The Protagonists of the Novel Escaped

================

Trapped in the Chaos Realm, Ludmilla began to unleash her power, smashing at the passage to return to the real world.

Crash!

She could still break through.

The door wasn’t completely closed yet.

With each strike of her fist surrounded by the Red Dragon’s flame, a thunderous sound echoed from the passage as if it was screaming. The priest-knights of the Disaster God watching her shivered in fear.

“The, the passage is collapsing!”

“Breaking the boundary that divides space…! This is absurd!”

Boom!

Thud, thud, thud──!!

Cracks started to appear with every punch.

Blazing infernos poured forth like meteors, turning the ground into chaos.

“Graaah!”

“F-Fire…!”

Strangely enough, the pouring infernos targeted the priest-knights of the Disaster God, who had set up the passage, like guided missiles.

Those engulfed in flame screamed sharply as they perished in the horrific blazing heat.

“Ugh, ugh…! Is this truly the power of the Seven Heroes of the Warring States?”

The elderly man, the first to be attacked by the Red Dragon’s flame, propped himself up with the help of the priest-knights.

His face had partially melted away.

His body, engulfed in flames, was in tatters.

It was a fatal injury that could easily lead to death at any moment. If they didn’t retreat quickly, they would lose all their forces, including himself, to the pouring infernos.

‘Ariel! Why is there still no signal? Could it be… it has failed?!’

He anxiously awaited the signal.

However, the Apostle of Fresh Blood, who had attacked the Imperial Palace, remained silent.

Could he give up?

He despaired while watching the gradually collapsing passage of the Chaos Realm.

Rumbleee──!!!

The flames consuming the half-collapsed barrier began to form a gigantic shape.

It was the head of the Red Dragon.

The dragon made of flames bared its sharp teeth and roared. One could feel the dragon’s wrath vowing to never forgive those who invaded the Empire.

“C-Commander!”

“Hurry and make a decision!”

The priests who barely escaped disaster urged the commander to retreat.

There was no chance of victory.

Staying like this would only lead to a pointless death.

Having completely lost all fighting spirit against the fiercely burning shape of the Red Dragon, even the fanatics who would usually risk death for their worshipped Disaster God were now frightened by Ludmilla’s might.

“Let’s retreat for now….”

Sensing their disadvantage, the commander swallowed his words as he opened his mouth, when—

An unbelievable phenomenon occurred.

The flames ceased.

The flames of the Red Dragon, which had completely covered the barrier, were extinguished.

In such an unusual situation, both the commander and priests of the Disaster God were at a loss. The flames that seemed ready to shatter the barrier had vanished without a trace.

*

With the next strike, she could break the barrier.

Now she could get out.

Ludmilla ignited her flame fueled by the anger burning inside her. She wanted to deliver the most horrific death to those who had burned her Imperial City.

But suddenly, a change occurred.

A gigantic divine status pierced her intuition.

‘To think such a fearsome divine status exists…! It began to erupt suddenly.’

Detecting the divine status flowing from the other side of space, Ludmilla immediately stopped her attack. She felt a more terrifying presence than any opponent she had faced until now.

It was unbelievable.

The power spreading was almost comparable to a disaster.

The explosively increasing divine status continued to expand without limits.

Ludmilla felt a suffocating fear. The thought that such an overwhelming divine status could threaten the Empire made her momentarily dizzy.

‘If that is the true mastermind behind the followers of the Disaster God…! I must stop it! My intuition tells me the space where that thing exists connects with the Imperial City!’

She could not allow this to go unchecked.

If the constantly expanding being were to fall into the Valtarian Empire, it would lead to the worst catastrophe ever known.

Ludmilla hurriedly clenched her fist.

In the space where the divine status kept expanding.

Ludmilla prepared to destroy the barriers of the Chaos Realm targeting that place. She had to stop the immensely powerful unknown divine status from descending upon the Valtarian Empire. Making that judgment, she pushed returning to the real world to the back of her mind.

“……”

A space she had never encountered before.

An incomprehensible unknown realm.

Ludmilla, having destroyed the boundary of the Chaos Realm, descended into the Fairies’ Paradise, where fierce battles had just occurred.

As soon as Ludmilla entered the realm, she witnessed countless guns and cannons spread out in the air. And she locked eyes with a gigantic divine status that controlled a multitude of firearms.

The black-armored disaster.

Just the moment of staring each other down made her hands tremble.

An overwhelming aura flowed from the black disaster, making it hard to guarantee victory or defeat.

However, even though it was such a fearsome presence, strangely, she felt a sense of familiarity. A scent of gunpowder, so familiar it was almost intimate, wafted from him.

“You… no, Edanant.”

She spoke his name with trembling emotions.

It might be a misunderstanding.
But the precious memories she had shared until now were telling her the truth.

Following this, Ludmilla took a step forward, wanting to hear exactly what was going on.

“Could it be that you are the warmonger I have been searching for…?”

Gazing at the guns and cannons lined up in perfect order like a regiment armed with gunpowder weapons, Ludmilla recalled the sixth member of the Saintess Party, the warmonger.

Warmonger.
The mysterious hero who led the Third Racial War to victory.

She recalled seeing records that said the unidentified figure who traveled with the Saintess Party would cause thunderous gunfire every time he intervened in the battlefield.

Thinking of him, Ludmilla finally reached the truth.

“……”

“Don’t think of dodging the question with silence, Edanant!”

At Ludmilla’s inquiry, Edanant exercised his right to remain silent. This was a common response whenever he found himself in a situation where he couldn’t easily react.

Immediately, a sharp voice rang out.

“How did you know?”

“There are ways for the Imperial Princess to know everything.”

She realized it by scent.

The memories they had shared revealed it to her.

Unable to respond with a shameful answer, Ludmilla blushed as she stammered out her words.

“With this, it seems deception is impossible. Even if I awkwardly tried to make excuses, I wouldn’t be able to fool your Majesty.”

This must be the meaning of a slope that cannot be avoided.

Edanant let out a heavy sigh.

“You are correct, Your Majesty. I am indeed the warmonger of the Saintess Party.”

“… So it is true.”

“And as you can see, I am a demon serving the Disaster God of War.”

“……”

The Disaster God of War.

A demon.

With each of Edanant’s utterances, Ludmilla’s brow twitched.

She tried hard to hide her bewilderment with her strong will, but it was in vain.
The shocking fact that the man she had genuinely admired was a demon worshipping the Disaster God pierced her like a sharp blade.

“War….”

Since the dawn of human history, the endless calamities that have threatened the world.

War was among the four calamities.

The Disaster God of War.
Even just murmuring it internally felt chilling.

Ludmilla eventually accepted that Edanant was a demon worshipping the Disaster God of War. The revealed truths were too shocking to blindly ignore.

“Will you arrest me?”

“… If so, will you comply?”

In response to Edanant’s question, Ludmilla counter-questioned.

Edanant seemed momentarily at a loss for words, unable to answer.

“I’ll let it slide for now.”

“But….”

“I said I would let it slide! Are you trying to disrespect the Imperial Princess’s decision?!”

“……”

Typically, the more sincere a person is, the more shameless they become.

And Ludmilla was that way now.

In response to Edanant’s objections, Ludmilla maintained her ignorance and reacted sharply. Her voice was so raised that Edanant eventually fell silent.

“For now, I’ll get out. I will destroy the boundary.”

“… If you just send a message to the Luinongs, they’ll let us through.”

Break the boundary that divides space?

Goodness.

To think she had descended into paradise through such a foolish method.

Ludmilla’s sudden action of pulling out her fist dumbfounded Edanant.

“Oh, wait a moment.”

Something seemed to occur to Edanant, and he paused.

He turned his head.
And then he stared at the blood-soaked vampire that had collapsed like a mountain corpse.

“This was the Apostle of the Disaster God who tried to assassinate your Majesty. I subdued them before your arrival. We should capture them, as there is much to be learned regarding the circumstances of the ambush.”

“Hm, let’s do that.”

In fact, before Ludmilla had appeared out of nowhere, he had intended to kill the vampire, but his thoughts changed. Leaving them alive seemed more prudent.

He wanted to discover the background of their sudden appearance.
The situation surrounding the acquisition of the ancient magical equipment.
And whether there was any mastermind behind this incident.

As Edanant held the magical equipment that Ariel had dropped in his arms, he let out a wry smile.

“Oh! And Edanant….”

“Speak.”

What was she about to say?

She wouldn’t suddenly change and unleash flames, would she?

With an air of skepticism, Edanant waited for Ludmilla’s words.

“Didn’t you say to call you by your name when it’s just the two of us? I casually call you by your name, but you’re treating me formally. So call me Ludmilla.”

“… I’ll do that later.”

“Hurry.”

“L-Ludmilla….”

“Mhm! Next time, I hope you’ll call me by name when we’re alone.”
“……”

She called his name in a clumsy tone.

Then, Ludmilla nodded contently, wearing a satisfied expression.

This really was hard to understand.
What on earth was he thinking?
Edanant scratched the back of his head as he stared at Ludmilla’s back.

---