Sixty kilometers from the Imperial Capital.
The soldiers in the watchtower observed the churning dust in the distance, knowing the Danger Beast army was approaching rapidly.
The retreat order had not arrived. Despite their uncontrollable trembling, they had to guard the outpost.
"So many..."
"Over 30 Giant Danger Beasts, over 100 Large ones, and over 600 Medium and smaller ones..."
Hearing the spotter's report, the outpost squad leader paled.
"How could this happen."
He collapsed onto the wooden ladder.
This was not an enemy a single, isolated outpost could stop.
In an instant, this place would be leveled.
Even if they all stayed to resist, they couldn't buy a single second.
One Giant Danger Beast was enough to destroy a town, yet there were thirty here!
The power gap was too vast.
If they fled and the Empire found out, they would face capture and execution for treason. Damn it!
"What about the Imperial Capital? Where are the reinforcements?"
Considering when the signal was sent, the Capital should have dispatched troops.
Why was there no movement from the military when the Danger Beasts were at their gates?
Besides, why were different species of Danger Beasts gathering together?
What a joke, this made no sense!
A few thousand meters meant nothing to Danger Beasts.
A moment of hesitation meant escape was impossible. They would all become food!
Thump.
"Re-report, outside... cough."
"They're here."
The squad leader grabbed a prized bottle of wine he had hoarded for years, sighed, and uncorked it.
He had no desire to hear the rest of the report.
It was just the Danger Beasts charging in.
It wouldn't be surprising if they were crushed in the next second.
Before that, he wanted to taste this "treasure" he had saved for so long.
Glug glug glug.
"Reporting! The Capital sent... Great General Budo! He just arrived at the outpost!"
"Pfft!!!!"
The squad leader spat his mouthful of wine across the floor.
His face flushed red.
He had two thoughts. One joy, one sorrow.
The joy was that the arrival was Great General Budo!
The Empire's strongest general, commanding seventy percent of the military force.
His arrival meant they were saved!
The sorrow wasn't spitting out the wine, but... the wine was fake!
This was the expensive "treasure" he had kept for thousands of days and nights.
It was fake!
If Great General Budo had not arrived, he would have gone to hell with massive regret.
How could he rest in peace?
"But it's strange. We didn't spot any army from the Capital. How did—"
Hearing the squad leader mutter, the messenger spoke: "Actually, sir... Great General Budo came alone. No army followed him."
"..."
"..."
Huh?
After a brief silence, cheap alcohol reddening his forehead, the squad leader stood up and rushed outside.
As he pushed the heavy door open, the roaring thunder echoing in the sky paralyzed him with fear.
Not just him, all the soldiers felt they had never heard such a loud noise. They felt as if struck by lightning, their heads ringing with thunder.
Wild thunder filled the night sky, reflecting in their terrified eyes.
Blue lightning churned, brewed, and intertwined in the thick thunderclouds.
What's happening?
"W-where is Great General Budo?!" The squad leader grabbed a dazed soldier and slapped him twice.
Hearing the roar, the soldier raised a trembling finger, pointing toward the thunderclouds.
The squad leader frowned and looked up.
A silhouette flashed in his vision; he focused, making out a humanoid outline.
"A person?"
Yes. A person.
But he was flying!
Below the thunderclouds floated a burly, blond man in his thirties, wearing solid, heavy armor.
It was Budo.
He utilized his Imperial Arm's power to form an electromagnetic field, allowing him to float and move freely in the air.
The unobstructed aerial view made targeting the enemy easier.
"Lightning Emperor's Summons!"
Budo released his accumulated energy.
Lightning tore the dark night sky apart. Thick, blinding bolts plummeted, blasting the horde of Danger Beasts.
Sensing the threat, the beasts roared at the sky, but they had no time to react.
The wide-range lightning strike obliterated them, turning fur and bone to ash.
The only record of their existence was the scorched trench Budo left on the earth, forming a blackened scar stretching for kilometers.
Floating in the sky, Budo watched the exterminated Danger Beasts with an unchanged, stern expression.
His Imperial Arm, Thunder God's Rage: Adramelech, granted him absolute control over lightning.
Before this power, lesser foes were just a mob; numbers meant nothing. Hundreds or thousands of enemies could be wiped out in one strike given enough energy.
The speed and lethality of lightning were unavoidable and absolute.
Since gaining the Imperial Arm's acknowledgment, no enemy had survived this attack intact.
But... it's strange.
Budo gazed into the distance, toward the southern forest.
According to military intelligence, these Danger Beasts resided in the southern forest.
Based on their species, they normally fought each other for food and territory.
Judging by their frantic movements, they lacked a unified leader; they seemed desperate to escape something.
He saw fresh corpses trampled by their own kind. If they had a ruler, this wouldn't happen.
It was a chaotic stampede.
The core problem lay deep within the forest.
The order from His Majesty was to eradicate the Danger Beasts.
Venturing deeper fell within the scope of the imperial decree. He would investigate the anomaly.
Budo decided against landing to greet the soldiers below. He flew directly toward the southern forest from the sky.
...
Meanwhile, a thick, unnatural fog enveloped the forest, creating a spectacular sight from the outside.
In the heart of the forest, inside a concrete research facility that clashed with its ancient surroundings, Noah worked with a trace of fatigue.
"Interesting."
Had he not used Appraisal by accident, he would not have believed it.
At this moment, he stood directly on top of a Danger Beast.
The forest beneath his feet—no, not the entire massive expanse, rather the central region—was part of a Danger Beast!
[Hyral Sols]
Class: Super Danger Beast.
Description: A legendary Danger Beast known as the "Forest Dragon". Over long epochs, it successfully integrated its biology with the forest itself. It releases mist-like gas at intervals as part of its ecosystem to expel harmful substances from its body.
Status: Dying, Asleep.
Based on his spatial calculations, Noah believed Hyral Sols' body length exceeded 12 miles, nearly 20 kilometers. Noah had never seen such a massive creature in any world.
He only intended to collect stray Danger Beast materials, yet he stumbled upon an incredible secret.
Higher material grades meant stronger weapons.
What better biological material existed than Hyral Sols?
Even among Super Danger Beasts, a being like Hyral Sols ranked at the absolute top of the food chain.
As part of a recent experiment, he synthesized a concentrated neurotoxin and injected it into the ground, wanting to see if it would affect Hyral Sols.
The creature simply expelled the toxin through its pores.
To Noah's surprise, this automatic biological action poisoned the mist and killed a tenth of the smaller Danger Beasts in the forest.
The remaining beasts panicked and fled the forest en masse to escape the lethal poison.
Killing such a giant creature through physical means was impossible.
The amount of toxin he synthesized could kill all aquatic life in a massive lake, yet it did nothing to a dying, sleeping monster.
Its assimilation with the forest provided an evolutionary leap in its toxin resistance and biological filtration system.
'Should I burn the forest down?'
That might affect Hyral Sols, but the stimulation could be too intense.
If it awoke, the destruction it could cause was unimaginable. His own survival would be uncertain.
Using the Spell-Weaver, Noah had woven an atmospheric barrier around his research facility to filter the toxin, remaining unharmed inside.
In reality, the Forest of Lost had temporarily become a forbidden zone for animal life.
Plants survived due to Hyral Sols' presence, but animals wouldn't last five seconds in the mist.
The only living beings left in the southern forest were himself and Hyral Sols.
Rumble—.
Hearing the noise outside, Noah felt puzzled.
'Thunder?'
"Is it going to rain?"
A heavy rain would wash away the harmful substances in the air.
A light rain would coat the toxins, increasing their lingering time.
He knew the outside world was in chaos. Every animal had fled the forest, causing immense damage to the ecosystem.
Not to mention the massive number of Danger Beasts rampaging outside.
His learned knowledge contained nothing about Hyral Sols, but the Truth Seeker could tell him everything he wanted to know, such as Hyral Sols' value as a material and how to obtain it.
Hyral Sols was not a naturally born Danger Beast, but a being born from collective faith.
Long before the Empire was founded, villages surrounding the southern forest relied on it for their livelihood.
Hunting, woodcutting, gathering herbs—people's lives depended on the forest.
The people of that time worshiped the forest as their guardian deity.
The concept of the "Forest Dragon" was born from word of mouth.
Endless years of faith and offerings gave the forest a conceptual soul, birthing the shape of a dragon: Hyral Sols.
Killing an entire forest might wound it, but it could not destroy it.
It had assimilated with this forest, but that did not mean the forest's destruction was equivalent to its death.
If he wanted to obtain Hyral Sols's relic, he had to kill it.
He had to kill it from the root.
If he used Weaver's power to manipulate the soul, it should be possible to kill it. But that was theoretical.
'Just how powerful would a soul that existed for over a thousand years be?'
Myths mentioned that a blazing soul could burn demons. Such a statement was not impossible.
With Weaver's ability, he could affect souls, including damaging them.
But launching an attack against Hyral Sols's soul would be no different from throwing an egg against a rock.
'It would be better if there were a lower-risk method,' Noah thought. 'For example, a weapon capable of cutting down the soul of a Danger Beast.'
'Right.'
'That's it!'
Regarding Imperial Arms, Bill had given him a book to understand them.
Among the forty-eight Imperial Arms, there was a demonic blade called Murasame, which possessed the ability to kill souls.
It was similar to the Kiri Ichimonji that Gozuki had shown him. One could say it was an upgraded version of Kiri Ichimonji.
If one was cut by that blade, they would be killed by the curse poison attached to it.
That was why Murasame earned the name "One-Cut Killer."
However, according to records in the royal family's handwritten notes, the curse poison was not applied to the physical body. Rather, it acted upon the soul of the one cut.
'A curse poison targeting the soul. In that case, even if Hyral Sols possesses the trait of expelling harmful substances, there is no way it could expel a curse poison from its soul!'
The Imperial Arm, One-Cut Killer: Murasame.
Whether it was the performance that could kill Hyral Sols, or the ability of the Imperial Arm itself, Noah was interested in it.
His vacation was over.
After going back, he would investigate the whereabouts of Murasame.