Because I met Maxwell in Pyongyang, an unexpected item was added to my schedule.
A trip straight to Antarctica.
Once I agreed to go, Maxwell put me aboard the transport plane he had prepared.
The only passengers on the C-17 transport were Maxwell and me.
After the transport took off from Pyongyang Airport, Maxwell explained what had happened.
“Even after methane and carbon dioxide began pouring out of the rifts in the Antarctic continent, many scientists continued their research there. They were trying to find a way to stop the methane and carbon dioxide from gushing out. Of course, the chances were close to zero, but they couldn’t simply sit back and do nothing.”
Certainly, with Earth facing destruction, there was no way people would just stand by.
Even while sending people to other stars, the scientists had continued searching for a way to save Earth.
“The research continued to produce disappointing results, but some scientists discovered a new ruin deep inside one of the rifts. The ruin they found was not recorded in the records of Venus.”
Among the ruins I had confirmed while using spatial movement, there had been none in Antarctica.
If so, there was a high chance that this ruin was one that had stopped functioning, or one that was broken.
Or perhaps it was not a spatial movement ruin at all.
“The ruin discovered in Antarctica looks different from the existing ruins, but there is a possibility that it is another spatial movement ruin connected to a different star. We would like Deputy Commander Hyeon to confirm that for us.”
Maxwell and the U.S. government seemed to be hoping that the ruin discovered this time was a properly functioning spatial movement ruin.
“Wouldn’t American technicians be able to confirm whether it’s a spatial movement ruin?”
“There isn’t enough time to confirm it, and… the inside of the rift where the ruin is located is far too dangerous.”
As he said, this was not a situation where they could take their time and study it.
And there was no way a rift spewing methane and carbon dioxide would be safe.
It was certainly the sort of matter that would require me, someone who could use magic on Earth.
Of course, Maxwell’s request was not the reason I was going.
I was curious about the ruin said to be on the Antarctic continent.
Soph was just as curious about that ruin.
[We need to confirm it before this Earth is destroyed. If my prediction is correct, it will be of great help.]
Once again, he did not tell me what that prediction was, but I did not ask Soph separately.
In any case, he would tell me once we arrived at the ruin.
After hearing the situation from Maxwell, I contacted Magreta in the United States.
—Chijijik! Hello?
Perhaps because of the aerogel scattered in the sky, the signal was not good.
—Jijijik! So you’ve dumped a mountain of work on me, and now you’re saying you’re on your way to Antarctica?
Magreta’s response after hearing that I was headed to Antarctica was not very favorable either.
“I’m sorry. I need to check the ruin.”
When I apologized, I heard a sigh through the static.
—Chijik! If it’s really necessary, then there’s nothing to be done.
Fortunately, Magreta understood.
After ending her complaints around there, she told me what she had done.
—Jijijik, I finished everything you asked me to do. I sent the Chinese nuclear technician to the Baekdusan base, and I found quite a few of the dispatched personnel’s families who are still on Earth. Just as you expected, there were many families who still hadn’t made it to Paradise!
The United States and Korea had promised to send the families of the dispatched personnel to Paradise in exchange for the personnel mining black stones on Trappist.
Believing that promise, the dispatched personnel had hunted monsters on an unfamiliar star, but many of their families were still on Earth.
Of course, there was still some time left, and not every family member was on Earth, but in the end, the U.S. government had not kept its promise.
—The families of the dispatched personnel were low priority on the departure list for Paradise. They came after those in power, the rich, and specialists!
It was exactly what I had expected.
It was extremely common for a nation to break a promise made to an individual.
I had experienced it several times during the war, and the United States was no different.
The dispatched personnel on Trappist would have difficulty coming to Earth.
Earth’s situation was also at its worst, so there were plenty of excuses.
In a situation like this, there was no way a nation would keep its promise.
In the end, even an individual needed something with which to negotiate with a nation.
—Chijik, if we hadn’t brought back the black stones and awakening agents this time, it would have been hard to get the personnel’s families out. Honestly, the situation here is quite bad.
I knew the situation was bad, but that did not mean I could simply let it slide.
Compared to other countries, the United States was still being given more than enough consideration.
—The problem is that because we had to take the dispatched personnel’s families to the Baekdusan base, people found out about your ability. Chijijik, that you can move ordinary people to Trappist.
This too was something I had expected.
If ordinary people were brought to the Baekdusan base, it meant those ordinary people could be moved to Trappist.
And the only person on Earth who could possibly do such a thing was me, since I could use magic here.
In response to Magreta’s concern, I told her clearly.
“It’s all right. It doesn’t matter if they know now.”
It was not as if I had used magic on Earth for no reason.
Nor had I informed them for no reason that I had seized nuclear weapons from them.
Now, I too possessed power that I no longer needed to hide, even from nations—especially the United States.
Even if they found out that I could move ordinary people to Trappist, the U.S. government could no longer do anything to me.
Perhaps reassured by my words, Magreta laughed as she said goodbye.
—Chijik, then finish your work safely and come back. I’ll head to the Baekdusan base right away too.
“I’ll see you at the base.”
After ending the call with Magreta, the transport continued flying south.
The transport left Korean airspace and entered the East China Sea.
The East China Sea, which had once been full of ships, did not have a single vessel in sight.
It was only natural. With the sea filled with algal bloom, there was no way fish would be caught there.
The sea visible below was not blue, but green.
A sea choked with green algae—the result of scattering iron compounds throughout the ocean.
“There won’t be any surviving fish in that. The other plankton can’t possibly be intact either. If it gets like that, isn’t it actually bad for the atmosphere?”
At my question, Maxwell nodded.
“It is bad. If every living creature in the sea dies, there’s no way only the plankton that created the algal bloom would survive. In the end, this too is nothing more than a drastic stopgap measure to buy a little time.”
I had asked just in case, but in the end, I only received a bleak answer.
The transport continued flying over the endless expanse of algal bloom and left the East China Sea.
After that, it passed through the airspace east of the Philippines, went through Indonesia, and headed toward Australia.
“We plan to stop briefly at Darwin Air Force Base in Australia to refuel.”
With the C-17’s range, it could not fly directly to Antarctica.
Nor was this a situation where aerial refueling was feasible.
In the end, we had to pass through a stopover before going to Antarctica.
The sea far from land still looked all right, but as we approached the Australian continent, the color of the ocean changed again.
This time, the sea began to be dyed red.
Instead of a green tide, a red tide had spread out.
It seemed a different kind of plankton had flourished in the waters off the Australian continent.
The color was different, but perhaps because I had already seen it once, I was not shocked by the red sea.
However, the sight I saw as we reached land could not help but shock me.
The land—the Australian continent—was burning.
From the coast to the inland, both mountains and fields were burning.
The sky was filled with black clouds made of smoke, and the endless flames were creating enormous whirlwinds of fire that swept away everything around them.
In the places the fire had passed, the corpses of countless wild animals lay strewn about.
Looking at the bodies, they had not died while fleeing.
Those animals had already been dead when the flames engulfed them.
On top of that, even in places the flames had not yet reached, animal corpses could be seen.
The animals had been unable to withstand the heat, which was far too high.
“My God. This is hell…”
Maxwell also shuddered as he looked out the window.
It seemed even he had not expected Australia to be this bad.
Fortunately, the transport did not head inland into Australia, but flew east along the coast.
That was because Darwin Air Force Base was on Australia’s northern coast.
The transport flew over bone-dry rivers, burning forests, and scorched black earth.
As we flew along the coast like that, a city appeared in the distance.
That city was not intact either.
The city where our destination, Darwin military base, was located had fires and smoke rising from various places.
Countless buildings had burned down, and explosions and gunshots rang out from every direction.
The city looked as if a riot or war had broken out.
The transport headed toward the air force base in the middle of the burning city.
The air force base beside the international airport was still safe.
There were no burned areas in sight, and the runway was intact.
The international airport beside it was different.
A burned passenger plane lay wrecked in front of a hangar, and the terminal was blackened as if it too had burned.
Even I was worried whether it was all right to land like this, but the pilot lowered the nose with unwavering resolve.
—We will be landing.
No sooner had the pilot’s announcement ended than the transport touched down on the runway.
Thud.
With a heavy impact, the landed transport crossed the runway, then kept moving until it stopped in front of a building.
It was movement that completely ignored procedure, but it could not be helped.
There were no soldiers at all in this military base to guide or stop us.
When the transport stopped, the copilot, wearing a fireproof suit similar to a firefighter’s uniform, ran to the side door and shouted at us.
“Step back. The heat outside is over seventy degrees. If you stand near the door, you’ll get burned!”
At his words, Maxwell immediately stepped back, but I instead approached the door.
The copilot looked at me with puzzled eyes.
“You don’t need to worry. More importantly, didn’t you say we had to hurry?”
At my words, he looked at Maxwell with a troubled expression, and Maxwell nodded, allowing him to follow my words.
The copilot opened the door.
Whoosh!
As soon as the door opened, heat poured into the plane.
Just as the copilot had said, it was tremendous heat.
Heat far above seventy degrees.
It probably had not originally been this hot, but the continuous wildfires seemed to have made it this way.
The copilot went down the emergency stairs, and I lightly jumped down as well.
When I landed on the ground, the heat became even worse.
If I had not been using magic, it was heat I would not have been able to endure.
The copilot ran to the side of the plane and prepared to connect the refueling hose, while from inside the building, a soldier wearing a similar fireproof suit ran out carrying the hose.
Once that hose was connected, refueling should have been possible.
But this time too, things did not proceed so easily.
Bang! Bang!
The moment the soldier met the copilot, gunshots rang out from afar.
The soldier collapsed to the ground, and the copilot, startled, threw himself flat.
I raised my head and looked toward where the gunshots had come from.
At the far end of the opposite side of the runway, several military vehicles were racing toward us.
And gunshots rang out from the building the soldier had come from as well.
They were firing at the approaching vehicles.
“This military base is a complete mess too.”
It had looked intact on the outside, but this military base was not all right either.
Clicking my tongue, I raised my spear.
Flash.
Lightning fell from the sky.
Boom, kaboom!
The lightning fried the charging vehicles.
The Antarctic Continent (1)