REFDL 48

Huh?

I blinked.

One second passed.

Two seconds.

Three seconds.

I couldn’t remember what I’d been thinking just a moment ago. That meant only one thing.

I… I was dozing off while flying?!

Only a piece of non-recyclable trash would do something like that!

“……Is there a problem?!”

Nitan bellowed at the top of his lungs while riding his Pensilta. It was because the wind was too loud.

Perhaps because I’d grown larger, the Pensilta were reluctant to stay close to me, so to communicate, I had to shout myself hoarse.

[Ah, nothing…….]

After causing a ruckus in the imperial palace.

I expected Nitan to give me a scolding. Instead, he struggled to hide his beaming smile. And afterward, his attitude became even more polite.

I wasn’t the only one furious at the nobles’ behavior, who cared nothing about people dying in the North as long as they secured their own gains.

Especially when those ‘dying people’ were his own comrades.

Nitan’s friendly attitude made sense. But.

Couldn’t he just act normal? Why the sudden politeness?

Because of the sins I had committed, every time someone lowered their stance around me, I honestly felt uncomfortable.

[……Can we go faster than we are now?]

“……Yes!”

Nitan shouted like a newly conscripted recruit. His determination was palpable. The expressions of the other dragon knights made it clear that statement was a lie.

[Alright. I’m going first.]

“Wait…!”

I knew the direction. I’d memorized it before departure. As long as I didn’t lose sight of the ground markers along the way, I didn’t fear getting lost.

Besides.

The closer I got to the north.

I could feel it.

A massive, congealed mass of malice.

A colossal will reaching out in all directions, violently attempting to devour everything.

It felt like a swarm of pitch-black, repulsive insects gathered together, writhing.

It was strange.

The monsters near the Forest Village didn’t feel like this.

Not to mention the crow master, nor the wolf monster.

Even when we growled at each other, it felt uncomfortable because of their murderous intent.

This…

There was none of that unsettling feeling that blackens your very soul. The giraffe monster and giant I witnessed on the cliff were the same.

A queasy feeling in the pit of my stomach.

The disgust was stronger than the fear.

Then, suddenly, I realized.

[……!!]

This.

Isn’t this strangely similar to the aura Denos’ prince exuded?

The intensity was completely different, but it was unmistakable. Having a point of comparison made it even clearer.

I’ll have to mention it later when I have the chance.

Right. Later.

Whoosh!

I flapped my wings with all my might.

The North.

Endless coniferous forests and land covered in snow and ice began to unfold.

* * *

Kaelus was fighting desperately.

Grrrrr!

Garrrr!

Kwoaaah.

Waaaaaah-!

All kinds of deafening roars and howls filled the air.

The relentless, murderous growling, day and night, was psychologically gnawing away at the soldiers.

A fortress surrounded by monsters.

Comrades torn apart and devoured before their eyes.

Trampled.

Crushed.

Then things spilled out in the end. Their entrails. Things that should never have left their bodies.

“Captain! We must retreat!”

“The dragons are already at their limit!”

“We… can’t hold out any longer…! Aahh!”

“……”

Kaelus had done his utmost.

He had already failed to drive the monsters back.

From the very start, incomprehensibly powerful monsters had poured out like an explosion.

All northerners are familiar with monsters.

Having spent their entire lives in the North, they’d experienced more Monster Waves than anyone.

They fought, even the old and the women refusing to retreat.

But faced with numbers beyond imagination, human effort and will proved fragile and futile.

The defensive line was pushed back in real time.

It was literally a retreat where humans were physically pushed back by the sheer force of the monsters’ advance.

The lord of the northern fortress gritted his teeth and commanded the front lines, but soon acknowledged the gravity of the situation and ordered all troops to fall back. He herded the domain’s people and forces into the fortress, bolting the gates shut.

Kaelus’s senses heightened.

Acting on his own judgment, he selected the youngest among the dragon knights and dispatched him to the capital with an urgent message.

Immediately after.

A wave of monsters engulfed the area near the northern fortress. Kaelus commanded the other dragon knights, and they somehow broke through the sky swarming with harpies and bat monsters.

In the process, they suffered five casualties, and all five Pensilta were lost.

“……”

Kaelus gasped for breath. He looked up at the sky, blocked once more by the flapping of monsters’ wings.

Paaah!

Kyaaaah!!

Light erupted.

It was the signal that the prepared artifact had activated.

Soon, a dome of light, shaped like a hemisphere, covered Anax. The people felt relief, but Kaelus had no time to rest.

He led the dragon knights to purge the monsters that had fallen inside the dome. Most were harpies and giant bat monsters.

The monsters on the ground did not cross the castle walls.

The reason was unknown.

From then on, it was a battle between Anax’s desperate attempts to break through the forces and the monsters swirling around the fortress walls.

* * *

It had already been a fortnight since they were isolated.

The people inside the fortress were exhausted and looked haggard, but they were still alive.

It wasn’t because the fortress walls were twice as thick as ordinary walls, nor because the iron gates were sturdy, and… it certainly wasn’t because of the artifact the mages were maintaining by spitting blood.

It was the monsters’ mercy.

Though whether this could be called mercy was another matter.

“……”

They possessed the power to destroy the fortress instantly, yet they did not.

The protective barrier created by the artifact was similarly vulnerable. A few large monsters, prepared to die, could have shattered it with a single, determined charge.

But they did not do that either.

Monsters during the Monster Wave act like they’ve lost their minds. They become savage enough to charge without regard for their own lives.

But.

The creatures of this cycle.

Were different.

……It wasn’t an intention to mock or slowly torment them to death.

No, that intention was there, but it wasn’t the will of the monsters swarming around the castle walls.

The mage, Odan, thought.

‘…This is…’

The intention to mock and ravage belonged to a greater will.

He formed a circle with his index finger and thumb and held it to his eye. The tattoo on his knuckle writhed like a snake, moving to wrap itself around the circled fingers.

His enchanted eye transcended human limits.

Piercing through walls, passing through the sky.

It entered the depths of the Sea of Trees.

“……!!”

A bundle of nerves, formed from tough vines, writhed. Enveloped within the vines was a translucent, enormous, spherical fruit.

It was filled with a pale blue liquid. It glowed faintly, blinking softly.

It was the eye of something barely connected to the Sea of Trees.

Like a telescope, it had plucked out its own eye and raised it upward, a gaze stealing a peek at the world it craved.

The rolling eyeball spotted the mage.

……It chased after him.

“Damn it……!”

The terrified mage turned back the way he came.

His speed was near the speed of sound.

But the eyeball’s will was faster.

‘I’m caught…!’

The mage sensed the end and despaired.

At that moment, a third will surged up from below.

“…?!”

The will of the eye, presumed to belong to a demon, collided with the unknown will.

Crash!

The sound reached even Anax, where the mage’s main body was located. Soldiers on guard duty turned their heads in terror. Unable to see it, they feared it was the work of monsters.

‘They’re fighting?!’

But the mage couldn’t tear his gaze away from the sudden turn of events.

The new arrival wasn’t visible even to his ‘eye’. It was hazy, like cigarette smoke. He tried to see it more clearly but failed.

He was already at his limit.

The mage forcefully pulled his magic back. Blood dripped from his nose. He was overworked. It was a symptom he’d grown accustomed to since being dispatched to the northern fortress.

He wiped the blood with his robe sleeve.

The fabric felt stiff.

He’d already done this several times. 

The mage wiped again, this time lower. As he did, he thought about that pale, ghostly help.

‘They say the enemy of my enemy is my friend.’

But was it really alright to let something like that adapt to the Sea of Trees?

“…….”

The conclusion came quickly.

‘What does it matter if it’s not alright.’

They were all about to die.

This was already his third Monster Wave. Even without the Anax elders’ testimony, he was certain.

This time is different.

It would be unlike any previous Monster Wave.

‘Don’t tell me something like this will keep happening every 5 years from now on….’

“Mage!”

“The Lord and His Grace are looking for you!”

“……”