“Come to think of it, surviving now isn’t something to celebrate.”
Mr. Thomas forced a bitter smile. He let out a deep sigh, took a moment to steady his breath, and then glanced at Sir Robert beside me, giving him a meaningful look.
“Has there been no support from the Empire or the Church Country?”
“Sir. The two of you here are the only support we have.”
He hesitated to light his cigarette, noticing the patients around him, and instead tucked the rolled paper back into his pocket. His reply was indifferent and curt.
“I relayed your words verbatim through Communication Magic to the Empire and the Church Country. In fact, I sent it to every nation on the continent. If anyone even offers a word of consolation, that’s generous. No one has sent so much as a grain of wheat. The kind of support you’re hoping for was never a possibility from the start.”
“Sigh, so you’re saying they don’t realize this isn’t just our problem…”
“They’ll only understand after it’s too late. Right now, they probably think it’s just a bluff.”
Cardinal Omen of the Aldehir Church chimed in.
“There’s a saying that happiness cannot be achieved without sacrifice, and an era cannot pass without misfortune. History proves it. It would be nice if people could foresee and solve problems before they arise, but they always wait until they’re face-to-face with disaster. If the crisis isn’t visible, no one prepares.”
“The problem is that there’s no solution, Your Eminence.”
Mr. Thomas visibly slumped, his expression darkening as he let out heavy sighs. Not a glimmer of hope could be seen in his eyes.
“Priest. Do you know what will happen if Caldera Volcano erupts? I mean, once it erupts, what will happen?”
Before I could even think, he corrected his own question.
“No, no one knows. No one can know until it happens, but we can only guess. To put it simply, based entirely on my research, the eruption of Caldera Supervolcano will herald a catastrophe unlike anything we’ve ever seen or will ever see again.”
Mr. Thomas summoned a pile of dirt using magic, spreading it across the edge of the meeting room and shaping it like clay. It resembled the map of the continent, specifically the shape of the Citadel Republic.
“This is our Republic, and this… is Caldera Volcano. The size might not be exact, but the margin of error won’t matter much.”
Busy distributing spring water to the patients, the priests of the Aldehir Church left us—me, Roka, Cardinal Omen, Sir Robert, and Mr. Thomas—to huddle together.
Mr. Thomas passionately continued his explanation. Roka, watching his hands shape the mountain range, asked, “It’s that big…?”
“Conveniently, we call it a volcano, but Caldera Volcano isn’t just one mountain—it’s the entire mountain range. So this area, from here to here, is entirely volcanic. Inside, there’s a sea of magma bubbling and building pressure.”
“Can a single monster really cause such a volcano to erupt?”
“That’s what puzzles me too.”
Mr. Thomas shook his head as he spoke.
“Even if it’s the King of Monsters, and even if it’s drawing geothermal energy to distribute around, the speed at which the eruption is approaching is too fast. Moreover, if there were such a heat source beneath the surface, the volcano would have erupted long ago, or at least shown signs of it. This is the biggest mystery right now.”
“A mystery that’s utterly useless.”
Sir Robert sneered.
“Dealing with the Phoenix alone is overwhelming enough. Even if there’s another cause, no one has the strength to worry about it. We can think about the rest after dealing with that bird. We’re in this mess because we can’t even handle that one thing.”
“Regardless, if we defeat it, not only will the eruption be delayed, but its power will also be significantly reduced. Even if it erupts later, it might only result in the fall of the Republic.”
Mr. Thomas nodded in agreement.
“Not now. If the volcano erupts, it’s not just the Citadel Republic—the entire continent is at risk. Maybe even the distant Eastern Continent across the sea will be in danger.”
He let out a deep sigh.
“If the volcano erupts, everything happening now will seem trivial in comparison. Even now…”
Rumble!
The ground shook, and the floor trembled. By now, everyone was used to it, so Mr. Thomas only paused briefly, not particularly startled.
The intermittent aftershocks had been happening since we arrived, and their frequency was increasing.
“Even now, the earthquakes are like this, but if an eruption occurs, the resulting quakes will be on a completely different scale. It’s not important how strong they’ll be. What’s certain is that they’ll be strong enough to collapse the entire Republic and cause massive tsunamis. Everyone here, as well as those living along the coast, will be in danger.”
“The Kant Sea surrounding the Citadel Republic will surge. The scale of the tsunami is unknown, but the Demon Emperor’s Empire, the Altoa Kingdom, the Anrus Kingdom, the Norant Kingdom… maybe even the Tyrosil Kingdom will suffer. The Odal Empire across the ocean might not escape unscathed either.”
“In the case of the Empire, aside from the Eastern Near Sea, they have no coastline, so they won’t suffer from tsunamis. If the quakes reach them, they might take some damage. But that’s just the beginning.”
If a major eruption occurs, the volcanic ash problem we’re facing now will be nothing in comparison. Mr. Thomas took a moment to catch his breath, drank another ladle of spring water, and continued.
“If Caldera Supervolcano erupts properly and spews ash, everyone here will be buried alive. The ash will pile up high enough to bury even the tallest buildings, and anyone lucky enough to survive will suffocate or burn to d*ath in the ash. That’s our misfortune. But the misfortune won’t end here—it will spread, likely across the entire continent.”
“Mr. Thomas is right. In fact, we might be better off. We’ll d*e without even feeling the pain, but you people in the Empire will have to live through hell.”
A voice I hadn’t heard before interrupted. I turned to see an old man sitting behind us, listening to our conversation with tired eyes.
Sir Robert jumped to his feet upon seeing him.
“Chancellor, Your Excellency!”
“Sit down, sit down. What authority do I have now? The country is on the verge of collapse—no, it’s going to collapse. What meaning does the title of Chancellor hold anymore?”
The old man waved his hand dismissively, and Sir Robert sat back down. The Chancellor of the Citadel Republic. I never expected to meet the nation’s leader so easily, even though I’d been following Yurinel. But perhaps it’s only natural. This isn’t just a time of chaos—it’s the brink of annihilation.
In such a situation, d*ath could come for anyone. In a way, the most equal world has arrived. With everyone facing d*ath, human authority is truly meaningless.
“Please, continue your discussion. I’d like to hear your insights as well.”
Mr. Thomas nodded and continued.
“The ash won’t just pile up here—it will reach high into the sky. Carried by the wind, it will spread across the world, blotting out the sun and making the stars invisible. What goes up must come down, but it will take years. What will happen during those years without sunlight?”
“Plants won’t grow.”
“The surface will suffer from cold spells. Even in summer, it’ll be as frigid as the depths of winter.”
“An unprecedented famine will last not just a year, but several. The Empire is only thinking about squeezing a few coins from us now, but they should’ve sent support instead.”
The Chancellor snatched the cigarette from Sir Robert’s hand and lit it. Despite the presence of patients, he showed no hesitation, and Roka, disliking the smoke, sprinkled a bit of salt in front of her. Regardless, it seemed he no longer cared about anything.
“Whether it’s the Church Country or the Empire, they’re hiding considerable power, but they’d rather use it to tear each other apart. According to my intelligence network in the Empire, you, Priest, might be the last support we receive from them. The first and last. They’re too busy fighting among themselves now.”
“The support you’re referring to is the strength needed to defeat the Phoenix, correct?”
“Exactly. If the two major powers of the continent had pooled their strength, it might not have been impossible. Three Masters fell to that monster, but it wasn’t a complete defeat.”
Mr. Thomas nodded in agreement.
“I saw it myself. The monster was beheaded in a moment of carelessness by the Ice Blade Technique. However… we seem to have forgotten why it’s called the ‘Immortal’ Bird.”
“It doesn’t d*e?”
“That’s right. Even if it dies, it returns to an egg state and grows again. The three Masters sacrificed their lives to force it back into an egg, which is why the eruption has been delayed until now. Otherwise, it would have erupted already.”
Roka’s eyes widened as she asked, “That’s ridiculous. So it’s truly immortal?”
“There’s no such thing as true immortality. It’s just that the conditions for its d*ath haven’t been met. If the three Masters had had more strength left, they might have been able to destroy the egg and k*ll it for good.”
As the Chancellor said, true immortality belongs only to the Ancient Gods, the laws of the universe themselves.
Even the God of d*ath has an end, so the idea of a monster being eternally immortal is nonsense. There must be some limit.
“But the sacrifice of the three wasn’t in vain. When the monster reverted to an egg, the earthquakes calmed for a while, and the amount of ash decreased. The hypothesis that defeating it would delay the eruption has now been proven true.”
“The problem is, it wasn’t careless for no reason. Inside that volcano, the conditions are extremely favorable for it… and the egg has already absorbed enough energy to hatch. Its growth rate, at least in there, is much faster than usual.”
Mr. Thomas spoke up.
“I’m sorry, but at your level, defeating it is impossible. It’s… an impossible task.”
“That may be so.”
I simply smiled slightly at his concern.
“But if we sit here despairing, won’t we d*e at its hands anyway? If there’s only one path to survival, no matter how treacherous, we have no choice but to take it.”
Moreover, according to Mr. Thomas, if the volcano erupts, it’s not just the people here who will d*e. The scale of the damage will be unimaginable, and the only chance to stop it is now.
As everyone in the room fell silent, Chancellor Adolf Macliren spoke up, and we all turned to him.
“Everyone.”
“Look here.”
