972: Survivors of Sarthe

I stored the evil crystal in order to stop the magic circle. But then, the magic circle started s.h.i.+ning even brighter than before.

Why!? It should have lost its power source! Was this some kind of b.o.o.by trap triggered on deactivation?

『Fran! I’m teleporting us!』

「Got it!」

We immediately teleported out. Right afterwards, a huge explosion erupted from the bottom of the hole.

Fran had cast a flame spell just before my teleport in order to destroy the magic circle. The bright red flames swirled within the hole, sending countless sparks outwards.

However, the aura of evil energy remained as thick as ever. It seems our blast failed to destroy it.

A few seconds later, the black aurora-like evil energy rising from the hole suddenly vanished from view. However, something else took its place.

Appearing in a hole was a being radiating a powerful evil aura. We stood at the edge and looked down on it.

「……A fiend?」

『Seems to be called an “Evil Berserker”.』

The Evil Berserker looked like a humanoid doll made out of pure evil energy. His outline seemed to be wavy and unstable, characteristics similar to those of a ghost.

The name “Berserker” implied that he would rampage until death after being summoned. This was probably a trap to kill anyone interfering with the activation of the magic circle.

Adding this guy seems a bit overkill though, so it doesn’t make sense. The t.i.tan and a circle for attracting antidemons should be more than enough to destroy Sarthe.

Moreover, this setup meant the Evil Berserker would start its rampage no matter who destroyed the circle, even if it was the t.i.tan. Whoever planned this seemed absolutely determined to annihilate the city at any cost.

「Hhooouuugh!」

「There’s a hint of evil energy in his voice.」

『Leaving him alive might jeopardize the support units. We’ve got no choice, let’s take him down.』

「Nn!」

The Evil Berserker spread such a dense aura of evil that someone would get evil intoxication just by coming nearby. This was like an instant death trap for any ordinary adventurer.

But he picked the wrong opponent.

『I’ll turn you into a pin cus.h.i.+on before you make it out of the hole!』

I transformed my cord into a myriad of spears. They flew at Evil Berserker from all directions, giving him no room to escape.

In addition, Fran continued to rain thunder magic from above. There’s no way paralysis will work, but he still couldn’t move under the barrage of spells.

In the end, the Evil Berserker was unable to evade and got impaled on all the spears I created. He was no normal creature however, so this wasn’t enough to be a fatal wound.

It felt like I was stabbing through some kind of foam. All the damage was done thanks to the mana cloaking my spears. Without that, my physical attacks would have just slipped through.

Well, I expected as much. I purposely didn’t activate Evil Crusher in the first place, because I wanted to avoid killing him in a single blow.

Instead I activated Evil Domination to drain all of the Evil Berserker’s energy. I’m starting to get the hang of this skill, so this worked quite well. His body was composed of pure evil energy, and my ability to absorb that was a hard counter.

The Evil Berserker made an attempt to slip through the spears, before pausing to scream in agony. The energy in his body rapidly diminished, and he evaporated into nothing in less than a minute.

『He had so much evil energy, but I only recovered about 500 mana.』

It seems converting evil energy into mana has poor efficiency. Still, it’s great to know that I can drain power from evil beings.

After confirming the evil energy was completely gone from the magic circle, we decided to return to the main group.

When we reported about the evil crystal and magic circle, we were met with grim looks. The possibility of the Dragon King’s involvement in the incident had skyrocketed.

The other adventurers also regrouped with us, and it seems they found no survivors.

Both Izario and s.h.i.+kimi concluded that the inhabitants had been annihilated by antidemons. Next, the second division decided to wrap up the investigation and start heading for the closest town for resupplying and trading intel.

A day after our departure. We were almost at the town when we sensed the presence of a large gathering of people.

（Hmm. There’s something here……!）

『It’s people! A lot of them too!』

Some nation’s army? But they’re moving pretty slow. They seem to be heading in the same direction as us, but their speed suggested they had civilians among them.

「Little lady. Can you go confirm their ident.i.ties?」

「Okay.」

「Take a few of the faster ones with you in case there’s a fight.」

Izario and the others also noticed the group ahead, so they sent Fran and a few others on a scouting mission. A couple scouts were selected among the adventurers to accompany Fran.

If we got into a fight, Fran would draw the enemy away and have the adventurers run back to Izario. That was the idea, but the group wasn’t hostile at all.

Though they had a few adventurers and soldiers in their ranks, the vast majority were civilians, as I had first suspected. Fran approached them alone, keeping Urus.h.i.+ in the shadows to avoid provoking them as much as possible.

I could see the adventurers relax when they realized that the person approaching them was a child. The adventurer who seemed to be the leader of the group called out to us from a distance.

「Hey, did you come from the town of Sarthe? If so, do you know what happened to the giant antidemon in that town?」

「Nn! We killed it.」

「Eh? W-What do you mean……? With that few members……?」

「Who are you people?」

「O-Oh. We’re the residents of Sarthe, currently evacuating from the city……」

The town itself was completely destroyed, but it seems some of its inhabitants survived. About half fell to the antidemons and half escaped.

It’d be great to hear more details, but it wasn’t safe here. We explained that we came here with an army, and that we would accompany them to the town ahead.

『I can only hope that town is safe though……』

「Nn.」

However, our hopes were quickly dashed. After continuing our march, we were greeted with the sight of a town that, like Sarthe, was being trampled under a giant antidemon.

（A t.i.tan here too……!）

Even this city four or five times the size of Sarthe was no match for that gigantic monstrosity.

「No… Not the city of Scholz too……!」

The evacuees from Sarthe stopped in their tracks at the sight of the neighboring town they had finally reached, also annihilated by a t.i.tan. Some of them fell to their knees and sobbed. Their hearts were broken by the despair.