Pillar of light

Standing at the entrance of a large building, Nathan looked up and closed his eyes slightly, covering them with his hand to shield himself from the sun. 

'Why is the meeting point in this place?'

Around him, at least two dozen mercenaries were talking to each other as they waited for the mission call.

Nathan was wearing a black overcoat and carried his katana on his back stored in a new black sheath. This time he did not have to hide it, because mercenaries had a license to carry a personal weapon in case the occasion called for it.

And justly so, this was a special occasion.

Looking around with some curiosity, he did not recognize anyone, so he stayed away from all the mercenaries, most of whom knew each other.

Nathan was not here to make friends, he was here for a mission, which he had not been given any details about. He had only been told to be prepared for any inconvenience that might arise.

Sighing, Nathan leaned his back against a nearby wall and waited for the call to begin.

A little over half an hour later, just as the mercenaries were beginning to tire, Jean suddenly appeared from inside the building and clearing her voice shouted into the air.

"Everybody shut up!"

The mercenaries fell silent and quickly looked at her.

Jean was recognized within the mercenary circle, plus she was an acquaintance of the mercenary king, so no one dared to offend her.

"I want you all to form into two groups, those who will stay here and those who will climb to the top of the building!"

Nathan looked around and focused on the weapons the mercenaries were carrying.

Bows, swords, axes, spears, guns. There were all kinds of weapons, so it was not difficult for the mercenaries to separate into two groups understanding their own strengths.

Those with long distance weapons formed up to climb to the top of the building, while those with melee weapons decided to stay behind.

Nathan, for his part, decided to join the group to climb to the roof of the building under construction. For the simple fact that from the top he would have more of a view of the surroundings.

"I don't care if you're ready, start moving your heavy butts towards the stairs!"

It was then that a grimace appeared on his face, and he slowly looked up.

'There is no elevator, right?'

Resigning himself, Nathan made his way to the entrance of the building to begin to file up the emergency stairs.

The building was almost 50 stories high, so they spent a long time climbing the stairs all together in a row until finally Nathan reached the roof of the building.

In front of him stretched the blue sky and right in the middle of his vision a large, majestic castle rose up to touch the clouds.

Seeing it in person was definitely much more impressive than watching it on video. In addition, the whole time he was inside the castle, he was unable to grasp how big it was.

Even so, Nathan doubted whether the size of the interior really matched the size shown on the outside.

When he was still inside the realm, he had literally spent weeks walking the endless corridors, so he expected the castle to be even larger than what he was seeing.

"Damn... I've never seen anything like this in my life" said a mercenary standing near Nathan with a look of surprise and some admiration.

Not only that mercenary, but many others were admiring the large castle. 

Suddenly Jean reached the roof and finally the whole group had climbed up.

"I want everyone to keep an eye on the surroundings and not miss a single detail!"

Nathan looked sideways at Jean without understanding why she looked so careful, but after looking at her for a couple of seconds, Nathan shook his head and went back to looking at the castle.

'...I was locked up for so long that it feels weird to see the castle from outside with my own eyes' Amelia sighed somewhat dejectedly.

Nathan could not fully understand her feelings, but he guessed that it was something like being released from prison after many years and then coming for a visit.

It would probably not be a very pleasant feeling.

While he was thinking about that, a heavy sound was heard in the surroundings making all the mercenaries groan in different ways.

'...Again'

Listening to the chanting in the air, Nathan focused on the sky above the castle, then a slight crack appeared in the air before it widened, and a large rift was created.

The large whale appeared out of nowhere and began to swim calmly in the air above the castle, circling it as if it were watching it.

It was not the first time the whale had appeared since the castle had appeared. It appeared at an interval of about a week, and lasted about a couple of hours in the air before it flew away again through the rift it had come from.

Nathan watched the large whale in silence. The first time he saw it he was surprised and did not know how to react to such a calamity, but even after seeing it a couple of times he did not know how to react. 

All the mercenaries were silently watching the big whale, as if they were in some kind of hypnotic trance.

Shaking his head in amusement, Nathan turned his attention back to the whale, when he felt a great pressure that forced him to his knees.

'W-what's going on?!'

With some effort, he looked around and realized that all the mercenaries were just like him, kneeling with tense expressions and sweaty faces from nerves.

The pressure continued to increase, making it difficult to breathe. Nathan looked at the castle where the pressure was coming from and frowned as he remembered when he had felt the pressure.

One of the first days when he arrived in the realm, he had felt several bursts of essence that he assumed were from a battle. For those bursts of essence were very similar to what he was feeling.

'What the fuck is going on in there?'

'Nathan...' Amelia spoke dryly.

Nathan frowned as he heard her speak in that tone, then he couldn't help but suspect that Amelia knew something about what was going on.

'Do you know something?'

Taking a few seconds to respond, Amelia nodded eagerly.

'Do you remember me mentioning the owner of the castle to you?'

Nathan nodded slightly.

'This is his essence'

Nathan gritted his teeth trying to resist such pressure.

'What kind of being is someone who can wield power like that...?'

As he thought that, a pillar of light suddenly shot out of the castle and rose into the sky.

Nathan's eyes widened in disbelief as he watched the beam of light rise quickly until it reached the great whale, piercing one of its massive fins.

The great Behemoth growled from the intense pain that shot through its nerves, causing everyone to grunt in pain at the piercing sound that reached their ears, then as everyone watched in astonishment, the great whale's body slowly began to fall from the sky.