It was an eruption out of nowhere.
The roar the mountain unleashed as its entire body trembled awakened a fear engraved into our very genes.
Before the power of nature, humanity was nothing more than an insignificant creature—that immutable truth. Who could defy such an instinct?
Unless they had already attained an insight transcending their very species.
I was the first among our group to regain my senses.
We were halfway up the mountain, so I could not see the summit properly, but there was no mistaking the source of the pure-white smoke spreading outward like ripples.
Heavenly Sword Mountain had exploded.
But why?
It was not a dormant volcano, much less an active one.
To begin with, wasn’t this towering mountain not even terrain formed through volcanic activity?
That was not the only strange thing.
Normally, when a volcano erupted, part of the mountain should have been blown away by the force of the explosion.
I should also have sensed the pouring lava and volcanic ash, yet my senses detected no such abnormalities whatsoever.
All I could see were pure-white clouds spreading outward in rings.
Unexpectedly, the clue to answering my questions was close at hand.
There was one person here who had shown no agitation whatsoever at the explosion.
My eyes immediately turned in that direction.
Toward my nemesis, whose personalities had only just switched, allowing her to regain her original body.
She was in quite a miserable state.
“Ugh…… C-Cough! Hgh…….”
She was coughing…