A mighty light beyond lightning pierced through the control object.
The tentacles wrapped around its body disintegrated the instant they touched the light, and even its tough hide could not endure for a single moment.
It wasn’t simply that its body had been pierced.
Even the parts the light did not touch were torn to shreds and burned away.
Before, it had been a control object they could not kill, one they had been forced to launch into space.
Even such a monster could not withstand the magic of an archmage unleashed with energy gathered over more than ten thousand years.
And the control object was not the only thing that could not withstand it.
The land, already ruined by the fallen ruins, had changed.
The place where the control object had been was gouged out as if struck by a meteor, and the other monsters had turned into corpses, strewn across the ground.
The squad members, seeing the magic, were half out of their minds.
“I’ve never seen a nuclear bomb go off, but this is practically the same thing……”
“If there hadn’t been a barrier, we’d have been finished too, wouldn’t we?”
Sergeant Woo muttered with a grave expression, and Tom looked around and shuddered.
We had been some distance away from where the magic had fallen, but everything around us, except the ground beneath our feet, had been shattered.
Only the exact range covered by the barrier remained intact.
The barrier that had protected us blocked Soph’s magic and immediately shattered.
Soph had reinforced it as much as possible, but even then, the barrier could barely handle the aftermath of the spell.
Now it was hard to tell that this had once been the site where the ruins had fallen.
There was almost no trace of the Star Tree’s remains either.
Hannah clenched her fist and looked up at the sky.
While the other squad members were still stunned, Magreta ran over to me and asked the first question.
“If you use that staff, can you keep casting magic like this?”
To her, it must have been the most important question.
At her words, all the squad members looked at me.
I shook my head.
It was regrettable, but that was impossible.
With that one spell, all the energy remaining in the staff had vanished.
The energy the Star Tree had gathered over more than ten thousand years had been used up in a single spell.
[It couldn’t be helped, since my memories haven’t fully returned. It was a spell I forced through with sheer amounts of energy. The staff was special, so it endured. If it had been my old staff, it would have shattered before I could even cast the spell. Of course, it wouldn’t have been able to contain that much energy in the first place.]
Even without Soph’s explanation, I knew very well that what had happened this time was lucky—almost a miracle.
Even if I attached another black stone to the new staff, it was obvious I wouldn’t be able to cast such powerful magic.
But I wasn’t disappointed.
Thanks to it, we had escaped the crisis, and I could obtain new black stones.
The three black stones possessed by the control object.
Inside the body of the control object lying at the center of the crater, three black stones remained intact.
Seeing that everyone had regained their senses, I spoke to the squad members.
“It’s not over yet. We still have cleanup to do. There are monsters that haven’t died yet, too.”
At my words, the squad members’ eyes widened.
“What? There are monsters that withstood that magic?”
I raised a hand to reassure them.
“The defensive-type monsters buried underground are still alive. But there’s no need to worry. They simply haven’t died, that’s all.”
Unlike the other monsters, the defensive-type monsters had not died.
They might have survived because they were buried underground, but more than that, it was because of their absurdly tough hide.
It was impressive defense, but that was all.
The earth blocked the magic, and the monsters’ ridiculous hide blocked it once more, but Soph’s magic was lightning, not light.
Naturally, lightning carried an electric current.
The magic monsters that had been flying in the sky fell, and the other monsters died, all because they had been electrocuted.
The defensive-type monsters were the same. The current that pierced through their hide cooked the insides of their bodies.
That alone was not enough to kill them, but it was enough to keep the monsters from coming to their senses.
***
A short while later, I placed my hand on the ground and shouted to everyone.
“I’m pulling it up. Everyone, get ready!”
The people stood in their assigned positions and waved their hands.
After confirming that everyone was in place, I cast the spell.
Rumble, rumble, rumble!
The ground split open, and the monster buried underground began to rise.
The defensive-type monster’s enormous body broke through the soil and revealed itself.
When half of the monster’s body had emerged, I withdrew the spell.
The monster, wrapped in thick armor, lay half-buried in the dirt, gasping for breath.
There was no need to give a separate signal.
Magreta sent her whip flying, wrapping it around the monster’s body.
Unlike before, the whip rapidly lengthened and thickened.
The reason the whip was different from before was Soph’s magic.
There was no dark energy left in the staff by the Star Tree, but with the energy I possessed, I could at least give my comrades a buff.
The other squad members had changed as well.
Tom and Sergeant Woo blew apart all the tentacles that were wriggling out of the monster’s body, while Hannah climbed onto the monster and examined it.
She ran across the monster’s pulsing body, scanning it, then pointed to one spot.
“This monster has a gray glow below the fourth segment.”
It was an ability of hers that had changed from before.
When we hunted in the city, Hannah had also located the black stones through light.
But that wasn’t something she could always do.
She had only managed to know by luck when she was placed in danger.
Now it was different.
Her ability, which had continued to develop ever since we set out on this expedition, had evolved into something that could find what would help not only herself, but the entire squad.
Just as she had discovered what would help me when we departed, now she had found the location of the black stone that would help us.
If she continued to grow like this……
[She will become the prophet of this era, one who foretells the future of the star. Like Shamara.]
It was an impressive statement, but Soph’s words were tinged with worry.
I felt the same.
Being a “prophet” might be helpful to others, but it was not necessarily a good thing for the person themselves.
Shamara, who had gone with her comrades to find the Demon King in order to save others, had been the same.
In the memories I had seen, Soph’s feelings toward Shamara had been filled with pity as much as love.
That was also why he always listened to Shamara’s words without question.
In any case, for now, Hannah was a great help.
Even if I was not present, as long as Hannah was there, they could find the weaknesses of the Akzar monsters.
Now I could go to Earth with peace of mind.
I climbed onto the monster as well, stood above the spot Hannah had indicated, and looked down.
I could sense the black stone inside the monster’s body.
If I had needed to check its entire body, given how large the monster was, it would have taken quite a while.
With the area narrowed down like this, finding it became much easier.
Thud.
I drove my spear into the monster’s back.
I had the new staff slung over my back, but since I had not yet embedded a black stone into it, I couldn’t use it as a spear.
Moreover, I did not need Soph’s help right now.
Through the spear, I cast magic inside the monster’s body.
Boom!
The monster’s body burst open.
If the monster had been fully conscious, even clinging to it would have been difficult, but there was nothing to worry about now.
Boom! Splash!
White blood spurted up, and a hole was opened in the monster’s back.
The magic did not end with one blast.
Boom! Boom!
Blood gushed out, and the hole grew deeper and deeper.
The monster writhed in pain, but that was its limit.
Because of the squad members’ interference, the monster could do nothing.
In that way, we were able to extract the black stone from the final monster.
There were three defensive-type monsters we had caught.
Adding the black stones obtained from those monsters to the black stones taken from the other dead monsters, we obtained a total of sixteen black stones.
There were more dead monsters, but when they had been swept up in the magic, some of their black stones had been destroyed as well.
The black stones we found were all there were.
It was fewer than when we had all hunted together in the city, but considering this was the amount the expedition had taken down in a short time, it was not small at all.
Besides, there were other black stones we had found.
The three black stones found in the control object.
However, those black stones were ones I would use.
I had no intention of telling anyone else about them either.
The squad members also promised not to speak of the three black stones.
“If we break the promise, we won’t be punished with magic, will we?”
“I didn’t cast that kind of magic.”
At Magreta’s joke, I shook my head.
Magreta knew far more about me than I thought.
On top of that, Hannah seemed to know something now as well.
[If it’s those two, they must have noticed a certain amount about me.]
Well, it was only natural.
The two of them were always watching me.
It would not be easy to keep secrets from them.
But it was not yet time to tell the two of them.
“A man with secrets isn’t bad either, is he?”
“I simply trust and follow you.”
“My mistake for asking.”
Even those two, joking around like that, did not seem to want to hear it right now.
After collecting all the black stones from the monsters’ corpses, we cut up the control object and one defensive-type monster and placed the pieces in boxes.
We cut them up in consideration of the portions that would be lost during spatial transfer.
If we did this, even if we put them in boxes and took them to Earth, some of it was sure to remain.
By delivering samples of the two monsters, I would have handed over every monster sample I knew of.
I had not yet seen what they had made with the samples, but the scientists of Earth had used machines to make relics and ruins usable on Earth.
With the samples I gave them, they would be able to make something or obtain information as well.
When we finished cleaning up and were about to return, Hannah was looking at the place where the ruins had been.
It seemed the death of the Star Tree weighed on her mind.
It was understandable.
The bow she had was also made from the Star Tree, and perhaps the reason she had come here was because the Star Tree had called her.
Since such a tree had died, it was only natural that she would be deeply saddened.
‘Besides, that tree was the last Star Tree remaining on this star.’
I felt like I should say something to comfort her, but I didn’t know how to say such things.
So I asked plainly.
“Are you okay?”
At my question, Hannah turned her head.
Her expression was better than I had expected.
She smiled and said,
“Before it left, I told the tree not to worry about its children.”
I had been worrying about how to comfort her, but I received an unexpected answer.
“Children?”
“Here.”
Hannah opened the hand she had been gripping tightly.
On her palm lay three seeds.
“They’re seeds the tree gave me before it died. It said it was able to leave three seeds on these ruins. It asked me to raise them.”
Unusual seeds with a faint light flowing through them.
[They are indeed Star Tree seeds.]
Even without Soph’s words, I could tell they were no ordinary seeds.
In that case, the Star Tree had not gone extinct.
I asked Hannah,
“Where are you going to plant the seeds?”
“That’s for you to decide, isn’t it?”
“……”
At Hannah’s words, spoken as if it were only natural, I was left speechless.
Still, a place where the seeds could be planted came to mind immediately.
A safe place with plenty of water.
I knew such a place.
The Second Spear