Chapter 35
From ancient times, it was common sense to set fire to erase evidence.
So, considering that investigators would rush here later, I decided to burn this place down.
The more we destroy the scene, the harder it will be to find evidence.
The reason we came here in the first place was to fabricate evidence to strike a blow against Elisia.
It was better to burn all traces and cause confusion in the investigation.
Therefore, judging that it would be better to burn everything without measuring, I called Daisy.
"Meuyang."
Daisy seemed to have heard what I said earlier, as she immediately drew massive mana into her body and turned it into flames when I called her name.
After confirming that the heat of the flames was so intense that it melted even the countless raging snowflakes, I ordered Daisy to burn down the entire village.
Whoosh!
Like a dragon breathing fire, a huge flame covered the entire village, melting everything around.
As I was admiring the power that was incomparably stronger than when she was a lowest-grade spirit, I heard strange screams from far away.
"Kieeeeek!"
At that moment, numerous chimeras began pouring out of the building in the center.
Judging by the few burning chimeras, it seemed most of them had been hiding underground, so I drew out my mace.
As I approached, chimeras with mixed human and monster body parts cried out in pain.
"I-it hurts."
"Save... save me? Please."
"Mom, save me. Mom."
A horde of chimeras numbering at least several dozen.
I frowned as I realized these chimeras were similar to what I had seen when I went to rescue Siren.
Were they conducting similar experiments?
A question struck my mind, but judging it would be better to check the details inside, I said to Loraine, "I'll try to handle this alone as much as possible."
"Okay. I'll only intervene if it seems dangerous."
I nodded and looked ahead while gripping the mace tightly.
I saw grotesquely mixed beings, so twisted that it was questionable whether they could be called living creatures, rushing towards me solely to kill me.
Looking at them, I swung my mace hard, infused with aura.
Crack!
The moment I brought down the mace, it turned into a huge mass of flesh, to the extent that "smashed" would be an appropriate description.
If I were facing normal humans, they would have all flinched in fear at this sight, but the enemies were chimeras without reason, so they just rushed at me without any particular reaction.
This is rather convenient.
Thinking it would have taken ages to catch them if they had run away, I was quickly swinging my mace to deal with them when
Suddenly, a question crossed my mind.
...Come to think of it, why do black mages like chimeras so much?
These small chimeras might have some effect against ordinary people, but against those who knew how to fight to some extent, they were only slightly stronger than zombies, so I couldn't understand why they made them, given their extremely low efficiency compared to the effort and cost involved.
If I were a black mage, I didn't think I would ever make them, I thought as I was crushing the chimeras one by one.
Suddenly, what Liana had told me earlier came to mind.
They wouldn't increase the scale to that extent just to make chimeras, so it was probably a higher-dimensional experiment in progress.
The moment the words "higher-dimensional experiment" came to mind, a hypothesis crossed my mind.
If that's true, then the black mages aren't making chimeras to make chimeras, but…
I thought they might have “failed” in trying to create something and produced chimeras as a byproduct.
And since chimeras were experiments mixing humans and monsters... there was an extremely high possibility it wasn't an ordinary experiment.
What could it be?
As I was thinking I couldn't understand, Daisy seemed to have gathered mana again and signaled me.
I nodded at that signal and filled my mace with the spirit's power before scattering it around.
Boom!
A huge explosion sound was heard, and flames burst out everywhere, burning everything around.
I slowly passed by the chimeras screaming in pain from all directions and moved towards the building in the center.
Judging by the fact that no black mages have come out, the main force must be underground.
Drawing us into a space that was difficult to escape from, then clashing with full force there.
It was obvious to anyone that they were setting a trap and waiting, so I smiled slightly.
Thinking this, I went down and saw many people holding weapons blocking the passage.
Black mages wouldn't be holding metal weapons, so these were likely to be minions or mercenaries.
"Shoot! I said shoot! Arrows or whatever, just shoot everything!"
I was about to deflect the numerous arrows and thrown weapons flying towards me with my mace when Daisy, who had transformed into human form, waved her hand and burned them all with a flame barrier.
"C-crazy."
"Is that even possible?"
"C-call for backup!"
The black mages seemed to be hiding in a deeper place, as nothing threatening was coming.
Seeing this, I realized the enemies were pushing in miscellaneous manpower to buy time, and I narrowed my eyes.
That means it would be better to move forward faster.
I didn't know what they were preparing, but if they were pouring this much out, it was probably not ordinary, so it would be better to move faster.
As I made that judgment and tried to move forward quickly, I saw people with their whole bodies bound being dragged out as shields in front of us.
It seemed they were trying to use hostages to buy time with a sympathy strategy, but I ignored it and moved forward, striking down the heads of others.
As I was advancing, smashing everything regardless of whether the hostages died or not,
The one who seemed to be their leader pointed a sword at a hostage's head and threatened me.
"If you move even one step further, I'll kill these guys!"
To those words, I calmly replied, "Go ahead."
"So put down your weapon obediently... What?"
"Kill them."
At my words, he seemed flustered and hesitated for a moment, and I didn't miss this chance and asked Daisy to scatter fire everywhere.
The sun spirit's fire that burned everything.
As soon as I saw the bodies of the enemies around burning, I quickly ran forward and brought my mace down on the head of the one who seemed to be the leader.
Crack!
A crushing sound was heard, cruelly loud.
I pushed away the fallen leader with my foot, then looked at the bound hostages and spoke.
I acted with a pitiful expression and opened my mouth.
"Don't worry, I will make sure to hold Grand Duchess Elisia responsible for these actions."
It was uncertain whether they would believe my words, but if even one person believed me, it would become a seed of doubt in itself, so
Thinking it would be good to throw out at least one piece of bait, I said that and released them.
I don't expect much, but…
Still, thinking it would be better than nothing, I watched the hostages crawling into corners to hide themselves.
By the time blood had stained the entire corridor, I was able to reach a huge iron door.
Even at a glance, its thickness seemed quite substantial, so it seemed that what they were trying to hide was inside.
Confirming this, I gripped the mace tightly and lifted it.
As I lifted it up, a powerful mana wave burst from the iron door and a voice was heard.
[This door is made of Mar iron, famous for its high purity, and is surrounded by three layers of defensive magic circles. No matter how strong you are...]
I was getting curious about what they were hiding so much at this point.
Ignoring the shouting from the front, I approached with the mace gripped tightly and struck the iron door.
Boom!
Even though I struck it with aura pushed into the mace, there didn't seem to be much impact.
At my action, a mocking voice is heard from the front.
[How stupid! Repeating meaningless actions will only produce meaningless results! It’s the height of insanity! Get lost!]
This just made me more determined.
I decided to smash it with all my might this time, loosened my shoulders, then gripped the mace with all my strength and looked ahead.
I just need to hit one spot repeatedly, right?
No matter how solid it was, as long as there was durability, it would eventually break if I kept hitting it.
Thinking this, I swung the mace hard.
Boom!
A sound closer to an explosion than an impact was heard, and everything around shook momentarily.
Feeling Daisy's power slowly entering my body, I calmly gathered my thoughts and swung the mace again.
Crack.
The incredibly thick iron door started to crack little by little.
[Uh... huh?]
Hearing the black mage's flustered voice, I struck with the mace again and thought.
I need a stronger hit.
Is there no other way?
There was a limit to using aura, so I was thinking I wanted to solve this using Daisy's power when suddenly, an interesting thought crossed my mind.
Until now, I've been swinging with Daisy's power contained in the mace, but…
A simple thought that if I compressed it further and gathered it in one place, wouldn't the power increase explosively?
As that thought arose in my mind, I pushed everything, be it mana or Daisy's power, into one part of the mace.
Perhaps because I exerted too much force, a recoil occurred momentarily and pain gradually approached, but because I wanted to smash what was in front of me regardless of the pain, the thought of stopping didn't cross my mind at all.
After pouring all my strength into one place like that, I judged that if I put in any more, I wouldn't be able to handle it, and at that moment, I lifted the mace up and brought it down on the iron door.
Crack, Boom!
At that moment, the condensed mana and Daisy's power exploded at one point, completely shattering the incredibly thick iron door.
Just as I was feeling a bit of fun at the strange feeling of the pent-up energy being released,
A terrified voice was heard from the front.
"Y-you're crazy."
It seemed to be the one who was mocking me earlier, saying I could never break it.
The moment I heard that voice, I wiggled my mace and moved forward.