I didn’t have time, so my manipulation of the world was rather reckless. I couldn’t pick my targets. I expelled everyone at once. I was no exception. We were all forcefully ejected from the fabricated world and teleported into the forest where the Dimension Door had been left behind.
“H-Huh? We’re...outside?”
Lily had been expelled while still lying on the ground. Upon noticing the change in the situation, she got up, but I had no time to answer her.
“Master?”
My breaths were ragged. My heart pounded in my chest. Despite this, my sweat was cold and it felt like I’d swallowed a lump of ice deep into my stomach. In that last instant, the gaze Nakajima Kojirou had directed at me and the emotions hidden within it had chills running through my entire body.
“What the hell was that...?”
Astonishment, joy, a pure expression without a hint of falsehood—that made it all the more terrifying. The favor Nakajima Kojirou directed at me hadn’t changed at all after having his identity exposed. It was abnormal. I couldn’t understand. It was terrifying.
There was no point getting trapped in such thoughts now, though. I forcefully shook away the image that’d been burned into my mind. At any rate, we’d accomplished our goal. I could feel the hardness of the Dimensional Cornerstone in my hand. So long as I had this, even if only for a short time, the world could escape the clutches of the Calamitous King.
“Master?”
“Aaah, sorry, Lily. I’d love to explain, but we need to link up with the others first.”
Our first priority was getting everyone back together. We then had to contact the nearby dragons of Draconia and return to the imperial capital as soon as possible. Fortunately, using the senses of my magic mist, I knew there were no enemies nearby. I could feel my companions gathering together by tugging on the mental path. The moment I’d expelled them from that world, I’d made sure that they’d ended up as close to me as I could manage.
“Looks like everyone’s here.”
“Takahiro! Aaah, thank goodness. You’re unharmed!”
“Takahiro! Takahiro!”
“Kuuu!”
“Majima Takahiro, what’s going on...?”
Lily, Shiran, Lobivia, Ayame, and Berta—they’d all suffered wounds of different sizes. However, we were all together now. I let out a sigh of relief. It’d been close, but we’d gotten through. It was thanks to everyone doing the best they could. If anyone hadn’t been there to help, we wouldn’t have gotten away.
Yes, we’d done the best we could. Which meant this was hopeless. Once he became our enemy, no matter how much we struggled, this had already been the predetermined outcome.
“Wah?!”
I heard a thunderous roar. By the time I sensed the abnormality, it was already too late. The world shattered around us. That was the only way I could describe it.
“Oooh?!”
Trees were uprooted and sent flying away and the ground was gouged out. A torrent of light that couldn’t be mistaken for anything else mowed down everything in its path as it closed in.
This was impossible.
Even if I was exhausted, the Misty Lodge was still in effect. I should’ve been able to sense anything within two hundred meters. That meant the attack had come from beyond that range. It was a long-distance, wide-area attack. There was no running away from it, and there was no time to try. I watched hopelessly as it destroyed everything in sight.
“No!”
Even so, my two strongest servants reacted. Lily’s arms turned into giant tortoise shells with an iron luster to them as she jumped in front of everyone else. Shiran used every last drop of her mana to intercept the light with magic from all four of her spirits.
And then everything was engulfed in that far-too-powerful light. Even their do-or-die devotion was no match for it.
Nothing made sense anymore. I simply couldn’t understand.