“We’ll begin in the early morning, before dawn—say, four o’clock. That’s exactly an hour from now.” The Demon’s voice sank into the darkness as he peered at his pocket watch. It was impossible to see the depths of his emotions, obscured as they were by the muddy darkness.
The cover of Pluto’s pocket watch had been broken off, either because it was more convenient that way or simply because it had been damaged from overuse.
“It’s dangerous to move at night when we’re up against dragons that can see in the dark, but the danger will remain even if we wait longer. That’s why I’d like each person to be notified. Our objective is the dragon sanctuary.”
The Numbers all nodded and stood as one—no, not quite at the same time. There was a varying amount of hesitation among the group.
Pluto extinguished his sorcerous lights and the darkness deepened. Orphen glanced around and found that the Thirteen Apostles now had only the bare minimum of light to illuminate the area. The stars and the moon in the sky were much brighter. Their light reflected off the wastes, creating geometric patterns with beams of light.
Pluto puffed up his chest in front of the line of Numbers and wrapped the meeting up. “If we were given this power by a mere trick of fate, then it is my belief that in times of danger, we must use it to protect those without power. What we stand against now is the destruction of the very continent itself. Be ready.”
“Yes, sir.” The Numbers were surprised to hear Maria Huwon answer that way. Even Pluto raised an eyebrow slightly, but the expression was quickly gone. With a quiet signal, they dispersed.
Orphen watched them from a few meters away. He turned on his heel, just as silent as the rest of them.
Orphen returned to his companions and found them snoring. He looked around in the dim light and saw Majic curled up in a blanket, the dwarves lying spread-eagle on the ground, and Claiomh leaning against Leki, all of them asleep. Orphen sneaked around, careful not to wake them, and kept looking. Leki wasn’t sleeping; he had his head raised and was staring straight at the forest. The lord stood at a slight distance, leaning against a cane and looking in the same direction.
Isabella raised her head from where she sat on the ground, hugging her knees. “Done talking?”
She must have been awake all this time. She looked tired. No, maybe she had slept, but she couldn’t have had good dreams. Orphen groaned, remembering the piles of corpses littering the wastes. He wondered what dreams Majic and Claiomh might have been having.
Shaking his head to rid himself of the thought, Orphen muttered, “Yeah. We’ll be setting out soon... Under an hour now.”
“You want to wake everyone?”
“No, we should let them sleep a bit more. I’ll get everything ready.” He glanced at the luggage but found that Isabella had already gotten everything together. She’d even dug a hole in the ground to get rid of their garbage. It was just like her to be so efficient.
Orphen looked up at the sky. Dawn was still far off. “Are we really so impressive?”
“Huh?”
Orphen gave her a slight smile—it wasn’t a thought he’d had in relation to her. He didn’t know what sort of expression he should be wearing on his face. “Pluto believes we should bear the burdens of the entire world.”
“He sure does. What about you?” Isabella wore the same kind of wry smile.
Orphen shrugged, relieved to see it. “I...don’t think we can. I can’t think that way. All this time, I haven’t even been able to bear my own problems.”
“I know what you’re trying to say. You think we’re too arrogant, don’t you?”
Orphen didn’t agree completely, but he said nothing, simply waiting for her to continue.
Isabella straightened out her hunched shoulders and stretched her limbs, still sitting. “I talked with that Majic of yours. He’s angry with you. Wants to know why the world’s greatest sorcerer doesn’t have any confidence.”
“I saw all sorts of people trying to save the world in Kimluck. Ironically, they all died. Azalie was one of them. When I see Pluto and Miss Maria acting the way they are now, I just can’t bring myself to support them.”
“Knowing the situation, I’m sure you can’t stop them either, though.” Isabella’s voice cracked slightly. “I’m the same way. I tried to stop Miss Maria and asked her why she made the decision she did about Irgitte. But when I heard her reasons...”
“If I let you and Miss Maria die, Irgitte’ll haunt me... I know I should try to think of a way where no one has to be sacrificed.”
“That’s just an ideal. But reality is pressing...” She stopped.
Before she could resume talking, Orphen shot a glance at Claiomh, Majic, and Leki—even the snoring dwarves, and said, “There’s nothing more pressing to me than a reality in which someone has to die.” He probably didn’t need to say something like that to a member of the Thirteen Apostles, who had lost over fifty members just half a day ago.
Orphen walked away, unable to bear the awkward atmosphere any longer. Isabella didn’t stop him. He naturally found himself heading for the lord.
After a few steps, Almagest turned toward him. He must have noticed Orphen’s approach. The man stood with his cane under the moon. The shadows on his face made him look much older than he normally seemed. The word “prophet” came to mind when Orphen looked at him, as well as the word “reaper.”
“Can you really call this a war?” Those were the first words out of the man who looked like a prophet—or possibly was a prophet. His voice continued, foretelling a dark future. “We have no hope of victory. Even if we do win, we don’t receive anything for being victorious. All I can see is despair.”
“You make it sound like if we fulfill some kind of condition to make it into a proper war, there is something we could get out of it,” Orphen said bluntly. “We’ve already lost people. There’s nothing we could get that would make up for that.”
The lord must have sensed some hostility in Orphen’s tone. He smiled magnanimously as if to say he was forgiven and continued, “We cannot avoid a confrontation with the sanctuary. Even Pluto and I could not join forces. We share a goal, yet could not accept one another. And the sanctuary plans to abandon the whole lot of us.”
“They want to shrink the Ayrmankar barrier... Is that true?” His breath was white now. The night was cold out in the wastes. Either that or his body temperature had risen. Orphen felt it was the second.
The lord nodded. Determining that no one was watching, he tossed aside his cane and made a shape with his hands like he was holding something round. Then he brought his hands closer together, shrinking the invisible object. “If the hole is because the barrier is stretched too thin, then all they need to do is shrink it. It’s a natural assumption. The problem is exactly how small they plan to shrink it.”
He brought his hands so close together there was practically no gap between them before continuing. “The sanctuary has been planning this for over ten years. No...over two hundred years, perhaps. Either way, it doesn’t matter. Now that they’ve lost Aureole, the Celestial Ayrmankar, they’re finally committed to betraying the continent. What surprises me is the existence of Doppel X.”
“Meaning?”
“At first, I thought Doppel X appearing outside of the sanctuary was a mere show of force. But I was also aware of how questionable that idea seemed. The sanctuary was perfectly defended by the Deep Dragons. A show of force was completely unnecessary. I only learned the truth recently.”
The lord neither tensed nor frowned. He merely spoke slowly and clearly. “The problem was the region the barrier would shrink to cover. The Ayrmankar didn’t want to gamble again. They decided to shrink the barrier to its smallest possible size to ensure the elimination of the gap. They decided to save only the burial chamber housing the Ayrmankar and abandon the rest of the continent in its entirety.”
He’d heard the same thing from Maria, but the lord had slightly more information. Damian had probably sniffed out the information from the Network of the Misty Falls’ white sorcerers.
Almagest kept going. “Doppel X are those who have been abandoned by the sanctuary. A group called the priestesses lead Doppel X. They’re trying to collect whatever power they can to pressure the founding sorcerers. Even though they know it’s a fool’s errand.”
“Then we should work with Doppel X—”
The lord cut him off immediately. “Impossible. Don’t misunderstand. The barrier must shrink. Doppel X simply want it to encompass the entire sanctuary. They still plan on abandoning everyone beyond that.” He lowered his hands.
The lord bent down and picked up his cane. “I wish to use the Second World-Seeing Tower to summon the demon king and push out the goddess who has already begun to manifest in this world. Then I need to think of a way to reinforce the barrier somehow. Needless to say, this is a far riskier endeavor than the plan of the sanctuary, or that of Doppel X. You might even call it nothing more than buying time. In addition, just as you said, we have no idea if we’ll be successful in summoning the demon king or not. Even the Celestials required a great deal of time to summon a single book. And even if we succeed, we may simply double the number of threats we face.”
He planted his cane on the ground and continued, “We’ll need to think of the government after, as well. The sanctuary will have to be subjugated so that they never betray us again...by force or whatever else.” He paused.
Then his voice deepened. “The Union of Lords was able to make use of the Thirteen Apostles. I know what I said earlier today, but the reason I didn’t want them in the line of fire was because if we wage full-on war with the sanctuary, I know they’ll be wiped out completely, and if that happens, it will diminish the power that humanity wields. If we’re going to take control of the sanctuary after this is all over, I’d like to prevent any additional losses among the Thirteen Apostles. So our interests align in that we’d both like to stop the Thirteen Apostles, do they not?”
“They do.”
What was it the lord was trying to say? Orphen had an idea, as if he’d stolen the lord’s prophetic powers. Because he was prepared for it, he didn’t back down when the lord leaned forward to look him in the eyes.
“Let me give you some advice, then. That said, you might already know this. In short, Pluto is the key.” He lowered his voice as quietly as he possibly could and Almagest whispered to Orphen, his voice rasping with intent. “The Thirteen Apostles are done if Pluto dies.”
“...True enough,” was all Orphen said in response.