The bushes rustled, shaking RUSTLE RUSTLE, and something suddenly popped out from within.
(...)
It was a wolf, covered in gray fur, with a slightly childlike face. Like a wolf pup, it looked around with curious, darting movements.
The wind blew, and branches and leaves swayed with a RUSTLE. Startled by the sound, the pup slipped back into the bushes.
A little time passed.
This time, slowly, the pup came back out of the bushes.
As if it had convinced itself there was nothing else around.
The pup brought its nose close to a yellow flower and sneezed, ACHOO.
It shook its head, SHAKE SHAKE, then started walking with a bit more boldness.
For this pup’s species, it was leaving the den a little too early. Despite still needing its parents’ protection, it had slipped out.
Even so, if today had been just another day like all the days before, nothing would have happened.
The pup’s parents had fully brought the entire surrounding region under control. There should have been nothing that could harm the pup—even outside the territory.
KSHUN.
A faint sound rang out.
Because it lacked experience, the pup failed to bring its exceptional physical ability to bear.
A poisoned arrow pierced the skin, and paralysis poison spread through the whole body in an instant. Without even managing a cry, the pup collapsed to the ground.
(...)
And the men who did it burst out of the bushes, quickly wrapped the wolf pup—about 1.5 meters in body length—in cloth, and one man hoisted it onto a back.
The three men immediately began sprinting at full speed.
One slashed through branches ahead, one followed behind, and the one carrying the pup trailed after. They kept running for a while, then switched who led.
And like that, the three men tore through the forest at a speed that did not belong in a forest.
◇◇◇◇
It was a quiet farming village.
Men tended the fields, women spun thread in the meeting hall.
And small children sat quietly in a room of the church, listening to the pastor speak.
It was a plain agricultural village, not far from <Demon Forest>.
Its only notable feature was a small hut meant to lodge the rare hunter who came by. Since there were other villages and towns with better conditions, hunters almost never stopped here.
The last time hunters had come to this village—after a long absence—had been a full week ago.
The three men stayed one night, left for <Demon Forest> with almost no interaction, and were gone.
Then, just as the villagers were starting to forget they had ever existed—
The three men burst out of <Demon Forest>, ran across the grassland, and charged straight into the village.
“Hey! What’s going on—why are you in such a hurry!!”
A villager called out after noticing them, but the men remained silent. They did not even spare a glance, and simply ran through the village.
They were running far too fast.
The farmers stared after them with blank expressions.
Before long, once it became clear there was nothing they could do, each person went back to work. When today’s work ended, tomorrow would be the Sabbath.
A somewhat noisy group had run through, but aside from that, it was the usual routine. Nothing unusual happened, and as sunset approached, the day’s labor ended.
At that time—
The ground began to shake, THUD... THUD... At first it was small, then it grew until everyone noticed.
Villagers stirred in alarm. Women, noticing the tremor, rushed outside in panic.
Children were led out of the church by the pastor.
THUD... THUD... THUD.
The shaking drew closer.
A great tree at the edge of the village scattered its leaves with a WHUMPH, then bent and snapped with a CRACK CRACK.
What appeared was a gigantic wolf.
It stood far taller than the church spire rising from the unfinished construction in the center of the village.
“WOOOOOOOOOOOOO—!!”
A violent howl crashed through the air, so powerful it made bodies vibrate. In fact, leaves shook loose from trees, and startled birds all took to the sky at once.
A magic wolf.
Or a god wolf.
It was the enormous wolf monster that had been passed down only as a fairy tale.
After it finished howling, the wolf lunged into the village with its massive body.
Fleeing villagers were swept aside at the wolf’s snout. Like a cruel joke, people flew through the air.
The church pastor shouted something and stepped in front of the children.
Several men started running toward the village outskirts.
The giant wolf plunged into the center where villagers had gathered, then whipped its head again.
The pastor—and the garrison cleric-soldiers dispatched from the Prava Divine Kingdom—stood to protect the children. They managed, for an instant, to push back the wolf’s attack and throw off its line.
But they could not stop it.
In less than half an hour, the farming village was destroyed.
Leaving behind the men who ran to warn the city, the village that had lived beside <Demon Forest> for generations was wiped out.
◇◇◇◇
The men ran.
A mated pair of magic wolves chased after them.
They were veteran hunters—magic-technique users so capable that even after running at full speed for a full day and night, they still had reserves.
But against a higher species from <Demon Forest>, it was not enough.
Even if they passed through villages and entered towns to muddy the scent, the distance kept shrinking.
The difference in sheer physical ability was too great. What took the men a full hour to run, the magic wolves crossed in fifteen minutes. Along the way, they wiped out towns as if it were incidental, steadily closing the gap.
And then, at last, the men entered the magic wolves’ striking range.
Because the men had the pup, they had not been hit by long-range attacks.
But once they were close enough to be in sight, no struggle would let them escape.
A man caught between them—blocked from both sides—was crushed with ease, even while trying to fight free.
Another man tried to shield the one carrying the pup and was torn apart.
The last man failed to evade because of the burden on the back, lost the bag wrapping the pup, and was ripped open by claws.
After safely recovering the pup, the mated pair confirmed that the pup was only unconscious, then let out a howl.
Long, and loud.
The wave of mana that spread with that voice conveyed that there were no beings # Nоvеlight # nearby that posed a threat.
And more than that—
It also conveyed a place where many of the same kind of crea-ture that had abducted their pup lived.
The father recognized that as a threat and began running to eliminate it.
And so, Traliquin City—one of the frontier’s foremost trading cities—was wiped out in only a few hours by the sudden appearance and assault of the magic wolves.
◇◇◇◇
Algasta, the royal capital of the Kingdom of Redia.
It was the last fortress city in the Kingdom of Redia—where the kingdom’s elite had gathered—and the only place that continued to resist the Prava Divine Kingdom.
Cleric-soldiers of the Prava Divine Kingdom assaulted day and night, trying to break through the walls encircling the capital. The force that repelled them—and sometimes counterattacked—was a mixed unit of the Royal Guard Knights and the Royal Expeditionary Army.
The reality was that they had kept fighting cleric-soldiers across the land, falling back again and again, until at last they were pushed into the royal capital.
Even so, concentrating their homegrown strength into a single location must have been a strategic mistake on the Prava Divine Kingdom’s side.
Food stores were still abundant, and morale remained high.
Because the cleric-soldiers and defending forces were so closely matched, the siege had completely stagnated.
And because of that—
Because so many cleric-soldiers and magic-technique users had gathered—
The magic wolf judged them as foreign enemies.
A gigantic wolf appeared on the battlefield without warning.
The Prava Divine Kingdom’s fieldworks were scattered, and many cleric-soldiers—caught out of battle posture—were trampled.
The Kingdom of Redia’s forces reacted, alerted and scrambling, rushing troops onto the walls.
Then the magic wolf’s flames struck the walls directly.
The flames, fed by mana, obliterated everything—magical defenses included.
The cleric-soldiers, having formed up, attacked the magic wolf.
But not a single attack worked.
Slashes did not bite, blows did nothing. Even bathing it in magical fire only scattered off its silver-white coat, leaving not even a scorch mark.
And the Kingdom of Redia’s side was no different.
After scattering the Prava Divine Kingdom’s forces, the magic wolf turned its fangs on the capital’s defenders.
The city wall collapsed under a body slam, and the royal castle rose in flames under the fire it spewed.
In only an hour, the royal capital of the Kingdom of Redia was destroyed.
Already on its last breath under the Prava Divine Kingdom’s invasion, the Kingdom of Redia was smashed to pieces—without anything left intact—by the magic wolf that had barged in.
And likewise, the Prava Divine Kingdom’s Redia Front Army, which had concentrated most of its strength to complete the conquest of the Kingdom of Redia, lost many Holy Knights.
