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CHAPTER 286: HATCHING

 

――The night was trembling.

We were on the fifth floor of the Phantom Castle.

Even though a lot of Seiha members were gathered, the air was so taut that no one tried to speak.

In that silence, the only thing that rang out was each person’s own heartbeat, pounding in their chest like a bell announcing the beginning of the ritual.

Every time the jet-black egg on the pedestal pulsed with a faint light, ripples of mana spread across the floor.

It was like the heartbeat of something alive.

「I-It’s moving again! Light’s leaking out of the little cracks!!」

Urs’s long ears shook with excitement.

His voice trembled, as if it were bubbling up from deep within his chest, a blend of joy and fear.

From the day the egg was summoned, Urs had barely left its side.

He’d probably been carrying our expectations and excitement, and even the pressure of the responsibility we’d placed on it, all on his own.

All that time spent watching over it was finally, at long last, about to be rewarded.

But the faces of Ars and Irs, standing beside him, were still grim.

The turmoil in their eyes and the prickling tension in the air around them said more clearly than words that this phenomenon was anything but ordinary.

「Mmm… The mana wavelength feels… very large indeed, it does.」

「This is not normal, no. It’s as if some more ‘primordial’ existence is about to awaken, it is.」

Primordial—

The moment that word hit, something faint stirred inside my chest.

At the same time, the chant from that summoning rose up in my mind.

「Born from the stars, to the stars return—great beast, ensnared in that eternal flow. Now, be freed from your strange and twisted fate.」

A strange fate.

The eternal flow.

The meaning of that call… was about to take on a definite shape.

「Mm. It’s going to be born…」

At Kinu’s voice, everyone’s gaze swung back to the egg.

A large crack ran across the jet-black shell, as if splitting it open.

Light spilled from the gap, swirling into a vortex where lightning and flame intertwined, spinning as it flooded the space.

Thunder boomed.

The air shook, lines of light crawling along the floor and bursting.

It wasn’t the sound of destruction. It was a blessing.

As if the world itself had been waiting for this birth.

The next instant, the shell quietly shattered.

A soundless flash swallowed the floor, and blazing feathers whirled through the air.

And from within that vortex of light appeared—

…a small magic beast, far removed from anything you’d call a ‘great beast’.

Yellow and crimson markings ran like flowing lines over its jet-black fur.

A faintly glowing mane swayed along its back, and from the tips of its two small horns bright red sparks scattered.

――It was like a sudden evening shower at twilight.

The black of night, smeared with the red of sunset and the yellow of lightning.

That form, holding a fleeting roar in the depths of its silence, was so grand and beautiful it stole the breath from my lungs.

While everyone forgot to even blink, the flashes of lightning and the dancing flames slowly shifted shape and then faded away, until—

「Kyui?」

The little beast at the center of every gaze blinked its eyes open and let out a soft cry.

Its voice was so utterly pure—just a sound, and yet it kindled a gentle warmth in the chest of everyone who heard it.

「S-So… cute…」

Kinu whispered.

Urs’s eyes went wide, and Ars and Irs both let out sounds of open admiration.

「This mana density… it’s like compressing a natural phenomenon itself, it is.」

「The wavelengths of lightning and flame aren’t disrupting each other at all. They’re in perfect harmony, they are…」

The little beast staggered as it got to its feet, still unsteady. Its eyes held both lightning and crimson flame—gold and red, a glow that seemed to carry both of our main elements.

The two primary attributes Kinu and I held… both were mirrored in that light.

Its small body swayed as it walked, but it slowly made its way toward us.

Then it pressed its nose against my hand, ever so gently. Tiny sparks jumped, and I felt its warmth.

Watching that, Kinu murmured:

「This kid… it’s like it already knows our mana.」

There was no way this was just coincidence.

This life, this soul, had answered our wish through the medium of that ‘random’ summoning.

Yeah. This one hadn’t just been ‘called’.

It had answered.

The little beast sat down with a plop and gave another small cry, looking up at us as if to say ‘good morning’.

Seeing that, Kinu smiled softly and spoke.

「We… need to give it a name, don’t we.」

At the sound of her voice, the little beast’s tail began to sway gently from side to side.

To give a name is to carve the fact of its ‘existence’ into this world.

For a child who doesn’t yet know what it will be called… what name should we give it?

Even as I was turning that over in my mind, a faint light flowed from my palm into the little beast, and information poured into my head.

＜Status＞

【Species】Behemoth (Juvenile)
【Element】Lightning · Fire
【Title】Calamity

「…! B-Behe…moth…」

With that one word, the air tightened again, and everyone fell speechless.

What lurked within that tiny body was pure, unadulterated devastation.

――In this moment, the night truly woke.

A life born at the end of a miracle where lightning and flame met.

It was a calamity-class magic beast whose very existence could shake even the fate of the stars.