Tyrant Subjugation Battle (2)
Whoosh—the flames roaring from Charlotte’s body melted the ice-forged forms of the magic beasts.
Yet their movements never ceased.
The snow falling from the sky regenerated their bodies as fast as they burned.
“What a pain!”
Only after her flame-wreathed blade carved out each beast’s core did they finally stop moving.
“Hah…”
The avalanche had split apart; its scattered remnants turned to snow and drifted down over Urusphier.
The moment those flakes touched the ground, they twisted into magic beasts and lunged at the people.
Thanks to the swift response of the group led by Revize, there were serious injuries—but no deaths.
The beasts themselves were not strong.
Just a little tenacious.
Ordinary adventurers and knights could handle them without much trouble.
Rubia’s party was no exception.
Crack—towering tree roots erupted and skewered dozens of cores in a single sweep.
Brilliant shafts of divine power shot forth like daggers, shattering the beasts’ cores to pieces.
Charlotte clicked her tongue at the sight and popped a mana herb into her mouth.
“So, Rubia. What’s this about Noah?”
Her voice was as casual as ever, yet her sword never stopped cutting down the beasts around them.
“…It looked like she could see.”
“Didn’t you say her sight never returned even after she took the Elixir before?”
“Yes…”
Rubia’s divine power flickered uneasily.
The beasts seized that instant and charged, only to be blown apart by Yuria’s roots.
“The Elixir I made… well, it can’t be worse than that one… not better, either, but…”
“But if Noah Unni can see now, isn’t that a good thing?”
Hepais, glued to Yuria’s arm, asked with a puzzled look.
“Yeah… that’s true. But… how do I put it… it felt like Noah, yet not Noah?”
“Sss… haah— What the hell does that even mean? Did she get smarter or something?”
Rubia chewed her lip for a moment, then nodded.
“…Yes.”
“What…?”
“Y-yes…?”
“Huh…? Noah Unni…?”
At Rubia’s answer, the entire party froze mid-motion.
“Hey, Yuria… didn’t you say taking an Elixir makes your intelligence drop or something?”
Yuria’s head slowly bobbed in agreement.
“Then what… did it drop so far she went crazy?”
“She didn’t seem crazy… well… if I had to say, she carried the same kind of air as Lady Sirin…”
Countless magic beasts surged toward the motionless women.
They never reached them; Rubia’s divine power barred the way.
“An atmosphere like that little brat Sirin…? Then she’s just a kid. Same as always—”
A bolt of divine power cut Charlotte off, grazing past her nape and reducing a beast to scrap.
“Gah! You crazy bitch!”
“Noah is cute, but she’s not a brat. Anyway… I don’t mean that kind of atmosphere. You know the one. Like she knows something the rest of us don’t.”
Charlotte rubbed her nape, scowling, and clenched a fist.
“Ah, that ‘I really wanna smack you’ vibe… But Noah had that too? Maybe you just saw it wrong in all the chaos.”
Rubia shook her head firmly.
“No. I’m certain. There’s no way my eyes could be wrong when I’m looking at the person I love.”
Rubia had stored every one of Noah’s habits in her gaze.
The way her head would tilt when her thoughts wandered mid-conversation.
How the corners of her mouth dipped when she lied.
The three deep sighs she always let out before sleep.
The way she licked her lips twice while staring at jelly.
How she would fidget and hold Rubia’s hand on the days she wanted to bathe together.
The three steady breaths she took every time she gripped her greatsword.
The exact shape of her fingers around the hilt.
And when she called Rubia’s name—how her head tipped just a little, her breath grew shallow, the corners of her mouth curved softly upward, and her voice dropped a half-tone…
All the little things no one else would ever notice, the ones only Rubia knew, she had carefully kept.
But the Noah from earlier…
Had been just a little—no, quite a lot—different.
“W-well… that’s impressive…”
Charlotte’s dazed voice reached her, and only then did Rubia realize what she had just said. She hurriedly looked around.
Hepais was covering her mouth, face bright red.
Yuria had turned her gaze entirely away and was stabbing the poor tree roots with extra force—thunk, thunk.
“Ahem… hem… hrm! A-anyway. She was a little different. And the one who cut the avalanche was definitely Noah. I felt the mana that had been inside her body pour out.”
“That bastard Noah does so many insane things I can almost believe it… but that… yeah. Now I get when people say ‘I saw it with my own eyes and still can’t believe it.’”
“I watched Noah-nim cut down all of Kalt’s shadows, but this time… even I find it hard to believe.”
“I… didn’t see it…”
Everyone except Hepais shivered as they recalled the avalanche that had been about to swallow Urusphier.
Then they swallowed dryly at the memory of it being sliced apart.
“Anyway… once everything’s over, I need to talk with her. Earlier Noah also said to m—”
In that instant—
A terrible, rage-filled roar tore through the air.
The sound that seemed ready to rip the earth itself forced many people to their knees on the spot.
Just as when Carpeng had awakened, some collapsed foaming at the mouth.
Others trembled violently and clawed at their own ears.
“Hey, just now…”
Charlotte’s gaze snapped toward the source of the roar.
The summit of Karahan.
Nothing was visible to the naked eye.
A distance that could only be seen by filling one’s eyes with mana.
There, a white colossus was rising to its feet.
The magic circles floating in the sky shattered one after another.
An ominous aura made Rubia’s divine power seethe.
Yuria’s beasts tucked their tails in terror; her plants drooped lifelessly.
Charlotte’s flames faltered the same way.
Every soul in Urusphier turned to stare at the peak of Karahan.
A white speck that could barely be seen.
A blizzard that erased even an inch ahead.
An avalanche that had nearly swallowed the city.
A roar that seemed to pour fear straight into the soul.
And that pure white color.
“Ty… rant…?”
Charlotte’s voice sent a massive ripple through the suddenly silent Urusphier.
Soft whimpers swelled into screams that tore toward the sky.
Terrified adventurers flung their weapons aside and fled.
Other adventurers scooped those weapons up for themselves.
Knights tore off their armor and crawled away on all fours.
Knights who shoved away helping hands and ran.
Magic beasts trampling the panicked crowds.
People who stubbornly kept killing those beasts.
With nothing but the name Tyrant, filthy chaos descended upon Urusphier.
A few still stood firm and did what needed doing—but they were the minority.
Most simply rode the wave of panic and thrashed about.
Revize’s bellows rang out here and there, only to be swallowed almost at once.
All the while, the thing presumed to be the Tyrant continued to grow larger.
And it was coming this way.
“Lady Yuria. Charlotte. First… first Hepais should… no. She might actually be safer with us.”
Rubia’s mind was a whirlwind.
The Tyrant was approaching from the very direction Noah had gone; she could not calm herself.
But they could not simply stand still.
She realized that clearing this situation as quickly as possible and heading there was the best way to help Noah—and she began to move.
The others, who had been staring blankly around them, seemed to reach the same conclusion and scrambled into action.
The princess’s voice rode her blazing flames and spread across Urusphier.
Pollen that soothed the mind and roots that slaughtered beasts erupted skyward.
Dazzling divine power burst forth and wrapped the wounded.
Even so, Rubia could not tear her eyes from the direction the Tyrant was coming.
Luci, who had died fighting Carpeng, rose in her mind.
Heinzel with both arms severed.
Noah fighting on with desperate resolve.
All of it flooded back until she thought she might go mad.
The wounds from the battle with Kalt had not even fully healed yet.
She might look fine on the outside, but aftereffects could remain.
Mental scars could have formed.
This was the Tyrant that a Master and a sixteen-member subjugation force had only managed to seal.
Even if only a single seal had broken, it was a natural disaster.
No matter how high humans soared or how far they ran, their essence remained human.
And humans cannot stop a natural disaster.
Even if Noah had defeated Carpeng.
Even if she had defeated a Master called a man-made calamity.
The Tyrant was a magic beast of an entirely different order.
Faster.
They had to settle this situation even a moment sooner and go help Noah.
They might not be of any help.
They might only become a burden.
Then she would simply use this sturdy body as a shield.
It was easier on her heart for her to hurt than for Noah to hurt.
Yes. If she happened to pass out for nearly a month this time, Noah might finally understand how she felt.
But… Noah could not purify her body with divine power the way Rubia could.
She could not brew nutrient tonics like Yuria.
And unlike Charlotte she didn’t have mon—ah, wait, she actually had plenty of money.
Anyway, she probably would not be able to keep Rubia’s unconscious body clean.
A long coma was out of the question.
Pretending to collapse for half a day and receiving nursing care would be better.
Not that it would happen.
But if Noah did something wicked to her while she slept, Rubia was more than willing to look the other way.
In fact, that might even be preferable.
“Heheh…”
Having finished her thoughts, Rubia released the greater part of the divine power inside her body all at once.
KWAHHHH—! The divine power that shot into the sky formed another sun.
That sun burst in midair and became rain.
Divine power began to pour across the whole of Urusphier, healing people while mercilessly slaughtering the magic beasts.
Charlotte’s jaw dropped at the sight.
“What the fuck… they say you become like the one you love… the two of you are putting on a goddamn circus act…”
Rubia offered Charlotte a faint smile and started walking.
Every fantasy she had just spun would only come true after they defeated the Tyrant.
But even if they could not win, the resolve to keep Noah alive no matter what lightened her steps.
Yet Rubia’s iron will…
Shattered into pieces the moment she arrived where Noah was.