While certain people were living a life of leisure, the world outside continued to move…
* * *
The Green Wind Forest had gone through another Green Tide.
After the First Calamity, the timing of these tides had become completely unpredictable. Sometimes they came early, sometimes late… and this one lasted barely half a month.
When the storm finally faded, the entire forest had 'changed' again.
The scars left behind by the First Calamity had been smoothed, reshaped, and were absorbed into the environment in a way that appeared as if they were always there.
The beasts in the north showed the most dramatic changes.
Back during the First Calamity, all 'reachable' settlements had been evacuated to Sevensen.
The forest had been left 'abandoned' for months.
Now?
Now the Green Wind Forest had become the land of the beasts!
What little territory the humans had controlled was completely lost!
Newly evolved magical beasts appeared everywhere, forming new clans, small packs, nomadic herds, weird cults, and strange 'organizations' based entirely on whatever bizarre logic magical beasts used to govern themselves.
But the most concerning part?
Well—! For some reason… all of them had become extremely shameless! Wolves, apes, deer, boars, foxes, snakes, owls, birds, even butterflies, every single one had developed a terrifying habit…
And that was—
They had begun to rob travelers!
Not regular robberies, no, they would attack you, incapacitate you, strip you down, take everything, then politely send you home, waiting for your next 'delivery.'
And it didn't stop there!
No-no-no! After the Second Calamity, this trend had magnified to an absolutely insane level!
Some scholars even described it as, 'The entire Green Wind Forest had evolved into the largest unified bandit group in the history of the cross continent.' People were no longer afraid of being eaten. What terrified them now… was the humiliation!
Explorers, Adventurers, and Mercenaries, even the occasional Noble, would return from the forest with their clothes shredded—or missing altogether—crawling their way back to Sevensen with only small leaves preserving their dignity.
They emerged like traumatized savages, eyes hollow, dignity shattered, and tears staining their faces.
It was truly tragic…
Naturally, 'Sevensen' turned it all into a business opportunity!
New shops popped up everywhere…
- 'Emergency Clothing'
- 'Forest Robbery Recovery Requests'
- 'Bandit-Beast Insurance'
And every other day, another tragic soul sprinted toward the city gates, naked and shaking, clutching a single sock like it was their last tie to humanity.
Also—! What broke most people… was the sight of these 'businesses' being run by the very beasts that created the problem!! Sometimes literally! They would walk back with the victim, set up shop, and offer 'Bandit-Beast Insurance' to the poor soul as they passed down the returning road…
As for how it got this bad…
Yikes! There's no need to say it, right?
In short…
-
The Green Wind Forest had never been more terrifying!
* * *
Sevensen had become much livelier. After the First Calamity, an inescapable gloom had settled over the city like an unseen veil. Petra could still remember feeling it the last time she visited, it was like an imperceptible tension tying the throat of those who talked.
But now, now that 'heaviness' was gone!
-
The 'first major piece of news' was that the City Lord had finally woken up and returned to his position. Petra's poison was more potent than predicted, so he slept much longer than she thought he would.
This was good because the city could finally reorganize itself and repair many of the issues left behind over the past year!
But—! It was also bad because the easterners were still there!
Even though they already knew where Dorthy was, they still demanded an explanation. They'd been kept waiting far too long, and every single one of them was furious!
-
The 'second piece of news' was that the underground black-market city had completely imploded. Not literally, no, but it had become incredibly difficult to reach, and even harder to inhabit!
An unknown plague had begun to spread around half a year ago, making many people incredibly weak over time. The timing was terrible because this overlapped with a massive uprising of slaves that happened around the same time.
For some reason, every single slave who had the desire to fight back suddenly became empowered all at once. Those who wanted to revolt did, and the resulting escape turned into a bloodbath unlike anything the black market had ever seen before.
Aside from hunting for his son's murderer, Bouer (Auction), and Wana (Black Market) had also been tied up dealing with this mess too! Pluto, the branch leader of the Gray Snake (Assassination), had also come to Sevensen to investigate the massacre of his branch hall. Nothing was confirmed, but both men had a very strong suspicion that they were looking for the same person.
Naturally, this was Petra!
Obviously…
When they heard the news that Petra was in the city of Imai, instead of immediately chasing after her, they stayed in Sevensen and focused on stabilizing the city.
To their surprise, shortly after the Second Calamity had ended, word arrived that the Mercenary Alliance would be moving to the northern region, or more specifically, the city of Sevensen. This shocked many people for several reasons, but the biggest one was that neither Bouer nor Pluto knew that the Mercenary Alliance had already been banned from the southern region.
So, from their perspective, they just couldn't understand why Hexfill chose the north...
Hexfill's decision to set up the new headquarters in the northern region wasn't just because it was safe, no, he had seen several 'fragments' of his so-called 'past lives' during the White Wolf Trial, and the memories he obtained revealed a number of secrets about the Green Wind Forest that he intended to try to exploit. Perhaps this place was his grave in his past life, but now, it would be where he rose from the ashes of fate!
-
About a week after the Second Calamity had ended, the Mercenary Alliance reached Sevensen.
This meant a long list of work, and they began immediately.
Vellina's first task was simple—
She turned the City Lord into a puppet!
What a pity…
Once his mind was wiped clean, one of Petra's smaller problems disappeared along with it! The twelve girls she had 'taken' from the City Lord's mansion no longer had to worry, and just like that, every thread tying their location back to Petra was severed!
Cough-cough-cough! regardless of their identities! Mm…
Author: "…"
* * *
In some unrelated news, a strange rumor had begun circulating through the northern region.
The missing son of the 'Solarin Castles' Castle Lord had suddenly returned!
Yes, that fatty who wanted Petra's centipede!
Mm, unfortunately, his condition wasn't very good…
The once chubby, merchant-like bastard had come back with snow white hair and empty eyes, the classic sign of fantasy trauma, or some soul-related injury! His eyes were empty, unfocused, and he drifted past people as if they weren't even there. Most of the time, he simply wandered the halls of the Solarin Castle like a ghost. Erm, that was, when he had the strength to walk…
Apparently, it wasn't uncommon for him to suddenly collapse, then spend hours unconscious.
As for the question of how he dragged himself all the way back from the Green Wind Forest, that in itself was a mystery! The details of what happened to him were vague, fragmented, and full of contradictions, but whatever had occurred deep within the Green Wind Forest had clearly 'broken' him.
In response, Solarin Castle mobilized a large army.
A large hunting force was dispatched into the forest on an extermination mission, personally led by the district lord known as the Iron Reaper, the same elderly grandmother Petra had once met during the annual alchemy competition in her small shop. (As the Green Alchemist!)
What they planned to 'exterminate' was never announced publicly.
As for the skinny fatty's recovery—
It wasn't optimistic!
* * *
Before the Second Calamity, the Sky Tower had sealed itself in a spatial bubble. They isolated everything the moment the tower collapsed, cutting off all communication with the outside world before the truth of what had happened could spread on a wide scale.
Because of how quickly they locked everything down, the news of the Sky Tower's implosion never actually reached the continent.
At least, not to an undeniable degree...
To everyone else, it was just a rumor—
But to them, it was a huge problem!
People only knew that a strange barrier had suddenly appeared and that the Sky Tower was unreachable during this time. This happened after a sky-shaking explosion, and fortunately, many people misinterpreted this sound.
Even the other towers didn't fully know what had happened.
The details were buried… but only temporarily. Now that the barrier had been retracted and the people trapped inside the city were finally released, it was only a matter of time before the truth came out and the world knew.
-
Nearly half a year had passed.
By now, the Second Calamity had already ended.
Those who emerged from the poison realm looked exhausted and defeated. Some had lost comrades who sacrificed themselves to buy time, while others had performed extraordinarily well, yet now it was all pointless! They left in waves, completely unaware of how they should feel.
In the end…
Everything was over…
At least, from the outside…
The Tower Master and the Twelve Tower Pillars quickly restored the exterior, then placed a powerful illusion over the shattered shell to make it seem like nothing had happened.
But inside?
The internal damage was devastating! Entire sections of the inner space had shattered beyond recognition, and even with the resources of the Sky Tower, repairing the damage would take decades! Naturally, they began investigating the cause…
What they found left them speechless—
Even horrified!
Nearly every mage who had been 'guarding' the Sky Tower during the Grand Gathering had reported the same 'anomaly'. And this anomaly was the same green-haired little Lolita! She swaggered around like she owned the place, humming to herself, and 'stopped to admire the architecture' like a nosy tourist from time to time. She did this every single day….
Not only that, but she had also been seen carrying around several massive 'nails' that released an ominous aura.
You could practically see the onomatopoeia that leaked out…
'Doom~doom~doom~~~!'
The Elders stared at the report, stunned.
How did no one stop her?
Why did no one think this was suspicious?
Also—!
Wasn't this the fucking girl that they branded a criminal!? The missing heavens chosen!
What a monster!
What a freak!
Not only was she refusing her 'God-given duty', but she was also running around performing acts of terrorism instead!! The eighth pillar, Venan, literally ripped out his long white beard while reading this. It was ridiculous!
Were they reading some terribly written comedy script!?
What the hell!?
And the worst part?
They couldn't even pin the crime on her!
What was the point in announcing that the person they had already branded as a world criminal was actually the villain who knocked down the Sky Tower!
How suspicious would that look!
Every pillar who once felt guilty about mislabeling Petra suddenly realized that, maybe, those inclined towards it, had been correct all along… This little girl was a walking nightmare!
No!
She was a walking calamity!
* * *
After the western region fell, most of the surviving refugees were escorted to the southern region by the United Army. The evacuation was vast, chaotic, and exhausting, stretching across many months, yet it saved countless lives.
Even so, not everyone needed help…
The West had always been brutal. Many powerful tribes left on their own, long before the Army arrived. Others traveled alongside the evacuation, while just as many moved independently, refusing to slow for anyone.
There was a primal instinct towards danger, and many Western tribes sensed the Second Calamity long before it had erupted. These tribes didn't need protection. Among them was the Black Tail Tribe Petra met in the Silver Song Forest.
They departed without hesitation—
But one thing spread quickly, and that was wherever they passed, disaster didn't follow!
* * *
Although the rest of the western region had become completely uninhabitable, there was still one power that refused to leave.
And that was—
The Black Tower!
They stood firm throughout the entire calamity and never faltered. Even after the evacuation ended and the region was abandoned, the mages of the Black Tower remained where they were.
The earth had become a poisonous, miasma-filled, land of death and mutation, a permanent scar carved into the continent, but this didn't bother them at all.
They adapted like they always did, and this was what made the Black Tower so special!
Not only had they inherited the powerful will of the westerners, but combined with the knowledge of the Mage Tower, they were a nearly unstoppable force. Throughout the western region, the mages of the Black Tower were among the most durable. Harsh environments, twisted landscapes, spiritual pollution, corrupted monsters, none of that frightened them! Not at all!
As for how they dealt with the uninhabitable terrain left behind by the Second Calamity?
They forged specialized protective gear, gathered their specialists, and treated the entire western region like a massive radioactive wasteland. Then they dispersed, exploring and recording the changes piece by piece. Their primary goal was to clean up the disaster zone and study the changes caused by the fall of the Corrupted World Tree, the Poison Sea, and the Death Sky.
* * *
Outside the western region, the biggest problem caused by the second calamity wasn't the roots of the corrupted world tree, no, it was actually the escaping magic beasts! During the early stages of the Second Calamity, countless stampedes were reported across the western side of the central region. These weren't ordinary stampedes, not at all, they were massive waves of 'territorial warlords' fleeing blindly across the mountain range!
The cause could naturally be traced back to the Poison Sea's sudden eruption, but the true aftershocks of that event didn't become clear until now, many months later.
The chaos of that day had triggered a massive migration of beasts along the western border, the largest ever recorded in the long history of the Cross Continent…
This had devastating results!
Half of the creatures surged straight into the western region and died in the Poison Sea, but the other half fled east, crossing through the central region in slow, unending waves that lasted for many months.
This migration was enormous…
Experts estimated that even after another two or three years, the beast migration might still be ongoing. Many of the creatures were slow, some were injured, and some kept stopping to fight other beasts or settle temporarily before being chased away.
This naturally caused chaos across the central region…
Trade routes became dangerous overnight. Merchants and caravans found themselves constantly harassed or blocked by wandering monsters. Small settlements were forced to relocate to avoid drawing the attention of displaced predators. Even the local bandit suffered losses, since the beasts cared very little about who they were actually devouring.
The entire central region's natural ecosystem began to tilt off balance…
What made things even worse was their destination.
Almost all of the beasts that survived the journey gathered near the eastern border. The cluster of creatures grew larger each week as more stragglers arrived, sweeping the entirety of the central region like a wave. It was so spread out that it almost 'felt intentional'. As they continued to gather, this sense of unnaturalness only continued to grow. The sight of so many foreign beasts pressed along one edge of the region was strange enough that both the Sky Tower and the Royal Tower launched a joint investigation.
This alone was already unprecedented, at least, in modern times….
Those two never worked together unless something extremely important was happening.
Naturally, this drew even more attention!
Rumors spread quickly.
Whispers circulated among travelers and explorers, officials in the central region exchanged nervous gossip, and even the nobles of the southern region began to worry. The reason for their concern was simple, and that was something else had begun in the eastern region, and it just so happened to overlap with the arrival of the migrating beasts…
* * *
The Eastern region had completely isolated itself during the First Calamity with the 'Great Storm Spell', and more than a year had passed since anyone had heard from them! Nothing leaked out, because nothing could get through the 'barrier'. It was as if the entire region had vanished behind the Great Wind Wall, an enormous curtain of a screaming storm that stretched from heaven to earth!
There were attempts to contact them through the spell, but every method failed.
Over time, this silence became more and more abnormal…
That alone was unsettling, but what made the situation far worse was the storm itself.
The Great Storm Spell had lasted far longer than expected.
The Storm Tower, located deep within the Eastern region, was the master of atmospheric magic and weather manipulation. They were the ones who originally predicted how long the barrier would remain. So, if anyone understood the limits of the storm spell, it should have been them.
Yet… their prediction had been completely wrong.
That was not a good sign…
-
Ninety percent of the Eastern Region had been engulfed by the storm. Only a small strip of hills remained uncovered, a narrow band of black stone and stubborn grass acting as the last stable terrain between the central region and the east.
That narrow strip was where the migrating beasts had gathered.
Hundreds of thousands of high-level magic beasts from the western half of the continent pressed up against the storm wall as if drawn to something. They refused to leave. Some sat, some howled, and some simply stared into the spiraling wall, insisting on looking at something that was unseen.
Investigation teams were repeatedly dispatched to inspect the Great Wind Wall, and each group returned with the same confused report.
The beasts were not hostile, no, they were... almost waiting…? As for what, no one knew...
* * *
The next piece of news that everyone was keeping a close eye on revolved around the Church of Light.
After the events in Imai, instead of participating in the Second Calamity like everyone had expected, the church abruptly turned away and headed north. Because the northern region, outside of Sevensen, was mostly wilderness and scattered settlements, information was scarce, but a few rumors managed to slip through the cracks. According to some travelers, the priests entered the Green Wind Forest soon after arriving, searching for something… or someone, and then disappeared.
No one knew what they were doing…
When the Second Calamity finally ended, those same priests emerged from the forest and left the northern region without saying a word.
Their departure happened shortly before the Mercenary Alliance arrived in Sevensen.
They missed each other by just a hair, and with the unnatural aura surrounding Hexfill, this narrow miss was a miracle that prevented an unnecessary bloodbath. Although it seemed like nothing more than a twist of the wind, it was almost as if the silent hand of fate had nudged the world ever so slightly away from this disaster.
As for where the Church of Light went next, scattered travelers claimed seeing the group again on the southern roads. They didn't linger, they marched straight towards the Hellion Empire, their expressions unreadable, their pace unwavering, not even stopping for a rest.
And just like that, they vanished completely...
* * *
In some southern region news, the 'Black Cauldron', the collection of poison masters once gathered under the United Army, had officially split into two distinct groups. Half of them left to form their own underground organization, while the more 'ethical half' strengthened their link with the United Army.
After the division, the departing group now called themselves the 'Black Lid', and the loyal half remained as the 'Black Cauldron.'
This shift ended up affecting Petra in a very unexpected way.
One of her customers had quietly taken a vial of her poison back to the United Army and presented it to the Black Cauldron.
From there, it somehow passed into the hands of the Black Lid.
And once that happened…
The name of the mysterious 'Green Alchemist' began to blow across the southern wind. Rumors about her work during the second calamity, which was more than just Little Lux and her guardian, spread through taverns, caravans, and then medicine markets. Whispers seeped into convoys, mercenary camps, and eventually into the noble houses.
Eventually, it reached the heart of the Hellion Empire… And from there, it found its way to the spies of the Four Great Families, and one responded faster than the others.
That was—
The Barak Family, the necromancers who lived in the shadow of the empire, took a sudden and very serious interest in the name of the 'Green Alchemist'.
Within days, the family's forces began collecting information.
Within weeks, the search had spread throughout the empire.
And before long…
The Barak Family had quietly begun a huge hunt for Petra, the girl behind the title, without realizing she was also the green-haired menace on the biggest bounty list throughout the continent!
* * *
The final piece of news…
The Demon Race had been spotted in the southern region! This shocked almost everyone who heard it.
The demon race was often viewed as a fairy tale told to children before bed. To most of the Cross Continent, demons simply didn't exist. They were something ancient, distant, and lost to time, eradicated by the Church of Light long before the current era.
The only reason this rumor felt even remotely believable was because of what had happened in Imai.
The details of that event hadn't spread across the continent yet, so the truth about demons infiltrating the grand gathering remained heavily suppressed, but once the first rumor leaked out, it spread incredibly quickly… When the Sky Tower finally unsealed itself, the news intensified overnight, exploding throughout the southern region like a wildfire.
Regardless of what anyone believed, this was just another thread of fate pulling itself towards the same destination. The nomadic tribes from the west, the Mercenary Alliance from the north, the Sky Tower from the central mountains, the migration pushing towards the east, and now the demons and the church rising from the south, piece by piece—
The world was slowly sliding towards the future…
* * *
The winds of the world shifted—
Time pressed forward without mercy, and the gears of fate began to turn just a little bit faster…
-
One year later…
* * *
One year later…
-
[End of the '4.5 Interlude' Volume]