The city had changed greatly.
Even the buildings that had been relatively intact were now broken, and many roads were blocked by fresh rubble.
The number of humanoid monsters roaming about had dropped sharply, but several gigantic insect-like monsters clad in armor were wandering the city.
Those monsters were the defensive-type monsters whose numbers I had reduced by destroying their cocoons.
To think there were still that many left inside the city.
I had worked hard to cut them down, but it seemed it hadn’t been enough.
Before we set out, I cautioned the others.
“As quietly as possible, follow me. I’ll handle combat as discreetly and minimally as I can.”
The Americans looked puzzled at my words.
But I had command, and this wasn’t their first operation of this sort either.
They all nodded with dissatisfied expressions.
There were ten of us who had come to this city, including me.
It was a small number, not even a full squad, but I divided them into two groups.
First, I placed four exploration team members in one group with Sergeant Woo as the leader, and then put Catherine in charge of the Americans to form another group.
And I would take the role of commander responsible for both groups, as well as a free-role operative who moved separately.
“Then, we’re moving out.”
With me in the lead, Catherine’s group in the middle, and the exploration team bringing up the rear, we sprinted through the city’s alleys.
A map of this city, its streets, unfurled inside my head.
The main roads and alleys, even my own paths made by connecting rooftops together.
They were routes I had memorized while roaming the city before.
Many routes had vanished because the monsters had destroyed the buildings, but plenty of usable paths still remained.
As I ran, new routes formed and vanished inside my head.
The positions of monsters confirmed through my heightened senses were added onto the newly formed routes.
A map of the city containing the monsters’ real-time positions was drawn in my mind.
Using that map as a basis, we moved quickly through the city.
“Into the alley on the left.”
Sometimes, while advancing down a main road, I would abruptly dive into a narrow alley.
“Stop. Turn back.”
Sometimes I would suddenly stop and head back the way we came.
“For this block, get up onto the roof and keep moving across the rooftops.”
And finally, I even told them to climb onto the roof and run.
The exploration team members, who knew my senses, moved without complaint despite my abrupt orders, but the Americans frowned even as they obeyed me.
However, that dissatisfaction did not last long.
Some time later, when we briefly stopped on the roof of a building, I heard the Americans whose names I hadn’t memorized whispering.
“Don’t tell me the city is empty.”
“No way. Monsters passed right under us a moment ago.”
“Then he really has been avoiding them well.”
Their expressions as they looked at me had changed.
During our crossing of the city, we hadn’t encountered a monster even once, and they had realized that it was because of me.
In truth, moving stealthily through the city was much easier than before.
It was because the number of humanoid monsters had dropped drastically.
The monsters we had killed last time were not few, and many had also disappeared as food for the cocoons.
Unlike before, now there were few enough that we could avoid them.
Gigantic monsters that hadn’t been here before were patrolling the city, but with those monsters, all we had to do was spot them and steer clear.
However, the farther west we went in the city, the more the map I had made grew hazy.
The western side of the city was where the control entity was, so I had avoided it as much as possible before.
Since I had never been there, it was difficult to create a proper map or routes.
Because of that, we sometimes entered blocked roads, and because walls had collapsed, we were sometimes discovered by monsters elsewhere.
However, we were able to eliminate those monsters immediately.
It was thanks to Hanna’s bow and the firearms we had brought from Earth.
Fwoosh!
When I gave the signal, a flaming arrow arced over the wall and burned the hidden monster,
Thuk.
and a silenced sniper rifle blew apart the head of a distant monster.
The combination of my heightened senses, Hanna’s bow, and Sergeant Woo’s sniper rifle was truly powerful.
Whether the monsters were hiding or far away, they could not escape my senses, and they could not avoid Hanna’s bow or Sergeant Woo’s sniper rifle.
Unlike with me, the Americans had looked down on the exploration team members, but after seeing Hanna and Sergeant Woo in action, they seemed to have abandoned that notion.
After racing on while dealing with enemies like that, we were able to reach our destination.
A small, half-collapsed building.
From the outside, it looked no different from any other building.
[There’s no reason it would look different. This is only an entrance leading underground. It should be the same on Earth, no?]
It was as Soph said.
I had never heard of anyone making an entrance to the sewers look splendid.
Come to think of it, the sewer entrances on Earth were extremely dirty. They weren’t connected to intact buildings like this place.
[Is it because of magic?]
[You could say that. They were able to purify contaminated air with magic.]
In that case, it made sense to connect a sewer entrance to a proper building.
We entered the building.
Whether I looked with my eyes or checked with my senses, there were no monsters guarding the building.
[In any case, their way of thinking is different from humans’, so they likely cannot even conceive of guarding this place.]
Together with the others, I went down into the empty building’s basement.
Perhaps because the magic had stopped, the farther down we went, the worse I felt.
The air grew stuffy, and there was a strange smell.
My body felt sticky, as if a viscous liquid were clinging to it.
That sensation was at its worst when I saw the large tunnel connected to the basement.
An intense energy flowed out of the tunnel.
It was a vile aura, so foul I could almost smell the stench.
Everyone’s expressions worsened.
“There’s definitely something awful down there.”
Even Catherine said that with her expression stiff.
When planning the operation, I had told the others that I knew where the control entity was.
I said I had learned through my ability that the control entity was in the city’s underground sewage treatment plant.
Because my senses had accomplished so much until now, the others believed me.
In truth, Soph had been the one to tell me the control entity’s location.
[If anything, it is only natural that the control entity would settle there.
A sewage purification facility is a place that gathers the planet’s dark energy to process sewage. It is a magical facility that operates automatically without people, and it lies deep underground, so there is a high chance it is still intact.]
Soph had explained the reason logically, but...
[Before the destruction, after smashing a city to pieces, there was one that settled in the sewage purification facility.
There were people still alive in that city until then, but they were captured by humanoid monsters that climbed up through the sewers and all became food for the cocoons.]
The story he had seen with his own eyes hit home far more clearly.
In any case, it was a story worth trusting.
Since we had confirmed that the control entity was in the sewage treatment plant, the method of infiltration was not difficult.
When going to a sewage treatment plant, using the sewers was the standard play.
Soph did not oppose the plan either.
[Perhaps because it is not human, it does not seem to properly understand the concept of sneaking in through the sewers.]
That sewer entry operation was why we were standing in front of the tunnel, feeling terrible.
Seeing that the others’ expressions were bad, Soph spoke.
[I shall use a little magic.]
A small amount of energy flowed into the spear, and a refreshing aura flowed out from the staff.
The others’ expressions eased slightly.
[It is not a long-lasting spell, so you had best hurry.]
Even without Soph saying so, I intended to hurry.
After making light appear at the tip of my spear, I sent hand signals to the others.
This time, it was proper light, not a shower of sparks.
It was a new spell, but now even the Americans were not surprised.
At my signal, we entered the tunnel.
This time, I took the lead.
The exploration team members were in the middle, and the Americans were last.
As we entered the tunnel, I cautioned the others.
“From here on, everyone needs to be careful. Keep even quieter, and stay alert because the light may go out at any time.”
The tunnel we were entering now was a semi-circular stone tunnel.
With no water flowing through it, the bone-dry stone tunnel carried sound far into the distance.
The same was true for light.
A new light had appeared in the pitch-black tunnel, so it was certain to be visible from far away.
We couldn’t come all this way only to be discovered by the enemy because of the light.
Seeing everyone nod, I continued.
“Be especially careful with fire magic. If something goes wrong, it could harm allies and even deplete the air.”
Sterling, who had been making a small flame above his hand, stiffened.
It was understandable.
It was something I meant for Hanna as well, but Hanna could use other magic too, so it was no different from saying it to Sterling.
Even if it put him in a bad mood, there was nothing I could do about it.
After confirming that Sterling had extinguished the flame, I started walking again.
The others quietly followed behind me.
Perhaps because it covered the entire city, the sewer system was complicated.
Since it was a place I had never visited before, I had to create a new map inside my head.
Still, finding the way was not difficult.
The sewers were complex, but in the end, they converged in one place.
Like all roots gathering in one spot, every sewer led toward the sewage treatment plant.
People walked through the broad, semi-circular stone tunnel, following the magical light.
At first, everyone was tense, but that tension did not last long.
It was not only because the sewers were quiet.
In truth, the sewers were not completely empty.
Indigenous creatures resembling rats scurried about, and damaged humanoid monsters wandered around, swaying unsteadily.
The Americans dealt with such monsters well.
They easily took down small monsters that suddenly sprang out from narrow tunnels.
Not only Catherine, who used wind magic, but Carlo and the two Americans whose names I didn’t know performed fairly well too.
One of them handled several rat-like monsters with a shield and spear, while another threw a small axe that returned like my spear, felling the humanoid monsters.
My own team members went without saying.
Since we only encountered such minor enemies, everyone had no choice but to relax.
Sterling’s dissatisfaction seemed to grow even larger.
It was because he had been unable to use magic the entire time.
The narrow passages, my warning, and the allies blocking his line of sight on top of that.
This sewer was truly a terrible place for him to use magic.
Before long, he vented his dissatisfaction.
“Is there really any need to go like this?”
“What do you mean?”
At Catherine’s question, Sterling raised his voice.
“That control entity or whatever isn’t going to go down into this sewer, is it?”
“Probably not.”
“I don’t know how it did it, but it must have dug down through the ground, so we could have done the same. From what I saw earlier, it seemed like you could move earth too.”
His voice was loud enough to reach even me at the front.
Everyone turned their heads to look at him.
“If we’d dug down through the ground, we wouldn’t have had to walk like this... Damn it, then we would be discovered, wouldn’t we?”
Seeing Sterling find the answer on his own, everyone shook their heads.
I looked at him and let out a small laugh too.
[So there was someone else who said the same thing as you.]
Because I had asked Soph the exact same question.
I had been smiling, but soon my expression stiffened.
Enemies had entered the range of my senses.
Two enemies approaching straight toward us, ignoring the tunnels I had confirmed with my senses.
The enemies were digging through the earth right now as they came.
‘Magic monsters!’
This was not a situation where we could hide by turning off the light.
The monsters knew we were here.
Instead, I made the light brighter.
Brilliant light filled the tunnel.
Amid that light, I shouted loudly.
“Enemies!”
I felt the others tense.
At that very moment, the wall exploded.
Kwaaaang!
The walls exploded in two places at once: in front of me and behind the group.
‘Front and back—a pincer attack!’
As I charged at the monster that had appeared in front, I shouted loudly.
“Sterling! Use magic!”
I could handle the front, but in the meantime, we had to block the rear.
To stop the ambushing enemy, Sterling’s magic was the best option.
At my words, Sterling bit his lip.
“Don’t forget, you’re the one who told me to do this!”
He shouted angrily and cast his spell.
A large fireball left his hand and flew into the hole the monster had made.
Sewer Battle