Chapter 199: The Great Demon Beast of Fire

“Yes! The Great Demon Beast that is the source of the disasters assailing this country!”

Just when we thought we had won the battle, the Majin made an outrageous, major statement.

“A Great Demon Beast!?”

What is that? Something like that was the source of this country’s disasters!?

“You humans seemed to think you were pacifying the disasters with the magic item, but what was actually being sealed was that guy!”

“That demon beast!?”

“This land is an important spiritual domain governing the flow of life and magic power, where the earth veins and spirit veins of this country intersect! But it is also an extremely dangerous place that can easily invite disasters if stimulated!”

Certainly, earth veins govern the flow of the earth’s life force, and spirit veins govern the flow of magic power.

Normally, such important places don’t overlap, but… it happened in this country. Of course it would be revered as a spiritual domain.

“Wait, could it be!”

“That’s right! In order to use the power overflowing in this place as its food, it has been feeding by stimulating the earth veins and spirit veins over many years. As a result, it didn’t care if this country was constantly assailed by disasters!”

“What an incredibly bothersome monster!?”

Truly. To think it was causing disasters for its own sake; what an outrageous creature!

“Now, what do you think that guy will do, having awakened in a state of supreme hunger? That’s right, it will likely treat itself to a meal immediately! In order to consume the ultimate feast, it will hammer stimuli into the earth veins and spirit veins on a scale incomparable to before! The disasters caused by that will be beyond comparison to the disasters that leaked from the seal! It might not just ruin this country, but sink the land into the sea!”

The Majin laughed amusedly while bleeding.

Is he trying to take everything down with him exactly because he knows he doesn’t have long to live!

“That is not all! The unleashed Great Demon Beast will likely go around stimulating earth veins and spirit veins all over the world in search of new food! It’s the end! This world will meet its end!”

What a terrifying demon beast!

Could this be a monster related to the White Calamity that led the ancient magic civilization to collapse…

“By the Great Demon Beast possessing the epithet of Volcanic Great Tortoiseshell, the Volcanic Turtle!”

The Majin announced the name of the Great Demon Beast to us as if telling us to tremble in fear.

“…Wait, Volcanic Turtle?”

Hmm? What does he mean?

“That’s right! The evil demon beast that ruined numerous countries, the Volcanic Turtle!”

Hmm, it doesn’t seem like I misheard.

“Ooh, it’s just a Volcanic Turtle.”

“…What?”

“You startled me. Because you said it was a world-destroying Great Demon Beast sealed inside a volcano where earth veins and spirit veins intersect, I totally thought something like a Volcanic Tiger was sealed there.”

He was threatening us so much, I wondered what kind of terrifying monster would appear, but it’s just a normal fire-attribute monster you can find anywhere.

Ah, that startled me.

“N-No, wait. It’s a Volcanic Turtle, you know? A massive monster the size of a mountain, you know? It’s a Great Demon Beast that ruined several countries by shooting magma bombs like a volcano from the shell on its back! Enough with the bluffing!”

“A Volcanic Turtle ruined several countries?”

Hmm? What does that mean? The Volcanic Turtle is certainly big, but it’s not a demon beast with a particularly high threat level.

Even a reasonably skilled water-attribute or ice-attribute, or even earth-attribute mage can defeat it, though?

Or rather, my acquaintances used to just cut them normally with swords.

Ah, could it be that the Volcanic Turtle from the Majin’s world is a more dangerous monster than the one in our world!

Even for the same type of monster, the danger level can change depending on the land, so maybe to the Majins, it’s recognized as a truly terrifying monster?

For example, if it’s a monster born in the Majins’ world, there might be differences even if it’s a monster in this world.

Or maybe it’s a mutant species with special powers like the Venom Beat we fought before.

Hmm, thinking about it that way, I can’t let my guard down!

“Even so, there’s no point in just thinking about it. I’ll go exterminate it real quick. Hup.”

I jumped down aiming for the Volcanic Turtle visible at the bottom of the fissure.

“Wait! Rex-san!?”

“BOAAAAAAAH!!”

Then, the Volcanic Turtle floating in the magma at the bottom of the fissure let out a roar while glaring at me.

I wonder if it’s because it sensed my presence, or simply because it found an exit to freedom.

While I was thinking about such things, a massive amount of magma bombs and magma was ejected from the crater on the Volcanic Turtle’s shell with a tremendous roar.

Ah, it seems it recognized me.

“REFLECT FIELD!”

So that everyone above wouldn’t be harmed, I activated reflection magic in the space in front of me.

Then, the magma bombs and magma that entered the area where the magic was activated bounced back towards the Volcanic Turtle as if hitting a wall.

REFLECT FIELD. This magic is a handy interception magic that reflects matter and magic entering the activated space back in the direction they came from.

It’s great because you can deal damage to most enemies unless they are the type that nullifies attacks of the same attribute.

“BOAAAAAAH!?”

It seemed it didn’t expect the attacks it fired to come back, and a voice of surprise rose from the Volcanic Turtle.

Hmm, I was able to reflect its attacks normally, so it really feels like it’s not much different from the Volcanic Turtle I know.

That being said, since it’s originally a monster that lives in magma, simply reflecting magma bombs didn’t seem to deal much damage.

Not just its shell, but its skin is quite hard too.

“Now, how should I defeat it. It would be bad if the magma from the earth veins erupted because I made a clumsy attack, so as expected, I’ll defeat it with an ice-attribute attack!”

I prepared to unleash a sure-kill magic toward the Volcanic Turtle, which hadn’t recovered from its confusion.

The bottom is hot with magma, so I guess ice-attribute magic is the standard here?

But thawing things out after using ice-attribute magic is a bit of a hassle.

“Alright, it’s hot down there, so I’ll pull it up here! HIGH AREA APPORT!”

I set the coordinates to the Volcanic Turtle floating on the magma and pulled it towards me, space and all, using magic.

Then, the Volcanic Turtle appeared right in front of me.

“BOAH!?”

From the Volcanic Turtle’s perspective, it must look like I suddenly appeared right in front of it.

Sorry to surprise you, but I’m going to hunt you just like this!

“METAL SLICER!”

I applied a cutting enhancement magic that can slice through monsters with skin and shells as hard as metal to my sword, and slashed at the Volcanic Turtle’s neck.

The sword smoothly bit into the Volcanic Turtle’s neck like a knife through butter, and the slashing wave extended further, severing the neck that was thicker and larger than the sword’s blade.

And by the time I swung my sword down, the thick neck—which was more like a tower than a large tree—was cleanly severed from the torso.

“BOA?”

The Volcanic Turtle, still not realizing its neck had been cut, tried to tilt its head and wondered why its neck wouldn’t move.

Simultaneously, the magma I pulled along with it fell as if returning underground.

“Whoops, I’m collecting this!”

I stored the Volcanic Turtle’s torso, which was falling along with it, into my magic bag, and then retrieved the head, which had finally perished.

It’s a heavily armored fire-attribute monster, so it looks like it can be used for both weapons and armor. Plus, since Jairo-kun is fire-attribute, it’ll likely be useful for enhancing his equipment too.

“Alright, collection complete.”

” ” “Wh-Whaaaaaaaaat!?” ” “

I heard the surprised voices of the Majin and Yukinojo-san’s group from above.

Hmm, to be that surprised over a monster of this level of strength.

As I thought, maybe that Majin mistook it for the Volcanic Tiger, which has a similar name?

“Ah, right. I need to do something about the earth veins and spirit veins too.”

I removed the cause of the disasters that was making the earth veins and spirit veins run wild, but if I leave them like this, they’ll remain turbulent, so the disasters will recur once my magic’s effect wears off.

But it would take hundreds of years for the land to heal naturally, so it seems better to make preparations to heal the land.

“First things first. CALM WAVE!!”

I released a wave of pacification and healing into the earth veins and spirit veins.

This magic radiates healing magic power within a certain radius centered on the caster, but by pouring it into the flow of the earth veins and spirit veins, I can ride the flow of power and deliver it to lands it normally wouldn’t reach.

Well, something like this could probably only be done in a place like this where both the earth veins and spirit veins overlap.

But thanks to that, if I pour a massive amount of magic power in here, it’s easy because I don’t have to go to each location where a disaster is occurring to pacify the land.

“Alright, it’s settled. All that’s left is to modify the magic item that was sealing the disasters and incorporate a function to send healing waves to the land long-term for treatment.”

Having confirmed that the distant lands were safely healed via the spirit veins, I thought about what comes next.

This land is quite a special spiritual domain, and there’s no guarantee it won’t be targeted by monsters like the Volcanic Turtle again.

If it were normal spirit veins or earth veins, it probably wouldn’t have become such a huge deal even if a Volcanic Turtle got involved, but I guess they had bad luck.

That’s why I need to add not just the previous disaster-sealing ability, but also a function to treat the land and keep monsters away.

Returning from the fissure, I announced to everyone that I succeeded in stabilizing the earth.

“I-Is it true!? I-I can’t believe it… To think you resolved the disasters that have plagued the land of Amatsumine for many years all by yourself, without even borrowing the power of the magic tool…”

I heard Yukinojo-san’s surprised voice, but it’s all thanks to the fact that the true identity of the sealed monster was an opponent that wasn’t a big deal.

“I-Impossible… My two-stage plan was… thud.”

“Ah, he died.”

Then, the Majin who had been watching the whole sequence of events finally exhausted his strength and collapsed with a thud, and Meguri-san, who went to check his pulse, crossed her arms above her head to announce that the Majin had completely passed away.

“Kyuu! Burp.”

And Mofu-mofu, having finished eating the fallen Majin’s wings, let out a satisfied burp.