Black Badger

Ami was sitting beside her assistant gunner, who had just managed to fall asleep.

She herself had been wondering whether she should go to sleep too. If the battle really began at dawn, it would be best to rest properly until then.

Apparently HQ was still struggling to persuade the Central authorities.

To make matters worse, the new Supreme Commander was refusing even to authorize the connection of the portals. The last news they had heard was that Yehyeon was moving unofficially so that, if necessary, support could be dispatched without reporting to ◈ Nоvеlіgһт ◈ (Continue reading) the Supreme Commander. If Ska personally made a move, it could leave a stain on his record and cause problems later, so Yehyeon was taking the lead instead.

Of all times to end up dealing with a superior like that.

Her mood had soured, but Ami focused on what she could do for now.

Which meant she was trying to sleep without letting useless thoughts get to her.

She had just come out into the train carriage with a blanket tucked under her arm and was making a spot to lie down next to Jack Black.

When—

Orange eyes opened.

Ami jerked backward in surprise.

“Jesus!”

Badgers nearby whipped their heads around.

Jack Black abruptly sat upright, looking toward the Core device. Ami’s eyes widened.

“What? What?!”

“Something’s strange.”

The summoner muttered.

He stared frantically past the Core and spoke.

“The monsters...”

“The Creatures are moving?”

Richard Green, who had been speaking with Yun, asked.

The man was already in a state of readiness, prepared to enter battle at any moment.

“The ones they’re controlling?”

“That’s not it.”

Kairos replied carefully.

Normally the red-haired man showed flawless courtesy, but now he didn’t even glance at Richard Green as he approached.

“The monsters they’ve enslaved aren’t moving. But the smaller monsters around the area are restless.”

The star driver, whose origins had naturally been revealed to be the same as Hildebert’s.

Bathed in sunset light, he had stood motionless as if listening for the faintest sound. Then he rose from his seat.

“They’re running from something.”

Yun and Richard Green did not hesitate.

They immediately issued orders to prepare for battle.

As Richard ran back toward the trench at the front, roaring commands, Jack Black spoke quietly enough that only the existing TF members nearby could hear.

“I’ve felt this a few times before.”

Small monsters instinctively sensed danger and fled.

“Kyle.”

No presence could be felt.

He must be erasing his sixth sense with magic. It had been like this for some time, and since masking one’s sixth sense with magic was a basic wartime technique, Kairos did not attempt to search for Kyle’s presence. But his own senses—sharper than anyone’s—caught the small monsters fleeing desperately from Kyle’s footsteps.

This had happened before.

Monsters running from Kyle as he headed for the battlefield.

“He’s approaching the device.”

“Not a mage?”

Sophia walked up to Jack and asked.

“Enemies always used magic circles to enter the Core before. Isn’t the device supposed to be untouchable?”

“The Core device has never directly blocked Kyle.”

When the First War ended, Kyle had fallen into a deep sleep.

And he had not awakened for fifty years. Ever since learning that, Jack Black had occasionally thought about the man who had slept through that long stretch of time.

A black-haired Swordmaster who had not awakened for half a century.

By the end he had been treated less like a living man and more like a symbol. When seeing him again, how sharply must the surviving kin who chose a different path have honed the blade of their vengeance?

Especially since Kyle himself resonated with that vengeance once he awakened.

And his strength ensured that their thirst for revenge would never collapse into something as hollow as wishful thinking.

The Empire’s sharpest claw.

The Core device had never endured a Swordmaster’s attack.

BOOOOM!

“Enemy attack!”

Richard shouted.

“Prepare for battle!”

“Hey! They said not today!”

Ro leaned forward from the front line and shouted.

“Didn’t they say after sunrise?!”

“They probably guessed we’d think that and caught us off guard!”

Ami shouted as she powered up her boots.

“HQ won’t be prepared at all!”

“Ah, we’re screwed, damn it! Do those bastards never sleep?!”

“But the Core device won’t collapse, will it?”

CRRRRAAACK!

The sound of the ground splitting beneath the device echoed.

Because it was late at night, the noise reverberated even louder.

“It’s coming from below!”

“Don’t fire yet!”

The ground split open, darkness spilling out.

“Hold! Hold!”

Until now, Center Core had never once been breached.

Creatures sometimes forced their way in through areas the Core failed to cover, and there had been occasions when the barrier collapsed due to human error damaging the Core—but never had it been broken by a direct enemy assault.

The citizens of Center Core trusted it absolutely.

The Black Badgers did as well.

So they had prepared for magic circles.

They expected that somewhere nearby a glowing sphere would bloom—just like when the enemy previously forced their way into HQ.

CRRRAAACK!

As if mocking that faith, the earth split apart like drought-cracked soil.

CRRRRAAACK!

BOOOOM!

A deafening explosion slammed into the device.

BANG! KRRRRAAAANG!

CLANG!

“Did it break?”

Aki muttered, staring at the device shrouded in smoke.

“That thing can break?”

“It’s moving.”

The device sparked violently, crackling with electricity, and Kairos declared in a low voice.

His orange gaze had already shifted toward the wounded ground.

The earth looked as though some gigantic lifeform had raked it with claws.

“The beginning is underground.”

“Prepare to fire!”

Richard roared.

“They’re digging up from below!”

KUUUUUNG!

It collapsed.

The ground and the device sank together.

White clouds of sand and dust rose into the sunset-stained wasteland. The Black Badgers stared in stunned silence as both the Core device and the ground crumbled into debris.

At the moment their unshakable faith shattered, the scene behind the drifting dust became clearer.

As if the resolution had suddenly sharpened, only the space where the Core device had stood became perfectly distinct.

A single man stood there.

Black hair fluttering.

Golden eyes gleaming sharply.

“Level 10!”

“Fire!”

“Creature wave incoming!”

Those in the trenches began pouring out firepower.

“Report to HQ immediately!”

“Hey!”

Ro shouted toward Ami, Jack Black, or perhaps someone else beside them.

“You said they weren’t nocturnal!”

“Looks like they’re trying to finish it before night fully falls!”

Ami shouted back just as a firework-like sound shot upward.

Fiuuuuu—

A streak of golden light rose into the sky.

BAAANG!

It exploded.

Like fireworks scattering in the air, the light burst apart and rained down over the Creatures flooding into Center Core.

“Valdez.”

Jack Black let out a dry laugh as he spoke the name.

“I see. Most monsters will now be able to move freely in the darkness.”

“They’ve got nocturnal eyes now!”

Ami shouted, relaying the information to Ro and the others.

“They solved another impossible problem with magic again!”

“Damn it! Why don’t we get magic too?!”

As Ro raged at the unfairness, Jack murmured while staring at the black-haired knight standing tall amid the chaos.

“He’s smiling.”

“Choi Ami.”

Yun turned toward his sister with a cold voice.

“You cannot defeat him. If things look bad, withdraw immediately.”

The space stained with darkness and crimson sunset was gradually swallowed by noise.

Through the collapsed breach, monsters poured out.

From underground onto the surface.

They burst forth behind the man holding the sword, and some flew over his head, covering the sky.

The sky and the earth began to fill with Creatures.

“You’re not answering.”

“OK.”

Ami grinned.

“Don’t worry, oppa.”

She shot upward into the sky.

Then she cut across the crimson heavens, heading toward the shattered Core device. There was no need to give orders to her assistant gunner. He was already moving.

The sky was packed with flying monsters, like a migrating flock of birds.

Ami flew even higher than them.

Just like when she had fought the Thunder Dragon, she soared upward and released her wires...

Just like when monsters chased them outside the Core and she bound them before detonating them.

CRUNCH!

BOOM!

Rain of blood and flesh fell.

Ami landed in the center of the crimson downpour.

THUD!

The ground trembled.

She slowly rose.

She stood on the stretch of ground between the Black Badger trenches and the collapsed Core device.

None of the enemies—other than Kyle—had shown themselves yet. Just like during the First War, they would push the frontline forward while hiding behind the Creatures.

Looking at the opponent standing in the middle of the swarm, Ami grinned.

Golden eyes flew toward her.

Man and woman facing each other amid the rushing Creatures.

“Entry forbidden from here on.”

Ami declared.

Kyle’s eyebrow lifted.

***

“Nabarate.”

Meierbold leaned his face down over the lying mage.

“Time to move.”

Nabarate frowned.

After rubbing her face several times, she let out a small groan.

Then she opened her eyes. As she pushed against the floor to sit up, the people beside her hurried forward to help.

The flame mage adjusted his floating position with a flicker of fire.

The blond mage with the faint smile watched Nabarate and smirked.

“The war has begun. The Knight Commander has already moved.”

“Then this is farewell.”

Nabarate replied in a hoarse voice.

She pressed both hands against her eyes for a moment, then looked around at the people gathered in the same space.

Those slowly rising and preparing to move.

“I should go see Cecil.”

“You could simply leave her.”

Meierbold snorted.

“Has your resolve still not changed? I can only call it pointless... or a mistaken judgment.”

“What else would I do at this point?”

The Archmage of Hands replied in a slow but sharp voice.

“I can’t go help with your work. Cecil twisted my mana lines when she went berserk. All the preparation I spent so long on might fall apart.”

“I never intended to ask for help. I merely question whether you truly must go see a mage who lies quietly in mana backlash.”

“Everyone’s carrying out their own revenge, aren’t they? Why shouldn’t I carry out mine?”

Meierbold had no answer to Nabarate’s question.

Unable to think of a suitable reply, he simply pitied the mage whose mana circuits had been destroyed by injury—condemning her to a life as miserable as someone whose sixth sense had been twisted beyond repair.

If he had been placed in the same situation, he probably would not have remained calm either.

When he quietly nodded, the hatred burning in Nabarate’s eyes finally faded.

She then looked at Meierbold with a similar emotion.

“Then I’m leaving.”

“Very well. I wish you success in your revenge.”

“Taking everyone with you?”

Nabarate asked, glancing at those lining up behind him.

“Anyone staying behind?”

“There are some. But fewer than thirty.”

“That’s very few.”

The Archmage of Hands turned her gaze back to Meierbold.

Blond hair always neatly braided.

Eyes no one had ever seen, supposedly burned away by fire.

The natural arrogance coiled around his entire body.

The mage gave her final farewell.

“Farewell.”

It was the highest honorific used in the Empire.

“Ancient mage born from flame.”

Instead of replying, Meierbold only smiled crookedly.

The mages who had already finished preparing stepped behind him and bowed to Nabarate.

After acknowledging their greetings with a nod, Nabarate unfolded a teleportation circle beneath her feet.

Neither of them knew what ending awaited them.

But Nabarate had a sudden intuition that this would be her final meeting with Meierbold.

Well... it was about time.

Nabarate teleported away.

***

I was sitting with Ricardo and Jonathan.

Earlier, I had been beaten by Jason Trevain.

As soon as Yehyeon and Ska left with the Supreme Commander, Trevain grabbed me by the collar in the conference room and started hitting me. The ones who rescued me were Ricardo and Ju.

Thanks to them my face didn’t swell beyond recognition, but afterward Trevain continued hurling insults at me disguised as lectures.

It was evening by the time he finally left and Ju returned to say that he had calmed San down and sent him away.

The hour when sunset arrived.

The moment we received word that Ska and Yehyeon had failed to persuade the leadership and that the expected outbreak of war had been shifted to dawn...

I felt Kyle.

“Why?”

Ricardo turned to me as I suddenly jumped to my feet.

“Hilde?”

The presence appeared abruptly.

A powerful presence.

Familiar enough to bring tears to my eyes.

“Kyle has arrived.”

He was calling me.

Come quickly.

Let’s end this now.