"Mom, what’s that?”

"Shh, don’t stare at it directly! You could go blind!”

"D-dammit…not this again…”

The moment we returned to the current capital, I could feel that the atmosphere had changed compared to last time.

There was only one reason for it. The scar Dercia had carved into the sky.

Everywhere, people stared up at the long black line stretching across the overcast heavens, sighing in despair.

"In the past, even in a situation like this, people would’ve just said, ‘Ah, some wizard’s messing around again,’ and moved on.”

As we walked down the main street, Linmel watched citizens hurriedly locking their doors with a bitter expression.

"Ever since the capital was destroyed before and after the Fallen started causing chaos everywhere, everyone’s become a bit sensitive to changes like this. Especially if it has something to do with the sky.”

"Looks that way.”

Even without spreading my Tide Sense, I could feel the gloomy sense of defeat hanging over the entire city.

Of course, not everyone was drowning in despair. A number of Knights were still moving around urgently despite the late hour. Their precise, efficient movements made it obvious this wasn’t the first anomalous disaster they’d faced.

"I’ll go report what this actually is. About your master, um…”

"Don’t say she died. Just say she was injured too and is recovering.”

"Okay! Got it. Where are you going to be, Jern? W-Would you maybe like to come over to my place?”

"No. With the sky looking like that, who knows what might happen. I’ll rest by the lake behind the city.”

"...Okay. Got it…”

I watched the dejected Linmel leave before looking back up at the sky.

The fact that the wound carved into the body of Great Void had begun appearing across the heavens meant one thing. He had started fully taking control of this world’s sky.

The only comforting part was—

'It’s still faint.'

The line only stood out against the night sky because it wasn’t as dark as the sky itself.

Compared to the ink I’d seen before, it was far paler. Which meant there was still time.

However, it wasn't much, which was quite despair-inducing.

"Are you still trying to do something about it?”

From inside the cup, Nightchaser mocked me in a lazy tone.

"It’s too late. Honestly, that’s almost fortunate. At least you can blame failure on running out of time.”

"It’s not too late. Time’s just tight.”

I closed the lid of the cup and headed toward the outskirts of the capital.

I’d told Linmel I was going to rest, but there was no way I could actually relax in this situation. From now on, every single second, no, every five seconds, had to be used carefully.

There was someone I needed to meet first. Or rather, something close enough to a person.

My Tide Sense spread across the capital.

"...Huh? What’s with this guy?”

I found him, but he was somewhere quite weird.

Why the hell was he in a place like this? Tilting my head, I created a puddle on the ground.

The moment I threw myself into it, a terrible stench hit me.

Covering my nose with a grimace, I looked at the dwarf, sleeping comfortably against the wall.

"Grgh, grrrgh..."

Brimdal was lying there with his sword in hand, sleeping as comfortably as if the world weren’t ending. After glancing around for a moment, I flicked a few droplets of water straight into this wide-open mouth.

"Why are you sleeping in a place like this? Wake up.”

"Cough, cough—what the…? Ptui!”

Brimdal—reacted far more violently than I’d expected.

Before he even recognized me as Jern, his face had already gone pale as he frantically scanned the surroundings. Then his gaze landed on me, and his brow furrowed.

"...What the hell…?”

"It’s been a long time, Brimdal. Have you been well?”

"..."

Despite my warm greeting, Brimdal stared at me for quite a while.

It was as if he were trying to determine what exactly I was.

I could already guess where this was going, so I let out a sigh and scratched my head.

"If you’re about to ask me to prove I’m not fake, then yes, I can explain. Just say the word when you’re ready.”

"...No."

Still maintaining his guard, Brimdal slowly sheathed his sword.

"There can’t be that many kids in this world capable of making an expression like they’ve lived an entire lifetime. Jern, it’s really you.”

"I’m not a kid anymore.”

"—Doesn’t seem like you’re human anymore either.”

Brimdal tossed out a rather sharp remark.

Apparently, a Knight of Brimdal’s level could immediately notice the change in me.

"In all my years, I’ve never met anyone who could approach right in front of me without my senses noticing. And someone I still can’t feel even while looking directly at them and talking to them—even less so."

He strode over, roughly grabbed my head, and started patting and prodding me all over before letting out an exclamation.

"What in the world?! Even while touching you directly, I still can’t sense anything…Just what did you become?”

"I became the god of another world, I suppose. I’m basically the living, breathing concept of the Abyssal Sea right now.”

"Hm, I don’t know what exactly you became, but I do know you’ve gone insane. Sounds like you spent the last 5 years learning some bizarre magic. Do you even know what’s happened to this world while you were gone?”

"...Why were you here?”

Since the explanation was obviously going to take a long time, I cut him off instead. Brimdal immediately scowled.

"I’m being punished. Hah. All I tried to do was raise a little hope for the future.”

"Punished?"

"Yeah. They told me to stand guard here and stop Fallen from entering through the waterways, but honestly, it’s basically revenge. Hmph, petty bastards.”

"Whatever the punishment is, you’re coming somewhere with me now.”

"What? What do you mean? Wait, don’t tell me you came here looking for me the moment you arrived? If you were hoping for some touching reunion, too bad. There are plenty of people searching for you right now, so go meet them already.”

"I’d love a heartfelt reunion as well, believe me, but we genuinely don’t have time. We probably don’t even have a quarter of half a year left. We need to deal with the important things first.”

"..."

At the sincerity in my voice, Brimdal’s expression turned serious for the first time. He slowly nodded.

"Let’s hear it.”

"Introduce me to your friends.”

"...Friends?”

"Yeah. Your dwarf friends. The race that lives underground digging tunnels.”

"Okay, let me get two things straight right now.”

Brimdal raised two fingers, then folded one of them down.

"First, those bastards aren’t my friends. They're my enemies. If I went to see them, they’d try to kill me.” 𝒇𝒓𝒆𝒆𝙬𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝒎

"I see. And the second?”

"The second is just an insult. But if I had to phrase it nicely—it’d be asking why you’re looking for them.”

"Because we need to dig.”

"Dig? Here I was, wondering what nonsense you were going to spout.”

Brimdal flashed a proud grin and slammed his sword into the ground.

"I can handle that much myself. Give me one hour. I’ll dig a hole deep enough to bury this entire building.”

"I can do that in 3 seconds. But when I say we need to dig here, I don’t mean just making a deep, wide hole.”

I shook my head and corrected his misunderstanding.

"I mean, we need an underground city deep enough for every single person in this world to breathe, eat, and live normally for at least several months. A few dozen meters underground won’t be enough. It has to be hundreds of meters deeper than that.”

"...What?”

Brimdal tilted his head while listening to me.

"Do you even understand what you’re saying right now?”

"Yes, I do. More accurately—even after every piece of land in this world is submerged beneath seawater, there must still be no problems with this living space.”

"..."

His face stiffened in disbelief. Then he scratched his head and started explaining things to me like he was trying to reason with an idiot.

"Jern, listen carefully. A project on that scale has never existed in dwarven history since the day our race first grew beards. And more importantly, even if every dwarf devoted themselves to nothing but that world, forget 1 year. It’d take 10 years just to barely succeed. It’s impossible.”

"Then dwarves are even more capable than I expected.”

I’d honestly expected him to say it would take over 100 years.

Hearing that it was possible within 10 made me even more certain.

This task had to be entrusted to Brimdal. Seeing the deadly seriousness on my face, devoid of the slightest hint that this was a joke, Brimdal stared at me with an exhausted expression.

"I don’t know how you interpreted what I just said, but—”

"I’ll help.”

-Drip, drip, drip...

As I raised my hand, a few droplets of water fell.

Brimdal looked down at the ground with an expression that clearly said, ‘What is this idiot doing now?’

-Boom!

"What in the...?"

The tiny droplets furiously bored into the earth, instantly creating a massive hole. Brimdal’s eyes widened to the size of saucers at the sight.

"Throw a rock into it.”

Still flustered, Brimdal hesitated for a moment before picking a pebble nearby and tossing it down the hole.

No sound came back. Only after 5 whole minutes passed did a tiny splash sound finally echo upward. It was so faint that no ordinary person could ever have heard it.

"You..."

Only then did Brimdal truly look at me.

As a dwarf who had spent half his life digging through the earth, there was no way he could mistake this for mere magic.

"What exactly did you become?”

I simply shrugged at the near-whispered question.

"I told you already."

"...The…you’re serious? About creating an underground fortress capable of housing everyone currently alive?”

"Yes. And if possible, I’d like to be able to shelter animals too. If there’s anything I can do to help, I’ll do it.”

"Hrrrmmm..."

With his arms crossed, Brimdal sank into deep thought, seriously considering my proposal.

But in the end, his answer remained the same.

"Sorry, but persuasion is impossible. At least if it comes through me.”

"No, why?”

"Well, ahem… When I left that group, I may have done a few things—the sort that they wouldn't take kindly to—”

Brimdal awkwardly avoided my gaze as he tried to steer the conversation into a different direction.

"If you compared it to the Empire, what kind of crime are we talking about?”

"Hm, probably around the level of attempting to assassinate the Emperor.”

“...”

Apparently Brimdal had been a much bigger menace than I’d imagined.

'What do I do now?’

I racked my brain for a moment. I could have threatened the dwarves with my power, but that had far too high a chance of backfiring.

More importantly, this was something the dwarves themselves needed to understand and willingly choose to do. If even the slightest mistake happened, every human alive would drown.

The project had to proceed in a way everyone could accept.

"Well, I can still guide you there. As for persuading them…you need to figure that part out yourself.”

Brimdal replied shamelessly, like he'd done absolutely nothing wrong. Just as I was considering whether I should smack him now that I had the power to do so, something clicked in my mind.

"…So, Brimdal, you are definitely sure you committed something as serious as attempting regicide?”

"The hot-blooded folly of youth. Quite the embarrassing memory, I might add.”

"So to the dwarves, you’re a pretty major enemy?”

"Hm? Yeah. That’s right.”

"And dwarves are quite serious about their grudges, right?”

"Of course. We never forget what shouldn’t be forgo…”

Brimdal nodded proudly, then he suddenly froze as realization struck him, staring at me.

"..."

"..."

Our eyes met. And in that instant, we both understood exactly what the other was thinking.

"Brimdal. For the sake of the world, please sacrifice your body just this once."

"No, you insane little—”

Brimdal reached for the hilt of his sword.

But my finger twitching was just a little faster.