If Three Transcendents Gather in One Place
While Serene continued shooting a tragic romance scene with the still-unconscious Erevan, Bertolt was recovering his body, little by little.
Sizzle…
The first thing that reached him was the sound of something burning away. Black smoke began to rise from the surface of the golden arrow of the Heavenly Bow, the one that had been crushing Bertolt beneath an indefinable weight of sheer intensity. Just as a powerful acid corrodes metal, the dark-red liquid flowing from Bertolt’s body had started to defile and devour the sacred golden energy.
“Urgh… ugh…”
A beast-like groan leaked out from beneath the crushed floor. Yet Emperor Serene paid Bertolt’s struggle no mind whatsoever. She never stopped the gentle motion of wiping the blood from my lips with her sleeve. Her gaze remained locked solely on me, as if the ominous signs unfolding behind her simply did not exist.
“All the wounds have closed. Now he only needs to regain consciousness…”
“…?”
Serene, who had been speaking in a soft voice meant to reassure me, suddenly seemed to ponder something, her lips twitching. Then, as though she had finished deliberating, she slowly opened her mouth.
“Ah… oh dear. I flew here in such a rush that I seem to have slightly sprained my ankle. If only KJH would blow on it for me, it would heal right away.”
“……”
What the hell is this supposed to be.
At the completely unexpected sudden acting and the exaggerated high-pitched voice trying to hide her naturally husky tone, I wanted to say so many things. But with my throat burning as if it were on fire, not even a hoarse sound would come out. Being unable to speak had never felt so bitterly frustrating.
Meanwhile, the situation behind me was changing rapidly.
CRACK! SHATTER!
At last the massive arrow shattered into pieces and scattered as fragments of light. In its place, a grotesque form drenched in black slime staggered to its feet. It was Bertolt. Yet he looked nothing like the Mage Tower Master I had known only moments before. His entire skin had turned ashen gray, and his eyes were dyed completely black with no whites remaining—a form that had taken one more step beyond humanity, closer to the Outer God he served.
“Heh heh… cough, hahahaha!”
Bertolt looked down at the ominous divine power swirling around his body and laughed with pure, radiant delight. His gaze locked onto Serene, who still held my head on her lap.
“Impressive. For the Emperor of the Empire and the hegemon of the continent to personally grace such a humble place with her presence.”
His voice grated unpleasantly, like iron scraping across a chalkboard.
“Moreover, to treat that legendary weapon, the Heavenly Bow, as a toy you simply pulled out on a whim…”
“….”
Serene did not reply. She merely set the empty elixir bottle down on the floor with her usual indifferent expression, as if the affairs of the world held no interest for her. Bertolt’s pride was momentarily scratched by the disregard, but he quickly recovered his composure and continued with a sly smile.
“However, Your Majesty. You’re pushing yourself, aren’t you?”
Bertolt adjusted his grip on his staff and wore a bitter smile.
“The laws of this world—the constraints of causality—are tightening around your heart, are they not? As a Transcendent trying to wield power beyond specifications outside her domain, I can hear the world screaming in my ears.”
Certainly… how is Serene holding up?
According to what Kyra had explained, the restraints had been weakened somewhat thanks to me. Without that, leaving one’s domain reduced a Transcendent’s power to less than that of an ordinary person. Leaving their respective domains meant their strength was constrained. Bertolt seemed to be targeting exactly that point, whether he had heard it from an Outer God or elsewhere.
However, I had succeeded in securing the ashes of the Sacred Sigil—proof that he was an apostle of an Outer God. According to what Kyra and Serapagnia had said, Serene, who was likewise a Transcendent and had intervened in the story, should be able to fully exert her power to a certain degree.
“How you undid it remains a mystery, but with the restraints only half… no, not even thirty percent released, pouring out that much power must have caused considerable backlash.”
WOOOONG—!
The space around Bertolt distorted as black orbs floated into the air.
“You intend to fight me in this state? Against this body that has accepted the Outer God’s authority?”
A clear provocation. The arrogance that, in his current condition, he could handle even an Emperor whose power was suppressed. Anxious, I finally dropped the pretense of remaining unconscious and carefully gripped a corner of Serene’s clothes. Then I very slowly lifted my eyelids—to check her expression.
My only Emperor whom I can call big sister. You’re going to save me, right? If you beat that bastard to death for me, I’ll genuinely lick your feet.
With those thoughts, I opened my eyes and saw Serene’s expression… and it was truly unexpected.
Wow… a person can look that fucking pretty even while showing every single one of her teeth in a smile?
“Pfft.”
What burst from the lips of Serene, who was smiling with an almost eerie brightness, was a snort of laughter. She looked at him with the eyes of someone watching a clown perform tricks, slowly rose from her seat, elegantly brushed the hem of her uniform coat, and faced Bertolt.
“For a mere insect, your wailing is quite noisy.”
“What…?”
“Do not misunderstand, you lowly thing. The reason I am conserving my power is not because I fear you.”
She glanced back at me.
Ah, our eyes met.
That gaze held a chilling degree of possessiveness and affection.
“I am merely controlling my strength so that my lovely companion does not get caught up and injured.”
“Y-you arrogant bitch…!”
“And.”
Serene lightly raised one hand. With that simple motion alone, the air in the underground laboratory grew heavy and sank. Overwhelming aura. It was neither magic nor divine power. Simply the rank of her existence itself was different.
“Constraints? Causality? Those are things only small fries like you bother worrying about.”
FWAAAAASH—!
A golden halo shone behind her back as dozens—hundreds—of arrows of light formed in the empty air.
“You who cannot even match a single claw of my rank, yet fail to know your place.”
Serene’s red lips curved into a seductive arc.
“Even with my hands and feet completely bound, crushing the likes of you to death is no problem at all… so come at me already.”
“Krrr… DIE!!!”
With his pride completely trampled and crumpled, Bertolt moved first. When he slammed his staff down, black shadows surged up from the floor like a tidal wave and crashed toward Serene.
“Authority of the Sacred Sigil: Predation of the Abyss.”
A maw of darkness that swallowed all light tried to devour the Emperor. Yet Serene did not dodge even that attack that would make anyone’s legs buckle just from looking at it. She simply said—
“How insolent.”
—and lightly flicked her finger.
Snap.
At the same moment, a flash so brilliant it whitened the entire field of vision filled the underground space.
KABOOOOOM!!!
An enormous storm followed, sending laboratory equipment flying like scraps of paper. I flattened myself against the floor and barely avoided being blown away. Around my body, a golden protective barrier that Serene had erected at some point now surrounded me. Even the kidnapped children had identical barriers around them—when had she even checked on them?
Crazy…
A moment later, when the storm subsided and I opened my eyes, I could not help but be astonished. The tidal wave of the abyss that Bertolt had boasted of was nowhere to be seen. In its place, only golden particles floated like fireflies. And beyond them—
“Guh…!”
Bertolt was down on one knee, vomiting blood. His left arm, which had raised a defensive barrier, was tattered and dangling uselessly. With a single attack—by merely flicking her finger lightly—she had simultaneously shattered an eight-circle mage and the Outer God’s authority.
Honestly, until the moment she annihilated Argentina, my impression had been nothing more than “oh… she’s really strong; definitely stronger than Outer Gods.” Now I could be certain. That woman—no, that Transcendent—was simply different in her very existence.
“Did you see?”
Serene, without taking a single step from her original position, raised her chin and looked down at him.
“This is the difference between an Emperor and a bug.”
“You monster… grind!”
Fear settled in Bertolt’s eyes. It seemed he had finally grasped his place—the hard limit that even if he mobilized every means at his disposal, he would never touch so much as a single hem of that woman’s clothes. But Serene did not stop there.
“Since you dared to put a hole in what is mine.”
Her pupils slit vertically as she radiated ferocious killing intent.
“I shall disassemble your limbs one by one, very slowly.”
“Kugh…!!”
WOOOONG.
Above her head, a far larger golden arrow the size of a house began to slowly take form. If that thing hit, it would not merely kill—it would pulverize existence itself.
Wait, if she fires that in here, won’t I die too?
Just as I was breaking out in cold sweat at the ominous thought while staring at the collapsing ceiling—
BOOM—!
A massive roar from the first floor of the Mage Tower echoed all the way down to the fifth basement level. Debris from the ceiling rained down as a result. And soon, through the hole in the collapsed ceiling, familiar yet somehow spine-chilling voices rang out simultaneously.
“Oh my? Who’s this? A fledgling Transcendent?”
That was the rough word choice and razor-sharp angry personality of Kyra, and—
“Oppa! Sera has come to save you! More importantly, who’s that golden sparkly ajumma over there? She’s really gonna die… no wait.”
—the innocent yet killing-intent-laced voice of Serapagnia.
More importantly, by age alone, ajumma is… no, never mind.
Anyway, the situation was beginning to take a strange turn. Serene’s brow furrowed without mercy.
“…Tch. The bothersome ones have already caught the scent and arrived. More than that, why does the White Dragon Emperor speak like that… haah.”
She clicked her tongue, paused the arrow she had been forming, and glared up at the ceiling. Bertolt, Serene, and now the two Transcendents who had just arrived. I clutched my throbbing stomach and let out a hollow laugh.
“Haha…”
In this complete mess of a situation, there was only one thing I could do: pray that those crazy women would not step on me while they fought.
I thought I’d make it out safely… but things have gotten a lot more dangerous… am I completely fucked?