As a result of Rei's rampage, no golems remained active inside the building.
Rei stored the wreckage into his Misty Ring one piece after another, looking almost satisfied.
Destroying every last golem that had attacked him served as a fairly decent stress reliever—or so it seemed.
From her corner of the building, Lindy watched him, dumbfounded.
She had known full well that Rei was strong. He held the alias Crimson, and the rumors that circulated about him were proof enough of that.
She had also caught a glimpse of his strength when he fought the bandits in the mountains.
...In reality, what he had shown during that fight with the bandits was truly only a glimpse. She understood now, from the battle with the golems, that he hadn't used even ten percent of his true power.
She could also tell that he hadn't gone all out against the golems, either.
At any rate, looking at the current situation, Lindy simply couldn't comprehend just how powerful Rei truly was.
That was how absolute the gap in strength between them was.
(Asking Rei for help, including with Golias's situation, was the right call.)
Lindy felt a deep sense of satisfaction with her own judgment.
If she hadn't received Rei's help, she could never have imagined defeating a swarm of golems like this on her own.
No—more fundamentally, it was questionable whether she could have even reached the Dolan Workshop in the first place.
Even if she had learned about Anne's situation from Camila, whether she could have actually done anything about it was dubious at best.
Even if she had returned to Buldan, whether she could have accomplished anything against Garby there was something Lindy could only shake her head at.
She knew she possessed a reasonable level of skill as an adventurer.
However, the fact that it was merely "reasonable" was also the truth.
"Lindy, I'm done cleaning up the golems. Let's get going," Rei called out to her.
Of course, when he said he was done cleaning up, he was only referring to the larger components. There were still numerous smaller golem fragments scattered across the floor.
Normally, he should have stored those as well. After all, there was no telling which components contained what techniques.
But this was a massive building where nearly ten golems had gathered and rampaged about. Naturally, if he tried to pick up every last fragment lying around, no amount of time would be enough.
Moreover, Rei and his party were, at their core, intruders who had sneaked into the Dolan Workshop. ...Though since they had been completely discovered, "stormed in" was probably more accurate than "sneaked in."
Even so, it was only natural that he didn't want to waste time here.
And Lindy felt the same way.
Right now, she wanted to move as quickly as possible and rescue Anne as fast as she could.
That being said...
"But what are we going to do? As far as I can tell, we're completely locked in here," Lindy said, surveying the building.
The doors were shut, and the places where the golems had seemingly entered from were also visibly sealed.
Given that, it was only natural for Lindy to wonder what to do next.
In response to her question, Rei turned his gaze toward the wall without any particular concern.
What stood there was an entirely ordinary, unremarkable wall. If forced to name a distinguishing feature, it would be that the wall was sturdy enough to withstand the golems rampaging through the space and striking it without sustaining any damage.
"From what I saw outside, there were other buildings in that direction. If so, there's probably some kind of room... or possibly a corridor beyond that wall."
Before entering the building, Rei had made sure to check the layout.
That said, he never could have imagined that the area right past the entrance would look like this.
(No. The fact that we entered this building in the first place was nearly a coincidence. Climbing over a wall is something anyone could do, but which wall they'd climb over would differ from person to person. Lindy and I happened to leap over that wall by chance, but... does that mean the golems that were here weren't actually waiting for us, but just happened to be here?)
While he considered that possibility, the fact that the door had slammed shut the moment they entered, locked, and triggered numerous lights made it hard to believe it was a coincidence.
He considered the possibility that the golems had been gathered into this massive room while he was fighting the Water Golem, but that too raised questions.
"At any rate, there's no doubt that some kind of building lies beyond this wall. So... all that's left is to break through and force our way forward."
Taking up Death Scythe and the Twilight Spear, he headed toward the wall.
Lindy followed behind him, but with a somewhat exasperated expression, she called out to his back.
"Normally, isn't this the kind of situation where you'd use your head to solve a puzzle and unlock the door, or something like that?"
"Normally, maybe. But fortunately... well, I'm not sure if 'fortunately' is the right word here, but I have the means to brute-force my way through this situation. Of course, if that wall is sturdy enough to withstand even my attacks, that's another story... but that won't happen."
"How do you know that?"
"When I was fighting the golems, I threw the Twilight Spear, right? Even after its power had weakened from destroying several golems, it still broke through the wall. In other words, that's proof that while it's reasonably sturdy, its defenses aren't impenetrable."
Lindy nodded in understanding at Rei's words.
Yet she still seemed to want to say it wasn't the most elegant solution, so Rei spoke again.
"Besides, it's not like there's no method of using wit to figure a way out. But if it comes to that, it'll take time to escape from this room. Are you okay with that?"
"That's..."
For Lindy, who wanted to rescue Anne as quickly as possible, she couldn't possibly say no to that.
"With that said, let's go. ...Step back a little. I'm going to destroy the wall, so don't get caught in it."
Readying Death Scythe near the wall, Rei issued the warning.
Lindy nodded and stepped back. Given Rei's ability, she acted on the belief that he could pull off something like this.
After confirming Lindy had moved away, Rei poured strength into the hand gripping Death Scythe...
"Hah!"
With a sharp shout, he swung Death Scythe.
The wall offered no resistance whatsoever. The blade sliced through it, and with a grinding rumble, the severed section fell to the floor.
"..."
Lindy was so stunned she couldn't even speak. She stared in blank amazement at the sliced wall... and at the room that lay beyond it.
She had thought Rei could do it. Having witnessed his ability firsthand during the battle with the golems, she had figured accomplishing such a feat would be easy for him.
She had thought so, but even so, seeing him cut through the wall right before her eyes—being surprised was only natural.
(Let alone...)
The thickness of the wall section lying on the floor was nearly two meters.
She had watched Rei cut it with her own eyes, but even so, she could barely believe that massive slab of rock had been a wall.
"Huh, so they were here after all."
Just as Lindy's eyes were fixed on the wall's wreckage, Rei suddenly muttered this.
Wondering what he meant, Lindy followed his gaze and understood. The dumbfounded emotions from a moment ago vanished, and rage flooded through her body.
On the other side of the wall stood several men and women, staring blankly, unable to comprehend what had just happened.
Naturally, given that they were in such a place, there was no doubt they were affiliated with the Dolan Workshop.
Moreover, they had been right next to where Rei fought the golems—thick wall or not—so it was hard to believe they were unconnected to the constructs he had just destroyed.
"You people!"
Before Rei could say anything further, Lindy readied her longsword and charged forward.
Diving through the hole Rei had cut in the wall and lunging into the room beyond, her speed likely exceeded her inherent ability.
But that was only natural.
After all, the alchemists who had revealed themselves were the ones who had requested Garby to send Anne into slavery. And while it wasn't certain, they were presumably involved in Golias's disappearance as well.
Facing the alchemists who had harmed the people dear to her, Lindy was about to swing her longsword down...
"Lindy, stop!"
Just before the blade was about to fall, Rei's sharp command cut through the air.
If anyone else—some ordinary adventurer—had shouted, Lindy would have ignored them and swung, likely killing several of the alchemists in the process.
Or even if she hadn't gone so far as to kill, she would have inflicted serious injuries. That much was certain.
But... the one who shouted was Rei.
The sharp edge in his voice was more than enough to halt the attack of the enraged Lindy.
"Eek!"
A small scream escaped the lips of a man in his forties—the one who had been about to receive Lindy's longsword.
"Hah... hah... thank you, Rei. My blood was boiling," Lindy said, exhaling deeply as if to calm her fury, and released her white-knuckled grip on the sword's hilt.
She stepped up beside Rei and cast a smiling glance at the man who was visibly relieved to be alive... and at the others around him.
Since Rei wore the hood of his Dragon Robe, his face was hidden, but his mouth was clearly visible to the alchemists.
Perhaps they sensed something ominous in the smile Rei wore. Several of them frantically tried to flee the room, but...
"Gyah!"
"Ow!"
Before they could take more than a few steps, they collapsed to the floor, screaming in pain.
Their legs—the backs of their thighs, their calves, the backs of their ankles—had arrowhead-like objects embedded in them.
The Eye of Nebula—a Magic Item that could create arrowheads just by channeling mana through it.
Using it, Rei had struck the legs of those who tried to run.
"Don't run."
A single, short command. Yet that one word clearly reached the ears of everyone present, and none of them could bring themselves to try fleeing after hearing it.
"Now then, I've acquired a convenient source of information. There's a fair number of you here, so I don't mind losing one or two."
That was a declaration: if they didn't talk, he would kill a few of them.
Rei had just attacked those who tried to escape without a moment's hesitation. Given that, the threat that he didn't mind reducing their numbers was by no means an empty one.
If he actually started killing, the first targets would undoubtedly be those who had tried to flee and been struck down by him.
"Wh-what is your aim...?" the man who had nearly been struck by Lindy's longsword asked, his voice trembling with fear.
Perhaps he judged that since Rei had stopped Lindy from killing him, there was at least room for conversation.
In a sense, he wasn't wrong. But Rei hadn't stopped Lindy out of any aversion to killing. He had simply decided that losing potential sources of information would be a disadvantage.
"Your aim, you say. So that means you have several ideas about why you might be targeted, correct?"
When Rei pressed, the man only responded with silence.
"Heh." Rei smiled at his attitude.
"Maintaining silence in this situation... it seems you don't quite understand your current circumstances."
He leveled the tip of Death Scythe at the man.
To Rei, Death Scythe was a partner in a different sense than Seto, but to those who knew nothing about it, it was merely an ominous scythe.
With its tip pointed at him, the man—no, not just the man, but the others as well—could not remain silent in the face of the weapon's massive blade.
"If you absolutely refuse to answer my questions, I suppose I'll need to help clear your throat a bit. And conveniently, I have Death Scythe right here."
If they continued to stay silent, their throats would be slit.
At Rei's implicit threat, the alchemists had no choice but to surrender.