thought that far, the woman, Stantal I, entered the cabin and began regulating the condition of her body.
She was slightly mentally fatigued from grappling with the thing inside the spring.
But there was no need to worry. The ones who needed something were those fellows, so they would come up here, and she would be able to rest enough before then.
She liked trampling strong opponents, but being trampled by strong opponents was something she absolutely refused.
She had to win. No matter what.
And she would win.
Just as she always had.
☆ ☆ ☆
—From a lament left behind by OOO in the year OOO
☆ ☆ ☆
The city of the Lagrang region located below the spring was completely empty.
It was a great city boasting an extremely vast area, but all its residents had already evacuated.
The Great Warriors of Taran had evacuated every last resident while pulling their forces back.
They knew all too well what kind of personality the person living above this place, Stantal I, possessed.
They did not know what solution King Narasha had prepared, but… if he had brought a powerhouse of a similar level, she was absolutely not the sort of person who would fight while minding the ants beneath her feet.
Everyone caught up in the fight would die.
Buildings could be destroyed. They could be rebuilt.
But talent and human resources must never be lost. Thus, in a short period of time, the Great Warriors had moved all citizens and nobles to nearby small cities.
In any case, it would be difficult for people to live here for a while, and for the time being, only the builders would be delighted.
Of course, which country’s builders would be delighted remained to be seen.
Whether Taran would rejoice, or Tian would.
No matter which side won, the armies of Taran and Tian, positioned more than ten kilometers away from Lagrang’s spring for fear of being swept up, would clash at that moment.
To protect an utterly exhausted superhuman, just in case.
And to sweep away the enemy and secure the Lagrang region once more.
Though they were not the main actors, the armies on both sides were destined to clash in the end, and so they heightened their tension against one another, waiting only for the leading players’ drama to come to an end.
And… the Great Elder and the Second Elder, who corresponded to those leading players, were crossing Steel, the great city of the utterly empty Lagrang region, and heading toward Lavre.
After reaching their realm, they had become detached from many things, but arriving in their homeland for the first time in nearly four hundred years stirred in them feelings unlike any other.
Their beloved homeland. Much had changed, but its scent alone was the same as it had been on that day four hundred years ago.
And… now that they were close, they could feel it even more strongly—our Lavne.
“Heh heh… you’re here.”
Neither side wanted to destroy the spring, so they began descending toward Steel, the great city of the Lagrang region where it would be easier to fight.
At a suitable distance where the spring would not be destroyed… the moment they were roughly fifteen kilometers away, the clash would begin. Well, the city and the ants below would be swept up somewhat… but such things meant nothing to them.
So long as they could break the one before their eyes.☆ ☆ ☆Sian narrowed his eyes and stared toward Lagrang, then nearly spat in shock.
“L-look at those… those, those, those… madmen… how far down are they crawling to fight? They should just fight there.”
The three men and women, who had run down at high speed for about fifteen kilometers, came to a stop in the middle of Lagrang’s city.
The problem was that this area was only five kilometers away from where the army was stationed.
At this rate, his father would be caught up in it. With almost one hundred percent certainty. Five kilometers meant nothing in a fight between Ra-Banders.
Having thought that far, Sian realized what the feeling that had been goading him all this time had been.
“Ha… the world is wide, and there are far too many bastards who need a beating…….”
The difference was that this time, it looked like it would truly be troublesome.
He really wanted to resolve it with words… but the intense feeling within him was telling him that it would be difficult.
Having thought that far, Sian immediately leapt toward the center of Lagrang.
Unleashing every bit of the power within his heart.☆ ☆ ☆“Hahahaha… now, shall we begi—!”
Stantal, who had been grinning and loosening up, flinched in shock and looked toward the wall surrounding Lagrang.
It was an act that would have left her with no complaint even if she were struck for it, but nothing happened.
Because the Great Elder and the Second Elder were also looking in the same direction as Stantal, disbelief on their faces.
A ferocious presence that seemed as though it would tear the sky apart.
That presence was pouring out toward them in streams.
No matter how one looked at it, it did not mean it was happy to see them.
“…What sort of vicious thing did you drag here! Did you go around earning a grudge from something like that?”
Stantal asked, assuming it must have been something those fellows had brought with them, since she herself, having been stuck here for two hundred years, had no reason to have earned its grudge.
But that did not seem to be the case.
The fellows before her were certainly strong, but if they had earned the grudge of the one coming from over there, it would not have been strange at all if they had already been torn to pieces.<…Was he… to that extent……?><…This is maddening……>They had heard that the child named Kirat had an unusual Pa-Harijan.
And that he was said to be stronger than them.
But the Great Elder had not paid it much mind.
A human could not judge a superhuman.
That was why he had thought it was merely something uttered in terror.
Common sense said that it was absurd for a seventeen-year-old to be stronger than himself, who had lived for more than four hundred years.
The one before them was at least two hundred and thirty, after all.
And now, the Great Elder realized.
That child had judged incorrectly.
He was far stronger than that child had expected. Unbelievably so.
The three looked at one another, then, as if they had made up their minds, all three looked in the same direction.
If such a thing existed, they could not become the greatest. That was why it had to die.
Moreover, they did not know why, but that thing coming toward them did not seem to harbor any good feelings toward them.
Now was not the time to waste their strength fighting among themselves.
What would be the point of winning a fight against one another? So long as they did not know what that person was thinking, this was not the time for that.
As if joining forces alone did not satisfy her, Stantal pressed the jewel on the small bracelet around her wrist.
Soon, the bracelet made a bizarre sound, crumbled into powder, and the scattered rainbow-colored powder wrapped around Stantal’s body.<…The Great Armor of the Seven Planets……>The Great Elder let out a startled voice.
What enveloped Stantal’s body was clearly a powder like mist, but the Great Elder looked at it and called it a Great Armor.
There were truly not many weapons usable by a Pa-Harijan, weapons capable of strengthening completed superhumans.
They were rarer even than Pa-Harijan themselves.
That great treasure, the
How extraordinary must it be, if even he knew of it?
“Heh heh, you make it sound like I’m the only one hiding something. Hurry up and bring yours out too. Unless you want to die before even trying to use them.”<…….>Hearing those words, the Great Elder and the Second Elder also thrust their hands into empty air and drew out objects.
What the Great Elder took out was a small ring, and what the Second Elder took out was a tiny bracelet.
But when Stantal saw them, her eyes went round.
They were the objects she had searched for so desperately. And yet they were objects she had never been able to find.
“You were hiding something impressive. Heh heh… the
In that instant, the Second Elder’s wrist rippled, and the bracelet emitted a strange golden light, while from the ring on the Great Elder’s hand, a bizarre black wave resounded.
Having completed all preparations, the three looked in the same direction.
Soon, from the direction they were watching, a young man walked toward them.
The young man slowly approached, looked over the three in turn, then opened his mouth.
“Hey.”
“……?”<……?>
“Go over there and fight. Over there.”
The young man thrust out a finger and tossed the words at the three.
At first, Sian had only intended to drive those fellows away.
To the mountains, to a corner where his father would not be affected.
But the more he unleashed his power and drew closer, the more other thoughts rose up from below.
Perhaps his efforts all this time had not been in vain, for he was just barely able to maintain his sense of self.
If they traded blows here, his father would definitely die.
Before jumping in here, he had given his father the Door of Narangel, but there was no telling what would happen… and knowing his father’s personality, he might not try to flee.
He approached while slowly suppressing himself with reason, but the three over there were already in perfect battle readiness.
He had thought his own sword was not inferior anywhere, but the things those fellows were wearing were no trifles either.‘Where did they get things like that…….’Sian, having barely arrived, pointed toward the uninhabited mountains and slowly opened his mouth.
With his reason hanging by a thread, and since they were not exactly people he found endearing, his words came out rough.
“Hey… go over there and fight. Over there.”
At that, the woman wrapped in rainbow-colored mist suddenly bristled and spat out,
“What a ridiculous fellow. And if I refuse?”
At that instant, the reason Sian had barely been maintaining snapped.
And he surrendered his body to the unconscious urge screaming fiercely from within.
Then he pulled “Crona-Phone” straight out from his necklace and swung it as it was, striking the sneering woman.