So ti later,
the group reunited on the mountaintop where Aralond had waited.
“……”
The atmosphere at the scene was incredibly awkward, though.
“Hey, Irus——”
Laki tugged at Irus’s sleeve.
“Co with for a second.”
She pulled her aside.
Aralond and Fulmir stared at each other in silence.
Hulim Heyerar, feeling totally left out, had a question mark pop up above her head.
“?”
What’s going on…… Why are they all acting like they’re hiding sothing from ?
“Little Laki, what’s wrong?”
“Don’t play dumb with .”
Laki ground her teeth, her face dark with frustration.
“You knew all along, didn’t you! Why didn’t you tell ? Did you think it’d be funny to see looking like a fool right now?”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about~.”
“Cut the act! I’m talking about that girl! What the hell was that power she used earlier?!?”
“Ehh, you an that? Well……” Irus put on a thoughtful look, “If I’m being honest, I’m just as curious about Hulim as you are.”
“You damn elf……”
On the other side,
after a long stretch of awkward silence, Aralond finally spoke up.
“Master——”
“Ahem! You don’t need to rember a single thing about today’s fight.” Fulmir said, his face flushing with embarrassnt.
“……”
Whoosh——!
A fierce gust of wind tore through the sky,
and a massive crimson dragon appeared above the group.
“Hulim! Lady Irus!”
On the dragon’s back, the elf girl waved her right hand excitedly at the ground below.
Thud!
The ground rumbled as the dragon landed heavily,
and two girls hopped down one after another.
“Huh? You two brats are here too…… Wait a minute.”
Laki leaned in and peered past them, her eyes narrowing.
“Hey, why is it just the two of you? Where’s Hena?”
“Hena left.”
Prarlulu replied casually, without a second thought.
The entire scene fell deathly silent in an instant.
“……Huh?!?”
“What do you an she left!?! Spit it out clearly right now——!”
“Eek, eek! It’s not my fault, I swear!”,
Prarlulu stamred in a panic, shooting a pleading glance at Hulim for help.
“Uh……” Hulim spoke up to explain gently, “Please don’t worry. Hena will co back.”
“? What kind of vague, aningless explanation is that……”
Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site.
Laki rubbed her temples, sighing in frustration.
“Fine, I’ll go find her myself. Which way did she head——”
Before she could finish her sentence,
BOOM!!!
The earth beneath their feet shook violently, sending a jolt through every inch of their bodies.
“What? What’s happening now!?”
Laki exclaid in shock.
“Hey! Look at that——”
Ignir spoke up suddenly, his voice heavy with unease.
“That…… doesn’t look good at all, does it?”
At his words, the group turned their gazes in a hurry to the Red Mist Volcano not far away.
And they saw it all unfold.
Crack! Crack……
Gigantic fissures spread radially across the ground from the volcano’s core, snaking out in all directions without stop.
Boiling lava spurted endlessly from the chasms below, painting the land red.
The volcano at the center, as if under an unbearable amount of pressure, let out a constant, terrifying roar that shook the heavens.
Fulmir’s eyes widened more and more with each passing second, his face paling.
“This is a disaster…… Without Sugart siphoning the lava’s energy, the Red Mist Volcano——it’s going to erupt completely——!”
BOOM——!!!
The mont his words faded into the air,
the entire mountain range before them exploded in a cataclysmic blast!
Blinding light and searing heat blazed across the entire sky. An unprecedented roar drowned out all other sounds in the world.
A colossal, spectacular shockwave rippled outward in a brilliant arc before their eyes, spreading to the far corners of heaven and earth……
Across the vast Northern Wastes,
countless people made their hos here—
in villages, towns, and even entire kingdoms.
All living things froze in place at that mont, listening to this most terrifying roar of nature,
and then,
primitive fear of the untad wilds spread in the hearts of every single one of them……
Beyond the Red Mist Volcano,
the mont that terrifying sound rang out,
Charkin and Aznov stopped in their tracks at the sa ti and looked back.
They witnessed the entire mountain range detonate right before their eyes.
A terrifying wall of fire, and an unprecedented shockwave, advanced slowly toward them with the overwhelming power to destroy everything in its path.
To the naked eye, it moved at a snail’s pace.
But in reality, it only seed that way because of the vast distance and the shockwave’s colossal initial scale. If they had been closer, they would not have even had a chance to see its full form before it struck them down.
“……”
Charkin and Aznov stared at each other in silence, their faces grim.
“Do you think we can outrun it?”
“……We can only pray for the gods’ rcy, I suppose.”
……
As the shockwave, wreathed in blinding light and searing heat, swept across the land,
Pop~.
A strange ripple seed to shatter an invisible barrier, surging forth with the raging flas.
A faint, indistinct feeling that had lingered for so long blazed into sharp, unmistakeable clarity at that mont.
“……”
Hulim slowly lifted her head, her gaze fixed unwaveringly on the volcano’s direction.
I feel it……
Whoosh! Whoosh!
The fiery onslaught raged on, unrelenting.
The earth beneath their feet lted and crumbled endlessly, turning to ash and lava in an instant.
In a world completely engulfed by this apocalyptic power, the magical barrier they had raised around themselves teetered on the brink of collapse, barely holding on.
Yet her gaze, at that mont, seed to pierce straight through the flas and the crumbling earth, catching sight of the existence hidden in the volcano’s deepest core.
The deafening roar that had filled her ears faded into nothingness,
leaving only that overwhelming call echoing in her very soul, pulling her forward.
It’s just ahead……
Almost unconsciously, Hulim lifted her right foot and took a step forward toward the volcano……
Long after,
the initial shockwave finally subsided, and the world grew quiet once more.
The magical barrier dissipated slowly.
“It’s finally over, but this situation is beyond dire……” Laki said, her voice heavy with dread as she looked out at the wreckage.
Everywhere they turned, the world around them had been transford into a lava hellscape.
Ahead, the Red Mist Volcano that had once stood there was gone, replaced by a colossal volcanic caldera, from which surging lava gushed endlessly into the sky.
Across the broken earth, rivers of molten lava roared toward the far distance, devouring everything in their path.
High in the sky, gigantic volcanic boulders were hurled upward like missiles, then plumted like teorites in all directions.
A suffocating blanket of volcanic ash spread across the sky at an alarming rate, encroaching on the heavens far beyond the volcano, blotting out the sun.
It was easy to foresee—
if this catastrophe could not be stopped,
the Lidoyar Kingdom, and even the entire Northern Wastes, would be completely blanketed in volcanic ash, descending into a long, desolate winter with no end in sight.
It would be a catastrophic disaster.
Kingdoms would fall, and countless lives would perish.
“O Earth, converge——!”
The sacred shield in Aralond’s hands suddenly blazed with a brilliant divine light.
The broken, lting earth abruptly halted its collapse, coalescing once more into a patch of solid, unyielding ground.
“That’s amazing! Can you really do sothing like that?”
Prarlulu stared at Aralond in wonder, then glanced down at the divine staff in her own hands, her shoulders slumping.
“……”
Is my magic just completely useless in situations like this……
“Converge, converge, converge……”
Aralond wove his magic without pause, pouring every ounce of his strength into it, and the solid ground spread outward, growing bit by bit.
But as the volcano continued its cataclysmic eruption, the land they had painstakingly coalesced crumbled once more in the blink of an eye, torn apart by the endless tremors.
“Aralond, let help you——”
Slap!
Fulmir slamd both hands hard onto the solid ground, channeling his magic into the earth.
Rumble……
The speed of the earth’s convergence surged dramatically, and the patch of solid ground began to expand faster than before.
“Master!”
Aralond’s eyes lit up with hope, and he poured even more power into his magic, working harder than ever.
We can seal the volcano, we can stop this disaster!
Just as the thought crossed his mind,
BOOM——!
A massive, earth-shaking tremor rocked the ground, and the expanded patch of solid earth shattered into countless pieces in an instant, torn apart by the raw power of the volcano.
User Comments
0 comments from readers