When the white light vanished, ruins appeared before my eyes.
Ruins with almost nothing left—hardly even worthy of being called remnants.
Naturally, there was no spatial transfer device, either.
As Sopeu had said, I would have to walk back.
I looked around.
To the east, I could see a gray mountain range.
The place where I stood was west of the mountains; I had crossed over them through spatial transfer.
The place I had arrived was not different from what I had expected, but the place I had passed through on the way had been.
[There were more monsters gathered in the city than I expected.]
“Yes. Hunting them was impossible.”
In the city ruins I had stopped by midway, far more monsters had gathered than I had anticipated.
It seemed as if every monster that had been sent out of the city to catch humans had come back together again.
The number of monsters I sensed was far too great.
So many that I couldn’t even consider going up to the surface.
Rather, afraid the monsters might come down underground, I checked again to see if there were any more exits connected to the surface.
“We do have to hunt them, but with them gathered like that, it’s troublesome.”
[When we return, unless you intend to walk all the way back to the base, we’ll have to stop there again midway, so that will be a problem as well.]
On top of that, the more I continued talking with Sopeu, the more problems kept piling up.
“This won’t do. Let’s think about that later.”
Now was not the time to worry about it.
I decided to think about the ruined city when I returned.
Wiping the city ruins from my mind, I examined the ruins again.
“This place seems to have been a city too……”
[It was a mining city. A city where ore brought from the mountain range was processed and transported.]
Unlike the city ruins I had passed through midway, there was almost nothing left here.
Only traces and foundations where buildings had once stood, and a few pillars, remained; the rest was all buried under soil.
“If they’re ruins, this should be normal, but the other ruins looked intact, so it feels strange.”
[This city fell in the early days. It was a city that wasn’t protected by magic, so its destruction came quickly as well.]
Listening to Sopeu, I extended my senses and surveyed the surroundings.
Nothing moved.
It was disappointing that nothing caught my senses, but I took the opportunity to organize the luggage I had brought.
I put all the food I had packed in my bag, along with the sleeping bag and tent I had been carrying in both hands, into the box.
Although I hadn’t been able to bring them inside the box, the amount I could carry in my bag and both hands was large enough that, if I were alone, I felt I could last a month.
Of course, I couldn’t stay that long.
After organizing my luggage, I slung the now-light bag, which held only the box, onto my back.
At that moment, something caught at the edge of my senses.
“It came just in time. Am I lucky?”
Holding my spear, I examined the far side of the ruins.
The ruins blocked my view, so I couldn’t see it from here.
I hid my presence with magic and crossed the ruins.
I still didn’t know what had caught my senses, but it didn’t matter.
Even if I encountered a control entity, if it was on the open surface, I could escape well enough.
Besides, if necessary, I could land one hit.
As I ran, I glanced at the tip of my spear.
The black stone hanging from the spearhead was scattering a dark blue light.
It was the black stone newly processed at the terraforming ruins this time.
Sopeu had grumbled up a storm, but even he had not objected to processing the new black stone.
And for good reason—this black stone was a magical black stone obtained from a control entity.
It was only one of the three black stones the control entity had possessed, but this one was on a completely different level from the others.
[It should be enough to fire off four or five large-scale spells.]
That alone meant its capacity was more than twice that of other black stones, but what mattered even more was that this black stone charged itself with energy from its surroundings.
There was no longer any need to charge black stones at the terraforming ruins.
Once I crossed the ruins, I could tell what had caught my senses.
Clack! Cla-clack! Clack!
I saw tentacles moving over the debris.
Long, thick black tentacles.
It was a scout monster.
The monster was heading in another direction.
It had no idea I was approaching.
“Even if I catch this one, you can track it, right?”
[If there’s a connected control entity, I should be able to track it.]
Sopeu had found a control entity even from a fossil tens of thousands of years old.
As expected, this much was well within his ability.
I quietly approached the monster.
It seemed to be searching for something.
Getting close to the monster wasn’t difficult.
The scout monster kept moving west, shifting the tentacles that served as its feelers.
As I followed behind the monster like that, I opened my super-senses wide.
I could feel everything around me.
Another world, different from what the eyes saw.
In that world, I found two positions.
One was beneath the monster’s belly, and the other was where I stood.
I connected the space between them with a path of energy.
Once the coordinates and path were formed, formulas unfolded in my mind.
Complex formulas I could not understand continued on endlessly, until an enormous magic circle filled my head.
I opened my mouth.
[Walk. Blink.]
With the incantation, the spell was cast.
The short-distance spatial magic I was casting for the second time was incredibly strange.
It felt as though I were kneading space itself with my hands.
Perhaps because of that, this magic could be cast even without touching the target.
Flash.
After a burst of white light, I saw the monster’s lower belly.
In an instant, my position had changed to beneath the monster’s belly.
[Even seeing it again, I still don’t understand. How can you perform spatial transfer without a device? The coordinate calculations don’t make sense to begin with…… The horizon coordinate system can’t be calculated without a device.]
Listening to Sopeu’s grumbling, I placed my hand on the monster’s belly.
I felt the monster’s belly writhing.
The tentacles stopped moving.
The monster had noticed.
But it was too late.
The scout monster could not stop my magic.
[Burst.]
Magic was cast through my hand.
Boom!
Its lower belly burst open as if it had been hit by a bomb.
Kiiieek!
The monster screamed, and its tentacles staggered.
I shoved my spear into the gaping hole.
Thuk.
The spearhead touched a hard stone.
I stirred the spear around and pulled the stone out.
The black stone came loose.
After taking out the black stone and stepping back, the monster collapsed, crushing the spot where I had been standing.
Looking at the fallen monster, I clicked my tongue softly.
“It was a bastard that gave me so much trouble, but this feels kind of anticlimactic.”
[That is an emotion a genius cannot help but feel. When I was human, I felt it often myself.]
Hearing Sopeu’s words, the hollow feeling vanished at once.
Listening to him, I realized just how obnoxious what I had said must have sounded.
He was an excellent negative example.
[More importantly, hurry. We have to cut into the connection before the control entity senses something wrong.]
I drove my spear into the monster’s body.
Sopeu cast a spell.
Energy flowed in, and the spear shone.
A magic circle was drawn over the tentacles that served as feelers.
The dead monster’s tentacles stood upright like antennas.
Energy flowed from the tentacles and spread out in every direction.
A moment later, Sopeu spoke.
[I found it. West. The control entity connected to this monster is moving west.]
I could see the line heading west as well.
It was the same line I had seen before, pointing toward a control entity.
The line was moving little by little.
“Do control entities move around like this?”
[Normally, it should establish itself in one place and produce subordinates…… I don’t know why it’s moving like this either.]
Sopeu’s answer was full of doubt as well.
Having not seen many control entities myself, I answered casually.
“We’re here to scout anyway. Let’s figure out the reason while we’re at it.”
I put the black stone and the scout monster’s corpse into the box, then headed west again.
Once I left the ruins, I could feel it clearly.
This place, the region west of the mountain range, was different from the eastern side where we had been until now.
The place where we had been had felt desolate too, but even so, there had been parts of it that resembled Earth’s nature.
But here, there was none of that feeling at all.
“There isn’t even withered grass or dead trees. No moisture, either. This place is like a dead planet from a movie—like Mars.”
Even deserts had cacti, but no such plants could be seen here.
No bugs, no insects either.
There was nothing living anywhere.
[East of the mountain range, the terraforming ruins were maintaining the environment. Now that we’ve moved away from the terraforming ruins, the planet is returning to its original lifeless state.]
“Was this planet originally one with no life at all?”
[I heard there were life-forms, but not ones that could share an environment with humans. They say the existing life-forms all went extinct during the early stages of terraforming.]
It was something scientists would likely rage over, but it was already a story from tens of thousands of years ago.
Talking with Sopeu like that, I continued running over the dust-covered land.
Wide plains, low hills, and rocky mountains visible here and there.
After running across the desolate land for more than half a day, I finally saw something moving.
A gigantic black monster that moved on tentacles.
It was a control entity.
“It isn’t moving alone.”
Several monsters were moving beside the control entity.
Large defensive monsters, small magical monsters, and scout-type monsters roaming here and there around them.
Strangely, no humanoid monsters were visible.
In any case, the sight of the monsters moving together around the enormous control entity was like a mother spider traveling with her spiderlings.
“It’s so big that I can see it well even from far away.”
My vision was somewhat limited because of the dust blowing in the wind, but I could still see the monster clearly from more than six kilometers away.
I couldn’t feel the monsters with my senses.
The range I could perceive with my senses had grown tremendously, but six kilometers was still far.
I could tell how they were moving just by looking.
“They’re not watching their surroundings at all.”
[It seems they have a destination.]
The monsters were running in one direction without paying any attention to their surroundings.
They neither rested nor slowed down.
If the slow defensive monsters hadn’t been moving with them, I might not have been able to keep up.
“I am curious where they’re going…… but I don’t know how far I should follow.”
The monsters kept advancing west. If I followed them without thinking, I was certain the return trip would become difficult.
[Seeing how they’re moving like that, it shouldn’t take very long.]
In any case, I had come here to scout.
I decided to follow them as far as I could still return.
Following the monsters was not difficult.
I kept following from a distance while hiding my presence with magic.
Like that, one day passed, then two.
The monsters stopped moving.
Where the monsters stopped, there were ruins that had been half-dug out.
Broken buildings, walls riddled with holes, and fragments rolling about.
Judging from the way it had been dug up, the ruins seemed to have been buried underground like the terraforming ruins.
“Don’t tell me the monsters dug it out?”
It wasn’t a question directed at Sopeu.
I had spoken because I couldn’t believe the sight before me.
And for good reason—before the control entity arrived, monsters had already been clinging to the ruins, digging up the earth.
The humanoid monsters I hadn’t seen were here.
The monsters were digging up the ruins like people.
The monsters that had arrived with the control entity also rushed toward the ruins and began digging up the ground.
A moment later, I found myself witnessing the absurd sight of various monsters working together to excavate the ruins.
I couldn’t help but ask Sopeu.
“There aren’t people in those ruins, are there?”
It was a ridiculous thought, but I couldn’t think of any other reason.
[No. I sense something in the ruins, but it isn’t people.]
Fortunately, that wasn’t the reason.
The moment I heard Sopeu’s words, I too could feel the aura he was talking about.
Even though it was far beyond the range my senses could reach, I could feel it.
An even more repulsive and dreadful aura that resembled the monsters.
A terrible chill crawled up my spine.
It was an aura I had not felt when I saw the monsters, nor even when I learned of the control entities.
It was a dreadful dark energy I was feeling for the first time.
“Wh-what is that?”
My voice trembled on its own.
Sopeu’s answer did not come.
He remained silent for a long while, then answered in a grave voice.
[That is the aura of the Demon King. The Akzar monsters were searching for the sealed Demon King.]
Memorial Hall (1)