?Our work continued up until late into the night. The first ones to finish their task were the three girls, of course. As the three of them are working together, their job finished much faster than expected.
It was just an hour past midnight, a good chunk away from our estimated completion time.
“Master… are you sure you don’t want our help?”
And of course, I was the one that was left with more work to do. Filling it with energy was quite a time-consuming and energy-consuming task. I am trying to fill it as fast as possible without risking an explosion, but I was roughly halfway from completing it even with that.
I turned to Ember, who stared at me with a worried gaze. Her face was covered in sweat, probably from concentrating for too long. Although she was offering to help, she must be way beyond tired herself.
“It’s fine, Ember. You should rest. We still have our big fight tomorrow.”
Right, this task I’m currently doing is time-consuming, but it’s neither making me tired nor energy-deprived. With how large my energy pool is, the amount I’m using to fill the artillery shell is automatically recovered the next instant.
In fact, I have so much energy that I can’t even make a comparison with the god tamers. It would be too miserable to do so. Given a rough estimate, then my energy level would be about twice the sum of all four of their energies. It was to that degree. .𝒎
‘Despite that, however, I’m still stuck in the 9th-stage…’
Until now, I still haven’t figured out why I couldn’t break through the 9th stage and reach god level. Well, I’m not actively finding the reason for it right now, anyway. After all, there’s not much difference in strength even if I reach god-level.
At most, I would be able to freely access everyone’s kingdoms… Well, among the girls, only Ember has completed God’s Kingdom currently, though. The others only have domains currently, still not advanced enough to be called a kingdom.
After that, Ember followed my words and rested beside me. Alpha was a little distance away, also tired from exerting herself, while Zeshion vanished before I noticed. Zeta and Namia were on the other side, both looking fine.
“…?”
Wait, I get that Zeta didn’t do a thing, so it’s cool that she’s not tired. However, Namia…? Not even a drop of sweat fell down her face! Her endurance must be astounding, but not just that. As a monster that was half a step away from becoming beyond-god level, her energy was far beyond even mine.
Anyway, I was wondering why she hasn’t left yet, though. Usually, she’d dip as soon as her “task” was over, but this time, she was hanging around even after her part was done.
For some reason, her presence here was giving me a foreboding feeling. As if something really, really bad was about to happen.
I continued working nonstop, making sure of the accuracy of the ratio between all the five energies I infused inside it. Fire, Space, Void, Wind, and Earth. Everything was in perfect balance inside, but a strong impact on the shell’s tip would set them off like a bomb.
The shell, after firing, will launch its head part, the latter half, forward at blinding speeds. The amount of energy wasted on the propelling charge was a meager 1% of the total energy infused into the shell.
Meaning the power of its explosion would be 99 times that of its propelling force! As I was marveling at this genius design, I started to notice that the sun was about to rise.
“It’s finally morning…”
I muttered as I stretched my stiff body. Kneeling before the shell the entire time was so tiring!
“Good work, Master. Let me keep the shell to ensure its safety.”
Ember, who didn’t leave my side the entire time, stood up and moved the heavy shell into her [Spatial Storage]. With this, preparation is over. All that’s left is to wait for the Void Beast to approach and…
“…!”
All of us turned toward the south simultaneously. Our faces were filled with confusion and fear.
“This energy… Zeshion and the Void Beast?!”
No way. This is too fast, no matter how you think about it!
“Ember?!”
I turned to her, who was similarly confused, and quickly checked the feed of the satellite once more. However, there, the figure of the Void Beast was present, still several hundred kilometers away.
“I-It should still be in the middle of the horde, Master! I, I don’t know what’s happening!”
“Sh*t!”
Don’t tell me, were there two Void Beasts?! We only have a single shell prepared, so we can’t handle another one appearing at all! I quickly opened a portal leading to the southern front. There should be Igni over there, so I was practically panicking right now.
‘Igni, please be safe!’
I entered the portal without delay and quickly scanned the entire scene.
“… Horrible…”
The entire field, however, was ravaged. The ground turned black, but it wasn’t burned. More like encroached by darkness?
With just a single sweep of my gaze, I could already confirm there were a lot of dead tamers and monsters around. Their bodies turned a darker hue, the same as the ground.
“…!”
My eyes darted around, searching for Igni’s figure. Fortunately, I could still feel her presence, but it was faint enough that I couldn’t tell the direction. After a while, I finally saw her lying down against the broken, decaying wall. She had a large wound on her side, but it wasn’t fatal. However, she lost consciousness.
“Ember!”
As soon as I confirmed where she was, I turned to Ember, who followed behind me and nodded. Without needing instruction, Ember teleported Igni to where they were and started with her treatment the next instant.
With Ember’s enhanced Void Powers, Igni’s wounds disappeared in just a few moments. Soon, her eyes started to open, staring ahead blankly.
“Igni! Are you alright?! What happened?”
Seeing that she woke up, Ember quickly peppered her with questions. However, Igni’s gaze was unfocused, as if she were still half asleep.
*BOOOOM!*
Suddenly, a large explosion occurred a short distance away. I turned to the source and found two figures. One small human was glowing with a blue aura as he swung the golden sword in his hand.
The other…
“It’s the Void Beast!”
𝑖.𝘤ℴ𝘮