Kjeragandr: [Giant Beast Profanity!]

Just as the boss was at a loss over this thorny situation, his brothers urged him again.

[Fourth: Boss! What's going on over there? Why aren't you back yet? We're waiting for you to queue up for ranked... no, waiting to meet up with you!]

[Third: Did Boss run into some trouble?]

[Second: Report the current situation.]

The boss sighed and briefly described the situation through the link:

When he described the little girl's appearance, as well as her determination to protect the unconscious woman regardless of her own safety, Fourth suddenly cried out:

[Fourth: Wait! That appearance, and she cares about Saria... Holy crap! The little girl you're talking about can't be Little Fire Dragon, can she?!]

[Boss: Little Fire Dragon? Will she evolve into Charizard?]

[Fourth: Not that Little Fire Dragon! It's Ifrit! A nickname players gave her in the game! She's a child Saria and Silence care about deeply!]

After Fourth's explanation, the boss immediately understood.

[Boss: So that's it... No wonder this kid was so stubbornly refusing to leave.]

[Second: Then the situation is clear. The energy inside you should have stabilized by now, right? Come back immediately and avoid any further complications.]

The boss looked at his mountain-like body, felt the vast energy still raging within him, and hesitated.

[Boss: I think... it would be better to wait for the energy to dissipate naturally a little longer.]

The link fell quiet for a moment.

Then Second's utterly speechless voice drifted over.

[Second: Boss... are you seriously planning to just wait for the energy to slowly dissipate on its own?]

[Boss: What else am I supposed to do? Wasn't the lesson from venting randomly just now enough? I don't want to cause more destruction.]

[Second: ...]

[Third: Boss, why don't you release the energy yourself?]

[Boss: Like I said, I don't want to destroy any—]

Before the boss could finish defending himself, Second cut him off in a voice that was clearly on the verge of losing it:

[Second: Who told you to destroy the ground?! Why don't you release the flames into the sky? Shoot all that excess energy out like fireworks! Is that so hard?!]

"..."

The boss froze.

First came confusion, then blankness, and finally a bewildered expression mixed with shock and sudden realization...

[Boss: ...]

He opened his mouth, but in reality, all that came out was a gurgling sound like rolling lava.

Right...

Fire it into the sky...

Expel the excess energy yourself...

Seeing the boss remain silent for more than ten seconds, Third cautiously asked:

[Third: Boss, don't tell me you never thought of that? I thought you were trying to get revenge on them.]

Boss: "..."

At that moment, the mental link sank into deathly silence.

Then Fourth erupted into laughter so intense he nearly laughed himself breathless:

[Fourth: Hahahahahahaha!!! Oh my god, I can't take it anymore!]

[Hahahaha! You even scratched your head over it for ages! You were worried about hitting the kids! Why didn't you just fire a Majestic Destroyer Flame straight at the sky?! I'm dying!!]

[Pfft—]

Even Second let out a faint, stifled snort.

Third quietly tried to smooth things over: [Maybe Boss was too nervous from fighting and didn't think of it right away...]

At that moment, the boss wished he could crawl into a crack in the ground. As if to hide his overwhelming embarrassment, he suddenly raised his head and looked toward the sky, which had been dimmed by smoke and dust.

Then he opened his molten maw, large enough to swallow a truck whole.

"Roar—!!!"

It was no longer a roar of pain, but an enraged howl of unleashed energy!

An incomparably thick pillar of blazing fire burst from his mouth and shot straight into the heavens.

The fire pillar connected earth and sky. Wherever it passed, smoke and dust were instantly purged, clouds were torn apart and scattered, revealing the starry sky beyond.

The surging energy inside the boss began to drop at an unprecedented speed, while his body visibly stabilized and shrank.

Just then, Fourth's terrified voice rang out through the link.

[Fourth: Holy crap! Boss, stop! Those are Star Pods in the sky! This planet's protective barrier!!!]

[Boss: ? Why didn't you say so earlier... Cough!]

The boss jolted in alarm! Star Pods? A protective barrier? He had no idea what those were.

But the concepts of "protective barrier" and "don't hit it" instantly made him realize the severity of the problem.

Under Ifrit's stunned gaze, the terrifying giant demon abruptly turned his head.

"Buzz—"

The pillar of fire that had been shooting vertically toward the Star Pods transformed, with the violent turn of his head, into a devastating fan-shaped sweep of light that slashed diagonally downward at an acute angle from the sky.

It first grazed several unfortunate skyscrapers at the edge of Trimounts that lay in its path.

The instant those magnificent buildings touched the edge of the fire pillar, their severed surfaces turned crimson, and molten metal dripped down like tears.

But that was only the beginning.

The main body of the fire pillar crossed the city limits and struck the mountain range surrounding Trimounts in the distance.

There was no sound.

The instant the fire pillar made contact with the mountain, it punched straight through it.

Then—

"BOOM—!!!!!"

The tremendous blast came a moment later, and the entire mountain structure gave a groan of unbearable strain.

Centered on the point of impact, a white wave of light and heat rapidly expanded in every direction!

Wherever it passed, peaks collapsed and were flattened like sandcastles. Everything turned into its most basic particles beneath that white light, vanishing without a trace.

The night was forcibly driven away at that instant.

A sun of destruction bloomed boldly beneath the stars.

If you can't find the book by searching its title, try searching for the author instead. It may simply have been renamed!

Even from afar, the terrifying light radiation instantly illuminated all of Trimounts and regions even farther away.

Every corner of the city was lit as brightly as day, and every glass object shattered at the same time.

Though weakened by distance, the scorching airwave still swept in like a storm, carrying the scent of a fire wind.

Ifrit stood frozen in place, the rising dawn at the distant horizon reflected in her amber eyes.

The mental link was utterly silent.

Several seconds passed before Fourth's dry voice finally sounded in fits and starts:

[Fourth: Boss... if I say I didn't do it on purpose... would you believe me?]

[Boss: ...Do you have any last wishes?]

[Fourth: Boss, you're so nice... So can we still see each other tomorrow?]

[Boss: Heh... You won't be able to fulfill a single one of those three wishes!!!]

The boss gritted his teeth as he condemned that useless idiot who only ever said half of what he meant, while in reality, he stiffly stared at the terrifying destruction he had caused.

This time, he had really screwed up...

And the sun blooming in the night seared its radiance deep into this ravaged land, as well as into the souls of every witness.

At the same time, the destructive beam that had deviated from its intended path, after effortlessly vaporizing the mountain range along Columbia's border—

Still retained some of its terrifying penetrating force as it raced deeper into the continent—toward Kjerag.

Kjerag, Mount Karlan.

"Ah~~ I finally finished it~"

A lazy, satisfied sigh echoed through the tranquil sanctuary.

After slacking off for an entire day, Miss Yara finally closed the popular novel that some snow leopard had gathered from who knew where.

She happily stretched, her graceful curves unfolding beneath the hazy snowlight.

"Mm~ It's already this late."

Rubbing her slightly sore eyes, Yara looked out at the still-dark night.

"I should check on Enya. That child has probably kicked off her blanket again."

She tidied her somewhat lazy appearance and resumed her dignified, holy bearing, then lightly made her way toward the side hall where the Saintess Enya lived.

The snow of the Holy Mountain remained as white and tranquil as ever, carrying an eternal air of sanctity.

Yara walked along the familiar corridor, looking at the unchanged scenery beyond the windows, and could not help but sigh softly to herself.

"No matter how beautiful the scenery is, after looking at it for so many years, it gets tiresome..." she murmured, with a trace of barely noticeable loneliness.

"I hope that boy from the Silverash Family brings back something more interesting this time..."

Just as Yara was lost in sentiment and her thoughts drifted afar, her gaze casually swept over the distant horizon—that region which should have been shrouded in deep night.

A speck of light?

Yara narrowed her eyes slightly.

"Hm? Is it already dawn?" She subconsciously looked up at the stars' positions, then immediately rejected the thought.

"That's not right..."

Not only did the light not vanish under her gaze, it grew brighter and larger at an astonishing speed.

Within only a few breaths, it expanded from an inconspicuous star into a sun forcibly rising over the horizon!

Yara's eyes widened abruptly. Her dignified expression froze, replaced by long-forgotten shock and fury.

"[Giant Beast Profanity!]"

The next moment, the sacred and tranquil Mount Karlan underwent a sudden upheaval.

The gentle falling snow instantly became a violent ice storm capable of tearing steel apart.

The temperature between heaven and earth plummeted to the edge of absolute zero, as if time itself were about to freeze.

At the center of the all-consuming blizzard, Miss Yara's figure had vanished.

In her place stood an ancient being who had revealed part of her true form, wielding authority over extreme cold—Kjeragandr!

She raised her head and let out a long howl. Endless freezing tides, condensed from Kjerag's millennia of faith and the power of ice and snow—

Became a visible torrent of pure white that crashed head-on into the incoming destructive beam.

Ice and fire, two utterly opposing powers at their extremes, collided with brutal force above this snowfield that had been tranquil for countless years.

"Sizzle—BOOM!!!"

The sky seemed torn apart, half annihilating crimson and half freezing white.

However, Kjeragandr had not fully descended after all.

The destructive beam ultimately pierced through the hastily raised tide of cold.

The next instant, it shot straight toward the main peak of Mount Karlan behind Kjeragandr!

"BOOM—!!!!!!!"

The entirety of Kjerag shook violently from the impact.

The awakened people of Kjerag rushed from their homes, following the destructive sound and blinding light toward the supreme symbol of their faith—Mount Karlan.

Everyone, whether devout believer or simple mountain dweller, froze in place, their faces filled with disbelieving shock and despair.

Before their vacant eyes, the sacred, inviolable summit of the Holy Mountain, covered in snow year-round, had been brutally sheared away at one corner.

A horrifying wound flowing with dark-red lava had been branded onto the holy mountain like a blasphemous scar!

Steaming snowmelt mixed with lava into murky mist, curling around the wound like the Holy Mountain's soundless wail.

Silence.

Deathly silence enveloped every corner of Kjerag.

No one knew how long passed before a trembling voice shattered the suffocating stillness, speaking the shared cry of every Kjerag person:

"Kjeragandr above..."

"The Holy Mountain... our Holy Mountain!!!"

Faith had been trampled upon. Sacred ground had been desecrated.

This chaos that had begun in Trimounts, Columbia, had spread farther and become far more severe than anyone could have imagined.

And the one responsible for all of it—the boss—

Still had no idea what a deadly place his mouthful of "spit" had landed in.

Kjeragandr: "[Giant Beast Profanity!] ■■ brat, just wait... Come to Kjerag and you definitely won't have an easy time!!!"