Tyrant Subjugation Battle (1)
Lebuije hastily composed her expression and looked around.
The view that had been swallowed by the blizzard opened clean and clear. Every detail of the street that had been invisible even a handspan ahead now stood sharp before her eyes.
Hundreds of people filled the space.
The blizzard that had risen overnight had left countless missing. Missing, they called them—but in truth they were as good as dead. These were the ones who had gathered to search for them.
Adventurers whose names carried weight on the ground floor. Knights recognized by the Empire and held in awe by the townsfolk. Far too many for a mere search for the missing, yet they went about their duty in silence.
They found the missing. They confirmed the dead.
And now, with roughly half the hastily compiled list checked off—
the blizzard stopped.
No—it halted.
“L-Lebuije-nim!”
Still reeling, Lebuije heard her subordinate call her name in panic and forced her trembling voice steady.
“…Yes.”
“Even for you, Lebuije-nim… this sort of thing… it’s the first time, isn’t it?”
Blizzards that came to Urusphier were familiar. The White Disaster. The Tyrant’s Wrath. Those were the names people gave them, and she knew them well. They always arrived without warning, leaving missing and dead alike.
But this—
not merely dying down, but stopping cold—this was a first.
“For me as well… i-it’s the first.”
“Hah… what in the world…”
She could not grasp what had happened. Yet as the one ultimately responsible for Urusphier, Lebuije checked her feelings and her face.
“Whatever the case, this is good fortune. Let’s finish quickly. Same as before. Find the remaining missing and gather the bodies of the dead. Bekan—you prioritize finding Hepais-nim.”
“Yes. Yes… understood.”
The man standing beside her nodded reluctantly and moved off. Lebuije herself was about to set out in search of Hepais when—
the blizzard that had hung frozen in the air began to scatter once more.
No—not scatter. It flowed.
The direction was constant. The speed was constant.
Lebuije’s gaze followed the current.
The summit of Karahan.
A magic circle too vast to take in at a glance, and a small sphere, came into view. The blizzard was flowing toward them—streaming, gathering, swelling the sphere’s bulk.
The murmuring of the crowd died. Sound itself died. As if the entire world had stopped, every person stood frozen, staring only at the summit of Karahan.
The sphere began to grow at an exponential rate. The color of the magic circle shifted by degrees.
And then—
every last flake of the blizzard that had blanketed Urusphier vanished, drawn into the summit of Karahan. The sphere slowly unfurled. It spread and spread until, beneath the sky, another sky bloomed.
Not a blue sky—a pale, hazy sky. A sky made of snow, covering the heavens.
At last the shape of the magic circle changed. It inverted. Twisted, shattered, and re-formed—drawing the image of the Black Sun.
And then—
“Huh…?”
The sky collapsed.
It poured. It flowed. An avalanche vast enough to swallow the entire Karahan range came roaring down.
A natural disaster. A calamity that advanced devouring everything in its path crushed the hearts of the people. It delivered despair. It stole hope.
No matter how strong one’s power, how sharp one’s wisdom—no matter how much reverence or recognition one received, how much wealth or experience one possessed—saint or sinner alike—it reminded every human that in the end they were nothing more than fleeting mortals.
In Urusphier there were no screams. No laments. No wails of grief. Only the crushing weight of an overwhelming calamity, leaving them unable to do anything but watch death approach.
Lebuije watched it and thought.
Can we evade it?
We cannot.
Can we stop it?
Absolutely not.
Evacuate the residents?
Impossible.
The only ones who might live—at best, Masters.
Had it been an ordinary avalanche, other adventurers and knights might have survived. But this was no ordinary avalanche. It was an alien disaster carrying the will to destroy everything. There was no escaping it, no stopping it, no surviving it. Beneath the sky, reduced to insignificant mortals, all they could do was wait for death.
Even so, Lebuije tried to thrash against it. With trembling hands she gripped her staff. She whipped her legs that wanted to buckle and forced them upright. Her jaw chattered with a hard clack-clack; she bit down so fiercely she nearly retched. She wrapped her robe tighter and took a step—toward the mountain’s entrance.
There was no need to persuade the other adventurers. She could not take responsibility for them, so she did not try. She simply walked her own path in silence. If she was going to die anyway, she would not die looking pathetic.
Perhaps that sight stirred something in the others. Among the adventurers who had only stood trembling in place, a few began to follow behind her.
“We’re going to die. For certain.”
Lebuije forced the words out in a deliberately flat voice.
“Yes. We know.”
Speaking for those who followed, Bekan—the one she had ordered to find Hepais—answered.
“I can’t take responsibility for you.”
“What choice do we have?”
“Well… at least the Empire or the Guild will take notice.”
“As long as the pension keeps landing for our families, I don’t care.”
Bekan shrugged, shook his head, and smiled.
“Who knows—maybe we stop it. Then we’re heroes, and filthy rich.”
At his nonsense Lebuije swallowed a hollow laugh. Stop that calamity? Absurd. Yet she did not correct him.
“Hah… that’s… a rather nice thought.”
And Lebuije herself smiled faintly as she walked toward death.
They reached the entrance. The adventurers who had been trading jokes to ease the tension fell silent. They had no choice. The calamity they saw from here was utterly different.
It was still only midway down Karahan. Its form had not yet grown fully distinct. Even so, the urge to turn and flee surged up at once. Terror so pure that tears would not come made their bodies shudder until they locked solid.
Lebuije had thought herself seasoned—had survived countless brushes with death. This calamity was of another order entirely.
She gave a bitter smile and planted her staff in the ground.
Charlotte and Yuria. Rubia and Noah… and the missing Hepais as well. She did not know where any of them were. She only hoped they had survived. She believed they were the ones who would bring light into this lightless world. She herself was too weak to stand at the center—but she could at least be a branch. So she would try.
The shape of the calamity grew clearer. Every fine flake of snow had become a saw-blade, tearing everything apart as it charged. Between them, tens of thousands of magic beasts were packed in.
Could they hold it even for a single second?
She did not know. How could a human block out the sky?
Still she raised her mana. She planted her staff and raised walls in the air—one layer, two, three… She scraped every last drop of her mana to raise countless walls. Behind them, other mages raised walls of their own.
And then—
Kuuurrrrung—!
With a sound like the mountain range itself collapsing, the calamity reached the entrance.
Ah. This cannot be stopped. Absolutely. We die. Die. Death. There is nothing left but to die.
Pure terror soaked her entire body. She propped herself against the staff to keep from collapsing. Tears she had not noticed streamed down her face. In less than a minute they would be dead. In two minutes Urusphier would be annihilated.
Listening to the despair-soaked sobs rising from behind, Lebuije was about to close her eyes.
In that instant—
the calamity split.
It split, and tore. It tore and scattered.
“Well, still… you’re better than those cowards running away back there.”
Centered on one small girl—
the calamity shattered.
“Don’t just stand there spacing out. Head back and clean up the trash mobs.”
The one who had slaughtered tens of thousands of magic beasts, who had subjugated Carpeng, who had killed the Master Kalt—
the adventurer Noah—
had cut the calamity down.
“Wh-what is that… what in the… no… what, how, what just… huh…?”
Lebuije, spitting out words that refused to form sentences, finally fainted.
“Whoops.”
I handed the unconscious Lebuije off to the adventurers, rubbed my aching eyes, and felt the various energies circulating through my body.
First… two kinds of Elixir.
A complete Elixir, and one with side effects. Yuria’s, then. I’d try to keep them under control as long as I could, but my height shrinking… and my intelligence dropping a little… those were unavoidable.
Not that my intelligence had anywhere left to fall. It was already scraping the bottom.
Second—
Rubia’s Divine Power.
Thanks to this, I’d been given a chance. Why now, what her intention was—I didn’t know. Still, following her will was the right thing to do.
And third—
my own mana.
Impure mana was rampaging wildly through my body. Annoying, but I’d tidy it up before my consciousness cut out.
I clicked my tongue and looked up at the summit of Karahan.
The killing intent of the White Disaster washed over me. I took it full-body and snorted a laugh.
Arrogant cola-bear. After I butchered you last time and turned you into a coat, you still don’t remember and you’re throwing killing intent at me again? Of course you wouldn’t remember. Still—way too full of yourself.
Unlike last time, Rubia was here now. I’d have to make a coat for her too. Then she and I would be a matching pair. A little disappointing, maybe… but just imagining Rubia’s happy face made me smile.
I drove the greatsword into the ground and stretched. Long, slow stretches until I was loose. Then I started walking toward the summit.
The time given to me was roughly one day. I’d finish in half a day. The rest of the time—
I’d spend on a date with Rubia.
Thinking about what we might do put a smile on my lips. I was walking along, grinning, when I felt another seal break.
One.
Two.
Three.
Four.
In the past, the Tyrant I had faced had only four seals released. Half.
Now four more had broken—eight in total.
Every seal that had bound the Tyrant was gone.
At the summit of Karahan, the Tyrant rose.
Killing intent that made my entire body tingle poured down. And then—
“Huh?”
The Tyrant hurled itself into the air.
Past me.
Straight toward Urusphier.
It leapt.
Why? To kill the Challenger? Because the current me had not yet become the Adversary? I didn’t know. Lilith must have interfered again.
“Ah, shit…”
I ground my teeth with a sharp crack and sprinted toward Urusphier.
Yuria was in danger.
This time—I would save her no matter what.