“...My God.”

Sempas couldn’t close his gaping mouth as he took in the scene before him.

Amid the swirling clouds of deadly poison, Arfa stood tall and unshaken.

Lying in front of Arfa was Amar—his face crushed, sprawled out on the ground.

He wasn’t breathing. He was dead.

“To think you actually won...”

Sempas had known Arfa was strong.

But no matter how powerful someone was, poison was supposed to be the great equalizer.

Poison was one of the few forces capable of inflicting fatal damage regardless of strength.

Yet Arfa stood unscathed in that deadly fog.

He hadn’t resisted it or pushed it away—it was as if the poison hadn’t affected him in the first place.

Naturally, Amar hadn’t even managed a real fight before being smashed by Arfa’s fist.

Arfa looked down at Amar for a moment, then turned and walked toward Sempas.

“It’s over!”

The moment Sempas saw that bright, beaming smile, every last bit of tension in his body melted away.

He collapsed backward with a thud, staring up at the sky.

Above him loomed the giant dome of mist, glowing faintly from within.

Just then, Arfa’s head popped into his field of vision.

“Sempas. Are you all right?”

“Thanks to you.”

The antidote Arfa had given him had saved his life.

He was just exhausted—he’d spent too much energy before that.

“What about the others? They must’ve all been poisoned.”

“Everyone’s safe.”

Arfa had checked on the New Mage Tower’s mages.

Thanks to the arrival of additional support, they were all receiving proper treatment.

“But the rest of the ley lines...”

“That’s been taken care of, too.”

Arfa recalled the giant metal bird flying toward the forest, and the white owl chasing after it.

The erupting ley lines had all returned to their normal state.

Ludger had succeeded.

“Still, what was that enormous creature earlier?”

Arfa remembered the Lord of Earth who had appeared and then vanished.

A being like a living mountain, one that defied the very laws of physics.

“I’ve only heard of them in stories, but... that might’ve been an Elemental Lord. [N O V E L I G H T] Could you help me up?”

“Yes.”

Arfa gently helped Sempas to his feet.

It felt strange being supported by someone who looked like a child, but Sempas ignored the awkwardness and continued.

“Elemental Lords are spirits, but they stand at the very top of that hierarchy. That one earlier was probably the Lord of Earth.”

“Wow... so that was an Elemental Lord.”

“There are only a handful of recorded sightings in all of human history. I never imagined one would show up here of all places.”

“Why would a being like that suddenly appear?”

“Even if it looks like that, it’s still a spirit—so I’d guess it couldn’t bear to see the land being destroyed. Spirits love nature, after all. If the Kasarr Basin collapsed, the surrounding area would’ve been wiped out. As a being born of nature, it probably appeared to protect it.”

“Even so... to stabilize land that was on the verge of collapse... that’s incredible.”

“Exactly. That’s why they’re called transcendent beings.”

The towering pillars of mana that had once shot up into the sky had all settled.

The trembling ground had regained stability, and the chaos had quieted into an eerie calm.

“...A miracle, really.”

Sempas muttered, then let out a dry laugh at his own words.

So much had happened since arriving here.

“Let’s go. Back to the forward base.”

“Okay!”

Arfa cheerfully picked up the pace.

Sempas’s legs dragged a bit as he followed behind.

“...Could you maybe slow down just a little?”

* * *

The forward base was filled with celebration.

The blue pillars that had been visible even from afar were now gone.

The Kasarr Basin wasn’t collapsing.

Everyone here had survived.

Now that it was truly over, those who had been holding their breath embraced one another in relief.

Even those who normally cared about appearances weren’t exempt.

The joy of escaping death transcended rank and formality.

And that included Yekaterina.

It’s finally over.

Yekaterina felt like screaming at the top of her lungs in joy.

The only reason she hadn’t collapsed into her seat was sheer willpower.

But the only thing keeping her upright was the nagging she’d heard for most of her life:

Maintain your dignity. Uphold your royal stature.

The person who said those things likely no longer existed.

And perhaps it was because they no longer existed that she felt she had to follow those words all the more.

There’s still work to be done.

Suppressing her joy cleared her head, allowing her to think logically again.

Being alive was wonderful—but there was still much to do.

They needed to tally the dead, treat the wounded, and clean up the mess left behind.

Most importantly, one of her aides, Valentina, had yet to return.

Valentina.

Valentina had gone toward the cliffs with the Old Mage Tower’s mages.

But only the mages had returned.

The ley line they’d been heading toward had exploded.

Valentina... hadn’t come back.

Yekaterina had asked what had happened to the others, but the mages said nothing.

They simply left under the excuse of reinforcing the base in preparation for another collapse.

On top of that, none of the New Mage Tower’s survivors had returned yet either.

That ley line had also exploded—meaning those people might all be dead too.

Surviving was worth celebrating.

But many lives had still been lost.

Yekaterina knew she couldn’t let herself be too happy.

Just then, one corner of the gathered crowd broke into a commotion.

When she turned to look, she heard someone shout that survivors had returned.

Survivors?

Yekaterina looked toward the source of the noise—and her face brightened.

“Valentina!”

Valentina and Derrick Olson, both visibly wounded, were riding a magical beast toward the base.

Valentina jumped down from the beast and, ignoring her injuries, immediately knelt before Yekaterina.

“Your Majesty! Valentina, returned as ordered!”

Her face, however, was far from cheerful.

She hadn’t completed her mission. She had lost her men. And she’d survived alone.

But Yekaterina welcomed her with a gentle smile.

“I’m just glad you’re alive.”

“I’m sorry. I failed the mission and let my subordinates die. I barely managed to survive...”

“No. That was out of your hands. And look—Kasarr Basin is still standing. This fight wasn’t in vain.”

“...I didn’t accomplish anything.”

“But you tried. You did your best. And those injuries prove it. If even you ended up like that, it must have been truly brutal. You did well.”

At Yekaterina’s words, Valentina’s emotions surged, and she lowered her head.

“Please get treatment. I’ll hear the full details from Mr. Derrick Olson.”

“...Yes, understood.”

As Valentina stepped away, the utterly exhausted Derrick approached Yekaterina.

“What happened out there?”

“...A lot.”

Derrick recounted everything he had witnessed at the cliffs.

And when he reached the part about Ludger pursuing the mastermind behind the scenes, Yekaterina couldn’t hide her shock.

“You mean everything that happened in the forest was...”

“I don’t know if all of it was done by Professor Ludger. If nothing else, the Lord of Earth isn’t something a person can control.”

“That massive living mountain, you mean.”

“It was miracle upon miracle. But we can’t chalk everything up to luck. If that man hadn’t fought, we wouldn’t have had the time to get that far.”

Yekaterina nodded in agreement.

At the same time, she burned with anger over the Old Mage Tower’s behavior.

“To abandon their duty and seek only to save themselves—how utterly disgraceful...!”

At that exact moment, the mages from the Old Mage Tower, who had been lingering outside the base, returned to the plaza.

They had realized that the crisis was over.

Gregoryum, the head of the Old Tower, approached Yekaterina with a brazen face—until he saw Derrick standing beside her. His expression darkened.

“Derrick Olson. So you made it back alive.”

“Gregoryum. You ran off to save your own skin—did it pay off?”

Gregoryum’s face stiffened at the jab, but then he smirked faintly.

“You look like hell. See? That’s what happens when you play hero. You didn’t need to go through all that.”

“You really believe that?”

“In the end, everyone’s alive, aren’t they? There was never a need to risk our necks in the first place.”

Gregoryum had clearly decided to act as shamelessly as possible.

Derrick’s face grew cold.

“You...”

Yekaterina couldn’t hold back her fury any longer.

“You ran from the battle, and now you dare speak like this?!”

Gregoryum raised his hands in protest, feigning innocence.

“Your Majesty, I think you may have misunderstood. We didn’t run—we made the most strategic choice available. We sought a path where the most people could survive. Is that truly so wrong?”

“What did you just say?”

“Would you have preferred that we stayed and died? Look—aside from Derrick here, who else made it back? Even if we had been there, nothing would’ve changed.”

Gregoryum’s argument was simple: they wouldn’t have made a difference, and more people would’ve died.

Logically, he wasn’t wrong.

Even if the Old Tower mages had been there, they likely wouldn’t have been able to stop the ley line collapse.

But there was a difference between stepping back after doing all you could—and abandoning the fight altogether.

“Gregoryum. Do you not even know the meaning of shame?”

“Should I feel ashamed for making the best decision and surviving?”

“Don’t you feel anything seeing those who did stay and fight? While the great mages of the Tower ran, independent mages risked their lives to fight!”

“And they all died. What a stupid choice.”

“You—!”

“And where is that oh-so-great professor now, anyway? He laughed at us for leaving, but he’s not even here. Did he die?”

“...He went into the forest to pursue the mastermind. He chose to keep fighting until the end.”

“Then he’s probably dead. He’s not back, is he? Maybe he was lucky and the Elemental Lord saved him, but what was gained by risking that much?”

Derrick’s face flushed with rage.

He clenched his fist—and just as he was about to punch Gregoryum—

Whack!

A clean, ringing sound echoed through the plaza as Gregoryum was knocked to the ground.

“...!”

Derrick blinked in disbelief—staring at Yekaterina.

Her outstretched fist made it clear who had thrown the punch.

The cold Queen of the North had just decked the leader of the Old Mage Tower.

With her fist.

In such cases, one would usually expect a slap. But Yekaterina had thrown a full straight punch with expert form—clean, controlled, and powerful.

Has she trained her body instead of practicing social graces?

Derrick was startled by the absurdity of it—and deeply satisfied to see Gregoryum sprawled out.

“W-What is the meaning of this?!”

Gregoryum clutched his swelling cheek, voice rising in outrage.

“To lay a hand on a member of the Old Tower?! Do you realize what this could mean politically?! It’s too late! The Yuta Kingdom will never again receive the Old Tower’s support!”

His eyes were bloodshot with fury.

Yekaterina snorted, completely unfazed.

“I have no words to exchange with a scoundrel.”

She was a ruler—someone who should maintain poise and act with decorum.

Someone who ought to be mindful of appearances and behave accordingly.

Showing emotion like this should not be permitted.

But she couldn’t pretend not to see this.

She didn’t regret what she had done.

“...Are you ready to bear the consequences of that?”

“I welcome them!”

Gregoryum was rendered speechless by her thunderous reply.

“If I turn a blind eye to something so wrong—who would ever trust and follow me? I didn’t come this far to let that happen!”

Her words turned Gregoryum’s face a deep shade of red.

His lips trembled as he hissed a threat.

“You’ll regret this.”

“It’s a better look for someone like you.”

“...What? Who the hell—?!”

At that moment, a voice cut in from above, interrupting him.

Gregoryum looked around in confusion, trying to locate the source.

But no one was nearby.

“Up.”

Only then did he realize the voice had come from the sky above him.

He looked up—and froze.

“Wh-What the...?”

A massive white stag hovered in the air, its body shimmering with mana.

Derrick and Yekaterina also stared in awe.

Suspended in midair, its antlers gleaming like divine gold, the beast radiated overwhelming presence.

The sheer majesty of it made everyone at the forward base fall silent.

The divine beast exuded a sacred brilliance, demanding reverence.

And just like that, the noisy plaza was swallowed by stillness.