401. Soul Night (2)
401. Soul Night (2)
- 1 -
Kwaaaa —— !
A breath erupted from the very center of the five heads, pouring down and setting the very atmosphere alight.
A breath of extinction that would turn everything in the world to ash.
Clementine screamed at the top of her lungs, drawing upon all her Holy Power.
"Full power deploy!!!"
"Damn it, the Holy Power is...! Clementine, when is Adriana...!"
"Shut up and focus, Lucia!!"
The foul mouth from her reckless childhood days, when she used to sneak out onto the streets, slipped out.
Even as Clementine poured all her strength into the defensive barrier, she did not forget to glance to her side.
Adriana was still collapsed.
Clerics and Holy Knights clung close to her, desperately protecting her.
It was impossible to tell if she was alive, or if she had perished in the aftermath of another attack.
All they could do was hold the line as it was.
"Hold on! Hold on no matter what!"
Cough!!
But those around her could not hold on.
Clerics coughed up blood and collapsed from Holy Power overload, and the Holy Knights operating the powerful holy artifacts trembled in their limbs as well.
Swish!! Bang!!
"That goddamn mutant lizard...!"
As if mocking them, the foe tormented them by firing light breaths intermittently.
Kwakang! Crackle-crackle — !
Ballistae and catapults wreathed in Holy Power desperately launched their projectiles into the air.
But the monster, as if amused, deflected them with its scales or swept everything away with a single beat of its colossal wings.
Peok!!
"Gaaahk!!"
After descending to the ground, it swept the area with a single thrash of its tail.
The heavy siege weapons caught in the sweep disintegrated in midair, and the Holy Knights operating them were sucked straight into the maw that lunged at them in that instant.
Crunch! Udeudeuk.
The screams were cut short along with a horrifying sound of rupture.
"Hiiiiik!!"
"We're all, we're all going to die...!"
Just as terror spread among the clerics and the fear of death seized everyone's ankles.
Piiiiiii———
It was then that Adriana awoke.
"Ugh..."
A tinnitus pounded fiercely inside her head.
Clutching her head with her eyes closed, Adriana tried to grasp what kind of situation she was in.
'His Holiness received a divine mandate. He told us to go to the sanctuary... and we issued the total mobilization order. We began the advance... and then...'
And then, she recalled it.
The gigantic lightning and flames that had descended from the sky.
"Urk...!"
She snapped her eyes open and tried to rise, but it was not easy.
Her arms and legs hung limp like cotton soaked in water, and the tinnitus ringing in her ears showed no sign of stopping.
Along with a throbbing headache, the strength drained from her entire body.
"...... Lady! Just a little... ...please!"
Even the voice coming from beside her sounded muffled at first, then gradually began to clear.
A priest was using a divine art to restore her.
"Right now, what is the situation...!"
As soon as her stamina returned, she raised her head to assess the situation.
But before that.
- Kuuuuuu —— !!
The overwhelming form that filled her vision caught her eye first.
The moment she lifted her head following the monstrous roar that shook the heavens and earth, she saw it.
Two pairs of wings, so massive they obscured part of the sky, and before them, five long necks writhing grotesquely.
"That is the enemy, Your Excellency!!"
As a shout reached her and she turned her head, a surviving Holy Knight beside her was urgently informing her of the situation.
"As soon as we started our advance, that thing appeared and launched a breath attack! Right now, the two Saintesses are barely holding it back, but it's not enough! Somehow... a way to break through this situation...!"
His face was pale with terror, but he had not let go of the sword in his hands.
As if it was the only salvation he had.
However, Adriana's attention was focused not on his desperate state, but on the words he had uttered.
"The two of them... are protecting us? From the very beginning?"
"To be precise, ever since Your Excellency lost consciousness! It is said they saw that monster from afar and, horrified, turned back...!"
"Ah."
Only then did all the pieces of her memory click into place.
Seeing the flames and lightning pouring from above, the archbishops had been the first to deploy a barrier.
It was a truly swift response, proving the worth of selecting archbishops based on their extensive field experience.
'After that...'
Though a step behind, she too had deployed defensive holy arts to protect everyone, and had asked the other archbishops to focus on offense.
- Kuuaaaa —— !!
The enemy's power had been beyond imagination.
Flames and poison, lightning and darkness, and finally, even cold.
Every time she blocked a breath, her whole body staggered, and she felt a shock as if her internal organs were being turned over entirely.
Because the five heads fired their breaths in turns, she could not withdraw the barrier for even a moment.
She had been pounded relentlessly without even grasping the enemy's identity.
As the shock accumulated and her consciousness began to blur, the other two Saintesses appeared, erected a barrier in her stead, and a wave of relief had washed over her.
The moment the tension was released, extreme fatigue took over... and she had lost consciousness.
"Haa... huh, huh ha..."
Adriana's gaze slowly turned upwards.
『It has been so long. What joy this is —— !!!』
And then, she despaired.
'Tiamat.'
She knew all too well what that entity was.
Because it was an entity that every Saintess of the Holy Kingdom, and every high-ranking cleric above archbishop, absolutely had to know about.
'That monster had really been unleashed...'
A calamity that should have existed only in legends was right before her eyes, beating its wings.
An ancient demon dragon with five heads, two pairs of wings, and two tails.
...To be precise, that was the entity as it had been recorded.
A thousand years ago, a calamity that annihilated two nations in a single night and devoured thousands of champions and superhumans.
An absolute evil that caused the 'regional guardians,' including dragons, to choose deep seclusion instead of coming to the forefront of the world.
Its true nature was neither dragon nor drake.
It was simply a 'monster' and a 'demonic beast' whose species could not be defined.
The name 'Tiamat' was both the name given to this individual, and the species name attached to this horrific heteromorph.
'...I must stop it.'
But how? She had power, but lacked the talent to wield that power effectively.
To defeat that monster, it would require gathering all the Thirteen Stars, currently scattered across the continent, and the secret trump-card superhumans cultivated by each nation.
Even then, a considerable number of them had lost their lives in the recent 'false crusade.'
Thus, among the entities she could rely on right now, the high-rank adepts who were close by were mostly...
'At the Grakhheisen Alliance.'
At that fact, Adriana gritted her teeth.
"...What is the status of the contact with all nations?"
"Many nations, including Zenota, have responded... but the nations belonging to the Alliance have yet to reply."
She unwittingly let out a lament mixed with despair.
She sorely resented the vanished Central Archbishop.
They had to make contact with the Alliance.
But how? And even if they made contact, would they truly help us?
This might be a continental crisis, but the thing before them was a being from the past.
If the Alliance pretended ignorance, saying they could not know if it was still that powerful, there would be nothing to say.
But still, it had to be done.
"Somehow, contact them again. Tell them we will open the gates of the Holy See to assist their movement. As for me, meanwhile..."
Clenching her fists tightly, Adriana walked out toward the battlefield.
To do what she could do.
"I will try to hold back that monster, as much as possible."
Bang!!!
Right before Adriana's eyes, Tiamat once more fired a short burst of breaths from all five heads simultaneously.
- Kuheuhaaa ——
『Ahh, what joy! What joy, I say!!』
A monstrous roar that sounded almost like a joyful laugh.
And a monster mumbling in a language they could not understand.
That sight was just like the cruel play of a child pouring water into an anthill.
- 2 -
The Celestial Palace, Astaroth's office.
A space where, rather than official business, more exotic amusements had usually been enjoyed.
However, the always arrogant mistress of the palace felt as if she had become a sinner that day.
「How interesting.」
Dantalion's voice plainly revealed his displeased mood.
「To actually release those things into the world. And without a single word, no less.」
Astaroth bit her lip. A thin trickle of blood stained her already red lips even deeper.
"...It wasn't me, darling. I didn't know it would turn out like this."
「Really? How very reassuring that sounds.」
"I'm telling you it's true. Why would I do something this uncontrollable?"
She made excuses with as much composure as she could feign, but desperation was mixed within.
She had not wanted this situation.
Destroying everything with an uncontrollable frenzy was the ancient 'foolish' way of Dungeon Lords who believed they had nothing to gain from the human world.
Right now, there were still clerics under her control remaining within the Holy Kingdom.
There was absolutely no reason to do such a thing.
Dantalion answered in a gentle voice.
「Yes, I know. But in the end, isn't it not too different from the picture you wanted? At the very least, you must have prepared for such a situation, no?」
"...I suppose so."
Astaroth nodded slowly in acknowledgment.
Though it was an uncontrollable variable, a method to utilize that variable did exist.
A method of letting the humans exhaust all their strength to prevent their own destruction, and in the process, hunting the weakened ancient monsters to claim their cores.
"Of course, it's not an easy method. But it's a risk worth taking, isn't it?"
「That is true.」
The core of an ancient demonic beast, a thousand years old.
The mana contained within it was immense.
Enough to create two powerful marquis-grade dungeon lords, or a single monarch-grade demonic beast.
If one lowered their ambition for the hierarchy, it was an astonishing amount of mana that could create even more subordinates.
Only the process of obtaining it was the problem.
「Armchair theory is meaningless. We must move. You haven't forgotten that Libertas and two other Archdukes are on the surface right now, have you?」
"...Indeed."
Libertas, Eligos, Agares.
One enemy faction that would attack actively, and two that would be looking for an opening.
Right now, the situation called for moving as quickly as possible.
The problem was that unexpected entities had interfered in this scheme.
「At this moment, the Demon Realm Archdukes have ascended to Libertas's territory on the surface, have they not?」
Astaroth's fingertips trembled slightly.
The impulse to bite her nails surged up.
Two Demon Realm Archdukes who had come up to the surface for the audit of the Surface Demon Realm Archdukedom.
If they simply returned quietly to the Demon Realm, there would be no problem at all.
But...
'That fucking bitch...'
It was clear that one of them would make a different choice.
The Duke of Lust, Asmodeus.
The eldest legitimate daughter of the former Demon Realm Marquis, the Marquis of Pleasure, Mephistopheles.
Her half-sister and sworn enemy.
The very person who had exiled her to this surface world.
'There's no way that bitch would miss this opportunity.'
As she was walking a path of friendship with Libertas, she would surely lend a hand on the surface.
Since it was a chance to place the new Surface Demon Realm Archduke in her debt.
Because of the pact signed between the Demon King and the Goddess, even as an Archduke she couldn't exert 100% of her power, but it wasn't as if there were no ways to bypass that.
If she learned that Asmodeus was involved in this matter, she would cry out in glee.
Of course, it was unknown which was stronger between the current Demon Realm Archduke and that ancient monster.
Both were powerhouses on a slightly higher tier than herself.
'But if...'
If the Demon Realm Archduke was stronger.
Then this situation would slip completely out of her hands.
Libertas would leisurely suppress this situation, and she herself would have gained nothing and only lost.
'I can't let that happen.'
Therefore, before that happened, she had to gain as much as possible.
"Of course. I can't let that happen, no sir..."
Clenching both hands tightly, Astaroth muttered as if making a vow.
Dantalion watched her figure with a peculiar glint in his eyes.
- 3 -
East of the Hillsa Kingdom.
The border located between Hillsa and the Frederica region of the Norn Empire.
Beneath the darkening night sky, I was watching the figure of a colossal demonic beast charging madly from the front.
Kung! Ku-kung! Ku-ku-ku-kung!!
A demonic beast possessing a body literally like a mountain.
The figure of a gigantic 'bull' charging as if it would trample and crush the entire world.
"That is Behemoth, Master."
"...Right. Let us prepare."
I nodded at Evangeline's words.
The crazed rampage of gluttony that seemed unstoppable.
I could tell at a single glance.
That this was by no means an easy enemy.
The mana that emanated from its entire body and blanketed the whole sky and ground.
Crunch! Udeudeuk!
- Ku-huuu — !!
It was time to hunt the largest beast on earth.