Advent of the Three Calamities

Bang—!

"Hold them back!"

"Keep holding them back!"

"Don’t let them get out of the walls! They’re not fighting back so do your best!"

Spells rained down within the city walls as the monsters tried their best to rush out of the place. All of a sudden, the situation had reversed. Instead of trying to enter the city, the monsters were trying to leave the city.

Bang—

It was a scene of carnage.

While no one understood what was happening, they all listened to the orders and threw spells down.

"Akh—!"

But the situation soon changed.

A few of the monsters that were trying to escape suddenly stopped before they started to thrash around, attacking everything that was within their sights.

Be it people, or monsters...

They attacked everything around them.

"Hieerk!"

Buildings collapsed, and a few people were thrown away due to the unexpected change.

"Careful!"

"...Be careful!"

This sudden turn of events made everyone apprehensive again, but thankfully, they were all well-organized and were able to keep their lines intact.

"Move back! Don’t care about the damage to the surroundings!"

"Don’t attack the ones crazy ones!"

Soon people started to realize that the ones that did end up going crazy only attacked those that attacked them or the nearest thing to them. If they didn’t do anything to them and were far enough, then they’d just end up attacking the other monsters.

"Move back!"

They all started to take advantage of this observation to turn things around.

Bang, Bang—!

Spells continued to rain down from the sky while others attacked from the ground, their weapons colliding with the tough hide of some of the monsters.

Clank!

Sparks flew in the air as the stench of blood filled the surroundings.

Overlooking the entire situation from above, Rosanna briefly glanced in Caius’s and Kaelion’s direction. The two stood beside her with pale faces.

Having exerted themselves quite a lot, the two decided to take a rest for this next segment of the battle.

Looking at the two of them, Rosanna’s face showed traces of warmth.

"It’s as you said, the monsters aren’t attacking us. I still don’t understand why you want us to hold them in, but I’ll trust the two of you for now. With that being said..."

Frowning, Rosanna looked around.

"...Where did your other friend go? Wasn’t he with the two of you before? Why don’t I see him?"

"He tends to disappear from time to time."

Kaelion answered with a forced smile.

"It’s sort of his thing."

"...Like a ghost."

Caius added from the side, prompting a couple of weird stares in his direction.

"Voom."

Caius added, making the situation even weirder and prompting Kaelion to look away while holding onto his mouth in an attempt at stifling his laugh.

"Oh."

Not fully understanding what they meant, Rosanna thought about asking more questions but decided against it when she saw the look on Kaelion’s face.

"I see."

She decided to drop the topic then.

"Then I guess he must be the one who has told you about the situation."

"Yes, you can put it like that."

"Do you know for how long we have to hold them back for?"

"I—"

"This is enough."

The both of them looked at Caius who looked towards the outside walls. It was then that the both of them noticed several silhouettes headed in their direction.

"Isn’t that...?"

With naturally sharp eyes that came from her strength, the Head Elder immediately noticed the group and their faces and her face relaxed.

"I see, so they must be the reason for the sudden changes."

She wasn’t entirely sure what they had done, but given the timing of the events and their return, she could reasonably guess that they had likely played a role in turning the situation around.

Thinking thus far, she felt impressed.

’The children of the Empire... They are quite talented.’

Bang, Bang—!

As the fight beneath continued, Caius glanced at the monsters and spoke.

"There’s no need to hold the monsters back. You can focus on driving all of them out of the walls. For now, we should be safe. It would be best if you take care of the more serious monsters before they also start losing control like the other monsters."

"Losing control?"

Caius shrugged.

"...That’s all I know."

He was merely relaying the words that came from the weird cat that called itself a dragon.

Stupid cat.

"Ah."

Glancing at Kaelion, who also shrugged, Rosanna managed a bitter smile and concentrated on the Destroyer Ranked creature below.

It was currently being held back by Arten of the Myron family. The two of them were taking turns in handling such a creature.

However, given that they no longer had to hold it back and that it was still trying to get out, she had a sudden idea.

"In that case, I should start by getting rid of it."

With a light tap of her staff, she appeared right on top of it.

Given that it was no longer trying to fight her, she was able to easily get on top of it.

Then...

Tapping her cane over its enormous body, a large magic circle manifested. A tremendous surge of mana rippled through the surroundings, and within seconds, both of them vanished.

"....."

A sudden silence settled over the area.

Her disappearance signified the conclusion of the battle at the northern walls.

Though it lasted only a few hours, it was a conflict that would remain etched in the history of Eastern Kasha—

The first battle since its liberation.

***

Running back to the city wasn’t particularly difficult. With no monsters chasing after us, we were able to make our way into the walls rather easily. The only issue was Owl-Mighty. Given that its body was no longer fake its presence would without a doubt elicit panic.

It was for that reason that I had Owl-Mighty leave me before entering the walls.

Bang, bang—!

Upon entering the city, a series of muffled explosions rang through the air.

They were coming from the other walls, but in general, the situation was calming down. I had just taken a breath of relief when...

"It’s them!"

"Stop them—!"

A series of weapons and magic circles were directed our way.

"The fuck?"

Kiera came to an abrupt stop while looking up. Aoife, who was following right behind her, crashed directly against her back.

"Wait, why are you... Eh?"

Kiera raised both of her hands.

"We’re on the same side."

Following her, Evelyn and Amell similarly stopped. They looked up with panicked looks. I also stopped behind them and looked up.

Right...

I had completely forgotten that they had destroyed the inner walls of the city.

"Ehm."

I looked around me and raised my hands.

"It was them, not me."

"Uh?"

"What?"

All head flicked in my direction.

I remained composed.

"Julien...?"

"Wait..."

"I just saw them enter and helped them in."

A strange silence followed suit after my words. The silence persisted for a few seconds before a familiar face spoke up.

"I recognize him. I can confirm he’s with us."

It was none other than Kora, one of the Seven Spears of the House of Astrid. I gratefully nodded at her and stepped away from the group. At least, I tried to but Kiera grabbed onto my shoulder.

"You, what sort of sick joke is this?"

"...Joke?"

I looked back at them.

As expected, they stared at me with frozen expressions, their eyes wide with shock. The deep hurt and sense of betrayal they felt was vivid for me to see.

Such expressions...

I wanted to see more, and thus, I turned to look at Leon.

Shake. Shake.

As if understanding what was about to happen, his eyes turned bloodshot and he hastily shook his head.

His lips opened but I spoke before he could.

"He’s the one that destroyed the walls."

I made sure everyone heard my voice while I pointed at him.

"The one with the sword and all that. Arrest him."

"—!"

If looks could kill I’d have died a hundred times over but the more he looked at me like that the better I felt.

Want to make fun of me regarding my disguise?

So be it, laugh.

’I can also laugh when seeing you in your prisoner disguise.’

Swoosh, swoosh!

One by one, the guards from above jumped down and rushed to the group, quickly tying their hands behind their backs.

"Wait, hold up!"

"This is bullshit—!"

"Hey, Julien! What are you doing? This isn’t the time for your stupid jokes! Tell them to stop!"

"Why me too?"

"....."

As those from the House of Astrid and Myron came down and grabbed hold of them, they all shouted at me except Leon. He seemed to have resigned himself to his fate.

"No, seriously. Why me?"

Amell looked to be the most confused but his answer was the most obvious one.

’You share the same bloodline as Leon, why wouldn’t you also be arrested?’

To be born like that...

"A sin. A terr—"

"...You’re not actually going to have them arrested are you?"

Hearing a voice behind me, I saw Kaelion and Caius approach me with strange looks. Their gazes shifted toward Kiera and the others, and both frowned before looking back at me.

"If something does happen to them then..."

"They’ll be fine."

I dismissively waved my hand.

"Most of them know that they were being controlled. They’re just taking them in to make sure they don’t cause another mess."

"Oh."

Caius looked understanding at first, but shortly after, he tilted his head.

"If that’s the case why did you pretend like this was all your doing? Won’t they hate you for—"

"It’s a matter of principle."

"....?"

"You wouldn’t get it."

Patting him on the shoulder, I cast a quick look around before shifting my attention toward the outer walls.

While I couldn’t see, I knew she was still alive.

There was no way she would die so easily. Thankfully, most of the monsters had already been dealt with, including Owl-Mighty, which was no longer under her control, along with the other Destroyer Ranks she had brought.

’Even though I don’t think she’ll come back any time soon, I’m afraid that she will be back.’

Although I didn’t know the exact reason, I was certain it had to be important. Otherwise, she wouldn’t have gone to such lengths to gather so many monsters for an invasion.

Staring towards the horizon, I took a deep breath looked away, and looked at the clear sky above us.

Feeling the warm glow of the sun, I pursed my lips and wondered,

"Now that the sky is clear, will the Empires be willing to work with the Easter Kasha?"

Perhaps then...