Chapter 58: The Fool’s End

We stood there dumbfounded, staring up at the massive golem. So that was a thing… definitely didn’t see that coming.

Responding to the sound of footsteps, Arakis and his guards burst out of the embassy. When they saw the distant giant clad in deep blue armor, they collapsed to their knees in despair.

“No… no way… Did Clant seriously bring out the Landguarder!?”

Apparently, “Clant” is the name of the current king.

“What the hell are we supposed to do against that!?”

Even the knights were visibly panicking. Arakis’s side had completely lost morale, while the enemy, perhaps sensing the shift, regained their composure and now brimmed with confidence.

“Well, that’s certainly a flashy toy to bring out.”

“I was against it, for the record. That thing’s not something you just use lightly.”

While Lulu stood nearby, gasping for breath and covered in wounds, Drill Hair—barely scratched—looked mostly unbothered. She sheathed her sword, stared into empty space, then carried the trembling black cutting board girl and started walking toward the commander.

“The thing can’t be operated without a royal nearby. Having His Majesty on the frontlines for a fight like this… that’s way too much for him to handle.”

That little nugget of information felt like a parting gift. Unlike the commander, who was shouting things like “Now your doom is at hand!” she didn’t seem convinced they’d win at all.

“Master~ I wanna see Master being all cool and stuff~”

“Yes, yes…”

I said it flatly, but despite acting like he couldn’t be bothered, Master actually seemed a bit motivated as he raised his sword high. At the same time, even from this distance, I could see the giant’s eyes starting to glow. Wait—could this be that? Is that thing made entirely out of boyish dreams finally going to happen!?

“Kuhahaha! Struggle all you want—it’s useless! You fools cannot defend against that’s attack! Behold the power of the ancient king, founder of Forlitz!”

As the glow in its eyes reached a peak, the giant slowly raised its arms—and then, with a roar and blinding flash, it fired both arms straight at us.

“It shoots them!?”

What the hell kind of pointless feint was that!? Why were the eyes glowing!?

“Raging Flame Vortex Formation!”

Master’s sword sliced through the air in a wide arc, and along its path, an explosion erupted into a massive whirlwind of fire. The enormous flaming tornado expanded outward from our position and diverted the trajectory of the two incoming arms.

The giant limbs, veering wide of us, flew off and crashed into a distant forest with an earth-shaking boom. The ground trembled violently, and many people nearby lost their footing and fell over. Only those at Drill Hair’s level of skill managed to stay standing.

“Wait, that didn’t hit anywhere populated, right!?”

“It’s fine. At worst, there’s just an orc village over that way.”

Then there’s no issue. Those things should be wiped out anyway.

“Im-Impossible… You blocked that with a human body…!?”

Unlike Drill Hair, who just looked unimpressed, the commander was visibly shaken. Idiot. You underestimated us way too much. But the loss of the arms is a stroke of luck. It’s probably designed to retract them, but while it can’t guard with them, we need to destroy it.

“Master, finish it off!!”

“Why is Sora giving the orders…?”

I pointed sharply at the giant and shouted commands, only to get glared at with that usual discontented face.

“『Descend from the heavens, lightning of judgment. My prayer is one with the will of the divine—shatter all that is evil.』”

Still, Master always follows through when it counts. From the magical circle floating in the sky above his raised sword, countless brilliant white spears of light shot forth and rained down upon the massive golem. Each impact burst with such dazzling light I had to shut my eyes.

By the time I opened them, the barrage had ended after several seconds. But despite the relentless assault… not a single scratch had been left on the golem. Seriously? This thing’s tougher than expected.

“Ha… hahaha! See that!? That’s the power of our guardian deity!!”

Seeing the golem unharmed, the commander regained some of his earlier confidence. But... does he even realize there’s a human standing right here who can fight that thing head-on?

“…『Disaster that floats in the void, light of malice that fills the sky』…”

Confirming that the spears of light hadn’t worked, Master now stabbed his sword into the ground and began another incantation—this one dripping with theatrical edginess. I could already guess what he was about to do.

“『I beseech you—bring order to the world with your radiance. I pray—let your wrath purge original sin. Fall from the heavens and shatter the world!』”

A new magical circle appeared far higher in the sky than before, projecting a view of what looked like outer space. From that cosmic backdrop emerged seven massive burning meteors.

They began to descend, each of them now fully tangible and plunging toward the earth. Just eyeballing it, each rock was probably about 50 meters in diameter.

“Master, Master!”

“What?”

As Master stared up at the falling meteors, I tugged at his sleeve. Surprised by the sudden interruption, he turned around with a puzzled look on his face.

“Wasn’t that… a bit much?”

“……”

Don’t look away from me.

While we exchanged that little moment, the first of the meteors hit the ground with an earth-shaking roar, smashing the golem to pieces. The sheer force shook the land, sending dirt flying and reshaping the terrain entirely. More meteors rained down in rapid succession, pulverizing the already-lifeless remains of the golem along with the earth beneath it.

The ground quaked more violently than before, lush plains turned to desolate wasteland, molten rock from the heat flowed into what was once a clear stream, and the animals that once called this land home lost their habitat. It was, in every sense, Armageddon. The end of the world had arrived.

Arakis and the enemy commander stood stunned, mouths agape at the sight of the annihilated golem, the transforming landscape, and the literal embodiment of doomsday before them. Meanwhile, our king’s harem members were excitedly praising Master with innocent delight. “As expected of Master!” they chirped in unison. So this is what they call sasugo-shu.

Poor golem. You picked the wrong battlefield to show up in…

Watching the scene unfold, Master placed a hand on his chin and let out a contemplative “Hmm.” Then slowly closed his eyes.

“…Wasn’t that a bit much?”

“……”

Now open your eyes and look at me.

Honestly, I still think one of those meteors would’ve been enough.

Anyway, while we restrained the dumbfounded enemy commander and snapped Arakis and his men back to reality, our next objective became clear: capturing the king, who’d apparently had the nerve to show up on the battlefield himself.

After all, that golem had some seriously strict activation conditions—it wouldn’t operate unless a royal was within a certain range. So it was safe to assume they’d set up a command post nearby.

Drill Hair, having surrendered without resistance, said, “We’ve lost, so I’ll surrender peacefully. But as a knight, I cannot provide information that would disadvantage my country.” So she refused to talk. Everything else came from Arakis’s guesses.

And so, Master—being the one best suited for solo ops—was chosen to go. I clung to his back, leaving the wounded in the care of Yuria and the others. Arakis and a tiger-eared woman, the only one with real combat prowess left, came with us as we sprinted across the plains.

The terrain had been completely transformed, now resembling a literal hellscape. We dashed through it, circled around the giant crater where the golem had stood, and pushed forward. Eventually, we saw the enemy camp—utterly destroyed.

Thanks to magic-assisted movement, it hadn’t even taken an hour. The camp was chaos: injured soldiers covered in dirt lay groaning by the roadside, and those still on their feet were crying and praying to the heavens. It was total anarchy.

Luckily, they were too panicked to notice intruders. We slipped past them quietly, heading toward the cluster of tents deeper inside. Among them, one stood out—clearly the most extravagant. That had to be where the boss was.

But just as we tried to sneak in, someone stepped in our way.

“Who goes there!?”

So even in this chaos, someone was still doing their job. I’ll give them credit for that. About six tall knights in silver armor quickly surrounded us with weapons at the ready.

“Tch. I’ll handle this! You go ahead, Your Highness Kisaragi!”

The tiger-eared woman, understanding that speed was crucial in a surprise attack, charged at the knights with her twin blades. She was clearly skilled—downed two of them in an instant and was now holding off the remaining four in fierce melee. We couldn’t afford to lose time here. We had to trust her and move on.

“Tirka, we’re counting on you!”

“We’re breaking through! Crimson Soaring Blade!”

Master swung his sword, releasing a fiery bird that blasted one of the knights who tried to block our path. Seriously, sacred sword techniques are the best.

After breaking through, we met no further resistance and made it to the largest tent. Oddly enough, there were no guards outside. We headed straight in.

Inside the dim tent, Arakis drew his sword and shouted:

“Clant! Your tyranny ends here!”

And there it was. The stench of ammonia filled the air. On a mat-like bed in the room lay a fat man, facedown, the type that instantly brought to mind a certain noble. In one corner were three girls, about twelve years old, all naked, wearing collars, huddled together and trembling in fear, faces pale as ghosts.

“Clant…?”

Arakis repeated the king’s name, confused, but the walrus that had been launched into the air wasn’t moving an inch.

Master gave me a glance to check on the girls, so I pulled out a blanket from the item box and approached them. He knelt down beside the king and placed a hand on his neck. Can you really tell just from that?

Well, in any case, the girls take priority.

“Are you alright?”

“W-We didn’t… do anything…”

The reply was vague, probably because they were terrified. I glanced at Master, unsure what to do, and he silently shook his head at Arakis. Looks like it’s no use.

“Calm down. What happened?”

“Hic… sniff…”

As I draped the blanket over them and gently rubbed one of their backs, the oldest-looking one—probably around teenage, with blue hair—finally began to speak.

“W-We were with His Majesty, and suddenly there was this huge noise and the ground shook. We got scared, and then His Majesty suddenly started struggling and just… stopped moving…”

Hmm… to summarize, during their “intimate time,” the shockwave from the meteor startled him, and he died on top of her. Given how unhealthy he looked, it’s probably a heart attack.

I looked at Master, still dumbfounded, and he scratched his head with an indescribable expression on his face.

Arakis, with his sword still drawn, looked around the tent like he didn’t know what to do with himself. He started to glance toward the girls but then quickly averted his eyes, clearly uncomfortable. The girls, too, were trembling and in tears. No one said a word.

Wh-What are we supposed to do with this atmosphere…?

“I, Arakis, have slain the false king Clant!!”

Now, with the former king’s head in hand, Arakis was giving a speech to the surviving troops in the camp, declaring victory.

The speech was all about how the late king had usurped the throne, and how Arakis, the rightful heir, would now ascend to restore the kingdom. The actual cause of death? Quietly omitted. As a precaution, he even went as far as to point swords at the girls to make them say pshaaah from fear. Thorough.

He looked genuinely sorry about having to scare them, but to the frightened girls, even his apologetic frown probably looked terrifying.

Apparently, I’m also going to get a strict gag order from Master later, because someone thinks I’m a liability or just has trust issues. I don’t agree with being caught up in his damage control.

While I cowered in a corner of the tent, one of the girls—around ten, covered in whip marks—came over and tried to comfort me. I guess she thought I was younger than her. I want to die.

“From this moment forward, I shall restore this kingdom through governance untainted by selfish ambition!”

As Arakis continued his speech, many knights dropped their swords and stared blankly at him, stunned. Let’s just hope there’s no bloody purge after this.

But, well… in any case—

“I guess that’s one crisis over?”

When I said that to Master, who was resting beside me, he gave me a wry smile.

“No… it’s probably just beginning.”

The hand he used to ruffle my hair was rough—far clumsier than usual, probably because of exhaustion.

◇◆ADVENTURE RESULT◆◇
NO BATTLE
◆【Sora Lv.105】
◆【Lululu Lv.43】
◆【Yuria Lv.46】
◇―
＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝
Sora Lv.105 [1057]
Lululu Lv.43 [431]
Yuria Lv.46 [461]

【RECORD】
[MAX COMBO] >> 40
[MAX BATTLE] >> 40

【PARTY-1 (Main)】
[Shuuya][Lv125] HP3700/3700 MP2850/4560 [Normal]
[Sora][Lv105] HP70/70 MP1285/1685 [Normal]
＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝＝
“What is this… this feeling of emptiness?”
“Yeah… fights always leave you feeling hollow, huh…”