“So, let’s discuss how to handle this. The first thing we need to do is to change the rumors. We need to be careful. Any careless or clumsy missteps in these sorts of situations always end up backfiring. We’ll have to spread similar but new rumors to offset them. Everyone loves conspiracies, after all.”
“True, true. Spreading more rumors weakens their impact.”
“We should also begin investigating the dagger you and yours found. Its presence alone indicates that there’s some kind of information that will lead us back to the culprit. I’ll assign a dedicated team to the task.”
“Much obliged. My peeps here in the empire have made some progress on that front, so they might have some useful information to share with yours.”
“Perfect. I’ll arrange a meeting between them and my people. Seems we’ll be even busier from here on out, Yuki. Thank you in advance for your help, my friend.”
“Don’t mention it.”
Just as we were about to leave the airport, an intense sense of doom alerted all five of my senses. My body moved without a thought. Using elemental magic, I created a wall of water that covered everyone in my vicinity.
The Demon King looked confused, but before he could open his mouth to say anything, a section of the airport exploded. I felt the heavy boom in the pit of my stomach. Flames whooshed up, and rubble and debris scattered everywhere. The explosion had come from what looked like a control tower located right next to the airport.
Ear-piercing screams rang out. People were burning in the flames fanned all over. The cloud of smoke from the blast and collapse made it hard to see anything.
“Goddammit!”
I punched and shattered chunks of rubble flying toward me, then used more elemental magic to create dozens of blocks of water, which I poured on the people who were on fire to extinguish the flames. Though the explosion was already past, my Danger Detection ability was still reporting the presence of threats nearby. More than anything, my senses were shouting at me that whatever this was, it wasn’t over yet.
While I’d experienced my heightened senses—thanks, racial evolution—before, the change felt particularly pronounced now. Sound, smell, light, vibration, and above all, magical energy. In this world, mana was responsible for the occurrence of most events. It generated magical energy not only during battle or simply when using magic, but also in everyday movements that required little effort and tasks that required more intricate attention. However minuscule its consumption, mana created change. Lefi had always said that I was pretty obtuse concerning all that, but now, I sorta kinda felt like I’d gotten a tiny bit closer to the world she sensed.
As comprehension dawned on him, the Demon King suddenly hardened his expression. He raised his voice so that his subordinates could hear him over the noise.
“Casualty report, now!”
“Squad One, no losses!”
“Squad Two, two with minor injuries, one seriously wounded!”
“S-Squad Three has two unconscious!”
“All right, withdraw the injured for the healers—”
“Here, take these elixirs and use them however you need to!”
I pulled a pouch containing several bottles out of Inventory and tossed it to the Demon King.
“I owe you! You heard him, tend to the wounded at once! Everyone else, help the civilians evacuate and keep an eye on our surroundings!”
“M-My lord, you must retreat as well!”
Fynar rejected that very reasonable suggestion from one of his people.
“No. If I were to evacuate first in this situation, it could lead to very irksome rumors! Besides, the safest place for me is by Yuki’s side!”
“Except I’d rather you got out of here too, dude!”
“Yuki! Did you or did you not just agree to help me?!”
“Shit! I really need to learn when to shut my stupid mouth!”
Then, the Demon King’s subordinates immediately sprang into action. They quickly rallied the airport security guards, who were overwhelmed and unsure of what to do, and with Fynar himself at the helm, everyone began moving in an organized fashion, prioritizing evacuation and helping the wounded. Man, his leadership skills are always so impressive. I trusted him to get that end of things sorted.
“En!”
“I’m...here! Leave it to me!”
I pulled her from Inventory. I’d left her in there in her sword form so we’d be ready to deal with anything that happened—and my foresight had paid off. Unfortunately. My mana supply ramped up, and I summoned dozens of my usual water dragons in the blink of an eye. But these weren’t lethal, because they weren’t designed to attack. It was literally just water in the shape of dragons.
Not a second later, I sensed a sudden increase in magical energy in the air, followed by another explosion. Since I’d seen it coming, I sent my dragons charging in and smothered the blast with the deluge of water. Thankfully, there was no sign of anyone near the blast’s origin, so I rushed in without hesitation. My momentum almost took the whole building down. Thanks to my quick reaction, I succeeded in reducing the spread of damage to almost zero.
Too bad the shit didn’t stop hitting the fan. The next thing I sensed was the presence of a powerful creature. After drawing forth more of my mana for the upcoming battle, I kicked things off by gathering spirits around me and pouring my magic into them and En. Spirit magic was now one of my most important weapons. Whatever spell I activated, having their help increased its power.
Okay, confession. The power of my magic had improved so much that it was actually causing problems. I couldn’t use it in more enclosed spaces like the new stadium construction site. It wouldn’t be a problem in this airfield, though. Before, I’d been forced to let opponents weaker than me rampage before I’d managed to take them down. I wouldn’t make that mistake again. I’d hunt this damn thing down the moment it showed its ugly mug. Once I was all ready and fired up for a smackdown, the thing I sensed finally appeared.
“Fuuugg!”
Race: Fire Elemental
Level: 95
This time, one entity emerged, letting out an animalistic roar. In short, it was a fire giant. Its entire body was covered in fire, blazing with it and burning violently. The vaguely humanoid mass that looked like lava stood nearly four meters tall. All that fire plus it being jet-black gave it an incredibly menacing appearance that brought to mind the word “devil.” It looked like something that would rampage as the vanguard of evil during Armageddon.