“I can’t believe the stunts these ancient summoners used to pull,” I said.
“Back when I was a kid, I saw the floating cemetery from directly below once… So this is how it looks when you come in from the side. Almost makes me dread it.”
The actual floating cemetery, which we were seeing for the first time, was way wilder than we ever imagined. It wasn’t idyllic like the one you’d expect. At that very moment, the thing floating three thousand mejals above ground in front of us was a monolithic fortress equipped with an uncountable number of magical gun turrets.
First, in the center was a hemisphere, flat side up. Then around the hemisphere were eight hexahedrons extending vertically, which made me think of some fancy chandelier. The entire area of the cemetery was probably as large as a town and was covered in greenery resembling a thick lawn. I could also make out some squarish buildings. Now, the issue with all this was the eight hexahedrons that surrounded the hemisphere.
All six sides of each hexahedron were open, and each one contained a large number of protruding gun turrets. Each side probably had about thirty openings. Since there were eight six-sided hexahedrons, there were likely more than 1,440 gun-turret openings each, at least.
There was something vindictive about it, like there wasn’t an end.
I didn’t know if this was just the wrath they had for the grave robbers attempting to steal the cemetery’s artifacts or if it was the summoner’s collective’s fear of the infernal wyverns coming back, but at the very least, I knew that if we approached, the cemetery would recognize us as enemies.
Not to mention the fact that the Academy summoners were swarming the cemetery without any luck. No one was getting through the barrage. The mass of gun turrets, which fired destructive beams of light without pause in all three hundred sixty degrees, were shooting down one summoner on their winged mount at a time.
“Uh, so Lulua’s group is—there,” Cyril said. “They’re still in flight. I see… So even Lulua’s Holy Shield is as flimsy as paper when faced with the cemetery. Doesn’t look like relying on resilience will be a good way to progress.”
“Look, Feil. Sasha’s summon, Cecelia, is there.”
“’Course she is. Even Sasha couldn’t collect all the dropouts without her archangel.”
“Oh, I was just saying that she made it in time.”
“W-well, yeah. She probably had to bolt to catch up with the first group.”
“She’s so fast… She’s zooming past all the cemetery’s turrets.”
“Sasha’s archangel is fast, sturdy, and powerful—the trifecta. But she doesn’t have Zylgar beat in speed. It’s actually no contest,” I said.
“Ha-ha. That’s enough flattery.”
“It’s not flattery,” I said. “Zylgar’s an integral part of our rush strategy.”
“That’s just absurd. This all hinges on your effort, Feil. That’s what Myfila and I believe.”
“You’ve gotta keep going until you’re bleeding out your nose, Feil.”
With Cyril and Myfila saying that, I whistled instead of giving them a strained smile. Just thinking of the turrets turning their sights toward us made me choke on my own breath, but we couldn’t give up without making an attempt after getting all the way here.
“Ah, well. Guess it’s time to get this goin’, Cyril, Myfila.”
Half the summoners making an attempt on the cemetery had been eliminated.
Some headed home in dejection, others lost their summons and were rescued by Sasha’s archangel, and as the number of dropouts increased, so did the intensity of the turrets’ attacks on the remaining challengers. There was no time for deliberation.
“We’re goin’ at this accordin’ to the strategy we decided beforehand! There’s no callin’ it quits now, even if you’re scared!”
My words served as the start of it all—the dragon corpse sped up in an instant. We circled the cemetery below a single time, only receiving three or four warning shots, likely because we were still so far away.
But even that was enough.
“Whoa! This is what Lulua’s been dealing with?! Good god!”
I didn’t know whether I wanted to laugh or cry at the destructive force aimed at us.
I gritted my teeth, my jaw audibly grating as I tried to force down my cowardice. Just as several of the turrets shifted targets, I cried out, “You’re up, Myfila!!”
Immediately, the giant dragon arched and lowered its head.
It whipped its wings, beating at the air to gather speed, then after that, it stopped fighting against the wind or gravity. Before I knew it, we were going so fast, I couldn’t even catch my breath. We’d rushed through the storm of destructive beams, which had been launched a moment too late.
In all, it took just five seconds—the gigantic dragon corpse, the champion of the skies, disintegrated in just five seconds.
The black scales were sent flying by the blast of the beams. As the light pierced through, opening gigantic holes in the corpse, the wounds spread and tore the flesh asunder. The dragon’s head, no longer able to maintain its shape as it was obliterated, tumbled onto us in pieces where we were on the dragon’s back. Its folded wings were pierced through the base, sending them flying through the air while the concentrated fire atomized the remaining bits.
All I could do was pray we wouldn’t die.
The dragon’s decrepit flesh scattered into the sky around us and fell to the cemetery like snow.
As the time approached when even the chunk of flesh we were clinging to would be obliterated, I heard the terrifying roar of a great beast. Something tugged at the back of my cloak with unimaginable force, and the scenery revolved around me.
It was the Tiger-Saber King, Zylgar.
When I got a chance to look, a four-legged beast was carrying both me and Myfila in his mouth, inexplicably sailing through the air. He held both our cloaks like we were kittens in a mother cat’s mouth. Only Cyril sat on top of Zylgar’s back. He held on tight to Zylgar’s long fur with both his hands, stooping his body as low as possible as he expertly rode the beast.
Then…
“Run, my spirit! Zylgar!”
…Zylgar sprinted across the firm ground. Several of the horns that extended from his body cut through the air.
Zylgar had no wings. The footholds he used on his path through the air were the fragments of dragon that had been scattered throughout the sky.
He wove to the right and left so fast that human eyes wouldn’t have been able to track him.
“C-can’t…breathe…”
“Just bear with it, Feil. Don’t you dare pass out.”
As we zigzagged down, we fully dodged dozens of beams shot at us. Even the floating cemetery couldn’t keep up with a thunderbolt.
It would’ve been easier to blast away each of his footholds than to shoot Zylgar, and whatever was pulling the trigger on those turrets likely had the same thought. In the next moment, the beams were all targeting the dragon’s pieces of flesh.
Cyril yelled, “Feil! You’re up!”
I’d been whipped around so mercilessly, I almost did feel a nosebleed coming on as I shouted, “Dammit! Get over here, swarm!” Then I focused my powers on the scenery directly in front of me.
This was a summon without an incantation. You could only use it for simple summons, and it took a heck of a lot of magic, but it was fast. I could summon instantly through thought.
A giant swarm of insects spontaneously gushed from out of nowhere and formed a mass of ten thousand tiny bodies that became Zylgar’s new footholds.
“If I summon too rapidly, I’ll die, all right?!”
After Zylgar took a step, I immediately recalled the swarm and summoned them in the next spot. They wouldn’t have been able to keep up with Zylgar’s speed, so this was what had to be done. Zylgar made up for my timing inaccuracies. I searched around dizzyingly, trying to predict and send the swarm to where Zylgar was headed as his stepping stones.
“Feil! Your summoning is slowing down!”
“I see that! Just shut up for a second, Cyril!”
The beams, which continued to fire incessantly, blasted away half the swarm Zylgar had just been on—but honestly, who cared about that? My summon was literally just a swarm of insects. Losing half their number wasn’t really an inconvenience. And if I recalled and resummoned them, they’d be revived to their original number.
We’d already gained some distance in our descent using the dragon, so we just needed a little more until we were on the cemetery’s lawn. I could even see the waves of billowing ankle-deep grass from here.
Just like we’d planned, Zylgar had been able to beat the cemetery’s turrets with his speed to reach this place from above. So long as he had footholds, that is.
“Th-this is getting tough…!”
I’d been using so much of my magic that I could feel a headache coming on in the back of my head and temples. My nether regions were clenched up, and I felt weak in the knees. My vision wavered for a moment, and immediately, everything around me was blotted by darkness as my vision tunneled. My heart had already been hammering away for a while.
How much longer?! How many more extempores until we’d be out of range?!
Any mistake here was life-and-death. Even Sasha’s archangel wouldn’t offer a hand in salvation here.
Was our future to touch down on the cemetery, or would it be death? Those were our only two options.
I’d come all the way here with the sole purpose of mobilizing the Legendary Beast of the Last Realm, Pandora. But putting our lives on the line for the floating cemetery had been a dumb move. This was the thought that crossed my mind as my reserves of magical energy began to fade along with my consciousness.
I was filled with regret, even after discussing today’s floating-cemetery attempt with Cyril and Myfila.
That’s why I gripped the breast of my cloak and growled to myself, “Get it together, big guy. I said I was gonna get this done, and I am.” I grasped the coin pouch around my neck, which never left my person, as tightly as I could. Even my ears, which had turned ashen white and grown deaf, could hear the faint sound of the coins jingle.