A few days ago.
When Crown first heard Ash request to wake Jörmungandr. And when he heard the request to have Jörmungandr join this battle.
Crown thought.
'Is he insane?'
No, of course, he knew the guy was crazy. But this was an utterly mad demand.
As Ash said, among the remaining monsters in the Lake Kingdom, the only one that could match Night Bringer was Jörmungandr.
But how could he wake that mythical worm (as Crown called it), injured and sleeping underground? Even if he did wake it, how could he get it to fight?
"He owes a debt to our monster front."
Ash said this calmly.
"Especially to Damien. He saved him when he was dying, healed him, and sent him back."
"Do you think a monster repays favors?"
"Well, that snake friend did say 'I won't forget' with his own mouth. It would be nice if he repaid us when we need it."
"Debts aren't usually repaid at the time you want."
Even if Crown played the flute to wake the sleeping Jörmungandr.
The likelihood was higher that he had forgotten such a trivial debt. Monster thinking was very different from humans, and beings from the mythical age were even more so.
They didn't regard favors as favors or grudges as grudges, and such small matters would likely be forgotten.
Worse, it could wake and, driven by instinct, continue its northern journey, destroying Crossroad.
"We're betting on the possibility."
But Ash was unwavering.
"Jörmungandr is neither a good nor an evil being. It's closer to a natural phenomenon. Hence, it's a gamble worth taking."
"..."
"Even if it just becomes a variable, that would be good."
In the end, Crown surrendered.
"I'll try, but don't expect too much."
"I have high expectations, Crown."
Ash laughed mischievously and patted Crown's back. Crown flinched and shrugged his shoulders. It was annoying how he suddenly acted friendly.
'Desperately grasping at anything when cornered...'
Crown mocked Ash as he headed deep into the Lake Kingdom, but soon his expression hardened.
Clinging to false hope, desperately trying to grab even a straw, he was the same.
Wanting to protect his sister from unavoidable corruption... dreaming such an unattainable dream, he was the same.
"..."
Crown sighed, gripped the flute, and headed towards the 'deepest burrow' where Jörmungandr slept. It wasn't far from the Underworld Village.
"Alright, let's give it a shot."
The end of the world was already near.
And waking the coiled snake with the sound of a flute and making it dance was, after all, what clowns always did.
***
Crown then continuously played the flute for several days to wake Jörmungandr.
Jörmungandr writhed in pain. Every time it did, the whole underground trembled. But due to the serious injuries, it took time to wake up.
Crown didn't give up and kept trying to wake the world serpent.
While Ash's expedition failed.
While Ash fell to the Underworld Village and became a dragon with black dragon's blood.
During the second confrontation where he lost again...
Crown struggled to wake the mythical monster. And then...
Rumble!
Finally, it opened its eyes.
The entire Lake Kingdom shook as the world serpent lifted its massive head from the underground burrow.
Woken by a human's flute instead of the laws of nature, Jörmungandr looked particularly displeased.
The serpent glared at Crown with half-open, yellow eyes filled with murderous intent.
Hiss-!
With a chilling hiss and hot breath, Jörmungandr pushed Crown back. But Crown remained unfazed.
"The end of the human world has come."
At this point, it had been 48 hours since Night Bringer landed in the human world.
The destruction of Crossroad was obvious. Still, Crown had done everything he was asked to do.
"World serpent, they say you owe the human world... and that sniper."
"...!"
Jörmungandr's eyes grew colder as its long tongue flicked. Crown continued.
"At this rate, that sniper will die too."
Crown didn't expect his words to work at all.
"..."
Jörmungandr squeezed its half-open eyes shut, then eventually opened them completely. And then.
Rumble, rumble...!
It raised its body and began to climb up the cliff.
"What the..."
The one who was surprised was Crown.
"Is this actually working?"
***
Twelve hours later.
Southwest of Crossroad. Observation tower.
"Damn..."
Holding a broken pistol under his chin, Damien was preparing to commit suicide.
The last head of Night Bringer's auxiliary heads opened its massive mouth and approached Damien.
Damien preferred a clean death over being mocked by the monster.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Boom, rumble...!
The ground trembled, and it sounded like the world was collapsing.
Damien tightened his grip on the trigger. Tears flowed down his closed eyes.
'Ban, I can finally be with you...'
At that moment.
- Don't forget our promise.
An unforgettable girl's voice echoed in Damien's mind.
- We promised to explore this whole outer world. To see this vast world with our eyes.
To the end of the world...
Together.
"..."
Remembering the promise, Damien's trembling stopped.
Then.
- It's an order, my trigger.
The voice of the man he followed, the command he heard during their first battle, brushed past his ears.
- Blow off that damn monster's face.
Damien opened his tightly shut eyes wide.
A white flash flickered in his large brown eyes. A sob mixed with a groan escaped his clenched teeth.
"I..."
It wasn't because of someone's request.
It wasn't because of someone's command.
"By my own will...!"
He decided for himself.
To fly toward the target he set in his life...
"I will live-!"
So, until the very end.
Just keep fighting without giving up...!
Click-!
Damien pointed the muzzle, which he had aimed at his chin, forward. Now the dragon's mouth was right in front of him.
"Ahhhhh-!"
As Damien screamed and fired the last bullet of [Cerberus],
Boom-!
The ground in front of him rose.
Jörmungandr's massive mouth, breaking through the ground, swallowed the auxiliary head of Night Bringer whole.
The world serpent shot up to the height where the observation tower had stood, its silver-gray scales gleaming.
"...What?"
Damien blinked his eyes blankly, hit by the pouring soil and sand.
He couldn't understand the situation. He didn't know why the monster he had met years ago had reappeared here.
As Damien stood with his mouth slightly open in confusion, a pleasingly low-toned voice reached his ears.
"Are you alive, sniper?"
The clown who jumped off Jörmungandr's body—Crown—dusted off the dirt from his body and said abruptly.
"He says he's here to repay a debt."
"What, what?"
"The world serpent says he's here to repay a debt to you."
As Damien looked up in bewilderment, Jörmungandr, who had swallowed the auxiliary head, flicked its long tongue.
Was it an illusion that the giant serpent's yellow eyes seemed to be smiling gently?
"Well, I'm really grateful, but... I don't think you owe me anything..."
"...If a snake comes to repay a favor, you should accept it quietly. If you refuse, you might earn a grudge."
"Yikes! Thank you, really, thank you!"
As Damien bowed repeatedly, Jörmungandr made a satisfied hissing sound and headed towards the fallen observation tower.
In the wreckage of the observation tower lay the other auxiliary heads of Night Bringer.
These heads were not severely injured except for the damaged connection points due to Damien's sniping, and even those were self-repairing.
In other words.
Gulp! Gulp! Gulp!
They were all fresh, making for good food for Jörmungandr.
After swallowing six auxiliary heads of Night Bringer in a row, Jörmungandr flicked its tongue.
It swayed its huge body left and right, seemingly digesting, but it also looked like it was dancing strangely.
"I nearly died trying to follow at that crazy speed heading north."
Crown sat down next to Damien, who still couldn't believe he was alive.
"With this, our... debt from the first meeting is settled, sniper."
"What?"
Damien stammered in confusion.
"Debt? But you've never owed me anything..."
"You didn't shoot."
Crown replied bluntly.
"When we first met on the battlefield... you saw me as a person and didn't shoot."
"..."
"That was a debt too."
Damien blinked in confusion.
He didn't understand why that was considered a debt.
'For saying that, didn't we fight to the death several times afterward...?'
Anyway, he was a hard person to understand.
Crown glanced at Damien through his mask.
"Have you still never killed a person? Still non-lethal?"
"...I've never killed an enemy person, but I've shot comrades to ease their suffering."
Even during the Imperial Capital offensive, which determined the empire's fate, Damien never killed a human opponent, though he subdued them.
He had shot Jackal in the head to ease his suffering after being captured by the Fallen Knights, and during the King of Flies battle and the recent Night Bringer battle, he had taken the lives of severely injured comrades to ease their pain.
A bitter smile spread across Damien's lips.
"I couldn't shoot people because I was a weak coward. It wasn't because of some grand non-lethal belief..."
"...I see."
Crown looked into Damien's clear eyes.
"Your eyes are still pure. It's hard to believe you've been in this hell for three years."
"Excuse me?"
"As long as your heart remains pure, your eyes will continue to shine."
"What do you mean..."
"...Well, it means good things come to those who live kindly. Like snakes bursting out of the ground and eating dragon heads."
Crown, making an uncharacteristically light-hearted remark, looked ahead.
"It seems he's almost done eating."
Thanks to absorbing the auxiliary heads of Night Bringer, Jörmungandr's nerve protrusions, which had been damaged two years ago, were now starting to regenerate almost instantly.
They were nearly growing into huge horns.
Crown approached Jörmungandr, communicated with it through his flute, and scratched the back of his head.
"He says he rushed to save you, but now he needs to digest the heads he swallowed, so he'll be slower. Night Bringer is a step ahead of us..."
Jörmungandr slowly lowered its body. Crown, who had climbed up first, extended his hand.
"But it's better to digest the heads fully and then face Night Bringer. You need to recover too while we head north."
"..."
"What are you doing? Not getting on?"
"Oh, no! I'll get on. Just a moment!"
After hastily gathering the fallen guns, Damien took Crown's hand and climbed onto Jörmungandr.
Rumble...!
Jörmungandr resumed heading north with its two passengers.
Watching the forest, shrouded in darkness, speed by on either side, Damien cautiously pinched his cheek.
Facing the strongest and worst monster, Night Bringer, the front lines were merging and splitting chaotically. With Jörmungandr and the flute player...
'Maybe, really...'
Damien gulped.
'There might still be a chance of winning...!'
It's not over until it's over.
Gathering his nearly shattered but recovered resolve, Damien gazed northward.
The final battlefield was approaching.
***
Present.
"Ahhhhh!"
"You crazy snake-!"
Damien and Crown screamed simultaneously as they jumped off Jörmungandr's back.
Crown wanted to curse, 'You damn snake, wait until we get off before charging,' but there was no time.
Thud-
A dull impact sounded,
Boom...!
Followed by a terrifying explosion, the entire ground shattered and soared into the air.
Jörmungandr had charged full speed and rammed its massive body into Night Bringer.
"Jörmungandr! How dare you...!"
"...Heading north."
Jörmungandr's yellow eyes gleamed as it coiled around Night Bringer's body.
"You're in the way, dragon."
The dragon and the snake roared at each other, vomiting night and earthquakes.
With a deafening noise that seemed to tear their ears apart, the ground split, and the surrounding mountain ranges began to collapse.
The battle of the mythical age was being reenacted here once more.