The voice that echoed from within the abyss was low, yet distinct.
Had Kreutzwald come?
Or had someone else arrived?
He could not say for certain, but one thing was clear: the presence was so overwhelming that it could easily dominate an abyss as paltry as this.
—So this is where you were.
A voice resounding beneath the light of “Heaven.”
His face could not be seen clearly through the dazzling halo, but the immense presence that lightly transcended the space of the abyss was undeniable.
That being was looking down at Hio as it spoke.
—Faint hope.
Space warped from its mere appearance, and a vast procession of light brightened his vision.
—Go to Arileiya.
No, this was a wondrous light visible only to Hio’s eyes.
A miracle composed solely of mana.
—Free the pitiful child who has had to remain bound for a thousand years.
The trait “Genius of Mana Sensitivity” boiled up from deep within his chest.
The trait engraved upon his soul itself was trembling with excitement.
For what the being before his eyes was showing him now was akin to the very pinnacle of what could be achieved with mana.
—Awaken the sleeping dragon.
With a single casual gesture, the eye of the abyss crumpled.
—And take that power.
With two sweeps, space twisted.
—Child of Ripue, still so faint.
It was a brief, yet intense encounter.
* * *
If one traveled endlessly west from Imenia, the capital of the empire, one would eventually reach the port city of Lugo.
To say one had reached the port city of Lugo was to say one had arrived at the edge of the continent.
And to say one had arrived at the edge of the continent was to say that the place spread out beyond it was shrouded in mystery.
A place that any creature living with both feet planted on the earth could not help but yearn for.
A place unknown, and therefore feared; feared, and therefore mysterious; mysterious, and therefore sought to be conquered, yet even after thousands of years, never truly attained.
It was called the sea.
Among that vast and vague sea, the western sea connected to the port city of Lugo was particularly extraordinary in the depth of its mystery.
Because it was a sea where storms raged all year round.
For that reason, the sea routes connected to Lugo were extremely limited.
If one gave in to curiosity and strayed from the designated route, a storm would immediately descend.
If one anticipated even that and pressed farther in, then from that point on, no trace of them could ever be found.
The price of curiosity was a wrecked ship. A body hurled through the air by a tremendous storm.
And yet, not many people actually died in those storms.
Most returned alive, surprisingly unharmed, dazed and overjoyed. They would say that heavenly luck had been with them, and that they would never again sail out into that stormy sea out of curiosity.
And among those people, an exceedingly small number returned alive, yet lost their wits completely.
Because they had seen it.
The true master of the storm-tossed sea.
A dark sky.
Waves several meters high.
A fierce wind and torrential rain so violent one could not even open their eyes.
And in the midst of it all, when a bolt of lightning suddenly struck.
The colossal form glimpsed upon the distant sea was—
“A d-dragon……”
A dragon that summoned storms and ruled the sea.
A sea dragon.
“Tsk, tsk… He’s completely lost his mind.”
Of course, no one paid any attention to such words. They simply regarded it as an aftereffect of barely making it back alive.
Dragons, drakes—where in all the world could such things possibly exist?
Weren’t those the sort of stories only children who had not yet lost their innocence would enjoy?
But such words were only possible because they did not know that innocence, at times, pierced the essence more intuitively than any complicated gaze.
Everyone longed for innocence, yet more often than not, they laughed at and dismissed innocent things.
And so even when a pure truth was sometimes heard, they ended up snorting at it.
For instance.
—They say elves live on the unknown island of Arileiya.
Or.
—Dragons exist.
Just as they refused to believe such rumors.
That was precisely why a rather simple truth could remain hidden within a complicated world for a very long time.
Dragons were alive.
Unbelievable as it was, this was an undeniable truth.
Deep within Arileiya.
Asleep for a thousand years.
* * *
An island nation surrounded on all four sides by the sea.
The kingdom of Arileiya was famous for refusing to interact with other nations on the continent.
It was also a kingdom with which interaction was impossible to begin with.
Because no sea route to Arileiya had been opened.
The waters were unstable, storms raged at every opportunity, and Arileiya itself forbade entry to foreigners.
By now, there were no longer even any nations that insisted on opening trade with it.
Well, perhaps they were able to give up so easily because they had never so much as laid eyes on Arileiya.
The kingdom of Arileiya, surrounded by storms.
Since it could only be seen from afar, it seemed dark, gloomy, and somehow unhappy—but if one pierced through the storm and arrived in Arileiya, the story changed completely.
For nearly a thousand years, no one but its own people had been able to enter that place; it was a country truly in harmony with nature’s blessings.
Unlike the sea, which was covered in dark clouds all year round, the island’s sky was only clear. Beside towering structures grew enormous trees of similar height.
Passages naturally opened between buildings and trees, and the people who moved along them were somewhat unusual in appearance.
Some looked ordinary, like the people of the continent, but the majority had ears that protruded in distinctly pointed shapes.
And yet no one found this strange.
For this was none other than the veiled kingdom, Arileiya.
“Our differences of opinion have not narrowed for several days.”
The capital of that Arileiya.
No, from a human perspective, it was the capital. To speak plainly, it was simply the very center of the island, within the interior of a gigantic tree that seemed to touch the sky.
That enormous tree, visible from every corner of the island, was the heart of Arileiya, and those who ruled and represented this place had been gathered there for days, continuing their meeting.
“The signs of destruction have clearly appeared, have they not? I believe it is time for us to act.”
It was the opinion of one of those seated around the wooden round table, whose ears were rounded at the tips—in other words, a human.
The one seated across from him opened their mouth.
They were of a race with pointed ears, known as elves.
“We must not forget our mission. We must endure and wait.”
The ratio of the two races seated around the table was roughly seven to three.
Seven elves, three humans.
The humans appeared to be of all sorts of ages.
There were youths, children, and elderly people with deeply wrinkled faces.
But regardless of age, all the elves looked young.
They wore sheer, airy garments over cotton clothes, and upon their heads rested crowns woven from grass.
A race that did not experience aging until their allotted lifespan came to an end, living beautifully their entire lives before returning to nature—that was the main people of Arileiya, the elves.
“But nothing will be resolved by simply enduring and guarding. We must move before it is too late. Arileiya is strong.”
“Do we not have far too little information? Considering the mission that has continued for a thousand years, such movement is too hasty.”
The clash of opinions was not a matter of humans versus elves.
Opinions differed among the elves as well, and different voices arose among the humans too.
That was how confusing the change that had appeared in Arileiya was.
“That is unquestionably the sign of the abyss passed down in the records, is it not?”
It was because of none other than the Abyss Gate that had appeared in Arileiya.
Several days ago, a pitch-black entrance like a bottomless pit had suddenly appeared.
This was not a phenomenon that had appeared only in Arileiya, but one that had manifested in places all across the continent.
Because Hio and Daphne had cleared the 50th floor, entrances to the Abyss had appeared not only in the Garden of Hell, but everywhere.
Compared to the game, it meant they had now entered the full-fledged middle stage.
Naturally, messages had appeared for the transmigrators.
「Abyss - The 50th floor has been cleared.」
「Entrances for the Abyss raid will be generated throughout the world.」
「The difficulty of the raid will increase drastically.」
The transmigrators who had played Ventair.
From their perspective, there were quite a few strange points.
Hadn’t it skipped the 10th floor and suddenly become the 50th?
On top of that, even though the time limit for the raid had long since passed, neither a failure message nor a completion message had appeared.
Only after Daphne and the Supreme Heavenly Demon emerged two weeks later did such messages appear.
Of course, even among the transmigrators, only a very small number knew this.
In any case, the people of Arileiya, who had no transmigrators among them and no way of knowing such facts, could not help but be confused.
“We have no information, so we must enter, if only to obtain it.”
“That would be indiscriminate sacrifice. Our mission is to protect, not to pioneer and advance.”
“Must we not advance in order to protect?”
“If we fall headlong in the process, even protecting will become difficult.”
Just because they were elves did not mean they thought the same way, and just because they were humans did not mean they all shared the same disposition.
Thus their opinions did not unite in any one direction, and for days, they had remained locked in tense opposition.
Even the noblest among the elves could not easily draw a conclusion, and even the one with the deepest sense of mission among the humans could not declare that this was right.
In the midst of that, someone shot a hand into the air.
A small hand raised high with confidence, short legs dangling without touching the ground.
It was Freyja, a girl whose light green hair left a vivid impression.
This was a meeting hall where only important figures with decision-making authority in Arileiya had gathered.
And Freyja had attended that meeting hall boldly.
For this small girl, that was a natural right.
『I have something to say! ヽ(•̀ω•́ )ゝ』
Her hand was raised with all her might, and her emerald eyes overflowed with confidence.
At that unexpected action, Mutins’s gaze wavered anxiously behind her, but Freyja paid it no mind and moved her other hand, swiftly writing words.
『I called someone who can help!』
Through the power of the artifact, the words appeared clearly enough for everyone in the meeting hall to see. And those words were, in effect, Freyja’s thoughts.
“Someone who can help… Do you mean from within Arileiya?”
Right beside her, an old man with a deeply wrinkled face asked Freyja with a benevolent smile, and Freyja shook her head with great vigor.
『No! Mister Hio is from the empire! - ̗̀( ˶'ᵕ'˶) ̖́-』
“I… see……”
The old man smiled awkwardly at Freyja’s spirited attitude. He seemed to be struggling over how to respond.
In his place, an elf on the opposite side addressed Freyja in the elves’ characteristic gentle voice.
“But Freyja. Even if it is you, we cannot carelessly allow an outsider in.”
The reason was simple.
“Because that decision belongs solely to Him.”
Elves always regarded respect and harmony as virtues, but they almost never openly elevated another in speech.
Unless someone was worthy of an elf’s respect, it was impossible to receive such treatment. And the “Him” spoken of here was a human whom all elves respected without end.
No, anyone who lived in Arileiya, anyone who knew of that mission, respected him and willingly bowed their head.
“Lord Regarda will not permit it.”
The ruler of the western sea, as the outside world called him.
Or the guardian of Arileiya.
Regarda Obiere.
To the rankers, he was known as one of the strongest in the world setting, alongside Vitalianus and Ataolf.
Yet he was a mysterious figure about whom almost nothing was known.
“If He does not permit it, no one can set foot in Arileiya.”
And since Regarda had been entrusted with his mission, his permission had not once been granted to an outsider.
His convictions were so noble and so deep that no one could dare pierce through them and enter.
For a full thousand years.
『Still, if it’s Mister Hio, I think he can do it? (´O｀)』
But Freyja wrote with certainty, without the slightest doubt.
It was only natural.
After all, in an age where magic had been lost, the girl who had managed to create even a half-formed 1st Circle knew.
She knew his mana, which moved more splendidly than anything in the world.
She knew the rapture of magic being brought to precise completion.
No one else could see it, and no one else could understand it, but this small girl alone knew.
A magician was, by nature, a being who brought forth miracles.
And she knew who the last remaining magician in this world was.
In this meeting hall where no one could guarantee anything, only Freyja wrote with conviction.
Those words were—
『I asked him for help, so Mister Hio will definitely come! (๑•̀ – •́)و』
Innocence piercing through a complicated problem.
“Hmmm……”
However, the reactions of the others could only be negative.
Because the other party was none other than Regarda Obiere.
“For now… let us continue the meeting.”
At that response, Freyja’s cheeks puffed up rapidly, but they sweated profusely and desperately pretended not to notice.
* * *
『Mister! Help! Help! (,,>ヮ<,,)!』
Checking the message once more, Hio let out a hollow laugh.
“What kind of cheap artifact is this……”
Because with that message from Freyja as its last, the Whispering Stone had fulfilled its purpose and died.
Before he even had a chance to reply.
—Did I not tell you? In my era, it was such a cheap trinket that it would not even have been treated as an artifact.
Nodding at Furnel’s words, Hio slipped the Whispering Stone into his pocket.
“Well, I was heading to Arileiya anyway.”
Hio slowly rose to his feet.
Kwaaang!
Lightning struck not far away, and thunder roared.
A storm blew, and the raging waves surged upward as if they did not know how high the sky was.
In the middle of a sea thick with dark clouds.
“This is brutal. Truly brutal.”
His brief rest on a nameless, uninhabited island before properly entering the Arileiya Sea had come to an end.
「Skill - ‘Summon Phantom Steed’ is activated.」
The gate to the spirit world opened, and the Phantom Steed emerged once more.
With the effect of his trait, the ghostly horse had become as splendid as a divine beast. Hio climbed onto its back and turned his gaze toward the storm-tossed sea.
“What exactly are they hiding…? Let’s go find out.”
The mysterious island that had kept its secrets tightly curled in on itself, both in the game and even now.
“To Arileiya.”