The Hour of the Tsunami
"Your Grace, what is the matter?"
Sadad had served Duke Randert for a long time. Bayul and Ian's sudden arrival, bearing talk of an impending earthquake, was ominous enough in itself — but it was the Duke's expression that told Sadad something far worse was coming.
And he was right.
The Duke barked out his orders at once.
"We are abandoning the military camp this instant. Order every soldier to evacuate to high ground immediately!"
"A tsunami, perhaps?"
Sadad was quick on the uptake. He had already read a great deal in the way the Duke's eyes were fixed upon the sea.
"Father, a tsunami? Don't tell me the earthquake will begin beneath the ocean?"
"You came all this way without knowing even that much?"
"Forgive me... Amon only said that a great earthquake would strike and claim many lives..."
"Ah, you mean that demon, Amon."
"Yes, Your Grace. He possesses the ability to see the future. That is why we came — to warn you in haste."
It was Ian who answered on behalf of the bewildered Bayul. Just then, Ingrid, carrying the rest of the party, touched down on the ground with a rush of fierce wind.
As the Duke and Sadad stared at Ingrid in astonishment, Ian hurried to explain.
"It's a bird raised by young Master Aidan. Apparently it can alter its size at will. We flew through the night on its back."
A dragon, demons, and now a giant bird. Why was it that everyone around his son was extraordinary without exception?
"You can tell me the details later. This place is dangerous — Ian, take Bayul and his friends and get them out of here at once."
"With respect, Your Grace, I will stay and help!"
Even if the Duke had ordered the soldiers to flee, Ian knew full well that the Duke and the Full Moon Knights would remain behind. If a tsunami came crashing in, the damage would be beyond imagining. Debris swept up by the seawater could threaten the safety of nearby homes and would need to be cleared away in advance — there was simply too much to be done. As a knight of the Full Moon Knights, Ian believed staying was only right.
"Ian, your first duty is to protect Bayul. I cannot leave him here."
"No, Father! I'm staying to help you!"
"Bayul, don't be stubborn. This is no place for you!"
"Yes it is, Father. Right now, no one here is more needed than I am. Have you forgotten that I am a Spirit User?"
When the ground split and buildings crumbled, he had come here thinking only of holding them together. The tsunami had caught him entirely off guard — but once he settled his thoughts, he realized it might actually be a blessing. Innocent, now an Intermediate Spirit, would undoubtedly prove useful.
"Bayul, Spirit User or not, I cannot allow this. Get back on that bird and return home at once!"
The Duke knew Bayul was a Spirit User, and knew that spirits attuned to nature answered his son's call. But all he had ever witnessed was Innocent dousing people with splashes of water. He had no idea — not even the faintest guess — what Bayul might actually be capable of in a crisis like this.
"Six o'clock. The hour Amon foretold is six in the morning."
"It is already past five forty."
Sadad had hastily checked his watch before speaking.
"It's too late to reach high ground. I will stop the tsunami myself!"
His son's bold declaration left Duke Randert utterly flustered.
Stop the tsunami?
Was that even a thing a person could do?
"Your Grace, have faith in the young master!"
The moment Ian stepped forward to plead as well, the Duke finally realized what he had been overlooking.
It wasn't only Ian. Bayul's friends — even the demons Death and Amon — all wore expressions that said they believed Bayul could do it.
"Bayul... can you truly hold back a tsunami?"
"Today, Father, I will show you the true power of spirits."
"I will help as well."
Quinn spoke up. Perhaps because the sea lay right before them, his blue hair and eyes shimmered far more deeply than usual.
"The Ring of the Great Ocean you gave me — you remember it, don't you?"
Quinn raised his hand to display the ring on his finger.
"The debt I owe you for saving my life — I intend to repay it now. I will show you the power of the Mermaid Kingdom as well."
Truthfully, a tsunami could never harm Quinn as long as he wore the Eye of the Ocean. And yet he had stepped forward willingly, to save the soldiers around him and all those who made their lives on this land.
It struck him as ironic that he, who had once despised humans, was now acting on their behalf — but he believed that for the sake of the Mermaid Kingdom's future, this was the right thing to do.
"Bayul..."
Duke Randert could not decide easily. His son was making so bold a promise, yet the Duke trusted nothing he had not seen and experienced with his own eyes. To him, this was nothing short of a gamble.
"Your Grace, there is no time!"
Sadad urged him on. A decision — evacuation orders or otherwise — had to be made now.
Rumble!
Just then the ground groaned again. This time the tremor was considerably stronger. The soldiers, who at first had merely tilted their heads in confusion, began streaming out of the barracks in visible alarm.
"Father."
Bayul looked up at his father with everything he had.
Trust me.
I can do this.
It lasted only an instant, yet for Duke Randert it felt like an eternity of decision. At last, he nodded.
"Very well. Do it. But I will issue the evacuation order for the soldiers as a precaution."
"Of course, that's only right. Shame!"
Bayul already had a plan in mind. The moment he called, Shame burst up from the earth in the blink of an eye. At the sight of Shame's swarthy skin covered head to toe in white hair and beard, the Duke and Sadad's eyes went wide.
"Please raise a plateau of high ground — as large as you can possibly make it."
Shame gave a silent nod.
"Tempesta, get the barracks, the supplies, and the people moved out of the way — quickly!"
It was a job that demanded open, level ground. There wasn't enough time to physically relocate the barracks and everyone in them. This was precisely the kind of task Tempesta was made for.
"See? You'd be lost without me!"
With that patronizing remark, a colossal whirlwind erupted without warning. The wind, precisely as Bayul commanded, swept the people and supplies off to one side.
"Waaagh!"
"S-somebody save me!"
Screams rang out from the soldiers caught in the gale — yet every single one of them landed safely on the ground without so much as a hair out of place.
Then the ground of the broad clearing began to quake as if struck by an earthquake of its own, and the earth rose upward. The mound it formed was large enough to be called a small mountain, and stepped terraces ran up its sides so that anyone could climb it with ease.
"Wh-what in the world...!"
Duke Randert watched and still could not believe it. Bayul had done nothing but give an order. It had been so swift and so effortless that any observer would have sworn no power had been spent at all.
"Sir Sadad, get the soldiers to safety over there, quickly!"
Sadad was just as dumbstruck. After staring blankly ahead for a moment, he shook himself and hurried off.
"Your Grace, this is only the beginning."
This was the one who had ended the rain season that had tormented Hamilton so mercilessly. Ian remembered that wondrous sight all too well. He believed, with iron certainty, that the young master would see this through as well.
"Father, the people of Romandsi must be warned too."
"The Full Moon Knights will see to it."
His men's lives were not the only ones that mattered. They were foreigners, yes, but every life was precious — and having learned of the danger first, they bore the duty to warn others. Even now, the Full Moon Knights had formed up nearby.
"Evacuate the villagers near the coast to high ground at once!"
At the Duke's command, the knights sprang into motion.
"I'm going to rescue the animals with Ingrid."
There was nothing left for Aidan to do here. He had fulfilled his duty by arriving in time, but he couldn't just stand by. Aidan climbed onto Ingrid's back and took to the air once more.
"And what are we supposed to do?"
When Death, who had been watching the commotion from across the way like a spectator at a fire, piped up, Eli shot back icily.
"Just keep your head down and stay put instead of leaking magic everywhere and drawing humans' attention!"
"I don't think there's anything big enough for me to bother with, though?"
"Even if there were — a demon, helping humans? Really?"
"Nothing says I can't. And do try to remember that we're only here thanks to Amon."
Faced with the rippling crimson of Death's eyes, Eli couldn't muster a reply and clamped his mouth shut. Because it was true. Loathsome creatures, yes — but they had already helped more than enough.
"Eli, it's almost six. You're going to help too, aren't you?"
He might still be a hatchling, but Eli was a dragon all the same. There was plenty he could contribute.
"Of course."
He would prove, beyond a doubt, that he was worth more than those demon wretches.
Logan had already run off to the grain stores and was busy helping move the provisions. Everyone, each in their own way, was doing what they could.
"Innocent!"
At Bayul's call, Innocent came flying at full speed from the shore. True to her nature as a spirit of water, she seemed to have sensed something from beyond the sea — her expression was unlike her usual playful self. Some instinct, it seemed, already knew the tsunami was coming.
"We have to keep the seawater from swallowing the city. You can do that, can't you, Innocent?"
The soldiers were already scrambling up the earthen mound Shame had raised.
"It won't be over in one wave."
Innocent warned, staring out at the distant sea. The tsunami would come in at least three or four surges, each spaced apart. And no one yet knew what debris might ride in with them.
"Quinn is going to help."
With the Eye of the Ocean in his possession, Quinn's command over water had leapt forward by leaps and bounds. He lacked the strength to draw upon its full power, but the energy he now carried was beyond all comparison with before. Innocent, an Intermediate Spirit of Water, could sense it plainly.
"Spinel, there may be dangerous things in the seawater. Whatever they are, stop them. And if any water slips through, turn it to steam."
"Understood."
Spinel's flames could burn away anything that came. If Tempesta did his part as well, they could end this without a single casualty.
"It's six o'clock."
The hour had come at last.
Bayul fixed his gaze on the sea, tense as a drawn bowstring.
Rumble! CRACK!
That was when the ground split open. With a violent convulsion, the earth beneath their feet began to tear apart.
"Sh-Shame!"
The tsunami wasn't the only danger. The surface shook so violently it was hard to keep one's footing at all.
Swoosh!
Tree roots burst up in an instant and coiled around Bayul and his companions' legs. Thanks to them, no one fell and everyone found their balance. Soil and rock and timber rushed in to fill the fissures in the earth.
"It's coming."
Quinn murmured low. His hair fanned out around him, radiating blue light. Innocent, too, took a grim defensive stance, like a general with war upon her doorstep.
Whooshhhhh!
The closer the tsunami drew, the wider Bayul's eyes grew. The Duke and Ian were no different.
Ten meters? No — twenty?
A wave of monstrous height was bearing down upon the land.