Chapter 367 - Chapter 10: Finis Volcano ①
The happy time centered around the bride and groom passed, and I, who had been full of food and dreams, for some reason found myself standing on the mountainside of a volcano the next day.
The volcano is one of the mountains in a mountain range that stretches for miles. In the middle of a basin gouged out of a plateau with vast foothills, there is a trapezoidal mountain. There are forests and ponds in the basin, and a small stream flows from the pond. Here and there are flower fields where colorful flowers bloom.
The mountain in the middle has trees growing near the foothills, but from halfway up it becomes a grassland with rocks popping out here and there, and the upper part shows the ground of dark brown rocks or soil. There is no summit... or rather, it's gouged out, and steam-like smoke is wavering and rising from there.
According to Gwyn-sama, it's a terrain called the Garden of the Gods in the northern language, but in reality, it's a garden of monsters with many magical beasts.
I can't help but let out a sigh.
"Now, now, don't say that. You should see a Fire Dragon at least once in your life."
Gwyn-sama says something carefree as usual. By order of the King of Finis, who learned that I had to meet the Fire Dragon living in the volcano of Finis, he decided to guard me.
"Gwyn. Why are you so carefree? Try to put yourself in the shoes of Jeanne-sama, who has to descend into a crater inhabited by powerful monsters just to meet a Fire Dragon despite being a priest."
It's exactly as Eowyn-sama says. Please put yourself in my shoes, having been trapped by Salamander.
That Eowyn-sama came even though he's a groom. To be precise, everyone told him repeatedly that he didn't need to come. However, when he heard that I would dive into the crater to meet the Fire Dragon, he wouldn't listen and said he would definitely participate. On top of that, Aira praised him, saying, "As expected of my husband," so he became even more motivated to come.
"What are you saying? She's being protected by this many people. No monster can get near Jeanne."
Gwyn-sama stopped and looked at us.
Edward-sama, who ended up fighting together with the princes of each country and his idol Roberts-sama, had a stiff face from tension and was just nodding koku-koku.
The members descending into the crater to meet the Fire Dragon this time are magnificent. The vanguard especially is amazing.
The guests from each country who participated in the wedding of Eowyn-sama and Aira gathered in Finis under the guise of returning home.
From Finis, Gwyn-sama; from Northern Gram, Eowyn-sama; from Primordia, Edward-sama and Sianya. From Sertoria, Henry-sama's group, Roberts-sama, and me. Furthermore, as a special group, Beatrix, Bonnie, and Mary participated. There are thirteen people in total.
This time, James-sama couldn't participate because he was busy with preparations for the Council of Lords. Of course, Evans-sama and Harris-sama are also impossible. On top of that, when it comes to ultra-advanced magic users, they all hold important positions in each country and stay by the King's side, so no one can come. Since we haven't revealed that the secret weapon Wilson-san is an ultra-advanced magic user and he's treated as a bowl user, if Eleanor-sama is the only one who is good at ice magic, it will be insufficient. It's a different composition than usual, but when I asked Mary, who is good at ice magic, for support, Beatrix and Bonnie also came along.
"Are we going down that hole? It had a quite terrible smell."
The hole Roberts-sama mentioned is the crater of the volcano where the Fire Dragon is said to live. The volcano is in the northern part of Finis, to be precise, in the northwestern end. It's a desolate place where the top of a mountain that's more like a huge hill is covered with dark brown rocks, gravel, and sand, and strange-shaped rocks and stones with holes on the surface like sponges are rolling around. At the top, smoke is wavering and rising from the crater gouged out in a circle. A strange smell drifts all around, and the smoke is particularly smelly. It's apparently the smell of hot springs, but it's intensely smelly compared to the hot springs in Engrio. Because the irritation is strong, I felt like I was going to cough. It's also a smell like rotten eggs. It's apparently the smell of sulfur, which is a raw material for gunpowder, and if you inhale too much smoke, you might get sick or, in the worst case, die. It's not something you can just go down into.
On top of that, while the top of a normal mountain is colder than the foothills, it's strangely warm. Surely the inside of the crater must be extremely hot. It might be the hell itself that Will mentioned when we went to meet Salamander.
We came to the top on Eleanor-sama's large bowl, but because it was so terrible, we decided to go down once and have a strategy meeting.
"As a countermeasure, it's conceivable to make the bowl into a ball, get inside, and go down. After that, digging a hole and proceeding underground is conceivable, but we don't know how far we should dig, and it takes too much time. However, regarding the heat, we can manage somehow if we double-cast Resist."
As a result of the experiment, a method was proposed to place a ball made by Wilson-san or Beatrix on Eleanor-sama's large bowl and get inside. The problem is that a large bowl that cannot hide its appearance would be defenseless against monsters. If attacked during the descent, it would be the end. On the other hand, a medium-sized bowl doesn't have enough room to carry the ball. It would be fine if we revealed that Wilson-san, the bowl user, is an ultra-advanced magic user, but we've only told Medioland.
"Mother, we have guests."
Roberts-sama readied his spear with a long, curved blade.
From the foothills, monsters came as if surrounding us in a semicircle. They are dogs about the size of a cow with two heads. The breath they exhale from their mouths is flame.
"They came quickly. Oh! It's Orthrus. Five, no, six of them."
Gwyn-sama raises his voice as if he's happy for some reason and pulls out the sword at his waist.
"Six C-ranks right away. It certainly seems it's no ordinary place."
Eowyn-sama also pulls out his sword. It's a huge two-handed sword he carries on his back, and a blue gem called Northern Blue is embedded in the hilt.
"Vanguard forward. Will, guard the priests."
Eleanor-sama calls out to Will. Will, who nodded, stood between me and Sianya and readied her spear.
The vanguard is the four princes. Will is the guard for the two priests. The vanguard's weapons are, of course, made of silver. And Eleanor-sama is at the very rear. This arrangement was decided from the beginning.
While growling with low, muffled voices, the six Orthrus slowly approached as if in a semi-encirclement.
"Light!"
When I let three Fireflies drift over my head, Sianya strengthened them with three extremely thick Holy Lances.
When I illuminated in three directions just like that, all six Orthrus stopped.
When I changed the angle of the illumination to hit the Orthrus directly, they jumped and backed away. When I brought it back, they moved forward. It's a barrier in a sense.
One of them spat a fireball with its two heads, but Eleanor-sama flicked it away with a Wind Barrier. Perhaps it got angry, as it was barking gwan-gwan.
I was controlling the light and pushing and pulling about twice, but perhaps losing patience, two of them lowered their posture.
With a hyun sound, silver arrows pierced one head of each of those two. They let out a gyan cry and fell to the ground. Since they have two heads, one is still alive. Just as they desperately tried to get up, two more arrows flew and finished them off.
It's the aerial team hiding their appearance. On Wilson-san's bowl are Henry-sama, Beatrix, Mary, and Bonnie.
Now it's four against four.
This is a chance. I lower the output of the Light to weaken the light. At the same time, I lowered it to a low position. With good timing, Eleanor-sama cancels the Wind Barrier.
The Orthrus, who had two of their comrades killed at the same time, were barking gwan-gwan incessantly because they didn't know who did it, but knowing that the light had weakened, they all lunged toward us at once.
I put the Fireflies at full power.
The light caught the four in the air. It's the power of the Cat Stone. I saw them close their eyes for a moment.
The four are not ones to miss that opening.
Gwyn-sama, who took a low posture with his left knee down, swung his sword up from the bottom left to the top right, sending one of the heads of one flying, and dropped the other with the return stroke. Eowyn-sama, from a state where he held his sword in a high overhead position, swung the sword down between the two heads and cut them down with the momentum of his leap from his back leg. Roberts-sama swung the long-bladed spear horizontally and slashed the bodies of two at the same time. And Edward-sama thrust the silver spear straight in and accurately pierced the heart. Or so Eleanor-sama told me.
"Weakening the light once and then delivering an intense one from the front when the opponent lets their guard down. As expected. You're used to fighting."
Gwyn-sama praised me while flicking the black blood off the blade with one swing of his sword.
"Jeanne-sama, you are indeed wonderful."
Eowyn-sama, please don't kneel on one knee and look up at people every time. A new one has come.
"You can stop C-ranks even if it's temporary. It's wonderful. Jeanne."
Eleanor-sama also praises me.
"Thank you. But the next one has come."
After the six Orthrus, it's four Cerberus.
Since they came from a completely different direction, their territories must be different. They might have been trying to take the spoils if the Orthrus they found first had won.
Cerberus are wolves with three heads and bark incessantly from afar. At first they stayed at a distance, but when they shook their heads and dispersed, they changed their positions as if to surround us from four sides.
The vanguard faces one each. I increased the Fireflies to four and illuminated the Cerberus from above each vanguard's head.
Suddenly, the one on the summit side was frozen by Glaciate. Next, the one on the left hand was suddenly wrapped in a Wind Barrier ball over its three heads and is struggling. It must be Mary and Beatrix. Even if they are C-rank, it seems they can be countered with advanced magic.
The remaining two spat flames as if they were terrified, but they were easily blocked by Eleanor-sama's two Wind Barriers using both hands.
"Sianya!"
"Yes!"
At Eleanor-sama's words, she fired consecutive thick Holy Lances to stop the movement of one, and Gwyn-sama finished it with his sword.
Perhaps fearing, the last one that tried to turn and run had a rock thrown by Clump Stone fall in front of its eyes. It's Beatrix.
When the Cerberus, which had lost its escape route, lunged in desperation, a powerful lightning bolt released by Eleanor-sama fell, and two silver arrows pierced it.
"It seems monsters come out from where the trees are growing around here."
As if to prove Eleanor-sama's words, three Griffons flew over.
The one Beatrix drove to the brink of suffocation with a Wind Barrier was pierced through the center of its chest by Edward-sama. The one shot down by two thick Holy Lances was finished off by Eowyn-sama moving forward nimbly. Despite that, C-ranks come one after another. Far behind the Griffons, two that look like Wyrms are already waiting. There's no end to it.
"It seems they have no prey at all. It can't be helped. Let's move to the summit area for now. Jeanne, Fireflies at full power; Sianya, Holy Lance."
Eleanor-sama signaled the aerial team and made a medium-sized bowl.
We all got in while deterring the Griffons from approaching with three Fireflies.
A Griffon that was in the air suddenly became a block of ice and fell with a goron. It's Mary's Glaciate.
While the remaining two Griffons were struggling, we canceled the Fireflies and cast Magic Reflection over the Camouflage cast by Beatrix with a scroll. We went up into the air, and when we approached the second Griffon, Sianya's Holy Lance hit, slamming the Griffon to the ground. Immediately, silver arrows and Beatrix's Wind Cutter attacked. Seeing that, the Griffon let out a high-pitched cry like a scream and flew away.
We moved away from the area where trees were growing and came up toward the summit.
We somehow dodged the Wyrms by hiding our appearance. Since the plan changed, we joined up with the aerial team and started a meeting, but once we went up, four Scorpions came from nowhere.
Scorpions won the Bug King Contest that Eleanor-sama started on her own on the third floor of the Demon Lord subjugation war, but immediately after, they were swallowed whole by a frog. That impression was too strong, and I had thought they were no big deal, but it wasn't that easy.
After all, Light doesn't work on bug-types.
Deterrence doesn't work at all, and the shells are hard. The central fangs at a low position, the huge claws on the left and right, and the stinger on the tail that suddenly stabs from above. Despite their heavy appearance, they are nimble. Moreover, if four of them approach slowly in a low posture at the same time, even a Wind Barrier defense will be pushed back.
Even for Roberts-sama, who won the battle against the demon who used a sword that changed shape, they are not an opponent that can be easily defeated.
The aerial team soared again, saying that those crawling on the ground are defenseless if targeted from above. The mages and priests swapped places.
Eleanor-sama and Mary created a horseshoe-shaped ice wall with Glaciate. It's to narrow the intrusion direction to one place and meet them.
Beatrix blocks the only intrusion point with a Wind Barrier. The Scorpions are pushing against the invisible wall with their pincers with a gachi-gachi sound. Originally, Wind Barrier is for flicking away the opponent's attacks and is unsuitable for a pushing match. Moreover, it's one thing if they can push against the front of the air barrier, but only the bottom part is being pushed. As a result of only the bottom part being pushed in, the wall tilted, and finally, the tip of a face came out from under the wall.
Of course, we're not just watching. Sianya and I delivered the finishing blow to the front of the face... in other words, the head, with thick Holy Lances. If this had the power of a C-rank class, it might have been dangerous.
While Beatrix was working hard, the aerial team released three thick Holy Lances from directly above and defeated the second one.
"There are still two more. They're tough opponents."
Even Gwyn-sama seems to be feeling the toughness.
The Scorpions are trying to enter the position by climbing over the corpse of the first one. Because of that, the height has increased, and even the Wind Barrier is holding up. Beatrix is probably drenched in sweat.
"Eleanor-sama. I'd like to try defeating one alone; won't you let me have it?"
He's saying something reckless right after!
"You are admirable. As expected of a warrior of Finis."
Eleanor-sama is also Eleanor-sama. She OK'd it matter-of-factly. When she raised her hand and signaled the aerial team, the bowl seemed to have descended into the position, and the soil of the ground, which was as light as ash, danced up. On top of that, the tip of a stick for a marker can be seen. When Eleanor-sama explained the situation, Henry-sama's voice said, "I understand." With this, the duel between Gwyn-sama and a Scorpion was decided.
"T-Then, won't you let me have one too?"
This time it's Edward-sama. Seeing that, Roberts-sama and Eowyn-sama exchanged smiles.
"Edward. It's difficult with a normal spear. I'll lend you this."
Roberts-sama offered his own spear. Roberts-sama's spear is different from a normal spear. It has a blade-like tip that draws an arc. It's possible not only to thrust but also to slash like a large sword.
"I-I am humbled. Then, I shall borrow it."
Edward-sama, who exchanged spears, swung it around bun-bun and confirmed the feel. With this, the match between Edward-sama and Scorpion number two was also decided.
"Then, let's start with the match with Gwyn-dono."
Henry-sama's voice was heard, and the order was decided.
I don't care even if you get scolded by the Kings of both royal families later.