The Four-Headed Dragon
Deep in a forest swallowed by darkness.
Thud-thud-thud!
Juhan was racing through it. More precisely, he was chasing after the people who had tossed him aside and bolted ahead.
Still, better to keep my distance.
He could already see exactly what was about to happen. It wasn't that he was worried—but it looked like he was about to run into someone he needed to meet.
Whoosh—
A wind slipped between the trees, and mixed into it was a presence he knew all too well. Feeling it, Juhan gradually slowed his pace.
And then—
Rumble…
A vibration of unknown origin rolled in from far away. It felt as though an entire mountain had begun to move. The whole forest was shaking.
Thud-thud!
The moment he felt it, Juhan started scanning his surroundings.
That looks like the biggest tree around here.
He was going to need a better view of the situation, and climbing one seemed the obvious way. Getting up wasn't hard. A few leaps, and he was already at the top.
From the crown of the tree, Juhan looked toward what he guessed was the source of the sound.
And the instant that scene filled his vision—exactly the sight he had expected—
"Ha…"
Juhan let out a short, dry laugh. What was unfolding out there could barely even be called a battle.
BOOM!
Crash!
It wasn't that close. But the creature's bulk was so massive that distance hardly mattered; reading the situation was effortless.
ROAR!
Deep in a forest so remote no village could be seen, a single dragon rose against the black sky.
Four heads belching enormous flame. Scales as black as pure night. Wings so vast they looked ready to blot out the heavens.
The calamitous dragon with four heads. To Juhan, the form was far too familiar. It was the true body of Karun—the one he himself had created.
Flash!
Bang!
Executors, huh.
Bright light flared again and again, lighting the forest—sword strikes, most likely, from the Executors who had pursued Karun.
Clang!
Not that they seemed to be doing any good. The blades of light shattered the moment they touched Karun's black scales.
It was like throwing eggs at a boulder. The Executors' desperate thrashing looked utterly meaningless.
Thud—
Crrrack.
Karun merely set one forefoot down. That alone was enough to rip the surrounding trees clean out by the roots.
And in that moment—
Ssss…
One of Karun's heads turned, precisely, toward the direction from which Juhan was watching.
For a creature with Executors right in front of it, the movement was almost leisurely—as if those humans had never been worth his attention from the start.
At the same time, one of Karun's maws began to open.
"My Lord… has arrived."
The voice was heavy enough to still the world.
Flinch!
What followed happened in an instant. Having confirmed Juhan's presence, Karun swept his enormous tail toward the enemies before him.
CRACK—!
The speed was more than a human eye could track. The result was anything but light.
"……"
Booom…
One entire face of the forest, as Juhan saw it, had already been split open. The earth was overturned, and patches of woodland were melting, flowing like lava.
It truly felt as if the day of ruin itself had arrived.
Thump.
Having watched that far, Juhan dropped from the tree. There was no longer any need to keep observing.
Thud-thud-thud.
He moved toward Karun through a forest that had turned into hell. Every path he passed still bore the scars of battle—ground stained red, massive trees ripped free and flung aside.
How much farther he walked while taking in those sights, he couldn't say. At last the vast shadow that had filled his vision drew right up in front of him.
Karun was no longer moving—as if he had been waiting for Juhan from the very beginning.
"……"
A brief silence held.
Rumble—
Then Karun's enormous body began to vibrate, slowly. All of his heads lowered as if they might touch the ground—an oddly unfamiliar posture for the one who had just caused that catastrophe.
And not long after, a familiar human form stood before Juhan.
Whoosh…
"Karun."
"Yes."
It was the human guise Juhan had named and shaped—the same one he had parted from only a short while ago.
"My Creator."
The voice that rolled out low held not a shred of savagery. It was hard to believe this was the cause of the landscape around them.
"I worry I may have acted rashly. I am deeply ashamed."
"No, it's just…"
Karun bowed his head and apologized. Juhan, with nothing particular to say, simply told him it was fine. In a way, Karun had only done the work Juhan himself had meant to handle.
But there was something more urgent Juhan needed to check first.
Step. Step.
He approached the fragments of what could barely still be called a human body—what, until moments ago, had been an Executor.
Slip.
Without the slightest hesitation, he thrust a hand into the chest and drew something out.
Hummm—
Hum—
"……"
What Juhan had been looking for was the metal plate the Executors had once urged him to touch.
And just as expected, the instant his hand made contact, the golden plate trembled and began to vibrate.
If I'd touched it earlier, it would've reacted right away.
Perhaps it had been made as a portable device; its performance didn't look especially refined. It seemed the thing only activated when the target touched it with their own hand.
Hum—
When Juhan adjusted his power even slightly, the vibration swelled and faded in turn. If he studied it carefully enough, a way to counter it didn't seem entirely out of reach.
But the most important piece—the true cause of the situation they were in—was something else.
"That bell… so Carius's influence really was deeply woven into its creation."
At first he had taken it for something unimportant, a bell people barely paid attention to.
I'll have to be careful from now on.
But the Holy Kingdom had moved in earnest over nothing more than the fact that the bell had rung. No matter how peaceful the world had become, no matter how many had grown used to that peace, there were still those who had never let their guard down. That much was now painfully clear.
They even have one in a place as small as Anton.
Not every settlement where people lived would have one, of course. But any city the size of Anton or larger almost certainly kept at least one.
If I could get my hands on a bell…
The best approach would be to secure one somehow and run experiments on it.
But if I get near one, it'll just start ringing hard again.
In the end, he would have to find another way—even if that meant hiring someone else to handle it.
Having finished that chain of thought, Juhan turned back to Karun.
"I think I've been looking at this the wrong way."
"……"
"From the moment I first stepped outside, trouble was always going to find me. It was inevitable."
No matter how long it took, a problem would have arisen eventually.
"…Please do not say such things. This is entirely my fault for acting too hastily. Surely there must have been another way to resolve the problem."
Hearing that, Karun only bowed his head even deeper, as if the entire blame were his alone.
"……"
Watching him, Juhan spoke as if he had reached a decision.
"Karun."
"Yes."
"We're changing the plan."
Karun nodded at once.
"…Please give me your command."
"Hiding alone won't solve this anymore."
As he said it, Juhan gestured toward the surrounding forest.
Crackle…
There lay a scorched woodland and earth dyed red. When the Holy Kingdom investigated the missing Executors, they would inevitably find these traces as well.
"The Executors are gone, and traces like these remain. It's only a matter of time before the Holy Kingdom finds them."
"……"
"If we're going to be discovered anyway, we're better off making the first move."
At those words, Karun's eyes darkened.
"You mean… to draw their attention elsewhere."
"That's right."
Seeing Juhan nod, Karun answered without the slightest delay—as if he had already been thinking of it, and needed no time to decide.
"In that case, I shall revive the forces of the Great Catastrophe myself."
He would rebuild the Great Catastrophe's power with his own hands.
"You'll create an external enemy?"
"Until you, my Creator, find a way to move about free from the threat of the Holy Kingdom and the Hero, I will draw their gaze from the outside."
Until Juhan could travel without fear of the bells, the metal plates, or the Holy Kingdom's approach, Karun would buy him time. Discovery was already only a matter of time—so he would take the initiative and pull every eye toward himself.
"……"
Juhan looked at him, then gave a small nod of understanding. With a glance, he asked whether Karun needed anything.
Karun answered at once.
"Please summon Number Three and Number Four."
"Number Three and Number Four?"
Karun was asking him to call both of them.
Number Three makes sense, but he needs Number Four's help too?
That part was a little hard to follow. Number Three shared something of Karun's temperament, so the request was understandable—but Number Four's personality was the complete opposite of his.
The answer to that question came from Karun soon enough.
"When it comes to gathering people and stirring them up, I believe no one can match Number Four."
"……"
For a moment, Juhan was left speechless. He had never imagined they thought of each other that way. Truthfully, he simply hadn't paid much attention… but still.
"Yeah, well…"
No better idea came to mind, so Juhan nodded in agreement. He had no reason to oppose Karun's plan, and he had come to trust that Karun would handle things well on his own.
Slip.
Having nodded, Juhan slowly opened a space, preparing to draw something forth.
"We should summon them first and talk things through."
Fwoom—
After he spoke, an unidentifiable red light began to spread across the scorched earth.
Rumble—
Beyond that crimson rift, enormous shadows started to take shape.
And so the remnants of the Great Catastrophe—the ones that had plunged the world into terror a thousand years ago—were finally about to move once more.