Chapter 11

Zaryusu felt his body being lifted out of a pitch-black world. It was a pleasant sensation. His eyes opened. The world looked hazy through his freshly woken eyes.

Where am I? Did we win? A number of questions came to mind and, at the same time, he felt a weight on top of him.

White… When he looked, that was the first word that came to his still-groggy mind. Then as he woke up, he understood what it was.

Crusch. She was sleeping on top of him.

"Uh…"

She's alive!

The relief was so strong he nearly vocalized it, but he managed to hold it back at the last second. He didn't want to wake her up. He frantically suppressed the urge to touch her. Just because a female's scales were pretty didn't make it okay to stroke her while she was sleeping.

Zaryusu chased the wildest instincts out of his mind and tried to think about something else. He had a lot to consider. First, the reason he was there. He searched his memory to try to remember what had happened. His last memory was destroying Iguvua. His recollection cut off abruptly after that, but his lying here instead of being captured meant that the tribes must have won.

Careful not to wake Crusch, he breathed a sigh of relief. The weight of the past few days seemed to lighten a little. Certainly, thinking with a level head, the burden was still heavy.

They didn't know the true identity of their enemy yet or what they were after. There was more than a good chance that they would attack again. No, if his hunch was right, they would come again.

But just for right now, he wanted to be allowed to relax. He sighed lightly again, feeling Crusch's body heat.

Then he gently flexed his muscles from head to tail. He felt he had no problem moving. He thought he might have lost something, but everything seemed to have gone all right.

Then he remembered the comrades he'd fought with. But there were no other lizardmen in the room besides Crusch. Then where's Zenbel? A little flicker of anxiety crossed his mind, but at the same time, the certainty that a male as strong as Zenbel couldn't possibly have died welled up inside him.

Perhaps responding to Zaryusu's slight movement, Crusch stretched slightly. It felt like a core had formed in her soft body.

She must be about to wake up.

"Nngh…" Crusch made a cute noise. Then she flicked her hazy eyes around, taking in the area. Finding Zaryusu underneath her, she broke into a smile.

"Mmm…" Crusch groggily wrapped her arms around Zaryusu's body and started rubbing against him, just like an animal leaving its scent.

Zaryusu froze and let her do as she pleased. In a corner of his mind, he also had some less noble thoughts, such as Well, she started it.

Her glossy white scales were cool and pleasant to the touch. The fragrant herbal scent that hung in the area was entrancing.

Maybe I can put my arms around her, too?

As he was anguishing over the question, Crusch's eyes gradually began to focus. Then she turned them to Zaryusu beneath her.

She froze.

She'd stopped moving with her arms still around him. Zaryusu considered what he should say first and ended up choosing the best thing he managed to come up with. "Can I put my arms around you, too?"

The best? In his excited state of mind, he'd thought it was.

Crusch made a threatening noise and thrashed her tail around. Then she rolled away from Zaryusu's body, not stopping until she crashed into the wall.

Facedown, she groaned softly. He also heard her mumbling, "Stupid, stupid, I'm so stupid."

"Well, I'm just glad you're safe."

At those words, she must have finally regained composure; her tail was still wriggling around, but she looked up and smiled at him. "I'm glad you're safe, too."

Seeing her kind face, Zaryusu again had something else on his mind, but he held it back with all his willpower and asked a serious question. "Do you have any idea what happened after all that?"

"Yeah, it seems like the enemy retreated thanks to your victory over Iguvua. And your brother managed to beat some horrible undead monsters, too. Then the three of us got saved… This was all yesterday."

"So Zenbel isn't here, but he's…?"

"Yeah, he's safe. He must have more regenerative power than you. I heard he regained consciousness right after the healing magic was cast, and now he's probably working on post-fight cleanup. I was so unbelievably tired I guess I passed out again after hearing that much…"

Crusch stood up and went back to Zaryusu.

When she sat down right next to him, Zaryusu moved to sit up, too, but she gently stopped him. "Don't overdo it. You were the one with the worst injuries out of all of us." Perhaps because she remembered him as he was then, her voice became frail. "I'm glad you're safe. I'm so glad…"

She lowered her eyes, and Zaryusu rubbed her back to comfort her. "I won't die until I hear your answer. I was worried maybe you were dead!"

Answer. The word made them both pause.

Neither of them said anything, and the room got so quiet they could practically hear each other's hearts beating.

Crusch's tail slowly but steadily curled around Zaryusu's. The tangled black-and-white extremities brought to mind mating snakes.

Zaryusu gazed silently at Crusch. She looked back at him. They could see themselves reflected in the other's eyes.

Zaryusu quietly spoke. No, it wasn't speech. It was a call, the same one he'd made the first time they'd met—a mating call.

After he called, he did nothing. No, he couldn't do anything. His heart just beat earnestly, violently.

Eventually the same speech, the same call, flowed from Crusch's mouth. The same high pitch, the same vibrato at the end. She was accepting the mating call. On her face was an indescribably seductive expression. Zaryusu could no longer take his eyes off her. Crusch got on top of him, in virtually the same position as when she'd been sleeping on him.

There was almost no distance between their two faces. Their hot breaths mixed, and the beating of their hearts synchronized through their touching chests. Then—

"Yo, are you guys doin' it?!" The door banged open and Zenbel barged in.

Crusch and Zaryusu both halted as if they'd turned into ice sculptures.

Perplexed, Zenbel observed the two of them, Crusch still on top of Zaryusu, and cocked his head. "What? You're just getting started?"

Understanding what he meant, the pair moved apart without a word. Then they slowly stood up and approached Zenbel.

He'd been looking down at them with curiosity, but now he bent over double. "Guh-hngh!" The pair's fists in his abdomen knocked the wind out of him, and his large body sank to the floor. "Urgh… Nice punch there… especially Crusch… Agh… That seriously hurt…"

Zaryusu aside, apparently even the female's punch of rage had the potential to take out Zenbel. Of course, a single blow wouldn't be enough to satisfy their frustration, but even if they pummeled him, the ruined atmosphere wouldn't go back to the way it had been.

Although it could not replace what they had been about to do, grasping each other's hands, they questioned Zenbel in order to ease the worries pricking at their minds like pins.

"More importantly, we have a ton of questions. I asked Crusch, too, but please fill me in on our current status."

Zenbel answered without paying attention to the fact that the pair was holding hands. "Hmm? The whole tribe's celebrating our win!"

"So my brother is in charge of that?"

"Basically. We sent the hunters out to search for the enemy, but they couldn't find 'em. No sign of any hidden follow-up wave. That big of a force would stick out if they were on the move. That was why, even though we're still on guard, your brother declared victory for the time being. Actually, I'm here because of something your brother said to me."

"My brother?"

"Yeah, he said, 'Ga-ha-ha-ha-ha! We should let the two of them rest. Maybe they're doing it, ga-ha-ha-ha! I don't want to bother them, but I am curious. Ga-ha-ha-ha-ha!'"

"Don't lie to me! What's with the ga-ha-ha-ha?"

"Y-yeah. I guess he wasn't saying ga-ha-ha-ha."

"My brother would never laugh like that. Geez…"

"But no, it was that kind of undertone—"

"You're the worst." Crusch spoke with a voice chilly enough for an Icy Burst. It was so creepy that it sent shivers up even Zaryusu's spine. Zenbel, at whom it had been directed, shuddered and froze for a moment.

"So, why are you here?"

"Right, I just—"

"If you say you came here just to bother us, I'm going to blast you with every spell I can think of." Crusch was dead serious. Both Zenbel and Zaryusu could tell.

"Ahhh. C'mon, what? I came to invite you guys. We're VIPs, you know. We can't not go. And when you think about what might happen in the future…"

"I see…" Catching the implied meaning in Zenbel's vague words, Zaryusu smiled bitterly "It's a good chance to talk up our strength in case there's another battle? "Got it. You're okay, too, right, Crusch?"

Her cheeks puffed up with just a bit of dissatisfaction, making her look like the toadmen who inhabited the marsh. Of course, they're totally different on the cuteness scale, Zaryusu thought.

"Then shall we?" Zenbel asked the two, who were looking at each other, in a carefree voice.

"Y-yeah. I guess. Let's go."

Both of them agreed, so they joined Zenbel and went outside. The moment they stepped off the stairs of the house and into the marsh, Crusch and Zenbel lost sight of Zaryusu.

Something huge had pounced and sent him flying.

Bam, flup-flup-flup-flup, ker-splash!

Those were the sounds of what happened next.

Rororo had taken Zaryusu's place. His four heads squirmed healthily, and he happily turned his noses to Zaryusu, who had fallen into the marsh.

"Rororo! You're okay, too!" Zaryusu stood up all covered in mud and went back to the hydra, giving a thorough once-over as he affectionately pet him. Rororo had been healed with magic since it was like the burns had never been there.

Rororo called out and wrapped his heads around Zaryusu for attention. They were so tenaciously curled around him that he was completely hidden.

"C'mon, Rororo, knock it off!" Zaryusu laughed and told Rororo to stop, but the hydra happily cooed at him without letting up.

Splash, ker-splash, ker-splash.

Suddenly Zaryusu heard a series of rhythmic splashes. When he looked for the source, he was puzzled.

It was Crusch. Her face practically glowed as she gazed at Zaryusu and Rororo. But her tail was beating out a regular rhythm on the marsh.

Zenbel had been standing next to her, but he had begun inching away, his face twitching.

Rororo stopped moving. He must have sensed something strange as well.

"What's wrong?"

"N-nothing…"

Zaryusu was confused when she asked him. She was definitely smiling. It could not be anything but happiness that Rororo and Zaryusu were reunited. So why were this many chills going up his spine?"

"Goof." Crusch smiled again.

Rororo's heads moved away from Zaryusu, freeing him. Zenbel twitched. Perhaps he opened his mouth to hide his inability to bear the awkwardness. "Okay, Rororo. Let's you and me go on ahead of them."

Of course, Rororo couldn't understand lizardman language. But maybe he had sensed the mood anyway, because once Zenbel was on top of him, they splish-splashed off at a pretty quick clip.

A bizarre silence fell between Zaryusu and Crusch as the other two fled.

Crusch held her head in her hands and shook it side to side. "Ah, gosh. What am I doing? It's like my heart doesn't belong to me anymore. Why can't I stop it when I know it's not smart? This is basically the same as a curse!"

Zaryusu understood how she felt because that's how he had been when he first met her.

"Crusch. Honestly, I'm happy."

"What?!" A splash, bigger than the others up till now, sounded.

Then Zaryusu went next to her. "Listen, can you hear that?"

"Huh?"

"It's what we protected. And what we have to protect from now on, too."

They could hear high-spirited voices partying on the wind. Everyone must have been drinking. It was a party to return the ancestral spirits and celebrate their victory but also to mourn the dead.

Normally, alcohol was a valuable item. The reason they could drink so much these past few days was that Zenbel had brought the Great Treasure that gave them an infinite supply, and since all the tribes were gathered, the resulting din was unbelievable.

Listening to the huge racket, Zaryusu smiled at Crusch next to him. "Maybe it's not over yet. Maybe the Great One or whoever will attack us again. But just for today, how about we relax?" He put his hands around her hips.

Crusch let herself be drawn in close and rested her head on his shoulder.

"Wanna go?"

"Yes…" She hesitated a moment and then added, "…dear."

The two lizardmen huddled together and disappeared into the party.

The power to detect danger.

For thieves and others with detection abilities, it is among the most important skills and it did exactly what it sounded like. There are just two ways to detect danger. One is instinctively sensing a threat immediately without deduction or examination, the other by using logic based on the experience and checking around. If a bad feeling is an example of the former, reading slight changes in the environment, a faint smell or noise, is an example of the latter.

The latter is sometimes strengthened without even trying by going to battle or traveling solo. It's the experience coming from placing oneself near danger.

And in most cases, creatures like lizardmen were better at it than humans. It was a biological ability that stemmed from their keen sense organs and cruel environment. Humans got to sleep in a safe place away from monsters, but in the lizardmen's habitat, monsters were right next door.

It was especially easy for the lone wanderer Zaryusu to catch shifts in the atmosphere outdoors.

Sensing something like tension in the air, Zaryusu popped his eyes open. The familiar scenery of his room (though he'd been sleeping there for only a couple of nights) filled his field of vision. Humans would have been unable to see even if they squinted in this room with no light, but it was nothing more than child's play for a lizardman.

Nothing out of the ordinary… Having scanned the room to confirm that, he breathed a faint sigh of relief and shifted.

Because he was such a brilliant warrior, even though he had just been asleep, he was as awake as ever. Not only was he not groggy, but his body was ready to jump into battle at a moment's notice. This was partly due to how lightly lizardmen slept. But Crusch, lying next to him, showed no signs of waking. She just emitted a disgruntled cry in her sleep at the loss of Zaryusu's warmth.

Normally Crusch would have felt the change in the atmosphere and woken up as well, but it seemed like this time she couldn't. Zaryusu felt just a bit bad, that maybe he'd put too big a burden on her. He recalled the previous night and concluded that maybe her load had been bigger. From defeating the elder lich and everything afterward, it must have been harder on her as she did not like fighting. And being praised for it…

Personally, he wanted to let her sleep. But if he listened carefully, he could now hear the sounds of lizardmen rushing around outside. Letting her sleep during an emergency might end up being more dangerous.

"Crusch, Crusch." He shook her rather forcefully a couple of times.

"Nngh…" Her tail twisted up and right away her red eyes showed themselves. "Hmnn?"

"Something's happened."

With that, her eyes opened fully even though she still wanted to sleep. Zaryusu grabbed Frost Pain from its position nearby and stood up. Crusch followed just a moment later.

When they went outside, they saw immediately what caused the disturbance: a black cloud spread thickly over the village. It was clear immediately from a glance into the distance that this was no normal cloud. The rest of the sky was fair and blue.

In short, it was…

"They're here…again?"

…a sign that their enemy had returned.

"Seems that way," Crusch agreed.

The lizardmen of the five tribes who had fought together had also all noticed the cloud and were making a racket, but there was no sign of fear. The victory against overwhelming odds in the battle the previous day had strengthened their hearts.

Zaryusu and Crusch splashed toward the main gate at a sprint. They passed by a few lizardmen preparing for combat and reached the gate fairly quickly. Many warriors had already gathered, keeping a close watch on the outside. Zenbel was also there. Next to him was the Small Fang chief.

Zenbel raised a hand in greeting to the two loudly sloshing over and jerked his chin at the scene outside the gate. Zaryusu and Crusch stood next to him and peered beyond the gate.

On the opposite shore, on the boundary between the marsh and the forest, were ranks of skeletons.

"They're back!"

"Yeah…," Zaryusu replied to Zenbel and clicked his tongue.

He'd expected this, but it was far too soon. Their calculation that it would take some time to recover from such a heavy loss had been completely off. He was surprised they had the power to mobilize an army this big again.

"… At least they're probably weaker than the skeletons that lich summoned." Reading between the lines, that meant Zenbel thought these skeletons were stronger than the army from before.

Zaryusu took a close look at the skeletons, too—to see how strong they were, to see how careful the lizardmen needed to be against them. The enemies were certainly all skeletons, but they were definitely different from last time.

What had changed the most visually was their gear. The previous skeletons had had only rusty swords. These skeletons were very well outfitted. Also, maybe it was just in his head, but they even appeared to have better physiques. It seemed like there were three types, each with different gear.

The most numerous wore splendid breastplates, carried shields shaped like a stretched-out inverted triangle (kite shields) in one hand and held many types of weapons in the other. On their backs were quivers and composite longbows. They all were well prepared for close or long-range fighting.

The next type had ratty crimson capes flapping behind them over the same breastplate, held round shields and bastard swords, and wore helmets.

Finally, the least numerous type had the most complete gear sets. They wore full plate armor with a magnificent golden gleam and clutched shining lances. Their eye-poppingly crimson capes seemed free of the slightest speck of dirt.

After his initial observations, Zaryusu realized something. Unable to believe his eyes, he rubbed them a few times with his hands. But it was still there, it was the truth.

"What…? No way…"

"Th-that's ridiculous…" Zaryusu released a pained murmur at the same time as Crusch's surprised gasp. They'd realized the same thing.

Then Zenbel reacted. "Yep, you noticed it, too, huh?" His voice was pained like the others'.

"Yeah…" Zaryusu closed his mouth. He didn't want to say it because that would just make it worse. But he had to.

"Those look like magic weapons, don't they?"

Crusch, next to him, nodded.

All the weapons the skeletons had were enchanted. One had a sword imbued with fire, another a hammer with blue lightning. There was one holding a spear with a glowing green tip and even one with a sickle that seemed to be coated in purple goop.

"And that's not all. Take a closer look at their armor and shields… They're all magic."

Zaryusu squinted.

Then he groaned in spite of himself. Their glowing wasn't reflected light but something inside the objects themselves.

How much power do you need to equip that many skeleton soldiers with magic gear? Certainly if magic was just to make blades sharper, the larger countries Zaryusu had heard of could probably do it if they planned ahead of time. But to imbue each of the weapons with its own attribute, all different kinds of effects, now that was a different story.

Zaryusu remembered the stories of the dwarves he had heard from Zenbel the other day.

Dwarves were a mountain race with exceptional metalworking abilities. When they sat down to drink, the sagas they told contained stories of the king who built the Great Dwarven Empire, a hero all shrouded in adamantite armor, who killed a dragon at the end of a one-on-one fight, one of the Thirteen Heroes, Magic Mechanic. Even in those tales, there were no armies, certainly not one of more than five thousand, outfitted with that much magic gear.

So what am I seeing? "A mythical army…" If it was not in the stories of the people, it had to be from the stories of the gods. It was the power of the gods.

Zaryusu shook with a single intense shudder. This was completely beyond his expectations. They'd made an enemy out of someone they shouldn't have. The question was what to do about it.

"That can't be real. It has to be an illusion."

For a split second, everyone there asked the same wordless question: Whatcha talking about? The skeletons were maintaining a completely motionless stance, but they seemed distinctly substantial, their presence was powerful enough to give the chills. They couldn't be anything so flimsy as an illusion.

The even more confusing thing was that the one who had said it was the Small Fang chief. He definitely hadn't gone crazy.

"What basis do you have for saying that?"

He confidently responded to Zaryusu's question. "We've been sending scouts out on rotation. None of them saw any undead like that, and it's not like they could have just overlooked that many. All scouts have come back safe, too."

"I see… But it sure doesn't seem like an illusion to me."

"… Well, maybe not. But if it's not, then they must have tunneled their way here. That would explain why we didn't see them."

"… I don't care if they tunneled or flew. What are we going to do? They don't seem to want to start a fight right away, but I don't get the feeling they came here to negotiate!"

"Yeah… If it's like last time, they'll make some kind of move…"

Zaryusu stared at the skeletons again. He was trying to make out who the commander was when a shivery wind blew past him. It wasn't just one gust: the wind kept blowing.

He was positive the strange, abrupt chill was no natural phenomenon but brought about by magic.

"The wind is… Huh? No way! It's a different spell… But it can't be…" Crusch shivered, hugging her body.

Her reaction wasn't just from the cold, which was why Zaryusu asked: "Crusch, where did this freezing wind come from?"

"…You might not believe me, but listen, Zaryusu. Up until now, I'd thought the change in the weather was caused by the 4th tier spell [Control Cloud]. But it's not. [Control Cloud] can manipulate clouds, but it can't create a cold wind like this. That means… the power is changing the weather and the climate. In other words, someone cast the 6th tier spell [Control Weather] …at least, that's what I think." She added in a voice so small no one could hear, "I don't know for sure, since it's a realm of magic I can't use myself."

Zaryusu knew how awesome the power of the sixth tier was. Even Iguvua, the most powerful enemy he'd faced since taking up a sword, could not use it. It was the supreme tier, said to be the highest in the world.

"Is this…the power of the Great One or whoever? That… definitely makes sense…" Calling someone who can use tier-six magic "great" was not an exaggeration.

"Whoa, everybody and their brother is bummin' out." Zenbel's complaint was an apt description of the atmosphere.

This weather was unseasonably cold, that is, their environment had changed in an impossible way. The lizardmen's morale was dropping sharply.

Last time it had just been the appearance of a cloud. They could deal with this degree of cold by building a bonfire and having the priests perform a ritual, but the autumn wind had taught the lizardmen that their opponents had the power to warp nature, the uncontrollable.

They didn't even need to hear Crusch's explanation to understand the immense power of their enemy: the wind nipping at them said it all.

"Tch! Those bastards—"

"They're on the move." Zaryusu ground his teeth. His tail was trying to flail, but he willed it not to. Are you really gonna do that now?

When the orderly rows of skeletons began marching forward with precisely measured steps, the warrior lizardmen grew agitated and some made warning growls. But Zaryusu, observing their movements, made a different judgment. Those aren't combat movements.

Just when Zaryusu and Zenbel raised their voices to calm down the shaken lizardmen—

"Calm down!"

—a jarring shout ripped through the air.

Everyone turned to see Shasuryu Shasha.

"I'll say it again. Calm down." A silence fell, and the only sound was his confident, dignified voice. "And don't be afraid, warriors. Don't do anything that would disappoint the many ancestral spirits behind you." He wove his way through the quiet lizardmen and stood next to Zaryusu.

"What are they up to, brother?"

"Shasuryu, they're on the move, but it doesn't look like combat prep."

"Mph."

The marching skeletons formed ten rows of five hundred.

"What are they planning to do?"

As if they had been waiting for the question, the skeletons began to advance again. With perfect timing, the rows parted to the left and right right from the middle, not a single skeleton out of place. Between the two sides, they left about a twenty-skeleton gap. In that space, there was a lone figure.

The shape wasn't all that big. Even at a distance of over 250 m, Zaryusu could tell it was a little smaller than him. It wore a raven-black robe and gave off an ominous, evil aura. Its resemblance to the elder lich they'd fought the previous day suggested it was a caster too. There was however one very different thing about this one. Its strength.

When he saw it, ice crept up Zaryusu's spine. He knew instinctively that the difference in power between the elder lich of yesterday and this thing was like the difference between a toddler and a warrior.

It gushed a frigid evil from its entire being. He could feel it even at this distance. And that wasn't all. Its gear was also on another level.

An absolute ruler had appeared in the form of inescapable death.

"The… ruler of death?" Zaryusu surprised even himself as he uttered the most fitting words for the monster.

And he'd hit the nail on the head. It truly was the Overlord of Death.

…Oh, crap!

Then the lizardmen, watching with bated breath, all simultaneously shouted in surprise as a magic circle about ten meters across spread out all around the caster.

What's this monster going to do?

From the magic circle in the ground it rose up a dome that gave off a pale-blue glow and patterns like translucent letters or symbols appeared all over it. Such characters changed at a dizzying rate: the same pattern didn't linger for even an instant. The way the pale light kept shifting as it illuminated the area was fantastic and, hadn't it been the work of the enemy, they probably would have been captivated. Now, though, they weren't at all.

What is that? Not comprehending what he was seeing, Zaryusu was confused. He'd never seen a huge dome projected into the air like that when a caster used magic. The action his opponent was taking was entirely outside the realm of his knowledge. So he asked the female who probably knew the most about magic out of anyone there. "What in the world is that?"

"I… I don't know. I have no idea what it is!" she replied, sounding scared. She was especially frightened precisely because she did know a lot about magic but still couldn't recognize the spell.

The moment after he was about to calm her, the unknown spell was cast: the dome burst and countless sparks of light whirled up into the air. All at once the magic spread across the sky and then… the lake froze.

Not a single lizardman present understood what had happened.

Not the uncommonly able tribal chief Shasuryu, not the brilliant druid Crusch, not the experienced traveler Zaryusu. Even these three, with faculties almost matchless throughout all lizardman history, couldn't immediately comprehend what had taken place, since it was so outrageous.

They couldn't understand how their feet were now below ice.

Moments later, after their brains had processed what had just happened before their eyes, the screams went up.

Every lizardman—yes, all of them—shrieked.

Even Zaryusu. Crusch and Shasuryu and even the one who probably had the most courage, Zenbel. They lost themselves in a deep fear that welled from the bottom of their hearts and climbed straight out of their souls to manifest in a scream of absolute despair.

It was too horrible a reality. The lake that had never iced over, the lake that had never changed ever since they were born, had warped and frozen.

The lizardmen panicked and pulled their legs up. Luckily, since the ice wasn't too thick, it broke right away, but it immediately refroze. The chill coming from below, the biting cold, proved they weren't seeing things.

Flustered, Zaryusu hopped up on a mud wall and surveyed the scene. The view left him speechless.

Everything in his field of vision was frozen.

Certainly the entire lake couldn't be frozen… or could it? But it was a fact that as far as his eyes could see, everything was covered in ice.

In a corner of his mind, worries about his fish preserve popped up, but now wasn't the time.

Crusch had hopped next to Zaryusu, and when she surveyed the area, her jaw fell open just like his. The voice from her agape mouth sounded like her soul had left her. "No way…"

Zaryusu didn't want to believe it, either.

"You monster!" he barked, hoping it would ease the fear.

"Get up now!" Shasuryu's roar echoed.

"Several lizardmen had collapsed. The members of the warrior caste who were all right worked together to pull them out of the frozen marsh.

All the lizardmen being pulled were pale in the face and trembling. The rising chill was probably sapping their life force.

"Brother, I'm going to go check around the village!" Zaryusu had Frost Pain, so this level of chill wouldn't affect him.

"No… don't go!"

"Huh? Why not?!"

"They're probably going to make their move. I won't let you leave us now! Keep an eye on the enemy. I forbid you to miss a single thing! You've traveled the world and have all sorts of knowledge… you're the lizardman for this job."

Shifting his gaze from Zaryusu, Shasuryu called out to the warriors in the area. "I'm going to cast the chill defense spell [Ice Energy Protection] on you. Then go around the village and tell everyone to stay away from the ice!"

"I'll cast it, too!"

"Thanks, Crush! you and I will split up the work. If you see anyone in trouble, cast a healing spell on them." Crusch and Shasuryu managed to safely begin casting the protective magic on the lizardmen.

Zaryusu stayed up on the mud wall with his keen gaze aimed at the enemy so as not to miss a single move. He had to do exactly what his brother told him."Hup!" Zenbel hopped up on the wall next to him and checked the enemy lines in an easygoing way. "Take it a little easier. Your brother, he's just like that, right? Has high expectations of your know-how? Even if you miss something, he's not gonna get mad. More importantly, if you focus too hard, your field of vision'll shrink!" Zenbel's unconcerned voice soothed Zaryusu's concerns.

It was just like in the fight with the elder lich; everyone needed to do what they could, and they would add all their efforts together.

Zaryusu looked around and saw that warriors had also jumped up on the wall to observe the enemy. No, he wasn't fighting alone. He was fighting with a great many friends.

It seemed like he'd been shaken up in the face of such overwhelming power by that display of magic.

Zaryusu exhaled, like he was breathing out something that had festered in his heart. "Sorry, Zenberu."

"Ah, it's fine."

"But… yeah. You're here, too."

"Hmph. Don't expect much in the brains department!"

They laughed a bit together as they watched the enemy's movements.

"But yeesh, those are some serious monsters."

"Yeah. They're on another level…"

The incarnation of Death, arrogant yet impressive like a true king, was eyeing the lizardman village. His body should have been small, but it seemed to have swelled dozens of times larger.

"… That's gotta be the guy they call the Great One."

"Probably. I don't want to believe that they have more than one monster who can use magic powerful enough to freeze the lake."

"Seriously. Ah, I get it. To monsters who can do this kind of stuff, we lizardmen must be like some little specks of dirt. Ah, shit. Ahh, shit! We're no better than worms… Oh, he's moving."

The caster who had frozen the river raised his free hand and waved toward the village. It must be a signal. Zaryusu's hunch came true in horrifying fashion directly after that.

"Ahhh!" Voices cried out from here and there throughout the village.

"What is that?! What the heck is that?!"

Nothing could surprise him anymore. Or so Zaryusu had thought, but what he saw made him practically shriek involuntarily.

What stood before them was a giant statue with two arms and legs that appeared to be made out of stone. A red light, pulsing almost like a heartbeat, shone through from the bedrock of its thick chest. Solid arms, solid legs. Its squat body might have even been rather cute, if the thing hadn't stood about 30 m tall. That gigantic creature had suddenly appeared out of the forest. At this point, believing it was an illusion made more sense.

The golem moved slowly, raising up a huge boulder from who knew where.

Then the massive being threw it.

Zaryusu instinctively covered his face. All those in the gigantic stone's path would surely die.

In the darkness their world had become, Zaryusu was struck at once by a tremendous rumbling and a sound like an explosion. The wall beneath him swayed intensely, creaking.

Along with a roar like heavy rain, the kicked-up dirt falling back to the ground, from the village came the cries of not only children but adults as well.

Despite having braced themselves, they were unable to withstand this fear that was beyond anything they could have imagined. Even though they had made it through the previous battle, this was enough to regress them to small children.

Relieved to still be alive, Zaryusu timidly opened his eyes to see the undead army beginning to move. The stone giant was gone.

The skeletons approached the newly fallen huge stone, lying in the marsh about midway between the two groups; held their flat shields over their heads; and crouched down. More skeletons, nimbly keeping their balance, got up on the shields of the first ones and then held their own shields up in the same way.

Zaryusu shook like he'd been struck by lightning when he understood what they were doing. "Are they building…stairs? Who uses troops that would inspire songs of praise in legends to build stairs?!"

They worked to the top of the rock at an uncanny speed, and a staircase made out of the undead army took shape.

Then some other skeletal soldiers began to move. About a hundred, even more magnificent; in their hands they clutched spears decorated with fabric, crimson cloth with the same crest stitched into each pennon.

They stepped now into the marsh in perfect alignment, all their crimson capes fluttering behind. They proceeded without speaking, crunching the ice under their feet. They really were in perfect order, maintaining intervals as advancing across the marsh, then crossing their lances with the warriors opposite them.

The alternating lances formed a corridor leading up the rock.

"A path for the Great One…?" Zenbel was exactly right.

The Overlord of Death stepped into the corridor of undead.

No one knew when the figures following him had appeared.

In front stood the caster, whose power was now impossible to fathom. He was clad in a robe so black it appeared to be cut from darkness. The golden staff in his hand radiated a dark-red aura. Inside it, anguished human faces would form, warp, and dissipate.

The face beneath the hood was skeletal. A crimson color flickered in his vacant orbits. He was equipped with an abundance of magic accessories impossible for Zaryusu to comprehend and walked forward with the majestic gait of a king.

Attending slightly behind the Overlord of Death was another terrifying monster. If his lord seemed to be the greatest caster ever, that creature looked like the strongest fighter. All black except for eight shining green eyes, it was almost as tall as Zenbel but his muscles bulged even more. Plus, it had eight arms and a pair of large wings on his back. From the way it moved, Zaryusu could tell that creature was a warrior and it exuded a dark aura, almost as powerful as the one of its master.

A little way behind that was a female whose white dress shone brighter, so close to the ominous figures walking ahead. Her appearance was humanlike, but a few things suggested otherwise. Like the wings at her hips.

"That one, certainly and probably the woman as well… they're demons!"

A moniker encompassed beings from the netherworld, such as fiends, which caused destruction with violence, and devils, which caused depravity with their wits. They were the height of wickedness and the purpose of their existence was to bring pain to the world. In other words, these monsters were synonyms for evil. At least, that's what stories said.

Zaryusu had heard of their kind on his travels: how horrible they were, how about two hundred years ago a monster worthy of being called the King of Demons, some evil spirit, came with its underlings and nearly destroyed the world. In the end, the Thirteen Heroes defeated them and even now scars from that battle remained in some places.

If undead were beings that hated the living, then demons existed to torment them. Additional shivers were starting to rise on his back, but the following champions of Death confused Zaryusu.

Behind the demon walked a pair of dark-elf twins, looking like children. Despite the dignity, they seemed cheerful. How can two living demihumans be among the elite followers of an undead… and two demons too?!

After them came a silver-haired girl, even shorter than the two elves, but he could tell she was even stronger than them. Size really doesn't matter…

Then, a small, strange monster that slowly glided through the air. What's that?

Finally, a seemingly human male, but with a metallic tail. A half-human-half-demon?

The odd little flying monster was the only one who did not seem immensely powerful. All others were enough to make the entire length of Zaryusu's tail quiver. His wild instincts were urging him: Run away as fast as you can!

The party walked silently up the stairs beneath the pennons. They stepped on the undead soldiers with zero hesitation and ascended to the top of the giant rock like champions.

The Overlord of Death, at the front of the line, moved his hands.

Upon the sudden appearance of a tall throne that sparkled raven black, he sat down.

The ones behind him, who appeared to be aides, lined up and turned their gazes to the village as if they were watching for something. But they didn't do anything else.

What in the world is this?

A few lizardmen glanced at one another anxiously. They decided to leave the decision-making to the cleverest one present.

"Uh, er, what should we do, Zaryusu? Should we get ready to run?" The voice contained not the slightest will to fight. That one lizardman's tail was drooping helplessly, speaking volumes for his internal state.

"No, no need for that. Think back to the time with the elder lich. This caster seems more powerful than that, right? He should have no problem ignoring this distance and unleashing an attack right now. He probably… has something he wants to say."

The lizardman seemed to understand. Without taking his eyes off the lining up attendants, Zaryusu continued observing the immensely powerful monster on top of the rock as if he were one of the masses looking up at his king.

He was determined to not miss a thing. At this distance he was able to observe quite a lot of detail, and their eyes even met.

Is the Overlord of Death observing me, too?

The lack of hostility from the dark elves was surprising, they really seemed to be enjoying themselves. The silver-haired girl had a smug grin, one that said: I'm above y'all lizardmen. The demon woman was horrifying in how kind she seemed. He wasn't sure about the strange monster since he had never seen anything like it. He couldn't sense any emotion from the eyes of the man with the tail and the huge demon who, in spite of his evident warrior nature, looked not eager for blood.

After enough time had passed for them to observe each other, the Overlord of Death once again brought his free hand up near his chest.

Several lizardmen reacted by flailing their tails in distress.

"Do not be afraid. Do not show the enemy such a shameful display!" Zaryusu's reprimand cut like a knife, and the lizardmen in the area all straightened.

Multiple black hazes appeared before the King of Death: twenty, to be exact. The swirling mists swelled to about five feet high. Before long, myriad faces had formed within them.

"Those are…" Zaryusu recalled the monster that had come to the villages and the undead he'd encountered on his travels.

He'd given a rough explanation back in Crusch's village how it was possible to damage this type of insubstantial monster only by using enchanted weapons, certain metals, magic, or specific martial arts.

Even with all the lizard tribes put together, they had only a handful of magic weapons. In other words, it would be hard to take out even one of this type of undead. And their opponent could spawn twenty of them like it was nothing.

I guess that's what it means to be truly powerful… I can see why that elder lich, who was plenty powerful in his own right, would totally devote himself to this being, Zaryusu thought, losing heart.

The caster on the rock murmured something and waved his hand in a way that said, Go!"

The undead flew to surround the village and said in unison, "We relay the words of the Great One. The Great One would like to speak with you. The one who shall represent you will step forward immediately. Know that taking too long will only displease the Great One."