The wind howled above the grand clearing made in the center. With the Hunter's Association sitting in the backdrop, many drones from all over the world floated to the skies and took in the sight of this land and this historical gathering.
With a sharp breath, Charlotte pushed her hair back and raised her chin.
"Outer Gods, you must have heard the name."
The leader of the Hunter association nodded, and she turned to me next. I nodded too.
"Beings, beyond our understanding, power, realms… those beings have decided to take over the worlds on the ground, on our level…"
Charlotte's gaze swept over the entire place. The drones in the skies flashed and blinked.
"Thirty-seven worlds… have already been laid to waste."
Eyes widened all over the place.
Thirty-seven?
Thirty-seven worlds were already destroyed?
"And these are the rest."
Her hand pointed behind her. About forty more people were here excluding Charlotte.
"You must have heard of them too. Cosmic Dragon goes around making rounds in every world and announces their presence, it's one prideful beast."
Cosmic Dragon.
"We have met the Cosmic Dragon…" the leader of the Hunter's Association spoke in a whisper.
The Cosmic Dragon.
So that was the Dragon that had killed me.
"That is just one of them, now imagine hundreds of beings on the level of the Cosmic Dragon fighting you."
But.
That Cosmic Dragon.
Was nowhere close to the being we had faced. It was certainly strong, but that thing was in a league of its own.
I looked at Albert and Luka and they seemed to be thinking the same.
"We have formed a coalition across dimensions to fight against the Outer Gods."
It was the vampire next to Charlotte that continued. His fangs glistened while his cape fluttered despite the lack of wind. "The more they lay waste to, the stronger they grow. Our only hope is to fight them together."
The Dryad then raised a hand.
Mana simmered around us and the hunters all raised their weapons, but Han Jun Ho stopped them in their tracks.
Like a crackling display of light, a tree of mana started forming in the center of the clearing. Its roots sunk into the space and its branches spread into the world.
The dryad looked at the elf and he waved a hand, casting some kind of translation magic.
"This, is the world tree," The Dryad said.
Dozens of worlds formed in the form of fruits on the branches. Some of them caught on fire while the rest rotted and fell to the ground, disappearing into dust.
Vines grew around the branches of the ones that were still left and started wrapping around the fruits.
"These are the dimensions that we have gathered. A pathway across worlds that has connected us against the threat of these outer gods."
Somewhere in the middle, a single fruit was left untouched. The vines reached near it and loomed around.
"This is your world," the Dryad spoke. "One of the only two worlds left."
At the very top of the tree, like a star, another fruit more brilliant than the rest remained.
"The last one would be where I am from," Charlotte muttered and then pointed at me. "Our world."
"It would take nothing for the Outer Gods to lay waste to everything. If you wish to survive, the only way you can do so is together," Charlotte said. "What you do in your own world doesn't matter to any of us, but the threat that we collectively face has to be dealt with collectively."
That was.
The only choice.
"You mean to ask us to fight together?" The leader of the Hunter's association spoke. "Is that what you ask of us? We are on our own, it's a coalition and not a regimentation?"
"I care not for you, none of us do. It's either this or extinction."
"That's—"
Han Jun Ho cut off the leader of the association.
"How, did you find us? This world."
A smirk left the elf next to Charlotte. The leader of this coalition groaned and the young Elf took over the explanation.
"Gates, Dungeons, Holes, Realms, Nightmare Zones, Towers, Labyrinths, Ruins, all of these phenomena beyond the normal world exist in the many worlds of our dimension. I bet some of them might exist in yours too."
"Gates, yes," the association leader spoke again. "That's what we call these, portals, that have spread over the world, they—"
"Hah. Of course I know fool," the elf ran a hand through his hair. "Coming back, at first it was just a game of chance. We had to find ways to different worlds all by chance, maybe some gate would open, some crack in dimensions, anything."
The Elf leaned forward.
"Then, we found a dead world. One already laid to waste by the Outer Gods. How were these fuckers finding worlds to destroy?"
I had wondered about it too.
"The dungeons and gates and whatnot, is it?" I asked. That was the conclusion we had reached after playing a game, and meeting an outer god ourselves.
The Elf looked my way, his gaze lingering on me for a second. He then nodded.
"It is. That is it. Don't ruin my reveal next time, Mis—"
The Elf was promptly smacked on the head by Charlotte.
"Watch it."
The Elf held its head and looked back at us.
"Dimensional Markers, I have dubbed them. These Outer Gods used giant dimension markers that wrapped into the dungeons, gates, and whatnot, as the demon put it.
"So I took their magic, made it better, and found ways to get to every world, every single one that they are going to by adding our own Dimensional Marker into theirs. The deal is, when you destroy a dungeon, those dimensional markers become a part of your world and then we can locate you before the Outer Gods."
The Elf snapped his fingers and a small orb fell in his hands. An orb we were fairly familiar with.
"You get this. Well you were too for the Outer Gods, but since they had already created such a confused space, we added our markers inside them, making it easier for the markers to fall into a new world
"Each one you clear must be leaving you with these small guys. They are our markers. Thanks to them we have found the path to yours and the last and most elusive world—Oops."
The elf in his reverie dropped the orb and it fell to the ground, shattering to pieces.
"It's still fragile… can't fix that."
I rose to my feet.
Fragile. Small.
Sure, we had seen these very orbs all over our dungeons from a certain day.
But…
But when I cleared Goemon's tombs.
"T-the Outer Gods'… Marker, what is it like?"
The Elf scoffed and spread his hands. "About this big, and very tough."
I snapped my fingers and an orb fell on my hands.
"Like this one?"
The orb that I had found after clearing Goemon's Tomb.
Charlotte and her entire faction got on their feet, many stepped back in horror.
"Eugene, darling," Charlotte spoke, carefully. "Since when do you have that thing?"
This orb, just like theirs.
Could make it much much easier for the Outer Gods to find us.
"A month?"
It was then.
Lightning crackled and the world shook. The air, no, the space itself completely tore apart in the skies above.
Everything trembled and everything shook. Like an earthquake and a tsunami and a dozen other natural disasters had all struck at once.
From the tear in space, a white hand came seeping out.
"Outer…"
A dwarf squeaked.
"God…"
---
[A/N: Named after the novella, Carmen is a standard Opera in four acts that is now one of the most popular and played classical operas ever. It's an experience, all four movements and the same four movements are pulled into this volume. It starts down in Hell, proceeds to heaven, there is a sudden movement into nothingness with the Outer God, and the fourth movement takes place on Earth. I have chosen Gypsy Dance to end the arc with as it fits the suddenness of what is happening now very well. And maybe Layers playing their rendition of Carmen may have influenced it. Trivia over, enjoy the cliff! Please consider dropping a castle~]
Updat𝒆d fr𝒐m freew𝒆bnov𝒆l.c(o)m