The Shield of Miracles

by Sakon Kaidou

  “What shall we do, then, Ray?” asked B3.

  “Well, we have to decide whether to tell it to them or not...” I said, and sighed. Regardless of whether I did or didn’t reveal Mr. Shijima’s fate to them, it’d still give me a bad aftertaste.

  Both telling them the horrible news and hiding the truth from them were options that made me feel bitter, but...

  I steeled myself. “I’ll tell them.”

  “Are you sure?” B3 asked.

  “...Yes. If we don’t tell them, they’ll never learn the truth. Mr. Shijima’s fate will be shrouded in darkness for the rest of their lives.”

  If we didn’t reveal it, they would never be able to properly part with him. They would forever be bound by the question of his whereabouts.

  “It’ll leave a bad taste in my mouth, it’s cruel, and they’ll probably resent me for it, but... but still, it’s something that must be done.”

  Despite my resolve, the fact that I would have to tell them of Mr. Shijima’s death made my body shake.

  It scared me. The idea of giving them despair frightened me to no end.

  “If that is what you choose, then it’s probably for the best,” B3 said.

  “B3?” I raised an eyebrow.

  “You should be the one to decide this. I am not nearly as considerate of NPCs... tians... as you are.” She looked to the festival off in the distance. Both tians and Masters alike were thoroughly enjoying the festivities. “I am what they call a ‘ludo.’ To me, this is nothing but a game.”

  I was silent.

  “Same goes for tians,” she said. “In my eyes, they are merely highly advanced AIs. If it had been up to me alone, I never would have even answered the request. Learning the truth, I would likely have disappeared from their sight, never actually deciding whether to reveal it or not. But now...”

  She momentarily fell silent and looked right into my eyes.

  “But now, right here, I see someone who outclasses every player I know in terms of consideration for tians. You see them as lives, grieve for them, and sympathize with them.”

  She walked over to me and gently held my shaking hand.

  “So please, don’t be afraid of your decision. There’s no Master who cares for them as much as you do.”

  Her encouraging words had caused my trembling to fade.

  “B3,” I muttered. “Thank you.”

  “A good senior helps her junior,” she smiled in response.

  Thanks to her, I was now ready. It was time to go and tell them. To reveal to them the truth about—

  “Ｋ ｙ ａ Ｈ ａ ｈ Ａ ｈ ａ ｈ Ａ Ｈ ａ ｈ Ａ ｈ ａ Ｈ!”

  A maddened cackle suddenly resounded around us. It was akin to the sound of scraping glass, but it came out as laughter of the purest ridicule.

  “What?!” I exclaimed and looked to where it came from — the skies above a nearby mountain.

  There, I saw a—

  ◆◆◆

  Torne Village, Outskirts

  A few minutes earlier...

  “Shit! The assholes at SolCri cost us a bunch of money! We’ve gotta find something to make up for it!”

  Ten-odd Masters were inside a mountain not far from Torne.

  A group of them stood out, as they all had mohawks. They were the same Mohawk League members who’d faced off against Sol Crisis back at the festival. One of them was vigorously swinging a pickaxe, while another one heaved a tired sigh and spoke up.

  “Hhhhaaa... but it’s not like we’ll find the UBM, right? The story is hundreds of years old, and people say that no one’s found anything in the last two years. And hell, it’s not like we can win against a UBM.”

  In response, the vigorous mohawk put up an indomitable smile. “Heh heh heh, I’m not going for anything that big. I just want the meteor!”

  “The meteor?”

  “Don’t you know? In manga and light novels, the meteoric iron you get from meteors is a super strong weapon material. That has to be the same in Dendro.”

  “Ahh, I see. Even if the UBM is gone, the meteor that hit the creature should still be there.”

  “Exactly! So let’s keep digging!”

  “All right, all right.”

  Thus, they resumed their mining activities.

  What they failed to realize was that, if the meteor had been large, all the villages around here would’ve been obliterated, meaning that the one from the story had to have been small. Even if they kept digging, they would leave empty-handed and return to the festival to try and lift their spirits.

  Or so things would have gone, except... they were making a wrong assumption.

  The thing they thought had disappeared was still there.

  The thing buried beneath, now awakened by the meager amount of light, had realized that there were “torches” above it.

  Not only that, but the “torches” it had drastically reduced 300 years ago had increased to incomparably great numbers.

  Upon the moment of awakening, it hadn’t had the power to escape to the surface. Since then, it had done nothing but wait while consuming the meager amount of light reaching it.

  But its wait was now over.

  Having absorbed enough light to regain some of its power, it recovered enough strength to escape to the surface.

  “Ｋ ｙ Ａ ｈ ａ Ｈ!”

  It extended a tentacle upwards — towards the crack leaking light into its tomb.

  Having transformed all the light it gathered into MP, it used the crystalline protrusion at the end of it to fire a heat ray reaching thousands of degrees in temperature.

  It hit the mark exactly, melting the bedrock and widening the hole to the surface.

  That wasn’t all. On its way, it hit the unenthusiastic mohawk Master, piercing him through the crotch to the top of his head, instantly evaporating him and giving him the death penalty.

  The Master didn’t even have a chance to realize what happened, and his friend wasn’t quick enough to even notice, much less help. All he saw was his vanishing friend and the melting bedrock.

  A moment later, it flew out through the hole.

  It was a cracked, non-reflective crystal ball with a three metel diameter. It had black wings of an undefined shape. It had a set of four permeable tentacles with crystalline protrusions at the end.

  It had no organs that could be used to express emotion... and yet it cackled.>

  It had no mouth or anything that made up a face, and yet its crystalline body creaked out maddened laughter.

  “Ｋ ｙ Ｈ ａ ｈ Ａ Ｈ ａ ｈ Ａ ｈ ａ Ｈ ａ Ｈ ａ ｈ Ｋ ｙ ａ Ｋ Ｙ ａ Ｈ!”

  It spread its dark wings and absorbed all the light that reached it, instantly restoring its MP reserves.

  It became rejuvenated and overjoyed at the same time.

  After all, there were so, so many “torches” here.

  It was as happy and pure as a child about to blow out the candles on his birthday cake.

  “Attack!” one of the nearby Masters shouted.

  They had yet to realize what it really was, but they had more than enough reason to believe it was a danger and try to stop it with their skills and Embryos.

  “Ｋ ｙ ａ Ｈ ａ ｈ Ａ ｈ ａ ｈ Ａ Ｈ ａ ｈ Ａ ｈ ａ Ｈ!”

  But before they could do anything, it flew up. Up and up, higher and higher...

  Ignoring all below, it rose to what seemed like thousands of metels above ground, if not more. Eventually, it passed the troposphere and arrived at the stratosphere.

  To those below, it was nothing but a dot at this point.

  “Did it just... run away?” asked one of the Masters.

  The rest of them thought the same.

  From there, the monster couldn’t harm them, nor could they attack it. They assumed the monster had felt cornered and escaped as high as it could.

  But that couldn’t have been farther from the truth.

  Suddenly, there was a flash of light from high above, and a few seconds later, one of th
e Masters on the surface was set aflame. His hair, the oil of his skin, the clothes on his back were engulfed in ultra-hot fire.

  He stopped, dropped, and rolled to try and put it out, but since both his equipment and flesh were melting, that was far from enough, and he soon received the death penalty.

  The sight made the other Masters tremble and look up at the sky.

  “Eh?”

  “No way... From there?!”

  It reminded them of what they’d heard at the play.

  But no sword or arrow could reach the heights it was in. Some even tried to challenge it atop flying dragons, but not even those large wings could take them high enough.

  That play was the very reason why they were here. The words they’d heard there had inspired them to mine this mountain.

  However, they had slightly underestimated Blacksky’s altitude.

  Still, no one could fault them for that, as expecting this would be insanity. After all, what madman could imagine a UBM that has an offensive ability with a range of 10,000 metels and uses it to one-sidedly attack from high up in the atmosphere?

  “Ｋ Ｙ ａ ｈ Ａ ｈ ａ ｈ Ａ Ｈ ａ Ｈ ａ ｈ Ａ ｈ Ａ Ｈ!”

  Safe from all harm, the creature spread its dark wings even further and consumed all sunlight shining on the planet, effectively turning day into night.

  As it ate the light, it used its supreme vision to look at the surface and light the “torches” below.

  The heat ray it fired distorted the air around it as it reached the ground and set another Master aflame.

  The sight brought it great joy.

  Of course it did.

  After all, it liked watching the “torches” burn.

  Indeed, that was the one thing the play always got wrong. It didn’t consume the light from the “torches.” Sun and starlight was more than enough to give it the energy it required.

  As an entity that ate only light and survived with just that, it had no need to harm any creatures living below.

  But it enjoyed burning the “torches.”

  The sight of them burning, writhing, and dying always brought it great glee.

  After all, that was its sole hobby.

  “Ｋ ｙ ａ Ｈ ａ Ｈ?”

  Suddenly, it started to wonder.

  If the creature had been human, the thought would have been something like this:

  “This” has burned so much of them. But they don’t burn like the “torches” “this” likes. There’s not enough writhing and despair. Hey, but why? Why?

  The Masters’ sense of pain was disabled, so the agony of burning alive wasn’t there. And it wasn’t like they actually died, so their despair wasn’t that great, either.

  It didn’t like that at all.

  The torches with the funny patterns on the left hands are boring, it thought. “This” has to burn the torches without them.

  It looked over the land below and instantly found what it was looking for.

  The lively festival at Torne, bustling with tians.

  ◆

  The disaster that had once attacked Torne arose from its 300 year sleep and once again set its sights on the village.

  Its name was “Void of the Black Sky, Monochrome.”

  It was an Ancient Legendary UBM... and a creature that suspended itself in a domain none could reach.

  Chapter Four: Void of the Black Sky, Monochrome

  Paladin, Ray Starling

  As the unnatural laughter resounded, the mysterious black object breaking free of the mountain rose up to the sky at an incredible speed. Like a rocket, it pierced through the clouds above and stopped when it was nothing but a mere dot in the sky.

  A moment later, the heavens surrounding it winked into darkness.

  Though evening was still a while away, it suddenly felt like the sun had set hours ago.

  It made me recall the night summoned by the aberration, but this was probably the exact opposite cause. While her Superior Embryo had created the night, the dot in the sky was taking the light and effectively robbing the day.

  B3 silently took out a binocular-like magic item and used it to look up at the dot. Her expression turned bitter.

  “B3... what was that?” I asked.

  “A UBM.” She handed me the binoculars.

  I took a look at the dot and saw a monster that had the appearance of a cracked crystal ball with a set of dark wings. Above it, there was the name “Void of the Black Sky, Monochrome.”

  “‘Black Sky?’” I muttered. “Wait, that’s...!”

  It had to be “Blacksky,” the UBM from the play. The monster from history who’d become the origin of the Windstar Festival.

  The thing had been hit by the meteor and buried underground 300 years ago. Had that thing really survived all those centuries without any food or drink?

  “So it’s a light-eating energy life form... an elemental,” said B3. “In that case, it’s not too strange that it survived, but that doesn’t matter now. What does matter is what it’s planning to—”

  Before she could finish, Monochrome made its move.

  Still high in the sky, it began shooting beams of light. The first few went to the mountain it’d just exited, but then they started landing in the festival crowds. They birthed bursts of raging fire where they hit. Stands, households, and people were set ablaze.

  And as though that wasn’t enough, the beams didn’t stop. They continued to drop like an unrelenting rain.

  “Ｋ ｙ ａ Ｈ Ａ ｈ Ａ ｈ ａ ｈ Ａ Ｈ ａ ａ Ｈ! ♪” the thing that caused them laughed. I could hear it clearly despite the distance between us.

  The sound was thick with malice. It felt as though that was its way of telling the victims just how much fun it was having. The burning town, the terrified people, the children crying for their parents — all of it brought it great joy.

  It watched the endless fear and tragedy and felt nothing but glee.

  “You vile piece of...” I growled.

  That monster made me feel exactly the same as when I’d found out about Maise’s evils, when I’d faced Gouz-Maise, and when I’d challenged Franklin. My heart was pleading me, saying, Do not stand for this.

  “SILVEEEERRRR!” Hearing my roar, my trusty steed appeared out of my inventory.

  I jumped on his back, locked my prosthetic’s hook on his reins, and used the MP stored in my Grudge-Soaked Greaves to activate Wind Hoof.

  “Ray!” cried B3.

  “You help Farica and the other tians find shelter!” I shouted. “I’ll take care of that thing!”

  Without even waiting for a response, I swung the reins and made Silver gallop towards the sky. A second later, the crest on my upper left arm began to shine.

  “Ray!” cried Nemesis as she popped out of it, took her greatsword form, and wrapped around my right arm.

  “You get the situation?!” I asked.

  “Of course! We’re shattering that damned crystal, aren’t we?!”

  “Yeah! That’s all you need to know!”

  Silver dashed towards the sky at a nearly 90-degree angle as I resisted gravity by charging magic into my prosthetic and adding force to my feet in the stirrups.

  “What?” I burst out as I noticed something.

  The vertical perspective was giving me a good view of Torne. Looking at it, I saw the silhouettes of four other flying mounts: a gryphon, a hippogryph, a wyvern, and a large skydragon — probably of Pure-Dragon tier.

  All of them were being ridden by Masters who’d probably come to enjoy the Windstar Festival.

  And now, just like me, they were taking to the sky to slay Monochrome.

  “Hey!” the guy on the hippogryph called. “Hey! Aren’t you Ray Starling the Unbreakable?!”

  “Yeah! Who are you?”

  “I’m Lang, just a Gale Rider without a nickname! Riser told me about you! He’s a long-time member of our clan!”

  “You know Riser?!”

  “Yes! Anyway, talk about raining on a parade, huh? Le
t’s join forces and—” Suddenly, Lang’s head completely vanished.

  “Wh...?!” I gasped.

  In but a flash and without a sound, a beam from above had evaporated his skull. The body left behind was turning to particles of light, while his hippogryph was automatically returned to his Jewel.

  “It’s intercepting us!” roared the heavily-armored Master on the Pure-Dragon.

  Looking up, I saw the monster’s tentacles twist as their tips were directed at our direction.

  “Hah!” chuckled the lightly-armored Master on the gryphon. “It’s like we’re in a shoot ’em up! Getting up close’ll be tough!”

  “HyaHAH! We’ve gotta do what we gotta do!” exclaimed the wyvern-rider with a mohawk. “I’ll avenge my clan bro and the tians! We never run from a fight!”

  They both made their mounts speed up.

  “The beams go straight!” shouted the Master on the Pure-Dragon. “It’s not hard to dodge them! Just watch when the tentacles flash!” He was completely right about that. Though the thing had an immense range, evading its attacks was no challenge, and if we kept this up, it wouldn’t be long until we reached and killed it.

  “Whoa, dudes, be careful!” said the mohawk guy. He sounded loud, probably because of some sort of voice-amplifying item. “I was there when it came out! Back then, it melted the bedrock and my clan bro in one hit, but when it shot from the sky, it just made the target burn! It means the beam power is inversely proportional to distance!”

  “Ah, so its effective range is lower than the 10,000 meter actual range!” shouted the Pure-Dragon Master.

  Basically, the real danger would begin when we got close to that monster.

  If the power of the beams is still low, that means that Lang was instakilled only because it hit his head... Man, what an unlucky guy.

  I heard a sound behind me and turned to see what caused it. “Hm?”

  There were fiery fumes floating somewhere around the halfway point between us and the surface. It looked somewhat like a missile explosion.

  “That’s exactly it,” said Nemesis upon reading my mind. “Someone on the surface fired a missile — most likely an Embryo skill — but it was shot down by the fiend’s beams.”

  Being in weapon form expanded her field of vision, so she could see what was happening both above and below us.