Proofreader: Chaddude
Thud.
“..?!”
Eri’s forehead bumped off against the desk, and she lifted her head up, spluttering.
“… Did I fall asleep again?”
Had she zoned out then fell asleep? It would have been unimaginable if she was in the Magic Tower, it seemed she had gotten lazy lately.
Stretching her body, she grabbed her staff and left the room.
She was thinking of strolling around to rouse herself up.
She passed through the hallway on the second floor and came down to the first, but there was no sign of patronage present in the inn. It wasn’t strange. She had rented the entire inn for research.
However, unlike the quietness on the inside, it was noisy outside.
So loud that she could hear it all the way into the inn.
Was something the matter?
Eri was puzzled and got out of the inn.
“..?”
She froze at the unreasonable sight, far beyond what her imagination could fulfill. She rubbed her eyes. Deluding herself that she had seen wrong. But that changed nothing.
‘Is it a dream?’
Maybe she hadn’t overcome her drowsiness and fell asleep again? These were the nightmares her burnout were bubbling up in her consciousness? Just when she thought it was pretty plausible.
“Eri!”
She saw Neria running, coming from afar. She was dressed in light leather armor with a cloth shirt, probably had jumped out in the middle of her sparring sessions.
‘How can a dream be so detailed?’
Eri slowly pulled up her middle finger behind her. A simple test to determine if it was her dream or reality was to try breaking her finger. If it did not hurt, it was a dream, and if it did… motherf**king reality. She couldn’t break her finger, but the stretch made it feel strained. And sore.
It didn’t seem like a dream.
‘So this isn’t a dream?’
The giant tentacle monster covering the whole royal palace, and the sky shrouded under dark clouds and strange purple particles?
‘What the hell happened while I was asleep?!’
Her answer came in the form of her friend, Neria, who had run out searching for her.
“The palace suddenly collapsed and ‘that’ came out?”
“Yes. Right after I was pulled away from the palace by Ophelia, the palace collapsed, and it appeared.”
“What the…”
Eri looked at the tentacle monster with a somewhat dazed expression. She only felt it now, but the amount and quality of magical energy flowing from the diabolical monster was unusual, and… strange.
‘Like a demon…’
And a fairly top-level demon, in fact.
Could it be a Heavenly King, of whom she had only heard about?
‘How did a Heavenly King appeared in Lupus!?’
After Cloud left them behind, they were disappointed for a while, but that didn’t mean they didn’t do anything. Apart from being left alone, his concerns were plausible.
They had an audience with the king and conveyed their opinion that the vigilance should be strengthened, and the king, naturally, accepted it.
In fact, all they could do ended there.
The three of them couldn’t just search the wide Lupus every day.
And that alone was enough.
Not only did the regular patrols of the guards increased, but sometimes even the knights came out on patrol.
Thanks to that, the security of Lupus was very stable.
So, the girls had also taken a sigh of relief.
– Kgrrr. Kgrrr.
As the Heavenly King swung its massive tentacles, the surrounding structures collapsed and fragments of buildings flew high.
Eri opened her mouth as she watched the flying debris.
“What about Ophelia? Where is Ophelia? She was with you, wasn’t she?”
“Only Ophelia can respond most effectively to that power. She stayed behind to protect people. Eri, we need to go and help.”
“The Knights? What about the palace wizards? Where are they? The hell is breaking loose here!”
“…I don’t know. Everyone must have been in the palace.”
“…”
The monster appeared from inside the palace. If they had been inside the palace at the time, it seemed difficult to see them safe.
‘Do we have to deal with that on our own?’
Eri went beyond fainting and became dizzy.
The Four Heavenly Kings.
In legends and myths, they were always defeated by a Hero, so no one ever thought much of them. But Eri could feel the weight of that name just by looking at the monster.
They couldn’t win against it, not now.
No… she couldn’t even be certain they would be able to defeat it in the future.
What she was totally sure of right now was that they wouldn’t beat that monstrosity, no matter what they did.
Eri didn’t want to throw herself into an uncertain battle.
It would be a dog death.
So just when she was about to refer to a well-packaged getaway named ‘Retreat’, citizens scrambling away came into her sight.
They were mauled to death by stone splinters from afar, crushed by others after falling over, or killed by robbers in the confusion.
A half-destroyed city also entered her eyes.
The royal city, which was shabby compared to the Empire’s, but still retained its beauty, was losing its luster.
Looking at them, Eri felt no pity or guilt.
She felt afraid.
What if she runs away from here?
Her life may be spared. But what about after that?
Even though she was a companion of a Hero, she would be ridiculed an eternity for running away from the demons and surviving miserably.
Mongrel of a noble family. Failure of the Magic Tower. Coward. Fugitive. All kinds of dishonorable adjectives would stick on her and she would lose a lot. A lot.
And above all, how would Cloud react if he ever came to find out she had run away?
The more she imagined it, the more afraid she became.
“Eri? What are you thinking?! We don’t have time for this!”
Beside her, Neria shouted at Eri, but Eri didn’t move. She eventually became frustrated and was about to pull Eri with her in tow.
When a colossus purple tentacle approached in the direction they were in… to be precise, towards the entrance of the castle.
– Kyaaaaagh!!
– S, Save us!!
Citizens who found the tentacle coming were horrified and sped up, cursing, but it moved faster. And faster than that was Eri’s invocation.
[Magic Shield]
A five-layered translucent protective shield intruded the gap between the citizens and the tentacle.
Chuk! Chuk! Chuk!
Four layers of protection were shattered, but the last one remained affront. Although cracked, it successfully fended off the successive tentacles.
[Hellfire]-!
[Magic Missile]-!
A red magic circle hovered in front of Eri.
The magic missiles passed through the magic circle, and the fire of hell coated the magic missiles, which were mere lumps of pure magic.
The magic missiles with the fire of hell easily pierced through the tentacles. Eri manipulated the magic missiles and made numerous holes in the tentacles, eventually causing the tentacles to hang limp.
All eyes in the vicinity were drawn to her.
Normally, she would enjoy those gazes, but not now.
“Hey, that lady wizard over there? Please escort me out! Money is no prob—”
AAAW! The middle-aged man, hit in the face by an unhinged cane, rolled on the floor. He screamed, but Eri didn’t even give him a glance.
She peered at the Heavenly King in the distance with an irritated yet desperate expression.
“Hah… I don’t think I can win against this…”
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