The floor drew closer and closer.
The place I was falling toward was the center of the plaza, where a massive hole gaped open.
The hole rushed up at me.
At this rate, I was going to fall straight into it.
I had known there was an enormous drainage hole in the middle of the plaza.
But the final pipe had been embedded in the center of the ceiling, so there had been no helping it.
Since I had just interrupted my magic, I couldn’t use the gravity reversal spell.
What remained was wind magic.
I didn’t know if I could get out of the hole’s range before I fell, but right now, this spell was my best option.
I stretched my hand downward to cast it.
Whoooosh!
At that moment, an arrow flew toward me.
It was an arrow Hannah had fired.
The sudden arrow startled me, but when I saw it coming, the corners of my mouth rose.
A whip was tied to the arrow.
Magreta’s endlessly extending whip.
Magreta was holding the end of it.
Tom was holding Magreta’s body, and even Sergeant U was beside them, protecting the team members.
“Grab it!”
As I watched the arrow fly in, Magreta shouted.
The Americans had all fled after hearing my order, yet my team members were still here.
Once this was over, I would—
[It would be best not to say something you don’t mean, like “I’ll punish them later.”]
At Soph’s words, I let out a faint laugh, then snatched the arrow as it passed beside me.
As soon as I grabbed it, the whip tied to the arrow began to shrink.
Together with the whip, I was pulled out of the hole and dragged toward where the team members were.
Thud.
After landing on the floor, I looked at them.
They were smiling in relief at the sight of me.
Thanks to them, I had been able to get out of the hole without much trouble.
It was a situation where I should have thanked them, but there was no time for that now.
Kwaaang!
Immediately, the ground shook with a violent tremor and a thunderous impact.
It was the sound of the control object, that enormous monster, hitting the floor.
Fortunately, the monster had fallen on the opposite side of the hole.
Beeeeep!
The impact was strong enough to make stones fall from the ceiling, but the monster was unharmed.
The control object immediately began moving its tentacles.
“Thanks for saving me, but move!”
At my words, the team members began running after the Americans.
“Keep the whip!”
Magreta handed me the whip as well, then ran off empty-handed.
I wondered why she had handed over her weapon, but I wrapped the whip around my arm.
The team members ran toward the sewer passage we had entered through.
The sewer had been blocked halfway, but there was still space to hide just inside the entrance.
After confirming that the team members had rushed into the passage, I turned my head.
Beyond the massive hole, the control object was lifting itself up.
The pipes that had been embedded in its body were no longer visible.
Several tentacles had become legs, supporting the monster, while many more burst out of its black body and lashed through the air.
Each and every one was a thick tentacle like the pillar of a building.
The tentacles moved in every direction, searching for something.
[It must be looking for you.]
“It’s looking for us.”
Soph had interfered with it too.
[In any case, it is about time to prepare.]
“Is it phase two now?”
[Its magic should be sealed. However, because of its massive size, detonating magic inside its body will not help.]
“I wasn’t expecting it to.”
After the control object’s subordinates left the city, we had blocked the sewers to prevent them from returning.
We had cut away all the pipes embedded in the ceiling and removed the black stones exposed outside, preventing it from using magic.
What remained was a single monster that could not use magic.
Even so, bringing down the control object was no easy task.
Until now, it had been unable to move because of the pipes embedded in it, but now that restriction was gone.
On top of that, while it might not be able to use magic, it could still use dark energy.
Wooooong.
A faint sound of the facility moving reached my ears.
Soph said,
[Even in the past, control objects were difficult for ordinary mages to handle.]
“How did you catch them back then?”
[I moved personally, or high-ranking mages gathered to subdue them. If not that, we lured them into magical traps like now.]
That was why Soph had suggested using the magic of this facility to deal with the monster.
“Since you’ve done it before, I suppose it won’t be difficult this time either.”
[We succeeded only once in five attempts, and even when we succeeded, many mages died, but yes, it was something we had succeeded at before……]
The more of his memories he regained, the more the mage grumbled.
As usual, I pretended not to hear him and began running along the side of the hole.
The monster drew closer and closer.
It had noticed me now too.
The flailing tentacles all pointed at me.
There were two things I had to do now.
Buy time until the facility activated, and after that, shove that thing into the hole.
Buying time would not be difficult.
All I had to do was keep it from thinking straight.
That was what I was most confident in.
Once I had circled more than halfway around the hole, a tentacle came stabbing down from above.
Boom.
I hadn’t thought a tentacle would be able to reach this far.
It was far longer than I had expected.
It was unexpected, but I was still able to dodge it.
Unlike the ceiling, the floor was sturdy.
Even though the tentacle struck it, only cracks appeared in the floor beside the hole.
Soph, however, seemed displeased by those cracks.
[Move away from the hole. If this goes wrong, the magic circle installed in the hole may be damaged.]
At Soph’s words, I immediately moved away from the hole.
Boom.
A tentacle slammed down behind me.
As I ran, avoiding the tentacle, I asked Soph,
“How long will it take for the magic circle to activate?”
[This is a facility that has been stopped for tens of thousands of years. I must diagnose whether there are any problems, and if there are faults, I must reroute the circuits. Naturally, it will take time.]
I understood, but that didn’t mean I could just keep buying time indefinitely.
“Please hurry as much as possible. I’ll cause as much chaos as I can, but it won’t be long before it notices!”
If the magic circle was damaged, Plan A was over.
Soph knew that well too.
[I will do my best.]
Dodging the pillar-like tentacles, I eventually managed to arrive in front of the monster.
Seeing it up close, I could truly feel the tremendous size of the control object.
The scout-type monsters and the defensive-type monsters had been large too, but they were nothing compared to the control object.
To think something that enormous had broken through the ground and come down to this underground space.
It was hard to believe how that had even been possible.
[It did it with magic. You need not worry. Since we removed the magical black stones, it should be unable to do so now.]
Listening to Soph’s reassurance, I kept moving.
Despite its size, the thing was extremely fast.
As several pillar-like legs moved, the monster’s body loomed over me.
Kuuuuung!
I had to run like mad to avoid the body crashing down.
Once I got out from beneath its body, it was the tentacles’ turn.
Boom. Boom. Boom. Boom.
To avoid the raining tentacles, I had to activate every sense I had and move constantly in every direction.
I was supposed to be confusing the monster, but the barrage of tentacles was making it hard for me to keep my own wits about me.
That did not mean I neglected what I had to do.
While avoiding the monster’s attacks, I swung my spear furiously and cast spells.
Once again, the shining spear was ineffective.
Just as the wounds on the tentacles had vanished at once, the wounds on the monster’s body also healed immediately.
The magic was the same.
‘There weren’t just two!’
The black stone I had confirmed by placing my hand on the monster’s body was not the only one.
Aside from the black stone I had taken, there were two more black stones inside the monster’s body.
The black stones were deep within the monster.
So deep that even if I shoved my arm inside, I would not be able to reach them.
Since I had confirmed the black stones, I tried casting magic as well, but unlike with the scout monster, the effect was not significant.
Puk!
Its hide burst open and blood flowed out, but that was all.
Considering its enormous size, it was only a minor wound.
Even that wound began to vanish quickly.
I wanted to keep pouring magic into it before the wound disappeared, but if I didn’t want to be crushed by tentacles or pinned beneath its body, I had to move right away.
At least magic worked on the tentacles.
Tentacles burst apart.
But there were truly too many of them.
Kwaang! Kwakwakwaang! Kwakwaang!
I dodged the tentacles, swung my spear, and blew them apart with magic.
As I ran away while wounding the monster’s body like that, quite a bit of time passed.
“Huff. Huff. Huff.”
Perhaps because I had been moving like a madman for no short amount of time, my breath rose to my throat.
Since obtaining energy, I had never been this exhausted.
Even the floor, which had looked sturdy, was a mess.
Aside from the area around the hole, the entire floor had been overturned.
“It really feels like stabbing a boulder with a toothpick.”
The floor had been torn apart, but the control object was perfectly fine.
In truth, attacking a monster that enormous with only my magic and spear merely stoked its anger.
‘But that’s what I wanted.’
To provoke the monster’s rage so it couldn’t think of anything else.
However, that rage seemed to be a little too intense.
“Weeeeeeeeng!”
The siren rang out again.
Thanks to the translation artifact, I could feel the emotion contained in the monster’s roar.
The siren was filled with irritation and fury.
The thing was thoroughly enraged.
Chwaaaak!
All of its tentacles shot upward.
Dozens of tentacles did not aim at me.
Instead, they pointed in every direction.
Rather than kill the annoying insect, it seemed the thing intended to destroy the now-useless house itself.
“This is troublesome…… Is it still not ready?”
If it attacked in all directions like that, the magic circle inside the hole would be affected as well.
I had fought all this time without Soph’s magic for the sake of this. I couldn’t let it be ruined here.
At that moment, more than half the black stone in the spear darkened.
Then Soph’s voice reached me.
[The timing worked out. Fortunately, the preparations are complete.]
Thankfully, it seemed we were not too late.
Soph continued quickly.
[Regrettably, I could not repair the circuit that filters out impurities. Once the device activates, everything inside the hole will be spatially transferred. As an added bonus, it will break after one use.]
That was unfortunate.
If the magic circle had been fully repaired, we could have sent the monster away through spatial transfer while leaving only the black stones behind.
But looking at it another way, this alone was more than enough to be grateful for.
“The destination is the Broken Moon, right?”
[It would be more accurate to say beyond the Broken Moon. It may not kill it, but without magic, it should not be able to return.]
It was regrettable, but this much was satisfying enough.
Plan B, assuming we couldn’t repair the magic circle, had been to simply shove the monster into that hole.
If the monster was swept through the underground waterway via the hole, it would take time for it to return to the surface.
I didn’t know where it would emerge, but I had thought it would at least buy us time.
It was a plan Soph had scolded me over, but if we couldn’t kill the monster, that was the limit of what we could do.
I didn’t know whether the monster would die if sent into space, but compared to Plan B, this was a massive success.
Wooooong.
A faint sound spread throughout the entire facility.
I could see energy gathering inside the hole.
I ran toward the hole I had been avoiding all this time.
A deep, enormous hole with no visible end.
The magic circle drawn on the walls of the hole was giving off a faint glow.
Just as Soph had said, the magic circle was ready.
I turned and looked at the monster.
Because of my sudden action, the control object had not launched its tentacles yet.
The monster glared at me.
I shouted at it with all my strength.
“Here I am, the insect that made you angry. Come and catch me.”
My voice, filled with energy, spread throughout the facility.
At my words, the tentacles writhed.
But it seemed that much was still too weak.
The monster did not look like it intended to charge yet.
If it had no intention of charging, then I simply had to change its mind.
I aimed my spear at the monster.
[Soph, one big shot, please.]
[Very well. I shall fire something magnificent.]
Unlike before, Soph answered immediately.
Instead of grumbling, he cast a spell.
[Pierce through, spear of light!]
The spell Soph cast was the heat magic that had pierced through the scout monster in a single blow.
The black stone in the spear shone brightly, and a powerful light burst forth from the spear.
Brilliant light filled my vision.
The target of the spell was the monster’s body.
The instant the spell was cast, the black stone attached to the spear lost its light.
Soph had used all the remaining energy in the black stone to cast the spell.
Kwaaaang!
The spell struck the monster’s body.
Along with the explosion, the siren filled the plaza.
The monster had screamed.
The light vanished quickly. So did the flames and smoke.
When the light disappeared, the monster’s form was revealed again.
The monster staggered backward.
A deeply gouged hole had formed in its body.
The hole in the monster’s body looked large enough to swallow several tentacles.
But as expected, the hole had not reached the black stones.
As expected, its size was the problem.
Instead, the monster lost its reason.
Baaaaaang!
The sound of the siren filled the plaza.
All the tentacles that had been stretched in every direction surged toward me.
Massive pillars came pouring down at me.
And the monster, together with its tentacles, charged toward me.
Changing course.