At long last, the passage leading into the Abyss was complete.
Whether the world would someday come to know it, few at present would be aware that it was thanks to the efforts of three mages: Hio, Freya, and Furnel.
The moment Hio became certain that, in theory, every problem had been solved and the magic circle could be completed, he immediately informed Sylvia of the fact.
From now on, it was a race against time.
There was nothing they could be certain of regarding Kreutzwald. If he noticed the completed passage or tried to make use of it, the one to suffer the backlash would be the continent.
Sylvia, too, understood Hio’s thoughts and made her decision even more swiftly.
She understood that there was no time to scrape together every last soldier.
“We will form the first allied army with the forces that have gathered for now.”
“The allied army’s foremost objective is to establish a foothold and secure a route of retreat.”
To secure at least a minimal foothold immediately after crossing into the Abyss and build a camp.
To create a defensive line so that nothing from the Abyss could use the passage to cross over to the continent.
For that, the presence of an apostle and priests was essential.
Fortunately, Apostle Irina was included in the first allied army.
But there was another problem.
“Considering the various variables involved in reaching the deepest part of the Grandina Mountains, it is expected to take several months.”
The Dragon Temple where the passage lay was located in the deepest part of the forbidden mountain range, and at its highest point.
It was a place even deeper than Ariel’s temple, a place where no human foot had likely ever trod.
“Even if supplies are somehow taken care of, there are still other issues…”
No matter how tough the knights and soldiers were, were they not still human in the end?
A human army would have to cross a rugged mountain range while fighting countless monsters.
Even if Freya protected them from the skies, how would they deal with the cold? And when one thought of stamina, sleep, supplies, and even the frail priests who had to be cared for, the task seemed hopelessly far away.
Hio’s transcendence skill, Dimension Transfer, could not transport humans without limit either.
“There is a solution.”
The one who stepped forward then was Isidore, the noblest elf of Arilleia.
“We have the technology.”
What Isidore and the elves spoke of were the portals in Arilleia.
Arilleia, which had been veiled for over a thousand years, contained numerous magical ruins and traces, and one of them was none other than the portals.
In fact, they were also the only race freely using portals within the island.
“We do not have the ability to create portals ourselves, but we do possess the technology to connect them.”
No matter how much they researched and examined them, they could not produce portals directly.
But a thousand years was a sufficiently long time.
They had the materials, and they had the technology.
They had the know-how accumulated from maintaining and managing them for a thousand years.
Then what reason was there that they could not do it?
“We will begin preparations at once.”
Isidore and Sylvia rose from their seats at the same time.
* * *
Even as meetings continued day after day regarding the journey to the passage, the continental allied army was steadily assembling.
Various knight orders, elite soldiers, and supplies were sent from each nation, but putting all that aside and looking only at the main forces:
First, there were the priests led by Irina.
They hailed from Hibernia, a nation with a long history of serving Lifue since ancient times. Though there had been turmoil that shook the nation’s very foundations, Hio’s authority and Irina’s efforts quickly quelled the chaos, after which they joined the allied army.
Next were the Empire’s Royal Knights.
The strongest military force on the continent, including Vitalianus and Claire, had already received the information faster than anyone after Sylvia and had been standing by, so they had long since taken their place as the core of the continental allied army.
And then there were the rankers from Earth.
The news had reached them as well, albeit belatedly.
Since their influence in Verden had sharply declined, the quality of their information was poor, but they had grasped the general flow.
Among the highest-ranking rankers, a few expressed their intention to participate in person, but unexpectedly, their number was not all that great.
Lastly were the elves of Arilleia, led by Isidore.
Naturally, they joined as well.
In a sense, this was no small matter connected to their mission.
The passion of those who had struggled for a thousand years to achieve magic had, by now, become almost a kind of resentment.
Well, most of them had volunteered for the sake of their own world without knowing the truth, but in any case, if Kreutzwald could be destroyed, then their long-cherished wish might also be fulfilled.
A wish beyond their mission.
After awakening the dragon and protecting Arilleia, what they came to yearn for desperately was the existence known as magic.
How endlessly they had wandered in pursuit of it.
It was nothing more than a possibility, but if Kreutzwald were destroyed, perhaps magic could also be recovered.
He himself had said that, in exchange for magic, they had attained a dramatic peace in the war against the Abyss, but that had been revealed as a lie.
The Abyss of the previous era had merely perished together with the gods under the gods’ plan.
In other words, perhaps the loss of magic, too, was something Kreutzwald had wrought.
Thus, in the end, Kreutzwald had to be defeated.
The beginning of everything had started with him.
The end of everything, too, would be concluded with him.
* * *
Installing a portal.
It was not that they had never thought of it, but since learning the related technology would take more time, it had been a method they passed over.
But he had never imagined Arilleia would be capable of reinstalling a portal.
Perhaps it was because he had seen how earnest they were about magic, yet how poor they were at it.
It seemed he had failed to properly assess Arilleia’s capabilities.
And so he immediately took Isidore and the elven technicians to the Dragon Temple.
“The installation is complete.”
They were able to install the portal.
“But will it truly be possible? As I told you before, there are no few problems.”
“It will be fine.”
Hio answered Isidore’s worried question with an easygoing calm.
Within Arilleia, the distances were not very great and the number of people moving was small, so the portals could likely be operated with only a small amount of mana.
But that was not the case now.
Isidore’s concern was simple.
The long distance between the portals.
And the enormous number of troops to be moved.
“…According to our calculations, the number of mana stones required may be up to several thousand times what we used on the island.”
Isidore knew well that there were limits to the mana a person possessed.
She was the noblest elf, one who used mana to move the Divine Tree.
This was a task that required mana easily exceeding several hundred times the entirety of her own.
In other words, it was by no means a problem to be taken lightly.
“I see.”
And yet how could Hio remain so composed?
“In any case, thank you. Thanks to you, Isidore, we were able to save a great deal of time and supplies. If not for the portal, we would have had to transport everyone one by one or follow along and protect them, and who knows how great the losses would have been…”
That might be true, but expressing gratitude right now was not the important part.
Isidore felt a hint of frustration.
“For now, we have gathered as many mana stones as we could in haste, but all we have are about a hundred mid- to low-grade stones. If you can make a request to the Empire, we will need at least several times this amount.”
Naturally, she had told Hio before they set out, so she had assumed he would have prepared them in advance. Yet during the installation, she had not seen a single mana stone—nor anything even resembling one.
There were no mana stones.
Common sense dictated that without mana stones, a portal could not operate.
This was not ordinary mana. It would consume an amount that would be difficult even for a dragon, let alone a human.
“…No way.”
Could he be planning to use Lady Freya?
Freya, who was a dragon herself, might perhaps be able to move both that vague distance and that vast number of people.
“But if he does that…”
Having a great deal of mana was an enormous advantage, but what about the time it would take to replenish it afterward?
They would have to cross into the Abyss and fight immediately. Could they really afford to leave a top-tier force like Freya idle for several days, or even weeks?
So this, too, was an unreasonable plan.
“No. We do not need mana stones.”
At Hio’s returning answer, Isidore became even more certain.
He intended to operate the portal using Freya’s mana.
He must have his own thoughts, but Isidore had her own role to fulfill as well. She had to advise him.
She had to convey what she was thinking.
To do so, she opened her mouth.
“You are planning to use Lady Freya’s mana…”
But her words gradually lost strength, and in the end, stopped completely.
“Do not concern yourself with the mana needed to operate it.”
It was because, all at once, Hio’s two eyes had been dyed violet.
“I will take care of it myself.”
「Authority - ‘Drisella’s Breath of Origin’ has activated.」
The authority of the god of magic manifested.
Wherever Hio’s violet gaze touched, mana moved without fail.
A wind began to stir gently around the portal.
Yet before long, due to the mana gathering there, it became a storm.
All of it was pure mana.
Though it whirled about so violently, it did not cause the slightest damage to the inside of the portal, instead calmly and vastly accumulating within.
And soon, the light bursting from the portal shot straight up high into the sky.
「The portal is activating.」
A similar sight could be seen in the imperial capital as well.
* * *
“We planned to send them in two batches, but that won’t be necessary anymore. Almost everyone we intended has arrived.”
At Vitalianus’s words, Hio nodded with considerable force.
Within the roughly five minutes for which he could maintain Drisella’s authority, he had compressed and stored an abundance of mana inside the portal.
Then, while the troops crossed over, he rested, allowing himself to recover somewhat from the backlash of using the authority.
“Now, what remains is…”
All the forces of the continental allied army had arrived at the Red Dragon Temple.
Their number alone approached roughly fifty thousand.
“We go. Into the Abyss.”
All that remained was to use the passage to cross into the Abyss.
There were more knights than soldiers, and as many skill users as there were knights. It could truly be called an unprecedented corps of ultimate elites.
What was even harder to believe was that even they were not the true elites.
The troops filled the vast Red Dragon Temple to overflowing, spilling outside as well.
Among them, those who would move into the depths of the Abyss to find Kreutzwald were an extremely small number.
“We are ready.”
A dozen or so people gathered around Vitalianus and Hio.
They were the ones who could roam freely through the Abyss without Apostle Irina’s help, and who could stand against even the grotesqueries at the end of the world.
“Then there is no need to wait any longer. Let us begin at once.”
The Dragon Temple gave off a faint red glow.
The floor and walls were densely engraved with magic circles.
Hio and Freya stood atop them.
“I will open the passage.”
The moment his words ended, dense mana spread through the magic circle.
The magic circle separated from the floor and walls, rising into the air.
And a deep, impenetrable black began to spread.