"I never thought we'd make it this far without being attacked by Dragonias."
Atop the slope leading underground, Rei muttered those words.
Beside him, Set was looking around with interest, while Vihera held strong expectations for the battle about to unfold.
"The enemy must be well aware that the illusion concealing their headquarters has been dispelled. In that case, it's better to assume they're waiting underground rather than sending out their forces recklessly to fight."
"That might be true. At the very least, it means they possess the intelligence to think at least that much."
"Gururu?"
At Rei and Vihera's conversation, Set turned his gaze toward Rei as if asking, Are we going straight in?
Naturally, Rei had no intention of heading straight into the place where enemies were likely waiting.
"No, we won't descend yet. First, I need to warm up the underground from here."
"...I wonder what kind of warmth you mean, Rei. Scorching heat?"
"I won't deny that. Anyway, I should test it quickly before the Dragonias come attacking us."
Having drawn Death Scythe from his Misty Ring, Rei considered what kind of magic to use.
Underground though it was, he couldn't tell exactly how deep it went.
Given that, even if he used Flame Magic, a spell that caused an explosion could potentially make the ground collapse.
After thinking for a few seconds—and finding it troublesome—he decided to try a new spell.
This was the remarkable thing about the intuitive school.
The theoretical school constructed magical formulas from scratch to create new spells, but the intuitive school, true to its name, used magic through intuition.
When it came to teaching magic to others, the theoretical school was overwhelmingly superior, but when it came to creating new spells, the intuitive school was unquestionably better.
"Flame, oh flame. Thou spreadest without end, burning all that thou touchest. By thy vast flames, envelop all in fire unto the far horizon."
Due to the structure of the incantation, Rei's magical power was considerably drained.
This was a spell that could only be used by Rei, who specialized in fire and possessed tremendous magical power.
He plunged the ferrule of Death Scythe into the ground, and the magic activated.
Rampaging Fire.
Fierce flames erupted at the point where Death Scythe's ferrule was driven into the ground, and the next moment, the explosively spreading fire advanced, burning across the ground in the direction Rei indicated.
Those flames surged through the passage leading underground, and as a matter of course, burned everything in their path to ashes.
"Another incredible spell, huh. I'll ask just in case, but I assume you won't burn any strong enemies, right?"
"I wonder. But if they have enough strength to withstand my flames, they probably survived. The red-scaled Dragonias probably survived too, though."
The red-scaled Dragonias, possessing strong resistance to fire, were opponents that Rei's magic had never been able to kill before.
Given that, the red-scaled Dragonias among those likely underground would probably have survived as well.
However, while the red-scaled Dragonias had strong resistance to fire, that was their only defining trait.
To an ordinary Centaur, they were certainly difficult to defeat, but at the same time, they were only that strong.
Compared to special existences like the golden-scaled Dragonias, the silver-scaled Dragonias, and the mottled Dragonias, their strength was, without needing to think about it, lower.
That was precisely why Rei was not particularly concerned even if the red-scaled Dragonias survived.
Since the Flame Magic Rei specialized in was ineffective against them, they were undeniably troublesome opponents, though.
"So, how long do we wait? I can hear screams coming from inside."
Looking at the slope leading underground, Vihera asked Rei.
The claim that screams were audible was no lie—even to Rei's ears, which were sharper than an ordinary person's, screams were rising from below.
Naturally, Set, who possessed even keener senses than Rei, was likely hearing those screams far more clearly.
"I can't really say how long. It's the first time I've used this spell, so honestly I'm not sure. If this were above ground, it would probably be easier to tell."
Above ground, it would have been much easier for Rei to gauge what kind of effect his magic had produced.
But this time, he had used magic underground.
What exactly was happening in that underground space right now was something Rei had absolutely no way of knowing.
The first to notice it was a Dragonias that had been positioned relatively close to the surface.
Currently, a vast number of Dragonias were gathered underground, and in the area serving as their headquarters, there were as many as far as the eye could see.
With such tremendous numbers gathered, it was only natural that some individuals couldn't fit and had been pushed to the edges.
That Dragonias was one of them.
The instinct of hunger that the Dragonias possessed was also considerably subdued while they were underground.
Of course, while it was subdued, it hadn't disappeared entirely—but the commands from the Queen who had created them occupied an overwhelmingly higher position than the instinct of hunger.
The coercive force was so strong that if the Queen issued an order, they would not move from that spot at all, even if they were on the verge of starving to death.
In this case, for that Dragonias, it could be said that this was precisely what brought about its downfall.
That Dragonias, which had been waiting on the slope leading to the surface, saw with its own eyes flames flowing toward it like water pouring down the slope.
Before it could even realize what it was, it was swallowed by the flames and its consciousness was enveloped in darkness.
That single individual was the first.
The flames flowed down the slope as if water were cascading, swallowing Dragonias after Dragonias into their fire.
"Njapapannaja!"
One of the Dragonias let out such a scream, and finally, the Dragonias near the slope seemed to notice the abnormality as well, turning their faces toward it.
Normally they should have reacted far more dramatically, but unfortunately, since the Dragonias were now strictly controlled by the Queen, they could barely move.
And unable to move, they were swallowed by the flames one after another.
What made these flames so troublesome was that even after consuming several Dragonias, their momentum showed no sign of weakening.
The sight of them devouring one after another was enough to make any observer think of it as an endless, infinite fire.
And after nearly a hundred Dragonias near the slope were swallowed by the flames and everything other than the red-scaled Dragonias was reduced to charcoal, those in the central part of the underground finally noticed the abnormality.
"Giiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii!"
Suddenly, that sound—no, that voice—echoed throughout the surroundings, and upon hearing it, the Dragonias, whose movements had been frozen as if it were a lie, suddenly sprang into motion.
The silver-scaled and golden-scaled Dragonias each began to move, trying to halt the flames flowing across the ground.
The orders issued by such individuals were not complicated.
They simply issued commands to the red-scaled Dragonias one after another, ordering them to dam up the flames.
It was a method that was only possible because the red-scaled Dragonias could move within the flames without any problem at all. It was certainly a viable method, but even if the red-scaled Dragonias tried to stop the flames using their own bodies as barricades, as Dragonias themselves, they could not completely dam the flow.
Even if two Dragonias tried to form a barricade, gaps would inevitably appear.
Moreover, the ground of this underground space was not flat.
Even with the bodies of the red-scaled Dragonias, they could not completely seal off the ground without any gaps.
And even through such small openings, the flames flowing across the ground easily passed.
The red-scaled Dragonias desperately tried to seal those gaps, but whenever they closed one opening, another would naturally appear elsewhere, and the flames flowing through them proceeded to burn other Dragonias one after another.
"Gigigigigiiiiiiiigigiiigigigigi!"
Just as before, that voice once again echoed through the underground space, and in that instant, the ground bulged upward.
Just as when Rei used his Terrain Manipulation skill—no, considering that an earth wall roughly five meters tall was created, the scale of that ability was clearly superior to Rei's.
And yet, considering that it fell far short of reaching the ceiling of the underground space, one could easily imagine just how vast this underground area was.
The Queen of the Dragonias had tried to block the wave of flames with that earth wall, but the wave of flames treated it as no obstacle.
Rather than burning and destroying the earth wall, the wave of flames moved along it and continued to advance.
In the places where the red-scaled Dragonias had coincidentally formed a complete seal, the flames stopped without advancing further.
Also, there were places where the corpses of Dragonias that had been burned to charcoal coincidentally served as walls, but the wave of flames showed no concern for them, surging over them and continuing onward.
This was because the targets being burned were inanimate existences. Whether corpses or earth walls, the wave of flames recognized such things not as targets to burn, but as obstacles to surmount.
And so, the Dragonias were burned one after another.
For the Dragonias, it was a blessing in misfortune that the Queen—the being that ruled over the Dragonias—was present here.
By the Queen's command, the other Dragonias did not cause any commotion, but simply waited for the opponent they were to defeat—no, the opponent they were to devour—to come from above the slope.
That was why, even seeing their comrades being burned, they did not particularly cause a stir, and obediently followed the orders of the higher-ranking golden, silver, and copper-scaled Dragonias.
"Giiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii!"
Once again, the Queen's cry echoed through the vast underground space.
As if obeying that command, not only the red-scaled ones but Dragonias with other colored scales as well threw themselves into the flames of their own accord.
Their very demeanor, as if saying they didn't care when they burned, would make any observer widen their eyes at the bizarre sight.
By letting themselves be burned, they tried to weaken the flames' momentum even slightly. Carrying out such suicidal actions, their behavior was far from anything that could be considered sane.
Even if the one issuing those orders held absolute command authority over them.
But it was precisely because she could do this that she was the Queen.
The ability to make them obey her commands without hesitation, even at the risk of their lives—truly absolute command authority.
Obeying the Queen's commands who possessed such power, the Dragonias literally burned their own lives away, and the momentum of the flames was steadily weakening.
Even while watching their comrades—family, in a sense, since they were all created by the Queen—being burned to death one after another, the Dragonias showed no particular sign of feeling anything about the sight.
It was perhaps partly because they were dominated by hunger, but for the Dragonias, it seemed that even if their comrades or family were killed, they felt nothing in particular.
"Giiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii!"
The Queen let out a sharp cry.
Urged on by those words, other Dragonias that had not yet rushed toward the flames—Dragonias that had been in places far from the fire—began to move.
They had seen their comrades burned to charcoal, yet they acted as if it had nothing to do with them, as if it were utterly meaningless to them—behaving exactly as if to say so.
And eventually, the thousands, tens of thousands—perhaps even hundreds of thousands or more—of Dragonias began to move one after another.
And from the moment they touched the flames, they burned, one after another.
It was the kind of behavior that would make anyone think, What could possibly drive them to do such a thing? but the Dragonias carrying out these actions had no such awareness.
They had been ordered by the Queen, and they simply obeyed.
Beyond that, they acted only under the domination of hunger, and it could be said that for ordinary Dragonias, something like a sense of self did not exist.
But this time, that had worked in their favor.
One after another, one after another—countless Dragonias charged into the flames, and eventually, the flames disappeared.
After turning countless Dragonias to ash.