"...a final wish of a man about to fade away, huh..."

Shanks repeated Mary's words while leaning far back into his chair while covering his eyes with one arm.

"...yes..."

The brown-haired girl nodded with a solemn expression.

"...say was that really your older brother, kind sir...? Didn't you say that he was already dead?"

She couldn't help herself and ended up asking.

"...I haven't used those exact words, but, well, he was supposed to be..."

Shanks shrugged his shoulders without changing his position.

"Do you want to elaborate on that...?"

Mary tilted her head and asked.

"No."

"...I see..."

After Shank's short answer Mary decided to not pursue it any further.

...after all, the answer didn't really matter much...

/09:44:12

/09:44:11

The final timer was ruthlessly counting down the time remaining for the 10th - and final - monster wave of the -Final frontier- quest.

"Hey, I don't want to sound ungrateful to your older brother or anything, but isn't our situation just the worst? We were saved by a literal miracle that had no right to happen, BUT, we're now in the shittiest position imaginable."

Mary sighed and tapped her fingers on the table, where two hot drinks were slowly letting out aromatic steam.

"According to the reports, it's impossible to salvage anything from the remains of the third defense line, well, because there is no third defense line anymore - everything was obliterated."

The brown-haired girl closed her eyes and breathed out.

"If it only meant that the weapons are gone..."

Shanks slowly put down his arm and slowly moved his head to look at Mary with his reddish eyes.

"...!"

Mary flinched and bit her lips.

"All the crews manning the artillery cannons are gone, all the supplies that were stored behind the previously impervious third defense line, which there wasn't even that much, to begin with, are gone. Even if we somehow repel the final wave, the Sloths' territory is doomed. It will take years to completely replace everything that was lost yesterday..."

Shanks's clenched his fists in cold anger.

"We're left with just a bunch of fresh recruits back in the facility where you've first arrived. No matter how good the instructors are, they won't make proper soldiers out of a bunch of children that aren't level 100 and won't be for the next three or four years."

He breathed out and closed his eyes.

"We still have more than three-quarters of the Sloth soldiers."

Mary pointed out.

"Also the avatar of sloth..."

"Don't count on the avatar for the time being. Just believe me that there is no possible way to have a repeat of yesterday."

Shanks cut of Mary with a decisive gesture.

He was pointing at the small window, or rather, at the world outside.

The window wasn't facing north where the titan-class monsters would come from but the exact opposite direction, the south, where all the villages and towns of the Sloth territory were, including the main city with the tower of sloth.

But none of them were visible because of the sea of mist.

...a sea of mist should be a good thing, and yet it wasn't like it should have been.

The sea of mist has receded.

The huge walls of milk-like fog were creating a barrier tens of miles away from the frontline.

"See that? When a sea of mist is condensing in such a way, it means that the current avatar of sloth went into a slumber. Until the next one is prepared we can't hope for the support like yesterday. What's worse, with such a high concentration of the confusing mist it is extremely difficult for the inexperienced soldiers - so the only ones left - to travel between the settlements, so we can't count on new supplies including the brand new or refurbished cannons."

The rat-faced man explained in a grim voice.

"Such a thing with the sea of mist happened a few times through history, but never before the artillery was wiped out like it is now. Also the condensed mist blocks most of the communication skills, so we can't even receive the orders from the higher-ups..."

He added and looked down with a bitter expression.

"Pffft...! What I am even talking about?! Sorry, we need a literal miracle to happen that would let us make it through the final monster wave in the first place, so worrying about anything that comes after that is completely pointless."

He suddenly laughed with self-loathing and waved his hand dismissively.

"Hey, with properly distributed forces the Sloth soldiers should be able to engage any titan-class monster that will appear. With the sea of mist receded like that, we will be at least able to spot the approaching monsters from a far greater distance than before, and therefore coordinate a lot better."

Mary wasn't going to give up and was doing her best to look at the bright sides of their situation.

She was showing in full that she truly belonged to the Hope family - and held true to their values.

"Cool, cool. That's the spirit, but please, tell me what will we do about the colossal monster that shot out the golden beams almost every day since the 5th wave?"

"...?"

Shanks shook his head with a mocking smile and asked something outrageous out of nowhere, causing Mary to close her mouth, taken aback.

"What about it? It's dead, right? You even helped killing it yesterday? Don't you remember? The cyclops that barely fit in your field of vision? Doesn't that ring a bell?"

She furrowed her brows and smiled awkwardly.

"...no, that wasn't it. The cyclops that we have killed wasn't the monster that was shooting those colossal beams."

"We saw its silhouette through the mist, it shot its beam, destroyed the third line of defense, and then it stepped forward revealing itself - and we killed it."

Mary clenched her fists and glared at the rat-faced man as soon as he stopped talking.

"...did we really got the right one? The cyclops used the beam against the young miss Mika - wasn't that attack supposed to be a once per day thing?"

*SLAM*

Shanks's question made Mary hit the table angrily and jump up from her seat.

"Stop saying nonsense! Of course, we did kill the right one! It must have saved that damned beam from the 8th wave and that's it! Otherwise, where is the gigantic monster that really unleashed that attack?! Where is it hiding?! Don't you get it?! There are no traces of...!"

*RUMBLE*

The sudden earthquake interrupted Mary as she and Shanks were barely able to keep their balance and not fall on the floor.

And before any of them could say anything else...

*WHAM*

"E-EXCUSE ME! SIR!"

The door slammed open and a pale as a ghost soldier charged inside and fell to his knees.

"What is going on?"

Shanks stood up and approached the boy.

"Sir...! Sir...!"

The soldier trembled, barely able to speak.

"..."

Mary and Shanks looked at each other, whatever news the boy was bringing, it couldn't be good.

"Are the titan-class monsters already approaching?"

The rat-faced man kneeled by the soldier and grabbed his arm.

"Sir...! The mountain...! The mountain had stood up...!"

The soldier cried out before he trembled and curled up into a fetal position.

"...!"

"What...?!"