Chapter 138 - Rikrakhamur (1)

Like Alon, Kyriana expected it to take three days to reach their destination. In the game, the journey had taken only two. Traveling with a larger expedition was bound to take longer.

Still, something about the travel time puzzled Alon: the actual distance. Whether he looked at the map in Psychedelia or the one Kyriana had spread out, the swamp was not very far away. It was a short enough distance to cover in roughly a day if they kept moving diligently.

He could not understand why such a short journey would take two or three days. But a little over a day into the expedition...

'What the fuck—'

Alon realized just how wrong he had been.

Inwardly aghast, he looked down. A vast canyon stretched below him. And that was not all. Beyond it lay rocky mountains, with what appeared to be another canyon on the far side. The canyon at the edge of his vision even split into dozens of routes.

'So it was the rough terrain.'

The sight made him dizzy for a moment. Three days suddenly seemed such a tight schedule that he wondered whether Kyriana was being cruel to the expedition.

As he descended into the canyon with those thoughts in mind, Basiliora's voice abruptly reached him.

["This canyon was created artificially."]

"... What?"

["Exactly what I said. This canyon did not form naturally."]

Alon had summoned Basiliora for Blackie, who had begun looking bored in his coat's breast pocket since yesterday. For the first time since being subdued, the little snake surveyed his surroundings with a rare, serious expression.

["Yes, it seems certain."]

"What makes you think that?"

["Look. Isn't the canyon itself split into an oval shape?"]

"Hmm."

Alon studied the canyon. He simply had not noticed it before, but as Basiliora said, it was split into an oval shape.

["Ordinary canyons do not split like this."]

"... Is that all you're basing your claim on?"

["No. I can sense lingering traces here."]

"Traces?"

["Yes. They are exceedingly old, but they are certainly still present. Two traces are mingled together, so I believe this was created by a battle."]

"... I can't imagine that."

His head tilted of its own accord. The canyon was far too immense and majestic to think of it as the aftermath of a battle.

Some time after he resumed walking, still harboring a strange doubt, Alon crossed the vast canyon and reached a smaller one, where the paths twisted and branched irregularly.

"There are several paths."

"In this case, the left-hand path looks best."

"Does it?"

"Yes, let's take that one. Unlike the others, it's wide enough. I think it'll be better even if it takes a little longer."

"That's true... Everyone, take the leftmost path!"

As he watched Yutia and Kyriana discuss which route to take, Alon suddenly recalled Basiliora's earlier remarks.

"Basiliora."

["What is it?"]

"Was this canyon created by a battle too?"

["Hmm... Well... Yes, it was."]

"...? Either it was or it wasn't, isn't that right?"

["Yes, that is true, but—"]

Perched on Alon's shoulder, Basiliora was gazing at the canyon with an oddly subdued air, quite unlike his usual confidence.

No, to be precise...

'... Is he looking at Yutia?'

He seemed to be watching Yutia, who was talking to Kyriana some distance away.

'I'm not sure exactly why he's so wary of her.'

But Alon had a rough idea of what had started it. Something had happened just yesterday.

Yesterday evening, Alon had summoned Basiliora as a playmate for Blackie, who was squeaking as though it had grown bored with watching the surroundings.

["It's stifling in there! Summon me more often! I can see outside, but I want to move around myself!"]

The moment he emerged, Basiliora had thrown a fucking fit, raging at Alon.

["Oh my, what a cute snake."]

["I am Basiliora, a great god!"]

["May I hold the snake for a moment?"]

["I am not a cute snake, humaaaaaan!"]

["If you'll permit it, I'd like to keep him with me for a little while."]

With divine power wrapped around her hands, Yutia had carried him off somewhere, spiritual form and all. When the little snake returned a short while later...

["..."]

He had begun watching Yutia warily.

Curious about what Yutia had said, Alon asked him again and again, but Basiliora refused to answer. Even when he asked Yutia herself, all she said was:

["Pardon? We just had some fun, Teacher."]

That only puzzled him more. With Basiliora returning in such a state, the claim that they had merely played together did not add up.

His recollection was brief, however.

"Teacher, let's go."

Following Yutia's gentle smile, Alon resumed walking toward the canyon.

... Even afterward, Basiliora's eyes trembled anxiously whenever he looked at her.

Another two days passed.

"... Is this the place?"

"We've arrived."

The expedition reached the swamp where Rikrakhamur, the Forest Maw, dwelled.

Pushing through the forest, they soon encountered what looked like a small, barren hill in its midst—no, Rikrakhamur.

At the very center of the swamp lay a body so huge that even the water could not conceal it entirely. The soldiers turned pale, their morale seemingly crushed by that sight alone. The knights' expressions grew grave as well. Though they did not turn as ashen as the soldiers, the fear in their eyes was unmistakable.

It was only natural. Rikrakhamur, apparently asleep in the swamp, was far too enormous for mere humans to kill.

Even Kyriana spoke with doubt in her voice.

"I'd heard stories about it, so I knew, but... It's even bigger than I expected. Are you saying we can kill that?"

Yutia merely smiled. Alon, meanwhile, began explaining without hesitation.

"... I'll explain the plan now."

####

Late that night, beneath a blue moon, Kyriana quietly gazed up at it before turning and speaking.

"Begin."

"Yes, understood."

The knight who answered immediately nodded toward someone nearby. Recognizing the signal, another knight raised a flag imbued with mana so that it shone clearly even in the dark.

At that signal—

"Turn it!"

The soldiers began turning the enormous pulley.

CREAK—GRRRRK!

As dozens of soldiers moved in unison, the pulley slowly began to turn with a rusty groan. At the same time, reports came in from the knights.

"The northern pulley has begun turning."

"The eastern pulley has begun turning too!"

"The west and south have also raised their signals!"

Kyriana nodded, recalling Marquis Pallatio's earlier explanation.

["The allied army's task is simple."]

["There are four pulleys in this swamp, one in each cardinal direction. When I give the signal, you need only turn all four at once."]

["Once you turn them, monsters will swarm toward us. The allied army only needs to hold them off."]

It was an exceedingly simple, straightforward plan. Watching the soldiers strain to turn the pulley, Kyriana revisited a question that had lingered in the back of her mind.

'... How does Marquis Pallatio know there are pulleys here?'

As far as she knew, few people were aware of Rikrakhamur's existence. No one but the allied army was permitted beyond the border in the first place. Anyone outside its ranks would know of the creature only through information gleaned from ancient books.

Yet, curiously, Marquis Pallatio seemed intimately familiar not only with Rikrakhamur but with the swamp itself—as though he had been here before.

And so a peculiar question arose in Kyriana's mind.

'... What's going on?'

BOOM! RRRUMBLE!

The tremendous sound announcing that the pulley had completed its turn cut short her thoughts. She turned to look.

"The swamp water is draining!"

"... The water?"

It was true. With a tremendous rush, the swamp water was draining into an underground depth whose bottom was nowhere to be seen.

As Kyriana watched the water level begin dropping before she knew it, a knight muttered a curse.

"... Fuck—"

She looked ahead once more, and her expression involuntarily stiffened.

Rikrakhamur lay there, sleeping motionlessly just as it had when they first saw it that afternoon. Gasps of horror escaped unbidden as its body gradually emerged from the falling water.

"... That's a living creature?"

At the knight's low murmur, Kyriana fell silent too. She understood all too well.

'We can kill that?'

Doubts churned through her mind. It was so enormous that it resembled a vast fortress.

─────■■■

Now exposed above the shallower water, a single breath from it was enough to send the surrounding birds fleeing in a noisy flurry. Even Kyriana, who prided herself on having reached a superhuman level, had no choice but to humbly acknowledge the limits of humanity.

Filled with involuntary awe at its overwhelming size, she turned to Marquis Pallatio.

'...'

He was walking toward Rikrakhamur—a creature whose single tooth was as large as five humans put together.

At last, the marquis let out a sigh and looked ahead at Rikrakhamur, which had yet to wake.

■■■■■■■─────

The colossal body, which shook the ground with a single breath, exerted an absurd degree of pressure even on Alon. Even he had no spell capable of dealing meaningful damage to a monster this size. Nor could he instantly create a new spell with more firepower than his existing ones. He was not that much of a genius.

Yet the fact remained that he had to dispose of the abomination before him. There was only one thing he could do: apply his magic in a new way.

Unleashing the Bitter Cold stored in his nail guard, Alon rapidly recited his phrases. Slower than Duke Comalon, but unmistakably faster than he had been before.

"Ice-Crystal Painted Halberd."

The instant he uttered the final words, the spell that froze everything within its manifested space unfolded above Rikrakhamur's head.

CRRRACK!

To conserve mana, he had restricted both its space and its duration, deploying it for a mere two seconds. In that fleeting instant, an enormous crystal formed above the creature's head. It was certainly large enough to dispatch dozens of monsters in one blow, but too small to inflict a meaningful wound on Rikrakhamur's gigantic body.

However—

Multiple Manifestation.

Having already laid out a spiral mana structure, Alon's mana deployed Ice-Crystal Painted Halberd once more.

CRACK!

And on top of that, it deployed Ice-Crystal Painted Halberd again.

CRRRRACK!

What finally took shape was a crystal massive enough to damage Rikrakhamur's enormous body. After checking the floating crystal, Alon formed a hand seal and twisted its laws.

"Spiral."

As he recited the phrase, the law within it suffused the crystal. The ice's mana arrangement twisted into a spiral, shaping the sharpest of points and a base as broad as a floating castle.

With a sound like splintering wood, the spiral spike scattered its remnants in every direction, creating springtime snowflakes.

Only then—

────■?

As snowflakes showered its entire body, Rikrakhamur belatedly woke and opened both eyes.

"Rotation."

Unperturbed, Alon once more twisted the laws he was permitted to alter. At his phrase, the crystal began spinning clockwise. Falling toward the ground under the law of gravity, it combined with the preceding Spiral phrase to gain enough penetrating force to pierce the abomination's tough hide.

-■■■!!!!

With a thunderous crash, it pierced Rikrakhamur's body. At the same time, Alon recited his final phrase.

"Shatter."

It forcibly broke the violently rotating, linear mana arrangement.

And with that—

■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■-!!!!!!!

The crystal that had pierced Rikrakhamur's body burst like a bomb, scattering in all directions.

Beneath the blue moon, flowers of ice bloomed in full.