Alliance, Guardian, Revelation (2)
Horus.
The god of Egyptian myth, the sun and the sky, and a symbol of kingship.
In most games, he was usually represented as an eye attached to some object, or as a great hawk. That was exactly what Raul had been aiming for.
A guardian that could fly through the sky and, by virtue of its distinctive “eye,” even share vision with him.
If that happened, Raul could cut down on the useless consumption of divinity for scouting and focus even more efficiently on combat.
Exeria was not a game completely divorced from the myths of Earth, so Horus would almost certainly be a winged guardian.
“But...”
What the hell was this?
Raul stared suspiciously at the cat with its white, glossy fur, as radiant as the holy light of the Halo.
“Horus?”
When he asked again in the form of a question, the cat gave a mew, and astonishingly, a message appeared at the same time.
『The Sun Claw Lion, "Horus," answers to its master’s call.』
“A lion? Not a cat?”
To be fair, Horus was often portrayed as a hawk, but that did not mean he did not also symbolize a lion.
He was also more often represented by the sky or the eye, but that did not mean he did not symbolize the sun.
“So it’s not wrong, but...”
Somehow it had been born with only the traits opposite to what he had intended. At this point, it was almost impressive in the wrong direction.
A guardian was, in essence, a protector.
Something that existed by protecting its master.
And yet this newborn kitten Horus was currently spinning in place, chasing its own tail.
“Hah.”
Then, losing its balance, Horus flopped over and tumbled along the floor.
Well. What was this.
Yes, it was cute, but now he had to wonder.
Raul said with a dumbfounded look, “Horus, can you even fight?”
“Meow-”
“Not 'meow.' Can you fight?”
Was he going to have to raise a newborn guardian until it grew strong enough to be useful?
Under ordinary circumstances, that would have seemed like a perfectly decent game mechanic, but with the Grand Duke of the Abyss right on their doorstep, it was inconvenient to say the least.
As Raul slowly furrowed his brow, Horus suddenly looked around.
“Meow-”
Then a message popped up.
『The Sun Claw Lion, "Horus," wants a larger space.』
“A larger space?”
When Raul asked, Horus nodded with its doll-like head as if it understood him.
He honestly did not have high expectations, but Raul opened the window first and leapt down into the middle of the Cerelial family’s garden.
Now that his Agility had risen, a distance like this took only a few seconds.
Raul set Horus down and said, “I don’t know what you’re trying to show me, but go ahead.”
Then Horus, after looking around once more, suddenly threw its head up.
That was the moment.
[ ᚥ ᚨ ᚸ ᚡ ᚯ ]
Runes appeared out of nowhere in the empty air.
“No way...”
Raul’s eyes went wide.
And then, before he could even finish reacting, the runes suddenly burst into enormous tongues of flame.
The Cerelial estate was transformed in an instant, the dark pre-dawn replaced by a world bathed in crimson sunset light.
Rattle-rattle!
“W-What’s going on!”
“There’s a fireball in the sky all of a sudden!”
Elves all over the place threw open their windows and craned their necks in shock, and amid all that, Horus let out a short mew before the mass of flame shot toward the sky.
BOOOOM-!
The deafening roar was as immense as the flames themselves.
Only then did Raul remember that Eldrix had been an outstanding rune mage.
“Crazy.”
Horus had inherited that talent and was a guardian capable of wielding rune magic.
What was more, its firepower was twice as strong as Eldrix’s.
***
The next day, after the commotion from the night before, Raul was on his way to the Council Hall with Alicia.
But all the way from the estate to the land of the World Tree, Alicia kept groaning miserably.
“Don’t be so tense.”
Raul lightly patted her shoulder.
“They said the council is only temporary, didn’t they?”
“B-But still, Saint! I-I mean, it’s the Council of Elders! All the elders are gathered there, and... I-I’m just a little kid who hasn’t even been born for a hundred years yet!”
“If ninety is a baby, does that mean humans stay babies until they die?”
At his dry rebuke, Alicia made another strange, despairing sound.
Alicia had, astonishingly, been chosen as an elder of Cerelial, one of the five great houses that governed elven society.
Of course, that was only a temporary appointment until the innocence of her five brothers and six sisters had been proven.
In this land of the World Tree, she was effectively being treated like a hero.
In truth, the only thing she had done was bring Raul here...
But as a result, the Halo had peeled away the veil of the unknown, and through that, they had once again been able to hear the voice of the World Tree.
For the elves, that had apparently been the event that mattered most.
“Lady Alicia!”
“Not lady anymore! She’s an elder now!”
“You look lovely today, Elder!”
“Lady Alicia?”
People rushed toward her the moment they spotted her.
Of course, there were no brazen elves crazy enough to block the path to the Council Hall, but the passage had still become uncomfortably narrow from the sheer number of people.
“And that person next to the lady is... gasp!”
“His ears are short! Don’t tell me that’s the one?”
If Alicia, who had merely brought him along, drew this much attention, then what about Raul, who had opened the Halo himself?
“S-Saint!”
“Saint!”
“Saint, please look this way for just a second!”
“W-We heard you met the Mother in person!”
In the World Tree’s realm, Raul’s treatment was no different from that of a world star in his original world.
Daaang-!
“Ahh! Our savior, who drinks in blue skies and cups of wine, who shares affection with the Mother and makes even the trees smile~”
A long-haired elf had somehow appeared with a biwa in hand and was plucking the strings at random while singing.
“The memory-lost Saint is remembered by all, seeing the light of that day~”
And then came a chorus from the other elves, singing along with him.
He had no idea when they had all gathered like this, but Raul and Alicia ended up marching forward surrounded by a sea of elves.
They had been here nearly a week already, and these fairies truly seemed to know no fatigue.
Unable to get used to a treatment that refused to become familiar, Raul quickened his pace.
“S-Saint!”
Alicia, left behind, called after him, but he could not endure another second of that embarrassing singing and simply walked faster.
Thanks to that, they reached the land of the World Tree in less than ten minutes, even though it ordinarily took about thirty on foot.
But the situation here was not much different.
“We greet the great Saint of the Beginning!”
“We greet the steadfast friend of the Mother!”
The council elders, their guardian knights, and even the chief of the Ranger Corps and the headmaster of the Magic Academy reacted much the same way as the elves outside.
“...Let’s start.”
Raul washed his face with both hands and cut off their long, elaborate greetings.
This was already the sixth time today. Anyone who sat there and listened to all of it with a grin on their face had to be insane for attention.
At the very least, Raul was not that kind of person.
“Everyone, be seated. The first agenda item concerns the conscription system proposed by the Saint, and its scope. Anyone with an opinion, raise your hand.”
Fortunately, the meeting proceeded smoothly.
Probably because this was already the sixth time, the agenda moved forward without snagging or quarrels breaking out between them.
“Then shall we ask for the Saint’s opinion on this matter?”
At that moment, Elder Erebrid, who seemed to be leading the council, called on Raul.
The attention of everyone present turned toward him.
Raul knew the subject was unit composition, so he answered without hesitation.
“I understand why opinions differ. But what I still think matters most is artillery.”
“Artillery... You mean the long-range fire support unit you mentioned before?”
“Yes. That’s right.”
“If we use wind spirits, it’ll increase the range of magic! It’s feasible!”
“But the number of spirit-speakers is extremely limited...”
“Then we should find those with talent for spirit arts and train more of them. The war is right in front of us!”
“Then the elves suited to our city...”
Listening to the endless opinions that followed his one remark, Raul decided he would be perfectly fine skipping out on this council from here on.
At first, many people had asked Raul for advice on whatever they were discussing, but now they were talking more among themselves than with him.
Raul’s role, the part where he had to lay the foundation, was more or less finished.
***
That night, Raul made his intentions clear right there after the meeting ended.
“I’ll be leaving now, to move on to the next task.”
“S-Saint!”
“Th-That suddenly?”
“H-How could you say something so cold... Did we do something rude to offend you?”
The elves all lowered their ears at once and looked dejected.
For people who had lived so long, they were remarkably expressive.
Raul gave a faint smile and said, “That’s not it. I simply have my duty, and you have yours.”
“B-But... we haven’t even properly repaid you yet...”
Thinking of the singing and praise from that morning, Raul let out an awkward smile.
“I think you’ve already repaid me more than enough.”
“How could that be? We still...”
Raul cut off the elf’s dejected words decisively and went on.
“We are on the brink of war. I understand why you’re happy to hear the voice of the god again. But as I said, please do your part. Someday, I’ll ask for your help. I promise.”
Raul slowly swept his gaze across the entire council hall with a solemn expression before speaking heavily.
“At that time, become the miracle that saves Exeria. For me, that would be repayment enough.”
The elves all looked briefly stunned, but Elder Erebrid was the first to rise and place a hand over his chest.
“We will uphold the Saint’s noble will.”
Then the others rose as well, one after another, taking the same posture.
“We will uphold the Saint’s noble will!”
They did not try to hold Raul back any longer.
Even after that, they said they would choose elite elves and assign them as Raul’s escort, but he refused that as well.
Exeria was not a place where one needed to imitate different occupations depending on the city or village.
And if an elf with a rigid way of thinking got involved there, it was obvious they would become a burden rather than a reliable ally.
***
And so Raul remained alone in the land of the World Tree late that night.
The sky glowed navy beneath a cover of dark shadows.
The World Tree stood beneath it like a pillar holding up the heavens, and not far from the council hall was a wooden reading stand.
“When two people pray together, that place becomes a church.”
The first sanctuary, the Church of the Beginning.
When Raul placed his hand on the reading stand and recited the prayer, a message appeared as always.
『Do you want to begin Messiah Scenario Chapter 2: "Revelation"?』
The Saint’s second epic quest, with a scenario cooldown that had been set at 182 hours.
At first he had wondered when he would ever have to wait that long, but now that time had been exceeded by nearly double.
Even so, Raul had not yet started the epic quest because of the blood-red warning message attached beneath the quest window.
「(Warning!) The moment you begin Chapter 2, "Revelation," the followers of the Evil God will also begin hunting for targets like you.」
The followers of the Evil God.
It had only been a short while since he had seen the words “the Evil God’s power” appear in a message.
Raul thought back to a memory of having seen this exact same warning message before.
Back then...
He remembered that the Knight of Mimir and the Emperor of the Empire had both dreamed, on the same day, that a star fell from the same sky.
It had been a dream, and yet the memory was so vivid it might as well have been real.
Using that as a lead, they had found a small stable in an imperial village, and there really was a newborn saintess there.
Of course, the emperor, drunk on evil, had tried to eliminate the child, and the knight of Mimir had fought desperately to protect the saintess.
It’ll probably be something like that again.
A revelation descending at the same time upon both the followers of the Evil God and Raul, and a race to see who reached it first.
And the signal flare that would ignite that “revelation” would be the acceptance of this quest.
“Huuuu.”
Raul let out a short breath and prepared himself.
The penalty from the Halo had now vanished completely, his guardian had awakened, and even his Agility had entered the realm of the superhuman.
Now he felt confident he would not simply keep running from a full-scale battle against demons.
Raul passed over the blood-red warning text and pressed the accept button.
At that moment, the world went dark.
His vision dimmed, and a drifting sensation came over him, as if he were being pulled somewhere else.
It felt exactly the same as when he had seen a future sight.
Raul did not panic. He calmly closed his eyes and opened them again.
As expected, the world had changed.
Drop.
It was so silent and vast that the sound of water droplets falling from the stalactites echoed again and again.
Inside a dim cave with not a single thread of light, there was one object before Raul that drove back the darkness.
Should he call it an ancient altar?
Or perhaps the entire cave was a single shrine?
A black sword embedded in a massive boulder was mysteriously pouring out the brightest light in the cave.
A sword in the stone...
Arthur? Then is that sword Excalibur?
Raul entertained the absurd thought alone, then shrugged.
No way.
Since the second chapter of the Saint’s Messiah Scenario was titled “Revelation,” it was probably going to be about finding that sword.
And then it happened.
A message appeared that shocked Raul far more than Arthur’s Excalibur ever could.
Ding-!
『The aura of the Beginning’s sacred relic, the holy sword "Or," is being engraved into the Stigma-Logos.』
A holy sword?!
Raul’s eyes widened at last.
What was even more astonishing was the word in front of it.
The Beginning’s sacred relic.
Raul had seen that term in an ancient book long ago.
It had been named so because it was said to have been used directly by the Saint of the Beginning 1,600 years ago.
It was one of the few weapons in the world, with a quality that did not resonate with any divine power of the three great churches.
The old book said it had been discarded by the churches...
For reasons he did not understand, it had apparently washed up in a place like this unknown cave.
The Beginning’s sacred relic.
And the Messiah Scenario that seemed to be pointing him straight here.
Raul could roughly see the shape of this quest.
It’s a chained quest.
A step-by-step quest structure where finding one relic not only awarded the sacred relic, but also yielded a hint about the next one’s whereabouts.
Now that Raul had seen this “revelation,” that thing called the followers of the Evil God would surely be seeing this scene soon as well.
Who found it first.
Who got their hands on it faster.
This quest was, in effect, a time attack.
However, one very large difference had now appeared between Raul and the ordinary jobs of Exeria...
It was Raul’s glowing hand.
「Stigma-Logos points toward the holy sword "Or."」
A beam of light extended from the back of his hand and pointed straight at the holy sword embedded in the stone.
“In a time-attack competition quest... isn’t this cheating?”
He said that, but a faint smile was already tugging at his lips.
***
It had already been four days since he left the World Tree’s realm.
Raul had wandered through the western woods of Tetra Mountain for a while, and once night deepened, he reached the Coyad Plain in the northwest and lit a campfire.
Fwoooosh,
Countless sparks rose from the flame and scattered into the sky.
In truth, he did not particularly like camping in open plains.
For ordinary people, grass and tree shadows were a greater threat, but Raul had divinity, which expanded his sense of presence.
Even so, the reason he was deliberately lighting a fire out in the open like this was because of the World Tree’s advice.
Saint, camp on the Coyad Plain in the northwest of Tetra Mountain. Then you will meet a good connection.
Camping while knowingly taking on risk?
Raul had questioned the World Tree about that, but the answer left him speechless.
Future sight.
Well, if a divine being had looked into the future with its own power, who was he to argue?
Raul followed the World Tree’s advice faithfully.
How long had it been like that?
Raul was lying on a makeshift bed, counting the stars in the sky, when an arrow suddenly flew straight at the center of his forehead.
Tap-!
Raul caught it with his bare hand without even gathering divinity.
For the current Raul, an arrow without aura was no more than a dragonfly buzzing through the air.
“What is this?”
Raul was puzzled.
He had clearly followed the World Tree’s advice, so why was he getting shot at?
Then, beyond the reeds as tall as a grown man, bandits wearing red masks revealed themselves.
“If you don’t want to die, hand over everything you’ve got.”
Seeing them, Raul thought:
This is the good connection?
He was genuinely at a loss.