Chapter 1090: The King's Arrival
The refugees stood up in surprise, casting grateful and tearful gazes toward Miss Okita.
"Can such a thing really be done?"
Pepe stretched his limbs.
Even the toxins from over two hundred people were rapidly dissipating from his body—complete recovery was only a matter of time.
"Gareth, dear…"
Pepe couldn't hide the sorrow on his face.
"If you had held on a little longer, even if just hesitating for a moment, it wouldn't have come to this ending."
"Hurry, take everyone and leave!"
Seeing that the treatment was nearly complete, Okita Souji breathed a sigh of relief.
Then she rushed to the corner, hoisted the bell that Gareth had transformed onto her shoulder, and shouted loudly to Da Vinci-chan, Gudako, and the others.
"Quick, speed up, or it'll be too late!"
Too late?
What's too late?
Everyone was full of doubts, but at this moment, they tacitly chose not to ask.
Trusting her, they quickly evacuated the surrounding refugees and fled outside the dungeon.
"Ka—Miss Okita, what's happened that has you so rushed?"
During the retreat, Gudako approached Okita Souji and asked for details.
"Right now, I even wish I had a mass teleportation spell—that's how urgent it is!"
A rare look of anxiety appeared on Okita Souji's face.
With over a hundred people, even ten teleportation spells learned in the Konosuba World wouldn't be enough to move them all. Now, they could only hope that her main body could buy enough time!
"Ah, right, quickly throw Beryl away!"
"What? Why?"
Artoria retorted with a look of rejection.
She was holding Beryl Pig upside down by its trotters, planning to deal with him thoroughly ten times over once they returned. How could she let him go so easily?
"Shut up and listen to me!"
Okita Souji grew impatient, glaring at her fiercely.
"O-okay, I understand…"
Artoria was startled and hurriedly threw the pig deep into the dungeon.
It was the first time she had seen such an expression on her face.
"H-how is it? Is there still time?"
Artoria asked anxiously.
"…"
Okita Souji remained silent for a moment.
Then she shook her head.
"BOOOOOOM—!!"
The next moment.
The entire dungeon suddenly shook violently, as if struck by a massive earthquake, throwing everyone fleeing to the ground.
"What's happening?!"
"An earthquake?"
"This is bad!"
Da Vinci-chan looked at the detection device in her hand, her expression turning grim.
"The earthquake magnitude has reached level six, and the range covers all of New Darlington!"
"Is it really an earthquake?"
"No!"
Da Vinci-chan firmly denied it.
"The magical energy reaction is enormous—someone used magecraft to upheave the entire New Darlington! In this Fairy Kingdom, only one person could do such a thing!"
"It couldn't be!"
Muramasa suddenly guessed something.
Tristan's expression also turned very bad, and he couldn't help but pluck out a series of frantic notes.
"Whoa!"
"What's going on? Why does it feel like we're rising?"
"But we're still inside the dungeon!"
"The entire dungeon is rising!!"
Screams erupted all around.
The entire dungeon seemed to be grabbed by a giant hand and violently dragged up from the depths of the earth!
"Hahaha... My time has ended..."
From the depths of the dungeon, Beryl Gut, covered in wounds, let out a regretful sigh.
He had already realized that his end had come.
"Is that all you have for last words, Beryl?"
Suddenly.
With a thunderous crash, the stone dungeon shattered completely!
Unbeknownst to anyone, the dungeon had been hauled up to the surface.
Beryl Gut felt his vision blur as he tumbled to the ground.
Before him, a slender and graceful figure floated in the air.
A black dress exuded nobility, silver-white hair fluttered in the wind, a golden crown reflected the sunlight, and a black staff radiated a torrent of immense, abyssal magical energy.
"Is it... the Queen herself?"
Just two hundred meters away, Da Vinci and the others had also fallen to the ground.
Faced with the overwhelming pressure emanating from the Queen, everyone was as silent as cicadas in winter and as stiff as puppets, unable to even take a deep breath.
"You have quite the nerve, Beryl!"
The Queen's tone was icy.
She practically spat the words through gritted teeth.
"Out of gratitude for the favor you once did me, I have spared you time and again. Yet you remained unmoved—not only did you take Woodwose's liver, but you also stole the Garden of Lost Will from the throne and let Baobhan Sith take the blame for you."
"More importantly, you dared to teach her such magecraft, using her to complete the transformation into an A-Rays, causing her soul to rot completely!"
Morgan's words no longer concealed her fury.
"You deserve to die a thousand deaths, Beryl!"
Beryl let out a bitter laugh.
It was all exposed, as expected.
The moment Baobhan Sith vanished without warning from his sight, Beryl knew that her theft of the Garden must have been discovered and she had been summoned by the Queen for questioning.
From that moment on, Beryl felt an intense sense of urgency!
The magecraft to transform into an A-Rays was no simple feat.
Becoming an A-Rays required an extraordinarily steep price.
Even if the transformation succeeded, it could only be done once at most, for it came at the cost of one's soul rotting away!
But Beryl had found a loophole.
He did not personally take Woodwose's liver but used Baobhan Sith instead.
He taught her a special magecraft, enabling her to extract Woodwose's liver and hand it over to him—through this act, Beryl shifted the entire cost of the A-Rays transformation onto Baobhan Sith!
This price had been paid even before he was turned into a pig, and not even Beryl could reverse it.
As for stealing the Garden, it was because he had grown too weak after being transformed into a pig. The hard-won transformation was suppressed by the Queen's magecraft, forcing him to take the desperate risk of stealing the Garden of Lost Will and quietly creating the illusion that "both Gardens were stolen by Baobhan Sith"!
He had thought he could deceive the Queen for at least a little while—who knew why she had discovered it so quickly!
"Beryl, you have exhausted all my patience."
Morgan unleashed her magical energy.
Beryl was lifted by an invisible hand and floated into the sky.
Below him lay New Darlington.
All the fairies, drawn by the earlier commotion, watched the sky in trembling fear.
"I shall pass judgment upon all the crimes you have committed thus far. Even if we descend into hell in the future, I will make you regret today's suffering when you recall it!"
Beryl suddenly felt his body being released.
The hooves and pigskin quickly vanished as his transformation magic was dispelled, restoring his original human form.
"...What do you intend to do?"
Knowing there was no way to regain the Queen's trust, Beryl forced a smile as if completely unconcerned.