The military vehicle at the head of the column caught fire just like that, and whether the driver had lost consciousness or not, the vehicles following behind lost their bearings, swerved, and overturned.
Boom!
In the end, the lead military vehicle exploded, and the overturned vehicles caught fire from the sparks that flew from the car ahead.
The temperature was so high that even a small flame was enough to set the cars completely ablaze.
As the other cars began exploding as well, the gunfire coming from the building stopped.
When the vehicles blew up, the soldier who had pitched forward onto the ground at the first gunshot raised his head.
The expression on the soldier’s face beneath his fireproof helmet was utterly bewildered.
“Was I… not shot?”
It seemed he had thought he’d been hit.
Of course, the bullet fired from the vehicle had properly flown toward the soldier, but the soldier had not been shot.
The bullet had been blocked by the shield I had spread in advance.
The soldier, rising to his feet with an awkward expression, saw the burning vehicles and widened his eyes again.
The sudden turn of events had left the soldier unable to collect himself, but the co-pilot beside him was different.
He grabbed the refueling hose rolling on the ground and connected it to the transport plane.
After he fastened the refueling hose and waved toward the cockpit, the refueling began.
Seeing the fuel start flowing immediately, it seemed the cockpit was still in communication with the people inside the building.
Gulp, gulp.
After confirming that fuel was coming through the hose, I asked the soldier who had brought it over.
“What were those vehicles that opened fire? They were all military vehicles.”
At my question, the soldier looked troubled.
It seemed difficult for him to say.
But after glancing at the burning vehicles and at me, he answered.
“They were officers left behind at this military base with us.”
Before they burned, I had looked inside the cars, so I knew those people were officers.
But I had thought they were soldiers from somewhere else, or deserters.
To think they had been officers guarding this base.
“They were officers who despaired at being left behind and abandoned all the duties entrusted to them. They were probably trying to seize the transport plane and leave Australia.”
At the soldier’s explanation, I frowned.
It was not because of the officers I had burned.
“Left behind? Are you the only ones here?”
“There aren’t any planes left at the international airport next door, are there? It’s the same for this military base. The higher-ups, the politicians and businessmen, the generals—all of them fled to Northern Hemisphere countries like America or Europe.”
At the soldier’s words, the co-pilot, who had been checking the refueling hose, added,
“The Australian government we requested refueling from is in Britain right now.”
The soldier gave a bitter smile and looked toward the airport terminal beyond the runway.
“When the last plane was about to leave, it was absolute chaos. The airport terminal burned, and even the plane that was trying to enter the runway was showered with Molotov cocktails and turned into kindling.”
At his words, I remembered the burned passenger plane I had seen before landing.
I had thought it strange that a passenger plane had burned, but this was not something strange.
It was something horrible.
“After that, the city fell completely into anarchy. Even guarding this military base wasn’t easy for us.”
From what I could see, the reason this military base had been all right was because there were no planes on it.
And now, a transport plane had landed at this base.
I gathered energy from the black stone attached to the spear and spread my supersense wide open.
Inside the building connected to the refueling hose, fewer soldiers were gathered than I had expected.
Not even a single platoon.
Even when I expanded the range further, the number of people did not change.
Other than them, the only people on the base were the officers burning inside the cars.
As I continued expanding my senses and checked outside the base, I felt the people in the city.
There were people here and there in the buildings around the base.
Not many, for a city.
But right now, that number was increasing rapidly.
People in cars were gathering around the base.
After confirming that, I asked the soldier,
“This transport plane is going to Antarctica and then returning to Korea. Would you like to come with us? If you want, I’ll speak to the person in charge.”
It was an empty transport plane anyway.
Of course, it was not my plane, but I could at least suggest this much.
Maxwell would not be able to refuse my request either.
At my words, the soldier looked surprised, but soon shook his head.
“I appreciate the offer, but we were ordered to guard this base. We’ve decided to follow our orders.”
At the soldier’s words, my expression hardened.
These were soldiers who had not run away until now and had properly helped us refuel, unlike the officers who had tried to seize the transport plane.
That was why I had thought I might hear these words.
But those were the words I least wanted to hear.
‘If everyone leaves, who’s going to farm? A farmer has to protect his land.’
At the soldier’s words, the old man’s voice, which I had erased, came back to me.
The words my father had said before I left my hometown.
With those words as the last, I had let go of my lingering attachment to that old man.
“Because someone has to protect this place too. Thanks to us holding out, you were able to refuel, weren’t you?”
At the soldier’s following words, I did not urge him again and simply nodded.
I could not tell whether his decision was a soldier’s will and sense of responsibility to carry out his duty, or the attachment of a soldier with nowhere else to rely on.
Besides, the soldiers inside the building might think differently.
But I had no intention of urging him further.
This offer, too, had only been a momentary whim.
It was already difficult to help those asking for help. I could not go so far as to help those who had refused my offer.
A short while later, the refueling was finished.
The co-pilot handed the refueling hose he had fastened back to the soldier and saluted him.
I, too, bowed my head to him.
“Thank you.”
Whatever the reason, their decision had helped us.
The soldier smiled, returned the salute, then took the refueling hose and ran back into the building.
The co-pilot and I also entered the transport plane.
Clank.
As the door closed, the heat quickly drained away.
“What an unbelievable heat. We only opened the door for a moment, and it was hard to breathe.”
Once the door was closed, Maxwell, who had taken refuge in the cockpit, came out and spoke lightly.
His behavior was more exaggerated than before.
It seemed he had seen me call down lightning and fry the vehicles.
Hearing about something and seeing it with one’s own eyes were different, so there was nothing strange about his attitude toward me changing.
Whoooosh…… Kwaaaang!
Soon after, the sound of the jet engines spinning up struck my ears.
The transport plane began to move.
The transport plane, which started running along the runway, perhaps because it had been filled to the brim with fuel, struggled into the sky at the end of the runway.
Once airborne, the transport plane turned its nose south.
While the transport plane made a wide turn, Maxwell, who had been looking out the window, clicked his tongue quietly.
“Oh dear, rioters are breaking through the guard post and storming into the base. I wonder if the soldiers will be all right.”
Even at his words, I kept my eyes closed and did not answer.
Even if he had not said it, I was feeling all of it through my supersense.
I had been watching the vehicles gathered outside the base hurriedly rush toward the base entrance as the transport plane was about to depart as well.
And I was watching those vehicles smash through the guard post, enter the base, and head toward the building where the soldiers were.
The moment I finally confirmed gunfire erupting from the cars and the building, the base passed beyond the range of my senses.
I could no longer see it, but I did not feel regret.
Maxwell seemed to be saying something beside me, but I did not open my closed eyes.
I forced myself to sleep.
The transport plane crossed Australia, which was engulfed in flames.
Fortunately, the transport plane flew above the black clouds created by the fires, so I did not have to see the ground. But even just looking at the black clouds passing below the plane was enough to infer the state of the surface.
Right now, the Southern Hemisphere of Earth, in summer, was hell.
And the Northern Hemisphere did not have much time left either.
After flying like that for more than ten hours, we arrived at our destination, the Antarctic base, at dawn the next day.
Instead of black clouds, we flew beneath a hazy sky and reached the vicinity of the South Pole, which was remarkably mild.
Even a year ago, this place had maintained temperatures of minus twenty or thirty degrees Celsius even in summer, but now it was ten to twenty degrees above zero—warm spring weather.
It was a good temperature for activity, but here in Antarctica, it was the worst possible temperature.
“My God…… I never thought I’d see a sight like this in Antarctica.”
As Maxwell exclaimed in shock, countless waterways had formed across Antarctica, which had once been an icy plain.
They were all channels formed by the melting ice fields.
Those streams led to a massive fissure that had opened in the middle of the ice plain.
Where the waterways met the fissure, waterfalls had formed, and an enormous amount of water was pouring down.
It was a magnificent sight, but for us, it was a problem.
We had to go down there.
“I didn’t expect it to be this bad. If the runway is like this, landing will be difficult!”
Looking at the runway that had become a sea of water like everywhere else, Maxwell shook his head.
“I think we’ll have to go straight to Punta Arenas International Airport. The fuel will be tight, but if the transport plane is going to land, we need to go to Chile.”
I went to the cockpit and listened to the two pilots, but both of them were of the same opinion as Maxwell.
Maxwell asked the pilots,
“You have parachutes, right?”
“What? But if we jump from here, there’ll be no way to get back!”
At his words, the pilots turned pale.
Had they taken it to mean they would have to jump too?
I was also curious what he meant.
Was he telling only me to get off?
“Only we will get off. You two can go to Chile.”
It seemed he intended to jump with me.
When I stared at him, he added an explanation.
“You’re an incredible mage, so if I go with you, I doubt I’ll die. It may take a long time, but we should be able to get back as well.”
After seeing magic in Australia, Maxwell seemed to have come to believe in my magic.
Certainly, what he said was not wrong.
Even if we jumped out of the plane together, I could get him and myself out of Antarctica with magic.
Just as I had flown through the sky while carrying Hannah, I could fly through the Antarctic sky with Maxwell.
‘Absolutely not!’
But I had not the slightest intention of doing that.
I did not intend to get off alone either.
With a transport plane here, there was no reason to fly around the Antarctic sky.
“Let’s land.”
“What?”
At my words, Maxwell and the pilots looked at me with incredulous expressions.
Instead of the pilot holding the control stick, the co-pilot pointed at the runway outside the window and poured out his words.
“The ice has melted, and the runway has lost its function. Not only is it a sea of water, so we won’t be able to slow down, we can’t even imagine what condition the ice under the water is in. We’ll definitely crash into the runway!”
Even to me, who was not a pilot, his words did not seem wrong.
But I said it once more.
“There is no need to worry. Land.”
“But!”
Just as the co-pilot was about to get angry again, I extended the spear I had hidden and brought it to the window.
“Freeze.”
With the incantation, a thin layer of ice bloomed on the window.
“When the plane descends, I’ll freeze the runway, so don’t worry and land.”
At my words, the co-pilot, who had been about to lose his temper, closed his mouth.
The pilot and co-pilot looked at each other with troubled expressions.
At that moment, Maxwell stepped in.
“You saw the lightning last time, didn’t you? Let’s land.”
At his words, the two pilots made their decision.
The transport plane began descending.
As the transport plane headed downward, I spoke to Sopeu.
[Please.]
[I don’t understand why you handle the weight, yet I’m the one who has to suffer. We have to freeze the runway in time with the transport plane’s landing, so don’t talk to me from now on.]
As always, Sopeu grumbled, but a large magic circle unfolded at the tip of the spear.
From the cockpit of the landing transport plane, a vast spell of cold began to unfold.
Antarctic Continent (2)