CH-118
—
He looked as though he were forcing himself forward, desperate to prove his loyalty.
Yet the scale of what he was doing was unimaginable.
*‘A Guardian Knight, Pamela… multiple Wyvern Knights and Golem Masters… dozens of colossal siege engines… and that’s only what I’ve seen.’*
A force capable of razing several cities without effort.
Enough to shatter even a major metropolis within days.
But the Empire hadn’t waged war on any outside power for a very long time.
If there was anything they’d acted on recently, it was—
*‘The Abyssal Labyrinth… and the Dersian family moving to subjugate the Four Calamities.’*
Hudson stroked his chin.
Through Player Talk, he constantly kept track of players’ movements.
Thanks to that, he had quickly learned that the Dersian family had attempted the Four Calamities subjugation—and failed.
*‘If it’s not civil war, then this must be preparation for the Four Calamities subjugation.’*
But suddenly Lord Darkan was attempting to subjugate the Four Calamities?
Were they planning to succeed where the Dersian family had failed?
Or was there another reason entirely?
And everything was moving far too quickly.
*‘Too quiet.’*
Unnaturally quiet.
Hudson rose from his seat.
At that moment—
“Now, since preparations are complete, you will come with us.”
…Lord Darkan.
He appeared together with Guardian Knight Pamela.
Hudson bit his lip as he spoke.
“Lord Darkan. We said we would stay here and wait for ‘him,’ did we not?”
“No matter how long you wait, he will not come here.”
“……Then?”
“If you follow us, you will meet him. Come. When you see the might of Darkan with your own eyes, I would be grateful if you relay it to ‘him’!”
When Hudson first met Lord Darkan, the man had seemed dignified.
But now his eyes were filled with madness.
Had the purification driven him insane?
“Where exactly are we going?”
“To hunt the Four Calamities, of course!”
“The Four Calamities? Why?”
“Were the Four Calamities not the ones who destroyed the Old Empire! Completing the Old Empire’s glory with our own hands—that is the grand duty befitting the citizens of a great Empire!”
Insanity.
*‘That isn’t mere madness.’*
He hadn’t gone mad suddenly.
He had gone mad out of fear.
He had witnessed the Reaper cult cut down countless nobles of the Empire without hesitation.
This was his frantic struggle to reaffirm his loyalty to the Empire.
*‘The Empire is using the Reaper cult’s terror to control its nobles.’*
Hudson swallowed hard.
Damn it.
He never imagined Darkan would go this far.
But he had no authority to refuse.
The man clearly intended to drag them along by force if needed.
…For now, they had no choice but to follow quietly.
*
*
Ziiiiing!
ZIIIIIIIING!
Through the warp gates, endless troops poured out.
All soldiers equipped in the Empire’s distinct military gear.
“W-Wyvern Knights!”
“Isn’t that a Golem Master?”
“The Empire is really planning to hunt a Calamity?”
The onlookers murmured.
This was the mercenary city of Cartel.
The last remaining of the five neutral cities.
But at its center, Gracia was staring at only one person.
“…The Pure-White Knight?”
That was unmistakably the Pure-White Knight, Serengeti.
Wilhelm’s closest aide. Yet she was said to have died at the end of the Grand Expedition.
*‘How is she alive?’*
Gracia couldn’t understand it.
There was no way she could be mistaken.
She was definitely the Pure-White Knight Serengeti.
Though lacking the skill one would expect of Wilhelm’s closest aide, she was one of the very few whom Wilhelm trusted absolutely—there was no way Gracia wouldn’t recognize her.
Wilhelm, after suffering betrayal after betrayal, had kept only those he could trust near him.
They were so few in number that the group had once been called the “Seven Knights of the Round Table.”
But all of them were said to have died during the Grand Expedition.
*‘So why is the Pure-White Knight with the Empire?’*
The strangest part was why Serengeti would be with the Empire at all.
It was a combination that should never exist.
Why?
And this overwhelming force…
It was far more serious than the Dersian family, who had brought a handful of transcendents.
This was an army gathered with the sole purpose of killing a Calamity.
“What—what the hell, why are they pushing us?”
“Those bastards, are they planning to use us as meat shields?”
“Isn’t fighting between humans forbidden in neutral cities?”
The Empire’s soldiers were shoving the neutral city’s troops and players toward the warp where the Calamity would appear.
As though intending to use them as a living barrier.
Human-on-human combat was banned in neutral cities.
All the cities had agreed to that.
Even the Empire had to abide by it.
But there was no rule saying you couldn’t push people.
“Gracia-nim, shouldn’t you say something?”
“Their intentions are too obvious.”
As the crowd protested around him, Gracia shook his head.
“Leave it. Continue as is.”
He would kill it before the Empire could.
He had prepared thoroughly for that purpose.
Why the Pure-White Knight was standing with the Empire remained a mystery.
*‘…The Calamity is my prey.’*
Crrrraack.
CRRAAAAAAACK.
Then, through the swelling red warp, a colossal foot emerged.
《The Calamity, Baal, is invading Cartel!》
《A Hidden Quest has been issued.》
《Prevent ‘Calamity Baal’ from becoming ‘One Who Is the Abyss Itself.’》
《Additional rewards will be granted based on contribution.》
*
*
–Whoa, insane. Nearly ten thousand gathered in Cartel
–And the Empire’s Darkan Territory is going all-in
–Wyvern Knights AND Golem Masters? Aren’t those both transcendent-tier?
–Just watching this is giving me goosebumps
–There’s no way we lose this
Player Talk blazed to life again.
The Empire, Darkan Territory—joining the battle!
The Empire as a whole was shrouded in secrecy, but Darkan was at least a household name.
One of the continent’s most renowned swordlineages.
Their knights were known to surpass all others on the continent.
–Guardian Knight Pamela? That guy killed an ‘Ancient Dragon’ solo
–What? Soloed an ancient dragon?
–Quit lying, that’d make him at least 3-star
–I saw it by chance once, it’s real
–Anyway, they’re way above the Dersian family
–Plus Gracia is here
–Even if he ran from the Abyss Labyrinth, he’s still leagues above other heroes
–Finally, I can sleep easy
–For a moment I really thought a Calamity would come to Earth
–At this point they could hunt a Demon King
–Well, back then the Empire wasn’t there
–Totally possible
–This is insane
Everyone relaxed.
With a force like this, losing would be strange.
No matter how strong the Calamity was, it was only one creature.
Hours passed.
Then a line of text appeared before every player’s eyes:
《Calamity Baal has conquered the neutral city of Cartel!》
《Cartel begins to sink into the Abyss.》
–……What;;; what the hell
–Is this even possible?
–All those troops got wiped out AGAIN?
–What about Gracia? And Pamela? He was supposed to be able to kill dragons??
–This is insane…
*
*
Every warp exploded.
And the city plunged into the Abyss.
“Hey. Snap out of it.”
SMAAACK!
Someone slapped him across the face with all their strength.
Gracia opened his eyes.
*‘…Beautiful.’*
Before him stood an angel.
A pure-white angel, Serengeti.
For the first time in his life, Gracia thought something was beautiful.
It was also the first time a woman had ever slapped him.
“Gracia. Are you planning to let the Abyss swallow you? You call yourself a hero—was this truly all you amounted to?”
“…Beautiful.”
“…?”
“With an angel like you around, I suppose heaven isn’t such a bad place.”
“You’ve committed too many sins. If you die, you’re going straight to hell. Stop spouting nonsense and get a grip.”
“Then why is there an angel in hell?”
“……!!!”
When Gracia reached out a hand, Hudson recoiled in horror.
His whole body broke out in goosebumps.
Clearly, sinking into the Abyss had snapped Gracia’s mind.
*‘This really might be hell.’*
Hudson looked around and swallowed.
“Die!”
“Die!”
“Kihihihihihi!”
Baal was focused solely on sinking the city into the Abyss.
And once Cartel had sunk, the maddened people began attacking each other.
Former comrades stabbed each other in the back; seemingly sane ones suddenly brandished their blades.
An infernal battlefield.
This must be a characteristic of the Abyss.
*‘The people who fought in the previous cities… they’re all down here too. And the Empire doesn’t care if we die.’*
Lord Darkan cared only about slaying Baal.
He had searched painstakingly for Gracia, who still looked functional—but he too seemed to have lost his sanity.
There was no help from outside.
No way out.
*‘That cocoon. That is Baal. He’s becoming the one who is the Abyss itself.’*
Hudson turned toward the center of the Abyss.
There lay a massive, pitch-black cocoon—absurdly enormous.
After conquering Cartel, Baal had sealed himself inside.
You might think destroying the cocoon would solve everything, but—
–SKYYAAAAAAH!
A creature with black wings—one reminiscent of a demon—shot toward him.
Those who died here, especially transcendents, all became demon-kind.
They charged in even stronger than in life, and almost no ordinary attack worked on them.
Even the mighty Wyvern Knight was barely able to handle a single demon.
*‘Goddamn it!’*
Hudson, far from a transcendent, had no chance.
If a demon came for him, he would die.
He cursed, but there was nothing he could do.
CRRRRRAACK!
Then it happened.
Before Hudson, the Abyss tore open—and someone appeared.
“Ah…!”
Hudson let out a shocked cry when he saw him.
At the same moment—
KWAJIK!
He swung the *Skullbreaker* and smashed the demon’s skull in one blow.
*
*
The Golden Mask gazed at the murals engraved deep within the hidden halls of the Imperial Palace.
Countless murals—each a fragment of the Empire’s long history.
Among them,
A grotesque depiction of the Four Calamities attacking the Old Empire.
*‘Calamity Baal.’*
One stood out in particular:
The one with the head of a goat, the torso of a beast, and wings—*Baal.*
And Baal was a monster with many epithets.
*The Foulest Existence.
The One Who Pulls All Things In.
The Beast That Drinks Blood,* and so on.
The reason he had more titles than any of the other Calamities—
Because Baal himself was a creature impossible to grasp.
He dealt in curses, life, and consciousness, and evolved without end.
“Do you know where the Calamities originated?”
“A-ah…”
When the Golden Mask asked, the maid beside him—wearing a rabbit mask—stiffened.
She was trying desperately not to reveal her fear, but she couldn’t fully hide it.
Eleven figures who ruled the Empire in place of the Emperor, who slumbered in deep sleep.
Among them, the one most feared was the man wearing the Golden Mask.
“M-my apologies.”
“It is natural not to know, so you need not apologize. The Calamities are pets created by ‘Ruin.’ And the Old Empire attempted to use such monsters as their weapons.”
“I… I was taught that the Calamities attacked the Old Empire.”
“That is half right and half wrong.”
What he spoke of now was a hidden, erased piece of history.
A tale so disgraceful they had wiped it away.
Four unimaginably powerful monsters.
The Old Empire believed they could control those four beasts.
“The four greatest houses of the Old Empire—each succeeded in suppressing and ruling one Calamity. And *that* was the decisive reason the Old Empire fell.”
“But… I was told they *succeeded* in controlling them…”
“You fear me, and yet you still cannot hold back your curiosity.”
“M-my apologies!”
The Golden Mask let out a faint chuckle.
“No. That is why I keep you with me. In any case, once they acquired weapons of such overwhelming power, greed took root. All four houses desired to become Emperor.”
“So internal conflict broke out.”
“Yes. A war using the Calamities. Perhaps that had been ‘Ruin’s’ plan from the beginning. Human greed knows no end.”
The Golden Mask clicked his tongue softly.
The Old Empire had been powerful enough to dominate the entire continent, and yet it collapsed.
Because of civil war fought with the Calamities—and for many other reasons.
“S-still, I was taught that the descendants of the Old Empire eventually sealed the Calamities.”
“That too is a tale altered to suit the Empire’s taste.”
The Golden Mask shrugged.
It was true the Calamities had been sealed—but the ones who sealed them were not the descendants of the Old Empire.
It was merely one of the many rewritten stories crafted to glorify the Empire’s past.
“Then who did…?”
“Heaven.”
“The place where the Goddess lives?”
“No. Heaven is where the ‘Celestials’ live. They’re also called the Immortal Realm. The beings who live there are called ‘Celestials.’”
The attendant tilted her head, hearing the unfamiliar term for the first time.
Before she realized it, she had become completely absorbed in the conversation.
“They must be incredible beings to be able to seal the Calamities, right? Then couldn’t they have stopped Ruin as well?”
“They are neither on the Goddess’s side nor Ruin’s. Think of them as something like a neutral faction between the two. And I doubt they number many.”
Besides, if they were truly that powerful, why had they only sealed the Calamities?
What was certain was this:
The current Emperor of the Empire had also come from ‘Heaven.’
The first Emperor had brought eleven eggs from Heaven.
Those were called the ‘True Lineage.’
Only the Emperor knew the true nature of Heaven.
But the Emperor had been in deep slumber for an unimaginably long time.
—
