The gods would appear beyond Teiven’s Barrier.
That fact was immediately passed on to Gregory, and Gregory informed everyone inside Frondier’s house.
"Teiven......!"
Arald cried out in surprise.
They had learned the place where the gods would gather. But conversely, it also meant the gods no longer needed the process of “descent.”
All-out war was drawing near.
Only Vasileo, Glaukos, and Aias tilted their heads.
"......Where is Teiven?"
"Ah, of course you three wouldn’t know. It’s a place in the northern part of the continent of Palind."
"Palind....... Pielot said he came from there too."
At that, the three of them looked at Pielot.
Pielot was still asleep.
From time to time he scrunched his brow or furrowed his forehead, as if dreaming something unpleasant, but there was no sign of him waking yet.
"When’s this guy going to wake up?"
"Yeah. If the gods are going to show up on another continent, shouldn’t we be moving too?"
"Then what about that?"
Glaukos pointed with a finger.
There was Mjolnir.
"Don’t we need to take that with us?"
"Hmm."
Everyone looked at Mjolnir with troubled expressions.
Aias cocked their head.
"Why didn’t Teacher Frondier take Mjolnir?"
"Maybe he didn’t have the time? Things went down too suddenly back then."
"And yet he told us to leave it alone."
"Yeah. Teacher Aster left it too."
Just then,
Fwoooosh!
A sound like wind came from far away.
When everyone looked out the window, a familiar face was flying in.
Knock, knock.
He tapped on the window, then opened it and came inside.
"Aster has departed."
It was Zodiac Ludovic.
Seeing him, Gregory let out a sigh.
"Lord Ludovic. Please use the Gate whenever you can."
"It’s an urgent situation. It can’t be helped."
That was true enough, but was he really the strange one for worrying about such things right now? Gregory asked himself.
"I saw an astonishing sight. The sea has sunk."
"Yes. I’ve heard the reports as well."
Gregory relayed the information from the imperial palace to Ludovic.
Ludovic nodded.
"In that case, shouldn’t we be heading straight for Teiven as well?"
"Of course, those who need to go should go, but......."
Trailing off like that, Gregory looked at Pielot.
Ludovic also turned his gaze that way and tilted his head.
"What’s # Nоvеlight # with this brat?"
"He’s asleep. It seems to be the work of Hypnos, god of sleep."
"I see. So the one here who needs to get to Teiven first is in this state."
Having said that, Ludovic blinked, as if thinking for a moment, then,
Step, step.
He walked over and hoisted Pielot onto his back.
"......Lord Ludovic?"
"In that case, I’ll take him."
"Ha......."
Gregory stared at Ludovic for a moment, at a loss for words.
He’d been about to question him, then thought, ‘Wait, maybe this works well enough as is.’
"Don’t worry. It’s not my first time. I can get there just fine."
"......Then I’ll leave him to you. Have you seen Lady Riri, by the way?"
Gregory asked.
Ria Liss had originally been here in the mansion listening to the briefing with them, but had moved through shadows partway through.
He guessed she’d probably moved into Ludovic’s shadow, yet Ludovic had returned alone.
"Ah, her."
Ludovic nodded.
"Looks like she and Quinnie have something to do on the ship."
***
It was Quinnie who’d been in the most danger when the sea began to sink.
With the earthquake, the sea’s level had begun to drop. The waves surged high.
Rumble, rumble, rumble─
The ship rocked, and spray from the heavy waves crashing against its sides showered the sailors on deck.
The captain gave orders.
"Raise the sails! We need to get out of here at full speed—"
"No!"
It was Quinnie who stopped him.
"Lower all the sails! We’re not moving from this spot!"
"Lady Quinnie! If we stay put in these waves, we’re as good as dead!"
"Look around you!"
Quinnie pointed out over the sea.
"The water level is dropping. The waves are only part of the process. The waves aren’t just happening here!"
"Wh-what do you mean......?"
"These are not waves you can ‘get away from’!"
"That can’t be......."
"Don’t worry! These waves won’t last forever! Send orders to the ships behind us too! Make sure none of them pull out of formation and have them all hold position!"
Following Quinnie’s orders, all the ships lined up in a row on the sea stopped in place and endured the waves.
‘We brought ships with low centers of gravity in the first place, just so they could withstand waves. They won’t capsize from something like this.’
Quinnie’s reasoning was sound. Compared to how quickly the water was receding, the waves were at a level they could adapt to.
‘But for the water to be draining this much.’
For Quinnie—no, for all of humanity—it was a sight no one had ever seen before.
The height of the sea was falling. It was something no one had ever even imagined, and they were experiencing it from on top of the sea itself.
The ships floating on the sea naturally sank down with it, and as the level dropped violently, here and there the sea licked across their decks.
The problem came after that.
"Lady Quinnie!"
A sailor rushed toward her.
"With the sea level dropping, at this rate the ship will soon touch bottom!"
"......Touch bottom......?"
At those words, Quinnie blinked several times, then opened her eyes wide.
She immediately looked straight ahead of the ship. Even now, it was rocking with the waves, tilting its bow this way and that.
‘......Will this ship be able to be standing perfectly, at just the right moment, when it touches down?’
With a low probability, it was possible.
But if that didn’t happen, the ship would tilt over to one side and lie on its flank. And if that happened, with all the furniture, the lumber, the materials in this ship—
‘The sailors will be in danger! And this ship is......!’
Quinnie drew in a breath.
"Everyone, listen up─!"
Her voice boomed out huge. With the manifestation of aura, Quinnie relayed her words to the sailors.
"Throw out all the cargo in the hold! Lighten the ship!"
At that, the ship’s captain spoke.
"L-Lady Quinnie, the cargo is all shells and weapons. If we throw those away, we’ll have no way to resist the sea monsters."
"The sea is sinking. They won’t come all the way here, to the place that’s going to turn into land."
"Even so, why are we throwing out the ship’s cargo?"
Quinnie snapped open her fan.
"Because this ship must not tilt under any circumstances."
After she said that, she focused her gaze on the ship’s bow.
On the deck, still heaving with the waves, Quinnie locked her stance and simply stared straight at that spot.
‘......Left, right.......’
Meanwhile, the sailors followed Quinnie’s words and threw the cargo overboard as fast as they could.
Splash! Splash!
As they frantically tossed crates and boxes, they heard a chilling sound.
THUD!
BOOOM!
They were not sounds of things being thrown into water.
‘The bottom’s getting close!’
They had started hearing the sounds of cargo passing below the surface and hitting the ground.
At that moment,
Tap!
Quinnie jumped down to the ship’s right.
Sploosh!
The water, already as low as it could get, only lightly splashed over her feet as she landed on the ground beneath.
"Ha, to think this was the sea, who knows how many meters deep, just a few minutes ago!"
Quinnie let out a short, hollow laugh, then looked at the ship she’d just leaped from.
Now that the water had completely drained away, the rocking ship,
Just as Quinnie had predicted, began to tilt toward her.
She brought the hand holding her fan in close.
‘The ship weighs 80 tons. But I have to account for the cargo and the crew. They can’t have gotten all the cargo off, and the sailors are still on board.’
Creeeeak─
While Quinnie’s mind spun taut, the ship’s angle grew steeper, slanting more and more toward her.
‘The worse the tilt gets, the harder this will be.’
Squeeze.
Her hand gripping the fan tightened.
Shff,
Crack.
Creeeeeeak─
Dust and sand fell from the hull to the ground as the ship leaned. Just when the sailors’ screams began to ring out—
Wind Magic: Third Form
Range Expansion, High-Pressure Discharge, Radial
“Giant’s Fan”
The fan Quinnie swung hurled a massive wind straight at the ship.
KWA-AAAAAA!!
Pushed by the wind, the ship’s tilt halted, and slowly, it began to lift its bow again.
The wind pressed on, driving. Once the ship had raised its head fully, it looked for a moment as if it might fall over to the other side, but then—
Creeeak......
Creeeak......
Thud.
The wind died away, and the ship settled perfectly upright.
A delicate control of force that left it leaning to neither side.
"......Haaah......."
Drained, Quinnie plopped down where she stood.
She took a moment to steady her breathing and thought,
‘Elodie said she can use the same spell to push a ship that’s moving forward straight back.’
Pft.
Quinnie laughed. She’d gone and made another strange comparison.
She looked at the ship standing perfectly upright without a lean in either direction, and at the sailors’ unharmed faces.
"This is about the right level for me. ......But now comes the real problem."
Quinnie scratched her cheek, troubled.
The ship now sat on solid ground.
Once it was standing straight, they’d built supports to keep it from toppling over.
Quinnie immediately contacted the captain of another ship.
"Yeah, Kals. How is it over there?"
She used the line to check the situation.
It seemed that the only ships that had touched bottom were the one Quinnie was on, and a single ship closest to the continent of Palind. Those two. The other ships had felt the sea level sink, but they were still afloat.
‘The ship near the continent of Palind and this ship here have both touched bottom....... In other words, this sudden drop in sea level is something that’s happened across the whole world.’
And as for the ship that had hit the ground near Palind, it had been lucky enough to remain standing as it was. It had sunk into fine sand, which naturally became a support. The situation there was different from here, on bare ground.
"All right. We had some irregularities, but the formation is intact."
After saying that, Quinnie looked back.
Toward the line of ships she’d created, and beyond them.
"Don’t be late, Aster."
***
When the sea’s depth fell.
"Haaah, haaah, haaah......!"
At last, Aster had already reached the continent of Palind.
His breathing grew rough as he sprinted across the continent.
It was the backlash from using Flash Cut in succession.
Having crossed the sea at an overwhelming speed compared to normal flight, Aster ground his teeth and muttered,
"I am going to learn flight magic no matter what......!"
