After confirming the purification magic, I searched the terraforming ruins.
Unfortunately, there was nothing left.
There was no armory like on Venus, no virtual reality training facility, no greenhouse.
These ruins were, quite literally, a facility made solely for terraforming.
While I searched the ruins, Soph analyzed the facility.
Above the shelf in the center of the underground hall, the spear floated upright, and around it, several holograms—no, magic circles—appeared and disappeared repeatedly.
Each time a magic circle vanished, a part of the facility was being analyzed by Soph.
To grasp ruins built on an entirely different system so easily—he truly was an archmage.
When I finished searching the ruins and returned to the shelf, all the magic circles that had unfolded around the spear had disappeared.
The analysis was complete.
When I reached toward the spear, it came into my hand.
Thud.
I slung the spear over my back and asked Soph.
“How is it?”
At my question, Soph gave a negative answer.
[It seems I can control it with my magic, but actually operating it is impossible.]
“As expected.”
The faint hope I had was gone.
[These are full-fledged terraforming ruins. They require proper dark energy. As I expected, black stones won’t be enough.]
“What about the controlled object’s black stone? If the Giant Lord’s black stones had been intact, could they have moved the ruins?”
[Even those black stones would be insufficient. They would not have reached the threshold required to operate the facility.]
The strongest monster I knew was the resurrected Giant Lord I had seen in the ruined city.
That monster had possessed an extraordinary black stone, though it had been shattered.
If even that black stone was not enough, then in the end, these ruins were useless.
In truth, I had barely expected anything, so I was not disappointed.
This place was a facility the Venusians had built to stop the carbon dioxide and methane spewing out from the Antarctic continent.
Ruins built on the belief that dark energy would continue to remain in the solar system.
The Akzar black stone might be more effective than other black stones, but there was no way that stone alone could operate a continental- or planetary-scale facility like this.
“It’s a shame, but it can’t be helped. Still, I’m not leaving empty-handed after coming here.”
Thanks to coming here, I had learned purification magic.
I had also learned that the Sanctuary was a kind of terraforming ruin.
That alone would be a great help in the fight against the Demon King.
[Indeed. These ruins are an early terraforming facility built by the Venusians. If researched properly, they will be of help to the terraforming facilities on Trappist and other planets.]
I had only been thinking about fighting the Demon King, but Soph, being a mage, was thinking of something else.
It did not quite hit home for me, but Soph’s words were probably not wrong, so I nodded.
[Still, it is not as though nothing can be operated at all. If we use a black stone, one function can be reactivated.]
At Soph’s following words, my expression brightened this time as well.
That would be a great help right away.
***
After that, I left the ruins and returned to the research base.
The researchers and Maxwell, who had been standing by the railing of the base, saw me flying through the sky and their eyes lit up.
When I landed beside them, the doctors bombarded me with questions.
“What happened?”
“Did you figure out what kind of ruins they are?”
“Why were the drones destroyed?”
“What is the internal structure like? How has it remained intact until now?”
Stopping the two researchers as they poured out questions, Maxwell asked,
“What happened? Were those ruins connected to another planet?”
That seemed to be what Maxwell was most curious about.
I shook my head.
“No. They weren’t connected to another planet. They were terraforming ruins.”
Maxwell, who had looked disappointed at my words that they were not connected to another planet, widened his eyes at what followed.
“Terraforming ruins?”
He seemed to have had some other expectation, but unfortunately, that expectation was impossible.
“They are terraforming ruins, but because there is no dark energy on Earth, they were not operating.”
“Ah… I see.”
Like the researchers who had come to Trappist, Maxwell also knew about terraforming ruins.
He understood what I meant without asking any further questions.
I said to the disappointed Maxwell,
“Then let’s head back.”
Now that we had checked the ruins, there was no reason to stay here any longer.
The magic circle installed beneath the transport aircraft also had a time limit.
If we delayed any more, the transport would be plunged into the water.
After seeing Maxwell nod, I asked the two scientists,
“You two are ready to leave as well, right?”
I had no choice but to ask the scientists again.
It was because of how the two of them looked.
Before exploring the fissure, I had told the scientists to finish preparing to leave.
In truth, this research building was more dangerous than the transport.
Looking at the research building and the current, it was obvious that the research building would be swept away before the transport.
However, the scientists’ current appearance was not that of people about to leave.
The younger female scientist at least had a backpack on, but Dr. Miller was empty-handed.
No matter how I looked at him, he did not look like someone who was leaving.
“I have placed the important research results in a storage device and entrusted it to Dr. Ella. I also uploaded backups to the cloud via satellite, so there should be no issue.”
I let out a sigh at Dr. Miller’s words.
Because I understood what he was saying.
I asked Dr. Miller again.
“What about you, Doctor?”
“I will remain. The data and equipment under research are still here. They are materials my colleagues made as they died. I must organize them until the very end and at least upload them to the cloud.”
Just as I had expected.
In the end, he intended to remain here.
“Are you saying you can’t leave because of the data and equipment?”
At my question, he smiled faintly and answered,
“There is too much to take with me. There is not enough time to take it either. Besides, for an environmental climatologist awaiting death, there is no better place than this.”
As a scientist, they were truly admirable words.
But I could not leave him like that.
“If we can take everything, you’ll go, right?”
“Pardon?”
“Besides, even after Earth’s destruction, there is a place that needs environmental climatologists. It’s also a place where you can research as many terraforming ruins as you’re curious about.”
“Pardon?”
Dr. Miller looked bewildered, but I had no intention of letting him die.
Trappist needed many experts.
Environmental scientists were especially necessary.
I entered the research building and put everything inside into boxes.
From all kinds of specimens to heavy equipment.
I packed everything away so thoroughly that only the building remained.
Seeing the items being sucked into boxes before their eyes, I thought at least Dr. Miller would feel despondent, but the scientists’ reactions were different from what I expected.
“What principle is this?”
“Is the dimension changing? Or is it being moved to another space?”
“Or perhaps its size is shrinking by narrowing the distance between quanta…”
They were simply curious about the space-expansion boxes they were seeing for the first time.
“I’ll explain later.”
I had to placate the two scientists with those words.
Of course, I would explain later, but when the time came, I would not be the one explaining.
After all, I had an excellent mage who was good at explaining things.
After packing up all the data and equipment like that, I created an ice path beneath the research building.
We followed that path back to the transport.
The power of the black stone still remained, so the island made of ice was safe, and the transport looked fine as well.
Now, it was time to create an ice runway like when we had landed and get the transport airborne.
However, the problems were not over yet.
The pilots who had been waiting in the transport brought up another problem.
“We don’t have enough fuel to reach another airport.”
Everyone was dumbfounded by the pilot’s absurd statement.
Maxwell immediately refuted the pilot’s words.
“Didn’t you say when we landed that we had enough fuel to reach Chile?”
I had heard that too.
At the time, the pilot had said we could not land and had to go to Punta Arenas International Airport in Chile.
At Maxwell’s words, the pilot nodded with a gloomy expression.
“At the time, we could have made it.”
He pointed at the transport and said,
“When we landed on the rough ice, holes opened up in several places on the aircraft. We hurriedly patched them after landing, but the fuel tank in one wing emptied out.”
Hearing the story about the landing, I had no choice but to scratch my head.
Certainly, because I had frozen the rough current with magic, the quality of the ice surface probably had not been good.
It was plausible that holes had opened in the wing.
It seemed that was also why the pilots had checked the plane as soon as they got off the transport.
Maxwell, now at a loss, asked the researchers from the Antarctic base,
“There should be fuel at this base too, shouldn’t there?”
Though temporary, this was still a base with a runway.
It certainly seemed like it would have reserve fuel.
At Maxwell’s question, the two scientists shook their heads.
“There was, but it all got washed away some time ago.”
At their words, all of us looked at the research building.
Craaack!
Just then, the half-destroyed research building and the last remaining research building were being swept away by the water.
Seeing the research building already being washed away, I looked at Dr. Miller, but he avoided my gaze.
Finally, Maxwell asked me,
“Do you perhaps have any method?”
“I don’t have a way to fly a fuel-less transport to Chile, but…”
I was not a superhero, and I could not move this transport to Chile with magic.
Even if we abandoned the transport and flew while carrying people, two people was the limit right now.
In the end, we had to use another method.
I said to everyone,
“First, let’s get the transport in the air.”
“Even if we get the transport in the air, we don’t have enough fuel to get outside the Antarctic continent.”
“All the other bases in Antarctica have either withdrawn or been shut down. There is nowhere inside Antarctica where we can find fuel.”
At the two pilots’ words, I shook my head.
“The place we’re going isn’t outside the Antarctic continent, nor is it another base.”
“Then…”
I raised my hand and pointed to one side.
The place I pointed to was where we had just come out of—the direction of the enormous fissure.
What I meant was that we should take the transport and enter the fissure.
Everyone was dumbfounded and opposed my words, but there was no other alternative.
Craaaackle.
With Soph’s magic, a runway was created once again, and the transport burned its last fuel as it soared into the sky.
Whoooosh!
After the transport took off, the ice runway and the ice island were all swept away by the water and disappeared.
Now there was nowhere left to return to.
The transport changed direction and headed for the fissure.
The fissure was enormous, with hundreds of meters between its sides, but it was not easy to push the transport into it.
“This isn’t a movie. I can’t believe I’m diving into a place like this…”
The pilot gripped the control stick, sweating coldly, and the co-pilot looked back and shouted loudly.
“Hold on tight. We’re going in!”
The two scientists and Maxwell, sitting in the cabin and clutching their seat belts, as well as I, seated behind the pilots, tensed up as we watched the fissure approach before our eyes.
Of course, Soph had placed a shield over the entire transport, but the shield could not prevent the transport from stalling or crashing.
This was entirely up to the pilot’s skill.
Kwaaaang!
The transport plunged into the fissure and continued descending through the raging torrent.
The destination of the transport that had leapt into the fissure was the terraforming ruins I had visited just moments ago.
Of course, those ruins could not be operated because there was no dark energy, but one of their functions could be moved with a black stone.
That was none other than the spatial movement function.
Of course, they were not full-fledged spatial movement ruins that traveled back and forth to other planets, but like the other ruins on Trappist, spatial movement was possible within Earth.
In truth, it was only natural that these ruins had a spatial movement function.
Otherwise, even the Venusians would not have been able to build ruins in such a remote place.
The transport descended rapidly toward the ground, and a moment later, we saw the land of the Antarctic continent and the ruins.
Seeing the ground, the pilot shouted in a scream-like voice.
“Good God, that’s lava!”
At his unpilot-like reaction, I calmly explained,
“There’s flat ground beside the lava. You can land there.”
At my words, he burst out angrily.
“No, what kind of nonsense is that?! Forget the landing distance, it’s not even a few dozen meters wide!”
It was a little narrow, but with the skill of a pilot who had landed on the ice, he could land there well enough.
After landing, there would be no problem.
Even if the transport was wrecked, we could protect everyone with the shield.
Not knowing that, the pilot desperately maneuvered the transport for the landing, and a moment later, the transport slammed down as if crashing into the ground beside the lava.
Kukwakwaang!
Lava scattered, and the transport screamed.
The ruins rapidly approached the transport.
Along with a massive wall of ice.
Escape from Antarctica (2)