The flooded ice runway rushed toward us.
Seen up close, it was clear exactly what state the runway was in.
Even before, it had only been a temporary runway marked out on the ice plain with flags and lamps, but the place where the transport plane was descending now could hardly be called a runway anymore.
The sheet of ice that had been the runway was no longer exposed. The ice runway was submerged beneath water flowing toward the crevasse.
Because it was draining into the crevasse beside it, the water covering the ice was not very deep, but the fact that it was covered in water at all made landing look impossible.
Even so, the pilot clenched his teeth and lowered the transport plane’s wheels.
Shhhk, clank.
As the wheels came down, he shouted to everyone.
“We’re landing! Hold on tight!”
With those words, he pulled the control stick.
The nose of the transport plane lifted, and soon after, the rear wheels touched the water.
Splash! Shwaaaak!
The moment spray surged up behind the transport plane—
[Freeze.]
Soph cast a spell.
Freezing magic, a branch of temperature-control magic, unfolded by borrowing the energy of the black stone.
Dddddk!
The spray that had shot into the air hardened in an instant.
Shwaaaak!
Beneath the transport plane, the water covering the ice began to freeze.
Crunch, craaack!
The wheels of the transport plane, which had been cutting through the water, now began racing across the runway as they shattered the ice forming beneath them.
“My God…”
Everyone inside the transport plane stared out the windows with stunned faces.
They could not help it.
The water level over the ice was quite high. At the very least, it was measured in meters.
At a glance, the runway looked like an enormous river.
And now that river was freezing over.
Centered on the transport plane, several dozen meters to either side and hundreds of meters ahead were freezing solid.
At the sight, people let out exclamations of awe.
“I’ve never seen anything like this in my life.”
“It’s nothing like watching it in a movie.”
At the copilot’s exclamation, Maxwell also shook his head.
The pilot could not speak because he was busy landing the transport plane, but judging by his widened eyes, he seemed even more shocked than they were.
Shwaaaak!
Now, instead of the sound of ice breaking, the sound of wheels sliding over ice could be heard.
Behind the transport plane, broken ice was surging up instead of spray.
Screeeech!
Like that, the transport plane advanced several kilometers over the ice made by magic before finally coming to a stop.
Once the transport plane stopped, the pilot let out a sigh and released the control stick.
“Good work.”
At the copilot’s words, the pilot waved a hand dismissively, and Maxwell also patted the pilot on the shoulder.
I expressed my thanks to Soph.
[You worked hard.]
At my words, Soph answered in a weary voice.
[It was no easy task. Enough to burn through one black stone.]
As Soph said, one of the black stones embedded in the spear had lost its light.
Part of it was because he had been using magic continuously since coming to Earth, but the most important reason the black stone had been depleted was this spell.
Freezing enough water to land a transport plane was not easy even with the magic of an archmage and the black stone of a control entity.
Fortunately, two black stones still remained in the spear.
‘They should last until we go back.’
A control entity’s black stone could absorb surrounding energy to replenish the energy it had consumed.
Of course, that could not be done on Earth, where there was no energy, but once we returned to Trappist, we could restore its energy.
‘If it gets really urgent, I can charge it at the terraforming ruins.’
Soph would nag me, so that was a last resort.
I said to the exhausted Soph,
[You must not pass out just because you’re tired.]
We had not even confirmed the ruins yet, so it would be troublesome if he fainted already.
At my words, Soph burst out angrily.
[I am not who I used to be! I can endure this much easily!]
Hearing Soph’s angry voice, I figured I did not need to worry about him fainting.
After that, we all got out of the transport plane.
Seeing that the pilot and copilot had come outside as well, they too seemed curious about the runway’s condition.
It was only natural.
This landing was not the end of it.
This transport plane had to take off into the sky again.
The pilot and copilot began checking the transport plane’s wheels and other parts, while Maxwell clicked his tongue as he looked back at the runway behind us.
“I see that ice made by magic melts just the same.”
As he said, the ice Soph had created was melting.
Normally, it would not have melted this quickly, but with the transport plane smashing it up and the water flowing toward the crevasse continuously battering it, there was no way it could hold.
“Magic only creates natural phenomena, after all.”
I answered Maxwell while drawing lines in the ice with my spear.
Magic was not a miracle.
A phenomenon caused by magic, unless dark energy was continuously supplied, had no choice but to return to its original state.
That was why a magic circle was necessary to maintain a magical phenomenon.
If one drew a magic circle that activated a spell, that magic circle would absorb energy from the surroundings and continue maintaining the spell.
And relics were objects or facilities into which magic circles had been inscribed in order to preserve those magic circles for a long time.
I continued drawing lines over the ice with my spear.
A large circle encircling the transport plane, drawn by the spear, and various patterns drawn inside the circle.
The circle and patterns formed a magic circle that absorbed energy, activated freezing magic, and maintained that magic.
After finishing the entire magic circle, I asked Soph,
[There’s nothing wrong with it, is there?]
[No matter how I look at it, I cannot understand. You could never comprehend magical theory even if your life depended on it, so how are you this good at things like this?]
Soph praised me in his own way.
As expected, it seemed I had drawn it well.
The reason the magic circle had been drawn properly was because I had drawn it while looking at a magic circle.
Just as I pictured a magic circle in my head when using magic, this time too, I had spread the magic circle out in my mind and copied it exactly.
[But the shape of the magic circle is a little different. Is that to use a black stone?]
[Yes. Earth has no dark energy, after all.]
I took an Akzar black stone from the box and placed it in the center of the magic circle.
[There should be no magic circles on Trappist that use black stones. How did you draw that?]
[I figured it out by looking at the magic circles drawn on the relic for making security oaths and the relic for telling the truth.]
They were not visible on the surface, but those relics also had magic circles drawn on them.
Thanks to my super senses, I had been able to see and memorize those magic circles.
At my answer, Soph was dumbfounded.
[You inserted that into this magic circle without any theory?]
At Soph’s words, I tilted my head.
[I just looked, and it worked.]
At my words, Soph said nothing.
Without speaking further to the now-quiet Soph, I activated the magic circle.
“Activate, freeze, and fix.”
At any other time, Soph would have said the incantation was strange, but this time he said nothing.
Wooooong.
Fortunately, the magic circle operated properly.
Using the energy flowing out from the black stone at its center, the magic circle spread freezing magic through the ice.
The ice, which had been gradually shrinking, began to widen again.
“It’s done. It should hold for a few days.”
If I used a better black stone, it would last longer, but there was no need to go that far.
Seeing the magic circle completed and the ice spreading, Maxwell shook his head.
“I can only imagine how much you must have laughed at me when I boasted while taking out relics before.”
I shook my head at his words.
“I did not laugh.”
At the time, I had been too busy worrying about how to fool him to have time to laugh.
After completing the magic circle, I headed toward the base with Maxwell.
The pilot and copilot, who still had maintenance to do, decided to remain with the transport plane.
Leaving the two of them at the transport plane, we began walking toward the base.
“When I came last time, I was bundled up tightly, but now, even walking on ice, it doesn’t feel very cold.”
As he said, he and I were walking across the Antarctic continent in ordinary clothes.
Once we moved away from the transport plane, the sheet of ice made by the magic circle came to an end.
Beyond the ice, a current as high as a person was flowing past.
The research base stood dozens of meters away from where the ice ended.
One research building, precariously standing on pillars over the water.
The barracks beside it had tilted and were half-submerged in the water.
“There used to be several barracks, but now only one remains. I don’t know how many people survived.”
Standing at the edge of the ice, I dipped the tip of my spear into the water.
Crack-crack-crack!
The water began to freeze in the direction of the one remaining research building.
After pulling the spear out of the ice, I began walking toward the research building.
Maxwell, who had been watching the water freeze with startled eyes, hurriedly followed after me.
Once he caught his breath, he looked at the remaining research building and continued speaking.
“Originally, we intended to shut it down after the last visit. But they insisted they needed to conduct more research, so we left it as it was. We also provided more of the equipment they said they needed. And then these scientists sent us unexpected results.”
As I listened to Maxwell, I examined the research building.
On the railing of the research building, whose pillars looked as if they might be swept away by the current at any moment, two people had come out.
A middle-aged man and a young woman.
They seemed to be the scientists Maxwell had mentioned.
They were gripping the railing and staring at us with astonished eyes.
As the scientists watched, a path of ice formed, and we continued walking over it.
A moment later, the ice path connected to the research building.
We stopped beneath the research building, which stood on four pillars.
The railing where the scientists stood was several meters above the ice path I had made.
Originally, it must have been a railing level with the ground, but the ice had melted away over time, leaving it this high.
Maxwell looked up and spoke to the weary-looking middle-aged man.
“Dr. Miller, you were alive.”
He was Dr. Thomas Miller, the head of the research base, whom I had heard about on the way here.
Dr. Miller shook his head with a gloomy face.
“Of the six who remained, only the two of us are left. If you hadn’t come today, no one would have survived.”
Even to my eyes, it looked as if this research building would not hold out much longer.
There was no time, and no reason to talk here.
I grabbed Maxwell by the scruff of his neck and leapt upward.
Seeing me leap several meters while carrying another person, the doctors’ eyes widened.
“That ice too… just what in the world is going on…?”
The haggard-looking female doctor asked us, as if she could not hold back any longer.
At her question, Maxwell rubbed his throat and gave a brief explanation.
“You must have heard when you signed the confidentiality oath. That there are ability users on another planet who hunt monsters. The person beside me is the strongest mage on that planet.”
It was a brief but definite explanation.
At his words, Dr. Miller tilted his head.
“But… I heard abilities can’t be used on Earth.”
“This man can.”
At Maxwell’s categorical words, the two could say nothing.
Of course, they looked as if they wanted to ask me all sorts of things, but now was not the time to answer such questions.
After entering the research building, we were able to hear the situation from the two doctors.
“The reason we said we would remain was because we discovered regular seismic waves coming from inside the crevasse. It meant there was something artificial inside that crevasse.”
After Dr. Miller, the female scientist continued while eating the coffee and sandwich I had taken out for her.
“So we kept checking inside the crevasse with the drones you sent us. After determining the location of the seismic waves through triangulation, we scoured the area with drones. It was thanks to the excellent performance of the drones you sent. Any other drones wouldn’t have gotten anywhere near it.”
Dr. Miller nodded at her words as well, but the reason they had found the ruins was not because the drones were good.
It was entirely thanks to the scientists’ efforts.
After hearing the story, I rose from my seat.
“We have no time, so let’s go right away.”
At my words, the female scientist shook her head while holding her coffee.
“What? There is one drone left, but even if you use that magic or whatever, it isn’t a distance you can walk.”
This time, Dr. Miller added to her words.
“Even if you can get there, you won’t be able to descend into the crevasse. The crevasse has become a gigantic waterfall now that the Antarctic glacier is melting.”
Both of them said it was absurd, but I did not stop walking.
Seeing me move, Maxwell gave instructions to the two scientists.
“Please prepare the drone.”
The scientists looked troubled, but the two of them took out a drone and flew it outside the research station.
A large drone capable of traveling long distances rose into the sky.
And I too soared into the sky after the drone.
I could see the people below staring at the sight with their mouths open, but I did not stop and continued flying after the drone.
Our destination was inside the crevasse.
Following the drone, I plunged between the long, enormous waterfalls.
Antarctic Continent (3)