By Zephyria The members, feeling extreme glare, squeezed their eyes shut and covered their faces with their forearms. Some instinctively covered their heads and crouched down flat.
Following that, a hot heat that seemed to burn the skin swept through once. Surprisingly, at that moment, neither the demon beasts’ roars nor the humans’ screams could be heard.
As an eerie silence descended, the entire vast fortress seemed as if time had stopped. Among them, Leonardo alone had his eyes open.
Despite the sensation of his pupils burning hotly, he had never taken his eyes off the sky. He simply captured the scene of the tip of the jet of water piercing through the Sealing Magic Circle with his own eyes, with a dazed expression.
A few seconds later, the image could no longer be formed on his retina, and his vision was momentarily filled with white. Then, this time, a noisy tinnitus began to sharply scratch his ears. After the constant noise ringing in his head gradually subsided, a sharp destructive sound that seemed to tear his eardrums instantly enveloped his consciousness.
Kkiiiiiik―
Pajijijijik―
As the jet of water passed through the center of the large Magic Circle, fierce sparks flew throughout the Magic Circle. Flashing slashes emerged from the cracks that had split like shattered glass and spread in all directions.
That threatening energy poured down overhead like lightning along with a bursting sound, but an even bigger problem immediately loomed before his eyes. The two powerfully fused magics were going beyond the Sealing Magic Circle and extending to the ceiling of the fortress.
Hugo, who had suddenly opened his eyes at the piercing sound, felt a chill run down his spine as he faced that surreal sight. He immediately deployed a super-large Aura and sent it upward, shouting loudly so that all the members could hear.
“―――!”
However, the jet of water, more than the urgency contained within it, was incomparably faster. The tremendous shockwave that erupted at almost the same time instantly swallowed Hugo’s voice.
Kwaaaang―!
Violent explosions spreading from above shook the entire fortress in an instant. A powerful wave that followed half a beat later slammed the floating ash and dust down to the bottom. The members confronting each other at the railings and in front of the cave were also pushed back by the gust, colliding violently with the walls.
As that tremendous pressure loomed before him, Hugo’s gaze and body instinctively turned to Leonardo. No sooner had the two tangled figures in the air moved to the edge than the glowing Magic Circle crackled precariously.
Kkiiiiiing―
An irritating noise, as if a signal flare of the apocalypse was about to be launched, heightened the tension. Enduring the sharp wind in that gap, the two instinctively sensed as they looked at the sacred object that seemed about to shatter at any moment.
That the last bastion of the Eldermilli Peninsula, which had endured a thousand years, had reached the end of its life at this very moment.
Kwaaaang―!
An intense light, enough to blow away the brightness, swallowed the field of vision once more. The storm and roar that came with a time difference shook the surroundings violently, making it impossible to come to one’s senses.
This explosion was on a different level from the previous one in terms of its power. The surrounding rock walls were all half-destroyed, and the Illaptors attached to the walls fell into the deep abyss with screams. The members who barely clung on grabbed each other’s sleeves and struggled to hold on, but they couldn’t even think of opening their eyes and steadying themselves in the midst of the fierce destruction.
In the midst of it, a large hand covered his head, half-obscuring Leonardo’s vision. He blankly stared at the light coming down from above through Hugo’s splayed fingers.
‘Sunlight?’
A thick ray of light that pierced through the falling rubble grazed his skin. It was not the artificial light emitted by the Magic Circle, but rather something that leaked out from the cracks in the collapsing ceiling.
Sunlight, which he hadn’t seen for a long time, brightly colored the inside of the fortress. Fragments of the shattered Magic Circle scattered everywhere the light penetrated, adorning the sky in a bizarre and beautiful way, like slowly falling sharp snowflakes.
Beyond that, the core, which had been close to the wall, suddenly raised its head and roared fiercely. As the sharp Ultrasound caused a heavy vibration, the scattering light flickered like a mirage.
「Finally」
In that blurring vision, Leonardo discovered a pair of shackles bound to the monster’s hind legs. It was something he had never seen while confronting it until now. The taut golden chains connected to both sides stretched endlessly into the darkness below.
「Finally」
The grotesque restraints, shimmering in gold, had a cracked surface that was sickeningly clear. Before long, the shackles, distorted by the monster’s howl, scattered and disappeared into the air like a dream.
‘That is….’
At that moment, Leonardo’s pupils contracted as he suddenly recalled the shackles he had seen on the statue’s ankles a few days ago. Along with it, the situation at the time and the questions that had accumulated over the past few days quickly flashed through his mind one by one.
From the time he launched an attack on the ruins to save Kenneth until he entered this place, the demon beasts had been strangely absent. Thanks to this, it was easy to enter the interior of Block 118, but in the process, a wind presumed to be the core’s Ultrasound was constantly present.
Despite the commotion caused by Dermokas running wild, the demon beasts outside were suspiciously inactive. Then, the sudden cry of the Illaptor led them here as if trying to lure them, and as soon as they set foot in the strange space, the auditory hallucination stopped and the radio signal was regained.
「Finally」
Alex Siles said that the demon beasts’ act of attacking humans was ‘the Queen’s will.’
However, if one were to think differently, the incomprehensible behavior of those monsters in recent days could also be ‘the Queen’s will.’
In other words, at least since the Queen became free to move after a part of the ruins was half-destroyed four days ago, she may have been controlling the demon beasts with Ultrasound, waiting for the right moment.
「Finally」
「Finally」
「Finally」
「Finally」
「Finally」
「Finally」
「Finally」
The streamlined head was facing only upwards, so it was impossible to see from below where the core’s eyeballs were reaching.
But now, the monster’s forepaws, reaching out as if there was nothing to hold back, and the monster’s voice, as if it had been longing for this moment, were directed towards only one place, so Leonardo’s doubts gradually solidified into conviction.
The fiendish claws crawled up to the ceiling, frantically rummaging through the gaps in the collapsing rock. Flesh, regenerating at a rate that was on a different level from before, instantly restored the severed tail and torn eyeballs.
As the fortress, which had been held up by the power of the Magic Circle, collapsed, a crack large enough for the giant to squeeze through spread across the sky. The monster drew a thin arc with its red pupils, and with its claws gripping the rock, it forcefully pushed its head through the gap.
「Finally!」
The giant, who had been trapped in the darkness for a long time, was finally placed under the full sun, and the Queen twisted her muscles and roared fiercely at the world she faced again.
Watching all of that, Leonardo was finally able to be certain.
The monster had been waiting for this moment.
The moment when foolish humans would come of their own accord and release her from the final seal.
To break the last shackles that the Sun King had placed a thousand years ago,
And to be reborn and devour everything on this land on that day.
「It is resurrection.」