"Flame, thou shalt exist only within the domain I designate, and shalt not exist in any other domain. As the price of thy brief life, feed upon my magical power within that domain and in a single instant sublimate thy very life."
As Rei chanted the incantation with Death Scythe in hand, red lines began to trace across the ground.
Those lines extended as if to engulf the slime that was chasing Set... but since the slime possessed a size that could only be described as massive—like a small mountain or hill—the lines drawn by magical power were correspondingly large as well.
It was originally a spell that prioritized power, one that even an ordinary mage would find difficult to activate, but this time its scale was overwhelmingly larger than usual, making it even harder to pull off.
However, Rei poured in a massive amount of his formidable magical power, forcibly forming the spell through sheer force.
Gaga, who had been attacking the slime, grew wary of the suddenly appearing red lines of magical power and distanced himself from them.
He likely judged that the red lines were Rei's doing.
Once Gaga put distance between himself and the slime, he cast a reproachful glance at Rei.
But Rei paid no mind to Gaga's demeanor and activated the spell.
"Wild Dance of the Fire Spirits."
With the spell activated, the giant slime was sealed within a red dome.
Then, what appeared in large numbers inside the red dome were fire spirits in the shape of small lizards.
Not just one or two, but an uncountable multitude of them.
Yet even in that situation, the slime showed no sign of concern and continued chasing Set.
As far as the slime was concerned, it was focused solely on capturing the existence that would satisfy its hunger.
Just like that, the slime chased Set... and right before it touched the red dome, a small lizard exploded.
What exploded was only a single one at first, but as if spurred on by it, the small fire spirit lizards exploded one after another in a chain reaction.
A single explosion was not that powerful on its own, but as they chained together one after another, the explosions generated inside the red dome gradually grew in scale.
Moreover, the red dome existed to envelop the giant slime, making it that much wider and increasing the number of fire spirit lizards accordingly.
The successive chain explosions made the inside of the red dome invisible.
"Now then... how about this?"
Several minutes after the inside of the red dome had become obscured by the explosions, Rei confirmed that there were truly no issues before dispelling it.
In that instant, a massive amount of smoke billowed out.
Until then, the dome had sealed it in, so the smoke had not spread to the surroundings. But with the red dome gone, it was a different story.
An amount of smoke that made the expression "billowing" truly appropriate swept through the area.
(Ugh, I might have overdone it a little? There's no mistake that this smoke is visible from Gilm too, right? Lord Daskar might send someone to check on what happened, but it seems like people with no business here might come too.)
Currently, Rei wanted to keep the existence of both the Birth Tower and this lake as secret as possible, so he would have preferred that unrelated parties stay away.
That said, at present, this entire area did not clearly belong to anyone.
Given that, there was no way to easily turn people away if someone did come.
"●●●!"
Rei, who had been thinking about the trouble afterward, snapped back to reality at the voice of Gaga, who had approached him without his noticing.
When he looked toward the source of the voice, Gaga was there, saying something while looking toward where the slime had been.
"Gaga? ...Wait, seriously?"
For a moment, Rei could not tell what Gaga was doing, but the spring wind scattered the smoke... and eventually, he witnessed the scene before him.
Yes—bubbles were floating all over the massive body... so many that it seemed as if the entire body had turned into bubbles. That was the sight of the slime.
"What? It blocked the explosions with those bubbles? ...No, that's wrong. Are those bubbles for regeneration!?"
The slime had suffered extensive burns, but when the bubbles disappeared, there was not a single trace of burns remaining anywhere.
Rei briefly wondered if it had blocked the explosions with the bubbles, but seeing the bubbles cover the few wounds still remaining on the slime's body, it was easy to understand that he was wrong. ...All too easy.
"My magic actually endured that. Honestly, I'm surprised."
Fundamentally, Rei preferred close combat with Death Scythe or the Twilight Spear over magic, but even so, he held strong confidence in the spells that made the most of his magical power.
That was precisely why, even against a giant slime like this, he never expected it to endure his magic.
That said, it was not as if Rei's magic had no effect at all.
After all, the slime was actually using bubbles to heal... or rather, regenerate its wounds.
(In that case, I need an even more powerful strike... but one that won't damage the lake. Fortunately, I still have plenty of magical power. Or rather, I don't feel like it's decreased at all.)
Rei himself did not know exactly how much magical power he had.
Infinite magical power... might be an overstatement, and it was probably actually finite, but from Rei's perspective, it was close enough to call infinite.
"Gaga, I'm going to use another spell... no, I'll be casting magic consecutively until I defeat that slime, so don't attempt any close-range attacks on it."
Saying that, he suddenly realized that Zozo was not here, nor had he communicated through gestures, which meant his words shouldn't be getting through. He turned his gaze toward Gaga to warn him again... and was surprised.
Because Gaga had distanced himself from the slime, as if he had understood Rei's words.
(Eh?)
Rei was about to say something about Gaga's behavior for a moment, but decided that defeating the slime took priority... and was surprised once again.
Because the slime had stopped moving.
Until just moments ago, it had been trying to charge toward Set even inside the red dome.
When the bubbles appeared, it had stayed still to treat its wounds, but now all the bubbles on its body were gone, and it had returned to its original state... the state it was in before Rei used magic.
And then... as if searching for something, it extended tentacles in all directions.
The sight of it extending tentacles from its entire body, combined with the fact that the slime's main body was rounded, brought to mind a sea urchin.
Though the tentacles extending from the slime were not hard like spines, each one bending freely in whatever direction it pleased.
"I don't know what happened, but... this is a chance! Gaga, protect me from the tentacles! Set, handle things from the air in case anything happens!"
"●●●!"
"Gruu!"
Gaga and Set each responded to Rei's words.
Once again, Gaga responded obediently to Rei's words, but Rei, focused on his magic, set that aside and channeled magical power into Death Scythe as he began his incantation.
"Flame, manifest with thy body one of thy true forms—Destruction. Thou art that which burns all to ash, erases all, and annihilates all. Bring forth great destruction, and by it, become a sacrifice for new rebirth."
A single flame floated up at the tip of Death Scythe's blade.
At first glance, it appeared to be nothing more than an ordinary fireball, but... that flame greedily absorbed Rei's magical power.
It was originally a spell similar to a fireball... one that could be called a higher-tier version of it, but this time, he poured even more magical power into the flame than ever before.
To grant it enough power to burn that slime to ashes in a single strike, so that it could not pull a recovery stunt with bubbles like before.
Then, the flame gradually began to grow larger.
It became about Rei's size, then Gaga's size, then even larger still, growing endlessly.
It greedily absorbed Rei's seemingly inexhaustible magical power, growing and growing until it eventually reached about two-thirds the size of the slime.
Naturally, a flame of that size could not be created right next to Death Scythe, and as it grew larger, the flame floated higher and higher upward.
Probably... no, without a doubt, this massive flame was visible even from Gilm.
A flame of that magnitude.
And then... judging that this was enough, Rei finally activated the spell.
"Scorching Hellfire!"
The way it flew toward the slime along with those words was a spectacle that could even be described as a meteor falling.
"Rei, ●●●, ●●●●!"
Seeing that mass of flame, Gaga cried out to Rei in a panic.
Though Rei possessed near-limitless magical power, he had still spent a massive amount at once—a spell that seemed as though hundreds, or perhaps more, of ordinary mages had strained every last drop of their magical power past their limits—so even he felt fatigue.
(Should I have used the Flame Emperor's Crimson Armor? No, against this slime, it would be a poor match.)
It was an attack method suited for fighting individuals or groups, but when facing an entity like this slime, magic was indeed the better choice.
Thinking that, Rei somehow... truly just vaguely, understood what Gaga was desperately trying to convey.
"Don't worry. That spell won't cause any damage outside the designated area."
"●●?"
Is that true? —Gaga had probably asked, and Rei nodded.
And at the same time Rei nodded, the massive flame like a meteor made contact with the slime.
The flame that fell from the sky did not appear all that fast at first glance.
But that was only because the flame's massive size made it look slow, and in reality, it was traveling at considerable speed.
...Of course, even if the flame had been slow, the slime had been extending tentacles from all over its body to probe its surroundings, so it showed no sign of fleeing toward the lake.
And then... in the next moment, the action the slime took was unexpected even for Rei.
It extended the tentacles it had been stretching from all over its body toward the flame descending upon it.
Was it planning to catch the flame with those tentacles? Rei wondered for a moment, but he had actually cut and shattered many of those tentacles, so he understood they were not that durable.
In fact, the extended tentacles were burned even before directly touching the flame as it approached, and likely due to their high water content, they even evaporated.
Even so, the slime did not stop extending its tentacles toward the flame, evaporating tentacle after tentacle... and eventually, its massive body was crushed by the equally massive flame.
The slime, which had not tried to flee from the flame until the very end, was engulfed in fire in the next moment, rapidly burned, evaporated, and annihilated.
Rei, Gaga, and Set, who were outside the burning range Rei had set, felt no heat and heard no sounds of burning, but the slime was most definitely being burned there.
"Rei, ●●●, ●●?"
Gaga asked Rei something with a puzzled expression.
Even if he could not fully understand the words, he somehow grasped what Gaga was saying.
The scorched hell spreading before their eyes.
Even though a slime the size of a small mountain or hill was burning right before them, they felt no heat at all despite being so close—this must have seemed strange to Gaga.
"Gruu!"
As if to say "impressive, isn't it?" to Gaga, Set landed from the sky and purred beside Rei.
Even though a roaring inferno existed right where they were looking, they felt nothing at all.
It even gave Rei the impression that he was watching such a scene on TV.
Of course, the spectacle unfolding before him was not a TV screen, but reality itself.
"As long as you don't get close, you won't feel the heat, so don't worry."
At Rei's words accompanied by gestures, Gaga seemed convinced and distanced himself from the burning slime in his line of sight.
(The problem is what Gilm thinks about this. ...Depending on how you look at it, that flame falling could look like a meteorite striking. Anyway, I need to report this incident to Lord Daskar... and it'd be best to let Lord Daskar decide what to do.)
Lately, Rei felt like he had been dumping everything onto Daskar, but given that this was a situation only Daskar could properly judge, there was truly nothing he could do about it.
If they had left the slime to do as it pleased, it would have caused tremendous damage to the Birth Tower and those guarding it, and depending on circumstances, to Gilm as well.
Thinking of that, he needed to deal with the slime here somehow.
With that in mind, Rei gazed at the slime that continued to burn.