Shame, the Spirit King's Awakening
"E-everyone! L-look at that!"
The tsunami was clearly visible even to the soldiers standing atop the mound of earth Shame had raised. Following the Duke's orders, they had evacuated swiftly, but watching the monstrous wave bear down on them in person, terror flooded in like the sea itself.
Could this crude pile of dirt, conjured up so suddenly, possibly withstand that thing?
Paralyzed by sheer dread, they had no room to spare wondering where the earth mound had come from. Their dominant thought was that no matter how extraordinary Duke Randert was, nothing could hold back a wave like that.
"What exactly are we supposed to do with just this handful of people?"
"Where on earth did the Full Moon Knights all go?"
"Don't tell me they abandoned us and fled!"
Anxiety scrambles the human mind. Even with Duke Randert standing there in plain sight, the absence of the Full Moon Knights sent the soldiers into a panic. The closer the wave drew, the darker their faces grew. Naturally, they all assumed the mound would crumble and they would be swept away to drown, or be hurled against something and broken—death was certain either way.
That was when something astonishing happened.
"Wh-what is that?"
"The—the tsunami stopped!"
The colossal wave that seemed poised to swallow the entire region had simply frozen in place, as though time itself had been suspended.
It was nothing short of bizarre. Even watching it, they couldn't believe their eyes. How could the ocean possibly hang suspended at such a height?
It looked exactly like a wall made of water. But there was still no time to be amazed—for the wall had begun to recede. As if pushed back by something, the wave was returning the way it had come.
"Are my eyes going mad?"
"The wave—why? How...?"
They rubbed their eyes and rubbed them again, but the scene was the same. The murmuring soon died away too. Perhaps too stunned for words, everyone simply stared blankly at the unfolding scene, unable to open their mouths.
The same was true of Duke Randert. The moment the wave froze directly before his eyes, he too doubted his own vision.
Unable to believe it, he gazed at his son Bayul, then shifted his eyes in turn to Innocent and Quinn.
The culprit might not sense it, but the Duke perceived it with perfect clarity. Immense power was radiating from the two of them, and that power was making all of this happen.
So this is truly the power of spirits?
Even Duke Randert could not do this. Protecting his own body would be no great feat, but holding back a tsunami was beyond him entirely.
Witnesding his son's astonishing majesty firsthand, the Duke was left utterly dumbstruck.
"Another one is coming."
This one was larger than before. Bayul could sense Innocent and Quinn growing tense.
"Spinel."
At Bayul's call, Spinel soared into the air. They had weathered the first wave, but a second and third would surely follow. Every ounce of strength had to be conserved.
Just before the wave claimed the land once more, a wall of water rose to meet it. Spinel, as though she had been waiting for exactly this moment, drove enormous balls of fire into the water wall at intervals. Instantly, the whole area turned hazy, as if shrouded in mist. Just as the obscured view began to feel suffocating, Tempesta stirred up a wind that swept the vapor away.
It sounded simple enough when described in words, but in truth it was nothing of the sort. This was a tsunami of staggering breadth and scale, and the spirits were holding it back with everything they had.
A cataclysm that had injured Duke Randert and could have produced a horrifying death toll—and a boy of only sixteen was defending against it.
The Duke was still reeling.
Spirits who harmonized with nature itself, and a son who had become a Spirit User to command them.
He had heard before that Bayul could even stop the rain, but he had never imagined it was on this level. His son's abilities far surpassed anything he had expected.
Deep worry crept into the corners of Duke Randert's eyes as he looked at Bayul. With this affair, the secret of his son's gift as a Spirit User would be out within days. How he would have to protect his only child from now on—already, the worry weighed on him.
"This is the last one."
"We just have to hold this one back!"
Innocent and Quinn spoke at the same time. They had repelled two enormous waves already. If they could just succeed this once, everything would go according to plan—no one would get hurt. The thought made Bayul's heart pound.
We did it!
I—we did it!
His father was standing there safe and sound beside him. Bayul clenched both fists and rejoined inwardly.
Crack! Cra-ack!
"Sh-Shame?"
In the very instant Bayul felt that something was wrong, seawater geysered up from beneath the split earth.
"Ian! Protect Bayul!"
Duke Randert launched himself forward.
Innocent and Quinn were pouring every ounce of focus into holding back the final wave. The wave's crest had to be a full forty meters high—a monster. Dealing with anything more on top of it was clearly out of the question.
They couldn't erase the erupting seawater, but this much could be handled. Duke Randert tore through the debris at breakneck speed.
"Sir Ian, please help my father!"
Of the Full Moon Knights, only Ian remained. His father alone would struggle to cover ground this vast. Shame was pouring out his strength, but he had already burned through most of his energy building the mound in the first place.
Spinel and Tempesta were locked on the tsunami, so the only one who could help his father was Ian.
"Death, please look after Bayul!"
With that, Ian entrusted Bayul's safety to Death and leapt into the fray as well.
"So it's my turn now?"
The answer came not from Death, but from Eli.
As a member of the red clan, he and water were a dreadful match. With nothing useful to do, he had merely watched—but at last his moment to act had arrived.
Eli threw himself into suppressing the split ground without a moment's hesitation. He had no reason to hold back. He fired off every advanced spell he'd been hoarding, one after another. The soldiers far away wouldn't get a proper look at anything in all this chaos anyway.
KWA-BOOM!
But for all their efforts, the earthquake only grew more violent as time passed. The mound of earth Shame had labored to raise was shaking.
"No!"
If that came down, it was all over. Thousands of soldiers were standing on top of it. The earthquake was bad enough, but the surging water was turning the soil to mush. At this rate, the mound would collapse in no time.
"Eli, help Shame!"
"Wall of Earth!"
The moment Bayul's voice ended, Eli wrapped the mound in a barrier of packed earth. He was still a hatchling, to be sure, but his true nature was that of a dragon. It wouldn't be especially sturdy, but it would hold for a while yet.
Duke Randert and Ian were somehow holding the line around the earthen wall. They moved so fast that Bayul could barely make out their forms.
'Shame, are you all right? Tell me what's happening down there!'
Shame was nearly spent. Bayul asked again and again, but no answer came back. Shame's presence had abruptly grown faint.
'Shame...!'
The earthquake showed no sign of stopping, and the final wave refused to retreat easily. Innocent and Spinel were down to their last reserves too. Tempesta was the only one in decent shape—and only because he'd had so little chance to exert himself in this affair.
Until moments ago, Bayul had been confident it would all be over soon. Now impatience gnawed at him. He had been so sure he'd wrap things up perfectly, and now he could only berate himself for thinking it would be easy.
He felt pathetic—pathetic for leaving everything to the spirits while he himself could do nothing.
So what if I'm a Spirit User.
The best I can do is ask the spirits for help. That's it.
What's the point of carrying the power of the ancient Spirit Kings?
I'm still the same worthless thing I've always been—useless at everything.
Eyes squeezed shut, Bayul found himself sliding back into old habits, reproaching himself without meaning to.
He'd been a fool. He had been sorely mistaken all this time. He'd assumed things had changed now, strutted around with the arrogance of a man who thought becoming a Spirit User made him something special.
'Please... please... if the power of the ancient Spirit Kings truly dwells within me, lend it to me! Help me do something—anything!'
Biting his lip, Bayul pleaded with all his heart.
KWAAAAANG!
It was then that he heard a sound like something detonating. The moment a startled Bayul opened his eyes, a boulder shot up into the sky from the crack in the earth.
'What is that?'
As Bayul tilted his head in confusion, something else burst up from below the ground.
"...Shame!"
At first the speed kept him from recognizing it, but the moment it came to a stop in midair, he saw what it was. And if his eyes weren't playing tricks on him, the boulder that had shot skyward first was the very Spirit Stone Bayul had been searching so desperately for.
Shame and the Spirit Stone hung suspended on the same line, facing each other. Light began to seep slowly from the stone, and that light passed wholly into Shame. Little by little, the Spirit Stone shrank.
"Don't tell me...?"
As shock flooded Bayul's face, Shame and the Spirit Stone became one. And in an instant, a light so bright it was nearly unbearable to look upon swept over everything.
A short while later, Bayul opened his eyes.
"...!"
Spread before him was a scene beyond belief.
The earth mound had collapsed.
No—it hadn't collapsed, so much as settled gently back down. As if there were no longer any need for it, it was returning to its original place.
The ground was the same. The split earth had somehow been mended, and the trees, the grass, the boulders all sat exactly where they had always been.
And the tsunami was gone too. As if everything that had happened until now had been a lie, the entire world had snapped back to the way it was in the blink of an eye.
But more astonishing than anything else was Shame himself.
He was descending slowly toward the ground.
He was unmistakably Shame, the spirit of earth—and yet he looked nothing like before.
Forties? Fifties?
Shame, who had been a dwarf of an old man with long white hair and a drooping beard, had become a man in his prime. His hair was still white, but no longer brittle and unkempt as before. Neatly trimmed short hair, medium height, dressed in a black suit—he looked every bit the elegant gentleman.
He couldn't fathom what had happened, but Shame, too, had risen to become an Intermediate Spirit.
"Shame..."
Stepping down onto the earth, Shame walked toward Bayul. There was one more change in him as well: a lozenge-shaped black jewel, absent before, was now embedded in the exact center of his forehead.
When Shame reached him, he bowed courteously, dropping to one knee.
"My King—Shame, Intermediate Spirit of Earth, greets you."
His words no longer came slow, and his voice was no longer hoarse. Just as with Spinel, his entire manner of speech had changed.
Could he have gained a fragment of memory?
Looking at him, Bayul's eyes trembled once more.