The land west of the mountain range, where the power of the terraforming ruins had yet to reach, looked terribly desolate even from the sky.
Dry earth where not a blade of grass nor a tree could be seen.
However, compared to “Paradise” and “Peace,” which had no future, this was a star where humans could live.
Perhaps that was why the sky’s air was clear, and the wind was cool.
[Of course it feels cool when you’re flying like this.]
Sof grumbled in my head as always, but his complaints were nothing more than white noise now.
As I had done all along, I stretched my hand behind me and cast magic.
I gathered dark energy and cast a spell to move the air.
Compressed air burst out from my gloved hand.
Kwaaang!
With an explosion, my body shot in the opposite direction.
My own flight magic, which blasted air apart and sent me hurtling the other way.
Free flight like other mages was impossible, but in terms of speed alone, this magic was second to none.
[One ought not call that flight magic.]
Sof grumbled that it wasn’t proper flight magic, but for me, this was the best I could do.
I was a half-baked mage who could barely move only the elements around my hands with the help of my gloves.
Flying freely by using air and wind like Sof or other mages was completely impossible for me.
I was perfectly satisfied with being a half-baked mage, but my magic had no choice but to be different from that of other mages.
It was the same now.
Instead of the free flight magic used by mages, I had to create magic that used anti-gravity and air explosions to shoot off like a rocket.
Bang!
Whenever my speed dropped, I had to fire off magic again like this, but the speed itself was beyond reproach.
As I crossed the sky at over three hundred kilometers per hour, the wind brushing past my body was so cool it felt as if it would cut into my flesh.
The wind was cool and the weather was good, but I couldn’t help growing increasingly impatient.
I frowned as I looked down at the desolate ground.
“Everything’s fine, except the results are completely underwhelming.”
It had already been three days since I left the terraforming base and began flying around the skies west of the mountain range.
I hadn’t flown nonstop for all three days, but since I had been flying while using my energy to the limit, I had still managed to check a considerable area.
Over the course of three days, I felt like I had examined more land than the entire region east of the mountain range where the terraforming base was located.
And yet, I had found nowhere that seemed likely to house the Demon King.
On the first day, I went north, and the next day, I kept heading south, but I saw no trace of the Demon King.
So today, I had been flying west since morning.
Until now, I had avoided going west because I was worried about getting too far from the mage’s tower.
The farther I got from the spatial transfer device, the harder it would be to return.
But since there were no traces in any other direction, I had no choice but to head west.
‘Even if it isn’t a trace of the Demon King, I’d be glad to find ruins with a spatial transfer device...’
If I found such ruins, I could use them as a base and begin the search again from there.
I could return directly from those ruins, and I could bring the team members over as well.
I had come alone like this because I could search quickly, but I still preferred moving together with the team.
While scanning the ground, I asked Sof again.
“Is there nothing you remember?”
[Nothing at all. I remember neither the Demon King’s appearance nor the place where he was sealed.]
“That’s troublesome.”
At Sof’s answer, the same as before, I had no choice but to click my tongue.
If Sof remembered, there would be no need to search with such effort.
I knew his memories only returned when he saw a place he had seen before or when he received a shock, but whenever I needed help like now, he was utterly useless.
[It is certainly a troublesome problem. It is strange that only the memories related to the Demon King are missing, as though they were carved out, rather than lost to the passage of time.]
That wasn’t what I had meant by troublesome, but as Sof said, it was certainly strange.
Sof found his memories of the Demon King strange, but that wasn’t the only strange thing.
Sof’s other memories were strange as well.
Only the important memories had disappeared, as if someone had deliberately carved them out.
He remembered that he had gone to seal the Demon King, but at first he hadn’t even remembered who his companions were, and after remembering his companions, he couldn’t remember how he had parted from them.
It was the same when his memories returned.
His memories came back only after I saw them.
At first, I had thought it was because I had become the owner of the staff.
But now that I had come to understand magic to some extent, I knew that memories could not return for a reason like that.
Both Sof’s inability to remember and the way he regained his memories were unnatural.
All of Sof’s memories were strange like that, but there was something even stranger than that.
It was the fact that Sof failed to realize there was something wrong with him.
Even I, a half-baked mage, had noticed it, yet Sof, a great mage, had not.
Unless a restriction had been placed on him, this made no sense.
If Sof had been placed under a restriction, that meant someone had used mind magic—prohibited magic—on him.
It was hard to believe prohibited magic had been used on a great mage, and it was also difficult to meddle with Sof, who had been gradually recovering his memories, so I had said nothing to him all this time.
And now, at last, he had begun to feel a sense of wrongness.
For now, he only thought the memories related to the Demon King were strange, but as time passed, he would be able to find the strange points in his other memories as well.
When that time came, I intended to examine the problem together with Sof.
I set aside Sof’s useless memories and began scanning the ground again.
Even without Sof’s memories, if it was a place where a monster worthy of being called the Demon King had been sealed, there were a few things I could infer.
First, if it was the Demon King, he would have been the strongest monster, so there should be tremendous traces of destruction left behind.
Next, as the king of monsters that polluted the land, he would likely be in a heavily contaminated area.
Lastly, since the Demon King was said to have been sealed, there was a high possibility he was in a place—or facility—where sealing was possible.
Putting all that together, there was a high chance the Demon King was in ruins with severe contamination and many traces of destruction.
However, even after searching for three days, I saw no such traces on the ground.
If I couldn’t find such traces, there was only one method left.
“Over there. A scout.”
[The third one.]
“This one may turn out to be a bust too, but I’ll have to follow it.”
That was to follow an Akzar monster.
I had seen a control entity and other monsters searching ruins before as well.
They, too, had been searching the ruins to find the Demon King, just like me.
Their objective, however, was different from mine.
The monsters intended to break the seal and release the Demon King again.
“Still, at least this one isn’t just wandering around aimlessly.”
The scout I had found in the north two days ago had wandered around without a destination, so I had given up on tailing it and killed it right away.
[The one we found yesterday went somewhere completely absurd, did it not?]
The second scout I found had been running diligently toward one place, just like the one visible on the ground now.
We had followed it with anticipation, but the place it arrived at was a nest of native monsters.
A canyon where native monsters resembling rabbits were gathered.
It was the first time I had seen native monsters west of the mountain range, but that discovery was no help to me.
Still, I killed the scout before the nest was destroyed, and left the native monsters fleeing in all directions as I set off again.
“Third time’s the charm, so something should come up this time.”
This time, I had left without even telling the team.
If this one also turned out to be a dud, it might be better to give up and go back.
I followed the monster from so far away that it wouldn’t be caught even by my super-senses.
Instead of exploding the air, I changed to a method of jetting it out and flew quietly through the sky.
After following the scout for nearly two hours from several kilometers up in the sky, I could see the destination it was heading toward.
“That looks more like the ruins of a city than a ruin site.”
The ruins visible to the west, where the scout was heading, were the remains of a city several times larger than the city ruins where the team members and the expeditionary force were currently hunting.
[Is this city Sidon...]
“Do you know this city?”
[Sidon was a commercial city in the center of the kingdom. It was an extremely prosperous city, but it was destroyed by the monsters’ attack.]
“Was it destroyed early on? Before the Demon King was sealed?”[That is... strange. To think I cannot remember this either. I only remember that it was before the Demon King was sealed.]
Seeing that Sof couldn’t remember, this city must have been an important one too.
It seemed this time wasn’t a bust.
The scout ran diligently toward the city, and as I followed behind it, the ruins of the city drew closer and closer.
Seeing it up close, the city was even larger than I had expected.
I had thought lightly of it because it was a city of the magic kingdom, but its size rivaled that of any decent modern city.
The city called Sidon was not only large; it was terribly ruined.
It wasn’t a ruin that had become dilapidated with the passage of time.
The city had been destroyed like this because of a fierce battle.
It was a level of devastation that couldn’t be compared to the city ruins below the mountain range.
While I was examining the city like that, the scout reached the ruins first.
After the scout entered the city ruins, I increased my flight speed for fear of losing it.
Kwaaang!
With an explosion, I shot toward the city, then had to urgently lower my body.
[Magic monsters.]
It was because I saw monsters flying up into the sky from within the city ruins.
Spider monsters with human upper bodies.
Just as Sof said, they were magic monsters.
The magic monsters rose smoothly into the sky.
Their flight looked somewhat impressive, but fortunately, they weren’t fast.
Before they rose above the city, I was able to avoid their gaze with my flight magic.
Thud!
[One does not call it flight magic after watching you crash into the ground.]
Increasing gravity alone was not enough to descend quickly to the ground.
In the end, I had to shoot air upward, and I was able to come down to the ground quickly.
The landing was poor, but I was able to avoid the monsters’ eyes.
After descending to the ground, I slipped into the city ruins.
There were no intact buildings, but they were enough to avoid the gazes of the monsters flying overhead.
I quickly advanced in the direction the scout had gone.
I passed through ruined buildings, crossed alleys, and moved toward the center of the city.
After moving for quite some time, my field of vision suddenly opened wide.
A massive crater had formed in the center of the city.
It was a huge crater that looked as if it had been created by the detonation of an enormous bomb.
Monsters were gathered in that crater.
There was the scout monster I had been following, more magic monsters flying in the sky, humanoid monsters, and defensive-type monsters as well.
At the center of the monsters was a control entity.
The monsters were now digging into the ground.
Using magic or tentacles, the monsters were digging down into the center of the crater.
“Don’t tell me the Demon King is buried here.”
There were traces of destruction, and there were city-scale ruins, but it didn’t seem likely that the Demon King was buried in this crater.
[The Demon King is not here. Someone else is here. But he died...]
It seemed Sof had remembered something.
At that moment.
Flaaaash!
The world was covered in white light.
Once again, I had entered Sof’s memories.
The Giant Monarch (1)