K’rik was surprised. After all, they were in the middle of the ocean, with no land in sight. A stranger talking to him from behind was the last thing he’d been expecting—especially since he and his subordinates had kept an eye on their surroundings during their debriefing, to ensure no humans were around to hear it.
Aside from possessing all the ordinary detection methods, lizardmen had eyes that allowed them to see heat signatures, even in total darkness. Right now they were on the water’s surface with nothing around to obstruct their keen vision. It should have been impossible for someone to hide from them, and yet it seemed as though the voice’s owner had appeared out of nowhere. It was no wonder they were surprised.
K’rik whirled around, getting his first good look at the sudden intruder. She didn’t appear particularly strange—a human or an elf, or perhaps something in-between. But one couldn’t make assumptions based solely on appearance. K’rik’s mistress, for example, looked like nothing more than an ordinary human. It was possible that this stranger was also hiding her true form somehow.
Still, what K’rik saw was a white-haired woman with pale blue eyes. She stood on the surface of the water—no, she was hovering slightly above it. Some manner of levitation spell?
Did that mean she was a mage? But what would a human mage be doing here? Had she come to destroy him? That would make sense—the people of Lucaris would have more than enough motivation. Yet, if they’d possessed someone capable enough to sneak up on K’rik’s entire unit without them noticing, why had it taken them so long to send her?
K’rik hadn’t the faintest idea what was happening. Still, starting out with negotiation was always a safe option. Fortunately, she seemed willing to talk—after all, she’d initiated the conversation. That was a sign that she didn’t want things to devolve into hostilities immediately, at least. And if she did opt for bloodshed, that would make this simple, in its own way. All he would have to do then was fight with his life on the line.
“Who are you?” K’rik said. “Why are you here?”
Rather blunt questions, all told, but they belied no schemes or tricks. K’rik genuinely just wanted to know. Perhaps something she said would give him an idea of her objective, or at least a hint that would point him toward some theory.
However, the woman’s answer was something K’rik never could have foreseen.
“Well. I thought Canhel was nearby, so I came to chat, but it seems you’re just her errand boy—one who’s drawn a rather short straw, from the look of it. I suppose she wouldn’t have expected me to show up here, though.”
Canhel. That was the name of K’rik’s mistress.
The demon lord Canhel Avara, queen of scales and sky. Her name was no particular secret, so it wasn’t surprising that the stranger knew it. What was surprising was her sheer bravado—most people feared the demon lord and refused to even utter her name. That was only more true the more familiar one was with her—K’rik, at least, would never dare. The times he was forced to address her, he stuck to titles of respect, such as “Your Majesty” or “Empress.” Perhaps something else equally as lofty, but never her name.
Yet, the woman before him, despite seemingly being familiar with the demon lord, spoke it with no hesitation. That alone was enough to make her terrifying. It was unfathomable.
But K’rik could not allow himself to be intimidated. His mistress had charged him with a duty to fulfill. He might have been a new addition to the demon lord’s army, and an insignificant one at that, but it would be a stain on his mistress’s name if he fled with his tail between his legs from a single human woman. Not to mention, what would await him upon his return would be equally as terrifying.
K’rik drew his spear from his back holster and held it at the ready. “Do not dare to utter her name so lightly,” he growled.
The woman smiled. “Not a trace of visible confusion despite the fact that I appeared out of nowhere. I’d expect no less of dragonfolk. Still, a lizardman does not a dragon make—which is not to say you don’t seem to bear some promise, though your strength pales in comparison to theirs. Why not delve the Dungeon of the Sea God’s Daughters yourself? I’ll overlook you, if you do. I cannot speak for those other three, but you should be able to leave before even a decade has passed.”
“Don’t play games with us,” K’rik spat. “We could not last over a day in that dungeon, lest we risk becoming its puppets.”
“But with enough iterations of Existential Evolution, you should be able to break free of its influence and escape...one day, anyway. You should be more than capable. All lizardmen, really.”
“Now you’re just telling fairy tales. No lizardman has ever undergone Existential Evolution.”
Existential Evolution. It was a possibility granted unto monsters—but lizardmen were generally considered to be a demi-human race. To the best of K’rik’s knowledge, there had never been a lizardman who’d experienced Existential Evolution. As a child, he’d asked the elders of his clan, but even they had not heard of such a thing.
After all, lizardmen were not monsters, and thus were barred from the potential monsters possessed. Even those such as K’rik, who served under a demon lord.
The strange thing, though, was that lizardmen would be subsumed by a dungeon if they dallied within one for too long—a phenomenon said only to happen to monsters. The information seemed contradictory—were lizardmen monsters or not? Alas, nobody existed who could tell them.
The woman must have had some idea of K’rik’s anguished thoughts. “It seems you’ve lost much, haven’t you?” she said. “Though I suppose that isn’t particularly relevant to me.”
K’rik gave her an uncomprehending look.
“Leave,” she said plainly. “Begone. I would appreciate it if you did not approach this area for some time.”
“Don’t be ridicu—” K’rik, on the verge of scoffing, cut himself off. The woman had, in an instant, gathered a frightening amount of mana. K’rik gripped his spear and brought it to bear, but it was already too late.
“Thus I command the silver moon upon its seat in the heavens,” she chanted. “Accept my power, accept my person, accept my plea. For weak waters cannot cleanse a thousand years of dishonor. Tidal Wave.”
K’rik had never heard such an incantation before, nor had he ever heard one delivered with such speed. He had never seen a spell performed with so much mana, and he didn’t even recognize the language the woman was using. Little wonder, then, that the spell’s results came as such a shock to him.
There was a low, deafening roar, loud enough that K’rik felt it in his core. Behind the woman was a wall—one that reached up to the sky and had not been there even a moment ago.
No, it wasn’t a wall. He knew what it was—a wave. One larger than any he’d ever seen. And it was currently rushing toward K’rik and his unit with startling speed.
“R-Retreat!” he yelled. “Retreeeat!”
K’rik grabbed his subordinates, who were gawping at the wave in dumbfounded shock, and spurred their mounts to flee in the opposite direction—even though he knew it would prove futile. The wave was simply too fast, and far too large. Once it engulfed them, it would be all over.
He chanced a look back as he fled, only to catch one last glimpse of nothing but an unending wall of blue.
✦ ✦ ✦
Eventually, the water settled and became calm again. The cry of a seagull could be heard in the distance. Hovering above the water, a solitary woman muttered to herself contemplatively.
“A decent effort, I suppose. And I did hold back, so chances are they’ll survive. Either way, this will have bought enough time for him to see to his business. Now then, I suppose I must see to my own...”
And then, all of a sudden, she was gone. Nothing remained but a stretch of a tranquil ocean and the gentle sound of lapping waves. So peaceful was the scene that it was almost as if the tumultuous events of a moment ago had never occurred at all.