"Come to think of it, what exactly is that magical weapon Lord Odin mentioned — the one that can kill a Black Dragon?"
"Right, right, and why would it kill off half the life on the continent?"
"Does that include adventurers?"
"So that means—"
No one quite remembered who'd brought it up, but suddenly everyone realized something deeply unsettling.
Namely this.
Could the "magical weapon" the Magic Kingdom was researching actually be powerful enough to kill Lv. 8 or even Lv. 9 adventurers?
If it could kill a Black Dragon, then logically, yes — that would make sense.
But were adventurers meant to be the weapon's "target," or were they simply among the "half" of all life it would wipe out?
Asfi only shook her head at the question.
And it wasn't just her — even Fels had no way of understanding what the thing actually was. Not even in imagination.
That was understandable, really.
Centuries ago, Fels had been the finest magic-user in the Magic Kingdom, capable of crafting a Philosopher's Stone that granted immortality, and had delved deep into magic for undeath and resurrection. But centuries had passed since then, and the Magic Kingdom had surely produced even greater geniuses in the meantime.
Perhaps even whole teams — generation after generation refining and passing down their knowledge. That kind of accumulation was exactly the advantage magical technology held.
And so it had become whatever it now was.
This, then, was one of the core commissions the Guild had handed down for this "special operation."
[Determine the true nature of the "secret weapon."]
Ideally, they would learn how it functioned, why it could kill a Black Dragon, and why it would cause half the life on the continent to vanish.
Of course.
The Guild, along with many of the city's gods and a good number of adventurers, mostly believed the Magic Kingdom was simply crying wolf.
But everyone had already heard what Alfia had told them — that in the Desert of Death, the wasteland born from Behemoth's death, Imperial soldiers had been using some kind of magical technology to harvest Magic Stones from the site.
Those Magic Stones carried a strange, particular kind of power.
Isagi and the girls had seen it themselves. It was subtle, almost indescribable.
Could that kind of power ever reach the level needed to kill a Black Dragon?
Hard to say.
But there was no denying that something capable of converting anything — turning countless forms of "reality" into raw magic — could, by crude theoretical reckoning, plausibly kill a Black Dragon, if the cost really was half the continent's life.
Still, theory and practice were worlds apart. Even Alfia and Riveria thought achieving such a thing was next to impossible — not with the tiny fragment of leftover magic they'd glimpsed.
On that point.
Isagi disagreed. Even the faintest possibility, he felt, was worth investigating properly.
There was still time, after all.
"In that case, let's start moving tomorrow," Isagi said.
With that, the meeting drew to a close. The food on the table had been thoroughly cleared, and once the plans and everyone's assignments were laid out, Isagi returned to his room, washed up, and prepared to rest.
Time crept slowly toward dawn.
Elven inns were rarely built very tall, and the third floor Isagi now occupied was about as high as it got.
Looking out the window, he could see lush green foliage and, in the distance, a massive shadow radiating a sacred, holy light — the [Sacred Tree] planted at the heart of this elven community. Lefiya had told him about it countless times before.
Every elven settlement had one.
This was the first time he'd actually seen one, though.
The glow defied easy description — not quite pure "white" nor "gold," but something closer to [brightness] and [warmth] itself.
Like the sun, and also like the stars and moon.
Amid the dense green canopy, you could always catch glimpses of it through the gaps in the branches and leaves.
And without question—
The Sacred Tree gave off an unfathomably vast aura of magic, utterly unlike anything Lefiya, Riveria, or Alfia — mages all — could ever produce.
The girls had previously concluded that the essence of magic was "death" and "destruction." Yet the Sacred Tree before them radiated, unceasingly, an overwhelming sense of life.
Legend had it—
that the Sacred Tree was older than the elven race itself.
The first elves had gathered beneath the first Sacred Tree, and every Sacred Tree since had grown from a transplanted branch of that original.
And now.
Beyond that warm glow, Altena stood built into the mountainside, rising beneath a towering peak, its deep blue magical lamplight stretching endlessly up along the ridge.
The higher it climbed, the more resplendent it became.
That was where the Magic Kingdom's nobility dwelled — along with the gods of Odin's court.
Much like Ouranos.
Lord Odin, too, was fond of sitting atop a towering throne — except his wasn't underground, but perched at the very summit of this magical nation's capital.
Upon that majestic mountain stood ninety-nine golden steps.
The glow of magic gemstones lit them completely, and at their end lay a vast plaza known as the [Valhalla].
White jade paving stones and statues carved in the likenesses of countless [Heroes] stood there — figures who, since ancient times, since before the nation even bore its current name a thousand years ago, had saved this city and kept it standing to this day.
Compared to Orario's [Bridge of Heroes], the "Heroes" honored in this [Valhalla] were mostly magical artisans, sorceresses, and even smiths — people who worked behind the scenes, offering support, driving technological progress forward, people who poured a lifetime of effort into achieving one small breakthrough, only to hand that tiny spark on to the next generation.
Odin had arrived in the Magic Kingdom not long after Ouranos descended into this world.
He never went to Orario.
Instead, he swiftly claimed control of this nation as a god, and ever since had been quietly pursuing a certain "effort."
Now, a thousand years later, that thing had finally been completed.
A thing called a miracle.
A "possibility" belonging solely to mortals of the lower world.
Just as Isagi had suspected, the Magic Kingdom was hardly lacking in genius — it had even produced existences like Fels once was, who had touched upon the domain of gods.
[Immortality].
And across that thousand years, geniuses of every kind had risen and fallen, yet their research had endured forever, carried on.
In the end, it had all converged into an ocean.
"The guests from the city should have arrived by now. Let's raise our cups," the god declared, seated high as a mountain, lifting his goblet.
The response came—
a perfectly synchronized chorus filling the great hall, the sound of countless people raising their own cups in kind.
What were their names, he wondered?
Across a thousand years, Odin scarcely remembered any of them. But it didn't matter — no one minded. What mattered was what they left behind in this world.
"The people of the city are convinced that a [Hero] has already arrived. We trusted them once, and it ended in failure. There was nothing for it — we'll fight in our own way."
"Or perhaps."
"Let the city's hero complete the [Trial], and earn our trust once more."
Everything was already prepared…
Early the next morning.
Isagi and the girls split into their own small teams, setting out to execute the previous night's plan.
Today's main objective was gathering information.
After washing up and eating breakfast.
Isagi and Ryuu parted ways with the others outside the inn, then left the elven community and headed toward the main street beyond.
As the capital of the Magic Kingdom, [Altena] was nothing like Orario. Built along the slope of the mountains, the city spread outward following the contour of the forested terrain, taking on an overall fan-like shape.
It was a little like Solingen.
Supposedly, there was a bridge within the rocky mountainside leading into the mountain's interior — once a last refuge for ancient people fleeing monster catastrophes, later reinforced into an almost indescribable steel fortress. Now it had become one of the city's most popular tourist attractions.
And although life inside the mountain came with plenty of inconveniences, a fair number of traditionalists still lived there.
People like dwarves and some human smiths still made their homes within.
Isagi had picked up all this from a free "pamphlet" he'd grabbed at random from a mailbox on the street — pages thick with ink and black-and-white photographs, devoting considerable space to introducing the city to visiting travelers.
"Looks like there's a lot to do here—"
Today, Isagi planned to wander through the livelier parts of town. Since gathering information was the goal, he figured he might run into a few old-time Magic Kingdom locals and pick up some useful news from them.
"Isagi, look at that!"
At the elf girl's small gasp of surprise beside him,
Isagi looked up.
Following Ryuu's pointed finger, he spotted a number of massive airships drifting across the sky.
Those had once been the Magic Kingdom's "war machines" against monsters.
Supposedly, they could drop bombs equivalent to the magic bombardment of Lv. 3 to Lv. 4 mages — what would be called second-class adventurers — and could also handle swarms of flying monsters.
Of course, nowadays those things had become tourist attractions too.
The pamphlet in Isagi's hand had a section on it — the flagship [Sleipnir], along with the other airships in its fleet, weren't merely open for tourists to visit but—
Looking up.
Visible to the naked eye, among the massive airships filling the sky, chain after chain of iron links stretched between them, like floating bridges, connecting more than a dozen airships together.
[Sky City].
Supposedly remodeled by some Magic Kingdom architect, it was a [miracle] rivaling Orario's Babel.
Those airships floated permanently above Altena, forming a kind of satellite fortress among the clouds.
And up there weren't just inns and shopping centers and all sorts of shops.
Apparently there were often "exhibitions" from all around the world held up there too — it was an extremely famous tourist spot.
"Let's go up and take a look!" Ryuu seemed quite interested.
Isagi had no objections.
So the two of them, following the pamphlet's directions, soon arrived at the place in the city that sold tickets for the airships — the so-called [Sky City].
After spending over ten thousand valis, the two waited a while.
A massive carriage, forged entirely of steel and shaped like a black box, arrived to take them and the other passengers up.
Isagi thought it looked something like a tour bus, or a city bus.
There were quite a lot of people aboard, though most sat politely in their seats. Only a few kids kept crowding by the windows, staring outside.
Eventually,
the carriage delivered everyone to a stone-paved platform that resembled a plaza.
A young woman, dressed like an attendant, came to greet them and had everyone line up in a long queue before boarding a small airship parked at the platform's center.
Isagi thought this thing looked a bit like a hot air balloon.
Everyone sat inside a square iron box, with transparent glass on one side, watching as the small airship rose gradually, pulling away from the massive city below, heading toward the sky.
The children's noisy chatter carried through the air again; Isagi didn't much mind it.
After all, he could fly himself, so he was already used to the view from up high. But Ryuu seemed genuinely fascinated by it.
The small airship moved fast.
Within just a few minutes,
they'd already arrived alongside one of the massive airships. The hatch opened, and attendants extended nearly transparent bridges on either side — some kind of magical technology, it seemed, since both Isagi and Ryuu could sense the trace of magic within it.
The transparent glass bridge glimmered with faint blue light, like scattered starlight, and felt remarkably solid underfoot.
Looking down for even a moment revealed the city far below, dizzying to behold.
Isagi and Ryuu were among the last passengers to leave the small airship, and once they crossed over, it suddenly felt like stepping into the interior of an incredibly luxurious pleasure cruiser.
Elegant music drifted from somewhere far off.
In the gleaming, gilded hall, the first thing visible was a crowd raising glasses and dancing — it looked exactly like some grand banquet.
Incredibly lively.
It even felt a bit overcrowded.
Isagi and Ryuu could barely push their way through the crowd.
They finally managed to leave the main hall and step out into the corridor beyond — and out here, the sense of being aboard some massive cruise ship only grew stronger.
Except this particular ship happened to be floating in the sky.
Small spherical objects flew about in the air nearby, looking like some kind of alchemical puppet.
They turned out to be navigational guides.
Text would slowly surface on the black screens covering the spheres' surfaces — not quite advanced enough for actual conversation, more like a broadcast board endlessly repeating some message.
That was somewhat reassuring to Isagi. If the Magic Kingdom had already developed something like "artificial intelligence," that would honestly be terrifying.
He figured he'd just wander around a bit.
And so, while Isagi led Ryuu on a stroll through this so-called [Sky City],
meanwhile,
far away, someone aboard the airship had already noticed the pair's arrival and was relaying the news through a long-range communication device to the control room of the distant flagship, the [Sleipnir].
"The [Hero]'s trial is about to begin."
So declared the god, seated high atop the distant mountain peak.
Only the young man and the young woman remained unaware of just how absurd an "event" was about to unfold.
____
⚡ BONUS CHAPTER GOALS
✍️ 5 REVIEWS = +1 Bonus Chapter
💎 100 POWER STONES = +1 Bonus Chapter
🔥 P@TREON (Walnut-chan): Read +40 chapters ahead and get access to over 60 exclusive stories!
🔥 New history: HSR x ZZZ x Genshin: My Life Is Streamed to Everyone! — posted on The_Mikudayo