Set soared directly above the forest.
Rei rode on its back, while Vihera clung to its front leg.
Even in such an unbalanced arrangement, Set flew without the slightest sign of discomfort, as if it were already accustomed to the situation.
Under normal circumstances, having Vihera dangling from one leg should have been enough to throw off its balance midair. But for Set, this was apparently trivial.
"Grrrrrrr."
If anything, it seemed to be in excellent spirits, purring contentedly as it beat its wings through the night sky.
Its good mood was partly due to having left the Treant Forest behind. In there, monsters far weaker than itself had attacked relentlessly, without a moment's rest.
Worse still, every single one of those monsters had been a plant type.
If they had at least been creatures with flesh, like Orcs, Set might have felt a bit more motivated to fight. But the attackers were nothing but plant monsters.
Strictly speaking—Treants aside—there were a fair number among them that could technically be eaten, starting with the Venus Flytrap monsters. Unfortunately, Set's palate leaned heavily toward meat over vegetables.
Of course, if vegetables were served up as a proper dish, it would happily gobble them down, and if it were genuinely starving, that would be an entirely different story. But as things stood, it had no interest.
At any rate, when Set had used King's Intimidation against that tiresome swarm, it had, for some reason, no effect whatsoever.
That question still lingered, but for now, they flew through the sky.
Mind you, Set possessed enough speed to reach the Treant Forest from Gilm in almost no time at all. Taking off from within the forest and heading toward its center took barely any time at all.
...Provided nothing got in the way, that is.
"Tch, what a pain!"
Death Scythe swung, slashing through the seeds hurtling toward Rei and the others as they flew. A return strike cut down the seeds coming from the opposite side, and Rei turned a glare tinged with irritation toward their source—the giant flowers sprouting from the forest below.
Those giant flowers had been firing seeds toward the location the Fleeing Adventurers had once used as a base. But after Vihera killed—or rather, disabled—the first one, several more had emerged in its place.
Curiously, the number of seeds the flowers directed at the Fleeing Adventurers had actually decreased compared to when there was only one. Yet the moment Set took to the sky, an enormous barrage of seeds came raining in, as if that earlier restraint had been a lie.
Set dodged the incoming seeds while intercepting them with skills. Rei intercepted them with Death Scythe, and Vihera deflected them with the blades extending from her Foot Guards.
"Tch, at this rate we won't even be able to search the center of the forest. It's bad enough that there might be nothing there to begin with. ...Set, Vihera, I'm leaving interception to you for a few seconds."
"Grrrrr!"
"Leave it to me. ...Though I'm barely managing to intercept anything to begin with."
At Rei's request, Set purred, signaling it would handle things. Vihera replied with a hint of disappointment in her voice.
The truth was, Vihera's specialty was close-range grappling combat. Compared to Rei and Set, who had ranged options like magic and skills, she inevitably fell short in that department.
It wasn't as though she had zero means of ranged attack. She could throw small stones lying around—things like that. But that wasn't exactly feasible while clinging to Set's front leg.
If a seed came genuinely close, she could intercept it with her free hand or knock it away with a kick. But there was no way Rei or Set would let seeds get that close in the first place.
"I'll count on you when it really matters. ...First, that one."
Rei replied to Vihera and fixed his gaze on the giant flower that had been launching the most seeds at them.
He temporarily returned Death Scythe to his Misty Ring, then shifted the Twilight Spear from his left hand to his right. Pouring in magical power, he took aim—and threw.
Normally, the spear was hurled with the full force and twist of his entire body. But right now, Rei was riding on Set's back. That meant he couldn't put the strength or rotation of his lower body into the throw.
The strike was weaker than usual for it, but the extra magical power he charged into the spear more than compensated.
"Die!"
With that shout, he hurled the magic-infused Twilight Spear, relying on the twist of his upper body and the strength of his arm.
The spear sliced through the air. The giant flower must have noticed it flying straight toward them, because it redirected the seeds it had been firing at Set toward the spear, and launched the thorns growing from its stem as well.
But... if this had been the kind of disposable spear Rei used in the past, that might have worked. What he had thrown was the Twilight Spear. And the Twilight Spear, loaded with a massive amount of Rei's magical power, couldn't possibly be stopped by something so feeble.
Every seed and thorn that touched it was shattered instantly. The Twilight Spear struck the giant flower and, a moment later, pierced clean through it.
Perhaps because of the sheer amount of magical power charged into it, more than half of the flower's petals were obliterated.
Even so, the spear continued its flight through the air without losing momentum—then, in the next instant, it was back in Rei's hand.
"Put a little too much magical power into that one?"
If possible, Rei had wanted to keep at least some of the flower portion intact so he could submit it to the Guild once tonight's business was settled. But with more than half of the flower—the giant flower's most defining feature—destroyed, submitting the specimen would be pointless.
"In that case, I have one I defeated. Why don't you take that instead?"
At Vihera's words, hanging there from Set's leg, Rei nodded in understanding.
The giant flower whose stem Vihera had severed with Magic Impact Palm had fallen to the ground with its flower portion still intact.
Rei hadn't heard the details, so he didn't know the full circumstances. But if Vihera said so, he could judge that there was probably no problem.
"Got it. Then I'll take these ones down too. If we have your flower, even if these end up half-destroyed, we can at least gather enough in number to satisfy the Guild to some extent."
At the very least, this giant flower was definitely an unknown monster that Rei had never seen or read about in any book. The Guild would be pleased to receive it, even if they had some minor dissatisfaction about the specimens not being in perfect condition.
(Though come to think of it, those Venus Flytraps, vines, thorns, and everything else... I'm pretty sure everything besides the Treants was an unknown monster too.)
Of course, it was entirely possible they were known monsters and Rei simply didn't recognize them.
(Unknown monsters... come to think of it, that pollen hasn't hit us since then. Well, me, Set, and Vihera... thinking about it normally, I can't imagine pollen like that having any effect on us. Sure enough, not bringing Byune was the right call.)
Aside from Byune, the members of Crimson Lotus Wings were all special existences—a Dark Elf, a fusion with an Unbris. Because of that, Rei had something close to a conviction that they would be fine even if exposed to that pollen.
"Well, I don't know what kind of creature is releasing that pollen, but... anyway, those flowers are in the way. Time to clear them out—now!"
Once again charging the spear with magical power, Rei unleashed the Twilight Spear from his hand.
What followed was exactly the same scene as before.
Even with slightly less force behind it, there was no way the giant flower could withstand the Twilight Spear's strike. One after another, they were pierced, and the majority of their flower portions obliterated.
Since Vihera had already told him she'd defeated one with its flower intact, Rei attacked the remaining flowers without hesitation.
For that matter, being giant flowers, their flower portions sat in a very easy-to-target position. From the ground, their extreme height would have made them difficult to aim at. But for Rei, riding on Set as it soared through the sky, they were practically sitting ducks.
And before long, the seeds flying toward Rei and the others had stopped entirely.
"That should put the others at ease too."
Thinking of the people who'd had roots take hold inside their bodies because of those seeds, Rei muttered that it was good they'd been able to destroy the flowers themselves.
Whether those who had been completely transformed into trees could ever be restored... that was unknown. But at the very least, there was no doubt the number of victims would not increase any further.
(If it were possible to restore them, it would probably take Recovery Magic or Alchemists, something along those lines. ...Well, hiring people like that would definitely cost a considerable amount of money, that much is certain.)
With those thoughts in mind, Rei turned his gaze toward the ground.
The original reason they were flying through the sky on Set wasn't to destroy the giant flowers. It was to find whatever lay at the center of the Treant Forest.
Or perhaps not the center, but the opposite edge of the forest from Gilm.
Either way, Rei's gut told him the center was the most likely candidate.
He had no clear reason for it—just a hunch. Or perhaps the fact that in the manga and novels he used to read back in Japan, that sort of thing was always a given.
"How is it? See anything?"
"Grrr..."
"Can't really tell, to be honest."
In response to Rei's question, Set shook its head with a purr, and Vihera reported that she couldn't find anything either.
Unsurprisingly, even from Rei's vantage point, there was nothing particularly noteworthy.
...If anything stood out, it was the stems of the giant flowers he'd already destroyed. With more than half their petals gone and no longer capable of moving as monsters, they were hardly inconspicuous. But even so, illuminated by the moonlight, their sheer size made them impossible to ignore.
"What do you think? I believe this area is roughly the center—should we widen the search a bit?"
"Yeah... it's true we don't have much time at this rate. Maybe we should."
"Grrrrr."
Even as Rei and the others flew through the sky searching, adventurers were still fighting monsters at the Treant Forest front.
The more time passed, the higher the chance that those adventurers would lose their lives.
As adventurers, they accepted requests at their own risk, so Rei didn't strictly need to worry. But even so, the thought that his own slow action might lead to more casualties among them sat poorly with him.
Of course, if the adventurers actually fighting down there heard his concerns, they'd probably tell him not to underestimate them.
"Alright, let's search a wider area. It's possible whatever we're looking for is a bit removed from the center... that sort of thing happens."
"Is it? Well, even so, it's better to search somewhere that might have something than to stay here where we're finding nothing."
Vihera had her doubts about Rei's reasoning, but she agreed that staying put would accomplish nothing. Taking some kind of action was the right call.
"Grrrrr."
And for Set, as long as there was no particular reason not to, following Rei's lead went without saying.
"Alright then, let's widen the search range. ...In that case, it was a good thing we went ahead and wiped out all those giant flowers first."
"True. ...Though it was a fight completely devoid of emotion or artistry."
For Vihera, who had a temperament—no, a disposition—that savored battle, honestly speaking, she would have liked to take her time and enjoy the fight with the fairly strong giant flowers a bit more.
...Though, since she'd already had her fill of fighting earlier, she didn't harbor any major dissatisfaction.
"If you can take them down easily, isn't that better? It's one thing when there's nothing else going on, but right now we need to deal with the Treant Forest as quickly as possible."
"True. ...Well, I'll let it slide for now."
Vihera looked slightly displeased, but she accepted Rei's words. She had a disposition that relished combat, but she wasn't so cruel as to think others' lives were expendable for the sake of her own enjoyment.
"Then—hmm?"
Rei had been about to consult Set and Vihera about which direction to head next. But to look at Vihera hanging from Set's leg, he naturally had to lean forward and peer downward.
No—to be precise, given that Vihera was dangling from Set's front leg, even leaning forward would barely bring her into view. But he could see at least a little.
And as Rei leaned forward to begin their discussion, what he saw was... something that appeared to be sitting on a tree branch. Like a small child.
No—it was something.