The Holy Precincts really were a hidden village, surround by mountains. There were daemons of all sizes overflowing into the narrow plain. Maybe around five hundred? But what stood out the most were the black spheres in the center of it all.
There were eight spheres, about ten meters in diameter each, piled up haphazardly. There was a strange pattern on their surfaces, something like an eyeball. Tentacles grew at odd angles from the spheres. The combined size of the spheres, to say nothing of the tentacles, was significantly larger than the nest I’d destroyed before. Together, they were the size of a small building.
The surfaces of the spheres rippled with the evidence of what was going on inside, as they continuously generated daemons. At this rate, it would never end.
“I-It’s getting even bigger… This is impossible…”
Diane was frightened. Well, of course she was. I’m sure she didn’t even realize it, but she was clinging to my back, shaking violently.
“I don’t have any more Create Monster: Any spells charged, but it’s a good thing I saved two Meteor shots.”
“Huh? What are you talking about?”
Diane cocked her head at my murmuring. She was probably more surprised at my capacity to talk calmly than at what I was saying.
“We’re going to avenge your mother now. Watch closely.”
After letting her know what was about to happen, I stopped the phantom horse at a higher altitude and started to chant.
“Open, Gate of Magic.”
The ecology (is that the right term?) of daemon nests remained almost completely unknown. But my expectation was that they could still generate daemons after suffering only partial damage. That sort of thing happens a lot in games. That meant that it was probably true in real life, too, here in this game-like world. So that meant I had to choose the biggest possible attack with the spells I had left, without hesitation.
“Time Stop. Meteor. Meteor. Fireball. Destruction. Mana Strike.”
After Time Stop, I cast five spells in a row. Fortunately, there were no critical failures.
A total of sixteen meteors, a shower of fireballs, a ball of light that obliterated matter into atoms, and a ray of energy that annihilated its target all fired in sequence. Every attack hit the daemon nest and the surrounding daemons simultaneously.
BA-BOOM BOOM BOOM!
“Whaaa?!”
A thunderous sound echoed off the surrounding mountains. It was like the heavens had broken open. Between the roaring sound and Diane’s screams, for a moment, the valley transformed into a fiery hell. Despite the massive size of the nest, not a trace of it remained. Even the stone temple had melted and collapsed. Needless to say, all the daemons, large and small, had met the same fate.
✦ ✦ ✦
The daemon nest that had appeared in the Holy Precincts, and all of the daemons overflowing from it, had been exterminated. But there was still the issue of the countless daemons that had been born from the nest before it was destroyed. They were still alive, heading north. We checked on our way back, atop the phantom horse, and not one of the daemons seemed to have noticed that the nest was destroyed. They silently continued their northward march.
What can I do with no more attack spells left? I thought to myself. At the fort guarding the entrance to the Hidal Plateau, I’d used up all my wall spells, starting with Wall of Force. The monsters would probably eventually learn to climb over it, but it should at least work like a dam and slow their advance by a day or two.
The fort had long protected the Holy Precincts from Filsand. Now, it would play one last role for us.
“Diane? We’re here.”
“M-Miss Diane!”
“Hmm? Ohh…”
In the end, we didn’t get back to the Schultz camp until daybreak.
Diane was still stiff, even after the phantom horse landed on the ground. I peeled her fingers away from their tight grip on my robes as gently as I could.
That’s when she finally seemed to grow vaguely aware of what was happening. She slowly dismounted the phantom horse.
The patriarch was quick to join us. “Speak truly, Lord Margilus. Are you not an incarnation of Beelzebub, the Schultz god of magic?”
The Filsand brothers ran up to bombard me with questions of their own. “We could see the flames erupting on the plateau from here!”
“Is it true what the dark elf said? You did that, Lord Margilus?”
“Ummm, excuse me.”
I held up one hand to stop their inquiries. I told them, simply and straightforwardly, that I’d stopped the daemonic legion temporarily at the fort, buying us some time. I left Diane with the patriarch and decided to take a nap.
I hadn’t slept at all since the morning before.
✦ ✦ ✦
“Geo Margilus has a CON score of 16. Even though he’s a magic user, with a Constitution that high, if he were an athlete, he could compete in national competitions.”
That’s how I’d explained things to my old tabletop group, a literal lifetime ago.
And compared to when I was a middle-aged office worker, one who never got enough exercise, I recovered from fatigue extremely quickly.
I woke up feeling significantly recovered after my two-hour nap. There was tea waiting for me, prepared by the Schultz people. But judging from their attitude toward me, it might be more accurate to say that I’d received an offering from them.
“This is awfully good,” I said.
The small pieces of dried fruit brought to me by a Schultz woman were even better than I’d expected.
“It is the candied fruit of Lutz,” she told me reverently. “It is not worthy of the great Beelzebub, but I am glad that you enjoy it.”
The brown color wasn’t very appetizing, but there was a nice chewy texture similar to that of figs, and I liked the sweet flavor that numbed my tongue. This place was dry, and the sun was beating down on us, so I probably needed a high-calorie snack about now. It also went well with the horribly bitter Schultz tea.