The Right Choice (4)
Vashka Castle.
"Mo-monsters!"
Giants over eighty meters tall had smashed through the battlements and surrounded the castle.
Even seasoned politicians wet themselves at the sight of those beady-eyed colossi peering through the windows.
Was this a sign of the kingdom's doom?
Inside the king's bedchamber, Adolf XII—who had become king in his youth—was facing his final moments.
"Haah. Haah."
Pony felt sad that the last thing the man who had opened a new age of magic would see was this.
"Your Majesty, please do not be uneasy. The glory of Tormia will surely continue through your descendants."
"Hah! Hah!"
Amid the gathered royals, Adolf XII lifted his head to deliver his final words.
"My—my everything..."
At the same moment his gaze met the eye of a giant peering through the window.
"Waaah!"
Adolf XII convulsed in terror and, after a final spasm, drew his last breath.
"Your Majesty! Your Majesty!"
The King of Tormia had died.
While the royal family wept, only Pony wore a composed expression.
'This is a king.'
He was only a human.
'What should I do now?'
Thanks to begging Rupist with her life, she had learned of the disaster about to strike Vashka.
Soon an elemental bomb would detonate over Vashka's skies, and no one would survive.
"Listen to me carefully."
"Your Majesty! Your Majesty!"
When none of the royals would listen, Pony's eyes snapped open and she shouted.
"Everyone, listen to me!"
The nobles frowned and turned.
But when they noticed the giants pacing outside, reality hit them again.
"R-run!"
Just as they reached for the door handles, a violent surge of water swept through the hall.
"Pony! What are you doing?!"
Pressed back against the wall, the nobles snarled, and Pony answered coldly.
"Where do you think you'll go without securing the succession first?"
"W-well..."
To those who had staked their lives on bloodlines, succession was as important as life itself.
"Of course the next king is Prince Tenar! Why ask such an obvious thing?"
Although the three princes each had names, the eldest had already been proclaimed Adolf XIII.
The royals tensed.
'What is that Pony girl thinking?'
The castle guard had already been sent into the flowerbeds at Rupist's suggestion.
There were only a few guards left, but Pony—trained at the Magic Academy—could kill a person in an instant.
"If Prince Tenar becomes the next king..."
Everyone watched with bated breath as Pony spoke.
"How about we hold a short succession ceremony? The legitimacy of the crown must be preserved."
"Huh?"
The nobles blinked.
"Look outside. The nation is in a state of emergency. We must stabilize the throne quickly and lead the people."
When she—who might have instigated a revolt—offered to step back so calmly, a collective sigh of relief went up through the room.
"That would be wise. The throne room must not be empty even for a moment."
The eldest royal took Adolf XII's crown and placed it on Tenar's head.
"That's enough. Let us go. Quickly now!" The brief succession concluded in an instant, and the royals hurried out, leaving Pony behind.
Watching her relatives rush away, Pony allowed herself a small, relieved smile.
'At least they have some courage.'
When Rupist had proposed it, she had dared to dream—perhaps she could become king.
"What good would that do?"
Now that the world had come to this, she realized the truly important things couldn't be handed to her by others.
"You were right, Shirone."
She would survive.
At least her end would not be like Adolf XII's—dead with a miserable expression.
A giant that had been inspecting the interior with the casual interest of someone viewing a toyland let out a roar.
"Graaah!"
Its urge to trample the small things might dwarf any human impulse, but...
"I won't go quietly."
A teleport flash slipped through the gap the giant's fist had smashed in the wall.
Codename: Lucky Boy.
"There!"
The craft Nade piloted was a self-powered flying vehicle made for mages.
Because it drew power externally, it was lightweight and compact—perfect for a mobile mission.
'Vashka.'
From high altitude the city looked no larger than a thumbnail, yet it felt like the demons swarming inside were visible one by one.
It made him sick. If he could, he wanted to crush them beneath a solid boot.
'Soon.'
One elemental bomb was mounted under the craft.
'Only one.'
If it misfired, the operation would fail and humanity would be destroyed by the legions of hell.
Still, Iruki insisted on using only one bomb.
'Meticulous as he is… who could fault him?'
'Don't worry. We'll make it succeed.'
Looking down again, most of the demonic army was massed inside or around Vashka.
'We drop it here.' When that first realistic instruction arrived in his head, his stomach dropped.
'Is this really happening? Is he really going to do it?'
It felt as if all the simulations he'd run were some absurd illusion.
'Everything I see now will vanish. All at once.'
Life, civilization, the joys and sorrows contained within—he couldn't bear the weight of it.
"Ugh…"
Although his heart didn't want to, a sob escaped and tears fell.
"Timer. Timer."
So he decided not to think.
'I'll just do it. Like a fool, like a machine. Like a psycho—just do my job.'
Sixty seconds appeared on the elemental bomb's panel; once the bomb separated from the craft, those seconds would tick down one by one.
'By the calculations, it will explode two hundred meters above Vashka. Once it detonates…'
There will be no survivors.
"Go."
Just as Nade's trembling hand reached for the button, a sharp voice cut through.
"Seize that man!"
A host of fairies swooped in.
At the sight of them, a single decisive thought flashed through Nade's mind.
'Press it.'
A pure electrical impulse that summed up the whole situation.
Click. The elemental bomb detached from the craft, and the fairies abruptly changed course.
"Grab that object! That is an order from Ikael!"
Time to detonation: 59 seconds.
Miro swept through Vashka's streets.
"Scum like cockroaches!"
Each time the incarnation of the Thousand-Armed Avalokiteśvara unleashed its art, buildings groaned and collapsed.
"There!"
They couldn't tell who was a thug and who was not, but Miro's group had no time for such distinctions.
"Ha ha ha! You think you can catch me?" Paimon laughed, darting through hundreds of points in the air as she taunted them.
'Annoying ability.'
Nonstandard Ban.
A power that isolates a specific space and then weaponizes the movement of those trapped inside it.
And right now Vashka had an abnormally high population density—no need to call it "the world's highest."
Paimon's voice echoed from all directions.
"Hohoho! Moths craving flame! The greatest festival in the mortal realm is about to—!" The roof Paimon stood on was the first to be crushed into a palm-shaped slab as the Thousand-Armed Avalokiteśvara's art struck repeatedly.
"It will begin."
Already outside the sealed area, Paimon looked up at the high sky with a rapt expression.
An elemental bomb was falling.
"What is that?"
Ilwol Gwangryun created a telescoping effect in the air, and Miro's group turned their eyes upward.
"This is it!"
Even if they were ready to die, seeing the bomb about to detonate made their heads swim.
'How much time left?'
The timer Se-in checked read thirty-eight seconds.
Nade's craft, dodging the onslaught of fairies, increased thrust.
"This is maddening!"
Even casting electrical magic was useless; the craft absorbed the energy.
'There's no way to escape in time now.'
Nade abandoned the craft and laid down a ring of plasma as he began to cast properly.
White lightning flashed like an explosion.
"Eek!"
The fairies' screams were cute, but the result was horrific.
When struck by lightning, their bodies glowed and squirrel-sized skeletons showed through.
'What on earth are these things?'
From what Nade knew as leader of his group, they were the army of Heaven.
The dynamics of good and evil were complex, but they were not beings humanity needed.
'Too many.'
The main force numbered roughly over twenty thousand, with another thousand in the surrounding groups.
"I'll take the humans. You lot go secure the bomb!"
At Fairy Captain Tanote's order, hundreds of fairies pursued the bomb.
'No!'
They had already given their lives, but the elemental bomb had to explode at the designated point.
"Stay there!"
As Nade descended toward the ground, a powerful binding force wrapped around him.
"Ugh!"
Tanote smiled coldly and spoke.
"The Triangle Rule. Triangle Field."
Nade scanned the red lines rapidly enclosing the area.
He was trapped inside an acute triangle whose vertices blazed with ominous flames.
"When three points are connected in a straight line, that region becomes mine."
'Damn it!'
Time to detonation: 23 seconds.
"Iruki! Iruki! Open the door, please!" In the chapel command room Iruki sat alone on the floor, not answering.
An empty liquor bottle rolled nearby, and his eyes had gone unfocused after all they'd done.
"Iruki, please."
Dorothy's voice was followed by the commander's shout.
"Stand back! He said he wants to be alone!"
"What are you saying? If he's thinking something dangerous—don't you know how Iruki must be feeling right now?!"
"We know—that's why—no one truly knows! We can't interfere!"
Their argument sounded distant, as if from another dimension.
"…I made the right decision."
By Lucky Boy's performance, it would reach Vashka's skies in five minutes.
Iruki forced a faint smile.
'I did it. I did it. It can't be more efficient than this. But because of that…'
Was it the right thing?
"Waaah…"
The terror trapped in his heart burst out, and he began to wail.
"Waaaah… Waaaah…" Grasping his head and shaking uncontrollably, Iruki found his certainty in that trembling shape.
"It's over."
He would not be able to live with his mind intact.
"I'm finished."
"Iruki! Please! Talk to me, okay?" Dorothy pounded on the door—her knocks came like the approach of a hellish messenger.
"Waaaah! Leave me alone!" When the sounds outside faded, Iruki again clutched his head and sobbed.
"If I just die, won't that be enough? If I just die…"
Then a calmer, different voice spoke.
"Iruki."
The moment he heard it his eyes flew open.
Thump! Thump!
His heart raced as if it would burst; even knowing it might be a hallucination, he lifted his head.
"Iruki, it's me. May I come in?" Shirone's voice.