Chapter 78 Strongest Sage, Confirms

 

"Let's get back to about the demons for now."

"T-that's right! We saw some kinda huge explosion, what was that!?"

When I said that, Alma recalled something and asked me.

"That was the demon imploding. And of course, I've confirmed that he had died for sure."

Pretending to die in an explosion while actually secretly fleeing the scene is a relatively famous tactic.
You need to keep monitoring the enemy's mana reaction as they're exploding, to prevent yourself from getting tricked.

"Demon, imploding....?"

"Yeah. That's the kind of magic it was. ...But the problem isn't the demon. But what's left of it."

Alma and Ruli look at the surroundings.

"Left... Hm? There's some kind of weird rod sticking out, what's that?"

After a bit, Alma pointed at a broken stake.
Ruli and Iris shifted their glance there.

"It looks similar to the pillar used for making barriers.... It's very big though."

"It does look similar... But isn't that a Dragon Vein Pillar?"

Iris replied to Ruli.

"Iris is correct. That's a Dragon Vein Pillar. A tool to manipulate the mana flow in the Dragon Vein by sticking it into the vein. The problem is its purpose... We defeated a demon called Ashril recently right?"

"Rather than we, it was mostly Mathi-kun alone though."

"At that time, Ashril used a magic to cause a large outbreak of monsters."

"Outbreak of monsters... Is that the same magic that exists in myth? It's said to require your life as compensation..."

That magic was in myth huh.
It should have been a hardly usable minor magic.

"I don't know about myth, but it's true that it requires your life as compensation. I only managed to delay the magic since I had lost most of my mana at that time."

I probably would have been able to stop that magic if I had as much mana as I am now.
...However, even if the monsters are of questionable quality, it'd be a waste to stop them from coming.
I think I probably would've just delayed the activation to after the completion of the capital's barrier even if I had some mana remaining.

"You speak as if you stopped a myth-class magic...."

"It's Mathi-kun.... I mean, Iris is also a mythical creature if it's really the real one...."

"Hm? What about me?"

Iris replied with human language hearing its name got called.

"Ah. They're talking about myth and stuff. I'm not peculiar about myth at all... How about you Iris?"

"Un. Since I have never gone down that mountain, I don't know either...."

Looks like Iris isn't really useful for getting information.
Well, even if Iris is a mythical creature, the thing it has to do won't change.
...But I'm curious if Gods really exist.
I'd like to fight them eventually.

"...And that stake... Does that Dragon Vein Pillar have anything to do with monster outbreak?"

Alma returned to the point.

"Yeah. Judging from the magic carved on it, no mistake about it. Arias and the other demons stayed here in order to control the Dragon Vein below and shift the outbreak location."

I didn't defeat Arias normally and made him implode by using up large amount of mana because I noticed that.
The Dragon Vein Pillar had been set for quite a long time so its effect had solidified... But it should be shifted a bit after breaking it that bad.

"...I've got a bad feeling about this...."

"Me too. ...Mathi-kun. The location of that outbreak is...."

I reply the two's question.
It's probably the worst possible answer they could've guessed.

"--It's at the royal capital."

















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