"This is..."
Rei and his party advanced through the underground space, crunching the charred Dragonias remains beneath their feet. After about twenty minutes of walking, an earth wall suddenly appeared before them.
This earth wall, too, had been scorched by Rei's magic, its surface blackened.
"Among the Dragonias, there are individuals who can use magic, huh... But this magic is..."
Vihera's surprise likely stemmed from the fact that the earth wall stretched out in a straight line, continuing as far as the eye could see.
Rising up as if to partition this vast space—one that could truly be called a second ground—the earth wall was undeniably an astonishing sight.
Rei could also use the skill called Terrain Manipulation. Though in reality, it was a skill Death Scythe had acquired through Beast Magic.
However, the ground Terrain Manipulation could affect was limited to a seventy-meter radius centered on himself, raising or lowering it by one hundred and fifty centimeters at most.
There was no way he could create an earth wall of this length.
Moreover, the height of the wall was overwhelmingly greater than anything Rei could produce with Terrain Manipulation.
In other words, the entity that created this earth wall wielded earth magic that was, at the very least, on par with or superior to Death Scythe's Terrain Manipulation.
"Thinking about it normally, this isn't something an ordinary Dragonias could accomplish. If I had to guess... a golden-scaled Dragonias? Or perhaps... a mottled Dragonias?"
As far as Rei knew, the copper-scaled Dragonias was small with high stealth and intelligence, but nothing more.
The silver-scaled Dragonias was fundamentally a form specialized for combat.
But the golden-scaled Dragonias radiated an intensity that made it entirely plausible for it to use magic.
And given that the mottled Dragonias could fire something like a blood laser, it wouldn't be strange for it to use magic that ordinary Dragonias could not.
Assuming there weren't any other types of Dragonias besides the mottled, golden, silver, and copper-scaled ones, that is.
Given that this was the Dragonias headquarters, it wouldn't be strange for types Rei hadn't encountered before to be here as well.
Of course, Dragonias had extremely high individual variation, so it was possible that even among the copper- or silver-scaled ones, there were individuals capable of using magic.
"The Queen."
In the end, Rei spoke that word aloud, concluding it was the most likely possibility.
It wasn't certain that the entity standing at the apex of the Dragonias was a Queen—an existence akin to a Queen Ant or Queen Bee—but seeing habits this close to ants, Rei couldn't help but think it was the most probable.
"The Queen, huh. If it exists, it's probably on the other side of this earth wall. What'll you do? Destroy it?"
"No need to go out of our way. We just need to go over it."
Muttering that, Rei activated his Sleipnir boots, kicked off the air, and cleared the wall with ease.
Vihera gave a light leap, hooked the Magic Claws generated from her Hand Gauntlets into the wall, and used them as a pivot to launch herself over with arm strength alone, clearing the wall just as effortlessly.
And Set, naturally, had wings—so he flew over the wall without any particular issue.
"Same as before, huh."
What lay beyond the wall was exactly the same as before—nothing but Dragonias charcoal spread all around, having been burned away.
However, there was one difference. Far in the distance, at a size that appeared no larger than a grain of rice even with Rei's eyesight, something existed.
"...What do you think that is?"
Given the considerable distance, they couldn't tell what the something at the end of their gaze was.
But the fact that it was visible even from this distance made it easy to surmise that it must be quite massive.
"Who knows? Thinking about it normally, it's probably a Dragonias nest, isn't it?"
"A nest within the headquarters? Well, given an underground space this vast, it's not impossible, I suppose."
What came to Rei's mind was the mansions of nobles he had seen several times before.
None had grounds this extensive, but there were nobles who possessed quite large estates.
For such nobles, having a mansion at the far end of their grounds was not unusual.
That said... if this had been done by humans—no, by Centaurs—Rei would have accepted it readily.
But the ones who created this underground space were the Dragonias.
Given that, Rei couldn't possibly believe that the Dragonias possessed the same way of thinking as humans, and nobles at that.
From Rei's perspective, the Centaur race wasn't exactly the same as humans, but there were significant similarities in how they thought.
"In any case, the Dragonias Queen is probably inside that massive something."
"Probably. I wonder what kind of opponent it'll be?"
Vihera asked that, but Rei couldn't neatly explain the existence of the Dragonias, which defied common sense in so many ways.
"Thinking about it normally, it likely has its own will, just like the Commander-class Dragonias."
This much, he could say with certainty.
After all, they had attacked the settlement time and again to obtain the Spirit Egg.
Looking at how the Dragonias attacked, one could view it as sequential deployment of combat power, but it could also be seen as wave attacks using sheer numbers.
Furthermore, given that numerous intelligent Dragonias existed, starting with the golden-scaled Dragonias, Rei found it somewhat hard to believe that the entity standing at their apex lacked intelligence like an ordinary Dragonias.
It wasn't just Rei—perhaps Vihera and Set felt the same, as each of them nodded at his words.
"Even so..."
Vihera, who had been listening to Rei's words, continued with a somewhat amused tone.
"Even if your prediction is wrong, I have a feeling that would make things interesting in its own way."
"Considering whether or not it has intelligence, there's no doubt it'd be easier to fight without it, though."
While exchanging such conversation, the two and one beast continued through the underground space.
Crushing the numerous charred Dragonias remains beneath their feet as they went.
They kept walking, but the far wall of the underground showed no sign of appearing.
Could it truly be that this underground space was as vast as a grassland on the surface?
It was only natural that Rei would find himself thinking such a thing.
"Hey, Rei. Do you think this underground space was created by the Dragonias boss? Or maybe there was originally a vast underground space here, and the Dragonias are just using it as their headquarters?"
"Who knows. Personally, I'd prefer it was originally here."
If this vast space had been created by some power—likely that of a Spirit, Rei surmised—that would mean its creator possessed tremendous ability.
The prospect of having to fight such an opponent was not a welcome one.
If it had a Magic Stone, I could at least have some expectations regarding Beast Magic, though.
A powerful monster would yield powerful skills from its Magic Stone.
Based purely on Rei's experience... since the Dragonias Queen likely didn't possess a Magic Stone, he would prefer that it wasn't a powerful monster.
Of course, that was strictly Rei's thinking. For Vihera, walking beside him, fighting a powerful monster was exactly what she desired.
"In any case, all we can do now is press forward. But I wonder how far it goes. We might end up having to camp underground at this rate."
"That would be... a bit problematic. For us it's one thing, but the ones we left on the surface don't have any food with them."
In other words, if Rei and his party camped underground, the Centaurs wouldn't be able to eat.
Naturally, some of them would actually be carrying something like dried meat, so it wouldn't be that they had absolutely nothing to eat.
But since the food they had was quite limited, let alone everyone being satisfied—it was questionable whether there would even be enough to go around.
"That's true, but... are you saying we should go back for now? Well, with Set here, Rei, you could go back right away if you wanted to."
Considering Set's flight speed, what Vihera said was by no means wrong.
That said, whether Rei would actually do such a thing was another matter entirely.
"No, let's not. Besides... if we could do that, then we could just ride Set and fly through here to get around, right?"
"With an enemy waiting for us—an intelligent one at that—we can't do something like that, can we?"
"Right."
Rei replied to Vihera, who had finished his thought for him.
Since Dragonias had high individual variation, it was completely impossible to predict what kind of traps might be present.
In that case... depending on the circumstances, there was a very real possibility that if they flew through the sky, things like steel wire or something with adhesive properties like a spider's web could be lying in wait.
"We're walking without any problems right now, but the fact remains that this is the enemy's headquarters. In that case, we don't know where traps might be. Though, even if there are traps, they've probably been burned away by Rei's magic, so I don't think we need to worry too much."
"In that case, the real challenge starts after the Dragonias charcoal ends."
They exchanged words as they walked, but naturally, their pace wasn't all that fast.
"Should we ride Set to get around?"
Those words slipped from Rei's mouth.
"Come on. You just said it's no good because there might be traps in the air, right?"
"I don't mean flying through the sky. I mean running on the ground. If there are traps, they should've been burned away by the magic, right?"
"...I see."
Vihera fell silent for a few seconds with a slightly surprised look, but eventually nodded in understanding.
As Vihera had just said, even if there were traps on the ground, they should have been burned away by the earlier magic.
The problem was locations that weren't on the ground—if traps existed at a certain height—but with Rei, Vihera, and Set, the likelihood of discovering them in advance was high.
Then again, since even that wasn't certain, Rei made the proposal precisely because they had the ability to deal with anything immediately if something happened.
"Set, can you do it? If we ride you to travel, you'll be the one in the most danger if there are traps. So..."
"Gruu!"
Without letting Rei finish, Set let out a cry as if to say to leave it to him.
"...Sorry. I'm counting on you."
Rei stroked Set with gratitude toward the beast who would go that far for him.
Set had been happily letting Rei pet him, but after a few minutes, he reluctantly lowered himself into a posture that made it easier for Rei and Vihera to mount.
Rei and Vihera climbed onto Set's back, and before long, Set kicked off the ground and began to run.
The impact caused a nearby piece of Dragonias-shaped charcoal to crumble, but neither Set nor Rei had any intention of paying that any mind.
Set, having started running, produced a speed that made one want to ask what his previous pace had even been.
Even so, inside this vast space, I can't tell exactly how fast he's running.
Being within such a vast underground space, there were no landmarks to speak of.
In a way, it was probably similar to a grassland plain.
That said, there were naturally many differences between a grassland and an underground space.
"Hey, Rei. As for a landmark, wouldn't that thing work best?"
Saying that, Vihera, who was riding behind Rei, pointed ahead.
At the end of her finger was the something they had been seeing since earlier.
It was quite far away—so far that they had been able to see it since before, but they still couldn't tell what it was.
Even though Set was running at a considerable speed, not quite a full sprint, they still couldn't make out its form completely.
"That, as a landmark? It barely changes in size even with Set running, you know?"
"It's better than nothing, isn't it? Besides... 'barely' means its size is changing at least a little."
"That's... well, true."
Indeed, those words were an undeniable fact.
Little by little—truly just a little at a time—the existence at the far end of the underground space was growing larger.
The problem was that they still couldn't tell what that growing something was.
Then again, if my prediction is correct, that's probably...
Ready for anything to happen at any moment, with Death Scythe and the Twilight Spear in hand, Rei fixed his gaze on the something ahead.