The Screaming Star Fragment
Tension hung taut in the air.
On the fifth basement level, amid the rubble of a collapsed ceiling, three Transcendents locked eyes with one another.
A silence like the calm before the storm.
In that suffocating hush, the first to speak was, surprisingly, Serene.
She elegantly straightened her disheveled uniform, a lofty smile curving her lips.
“It has been quite some time, hasn’t it?”
The diction was impeccably polite.
Yet the thorns hidden within were so sharp they seemed ready to slice open a listener’s skin.
“I trust the two of you have been living quite well after shamelessly stealing my mate? Both of you look as if your complexions have improved remarkably since I last saw you. To an irritating degree, even.”
As the youngest to ascend to the rank of Transcendent, she made a show of courtesy toward her seniors.
In truth, it was little more than a taunt of Enjoyed stealing my man, did you?
At that provocative greeting, Kyra’s brows twitched.
Her hair, dyed a vivid crimson, was proof that the Personality of Anger held the reins.
Yet instead of shouting, she answered with a smile every bit as twisted as Serene’s, the corners of her mouth quivering.
“Ahh, of course. Thanks to our incompetent Empress, I got to spend some very, very quality cuddle time alone with him.”
Kyra deliberately stressed the word “alone,” her gaze dropping slightly to me where I still lay collapsed on the floor.
She even licked her lips alluringly.
“If it weren’t for the old lizard next to me, I’d have already made a baby with him by now. Such a pity.”
…Wow.
And she didn’t stop there—she openly sniped at Serapagnia as well.
A high-level provocation carrying the clear nuance that her relationship with KJH had progressed.
Of course, nothing of the sort had ever happened between me and Kyra… but it was more than enough to freeze the expression of Serene, who knew nothing of that.
Then Serapagnia flared up and shouted.
“Hmph! This lady enjoyed herself thoroughly in Oppa’s embrace as well! Oppa even stroked my head and gave me delicious candy!”
She puffed out her small chest and snorted.
“Kyra Bell Arenas, if it weren’t for this multipersonality psycho bitch, I would have taken him to my lair and shared deep love with him! How dare you interfere with this lady’s pure love!”
“What? Multipersonality psycho? Has this shriveled old hag gone mad…?”
“Old hag? Do you not know that counting years loses all meaning after one hundred?! And before that, this lady’s scales are far smoother and lovelier than yours!”
In an instant, the target shifted.
Recalling that each was the greatest obstacle in the battle for Erevan, the two Transcendents temporarily forgot Serene and began snarling into each other’s faces.
Crackle—!
The crimson aura of red-haired Kyra and Serapagnia’s platinum authority collided in midair, sparking.
“……”
And the Empress of the realm, Serene Roelina, was not one to miss that opening of carelessness.
In the brief moment the two unleashed killing intent at each other, she edged closer to me where I lay on the floor, watching the situation.
…Huh?
I hadn’t even grasped what was happening yet.
Serene’s arms slipped behind my back and under my knees.
“Wai—”
“Stay still.”
She lifted me as lightly as a feather.
The so-called princess carry.
To cradle an adult man in one arm without the slightest tremor—Transcendents truly were something else, I thought in that instant.
“L-Look into the eyes and ask after their well-being… th-then kiss them!”
Smack—!
“…?!”
Serene lowered her head and pressed her lips to my cheek.
And thoroughly, deliberately so the sound would ring out loudly.
The blatant smacking noise echoed through the entire underground laboratory as if amplified by a megaphone.
At that sound, the heads of Kyra and Serapagnia, who had been on the verge of grabbing each other by the collar, snapped toward us in unison.
“……Huh?”
“What are you doing right now…?”
The two Transcendents’ eyes filled with shock.
Gazing upon those dumbfounded expressions, Serene wore a victor’s smile.
“Have you grown impatient after spinning webs for so many long years? Looking like hyenas fighting over ownerless meat—it’s so pitiful I can’t even laugh.”
Holding me firmly in her arms, she raised her free hand and clenched it into a fist.
Then, for all to see, she smacked her own forearm with the opposite hand and delivered a crude knuckle-punch gesture.
A gesture far too vulgar for the Emperor of the Empire to perform—and therefore all the more shocking.
“Well then, I have achieved the purpose of my visit. I shall take my leave.”
“…Hey, hey!! What the hell is that hand gesture?!”
“How dare you toward this lady…!”
Toward the two of them stammering in fluster, Serene elegantly inclined her waist and called out.
“Ah, the knuckle punch is merely returning the one I received at the Academy before. Do accept it without burden. Debts must be repaid, must they not?”
Woooom—!
A massive golden arrow materialized beneath her feet.
Still cradling me, Serene mounted it just as it was.
“S-Stop! Don’t you dare move!”
“Give this lady’s Oppa back!!”
Kyra and Serapagnia tried belatedly to cast magic, but Serene had already soared into the air.
“Chase me if you can. Of course, that worm of a man may well escape in the meantime. The two of you already committed a sin against Lady Elesion… surely you would not ignore an Apostle of an Outer God when you are in a position to fight him?”
She jerked her chin toward Bertolt, who was still crumpled in the corner.
“Grrrhh…”
Bertolt was already sidling backward, seizing the chaos to make his escape.
The two Transcendents’ pupils trembled.
“Khh…”
“D-Damn it.”
“If you let that fellow slip away, the Rahelon Continent that Lady Elesion sought to protect may well become a sea of fire. Of course, as long as ■■■■ ■■ is present it would be difficult… but well, what would I know?”
Serene’s taunt landed once more.
Even so, the two Transcendents only trembled with clenched fists, offering no reply.
Chase after Erevan, or first thrash that insolent Magic Tower Lord?
Naturally they wanted the former… but doing so would mean committing another sin against Elesion, just as the arrogant Empress had said.
Especially for Serapagnia, who—despite millennia of bad blood—had once been like a sister to Elesion; the dilemma cut all the deeper.
Leaving that fleeting hesitation behind—
KRA-BOOM—!
The golden arrow carrying Serene punched through the hole in the ceiling and rocketed into the high sky.
The ground fell away in an instant, shrinking to a speck…
“Uwaaaaaah!! I’ll just cut everything down and destroy the Roelina Empire while I’m at it!!!”
“I’ll annihilate every last one of those damn vermin!!!”
Listening to the two Transcendents’ rage-filled howls, I buried my face in Serene’s embrace.
My heart was hammering like mad.
Hah… I made it. Thought I was completely fucked.
I had escaped for now.
But the moment I lifted my head and saw Serene’s face, every scrap of relief vanished.
She was smiling.
What was so wrong with a smile that it erased all sense of safety?
Because the eyes looking down at me glittered with a greed even greedier than a dragon reclaiming its treasure…
“Now that the nuisances are gone…”
She whispered low against my ear.
“Shall we continue the conversation we left unfinished…? I have perfectly prepared my bedchamber following Madam Berni’s advice.”
……It seemed I had merely climbed one mountain only to find another.
KRA-BOOM—!
A golden flash vanished beyond the far side of the sky, accompanied by a sonic boom that nearly ruptured eardrums.
Left behind were only the collapsed ruins, swirling dust, and two Transcendents whose entire bodies shook as they failed to contain their directionless fury.
“……”
“……”
The crimson eyes of Anger-Personality Kyra were bloodshot to the point of bursting, and Serapagnia’s small fists had gone bone-white.
Right before the eyes of those who prided themselves as the continent’s strongest, some vixen of a woman had stolen their man.
Worse—she had snatched the fish they had already hooked.
And to top it off, she had even gifted them that humiliating knuckle-punch gesture.
If they did not vent this surging rage somewhere immediately, mana overload would blow the entirety of Esterium sky-high.
That was when it happened.
Rustle.
A faint sound pricked the two Transcendents’ keen hearing.
In a corner of the rubble, where the darkness lay thickest, something was thrashing desperately.
Bertolt de Rasid.
Once the lord of the Magic Tower and an Apostle of an Outer God.
Yet his present state was wretched beyond measure.
Dragging a body shredded by Serene’s single blow, he was crawling on all fours up the collapsed stairs that led from the basement to the surface, clinging to life.
“Haaah… haaah…”
I must live.
Somehow escape this place, rejoin the others, and plan for another day.
With that single thought he clutched at the stone debris, enduring the agony of fingernails tearing free.
But—
“Where do you think you’re going?”
The voice that came from behind him was so cold that Bertolt flinched; he had not even turned his head yet.
Thud—!
“Gyaaaaah!”
A tremendous impact smashed into the small of his back.
Bertolt’s body slammed flat against the floor.
At the same time a shadow fell over him.
It was Kyra.
She planted the heel of her high-heeled shoe into his back and bent down until their eyes met.
“Our dear Magic Tower Lord, your guests haven’t even left yet. Where are you rushing off to in such a hurry?”
“Ka-Kyra… please…”
“‘Kyra, please’? This son of a bitch dares call my name all friendly, like we’re pals?”
Crunch.
She ground her sole into the wound; foam-flecked blood burst from Bertolt’s mouth.
“Aaaagh!!”
“This worm worse than a bug dares put a donut hole through my man’s stomach and still thinks he’s walking out of here alive? And because of you I lost that vixen!”
“Th-That was… ghk!”
“Move aside, you crazy bitch. If you’re going to step on him, step on the head—why are you stomping some random back?”
Serapagnia, who had been watching from the side, waved a hand in irritation.
Then she hopped lightly into the air and planted her foot squarely on the back of Bertolt’s head.
Thud!
“Gurk!”
Bertolt’s face smashed into the floor; his nose cartilage shattered.
Yet that was still not enough to vent her anger. Serapagnia bounced up and down, trampling him.
“Because of you! Oppa left! My Oppa! My love! My mate!”
“Guhk! Kuh! S-Spare…”
“Silence! The best thing a thing like you can do for this world is simply turn to dust and vanish!”
The two Transcendents’ merciless lynching began.
One-sided violence, pure venting of rage, and a lynching whose sole purpose was cruel torture.
They gave him no chance to cast magic, no chance to draw up divine power.
They simply smashed him to pieces with physical pain and humiliation.
“Uuuugh…”
Perhaps only a minute had passed since the beating began.
In that short span Bertolt had been crushed until it was hard to recognize him as human.
Yet worse than the physical agony was the mental humiliation.
He was a great Apostle of the Sacred Constellation.
A chosen being who would save this world and establish a new order.
And yet he was being trampled as a mere stress-relief toy by women blinded by a lovers’ quarrel.
He could not accept such a dog’s death.
Are you… watching…?
His bloodied lips moved as he cried out toward the brand of faith engraved deep within his soul.
Your Apostle… your proxy… is being violated by such lowly creatures…
Will you endure this humiliation… O great Sacred Constellation…?
A call woven of despair, hatred, and blind faith.
And in that instant—
Snap.
The two Transcendents’ mana, which had been crushing the world itself, cut off for a single heartbeat.
“……?”
“……Angh?”
Kyra and Serapagnia both froze mid-motion and looked up at the sky.
Something had changed.
The damp underground air, the wind brushing their skin—no, the very texture of space itself was warping.
The sky over Esterium, which moments ago had been clear, began to darken at terrifying speed.
At first it seemed as if rain might fall… but no matter how one looked at it, these were no ordinary rain clouds.
As though someone had poured black ink across the canvas of the heavens, pitch-black darkness began devouring the atmosphere.
KYAAAAAAAK—!
KIIEEEEEEK—!
And from within that darkness, blood-chilling screams began to rise.
Not one, but dozens, hundreds—an uncountable multitude of beings’ death-cries fused into a single cacophony of discord.
“Ugh… what is that sound?”
Even she, who had lived nearly two hundred years as a Transcendent, had never felt such an alien, unpleasant wave before.
The black smoke blanketing the sky clumped and scattered again and again, forming grotesque shapes.
Human faces.
Tens of thousands of human faces, contorted in agony, mouths stretched wide in terror, filled the entire sky.
[Aaaaaaaaah—!]
[It hurts, it hurts, I’m being torn apart!]
[Salvation? Lies! Everything is a lie!]
The sky itself was screaming.
At that horrific sight, the citizens of Esterium—and even the Roelina Empire knights surrounding the Magic Tower—collapsed in terror.
And then—
Woooom—!
Between the screaming faces, a brilliant yet ominous starlight began to pour down.
It was as if hundreds of millions of stars embedded in the black sky had opened their eyes all at once.
At the center, a colossal whirlwind formed.
Simultaneously, an overwhelming gravitational wave erupted, as though outer space itself beyond the atmosphere were being forcibly dragged down to the ground.
Rumble-rumble-rumble!
The already half-destroyed Magic Tower completely collapsed, scattering into powder.
Kyra and Serapagnia hastily threw up barriers and retreated.
“Oho… and what might that be?”
“Don’t tell me… the main body itself is coming down after seeing its Apostle get wrecked? Pretty arrogant of it.”
At Serapagnia’s cry, the center of the black whirlwind tore open like a wound.
Through that gap, a vast existence beyond human comprehension revealed itself.
An indescribable geometric form.
If forced to describe it: a colossal star-shape tangled with thousands of arms, legs, and eyeballs.
Yet that star did not shine.
Instead it screamed without end, devouring every scrap of light and sound around it.
A voice both magnificent and grotesque shook heaven and earth, resounding across the entire continent.
An Outer God.
The very moment the true body of the Screaming Star Fragment descended.