Chapter 56: The Bomb Disposal Squad and a Small Token of Thanks

“So, what now? At this rate, something terrible is going to happen to this country…”

Although they had captured the Demon, Liliera and the others fretted anxiously about what they should do next.

“Even if we tell everyone to evacuate now, judging from what the Demon just said, that seems difficult…”

“Running away by ourselves would leave a bad taste in our mouths, wouldn’t it?”

“Should we just destroy it?”

“Idiot! If you do that, who knows what will happen to all the magic power packed inside!”

Mina hurriedly stopped Jairo, who had raised his weapon.

Precision tools are precise for a reason; you never know what’ll happen if you mess with them carelessly. Furthermore, this thing has absorbed the Megalo Whale’s magic power; we don’t know what might trigger a massive explosion.

However, we understand its purpose. And luckily, from what I’ve seen so far, I deduced that this magic item doesn’t have a very complex structure.

“It’s fine. The Demon already told us the solution.”

“”””Eh?””””

Everyone raised their voices in surprise at my words.

“The Demon said this magic item is a weapon that activates by extracting the Megalo Whale’s magic power. And the fact that it hasn’t activated yet means the magic extraction isn’t complete.”

“O-Oh, right! We just have to manipulate the magic item and stop the extraction!”

Norb smiled in relief, figuring they’d be saved.

“Ku, kukukuku.”

However, as if to mock that atmosphere, the Demon let out a laugh.

“What’s so funny!?”

“What, you ask? It’s hilarious, obviously. Your ridiculously optimistic thinking!”

“Kyuu!”

“Gyaah! Stop, don’t eat me!”

“Kyu, kyuu.”

“Sorry, I’ll explain right away!”

Demon, cowering before Fluffy… what’s wrong with you?

“Y-You all seemed to think you could just operate this Magitek Weapon… but too bad for you, it has no such function. Once activated, it can never be stopped!”

“””””W-Whaaat!?””””””

Everyone shouted in shock at the Demon’s stunning revelation.

“Of course! This is a weapon! Fuhahahaha! You must be frustrated! You must be terrified! But this is the fate of you humans!”

“But if this goes on, you’ll die too, right?”

I said, dangling the magic item I’d taken from the Demon.

“…”

The Demon suddenly fell silent.

“Ku, kukukuku… Kuhahahahaha!”

The Demon’s laughter gradually grew louder as he stared at me.

“How about a deal, human?”

This guy is amusing.

“No, even if you say ‘deal,’ you just said it can’t be stopped, right? There’s no point in making a deal.”

…Although, I am a little curious what he’ll say.

“Just wait. If you accept my proposal, I will save just you.”

Hmm, I wonder if he has a good idea? The transfer magic item I took is probably single-use… but even if not, it could probably work without this Demon.

“There is a Gate deeper inside. Using that, it’s possible to transfer everyone here to a safe location.”

“””””Wha!?””””””

Everyone gasped at the Demon’s proposal.

“Only I know how to operate the device. And my magic wavelength is required to activate it. I’ve said enough, surely you understand what I’m getting at?”

In other words, he’s telling us to abandon the people of this country and save only ourselves.

“You have no other choice, do you? If you can’t deactivate the device, you have no option but to flee. What, there’s no need to feel guilty about abandoning the people of this country. The important thing is that at least you survive, right?”

“Ghh!”

Norb gritted his teeth, glaring at the Demon. But he didn’t know what to say to that and couldn’t form the words. It was similar for everyone else; they wanted to hurl insults at the Demon, but they couldn’t.

After all, in this situation, there was no way to save the people of this country, and the only thing they could do was save themselves. Anger, guilt, and shame stole their words.

“Fuhahahaha! Yes, that’s it! That’s fine! Humans only care about themselves anyway! So just be honest with your desires! Now, with that settled, release me!”

The Demon demanded our answer, a look of pure delight on his face.

“I refuse.”

But I rejected him.

“That’s right, that’s right… Wha!?”

He must not have expected to be refused, as the Demon’s eyes shot wide open in shock. It wasn’t just the Demon; everyone else was surprised, too.

“Are you insane!? Do you intend to die!? At this rate, all of you will die!”

“It’s not a problem. Because I’m going to dismantle this magic item right now.”

“…Huh?”

The Demon stared at me with a blank face.

“Eh? W-wait, eh? You can do that!?”

Mina asked me, her face a mask of disbelief.

“I can. Because no matter how big it is, it’s ultimately just a magic item with a simple mechanism.”

Right. This magic item is a device that sucks a target’s magic power, stores it to its limit, and causes a massive explosion. That means, effectively, only the magic power absorption function could be called the core of this magic item.

“Therefore, if we interfere with the mechanism absorbing magic power from this magic item, it will stop absorbing any more magic power.”

“Impossible! There’s no way you can do that! Even our Magitek engineers had their hands full just finding a way to activate this excavated thing!”

Hmm, so the Demons didn’t make this themselves? ‘Excavated’ means they’re reusing something made by humans or Demons of the past?

“Well then, let’s start the analysis. Everyone, please watch the Demon.”

“O-Oh! Leave it to us, Bro!”

When I left it to them, Jairo replied energetically, and everyone else nodded strongly as if to say ‘leave it to us.’

“Alright, let’s do this.”

I investigated the flow of magic power in the surrounding magic items. To confirm where the magic power came from, where it passed through, and where it ultimately flowed.

“It connects here, passes through here… and goes up, as expected.”

I had a feeling from the first time I saw it, but the magic power was indeed proceeding upwards. And its destination is probably… I went up from the center of the spiral staircase with flight magic, passed the entrance, and ascended further.

“This is the core that stores the magic power.”

It existed at the very top, on the ceiling of the tower. A large core stone, about the size of an armful, was embedded in the ceiling.

“A magic accumulation device using a giant core stone. If I do something about this, this magic item won’t explode.”

First, let’s start by removing the danger of explosion. I took out the necessary monster materials from my magic bag and started working.

“Using the Megalo Whale fry’s whisker as wiring, and a magic formula with Kraken ink… just a little bit here…”

While recalling memories from my life before last, I assembled a magic power release device to obstruct the magic item’s activity. The surrounding magic circuits have a very simple structure, so it’s nice that the device doesn’t have to be that complicated. And after about ten minutes, I completed the device.

“Alright, done! Now just attach this here… okay, good!”

I attached the completed magic power release device to the magic circuit leading to the core stone. Then, the magic power that should have poured in from the Megalo Whale stopped flowing into the core stone and began to be released from the attached magic power release device.

“Yup, it’s working properly! With this, preventing the explosion is a success.”

Confirming the device’s normal operation, I next disconnected the core stone from the magic circuit. With this, even if the magic power release device is removed, magic power will no longer flow into the core stone.

“Just in case, I guess I’ll collect this so it’s not misused.”

I collected the core stone, into which the Megalo Whale’s magic power had poured, into my magic bag. That said, a core stone packed full of magic power is too dangerous, I can’t sell it.

“Everyone, I succeeded in stopping the explosion!”

I went down to the basement again and told everyone that the disassembly was safely finished.

“As expected of Bro!”

“It’s amazing that you can really do it.”

“Being able to dismantle a Demon’s magic item… unbelievable.”

“Common sense doesn’t apply to Rex.”

“But that’s just Rex-san, isn’t it?”

…Are they praising me?

“I-Impossible!? There’s no way you can do that! What on earth did you do!?”

The Demon’s face twisted in disbelief, finding it impossible.

“No, I just made a device to release magic power.”

“A device to release magic power?”

Mina tilted her head.

“Magic items originally have a function to use as much of the poured-in magic power as needed and release the excess. This is a function to prevent overloading and breaking the magic item, and most magic items have it. But this magic item’s purpose was to accumulate power to explode, so naturally, it didn’t have such a device.”

“So you prevented the tower from exploding by installing that device.”

“Right. I dammed up the magic power that should have poured into the core stone… the magic stone, and made it release in another direction, so magic power won’t be poured into the magic stone anymore.”

And incidentally, the core stone is already collected.

“I-Incredible. No human today should be able to make such a thing… Who on earth are you?”

The Demon stared at me, dumbfounded. Oh, isn’t this a chance to say that Lygard line?

“Hmph. Just a simple adventurer.”

“””””No, that’s a lie.”””””

“Kyuu!”

Why does everyone deny it so quickly!?

“Anyway, this tower can no longer fulfill its role. Now, if we just destroy this device, it will stop absorbing the Megalo Whale’s magic power too.”

If I leave it as is, the Megalo Whale will continue to have its magic power absorbed forever. Even if it’s a monster, it’s a bit pitiful to be used by someone like that.

I removed the magic power release device I just made, and this time attached it between the magic circuit and the device absorbing magic power from the Megalo Whale. With this, magic power stopped flowing into the magic absorption device, so I’ll dismantle this too while I’m at it.

“He’s dismantling the magic item in the blink of an eye. Who really is he?”

Mina is looking at me with an amazed expression, but anyone can just dismantle things.

“Even small children can dismantle anything if given tools.”

“No, that’s a weird analogy.”

Is it?

I dismantled the devices one after another and tossed them into my magic bag. Man, it’s great to get valuable materials for free.

“What’s in this room is a Gate, huh. Heeh, this was also powered by the Megalo Whale’s magic power.”

Maybe the Demon who summoned the Cursed Viper with a Gate before also used a powerful monster’s magic power as fuel in the same way.

“Let’s dismantle this Gate too. The materials might be useful for something.”

And after a while, I dismantled all the devices that were inside the tower. The magic light that illuminated the inside of the tower had already vanished, and there was no light other than the magic light we lit on our weapons.

“Now, let’s go outside. We have to destroy this tower too and free the Megalo Whale.”

“Yes, right.”

We dragged the restrained Demon and went outside the tower. And we began dismantling the now-empty tower.

“Mash Knuckle!!”

Cladding the area around both hands in high-speed vibrating magic masses, I dismantled the tower as if cutting it with a saw. If I use flashy magic, I’ll damage the Megalo Whale’s body.

While cutting the tower into appropriate sizes, I dismantled it little by little until the surface part was finished. For the part digging into its body, I didn’t cut completely through to the other side, so as not to damage the flesh. After shaving it down to a certain point, I tore it off by force with Body Enhancement Magic.

“Alright, now for High Healing!! Transfer Mana!”

Having completely removed the tower, I healed its wounds and restored its stolen magic power by chanting recovery and magic transfer magic on the Megalo Whale.

“With a huge body like this, its magic power probably won’t recover completely yet, but there’s no worry of it being stolen anymore, so it should recover slowly.”

The Megalo Whale let out a loud cry. It might have realized the magic item that had endangered its life was gone.

“Uwah!?”

The ground swayed violently.

“W-What!? What happened!?”

“The Megalo Whale is moving.”

As Meguri said, the Megalo Whale’s body seemed to have started moving.

“Huh? Hey, isn’t the land getting farther away?”

As Liliera said, the real land visible beyond the Megalo Whale’s huge body was gradually moving away.

“Everyone, fly and evacuate immediately! At this rate, we’ll go out to the open ocean with the Megalo Whale!”

“O-Okay!”

Everyone hurriedly activated flight magic and flew up. Oops, I have to retrieve the Demon too. Looking from above, we had apparently already moved quite far from land, and the coast looked very distant.

“Look, the Megalo Whales are returning.”

At Meguri’s words, everyone looked down, and the fry were swimming so as to surround the Megalo Whale. Are they nuzzling its body, perhaps acting spoiled, or are they happy their parent’s life was saved?

“As expected, they were brought to land because of that magic item.”

“Stay safe! Don’t get caught by Demons again!”

“Don’t get involved with humans either!”

Jairo and the others shouted at the Megalo Whale. It seems that in their minds, the Megalo Whale was no longer reflected as a dangerous, giant monster, but just as a victim who had been put through a terrible ordeal by a Demon.

It was at that moment. Suddenly, the Megalo Whale cried out with an incredibly loud voice, and then spouted an exceptionally large column of water.

“Geh!? Why is it attacking!?”

“We saved you!”

We all hurriedly evacuated to a safe zone where the Megalo Whale’s spout wouldn’t reach. The spout shot up vigorously, raining a large amount of seawater and bone rocks on the surrounding sea area.

“We’re quite far out in the offing, so I guess it’s a blessing in disguise that there’s no damage to the land.”

The Megalo Whale’s spout was still continuing, and a large amount of seawater was glittering.

“It’s beautiful as long as you watch from afar.”

Liliera looked at the shining spout with an amazed tone. True, if you look from a safe zone, it’s very beautiful.

“But, it’s somehow strangely long.”

For some reason, the time the Megalo Whale was spouting felt long. The spout earlier wasn’t this long, and it was the same in my previous life’s memories.

“Something glittered.”

“Eh?”

Looking at the sky at Meguri’s words, indeed something glittering was rising inside the spout. And that thing which reached the apex of the spout…

“It’s flying this way!?”

Yes, it flew towards us.

“D-Dodgeeeeee!!”

Everyone hurriedly obeyed Jairo’s scream. As everyone literally flew to escape, that thing passed where we were and fell towards the sea surface. While wrapped in a glittering shine.

“That wasn’t a bone rock!?”

Curious about that thing that fell, I dived and chased it.

“O-Ooooooh!?”

I heard the scream of the Demon I was holding, but let’s ignore that. And catching up to that thing that was falling, I saw an amazing object.

“Is this a giant jewel!?”

Yes, that thing that jumped out of the Megalo Whale’s spout was a jewel the color of the clear sea. Moreover, it wasn’t just big. It was literally a giant gemstone, a rough stone even larger than my height.

“Could it be a thank-you gift from the Megalo Whale?”

Such a thought crossed my mind, but maybe that’s thinking too much?

“Well, but it might be more romantic to think of it as a gift.”

I gently stored the giant rough gemstone in my magic bag.

“Thank you, Megalo Whale.”

As if responding to my thanks, the Megalo Whale, which had become small on the distant horizon, roared again.