At daybreak, the mist seeping into the forest is mysterious.
The fragrant scent of grass and the crisp air.
Watching the faint fog spread over it all, one experiences, however slightly, the mystery of nature.
Yet anything is most beautiful in moderation.
A fog too thick is unpleasant.
And if it goes beyond unpleasantness, it becomes frightening.
A murky field of vision where one cannot see an inch ahead.
Moisture clinging stickily to the skin.
Direction becomes impossible to gauge, and there are countless cases where a comrade who had been right beside you suddenly vanishes from sight.
That alone was already overwhelming, and yet they could not know when or where an enemy might spring out.
Their fear only grew greater.
“Graaagh!”
A scream rang out from somewhere.
The clash of weapons, and the sound of something enormous shaking the ground.
But there was no way to tell the direction.
It seemed to come from the left, then from behind. It was a sensation they had never experienced in their lives.
Even after being warned in advance, it was still this bad.
The symbol of terror, Black Fang.
Only then did it begin to feel real that they had entered their territory.
“Hold your positions! Don’t panic! This is exactly what we expected!”
The one fortunate thing, however, was that they did not need to force themselves to advance through such an unreasonable environment.
That was the order they had been given.
Encircle Baal Forest broadly and advance slowly, very slowly.
And so they knew that behind them, countless imperial soldiers were lined up and moving at the same slow pace.
But when people moved, there ought to be signs of their presence.
Despite so many troops being gathered, the presence they felt was faint, and that made doubt creep in.
Were all of them truly following behind in one piece?
Or had they been scattered, leaving only themselves cut off?
They kept doubting without end.
And then.
“Grrrraaaaah!”
A massive hand suddenly burst through the fog.
“It’s a demon!”
The soldiers swiftly formed ranks.
Their response was quick.
It was the very formation they had prepared for this.
Soldiers and knights moved intermingled so they could respond to as many situations as possible within their limited field of vision.
And among them, this place at the forefront was especially remarkable.
“Do not step forward!”
Just as light seemed to flash from the ground, a man appeared above the monster’s head.
Whether he had swung it at all was impossible to tell; the sword, which none had even seen him draw, had already passed through the monster’s neck and was returning toward its sheath.
Only after his body landed lightly on the ground did the monster’s head fall with a thud.
Royal Knight Damon Liefte.
A man who freely wielded extreme swift swordsmanship and a skill that let him leap across short distances.
“Sir Liefte.”
“As expected of a Royal Knight…”
A Royal Knight was nearby, within the unit they belonged to. In a fog where tension boiled up on its own, how reassuring could anything be?
Yet the expression of the Royal Knight Damon, who was staring straight ahead, did not look as hopeful as the others’.
It was because Damon, one of the central pillars of their martial might, knew the rough outline of this operation.
The longer the fog persisted, the greater the damage to their allies would become. They would rapidly grow exhausted, and the mental fatigue would swell beyond what they could endure.
But that did not mean it was feasible to have the Sword Saint and the rest of the elites break through the fog and charge toward the center.
The moment Black Fang realized that, all of their forces would cling tenaciously to them.
One wrong move, and they could end up isolated within this fog like a vast open sea.
There was only one simplest method.
Clear away this pale fog.
Without this bizarre fog, they possessed enough force to press forward and overwhelm the enemy in an instant.
And Damon knew the one person who should be preparing to do just that.
Far away, beyond the fog.
‘By now…’
The operation should have begun.
“You do not look tense.”
At the Sword Saint’s words, Hio gave a faint nod.
Standing side by side with Vitalianus in the dense fog, he gazed into the distance.
“That person called Airaitz did not seem to be in a particularly trustworthy state of mind. You know that, don’t you?”
Not far behind them, knights could be seen watching this place with tension written plainly across their faces. They, too, understood the gist of it.
The fact that the Sword Saint and the Guardian Knight stood side by side meant that this place would soon become a fierce battlefield.
“She certainly isn’t sane.”
“Then what did you trust in to carry out this operation? If it succeeds, we will indeed win with ease, but if it fails, you will be the one in the greatest danger.”
“What did I trust in, you ask…”
Who knew. What had he trusted?
Unable to say it as it was, Hio gave a vague answer.
“Who knows. Let’s just say it reminded me of the old days.”
“As always, a bland answer.”
“What about you, Vitalianus? It won’t be long before you meet Ataolf again.”
“I could not be better. This tension I feel after so long makes me feel alive.”
For someone saying that, Vitalianus’s expression remained steadily calm.
After a brief silence, it was Vitalianus who spoke first.
“Magician. What is your goal?”
It was a somewhat abrupt question to ask amid the tense silence of the fog.
Hio did not answer.
He sensed there was more to come.
“When I was young, I wanted to become the best. I would imagine what my friend and I would look like after becoming the best together.”
Vitalianus’s plain monologue spread through the fog.
“After I grew somewhat older, I decided to live for the glory of another man rather than my own. His name was Callias Verden, a truly bold and splendid man.”
Still wearing an unreadably calm expression, he stared into the distance through the fog.
“And so, I achieved it. With a single sword, I finally received the title of Star and became the best. And the man I had always wished to see glorious became an emperor who commands the continent, and his name will be remembered for eternity.”
“Since you achieved everything, you must have been happy, Vitalianus.”
“Hahaha! Indeed. Of course I was.”
Vitalianus’s laughter subsided, and silence returned once more.
The fog only grew thicker.
“And yet, how fickle the human heart is. Once I had accomplished all that, emptiness suddenly struck me. Perhaps that is why thoughts of an old friend came to me so belatedly.”
“…Belatedly.”
“In any case, that is why I say you should set your goal as high as possible. Only then can you burn like a flame for your entire life.”
“My goal is already high enough as it is. So high that it could not possibly be higher.”
“When you put it that way, I do grow curious. Could you tell me just a little?”
“I have several grandiose goals, but… if I had to choose just one, perhaps it would be to prevent this world from being destroyed.”
Perhaps that answer was quite absurd, for Vitalianus turned his gaze toward Hio.
He stared at him for a moment.
“Hahaha! That truly is an incredible goal. It makes the goal I set feel insignificant.”
Despite Hio’s fairly serious attitude, Vitalianus burst into laughter without a care.
Hio did not mind either.
It was the kind of answer he had given on purpose in the first place.
After laughing joyfully for a while, Vitalianus soon stopped and looked forward again.
The laughter had ceased, but a smile still lingered on his lips.
As though he had been relieved of something.
“That was an enjoyable exchange, Magician.”
Then he slowly drew his sword.
A brilliant golden light, symbol of a hero, burst forth from the blade.
“Now, let us prepare.”
What fleetingly passed through the pale fog was black light.
A black fog, darker than the mist filling every direction, was surging toward them.
A dark fog symbolizing a villain.
At that, Hio also took one step forward and infused his will.
「Skill — ‘Thunder Emperor’ is activating」
Dark clouds covered the sky above Baal Forest at daybreak.
Two eyes burning white, and small bolts of lightning blazing around his body.
The knights lined up behind him confirmed it as well and drew up their own auras.
No one dared open their mouth rashly.
They were beginning to feel it. The tremors shaking the earth, the bizarre cries.
They could see the terrifying sight of the pale fog gradually turning black.
The tension rose higher and higher, and when it finally reached its peak.
Shwaaaak— A single streak of black light shot toward them.
What blocked it was golden aura.
Kwaaaang!
The collision of the two forces pierced sharply through the fog of Baal Forest and resounded far into the distance.
Within it, Vitalianus’s low voice rang out.
A smile still hung on his lips.
“Ataolf.”
The voice that came in response could hardly be considered human.
Low and sharp, a chilling voice that filled any listener with revulsion.
Its expression was deeply twisted.
“Vitalianus.”
A clash of power signaling the beginning of battle. Roars followed one after another.
And amid those explosions.
“…Hello?”
Hio was facing a woman who had suddenly appeared before his eyes.
“We finally meet.”
A bright crimson, shining like jewels within her large eyes.
It was Airaitz’s appearance.
At Airaitz’s confession, unchanged from any other time, Hio—
Kwaaaang!
—immediately drove dozens of bolts of lightning into her.
Thud, thud— Monsters several meters tall charged in, shaking the ground. All of them were demons.
“Stop them!”
The knights facing them were no pushovers either.
Were they not elite knights chosen from among the imperial elites to come to this fierce battlefield?
But the demons were not the only ones they had to face.
“Die! Die! Die!”
Hundreds of humans continued to pour in between the demons, or from behind them.
As if possessed by something, their eyes were filled with crimson light, and most of them were criminals with bounties on their heads.
Amid that battlefield where the sounds of monsters and human screams, shouts and excitement, and collisions between immense powers all erupted at once.
“Airaitz.”
Hio stood facing Airaitz.
Kwaaaang!
Lightning still crashed down around them, and the resulting smoke was thick.
It was both a smokescreen to deceive Ataolf’s eyes and a bit of acting in its own right.
“Now that I’m facing you in person like this, my heart is pounding so hard. This is love, right?”
Whether the screams and noise all around her could not reach her ears, Airaitz placed a hand over her chest and approached little by little.
At the sight, Hio coolly shook his head.
“It isn’t love. Anyone’s heart would beat faster on a battlefield like this.”
White skin and a small face. The double eyelids above her large eyes and her thin yet dark brows were perfectly harmonious.
But the crimson light within her beautifully curved eyes gave off an eerie feeling.
“In any case, you have to come with me, Hio.”
With smiling eyes, Airaitz slowly approached.
Even amid the falling lightning, she did not so much as twitch an eyebrow.
“Keep this in mind, Airaitz. The moment Ataolf stops suspecting us, you must release your ability as well and move with me to find the artifact.”
“Mm. I know. Don’t worry.”
At last, Airaitz arrived right in front of Hio. Because she was a head shorter than him, her eyes looked up at him. Her black hair swayed softly.
At that, Hio withdrew Thunder Emperor.
“Begin.”
“Mm. Good.”
Thick fog and rising clouds of dust.
Screams and shouts, and the great noise of battle.
Airaitz wrapped both arms around Hio’s neck.
They were so close they could feel each other’s breath.
Hio’s indifferent eyes looking down, and Airaitz’s eyes looking up at him.
“You have no idea how much I wanted to have you, Hio.”
The crimson energy slowly seeped in as the two pairs of eyes faced one another.
Hio’s eyes, too, gradually became dyed in a similar color.
「Trait — ‘I Can’t Live Without Looking Cool!’ is activating」
Rather than pushing it away, he calmed the trait trying to resist and slowly accepted that crimson light.
Slowly, very slowly, desire began to encroach.
“I wanted to have you but couldn’t, and whenever I thought of you, my heart pounded.”
In the precarious gap between them, so close they were almost touching, Airaitz asked with glittering eyes, her expression brighter than ever.
“This is love, right?”
“……”
She smiled brightly and burrowed into his arms.
“Mm! Yes! I love you too!”
The screech of sword against sword. The explosion of aura colliding with black fog. Screams and shouts, cries of passion and excitement.
…And the sound of lightning and thunder that, at some point, could no longer be heard.
At that, the cloud of dust gradually settled as well, and when it had completely cleared.
There was no sign anywhere of Hio and Airaitz, who should have been inside it.
[Hidden Trait: No Violence! (Patience: 291 / 1000)]