Chapter 496 The Doomsday Volcano and the Call

Some time later,

the group reunited on the mountaintop where Aralond had waited.

“……”

The atmosphere at the scene was incredibly awkward, though.

“Hey, Irus——”

Laki tugged at Irus’s sleeve.

“Come with me for a second.”

She pulled her aside.

Aralond and Fulmir stared at each other in silence.

Hulim Heyerar, feeling totally left out, had a question mark pop up above her head.

“?”

What’s going on…… Why are they all acting like they’re hiding something from me?

“Little Laki, what’s wrong?”

“Don’t play dumb with me.”

Laki ground her teeth, her face dark with frustration.

“You knew all along, didn’t you! Why didn’t you tell me? Did you think it’d be funny to see me looking like a fool right now?”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about~.”

“Cut the act! I’m talking about that girl! What the hell was that power she used earlier?!?”

“Ehh, you mean that? Well……” Irus put on a thoughtful look, “If I’m being honest, I’m just as curious about Hulim as you are.”

“You damn elf……”

On the other side,

after a long stretch of awkward silence, Aralond finally spoke up.

“Master——”

“Ahem! You don’t need to remember a single thing about today’s fight.” Fulmir said, his face flushing with embarrassment.

“……”

Whoosh——!

A fierce gust of wind tore through the sky,

and a massive crimson dragon appeared above the group.

“Hulim! Lady Irus!”

On the dragon’s back, the elf girl waved her right hand excitedly at the ground below.

Thud!

The ground rumbled as the dragon landed heavily,

and two girls hopped down one after another.

“Huh? You two brats are here too…… Wait a minute.”

Laki leaned in and peered past them, her eyes narrowing.

“Hey, why is it just the two of you? Where’s Hena?”

“Hena left.”

Prarlulu replied casually, without a second thought.

The entire scene fell deathly silent in an instant.

“……Huh?!?”

“What do you mean she left!?! Spit it out clearly right now——!”

“Eek, eek! It’s not my fault, I swear!”,

Prarlulu stammered in a panic, shooting a pleading glance at Hulim for help.

“Uh……” Hulim spoke up to explain gently, “Please don’t worry. Hena will come back.”

“? What kind of vague, meaningless explanation is that……”

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Laki rubbed her temples, sighing in frustration.

“Fine, I’ll go find her myself. Which way did she head——”

Before she could finish her sentence,

BOOM!!!

The earth beneath their feet shook violently, sending a jolt through every inch of their bodies.

“What? What’s happening now!?”

Laki exclaimed in shock.

“Hey! Look at that——”

Ignir spoke up suddenly, his voice heavy with unease.

“That…… doesn’t look good at all, does it?”

At his words, the group turned their gazes in a hurry to the Red Mist Volcano not far away.

And they saw it all unfold.

Crack! Crack……

Gigantic fissures spread radially across the ground from the volcano’s core, snaking out in all directions without stop.

Boiling lava spurted endlessly from the chasms below, painting the land red.

The volcano at the center, as if under an unbearable amount of pressure, let out a constant, terrifying roar that shook the heavens.

Fulmir’s eyes widened more and more with each passing second, his face paling.

“This is a disaster…… Without Sugart siphoning the lava’s energy, the Red Mist Volcano——it’s going to erupt completely——!”

BOOM——!!!

The moment his words faded into the air,

the entire mountain range before them exploded in a cataclysmic blast!

Blinding light and searing heat blazed across the entire sky. An unprecedented roar drowned out all other sounds in the world.

A colossal, spectacular shockwave rippled outward in a brilliant arc before their eyes, spreading to the far corners of heaven and earth……

Across the vast Northern Wastes,

countless people made their homes here—

in villages, towns, and even entire kingdoms.

All living things froze in place at that moment, listening to this most terrifying roar of nature,

and then,

primitive fear of the untamed wilds spread in the hearts of every single one of them……

Beyond the Red Mist Volcano,

the moment that terrifying sound rang out,

Charkin and Aznov stopped in their tracks at the same time and looked back.

They witnessed the entire mountain range detonate right before their eyes.

A terrifying wall of fire, and an unprecedented shockwave, advanced slowly toward them with the overwhelming power to destroy everything in its path.

To the naked eye, it moved at a snail’s pace.

But in reality, it only seemed that way because of the vast distance and the shockwave’s colossal initial scale. If they had been closer, they would not have even had a chance to see its full form before it struck them down.

“……”

Charkin and Aznov stared at each other in silence, their faces grim.

“Do you think we can outrun it?”

“……We can only pray for the gods’ mercy, I suppose.”

……

As the shockwave, wreathed in blinding light and searing heat, swept across the land,

Pop~.

A strange ripple seemed to shatter an invisible barrier, surging forth with the raging flames.

A faint, indistinct feeling that had lingered for so long blazed into sharp, unmistakeable clarity at that moment.

“……”

Hulim slowly lifted her head, her gaze fixed unwaveringly on the volcano’s direction.

I feel it……

Whoosh! Whoosh!

The fiery onslaught raged on, unrelenting.

The earth beneath their feet melted and crumbled endlessly, turning to ash and lava in an instant.

In a world completely engulfed by this apocalyptic power, the magical barrier they had raised around themselves teetered on the brink of collapse, barely holding on.

Yet her gaze, at that moment, seemed to pierce straight through the flames and the crumbling earth, catching sight of the existence hidden in the volcano’s deepest core.

The deafening roar that had filled her ears faded into nothingness,

leaving only that overwhelming call echoing in her very soul, pulling her forward.

It’s just ahead……

Almost unconsciously, Hulim lifted her right foot and took a step forward toward the volcano……

Long after,

the initial shockwave finally subsided, and the world grew quiet once more.

The magical barrier dissipated slowly.

“It’s finally over, but this situation is beyond dire……” Laki said, her voice heavy with dread as she looked out at the wreckage.

Everywhere they turned, the world around them had been transformed into a lava hellscape.

Ahead, the Red Mist Volcano that had once stood there was gone, replaced by a colossal volcanic caldera, from which surging lava gushed endlessly into the sky.

Across the broken earth, rivers of molten lava roared toward the far distance, devouring everything in their path.

High in the sky, gigantic volcanic boulders were hurled upward like missiles, then plummeted like meteorites in all directions.

A suffocating blanket of volcanic ash spread across the sky at an alarming rate, encroaching on the heavens far beyond the volcano, blotting out the sun.

It was easy to foresee—

if this catastrophe could not be stopped,

the Lidoyar Kingdom, and even the entire Northern Wastes, would be completely blanketed in volcanic ash, descending into a long, desolate winter with no end in sight.

It would be a catastrophic disaster.

Kingdoms would fall, and countless lives would perish.

“O Earth, converge——!”

The sacred shield in Aralond’s hands suddenly blazed with a brilliant divine light.

The broken, melting earth abruptly halted its collapse, coalescing once more into a patch of solid, unyielding ground.

“That’s amazing! Can you really do something like that?”

Prarlulu stared at Aralond in wonder, then glanced down at the divine staff in her own hands, her shoulders slumping.

“……”

Is my magic just completely useless in situations like this……

“Converge, converge, converge……”

Aralond wove his magic without pause, pouring every ounce of his strength into it, and the solid ground spread outward, growing bit by bit.

But as the volcano continued its cataclysmic eruption, the land they had painstakingly coalesced crumbled once more in the blink of an eye, torn apart by the endless tremors.

“Aralond, let me help you——”

Slap!

Fulmir slammed both hands hard onto the solid ground, channeling his magic into the earth.

Rumble……

The speed of the earth’s convergence surged dramatically, and the patch of solid ground began to expand faster than before.

“Master!”

Aralond’s eyes lit up with hope, and he poured even more power into his magic, working harder than ever.

We can seal the volcano, we can stop this disaster!

Just as the thought crossed his mind,

BOOM——!

A massive, earth-shaking tremor rocked the ground, and the expanded patch of solid earth shattered into countless pieces in an instant, torn apart by the raw power of the volcano.