Purple Haze (8)
Purple smoke. After picking their way past the corpses rolling at their feet, the sight that finally greeted the party could be summed up in roughly three sentences.
A massive, egg-shaped boulder belching violet smoke. A pack of magic beasts sprawled across the ground, drooling like addicts. And the shredded remains of what had once been human, scattered like discarded trash.
The grotesque and the brutal existed side by side. The first thing the party felt was pure bewilderment.
These new species of magic beasts—their targets—weren't preparing for battle. Every last one of them lay completely defenseless. How the hell were they supposed to interpret that?
The beasts' eyes were glazed over. They circled the boulder as though the purple smoke, which stank like pure rot to the party, was the most intoxicating thing in the world. Tongues lolling, chests heaving with heavy pants.
"......"
A strange silence settled over them.
Even the ones who'd been burning with determination to smash the mastermind behind this mess hesitated to attack. Something about the scene felt off. The table was set too perfectly, so caution won out over the urge to seize the opportunity.
Still, they couldn't wait forever.
The most aggressive of them, Crow, lifted his sword and prepared to charge when Chrome stepped in front of him.
They might not be in their right minds, but they couldn't exactly stand around chatting near these vicious magic beasts. So they spoke with their eyes, the shape of their mouths, and a handful of prearranged hand signals.
- What?
- Bodies. Count.
- Huh?
- Bodies. Many. Them. Few.
Only then did Crow understand. He took another careful look at the scene.
The contrast between the corpses strewn about like some sick art installation in the purple mist and the magic beasts lounging comfortably as if they owned the place had been so striking that he hadn't noticed at first. But there were only five beasts, while the number of corpses around them was absurdly high. When you factored in everything they'd seen on the way here, the discrepancy became even more obvious.
Sure, magic beasts ate more than normal predators, but this was excessive. Looking at the state of the bodies, most hadn't been dead more than three or four days. It wasn't like victims had been piling up over a long period.
There had to be more of them somewhere else.
Once he confirmed the rest of the party had reached the same conclusion, Chrome suggested they wait a little longer. No one objected.
Since six people clustered together would be easy to spot, the party split into two groups. Maintaining the dome while continuously cycling in fresh air without being detected was difficult work, but Eagle had always specialized in wind techniques, and Howe lived up to his reputation for superior mana control by handling it without much trouble.
The group of Eagle, Chrome, and Ligret stayed together. Eagle's mana control was rough, which raised the risk of detection, so they decided Ligret's sharp senses were necessary to notice enemies before they got too close.
They didn't have to wait long.
Just as impatience started showing on a few faces, Ligret gave a hand signal. Eagle and Howe immediately throttled their spells down to the absolute minimum. Moments later, an utterly bizarre scene unfolded before them.
The forest was collapsing.
Massive ancient trees that wouldn't have budged under normal axe blows, blue bushes that reached their waists, and the thick undergrowth that had been tripping them up—all of it was crumbling into dust and scattering like a sandcastle hit by wind.
The party panicked, afraid the trees hiding them would vanish too. Fortunately, the mysterious phenomenon was only happening in one direction. The area that had been so overgrown moments ago that not even a proper road existed—only small animals could barely slip through—had transformed into a wide boulevard like something you'd see in the middle of a city.
Step. Step.
Two carriages rolled down the center of the newly created road as if taking a victory lap.
To avoid the purple smoke, the drivers—clearly Ivestan Empire soldiers—had their entire faces wrapped in some special fabric. The horses pulling the carriages wore similar protective gear.
The two carriages stopped near the egg-shaped boulder spewing violet smoke. A dozen soldiers poured out of one of them.
They all wore identical uniforms. Unlike normal helmets or masks, these left no eye slits, yet the soldiers moved with perfect confidence, as though they could see everything clearly.
They examined the drugged, sprawled magic beasts, then began talking among themselves. The distance was significant and their voices were low, but the students had enhanced their hearing with mana. They caught every word.
"Five of them. Three short of the quota."
"Should we wait longer?"
"No. We're pulling out. They haven't shown up, so either they've been dealt with or they've fled beyond the Incense Stone's range. This is the final recovery operation."
"Then we'll retrieve the Incense Stone as well."
"Make it quick."
"Yes, sir."
What followed looked like skilled craftsmen performing a routine they'd repeated hundreds of times.
They used large stretchers to load the limp magic beasts into the cargo compartment. A few still struggled weakly, but after the soldiers rubbed severed limbs from nearby corpses against the violet-emitting boulder and shoved them into the beasts' mouths, the creatures went slack as if falling into deep sleep.
After loading the beasts like cargo into a separate carriage, they moved the smoking boulder into the same compartment and sealed the entrance with multiple layers of thick cloth.
That alone was shocking enough. What came next was even stranger.
Several Ivestan soldiers took various seeds from leather pouches and scattered them across the ground. Then they buried Magic Stones nearby. Sprouts immediately began pushing up through the earth.
The plants grew at an explosive rate, like a video being fast-forwarded dozens—or hundreds—of times. Trees shot skyward as if they'd stood there for centuries, casting wide shadows. Weeds and flowers turned the barren ground vivid green.
The carriage carrying the soldiers began slowly retracing its path. As it moved, the seeds and Magic Stones covered their tracks, restoring the forest as if nothing had happened.
Even if someone followed the trail of corpses to this place, they would only assume a brutal massacre had occurred. They would never guess at the existence of the purple-smoke boulder or the carriage that had taken it away.
The students watching it all unfold right in front of them almost wondered if they'd been hit with some kind of hallucination.
"A spell that creates a carriage-wide road in the middle of the forest in an instant...?"
"There are plants that respond to magic power, but this rapid growth is..."
The Pendevig siblings, who possessed exceptional magical knowledge, looked especially shaken.
Crow clicked his tongue at them. "Who cares about the exact principles? Are we really letting them leave?"
"They mentioned an Incense Stone, right?" Akasha said. "Looks like they used that rock and the people as bait to lure the new magic beasts, then collected them the way we just saw. If we follow those carriages, we might reach wherever the rest of the beasts are being kept."
Chrome activated his communicator first. Even in the outer regions of the Black Mountains, where mana density was high, he hoped the signal might reach. It didn't.
He fell into thought.
The earlier scene had been fully recorded and captured. Taking that back would still count as a solid achievement. A significant number of the new magic beasts had already been taken—contrary to the original plan.
Should they be satisfied with the information and withdraw? Attack the carriage to eliminate whatever beasts remained? Or follow the created road to scout the enemy's main base?
Greed said the last option. But the technology or tools those Ivestan soldiers had used were completely unknown to him. Reducing enemy numbers was important for the future, but misjudging their strength and walking into a trap would be disastrous.
The luck and golden vision that helped him acquire items were useless here.
The enemy was moving farther away by the second. He didn't have time to deliberate.
In reality, only a few seconds passed—though dozens of questions and answers flashed through his mind—before Chrome opened his mouth to speak.
A sharp sound tore through the air—psshing—followed immediately by what sounded like a scream.
Question marks popped up in everyone's heads. Ligret, who had already shifted into a new stance, hurled her second spear into the air without hesitation.
This time, because she'd been focused, the sound came through clearly. What they'd thought was a scream was the death cry of a horse pierced by the spear and the panicked shouts of soldiers.
Ligret spoke in her usual monotone. "Now we have one choice."
"......"
Chrome realized it all over again.
Ah. Right. This is exactly what she's like.