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Smoke! Fire! Gunpowder! Stealing the Tesoro of the Feast! - Episode 7
⭠ last episode | Episode 7 | next episode ⭢
Figaro: From what I’ve observed, this ravine was forcibly widened by some incredible power. It’s especially obvious around these parts.
Akira: By forcibly, you mean…
Figaro: As you might have observed just now, the walls are quite brittle. A rampage would be all it takes to cave the entire thing in, so we have to be careful with our approach.
Mithra: You guys, please be careful.
Bradley: As if you have the right to say anything!
Owen: I don’t want to hear that from you.
They squabbled all the way until they descended to where we stood on the floor of the ravine. The sense of familiarity I felt from their antics made me feel as if I could relax, for at least a little while.
Snow: We wouldn't have expected vouivre would choose to nest here.
White: Now we know why those who came to investigate never returned. They were all ripe for the picking.
It seemed like Snow and Figaro did not find any new leads while we'd been split up.
Snow: At the very least, we have regrouped. Let us continue our investigation and not dawdle any longer.
Figaro: Sounds like a plan. The terrain isn’t all that difficult to navigate, so we could move in a large grou—
Suddenly, the area around us rumbled with the sound of a deafening roar. My eardrums started to ring.
[ No BGM ]
Shino: What?
Akira: Where’s that sound coming from…
I glanced around us, but saw nothing. However, the sound was close — so incredibly close that it couldn’t have been coming from anywhere but right here.
Mithra: It’s quite noisy. Did it survive the vouivre clean-up from earlier?
Snow: No. That’s not it.
White: It’s unlike the cunning little things from before. Something more…
—— Something more gargantuan, and more menacing.
I could feel it somehow, instinctively.
[ Event theme song BGM ]
Cain: Kenja sama, get behind me, now!
Wearing a grim expression for the second time today, Cain once again stood in front of me, sword unsheathed and stance at the ready.
The atmosphere grew tense again and threatened to tighten its stranglehold around us.
Bradley: ………
Even though the other wizards all had their guard up, Bradley alone didn’t even bother to summon his magical tool. Instead, he was staring intensely at seemingly nothing.
He was focused upon one spot in particular; he was unmoving, alert, astute—
Then his eyes homed in on a faint twinkle.
Bradley: A brilliance that shines like the stars and fading embers in the darkest of nights……
There’s no mistaking it — that’s got to be the Walpurgisnacht!
Excitement reverberated in Bradley’s voice as he spoke the gemstone’s name. In response to it, all of our eyes immediately locked onto Bradley.
Shino & Cain & Akira: What?
Snow & White: The Walpurgisnacht, you say?
Figaro: Wasn’t that stolen by someone?
Mithra: ……?
Owen: What’s any of this have to do with a festival?
Figaro: Ah, that’s right, you two weren’t at the meeting lounge. It’s the name of a gemstone we’re talking about, not the festival.
A wizard might have hidden it somewhere… or that was how the story went yesterday. Seems the rumours were true after all.
Owen: Come to think of it, I may… or may not… have heard about it from Bradley, or something…
Mithra: Well, festival or stone, that’s not important. Why is it floating?
Our gazes aligned and fell upon the faint twinkle. We all burned with the same question that Mithra posed.
The gemstone, the Walpurgisnacht, was floating in thin air, neither dropping nor rolling across the floor, nor was it getting lodged within the walls.
Akira: (Come to think of it, the Walpurgisnacht should have become transparent, right…?)
[ Roar! ]
Snow & White: !
Once again there was a great roar, echoing throughout the chamber. It sounded like the gemstone itself was calling out to us.
Seconds later, as if spurred on by a strong gust of wind, the twinkle of the gemstone started hurtling our way at blinding speeds.
Akira: !?
Snow & White: « noscommunia » !
The gemstone struck the barrier that the twins had put up. It should have been stopped dead in its tracks, but what hit the barrier was not the size of a palm-sized gemstone — the moment of impact sounded like it came from something gigantic.
White: Is everyone alright?
Akira: Y-Yes. What was that…
Cain: The gemstone attacked us.
Shino: What’s going on? Why is a gemstone bellowing and attacking us?
Bradley: Well… Yesterday, I didn’t let you guys in on the whole story. Actually, the Walpurgisnacht had invisibility magic cast upon it.
Snow & White: What?
Cain: Invisibility magic?
Bradley: Yeah. That maniac collector cast it on his deathbed. It was so that no-one else could set their eyes upon this phantom gemstone, the rarest treasure of all.
I’m guessing what attacked us isn’t the Walpurgisnacht itself: it’s whatever ate the stone.
Most likely, the magic cast on the gemstone transferred over to its devourer due to the effects of the < Great Calamity >.
Something similar happened, remember?
Shino: …… Ah.
We exchanged glances with Bradley and recalled what transpired yesterday.
Akira: (The magic cast on the candy had turned Shino’s hand invisible, and so the same thing applies here…?)
Back then, when Shino’s palm had come into contact with the candy, only his hand had disappeared from sight. Here, something had eaten the gemstone, and its whole body had disappeared from sight.
Perhaps what had been cast upon the Walpurgisnacht was no small magic.
The moment that thought leapt to the forefront of my mind, I heard the wind whistle above me unnaturally, as if it were growling at me.
Cain: Akira! Climb on!
Akira: G-Got it!
I clambered onto the broom. The other wizards had already long since mounted their own brooms and scattered. Cain flew up with me on his broom, taking us safely into the air.
[ The walls start to shake and crumble. ]
—— And not a moment too soon. Below us, the ground trembled as boulders rained down where I had stood.
Snow: It's trying to bull rush us and crush us underfoot. That’s a bold strategy.
White: It must have quite the large build to attempt such a feat. We wouldn’t have stood a chance taking it head-on.
Down below, the dust had settled. The ground was in shambles, with chunks taken out of it by the sheer impact of landing boulders. I shuddered; what if I’d been crushed under those rocks?
Owen was also looking at the same spot I was. He seemed to have noticed something, and he muttered to himself in a bored tone.
Owen: Ugh. It’s another vouivre, even if you can’t see its body, that’s all it is.
Shino: Really?
[ Owen CG ]
Owen: I can tell just by its cries. Its magical strength and large presence leaves the rest of its kind in the dust.
That mongrel certainly enjoys throwing its weight around. I wonder if it thinks of itself as a King of the Vouivre.
Bradley: You guys probably got it backwards, by the way. This area was already vouivre territory even before the ravine appeared.
And one of those vouivre just so happened to come across the Walpurgisnacht, swallowed it whole, and mutated into this impressive monster.
As we spoke, the gemstone within the invisible creature started to glow, and it started a flurry of attacks at us from above and our flanks.
Predicting its movement, the wizards evaded the flurry of attacks.
Cain: It really is leaps and bounds faster than the other vouivre.
Figaro: It’s probably because the Walpurgisnacht’s supposed to have some sort of strengthening effect.
Akira: Ah……
Many rumours had swirled around the Walpurgisnacht.
One of them was that the longer you hold onto it, the more powerful and honed your magic becomes.
Shino: Wait, so it really is true that you get stronger just by holding it?
Cain: But to think that it makes you grow so huge too… It’s definitely a priceless gemstone, but does it really hold that much power?
Episode 8 ⭢
Figaro: From what I’ve observed, this ravine was forcibly widened by some incredible power. It’s especially obvious around these parts.
Akira: By forcibly, you mean…
Figaro: As you might have observed just now, the walls are quite brittle. A rampage would be all it takes to cave the entire thing in, so we have to be careful with our approach.
Mithra: You guys, please be careful.
Bradley: As if you have the right to say anything!
Owen: I don’t want to hear that from you.
They squabbled all the way until they descended to where we stood on the floor of the ravine. The sense of familiarity I felt from their antics made me feel as if I could relax, for at least a little while.
Snow: We wouldn't have expected vouivre would choose to nest here.
White: Now we know why those who came to investigate never returned. They were all ripe for the picking.
It seemed like Snow and Figaro did not find any new leads while we'd been split up.
Snow: At the very least, we have regrouped. Let us continue our investigation and not dawdle any longer.
Figaro: Sounds like a plan. The terrain isn’t all that difficult to navigate, so we could move in a large grou—
Suddenly, the area around us rumbled with the sound of a deafening roar. My eardrums started to ring.
[ No BGM ]
Shino: What?
Akira: Where’s that sound coming from…
I glanced around us, but saw nothing. However, the sound was close — so incredibly close that it couldn’t have been coming from anywhere but right here.
Mithra: It’s quite noisy. Did it survive the vouivre clean-up from earlier?
Snow: No. That’s not it.
White: It’s unlike the cunning little things from before. Something more…
—— Something more gargantuan, and more menacing.
I could feel it somehow, instinctively.
[ Event theme song BGM ]
Cain: Kenja sama, get behind me, now!
Wearing a grim expression for the second time today, Cain once again stood in front of me, sword unsheathed and stance at the ready.
The atmosphere grew tense again and threatened to tighten its stranglehold around us.
Bradley: ………
Even though the other wizards all had their guard up, Bradley alone didn’t even bother to summon his magical tool. Instead, he was staring intensely at seemingly nothing.
He was focused upon one spot in particular; he was unmoving, alert, astute—
Then his eyes homed in on a faint twinkle.
Bradley: A brilliance that shines like the stars and fading embers in the darkest of nights……
There’s no mistaking it — that’s got to be the Walpurgisnacht!
Excitement reverberated in Bradley’s voice as he spoke the gemstone’s name. In response to it, all of our eyes immediately locked onto Bradley.
Shino & Cain & Akira: What?
Snow & White: The Walpurgisnacht, you say?
Figaro: Wasn’t that stolen by someone?
Mithra: ……?
Owen: What’s any of this have to do with a festival?
Figaro: Ah, that’s right, you two weren’t at the meeting lounge. It’s the name of a gemstone we’re talking about, not the festival.
A wizard might have hidden it somewhere… or that was how the story went yesterday. Seems the rumours were true after all.
Owen: Come to think of it, I may… or may not… have heard about it from Bradley, or something…
Mithra: Well, festival or stone, that’s not important. Why is it floating?
Our gazes aligned and fell upon the faint twinkle. We all burned with the same question that Mithra posed.
The gemstone, the Walpurgisnacht, was floating in thin air, neither dropping nor rolling across the floor, nor was it getting lodged within the walls.
Akira: (Come to think of it, the Walpurgisnacht should have become transparent, right…?)
[ Roar! ]
Snow & White: !
Once again there was a great roar, echoing throughout the chamber. It sounded like the gemstone itself was calling out to us.
Seconds later, as if spurred on by a strong gust of wind, the twinkle of the gemstone started hurtling our way at blinding speeds.
Akira: !?
Snow & White: « noscommunia » !
The gemstone struck the barrier that the twins had put up. It should have been stopped dead in its tracks, but what hit the barrier was not the size of a palm-sized gemstone — the moment of impact sounded like it came from something gigantic.
White: Is everyone alright?
Akira: Y-Yes. What was that…
Cain: The gemstone attacked us.
Shino: What’s going on? Why is a gemstone bellowing and attacking us?
Bradley: Well… Yesterday, I didn’t let you guys in on the whole story. Actually, the Walpurgisnacht had invisibility magic cast upon it.
Snow & White: What?
Cain: Invisibility magic?
Bradley: Yeah. That maniac collector cast it on his deathbed. It was so that no-one else could set their eyes upon this phantom gemstone, the rarest treasure of all.
I’m guessing what attacked us isn’t the Walpurgisnacht itself: it’s whatever ate the stone.
Most likely, the magic cast on the gemstone transferred over to its devourer due to the effects of the < Great Calamity >.
Something similar happened, remember?
Shino: …… Ah.
We exchanged glances with Bradley and recalled what transpired yesterday.
Akira: (The magic cast on the candy had turned Shino’s hand invisible, and so the same thing applies here…?)
Back then, when Shino’s palm had come into contact with the candy, only his hand had disappeared from sight. Here, something had eaten the gemstone, and its whole body had disappeared from sight.
Perhaps what had been cast upon the Walpurgisnacht was no small magic.
The moment that thought leapt to the forefront of my mind, I heard the wind whistle above me unnaturally, as if it were growling at me.
Cain: Akira! Climb on!
Akira: G-Got it!
I clambered onto the broom. The other wizards had already long since mounted their own brooms and scattered. Cain flew up with me on his broom, taking us safely into the air.
[ The walls start to shake and crumble. ]
—— And not a moment too soon. Below us, the ground trembled as boulders rained down where I had stood.
Snow: It's trying to bull rush us and crush us underfoot. That’s a bold strategy.
White: It must have quite the large build to attempt such a feat. We wouldn’t have stood a chance taking it head-on.
Down below, the dust had settled. The ground was in shambles, with chunks taken out of it by the sheer impact of landing boulders. I shuddered; what if I’d been crushed under those rocks?
Owen was also looking at the same spot I was. He seemed to have noticed something, and he muttered to himself in a bored tone.
Owen: Ugh. It’s another vouivre, even if you can’t see its body, that’s all it is.
Shino: Really?
[ Owen CG ]
Owen: I can tell just by its cries. Its magical strength and large presence leaves the rest of its kind in the dust.
That mongrel certainly enjoys throwing its weight around. I wonder if it thinks of itself as a King of the Vouivre.
Bradley: You guys probably got it backwards, by the way. This area was already vouivre territory even before the ravine appeared.
And one of those vouivre just so happened to come across the Walpurgisnacht, swallowed it whole, and mutated into this impressive monster.
As we spoke, the gemstone within the invisible creature started to glow, and it started a flurry of attacks at us from above and our flanks.
Predicting its movement, the wizards evaded the flurry of attacks.
Cain: It really is leaps and bounds faster than the other vouivre.
Figaro: It’s probably because the Walpurgisnacht’s supposed to have some sort of strengthening effect.
Akira: Ah……
Many rumours had swirled around the Walpurgisnacht.
One of them was that the longer you hold onto it, the more powerful and honed your magic becomes.
Shino: Wait, so it really is true that you get stronger just by holding it?
Cain: But to think that it makes you grow so huge too… It’s definitely a priceless gemstone, but does it really hold that much power?
Episode 8 ⭢