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109. Eruption

「The mountain… just erupted!?」

「Alright, time to fight!」

「Geez! Papa, you always wait until the last possible second to say important things!!」

Only this guy could treat human extinction like a last-minute warning.

Still, whining wouldn’t change anything.

「Koe-san, it’s our turn too.」

「Yes, Master.」

「Let’s begin the assault on the Dungeon Break.」

Since we had teleported mid-air, it was only natural we began falling. As we plummeted, I felt a vortex of mana swirl up behind us—Azula’s doing.

「—In fire and ore we serve. [Messenger of the Mine], activate. Hear me, O stones. Guard the feet of our kin.」

Responding to Azula’s invocation, the stone paving softened beneath us, cushioning our landing. A quick glance confirmed our location—not far from the Emesmes estate we had been staying at, in the opposite direction of that bakery.

The local townsfolk, for their part, didn’t even have the presence of mind to notice us falling from the sky. They were too shocked by the sudden volcanic eruption. That shock wouldn’t last long—they’d soon descend into panic.

Swift action was critical. The situation was descending into chaos, but our objectives remained simple. I gave instructions to those around me.

「Anyone can tell the city’s in danger when a mountain erupts. The human residents should be handled by the guards and the remaining knights. The real problem is… Azula!」

「Yes, Marge-sama?」

「The dwarves under suggestion magic living here in the city, and the ones working in the dangerous underground zones. Can I leave their evacuation to you?」

「The dungeon’s entrance is through an old shaft that’s no longer in use, so no one should’ve been caught in the eruption. We’ll focus on evacuating the ones in the new shafts. You heard that, Chunaru? Lead the people and protect them. As representative of the dwarven chieftain, I’ll join the battle.」

「Milady!? But I’m supposed to stay by your side! Shouldn’t someone older be leading…?」

Chunaru had a perfectly reasonable point, but Azula cut her off mid-sentence.

「If you can’t do it, that’s fine. I just thought you could, Chunaru.」

「Wha—n-no, I’ll do it! I can do it! It’s just that…」

「Besides, what exactly do you plan to accomplish staying here? Now go—hurry!」

Azula sighed as she watched Chunaru take off in a panic.

「I had to put it like that. Otherwise he wouldn’t leave my side.」

「I get it, but… are you sure it’s okay to put him in charge?」

「If I tell Chunaru to do something, he’ll do it. And he’ll do it right. That much I know for sure. Even if I had to pick from all twenty-three thousand dwarves, I’d still choose Chunaru.」

Azula declared this with a slightly pouty look, as if daring anyone to say otherwise. It was the sort of expression a little sister might make about her overprotective older brother—but this was no time to dwell on it.

With civilian evacuation handled, all that remained was to head to the mountain—the rocky mass housing the mines beneath—as fast as possible.

「[Space Jump], activate. I’ll take care of Kirmiji. Angelina, you coming too?」

「Nope!」

Angelina had somehow landed face-first, but she sprang up and dusted off her singed robe, then pointed straight toward the Emesmes estate. The golden chain followed behind her.

「Geli’s heading home! If Shizuku-chan made it there, that system should be activating now!」

『Ah, that thing. Marge-kun, would you mind handling the first wave of monsters for me?』

「So you’ve got something ready for the Generals and Kings that come after. Got it. Meet up with Shizuku and—no, wait.」

「Yes?」

「Give Shizuku a message for me. ‘Run full speed back to the village and tell Bellman what happened here. Say it’s payback for the favor to Duke Abik.’ That should get the point across.」

「Roger that!」

「As the representative of the werewolves, this job’s mine.」

「Also, can we borrow Azula-chan for our side? I think we can get a synergy going.」

「Sure. That works better for us too.」

I turned again to look toward the mountain. The fire spewing from it now gleamed with flecks of gold. The molten rock, sometimes cooled and solidified into fist-sized chunks, rained down on the city. With the added density from the altitude, it was like a downpour of artillery shells.

For now, it was only enough to punch holes through rooftops. But if the chunks grew any larger, the whole city could be reduced to rubble. And if monsters surged down too, rebuilding would be next to impossible.

「Koe-san, let’s go.」

「Yes, Master.」

「[Space Jump], activate.」

Our destination: high above the mountain.

While falling through the air, I extended my right hand toward the volcanic crater. If there is just one opening, then we can use it. It was a technique Koe-san and I developed during our travels, to fend off monsters near our tent.

「[Space Jump]. [Universal Palm], activate.」

Teleport the eruption underground.

I expanded the Spatial Leap field to cover the entire crater like a lid.

「Next—[Star Years], activate. Extend the duration of Spatial Leap and anchor it directly above the crater. Ngh… damn, no wonder wisdom-type skills are in demand for this.」

My brain screamed under the strain, but I forced the teleportation field into place. The setup was complete.

Back when we first used it, we never bothered to name it—but if we had to…

「[Airspace Seal Formation]—circulation initiated.」

Once I confirmed the technique had activated, I triggered a healing skill. I had avoided blowing my brain and getting shipped off to the protected region, which was a relief. I hugged Koe-san close as she wiped the blood from my eyes and descended using [Asura’s Six Arms].

From above, we could clearly see the fire from the dungeon being diverted by the shifted coordinates.

「Looks like it worked.」

「You pushed yourself too far, Master. Still… was that the same technique you once showed me?」

「Yeah. Same principle. Place [Space Jump] directly above the crater. Only this time, instead of launching monsters into the sky, I set the exit ‘below.’ That door leads underground.」

It wouldn’t be cost-effective to launch every last piece of dungeon matter into the distant stars. And it wasn’t like we had a nice lake nearby to dump everything into.

So then—just put the fire back into the mountain. That way, it’ll just circulate for a while, and we won’t have to worry about it torching the city.

「Now all that’s left… are the monsters.」

The circulating fire intensified, even roasting some of the monsters inside. Still, dozens—no, hundreds of monsters crawled out from the crater and began descending the mountain toward Vita Tama in search of humans.

I raised my right hand toward the lead pack of salamandras and focused my energy.

「[Subspace Rupture], activate. I’m not about to let trash-tier monsters slow me down.」

「Yes, Master. Please, go all out.」

I reduced every monster I could mentally lock onto—hundreds of them—into thousands of bloody chunks. More would keep coming, but as long as I held the line, it wouldn’t matter.

With the fire and monsters handled, the next problem was—when the earth shook beneath us.

「Tch—」

「Master, this is…!?」

It wasn’t an earthquake. Even the salamandras paused, shaken by what they’d heard.

It was a roar.

As if to confirm my suspicions, I saw it crawling out of the fire. Just a glimpse of its silhouette, but it was enough to know—it was on a whole different level from the others.

Koe-san’s voice trembled slightly. I noticed immediately.

「…Forgive my doubt, but… do you think Angelina-san really has a plan?」

「She said she does. So she does.」

Huge. That’s all I could say.

A colossal figure was slowly emerging from the crater—one so massive that no [Space Jump] cast by humans could possibly teleport it.