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The water giant advanced. There was no discernible intent for an attack. However, with each step, destruction unfolded. The ground trembled, tearing through soil, uprooting grass, and trees, leaving behind a swampy mire.

Rain poured relentlessly, sharp as arrows, and continuous lightning strikes swept through the surroundings.

Lucella sensed something underfoot. It was the flow of water crawling across the ground. Despite the absence of rivers, a flood seemed imminent.

As if losing interest in both Lucella and Monica, the giant continued eastward. As if calling out to its back, Lucella manipulated the power of water.

—Calm down!

Reading the existing ‘flow’ and overwriting it with her own ‘flow’… It was the same as what she had done while traveling. She felt some resistance, yet the giant’s stride remained unabated.

“It’s… not exactly ineffective, but the force is stronger than at the beginning…”
“Lucella!”

Monica raised her voice to be heard over the pounding rain.

“…the voice has disappeared.”
“Eh?”
“The voice calling me is gone…”

Amidst the growing presence of power, Lucella hadn’t noticed until Monica mentioned it, but it was indeed true. The sensation that clung to Monica like being bound by chains had vanished.

While it should be a good thing to have escaped the curse threatening her life, Monica seemed distressed as if facing a life-threatening problem. Intuitively, Lucella felt that this was a problematic change. The situation had taken a turn for the worse.

“Wah!”

Suddenly she was almost swept away by a huge wave, but Lucella immediately pushed it away.

Water overflowed from the water giant’s footsteps, turning into waves. Just like ripples spreading in a puddle, water gushed from nowhere, steadily flooding the grassland. It seemed only a matter of time before the grassland turned into a lake.

The next step conjured a towering wave, twice the height of Lucella. Standing protectively in front of Monica, Lucella repelled the wave. The water split in front of Lucella.

“Ooooooooo!!”

In front of Lucella, a fireball exploded! The water flow evaporated as if carved out, and steam laden with heat rose, shrouding the area in mist. Like a sun illuminating the dark night, a meteor of flames tore through the rain clouds.

It arrived while driving away even the natural threat, the downpour of ruin, created by the Regalia. Folding wings and limbs, a Red Dragon assumed a rapid descent posture, released like an arrow.

Kafal flapped sharply near the ground, applying brakes before landing. A blast of hot air swept by, causing Lucella’s hair to flutter.

“So you came, in the end.”
“It was the correct choice, right?”
“…Thanks.”

Even if it was Kafal, it was impossible to fly from Mount Kuguse to here in an instant. In other words, she must have been on standby nearby, risking danger. Despite the recklessness, unable to blame her, Lucella clung to Kafal’s thick tail.

The water giant approached. Towards the Regalia retrieval team. A coalition force of elite soldiers and knights, contributed by the surrounding lords, along with hired exterminators.

To put it bluntly, it was a makeshift assembly, but each individual had high capabilities. If their strengths were combined, they were formidable fighters capable of taking on dragons.

… Or so it should have been, but currently, they were being scattered by the advancing waves.

“How do we proceed, General!”

The water level had risen to their ankles. Those who had lost their footing rolled along, resisting by thrusting swords and spears into the ground. Using magic-created light walls and walls of raised earth as wave barriers, everyone somehow managed to stand their ground.

However, even though they managed to hold their ground, the approaching entity was a water giant larger than a dragon. Being rendered immobile by the waves caused by its steps alone, what would happen when it got closer?

“Ugh… This situation is beyond our expectations. We can’t handle this. Retreat…”

The general leading the troops, Ramiel, concluded that staying here any longer would only lead to useless deaths.

There might not be a single soldier worth dying in vain, but the elites gathered here were especially valuable. They were irreplaceable pieces, and losing each one would be a significant blow. Moreover, there was no foreseeable prospect of achieving the objective.

No matter what orders came from the imperial palace, Ramiel didn’t care. Escaping was the best option… or so he thought until, right before him, it appeared.

“What?”
“Regalia…?”

Everyone on the scene was stunned, rendered speechless.

In the pouring rain, the water giant extended its hand. Floating at its fingertips was a sapphire-blue regalia staff. The Regalia, which had been floating within the giant’s body just moments ago, was now within reach, within grasp if one were to reach out for it.

In the face of such a sudden turn of events, both Ramiel and those around him were left in a state of bewilderment. But Ramiel quickly remembered what he needed to do.

“S-Secure it! This is our chance!”
“Yes!”

A nearby knight grabbed the exposed Regalia!

—Different—

Immediately, for a brief moment around the Regalia, a torrent swirled.

Before a scream could even be raised, the knight, along with his armor, had been shattered. All that remained were fragments of the armor torn like toilet paper and a spreading red stain on the water’s surface.

“…Wha…?”

It was such a momentary event. Some might’ve not understood what happened, even though they witnessed it happen right before their eyes.

The Regalia floated as if drawn in, gently flying towards the hand of a nearby soldier.

—Different—

And once again, another person turned into fragments.

“Uwaaaaah!”

Even if twenty people had died in battle, they might not have faltered. However, with just two individuals gruesomely killed by an unknown power, the entire army was completely demoralized.

Caught in the torrents crawling along the ground, they scattered in all directions, desperately trying to escape.

As if piercing through their backs, the Regalia flew after them!

In the moment when the airborne Regalia seemed about to impale the knight’s back, an oddly vertical wave rose, intercepting it. The Regalia was diverted with a sharp curve, and with excess momentum, it flew literally diagonally upward.

It was the flow created by Lucella.

“Run! Quickly!”
“O-Okay…”

Just moments ago, they were ready to fight each other, but with the change in circumstances, she couldn’t just abandon them. Lucella stood protectively in front of the knights of Maltgartz.

With too much happening too quickly, the knights retreated, their heads struggling to keep up.

The deflected Regalia circled widely around the giant. As if searching for prey from above, like a raptor aiming with precision.

“Leave the big one over there to me! It should be fine to throw as much fire as I want at it, right?”
“Probably!”

The water-based Regalia could only be calmed by the power of water. That’s why Kafal couldn’t intervene recklessly; it would just result in more destruction. However, for some unknown reason, the Regalia was currently separated from the giant it created using that power.

In that case, it was a different story. Kafal could join the fight too.

Becoming a storm of destruction, the giant that pierces the sky is approaching. In the incessant flashes of lightning, Kafal’s scales gleamed brilliantly.

“Haaaah!”

Kafal planted her sturdy hind legs, lifting her upper body. Then, shaking the ground with a massive step, she thrust her horns forward, colliding head-on with the giant’s chest.

There was an explosion-like deafening roar. The aftermath of energy created ripples in the splashing water, drawing radial waves on the flooded grassland! Steam rose from the giant’s entire body, blurring its outline.

Kafal’s heat was evaporating the water. However, there was no sign of the giant being deterred. It grabbed Kafal’s body with its massive arm, looking somewhere between human and dragon.

Kafal put more strength in her hind legs. The claw marks carved into the ground, pushed back and agitated, burst into flames.

—NOT THE ONE—

The voice, unknown whether the origin was the giant or the Regalia, reverberated in the souls of all living things.

“Not what?! Just say it!”

Unmoved even when struck by lightning, Kafal roared, sending sparks flying between her fangs.

—NOT THE ONE—

Dialogue seemed impossible.

Like a broken golem repeating the same motion, the same voice thundered in the rain.