43. Everything Froze (7)
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Levian Coast, Lisbond Port.
Inside a tavern.
“Well now, that’s a sight.”
At one adventurer’s remark, made between long pulls from his beer, the others nodded.
“It sure is.”
“Good grief, to think they’d break through the Eternal Whirlpool that no adventurer in the world ever managed to conquer, and make it look that easy.”
“That’s the power of money.”
“And the power of technology too.”
Backed by top-tier magic and financial power worth hundreds of millions—something that could not even be compared to the magic of ordinary adventurers—Queen Hong Seryu was pulling off something truly insane.
But none of them knew why the queen had suddenly set out for the Black Cross.
“What could there even be to find over there……”
“Come on now, haven’t you heard? There’s a rumor she went there to break the curse of the ‘Fire Spirit Flower’ that’s been passed down through the royal family.”
“What? Then that would be state-secret-level information. How would the likes of you know that?”
“Just look at those troops. Not one or two, but thousands of them. How are you supposed to keep that many mouths shut? Besides, there’s no real reason to treat it like some huge secret.”
“That is true enough.”
Even as they idly chatted about the queen’s expedition, the adventurers kept their eyes fixed on the far-off sea.
The sight of five gigantic airships advancing toward the pirate ship caught within the colossal frozen whirlpool was more than enough of a spectacle to go with a drink, so even the tavern windows—which were usually kept shut because of the heating—had been thrown wide open.
“They’ll suffer divine punishment!”
At that moment, a sudden shout rang through the street like someone trying to ruin the mood. The adventurers, seemingly familiar with the owner of that voice, grimaced.
“That drunk old geezer again.”
“Puhaha! Sometimes he’s kind of entertaining to listen to. Says that back in his day, he even hunted a Rainbow Drake.”
Out on the street, an old man staggered along with a bottle in one hand. Pointing accusingly toward the queen’s airships, he shouted:
“You must not dare meddle with the Pirate King’s vengeful spirit! You’ll most certainly incur its wrath! Divine punishment will come down upon you!”
“Man, enough already……”
The adventurers were just about to complain that they were trying to enjoy their drinks in peace when—
……Kugung!
A shockwave erupted from the faraway sea, and a violent gust slammed straight into Lisbond Port.
Whiooooo—!!
“Ugh!”
Clatter! Rattle!
The windows and doors shook violently, and trash and newspaper scraps were swept through the streets, forcing passersby to stop in their tracks.
And then, everyone in Lisbond Port witnessed it at the same time.
“That…… what is that……”
“What in the……”
A crimson waterspout connecting the blue sky and the blue sea.
That red was deeply unnatural, yet so intense that it made the presence of all the surrounding blue seem faint by comparison.
Even veteran adventurers stood there blankly staring up at the sky. And in that moment, the drunken old man raised his bottle high and shouted:
“It’s a calamity! A calamity has come! The Pirate King has surely been enraged!”
“Old man! Shut up already!”
The Pirate King’s wrath?
To begin with, would the Pirate King even be capable of using a flame spell on that scale? Surely that had to be Queen Hong Seryu’s doing. That was what people desperately wanted to believe.
But—
“Damn…… that thing is coming this way, isn’t it?”
The flames swallowed even the clouds whole, then began scattering a rain of fiery sparks over the sea.
Chiiiiiiik—
As the sea repeated the process of melting and freezing, the terrain twisted and changed shape in an instant, and all the residents of Lisbond began to flee.
“Damn it!”
“If that reaches us, we’re finished!”
“Get inside the buildings!”
But……
that was not the end of the calamity.
Duku—
A new shockwave followed, different from the one that had accompanied the birth of the pillar of flame. Then came the sound.
Hwooooooo……
A terrible cry, as though some enormous being were screaming in agony, struck every passerby in Lisbond.
“Ghk!”
The scream was as if it had electrified human instinct itself. Those with weak constitutions collapsed on the spot and fainted, while even the hardier veteran adventurers ended up slumping to the ground.
And amid all that, the drunken old man remained standing, tipping back his bottle and shouting in a slurred, heavily intoxicated voice:
“Oooh, the Pirate King is coming. The Pirate King is coming……!!”
They wanted to believe it was a lie.
They wanted to dismiss it as the ravings of a drunk.
But unfortunately, the old man’s words were true.
Beyond that sea—
from the pirate ship that had been frozen for a thousand years, a gigantic blue figure slowly rose.
Its body stood taller than a mountain. Its head was as large as the pirate ship itself. Its eyes burned with a red light as vivid as that crimson pillar.
That colossal vengeful spirit, dressed in a pirate’s uniform,
finally awoke completely from its slumber and roared at the world.
How had things come to this?
Queen Hong Seryu.
Up until now, not a single one of her judgments had ever been wrong.
After all, she was the one who had taken all the things others called impossible and turned them into possible.
Born an illegitimate child, beginning at the very bottom of the line of succession, and finally rising to become an 8-Class mage and the queen of the great Kingdom of Adolevit……
There had been nothing she feared.
She had dismissed the old legends of her ancestors as nothing more than superstition.
Even so, she had a sense of duty.
To extinguish the spark of the Fire Spirit Flower in order to protect Adolevit.
She had believed that this was the only way.
Even when all her retainers opposed it and voiced their concerns, she had pushed it through by force.
Why?
Because she had lived her entire life that way—and had never failed even once.
Hwooooooo……
“Ugh!”
And yet, what in the world was this?
The moment the gigantic skeleton—taller even than the floating airships—turned its gaze toward her, Hong Seryu’s legs locked stiff.
“Y-Your Majesty!”
“Your Majesty!”
“O Sun above!”
“Please save us!”
The people bowed their heads and begged her for salvation, and even the finest magical knight order could do nothing before that monstrous calamity, looking only to their queen in desperation.
After all, the one who had caused all of this was the queen.
And the queen was also an 8-Class mage.
But……
that thing……
‘Impossible…….’
It was not something that could be measured by human standards.
That was, in the truest sense, an irresistible natural disaster.
‘……No. Even so, I have to stand against it.’
Hong Seryu used her staff to support herself and forced herself to rise.
‘Because I am the queen.’
And so, having only barely managed to pull herself up in order to face the Pirate King—
Chwarrrk! Kugung!
“Ugh?!”
From the pirate ship, massive chains wreathed in blue ghostly energy shot up and bound all five airships at once.
Fortunately, the force of the engines kept them from crashing……
but now, escape itself had become impossible.
The Pirate King’s vengeful spirit slowly looked around at the world, then fixed its gaze on Hong Seryu.
—You are the one who woke me with your little fire games.
“I am Hong Seryu, descendant of great Adolevit and its queen. State your name.”
—My name is…… Pirate King Black Belize.
His red eye-light gleamed sharply as he finished speaking.
—According to the ancient covenant, in return for waking me, the world shall be made to welcome eternal winter.
“No. I cannot allow that.”
Hong Seryu’s body slowly rose into the air, and crimson magic circles formed one after another, interlocking like gears.
‘……From bad to worse.’
At a moment when the Fire Spirit Flower had already gone berserk and the red calamity was covering the whole sky, Pirate King Black Belize had now declared that he would freeze the entire world solid.
Could there be anything more hopeless than this?
Some people might think that if fire and ice mixed, then perhaps nothing much would happen.
Only those who had never learned even the slightest bit of science would say something so foolish.
If the sky were covered in fire and the land became filled with ice……
then the earth would be completely annihilated, leaving nothing behind.
‘I have to stop the worst outcome.’
If she could just stop even one of those two calamities, then somehow……
Hwoooong!!
“Ugh!”
A violent gale swept in, and the flames Hong Seryu had raised scattered wildly in every direction. The wind might have strengthened the fire, but what use was that if the flames could not strike the enemy?
“Cheap tricks!”
Hong Seryu released an oceanic amount of mana, erected a massive shield, and detonated her flames explosively toward the Pirate King.
Kuuung!
But when the king merely swept his palm, the flames were extinguished with absurd ease.
And then, as a fierce wind mixed with ice spikes came flying in from his palm, Hong Seryu had no choice but to leap into the air and evade it.
“This much is nothing……!”
Hong Seryu kindled armfuls of flame in both her hands. As befitted one of the greatest among the 8-Class mages and one of the strongest flame mages alive, her magic was varied—and devastating.
Dozens of flaming ballistae appeared in midair and hammered into the Pirate King.
Red meteors were summoned from above the clouds and came crashing down.
And she even performed what looked like a miracle, making flames bloom across the frozen sea.
Explosion, destruction, flame.
Each time the Pirate King’s eye-light flashed red, enormous spears of ice rained down from the clouds and slammed into the sea, winds mixed with beautiful crystalline frost blew forth, and coral-like masses of ice sprouted from the sea to strike the airships.
Ice, typhoon, freezing.
It was, in every sense, a clash between fire and ice.
But the battle was one-sided.
No matter how much crimson she poured out……
Kugung!!
“Cough…!”
It was impossible to stain the Pirate King’s blue with red.
Struck by an ice spike that flew at her through the air, Hong Seryu crashed down onto the airship and pushed herself up with difficulty.
“Not…… not yet.”
But the moment she rose, a massive wave of flame came crashing over her, forcing her back to the deck once more.
“Hrk!”
Being a flame mage did not mean she was wholly immune to fire.
Perhaps because her shield had already been shattered, or perhaps because the Fire Spirit Flower’s enormous flames had splashed across her at the worst possible moment—Hong Seryu collapsed to the floor without even managing to regain her senses.
—Accept it. Such is fate.
She tried to rise by bracing herself on her staff with both hands, but there was no strength left in her anymore.
In contrast, the Pirate King’s vengeful spirit remained as powerful as ever.
It was a truly despairing situation.
“Ahh……”
Faced with the overwhelming defeat of Queen Hong Seryu—the very person they had placed their faith in—all of Adolevit’s magical warriors dropped to their knees.
And as if that were not enough—
……Kwakwakwakwaang!!
At last, perhaps the Fire Spirit Flower had completely gone out of control, because the pillar of flame that connected land and sky grew ever more violent, and finally began giving rise to crimson thunderclouds.
As the Wrath of the Incarnation of Fire—a thing that had existed only in legends and fairy tales—unfolded right before their eyes, everyone fell into despair.
Further resistance was meaningless.
Now……
they had no choice but to prepare for death.
Emotions swirled.
That sentence, on its own, made no sense in context.
Because emotions were not something that could literally whirl and spin.
And yet, Hong Biyeon was experiencing exactly that impossible phenomenon herself.
Anger, pain, and then despair again.
Countless negative emotions swept through her mind, and the flames buried deep within her heart blazed higher.
—Be angry. Angrier!
The palace attendants who had excluded her.
The maids who had looked down on her in subtle ways.
The queen who had openly discriminated against her.
The older sister who had tormented her mercilessly.
—It hurt, didn’t it? That’s exactly it! My, my, you’re more like the bloodline of fire than any child of fire I’ve ever seen! Did you know? That ‘Adolevit,’ the disciple of the Founder Mage and your ancestor, was exactly the same as you are now!
The voice kept whispering to her.
—She was always burning hot with fury. She turned anger into flame. Its power was astonishing! Flames wielded through rage can’t be controlled, but they’re magnificently destructive!
The voice sounded utterly delighted.
—Burn everything down! That is the very essence of magic, and the magic of Adolevit, the Great Flame Archmage!
Perhaps because it had finally found a familiar kindred soul after so very long, the joy in that voice was so intense that even Hong Biyeon could feel it clearly.
—Yes…… first, cover this sea in flame. Let the world know of your existence. Let them know that the Incarnation of Fire has revived! Let them know that the true descendant of Adolevit has appeared once again!
If she simply followed what the voice said, everything would become easy.
If she burned away everything that had hurt and tormented her, then she would no longer have to suffer ever again.
‘Let’s do that.’
And yet, she kept hesitating.
‘Why?’
To burn all the beings before her eyes—that was the true will of flame.
But something kept stopping her.
Kept telling her that she must not do it.
That something was……
the tiniest remnant of happiness still left in Hong Biyeon’s heart.
Whenever her mind began to be consumed by rage, the image of a certain boy would appear and vanish.
And each time that happened, Hong Biyeon’s reason slowly returned.
‘If I burn everything……’
Then in the end—
‘I’ll burn even happiness away.’
That could not be allowed.
Flash!
The moment Hong Biyeon opened her eyes, her crimson irises blazed brighter and hotter than even the Incarnation’s flames.
—……Huh? That’s not right.
The flames began to subside.
—Now this is new. Completely different. Different. All this time…… I’d thought Adolevit’s indiscriminate, rampaging flames were the true flame……
The pillar of fire that connected the sea and the sky steadily shrank, and the red clouds that had filled the skies above Levian Coast slowly began turning back into ordinary dark clouds.
—To think fire that cannot be controlled can be handled like this! Ha! Yes, this is fresh and interesting in its own way too!
And when the flames finally went out completely,
Hong Biyeon was flying.
A pair of flaming wings spread behind her, holding her suspended in midair.
“……W-What is this?!”
Someone cried out.
When she turned slightly to look behind her, she saw knights in the uniforms of the Kingdom of Adolevit.
Then she felt one gaze more clearly than any other, and when she turned fully in that direction, there was Queen Hong Seryu, sprawled on the ground, staring up at her with difficulty.
“How…… how is that possible……?”
Impossible.
Even if Hong Seryu were to add together every impossible thing she had ever faced and overcome, it still would not compare to this.
To say nothing of regaining her reason while being consumed by the Fire Spirit Flower—Hong Biyeon was even controlling those flames so precisely that she could shape them into wings.
‘Could it be…… she controlled the Fire Spirit Flower?’
No one who had inherited Adolevit’s bloodline had ever been able to control that thing.
There had been only one.
In all of history, only Adolevit—the descendant of the Founder Mage—had supposedly been able to wield it.
Within the royal family, it had long since become established fact that touching the Fire Spirit Flower was the same as committing suicide.
“I can’t believe it……”
Today, the people of Adolevit witnessed a miracle.
And because it was a miracle that had bloomed as a single thread of hope in such utterly desperate circumstances……
it could not help but be dazzling and beautiful.
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