Behind the floating robe, there was a pale, shimmering light.
A wand drifting by itself in a position where a human would have a hand.
And this majestic voice, as if speaking directly into my head.
No doubt, it was the Spirit King.
[You seem to have become quite adept at handling the spirits. In such a short period of time, you've done a great job.]
"Oh, Illuna taught me the basics, and I practiced from there. The spiritual arts you taught us have really helped me. …I never thought I'd encounter you here, though."
It had been a little while since we last met, which was probably not that short of a gap… No, from the Spirit King's sense of time, this reunion must have been quite quick.
He had been alive longer than Lefi, perhaps even longer than the rest of his race.
[…Grandpa, hello]
[Mm, hello. You still harbor the same good magic, young child of the sword].
"I have many, many things I really would like to talk to you about, but I'll get to that later. The queen, you say?"
[Hmm. These bugs have a queen, and that queen creates new babies. The ones you destroyed, though they were golems, they ate rocks and forests, didn't they?]
"…I see, they were eating the materials they needed to build themselves. That's how they reproduce… right?"
[Yes, that is so.]
The bugs had eaten up everything in the surroundings, making the view look almost like a deserted land, as trees and greenery had mostly disappeared.
There was a big hole on the slope of a mountain about four to five kilometers ahead of here.
I had no doubt that it was their nest.
Or rather, bugs were still creeping out of the hole, little by little.
…Even though I destroyed so many of them, they're still there?
It was true that without quickly killing the source of the problem, there would be no end to it.
"You guys, our target is over there. Let's go!"
I called out to the pets and then turned to the Spirit King.
"Spirit King, what are you…?"
[I will cooperate with you. That was my original intention when I came here.]
"Thank you, if you're here, we're a hundred strong."
I was serious about that.
He was on the same power level as Lefi.
…I mean, I didn't even notice any sign of him until now, but I wondered if he was holding back his presence because he didn't want to disturb our battle.
Well…I'd better finish preparing the full map of the Rogard Empire as soon as possible, or I would end up in a situation like this once again.
And so, I went onward with the Spirit King, killing the survivors of the bugs.
Since they didn't have the numbers anymore, they were just small fry to us, so we didn't have a hard time with them.
The Spirit King also raised his staff, and several of the bugs in front of him were simultaneously crushed and killed.
[Hm… your strength has grown considerably… I see, you have evolved.]
"Yeah, a while ago. You may find this hard to believe… but I met a God."
When I said this, the face part of the robe turned toward me.
[Really now… the way you say that, it seems like you have met with the initiates, right?]
As expected, the Spirit King knew something about it.
"The Origin… [Dominus] and the gods born of [Gaia]?"
[You do know, after all. Who was the one you met?]
"The God Ruin… He was in this spear."
Saying this, I took out the divine spear Ruin from my item box and showed it to the Spirit King.
It was as if he had a surprised expression, though he had no face, he then looked somewhat nostalgic, as if he was looking into the distant past.
[I remember… A spear. It still retained its shape, I see…]
"…Spirit King, are you perhaps present from the time of the gods…? Were you alive at that time…?"
The light inside his robe flashed as if to show that he was smiling.
[At that time, I was still a mere spirit, barely conscious. –Well, we have arrived.]
Upon entering the large hole, the first thing I noticed was the beautiful… Ruins left behind…
The remains of the wooden scaffolding that the humans had probably prepared for the excavation work, and the tools of some kind, had either been eaten or were just scraps of leftover food, but the ruins had not been touched at all, and other than being weathered, they remained very clean.
…I guess these bugs were the defense mechanism of these ruins after all.
They were programmed to protect this place.
It seemed that the humans had been excavating this place for a long time. What on earth did they dig up, suddenly causing these bugs to move?
Inside, there were still more bugs than outside, but still nothing to worry about at this degree, so without stopping at all, we went deeper where we could feel the hostile reactions welling up – and eventually, those things appeared.
They looked like something from the famous Al**n series in my previous life.
In that series, there was a monster called X*n*m*rph.
Their appearance definitely resembled it.
It was very unpleasant and made me feel disgusted and uneasy.
Moreover, it was a creature with an excellent form that one could tell at a glance that it was strong.
And among them, there was an individual called [Queen], which looked so big and super strong that when I saw it in the film for the first time, I was quite fearful of it.
What I meant to say was that – the one that was snarling at us in front of us with its teeth bare was an individual that reminded me of such a queen.
Race: Insect Living Golem Queen
Level: 5??
"…Strong."
Compared to the bugs I've killed along the way, it was several times bigger.
It looked basically the same as the others, but it was spiky and sharp all over, and it looked very solid.
The part that particularly differed from other bugs was its belly.
Unlike other bugs, its belly alone was as big as a four-ton truck.
It could probably go toe to toe with monsters from the western area of the Demon Forest.
It was a foe that I would have to exert myself to the utmost to defeat.
I had already ingested an advanced mana potion beforehand, so I still had enough magic power to spare….
[Hmmm, this is a good opportunity. Watch me, young lord.]
"…You're going to deal with it?"
[Hmm. As the one who taught you the power of spirits, I will show you what it is like to master spirits.]
With these words, the Spirit King moved forward as if he were moving through the air.
The Queen seemed to understand his threat even though she was a golem, showing her alarm in her inorganic eyes, shaking her wings and exerting her utmost menace.
[The strength of a spirit resides in the fact that almost all of them are invisible…. unless of course you can see them. Unless one has a very good ability to recognize magic, such as your wife or the girl with the sheep's horns, one will not even be able to notice their presence. –Like this]
The next moment, without warning, a gut-wrenching sound echoed through the air, and at the same time, all the Insect Queen's wings exploded.
[—-!!!]
The Insect Queen did not seem to have a vocal organ, but she made a sound that seemed to be a mixture of a scream and anger by moving her body stiffly, then rushed forward.
But strangely – it was slow.
Without knowing what happened.
Its head fell off… And then….
I did not know whether it was because it was a bug or because it was a golem, but the Insect Queen was still moving, but one after another, her body parts fell off, as if she had been dissected by an invisible blade – and what was left was a dismembered corpse.
The Insect Queen died.
"…What was that attack?"
[It was caused by a wind spirit. A wind blade – or, to put it correctly, a spatial rupture…? Got it? It cuts the target by creating a gap between space-time and breaking the continuity of space. You will be able to use it once you get used to it.]
"…I see."
I replied with a slightly bitter smile to Spirit King who said so in a nonchalant manner.
Yeah, well…just like Lefi, he would certainly be classified as a calamity class existence.
It was no wonder that their standards were so strange.