Sine Riverstead.
The Needle Mountain outside the village was currently packed with a number of soldiers. They were Aureatia comms soldiers.
The giant, large enough to look down over all of them, was listening to an observation report via radzio.
Impact location verified. 1116 by 362.
"Bwah-ha-ha-ha! Right on target, what'd I tell you?! Well? Did I get the Particle Storm?!"
Uh, nope—It wasn't a direct hit. I… I misjudged the distance. The next one will hit.
The voice coming through the radzio belonged to Kuuro the Cautious.
The communication from the spotter, looking at the Particle Storm right before his eyes, reached all the way to the Sine Riverstead, traveling through a relay tower constructed at the Gumana Trading Post.
For an individual comms soldier, it was a staggeringly long distance, over thirty kilometers as the crow flies. The operation was possible entirely due to the personnel and technology available to the greatest of all minian nations, Aureatia.
There was also an individual capable of long-range ballistic bow fire
without even seeing their target, from over thirty kilometers away. "Seriously? Worthless trash. Ah well, makes no difference to me." He nocked his bow with a fresh arrow.
A colossal black arrow, nearly as tall as he was, at twenty meters long.
While the Particle Storm may have been a completely enigmatic and godlike disaster that wrought destruction, there was a being in this world capable of killing such a disaster.
"I just gotta keep firing until I hit, then."
The gigant's name was Mele the Horizon's Roar.
An Aureatia soldier positioned at his feet turned to the radzio and shouted. "Preparations for shot number two, complete! Kuuro the Cautious,
requesting the next spotting information!" "Hey, hold on now, pipsqueak."
With his arrow still drawn, the gigant called down to the Aureatia soldier. "Excuse me…?! Pipsqueak? Are you talking about me?"
"Well, you're a pipsqueak, ain't you? Fix the pavement in the next town over. Replace the farming tool for Erig's family, too. All of 'em."
"B-but, I'm just a comms soldier, so…"
"Well, call up one of the big shots then. I'm the one awake before noon and doing all the work. Each shot's gonna cost ya."
Mele readied the arrow. The same man who normally never fought, and instead spent his days lying around.
The Particle Storm's projected course had it pass through the Sine Riverstead. The sand would reduce everything—from the living creatures, down to the very environment they lived in, into tiny particles. Just by passing nearby, the weather phenomenon would bring irrevocable losses to the fertile village he loved.
Fixing his eyes on his enemy, standing physically beyond the horizon, Mele's mouth twisted.
"Got some guts, coming after the Sine Riverstead, Particle Storm." It was the smile of a warrior.
"I'll shoot your damn eyes out."
Across this horizon, there lived someone idolized as a god, wielding tremendous power as he lived among the minian people.
Two gods battling each other.
"…He missed! Damn! Sh-show me… You can see it…!"
Kuuro the Cautious's grip threatened to break the radzio in his hands. It had missed… Mele the Horizon's Roar's lethal arrow had missed.
The extraordinarily long-distance archer fire was Aureatia's trump card. It was their best hope of stopping the Particle Storm, regardless of whether it was a naturally occurring weather phenomenon or whether there was a true form hidden within.
Kuuro, with his abnormal clairvoyance ability, could pinpoint the target. He should have been able to correctly foresee where Atrazek would move to next. At the very least, the old him during his days in Obsidian Eyes would have.
He was expected to be capable of doing so. He bore the weight of countless lives on his shoulders.
"Hey. Kuuro. The wind's strong! It's dangerous. Let's get away from here."
"…I can't. Even at this range, I can't get a hit. If I don't look from a closer range, right now, I can't do anything."
Kuuro muttered, reflecting on his anguish.
The fierce battle between Kiyazuna the Axle and Toroa the Awful was unfolding atop the Chariot Golem, and they continued to flee from the Particle Storm's range. The three-sided battle line was shifting backward, and while Kuuro had been observing from longer range at the start, the lethal calamity was closing in on his position. Now, he himself was in danger.
For him, a non-shura spotter, he had nothing, neither a Chariot Golem,
made airtight in anticipation of the Particle Storm, nor anything on par with the Howling Blade and the sublime skills to wield it. If he was swallowed up by the storm, that would be the end.
"…That thing's actually a wurm. It wraps itself up in the Particle Storm with some sort of Force Arts or what-have-you. Aureatia knew all of that from the start. This thing had a will of its own, and that's why it went after civilization and populated settlements…"
The main body, previously visible from the hole opened up by the arrow, was already hidden again in a thick cloud of dust.
A constantly reverberating rumble, like thunder, and nigh as dense as the ground itself. Kuuro's senses could see all the way beyond the horizon. However, he could see too much. He could hear too much.
The Particle Storm was an impregnable fortress that sheltered its main body. The immense overload of information disrupted his concentration.
"The target isn't always inside the center of the storm. He should be able to change his Force Arts' area of effect at will. From the echoing of the sand in the middle, I sense its range. And I also get the feeling… No, stop. No point in speculation. Don't believe what you can't see. Look, look harder."
"Um, I-I can… Hey. Like I always do, Kuuro. I can, I can go and look for you…! Isn't, isn't there something I can do?! If everything'll come to nothing unless we defeat that thing, then—"
"Don't be ridiculous!"
Inside the Particle Storm, with her tiny body, Cuneigh would be ripped to shreds. She would be killed instantly. A more fundamental problem than any spotting difficulties.
"Why are you trying to get yourself killed! Aren't you afraid to die?!"
He tightly held Cuneigh close inside his coat. As though to shield her from the gaze from the land of death in front of them.
"K-Kuuro…"
"Headquarters. Reporting spotting coordinates. 1127 by 355…!"
Light burned far away in the deep blue sky. It traced an arc across the sky before falling.
Despite how extremely far apart they were from each other, barely a second had passed following his report.
Then, it pierced through sky and ground.
it.
"A-Another…miss…!"
Atrazek's mantle of sand was torn asunder. And yet that was the extent of
The impact point was perfectly on the indicated mark. Kuuro's spotting
was the problem.
Even with his own life hanging in the balance, his sight failed him.
He grew weaker still. Beyond simply losing his gift of clairvoyance…he was sure, someday, his senses would dull beyond those of the average person. The sense of impending death that came to him when he closed his eyelids was here in front of him at this very moment.
He was losing it. The once-vivid world began slipping through his fingers.
I… I should be able to see it.
"Kuuro. Kuuro, it's okay."
The wholly frivolous words of comfort from Cuneigh rang so very hollow.
"M-Mama!"
Kiyazuna, beginning to topple over from the meteor quakes shaking the ground, was saved by Mestelexil's large hands.
The four limbs that had once crumbled into dust were completely regenerated, looking completely good as new.
"I-I am good, as new, again! Ha-ha-ha-ha! Because I, am immortal!" "Ha…! Converted the crystals directly with Craft Arts, didja? That's my
boy. Perfectly handling whatever enchanted nonsense gets thrown atcha! Well done, Mestelexil!"
"Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!"
"Anyway, first we gotta deal with Toroa the Awful. If we don't kill him, the Particle Storm'll be the least of our problems. Gather up the golems. Fence 'im in and crush him all at one!"
"…That won't be necessary."
The voice was near the overturned Chariot Golem. From among the pile of materials spilled out over the ground, Toroa picked up and held a single sword.
"The Blasting Blade's mine." "Y-You little—!"
In the tumult of their battle, there were too many things to handle at once. Though a self-proclaimed demon king, possessing the highest degrees of both intelligence and mental fortitude, Kiyazuna the Axle was an elderly minian woman.
Toroa the Awful destroyed a nearby boulder with a test swing and confirmed that it was indeed the real Blasting Blade. Then, he turned to face not Mestelexil…but the Particle Storm rampaging far out in front of him.
"I've figured this sword out. I'll fulfill my end of the bargain, Kiyazuna the Axle."
"…What the hell are you talking about?" "I'm going to defeat the Particle Storm."
An ominous and sinister "road" had been formed inside the complex Gumana Ravine. The traces of the Particle Storm's passing were pulverized into dust, forming a line, like a child cutting one through a piece of clay.
Furthermore, the arrows from Mele the Horizon's Roar had gouged deeply into the earth's crust, leaving behind a hole too deep to see to the bottom.
With the extent of the fissures and upheaval, topographical changes that would normally take thousands of years had happened all in one day.
This lone dwarven Grim Reaper was intentionally stepping onto this battlefield of gods.
"Hey… You bastard. Thinking you can patronize Kiyazuna the Axle, do ya?"
The situation was different now. Mestelexil was revived and well. He even generated a golem army in the middle of battle. The scale of Kiyazuna the Axle's fighting force was overwhelming.
"That shithead's mine. Mestelexil! Kill 'em both!"
"R-roger! Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha! I'll beat, them both! Watch me, Mama!" "Well…do what you will!"
Right before Toroa rushed forward, light once again rained down from the heavens. An arrow from the Horizon's Roar.
The iron pillar instantly lost its shape under the phenomenal momentum as it connected with the ground, piercing deep into the terrain and disappearing.
"Damn you; damn you aaaall!"
Writhing in agony from his wounds, Atrazek roared in rage and agony. His exceptionally large size and remarkable vitality, thanks to his wurm body, allowed him to survive the aftermath of the impact.
However, the destiny gathered at their location was far more incomprehensible and terrifying than mere calamity. It was something altogether ludicrous.
"What did you… What did you call here?!"
"I h-have, no idea! Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!" "It matters not. Out of my way!"
"Enough already! Your time's up, Particle Storm!"
On this day, in one part of the world, supernatural and transcendent shura were gathered together.
Each looked at the others with fire in their eyes. They possessed strength enough to deliver on that murderous intent.
The end was nigh. To all those standing at this point, a realm of slaughter, at the crossroads between fate and ill-portent, emerged.