As the golden moon dropped toward the ground, Alon’s ability to process what he was seeing was ripped away.

The view that had been fixed on the mouth right before it closed was washed white, and instead of any usable information about what was happening, all he could hear was a constant ringing—like electronic feedback.

And then.

When Alon’s sight and hearing finally started working again, what he saw was the devouring one’s body, crushed into a ruin.

“......!”

Alon’s mouth fell open before he could stop himself.

It was that shocking.

The enormous mouth that had swallowed Colony’s royal palace whole—half of it was simply gone, as if something had chewed it off.

From the space where it had been ground away, red blood—blood like a human’s—poured down like a waterfall and soaked the ground.

And lastly, that slack body, seared by lightning and reeking of heavy char, made it plain:

A massive Divine blood had met its end.

For a while, Alon just stared, blankly.

Then—

“?”

—he felt something was off.

Just a moment ago, he had been bound by the venom-swallowing one’s threads and held in place above the devouring one’s mouth.

So why—

Alon slowly turned his head.

“.......”

“.......”

And realized he was in Seollang’s arms.

Like a princess.

“.......”

“......”

Alon looked up at Seollang, who was gazing down at him without a word, and thought—

‘...What the hell just happened?’

The beastkin holding him didn’t feel like Seollang.

The air around Seollang was different.

Even the appearance was different.

And yet Alon knew.

Instinctively.

This was Seollang.

He had no idea why Seollang had changed into this, but Alon opened his mouth to speak to Seollang—

[Huh—!]

—and couldn’t.

Alon frowned at the presence the venom-swallowing one was giving off beyond the devouring one.

Even after being torn apart by Basiliora and Blackie, and getting smashed by Seollang’s Falling Moon, it was still maintaining its body to some extent.

And above its head—

“Ts—!”

A rose.

Death was blooming.

[What a shame. It’s already over.]

A beautiful flower bloomed—one that would grant an equal death to everyone.

And as Alon watched red fog spread in an instant before Alon could even form hand seals—

‘Too late.’

Alon let out a low, bitter sigh.

If it hadn’t bloomed yet, there was something Alon could have done.

But once it reached this point, there was nothing left.

Because Alon didn’t have any magic that could stop poison fog that had already spread across more than half the sky over the city.

And that fog—

“That’s—”

“This is insane—”

“...Ah.”

—was going to cut off everyone’s hope again.

The fighters who noticed it first.

The mages digging tunnels with Penia right after.

Even the citizens, watching the fighters and mages react.

Just as fear was about to swallow everything—

Alon, staring at it in a daze, formed hand seals.

Because one thought flashed through Alon’s mind.

‘At least this—!’

Alon didn’t know if it was possible in this condition.

But Alon couldn’t just stand there and watch it spread.

‘Somehow—’

As Alon braced and steeled resolve—

Thud.

Seollang, who had been watching the venom-swallowing one with Alon, carefully set Alon down on the ground.

“......Seollang?”

“I’ll be back.”

Even at Alon’s call, Seollang only answered # Nоvеlight # calmly—

Ts—!

—and vanished from in front of him.

Like Seollang had never existed in the first place.

Alon was about to voice the question rising in the wake of that instant—

Kwaaaaaaaaaaaaa—!!!!!

The place Seollang had been exploded, far too late, with a thunderous boom.

That wasn’t all.

As if everything was only now chasing after Seollang’s movement, the instant Seollang appeared in the sky, everything on that straight line detonated in a chain.

And then—

Pajik—!

Golden lightning burst out of Seollang’s body, and Seollang’s body turned gold.

The form of the Thunder God that Alon had seen again and again.

But the next moment, Alon saw it.

Like it was a lie, storm clouds spreading over Seollang’s head.

At the same time, Seollang lifted a hand upward.

“Strike.”

At that indifferent voice, the hand dropped.

Kwaaaaaaaaaaa—!!!!!

A thunderstorm began to hammer down on Colony.

A thunderstorm slamming across the entire city like it meant to erase everything on the ground.

And the moment Seollang lifted a hand again and ended the thunderstorm—

“!!”

The red fog that had spread across the whole sky over Colony vanished, as if it had never existed.

And the flower of death that had bloomed above the venom-swallowing one crumbled weakly to dust.

[That’s impossible—!]

A flustered voice burst out of the venom-swallowing one, which had been certain it had won. 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝙚𝔀𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝒐𝒎

[......Ha—!]

Then, as if it couldn’t believe this nonsense, it let out a hollow laugh.

[......Fine. If this is how it’s going to be—]

The venom-swallowing one—

[I’ll just kill everyone.]

It spat the words out like it was grinding them between its teeth, and began spewing threads in every direction.

Woooong—!

A magic circle appeared—the same kind Alon had seen near the First Prince, the kind that summoned those unusual entities.

Except this time—

“Insane—”

—unlike the First Prince, there were dozens of circles around the venom-swallowing one.

And before Alon could even do anything—

Kwaddeudeudeudeuk—!!!!

Unusual entities began to pour out of those dozens of circles.

The numbers weren’t even comparable to what Seollang had blocked earlier.

It was overwhelming.

Enough to make everyone there choke out a groan.

The venom-swallowing one used its scattered threads to blot out the sky again.

But there was a difference.

This time, as if it had prepared for the thunderstorm, it layered and layered those hundreds of thousands of threads until the sky was completely sealed off.

At the same time, the spiderweb it was weaving spread across all of Colony in an instant.

And then, those unusual entities began raining down like madness along those webs, filling both the air and the ground—

[This time, I’ll kill every last one of you......!]

Chiiiiik—!!!

Melting its own body and starting to bleed, the venom-swallowing one began forming the flower of death again.

And at that sight—

“Ah......”

Someone let out a low groan.

Whose voice it was didn’t matter.

Everyone here was being swallowed up by despair.

It was that overwhelming.

The sky was covered by threads, and the world turned gray.

Around the venom-swallowing one, the unusual entities it had just been stopped from summoning—now came pouring out in numbers dozens of times greater.

Those entities crawled along the enormous spiderweb the venom-swallowing one had laid, packing the sky and the streets so tightly it looked stuffed, and they advanced, bringing death with them.

The flower of death above the venom-swallowing one’s head was once again waiting to bloom, erasing mana as it gathered power.

Everything about this scene—

made despair feel unavoidable just from looking at it.

But then—

Pajik—!

Everyone there heard it.

A tiny crackle of rupture that lasted only an instant.

And then—

Pajijijijijik—!!!

Golden lightning tore open that hopeless gray world where even the sky had been blocked off.

And they saw Seollang, pouring out brilliant gold.

Seollang’s form was different from the Thunder God they’d seen up to now.

It wasn’t just that Seollang’s body was dyed gold—

Seollang had become lightning itself.

Dazzling, blazing lightning.

And then—

Ts—!

—the instant it vanished, with a split-second of silence—

Kwaaaaaaaaaaa—!!!!

golden lightning flooded through the entire space.

No one could see Seollang.

All they could see was that brilliant gold spinning madly—

and the sight of hundreds, maybe even thousands, of unusual entities bursting apart under that gold.

Pajijijik—!!!

Like that, the lightning devoured the world.

“...Hah.”

“Wow......”

Someone breathed out in disbelief.

Someone whispered in awe.

And then, at the very end—

[No—! This can’t be—! This is just a single, insignificant—!!]

The venom-swallowing one tried to force the flower of death into blooming anyway, even as lightning exploded from all sides.

And Seollang appeared above it.

Before it could even move—

“Wolf Spear, Wolf Spear—”

—Fang Wolf.

Wrapped in golden lightning, Seollang shot down, piercing straight through the flower of death and slamming into the venom-swallowing one.

And with that lightning that punched through the sky and struck down—

they saw it.

Seollang landing lightly on a shattered roof.

And—

Kwajijijijijik—!

the venom-swallowing one’s body, screaming with a howl packed full of incomprehensible rage,

■■■■■■■■■■■-!!!!!

shattering into pieces and painting a spectacular sea of red blood.

“.......”

When the venom-swallowing one’s threads that had covered the sky disappeared, sunlight spilled over them.

But none of the people there looked up at the sun.

...Because something even more brilliant was standing right in front of them.

####

In the end, the devouring one and the venom-swallowing one were killed by Seollang, and Colony escaped the brink of annihilation.

But it wasn’t a situation that could simply be called good.

“Marquis, you were here?”

“Evan.”

Late at night, Alon, who had been staring blankly at Colony’s panorama, turned at Evan’s voice.

“Whew— it’s kind of cold.”

“......Normally, there’s a temperature-maintenance spell cast over the whole city by the red Mage tower. But not now.”

“In a situation like this, it’d be crazy if a spell like that was still running.”

Clicking tongue as he looked out, Evan followed Alon’s gaze back to the front.

Colony’s panorama was still spread out there.

...Smashed to pieces so thoroughly it looked less like a city and more like ruins.

“...I’ve followed you around long enough to see cities break a lot, Marquis, but this is beyond what I imagined.”

“I see.”

Alon agreed with Evan’s words.

Colony’s situation was worse than any city he’d seen before.

Just among the buildings in sight, you could count the intact ones on one hand.

The center of Colony, where the royal palace should have been—

Alon stared at the enormous hole torn open there, lost in thought for a moment.

Then—

“Evan.”

“Yes?”

“......Is Seollang all right?”

“Ah, for now. The diagnosis is that it’s basically just fainting from using too much power.”

“That’s a relief.”

Alon let out a breath he hadn’t realized he’d been holding.

Right after Seollang dealt with the venom-swallowing one, Seollang had stared down at the Divine blood that had become a corpse amid that horrific sea of blood—

then suddenly returned to the original appearance and collapsed on the spot.

“Then when will Seollang wake up?”

“I heard it’ll probably be around tomorrow.”

“That’s a relief.”

“...By the way, Marquis—are you all right?”

“What part?”

“Your condition. You don’t look good. Is it really okay for you to be out here like this?”

“......”

Evan was right.

Unlike before, Alon could deploy magic faster now, which let Alon conserve processing power.

And because Alon could burn through mana quickly in a lot of ways, the burden of using Reverse Heavens was gradually getting lighter.

Of course, that didn’t mean Alon had completely overcome Reverse Heavens yet.

This time too, to fight the venom-swallowing one, Alon had kept Reverse Heavens active longer than necessary.

And because of that, Alon would have to lie still for a few days and recover.

Alon knew that.

He knew it, but—

‘...Those eyes.’

Alon remembered Seollang’s eyes.

That inorganic look, like Seollang was staring at something that meant nothing at all.

...And because of that, they had looked sad.

“......”

Alon understood perfectly well that something had changed in Seollang.

But no matter how much Alon understood, the look Seollang had shown gave Alon an intense sense of wrongness and alienness.

Enough that even now, Alon couldn’t stop worrying.

“......Let’s go back inside.”

“Good call....... Though it doesn’t look like the worry’s gone anywhere.”

Alon headed for the temporary lodging with Evan.

But like Evan said, Alon’s worry about Seollang hadn’t gone away, and it was written plainly all over Alon’s face.

####

“Is your body all right?”

“I’m fine, Your Highness.”

The next day.

After waking up, Alon met Karsemm, who had come to Alon’s room.

“...I truly thank you, Marquis.”

After exchanging basic greetings, Karsemm bowed his head without hesitation.

“Lift your head. Your Highness should become king now, shouldn’t you?”

Alon tried to wave it off, but Karsemm only shook head and continued.

“No. If I’m to become king, then I should bow even deeper. A king is someone who bears responsibility for all people and leads them rightly, not someone who leans on power and lifts his head.”

“.......”

“I truly thank you. If it weren’t for you, Marquis, everyone in this Colony would have been sacrificed to them.”

At Karsemm’s repeated thanks, Alon stopped trying to block it.

He only found himself thinking, without meaning to, that a Colony with Karsemm as its king instead of Karaan might shine even brighter than it did now.

But only for a moment.

“I don’t want to show my gratitude to you with words alone, Marquis. But right now, with the city......”

As Karsemm continued, Alon quietly turned head.

Colony’s view was no different from yesterday.

A view that felt more like ruins than a city.

Alon answered without hesitation.

“I’m fine, so focus on rebuilding the city.”

“......Are you truly sure that’s all right?”

“Yes. If you need it, I’ll also ask around on the Mage tower’s side.”

At that, Karsemm seemed to choke up, shoulders trembling as he kept head lowered for a long while.

“Truly... truly, thank you......!”

In a voice wet with emotion, Karsemm thanked Alon once again.

Right after Karsemm left—

“Marquis.”

“Evan.”

“Are you all right?”

“No problem.”

“Then that’s a relief, but...... did something happen with the Second Prince?”

“Why?”

“I mean...... he kept sniffing like crazy and muttering your name.”

Alon heard a bit of backstory from Evan—something that might’ve seemed a little odd to anyone watching.

Then Evan got to the point.

“Marquis. The information guild sent something new—an interesting report.”

“......Even after we ended up like this, the information guild is still moving?”

“We got it through a crystal ball.”

“......What is it?”

“Do you remember? Caliban said last time it was under attack by Divine blood.”

“Did something happen to Deus?”

Alon asked reflexively.

But Evan shook head.

“No. If something had happened to Deus, do you think I’d be here like this?”

“......Then?”

“Caliban got through the crisis.”

“......Even though Divine blood invaded?”

“Yes.”

“......Did Deus stop them?”

“Of course he did, but Deus didn’t stop everything by himself.”

“Then who?”

At Alon’s question, Evan hesitated like he was trying to decide how to say it.

“Um, Marquis... I want to ask you something, just in case. Is that all right?”

“......What is it?”

“Were you actually a real god in your past life, or something?”

Evan asked that.

“......What are you even talking about?”

“No, literally.”

“You’re asking that seriously?”

“I am.”

At Alon’s reaction—like the question made no sense—

Evan explained what he’d heard.

“...Apparently a Divine blood in the shape of a gigantic giant helped Caliban.”

“What? Divine blood?”

“Yes. And it said it was sent by you, Marquis.”

Evan relayed the information exactly as received.

And then—

“......?”

Alon’s face filled up with question marks.

...Me?

Me, really?