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THE color of the world around them changed, as if someone splashed dye across everything. That’s the feeling Lushera had.
“What the…?” Cristophe let out a cry of shock, which was very unlike him.
It wasn’t just Lushera who felt it, then—he did too.
It was like stepping out of a cozy room warmed by a fire to a freezing wind lashing you. There was a feeling of cold, cruel helplessness, the feeling of your life being threatened.
Some fatal something rippled out from the battlefield, rewriting the world.
“Things feel different! Is this—?”
“The worst possible situation. He did it. He actually did it!” Cristophe scowled, his teeth bared like a beast. “The bastard! Does he really intend on destroying everything?!”
Any land that was freed of the control of its dracovitae would eventually regain its power and run wild, turning into a place where humans couldn’t survive. Setrayu had lost the dracovitae’s suppression and was slowly reverting back to its uncontained state.
What Julian did now was spur that destructive change on. He used the Hurricane of Insight to manipulate the world, further breaking the shackles that were already on the verge of falling off.
If he just wanted to cause cataclysms on the battlefield, all he had to do was use the dracovitae’s power. Doing this meant he was trying to throw them off-balance by putting the entire country of Setrayu in danger and forcing them to deal with that threat.
It was a strategy as evil as joining hands with a devil.
Martgarz couldn’t get away anymore with just calling this Julian’s little rampage of one. Even if they used him as a scapegoat, Setrayu would demand some sort of recompense for this. But that wasn’t necessarily a good outcome for Setrayu either, as they would become Martgarz’s enemy.
If you throw a stone in a pond, it may sink to the bottom, out of sight, but the ripples it causes spread even farther.
There would be chaos in the humanoid world. As stories of the Human-Dragon War turned to legends, they still maintained a certain level of stability, but Julian was trying to plunge that into disarray.
And yet, the people there at that moment couldn’t worry about the repercussions on international peace that might come from this. This moment would decide if they lived or died—if every person who lived in the kingdom of Setrayu lived or died.
In times of peace, the dracovitae were constantly used to arrange the chains that bound the world, calming it. These powerful binds, layered upon each other, were not so weak that they would be broken simply by an equal force applied in the opposite direction. Theoretically.
But the power of the world that had been held back was pushing, helping undo the seals, and it had already been a few days since Setrayu lost its lock, the Hurricane of Insight, meaning the chains were already beginning to rust.
They could only guess how long it would hold. There had never been a similar event to base their estimates on.
“Grrrrrr…”
“Mom!”
Kaphal wheeled in the sky, growling as she passed over the mountain to its south side.
Dark, heavy clouds began to spread across the previously blue sky. They started above the battlefield and steadily spread south.
It was like a drop of ink in clear water.
Kaphal turned towards those clouds.
“Groooooar!”
Fire exploded. The sky lit up, like there were two suns in the sky, Kaphal’s spray of fire breath burning the rain clouds.
This wasn’t just brushing aside the clouds by launching flames at them. Dragons by their very nature were connected to the world, their power was made of the same thing as a dracovitae’s power. Or rather, a dracovitae was made with the intent of imitating a dragon’s power, allowing human will to manipulate it.
Kaphal was canceling out the power emitted by the Hurricane of Insight, wiping it out.
It was just to buy time. Without it though, the closest town to the mountain, Kugut’hulm, would be swallowed by storms, resulting in the deaths of several thousand people or more.
“Not even the dracovitae’s power can immediately spread to the whole country… How long can she hold it back?” asked Cristophe.
“I have no idea!” Lushera responded.
Even this, Cristophe had anticipated and planned for, though it was the worst possible situation that he had hoped wouldn’t come. Kaphal was the only one who could defend against the dracovitae, buying time, but that meant they had to take back the dracovitae without Kaphal’s help.
“Attack! The enemy can’t retreat now. Take the high ground! Make no mistakes when leading the variants!”
Cristophe’s expression as he issued orders through the charms wasn’t without hope, but it was grim. Every single one of his decisions had life-altering effects on a lot of people, not even just the people there. Anyone with a decent conscience would feel pressure in that situation.
“We will all give our lives if need be to stop the dracovitae. But that does mean…” he trailed off.
“I know.” Lushera gritted her teeth.
What he said, he didn’t say lightly. With the situation as dire as it was, they couldn’t be picky about their methods if it meant protecting the entire country of Setrayu.
And what was the easiest way to stop a dracovitae?
“Before we do that, please just let me try once. I don’t want it to end like this,” said Lushera.
She still hadn’t given up, though.