Seeing my surprised expression, Hanna shook her head.
“We may not know if we can defeat the Demon King, but it will still help you and the dispatch team. I am Earth’s Guardian, and you and the dispatch members are Earthlings, after all.”
Since she wasn’t the Guardian of this planet, she couldn’t foresee the Demon King’s future, but as Earth’s Guardian, did that mean she could foresee the future of Earthlings?
Looking at Hanna smiling at me, I couldn’t tell if what I’d thought was the right answer.
Now that she had become a proper prophet, Hanna’s thoughts were hard to read, just like Shamara from Sopeu’s memories.
[This can’t be helped. Prophets cannot utter words that might jeopardize the future they have foreseen.]
At Sopeu’s troubled words, I too gave up on finding out more.
I decided to just assume that Hanna’s precognition was limited to some extent.
“Well, it doesn’t matter. Even if you just warn me of danger like before, it would be a huge help.”
Even before becoming a proper prophet or guardian, Hanna had warned me of dangers well.
Moreover, now that we had confirmed we could break the seal on the Sacred Realm, there didn’t seem to be any need to worry about restrictions on her prophecy.
“Besides, we’re not breaking the seal right away.”
Breaking the Sacred Realm’s seal was something to be done after dealing with all the monsters gathered in the basin.
In the worst-case scenario, we would end up fighting the Demon King, and we couldn’t let other monsters interfere then.
I checked the box inside my backpack, then asked Hanna, “A nuclear explosion won’t cause problems for the seal, right?”
“Yes. I can answer that. The seal won’t be affected by just the two bombs you brought.”
Whether it was because it was the Sacred Realm’s seal or because the nuclear bombs had been brought from Earth, this time she answered confidently.
Honestly, neither reason mattered.
Since the prophet had given a definite answer, we just had to follow the plan.
Before starting the operation, I asked Hanna, “Will you wait here? If staying in the tower seems dangerous, you can come with me.”
Hanna answered me.
“It will help if I stay in the tower.”
A definite answer, different from before.
Hearing such an answer made it hard to believe that there were restrictions on her precognition.
“But please detonate the bombs after you return to the tower.”
“Don’t worry about that.”
I had no intention of detonating the bombs while leaving Hanna alone anyway.
[I don’t think Hanna meant it that way.]
As Sopeu said, Hanna didn’t seem to be saying it for her own safety.
But it didn’t matter. The conclusion was the same either way.
Hanna went straight inside the tower.
I was a little worried about leaving Hanna alone in the tower, but Sopeu’s following words made me cast aside my worries.
[You won’t need to worry. Unless it’s absolutely necessary, prophets can definitely protect their own lives.]
There was a strange nuance to his words, but for now, it meant she would be safe.
I gave the tower one last look, shouldered my backpack, and moved toward the interior of the basin.
The operation wasn’t difficult.
Hide the bombs where there were many monsters, gather the monsters around the bombs, then detonate them.
It was a simple operation that could be explained in one sentence.
Of course, there was an even simpler method of throwing the bombs into where the monsters were gathered, but unfortunately, that method wasn’t viable.
The items in the box were all nuclear missiles.
The only way I knew to detonate those missiles was to resend the self-destruct signal the Chairman had sent.
There was no way to know how quickly the nuclear missiles would explode after receiving that self-destruct signal.
Would they explode immediately, or would there be a delay of a few seconds to several minutes?
I couldn’t throw bombs that might explode at unknown times into the midst of monsters.
In the end, I had to hide the bombs and wait for them to go off.
This meant that what had seemed like an easy operation was anything but, starting with hiding the bombs.
Since the monsters were gathered near the Sacred Realm, the bombs had to be hidden close to it.
If they were ordinary people unable to use energy, I could have hidden my appearance with magic and passed by them, but monsters were bound to detect me.
So instead of sneaking up, I had to break through the enemies.
I gripped my spear and took a deep breath.
“Phew, I’m counting on you.”
[Why do I always end up doing such reckless things… Anyway, I’ll support you as much as I can.]
Sopeu grumbled as usual, but he would properly help me this time as well.
If he helped, this operation could certainly succeed.
As I prepared to run, Sopeu cast a spell.
[Silence, Air Isolation, Presence Erasure.]
He cast every concealment spell he could on me.
I would be found soon, but with this level of magic, I should be able to buy some time.
I ran down the slope under concealment magic.
With a body strengthened by dark energy and speed increased by acceleration magic, I could reach tremendous speed.
A tremendous speed impossible for a human.
The monsters rapidly drew near.
I gripped my spear and plunged into the midst of the monsters.
As expected, the monsters didn’t notice me approaching at first.
Even after passing more than two-thirds of the basin and going past zombie-like mummies and fossil monsters, they didn’t realize I was there.
The humanoid monsters couldn’t detect me either, but other monsters were different.
Zzzt!
The scouts raised their tentacles, and the magic monsters spread detection magic in all directions.
Swoosh!
As the detection magic swept the surroundings, the concealment spells shattered.
My blurred figure returned to normal, the contained air dispersed, and sound and smell spread to the surroundings.
The same went for my presence and dark energy.
Once the concealment magic broke, all the other monsters that hadn’t noticed me became aware.
Groooaaar!
The defensive monster turned its massive body, the fossil monsters moving toward the Sacred Realm, and the mummies too began moving toward me.
It was a shame. If I had gone a little further, I would have reached my intended destination.
Monsters flooded in from all directions.
Ignoring the monsters approaching from other directions, I swung my spear at the scout blocking my path.
Swhack!
Along with its tentacles, the scout’s body was sliced away.
About one-third of its torso fell off along with a considerable number of tentacles.
Thud.
The scout, having lost part of its body and its tentacles, collapsed to the side.
It wasn’t dead because the black stone remained.
But I didn’t dig out the black stone from the fallen monster.
Now wasn’t the time to extract black stones.
Nor was it the time to finish it off.
It was time to clear the monsters blocking the way and keep moving forward.
I had rendered it unable to fight for a moment; that was enough.
I dealt with the other monsters blocking my path in the same manner.
I leaped into the air and blew off the human head of a magic monster, then collapsed the ground to send the approaching defensive monster rolling sideways.
But I couldn’t deal with the control objects that way.
I left the pouring magic to Sopeu and kept running, dodging pillar-thick tentacles.
Gigantic tentacles overturned the earth, and the pouring magic hammered against the shield Sopeu had created.
I kept running through flashing light and heat, through overturning ground.
Shortly after, having sprinted through the monsters, I was able to reach my target.
A place teeming with monsters not far from the seal wall surrounding the Sacred Realm.
There were as many as four control objects gathered nearby.
Boom! Crash!
The monsters converging on me collided with each other and tumbled around.
The pouring magic burned other monsters, and a control object’s tentacle pierced through a scout’s body.
There were too many monsters around here.
So many that it actually helped me.
But that didn’t mean I was safer than before.
[You have to bury them quickly and get out! The shield won’t last long!]
Sopeu, who had been blocking the monsters’ magic with magic and shields, let out a scream-like shout.
Checking the shield at his words, it was already breaking.
It wasn’t a lack of energy, even with the black stone attached to my spear.
It was simply that the pouring magic was too much.
The shield’s recovery speed couldn’t keep up.
There was nothing even an Archmage could do about this.
“Not yet! I need a little more time!”
[No! Why? I’m telling you I can’t hold it!]
Crack!
Just as Sopeu said, the shield shattered.
Magic poured through the gaps in the broken shield.
I was so preoccupied dodging tentacles that I couldn’t avoid all the pouring magic.
I took several spells head-on.
Fwoosh! Crack!
My arm burned, and my side froze.
Perhaps because I was out of my mind, the pain wasn’t too severe.
[Quickly, cast healing magic…!]
“Restore the shield first!”
I stopped Sopeu from casting healing magic and struck my frozen side with my burning arm.
Crack!
My burning arm smashed my frozen side, and the shattered ice extinguished the flames on my arm.
Naturally, a chunk of flesh from my side vanished, and my arm became a mess of burns.
Blood burst from my side.
I sealed the wounds with healing magic.
Intense pain struck my head.
It was a pain that made me want to roll on the ground, but I had experienced this level of pain not long ago.
Enduring the pain, I hurled my body through the monsters.
I hid behind a massive defensive monster, went under the spider-like body of a magic monster, then leaped between the tentacles of scouts.
Thanks to other monsters blocking the attacks, I was able to buy time.
Sopeu restored the shield in the meantime, and the reason I had refused his suggestion and held out finally revealed itself.
Thud-thud-thud-thud-thud.
Breaking through the earth, mummies and fossils began rising.
Whether it was the Demon King or another monster in the Sacred Realm, unable to finish me off, they had raised more corpses buried in the ground.
To hide nuclear bombs among the monsters, I had no choice but to hide them underground.
But with those things in the ground, hiding nuclear bombs was impossible.
That was why I had held out here until now.
I shouted loudly, “Now!”
The waiting Sopeu immediately unleashed his magic.
[Vibration! Shock! Wind, surge up!]
Rumble-rumble-boom!
The ground shook, and dust surged into the sky on the wind.
Swoooosh!
For a brief moment, vision was obscured.
This couldn’t hide me from monsters capable of seeing energy.
But it could hide the scene of me burying the nuclear missiles.
In that time, the earth magic I cast buried the nuclear missiles taken from the box into the ground.
Having buried both nuclear bombs, I cast a spell I hadn’t used in a long time.
A short-distance spatial magic named Warp.
Since there was nothing left in the box, there was no worry about losing items during teleportation.
I leaped across space.
Toward the opposite side of the Sacred Realm, toward the outside of the basin.
The monsters whose vision was obscured by the dust inevitably lost track of my presence after I teleported.
Unlike teleportation using facilities, Warp couldn’t travel far, and the energy consumption was severe with each jump, but in a situation like this, it was a great help.
Using even the black stone energy attached to my spear, I crossed space several times.
The destination was the Wizard’s Tower at the edge of the basin.
Where Hanna was.
Arriving near the tower after several spatial jumps, I saw the Wizard’s Tower covered by a translucent shield.
A proper shield, different from Sopeu’s and different from the one Hanna had made before.
A barrier created by a Star Guardian.
Nuclear Experiment (4)