The outskirts of southeast Aureatia. The Thirty-Eighth Stronghold was located outside the city.
The number of personnel called into action here by the emergency was on par with their wartime numbers, and they were preparing their cannon barrage.
The flak battery towers, coupled together in a series like a wall, had been loaded with antiair cannons in expectation of a wyvern assault, and the ones handling them were Haade's elite troops who had fought through and survived the era of the True Demon King.
"If there's any change in wind speed, reporting protocol says…"
"Got the firing table drilling into those heads of yours?! You better be able to hit 'im with your eyes closed!"
"I'll let them know. Now, moving to the sharing of artillery ammunition between towers…"
…It feels like I really shouldn't be here.
Amid the mania recalling past wars, Cheena the Wind-Wrought Pattern's emotions were colder and subdued.
She was a new dwarf recruit.
As she wasn't trained fully on operating cannons, she was tasked with observing and keeping close guard in the direction of the abandoned district. It wasn't official spotter work and more akin to being a reserve battle recorder.
She understood that her mission was important. If necessary, she'd move her body exactly as her strict training had drilled into her, and she wasn't scared or fearful for her life.
Cheena's mental state was the opposite, if anything.
Is all this really happening? Is Alus the Star Runner really alive and rampaging across Aureatia?
It must have been.
People far more brilliant than her—the Twenty-Nine Officials, high enough above her to be up in the clouds—had determined it to be so.
There were sure to be much more certain predictions than any of the arbitrary
preconceptions of Cheena or any other of the citizens in Aureatia.
That said, this was the Alus the Star Runner that even Cheena had heard several legends about. And he was attacking the most prosperous basepoint for all of miniankind, Aureatia.
…It's a possibility. If that actually did happen, it would be a huge disaster, and that's why everyone's in such a frenzy, desperately preparing themselves… Which is why making sure it doesn't happen is my job.
Peering through the binoculars, she carefully observed if the silhouette of their foe was around the abandoned district or not.
Nothing. She even felt it looked tranquil.
She didn't pick out a three-armed wyvern or anything in particular— "Enemy attack! The abandoned district's up in flames!"
"Alus the Star Runner's here!" "…Huh?!"
Before she could see the sight for herself, the shout of another observation scout made Cheena cognizant of the situation.
The abandoned district had been lit aflame. Not just one specific building or a certain section—all of it had.
"No way."
She didn't understand why, or how exactly, something like it had occurred in the span of a single second.
A shadow. She could see a silhouette of wings backlit among the flames.
"E-e-enemy attack! A wyvern…A-Alus the Star Runner is attacking! Located…between observation points sixty-six and sixty-seven! The abandoned district…i-is completely up in flames!"
She shouted out her observation report as much as she could, but it was probably all meaningless.
The soldiers around her were already getting into battle positions following the report from the regular observation scouts, and the sounds of the heavy antiair cannons in motion echoed in untold numbers, practically splitting open the ground with the noise.
Alus the Star Runner did all of this?
She hadn't ever thought that such a thing would really happen.
The reason being that, for an ordinary person like Cheena, fighting against Alus the Star Runner meant death.
Yet for some reason, he had the will to attack Aureatia's city, her comrades, and her superiors, and their superiors farther up were all planning on fighting
against him.
Are we really—
The ear-splitting sounds of cannon fire drowned out Cheena's thoughts.
Single-shot cannons weren't used against flocks of wyverns flying at high speeds; those weapons were intended for personnel and matériel. Anti-wyvern cannons used shrapnel shells. Artillery shells were aimed above the target's head to burst, annihilating everything in a wide conical area below the bursting point with a scatter shot.
As the rulers of the skies, wyverns had a difficult time evading scatter shots that would rain down over them from positions even farther above their lines of sight in the sky.
In addition, the deployed cannon corps fired countless artillery rounds one after another, without even a moment's breath in between. They not only shot where Alus was located, but also, they unleashed a barrage that seemed to completely blanket the sky ahead of him.
I get it. Even the world's strongest rogue can't dodge this.
Since scatter shots had no will of their own.
Of course, it was the artillery soldiers' skilled precision that aimed for the shot to burst above where Alus was in the sky. However, from that point on, the trajectory of the scatter shot itself, subject to randomness, was impossible to fully read, no matter how maneuverable or how precise one's senses were. On top of that, he couldn't discern the individual aim and intentions for each of the innumerable number of cannoneers in the Thirty-Eighth Stronghold and deal with them all in simultaneous parallel.
By utilizing the latest weapons with a strength of numbers, even killing an outstanding champion was possible.
Was this the reality of war in this new era? " "
Cheena continued her observation. She needed to verify that Alus had been brought down.
She was immediately able to confirm the results of the barrage. "...! R-report…"
While he was within cannon range, Alus was still far off in the distance. Even when she looked through the binoculars, the silhouette was little more than a speck in the sky.
Nevertheless, the distance was what made her understand. This individual, more than any other wyvern, was simply too fast.
"The barrage…missed the target! Impossible… H-his stance…!" "Record spotter, what the hell're you doing?! Give your report, now!" "Sorry! His stance… He's…he's flying upside down!"
Wyverns were vulnerable to attacks from above.
This was because normal wyverns didn't fly while watching above them.
Yet did this mean Alus the Star Runner was capable of inverse flight? Not only that, but he was racing in their direction without dropping his speed whatsoever, flying through this onslaught of iron, through the lethal storm that still continued to rain down on him.
"H-he's…looking at the scatter shots…! Directly watching their trajectory after they burst! He's continuing his flight in this position and evading the scatter shots the whole time, too…!"
A monster.
How was it possible to believe such a thing was happening in the world she knew?
Myriad questions flew across Cheena's mind.
Wasn't anyone else as perplexed as she was? Or perhaps no one had the capacity for questions given the absurdity of the present situation?
Why had the abandoned district been reduced to ash in a second?
Alus the Star Runner apparently used a flame magic item—or so Cheena had heard. Even then, was it actually possible to burn an entire town to ash in an instant?
"Load the next round!"
"Keep firing! We just have to make him hesitate!"
"If he breaches the cannon's minimum range, he'll kill us all! Everyone! Put your lives on the line!"
…Everyone will die. Even with so many soldiers here. Why? How?
When Alus flapped his wings, what appeared to be a ring-shaped afterimage flashed, and the path of his flight grew blurred. He brandished a magic whip known as Kio's Hand seemingly to knock down the scatter shots with the smallest movements possible, but Cheena's eyes, keeping a visual on him from far away through binoculars, couldn't perceive his transcendental speed.
No one's ever been trained on how to take down wyverns that're immune to scatter shots. Even the armaments of the Thirty-Eighth Fortress can't handle it, because no one ever predicted such a scenario. If we can't deal with this somehow, we'll die.
He was closing in. This was surely not mere recklessness or some hostile
intentions toward the soldiers here.
Alus knew that the antiair cannons' greatest weakness was getting in close enough to render cannon fire impossible.
This was why among the hail of cannon fire, he immediately set his aim on the Thirty-Eighth Fortress.
He was close.
Even then, musket sniper fire still should have been impossible at this range.
He was still well inside the cannons' range—
"Alus the Star Runner's readied his gun!" Cheena shouted before coming to her conclusion.
The next moment, the flak tower next to her exploded. "Huh?!"
There was a momentary flash of light. Following behind it came a roaring boom that split the sky.
Cheena knew this type of phenomenon.
Lightning…
The magic bullet of roaring lightning.
Firing off lightning itself, this bullet far surpassed the realm of mere musket fire in both range and destructive power. Even the flak tower, its iron supports covered by thick outer walls, was scorched in an instant.
"A-Alus is…l-loading his next shot! Don't let him finish! Y-you have to keep firing…! If we don't stop him— Another one's coming!"
In a panicked state, Cheena shrieked out her report. Somewhere in her mind, she thought her panic was making a terrible mess of things.
But who could hope to stop the fearsome Alus the Star Runner?
I don't want to die. I don't want to die. I don't want to die.
He pointed his gun barrel in their direction. Cheena could only watch.
If he pulled the trigger and that bullet was shot their way, it would all be over.
Aureatia's going to lose.
…In this moment, there was an error in Cheena the Wind-Wrought's judgment.
The goal of this artillery barrage wasn't to shoot him out of the sky but to divert Alus's flight path.
In other words, the Aureatia army had already incorporated Alus breaking through the storm of cannon fire into their plans…
Iron rain fell.
Alus, as always, was flying straight through death. Why was he always doing this?
He was searching for treasure.
Just as he had single-mindedly continued to do across the span of his life, he was thinking about destroying the obstacles in front of him and obtaining treasure.
Before him were towers of stone inorganically joined together. The sounds of cannon fire were incessant.
The metropolis beyond, stretching far over the horizon, was Aureatia. An unprecedented calamity had arrived in the last minian kingdom.
…Right. I was collecting treasure.
The Cold Star that Hidow the Clamp had shown him that day should be here in this country.
Not only that. Findeluil the Vital Spot Manuscript. Liquified Rampart. Mote Nerve Arrow.
He must have known from the very beginning that in order to obtain all the treasure this world had to offer, there was one final dungeon he needed to conquer.
That was where the numerous magic items that the minian kingdom had spent many years gathering together were.
I wonder why I never realized it for myself. Strange.
Replaced with a machinelike constitution, Alus the Star Runner was gradually losing his sense of self.
Yet amid his thoughts dissolving into ambiguity, he was convinced of his actions.
I get it. I…was supposed to save this for last. So…this is likely the end of my story…
Even Toroa the Awful was dead.
In the end, Alus had been unable to steal his enchanted swords, and Toroa had vanished into an otherworldly rift.
There might not have been any enemies left in this world anymore that Alus was supposed to steal something from.
Once he stole all the treasure that had been gathered in Aureatia, Alus the Star Runner would then be the sole owner of all riches.
That didn't sound too bad.
He needed to do this if he wanted to put an end to this tale of avarice that seemed like it would go on forever.
He would destroy Aureatia.
His objective was not to take the lives of others. If anyone tried to flee, he would let them escape. If anyone tried to fight, he would fight. The only ones who remained would be those with treasures they couldn't afford to abandon.
If he continued on his path of destruction, then eventually, like Vikeon the Smoldering, they would present their treasure to him.
"..."
Alus thought that, first, he would destroy the tower in between him and Aureatia.
He had grown accustomed to watching and evading cannon fire across several battles, but it still tired him out somewhat.
He loaded a magic bullet into his musket and aimed at the second of the flak towers.
"Ah."
In that moment, Alus changed his target. With terrifying speed. He didn't even turn around.
He shifted his gun barrel behind him and—
A steel beam pierced through Alus's stomach. "That's one hell of a reaction time, Star Runner." "...!"
Blood began to trickle along the thin steel beam.
His enemy's attack had come before his voice had time to reach Alus. Not only that, but the owner of the voice was already in front of Alus.
The weapon that had just launched the steel beam at him was a magic item that Alus had once possessed for himself. It had been lost during his battle with Lucnoca the Winter—Heshed Elis the Fire Pipe.
"Fastest in the sky. Truth is, I've always been envious of that moniker of yours."
On top of a leaning bell tower in the abandoned district stood a lone skeleton.
In other words, the Aureatia army had already incorporated Alus's breaking through the storm of cannon fire into their plans…
In order to prevent the wyvern from sensing the approach of someone faster than any known phenomena…
"Give me a name like that, too."
…they had called in Shalk the Sound Slicer.