Flames roared as they burned.
Those flames were incinerating the Dragonias corpses in the blink of an eye.
Normally, burning corpses took a considerable amount of time, but flames created by Rei's magic could reduce them to ashes without effort.
"Hey, Rei. I know it's a bit late to ask... but was it really okay not to store these corpses in the Misty Ring? There were Dragonias with all different colors of scales."
Beside Rei, Vihera asked the question as her hair shimmered in the morning sunlight.
Dragonias possessed scales of various colors, and those colors determined their attribute. After all, a Dragonias with red scales that had resistance to fire could withstand even Rei's magic.
...Though right now, in the direction Rei was looking, even the red-scaled Dragonias were burning normally.
This was likely due in large part to the difference between a living and dead Dragonias. While alive, they could block Rei's flames. Dead, their scales no longer functioned. Or perhaps, their bodies having been severed by the Death Scythe or Twilight Spear, the flames were consuming them from the inside out where no scales offered protection.
"I did store the ones with different colors, you know? ...Though most of the ones in good condition were killed by Vihera."
Set's blows generally carried enough power to blow apart an opponent's body entirely. And in Rei's case, setting aside thrusts with the Twilight Spear, whenever he used the Death Scythe to cut through them, the resulting corpses were far from intact.
By comparison, the Dragonias corpses that Vihera killed with Magic Impact Palm had virtually no external damage whatsoever. ...Though in exchange, their internal organs—struck by direct shockwaves—were often destroyed.
So in terms of obtaining samples, Vihera's kills were undoubtedly the most suitable.
"If you're satisfied with that, then I don't have anything to say about it."
From Vihera's perspective, storing the corpses in the Misty Ring would have been a far quicker way to dispose of them than burning them like this. Given that, she wondered why he was going out of his way to burn them in the current situation.
Rei understood that as well, but for some reason, when Dragonias corpses were exposed to the open air in Elgin, they became useless within a day or so. Knowing that, he had gathered a certain number of samples first and then burned the rest all at once.
"When it comes to Dragonias corpses, we'll be able to obtain far more of them going forward. If it's just about storing them in the Misty Ring, that would have been fine too."
In the end, the reason Rei chose to burn the Dragonias corpses instead of storing them was simply because he felt, on a gut level, that it would be better to do so.
That said, Rei trusted his intuition. After all, he had been saved by it countless times before, so it was only natural.
"Anyway, if we burn them now, it shouldn't stand out."
"You're right. The flames won't stand out."
What Vihera's gaze fell on as she said this with a mischievous smile was the smoke produced by the burning corpses. Perhaps because there was no wind, the smoke rising into the sky could, depending on how you looked at it, almost appear like a signal fire.
(Could someone mistake this for a signal fire and have the reconnaissance team come back? Or... there's also the possibility that Dragonias might take interest and come here. Well, if Dragonias do show up, we just need to defeat them.)
If it was the same thirty or so as yesterday, then with Rei, Set, and Vihera present... no, depending on the circumstances, even Vihera alone could handle them. Or perhaps they wouldn't be bad opponents for the Centaurs who had been repeatedly subjected to Vihera's mock battles.
While Rei was vaguely thinking about such things, Zai came walking toward him.
"Rei, is this good enough for dealing with the Dragonias that attacked us?"
"Yeah. Having them become Undead this close by would be the worst."
Even if the enemy were Undead, defeating them wouldn't be particularly difficult. However, when it came to things like Zombies, even monsters produced an unmistakable rotting stench.
For Rei, who had a more sensitive sense of smell than a normal human, and for Set, whose sense of smell was even sharper than Rei's, Zombies reeking of rot were the worst possible opponents. Rei considered them more troublesome than fighting Dragonias normally.
Zai apparently shared the same opinion, nodding readily at Rei's words.
"You're right. Undead are extremely troublesome. An Undead with the strength of a Dragonias would be no laughing matter."
"Ah, so that's what you meant."
The opinion that Undead were troublesome was the same as Rei's, but the reason they were troublesome was vastly different between Rei and Zai. For Rei, it was the rotting stench. For Zai, it was that the already formidable strength of the Dragonias would become even greater.
"But even if their strength increases, their movements would become sluggish, so wouldn't they actually be easier to fight?"
"No, the very fact that we'd be fighting Dragonias corpses we shouldn't have to fight in the first place is problematic enough."
Rei could only agree with that. A Dragonias corpse, already defeated once, coming back to life and attacking again—there was no mistaking that these were opponents they shouldn't have had to fight.
(If there were a Necromancer, they could probably do things like making Undead Dragonias attack living Dragonias... but I can't use that kind of magic.)
Since he had even been able to create magic that allowed him to fly, there was a possibility that, if things went well, he could develop something like Necromancy. But to develop magic, Rei needed to genuinely desire it from the bottom of his heart.
...However, Necromancy was never something Rei was familiar with, and it was something he certainly did not find appealing. Given that, creating magic similar to Necromancy with Flame Magic in his current situation was all but impossible.
"Anyway, now that we've disposed of the Dragonias corpses, there's no point in staying here any longer. Shouldn't we head back to the campsite? I know we left combat power there so it should be fine, but just in case, there are probably some who are worried about this whole situation."
At Rei's words as he shifted his train of thought, Zai nodded. ...And Vihera, who had been watching the conversation from a slight distance, also smiled at the prospect of returning to the campsite.
For Vihera, fighting Dragonias was one thing, but disposing of their corpses was a hassle. Of course, the disposal had ended quickly because Zai and the others gathered the corpses in one place and Rei burned them with magic. Normally, corpse disposal took far more effort. Considering that, Rei's presence here had been a salvation for many.
"Gruu?"
Suddenly, Set looked toward the campsite and purred.
Given what had happened yesterday with Set noticing the approaching Dragonias, those nearby tensed at his behavior. ...However, the two who had known Set the longest—Rei and Vihera—understood that his current demeanor was not due to sensing danger. Without any particular tension, they turned their gazes in the direction Set was looking... toward the campsite.
There, a single male Centaur was running toward Rei and the others at what was clearly full speed.
"What is it?"
Zai, following Rei's gaze, also spotted the running Centaur and muttered the words. Could it be that enemies had come again? He had thought so too, but contrary to his expectations, the running Centaur's expression showed no sign of desperation. Whether Zai had finally noticed this as well, he showed a look of relief.
However, that then raised the question of why the Centaur had come all the way from the campsite. As for what had happened, they just needed to ask the person coming. With that judgment, Rei and the others simply waited for the Centaur to arrive without doing anything in particular... and eventually, he reached them.
The Centaur, having come right up to Rei's side, opened his mouth with a serious expression.
"The reconnaissance team has returned."
"...What? The day after yesterday?"
The report that the reconnaissance team had returned was apparently completely unexpected for Zai as well. Could it be some kind of mistake... or perhaps a group of Centaurs from a settlement that hadn't joined up yet had come instead. In fact, just yesterday they had made contact with Centaurs from a settlement Zai had not previously interacted with. From those Centaurs, they had heard that other settlements existed as well... or had existed.
The fact that the past tense was used was because some settlements had been completely wiped out by Dragonias. Whether it was being eaten to death in the most literal sense, or dissolving into another settlement like the ones gathered at Zai's—there were various circumstances, but the fact that settlements had disappeared was undeniable.
"Yeah. No mistake about it. ...I don't know if it's their headquarters, but it seems they found a place where Dragonias are gathering."
"!?"
Those words were more than enough to draw the attention of not only Zai, but also Rei, Vihera, Set... and the other Centaurs who had been listening nearby.
"Is that true?"
"It's true that they came back saying they found one. But since I didn't see it myself, I can't say for certain."
"...I see. Well then, we've finished what we need to do here. Let's head back to the campsite."
At Zai's words, everyone who had been listening nodded.
The reconnaissance team had been formed by recruiting people from each settlement to find the Dragonias headquarters, but perhaps... just perhaps, they had suddenly found it. It would be impossible not to feel tense about that.
(Though, if the headquarters were only about a day's distance away, the fact that only about thirty Dragonias came yesterday is honestly questionable. ...Well, expecting to read the thoughts of Dragonias driven by hunger would be asking the impossible.)
Thinking that, Rei suspected that what the reconnaissance team had found was probably not the headquarters, but rather one of the bases like the one he had previously annihilated. However, considering the number of Dragonias at the base Rei had destroyed, they were by no means an opponent to be taken lightly. Given the strength of Dragonias and their numbers, they were undoubtedly extremely troublesome opponents.
In any case, they wouldn't know the details without asking, so Rei and the others returned to the campsite.
There, in the center of the campsite, several Centaurs were waiting.
(Their numbers haven't decreased?)
That's right—as far as Rei could see, the number of those Centaurs hadn't decreased at all. Of course, Rei hadn't perfectly memorized the faces of everyone who had gone with the reconnaissance team. But even so, looking at them now, it seemed like the group's numbers hadn't diminished.
Also, while they appeared quite shaken by having found a Dragonias base or headquarters, they didn't seem to be feeling grief over lost comrades. That meant either the reconnaissance unit had returned without a single casualty... or, if someone had died, that person was so disliked by everyone they had been working with that they thought it didn't matter if they died... no, rather that it would be better if they were dead.
(No, that wouldn't be the case.)
Half convincing himself, Rei called out to one of the Centaurs from the returned reconnaissance team.
"I heard you found a place where Dragonias are gathering, though you don't know if it's their headquarters or a base. Is that true?"
"Huh? Ah, yeah. It's true. Honestly, if we hadn't heard the details from Rei beforehand, I think we would have fled immediately."
Seeing the way he said that, Rei understood with an inward nod. The reconnaissance team dispatched from Zai's settlement—there was also the fact that the golden-scaled Dragonias was extremely intelligent, but more than anything, they had been startled by the number of Dragonias, which led to them being discovered by the enemy... and as a result of being caught off guard by those numbers, Rei suspected that all but one of them had been wiped out.
"I see. So, about how many Dragonias were there?"
"We didn't count them precisely, but around five hundred... I think."
"That's a small number."
That was Rei's honest impression upon hearing the number. And he was certain it was not the headquarters but rather one of their bases.
To Rei, that was the scale he perceived, but for those who actually understood the threat of Dragonias, such words from him were not something they could listen to calmly. Even so, since to Rei a number of that scale was something he could handle, he nodded in a reassuring manner.