The Holy Kingdom of Hiberunia.
A kingdom of religion, bordered by the Grandina Mountains to the west and adjoining the Empire.
Even in the age when many gods were worshiped, it had served the goddess Ripyue, and even now, when the divinity of other gods had vanished, it remained a nation that enshrined the god Ripyue.
It had been the only church capable of wielding divine power, but even that was gradually losing its strength, and with it, the kingdom’s power was declining as well.
In such an era, the birth of a saintess became an opportunity to engrave the name “Ripyue” once again in the minds of many.
The Church of Ripyue had once more made its name widely known across the continent.
And that holy girl had seen the future.
A future in which Hiberunia’s capital collapsed and burned.
A future in which a dragon of legend, passed down only in old tales, would appear and invade Hiberunia.
Then should they not prepare?
But what, and how?
They said a dragon would suddenly appear, burn the capital, and bring down the church.
When? In what manner? Why, in the world?
The contents were so vague that one could not even begin to guess.
Even so, in the present age, when even oracles had nearly disappeared, what the saintess had seen and felt was an unmistakable abnormal phenomenon.
In other words, it was clearly a revelation from god.
Under firm faith, Hiberunia moved as one.
“We must summon every priest capable of using divine power.”
It was not a task that would take long or prove particularly difficult.
As it happened, the quarterly Great Prayer Assembly was in progress, and priests of bishop rank and above had gathered in the capital.
“We must train and prepare so that Divine Protection can be used at any time.”
Divine Protection was the sturdiest shield guarding Hiberunia.
A miraculous divinity that had protected the kingdom since ages long past.
Of course, it had been used only a handful of times in all of history, so now only the method had been passed down.
That was why they spoke of practicing and training.
“We will need to combine everyone’s divine power.”
It meant that all of them would join their strength to respond to a crisis of unknown origin.
And the results appeared at once.
“Evil things are coming from the Gates!”
The Abyss Gates had erupted.
Hiberunia, too, was aware of the danger of Gates, so its response was swift.
However, the problem was that, compared to its vast territory, it did not have many renowned experts.
Though it could not be compared to the Empire, the number of Gates exceeded ten, and one hand could not block ten hands.
A mere handful of powerful individuals was nowhere near enough.
They were gradually pushed back from the sites where the Gates had appeared, and the damage was growing.
What shone in the midst of that crisis was the priests gathered in the capital.
Following the saintess’s foresight, those who had been practicing Hiberunia’s unique Divine Protection recognized the crisis and activated it.
High-ranking priests of bishop rank and above, the cardinal, the saintess, and more.
The divinity of all of them combined, manifesting an immense defensive formation that enveloped the entire kingdom.
It was a sight that plainly showed why Hiberunia possessed a history no less ancient than the Empire’s.
A miracle proving how, throughout the years when countless churches had appeared and vanished, it had endured as the sole holy nation.
Originally, with the weakened divine power of the present day, it would have been impossible to cover the entire kingdom with Divine Protection, but the saintess was truly a saintess.
When Irina poured out every bit of divinity she possessed, an abnormal amount of divine power was unleashed.
The light of the miracle wrought by Ripyue. Divinity.
The time it covered all of Hiberunia was brief, but that was enough.
Because the Abyss’s weakness was unmistakably divine power.
There were a few monsters that endured the Divine Protection due to the extremely short duration.
Of course, since they had exhausted their strength merely enduring it, they soon found their entire bodies pierced through by the kingdom’s knights, whose morale had soared to its peak.
In any case, thanks to something that might have been coincidence or might have been Ripyue’s revelation, Hiberunia became the kingdom that overcame the crisis the fastest.
And the faithful praised the saintess once again.
“As expected of the saintess.”
“To think she foresaw the invasion of those tainted by evil.”
“Thanks to her, did we not block them well without suffering great damage?”
Countless high-ranking priests, Cardinal Herald, and even Saintess Irina had poured out all their divinity and were utterly exhausted, but they had overcome a great crisis with it.
What Irina had seen had been a prophecy of this.
If all the priests had not joined their strength as she had said, the kingdom truly might have burned and the church might have fallen.
As long as the saintess was with them, they were safe.
It was over now.
Thinking so, they felt relieved that they had overcome the crisis well.
What a terribly unsettling and unstable relief it was.
Had Irina, Herald, and the high-ranking priests recovered much of the divine power they had drained to the very bottom?
If one were to express such incomplete relief more simply, it was carelessness.
When everyone had let their guard down, believing they had overcome the ominous prophecy.
—Grrrrrrr……
The calamity began.
* * *
They had blocked the monsters pouring from the Gates.
All the priests had joined their strength to perform the miracle known as Divine Protection.
It was the day all the faithful of Hiberunia witnessed Ripyue’s miracle.
While everyone rejoiced, they were also crushed by heavy fatigue.
Even the sky that had wrapped the bright day in blue grew weary and was stained red.
The soldiers, who had fought with their lives on the line all day, were still clearing the battlefield to the very end.
They wanted to quickly finish the day, talk about what had happened, and fall asleep, but the tasks that had to be done had to be finished.
They were tired, but had they not felt the pure white divinity with their whole bodies?
It was a historic day, and they were heroes who had fought on the front lines of that event.
One of those soldiers wiped away his dripping sweat and straightened his bent back.
A happy smile hung on his lips at the thought that he could soon return home.
And it took only a few seconds for that smiling mouth to fall open.
“What… is that?”
The evening sky, red with sunset.
As if opposing the sun, some enormous thing was flying straight toward the setting sun.
The moment one saw its form, it allowed only one word to come to mind.
“…A dragon?”
A creature that had often appeared only in fairy tales from childhood.
The thing that swept past the dazed soldier’s mutterings and flew endlessly onward was undoubtedly a dragon.
Passing the battlefield near the Gate, the enormous shape flew swiftly over an ordinary city.
“Whoa! It’s a dragon, a dragon!”
“Idiot. As if dragons exist in this world.”
“There! It’s flying in the sky!”
“Huh…?”
The sunset sky had few clouds.
The sight of the dragon flying swiftly through it was far too conspicuous.
One after another, most of the kingdom’s citizens along its path ended up witnessing it.
The sight of a dragon flying straight toward a single place.
To them, a dragon was a creature of fantasy.
And so they rejoiced all the more.
A legendary being that had appeared on the day god’s protection had spread.
They thought this, too, must be god’s grace.
They rejoiced and prayed, believing Ripyue’s hand would descend upon this land once again.
They took it as an auspicious omen.
But when that heavy and majestic flight was sighted near the capital—
“A… a dragon!”
The reaction was completely different.
“The dragon of the prophecy has appeared!”
The sky stained red.
A dragon that had truly appeared.
It was exactly as the prophecy had described.
It was an ill omen.
The emergency bells rang urgently, and every force that had been about to end the day assembled once more at the royal palace.
The highest-ranking priests of the church, having received the report, had also gathered in haste.
“Its location?”
“The last report was from Radan.”
“If it’s Radan, there’s still quite a distance…”
“A—a new report! The dragon has left Radan and has almost reached the capital…”
A speed beyond common sense.
Something that could not be grasped by human standards.
“A dragon, you say. Is that not a creature said to have vanished in the distant past? Is it truly…”
“This is no time to be saying such things! We must come up with a countermeasure, a countermeasure!”
“But why the Holy Nation, of all places? Unless there is some reason…”
“Could it perhaps be friendly toward us? According to the stories, dragons possessed intelligence no less than humans, so perhaps we could converse with it…”
“Ahem! After hearing the saintess’s prophecy, you still utter such outrageous words?”
Deep fatigue and confusion.
That would be how one might describe the atmosphere in the room.
All the kingdom’s leaders had heard Irina’s prophecy and knew of it, but the only ones who believed it exactly as it was were the extremely devout.
A dragon appearing beneath a red sky would destroy and bring down the church and the capital.
Not only was it difficult to believe, but they had thought it a prophecy with plenty of room for interpretation.
The red sky and the dragon meant ill omen, and the one who would oppose it was Irina.
In other words, an ominous event would occur, so prepare. Overcome the crisis with divinity.
Condensed, it could be interpreted like that, and had they not in fact splendidly repelled the Abyss monsters?
The contents of the prophecy should have been over now, yet suddenly a real dragon had appeared.
They could not help but be confused.
“Come to your senses. It is an unmistakable fact that the dragon is coming here. Do not harbor vain hope. We must prepare for the worst.”
Reports of dragon sightings were continuing to arrive simultaneously.
So instead of wasting time on foolish talk about attempting conversation, they had to consider and prepare for the worst-case scenario.
“What do you think, Lady Irina?”
Everyone’s gaze turned to the saintess, Irina, who was dressed in pure white holy robes.
The holiest woman chosen by god, and the one who had received the prophecy.
That Irina—
“We must gather divinity once more.”
—said that they should unfold Divine Protection again.
“But I understand divine power does not recover so quickly.”
“Even so, we must do whatever it takes. That is… without a doubt the calamity I saw.”
Even in a situation where their divine power had nearly been exhausted, there was nothing else she could think of.
The future Irina had seen was one in which everything had been utterly destroyed by a dragon.
“…Understood.”
All the priests assembled to unfold Divine Protection once more.
The dragon appeared over the capital not long after that.
* * *
The scales glittering in the sunlight shone crimson because of the red sunset.
—Grrrrrr……
A massive body, as if the entire royal castle had risen into the air.
Its glossy reptilian eyes were ferocious and filled with hostility for reasons unknown.
It was a terrifying sight visible at a glance even from the heart of the church headquarters.
“It… it really appeared…”
“That is the dragon spoken of only in legends…”
It was understandable that the priests were shaken, but now was not the time for that.
“Focus. We begin.”
The heart of the church.
This place, called a sanctuary since ancient times, was in truth the site for casting Divine Protection.
All the high-ranking priests encircled the center and poured out what little divine power they had left.
“We are not expanding it. We must focus on concentration and defense.”
Under Cardinal Herald’s lead, Divine Protection was unfolded once more.
A pure white defensive barrier made of divinity wrapped the capital densely.
Of course, all of this was thanks to the sacrifice of the high-ranking priests, who had wrung out even the last of their divine power, and of Irina.
It was barely possible only because they neither enveloped the whole kingdom nor mixed in any other intent, but devoted themselves solely to defense.
However.
Kwaaaaang—!
When the dragon rammed its enormous body into it, the barrier shook precariously, as though it would shatter at any moment.
“Krgh.”
Among the gathered high-ranking priests, those with weaker divinity could not withstand even that one impact and collapsed.
“Fire the arrows! Fire the catapults!”
Outside, they were unleashing all manner of attacks against the dragon, but it was useless.
Its body was so vast it seemed as though the royal castle itself had been moved there, so there was no chance of missing, yet they could not deal any damage to it at all.
They could not pierce even a single scale of the ancient creature said to have been the mightiest.
Kwaaang—!
Several more collisions followed, and in the meantime, only a few priests remained standing.
Including Cardinal Herald and Irina, barely five.
Only five people maintained Divine Protection and held back the dragon, but—
Kwaaaaang—!
Did it not seem that even that had reached its limit?
There were only five.
Kwaaang—!
No, now four.
Kwaang—!
Three.
Kwaaaaang—!
“O Ripyue…!”
Two.
After several collisions, only two remained.
Herald and Irina.
Thick blood was already trickling from Herald’s mouth, and his old arms, stretched straight out, were trembling endlessly.
“What… what must we do?”
Of all days, today.
What reason was there for a day like this to dawn, when they had already driven back the corrupted spawn that burst from the Gate with divine power?
What kind of trial was this?
“O Ripyue!”
Herald Guggenberger.
The old servant who had devoted his entire life to the Order howled toward God until the very moment he collapsed, coughing up blood.
“Please….”
Goddess Ripyue.
A primordial goddess who had existed since the very moment humanity’s records began.
Her other epithet was.
“A ray of hope to us ignorant ones….”
Hope.
“O Ripyue.”
Until the very end, Herald sought hope. He longed for hope, praying that She might deign to answer.
Pouring out every last drop of divine power within his body, he collapsed.
And so, only one person remained.
Irina.
The child beloved by Ripyue.
The holiest maiden.
“G-Grandpa Herald….”
Irina’s eyes trembled uncontrollably.
Even Herald, whom she had relied on, had collapsed.
Beside him lay dozens of priests in similar predicaments.
In the heavens, a colossal dragon glowered with the eyes of an absolute being as it loomed over the earth below.
“This is….”
Was this not the very same scene she had glimpsed not long ago?
Fallen priests.
A dragon in the heavens.
Irina’s seemingly boundless divinity had now truly hit rock bottom, and with it, her snow-white blessing gradually faded.
“Wh-what should I do….”
Her hands flailed in the air in bewilderment, unable to steady herself, and she thudded to the ground.
She had endured with composure until now, but with even Herald having finally fallen.
For she was Irina—revered as the holiest maiden, matured beyond her years by the weight of grave responsibility, yet still tender at heart.
Though her body trembled violently, she struggled to rise again.
“I have to d-do it… I have to do something, somehow….”
But her body would not obey.
This was already the second divine blessing she had unleashed today; no matter how great a saintess she was, her body could not endure it.
To make matters worse, Irina’s hair began to whip about fiercely as she sat collapsed.
The wind was rising.
“The dragon is d-doing something!”
“Shoot arrows! Faster!”
“Uwaaaack!”
Its scales, once green, glowed ever deeper, and its maw gaped wide.
From within, a tempest raged.
Wind gathered.
A fierce wind blew.
The overwhelming amount of mana gathering alongside it was so crushing that even Irina and the other soldiers, ignorant of magic, could feel it distinctly.
“N-no…!”
She knew instinctively.
That the moment it was unleashed, the moment it touched down, everything would be pulverized.
Was this not the very scene from the prophecy?
That the Order would crumble, the royal castle would burn, and the earth would be paved with corpses.
So she attempted a futile struggle, but how could it possibly succeed?
Was she not already in a state where she could summon neither divine power nor command her own body?
Air was sucked toward the dragon as if swept away, and accordingly, its presence only swelled further.
“St-stop it!”
“No! Shoot! I’m telling you to shoot faster!”
“Aah, O Ripyue!”
Everyone gathered there could feel it.
That the moment it erupted, they would vanish without a trace.
Some in despair.
Some in their final, desperate struggle.
In that chaotic moment when some turned and fled—
Kwaahaaa—
That thing, a mixture of wind and mana, poured forth like the dragon’s breath.
A breath of despair that would sweep away everything in its path.
“Aah….”
Irina gazed up at it blankly and let out a sigh.
What was she supposed to recall in the face of such violence, such calamity itself?
Should she call upon God and offer prayers like a faithful priest?
Or should she flounder in despair like an ordinary person?
No.
What Irina recalled was not that.
What suddenly came to mind was a person’s back.
Why had that person suddenly come to mind? Was it because this situation, insurmountable by her own strength, was so similar to that time?
The only one who had protected her when everyone had dismissed her and cornered her friends.
Even though she knew he could not possibly come, why….
And at that very moment.
Paaaah—
A brilliant yellow light.
It dyed the sky of Hiberunia yellow.
If one swung a spear tens of thousands of times, hundreds of thousands of times, infinitely—would it take such a form?
The light, stained brilliant yellow in an instant, blocked the roaring dragon’s breath entirely.
Even those who had turned to flee.
Even those who had buried their heads in the ground in despair.
Even those who wept as they searched for Ripyue—all raised their heads and looked to the sky.
“—…Eriel.”
Yellow light filled Irina’s pupils as well, and soon she too could see.
The figure of a man who had suddenly appeared before the dragon’s eyes.
“—Remember me.”
The one who had appeared, uttering words of unfathomable meaning.