Then the magic circle began to descend slowly.
"Oh…"
It's like an elevator…
The only difference was that the destination was in total darkness, so it's a little scary.
However, the magic circle was much better than I had expected, and as the darkness gradually reduced my vision, the magic circle glowed pale blue and white, and even though I could not see my surroundings clearly, I could at least see everyone's faces.
As we continued to dive underground, the scenery around us changed drastically. I began to see brightly glowing magma-like objects.
"…It's about time. You need to be ready to fight at any time."
"Eh?"
Before I could ask him back what he meant, we finally arrived at what seemed to be our destination.
Thanks to the magic that Ouma-san had cast for us beforehand, we were fine, but we were in the middle of a sea of lava, and if we had come down without taking any precautions, we would have already been burnt to a crisp. I never thought that I would be in a situation where I would be immersed in lava…
We came to such a super dangerous place, but Merl-san looked around and opened her eyes.
(This is…)
"Merl-san, is there something wrong?"
(Y-yes. Please take a good look, Yuuya-san. There are pale blue ores around…)
When Merl-san told me, I noticed that there were indeed some pale blue minerals peeking out from the sea of swirling lava. I was so caught up in the surrounding lava that I didn't notice it, but what could it be?
When I was thinking about it, Merl-san told me with a nervous look on her face.
(That's… the crystal of energy from this planet.)
"Eh?"
(To be precise, it's crystallized energy from the core of this planet, so even if you bring it back, it won't affect the planet directly, but it's still a tremendous amount of energy.)
"I-I see… So, if we use that mineral, will Merl-san's ship work?"
(Yes, I'm sure it will.)
If that's the case, let's settle this quickly. Unfortunately, I didn't have any items to chisel at the ore, but if I could bring those back, Merl-san would be able to return to her home planet.
Then, Ouma-san urged us to look at a certain place.
"Look at that."
"Eh? …Wha?"
As Ouma-san urged me, I turned my gaze in that direction and saw a huge pale blue sphere floating in the air and spinning.
The sphere had yellow lines running through it, and the light was pulsating as if it was moving. I wondered what it was, but I felt as though something would fly away after chanting the spell of destruction from that famous anime movie*.
[T/n: According to aRaion in my discord channel, it's from anime movie Laputa in the castle.]
"This is the deepest part of the hole, and that's the planet's core."
"That's…"
"Astonished. I've never seen such tremendous power before…"
Although I can't quantify the energy like Merl-san did, I can still feel the tremendous power of the planet's core in front of me.
(A-amazing… That's the planet's core…)
Merl-san, who had never seen a planet's core before, stared at it in amazement.
"Now that you know what it is, you can start collecting the ore around it."
"Oh, yes."
I was preoccupied with the planet's core, but our goal is the energy crystals overflowing from that core.
I'm afraid of what might happen if I touch that core, and I need to make sure that I don't touch that…
While I was thinking about this, I was about to mine the pale blue mineral called the energy crystal when suddenly my surroundings began to shake.
"W-what?"
As each of us took a precautionary stance against the sudden situation, Ouma-san quietly informed us.
"As expected, it won't let us do anything for free…"
"Eh?"
"Yuuya, don't let your guard down. The one who's coming out now is ─ the guardian of the planet."
The moment Ouma-san said that, the surrounding magma erupted violently. In addition, the energy crystals we were trying to mine also glowed and floated up one after another.
The magma swelled and gradually converged, eventually transforming into a huge mass.
Then, in the same way, one lump of magma after another was created, and gradually more and more of these lumps gathered, and the energy crystals that existed around them joined in and finally transformed into the shape of a giant!
"Wha…"
"Stunned. What is that…?"
"…Hmph. It's just like the old ─ no, it's gotten a little bigger?"
Yuti and I were overwhelmed by the giant in front of us and were at a loss for words, while Ouma-san was carefree as he looked at the giant.
The giant radiated a stronger presence than any monster I've ever seen and showed us its overwhelming presence.
"──Guooooooooo!"
When the lava giant shouted, there was a shockwave that made us think that the planet itself was shaking violently. It struck us as well. I had to do my best to hold on to my position.
"O-Ouma-san! What the heck was that?"
"Didn't I tell you before? It's the guardian of this planet."
"Guardian?"
"Yeah. To exterminate the undesirables who have come to steal the energy of this planet."
"Eeeeeehhhh?"
There's no other way to put it but to scream at the simple fact that he told me.
No, the undesirables, you say? Ouma-san said that he knew a place where there was a good energy source, so we came here, and we were not told that we would be treated as undesirables!
Well, when it comes to planet energy, I can't blame it for thinking that way! In fact, that's what we came here for!
However, since we hadn't taken any precautions or prepared ourselves, we were in a panic. Can we defeat it? This thing! It's the planet's guardian, you know?
And even if we could defeat it, it would be awkward… What should we do?
"Since you seem to be thinking about something strange, I'll tell you first that defeating this thing will not affect this planet. It will come back after some time anyway. So give it your best shot. If you don't… you will die."
"No way…!"
We had just defeated Avis, and we were celebrating it with joy! I thought I was going to be able to enjoy sightseeing in this other world from now on!
What's so sad about this is that we have to do something dangerous like this?
"Kuh… Yuti, Night, Cie…! Let's do it!"
"Okay."
"Woof!"
"Pii!"
"You must not fight."
"Pii?"
Just like in the case of the Gluttony Worm, Ciel, who tried to fight with me, was stopped by Ouma-san.
Well, I kind of expected it, but Merl-san can't use the battle mode of her device yet, either. So it would be better to have her stay near Ouma-san and the others and have Akatsuki recover her immediately if anything happened.
As a result, just like the time of the Gluttony Worm, the three of us were going to fight, me, Yuti, and Night. No, three is not enough! This!
"[Thousand Spear Piercing]!"
I immediately took out my [Absolute Spear] and unleashed the Spear Saint technique, and the countless branching stabs attacked the lava giant.
But──.
"Guoooooooo!"
"No way…?"
The giant bent down just before it was hit by my attack and jumped up from the spot with tremendous force! As I was astonished by the giant's unbelievable movements, which seemed to be several tens of meters in height, Yuti, who had already predicted the giant's movement, quietly told me.
"Prediction. I've already placed an arrow there."
"Guooooooo?"
Just at the moment when the giant's flight reached its peak, the arrow pierced the giant with tremendous force, as if it had been aimed right at it. What's more, the blow of the arrow by Yuti was heavy and crushed the lava armor of the giant.
"It's done. That's ─ Wha?"
"Seriously…?"
Yuti's attack partially damaged the giant's body, but when the surrounding lava floated up again, it attached itself to the giant's body and the giant returned to its original form.
"Could it be that… It can recover infinitely from the lava?"
I have a bad feeling about this, but it sure looks like it!
Now completely back to normal, the giant sticks to the wall and uses it as a foothold to jump at us all at once.
"Guoooooooo!"
"Avoid it!"
In order to avoid the attack, we jumped away from the spot as fast as we could. Immediately after that, the giant crushed the point where we were standing a moment ago without mercy.
"Monster. The power is ridiculous…!"
"Grrrrr…. wooof!"
Night, who was looking for an opening, did not miss the chance when the giant hit the ground and used magic to launch a compressed water bullet at the giant.
"Gaaaaaaaah!"
"Guooooooo!"
The giant was hit by the Night's water magic. The flames on that part of the body were extinguished, and for a moment, a black rocky surface could be seen. But as soon as the flames rekindled, it began to move again as if nothing had happened.