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Holy White Fired – Part 06

The Grand Elder, who had been silent, suddenly called out, “Rikido.”

Granryuk never expected his name to be called, so he thought he must have misheard. But as everyone around the Grand Elder turned to him, it became clear he had heard correctly. The elders looked at him with hostility, their eyes accusing him of bringing the labyrinth to their home.

He approached the Grand Elder hesitantly. “Wh-What is it?”

“What would happen if the Saak family’s junk collided with this mountain?”

“What?”

She was likely referring to the labyrinth. Granryuk wondered why she was asking him, but then realized that the elders hadn’t seen the floating island.

“It would be crushed.”

“Are you saying the labyrinth would be destroyed?”

“No, no, no, it’s the opposite. The mountain would be flattened.”

Granryuk stated the plain truth, but it hit the Man Gnomes like a quiet and cold death sentence.

“Is it really that big?”

Only the Grand Elder remained calm, in stark contrast to the pale elders and the Attending Awl. It almost seemed as if the Grand Elder might not have heard what he said at all.

“Y-Yes,” Granryuk answered. “From what I’ve heard, the Great Labyrinth of Runay-aas has over seventy floors. Given that it’s airborne in its entirety, it has to be bigger than a mountain.”

“That’s absurd! We haven’t received any such report!” the Sixth Elder roared.

You’re the ones who didn’t allow us to give a report, Granryuk thought.

“So, Rikido. What do you think?”

The Grand Elder never took her eyes off Granryuk. To him, she was an enigma. It wasn’t just her age. Besides the Star White Wedge, how many secrets did she hold? She was a mysterious figure who acted solely for the village’s benefit, never revealing her true intentions.

“What do you mean by what do I think, Grand Elder?”

“Is it not obvious? What do you think will happen next?”

The other elders muttered dismissively, “His opinion is worthless,” and “He’s a Distant Girdle, tainted by the outside world,” but the Seventh Elder, one of the few men among them, stayed silent. Granryuk had heard that the Seventh Elder had met privately with Silver Face, someone Granryuk respected. The Seventh Elder wore a faint smile, not because he found the village’s crisis amusing. There was a composed, awe-inspiring air about him. Another enigma.

“As a mere Distant Girdle, I can’t say for sure. Perhaps it would be better to discuss it with the Attending Awls.”

“With the labyrinth closing in on our village, we don’t have time for leisurely discussions. Are you testing me, Granryuk?”

Granryuk’s heart skipped a beat. He hadn’t intended to test her. He just assumed whatever he said wouldn’t be taken seriously. Perhaps he also harbored some complicated feelings as a Distant Girdle, Man Gnomes excluded from key village decisions.

But the Grand Elder understood the gravity of the situation. She simply wanted to hear his thoughts in order to devise a plan to overcome it.

“I apologize.” Granryuk bowed his head.

She might be mysterious, but she was wise.

“It’s fine. Speak your mind.”

“We can’t shoot down the Great Labyrinth of Runay-aas.”

“We can!” the Third Elder barked, but the Grand Elder silenced her with a glare.

“Continue, Granryuk.”

“Okay. We need to assume the worst. If we fail to shoot down the labyrinth, we will be attacked. There’s no way the labyrinth hasn’t found our village. The Saak family—specifically Soaarunay Saak—has set her sights on us, intending to destroy the village.”

Silence descended. The only sound was the wind from the sky, like soft, distant sobbing.

“And?” the Grand Elder urged calmly.

“We should leave only the essential personnel to operate the Star White Wedge and evacuate the rest. We use the Black Wedge Gate to scatter and flee across the continent.”

“How dare you! Are you telling us to abandon the village?! Have you no pride as a Man Gnome?!” the Third Elder shouted.

The other elders echoed her sentiment, but the Grand Elder and the Seventh Elder remained unfazed.

Granryuk couldn’t help but feel something off. Why were they so calm? The Grand Elder, maybe, but the Seventh Elder too? Had he learned something from Silver Face? Or was there another trump card, one only the Seventh Elder knew about? The Seventh Elder was whispering something to a nearby Distant Girdle.

But this wasn’t the time to dwell on that.

“If any of us survive, we can rebuild. The long-standing feud with the Saak family won’t end so easily.”

“The Star White Wedge can destroy the labyrinth!” the Third Elder shot back. “It’s a soul-powered weapon, the ultimate means to annihilate the Saaks, a family obsessed with sorcery. Are you telling us to abandon it and flee?”

“Are you saying that without the Star White Wedge, we’ll have no way to fight the Saak family? That abandoning the village equals the defeat of the Man Gnomes?”

“…”

“Are you suggesting that an ancient relic is worth more than the lives of those here now?”

“N-No, that’s not what I meant.”

The Third Elder tried to deny it, but her words came out weakly.

The Man Gnomes had long relied on ancient relics. Their control over the Quinbrand Empire was possible because of technologies like the Black Wedge Gate. But they never truly understood that technology.

People are resilient by nature. Granryuk, who had spent years outside the village, believed this. Watching Silver Face makes me believe it even more.

The boy had uncovered the secrets of the Great Labyrinth of Runay-aas through his own power. Even when the labyrinth floated in the sky, he didn’t give up. He negotiated with the Fire Drakon and found a way to fly.

That was the strength of a human. He didn’t rely on ancient relics or powerful magic items. It was pure human effort.

While the Star White Wedge was indeed an astonishing weapon of last resort, Granryuk believed that uniting the strength of all the Man Gnomes was even more crucial.

“As Granryuk said, our fellow villagers are more important.”

“G-Grand Elder?”

To Granryuk’s surprise, the Grand Elder agreed with him.

“Thank you for understanding, Grand Elder. Then, let us evacuate the villagers. Immediately.”

With this, the Man Gnomes would survive. If they survived, they could always recover.

“No, we will not evacuate.”

“What?”

“Don’t you see, Granryuk? As you said, the Star White Wedge requires our power, the power of the living.”

“Wh-What are you saying?”

At that moment, Granryuk felt a vibration in the air. Before he could even process it, a wave of dizziness, much stronger than before, nearly brought him to his knees.

What is this feeling? Was it not just the elders’ petty arguments making me dizzy?

Two of the elders had plopped down, and some of the Attending Awl and Distant Girdle were crouching as well.

Only the Grand Elder remained standing, looking up at the Star White Wedge.

“Ah.”

There was a strange sensation when the Star White Wedge was activated. It felt like something was pulling at his very being.

“Grand Elder, souls aren’t inexhaustible. Could it be that the Star White Wedge is powered by sacrificing the souls of the Man Gnomes?!”

The corners of the Grand Elder’s mouth curled into a slight smile. Granryuk took it as an affirmation.

This mysterious figure had planned this all along. To destroy the Great Labyrinth of Runay-aas, to achieve total victory in the long-standing battle against the Saak family, she was willing to sacrifice the lives of her brothers and sisters, including her own.

She must have been drawing in the souls of everyone in the village. What was happening to the Man Gnomes who had been sent home? Some might have collapsed. Some might be trembling in utter hopelessness.

“Can you see it, Granryuk? The unsuspecting director is pushing the souls beyond their limit. We will take down the labyrinth with maximum firepower. A classic path to victory. There is no triumph more beautiful than this.”

Granryuk realized—painfully so—that the Star White Wedge was indeed the ultimate weapon, because it achieved victory by sacrificing everything.

Lightheaded, Granryuk looked up and saw the Star White Wedge moving differently than before. The light was intensifying, and it wasn’t because dawn was breaking. A single line of blood trickled from the Grand Elder’s mouth as she gazed in rapture at the white light.

---

When Soaarunay muttered, “This is bad,” Hikaru was struggling with the additional magic catalysts that had just arrived. The Four Eastern Stars and Paula, who had stripped the catalysts from the turrets, had returned to help carry them in.

He didn’t need to ask what was wrong. The white light in the home of the Man Gnomes, which had appeared as a small dot on the screen, was now clearly visible. And it was obvious just how unnaturally large the light had become.

The snow-capped mountains stood stark against the ultramarine sky, their right side bathed in the red glow of the rising sun. It was an unbelievable sight.

A giant torch seemed to rise from the mountains, illuminating everything around it. If that light wasn’t a weapon with its barrel aimed directly at them, they might have found it mesmerizing.

Unfortunately, they didn’t have even a single second to admire it.

“Hurry up with those catalysts! You, operate that panel!”

This was an emergency. They were about to face an even more powerful attack than before. The enemy had noticed the Great Labyrinth’s approach and was making a desperate move to stop it. This was a life and death situation.

“Damn it! What’s this panel for?!”

“It controls the valve that regulates the flow of mana to the different floors. You can close them all.”

“I can reroute the mana to the front shield, right?”

“Do it, and fast!”

As the shield deployed, the clear image on the screen began to blur from the sheer density of magical energy being pumped into it.

“More, more, more! Bring those catalysts faster!”

“We’re on it!”

Selyse and the others rushed to deliver the catalysts. The small pile they had built up in the elevator was already gone.

“There’s too much mana!” Hikaru warned. “An alert is showing that the magic circuits are about to go haywire from the load.”

“I don’t care! Pour everything we’ve got!”

“I’m not responsible for what happens.”

“If we don’t make it, we’re dead anyway!”

Soaarunay’s judgment was sound, and it was clear that she was keenly cautious of the next strike.

Beyond the distorted scenery, the white light continued to grow, turning bright as a second sun.

Hikaru kept tapping on the panel. Though it was unfamiliar, his basic understanding of sorcery helped him navigate it. He couldn’t help but be impressed by the Saak family’s ingenuity in designing such an interface.

“This is the last drop!”

The moment he tapped the last glowing panel, it disappeared. They had successfully funneled all the mana into the shield spell.

And then, the world turned white.