Chapter 151 - Assault (2)

It had happened without warning.

Alon could not make sense of the situation. His brow furrowed involuntarily as he watched Scorpirion break through the city wall and enter.

Its inky coloration was even darker than he remembered, but it was unmistakably Scorpirion—the abomination that possessed a remnant of Pride.

'Why is the abomination here?'

As far as Alon knew, Scorpirion should have been hibernating in its cave until the protagonist went to kill it. In other words, it should not have been roaming about like this.

While Alon struggled to understand what was happening, Seollang's voice sounded nearby.

"Big... Brother?"

He immediately turned toward her.

Seollang, who had been holding Blackie until moments ago, was staring at Scorpirion with trembling eyes, as though she could not believe what she saw.

Alon followed her gaze.

'Ah—'

Only then did he notice the wolfkin atop Scorpirion—a wolfkin with silver-gray hair.

The instant he became aware of him—

"!"

The man looked toward Alon, flashed a broad grin, and vanished, leaving black lightning in his wake.

"Acceleration."

Acting on pure instinct, Alon formed a seal and darted backward. He had not even had time to think.

That instinctive movement saved his life.

BOOOOM!

Black lightning struck the spot where Alon had stood, missing him by the narrowest of margins.

"Wow, you're quick. Honestly, I didn't think you'd react in time. What a shame."

The ground had been utterly shattered. Through the dust rising from it, the man emerged with a broad smile on his lips.

Faced with the man's easy composure, Alon's mind raced. Yet no matter how hard he tried, he could not recall the identity of the wolfkin before him.

No, it was not that he could not remember.

'... Is this another case like Duke Comalon?'

This man had never appeared in the original story.

As Alon realized that, his expression grew tense.

"... Who are you?"

Now entirely clear of the dust, the wolfkin slowly parted his lips.

"Me? Well, how should I introduce myself? As the big brother of the idiot standing behind you? Or should I say—an apostle who serves the great Pride?"

"... An apostle?"

Alon's thoughts tangled. He had heard only a few scraps of information, but those two words had already set him piecing together the situation.

But—

"Seolgak... Big Brother?"

At Seollang's second murmur, Alon could not help turning toward her. Having recognized the apostle's face, she was trembling faintly around the eyes.

Yet unlike Seollang, the man she had called Seolgak remained perfectly at ease.

"Yes, Seollang. It's your big brother."

"H-how?"

She asked as though she could not possibly believe this was happening, dazed, as if drifting through a dream.

Seolgak kept smiling, seemingly indifferent to her reaction.

"What do you want to know, little sister? Are you wondering why I'm alive? Unfortunately, this doesn't seem like the time for a pleasant reunion. I have work to do."

Instead, he looked toward Alon.

"!"

And appeared before him once more.

Without hesitation, Seolgak thrust his fist toward Alon's heart. He moved so quickly that even Alon could not react in time.

Yet the fist did not pierce his heart.

"... What are you doing, Big Brother?"

Seollang had intercepted Seolgak's fist.

"... Bingo."

Seolgak's smile deepened.

"... What are you doing?"

"What do you think? I'm doing what must be done."

"What must be done?"

As his sister repeated the words in bewilderment, Seolgak patted her head with his other hand.

"Yes. Something I absolutely must do, so that my little sister can be reborn as a 'great being.'"

Seollang's expression remained puzzled. Seolgak sighed regretfully.

"Honestly, you've always been such a handful. I made all the preparations before I left back then, yet here you are, still holding out without 'breaking.'"

"What on earth are you talking—"

Seollang's voice shook. Her eyes were full of confusion.

But whatever emotions Seollang showed, he paid them no heed.

"Well, don't bother trying to understand, little sister. From now on, I'll make you into a being worthy of what you're meant to be."

Seolgak grinned.

"!"

At that moment, Alon remembered his conversation with Rainicius, the Golden Dragon.

["Not at all. The apostles create the bodies they will possess in the first place."]

["... Apostles?"]

["Yes. They often mentally break those with exceptional talent, to make them as suitable as possible for their descent."]

It had been a brief conversation. Remembering it did not mean Alon could understand everything.

He still had no information about the apostle of Pride before him, nor about Seollang's past. All he knew was that her village had burned to the ground for some reason.

He had far too little information to establish how it all connected.

But there was one thing he could predict with certainty.

"Now, then—let's save the most precious thing for later. First, let's tidy up that patchwork my little sister worked so hard to stitch together."

It was what would happen next.

Then—

CRACKLE!

Black lightning flashed, and the guild building where the Golden Mane Tribe had gathered began exploding apart in an instant.

####

Meanwhile, chaos had erupted in Coloni's royal castle as well.

"What in the world is that—!"

Karsem's eyes went wide.

The enormous abomination had already crushed the city walls. Not content with tearing through the capital, it was now invading the inner keep.

Fear, terror, and helplessness seized his entire body. Even though he had studied magic for a little over half a year and reached the first tier, there was nothing he could do in a situation like this.

As Karsem watched the abomination grow ever larger in his field of vision, a knight finally shouted behind him.

"Your Highness! You must get to safety!"

He turned with a short groan.

He, too, wanted to stand against the abomination, but he already knew. Facing it now would only mean dying for nothing. Worse, such a senseless act would only get more of the knights who followed him killed.

Unlike before, Karsem now properly understood not only the power that came with being a prince, but also its responsibilities.

He turned, knowing he had to make a rational decision.

"For now, we must evacuate until the Baba Yagas arrive!"

He joined the knights, but at that moment—

"Ngh!"

A groan made him turn his gaze.

The sound had come from a young maid. She lay on the ground, close to tears, apparently having twisted her ankle.

The girl looked up helplessly and fearfully at Scorpirion, which had already entered the inner keep and reached the garden.

At the sight, Karsem's steps slowed.

Even then, he knew. His chances of saving the maid were vanishingly small, even if he went to her now. Only a fool would try to rescue her.

Despite knowing that, Karsem hesitated.

Of course he knew he was no hero—that he was a man without even the strength to become one.

Yet even knowing that, he could not stop replaying that scene in his mind: Marquis Pallatio and Seollang saving Philian from death without a moment's hesitation. The marquis saving the Merkillan domain without asking anything in return, as though his own safety did not matter.

What about him?

Why had he, once nothing more than a walking pig, worked so hard over the past half year?

Karsem had come this far because he wanted to become a man like him.

"Your Highness!"

"Keep running!"

As he shouted, Karsem pulled the wand from inside his clothes and summoned a gust of wind.

He cast the spell with remarkable skill for someone who had studied magic for less than half a year. In an instant, he grabbed the young maid.

"Hup!"

Then he rolled sideways with her.

BOOOOM!

Scorpirion's enormous pincer slammed down just as they moved out of the way.

HISSSSS!

Seeing the ground blacken and corrode the moment the pincer struck it, Karsem sprang up and ran desperately toward an ornamental well connected to the underground waterways.

'It won't be able to follow us into the underground waterways...!'

He chanted another spell, freezing the ground. A path of ice formed between him and the well in an instant.

He slid along it, evading another attack from the abomination, and tried to throw himself into the waterway.

"Ah."

Then despair crossed his face. The entrance to the well he had struggled so desperately to reach had collapsed in the earlier impact, blocking the way.

The abomination's shadow had fallen over his head.

Karsem saw it preparing to drive its pincer down at him again. Just as he gritted his teeth—

"You held out well."

"... Huh?"

Karsem saw a girl appear before him, a strange eye behind her back.

And dozens of golden pipes pushing back Scorpirion's pincer.

■■■■■■■■■■■■■■!!!!

Perhaps furious that things were not going its way, Scorpirion swung its pincers with a deafening roar. Under its merciless attacks, the summoned golden pipes began snapping one by one.

"Hmm. It's rather inconvenient for this to happen while Godfather is resting."

Rine remained composed.

... Had this happened a day earlier, she could not have stayed so calm. It was obvious that the abilities she had gained after fully awakening the Eye would not, on their own, be enough to stop Scorpirion.

There was only one reason Rine could remain calm today.

Yesterday, when Alon had left for the ruins, Rine had followed the first clue the Eye of the Stalker had given her immediately after awakening. She had found ruins hidden somewhere in this desert and uncovered a secret that did not exist even in her Library.

She had not learned much in those ruins. In fact, she had learned only two things: that the Eye of the Stalker was a 'key,' and a way to activate the Eye, albeit to a limited extent.

But even that little information was enough. Though she did not know how to use the Eye of the Stalker, she knew what she could summon through it.

And so, with an unhurried expression, she said,

"Well, I needed to test what I just learned anyway. This works out nicely."

Then she uttered a sentence.

"—Gather."

With that—

HUMMMM!

A halo formed in the enormous eye behind Rine. Countless golden pipes burst forth around it, beginning to form a shape.

First came the framework. More golden pipes twisted over it, encasing it, before still more tangled and intertwined above them, giving it shape.

What finally stood complete was an enormous gate that easily dwarfed the city walls.

Then—

RUMMMMMBLE!

"The Illanef Empire's magitech weapon. 'Pluto.'"

The circular gate opened with a roar that shook heaven and earth.

What emerged from within was something large enough to dwarf even Scorpirion—

"... A hand?"

A mechanical hand, so immense that even Karsem, who had been filled with despair, could only stare blankly up at it.

Made of countless parts and golden pipes, it looked as though it could grasp the sky in a single hand.

A hand vast enough to blot out the sun descended into the sky above the royal castle. Its mere existence felt alien to this world.

"Limited deployment."

Rine gave the command.

"Divine punishment."

The imposing hand of a god shot down toward the earth—to punish the abomination that should never have existed in this world.

BOOOOOOOM!