New Chapter 17: “The Visitor from Outside‚ or the Girl of Legend”
The morning light streaming through the window cast a cold‚ square shadow across the stone floor. The warm “golden residual echoes” that had filled this room the night before had already dissolved into quiet particles of light within the morning air.
Yet when I pressed my still-numb‚ white-stained right hand to my chest‚ that beloved “powan” sound alone continued to pulse steadily behind my heart.
“—Let’s go together.”
That promise alone was the single unbreakable pillar that kept me standing in this harsh reality. My lips curved into a natural smile. The unknown future I could never have imagined until last night had become‚ just a little‚ less frightening.
In an instant—that quiet resolve was trampled far too abruptly.
Zash‚ zash‚ zash.
The cold‚ measured tramp of leather boots striking the stone floor.
Not one person. Not two. The footsteps of disciplined soldiers‚ every faint irregularity of breath stripped away. It was as if a single enormous machine possessed of will was crawling down the corridor of this student dormitory.
Ton. Ton. Ton.
The door was knocked three times.
It should have been a polite number‚ yet the sound carried no hint of waiting for a reply. This was not a visit—it was merely a confirmation that announced‚ “We know you are there.”
“I presume I have the honor of addressing the First Seat of the Magical Hierarchy‚ Aria Adel.”
A low‚ restrained male voice carried through the thick wooden frame. It was the distinctive tone of a military man‚ every trace of emotion bleached cleanly away.
The soft air of the room instantly grew taut‚ as though freezing solid. Unconsciously‚ I clenched the pocket watch at my waist tightly.
“Please wait a moment.”
I answered quietly. But no one outside remained to hear the reply through to the end.
Gii……!
The heavy hinges creaked low‚ and the door was shoved open casually from the outside.
From the beginning‚ there had been no right of refusal—this was forced entry.
Striding in was a middle-aged man clad in a deep navy military dress uniform. The polished metal fittings caught the morning sun and gleamed dully; the royal crest was intricately embroidered in gold thread across his chest. Flanking him on either side‚ royal guards in full black armor stood without a single step out of formation.
The room suddenly felt smaller. The very air was being crushed by the overwhelming “violence of the state” they radiated.
The man’s chilly gaze slowly swept the interior.
My white-stained right hand. The license lying on the desk. And myself standing beyond it.
Those were not eyes that appraised a human being. They were the inorganic eyes of inspection‚ verifying the specifications of a necessary “component.”
“I am the plenipotentiary envoy dispatched by the Royal Capital Central Military Headquarters and the Governing Council.”
Only the low voice made the space tremble.
“…I shall speak bluntly.”
With that‚ the man drew a single sheet of parchment from his breast. Silver wax seal‚ and the royal crest. The physical weight of it alone made clear that this was neither a joke nor a misunderstanding—an absolute command.
The envoy slid the document onto the desk. The dry rasp of friction sounded unnaturally loud.
“You are to prepare only the bare minimum of personal belongings at once today and transfer to the underground management chamber of the Central Tower.”
……Huh?
For a moment the meaning refused to enter my head. Underground management chamber? Why me?
“It has been formally decided that you‚ as the successor to the former First Seat‚ Solan‚ shall be appointed the new ‘Aquarium Barrier Maintainer (System).’”
Silence fell. Only the ringing in my ears echoed with strange clarity in my mind.
“…The barrier’s… maintainer?”
The voice I finally forced out was raspy enough to surprise even myself. The envoy nodded slightly‚ like a machine.
“Precisely. The true privilege granted to the First Seat is to supply one’s own magical power to the kingdom’s circular barrier and to bear the duty of the ‘Central Core’ that maintains its equalization.”
The man continued his cold words as though grudging even a breath.
“You may take pride in it. Your future life‚ research‚ and even the guarantee of your life itself shall be permanently promised by the state.”
The guarantee of life. The true meaning behind those words slowly caught up to my understanding.
“…Does that mean I can never leave that underground place until I die?”
When I asked‚ the envoy stared back without the slightest change of expression. Silence. That alone made the answer plain.
Deep in my chest‚ a rapid chill set in.
The future of the outside world I had dreamed of with Iris the night before was about to be silently sealed shut by the enormous cage called the state.
A hero who protects the barrier? No. What they wanted was not a hero. It was a giant battery that would keep producing magical power and conveniently maintain the system. Not Aria the human being‚ but merely a “component” for managing this enormous box.
(So Solan‚ too… was managing it alone down there…)
The moment I understood‚ the promise I had exchanged with Iris the previous night flared hot in the depths of my chest.
“—Let’s go together.”
That living voice alone could not be erased by the convenience of cold adults like these.
I slowly drew a deep breath. I clenched my white-stained right hand tightly. My numb fingertips trembled slightly. It was not fear—it was quiet‚ clear anger.
“…I refuse.”
In the hushed room‚ only my voice rang out clearly. I met the envoy’s cold eyes straight on.
“I did not become First Seat so that I could end my life inside the barrier. —In the Forbidden Archive‚ I saw the truth.”
The envoy’s brow twitched.
“This kingdom is not the world. If the key to saving Iris lies outside—then I will go beyond this aquarium.”
The moment those words left my mouth‚ the envoy’s brow was instantly covered in vicious creases. Behind him the royal guards simultaneously placed their hands on the hilts of their magic swords.
Chakiri—a hard‚ violent metallic sound filled the room.
“Do not speak of the truth of the Forbidden Archive‚ you fool.”
Every last trace of polite temperature had vanished from the man’s voice.
“The outside world is nothing more than a wilderness of death with a survival time of three minutes. Opening the gate would be the error of inviting the virulent poison (residue) of the outside into this pure and tranquil kingdom… no‚ high treason against the state. The outside world does not exist to begin with. All you need do is become a quiet gear of the barrier inside this safe cage.”
“A safe cage…?”
My breath caught. After carving away Iris’s life‚ wounding my comrades‚ and stepping over Solan’s solitude to reach this point—what awaited was imprisonment in this cold birdcage?
“Exactly. No rebuttal will be accepted. If you refuse‚ then by force—”
“—Adult logic (equations) really is hopeless as always.”
Piin—.
A clear high-toned harp residual echo that seemed to stroke the depths of the ear sliced horizontally through the tension that had gripped the room.
“Wha…!?”
The envoys all turned at once.
Atop the open window frame. Semi-transparent beautiful white hair swaying in the morning breeze‚ Nagi sat lightly perched. She elegantly swung her slender legs and looked down coldly upon the soldiers with mysterious jade-green eyes.
“Who are you?! Anyone who has breached the boundary defense formulas and intruded—”
“Nagi…”
When I murmured her name‚ Nagi quietly stepped down from the window frame onto the floor. Not even a footstep. As she drew nearer‚ the poisonous “blue blood (dissonance)” running along her neck could be seen pulsing with an eerie crackle even in the morning light.
“Envoy. What you people are saying is… the same as ‘quiet suicide.’”
“What…?”
“The territory the barrier can protect is being eroded year by year. That aquarium you believe is ‘safe’ is already beginning to crack from the inside under the pressure of contamination from without.”
Nagi’s slender fingertips gently touched the air. With that alone‚ the invisible protective formulas the envoys had deployed dissipated as easily as old paper burning.
“…Wha—! Who in the world are you?!”
The envoy’s face twisted in horror. Nagi paid it no mind and turned her jade eyes toward me.
“Aria. Do you remember? Before the name ‘Nagi‚’ where I was.”
“Eh…?”
“Back when I was the ‘First Seat’… yes‚ even before Solan became First.”
It felt as though the temperature in the room had dropped to freezing in an instant.
Nagi —→ Solan —→ Aria.
In my mind‚ a single cruel line connected.
Why Nagi had known the truth of the Forbidden Archive. Why she absorbed the world’s dissonance and dyed her blood vessels with that viscous “blue blood.”
“I‚ too‚ once saw the despair of the Forbidden Archive. And just like you‚ I wore my life away maintaining the barrier of this aquarium. …This form is the result.”
Nagi traced the blue veins rising on her own neck with her pale‚ slender fingertips.
“Solan tried to buy time by ‘freezing’ the world to a halt. Envoy‚ you people try to look away by keeping the ‘lid’ closed. …But you see‚ unless the outside world is purified‚ in the not-too-distant future this entire kingdom will be swallowed by the sea of residue and annihilated.”
“…Silence! Nonsense!”
The envoy shouted and signaled the royal guards with his hand.
“Restrain Aria! The interrupter may be cut down!”
The bloodlust-filled royal guards stepped forward as one—in that very moment.
—Piin—.
Nagi’s pale‚ slender fingertips lightly flicked empty space.
In that instant a high-pitched waveform sharply shook the entire room. The feet of the royal guards who had been about to step toward Aria froze solid‚ as though fused to the stone floor. The steel gauntlets gripping their swords trembled with a pathetic clatter‚ unable to withstand the invisible impact.
“Wha… without using magical formulas‚ directly through the atmosphere…?!”
The envoy’s face turned paper-white and he stumbled backward awkwardly.
The previous First Seat—that overwhelming difference in caliber had become an absolute pressure beyond theory‚ completely dominating this narrow room.
Amid that breathless tension‚ deep in the lining of my left breast—beneath the magic-resistant fiber—the “Ancient Heart Fragment (Artifact)” quietly marked a warm amber rhythm (ton-ton).
A single golden particle of light drifted up and burst by my ear.
“Aria”
Powan—.
A soft voice like spring sunlight that only I could see and only I could hear. An ephemeral phantom of Iris‚ translucent in the morning light‚ smiled as she gently nestled against my shoulder.
“Don’t be afraid. The scars of the world we saw in the Forbidden Archive… the two of you now can surely save the outside world. This tiny aquarium‚ and the scenery beyond it… shall we go see them together?”
(Iris…)
My chest tightened with pain. I wanted to save her. I wanted to break out of this unreasonable birdcage and walk the wide world together with her. Yet—the absolute-zero “white” that was eroding my right arm‚ and the red remaining-life numbers ticking on the pocket watch at my waist‚ thrust the cruel reality at me.
(No… If we use “Resonance (Grand Resonance)” to directly purify the enormous contamination of the outside all at once‚ the price will be Iris’s life becoming fuel for the residue. Her lifespan will burn out in an instant…!)
“Are your legs freezing because you’re worried about that child’s life?”
As though she had easily seen through my conflict‚ Nagi quietly interjected. Her transparent jade eyes pierced my left chest.
“If you try to burn away the vast contamination of the outside all at once‚ of course that child’s residual echoes will wither immediately. …But Aria. If you are the conductor‚ then rewrite it into a more efficient ‘score.’”
“…An efficient score…?”
“Once you leave the Great Barrier Gate‚ every ten kilometers‚ use your ‘rhythm (ton-ton)’ to directly carve a purification formula into the earth.”
Nagi traced a beautiful circle in the air with her slender fingertips.
“Not saving the world all at once. Centered on the array rhythms you carve every ten kilometers‚ generate a purification barrier in a circle of ten-kilometer radius. Secure those as ‘safe zones (save points)’ and advance while layering the barrier circles. …That way‚ the wear on that child’s life (residual echoes) will be kept to a minimum.”
“…! Purification barriers every ten kilometers…”
I could feel the fog in my head clearing all at once.
My precise construction theory and the miraculous residual echoes Iris released. Not opening them all the way without restraint‚ but stamping them as “points” into the earth—a conquest roadmap. With this‚ without needlessly carving away her life‚ we could push back the poison of the outside while moving forward.
“…But.”
With my whitened right hand I clenched my fist tightly again.
“The outside is a wilderness of death with a survival time of three minutes. We can’t just charge ahead blindly… where should we aim?”
“The place to aim for‚ the direction (vector)‚ and the ‘key’ that knows the information of the outside… are already right near you.”
Nagi turned her gaze out the window‚ toward the academy grounds where cold morning mist drifted white.
“A few years ago there is a truth the kingdom’s upper echelons strictly concealed. …Solan picked up a girl who had collapsed‚ vomiting blood‚ in front of the Great Barrier Gate.”
“Solan… in front of the gate?”
“Yes. Her name is Zephyr (Z-0). …She is not a human of this aquarium. She is a ‘survivor from outside’ who lived through the harsh sea of residue of the outer world and passed through the gate.”
“Zephyr is… from outside…!”
I caught my breath.
That cold girl who always followed at Solan’s side‚ wrapped in vacuum. So she was the visitor from outside.
Why Solan had known the despair of the outside and clung so desperately to stillness (freeze)—at the starting point of that entire story‚ Zephyr had been present.
“Go visit her. She should know the geography of the outside‚ and the ways through the danger zones where residue writhes… everything.”
“…!”
Deep in my chest‚ a definite response sparked.
The “ten-kilometer array rhythms” that would let us traverse the outside while protecting Iris’s life. And the existence of “Zephyr” who would navigate the unknown outside.
The dissonant pieces for us to break this birdcage—were now beginning to come together for certain.
Northernmost edge of the kingdom. The Third Watchtower of the “Boundary Observation Post” that monitored the Great Barrier Gate.
In this facility‚ the keystone of the enormous multi-layered magic arrays that continually pushed back the gray sea of residue‚ nameless soldiers who would leave no mark in history were stationed‚ facing the same unchanging despair day after day.
Their duty was simple. Simply to watch quietly so that “death” by the name of the outside would not smash the glass of the aquarium and invade.
But that morning.
The young communications soldier seated before the observation magic radar doubted his own eyes and involuntarily struck the glass face of the instrument hard twice.
“…Squad leader. The magical waveforms at the boundary… are going haywire.”
At the communications soldier’s strained voice‚ the gray-haired squad leader who had been dozing in a chair frowned and approached.
“Magnetic storm of residue again. Raise the filter output two ranks.”
“No! It’s not a magnetic storm (noise)! This is…!”
The hologram monitor the communications soldier pointed to with trembling fingers showed‚ mixed into the gray inorganic waveforms‚ a faint but distinct “rhythm of life.” Moreover it was violently colliding repeatedly from an impossible direction—the “outside” of the Great Barrier Gate toward the inside.
“Something (a biological reaction) is slamming into the gate from the outside world where survival probability is zero percent…?! Impossible—even a pack of contaminated magical beasts wouldn’t produce waveforms like that!”
“No‚ high-concentration waveforms of magical beasts are also confirmed in large numbers! Something is… clinging to the Great Barrier Gate while being chased by a pack of magical beasts!”
—Beeeeeep!!
The next instant‚ a Class-One Emergency Alert (Gladius Alert) that seemed to rupture eardrums was transmitted simultaneously across the entire kingdom and rang through the whole observation post.
It was the scream of the world itself—the people who had been sleeping snugly at the bottom of the safe aquarium being forcibly confronted with the raw threat of the outer “sea.”
＊
“—Impossible waveform disturbance!!”
Royal Magical Academy‚ Aria’s private room.
Bang! The door was kicked open and Kotone burst in with a drastically changed expression. Her silver-rimmed glasses were badly askew‚ hiding her eyes; there was not a trace of her usual nonchalant attitude. Behind her countless hologram monitors continued to stream‚ every one of them flashing in deep-red warning color (alert).
“Kotone?! What’s wrong‚ panicking like that?”
When I stood‚ Kotone‚ panting hard‚ thrust one of the monitors forward as though slamming it in front of me.
“The Great Barrier Gate… near the Boundary Observation Post at the northern edge! From the outside‚ an undefined magical waveform is crashing into the barrier!”
“From the outside?!”
I caught my breath.
“Isn’t it a charge by magical beasts?!”
“No! The fluctuation of this waveform… it’s terribly weak and irregular‚ but it’s unmistakably the ‘sound of life’ with intelligence! And it’s being cornered by multiple enormous contaminated magical-beast waveforms!”
At those words the air in the room instantly grew taut.
Nagi‚ who had been standing with one knee on the window frame‚ narrowed her jade eyes sharply.
“…A visitor from outside. And one that knows the location of this kingdom (aquarium) and has fled here.”
I clenched the “Ancient Heart Fragment” beneath the magic-resistant fiber of my left breast tightly.
A world of death said to have a survival time of three minutes. Right now‚ someone was about to scatter their life there. A survivor who‚ like Zephyr‚ had passed through the hell of the outside and reached this gate.
(I have to go…!)
“Kotone‚ call Cross and the others! We’re leaving at once!”
“Wait! Do not let the First Seat (Aria) escape from here!”
At the same time as my shout‚ the envoy who had been immobilized by Nagi’s wind pressure crawled up and roared at the royal guards.
“The poison of the outside world will enter! Restrain the state traitor!”
Gachari—countless magic-gun muzzles and sword points were aimed at us all at once.
But—there was not the slightest hesitation left in my heart. In the right hand that should have been numb and white‚ I felt blood pulsing hotter than ever before.
“…Sorry‚ but I already said I have no intention of quietly becoming a gear of the birdcage!”
I thrust my progressively whitening right hand forward boldly and slammed the physical magical power of the first beat “rhythm (ton-ton)” directly into the stone floor at my feet.
—Doooooon!!
A shockwave. The stone floor undulated as though exploding‚ sweeping the feet of the royal guards who had been about to step forward. The heavily armored soldiers were blown away all at once like paper dolls and slammed into the walls.
“Let’s go‚ Aria-kun! Time for some earthy sound-making (session)!”
Kotone pushed up her glasses with a fingertip‚ flashed a fearless smile‚ and dashed out‚ while Nagi vanished like the wind out the window together with the residual echoes of a harp.
The false safe aquarium (box) the adults had built. Our journey of rebellion to smash its thick glass and leap into the outside world—now‚ together with the alarm of despair‚ had vividly raised its curtain.
“I can’t take it anymoreyyyyy! Why do they keep coming out like thisoooooo!!”
Across the gray desert‚ the pathetic scream of an elven girl echoed.
Outside—the absolute world of death said to have a survival time of only three minutes. There‚ Parupar‚ clad in a tattered green robe‚ was racing at full speed while scattering tears and snot. Closing in from behind was a pack of contaminated magical beasts‚ grotesquely swollen by high-concentration magical residue.
“Don’t come this way! You’re filthy! You stink! I haven’t taken a bath in three days already—don’t make me any dirtier!”
Even while half-crying and screaming‚ she swung the staff in her hand sharply as she glanced back.
“‘O great light of purification‚ withdraw (Luna Lux)’!!”
The flash that was released was a product of magical construction so dense and breathtakingly precise that it was impossible to imagine from her useless tear-streaked face. The torrent of light blew the pack of magical beasts away in an instant and temporarily cleared the surrounding gray air. She was unmistakably a super-elite mage of the elven nation.
But—no matter how many she defeated‚ new magical beasts crawled endlessly out of the gray sea.
“Haa‚ haa…!”
Her knees buckled from magical exhaustion and fatigue; she caught her foot in the mire and fell spectacularly. Blood seeped from her scraped knee‚ and the surrounding residue tried to invade from that wound‚ beginning to dye her skin the gray of death with a sizzle.
Parupar gritted her back teeth hard and pressed her staff against the affected area.
“…Detoxify (Cure)!”
—Bachiii!!
“Gyaaaaaaaaa it huuuuurts!!”
From the intense pain of the detoxification magic she had cast on herself‚ she writhed on the ground in agony.
The advanced magic of elves who survived the outside could forcibly purify residue that had invaded the body‚ but the process was accompanied by immense agony as though the network of nerves were being burned away directly.
Eyes watering from the pain‚ chewing sand‚ she nevertheless rose again on trembling legs.
She could not afford to stop.
What resurfaced in her mind was her homeland‚ on the verge of being swallowed by the gray layers—“the World Tree Stronghold.”
Even the defensive barrier that had once held pure green was now polluted; the mad World Tree had begun to spew residue instead‚ and her comrades were turning one after another into stone statues on the brink of despair.
Amid that‚ a single star-reader had burned their own life to ash and produced a final prophecy.
“At the southern end… beyond the gray sea‚ there is an enormous [aquarium] that still preserves the former order. There sleeps the light of legend that will save us.”
Before the king. The morning of departure.
“Parupar. …It does not matter if you do not return. Our fate is entrusted to you.”
“Your talent is unmatched even in a thousand years of history…. Guide those who go with you.”
Those words were no cold order. The king’s own left arm was deeply eroded by gray petrification. It was the tragic resolve of an adult who had no choice but to place the future of a dying clan upon the shoulders of the young.
“…Yes.”
She could only lower her head deeply and answer with that single word.
Following the star-reader’s prophecy‚ a suicide squad of fifty elves had set out aiming for the gate. But the march through the outside was extreme in its misery. One by one they fell to the fangs of contaminated magical beasts or‚ unable to endure the poison of residue‚ turned into stone statues.
Each time‚ Parupar had screamed and tried to save her comrades with the agonizing detoxification magic. But those who had exceeded their limits had smiled gently and collapsed‚ saying “Leave us behind already‚” “At least you go.”
A veteran soldier of the unnamed Third Unit.
A young mage in charge of observation.
Nameless heroes who would never have a single line written about them in the history books—had scattered their lives into the gray sea solely to keep one girl alive and connect the nation’s future.
“U‚ uu…!”
Roughly wiping her mud-caked face with her robe sleeve‚ Parupar fixed her gaze ahead.
Crybaby‚ hating pain‚ quick to complain. Why had someone like her ended up the last one remaining?
But she had taken them on. The lives of forty-nine comrades who had become stone.
“I am… the last one. I will absolutely not let everyone’s lives go to waste…!”
The pack of magical beasts closed in again. The concentration of residue exceeded the limit; her respiratory organs burned as though scorched. Magical power and physical strength were both already exhausted. Her vision flickered white; consciousness began to fade.
That was when it happened.
—Dodoooooon…!
In a brief gap where the gray blizzard cleared.
At the edge of Parupar’s vision‚ the “Stone Gate of the Great Barrier‚” so enormous it seemed to pierce the heavens and engraved with layer upon layer of geometric magic arrays‚ floated up like a mirage.
It was unmistakably the boundary of the “aquarium” that the star-reader had prophesied at the cost of their life.
“There it is…!”
Large tears overflowed one after another from Parupar’s jade-green eyes.
“It really was there…! Another world…!!”
She squeezed out her last strength and‚ dragging the pursuing pack of magical beasts behind her‚ raced with desperate frenzy toward that enormous gate of hope.
“Haa… ah…!”
Her lungs burned. The lukewarm taste of blood spreading in her mouth was the only thing barely anchoring her consciousness to reality.
Her worn-out boots screamed; Parupar’s body tumbled‚ as though drawn‚ to the front of that enormous gate.
Looking up so high it covered the heavens‚ the ancient Great Barrier. Layer upon layer of geometric crystal barriers radiated a pale azure light while fiercely sparking against the gray poison of the outside. The pack of contaminated magical beasts that had pursued her was pressed back by the sacred sense of intimidation the barrier radiated and held at bay‚ snarling in irritation.
“I-I made it…! It really… was here…!”
Parupar pressed both hands‚ coated in blood and filth‚ against the cold stone surface of the Great Barrier as though clinging to it.
The boundary of the aquarium that the star-reader had risked their life to tell of. Beyond this thick wall should live the light of legend that had once purified the world‚ and a warm everyday life.
The captain of the First Unit who had turned to stone and stopped moving. The comrades who had smiled “At least you go” and vanished into the ash-laden wind. Stepping over the corpses of forty-nine‚ only she stood here.
“Everyone… I did it…! I arrived…!!”
Large tears washed the mud from her cheeks clean.
That was when it happened.
—Zuzuzu…!
Accompanied by a low rumbling like an earthquake‚ the intercept iron gate installed at the base of the Great Barrier slowly opened from the inside.
“Ah…!”
Joyful light entered Parupar’s jade-green eyes. People were coming out from inside. The inhabitants of the world of legend who would save them‚ save the dying elven nation—.
“Please… help me…! I came from the outside world… seeking the light of legend—”
But the trembling hand she stretched toward hope froze completely in midair.
—Gachari‚ gachari‚ gachari.
Heavy black-iron armor. Flawless inorganic formation. What emerged from the gate was no messenger of salvation.
Royal Magical Army · Boundary Intercept First Unit.
Dozens of those soldiers looked down upon the tattered Parupar with dark eyes that had killed every emotion.
“Warning. High-concentration residue contamination individual that has intruded from outside detected.”
The magic terminal the captain raised flashed a blood-red alert in the empty air.
“Contact from a domain of zero survival probability. …Presumed intelligent life-form‚ but harbors residue poison throughout the body. Infection risk inside the aquarium: extreme.”
“Eh…?”
Parupar caught her breath. What the soldiers gripped were large magic guns specialized for killing and spears that radiated sharp flashes. What resided in their eyes was neither sympathy nor surprise. It was an overwhelming will of “rejection” and “elimination‚” as though looking at filth.
“Wait… please wait! I’m not an enemy! The outside country is… everyone of mine is about to perish! So please…!”
“No discussion.”
The captain declared coldly and swung down a hand wrapped in white gloves without mercy.
“Do not allow a single step of the impurity of the outside into this pure and tranquil kingdom. …Discard (erase) it immediately.”
—Jakiii!!
Dozens of magic guns were leveled as one. Deep in their muzzles‚ high-pitched magical charging (charge) sounds overlapped into a melody of death.
From behind came the hungry roars of contaminated magical beasts watching for a gap in the barrier.
“Why…?!”
Parupar’s knees trembled violently. She had not a drop of magical power left to fight‚ nor physical strength to flee.
At the bottom of the land of hope she had reached after abandoning comrades‚ sipping mud‚ and exhausting her tears—what awaited her was an “iron wall” of humanity colder than the magical beasts of the outside.
“I don’t… want this… Not in a place like this… I…!!”
The dazzling light of murderous intent released from the muzzles dyed the girl’s despairing eyes pure white.
—All was lost.
Everyone was certain of that—in the next instant.
—Doooooon!!!
A roar that seemed to rupture eardrums rang out from behind the soldiers who held their muzzles ready—from deep within the “true main gate” of the Great Barrier.
“Wh-what?!”
The captain turned.
—Kachiri‚ kachiri‚ kachiri.
It was the heavy unlocking sound of enormous ancient seals being forcibly released one after another—access permitted only to one who held a First Seat license.
And—as though smashing through that cold metallic sound‚ a muddy yet overwhelmingly hot “physical rhythm (ton-ton)” was certainly approaching from beyond the thick wall.
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New Chapter 17: “The Visitor from Outside‚ or the Girl of Legend” — End
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