* * *

“Aaaah!”

“M-monsters!”

“Eek! Somebody help!”

Only moments ago, London had been overflowing with hope and cheers at the disappearance of the Misty hours. But now, nothing filled the city except chaos, terror, and screams.

From deserted alleys. From behind garbage bins. Or from right beneath people's feet.

Shadow monsters were springing up from every shadow and rampaging indiscriminately, plunging London into chaos.

“『Ice Ball』! 『Cold Mist』!”

“『Lightning Web』!”

“The Misty hours are gone! Why are these monsters appearing?!”

Alex, a Magus Guild member stationed there to maintain the items used to destroy the Misty hours, fought the monsters alongside his colleagues, firing off skill after skill. But their struggle was less a stand against the enemy than a desperate flailing.

The shadow monsters were as powerful as the monsters found on dungeon floors fifty through sixty. Even Alex, a high-level player at level 64, could barely handle three or four of these formidable enemies.

Yet there were far more than five or six shadow monsters in sight. At least dozens were already visible, and imagining how many more lurked out of sight was terrifying.

With only two mid-tier colleagues at his side against so many monsters, even a high-level player like him had no choice but to give ground.

“『Wall of Ice』!”

“Hold on! We have to hold out until reinforcements arrive, no matter what!”

Their one stroke of luck was that the shadow monsters weren't particularly aggressive. They wandered around threatening people or concentrating on destroying buildings, rather than actively charging at the three players.

Thanks to that, Alex and his colleagues were just barely holding out despite being hopelessly outnumbered.

“Huh?”

“Wh-what?”

... Until the shadow monsters suddenly stopped moving, as though frozen—and then their dull eyes turned blood-red and they began rampaging like mad.

BOOM! BOOM-BOOM-BOOM!

“What the fuck! What's gotten into these things? It's not like they suddenly swallowed a load of drugs!”

“They've gotten stronger all of a sudden!”

Alex and his colleagues were rattled. Not only had the monsters' oddly sluggish movements become lively, but their strength had suddenly increased dramatically. Unlike before, they were now targeting the players and charging straight at them.

It was as though they had been freed from whatever restraints had held them back.

Unfortunately, Alex and his colleagues had no strength to spare against monsters like these. They were on the verge of being swept away by the creatures surging toward them like a wave.

ZING!

The Magus Guild members' eyes widened. A blue shadow shimmered before them, and in that instant, the monsters filling their vision vanished without a trace.

Only belatedly did Alex realize that the monsters hadn't vanished—he had been moved somewhere else. His bewilderment lasted only a moment before he saw who had saved him: a knight in a blue cloak. He groaned.

“The Seaserpent Knights...!”

“Are you hurt?”

“Where the hell have you people been? Why are you only showing up now?!”

Alex snapped before he could stop himself. Of course he was grateful to have been rescued, but that was a separate matter.

These people were supposedly responsible for London's public safety, yet they hadn't shown their faces while the city was overrun with monsters. Now they finally appeared. Having nearly died, he couldn't help voicing his resentment.

“If you're unhurt, join the defensive line at once.”

“What? What are you talking...?”

Alex, bewildered by the abrupt order, froze. It wasn't merely because following the knight's pointing finger made him realize that he had been transported onto the walls of House Seaserpent's castle.

Hampstead Heath, the hill on which Seaserpent Castle stood, was covered by a tide of shadow monsters too numerous to count by mere thousands.

Guild members originally stationed throughout London were desperately firing skills from the walls. Meanwhile, Blue Dragon Clan knights were evacuating civilians and cutting down monsters climbing the walls.

The sight left Alex's mouth hanging open.

“A... a siege?”

As Alex stared in disbelief at a scene that belonged in a history book unfolding before his eyes, the knight explained coldly.

“All of London's citizens have already been evacuated. All we need to do now is hold the castle.”

“All of London's citizens? Where on earth did you evacuate them to?”

“Underground shelters.”

“That's absurd...! Are you saying there's a shelter beneath Seaserpent Castle big enough to hold everyone in London?”

Alex was incredulous. Even a rough estimate put London's population at around ten million. However vast House Seaserpent's estate might be, that was far more than the shelter of a single castle could accommodate.

But the knight's answer was straightforward.

“Beneath London, not the estate.”

“... What?”

“House Seaserpent is responsible for London's public safety. Isn't it only natural that we should prepare somewhere to protect its citizens in an emergency?”

“...”

Shelters had been expanded again and again as the population grew, until they formed a web beneath London. Emergency procedures and stockpiled supplies had been prepared to ensure everyone could be evacuated swiftly.

The knight did not bother explaining, point by point, the preparations and efforts the Blue Dragon Clan had made over the past several centuries. He simply issued a cold order.

“Every other entrance to the evacuation routes has already been sealed. We only need to keep the castle from falling. Defend these walls with your lives.”

“Hold on! What authority do you have to order us around?”

“My authority as a knight of House Seaserpent, which may order compulsory mobilization in an emergency.”

“We members of the Magus Guild have the right to refuse that mobilization order!”

“I will tolerate no insubordination.”

“What the...!”

Alex bristled. Whatever the situation, he was a high-level magic-type player who was treated with respect wherever he went.

He had always looked down on the estate's knights, who clung to worthless psionics and acted like suckers. To him, such a coercive order was outrageous.

A blade slid forward.

But in the next instant, he could only freeze stiff.

“You have enjoyed your many privileges because you also accepted the obligation to step forward in situations like this.”

“Then fulfill the duty entrusted to you.”

“I will never tolerate the injustice of fleeing and abandoning the people you are meant to protect.”

There was no need even to ask what would happen if he refused. The knight's ice-cold voice—and above all, the sword pointed at Alex's throat—gave him a clearer answer than a hundred words could have.

'Th-this lunatic...!'

Looking into the knight's eyes, still filled with righteous and merciful conviction even now, Alex understood.

To be righteous was to tolerate no injustice. To be merciful was to help and protect the weak.

Conversely, immediately punishing high-level players who were not among the weak yet neglected their obligations was also part of their “justice.”

And until only a few decades ago, the Blue Dragon Clan, too, had been the world's largest smuggling organization, mercilessly slaughtering any “evil” that opposed them.

“A-all right! I'll fight as ordered! That's what you want, isn't it?”

“Then that settles it.”

ZING!

As though he still had much to do, the Blue Dragon Clan knight vanished across space the moment he heard Alex's answer.

Shortly afterward, another knight arrived with more guild members. Watching them react much as he and his colleagues had moments earlier, Alex grimaced.

Then, pouring skills into the shadow monsters climbing the walls, he shouted in irritation.

“Damn it! The Blue Dragon Clan is running wild out here! What the hell are our guild officers doing?!”

* * *

FLAP.

Meanwhile, at that same moment, Cir, the dark-red-haired witch gazing into a crystal ball, turned over a card. Looking at the ruined tower depicted on it, she smiled seductively.

“So far, everything is as I foretold.”

[“... Cir, didn't you say witches' prophecies generally aren't very accurate?”]

“Of course I did.”

[“They seem awfully accurate for that. Your prophecy that disaster would engulf London came true exactly as you said, didn't it?”]

Yu Na-gyeong muttered uneasily as she watched the crystal ball showing London overrun with shadow monsters. Cir chuckled at her.

“But I didn't know what that disaster would be, did I? All I knew was that it couldn't be avoided.”

[“That's what I find strange. Are there really separate kinds of prophecies—ones you can prevent and ones you can't?”]

“Of course, dear.”

Cir readily nodded, then continued in a languid voice.

“Magical prophecy is a glimpse stolen into the world's fate. Once you grow accustomed to divination, you can distinguish between fates that can be changed and those that cannot.”

[“I have no idea what that means.”]

“Think of it as the difference between a floppy disk you can overwrite and one you can't.”

[“... I can more or less guess what you mean from the wording. But what's a floppy disk?”]

“You don't know? It's the cutting-edge technology young people use these days.”

[“I guess they invented some new technology while I was dead without me noticing.”]

Whether or not Yu Na-gyeong tilted her head at the oddly familiar yet unfamiliar term, Cir continued unconcernedly.

“There are exceptions, of course. The world has monsters like Child, who'll change a disk's contents by breaking it apart if they can't overwrite it.”

[“But even Team Leader couldn't stop the prophecy in the end, could he?”]

“He changed its outcome instead, didn't he? London's citizens, who were fated to die, survived.”

[“That's thanks to the countess and all those lovely people in the Blue Dragon Clan working so hard.”]

“As I see it, that, too, is thanks to Child.”

Cir tapped the crystal ball with her finger—or more precisely, the view of the countess's castle reflected within it.

“In the original course of fate, that stubborn Blue Dragon Clan would never have evacuated every citizen of London without clear evidence.”

[“... Well, I suppose that's true.”]

Yu Na-gyeong reluctantly conceded the point.

The reason London's citizens had been evacuated so quickly was that the evacuation had begun well in advance. Limon deserved no small share of the credit for persuading Rose to make that decision with only a few words.

'Which only makes it stranger, though.'

Yu Na-gyeong wondered suspiciously what on earth had happened between Limon and Rose while she was here. Cir, who had no way of knowing what she was thinking, continued in her carefree manner.

“Besides, our divination is so approximate that sometimes something truly unexpected happens.”

[“What do you mean, unexpected?”]

“Something truly unexpected. For example...”

BANG!

“You wicked witches! What on earth are you plotting to do in London?”

“... That ill-mannered lout attacking us in the middle of all this?”

[“What the hell is this dumb sh*t...?”]