Time to Return
A natural disaster. A catastrophe of nature against which no human could stand.
In a lifetime, one rarely witnessed such a thing firsthand—and those who had were few. Ask why, and the answer was simple: nine times out of ten, anyone who saw a natural disaster up close was already dead.
Sigrun had grown up in Bilua Village, a place that barely deserved the name of a country town, and even there she had heard the stories more than once. Of snow stacked high on a mountain peak that suddenly collapsed. Of an ocean rising into a wall that swallowed cities whole. Of winds that touched the clouds and devoured everything in their path.
Among those tales were stories of volcanoes. Adults spoke of fireballs raining from a mountain’s throat, of ash that blanketed the sky and turned everything it touched to stone.
The first time she heard them, Sigrun had been certain they were nothing more than exaggerated tales meant to frighten a child. There was a grain of truth in them, surely—but something that unreal could never actually happen.
Then she saw a volcano erupt with her own eyes, and she understood: the adults had not exaggerated at all.
Having barely endured the earthquake that shook the ground, Sigrun drove her feet hard against the rock and climbed to the summit of the dark mountain. What she saw from the peak left her trembling so hard she could not stop, her body shaking like a leaf in a gale.
“How in the world are we supposed to…?”
From the crater of Bramante Volcano, fountains of lava surged without end. Simply standing near that heat would have burned a person alive. It was catastrophe pure and simple—a disaster of nature no human could hope to face.
“Is she… holding that back?”
And yet someone was. The one stopping the lava that erupted from the crater was none other than the benefactor who had saved Sigrun’s life: Elia.
Higher even than the summit where Sigrun stood, Elia floated in the air, holding back the rising lava. Whether she was stripping the heat from it or something else entirely, the molten rock blackened and froze the moment it cleared the crater’s lip.
Had she been concealing her strength all along? The power Elia used to hold back the lava was so astonishing Sigrun could scarcely believe it. A single person—and a mage so young—standing against a natural disaster like a volcano?
The awe lasted only a moment. Below the lava Elia had already solidified, fresh surges continued to climb, and Sigrun’s expression twisted once more into despair.
“She can’t stop it all…”
More lava rose than she could seal. If this continued, it would breach Elia’s barrier and the volcano would erupt for certain. Knowing that changed nothing. There was nothing Sigrun herself could do. She was only an aspiring knight, a little stronger than the average beginner Sword Expert.
The truth of it struck her like a blow to the chest.
“Damn it… if I could just do something…”
If she was going to die when the volcano blew, then even the smallest help would be better than none. Sword and shield in hand, Sigrun stood ready—and in the next instant she saw Elia drop from the sky, diving straight down into the crater.
“What—Elia!!!”
Before Sigrun could finish shouting her name, Elia plunged into the surging lava. It happened so fast Sigrun could only stare blankly at the crater before her knees gave out and she sank to the ground.
“Why would she… do something like that…?”
Had she given up? Had she thrown herself in just so she would suffer a little less, knowing the disaster could not be stopped? The shock of what she had just seen filled Sigrun’s mind with nothing but dark thoughts—the conviction that Elia, in despair, had cast herself into the fire.
A weak, empty sigh slipped from her open mouth.
Then—
A flash of light—!!!
“Huh?”
Sigrun jerked her head up as a crimson radiance flooded her vision. From the crater Elia had entered, a light redder than the lava itself erupted. That light told her Elia was still alive, still fighting—and Sigrun scrambled to her feet, staring down into the blaze.
In the next breath, a black fountain shot skyward from the crater.
Kuddddddddrk—————!!!!!
More precisely: a fountain of jet-black rock, lava frozen solid in midair.
A flash—
I opened my eyes and woke from Adria’s illusion magic to a world of nothing but red lava on every side. Beside me, the Ego Staff was already at work—stripping every fire element from the surroundings on its own, even without my conscious command.
It looked different now. No longer a bare frame of wood, it held the first Elemental Stone I had obtained: the Fire Elemental Stone. And even after waking from the vision, I could still feel the fire burning clear and bright in my heart—the fire that was the purpose of my life. I began to move my mana.
I’d love to savor this fire a little longer…
But there was no time for leisure. Better to save that for later. The moment I spoke the words, I felt it: the power of my verbal commands had grown beyond all comparison. It was limited to fire alone—but for this moment, that was more than enough.
Seven seconds remained on True Name Release.
I had mastered the fire element, and my verbal commands had grown stronger. Seven seconds was more than enough to end this.
Fire…
I felt the flames around me submit completely to my will and my voice, and I smiled.
Disappear. All of you.
At my words, the lava encircling me—and the vast seething mass beneath—began to surge upward as one. Robbed entirely of its fire element by my command, it rose as nothing more than solid black rock.
Kuddddddddrk—————!!!!!
The thick, wet sound of molten rock turning to stone and erupting skyward hammered against my eardrums. Compared to the roar of a volcanic eruption, though, it was almost pleasant. I let the rising stone carry me upward.
How long that lasted, I couldn’t say. At last the thunderous noise died away. Before the duration of True Name Release could expire, I had already cast a Rapid Analgesia spell; I forced my barely functional body up and out of the rock.
“Ugh—just break already…”
What blocked my path was a thin wall of stone, no thicker than a few sheets of paper stacked together. With my mana nearly spent and magic out of reach, I had no choice but to swing the staff itself and smash it open. After a brief struggle, a hole appeared. I stepped through—and the view that greeted me was nothing short of spectacular.
“Wow… that is genuinely gorgeous.”
From the crater of Bramante Volcano, stone branches stretched outward like the limbs of some colossal tree. Hundreds of rock veins had bloomed from the crater as if they were a single work of art. Standing atop one of those branches, I could look down on every dark mountain surrounding Bramante Volcano. Clouds skimmed so close overhead I almost felt them brush my hair; only then did I truly grasp how high I had risen.
“Elia!!! Are you all right?!”
From far below, on the summit of the dark mountain, Sigrun’s shout reached me. I jumped from the branch at once. My mana was nearly gone, but it was not entirely depleted. I scraped what little remained from the bottom of my heart, poured it into my shoes, and descended toward her.
A warm wind—almost cool by comparison—parted around me as I landed on the peak where Sigrun stood. The moment she saw me, she seized my shoulders with frantic hands.
“A-are you hurt? How did you even stop that eruption—I have so many questions, but first I need to know you’re unharmed.”
“Don’t worry. I’m fine. Though I will pass out in about ten minutes…”
“What?! Pass out? What do you mean by that?!”
It wasn’t death, only unconsciousness—but even that seemed to hit her hard. When she pressed me again, I quickly explained: the power of True Name Release, the state of my body after Rapid Analgesia, and the fact that the volcano would no longer erupt. I told her what I had already told my family about True Name Release. Sigrun still looked as though she had a dozen more questions, but she was not so lacking in tact as to put her curiosity first in a situation like this. For all her single-minded focus on growing stronger, she was no fool.
“I still have many questions… but the rest can wait until we reach Himrave. If you are going to collapse when the time runs out, I will carry you. For now, get on my back.”
“Ah—wait a second. Before I do, there’s something I need to bring with us.”
“Hm? Something you need to bring?”
Sigrun tilted her head. I pointed down the mountainside to where I had left Morana unconscious earlier.
“What?! When did you—?”
“I took care of her while you were distracted by the eruption. I put her under a consciousness-nullifying spell that should last at least three days. She won’t be waking up anytime soon.”
Sigrun followed my finger, saw Morana bound on the ground, and cried out in surprise. She clearly had not expected me to secure her in the middle of all that chaos. She steadied herself quickly, though, and nodded.
“Very well. I will drag that one along as well. Now hurry and climb on.”
“Ahaha… then I’ll swallow my pride and impose on you.”
“Hmph. You’re still a child—what pride is there to swallow? At times like this, leaning on your elders is perfectly fine.”
“Hahaha…”
Sigrun channeled mana into her shield, forming armor over only her arms, shoulders, and legs while shrinking the shield itself. She hung the reduced shield in front of her, then turned her back to me and offered it. Under normal circumstances I would have refused out of embarrassment—but once Rapid Analgesia wore off, I would pass out without so much as a whimper. I knew I had no right to refuse. I nodded and climbed onto her back.
The moment I settled against her, a fresh, clean scent of mana tickled my nose—surprising, given how much she must have been sweating. I exhaled the breath I had been holding under all that exhaustion and closed my eyes. Sigrun rose with me on her back and whispered close to my ear.
“You did well. At least on the road home, rest easy.”
Her words closed my heavy eyelids as if by magic. That was the last voice I heard before sleep took me.