When Soph cast the spell, red flames burst from the magic circle.
Small red flames, like enlarged fireflies.
Charrrr.
Dozens of flames that had leapt from the magic circle swept through the interior of the ruins.
It was a beautiful sight to behold, but sweat streamed down the nape of my neck.
Each and every flame radiated a scorching heat, but more than that, the energy contained within them was terrifying.
Each flame held enough power to make a person explode with a mere touch.
And there were dozens of such flames.
If Soph hadn’t told me I would be all right, I would undoubtedly have bolted straight outside.
The magic monster seemed to have thought the same thing I did.
The moment flames sprang from the magic circle, the monster tried to leave the ruins.
[Did you think I would let you? Do not underestimate a former archmage. I did not spend all that time on this magic circle for nothing.]
Along with Soph’s words, the floor turned into a swamp.
The earth magic contained in the magic circle had altered the nature of the ruins’ floor.
Its thin tentacle legs sank into the ground.
Watching Soph cast the spell, I realized what kind of magic circle this was.
It was a magic circle the magic monster had used to attack the unit members outside from within the ruins.
Each flame produced by the magic circle was a guided spell possessing powerful firepower.
If compared to modern weaponry, it was similar to a suicide drone.
Soph had modified such a powerful magic circle.
Soph had changed the target of the magic circle from humans to the magic monster.
On top of that, he had even added earth magic to hinder the monster’s movements.
The instant the monster hesitated with its tentacles embedded in the ground, the flames flew.
Buuuuung!
Like flying insects rushing toward a streetlamp, dozens of flames clung to the monster.
The monster swung its hands and slammed down the tentacles it had barely managed to pull free, but it could not touch the flames.
Like mosquitoes evading a swatter, the flames stuck to the monster’s body.
The next moment, the flames exploded.
Kwa-gwa-gwa-gwang!
Fire and a roar of explosions swept through the lobby.
Pressure and heat engulfed me.
The firepower was stronger than expected.
Dozens of bombs had gone off indoors all at once, so there was no way the force would be weak.
Kwaang!
The impact of the explosion slammed me into the wall.
Crack!
There was a tremendous sound, but fortunately, the impact wasn’t too great.
It was because I had used magic in that instant.
I pulled my body out of the wall and let out a sigh of relief.
“If it hadn’t been for magic, I think I would’ve been badly hurt.”
In front of the wall I had pulled myself out of, and on the opposite side, translucent shields were spread out.
When the explosion occurred, I had reflexively wrapped both hands in magic shields.
It was a magic shield that had been difficult for Soph to use because it had to be fixed in one place.
I had worried it would be the same this time, but fortunately, when I used it, it moved along with my hands.
‘Is it because my magic is cast attached to my hands?’
In any case, thanks to that, I avoided injury.
The shield behind me absorbed the impact of colliding with the wall, and the shield in front blocked all the heat of the flames.
The shield was glowing red-hot enough to be visible.
The flames soon cleared.
It had been tremendous firepower, but the body of the monster resembling a scout soldier was even sturdier.
Only small wounds marked the monster’s exposed body.
Fortunately, the magic had not failed.
The monster’s upper body, the humanoid part that used magic, was not as strong as its body.
The monster’s head had been blown off, its arms had been smashed, and its entire upper body had been reduced to rags.
It was in an even more gruesome state than the zombie monsters crawling around outside.
However, the monster was still writhing and restoring its body.
Its wounds were closing, and its arms and head were beginning to grow back.
I dispelled the heated shield and asked Soph.
“Was the body the main part?”
[If you blow away the upper body, it cannot use magic, so both are the main body.]
Both were the main body?
I asked Soph again.
“Then it won’t die even if we blow away the body?”
[That is not the case, but...]
‘This magic-supremacist old geezer!’
I clicked my tongue and launched myself toward the monster.
I hadn’t killed it, but now was my chance while it couldn’t use magic.
As I charged toward the monster, tentacles flew at me, scattering white blood.
It seemed that even without a head, it wasn’t unable to see.
It didn’t matter.
A monster that couldn’t use magic was no match for me.
I moved one step, dodged a tentacle, and sliced through the tentacle embedded beside me with the edge of my hand.
Slice.
The frozen tentacle was severed.
Perhaps it had pulled all the tentacles out of the ground, because tentacles kept flying at me.
But I could dodge them all.
I soon arrived in front of the monster’s body.
I placed my hand on the monster’s belly.
When I spread my super senses through my hand, I was able to find the black stone immediately.
Dodging the tentacles, I moved to the spot closest to the black stone.
The monster’s lower abdomen.
I placed my hand on its belly.
Because it was using all its tentacles for attack, the monster could not avoid my hand.
However, this magic monster was not as large as the scout soldier monster.
Its tentacles were not that long or thick either.
The thin tentacles moved far more agilely.
So much so that even I, pressed right up against the monster, would have had difficulty dodging them.
Of course, I had no intention of dodging.
After placing one hand on the monster’s belly, I spread my other hand toward the incoming tentacles.
Buuung.
When I cast the spell, a magic shield spread out in front of my hand.
A tentacle struck the translucent shield.
Thud.
An impact came, but it was nothing like the scout soldier’s tentacles.
I could deflect this much easily enough.
Thud.
Another tentacle struck down, but I could withstand that too.
If I had been attacked, I had to pay it back.
I cast the spell I had prepared.
Magic activated from the hand placed on the monster’s belly.
“Burst.”
The monster’s belly swelled.
Bang!
Its belly exploded.
Cooked chunks of flesh burst out, and white blood poured down like a waterfall along with smoke.
I did not avoid the shower of flesh and blood.
Boiling blood covered my body, but I endured it with the heat-resistance magic I had just learned from the magic monster.
Instead, I thrust my arm into the burst-open flesh.
The black stone was within arm’s reach.
Because it wasn’t as large as the scout soldier monster, I didn’t even need to put my body inside.
My hand seized the black stone, and I pulled it with all my strength.
The monster thrashed, but it was already too late.
I pulled out the black stone.
The moment I removed the black stone, the monster collapsed.
Covered completely in white blood, I looked down at the fallen monster.
“It’s definitely dead.”
Whether I looked with my eyes or checked with my senses, the monster was dead.
Even if not, since I had pulled out the black stone, there was no way it could be alive.
However, the smashed upper body now looked more intact than before.
“Its recovery is incredibly fast. If I’d been any later, that would’ve been troublesome.”
Both shattered arms had returned, and the upper body had gone back to normal.
Even the head that had disappeared had regenerated more than halfway.
Even now, one intact eye was staring at me.
I went and retrieved the backpack I had thrown to one side when I came in.
Perhaps because it had been handled roughly all this time, the backpack was a mess.
It seemed I would have to replace it with a new one.
But the box, befitting an artifact, was intact.
After taking the box out of the backpack, I put the monster into the box.
After the monster was sucked into the magic circle spread over the box, I put the box back into the backpack.
I was about to shoulder the backpack again when I saw my own body.
Covered in white blood and bits of monster flesh, I looked dreadful even to myself.
I raised my hand and retrieved the spear, then asked Soph for a favor.
“Please use some water magic.”
When Soph cast the spell, water formed in the air and poured down over my body.
Shaaaaa!
Magic really was great.
Thanks to magic, I no longer had to walk around covered in monster blood.
After finishing a fight, being hit with water made by magic like this was exceptionally refreshing.
“As expected, magic is great.”
When I expressed my gratitude, Soph clicked his tongue.
[You said nothing all this time, and now you praise magic because you are using it instead of a showerhead?]
I told the grumbling Soph the truth.
“Just like the greatest invention is the air conditioner, whether it’s science or magic, the best thing is whatever makes life more convenient.”
It was only because we were in the middle of a war, but later on, magic that made life comfortable would become the most important.
“Now that I think about it, I should learn more magic like that. Is there anything you can teach me?”
[No. Or rather, it would be faster for you to learn properly and make it yourself.]
It was an answer thick with spite, but it was still useful in its own way.
‘Me, making magic myself...’
It seemed I would have to think about it a little more.
***
At the time the magic monster fell.
The ruined city where the control entity had settled began to move.
Ddddddk.
The buildings where the cocoons had been collapsed, and monsters began to reveal themselves.
Defensive-type monsters that smashed through buildings with their massive bulk, and magic monsters resembling spider-people that broke their way out using magic.
They were not the incomplete monsters that had appeared not long ago.
Not only the magic monsters that had destroyed buildings with magic, but even the defensive-type monsters that had smashed buildings with their bodies were completely uninjured.
Just by looking at their black shells, those defensive-type monsters seemed far sturdier than the scout soldier.
The cocoons had been broken by the humans’ intrusion, and the workers had also been killed, reducing their numbers, but there were not a few completed magic monsters and defensive-type monsters now.
More than ten magic monsters, and defensive-type monsters that seemed to number twice that.
Even half this number would be enough to easily flatten a city of mages.
That was why the control entity issued an order.
—Buuuuung.
A bizarre sound resembling a siren rang out, and most of the monsters began to move.
Kwa-gwa-gwa-gwa-gwa.
Buildings collapsed, and monsters poured out of the city.
The sight of house-sized monsters moving together across the wasteland was enough to send a shudder through anyone just by looking at it.
The monsters that left the city continued moving west.
Across tens of thousands of years, to once again purge the humans.
The monsters advanced toward the place where the scout soldier monster and the magic monster had died.
The monsters’ movements were caught by the magic circle Soph had laid down.
***
[They are finally moving.]
As I headed toward the main force with the unit members, I turned my head at Soph’s words.
Naturally, the monsters still couldn’t be seen from here.
Their movement was faster than expected, but I wasn’t surprised.
[As expected, this was a trap too.]
[A double trap, in other words. They used the scout soldier as bait to lure us in, then checked our abilities with the monster that uses magic.]
It was something I had expected when I saw the magic monster.
A properly made monster had appeared, so there was no way other monsters wouldn’t appear too.
On top of that, there was no way beings who used their heads as much as humans would send a magic monster separately for no reason.
In the end, all of this had been a trap to find humans.
Soph and I had knowingly walked into the trap.
“Since the monsters came out, the city must be empty.”
[Indeed. If we are to intercept the control entity, now is the best time.]
This was not a situation where we could kill the monsters made by the control entity one by one.
Before I could kill all the monsters, they would discover the terraforming ruins first.
That said, we couldn’t hide in the terraforming ruins or on the ice planet until Earth was destroyed.
In the end, we had to fight the monsters and the control entity.
And now was when the control entity would be at its weakest.
When it had pulled the monsters out of the city to kill humans.
Before the next monsters were made, we had to bring down the control entity.
It was time to decide the match.
Operation Planning (1)