Chapter 55: The One Lurking Inside the Tower

We, having prevented the Megalo Whale’s spout, succeeded in safely landing on its back.

I wanted to land near the tower, but what if that tower was dangerous? It might attack us as we approached. I could probably block the attack without issue, but Jairo and the others would be in danger, so I couldn’t do something that risky. That’s why I decided to land a little ways away.

Also, the destination tower is built almost in the center of the 5km-long Megalo Whale, and another reason was that Jairo and the others’ magic power didn’t look like it would hold out until we reached it.

“Phew, I’m exhausted.”

Jairo and the others, unused to long flights, collapsed onto the ground, exhausted.

“I’m going to check the area a bit, so everyone rest here for now.”

Saying that, I handed everyone potions to recover magic power and started running. The destination is the black tower growing on the Megalo Whale’s back.

“Still, it’s really beat up.”

While moving at high speed with my legs enhanced by Body Enhancement Magic, I looked over the Megalo Whale’s back. Its back was rugged like a rough rock face, in such a terrible state it was hard to believe it was a living creature’s skin.

“This isn’t a normal state. Did it fight something and flee here?”

The Megalo Whale’s back I saw in my previous life was smoother and cleaner. What on earth happened for it to end up in such a terrible state, like ruins?

And soon I arrived near the black tower.

“It’s not attacking even when I’m this close… maybe it’s not an offensive structure?”

Would it be okay to bring everyone here? I approached the tower further and lightly investigated its structure.

“It’s huge…”

The tower had a cylindrical pillar structure, about 15m in diameter. Height is about 30m, I guess. The base of the tower was pierced into the Megalo Whale’s body, and the surrounding skin had sunk in, as if being eaten into.

“Did someone stab this tower into the Megalo Whale?”

What a terrible thing to do.

“And I feel strong magic from inside the tower?”

As I got closer, I faintly felt magic from within. As expected, this isn’t a normal structure. This tower is probably… no, it’s undoubtedly that.

“It seems better to investigate quickly, so I’ll go back and call everyone right away.”

◆

“That’s a huge tower.”

“Weird pattern.”

“Who on earth built something like this on a monster’s back?”

“Or rather, what were they thinking, building a tower on a living creature’s back?”

“Since it’s a huge monster, maybe they intended to use it like a battleship?”

Seeing the black tower up close, everyone voiced their own impressions. However, I had to say those opinions missed the mark.

“You’re wrong, everyone. This isn’t a tower.”

First, I pointed out everyone’s misunderstanding.

“Eh? No matter how you look at it, this is a tower, Bro?”

“No, this isn’t a building, it’s a thing.”

“””””””A thing?”””””””

At my phrasing, everyone tilted their heads in unison.

“Yes, this is a giant magic item.”

“…”

Everyone’s faces went blank, and then a few seconds later, their eyes widened.

“””””””A magic item!?”””””””

Everyone raised their voices in surprise.

“W-What do you mean this is a magic item!? Or rather, does such a large magic item even exist!?”

Mina denied that the black tower was a magic item, finding it unbelievable. However, it’s the truth.

“This is definitely a magic item. I can feel the flow of magic power from this structure. Not just in one place, magic is running evenly throughout the whole thing. This is because giant magic circuits are stretched everywhere in this tower.”

“No way…”

Mina’s whisper represented everyone’s true feelings. It seems everyone can’t quite believe this is a magic item. But in the era I once lived, magic items of this size existed commonly.

“Probably, because of this magic item, the Megalo Whales came to a place close to land.”

I spoke while looking alternately at the black tower and the Megalo Whale fry across the sea.

“Originally, Megalo Whales are creatures of the open ocean and don’t approach land. If they approach land, there’s a danger of running aground, and above all, the sea near land has little food. Even fishermen go out to the offing as much as possible if they’re aiming for big fish.”

“But if such a big building is a magic item, what kind of power does it hold?”

“We won’t know that unless we investigate.”

Yes, I don’t know. This magic item is a type I’ve never seen before. That means it’s highly possible it’s not from the era I lived in. In fact, compared to the damage on the Megalo Whale’s skin, the magic item has almost no scratches.

“For that purpose, let’s go inside and investigate.”

“We can go inside!? But it’s not a building, right?”

Liliera tilted her head, wondering if people could enter if it was a magic item.

“No, at this size, there should be space prepared for people to enter for maintenance and adjustments… See.”

Searching a little, as expected, I found an entrance. However, the door wouldn’t open, perhaps locked, so I forcibly destroyed it to make an entrance.

“Alright, let’s go.”

“You just casually destroyed the door.”

“No mercy.”

◆

Lighting up everyone’s weapons with light magic, we entered.

“It’s dark… no, it’s not.”

As Mina said, the inside of the tower was dimly lit.

“The light of the magic power running inside the tower is acting as a light. But I think this is inefficient.”

It feels strangely poorly made compared to the structure’s giant size.

“Anyway, let’s move.”

I walked in the lead, with Jairo behind me. Mina and Norb in the middle, and Liliera and Meguri at the rear.

Just in case, I cast detection magic, searching for the presence of living creatures around.

“There’s no sign of life in the tower. It seems unmanned.”

The inside of the tower was a spiral staircase going down, and something glowing could be seen above.

“I noticed after coming inside, but I feel considerable magic power from that glowing something above.”

This tower probably has the property of confining magic power. The inside was filled with even more magic power than I felt from outside.

This might be a pretty bad item.

We descended cautiously.

◆

“Is this the engine room, I wonder?”

Descending to the lowest floor, various devices were arranged there.

“Magic power amplifiers, control units, and a giant extraction machine?”

Individually, they are mechanisms of magic items I recognize, but the size is just on another level. Could it be made to match the Megalo Whale’s size?

“Bro, you know what this is?”

“Yeah, probably, isn’t it a device that stores magic power extracted from the Megalo Whale inside this thing?”

“You know that just by looking!?”

Mina is surprised, but I think an expert would understand this much just by looking. Even so, I was a Sage in my life before last. However, this design… ah, no, I might recognize it.

“Probably, the one who made this wasn’t human.”

Yup, I’m somewhat convinced looking at the interior patterns.

“Not human, then who made it?”

“That, of course, is…!”

Just as I was about to answer Liliera’s question, a reaction suddenly appeared in my detection magic.

“What’s wrong?”

Everyone looks puzzled at my reaction.

“It seems the creator itself came.”

A reaction suddenly appearing… were they hidden in a barrier, or was it a Gate? Looking in the direction the reaction appeared, there was a passage leading deeper in. And footsteps could be heard from deep within the passage.

Everyone readied their weapons.

“Who are you?”

What appeared from the darkness was an inhuman existence with silver hair, dark skin, and bat wings. A Demon.

“A Demon!”

Jairo and the others, who had encountered a Demon before, paled.

“Eh? A Demon!? Eh?”

Liliera, who had never seen a Demon, seemed unable to catch up after being told it was a Demon.

“Hmph, to think humans would come all the way to a place like this.”

The Demon glanced at us and sighed.

“In the end, monsters of that level can’t even serve as lookouts.”

Is he probably talking about the Megalo Whale fry?

“Did you implant this into the Megalo Whale?”

I asked the Demon while pointing at my feet.

“I have no obligation to answer… Nnh!”

The Demon refused to answer the question, spread his wings clad in magic power, and dove into my chest, accelerating explosively.

“Rex-san!?”

Liliera screamed.

“You die first!”

The Demon’s knife-hand, clad in reddish-black light, approached my abdomen. However, I half-turned my body to parry the attack, and conversely grabbed the Demon’s arm and pulled him in.

“What!?”

And having half-turned and moved behind the Demon, I pushed him down onto the floor as is and locked his joints.

“Guah!?”

“Mana Jamming!”

Furthermore, by pouring magic power of a special wavelength into the Demon, I disturbed his magic manipulation and suppressed magic activation.

“…Guh!? I can’t use magic!?”

As expected, the Demon, who was trying to counterattack with magic, raised a voice of surprise.

“Now. Will you tell me?”

“W-Who would answer! Guardians! Kill the intruders!”

Responding to the Demon’s voice, several black monsters appeared from deep within the passage. They don’t look like normal monsters, apparently, they’re this tower’s defense system. The monsters leaped towards me, who was restraining their master.

“Look out!”

Liliera’s spear pierced the attacking monster.

“We won’t let you lay a hand on Bro!”

Furthermore, Jairo and the others also stood between us to obstruct the monsters.

Yup, this is a training chance for everyone.

“Everyone, I have to deal with this guy, so I’m leaving those guys to you!”

“Got it!”

“Leave it to us, Bro!”

Alright, with this, I can concentrate on restraining the Demon.

“Hmph, is that wise? Those humans can’t win against the Guardians.”

However, the Demon spoke to me with a defiant attitude. Despite having his joints locked and magic sealed, what a composed attitude. There must be something else.

“Dammit, these guys are fast!”

“Calm down! Don’t try to fight them alone!”

Jairo and the others seemed to be tossed about by the quick movements of the monsters, which were running rampant in the dim place.

“Kuhaha, in the end, humans are only this much. Shouldn’t you help them soon?”

I see, he’s waiting for me to get impatient and go rescue everyone. But that thinking is naive. Because I trained everyone. They’re just taken aback by a real fight; they wouldn’t normally struggle against monsters of this level.

“It’s okay, if you do what I’ve taught you, they’re opponents you can beat, everyone!”

“Yeah!”

“Yup!”

Jairo and Meguri leaped towards the monsters. Naturally, the monsters avoided them, but Liliera thrust her spear with a time lag.

“Hah!”

The monster narrowly avoided this attack, but Mina’s magic slammed into it.

“Thunder Lance!”

The monster, taking a direct hit from Mina’s magic, dropped to one knee, and Liliera’s attack pierced the monster again. That’s the second one.

“Protection!”

The attack of a monster that lunged at Jairo from behind was repelled by Norb’s defensive magic.

“Dei!”

Jairo leaped at the monster whose posture was broken from attacking him, and spectacularly thrust his sword from directly above. And flames of Attribute Enhancement erupted from the pierced sword, burning the monster from the inside.

“You saved me, Norb!”

“Please don’t be too reckless!”

“My bad, my bad.”

“Ei!”

This time, Meguri created magic footholds in the air and attacked the monsters while flying around freely. Even though the monsters’ movements were fast, they couldn’t keep up with Meguri’s movements, who utilized footholds in places where they originally shouldn’t exist, and they accumulated damage little by little and were defeated.

“I-Impossible!? The Guardians, to mere humans, so easily!?”

And lastly.

“Gyuu!”

Fluffy was using acceleration from flight magic to assault the monsters. The monsters tried to shoot Fluffy down, but hitting that small body was extremely difficult, and parts of their bodies were gouged out every time Fluffy’s attack hit.

“Now, only you are left. Let’s have you tell us what this is.”

With the tide completely turned, I spoke to the Demon. He must understand by now that there’s no chance for a counterattack.

“…Ku, kukuku.”

However, the Demon raised a defiant laugh for some reason.

“Kuh! Kuhahahaha! Very well! I’ll tell you!”

The Demon raised his head and shouted.

“This is a Magitek Weapon! A thing that accumulates monsters’ life force, and explodes all at once when the required amount is stored!”

“A Magitek Weapon!?”

Moreover, it explodes!?

“It took time to find a monster overflowing with magic power in this era, but with this monster’s magic power, we can expect an explosion large enough to wipe surrounding countries from the map!”

“What did you say!?”

Liliera raised a voice of surprise at the Demon’s words.

“Fuhaha! Are you afraid, daughter of man! It’s useless to try to escape now! Humans of this era, who can’t even use flight magic properly, will be caught in the massive explosion before reaching safe land!”

“W-Wait, if you do that, you’ll die too!”

“Oops, no need to worry. Because I have this Transfer Bracelet! With this, I can escape to a safe distance in an instant!”

The Demon smirked. I see, so that’s why this guy didn’t resist.

“It doesn’t matter if I’m restrained! I just need to pour a tiny bit of magic power into the bracelet! Farewell, humans!”

The Demon shouted, and everyone started running this way to stop him. However, no matter how long we waited, there was absolutely no sign of the Demon’s magic item activating.

“W-Why!?”

The Demon panicked that the magic item wouldn’t activate.

“No, I’ve been sealing your magic this whole time, right?”

Mana Jamming is magic that obstructs magic manipulation. That means it also obstructs the act of pouring magic power into a magic item.

“Ah.”

The Demon remembered his magic was being obstructed, and finally understood it was a type of magic that also inhibited magic item activation.

“…Human, let’s talk.”

“Hmph!”

“Gohah!”

With a good thud!!, the Demon kissed the ground.

“Spider Hold!”

I cast binding magic to restrain the Demon and snatched away all the magic items he was wearing.

Now he can’t escape.

It seems he had various other things, so I’ll confiscate these items too.

“D-Dammit! I can’t move!”

The restrained Demon struggled trying to get out, but it’s not magic weak enough to be broken by that much. But, this isn’t the end yet.

“Fluffy!”

“Kyuu!”

As if saying ‘I was waiting!’, Fluffy got on top of the Demon and vigorously began chewing on his wings.

“Ah, stop it, you beast! Don’t chew my wings! Ah, Aaaaahhh!”

Fufu, that’s your punishment for looking down on us. Ah, but I hope he doesn’t get a stomach ache from eating something weird.