Mu En was in an equally foul mood.
A towering blaze could not have erupted in an open field by accident.
Had those mercenaries followed Yupa to the Valley of the Wind immediately after his arrival?
But Mu En, who was near the entrance to the valley, had detected no sign of any outsider sneaking or forcing their way in!
He still could not truly survey the entire Valley of the Wind. He could only use the Blessed as nodes and observe their surroundings through their five senses.
Fortunately, one of the Blessed happened to be near the fire.
Gol, who had been on his way to the woods to check on his men's progress, was one of the people closest to the scene.
When he arrived, three granary guards were rushing toward the fire with buckets of water. They called out for help when they saw him.
"Quick, help us get water!"
"Someone's still inside! Save him!"
Gol's face changed drastically at the sight of the flames.
More than half the new grain Beruto had worked his heart out to grow over the past few days was stored here!
Four roughly rectangular granaries stood side by side in a clearing outside the village, each with its own windmill.
The fire had broken out in the easternmost of the four. Flames greedily devoured the wooden structure, crackling and popping.
Worse still, although the season of subsiding winds had only just begun, the wind remained strong. Driven by it, tongues of flame were gradually spreading past the stone windmill between the buildings toward the second granary.
"Don't panic. I'll get help right away!"
As it happened, the earlier explosion had already drawn the patrolling guards.
Gol ordered them back to the village to gather people, while he prepared to help fight the fire himself.
"Wait, the color and smell of this smoke..."
He had only just approached with a wooden bucket when he caught a familiar smell.
Having worked with weapons for years, he recognized its source at once.
Fuel oil!
When he saw the three guards rushing toward the fire, his heart sank.
"Wait! Stay back! There's oil all over-"
Boom!!!
Before he could finish, tragedy struck.
The flames had barely touched the side of the second granary when they swelled with lightning speed. In an instant, the entire building became an exploding ball of fire.
Now he knew what had caused the earlier explosion.
"Aaaah! Water! Give me water, quick!"
"Get back! Get back!"
"Quick, put out the fire on them with water!"
The two granary guards who had been in front were instantly swallowed by flames. Fire covered their bodies as they rolled on the ground in agony.
Only the man who had fallen behind because of his bad leg narrowly escaped.
The surviving guard reacted quickly. At Gol's urging, he immediately threw the well water in his bucket over his companions, extinguishing the flames on their clothes.
Even so, the brief exposure to intense heat and suffocation had already left the two men unable to rise, capable only of groaning in pain.
Gol hurried forward and, together with the survivor, dragged the injured men to safety away from the fire, in case another explosion occurred.
By this time, most people in the Valley of the Wind were already awake, and the granaries were not far from the village.
Many villagers who had seen the explosion and the flames came running.
Beruto and the farmer foremen were among them, arriving at the scene out of breath.
Looking at the two granaries crackling in the flames and gradually beginning to collapse, he felt his heart bleed.
That grain was a gift from Lord Divine Tree, the Valley of the Wind's hope of bringing its hard times to an end!
Beruto knew that power did not belong to him. He had never considered the harvested grain his own achievement.
Seeing the flames still trying to spread to the third granary, Beruto steeled himself and ordered:
"Forget everything else and save the remaining grain! Get every last bit of it out!"
He could no longer worry about keeping it secret. Saving the grain came first.
After quickly directing the farmers to join the firefighting and salvage efforts, he hurriedly crouched down to examine the two burned guards.
The two men who had been directly engulfed by the flames were badly injured, with large patches of skin burned raw.
The lucky man who had been a few meters behind his companions was also in terrible pain from his burns, but at least his life was not in danger.
At the sight of Beruto, tears and snot streamed down his face. "Elder Beruto, I'm useless... I've let everyone down!"
Already frantic with worry, Beruto burned with even greater anger when he heard the man's cries.
"Yiduo, this is no time for crying! Where's that brat Pao? Where's he hiding and slacking off this time? I'll skin him alive!"
Yiduo cried, "Pao... Pao saw thick smoke in the granary and was the first to rush inside! He's... he's still in there!"
Beruto choked, every word of rebuke caught in his throat.
When he heard Yiduo's words, he immediately tried to rush into the fire to save Pao, but Gol grabbed him and stopped him.
"Let go! I have to save him!"
"Are you mad? That's no ordinary fire. Someone splashed fuel oil inside the granary. You'll burn to death!"
"I'm not afraid. I have Lord Divine Tree's blessing. I have to save that boy Pao..."
Beruto stubbornly tried to force Gol aside, but Gol was also one of the Blessed, and years of smithing had made him no weaker than Beruto.
Hearing Beruto's words, Mu En, who was calmly observing the situation from behind the scenes, suddenly remembered how Nausicaä had used an incantation to extinguish a fire a few days earlier.
He immediately used their blessing links to tell the two men how to cast the Law of Regression, saying:
"Beruto, Gol, this is the incantation Nausicaä used to cleanse the Sea of Corruption that day. It can also put out flames."
They were not facing this disaster alone. They had the Erdtree's protection.
"Thank you, Lord Divine Tree!"
Without another word, the two immediately set about putting out the fire.
In front of the granaries, billowing smoke and scorching waves of heat formed a barrier that was difficult to cross.
People passed buckets of water along a line from the pumping windmill in the distance, trying to stop the fire.
Yet each bucketful of well water splashed onto the blaze instantly turned to white vapor and vanished.
Here, a cup of water against a cartload of burning firewood became literal.
Just then, people cried out in alarm when they saw Beruto and Gol walking straight toward the burning granary.
Had the two elders lost their minds?
The two stopped in front of the blaze and extended their arms together, forming two diagonal lines, low on the right and high on the left.
Then the two lines moved counterclockwise in unison, and the Erdtree Mark and a dazzling golden light burst forth at the same time.
This was their first time openly using the power of the Golden Order before so many villagers.
The two golden lights spread over a range of nearly ten meters, one on the left and one on the right, covering almost half the granary.
Wherever the golden light reached, the flames, stubborn as a festering sore, broke apart and vanished in an instant.
A few cheers erupted from the crowd, coming from Beruto's farmer foremen and those who had taken part in the forest disaster relief.
They had already witnessed the power of the Golden Order and knew it was a miracle bestowed by the Divine Tree.
Everyone else, seeing this extraordinary sight for the first time, froze in place, even forgetting to pass the buckets.
What had just happened? Were they dreaming?