A Firefighter's Prayer
When I am called to duty, God,
wherever flames may rage,
give me the strength to save a life,
whatever be its age.
Help me embrace a little child
before it is too late,
or save an older person from
the horror of that fate.
Enable me to be alert
and hear the weakest shout,
and quickly and efficiently
to put the fire out.
I want to fill my calling
and to give the best in me
to guard my neighbor and protect
his property.
And if according to Your will
I have to lose my life,
please bless with Your protecting hand
my children and my wife.
“Are you all right!?”
“I’m fine.”
Darian and Tene pushed into the interior of the World Tree, where scorching heat and pitch-black smoke hung thick in the air.
“My god… is this really the place we saw last time?”
Even through the acrid, billowing smoke, Tene surveyed the space without restraint or restriction. Her eyes went wide and she murmured the words before she could stop herself.
Because freshness was everything when it came to potions, production had always taken place inside the World Tree itself. All it took was boiling freshly picked leaves of the World Tree in a great cauldron—no complicated equipment required—so the process was remarkably efficient. Once full-scale potion-making began, Tene found herself peeking into the World Tree’s interior every time she visited the Great Forest, almost without thinking.
The vast hollow of the World Tree had always smelled clean and refreshing. A cool breeze from nowhere in particular, and a fragrance of pure nature that put even phytoncides to shame, had always cleared her mind. The floor steeped in centuries of age, the quaintly appointed interior facilities—everything had reminded her of a dreamlike good witch’s cottage from a storybook, and she had loved the place for it.
But not now.
The ancient wood had been scorched black by the fire-fiend and lost all color. In place of that refreshing breeze, a terrible heat boiled and seethed so fiercely that an ordinary person’s lungs would have cooked in an instant.
“Snap out of it!”
“Hic!?”
The shocking sight had stolen Tene’s wits clean away; only Darian’s shout finally dragged her back to herself.
“Listen carefully. In this mess I can barely see more than a few meters at best.”
“But you’re different, right? Spread your senses. Find anyone still left.”
“B-but… I’ve never done anything like that…”
Darian, mouth covered and body crouched low against the choking smoke, shouted at her, yet Tene had no confidence. She was a dragon, true, but she had never trained with that power, never used her abilities for any real purpose. At most she had served as the Evergarden barony’s personal airplane; being a dragon, she had never felt the need for anything like training.
Suddenly ordered to do something she had never even attempted, she felt only bewilderment and shook her head without meaning to.
But—
“You can do it. No—you have to.”
“But…”
“Cut the weak talk!”
“...!”
“Every second we waste here, the people trapped in this fire-fiend are fighting for their lives!”
“.......”
Darian’s roar drove home the truth that every single action of hers now carried human lives. Tene’s trembling stopped.
“You can do this. You’re a dragon, aren’t you?”
“.....I’ll try. No—I will do it!”
“Heh. That’s more like a dragon.”
He flashed her a grin and a thumbs-up. Tene steeled her resolve and began to focus.
Concentrate… concentrate… Even normally I sense presence without meaning to, right? So just do it on purpose this time.
What’s around me? In this space? On this floor? In this entire World Tree…?
Ssssss—
As Tene poured her will into the effort, an aura darker than mere smoke—pitch-black, like pure night—began to seep slowly outward from her body.
Spread it… spread it… until it blankets the whole World Tree!
Whoooosh—!
Her eyes snapped open. The aura hovering around her body surged outward at terrifying speed, swallowing everything nearby. It did not stop there. Starting from her immediate surroundings, the black aura raced on until it blanketed the entire space she stood in—and then the World Tree itself.
And then—
–...help me…
–Save… me…
–Save me!!!
Her eyes flashed.
“Two people straight ahead! Three on the second floor! Two in the basement! And… three on the seventh floor!”
The survivors’ voices rang out with vivid clarity. Tene pinpointed every location in an instant and shouted them out.
“...Well done! Stick close and move fast!”
“Yes!”
Darian grinned wide and broke into a full sprint.
“We take the ones straight ahead first!”
Even as he punched through the choking black smoke that hid everything more than a step away, Darian mapped the interior structure with absolute certainty.
Wooden building—fire spreads insanely fast…! The World Tree isn’t ordinary wood, but if we assume this fire isn’t ordinary either, better to treat it like a timber structure.
“There—right up ahead!”
“Run!”
Just as Tene said, human shapes appeared dimly in the distance. Darian poured on even more speed.
“S-save…”
“Tene!!!”
“Yes!”
They found the survivors at last. The two elves were slumped against a corner wall, sipping potions and barely hanging on. Luckily the accident had struck mid-production, so spare potions had been on hand to keep them alive.
Better grab a few of these too.
Judging they might prove useful, Darian scooped up several potion vials rolling on the floor and stuffed them into his pockets.
“This is gonna jolt you a bit.”
Griiiip—
“Catch!!!”
“Uwaagh!?”
Relief at finding them lasted only a heartbeat. Darian seized the two swaying elves—one in each hand—and hurled them straight at Tene. She barely managed to snatch the elves out of the air as they came flying through the smoke.
“Get those survivors outside first, then meet me in the basement!”
“Y-yes, sir!”
With two people already, time and manpower were razor-thin. The elves, already weakened, could not last long in this inferno. So the plan was simple: Tene, who could race between the World Tree’s interior and the outside at high speed, would ferry the survivors out, while Darian pressed on with the rescue.
Upper floors still have time before the fire fully takes them, but the basement—if we don’t get there now the foundation could collapse. Extract them as fast as possible!
“Hup!”
Handing the survivors to Tene, Darian immediately charged toward the basement. He ignored the stairs entirely, practically hurling himself downward, and soon located the two people trapped below.
“Y-you came to save us… cough! Cough!”
“Don’t talk. Cover your mouths with this.”
“Th-thank you…”
A mage must have been among them; a barrier still held, so their condition was relatively decent—yet they had clearly inhaled smoke and kept coughing. Darian handed them cloths soaked with the potions he had pocketed earlier and ordered them to cover their faces.
“I’m back!”
“Three this time!”
Griiiip—
“W-wait a second…! We can still w—”
“Catch!!!”
Whoosh—
“Kyaaaaaaa!!!”
Thud—thud-thud—thud—
“Got them!”
Once again Darian flung the elves through the air like so much cargo (it was, after all, the most efficient method), and this time Tene caught them cleanly. Their faces had gone paper-white from the shock of flying, but their lives were never in danger.
“Next—second floor!”
“Yes!”
After clearing the basement, Darian sprinted for the second floor. Every muscle he had forged over the years answered his will, coiling tight and exploding with power. All that training had not been wasted; his body obeyed without complaint, and he reached the second floor in a blink.
There, too, three elves waited—bodies flushed red with heat, yet still alive. One after another he tossed them to Tene and pulled them free.
“Just one group left…”
Only the seventh floor remained.
Boom—boom-boom—!
“Oh, hell…!”
Even the World Tree seemed to be reaching its limit against the monstrous fire-fiend. Floors crumbled; blazing beams crashed down from the ceiling and shattered. Time was nearly gone.
Thud—thud—
“Move, move, move!!!”
With every flight of stairs he climbed, Darian roared the words.
KRAAANG—!
“Ugh!?”
Even as he climbed, the fire-fiend had already reached this high. The air ahead was solid smoke; the floor felt as treacherous as half-frozen ice. Still Darian pressed on. A little faster, a little swifter—he had to keep moving. To become that single ray of salvation for people in peril. That was the only reason a firefighter existed.
Aura wrapped his entire body as he mounted the stairs; his heart hammered like a war drum. At last he reached the seventh floor.
“Huuup… People!!! Is anyone there!!!!!!!!!!!”
Unlike Tene, he only knew there were people on the seventh floor; he had no way to pinpoint them instantly. But he could at least let the terrified survivors know that help had arrived.
“...H-here… over here… we’re here….!”
“There!”
His thunderous shout echoed through the fire-fiend. A faint voice answered from far off, and Darian bolted toward it.
“S-save us!!”
“Found you!”
Racing through the seventh floor, he discovered three elves huddled and trembling inside a small room. The fire-fiend had reached this corner later than the rest, yet unlike the other floors there were no potions and no mage—only their own bodies to endure with. The damage was far worse.
“M-Mason’s unconscious!”
“...?!”
Even while they themselves were weak from smoke, the survivors clung to an elf who looked completely out and sobbed.
He’s still breathing, but it’s paper-thin. Inhaled way too much smoke…!
Fast—we have to get outside as fast as possible!
“Don’t worry! We’re here now—you’re going to make it out safely!”
“W-we’re going to live…?”
“Of course!”
“We-we’re alive…! We’re alive!”
“But Mason…”
“He’s only lost consciousness for a moment. Once we’re outside he’ll come around soon.”
The situation was grim, yet Darian forced a smile and did everything he could to calm them. Nothing good ever came of survivors sinking into despair.
“I’m here!”
“You made it!”
In the meantime Tene had already ferried the earlier survivors outside and climbed all the way to the seventh floor; her voice rang from beyond the doorway. The plan was going smoothly. All that remained was to hand these last three to Tene and follow them out himself. No problem. Perfect.
That was what Darian thought as a smile slipped onto his face unbidden.
But trouble always struck the moment things looked smooth.
Creak—creeeaaak—
“....Huh?”
“Wha—?”
Just as Darian reached to lift the final survivors—
KRAAAAAANG—-!
“Tene!!!”
The ceiling that had held out until now finally lost its battle with the fire-fiend and collapsed. Blazing timber buried the only exit.
And so the hour of despair arrived.