Mountain Secrets

A dazzling streak of fire cut across the sky—but it looked nothing like the fortress torpedoes or orbital landing pods previously fired down from Near-Earth Orbit.

It shimmered with a bewitching, gorgeous blue light. As it fell, streams of light drifted from it, and the energy spilling out ignited the atmosphere, even disturbing the storm turbulence high above. A huge, ever-expanding ring of fire rapidly blossomed around the mass of light, like a red lotus opening in the heavens.

Was that a space bomb? The Crossroads' secret weapon? Or a new type of landing pod breaking through the atmosphere?

"...Fox?!"

The Black-robed Priest let out a shrill cry filled with fear and shock. Then terrifying heat and pressure descended upon every member of the Hermetic Society.

Some who reacted quickly had already begun fleeing into the distance. Those who realized they could not escape had raised their shields in advance. Those at a loss could only scream and curse. As for the priest in the robes of a sage, he merely stood atop the heights with an expression as cold as still water. The moment the Lotus of Destruction descended from the sky, he suddenly raised his right hand. Holy radiance violently expanded from his entire body like a blazing sun, and within that light, he transformed into a towering "holy statue" carved from marble. A thorny crown radiating brilliant light crackled and burned above his head.

Like the Ancient Demigod in Argraidean legends who held up the starry sky, he raised a massive barrier in a solemn and resolute pose and shouted, "Witness the holy realm—"

Then the enormous fox falling from the sky smashed him, shield and all, into the ground with a single headbutt.

A mass of blue fire surged into the mountains. The flames outlined the