Chapter 406

I instinctively knew.
That the being I am seeing is Akasha.
His shadow stretched across the sandbar, his back to the setting sun.
“Whoa—whoa—whoa.”
I’m out of breath.
The sweat from your palms soaks into the hilt.
A sense of urgency like I’ve never experienced before weighed on my shoulders.
“Holy shit, what’s going on?
Not even Abel or the Bald King, who absorbed the Source, could do this.
Akasha stared in my direction, unmoving.
His face was covered by a mask, but I could feel that he was observing me.
Naturally, I scanned his appearance.
The first thing that caught my eye was the large height.
I’m pretty big myself, but that guy had half a head.
It’s not very wide, though, so it looks more like a tree standing there than a person.
“What did you put there?
Next up was the mask.
The mask, with its torn strips of fabric stuck to it, gave no hint of its original form.
Each one was the size of a palm, and each one had a different picture on it.
The lack of any harmony or regularity added to the bizarreness.
I got a chill down my spine thinking, “Where have I seen that before?
I recognized some of the pictures.
What caught my eye was the picture in the center of the face.
A crest with two circles of different colors stacked on top of each other, symbolizing the time between day and night.
The moment I realized what that meant, the hairs on my body stood on end.
“Lorhon’s…!”
I’ve seen this once before.
That was unmistakably the crest of the Twilight Tower.
Owned by Lorhon the Archmage.
But it wasn’t just the picture that gave me goosebumps.
The material of the cloth with the coat of arms matched the archmage’s robes worn by Lorhon.
This meant that it was actually ripped from Lorhon’s clothes.
“And the rest, by the way.
Twilight Tower wasn’t the only one.
Each of the pictures on the cloth was a symbol of a prestigious organization.
I also found the Dawn and Full Moon towers and the Imperial Knights’ crest.
My clenched fists tightened.
“Did you kill …… and take it?”
Akasha didn’t answer.
He remained silent, facing me.
The sinking sun was scattering scarlet testaments.
Suddenly, the pungent scent of blood stung my nose.
“Letancier.”
He glanced toward the source of the smell and saw Letancier’s legs.
It was as if they were both lying down, asking for a break.
A gurgling fountain of blood told me this wasn’t a dream.
She was a woman who deserved to die, but not this.
I went through all that trouble, and now it’s too sudden, dammit.
“Move.
I had to come to my senses.
Bite the flesh on the inside of your mouth.
His body stiffened with the taste of blood.
He slowly moved his hand to the hilt of his sword.
“Huh, Mr. Ronan. You’ve been in a place like this?”
“What the…ugh, why is the door open…?”
A gravelly voice came from the back of the room.
I spun around in surprise.
Two drunken men were coming up the stairs, shoulder to shoulder.
“You guys.”
“Have you seen Mei Le Tanshi? He said he was coming for air, but where did he go?”
“Come on in—Ew, Mr. Navarordze is looking for you, and he’s been running all over the place asking if I’ve seen my child—Ew! Ronan, were you a dragon too?!”
The men were begging Orsay to tell them a story.
Akasha, who had been frozen, suddenly moved.
The cloak flaps open to reveal a long arm.
His skinny arms were as black as his cloak.
An eerie sense of urgency flashed through my mind.
“Damn, dodge!”
“Crack!”
It was a flash.
I spun around and kicked the two drunks.
The men immediately lost their balance and fell down the stairs.
Kwazizik!
At the same time, the space they were in opened up and a pure white crack appeared.
“Heehee?!”
“What, what the fuck!”
The fallen men screamed.
If he had continued up the stairs, the crack would have split his body in two.
I couldn’t sit on my ass any longer.
Sword drawn, I turned to the men and called out.
“Go get Mr. Navarrozze, that’s more than anyone can handle!”
“Lo, Ronan?!”
“I’m fine, just shut up and run!”
“Ah, ah, okay, I get it, I’ll be right back!”
The men fled, never looking back.
We saved two dogs from dying, but that wasn’t a relief.
Akasha’s body was erupting with powerful magic.
Again, a sense of dread weighed on my shoulders.
The space around him was warping.
“You son of a bitch, who do you think you are, killing my flying squirrel!”
Still, I wasn’t about to back down.
I stomped the ground and leaped at him.
The blade stained red with black energy.
Akasha pointed her index finger at me, as if to say.
Kaaaaaah!
An intangible force shot toward me.
It was a mass of power, similar to the telekinetic torrents of Letancier, but of a much higher order.
“It’s magic.
The visuals were horrible, but they didn’t have to be intimidating.
For me, magic was like confetti that could change shape at will.
It was a moment of swinging a sword to cut through the mass.
Kagagak!
The heavy resistance pushed the blade away.
“What the—!”
I’d never seen anything like it.
My hands were cramped.
Mana, which should be soft like tofu, was hard enough to slice.
It wasn’t impossible to cut, but there was no point in defending against it if you couldn’t make a perfect cut.
A chunk of raw power slammed into me.
“Kaboom!”
The landscape is blurry.
His body flew as if someone was yanking him from behind.
Kaaaaaah!
My back felt like it was touching something, and there was a loud crack.
“What the fuck–what?”
For a moment, my vision went black and then it came back.
It was a shock that would have cracked my skull.
When my blurry vision returned to normal, I was already in a different place.
“—here.”
A limb was embedded deep in the rock.
Blood leaked from its gaping mouth.
As I looked around, I soon realized that this was a familiar place.
It’s a familiar view.
In the distance ahead, I could see the shoreline from which I had flown.
My body was embedded in the sidewalls of the Horn of Winter.
“Nimi, did you fly in from there?”
It was ridiculous.
If not, it was thousands of meters in one shot.
I narrowed my eyes and saw Akasha.
He was floating in the middle of the ocean, staring at the same place as Nana.
What is it?
Wasn’t I the objective?
The car pulled itself out of the rocks to catch its breath.
Kaaaaaah!!!
A volcanic eruption rumbled in the distance.
“Ugh—!”
I thought my eardrums were rupturing.
It was in the direction of Akasha.
I looked up and saw him with one arm outstretched.
Something was happening.
Huge cracks were opening up in the turbulent ground.
The sea was tossing and turning, sweeping over the land.
“What the–hhhhh!”
I don’t know what it was trying to do, but it didn’t feel right.
With a grunt, the stone wall that had imprisoned him crumbled.
It was a car I was about to bone.
Akasha, her arms still outstretched, clenched her fists.
Kwagwagwagwah-!!!
The crack-covered ground exploded in a flurry.
Something bigger than a glance could contain was pulled out of the ground.
“Shit.”
For a moment, my head went white.
Rising from the earth was the resistance’s headquarters.
Dirt and rocks stuck to the framing were cascading down.
The wires used for lighting and utilities were breaking and sparking.
“Gahhhhhh!”
“What, what!?”
Soon, a scream rang out from inside the headquarters.
The banquet was in full swing, and most of the resistance was trapped in there.
Orsay and Fantasia were not yet visible.
This was really not fun.
Sensing danger, his body swelled to the point of bursting.
It was the car I was about to leap out of after driving off a cliff.
A sky-shaking roar erupted from inside the headquarters.
[Kaaaaaaaah!!!]
“This is—!”
It was a familiar voice.
I turned my head in surprise.
Quack!
The outer walls of the slowly rising headquarters crumbled, revealing a giant woman.
Her crimson hair was burning like a scarlet flame.
[Who would dare to do this-!
“Navardoze!”
I exclaimed.
She was only partially transformed into a dragon.
It was the same one that flew underground with me in its arms, still in human form, only with horns and wings.
The horns that rose above its head glowed red.
[Aiya!
Navarordze looked over.
Her eyes widened as she looked at me.
[Oh, my God—are you okay?! Who did that—!】
“Fuck, get out of the way!”
[Be careful, that’s what–ahem!
Fortunately, she was quick to notice.
Navarrozze twisted his shoulder.
A white crack was drawn over where her breasts had once been.
【This is—!】
A moment too late, and I would have been immobilized and my heart would have been cut out.
Aakmun Navardozé’s gaze turned to Akasha.
[Yes, it’s you].
“——.”
Akasha didn’t answer.
Before I knew it, his stubby finger was pointing at Navarro.
Her wings exploded open.
[Do you realize what you’ve done!
The red wings were tens of meters long on one side alone.
His pupils were narrowed vertically in anger.
With a yell, she charged toward Akasha.
Akasha snapped her fingers in the air in silence.
Scoop!
Seven cracks drew around her as she flew.
It was a spatial magic that critically wounded on contact.
[This is bullshit…!
But for Navarordze, none of them fit.
His flying skills were far superior to Orsay’s.
The distance between them was rapidly closing.
Akasha extended her index finger, followed by her middle finger.
Kaaaaaaaah!
Above Navarordze’s head, as he flew through the rift, a mass of power rained down.
“Sister!!”
It was the same attack that blew me away.
It was even bigger.
But Navarordze didn’t slow down.
Her flying form vanished in an instant.
“——!”
Akasha flinched.
It was the first panicked look I’d seen since he appeared.
I had a car that was bouncing around.
Boom!
Flames rose above Akasha’s head.
I looked away and sucked in a breath.
The vanished Navarrozze was plummeting through the red salt.
[How dare you touch my child and think you’ll get away with it!
His long outstretched legs were engulfed in flames.
Akasha’s reaction was a little slower than mine.
By the time I looked up, it was too late.
He spun around, accelerated, and Navarrozzo slammed his heel into his face.
Kaaaaaah!
Akasha was thrown into the sea, a spray of water blotting out the sky.