Guided by the copper-scaled Dragonias, several hours had passed.
In those few hours, Rei and his party had covered a considerable distance.
Rei had judged that the copper-scaled Dragonias coming to guide them meant the other side had no intention of springing a trap. In reality, among the countless Dragonias, a single copper-scaled one was nothing—if it meant killing Rei and his party, they wouldn't hesitate to sacrifice it as collateral. Even so, considering the current situation, Rei's prediction was that things would be fine.
And indeed, by riding on Set's back alongside the copper-scaled Dragonias, Rei and Vihera had covered a distance in a few hours that would have been impossible on foot.
Amidst all that…
"…"
Rei was at a loss for words, gazing at the entity at the end of his line of sight.
From far away, he had known that some massive presence was there. He had assumed it was the true Dragonias headquarters within this Underground Space—meaning their current location was merely the grounds of the base, and the presence far ahead was the actual headquarters in the truest sense.
But… if the presence in the distance was the headquarters, it wouldn't have moved.
Yes, it had unmistakably moved.
Honestly, looking at that presence, Rei hadn't thought it was a living creature. But seeing it move, he could only recognize it as an unmistakable enemy.
"Is that… could that be a Queen Dragonias, as opposed to a Queen Ant or Queen Bee?"
Rei finally broke the silence with that mutter.
As if his words had brought her back to her senses, Vihera spoke with an expression of disbelief.
"I've seen giant monsters many times before… but this is honestly extraordinary."
"Grrrrr."
Set let out a cry as if agreeing with Vihera's words.
His cry was different from usual, carrying a strong note of surprise.
Until now, Rei and Set had encountered all sorts of opponents in Elgin. Among them were many giant monsters, but the entity thought to be the Dragonias Queen at the end of their gaze was extraordinary even by those standards.
…Of course, in terms of pure strength, with an outlier like Grimm around, the Dragonias Queen was by no means the strongest. And Vihera had seen many monsters as well, even before she started traveling with Rei, but the Dragonias Queen was still a presence worth noting.
(Well, considering it was producing that many Dragonias, it probably needs to be this size?)
Rei could accept the number of Dragonias, but there was still more to be surprised by.
The Queen's presence meant that her children—the ordinary Dragonias—were naturally there as well.
When he lowered his gaze from the Dragonias Queen, what lay ahead was an expanse of Dragonias. Thousands, or even tens of thousands of them.
The fact that the majority were red-scaled Dragonias was likely because Rei's magic had burned most of the ordinary ones to charcoal.
(Thinking about it normally, there should have been many Dragonias with differently colored scales besides the red ones. I don't know exactly how many I burned to death, but it must have been a significant number. Which means… just how many were there to begin with?)
Rei knew that the flames created by his magic were extremely powerful. That wasn't overconfidence—it was obvious considering how many Dragonias corpses there had been between entering the Underground Space and arriving here. Crushing carbonized Dragonias underfoot while moving forward hadn't even been unusual.
Considering that, the horrific power of Rei's magic was clear.
But… even after using such magic and burning countless Dragonias, a vast number still remained before his eyes.
(If I hadn't used my magic… just how many would there have been?)
Gazing at the giant—overwhelmingly giant—Dragonias Queen, and then at the countless Dragonias gathered around her, Rei thought that.
At the same time, the thought that dealing with the red-scaled Dragonias would be troublesome also lingered in his mind.
Rei excelled at Wide Area Annihilation Magic, but that was strictly through Flame Magic. Since Flame Magic was ineffective against red-scaled Dragonias, defeating them was undeniably a chore.
Of course, Rei's methods of attack weren't limited to magic. There were attacks using Death Scythe and its skills, and attacks using the Twilight Spear.
But… even so, there was a limit to how many he could kill at once.
(If this number all attacked at once… it would be troublesome. Could I manage by fortifying my defenses with Terrain Manipulation and picking them off? No, but considering the size of the Earth Wall I saw on the way here, whether it's the Queen or a Dragonias specializing in Earth Magic, they're definitely more skilled than I am.)
Even if he used Terrain Manipulation to create trenches, it would be meaningless if they were easily nullified.
That being the case, what came to mind was riding Set and attacking from the air. Vihera could also fly by grabbing onto Set's feet.
However, there were Dragonias capable of ranged attacks. The mottled Dragonias was likely the foremost example.
That was precisely why he couldn't recklessly try such a thing in the current situation.
Earth Magic—or perhaps it wasn't magic but some type of skill—given that Dragonias possessed such abilities, it was unknown what other kinds of abilities they might have.
Moreover, this was the Dragonias headquarters, so it wouldn't be strange for there to be types Rei had never seen before.
"Nmpadatanata."
Seeing Rei and his party come to a halt, the copper-scaled Dragonias that had guided them let out such a sound.
What was wrong? It was probably wondering that.
Rei could understand, but given the spectacle currently spread before him, being told not to be surprised would have been unreasonable.
"So, Rei. What do we do from here?"
Vihera, seeming to have returned to herself, asked him.
"You ask what we'll do, but since the copper-scaled Dragonias is trying to guide me, I can't just stop here. I don't want them thinking I ran away."
Rei told her that, but he could sense that the Dragonias way of thinking was vastly different from humans'… and from Centaurs' as well.
Just as it had shown through its attitude that Rei's sandwich was delicious, at the very least, there wasn't much difference between it and Rei when it came to the sense of taste. But Dragonias were a species with very large individual differences. Since this was a Dragonias that had come to meet Rei, it wouldn't be strange if its senses were similar to those of his party. The very fact that individual differences were large meant there was a possibility that other Dragonias—even the ones in his line of sight right now—might not think a sandwich was delicious even if they ate one.
"Narenanmana."
When the copper-scaled Dragonias vocalized that, the densely packed Dragonias protecting the Queen at the center parted to make way.
There was still a considerable distance to where the Queen was, but a path leading all the way there was created.
(This is… no, it's not that surprising, I suppose. The golden-scaled Dragonias controlled this many Dragonias too.)
Rei had been slightly surprised by the Dragonias's movements, but upon reflection, he understood it wasn't something worth that level of surprise.
Even so, the golden-scaled Dragonias Rei had previously seen hadn't shown any ability to command this many Dragonias—let alone Commander-class ones.
In that sense, Rei understood more clearly than anything that the Queen was truly special.
"Grrrrr?"
Aren't we going? Set rumbled.
Because it believed in its own strength, and in the strength of Rei and Vihera, it showed no hesitation whatsoever about advancing into the swarm of Dragonias.
Patting Set's head, Rei smiled and spoke.
"Right. We can't just stay here forever. Let's go."
Muttering that, Rei began to walk.
The Dragonias that had cleared the path showed no particular reaction even when Rei moved. This was despite the fact that, had they been on the surface, the Dragonias would have wanted to tear apart and devour first thing the soft-fleshed Vihera, and Set, whose body was not so different in size from a Dragonias and who clearly offered high satisfaction as a meal.
(In that sense, I'm actually the safest one here.)
Being a man of short stature who, while not exactly brawny, was reasonably well-trained, to a Dragonias, Rei was undoubtedly an opponent with little meat to chew and tough flesh to boot.
(Dark meat? No, even dark meat is delicious if properly cooked… so maybe an old chicken?)
When Rei was in Japan, his family kept chickens at home.
They were primarily for cockfighting, but among them were varieties raised for meat or for laying eggs.
They would butcher and eat them while they were still relatively young—before they could be called an Old Chicken—but occasionally, for one reason or another, there were chickens that survived long enough to become Old Chickens.
Those Old Chickens too eventually ended up on the dinner table, but… naturally, they were tough. That said, if you went to the trouble of simmering them for a long time to make Dashi, they became tender enough to eat… but that essentially meant they couldn't be eaten well without sufficient preparation.
And Dragonias, as could be understood from the copper-scaled Dragonias's reaction upon seeing a sandwich, had no concept of cooking.
Dominated by hunger, it was only natural for them to want to eat meat as quickly as possible.
"What's wrong? You're making a strangely disappointed face."
As they walked along the path cleared by the Dragonias, Vihera, who was advancing beside him, suddenly said that.
"No, from the Dragonias's perspective, Vihera and Set are probably satisfying prey, but compared to them, I figured I must not be very satisfying to eat."
"…Why would that make you look disappointed?"
What came from Vihera's mouth upon hearing Rei's words was a remark tinged with exasperation.
For Vihera, being perceived by Dragonias as delicious was not amusing. It was helpful in the sense that it functioned as an aggro-drawing ability when fighting them, but that didn't make being seen as tasty meat an enjoyable experience.
Of course, when it came to battle, she wouldn't hesitate to exploit that.
"I wonder why… being ignored by the Dragonias, even in a negative sense, gives me a somewhat complicated feeling."
"I see. Oh? But it doesn't seem like they think that way over there. Could they be about to attack?"
For some reason, Vihera said this with a happy, or perhaps expectant, look. When Rei followed her gaze, what he saw was the golden-scaled Dragonias.
Rei had destroyed multiple strongholds and repelled attacking Dragonias, but he had only seen the golden-scaled Dragonias twice. And one of those times, it had even escaped him.
Considering that, seeing the presence ahead—a group of nearly a hundred golden-scaled Dragonias—left him surprised and with a somewhat complicated feeling.
It was only natural, given that the golden-scaled Dragonias, which he had thought to be an extremely rare existence, were present in such large numbers.
In particular, one of them was directing a strong gaze at Rei.
(It's probably the individual that escaped back then.)
It wasn't as if Rei could distinguish between individual golden-scaled Dragonias, so he had no certainty. But if there was one fixing such a strong gaze on him, that was the only explanation he could think of.