With the short yet intense collision over, silence returned. Gerd was nowhere to be seen. The only thing left was a growling dragon.
“Oh. You defeated him.”
Several boys showed up just then. They gathered around Jinguuji Tomoya and called out to him. They were his supporters. There were only five of them, but they were all warriors who used to be part of the exploration team.
“That sure was flashy.”
One of them smiled at Jinguuji Tomoya, who was still in the form of a dragon. He got no reply, though.
“Hm? Jinguuji?” the boy asked curiously. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing...” Jinguuji replied, remaining somewhat reticent from exhaustion.
The dragon shook its head. Its enormous body then stooped over and its clawed hands swept the floor, revealing a Dimensional Cornerstone.
“That was...”
Jinguuji Tomoya recalled the last moments of the clash. When the barrier shattered, a figure had run over to Gerd as the torrent of destruction was about to engulf him. It had been the Holy Order’s marshal, Harrison Addington, and the exploration team dropout, Kouzu Asahi.
Seeing them getting caught in the attack, Jinguuji Tomoya had stopped at the last second. Setting aside Harrison, Kouzu Asahi was one of the visitors he’d sworn to protect. They were probably severely wounded, but definitely still alive.
The Dimensional Cornerstone on the floor was the one Harrison had dropped upon getting caught in the blast. This was a mistake on Harrison’s part, but in a certain sense, it was fortunate for him.
After all, the Dimensional Cornerstones resonated with each other. Jinguuji Tomoya was in possession of Draconia’s Dimensional Cornerstone, just as he’d shown Gerd, which was why he’d been able to find Harrison’s stone so quickly. Had Harrison not dropped it, Jinguuji Tomoya probably would’ve hunted him down and killed him.
“Hey. What’s wrong? Why’re you still in dragon form, anyway?” one of the boys asked casually.
Jinguuji Tomoya looked down at him. He didn’t mind explaining, but it felt like it’d be a huge pain to do so. There was a haze over his thoughts. His emotions felt so distant, as if a thick cloth had been draped over them. His ability to focus on anything aside from his goal had been sacrificed for strength. And that wasn’t all. He was significantly exhausted. He’d used far too much mana to remove Gerd from his path.
“Whatever, it’s nothing.”
In the end, he kept his reply brief. Gerd had definitely suffered a fatal wound. And seeing as how Harrison wasn’t coming out, he was probably unconscious under the rubble. If they weren’t getting in his way, there was no reason to dig them up. It was a waste of time to talk about it. That was what he believed, and he didn’t feel any emotion about it either.
His desire to speak with his comrades had dried up. But that was fine. He didn’t need anything unnecessary. Nothing mattered anymore except for his goal.
“Shall we, then?”
The one to speak up was the last person to show up. He was wearing a mask much like Jinguuji Tomoya had and held a bizarre black sword in one hand. The eyes beneath his mask narrowed sharply as if he understood Jinguuji Tomoya’s current situation.
“We don’t have time to waste, right?” he said.
“Yeah...”
The boy’s desire to get things moving matched his own, so Jinguuji Tomoya had no reason to object. He ignored his exhaustion and advanced while still in dragon form. One of his objectives was down this hallway. It was a door—the door to the Dimensional Cornerstones’ vault.
✦ ✦ ✦
A boy beneath the rubble stared at the group departing, stifling his breath.
“S-Sir Harrison, they’re gone,” Kouzu Asahi whispered in a fluster. “I’ll go after them. If necessary, I can at least take one with me...”
His will was the real thing. This wasn’t the flimsy sense of justice he’d once possessed. He seriously wanted to stake his life on this. However, Harrison stopped Kouzu Asahi from acting rashly.
“You’ll only die in vain if you face them all at once. Well, Jinguuji Tomoya might not kill you, but it’ll still be useless on your own. You have to survive...”
His voice was calm, but his mind was full of anger and panic. Harrison clenched his teeth hard, holding Gerd’s corpse in his arms. He’d saved Gerd from Jinguuji Tomoya’s attack, but the feedback from the barrier being destroyed had been fatal for the archbishop.
Still, Gerd had resisted to the very end. In the short time before his death, he’d left behind a message. Someone had given Jinguuji Tomoya information about the Dimensional Cornerstones. Jinguuji Tomoya was planning to destroy the Dimensional Cornerstones. And...
“There’s still hope.”
Already suffering from severe injuries before this, Harrison’s wounds were even deeper now. Nevertheless, he resolutely spoke his will.
“The world will be destroyed at this rate. None who live here can claim to be unaffected. So, we must tell him—we must tell the one who holds the key and compass to save the world.”