As Hugo’s gaze, unlike when he was looking at him, turned cold and focused downward, Leonardo twisted his waist and followed it with puzzled eyes. As if he hadn’t noticed because it was buried in the chill enveloping his body, a beam that had pierced through the black smoke was now stretching toward them.
Leonardo, who had craned his neck and peeked his head out, suddenly widened his eyes and leaned his upper body back. Then, unconsciously, he pounded Hugo’s shoulders with his fists, urging him to move quickly.
“Go back, back!”
Hugo, furrowing his brow at the somewhat violent urging, glanced at Leonardo and retreated lightly.
Piing- Ping-
Two beams that flew in a straight line soared into the sky with a slight time gap.
As the hot heat barely grazed their faces, Leonardo, one hand on Hugo’s shoulder and the other extended outward, aimed his palm toward the gap in the dark smoke. Then, focusing all his senses into his fingertips, he drew out seething mana in an instant.
A heavy voice, as if scraping his throat, slipped out between his lips along with a drop of blood.
“Dragon’s Breath.”
The dark red energy undulating in his grasp fired toward the ground in the blink of an eye.
Emitting a destructive light, it split a third of the nearby peak vertically and instantly swallowed the traces of collapse spread across the ground.
Seawater that had temporarily surged up and evaporated formed a thick fog that blanketed the land. All sorts of rock fragments and earth dust mixed within it, soaring into the sky at once from the shockwave.
That terrifying power shoved even Hugo, who was holding Leonardo, back about thirty meters with a brutal recoil. Only after he spread a magic circle in the air and braced against an ice wall he created mid-air could the two, who had nearly been thrown, finally stop.
Hugo, inwardly startled by the pressure that had pushed him without giving him time to react, understood why Leonardo had been bounced back by his own power earlier. But as ultra-high-temperature steam gushed out madly right after, he had no time for other thoughts. His eyebrows, which had been enduring the heat, momentarily twisted in pain.
Chiiik— a sharp, grating sound dug between them as if it would sear their touching arms and chests. As the ice rapidly vaporized, a low groan escaped Hugo’s mouth.
It was a small sound, but it was clearer than anything else to Leonardo’s ears as he watched the monster. Startled again, Leonardo tried to force his way out of Hugo’s arms, pushing at him.
“Let—let go, will you? Do you want to die? You’ll get burned!”
“Wait a moment, Leonardo. I’m fine—”
The smell of burning fibers brushed their noses through the roughly rising smoke. Afraid it might turn into the smell of burning flesh, Leonardo struggled in urgency. However, the firm forearms pinning his upper and lower body showed no sign of letting go. Rather, the more he struggled, the more they tightened, as if his resistance only made it worse.
Leonardo was bewildered by the commander’s incomprehensible behavior. Eventually, he tried to suppress his own energy instead of forcing it. Meanwhile, Hugo’s gaze stayed fixed on the red bloodstain that had flowed and hardened at the corner of Leonardo’s mouth.
He wanted to wipe away that trace, which looked as painful as his own internal injuries, but if he did, this guy would surely run away again. Unable to do it, Hugo kept his bound hands where they were and only traced it with troubled eyes. When Leonardo’s energy had calmed somewhat, he opened his mouth.
“I said I’d explain later, so I won’t ask what happened now. But if you keep using mana like this, your body won’t last.”
Hugo’s face and voice were filled with urgent, sincere concern. The hands supporting Leonardo’s lower back and firmly gripping his forearms conveyed earnestness rather than any intent to admonish.
“I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t anxious too. But at times like this, we need to be more careful with our attacks. You might think plans or strategies are meaningless in a fight that’s already dragged on this long, but I believe we need a method other than this indiscriminate close combat to eliminate a creature with high physical abilities and intelligence.”
“...What method?”
“First, I’ll create an opportunity based on the situation, and then—”
Kugung— Kung—
At that moment, successive underground explosions and the mother body’s roar cut Hugo off. The two, who had been looking at each other in the air, looked down again.
Various types of mana were detonating at regular intervals—perhaps from the commanders who had followed after it, attacking the mother body. Though not clearly visible through the smokescreen, other monsters drawn by the roar also seemed to be screaming as they were caught in the blast.
Leonardo, staring at the ground shrouded in black smoke and sizzling, slowly rolled his eyes to assess the situation.
Originally, he had intended to settle things with the mother body alone, but as the sun set, the situation turned unfavorable for him. Although he could annihilate hundreds of monsters with a single strike, it was difficult to land an attack on that one creature. The reason was the light constantly emanating from him.
As the sky darkened, the brightening glow exposed his position, making ambushes difficult, and since the places where the creature hid its body were mostly shaded, he had to rely on intuition rather than sight.
Meanwhile, surprisingly, the Council’s commanders were landing hits more often than he was when sniping the creature. Not only were they much smaller than the monster, making it easier to hide their presence and appearance, but it seemed the mother body’s attention was fixed on him, floating in the sky.
In other words, he was the one who could most effectively draw the mother body’s attention, while the Council’s commanders could move stealthily, avoiding the creature’s eyes.
So, judging that cooperating with them could create a solid opening, Leonardo suddenly slid his arms around Hugo’s shoulders and neck—arms he had been pushing away just moments ago. Then, looking into the blue eyes now so close, he casually opened his mouth.
“You said you’d create an opportunity?”
Hugo, glancing down at Leonardo’s arms on his shoulder, nodded lightly as he met the sparkling golden eyes.
“Yes.”
“Then, you know—do you remember what I said in the meeting before?”
At Leonardo’s sudden question, Hugo raised one eyebrow.
“What are you talking about?”
“Plan 5. The one everyone else laughed at.”
As he said it, Leonardo raised his trembling left arm and pointed to a small volcano not far away. From the crater, which flashed red around its rim, bright magma was boiling thickly—its heat palpable even in the darkness.
Hugo looked at it with narrowed eyes, then dipped his head and traced the path Leonardo had been driving the mother body along. The trail of destruction from the north was heading straight toward the small volcano Leonardo was pointing at. Moreover, it was positioned far enough from other volcanoes to minimize the risk of chain eruptions.
Realizing he hadn’t been attacking recklessly but moving with intent, Hugo looked back at Leonardo and answered.
“I remember. You suggested blowing up the volcano.”
“Let’s try that now.”
“...”
“I know it sounds crazy, but as you said, you’ve seen it while fighting until now. Stabbing, poking, and launching vague attacks one by one doesn’t work on that thing. We need to blow away all the places it might be able to shift its vital points at once to barely have a chance of killing it.”
Leonardo earnestly laid out his argument. However, Hugo couldn’t easily agree.
Blowing up a volcano. It might be as easy as saying it for this blazing golden fireball, but it was hard to accept within ordinary human common sense.
“But Leonardo, that’s...”
“While I lure the mother body and buy time, reorganize the barrier stone positions, and use the explosion as a signal to reactivate the barrier, at least the damage won’t reach the empire’s mainland. The erupted lava sweeping away the other monsters that followed the mother body can also substitute for the traps that are already destroyed. Then the number of creatures trying to rush out after the queen dies will be greatly reduced.”
As the explosions from below grew fiercer, Leonardo’s words sped up, growing more unrestrained. Anxiety showed in his furrowed brow and voice, but Hugo only met his eyes, giving no answer for a long moment.
Then Leonardo set both arms on Hugo’s shoulders. He leaned his face a little closer and pleaded with desperate eyes.
“Five seconds. Five seconds is all I need. I’ll lure it near that volcano, so just hold it still for exactly five seconds above it. I’ll take care of the rest.”
In fact, five seconds was far too short a time to kill the mother body, but ironically, it was an absurdly long time to hold it in place.
But if he could somehow make the creature and the volcano erupt together within that window, Leonardo thought that even with some margin of error, they could eliminate the queen and most of the monsters.
Hugo, staring at the brilliant light Leonardo was emitting, moved his lips as if to speak, then pressed them shut again. The golden eyes, partly veiled by white steam and fluttering golden hair, came into clearer view.
Leonardo’s eyes were full of blazing determination, but Hugo couldn’t readily answer it. In his opinion, the risk was too great. And honestly, he wasn’t sure this was even possible.
The monster in Peak 118, which they had entered pursuing less than a ten percent ◆ Nоvеlіgһt ◆ (Only on Nоvеlіgһt) chance of success, had brought unspeakably horrific results to this land. Since no one had predicted things would turn out like this, it couldn’t be blamed on anyone, but Hugo, as the highest responsible person, felt the weight of Leonardo’s hands on his shoulders in that moment.
Trying to loosen his tightly pressed lips, Hugo unconsciously turned his gaze toward the northern sky. It was because the wind was blowing from there.
That wind was pushing the steam rising between Leonardo and himself southward.
Hugo slowly turned his head, following it, and fixed his gaze on the southern coastline. Seeing his profile grow complicated, Leonardo waited in silence without adding a word.
At that moment, Hugo recalled Delua’s words defending Leonardo at the last meeting. With the wind blowing this way, the volcanic ash and harmful gases would head toward the sea rather than the territory; so while there might be problems like abnormal climate events in the future, setting that aside for now, it was a sound method, she had argued.
Thinking that far, it occurred to him that, in truth, there was no plan or strategy to pin hope on other than Leonardo’s. With the only light earnestly speaking to him, turning away from that intent would be no different from abandoning hope.
“...”
After a while, Hugo’s silent gaze returned to Leonardo.
Then, meeting the golden eyes looking at him steadily, he exhaled and finally spoke.
“Ten seconds.”
Leonardo’s eyelids flickered at the words that came from those tightly closed lips. Hugo, catching that small movement, spoke clearly once more.
“I’ll try to hold it somehow for ten seconds.”
Hugo loosened his tight grip on Leonardo’s waist and thighs.
Then, blinking slowly once, he spoke as if prepared to take responsibility for whatever came at the end.
“Let’s do it, as you say.”
