Kwaaaang!
The fireball Sterling had launched exploded the instant it entered the hole.
It was an empty hole, yet it seemed to have struck something.
On top of that, the entire blast was forced back outside.
“Ah, hot!”
The Americans threw themselves backward to avoid the flames, and Sterling, who had cast the spell, was swept up in the heat as well.
Fortunately, the heat was pushed in another direction.
“Gale Force!”
It was thanks to the wind magic Catherine hurriedly cast.
If not for her, everyone would have suffered serious burns.
Whoooosh!
Though she had blocked the flames, Catherine’s expression was not good.
She continued sending out wind as she shouted loudly.
“It’s blocked. The wind won’t go into the hole!”
The wind she had summoned, just like the flames, was striking the hole and spreading out to the sides.
The smoke from the explosion quickly dispersed in the wind.
Once the smoke cleared, the inside of the hole was revealed.
Inside stood a monster that looked like a mix between a spider and a human—a magic monster.
The monster was standing behind a translucent barrier.
“Don’t tell me… shield magic? Monsters can use that too?”
Seeing the translucent membrane, Sterling’s eyes widened.
It was exactly as Sterling said.
The fireball he had fired, and Catherine’s wind as well, had both been blocked by the shield magic the monster had cast.
Thunk, thunk.
Catherine’s ensuing blades of wind at least managed to scar the shield, but those marks vanished almost immediately.
Unlike them, the magic monster could use magic even while maintaining its shield.
Behind the shield, a new magic circle began to form.
Catherine’s expression darkened.
Sterling was the same.
He gritted his teeth.
“Damn it! I have to make another spell…”
Cold sweat running down his face, Sterling began constructing a formula again.
He was short on energy, but he had no choice.
His previous spell had not worked either, but he could not give up here.
His towering pride continued to drive him forward.
Once again, he shouted at the person who had created this absurd situation.
“My magic doesn’t work on it either! Why did you make me do it?”
Just as he vented the grievances that had been piling up and began gathering energy, a voice came from beside him.
“Thanks to you, I was able to buy time.”
It was a voice he did not want to hear right now.
And yet, upon hearing that voice, Sterling was able to relax.
Sterling released the energy he had been gathering and erased the formula.
With a relieved face, he sank down onto the ground.
***
Seeing him sit down the moment I spoke, Sterling seemed to be far more exhausted than I had expected.
Still, he and Catherine had done well.
Thanks to the two of them buying time, I was able to rush here like this.
I spread my hand, signaling for everyone to step back.
“Everyone, fall back. I’ll handle him.”
“The monster that came to the front…”
“I caught it.”
At Catherine’s question, I raised the spear from which the black stone had disappeared and pointed ahead.
The magic monster that had come toward me had already been brought down.
When I first encountered it, I struggled a little, and even now, if I faced it properly, it would not have been easy to bring down. But this time, I had no time for that.
The instant the hole opened, I charged at the magic monster.
Then I drove my spear into its body.
I heated the spear until the black stone glowed red, and hammered all sorts of magic into it to sharpen the blade, piercing through the monster’s hide.
Of course, even this time, because of its defensive magic, it was not easy to detonate magic inside its body.
But difficult did not mean impossible.
Difficult simply meant the magic was weak, or that there was not enough energy.
Once I drove the spear in, the former archmage, Soph, cast a spell.
The spell was cast inside the monster’s body.
When the magic activated, the defensive magic enveloping the monster’s body tried to block Soph’s spell.
A battle broke out inside the monster.
As the battle grew fierce, the light emitted by the black stone dimmed.
The more the light dimmed, the stronger Soph’s magic became.
Thud. Thud.
The defensive spells shattered one after another.
The moment the black stone’s light vanished completely, all the defensive magic broke apart as well.
Soph’s spell activated inside the monster’s body.
Boooom!
The body into which I had driven the spear burst apart, and a third of it vanished.
White blood and chunks of flesh flew in every direction.
Its regenerative ability might have been excellent, but with the part of its body containing the black stone blown away, there was no way for the monster to survive.
The monster pitched forward.
The team members outside the hole stared at me in bewilderment.
To their eyes, it must have looked as though I had leapt into the hole and the monster had immediately exploded.
On top of that, unlike the team members covered in blood and bits of flesh, I was perfectly fine.
That was because the instant its body exploded, I cast a shield to block the incoming flesh and blood.
Since it had blown apart like that, the black stone must have been destroyed as well.
On top of that, the black stone I had embedded in the spear had used up all its energy.
It was a waste, but there was nothing I could do about it now.
After confirming the monster was dead, I launched myself toward the rear of the group.
As I did, I put the energy-depleted black stone into my backpack.
Once the black stone was gone, the spear looked like a staff—no, a wand.
After arriving at the rear hole, I looked at the monster forming a magic circle behind its shield and took a new black stone out of my backpack.
It was a black stone I had newly modified at the terraforming ruins before we set out.
Not a purple-tinged one like the scout’s black stone, but a black stone with a red glow.
This black stone had come from a magic monster.
Because I had prepared this black stone, I had been able to use up the previous one so readily.
As I mounted the new black stone onto the spear again, I observed the monster.
It, too, was looking at me while forming a magic circle behind its shield.
Soph said,
[The moment that magic circle is complete, it will drop the shield and attack.]
“The longer it takes, the more impressive the attack will be, right?”
[In a narrow cave like this, it won’t be easy to block.]
With it taking that much time, there was no way it was an ordinary spell.
I was curious what kind of magic it was, but there was no reason to wait until it used it.
“There’s no need to stand here and watch that, is there?”
[Of course not.]
The moment I heard Soph’s reply, I pushed energy into my feet.
Energy flowed into the magic circles I had spread underground.
Rummmble.
The walls on both sides of the hole collapsed, and the ground beneath the monster’s feet surged upward.
Stagger.
As the monster’s stance broke, the magic circle it had been making was canceled as well.
Just as expected.
The longer it took, the more delicate the magic was.
The startled monster flailed its arms, but it could not stop the magic circle from disappearing.
[When fighting a mage, one must not feel safe just because they are behind a shield.]
If it had blocked the hole with a shield, then I only had to break the walls.
Unlike the others, I could move the earth.
Mounting the black stone had been a feint.
Even without the black stone, even without a staff, I could use magic.
Just as it had been forming a magic circle behind its shield, I had been forming magic circles underground.
The instant the monster staggered, I leapt through the newly made hole beside the shield.
The startled monster tried to erase its existing shield and create a new one, but I was faster.
Feeling a shield form behind my back, I pressed myself close to the monster.
As I drew near, tentacles shot toward me.
I swung the spear at the tentacles.
Slice.
The tentacles could not withstand the red-hot spear.
Every tentacle that had been fired was severed.
If it were human, it would have been thrashing in pain, but even in the midst of that, the monster cast magic.
Flash! Flash! Flash!
Magic circles unfolded around me.
All of them were spells targeting me, pursuing me.
It seemed I could dodge them, but instead, I stabbed my spear into the magic circles.
Shk!
The magic circles shattered.
The monster stared at me with a startled expression.
Such a humanlike expression.
It was the first time I had seen a monster make that kind of face.
The monster seemed to have never imagined its magic circles would break.
That was only natural.
There was no way a magic circle would break just because I stabbed a spear into it.
The magic that had just broken was not a complex and delicate spell like the one that had been canceled moments ago.
It was a simple, fast spell used in battle.
There was no way such a magic circle would be destroyed by a spear.
Naturally, it was not the spear that had broken the magic circles.
The spear was merely a medium to pour my energy into the magic circles.
What destroyed the magic circles was my magic.
I had seen the magic the monster made, and created the reverse of it.
Creating new magic was difficult, but this was merely canceling out existing magic, so there was nothing difficult about it.
[Nothing difficult… Do you know how absurd that sounds?]
Soph grumbled something, but this was not the time to respond.
I continued breaking the magic circles.
Magic circles shattered, tentacles were cut away, and wounds increased across the monster’s body.
During the fight, I did not use the new black stone.
The real battle had not even begun yet.
I had to conserve the newly mounted black stone.
Even without using the black stone, there was no problem.
As I continued attacking while breaking its magic circles, the monster at some point stopped forming them.
Its energy had run dry.
It still had its sturdy body left, but in the end, that was all.
I burst its flesh with magic, then pulled out the black stone.
The monster collapsed.
At that moment.
Wooooong.
I felt an immense energy sweep across my body.
Soph’s voice reached me.
[It’s the control object. He’s noticed.]
Well, I had killed a magic object right under his nose. There was no way he would not notice.
As I tossed the fallen magic monster into the box, I shouted to the others.
“We have to hurry. It seems the control object has noticed. We need to bring him down before the monsters return.”
The people who had been blankly watching the fight snapped back to their senses at my words.
Unlike before, the Americans immediately moved at my command as well.
Sterling also got to his feet, grumbling.
“It must be at least a hundred kilometers away, so shouldn’t we still have time…?”
If there had only been scout monsters, he would not have been wrong.
There would have been no need to use people as bait either.
However, among the monsters that had left the city, there were magic monsters mixed in.
***
At the same time.
The people who had gone hunting to the west were fleeing from the monsters.
Those who had boldly charged in upon seeing the unfamiliar monsters were burned by flying fireballs and tentacles, sliced apart, and crushed beneath massive bodies.
After the first attack, the people fled, but even that was not easy.
Those running across the plains could not shake off the monsters’ pursuit, and those who hid between rocks or in caves could not hide in peace.
The same was true for Huiwon’s group, who had hidden in a cave in a rocky mountain.
Of the hunting team’s more than ten members, the only ones who had survived to this point were Huiwon, one American, and the Chinese porter Li Seogi.
It was a small cave that people could barely squeeze into, so they had all felt relieved, but that relief did not last long.
Thud. Thud.
The walls trembled, and stone dust poured down.
It was clear that a huge insect-like monster was ramming into the rocky mountain.
Their faces went pale once more.
“I don’t think this cave can hold out any longer.”
“This is a rocky mountain. You’re saying even a rocky mountain can’t hold?”
Seeing the wall crack, Huiwon spoke, and the American answered with a horrified expression.
Between them, Li Seogi merely trembled, his face white as a sheet.
Thud. Thud. Thud.
The three of them watched the crack widen in terror.
Time passed.
At some point, the sound stopped.
The three startled people looked at one another.
“Shouldn’t someone go out and check…?”
The American man said, looking at Li Seogi.
Li Seogi let out a sigh.
“Understood. I’ll go.”
“I’ll go with you.”
As he was about to leave, Huiwon followed him.
With even Huiwon moving, the American had no choice but to move as well.
They went outside the cave, and saw an unexpected sight.
The monsters that had been breaking the rocky mountain were returning.
Three huge monsters and two smaller ones.
The huge monsters looked far more terrifying, but the ones that had killed nearly all the people were the small monsters that looked like spider humans.
The movements of the small monsters as they moved away were a little strange.
The monsters were drawing patterns in the air, lifting their bodies up, then settling back down again repeatedly.
It looked as though they were trying to fly through the sky and failing.
“Looks like something isn’t working for them, doesn’t it?”
“After using that much power, there’s no way they have any strength left… How many people did those things kill?”
“If not for those big ones, I feel like we could land a blow on them even now…”
At Huiwon’s words, the man stopped her with a horrified expression.
“Don’t even dream of it. Those things could finish all of us with their tentacles alone.”
Huiwon had not actually intended to do it either.
“But where are they going?”
“Aren’t they going back? They’re probably returning because they’re low on energy.”
While the two of them watched the monsters leave, Li Seogi was sighing as he looked up at the sky.
He had survived again.
As he let out a sigh, he saw something strange.
Something was flying through the sky.
“What is that?”
“Don’t tell me… Is it a monster? Monsters can fly?”
Just as he said, a monster that looked like a spider human was flying through the sky.
There was not just one flying monster.
A considerable number of monsters were flying west.
Control Object (1)