episode_0191

The sky is falling.

To the extent that I can only express it that way, when I look up, a darkness darker than pitch black ripples. When someone holds up a light to illuminate that darkness, the water ripples as if I were looking at the night sea.

But while in nature water tends to fall downwards, now the water in all directions is being pulled up to the sky.

And it spread out in all directions, covering the sky.

The mountain range in the east is more than half submerged in the water, with the orange sunset reflecting obliquely. On the other hand, the sea in the west shows black mud. The seawater that should have filled the place is being pulled into the sky, and the bottom is constantly being exposed.

But it looked like the entrance to hell from a myth, so no one even thought of approaching it.

Let’s turn our gaze elsewhere.

To the north, the sea blocks the way, and to the south, a huge river blocks the way.

However, the river is no longer there, so if you run hard enough, you can get to Bern City. However, because the water blocks out all the light shining from the sky, it is effectively blocked, as it appears as nothing more than simple darkness.

Common sense tells you that the river is flowing. It is already late in the evening. Who would have the courage to cross when the sea blocks the faint light of the sky and the ground is not visible?

There is nowhere to run.

And sleep slowly descends from the sky to the ground.

Everyone just watches in a daze.

There is no point in fighting anymore.

The soldiers present and the civilians who resisted all raise their heads and look up at the water.

Some people thought they could swim, and some thought they could escape if the water came down so slowly.

But I quickly abandoned that idea after seeing the top of the tallest spire buckle and make an ominous squelch sound as it plunged into the water.

Crush.

It’s not just water floating.

Few people understood what it was, but people clearly realized that there was no place to run anymore. They knew that if they touched that water, they would die.

There is no special magic, and the world is suffocatingly quiet. There is no magic, and the air is terribly quiet and dry.

That’s why I don’t know the culprit.

No, no one ever thought that this was something a human could do in the first place.

So if you deal with whoever makes this, you might be able to survive. You can’t come to that conclusion.

Then what should people do?

Flash!

At that moment, a ray of light that had melted the ground shot up into the sky towards the water.

I don’t know why the water is floating, but if it were just water, I could probably evaporate it. Thinking so, I attack the target in front of me.

Because it’s simple and intuitive.

But water is heavier than you think and can store an enormous amount of heat.

The ray disappeared shortly after.

And if there is a power to force the evaporated water vapor to change into a liquid phase, the damage caused by heat is no different from nothing. The shaken water surface immediately returns to its original state as if nothing had happened.

No, it didn’t end with going back.

Kwaaang!

As if the surface of the water were made of countless blocks, the wall above fell down and pressed down vertically where the light had come from.

The magical science crystal called Craft Nine that was in that location was instantly crushed by the mass and torn apart, disappearing.

A small port located outside the city of Bern.

Now, people in this town are denying that what is happening now can be real.

But even if you deny reality, the water covering the sky does not disappear.

Rather, it slowly descends from the sky, as if placing wet tissues one by one on the respiratory tract. Or the land sinks.

As soon as he realized that it could kill him, he would attack the sky in a fit of panic. He was scared, because someone else was doing it, because he thought that if he hit that water, he might survive.

Magic and items appear here and there.

Light, heat, fire, ice, rock, steel, arrows, bullets, flames, bricks, every attack imaginable soared upward.

People would convulse themselves in such fits of magic to escape the brink of death.

But just as a drop of oil dropped into the sea leaves no trace, the magic that fell into the sea soon turned into darkness as if it had never existed.

Because the surroundings briefly brightened while using magic, the darkness seemed even darker when all magic was cut off.

Along with the darkness, despair and fear also dug into my heart.

In many societies, rivers are a symbol of death, as floods have taken a cruel toll on human life over a long period of time.

A person who looks up at the sky falls into despair.

And that despair broke people’s hearts.

They say that a foolish person’s true nature comes out in extreme situations, and in extreme situations, only the remains of a broken heart are scattered in all directions.

You’d have to be either an idiot or an artist to just smash a small glass bottle with a hammer and call it what it was.

Some people just stare into the empty sky, while others blame the situation on you. Some people make things out of their possessions to escape from here in order to survive, while others just sit on the ground in despair and wait for death.

All kinds.

Most of them stand there holding on to their broken spirits like shards of glass. Even though the blood of despair flows from their hands, if they let go, they will only go crazy.

Ujijijijik

And the water level has gone beyond the second floor. Now the buildings are being pulled up into the water by the pressure of the water.

Panic is growing everywhere. Now all the structures that were supposed to support them are being pulled up into the sky and are collapsing, and the sky is so low that it is suffocating.

The sky is full of a sea of death where if you touch it you will fall into it and die.

A fear called claustrophobia spreads, and those who cannot bear to wait for death, unable to overcome despair, jump into the sea to find comfort.

Dying is ridiculously simple.

If you jump, your head will fall into the water, and the water pressure will cause your head to burst and you will die instantly. And that pressure doesn’t end there; it will pull your body up from the ground.

Like a ship about to sink, the town slowly sinks.

And in the middle of that village.

A girl standing with a broken heart.

Victoria Betts.

No matter how angry you are, if you can’t think calmly here and now, you would have already died at Daegon’s forward base.

After thinking about it calmly, she decided she was doing it because she needed to.

I heard from Polaris what had happened so far.

The fact that they came in an airship, but the wind-up machine killed people and even attacked them with powerful weapons in an attempt to crash the airship.

And there is information that people trying to enter Bern City are tied up at this port and protesting to be allowed in.

Just a moment ago, I saw the whole scene of soldiers killing protesters.

So, let’s think calmly and make this place safe first.

Then, after finding out what was happening in Bern City, I made it clear that my priority was to somehow get back home to my family.

When the water reached just above Victoria’s head, she stopped.

Among girls, she is of average height, but is small compared to adult males.

That is, I did it that way because if I put down the water to this extent, it would make the enemy’s actions uncomfortable.

Victoria, judging that she had secured a certain level of safety, walked towards the place where the protesters were protesting.

The barbed wire is broken, and several soldiers are seen shaking with their heads held in their hands. Some are dead with their weapons buried in their heads, while others are praying with their eyes closed and trembling.

Victoria checked the line drawn by the soldier and dropped the water.

The defense line disappeared into the water. Any object that entered the water shrank and shattered in an instant.

Victoria, who had brushed the man aside as if flushing a toilet, took a step forward.

Now, I’m so angry that I’m shocked and saddened to see a dead person.

Instead, they lowered columns of water around the building and built a wall so that no one could escape.

As it goes inside, if there is a person, a column of water is dropped on them. Most objects under the column of water cannot withstand the water pressure and are shattered.

I entered the building, which was completely torn down from the second floor, while killing low-ranking soldiers as if it were a simple task.

Victoria went inside the building and looked up, and saw that the ceiling was still there. This would create an opening for her attack, so she lowered the water slightly and tore off the second floor floor and the first floor ceiling.

Then a shrill scream rang out from inside.

Instead of walking towards it, Victoria cautiously searched the interior from the entrance. She could instantly turn everyone present into cellular debris, but she cautiously searched the rooms one by one, starting from the nearest one.

I left the large central passage as is and went around the hallways on the left and right, searching each room.

Victoria’s eyes mostly see a mess of papers scattered around, and used weapons strewn about.

I pick up the papers one by one and look through them, and pick up the weapons one by one to check the general operation.

Victoria explored the surroundings one by one and then cautiously went further in.

I pushed open the large door inside with my back against the wall.

“Ugh, eww, protect me!”

Victoria carefully steps away from the hallway as she hears someone shouting inside, a commotion, and footsteps.

And he held his breath and waited, ready to block the entrance with a column of water at any moment, and as soon as the soldier jumped out, he immediately blocked the back of the door with a column of water.

Upon realizing that he was isolated, the soldier realized that he had been baited, but the way back was blocked.

So, I aimed in all directions with a gun-like weapon made using a power device that converts horsepower into kinetic energy.

Then I noticed a girl hunched over and looking this way.

Are you here to ask for help in this situation? The soldier thought so and slowly lowered his gun.

I made a bad judgment.

The price has fallen on him.

This was because thin streams of water came down from all directions and wrapped around the soldier like snakes. He was not dragged away by pressure like before, but his face was covered by the water mass, so he was dragged into the air without even being able to scream.

He struggled for a while, then collapsed when his oxygen ran out. But the water continued to enter his windpipe and fill his lungs.

Only then did Victoria lower him to the ground and search his body, checking the weapon he was using and checking the water stream through the protective gear he was wearing.

Then Victoria took out something that could confirm his identity and frowned. Combining the information she had found in the scattered documents earlier with the identity of a soldier of the last writer, an outline emerged.

“Marquis Gaston? You’re the mayor of Bern City and you made Bern City like this?”

The target has been set.

Victoria went straight into the room.

“, woman?”

Two men who appear to be escorts. One woman. And in the middle of them stands a man holding a shiny sword, hunched over.

Although he is originally a large man with a manly face, he looks very miserable when he is squatting.

“Marquis Gaston. You sealed off Bern City?”

“This bitch knows who I am and acts like that-”

Be confident when negotiating.

And remembering Beatrice’s words that it was okay to use light threats if necessary, Victoria pulled down a square column of water from the surface of the water where the soldier in front had been.

The soldier at the very front was sucked into the water column without even having time to scream, and was crushed and disappeared in front of everyone.

“I’ll ask you again, Gaston. You only have two vetoes right now.”

Victoria said this while looking at the men and women left on her left and right.

Victoria did so, recalling Beatrice’s teaching that the safest way to negotiate was to cut off all the limbs, bury the head in the mud, and pull up the hair.

Of course, Beatrice meant that she was negotiating with an advantage or weakness that she couldn’t ignore, but Victoria, who took after her father and had a higher aptitude for science than language, did so literally.

This is more of a threat than a negotiation.

“Tell me why you sealed off Bern City.”

One thing is certain: the person present here now has a reason to respond.