Chapter 290: Strongest Sage, Faces off the Swarm
Chapter 290: Strongest Sage, Faces off the Swarm
"…This should be fast enough."
I lowered the lever for acceleration once the magic freight car had gained enough speed.
"Aah, it\'s not going as fast as the one we rode here… This is so much nicer…"
Alma looked relieved as she said that.
Looks like the magic freight car we took to get to the research facilities proved to be too much thrill to Alma.
"Yeah. This magic freight car has got to stop before it gets there… We\'ll find the [Broken Star] at the terminus of this line, but the track is probably not intact. I\'ll stop right before the spot where ancient monsters prowl around, then I\'ll head off along with Iris from there on."
Afterward, I check the mana situation with [Passive Detection].
I\'d put the brakes if I sense a monster ahead of the track.
"So me and Alma are to wait on the magic freight car?"
"Ruli, please support us from afar with Augment magic… Since there\'s a Dragon Vein near where [Broken Star] is, you\'ll have to meddle through Dragon Vein."
"Dragon Vein… Like how I did at Dungeon City?"
Ruli played a support role through Dragon Vein when I was fighting a demon in Dungeon City.
That should serve as a good practice.
"Yeah. Hinder the monsters\' movement with your magic through Dragon Vein as medium… It\'d be much harder than that time, but I\'ll end this one quick. Bear with it until you can\'t anymore… Alma, protect Ruli. Ancient monsters may be strong, but I\'ll make it so those you can\'t beat won\'t pass through."
"Gotcha!"
Alma also nodded readily.
Looks like these two have gotten much more courageous than ever, guess fighting all those demons were not for nothing.
◇
After a little while--A sign of monster showed up in my [Passive Detection].
I immediately tell the three.
"I\'m stopping the freight car! Hold on to something!"
I fully lowered the acceleration down, and put up multiple layers of barrier in front of the magic freight car.
The freight car crushed the barriers with a loud sound and decelerated.
"GYAA!"
"I-it\'s shaking so much!"
The girls tightly held onto the interior enduring the impact as the magic freight car hit the barriers.
And it managed to stop before it reached the monster.
"…That huh."
There\'s an abnormally gigantic mana reaction three kilometer away from where we are now.
It\'s emitting mana even though [Supra-natural Art] is not magic.
However, its mana pattern is extremely bizarre, like it\'s not of this world.
I\'ve never seen something like this before even counting my past life.
"What an incredible mana reaction…"
"I\'ve never seen this mana reaction before, you could tell even from here…"
"This mana feels yucky somehow!"
The girls sounded surprised to see the mana reaction.
Heck, even Iris who usually never noticed mana reaction could sense [Broken Star] power.
Normally, you won\'t even notice its existence at this distance.
This is the power of [Supra-natural Art]
It\'s on a whole other dimension than the powers that exist on our planet.
A power this great exists in this universe.
…And I need to eventually catch up to these bunch.
The thought alone sounds fun.
"This mana reaction is [Broken Star]. I\'ll be going now to reach that."
"Three kilometers inside this…"
Alma murmured so to hear me.
That much distance is nothing if you only need to walk.
However, swarms of monsters are crowding the area around [Broken Star] with nary a gap.
The tunnel that connects to [Broken Star] has been destroyed, the spot slightly ahead of us is gouged out.
All other outbreaks we have seen so far look like normal forests compared to this [Broken Star] surroundings.
It\'s easy to imagine why Anmorr brothers gave up trying to fetch [Broken Star Flake] after seeing this spectacle.
Even if I ride on Iris dragon form\'s back and fly in the air, the problem persists.
Though there\'s not a lot of monsters capable of flights in the current era, that\'s not the case with ancient monsters.
Even the ground monsters have many ways to shoot at airborne objects.
Rather, the sky above [Broken Star] is the worst danger zone in the whole world right now.
Pushing our way on ground is still a better choice here.
"No choice but to break through the front line… Ruli, interfere with the Dragon Vein and spread as many dense movement jamming as you can. Keep at it for just three minutes."