The Water Giant of Elride
With the Elride subjugation map in hand, our business in Starus was complete. We stepped out of the fortress and followed the direction the map indicated. As we walked, admiring the lush grass and the babbling streams, the surrounding terrain gradually grew denser. Tall trees stood thickly packed, and fruits that made your mouth water at a glance hung everywhere. The sight was so bountiful it felt like the very word abundance had been brought to life. I couldn’t help but marvel.
“It really is strange. It should be hot, yet the weather is pleasantly cool, and the environment overflows with food. It almost looks like paradise on earth.”
“If only the monsters weren’t eating up all those advantages.”
I nodded at Neon’s remark. Monsters truly were the root of all evil. If there were just a moderate number of them, it might be tolerable, but if you didn’t regularly run subjugation expeditions, their numbers would explode and trigger a monster wave.
“Neon, didn’t the Blue Tower ever research this phenomenon?”
“Well…”
Even though he was from the Central region, not everyone there was an idiot. The magic towers were organizations that genuinely strove to understand the truths of the world, so I figured he might know something and asked. After thinking for a moment, Neon opened his mouth.
“I only learned it in passing back then, but apparently the past was far more bountiful than now.”
“What was?”
“Everything.”
The amount of mana in the air, the richness of the soil, crop yields, and so on. Some of it could be explained by humanity’s consumption over time leading to depletion, but the rest showed a decline that simply defied common sense. By now the rate of decline had slowed dramatically, so the worry had faded. Eminent scholars from across the world had poured decades into uncovering the cause, yet not a single person had succeeded, which was why interest had cooled. When Neon explained that hardly anyone was even trying to find out anymore, a strange sense of déjà vu washed over me.
“Usually the past hides secrets like this.”
Dragons that vanished long ago, ancient civilizations, an environment that had rapidly deteriorated. My past-life memories of devouring novels and games were screaming at me. And even without that, when I put together all the information I’d gathered so far, it was clear something had happened in the past.
“Well, it’s not important right now. I’ll think about it later.”
Since my information was too limited, no amount of pondering would yield an answer, so I simply stored it away in my mind. To solve the mystery of the past, I’d have to wait for Delian, who had left with the ancient ruins excavation team. Rather than obsessing over something I couldn’t do anything about, I decided to focus on the Elride subjugation we had chosen.
Since it was my first time in this terrain, I nearly got lost, but thanks to help from the local animals, we reached the lake without much trouble.
“Tweet tweet.”
“Thanks. Here’s your reward.”
I handed some nuts to the little bird that had guided us this far and looked out at the lake. The water was incredibly blue and clear. I’d heard that nothing could live in water that was too pure, yet this lake seemed to be an exception—there were so many fish visible. You could see them swimming even from a distance.
But the true value of this lake wasn’t its clean water or abundant fish.
“The lake water… is floating in the air too?”
“This is Elride’s territory, after all.”
Just as Neon said while staring in disbelief, some of the lake’s water drifted lazily through the air. There were spherical droplets floating like they were in zero gravity, others maintaining perfect hexagons or various geometric shapes, and even streams flowing through the air at a steady current like ocean currents. Neon clicked his tongue at the sight that seemed to defy the laws of physics just for this lake.
“Now I get what it means when they say high-tier monsters dominate nature.”
“Isn’t it amazing?”
“Amazing doesn’t even begin to cover it.”
If it had been done with magic, maybe I could understand. But the fact that such a phenomenon could be maintained without consuming any resources overturned common sense. If the big shots at the Blue Tower saw this, their eyes would roll back in their heads. Maybe it was because I used to belong to the Blue Tower, which specialized in water-attribute magic, but Elride’s display of natural domination felt especially shocking.
“Can we really take that thing down?”
“In terms of subjugation difficulty, it’s upper Silver to the bare edge of Gold.”
“Hiiiiek.”
Neon made a bizarre face and recoiled at my explanation. Considering the majesty a Gold-rank monster possessed, his reaction was only natural. But I hadn’t accepted the Elride subjugation request lightly.
“Don’t worry. We have a friend, don’t we?”
“Ah, that ridiculously prideful Lesser Dragon.”
“That dragon is incredibly strong.”
At my words, Neon’s face lit up with realization, and Adela chimed in from the side. Just as the two of them thought, I planned to use the Lesser Dragon in earnest for this battle. One might think water and fire would put the dragon at a disadvantage, but the flames my friend produced were no ordinary fire. Extinguishing them would require a tremendous amount of power.
“Above all, the Lesser Dragon’s evolution is almost here.”
“Evolution? You mean Half-Dragon?”
“Bingo.”
I had no idea what method that friend was using to trigger an evolution at the racial level, but the condition of our contract had been to help it fight strong enemies needed for its evolution. So I would do exactly that.
“Get ready. Since we’ve come this far, it must have already noticed us.”
“How can it notice us when it’s underwater?”
“It’s sensing us through the moisture in the air, of course.”
“What a monstrous bastard.”
Well, it was a monster, so the description fit. Leaving the grumbling Neon behind, I pushed through the bushes. The surface of the lake began to bubble, and from the center rose the upper half of a giant made entirely of water. Like a slime that had coalesced into human form, its body jiggled as its face turned toward us. It had no distinct facial features, but the single pair of eyes it had manifested burned with clear hostility toward us.
Perhaps because of that attitude, the corpses of animals and monsters that appeared to have drowned were especially noticeable around the lake.
“They say Elride is so generous it even allows creatures to come drink from its territory. That’s why its domain is treated as an implicit neutral zone among monsters.”
“■■■■■.”
“But now it’s suddenly acting violently and rejecting everything that approaches. Looks like you’ve realized it too—that this place will soon become a massive battlefield.”
High-tier monsters with transcendent senses seemed to have already noticed. Within the next few years, the most powerful factions in this region would clash. It was only instinct, but the unease took the form of a warning, and the already sensitive Elride had become hostile to everything that came near. If it had rampaged somewhere else, the priority would have been lower, but unfortunately the lake it had claimed was one of the water sources Starus relied on, which dramatically raised its importance.
“You should have just run away. If you’d only moved away from the front lines, you wouldn’t have been targeted for subjugation.”
“■■■■■■!”
As I took one step closer to the lake, Elride swung its arm from left to right in response. At the same time, the lake’s water formed a massive wave and surged toward me. Neon, who had slipped past my side, activated the spell he had prepared.
“Ice Field.”
The cold mana that burst from Neon’s hand froze the wave solid. Having risen to the 5th circle, his output had received a massive upgrade, and he smiled confidently.
“I may not look it, but I was once called a genius at the Blue Tower.”
“It’s coming.”
“If you underestimate water-attribute and ice-attribute magic… wait, what?”
Contrary to Neon’s confidence, Elride’s attack was only just beginning. When the monster shattered the frozen wave and sent a new torrent rushing forward, Neon hurriedly cast an ice spell, but the water refused to freeze. Instead, it absorbed Neon’s mana and transformed into an even more powerful attack. Adela quickly stepped in, hoisted Neon onto her shoulder, and dodged.
“What the hell is that?! Why won’t the water freeze?!”
“Because it’s not ordinary water?”
“Don’t tell me that’s also special water like the Lesser Dragon’s flames?”
“Yep. It’s mixed with part of Elride’s own body.”
“You mean it can freely manipulate the water that makes up its body?”
“Correct.”
At Adela’s answer, Neon’s face crumpled. Elride was essentially a water spirit. As a monster that used water better than anyone, it was strengthening the water by utilizing its own resistance. Neon lamented his fate against an opponent whose difficulty had clearly abandoned all conscience.
Chrrrrk.
While Neon bought time, I finished my preparations and lightly kicked off the ground, leaping above the lake. My body traced an arc through the air, then suddenly stopped falling and began to fly freely. It was thanks to the Ikelos armor created through fusion. The ability of Ikelos to fly through the air at will, combined with the thrusters I had modified the armor with, removed all restrictions on movement in the sky. Although it was slower than running on the ground, considering the advantage of being able to operate over water, it was a penalty I could easily tolerate.
“With this, I can go wild as much as I want.”
It was my first time using the function, but I adapted in an instant and looked at Elride. The creature looked like it was dying to catch me as I flew above its lake. I grinned and aimed the railgun.
“Output at 100%! Let’s make the first greeting a hot one!”
“Kiiiit!”
For some reason, Lata had grown slightly stronger the longer it spent with me. The railgun, now charged to its limit with the full power Lata could produce, flashed with light.
BOOM—!
The moment the projectile fired from the railgun, some of the water droplets floating in the air formed a protective barrier around Elride. It had barely managed to prevent a direct hit on its main body. Beyond the shield that was being absorbed back into the lake, I met Elride’s blazing eyes.
“■■■■■■■■■■■■!!!”
A roar far louder than any it had uttered before rang out, and the real battle finally began.