Daichi was running to the edge of the forest. The reason for that was…


  「Uwa, it’s even wet here.」


  「Yes, it seems like that purple water has reached this area already.」


  It was extremely muddy. If he hadn’t been wearing the wood armor with acceleration equipment, it would’ve been very hard to walk.

  Even the golems were getting all tripped up.

  If the situation were to get worse, then it might become troublesome to run too.

  「…….it’d be preferable to…fly. Sooner rather than later.」


  「That’s right. If we use our acceleration equipment and jets then we can move all at once, should we give it a try?」


  We had already gotten close to the plains so there was no obstacles obstructing us from the sky. The recent flight tests didn’t have any problems, so it should be alright for a short amount of time.

  「Actually, if I pull the golems while flying, we should be able to get there sooner.」


  「That’s right. Then let’s go.」


  「Yeah, I’ll leave the balance to you Sakura.」


  「Yes, please do.

  Then Daichi stomped hard on the ground sending them into the sky.

  「Now fly 《Wind Vajra》!」


  And so the wooden giant went into the sky.

  ************************************

  The giant purple dragon was spreading poison water just by being there.

  「Gu, guuuuuuu……………」


  Every movement Katarakta made scattered poison around, weakening the people on the plains. Twenty percent of the knights had already been brought to their knees by the poison. However,

  「As long as we crush each and every core it should be fine……!」


  However, Dianeia would not give in.

  It was lucky that the cores were easily visible.

  Compared to its large body, the cores were tiny, however it wasn’t like they couldn’t be hit.

  「《Magna Flame Trident》!」


  That’s why she immediately threw fire spears.

  A strike, equal in power to the one she threw before, struck Katarakta’s body head on. It then stabbed into one of the cores and broke it.

  「Nice! Next one.」


  Dianeia prepared to fire her next attack without hesitation, but…


  「—–eh….huh……?」


  At that moment Katarakta collapsed into purple water with a splash. It flowed over the ground along with the rest of the water.

  「I-it ran!?」


  「No. There it is!」


  Hesty responded.

  She was looking around from the top of the stage and had found the dragon. Katarakta, who had turned into water, appeared to the right of the stage. It was about to fire a water ball.

  「Guaa!」


  The water ball fired directly at her. The Knights set up a shield wall, but the power of this blow was on a whole different level than the previous one.

  …..they couldn’t block it!

  And, as Dianeia prepared to use the flame trident to intercept it…


  「I, will block it. 《Shield》」


  Hesty set up a shield in front of the stage.

  The poison water bullet struck the shield and splashed.

  「Th-thank you Hesty-dono.」


  「Don’t let your guard down. The poison, hasn’t been, blocked.」


  「……..ugghh」


  As Hesty said, just the spray from the attack reached the knights and poisoned them, causing more and more to collapse.

  「This is……problematic.」


  Dianeia could feel that her own body was becoming lethargic as well.

  She could only deal with it due to her own strength as a mage.

  ……..Thanks to being near Daichi-dono’s magic spot she had gained a resistance to magic poisoning like this.

  So she was able to hold on better than others.

  Even so, this disastrous scene told her that she had to defeat Katarakta quickly…but…


  「Wh-what’s with that dragon? I hit it once and it turns into water……..」


  「n, it’s just like, back then. It hasn’t changed. Once it takes an attack, it will change its body to water, and run to a different place.」


  Hesty said with a glum look, glaring at Katarakta, as she spoke of how annoying it was.

  「What’s worse, is that it sucks magic from underground water, so if you leave it alone, for a while it will, recover. It’s stamina is, abnormal. While it does that, it will continually, poison the water as well. I don’t know how many, days it will take to break, all those cores, but……before then the land will weaken, and so will we.」


  「That’s right isn’t it……」


  After only a few minutes the Knights had been worn out.

  They were lucky to have Manaril’s song to help, but even so.

  「If this keeps going for hours or days, this land will die.」


  「n, this is the dragon, that we couldn’t defeat, only seal. All we can do is, break each core, make it as small as possible, and have Manaril seal it with her special song. —《White Flame Breath》—!」


  Hesty said and attacked Katarakta with her breath.

  The laser-like attack pierced straight through Katarakta but…


  「I guess, I can’t do it all….at once.」


  After a few cores had been burnt, Katarakta immediately turned to water.

  「We’ll have to do it over and over.」


  「n, that’s why we need to, weaken it while, Manaril’s song gathers power.」


  It was a makeshift solution, but that’s all they could do. Dianeia prepared to attack again with her staff when she saw something.

  「…………」


  She saw Manaril collapse to her knees on the stage.

  ******************************************

  「Mana-dono are you ok!?」


  Manaril had been concentrating on her song, after Dianeia called out to her she realized she’d fallen to her knees.

  「Did you get hit by poison!?」


  「……no, that’s not it. It’s just that, there aren’t enough people in the crowd. There wasn’t enough power, so I tried to force it using, my own power…I think I got dizzy and fell.」


  Manaril said, analyzing the cause of her collapse.

  Her purification magic used a lot of magic power. So usually she would use the people listening to share the burden but…


  「Everyone collapsed from the poison water. I lost my audience. —*cough*—」


  Manaril could taste blood in her mouth. Her throat was dry and painful. Normally she would use her magic to recover her throat as she sang, but right now her power wasn’t enough.

  「…..please rest Mana-dono. As you rest we’ll try to weaken as much as possible.」


  Dianeia said and descended the stairs preparing to intercept Katarakta. Hesty also went to help.

  Manaril watched with teeth clenched.

  「How frustrating…….」


  Even though she’d come this far, and had help from various people…she wasn’t able to accomplish her own task. She wasn’t able to answer their trust.

  「If I could……recover my throat……I could sing.」


  Her throat hurt. It felt dry as a desert. She had to recover it as fast as possible, but her power wasn’t enough.

  「…….*cough*…….」


  Manaril coughed through clenched teeth as blood seeped from her lips. At that moment.

  「Sorry I’m late. Is the concert still happening?」


  「Eh……..?」


  A wooden giant smashed down onto the stage from the sky.

  「D-Daichi-san……?」


  「Yeah, I made you wait. I wanted to bring you the water before you started, but it ended up like this.」


  He said as golems climbed up onto the stage. Then they handed her a wooden bottle.

  「Th-thank you……!」


  Manaril accepted the water and dumped it down her throat. It wasn’t just that,

  ………her power…had returned…..!?

  Power was welling up in her body.

  「With this I can keep singing.」


  Manaril stood up. Daichi saw that and laughed putting a hand on her shoulder.

  「Ok then, Mana you can sing just like that. I’ll go prepare your stage.」


  「Eh? Stage?」


  「Well, I made this stage for you after all…..so I need to eliminate that troublesome stage setting out there.」


  And so he stepped forth. His armor’s right hand transformed into a giant pestle.