New Forces (1)
“…Hm?”
Freya, who had remained at the frontline with Clara, watched a single bird winging its way across the sky. It might have been just another bird passing by—except its form was far too familiar for that.
“That’s one of Aria’s, isn’t it?”
Freya stretched out her hand. The blue bird that had been circling overhead fluttered down and settled neatly onto her palm.
“A letter…?”
She untied the message from the bird’s leg and began to read. As her eyes traveled down the rather lengthy contents, Freya’s expression hardened into stone.
“C-Clara! This is terrible!”
“…What?”
Freya burst into the tent in a fluster, thrust the letter forward, and jabbed a finger at the final sentence.
“Erinn’s been detained by the Empire!”
“…Didn’t we already get information from Karna?”
“Well, from the way this is written, it looks like they ran out of time to dig everything up. So they’re leaving the rest of the investigation to us… and asking us to confirm the facts.”
“If Erinn’s under arrest, then you’re in danger too.”
Freya gave a small nod at Clara’s words.
“Aria will be fine, but Letisia and I… not so much.”
Especially since Freya’s Church of Myeongsin held little sway in the Dern Empire, where the Church of Insin was dominant. Among Erinn’s party members, Ser-Aria was the only one who could truly ignore the Empire’s will.
“That’s why she asked us to leave it to Albrecht and Clara…”
“…Us?”
“Ah—would that be all right…?”
Freya asked, a little tense. Clara was silent for a moment, then let out a soft sigh.
“…We’ll ask Albrecht when he gets back. He’s supposed to arrive tomorrow, as planned.”
“Clara, thank you…”
“There’s nothing to thank me for. I’m…”
Clara spoke quietly.
“…your comrade.”
“Clara…!”
Freya looked at her with eyes full of emotion, then swiftly pulled her into a hug. Clara’s face was promptly buried in the Saintess’s abundant, divine-power-filled bosom.
“Mmph…”
“How can you say something so lovely! Clara absolutely deserves every bit of praise the Saintess can give!”
Clara would have preferred to be released, but seeing Freya’s delighted expression drained any urge to resist.
I suppose I can let her do as she likes for a little while. With that thought, she remained nestled in Freya’s arms for quite some time. Then—
“Are you in there, Saintess.”
Karna’s voice came from outside the tent. Freya answered at once.
“Yes, I’m here, Hero Karna.”
She released Clara and lifted the tent flap.
“What is it?”
“I need you to come out for a moment. Ordinarily I would have called for Erinn, but she isn’t here.”
“Pardon?”
Karna turned on his heel without another word. Freya stood blankly for a second, then looked back at Clara. Clara rose from the bed.
“…I’m coming with you.”
Freya gave a small nod, and the two of them followed Karna.
Somehow… it feels like we’re heading straight for the frontmost line of the frontline.
Freya’s guess was correct. Karna led them to the very forward edge of the frontline—the position closest to the monsters, for all practical purposes.
Because they had fought the Legion of Oblivion here only a short while ago, the battlefield still bore its scars almost untouched. Corpses had been cleared quickly to prevent plague, yet bloodstains that had not fully faded, broken swords, and shattered armor still littered the ground—the raw wounds of battle left behind.
Freya gazed at them with a touch of sorrow, then spoke when Karna suddenly stopped.
“Hero Karna, what did you want to show us…?”
“There.”
“?”
Karna pointed into empty air. Freya and Clara tilted their heads. There was nothing there—only the clear blue sky.
“Um? There’s nothing…”
“…there?”
When both of them said as much, Karna let out a quiet sigh.
“So. You can’t see it either.”
“…We can’t either?”
“Sharti said the exact same thing. That she sees nothing. From the command staff down to the common soldiers—every last one of them reacted the same way. I thought perhaps a Saintess might be different, but it seems not.”
“……Is there something there?”
At Clara’s question, Karna narrowed his eyes. He lifted his gaze and fixed it on the thing only he could see.
“…To be honest, I would rather believe I’m seeing things.”
But it was no hallucination. It was clearly alive and moving, and the closer the distance grew, the more violently his Holy Spear reacted.
“There’s a monster.”
“…What?”
Its entire body was black, and its shape resembled a beast of the Proboscidea order. Up to that point one might have thought it simply a black elephant—but that was not the end of it.
“A monster larger than a mountain.”
“…What did you just say?”
It was so immense that one could not even firmly call it a beast or a monster. It looked as though a mountain itself were walking. And yet, when that colossal form moved, the tremors that should have shaken the earth never came—as if the thing did not truly exist.
“…There’s nothing like that anywhere. If there were, we would see it too, and if something that size were walking around, there would be sound and vibration.”
“I know. That’s the normal way of things. I would like to believe it is an illusion myself, but…”
There was clear proof that it was real. The clouds were parting.
“Every time it moves, the clouds scatter.”
“……!”
The way the clouds parted along the path it took proved its existence. Following Karna’s words, they looked up at the sky. Truly, there was nothing visible—yet the clouds kept shifting, splitting apart to either side.
“It really…”
The fact that it could part the clouds alone proved it was as large as a mountain. But if something like that was walking around, why could it not be seen, and why was there no sound?
And if it could part the clouds, that meant it made physical contact with objects even if it remained invisible—like someone using concealment magic. So why did the ground not tremble, and why did not even a single puff of dust rise, when a body of that size was moving?
Bewilderment filled them. Karna spoke again.
“It has not yet crossed the Covenant of Fanaticism, but its direction is clearly toward us. Slow as it is, with a stride that size it will reach the frontline soon enough. Within a few days, at most.”
“….”
“If we leave it alone, it will deal a severe blow to humanity’s plan to expand the frontline. It must be eliminated quickly.”
Karna looked at Freya and Clara as he spoke.
“The moment your party arrives, go to the Empire and bring Erinn back. No—you must bring her back. Judging by the fact that even a Saintess cannot see it, it seems only Heroes can perceive the thing.”
“…If you’re certain of what you’re seeing, Hero Karna, it would be best to summon the other Heroes as well.”
“Of course I will circulate official dispatches. Though… how many will actually answer is another matter.”
“….”
Karna continued.
“In any case, Erinn made a deal with me. She has an obligation to join the fight. Bring her to the frontline before that thing arrives.”
“…We have to wait for Albrecht first. He went to keep a promise with that Elder Dragon.”
“When does he return?”
“Tomorrow, if everything goes to plan.”
Karna exhaled softly.
“I hope you depart the moment he arrives.”
“Yes, understood.”
Freya nodded. Clara looked at Karna and asked,
“…We’ll do our best, but what if persuading the Empire takes too long and we can’t bring Erinn back in time?”
“I can only hope that does not happen. But if it truly comes to that…”
Karna gripped his Holy Spear tightly.
“I will push it back somehow.”
On the fifth day since we arrived at Gergius’s lair, Mersius finally succeeded in purging enough excess mana to cast the mana-sealing magic.
She had pushed herself a little harder than yesterday to finish it, of course, but—
“Albrecht, it’s done!”
Hearing those words gave my exhausted body just enough strength to keep moving. I panted heavily as I spoke.
“Hah… hah… Is it really finished?”
“Yes. You’ve done well.”
Gergius said,
“Leave the rest to me.”
He reached a hand toward Mersius and raised his mana.
Both Letisia and I were startled. We had seen Gergius reveal his mana before, but what he was doing now could not be dismissed with a mere “revealed.”
This is… an Elder Dragon’s mana…!?
Unlike everything he had shown us so far, he was truly wielding his vast power. Of course he had no intention of harming Mersius.
He was using magic to bind her mana so it could no longer run wild—exactly as we had first discussed. The fact that even Elder Dragon Gergius had to expend this much mana made it clear just how difficult and high-level the spell was.
“…So this really is dragon magic.”
“…Yeah.”
I agreed wholeheartedly with Letisia. In that moment, an impossibly complex circuit—one I could look at and still not understand—was meticulously engraved across Mersius’s forehead, forming hundreds of layers of force.
…He’s controlling all of that?
I already knew a dragon’s magical ability was immense, but an Elder Dragon who had lived for ages was this powerful…
Elder Dragon Gergius activates
⟨ Mana Suppression Seal ⟩
The activation message appeared, and a complex pattern surfaced on Mersius’s forehead. More accurately, it was a mark.
The mark rose upon her brow, and the magic composed of hundreds of layers of force sank into her forehead. Mersius’s eyes flew wide; she let out a pained whimper.
“Hhk……!”
“Gergius! Mersius is—!”
“…It’s all right. A brief pain is an unavoidable side effect.”
“Ah…”
As if his words were true, Mersius—who had been grimacing hard—soon opened her eyes with a look of ease. Seeing that, Gergius broke into a bright smile and pulled her into a fierce embrace.
“My daughter… truly, truly congratulations…!”
“Father…”
It worked, then.
The mana I could sense from Mersius had clearly weakened. Even during the treatment, the overflowing mana had been a quiet pressure.
That pressure was gone from the Mersius held in Gergius’s arms. The treatment… could be considered a complete success.
Then a faint light began to radiate from Mersius’s body. Caesius spoke as she watched.
“…She’s growing.”
“Huh?”
“I told you, didn’t I? The growth that was delayed by the illness would occur.”
So Mersius was leaving the Hatchling stage and becoming…
A Young Dragon, then.
The light that had begun to shine from Mersius’s body flared once—short and intense—then gradually faded.
“…!”
In that instant I was a little surprised. A dragon’s growth apparently affected even its polymorphed form.
She had already been doll-like in her beauty, but the further-grown Mersius had shed the lingering childishness of before and become a touch more mature.
Until just now she had looked more like a younger sister than a dragon older than Caesius; now she truly gave the impression of being the elder sister.
Of course, unlike Caesius, her gentle demeanor remained unchanged. Mersius blinked once, then beamed at me with a soft smile.
“Benefactor…! I… I really am completely better…!”
Seeing her smile so radiantly, I could truly feel that the suffering which had tormented her was gone. I smiled back, and Letisia beside me wore a quiet smile of her own.
“It really seems so. Congratulations, Mersius.”
“Truly… I am truly grateful! If it hadn’t been for you, Benefactor, I would have… remained unable to grow, suffering forever…”
“As I said before, I only did what needed to be done. This was a fair transaction. I didn’t act out of pure goodwill enough to deserve being called a benefactor.”
“Even so, the fact remains that you saved my life.”
Mersius looked at me as she spoke.
“Benefactor, you’ll be returning now, won’t you?”
“It seems so.”
“Then…”
Mersius pointed to herself.
“Please take me with you, Benefactor.”
“Pardon?”
When I asked back in surprise, Mersius continued.
“If I stay in Father’s lair like this, my fate from now on will be to receive the seed of other members of my kind. My body is healed and I’ve properly grown, so once the Lord’s command comes down, I’ll have no excuse. Even though I’ve grown… the pain is gone, but I’ll still have to remain locked away in this lair.”
Mersius pleaded earnestly.
“I’ve only just escaped the pain—I don’t want to live a life like that! I want to live a little more freely!”