No matter where it was, his bad premonitions always came true. No, calling it a bad premonition wasn't quite accurate—it was the result of Kuon's own calculations in anticipating what lay ahead.
Even so, it was still irritating when something bad unfolded exactly as he had imagined.
On the third day since their assignment at the village of Notarn, the real problem finally appeared. Its scale, however, was even larger than what Humarc had reported to him the day before.
"Get the civilian evacuation done quickly! Those who can still fight, move to the front line!"
Kuon worked to keep his composure as he directed the panicking crowd. Even the knights tasked with guarding the village had succumbed to their own panic and were nearly failing to carry out the duties they should have been fulfilling from the start.
The sun had only just reached its peak, and the situation had already turned grim as the black sludge—Black Tide—began spreading aggressively, swallowing everything within its territory. And from that sludge, dozens to hundreds of monsters began rising and being spewed out without end.
"Get out of there!"
Vierra's voice rang out sharply as she sprinted through the combat zone, gripping her dagger tightly. Her feet nimbly cleared every obstacle and reached the spot where two children had fallen and were being cornered by a cluster of monsters as they tried to flee.
With the acceleration granted by her wind magic, she shot forward and landed a deep slash precisely at the throat of one of the Black Tide monsters—a large wolf that walked on two legs, its body coated in black sludge—severing its head in an instant.
But the moment her dagger made contact with the black sludge, its negative effects began to show. The blade slowly displayed signs of rust and structural brittleness.
'Maybe two more strikes at most….'
While pulling the two children clear of the cluster, Vierra quickly calculated what was left of her weapon's lifespan. She still had a few spare daggers, and Kuon had already said damaged weapons could be handed to him for repair. But Vierra wasn't confident she could do that calmly in the current situation.
Weapon durability when fighting Black Tide was something that had been a problem for Kuon from the start, but he managed it well thanks to his skill in material manipulation. If a weapon started showing signs of Black Tide damage, he could repair it by discarding the corrupted structure, or by patching it with spare material.
On the other hand, Kuon couldn't move recklessly. He had prepared a lot of material before departing for the village, but it still wouldn't be enough if he had to use all of it for combat. On top of that, he also had to keep reserves for repairing his team members' weapons.
He could secure some of those materials if he could use and store them effectively—storing them before Black Tide's negative effects began reacting with his weapons. But that would likely be difficult to pull off in his current situation.
Kuon looked at Glans on his right hand, and although he had modified its material specifically to withstand damage, signs of structural collapse were beginning to appear. A few more strikes and it would shatter completely. So Kuon decided to take it off for now.
"Kanon! Give me some of your spears!"
Kanon, despite her own difficult state, still fulfilled Kuon's request. She used her magic to spread an ice field that froze the monsters in place, then created a dozen ice spears and fired all of them toward Kuon.
With [Accel] active to sharpen his thinking, he managed to catch all the spears and use them effectively: some he drove into the ground for later use, and others he threw directly into the mob of monsters surrounding him, immediately piercing through the heads and necks of several.
Like metal weapons, Kanon's ice spears also couldn't last long against Black Tide, but at least Kuon could still repair the damaged structure with his own magic. He couldn't do it too often, however, since it consumed an enormous amount of Aether—especially because he had to use 'miracle manipulation' to do it.
[Accel] was still active, and Kuon began moving after analyzing the situation around him.
With one ice spear in each hand, he began slipping through the gaps and landing strikes before the monsters could detect him.
Fortunately, his body was able to keep up with the speed increase [Accel] granted his mind. Without that, movements like those would have been impossible.
"Felix! How many arrows do you have left?!"
He had brought down over a dozen monsters with a single swift motion, and now turned his attention to the monsters still rampaging and disrupting the evacuation.
"Not counting what I just fired, twenty!"
'That should be enough.'
Kuon made a quick assessment. Thanks to his Gift 'Light Way', Felix almost never missed by even a margin. As long as his body could keep up with what the Gift directed, twenty monsters would die, matching the number of arrows he had left. On top of that, Vierra had come back to support him, so he had plenty of room to work.
The monsters in his team's area had already dropped drastically, and Kuon was confident Vierra and Felix could handle what remained if they maintained their current performance. That was why Kuon made his call. "I'm leaving this place to you two! Kanon, come with me to help with the evacuation!"
After issuing his directions, Kuon said nothing more and immediately unleashed a final attack on the monsters still holding their ground, before finally exhaling with relief as he carried Kanon off to another location.
Kanon endured the pain that was constantly assaulting her eyes and head, and began broadly scanning the area around them.
With her ability to see Aether, Kanon could more or less make out the locations of hidden monsters, and even roughly gauge their strength based on their Aether capacity, though it wasn't always accurate.
"There are no monsters hiding around Vierra and Felix, but… at the other team's location, there are still far too many…."
Kanon furrowed her brow and ended up forcing her eyes shut, no longer able to bear the pain from her eye ability's side effects. Even so, that small piece of information was enough for Kuon to make a decision.
"As soon as Vierra and Felix clear our area, I'll have them support Humarc's team."
While continuing to move nimbly through every obstacle, Kuon also directed his strength to finish off every monster he passed. And finally, they arrived at a place densely packed with people pressing against each other.
The village's population was a little too large compared to the number of guard knight units they had. On top of that, even those guard units couldn't move in a coordinated way due to panic. No wonder the evacuation process was taking far longer than it should.
Kuon landed on the ground, and his eyes immediately locked onto the village chief who was helping with the evacuation, though it was clear panic still filled his face. But the sight of an ordinary frightened person wasn't something he wanted to dwell on too long. His gaze quickly shifted to several guard knights who also looked panicked and confused as they directed residents for the evacuation.
"Stay here and keep watch."
Kuon set Kanon down and walked straight toward one of the guards. His hand balled into a fist, and a second after he arrived before the man, the fist was launched, landing squarely on the iron helmet the guard was wearing.
Kuon was fairly certain he had controlled his strength well, but seeing the helmet actually dent from his punch made him start to doubt that.
"Calm down. Your job is to protect these people and assist the evacuation. We can still hold the monsters off a little longer, but if you keep panicking and moving without direction, nothing will change."
People began stopping and falling silent as they watched Kuon standing firm in place, looking down at the guard he had just knocked down with a single punch. It was a display of physical strength that didn't match his frame at all.
"Move in an orderly fashion—don't let anyone be left behind because of your panic. And for the guards, organize your formation and your assigned duties; be ready for monsters that could appear at any moment. But if that's too difficult, my apologies to the guard captain, but I'll be the one dragging all of you out of here myself."
Kuon adjusted his monocle as he watched the situation among everyone begin to settle. The guards finally cooled their heads and moved in accordance with directions from their leader.
Only then could he exhale with relief when the last of the residents were successfully evacuated to a distant, safer location. His attention shifted back to the Black Tide still actively consuming the surrounding area, while the Adepts and guards assigned to combat were still desperately holding back the wave of monsters being spewed endlessly from the Black Tide.
"Felix and Vierra have already moved to help the other team, which means one area is cleared. But we still can't tell when things here will let up." Kanon delivered a concise report the moment she sensed Kuon walking toward her. Now that Kuon could see the situation more clearly, Kanon no longer had reason to keep using her eye ability. She closed her eyes and tried to ease the pain still gnawing at her.
Kuon glanced at Kanon, realizing she might already be at her limit. It was still midday heading into afternoon, and there were no signs of the monster wave letting up. If this continued, Kanon's eye condition might worsen further.
"Rest. Leave the rest to those of us who can still fight." Saying that, Kuon carried Kanon to the roadside and set her down directly beneath a large tree casting a wide shadow—a perfect spot to rest and take shelter.
"This area is safe enough, and there are no monsters present outside of the Black Tide. But your mind alert and stay awake. I can't entrust you to the people at the evacuation site, so you'll rest here."
Kanon exhaled and showed Kuon a sulking face. "That overly protective side of yours is honestly quite annoying sometimes."
Even so, Kanon didn't argue and did as Kuon said. Her exhaustion had already overtaken any urge to resist, so she simply wanted to rest for now.
"… Be careful, and come back when it's safe. I'll be waiting here," Kanon said quietly as she sensed Kuon's presence slowly moving away from her.
"I'll be back soon."
Naturally, Kanon hadn't expected Kuon to hear and respond, so her face ended up frozen with an expression that was hard to describe, while her lips trembled for a reason she couldn't understand.
***
"Humarc, what's the condition of your team members?"
Kuon landed right beside Humarc, his voice nearly drowned out by the shouts of people still fighting there.
Humarc shook his head and said, "Not great. Milia—one of my team members, was accidentally pulled by a monster and fell into the Black Tide for a moment. We managed to pull her out, but…."
Kuon fully understood why Humarc hesitated to continue the sentence. After all, contact with Black Tide—especially by a biological creature—was a one-way ticket to death's door.
Even though she had been saved from death at the hands of the monsters, the Apocrypt that had already begun infecting her body could never be stopped. Before long, the symptoms would emerge, and her fate was completely sealed.
"My apologies for bringing up something sensitive," Kuon said, lowering his head with one hand on his chest.
"… No, it's fine. Don't worry about it for now. The situation still hasn't changed—we can't let our guard down yet."
Kuon agreed completely and looked at the two war axes in Humarc's hands. Both were already showing signs of severe damage from sustained contact with Black Tide. Before long, the structural damage would spread and destroy the weapons entirely. There was no hope of repairing them even with Kuon's abilities.
"Do you think your weapons can hold out a little longer?"
Humarc glanced at his weapons briefly, then answered. "I can still kill a few more monsters before they break apart. Do you have a spare?"
Kuon nodded and turned back to the monsters. "I can make one for you. Fall back when your weapons break, and make sure everyone is safe."
Without waiting for a response, Kuon immediately dashed forward. His white cloak billowed softly as he reached the position where Felix and Vierra were.
Unlike usual, Felix was now fighting with a dagger, likely because his arrows had run out. But his close-range combat ability wasn't particularly reliable—even with his Gift Light Way.
"Felix, fall back. I'll get you some arrows right away."
Even after saying that, Kuon didn't stop. [Accel] sharpened his mind and vision, and his body followed at once. He picked up several broken weapons fallen to the ground and transformed them into the simplest form: short rods with sharpened tips, like needles. With these, Kuon quickly finished off the monsters around him, driving the tips into their heads one by one, switching to a fresh rod whenever the one in use began to break.
Kuon paused [Accel] for a moment to speak with Vierra. "Do you think you can clear out the ones to the east on your own?"
Vierra immediately looked in the direction Kuon meant, then gave a confident nod. "There are a lot of them, but they're the slow type with exposed weak points. I should be able to handle it."
The monsters over there were four-legged with heavy bodies, but with normal defenses like other monsters. They resembled mutated bears, only slightly smaller than ones Kuon had encountered on his travels.
"Good. Then leave the ones here to me and handle those over there. And while you're at it, please direct anyone who's been separated from their group."
"Can I order them to fight?"
"Do as you see fit. Just make sure no one ends up being a burden to you. I'll trust you with the call on them."
Though without any formal announcement or declaration, Kuon had more or less taken command of the situation here. So when he began issuing directions, people followed without many questions.
Honestly, that was extremely helpful and worked in his favor, especially in a chaotic situation like this.
"Remember, our goal right now isn't to eliminate all the monsters or stop them—it's to hold out until the wave ends. My estimate is it won't be too much longer."
"Understood. Then I'll leave things here to you." After saying that, Vierra shot off with her light steps toward the area they had agreed on, and began picking off monsters there one by one without difficulty.
Seeing that, Kuon reactivated [Accel]. The Black Tide around him was still moving to expand its territory, but the rate of spread had already begun to slow, a marked difference compared to how fast it had been spreading at the start.
Fortunately, the monsters here weren't particularly strong. They were average in power, attacking in large packs to gain an advantage. But that was precisely what made them troublesome—their numbers were too great and too overwhelming, and the Black Tide coating their bodies added an extra layer of protection that prevented anyone from approaching carelessly, limiting attacks to only carefully planned movements.
'I suppose there's no other way. I have to push through everything until this is over.'
Kuon exhaled and raised his open right hand. A glimmer of light appeared from it, fading as he closed his hand into a fist.
This was a somewhat risky choice since it would consume a large amount of his Aether. But it was probably the best solution he could execute right at this moment.
The power of miracle manipulation was activated, and the ground around him shook immediately. A second later, one by one, massive spikes began rising from the earth, tearing through the monsters standing directly above them.
A unique structure made entirely of steel emerged, forming a massive and striking geometric pattern—something that could never exist naturally.
This was something even his material manipulation magic couldn't accomplish. Drawing all the iron and other metals from the earth, shaping them into a mountain of iron he could also make use of—that was magic on a scale still beyond what his current magical abilities could reach, achievable only by directly manipulating miracles.
"All enemies taken down at once, and I gained extra material too…. I think this is going to be my go-to technique from now on."
With his remaining Aether, Kuon broke the iron mass back into many smaller pieces and immediately sent them flying to a safer location for later use. And the moment he finished doing that, his Aether reserves ran completely dry.
The area was now cleared of monsters, but his body could still move and no fatigue had set in, so he decided to head elsewhere and help handle the situation there.
And finally, the sky shifted to late afternoon heading into evening, and their first crisis ended at the same time.