Always Doing Something Extraordinary

Squelch.

"God, this is horrific..."

"Holy crap, they're all dead?"

"......"

The northern reaches of the continent. A small city within the Angel Guild's Eden Federation. When the Great Cataclysm began, the Seven Archangels had rushed straight to the place where the World Boss's Initial Damage had erupted — but they were already too late.

Initial Damage was the strike a World Boss unleashed the moment it first appeared — what most players would call an entrance scene. Because so many rankers understood exactly what that meant, they had done everything in their power to prepare. The problem was that no amount of preparation had been enough to stop it.

How the hell do you stop something from spreading across an entire continent?

This wasn't a tsunami washing over some single city, some single kingdom. A full ten percent of the continent's coastline, along with every densely packed city along it, had been swept away in one strike. A tenth of the continent, submerged by a single attack.

For the Angel Guild, which lacked the elite manpower to contain damage on this scale, it was a disaster beyond anything they could shoulder.

"Ugh..." Uriel's face twisted as she lifted up one of the few residents who still looked remotely intact. There was nothing catastrophically wrong with the body — nothing shattered, nothing severed. And yet...

"She's shriveled up like a ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠prune."

It was as if every drop of moisture had been drunk from her, leaving her withered beyond recognition.

"So even with visual corrections on, this is what we get..."

"What about the other regions?"

"Still compiling reports, but apparently the whole continent's about the same. Port city land prices were shooting through the roof, and now they've absolutely cratered."

"Ah, damn it all."

"I told you not to buy in, didn't I?"

"Ugh. This is why I shouldn't listen to my friends."

Uriel snickered as she ribbed Sandalphon, and Sandalphon's face scrunched up in a grimace. Michael, who had been gently cradling the dead residents with his divine aura, turned his head.

"You bought in?"

"Not a lot! Just, uh, a little?"

"Idiot. What exactly were you doing during our briefings?"

"Well, excuse me for not knowing everything would get wrecked like this."

"That's what happens when you sleep through every single meeting."

"I'm still better than you, Uriel."

"Hey!"

Wrapping himself in a cloud, Sandalphon vanished off to somewhere. It might have looked like an abrupt walkout, but there was nothing left to do here anyway. All that remained now was to manage the damage and prepare for the incoming additional attacks — and the raid.

"It's just... so horrible..." Raguel, bow slung across her back, looked down at ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠the residents littering the divine aura with a grief-stricken face. They were nothing more than NPCs, but the people of the Eden Federation had lived alongside the Angel Guild for three years now. To the guild, they were nothing short of distant family.

"Gabriel."

─Listening.

Gabriel answered from the central castle of the Eden Federation, having never come here at all. Someone had to hold the heart of the Federation, so she had stayed behind alone to serve as their command tower.

"What's the overall situation looking like?"

─The major guilds — Black Moon, Chaos, Magitech — took a fair bit of damage, but they're managing to contain it. The dead are beyond saving, but the survivors are being evacuated, so.

And...

─For the regular kingdoms and small guilds without player affiliations, the damage is heavier. Precisely speaking, it's ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠the ones positioned near the coast.

"And the Empire?"

─The Empire moved first. As it always does.

As it always did. The instant the disaster struck, the Empire had used its grand magic to relocate every single resident of its coastal cities inland. That was why, even though the coastal cities themselves had taken damage, not a single life had been lost there.

"Look at them, hoarding everything for themselves."

"That's the Empire for you."

"Absolute bastards, every one of them. They could've at least saved some of us. Hell, they could've given us a warning."

Uriel and Raphael nodded along, savagely tearing into the Empire. Michael withdrew his unresponsive divine aura and asked one final question.

"I see. Then... what about Lady Lily?"

─...Ah, her. Well.

At Michael's question, Gabriel turned her gaze to the sky beyond her window. An immense pillar of light, woven from pure divinity, was descending upon the earth — a radiance visible even from the Eden Federation, all this distance away.

Its scale of power was so vast that no one would ever believe it came from the same class of 'Saintess' as hers.

─She's always doing something extraordinary.

The moment 2023 rang out, the Great Cataclysm began in earnest. A mountain of update notes greeted us, and the most eye-catching item among them was, naturally, the arrival of three World Bosses. I had gone straight into alert status after wrapping up the year-end party, but no assault came immediately.

For about a day, only sinister omens spread across the world — and then, inevitably, the Kraken's sea monsters fell upon every coastline of the continent, and the thing I'd been dreading finally happened. Defending one or two stretches of shore was never going to protect an entire continent.

Elbritte, unconnected to the open sea, was spared — but even at this very moment, the sea level kept climbing higher.

Flash!

A viscounty in the Lusua Kingdom, near Elbritte. Over the coastal city ruled by the Flame Wizard Redberry, the Divinity of Healing descended. A resurrection spell infused with that healing divinity washed over the dead, breathing life back into them. No fewer than several thousand residents returned from death.

"They're alive!"

"R-really?!"

"Rescue them, quickly! Mages! Spare no resources on the rescue effort!"

"There's a young child over here!"

The mages of the Lusua Kingdom threw everything they had into pulling the resurrected from the wreckage, and even Redberry — a fire mage, of all things — gave her all to save every person she could reach.

Well, that's most of the mess handled.

"I'm afraid keeping it up will be difficult."

Unlike before, when souls had been split clean apart, these were mid-scale resurrections — but every one of these lives had been caught inside the Calamity's domain, so reviving any more than this would strain even me. At its heart, the Fourth Ascension came with a time limit, and without the Divinity of Healing, bringing back this many people would have taken considerable effort even for me. As things stood, two or three more castings would be my limit.

"Thank you!"

"Thank you, Your Majesty!"

"How can we ever repay this..."

The mages of the Lusua Kingdom, having managed to bring the situation under control, bowed their heads deeply. That they had been able to receive my help at all owed a great deal to Redberry. The moment the disaster struck, she had come running to me in tears, begging for assistance.

Of course, plenty of people had asked me for help — but if I chose Redberry first, it was for one reason alone.

"Are you certain?"

"Yes! The head of our royal court's mage corps confirmed it personally, so there's no doubt!"

"We were stunned ourselves. To think the one behind all of this would be 'that thing'..."

"The very 'thing' we've searched for so desperately, surfacing only now..."

The mages buzzed among themselves, murmuring about that thing, and I asked them to handle the remaining cleanup on Redberry's behalf. They agreed without a moment's hesitation and hurried off toward the coast, and before long, the ruler of this territory — Redberry herself — came trudging over, utterly worn down.

"Professor..."

"Redberry. Are you all right?"

"Thank you... for coming to find us first..."

I cast a healing spell over Redberry, who was struggling under complete mana exhaustion. ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠As pristine white light wrapped around her, vigor returned to her eyes and her drained mana began to refill.

"Oh... ah, thank you. You really didn't need to waste that on my account..."

"Don't mention it. A healing spell barely costs me anything."

"Are you really okay, though? You brought back thousands of people..."

Redberry turned to look as she said it. The withered dead — those who should never have returned — were all reclaiming their original forms one by one, gathered into the arms of their families. It was a scene that could only be called a miracle.

Seeing them, I smiled too.

"If something this small were enough to cause a problem, I wouldn't be traveling around the way I do. It's no trouble at all."

"...You truly are the Professor."

"Okay, that's enough buttering up. But it's really true, right?"

"Yes!"

The reason I had left every other place untouched and come to the Lusua Kingdom first of all.

"We found the Water Spirit!"

Day one of the Great Cataclysm. The Water Spirit we had searched for so desperately had finally been found.