The Star Watcher, Part 2
The human who harbored the cosmos did not waver in the slightest, even under Zaraxia's kick.
He merely drifted back a short distance, as if floating through the void.
"How unfortunate. I truly believed we could have been excellent comrades."
He did not seem to blame her for her choice.
Yet, he did not say he would let Zaraxia go, either.
"Since you have already made your decision, I shall not waste my breath."
He pressed his hands together in prayer, then pressed his palms against the ground.
"However, I cannot simply let you leave. I must ask you all to fade away into starlight together, right here."
A polite voice.
Impolite words.
Rumble...
As if refusing to let them leave in one piece, the ground began to pulse, radiating outward from his palms.
"Roan," Zaraxia called out.
"Yeah, I know! You've done more than enough. We'll handle the fighting from here, so fall back."
With just that single word, Roan instantly grasped Zaraxia's intention.
He ushered her behind him and stepped to the very front.
"It is utterly meaningless."
Declaring formations to be pointless, the creature made a gesture.
Rumble... Crash...
A violent distortion followed, completely contradicting his slow, subtle hand movement.
"What in the—ugh!"
"Kuh... Lady Jane! Lord Belgard! We're being pulled forward—"
An interference in space itself, overturning front and back, shattering all balance.
Swept forward in an instant, Jane and Belgard found themselves face-to-face with the entity.
A starry sky where a head should be.
Within it, a certain shape began to manifest.
A colossal form that blanketed the nebula.
A beautiful, kaleidoscopic array of colors.
An appearance that no human tongue could ever dare to describe.
Beholding it directly, Jane's mouth slowly fell open.
"Ah... ah..."
Just as her pupils dilated and her mind was about to shatter—
Whoosh!
"Ugh!"
"Don't look at it. It's dangerous."
Roan, who had regained his footing, yanked the two of them back.
An intrusion of consciousness.
Countless stars within the cosmos stared down at Roan.
"How dare a mere human..."
The Watcher pulled down the remaining skin of his face.
The rift of the microcosm widened.
From within the gap, masses resembling stellar cores began to emerge.
Gurgle... Screeech...
Accompanied by a boiling, scraping sound.
"L-Lord Roan! Those are no ordinary masses!"
"An astute observation. For this is the grace of Lord Zhaolkthép."
A stellar core brushed past a tall blade of grass.
Crunch.
The sound of gnawing echoed in their ears, and the blade of grass instantly crumbled into dust.
It was an attack that was visibly lethal.
But it was far from enough to shake Roan's resolve.
"Charbun, I have a mission for you."
"...Y-Yes, sir."
Lacking real combat experience, Charbun slightly released the tension gripping his body, as if relieved to receive a direct order.
"I'll handle the front. Circle around to the back and pin him down."
"...P-Pardon?"
Though the instruction he received was rather vague.
Even so, he could not afford to miss an opportunity to prove his worth to his savior.
Charbun quickly nodded in agreement.
Having swiftly delivered his orders, Roan looked straight ahead.
He saw the stellar cores drifting leisurely toward him.
"Evading them is futile. They pursue the finest soul present."
The Watcher spoke with easy confidence, as if victory were already assured.
Just as he said, every single stellar core was homing in on Roan.
"Even better."
It was a continuous stream of favorable circumstances.
The fact that they had dragged him to an isolated spot, that they hadn't rung the bell tower, and that all attention was focused on him.
Grateful that everything was falling into place, Roan swung his shield.
CLANG!
As the stellar core was crushed by the force and vanished, the surface area of Roan's shield shrank.
"A futile struggle?"
"Not really."
"You deflected it but once, yet your shield is already halved. Well... watching your desperate struggles is a decent enough amusement. I shall observe."
The opponent's relaxed attitude.
It was actually perfect.
After all, complacency was the best emotion to exploit for creating an opening.
CLANG!
BOOM!
He deflected, and deflected again.
He parried until only the central gem of the shield remained, waited for it to regenerate, and then deflected once more.
The Watcher's initially mocking and relaxed composure began to slip, bit by bit.
"...A peculiar shield. But that changes nothing."
Though his voice remained calm, a subtle crack had undoubtedly formed in his composure.
And for good reason.
Roan was not only deflecting the stellar cores aimed at himself, but also those targeting the two behind him who were gathering mana and holy power.
An absolute wall.
One that even he, who had been chosen and granted power, could not breach—
"No, this cannot be. For me, an Apostle of Lord Zhaolkthép, to be pushed back by a mere human... This is unacceptable."
The Watcher attempted to tear the skin of his face down even further.
"It is because I remained stationary. Relying solely on the stellar tumors was a mistake. He bestowed this power upon me, so my failure to act personally was the true error."
Muttering self-reproach over and over, he clenched his fists.
But of course, the party had no intention of standing idly by.
"Charbun!"
"Y-Yes! I am ready, sir!!"
At Roan's shout, Charbun, who had circled far behind, grabbed the Watcher's arms in a vice grip.
Even with the power of an Outer God, the Watcher's fundamental physical strength remained unchanged.
Rendered completely immobile, the Watcher began to struggle violently, emitting a low, vibrating hum.
"You filthy mortal...! I am not a being you dare to lay your hands upon!!"
Wriggle, lash.
Two pairs of massive tentacles erupted from beneath the starry sky.
They began to relentlessly batter Charbun's body.
Sizzle...
A boiling sound.
As if coated in acid, Charbun's skin began to melt away.
"I-I am quite alright, sir!"
Charbun shouted first, preventing anyone from worrying.
Fresh flesh sprouted over the melted skin.
An instantaneous regeneration—both a curse and a blessing.
His grip on the Watcher's arms did not loosen in the slightest.
"W-What is this... Have you also been granted power by some entity...?"
Despite being battered by the tentacles, Charbun did not budge an inch.
In front of him stood an invincible wall that deflected every stellar core.
Behind him, a team whose coordination instantly restored any disrupted formation.
Realizing he was trapped in an inescapable vice, the Watcher despaired.
"Kuh... I have no choice. I did not wish to force you to gaze upon Him, but..."
He projected the starry sky directly toward Roan.
A sensation of being sucked in.
Roan's consciousness began to drift into the starry sky suspended above.
And there, he too perceived the unprecedented entity that Jane and Belgard had witnessed.
An existence that drove mortals mad at a single glance.
An entity that transcended human comprehension, threatening to distort the physical form of anyone who dared perceive it.
Zhaolkthép.
A being whose very name sowed chaos and confusion manifested before Roan.
―ᛋᚨᚱᚢᛞ ᛟᚹᛁᚾ.
Incomprehensible words.
Like a magical incantation, or perhaps a prophecy of doom, the voice pierced directly into Roan's mind.
Anyone without experience would have lost consciousness on the spot, drifting along the precipice of life and death.
However...
What is he even saying?
It had absolutely no effect on Roan!
Roan's mental fortitude, which always activated against those who sought to manipulate minds, held firm once again.
This time was no different.
After a brief, solitary audience, Roan returned to the real world.
"Alright! Let's wrap this up! Jane, Belgard, are you both ready?"
"More or less."
"I've... prepared the strongest spell I can muster."
Roan was completely unfazed, despite having just faced their master.
Even the two behind him reacted as if this were only natural.
Amidst them all, the Watcher was the sole soul left in utter bewilderment.
His jaw dropped as he raised his voice.
"...What... What kind of absurd nonsense is this...! Did you not gaze upon Him...?! How are you perfectly fine?! You should have been injected with the truth and become one of His servants, just like me!"
"Charbun! You should probably let go now! We're about to attack!"
"N-No! I am perfectly fine, sir! It is better to finish him off for good! Please, do not worry about me and proceed!"
"...Alright. If you say so. Jane, Belgard, if you please."
Regardless of the enemy's shock, the party simply went about their business.
Infuriated by their dismissive attitude, the Watcher struggled frantically, but it changed nothing.
It flew.
A stellar body enveloped in holy power.
Bristling with heat and blinding light, looking as though it would detonate at the slightest touch, it plunged into the Watcher's microcosm.
Becoming the greatest source of light within that space, Jane's magic brushed against the surface of the star—
Pop.
With a small popping sound, his entire world shattered.
"Ah... ah... Lord Zhaolkthép... You have not yet... arrived..."
Leaking light and heat.
The intense energy, powerful enough to scorch Charbun's holding body, slowly began to fade.
The Watcher's body, barely holding its shape, crumbled into dust, and the cosmic debris remaining in the air began to rain down onto the meadow.
Rustle...
The remnants crumbled like sand the moment they touched the ground.
And amidst the dust, only one thing remained.
It was a stellar remnant that had survived destruction by absorbing the shattered holy power.
"...This is..."
Roan picked it up.
He could feel the faint, lingering trace of the Outer God.
"Roan."
Now that the matter was settled, Zaraxia, who had been watching from afar, approached him.
"Sheesh... She really just stood there and watched. How cheeky..."
"Did we not have an agreement? At any rate, that thing you are holding... could you let me take a look at it?"
She was shamelessly demanding the loot only after the battle was over.
But Roan didn't mind.
In fact, he preferred her asking for materials like this.
After all, this was exactly why he had recruited her.
"Sure! Take a look, and let me know if you can use it."
Even if the materials were top-tier, the final product would be mediocre if the craftsman was incompetent.
In that sense, Zaraxia's greed for materials was a highly desirable trait.
As a cool breeze swept across the meadow, Zaraxia began to examine the trophy.
Pitter... patter...
"Ugh, it's raining."
"The drops are quite heavy... It feels like a real storm is about to hit."
"It might have been dangerous if we had to fight through this—achoo! Ah... I-I am terribly sorry. My body becomes a bit vulnerable right after regeneration."
"Indeed. You worked the hardest today. Shall we head back for now? We need to report about the Outer God and the Watcher anyway."
As they wrapped things up and made their way back to the Holy State.
Even as the heavy raindrops soaked her, Zaraxia remained entirely focused on the remnant.
Looking at it, tapping it, checking its texture.
The moment they crossed the gates of the Holy State, completely drenched, Zaraxia spoke.
"I found it."
"...Found what?"
"I found a way to use it."
Saying so, Zaraxia turned back toward the outside.
Her eyes already shone with the intense focus of a master artisan.
It seemed as though she wouldn't listen to a word anyone said.
"I need about five days. I must begin working immediately, in a place where no one can disturb me."
Such inspiration had to be acted upon the moment it struck.
Leaving those words behind, Zaraxia looked at Roan.
"Hmm? What is it?"
"I am asking for your permission."
"...What are you talking about? Aren't you usually the type to just run off on your own?"
At Jane's remark, Zaraxia pondered for a moment before shaking her head.
"Watching you fight made me realize something. You are someone who possesses the qualities to lead. If I wish to gain even greater things, it only makes sense to listen to the captain, does it not?"
Zaraxia's words carried her resolve to swallow her pride and act as a true member of the expedition.
It was glaringly obvious how Roan would react to that.
Barely wiping away the tears that welled up in his eyes, Roan granted Zaraxia his permission.
A working period of five days.
It was the perfect amount of time to wrap up their remaining business in the Holy State.