Kiriana, like Alon, anticipated that it would take three days to reach their destination.

In the game, it had taken only two.

Naturally, moving with a larger expedition meant more time was needed.

However, Alon harbored a small doubt during the journey because of the actual distance. 𝒻𝑟ℯℯ𝑤𝑒𝑏𝑛𝘰𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝒸𝑜𝘮

Whether on the Psychedelia map or on the map Kiriana had spread out, the distance to the swamp wasn’t particularly long.

Roughly, one could reach it with just a day of steady travel.

So it was incomprehensible why it took two to three days to cover such a distance—but about a day into the expedition...

“Crazy.”

Alon realized just how mistaken his thoughts had been.

He looked down in shock.

Below lay a massive canyon.

And that wasn’t all.

Beyond the canyon stretched a chain of rocky mountains, and beyond those, another canyon seemed to begin.

Even the canyon at the edge of his vision was split into dozens of branches.

“It was because the path was rough.”

The realization made him dizzy.

Perhaps Kiriana had set the travel time to three days not out of cruelty to the expedition, but because even that felt tight.

He was thinking this as they began to descend into the canyon when—

[This canyon, it’s man-made.]

Suddenly, Basiliora’s voice came.

“What?”

[Exactly what I said. This canyon is not a natural occurrence.]

Basiliora, whom he had summoned from the coat pocket over his chest the previous day out of boredom, was looking around seriously for the first time since being subdued.

[It certainly seems so.]

“Why do you think that?”

[Look, isn’t the canyon itself split into an oval shape?]

“Hmm.”

Alon looked down at the canyon.

He hadn’t noticed it before, but as Basiliora said, the canyon was indeed split into an oval shape.

[Ordinary canyons don’t split like this.]

“...So it’s artificial just because of that?”

[That’s not it. There’s an echo here.]

“Echo?”

[Yes. It’s very old, but definitely present. It seems like it was made by a battle, given the mixing of two echoes.]

“...I can’t imagine it.”

His head shook on its own.

Such a majestic canyon seemed far too grand to be merely the trace of a battle.

Still feeling a strange suspicion, Alon moved on and, after some time, arrived at a small, twisted canyon.

“There are multiple paths.”

“In this case, the left path seems like the best option.”

“Is that so?”

“Yes, let’s take that path. It’s wider than the others, so even if it takes a bit longer, it seems like the better choice.”

“That makes sense... Everyone, move to the far left path!”

Yutia and Kiriana discussed the route.

Watching the two of them, Alon suddenly recalled what Basiliora had said earlier.

“Basiliora.”

[What is it?]

“This canyon—was it also created by a battle?”

[Um—yes, no... maybe.]

“...If it’s yes, then it’s yes. If not, then it’s not, right?”

[Well, it is, but—]

Perched on Alon’s shoulder, Basiliora stared at the canyon with a strangely subdued demeanor.

Or rather—

‘Is he looking at Yutia?’

It seemed Basiliora was watching Yutia, who was talking with Kiriana in the distance.

‘Not sure why he’s being cautious, but...’

He had a rough idea of what might have started it.

It was because of what had happened yesterday.

Last evening.

Bored of just looking around, Alon had summoned Basiliora as a playmate for the squeaking Blackie.

[Get me out more often, it’s suffocating! I can see outside, but I want to wander around!!]

As soon as Basiliora emerged, he flew into a rage, scolding Alon.

‘Oh, what a cute snake.’

[I am the great god Basiliora!]

‘Snake, can I listen to you for a moment?’

[I am not a cute snake. Noooooo!!!]

‘If you allow, I would like to keep you for a while.’

Yutia, divine power in hand, had dragged Basiliora’s spirit form off somewhere.

And the little snake that came back shortly after had started watching Yutia’s reactions.

Alon had been curious about what Yutia had said and asked Basiliora multiple times, but he wouldn’t answer.

Even when he asked Yutia—

‘Huh? We just had fun, My Lord.’

That was all she said.

It only made things more puzzling.

Given the state Basiliora had returned in, “just playing” didn’t make any sense.

But the recollection was brief.

“My Lord, let’s go.”

Following Yutia, who was smiling softly, Alon once again moved toward the canyon.

...Even afterward, Basiliora’s eyes trembled anxiously whenever they turned toward Yutia.

After another two days passed—

“...Is this the place?”

“We’ve arrived.”

The expedition reached the swampy area where Rikrakamur of the forest abyss was located.

As the expedition trekked through the forest, they encountered it.

In the middle of the forest, not a bald hill, but Rikrakamur itself.

In the middle of the swamp, its size wasn’t fully obscured even by the water, and the soldiers went pale, as if their morale had been broken just by its presence.

The knights also wore grave expressions.

Their faces weren’t as pale as the soldiers’, but blatant fear was clear in their eyes.

It was understandable.

Rikrakamur, presumed to be sleeping in the swamp, was far too vast for mere humans to kill.

“I knew about it from stories, but... it’s bigger than I thought. Can we really kill it?”

Even Kiriana spoke with a voice full of doubt.

Yutia answered with a quiet smile.

And Alon—

“...I will now explain the plan.”

He began without hesitation.

*****

A blue moon rose late that night.

Kiriana quietly looked up at it, then turned her gaze and spoke.

“Begin.”

“Yes, understood.”

At her command, a knight gave a light nod in a certain direction.

Recognizing the signal—

“Turn~!”

The soldiers began turning the massive pulley.

Creak-creaaaaaak!

As dozens of soldiers moved in unison, a rusty noise rang out as the pulley slowly began to turn.

At the same time—

“The northern pulley has started to turn!”

“We’ve started the eastern pulley!”

“Signals are up from the west and south too!”

Reports from the knights came in one after another.

Kiriana nodded lightly, recalling Marquis Palatio’s explanation from earlier.

“The coalition’s task is simple.”

“There are a total of four pulleys in this swamp, aligned with the cardinal directions. Once I give the signal, you just need to turn all four simultaneously.”

“After you turn the pulleys, monsters will swarm in, and all the coalition needs to do is hold them off.”

A very simple and straightforward plan.

Watching the soldiers struggle with the pulleys, Kiriana revisited the question lingering in her mind.

‘How does Marquis Palatio know that there are pulleys here?’

As far as Kiriana knew, not many people were aware of Rikrakamur’s existence.

Originally, no one except the coalition forces could go beyond the borders, and unless you belonged to them, the existence of Rikrakamur was something you would only know from ancient texts.

Yet, strangely enough, Marquis Palatio seemed very well-informed not only about Rikrakamur, but also about this swamp.

As if he had been here before.

‘...What?’

Just as that unsettling doubt began to form in Kiriana’s mind—

Thump! Thuuuum!

A massive sound, signaling that the pulleys had fully turned, made her stop thinking and look around.

“The water in the swamp is draining!”

“...The water?”

It was true.

With a tremendous roar, the water in the swamp began to vanish into some unseen underground depth.

As Kiriana watched the water level drop rapidly—

“...Crazy.”

At a knight’s low curse, she involuntarily hardened her expression and looked straight ahead.

There lay Rikrakamur, just as it had been sleeping when they’d first seen it that afternoon.

A gasp of horror escaped her.

The creature’s bulk was gradually revealed as the water level fell.

“Is that... a living creature?”

At the knight’s whispered awe, Kiriana also fell silent.

She could only empathize deeply.

‘Can we really kill that?’

Doubts scrambled wildly through her mind.

It was as enormous as a great fortress, and as the depth decreased and more of it emerged, just one breath from it was enough to send the local birds into a panicked, noisy flight.

Even Kiriana, who prided herself on reaching a superhuman level, had to humbly acknowledge the limits of the human race.

Overwhelmed by its sheer size, she felt involuntary awe.

...

She then looked toward Marquis Palatio.

He was moving forward.

Toward Rikrakamur, whose single tooth was so large it would take five men standing together to match it.

Eventually—

Sighing deeply, the Duke looked ahead.

Rikrakamur still hadn’t awakened, but its mere breathing shook the earth, inflicting even on Alon an unimaginable sense of pressure.

Even for someone like Alon, there was no magic that could effectively damage a monster of this size.

Nor could he suddenly create new magic with higher firepower than before.

He was not that much of a genius.

However, the fact remained that they had to deal with this monstrous creature.

There was only one thing he could do.

Application of magic.

Alon, a severe cold spreading from his armor, quickly muttered an incantation.

Slower than Duke Komalon, but certainly faster than the old Alon.

“Frost Barrier Extreme.”

The moment he uttered the last word, the magic that froze everything within the conjured space burst forth.

Crrrrrack!

It unfolded above Rikrakamur’s head.

The magic, constrained in both space and time to save mana, lasted only two seconds.

In that brief moment, a massive crystal formed above its head.

The crystal that formed at first, certainly capable of wiping out dozens of monsters in a single strike, was still too small to inflict meaningful damage on Rikrakamur’s massive body.

However—

Multiple Manifestation.

Alon’s magic, having already laid out a spiral structure of magical energy, deployed Frost Barrier Extreme once more.

Crrrack!

And on top of that, he deployed it again.

Crrrrack!

What ultimately formed was a giant crystal large enough to finally impact Rikrakamur’s massive body.

Watching the floating crystal, Alon sealed another incantation and twisted the laws governing it.

“Spiral.”

At his chant, the law embedded within the incantation infused into the crystal.

The arrangement of icy magic twisted into a spiral.

Its sharpest point spread across a wide surface like floating debris, releasing a sound akin to a tree breaking, scattering remnants in all directions like spring snowflakes.

Only then, belatedly awakened by the snowflakes assaulting its body, did Rikrakamur open its eyes.

“Rotation.”

But Alon, undeterred, twisted another permitted law.

At his chant, the crystal began to rotate clockwise, obeying the law of gravity as it plummeted to the ground, its spiral incantation granting it the penetrating power to pierce the monstrous creature’s tough hide.

With a thunderous crash, it pierced through Rikrakamur’s body.

Simultaneously, the last thing Alon invoked was—

“Shatter.”

Violently breaking the arrangement of rotating magical energy.

With that, the crystal that had pierced through Rikrakamur exploded like a bomb and scattered.

Under the blue moon, a bloom of ice flowers blossomed.