Chapter 25 - The Chase - 3

The upheaval began with a tremor that shook the earth.

BOOOOM.

It was a tremor best described as the entire world reverberating. Everyone in the forest who had been fighting until that moment stopped in their tracks.

Naturally. No one there was foolish enough to dismiss that tremor as merely the ground shaking.

Again.

BOOOOM.

Another tremor resounded.

The wind died.

The forest fell silent.

As his surroundings grew utterly still, with the tremors reverberating through that silence, Bera felt every sense in his body freeze.

An overwhelming pressure unlike anything he had felt in either of his lives. His senses froze as that unfathomable sensation began to swallow him whole.

BOOOOM.

This tremor was a little louder.

What followed seized the gaze of everyone in the forest, Bera included, and held it fixed.

RRRUMBLE.

Far away, at the end of Bera’s gaze...

'The mountain...'

Rose.

The great mountain range behind the forest where the battle had raged rose. Not figuratively—the mountain range itself was truly beginning to lift its body.

RRRUMBLE.

Tremors reverberated as the mountain range rose.

Its shape gradually began to resemble a human figure. It was taking the form of a giant so immense that one could rightly say it reached the sky.

When the giant stood fully upright, its bulk blocked the moonlight that had illuminated the ground.

With his vision darkened by the shadow covering everything, Bera stared at the giant, whose sheer size robbed him of all sense of distance.

His stunned mind barely managed to cling to a thread of thought and form a question.

What was that?

What was that giant?

What could he possibly call it?

As those dazed thoughts continued, Bera recalled a being that could explain what he was seeing.

... No, it had to be that being. Nothing else in this world could account for such an existence.

'Terdan...!'

Terdan, the Mountain-Pushing Giant.

One of the nine ancient species the gods had fashioned first after creating this land.

The giant that had not appeared for hundreds of years, and was now beginning to be dismissed as legend.

Only Terdan could explain that being.

Another question arose.

'Why...?'

Why was it here now? Why had it emerged from beneath that mountain range?

Turning those questions over, Bera retraced what had happened before the giant rose.

His gaze naturally turned to Renée.

She had fallen unconscious after pouring out divine energy as though wringing herself dry to manifest her powers.

'... Her divine powers.'

The Supreme God’s divine powers. This upheaval had begun when Renée started manifesting them.

The pieces fell into place in his mind. His thoughts swiftly gathered the fragments of what had happened and wove them into a single chain of cause and effect.

'The Supreme God’s divine powers weave fate.'

Powers at the very pinnacle of absurdity, capable of fixing a possibility as the future even if its probability approached zero. Powers that could make a mere beggar the emperor of the Empire.

'With those powers...'

It could be explained.

Once more, Bera looked toward the giant, Terdan, standing there blankly.

'The reason it hadn’t appeared for hundreds of years...'

Had it been asleep beneath that mountain range?

It was a sound conjecture. Who could have imagined that the mountain range itself had formed as soil accumulated over the place where Terdan lay?

Terdan must have awakened at this precise moment because the Supreme God’s divine powers had seized the near-zero possibility of “Terdan awakens” and fixed it as reality.

Having deduced that much, Bera flinched at the thought that followed and looked at Renée.

If she had manifested powers great enough to awaken something like that, her body could not have endured it.

With that thought, he placed his hand on her forehead. At that very moment—

[ROOOOAR!]

Terdan roared.

What followed was a bombardment that could only be called a calamity.

KRAAAASH!

* * *

Terdan bent down and scooped up the ground, drew its hand behind its body, then hurled the earth it held forward.

At a glance, the act might have seemed almost ridiculous.

Its consequences, however, were anything but.

KRA-KRA-KRA-BOOM!

The sound came from the chunks of earth Terdan had thrown crashing into the ground like a meteor shower.

Wyverns flying overhead burst apart. Followers of the night hiding in shadows burst apart. The entire forest was swept away.

Bera gasped at the sight, his eyes widening until they felt ready to tear. Then he clenched his teeth and sprang into motion.

This was no time to stand there in a daze.

“Norn! Run!”

“Yes!”

Holding Renée tightly against his chest, Bera dodged the flying chunks of earth and continued thinking.

This was the result of her divine powers.

That meant Terdan must be the key to buying him time to reach the border. Amid such chaos, the pursuers would be unable to follow them. They had to seize this chance and flee.

'I mustn’t fight.'

These were the first creatures the gods had fashioned, beings that had existed since creation.

Locrion, the first dragon, and Nertania, the Queen of the Black Season, were among them.

Living calamities capable of shaking the continent with a mere gesture.

That was what the ancient species were.

Bera banished every other thought and filled his mind with just one.

He had to protect Renée.

From the ancient species’ rampage, from the panic-stricken pursuers, from the very heart of this calamity.

He had to keep her safe and reach the Holy Empire.

He had to kick aside any shame that came from fleeing with an enemy before him.

Such shallow pride meant nothing to Bera now.

'I need to check the Saintess’s condition.'

He had to get out of here quickly and examine Renée. Using powers of this magnitude was certain to have repercussions.

Divine energy and divine powers did not come without a price.

They were all but a transaction, lending strength precisely equal to the price offered.

Renée had wrought such a miracle when she still did not know how to properly use divine energy, only how to release it. How could she possibly be unharmed?

Bera quickened his pace.

His growing urgency led him to manifest his powers without even realizing it.

“I proclaim.”

Ash-gray divine energy rose. Its range was a one-meter radius centered on Bera.

“From this moment forth, all acts of combat within Sanctuary are forbidden. Accordingly, those who obey this rule shall gain speed equal to their combat capabilities. Those who fail to obey it shall lose the ability to walk.”

A rule solely for escape. A rule devised with nothing in mind but bringing Renée to the Holy Empire as quickly as possible. Having declared it, Bera bit down on his lip and made Sanctuary binding.

“I enforce all these rules in Rushan’s name.”

Ash-gray divine energy swirled around Bera. Over it, the rules blazed gold.

Feeling his body grow lighter as the rules took effect, he drew another deep breath and ran on.

Behind him, a scene worthy of being called a calamity still followed.

[ROOOOAR!]

* * *

His breathing grew ragged.

Every muscle in his body screamed.

Bera had been running for hours—he no longer knew how many—without a moment’s rest, dodging the chunks of earth hurtling toward him.

KRA-KRA-KRA-BOOM!

Once more, an enormous boulder slammed into the ground behind Bera.

Feeling the shaking earth threaten to throw him off balance, he gritted his teeth and steadied himself.

His gaze turned to Terdan, slowly following far behind.

[ROOOOAR!]

The roar felt as though it would burst his eardrums. The giant’s body was so immense that merely roaring made everything around it shake.

'Persistent bastard...!'

Ignoring all the pursuers fleeing in every direction, Terdan was following Bera.

The reason was probably...

'The Saintess?'

It must be angry at the one who had awakened it.

GRIND.

The sound came from Bera clenching his teeth.

He drew another deep breath, gathered all the strength in his body into his legs, and kicked off the ground.

KRAAAASH!

The earthquake that made him want to curse still showed no sign of stopping.

* * *

At Elia’s border.

Bargo stood leaning on his staff, watching the giant approach from afar.

A massive body that seemed about to pierce the sky. Weight that shook the earth with every step. A roar that stung the eardrums.

It was Terdan, the Mountain-Pushing Giant.

Realizing this, Bargo’s face twisted into a deep frown, and he clicked his tongue.

“Bah. Tsk.”

What on earth had that boy been getting up to?

Bera’s face came to mind.

Judging by his strange behavior even before departing, and the request for reinforcements delivered recently, this probably had something to do with the Saintess.

Bargo placed a hand on his chin and stroked it again and again as he considered the matter.

“Hmm...”

How should he deal with this?

How could he send that thing back?

While he was pondering those questions—

“Your Holiness! They’re coming!”

His adjutant’s voice rang in his ears.

At the call, Bargo shifted his gaze from Terdan to the undergrowth far below it.

Emerging through the bushes were Bera, carrying a young girl, and Norn behind him, running and panting as though he might die at any moment.

They were approaching fast. Even as Bargo looked at Bera and clicked his tongue, the distance between them shrank.

Then Bera cleared the undergrowth entirely, leaped high over an obstacle, and landed on the ground with a thud.

Covered in wounds, Bera came to a stop. As he lifted his head, he spotted Bargo and looked startled.

“Your Holiness? How did you...?”

His words were thick with questions. Bargo cleared his throat and answered them.

“You made such a bloody fuss begging for help. Did you think I would just sit around? What the hell have you been doing to make such a damned mess?”

“... My apologies.”

“Always with those apologies...”

Bargo regarded Bera with a look of disdain as he spoke, then noticed Renée lying unconscious in his arms and went still.

She was a white girl—truly, an unblemished, pure white.

And more than that...

'... She’s young.'

Far too young a girl to wield the Supreme God’s divine powers and bring miracles to this land.

“Is she the Saintess?”

“... Yes.”

“Heh...”

Honestly, what could those gods have been thinking, placing something like that in the hands of such a young girl?

As Bargo considered this, the incessant trembling of the ground made him raise his head toward Terdan.

[ROOOOAR!]

The sight of it rampaging about and hurling chunks of earth was thoroughly irritating.

'Before I think about that...'

He would have to get rid of that distracting brute first.

“... Well, you’ve had a hard journey. Stand back for now.”

“Your Holiness?”

“Didn’t I tell you to stand back?”

Bargo strode forward.

Watching him toss aside the staff he had been holding and walk away, Bera’s face filled with bewilderment.

What was he thinking? Even fleeing at once might not be enough. Why was he approaching that giant?

While those thoughts filled Bera’s mind—

WHOOOOSH!

Divine energy erupted from Bargo’s body.

A chill ran through Bera.

His body reacted involuntarily to the unleashed energy. It was vivid red—blood-red was the only fitting description.

That divine energy pressed down upon the entire space around them.

Only then did Bera realize what Bargo intended to do.

He meant to fight.

Bargo was about to stand against that giant.

“Honestly, not a single one of you can do anything right.”

Bargo’s words were almost a mutter. Yet even his voice carried divine energy, imbued with an oppressive presence that bore down on the space around him.

“With every last one of you such a fool... I can forget about retirement.”

Bargo reached out. His hand extended into the blood-red divine energy and closed around it. The energy spread through the air was sucked into his grasp and took the shape of a mace.

The mace carried an unfathomably ominous presence that relentlessly provoked the instinct to survive.

Bargo gripped the mace in both hands. His muscles swelled. He planted his feet. Twisted his waist.

The resulting stance was unmistakable to anyone: he was ready to swing.

Another question rose in Bera’s mind.

'From this distance?'

What could he possibly do with that single blunt weapon?

As Bera stared blankly at him with that thought, Bargo released all the divine energy in his body and prepared his strike.

His target was Terdan, visible in the distance.

Distance did not matter.

All he needed was the desire to strike.

When he invoked his divine powers, Terdan’s karma appeared before his eyes.

The depth of the karma accumulated since creation was on a scale no human’s could possibly match.

A broad grin spread across Bargo’s lips.

“Good. Plenty of places to hit that fellow.”

As his words ended, he struck with a speed too fast for the eye to follow.

A single swing. A deafening roar, more like a ringing in the ears than a sound, reverberated through the air.

[-----]

As divine energy shot through space, everything between Bargo and Terdan vanished. The earth, the vegetation, the pursuers who had been fleeing, even the clouds that veiled the moon overhead.

Everything along its path began to be erased, as though it had never existed.

The unleashed divine energy reached Terdan. It collided with the giant’s body, sending it toppling backward.

Bera gasped, his eyes widening until they felt ready to tear.

'Fucking hell...!'

As Bera silently cursed at the sight unfolding before him, a belated explosion followed.

KRAAASH!