Healing magic was as effective as it was agonizing.
Even Carlo, who had been dying, clung to life and regained consciousness.
Some said he had woken up because of the pain, but in any case, he was able to meet his family with his mind intact.
The other squad members, whose injuries had not been as severe, were able to leap to their feet thanks to my magic as well.
The squad members who got up thanked me and then fled, but that was probably because they had recovered.
After finishing the urgent treatment, I headed to the hunting ground with the squad.
The place they had been hunting was a canyon near the Magic Tower on the far side of the mountain range.
It was the canyon of rabbit monsters I had discovered while chasing an Akzar scout.
The rabbit monsters were weak native monsters, perfect for awakening user candidates.
When I arrived at the hunting ground with the squad, the native monsters were nowhere to be seen.
All that remained were traces of them being torn to shreds, and several Akzar scouts roaming around in search of people.
The monsters that saw us and charged in gleefully were electrocuted by my magic and sprawled across the ground.
“Scouts are no match for you anymore.”
Seeing my magic, Magreta exclaimed in admiration, just like the other squad members.
I told her the reality of the situation.
“If I struggle against scouts, I won’t be able to fight the Demon King.”
While the squad members extracted black stones from the monsters’ bodies, I stood at the entrance of the canyon and scattered my senses outward.
It was to prepare for any possible ambush.
“As expected, I suppose……”
This time, too, my bad feeling had not been wrong.
A filthy obstruction approaching from outside the canyon.
An Akzar scout had been caught in my senses.
I had cleaned them all up, yet another had appeared.
I could not tell whether it had come to the canyon by coincidence, or whether the scouts that had arrived earlier had contacted it.
Either way, if the Akzar monsters kept coming, we could not maintain this hunting ground.
The squad members had just finished collecting the black stones, so I told them.
“More scouts are coming. This hunting ground will be closed until it becomes safe.”
The squad members’ expressions darkened.
They had no choice.
This was the only hunting ground left now. If this place was closed, there would be nowhere to awaken user candidates.
But I could not send people into the jaws of death for the sake of awakening.
[This won’t be the only place with a problem.]
“Yes. At this pace, some of them will start crossing the mountain range.”
For now, the mountains would hold them back, but that would not last long.
I dropped a thunderbolt on the scout that had just begun to come into view, then told the squad members.
“We’re withdrawing.”
At my order, the squad members moved quickly.
They erased our traces and left the canyon.
I also put the monster corpses into the box, then followed the squad members out of the canyon.
After arriving at the Magic Tower, I sent the squad members to the underground city.
They wanted me to come with them, but before going to the underground city, I needed to check the Sanctuary.
This reconnaissance would likely be the last one before using the hydrogen bomb.
I spatially moved to the Magic Tower attached to the Sanctuary.
The inside of the tower was no different from before.
The Magic Tower was still intact.
It was a little strange to call a tower half-destroyed above the second floor “intact,” but this was the Magic Tower beside the Sanctuary where the Demon King was sealed.
The fact that spatial movement still worked here was enough to say this tower was intact.
“The previous Saintess must have done something.”
[Most likely. Though I do not remember it.]
Soph could joke about his own memories now.
I did not know whether that was a good thing or a bad thing, but I no longer needed to choose my words carefully when speaking to him.
Since I had confirmed that the Magic Tower was intact, it was time to check the Sanctuary.
I climbed to the second floor of the tower and flew up through a gap in the broken wall.
The Sanctuary viewed from the sky was different from what I had expected.
It had been smashed by a nuclear bomb, and I had driven the remaining monsters out of the Sanctuary, yet the number of monsters had increased.
[It seems more gathered than were driven out.]
To think there had been this many Akzar monsters hiding on the continent.
[Most of them are likely from the moon.]
Come to think of it, what had destroyed this planet’s magic kingdom was not the Demon King, but the monsters that fell from the moon.
Monsters that had appeared after the Demon King was sealed.
“The ones from the moon aren’t more dangerous than the Demon King, are they?”
[No, they are not. They were simply numerous. They were all weaker than the Lords. It was just that we had no forces left after fighting the Demon King.]
Soph’s answer was bitter. I could ask no more.
I stopped asking questions and examined the area around the Sanctuary in detail.
There were dozens of control entities, from the look of it.
Far more defense monsters and scout monsters than that.
There were so many humanoid monsters that I could not even count them.
And there were some I had never seen before.
“There are some with strange appearances.”
[Are they not mummies or moving fossils?]
They were not fossils or mummies.
Their forms had collapsed, but they were definitely living monsters.
If I confirmed it with my senses, I would know what kind of monsters they were, but my senses did not reach from up here.
At that moment, several monsters surged into the sky from among the monsters gathered like clouds.
Akzar monsters with spider bodies and human upper torsos.
They were magic monsters.
The monsters flew straight toward me.
“Don’t tell me they noticed me?”
This time, I had used stealth magic, and I had kept even more distance.
Yet the monsters had still noticed.
This, too, was unexpected.
[Could it be that the Demon King’s domain has expanded further……]
If that were true, it would be truly troublesome.
“There may be another reason.”
Whatever it was, it would still be a reason for concern, but it would be better than what Soph had suggested.
This was the enemy’s front yard. Now that I had been discovered, I needed to get away.
I tried to gain altitude while holding back the approaching enemies with magic.
At that moment, a few of them caught my eye.
These ones looked strange as well.
Their bodies were falling apart.
Their tentacle legs had melted and dangled like strings, purple discharge flowed over their black bodies, and their eyes were cloudy like glass.
On the outside, they looked like they were on the verge of death, but my senses felt otherwise.
Their dark energy was sharp and powerful.
They were burning through their energy like a final blazing flame.
My instincts moved first.
“Deploy the shield!”
I shouted at Soph and fired magic at the approaching monsters.
Several layers of shields spread out around me, and lightning burst from my glove and staff.
Soph’s pride and joy, lightning magic.
It was long-range magic, but once I grasped the structure of the spell, I could use it well enough myself.
In the end, lightning magic was a spell that used the electric potential difference between the starting point and the target.
If I could not change the target’s potential, then I could simply raise my own.
And if I supplied moisture through magic, I could break down the air’s insulation as well.
Soph had grumbled at my words, but in the end, the magic had succeeded. Just like now.
Flash, kraaaash!
Lightning raced across the sky, and the electrocuted monsters plummeted to the ground.
I had not killed them, but I had succeeded in knocking out more than ten at once.
It was an excellent result, but there were some that endured that spell.
The strange ones I had seen just a moment ago.
Even as sparks and smoke burst from their crumbling bodies, they did not stop flying toward me.
The next instant, black lines extended from them.
Shiiiik!
It was magic.
[Wind magic? No, is it something else?]
A spell even Soph could not immediately identify. It was magic I had never seen before either.
The black line cut through the air and brushed past my side.
It had not even hit me, but an unfamiliar, unpleasant sensation stabbed at my skin.
The second and third lines came in one after another.
Thud! Thud!
The shield lurched and shook.
But it was fine. This was not a shield that would break from this much.
I left the unfamiliar magic to the shield and quickly retreated backward.
As expected, the magic failed to break the shield.
However, the magic inflicted damage on me.
Each time the black lines struck the shield, the cold taste of metal spread over the tip of my tongue.
The shield continued to hold, but my arms grew heavier and heavier. My breathing became rough, and nausea churned inside me.
I tried using healing magic, but nothing changed.
This was a “poison” that healing magic could not affect.
My speed slowed.
The number of monsters closing in increased.
More “poison magic” flew at me.
An unexpected crisis.
Without hesitation, I tore through space.
“—Cough, leap over! Blink!”
My target was the Magic Tower, visible as a dot to my blurred eyes.
I had never crossed such a long distance before, but now was not the time to worry about that.
Fwaaaah!
When the white light of spatial movement faded, I was on the broken tower rooftop.
I had succeeded even at this distance. I had advanced another step.
But I could not rejoice over it.
I dropped to one knee and clutched my chest.
There was nothing to vomit, yet retching kept surging up.
[This is not ordinary. Your entire body is collapsing from the inside.]
“Radiation…… I think.”
I barely managed to open my mouth.
It was the metallic taste I had experienced during the nuclear power plant operation, and it was a word I had been taught through the equipment.
The magic the monsters had fired at me contained radiation.
[Is it because of the nuclear bomb you set off in the Sanctuary?]
There could be no other reason.
I had not known it could be used as magic, but there could be no other reason besides the nuclear bomb.
[That is why the shield could not block it. It did not contain a formula to block radiation.]
I understood the reason now, but that was not what mattered at the moment.
“First, a tre…… treatment method……”
Hearing the words I forced out through the pain, Soph clicked his tongue.
[After learning so much magic, what are you doing? A genius who can create long-range magic is truly a fool at times like this.]
At Soph’s words, one spell suddenly flashed through my mind.
“P-Purification!”
[Cleanly. Purification!]
The magic Soph and I cast at the same time swept through my body.
The metallic taste quickly faded. The cold tremor I had felt in my chest subsided.
Once, twice. Only after a total of four purifications, including the ones Soph cast, did my vision become clear.
I leaned my back against the edge of the half-destroyed rooftop and looked up at the sky.
The magic monsters that had lost me were stirring through the sky.
As expected, they could not perceive me inside the tower.
An ability far superior to my stealth magic was concealing me and this tower.
After confirming I was safe, I examined the Sanctuary.
There were many monsters similar to the magic monsters that had fired radiation magic.
Creatures steeped in the shadow of a nuclear explosion.
Skin gleaming like glass covered in ash, forms that crumbled whenever they found a gap.
It was not only the living ones that had transformed that way.
Some dragged half-melted bones behind them, while others had tentacles growing from their bellies and forcing their outer shells apart.
[They will not last long. Their forms are collapsing at an extremely rapid rate.]
“The problem is that their ‘long’ may be far too long.”
If they were like the magic monsters, they would be deadly until the moment they died.
Far stronger durability and magic sharp as blades. And that magic carried an invisible poison.
The poison was not only in their magic.
If those monsters crossed the mountain range and attacked people……
I did not want to imagine it.
“Nuclear weapons…… can’t be used recklessly.”
A bitter taste filled my mouth. It felt as if one of my arms had been bound.
But I could not keep my hands tied forever just because I was afraid of what might come after.
“When facing the Demon King, I’ll have to use them at the decisive moment.”
Leaning on my spear, I forced myself to stand.
Unexpected things kept happening.
I had to hurry.
I immediately crossed space and headed to the underground city.
Fortunately, the removal of the nuclear missile’s security measures was nearly complete.
The joint work of the nuclear engineer and the spirit was far more efficient than expected.
The preparations were finished sooner than expected. Now it was time to attack the Sanctuary.
Assembly