Guardian of Aon

Aon Castle had been built around the Obsidian Mine and the mountain range it sat within. But over the long centuries, it had fallen into a state of extreme disrepair.

Castle walls, at least, maintained their strength through the endless cycle of war—crumbling and being rebuilt in turn. The rest of the fortress had not been so fortunate.

When Simon first toured Aon Castle, he had been shocked to see how badly rotted the critical load-bearing pillars had become.

At first he worried, What if the enemy brings this place down on us? But that thought soon shifted into something else entirely: Come to think of it... what if I bring it down first?

That was why the King had evacuated the civilians into the mine. And so Simon had planted the colossal sea monster Gwaegong at the very lowest level of the castle—its very roots—and, with the help of his Skeleton Mages, detonated it with Corpse Explosion.

The result—

KUUUURRRRRRRRRRR!

It was devastating. When the ground below gives way, everything above it follows.

Like a mountain stripped bare by a landslide, every building, every stairway began to slide downward all at once. The screams of the Khan Kingdom soldiers were swallowed by the thunder of collapsing stone, and countless men fell like black rain along with the buildings themselves.

KKWAKWAKWAKWAKWAKWA!

The entire terrain filled with a hazy cloud of dust and soil, and soon—as the King had promised—the original form of the towering mountain range and the mine was revealed.

Only the Royal Palace, perched at the summit of the mine, remained untouched. Everyone watching was left speechless.

"...Whoa. Wow. Just... wow."

Dick looked down at the valley from the palace and let out an awkward laugh.

"The idea of ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠the defenders tearing down their own castle... yeah, that's not something you'd come up with easily."

The attack had knocked out a full seven players of the sieging team.

The war was as good as over.

"That's practically annihilation."

"Did Hector go down too?"

"Looks like he survived. But that's not the kind of damage two or three people can do anything about."

Simon and the students were peeking out from the palace, watching the aftermath unfold, when—

"You have saved our kingdom. Squeak."

A dignified voice sounded from behind them.

"Your Majesty!"

The King of Aon was approaching. Simon bowed his head.

"I'm sorry. There was no other way to stop the Khan Kingdom..."

"Squeak. No. Do not apologize, Guardian."

The King clapped Simon lightly on the shoulder.

"A city can be rebuilt as many times as it takes. What matters is—"

The eyes of the King and the students turned toward what lay below.

"—the people."

When word came that the soldiers had arrived, the beastfolk who had hidden in the mine came pouring out, throwing themselves into the soldiers' arms in joyful reunion. Some couples launched straight into passionate kisses; soldiers gazed down at the children who had survived, their faces full of beaming smiles.

"What is a city, after all? If we simply join our strength once more, there is nothing we cannot do."

The King continued with a warm, benevolent smile.

"Thank you for saving my people, Guardian."

Several hours later, the haze of dust had settled, and in place of Aon Castle there rose sheer, sheer cliffs of bare stone.

The fortress and its dwellings had been swept away as if washed clean off the mountain. All that remained was the mountain range, and the Obsidian Mine with only scattered patches of its black rock left exposed.

The attack had brought the Khan Kingdom to the brink of total destruction.

Only three necromancers remained, and their army could no longer fight at all. There were so many wounded that triage was simply impossible.

Elisa tried desperately to salvage the situation, gathering up the healthy soldiers outside the inner wall and ordering an assault—but as they clawed their way up the towering mountain range, they were laid bare to the volleys of the Aon Kingdom's palace archers, and once again tasted total annihilation.

Scorched with fury, Elisa loaded her remaining troops onto her Ghost Ships to attempt an amphibious landing—but the defenders' necromancers were hardly about to sit idle. Led by Meilin, a torrent of Jet-Black Flame magic poured down like a sea of fire, and she fled having lost a single ship.

"God damn it!!"

CRASH!

Hector seized Elisa by the collar and slammed her against the wall.

"Ugh." She squeezed her eyes shut. "...That hurts. Should a scion of a noble house really be manhandling a lady?"

"Spare me the crap, Elisa Sellen!!"

Hector glared at her with murder in his eyes, looking ready to tear her apart on the spot.

"We did everything your way! You even went against what I wanted, and you fed Jule to Simon just to burn him down! And THIS is all we get for it?!"

"...I have nothing to say."

Elisa sighed.

She had been convinced the game ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠was already won, and so she had moved too hastily. She should have sent her forces up to the palace only after calmly scouting the surroundings and confirming exactly what numbers the enemy had.

Her 'one-step-ahead tactics'—seizing the north gates of both the outer and inner walls, destroying the guardian stones—had been effective for the entire war. But in the end, that very momentum had become a fatal poison.

Elisa lowered her head, her face resigned.

"...I admit my command was a mistake. If beating me up makes ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠you feel better, go right ahead."

Hector ground his teeth with a vicious crackle, shoved her against the wall one more time—CRASH!—then turned his back on her. Elisa slumped to the floor.

"Heh. Hehehe."

A woozy chuckle leaked from her lips.

"I'll pay this debt back someday. You can count on it, Simon Polentia."

Leaving only those words behind, Elisa withdrew every last one of her Ghost Ships and touched her own card, forfeiting from the game.

If there was truly no chance of winning, the wise move was to leave early and go hunting for other cards.

"Freaking...!"

Hector raised his head and glared up at the Royal Palace atop the mountain range.

The ending of the siege battle was a splendid one.

Beyond the horizon, where dawn was breaking, allied cavalry from kingdoms supporting Aon had fallen upon the rear of the Khan Kingdom's army.

Under normal circumstances, the arrival of this relief force would have been rather more dramatic—but with all of Aon's troops already inside the palace and the Khan Kingdom reduced to stragglers, it wrapped up almost anticlimactically.

Still, it was plenty impressive. Watching from above as the cavalry kicked up clouds of dust and swept away the enemy soldiers made Simon's chest swell with grandeur.

With the message of victory, the air shimmered, and cards materialized before the faces of every surviving student.

The Purple Cards of the siege battle.

"We won!"

Only now fully registering their victory, everyone let out shouts of joy and snatched up their cards.

"Huh?"

"What's wrong, Simon?"

Dick asked, mid-ceremony, pressing a kiss to his purple card.

"It feels like there's another card tucked behind mine..."

FWAAAAAAAAAAAH!

A dazzling light flared up behind Simon's purple card. Simon had one extra card.

Meilin cried out in shock.

"That's a Gold Card!"

She was right. The Gold Card—awarded to no one, not even once, until now—was glowing in Simon's hand.

"So they drop in siege battles too!"

"Guess you need war achievements on Simon's level for one to appear."

The best possible card combination was all seven colors of the rainbow plus the Gold Card—eight in total. Now Simon needed only two more colored cards to reach the maximum score.

"Congratulations, Simon."

Fitzgerald of his own Mutant club came over and spoke.

"Thanks. Sorry I'm the only one getting one, though—you were incredible out there too."

"Not on your level."

In truth, Fitzgerald's performance in this siege had shone brightly as well.

While his duties never overlapped with Simon's, and so drew less of the spotlight, he had held the eastern gate almost single-handedly, and when the north gate fell, he had covered the retreating allies, racking up a record of holding off several thousand Khan Kingdom soldiers.

Beyond that, he'd knocked out a handful of the sieging team's Kizen students among other tidy accomplishments—but none of it could compare to Simon's record of eliminating more than ten thousand troops and seven necromancer students.

"Hehehe. Well, guard your cards carefully~"

Dick tucked his purple card preciously into his jacket and looked up.

"This can't be the end, right? There's more coming, isn't there? Lord Endolas!"

As if his words had genuinely been heard, light welled up in the air once more.

With the sound effects of cheap party poppers going POP POP!, winged gift boxes came fluttering down over everyone's heads.

"I knew it!"

"It's Endolas's prizes!"

The students, giddy, opened the gift boxes that had landed at their feet. Inside each was a gleaming black ore.

"Hey, this is obsidian ore."

"Real obsidian? That stuff's worth a fortune!"

"So THAT's why he set the game in an obsidian mine!"

Grinning from ear to ear, the students began comparing the sizes of their obsidian chunks—mine's bigger, no, mine is!

"Whoa!"

Dick hollered.

"Jackpot! Mine's huge! A real whopper!"

"...Do NOT say that out loud, you lunatic!"

For reasons no one could quite fathom, Meilin shrieked, her face flushed scarlet.

Just as everyone was happily chatting away—

"..."

Only Simon stood there awkwardly, empty-handed. Dick came over to him.

"Hey, Simon, how big's yours?! Don't tell me it's bigger than mine! Let's compare!"

"I-I didn't get a gift?"

"Huh?"

Meilin and Fitzgerald came over as well.

"Why is Simon the only one without one?"

"Perhaps the Gold Card is the gift in his case."

"There's no way that..."

FWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!

At that very moment, the shining dawn light in the sky struck the students in a single straight line.

Blinded by the brilliant flash, the students shielded their eyes with their arms and stumbled back.

"Look over there!"

From within the dawn light, a gift box far larger than the others materialized and drifted toward Simon.

"That's it!"

Dick went berserk with excitement.

"That's the grand prize Endolas showed us back in the Great Auditorium!"

"He's right! It WAS attached to the siege battle all along!"

The enormous box settled right into Simon's arms. Setting it down on the ground, Simon took hold of the lid with a pounding heart.

The surrounding students came swarming in, forming a circle around him.

"Shall we open it?"

Simon smiled playfully. The students let out a deafening cheer.

"Open it! Open it!"

"Quit stalling and open it already! C'mon!"

Simon pretended to relent, laughing, and opened the box.

With an ear-grating cackle, a single staff shot up into the air—and then began zooming wildly around the palace.

"It's the autonomous sentient staff, Areldelu!"

Simon nodded.

As a Summoning hopeful, he'd secretly been hoping for the Death Phoenix, but this wasn't bad at all. If anything, given his current situation—building a Lich—it might have been even better.

Areldelu zipped around the palace and started tormenting the students. It fired off curses that changed their hair colors, and even smacked Dick on the back of the head before fleeing.

"Why you—!"

Dick leapt at it, but the staff slipped nimbly out from under him, tripped his legs from behind, and sent him sprawling.

"Son of a—!"

Dick rolled ingloriously across the floor, clutching his head.

"What is WRONG with this stupid stick?!"

"Idiots. What are you even doing?"

Meilin laughed, hands on her hips. At that moment, Areldelu whooshed up in front of her—and flipped her skirt up with a flutter.

"@#$!#^#$!!!"

Face burning crimson, Meilin lunged in a fury.

"I'm going to KILL you!!"

She ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠blasted ice wildly into the air, but Areldelu dodged this way and that, maddeningly evasive.

"Hmm—"

Dick rested his chin on his hand, his expression grave.

"I'm starting to think that might not actually be a staff."

CRUNCH!

A split second later, Dick—taking Meilin's ice full in the back of the head—dropped flat to the floor.

Simon quietly smiled and extended his hand.

"Come back."

Thankfully, it did seem to recognize its master—Areldelu shot straight into Simon's palm. And before Meilin could cut it in two, he quickly stowed it away in his subspace.

"A portal's opening!"

Right on cue, the portal leading out of the game appeared. Everyone exchanged cheerful laughter and words of thanks for each other's hard work.

"Squeak! Line up!"

Then the King, the soldiers, and every last citizen stood before the students as they made to leave through the portal.

"Salute to the great Guardians!"

"AIUM AON!"

Every soldier snapped into a salute before the students.

"Squeak! Thank you for saving our kingdom!"

"Farewell, Guardians! Squeak-squeak!"

The soldiers and citizens who had fought alongside them waved as well.

A lump rising in their throats, the students gave one last wave in return. Simon waved back at them too, then picked up the empty box that had held Areldelu and stepped toward the portal.

After all, he'd just thought of exactly what this staff could be used for.