Eastend—New City Ket Gwy
Having eaten and drunk late into the night, Somni and Tetor returned once more to New City Ket Gwy using Asta's mysterious power to stay overnight. Early the next morning, led by the long-nosed monster who served the Master and called himself Girimehkala, Somni and Tetor stepped outside the city.
"Huh?"
"Eh?"
The moment they set foot outside the town, the scenery warped, transforming into a desolate wasteland.
Waiting there were countless grotesque figures. Encircling Somni and Tetor, these aberrations stared down at them with grim, solemn expressions.
"U-Um..."
Overwhelmed by the bizarre sight, they turned to Girimehkala for an explanation, but he merely spread his arms wide, threw his head back toward the sky, and bellowed:
"Hear now the formal divine word from our supreme Great One!
'Elevate these ones to a level of strength capable of enduring the Great One's training! Do not make them cheap imitations patched together through petty tricks like our divine protections—forge them into true paragons of might!'"
He roared at the top of his lungs, his voice shaking the very air.
At Girimehkala's words, the grotesque crowd erupted into an uproar. Without exception, astonishment was plastered across every face.
"Girimehkala, are you sure those were really the Great One's instructions?"
To the puzzled inquiry from the sanpaku-eyed man with horns on his forehead, Girimehkala barked:
"Of course! The Great One commanded that we temper them without a shred of compromise until they can withstand the most grueling training!"
Girimehkala shouted once more at a deafening volume.
"Without a shred of compromise, you say? That may well be the first time we have ever received such an order."
The man with a dragon's face wearing exotic gold-colored clothes muttered to himself, crossing his arms.
"And? What reason did that terrifying Great One give for handing down such an unreasonable command?"
In response to the question from the vermilion-winged youth, the corners of Girimehkala's mouth curled high into a wicked sneer.
"My scouts have reported that in the lands to the north, the human race known as the demon race is currently conducting a certain ritual."
As Girimehkala spun his words in a smug, sing-song cadence, the dragon-faced man snapped irritably:
"Quit the roundabout phrasing! What does that actually mean?!"
"It is a ritual to summon one of the Six Great Generals of the Evil Army."
At Girimehkala's words, an uproar erupted that utterly eclipsed the previous one.
"One of the Six Great Generals of the Evil Army, you say?! Does that mean this land is to be the venue for the Heaven-Demon Game?!"
To the dragon-faced man's question, Girimehkala nodded heavily, his three eyes turning bloodshot with rage.
"Indeed, judging from the circumstances, there is no doubt! That vile, abominable game is about to be staged in this very land! Yes—in this land governed by the Great One! Soon, between the Heavenly Army and the Evil Army, this place will be reduced to a sea of fire! Do you think we can possibly permit such a thing?!"
At Girimehkala's question, a terrifying fury exploded from the gathered horrors.
"There is no way in hell we could ever allow it! Whosoever dares bare their fangs at the Great One shall be crushed to dust! Indeed! No matter who they are!"
To the roar of the man possessing a dragon's head, the sanpaku-eyed man with horns spoke with a trembling voice, thick veins bulging across his forehead:
"They're taking us lightly... Sure, compared to the Great One, every last one of us is weak. But still—the Evil Army? The Heavenly Army? I ain't so soft that I'd lose to garbage trash like them!"
Amid the earth-shaking bellows of rage from the aberrations, Girimehkala made a pacifying motion with both hands, pressing downward.
"Precisely! We shall not tolerate a single thing that displeases the Great One. That is our shared, absolute law. A clash with them is unavoidable. However, the Great One has already anticipated everything, right down to the foolish opinions of vermin like us. Even now, His plan to plunge them into the depths of despair is well underway. And..."
He lowered his gaze toward Somni and Tetor. Naturally, the eyes of every other aberration locked onto the two boys as well.
Frogs transfixed before a snake—that was the plain, unvarnished truth of what Somni and Tetor felt.
"So the Great One believes that forging these humans is the way to crush them to dust?"
To the sanpaku-eyed youth's question, Girimehkala roared:
"Precisely! 'To see their prized playthings overrun by mere insects—by humans. That is the sight I wish to behold.' That is what the Great One declared!"
A grand eruption of sheer delight and frenzy. If Somni, with his limited vocabulary, had to put it into words, that was exactly what it was.
Some of the grotesque figures leaped into the air, others danced wildly, and still others howled toward the sky.
Amid an atmosphere that was overwhelmingly unhinged by any measure—
"Then let us have the Great One's chief disciples—Zack, Lucas, and Oboro's lot—strike down their underlings!"
"Deimos, the magic master of these boys, will especially need to be forged. We shall have him peer into—nay, step into—the abyss of magic!"
"I shall teach them an extraordinary strengthening method of my own, ho ho!"
"Mm, mm. Acquiring divinity is the bare minimum requirement; now then, let us see just how far we can push them!"
"To begin with, their foundations are far too frail. It shouldn't matter if we push them a little too hard."
Flushed with excitement, the monsters made one proclamation after another—each more ominous than the last.
"W-Wait just a minute!"
Somni's plea, coming out like a strangled scream, was instantly drowned out by Girimehkala's beast-like roar:
"Listen well, you lot! We have only half a year in real time! Let us utilize the powers of Norn and the others efficiently, and craft our very own monsters!"
At that moment, the worst monsters of the worst dungeon completely misinterpreted the intentions of their supreme master. As a result, humans, the demon race, monsters, and the forces of evil—every single one of those pitiful lambs was forcibly herded onto the same train alongside the most terrifying monstrosities in the world. The terminal station toward which that train hurtled offered only a binary choice between heaven and hell. Truly, it was at this very moment that the curtain slowly rose on a tale of glory and ruin.