The members, overwhelmed by the extreme brightness, squeezed their eyes shut and covered their faces with their forearms. Some instinctively covered their heads and lay flat on the ground.
Soon after, a wave of scorching heat that felt like it would burn their skin swept through. Strangely, in that moment, neither the monsters' howls nor human screams could be heard.
As an eerie silence fell, it was as if time had stopped throughout the vast fortress. Amidst this, only Leonardo kept his eyes open.
Despite the sensation of his eyeballs burning, he couldn’t tear his gaze from the sky above. With a dazed expression, he captured in vivid detail the moment the tip of the water stream pierced the sealing magic circle.
A few seconds later, his retinas could no longer form an image, and everything before his eyes suddenly turned white. Then a loud ringing began to sharply scrape at his ears. After the constant noise echoing in his head gradually subsided, a sharp, destructive sound that seemed to tear his eardrums instantly overwhelmed his consciousness.
Kiiiiiik-
Pajijijik-
As the water stream pierced through the center of the large magic circle, fierce sparks flew across its entire surface. Glowing diagonal lines emerged from the cracks, like shattered glass, and spread in all directions.
That threatening energy poured down like lightning with a bursting sound, but an even bigger problem immediately presented itself. The two magics, powerfully fused, were extending beyond the sealing magic circle to the fortress ceiling.
Just then, Hugo, who had opened his eyes wide at the ear-piercing sound, felt a chill run down his spine as he faced that surreal sight. He immediately spread an extra-large barrier and sent it upward while shouting loudly so all members could hear.
"---!"
However, the rising water stream was incomparably faster than the urgency in his voice. The tremendous shockwave that erupted almost simultaneously swallowed Hugo's voice.
Kwaaang--!
The violent explosion ✧ NоvеIight ✧ (Original source) from above shook the entire fortress in an instant. The powerful wave that followed a half-beat later slammed the floating ash and dust to the ground. Along with it, the members facing each other at the railings and cave entrances were blown over by the gust, colliding hard with the walls.
As that enormous pressure loomed before his eyes, Hugo's gaze and body instinctively turned toward Leonardo. Just as the two entangled in mid-air managed to dodge to the edge, the glowing magic circle rattled precariously.
Kiiiing-
A piercing noise, as if the signal flare of the apocalypse were about to be fired, heightened the tension. The two enduring the sharp wind in that gap sensed it instinctively, staring at the sacred object that looked ready to shatter at any moment.
That the Elder Millie Peninsula's final bulwark, which had endured for a thousand years, had now reached the end of its life.
Kwaaang--!
Once again, an intense light that could blow away one’s vision swallowed up the view. The storm and roar that followed with a delay violently shook everything around, making it impossible to regain one's senses.
This explosion was on a different dimension from the one before in its power. The surrounding rock walls were half-destroyed, and the Ilaptors clinging to the walls fell into the deep abyss with monstrous cries. The members who barely managed to hang on clutched each other's collars and struggled to endure, but they didn’t dare to open their eyes or steady themselves in the face of this bitter scene of destruction.
Amidst it, a large hand covered Leonardo's head, partially blocking his view. He stared blankly at the light pouring down from above through Hugo's spread fingers.
'Sunlight?'
A thick beam of light cutting through the gaps in the terrifyingly falling pile of stones brushed past his skin. It was not the artificial light emitted by the magic circle, but light leaking through cracks in the collapsing ceiling.
Sunlight that hadn’t been seen for a long time brightly colored the inside of the fortress. Fragments of the shattered magic circle scattered everywhere the light reached, decorating the sky beautifully and strangely like slowly falling sharp snowflakes.
Beyond that, the mother body, which had been clinging tightly to the wall, suddenly raised its head and roared fiercely. As sharp ultrasonic waves sent heavy vibrations through the air, the scattering light shimmered like heat haze.
"Finally"
In that blurring vision, Leonardo noticed a pair of shackles bound to the creature's hind legs. It was something he had never seen before during their confrontation. The taut golden chains, connected on both sides, stretched endlessly into the darkness below.
"Finally"
The grotesque restraints, gleaming gold, had cracks on their surface that were disturbingly clear. Soon, the shackles, distorted by the creature's howl, scattered and vanished into the air like a fleeting dream.
'That's...'
In that moment, Leonardo's pupils contracted as he suddenly recalled the shackles he had seen on the statue's ankles a few days ago. Along with that, the situation back then and the questions that had piled up over the past days flashed through his mind.
From the time he had attacked the ruins to save Kenis until they entered this place, the monsters had strangely not shown themselves. Thanks to this, entering the interior of Peak 118 had been easy, but throughout the process, a wind presumed to be the mother body's ultrasonic waves had consistently accompanied them.
Despite the commotion of the rampaging Dermocas along the way, the monsters outside had shown suspiciously little movement. The Ilaptor cries that had suddenly been heard afterward had led them here as if trying to lure them, and as soon as they set foot in this strange space, the auditory hallucinations had stopped and the radio signals had been picked up again.
"Finally"
Alec Siles had said that the monsters' attacks on humans were "the queen's will."
However, seen another way, the incomprehensible behavior of the creatures in recent days could also be "the queen's will."
In other words, at least since part of the ruins had been half-destroyed four days ago, the queen might have been controlling the monsters with ultrasonic waves—waiting for the right moment from the instant she gained freedom of movement.
"Finally"
"Finally"
"Finally"
"Finally"
"Finally"
"Finally"
"Finally"
"Finally"
The streamlined head was facing only upward, so it was impossible to see from below where the mother body's eyes were fixed.
However, the creature's front legs stretching out as if nothing held it back now, its voice that sounded as if it had been longing for this moment alone—because they were directed at only one place, Leonardo's doubts gradually solidified into certainty.
The demonic claws crawled up to the ceiling and frantically tore through gaps in the crumbling rock. Flesh regenerating at a speed from an entirely different dimension instantly restored the severed tail and torn eyeballs.
As the fortress, held up by the power of the magic circle, collapsed, a crack large enough for the massive body to squeeze through opened in the sky. The creature, drawing a faint parabola with its red pupils, gripped the rocks and forcefully thrust its head through the gap.
"Finally!"
As the massive body that had been trapped in darkness for so long was finally placed under the full sun, the queen twisted its muscles and roared fiercely toward the world it faced again.
Leonardo, who had watched all of this, could finally be certain.
The creature had been waiting for this moment.
The moment when foolish humans would come of their own accord and free it from the final seal.
To break the last shackle placed by the Sun King a thousand years ago,
And to be reborn to devour everything in this land.
"It is resurrection."
