Who could have imagined the end of the world would be so banal, and come so swiftly?
The attack on the Forbidden Land, the humiliating defeat, the wild proliferation of free districts─it had all taken but a single month.
Toto Ryl of the Curled Horns, one of the few remaining Grand Magisters who still adhered to Danna Ryl’s cause, had not hesitated to launch an attack on a town in his domain when it declared its own liberation. He had been quick to heed Zaza Ryl’s counsel all those years ago, and thanks to the Nurabehn farms he had built, his tower now had a more comfortable store of mana than most. As a result, putting down the hastily assembled and barely trained army of the slapdash free district had been like taking candy from a baby.
But now Toto Ryl cursed his foolishness. It was three days after he crushed the free district that the dragon came, bearing a single young man upon its back. It was night, but rather than take advantage of the cover of darkness, he alighted in the city’s well-lit central plaza. After dropping him off, the dragon ascended into the sky once more, leaving the young man behind. No one attacked him─after all, he was alone and unarmed. What was there to be wary of?
So when he said, “I’m here to negotiate,” Toto Ryl invited him into his tower. He underestimated the young man. Toto Ryl had put down the free district and had plenty of mana in reserve─it never even occurred to him that a lone Nurabehn might be capable of doing him harm. And when the young man said to him, “You attacked a free district, didn’t you,” Toto Ryl responded with arrogance.
“Attacked a free district? Pacified a lawless area, I think you mean. This negotiation you speak of─do you mean to beg for the lives of the Nurabehn I have captured?”
“No. We warned you, and you ignored that warning. Now I’ve come to make good on it.” The young man dropped to his knees and laid both hands against the ground, almost as if he was prostrating himself before Toto Ryl. Then his bluish-purple eyes flashed faintly. In an instant, all the lights in the city were extinguished. The streetlamps went out, and all the thaumaturgical devices ceased to function. Toto Ryl felt all the city’s mana rapidly draining away, and he stood there stunned by the strange feeling in the air.
“Wh-What is happening…?! What did you do…?!”
“Exactly what we warned you of.” All was dark─but even in the enveloping blackness, the young man’s bluish-purple eyes shone faintly. “This land has been stripped of all its mana. You and yours will never use a wizard device again. You attacked the free district despite the knowledge that this would happen─that’s how desperately you needed to destroy a place where the people only wanted to live in peace.”
“Someone! Seize this Nurabehn! He carries some device for the stealing of mana! Take it from him and restore my power!”
“Have you ever heard of a device capable of drawing mana from an entire region, let alone storing it?” asked the young man with a cock of his head.
Toto Ryl realized then that he hadn’t─and as a Grand Magister, he was conversant with every thaumaturgical device in existence. It cannot be. If such a thing existed, whoever came into possession of it would rule the world.
“Kill me, and all the mana I took will be gone forever. We are selling mana recovery potions─but only to the free districts. Therefore, if you were to swear right now to liberate all the lands under your control, I could sell them to you, too.”
“Who would ever accept such a ridiculous bargain…?!”
“You think it’s ridiculous? Then I’ll be leaving. And I won’t be back for any more negotiations─I take it that’s okay with you?”
“Yes, begone! I will not lick the boots of savages! I can simply draw more mana from the Nurabehn!”
“How do you intend to do that? Your wizard devices no longer function, and you can’t use magic─you no longer have the power to fight. The Nurabehn are far more numerous, and we can manufacture great quantities of magic potions to arm them against you. If you’re talking about violence, I’m afraid you’ve just lost the upper hand. Please don’t worry, though,” the young man continued. “My companions are delivering mana potions to your hospitals and children’s facilities even as we speak. Unlike you, we’re possessed of reason and compassion. However─” Here he paused for a moment. “Your people allowed you to attack the free district, and some even participated in the attack. They wished to live in luxury using the mana gained from the captured Nurabehn. That is unforgivable. You people may think of the Nurabehn as livestock, but to me you’re nothing more than the insects that swarm around such beasts.”
As Toto Ryl adjusted to the darkness, he began to see more than just the young man’s shining eyes: the band of Nurabehn lined up behind the lad, for instance, with weapons at the ready. Toto Ryl was afraid then. He thought of the Nurabehn─of the way he had treated them, and of the vengeance they would seek.
“I…I wish to negotiate.” Toto Ryl’s voice was trembling, but he finally managed to squeeze out the words.
The young man’s lips twisted into what seemed like a terribly cruel smile. “Then speak with them.”
“With the Nurabehn?! Unthinkable!”
“Why? In the free districts, there are no Exinov or Nurabehn. Everyone is equal. These people are district leaders…so if you’re going to be the leader of this district, you’ll be on equal footing with them.”
“Th-That is…”
“If you don’t want to do it, feel free to nominate someone else in your place. We’ll sell mana potions here based on the terms agreed upon with the free district leaders. Please don’t worry, if you think the terms are at all unfair, we’ll take that under careful consideration.”
“B-But…!”
“Ah, how could I forget? The free district leaders who’ve come here today all have a certain number of mana recovery potions with them.”
With that, the young man departed, unwilling to listen to another word of Toto Ryl’s objections.
Word of this retribution spread throughout the land like wildfire, carried on a wave of fear. In the days that followed, many of the keys declared their territories to be free districts.
+++
“A report has arrived for you, Grand Magister Zaza Ryl of the Twisted Horns. Toto Ryl of the Curled Horns has declared his tower a free district.”
Out of the corner of his eye Zaza Ryl glanced at the beastservant who had slipped into the room to deliver the report. “I see,” was all he said before falling silent once more.
In the underground control room of his tower sat a massive wizard’s cauldron for the spawning of new thaumatheria, its mouth set into the floor of the great hall above. In ages past, mana and the souls of living beings would be poured into this to produce beasts whose forms reflected the souls from which they were made. Because the process consumed huge quantities of mana, no new thaumatheria had been created in a hundred years, but now the cauldron was full to overflowing with mana─some collected from the farms, some given by the Ignas who served the tower, some taken from the Grand Magisters who had betrayed them. Oddly enough, that meant that within the wizard’s cauldron, mana from all strata of society was mixed together equally.
All that remained was an appropriate soul offering, and the ceremony would be complete.
Danna Ryl had sunk into despair, not emerging from her tower for a full month now. With the Keybinder unwilling or unable to make the effort to restore their trust, the Grand Magisters of the towers had betrayed her one after the other. Less than ten remained now, and with Toto Ryl’s defection, more were sure to follow suit.
“…How tragic. A thousand years of loyalty, undone in so short a time…”
Our stability and prosperity depended on a lack of other powerful presences. We should never have permitted Har Bell to set out for the New World. Even if the ranks of Nurabehn offering up their lives to us diminished, and the Exinov population itself gradually diminished as a result, such a gentle decline would have been a fitting end for our world. At the very least we could have died with our pride intact, instead of being trampled, ground into the dirt, forced to accept a world where Exinov and Nurabehn are treated as equals.
“Lord Zaza Ryl. With all due respect, I do not think it possible for us to repel the Forbidden Land’s invasion. If we continue to resist, we’re doomed. You are the only one capable of convincing Lady Danna Ryl. I owe much to my lady, and I would not see her suffer further. Please, if you─”
“Convince her?” Zaza Ryl raised an eyebrow. “And how do you propose I do that? Surely you aren’t suggesting I counsel Danna Ryl the One-Horned, Keybinder of the tower and greatest of the Grand Magisters, to bow before the Nurabehn?”
His glare alone was enough to make the beastservant shrink back in fright. Ordinarily, Zaza Ryl cared nothing for the lives of his beastservants, but this one was different; this one had been granted to him by Danna Ryl personally. The beastservant had been abused by an Ignas master, discovered by Utsuwa in a pitiable state, healed by Danna Ryl, and finally given to Zaza Ryl. This was the reason Zaza Ryl made some allowances in the way of free speech, and why even now the beastservant had not fled the tower.
“I cannot blame you for being unable to think of any other solution with that foolish beast’s mind of yours. I will convince her. She despairs of this world, laments her humiliation, but I will show her that even now the world belongs to her.”
The gatekeepers have been destroyed, the Exinov have betrayed us, and now the Ignas and Nurabehn possess the means to fight. The situation is dire, I will not deny it. But if I had power enough to turn the tides, if I could use that power to protect Danna Ryl…I might still be able to change things. For that… “I, Zaza Ryl of the Twisted Horns, will become this world’s─will become Danna Ryl’s─new gatekeeper.”
The beastservant cried out, but it was too late.
Zaza Ryl cast himself into the great cauldron. His body sank into the bluish-purple liquid, and in an instant his flesh had melted away. His soul, free now of its physical body, mixed with the swirling mana, and he felt himself swelling larger and larger. Immeasurable power, a feeling of omnipotence. Suddenly the cauldron was too small─it cracked, shattered, and Zaza Ryl crawled up out of the wreckage. Still he felt hemmed in, as if even the great hall of the tower was too small for him.
It was then that he caught a glimpse of himself reflected in the eyes of the terrified beastservant: a jet-black dragon with great, twisted horns, looming over the hall like dominion incarnate.