“Step back? What do you mean by that all of a sudden?”
Franz couldn’t understand Ludger’s words.
At the very least, they should be destroying that thing right now—not telling people to retreat.
What baffled him even more was that everyone else obeyed Ludger’s order without protest.
“...You’re serious.”
Muttering in disbelief as he watched Owenz step back, Franz heard Alex casually chime in beside him.
“Just watch, rookie. Our leader never says anything meaningless.”
“Who are you calling rookie? I never joined your organization.”
“Well, since you’re fighting alongside us right now, let’s call you a temporary rookie. You’re the one clinging to us, aren’t you?”
“Let me be clear—the Goddess’s [Nursery Rhyme] can’t be destroyed without me.”
“Who knows? We’ll see about that.”
“And what exactly can that little girl do?”
Conjuring an airship from imagination was impressive, yes, but destroying [Nursery Rhyme] was a different matter altogether.
‘Still, considering what they’ve managed with just a handful of people... who knows what else they might pull off.’
Franz felt uneasy, but chose to trust Ludger.
This was the man Zero Order had spoken of with confidence.
The man who had already proven his worth in Dreamland far beyond expectation.
At least in this battle, Ludger’s judgment had to be sounder than his own.
So Franz too stepped back.
Ludger gave Seridan a nod.
“Show us. The greatest explosion you can imagine.”
“The greatest explosion sounds a bit much. I’ll go with just a decently strong one.”
“Why?”
“I love explosions, but I can’t exactly blow up the whole world, can I?”
Arrogant words—but when backed by ability, such words were called confidence.
Seridan moved her small limbs and strode forward.
Watching from behind, Violetta asked Ludger cautiously,
“Owner, what exactly did you teach Seridan?”
“I just gave her a hint about the kind of explosion she longed for.”
“A... hint?”
“Yes. Not an answer. Just the problem itself. But Seridan can deduce the answer—and then some.”
No.
She would try to make something beyond the answer.
That was her genius.
“You’d best be careful. If you face this explosion wrong, you’ll go blind.”
“What in the world...”
“It’s begun.”
It appeared without warning.
Everyone stared in disbelief at the black object that materialized above [Nursery Rhyme].
It was a bomb, oval in shape.
Fairly large, yes, but it didn’t look like it would unleash an explosion capable of breaking a divine relic.
And there was only one.
But Ludger thought differently.
She had really done it.
That was no mere imitation of a bomb.
It was loaded with 90% highly enriched uranium, with neutrons, high explosives, and even the proper trigger structure built perfectly inside.
He had only given her the basic principle and method. Yet she had completed something almost identical to the real thing, without trial and error.
The # Nоvеlight # massive bomb began to fall.
Compared to [Nursery Rhyme]’s barrier, it looked like a tiny anchovy rushing a boulder.
But Seridan’s lips curled into a confident smile.
The moment the missile struck the barrier—
─────!!!
A deafening roar split the air as the world ahead turned white.
Ludger wrapped the others in shadow for protection.
Even at this distance, the sheer power of the blast would send a shockwave ripping through them.
When the wave passed and he released the shadows, what they saw left everyone slack-jawed.
A mushroom cloud of crimson flame was blooming into the sky.
For the first time in his life, Franz felt not just astonishment but almost despair.
‘That... that was a bomb born of imagination?’
Even with his eyes shielded, he had still caught glimpses of it.
The light alone had been so overwhelming that its form bled through the shadows.
A perfect sphere of fire exploding outward.
The heat it carried was beyond estimation—melting through [Nursery Rhyme]’s barrier as if it were paper.
Hundreds of meters erased in an instant, the surrounding area torn apart by shock and heat.
The power was so great that parts of [Nursery Rhyme]’s black surface actually sagged and melted.
‘At this rate... maybe they don’t even need me to destroy it.’
Had that fallen on a city instead of the barrier, the thought alone made his skin crawl.
And the tiny Dwarf girl who had conjured it all spread her arms wide and laughed.
“Uwahahaha! Behold this magnificent explosion! This is it! This is exactly the blast I always wanted!”
Cackling like a madwoman, Seridan gazed fondly at the mushroom cloud—then suddenly frowned in thought.
“Hm. Wait. What if I could use that explosion to trigger an even stronger one?”
“Enough. Stop there.”
Ludger cut her off.
“Fusion reaction is still beyond you.”
“Fusion? So you do know something, don’t you? You’ll tell me later, right?”
“For now, what’s ahead comes first.”
Ludger’s gaze fixed on [Nursery Rhyme].
It was still humming, but unlike before, it wasn’t regenerating its barrier.
Seridan’s nuclear strike had inflicted significant damage.
‘In terms of output, that surpassed even 6th-Circle magic. And here in Dreamland, there’s no concern of radiation either.’
It was the perfect environment for nuclear detonations.
“Three more strikes like that, and it’ll shatter completely.”
“Great! Then let’s do it!”
Seridan conjured more nuclear bombs.
Three missiles dropped vertically toward [Nursery Rhyme].
If they detonated together, not even a divine relic could withstand it.
But [Nursery Rhyme] was divine indeed.
Instead of erecting a barrier, it gathered black energy and fired it at the incoming bombs.
The nuclear warheads exploded in midair.
Seridan clutched her cheeks and screamed.
“No! My masterpieces!”
“Self-defense interception, huh. Annoying.”
She rained down more bombs, but each was shot down by beams of black energy, like lasers.
BOOM! BOOM!
The sky bloomed with firelight again and again.
Realizing they couldn’t hope for another lucky strike, Ludger turned to Owenz.
“It’s our turn now.”
“Phew. I thought this was going to end without us lifting a finger. What about the barrier?”
“That won’t be an issue. While it’s locked into intercepting attacks, it can’t deploy its barrier.”
Arfa had studied [Nursery Rhyme]’s state.
Seridan’s assault had been so overwhelming that the relic had shifted into an offensive stance instead of defending.
The best defense was offense, after all.
And that was exactly what it had chosen.
“Alright then. Time to smash that huge thing to—”
Alex swung his sword, deflecting a black beam streaking toward them.
Ting! The redirected blast struck the tiled floor and detonated.
“Geez, attacking in the middle of someone’s sentence? No manners at all.”
“W-wasn’t it strange to expect manners from a tool in the first place?”
“It’s a divine tool, isn’t it? I thought at least conversation might be possible.”
[Nursery Rhyme] vibrated ominously.
Around it, black crystalline energy swelled, quivering as if ready to burst forth at any moment.
“Judging by that, guess not.”
A black beam shot forth.
The members of Owenz each responded in their own way.
Ludger cloaked himself in shadow, twisting space itself to divert the beam.
Alex and Phantos parried with their weapons, while Arfa swatted an oncoming ray aside with his bare hand.
Violetta unleashed a storm-like gust, sweeping the dark beam away.
“Take these potions!”
Owenz downed the vials Bellaruna handed out in one gulp.
A surge of tremendous energy filled their bodies.
In reality, such concoctions would have carried nasty side effects, but in Dreamland it was different.
The effects manifested as they should—but the backlash was nearly nonexistent.
Bellaruna knew this, and so she conjured every drug she could imagine and passed them out:
increased reaction speed, enhanced strength, amplified mana, boosted resistance, dulled pain.
As the empowered group surged forward, Violetta swung her fan wide.
“Go!”
A fierce gale roared, shoving Ludger, Alex, Phantos, Arfa, and Hans forward.
They raced toward [Nursery Rhyme] like the wind itself.
Sensing their approach, the relic sparked violently, black bolts flaring across its surface.
To call them sparks was an understatement—given [Nursery Rhyme]’s size, it was more like a storm of black lightning.
“Leader! Incoming!”
“I know.”
As if he had been waiting for this, Ludger conjured an iron cube in his palm and hurled it skyward.
The cube whirred, expanding rapidly, assembling itself.
What emerged was the Golden Bird once wielded by First Order Leslie.
Alive as any war machine, it spread its wings and took the brunt of the lightning head-on.
But Ludger hadn’t summoned it merely as a shield.
The lightning coursed into its body, stored within.
Like a sponge, the construct drank in the scattered bolts around it as well.
When the storm cleared, a steel bird cloaked in black lightning flapped its wings.
Steel Shaping Magic.
The Black Thunder Bird.
With a piercing shriek, it streaked toward [Nursery Rhyme], wreathed in searing black current.
It moved so fast it looked like lightning given life.
The Black Thunder Bird slashed across the relic’s surface, gouging rough scratches into its shell.
When [Nursery Rhyme] flared with more lightning, the construct banked through the air, greedily swallowing the bolts.
“Holy hell. That’s busted. Do we even need to fight anymore?”
“Don’t get cocky. Keep moving.”
“What about that thing?”
“It won’t last long.”
Alex understood instantly.
Even if it could absorb lightning, the Black Thunder Bird had limits.
The steel core Ludger forged was holding out for now, but the more energy it drank, the hotter it burned.
Eventually, it would melt down.
Already, its body glowed red as it flew.
Collapse was inevitable.
“Absorbing the attack is only part of its purpose. The real aim is...”
“What?”
“This.”
As Ludger pointed to [Nursery Rhyme], the Black Thunder Bird gave one final flap of its wings, shooting like an arrow at the massive bell.
[Nursery Rhyme] gathered power at its core and fired it at the incoming construct.
Through the radiating torrent, the bird forced its way upstream like a spearhead.
Then, at the breaking point, the overheated core shuddered—and released every drop of stored energy outward.
KWA-A-A-ANG!
The compressed black lightning detonated.
A dark sphere spread in every direction, devouring part of [Nursery Rhyme]’s surface.
Even a divine relic couldn’t withstand its own power hurled back at it.
“Look! It’s working!”
Arfa gasped at the relic’s cracked shell, lightning scars carved across it.
But in the next instant, his breath caught.
Black light rose over [Nursery Rhyme], and the damage healed as though time had reversed.
“It’s all restored!”
“So it needs a strike too powerful even for it to regenerate.”
The only thing that came to mind was Seridan’s nuclear blast—but [Nursery Rhyme] would be watching her most carefully.
Then a colossal hand began to descend over the relic.
“Leader!”
“I see it.”
The hand of Noxanna, Goddess of Death and Dreams.
She was moving to ring [Nursery Rhyme] again.
If that bell tolled once more, it would be over.
It had to be stopped—but how did one oppose a hand hundreds of meters wide?
“Brother.”
Hans called to Ludger.
“I’ll do it.”
“You...”
“Send me.”
Even amidst the chaos, Hans’s face was grave, resolute.
Recognizing it, Ludger gave a small nod.
“Understood.”
His shadows wrapped around Hans.
He sent him to the top of [Nursery Rhyme], where the goddess’s palm was descending.
Noxanna’s shadow was vast enough to allow such a transfer.
In the blink of an eye, Hans was there—staring up at the enormous black hand filling the sky.
His body quivered just from looking at it, instinct urging him to flee.
But he forced it down.
“Alright. Let’s do this.”
Hans released everything he had kept chained within.
And his body swelled, growing massive.