They continued advancing while fleeing from the Necro Golem for some time.
Rei and Seto finally reached the main street.
However, what escaped Rei's lips upon seeing it was a sigh of disappointment.
"Just as I thought... there are still quite a lot of people here. Though at least most of them are trying to flee."
Robel and Dwanda should have already issued evacuation orders for the main street.
Yet from Rei's vantage point atop Seto's back as they flew above it, there were still clearly many people visible down below.
If the Necro Golem appeared here, many of those on the main street would suffer casualties.
The one saving grace was that a handful of golems were present, each carrying several people to safety.
They undoubtedly belonged to the workshops Robel and Dwanda had sought cooperation from, or to nobles and merchants who owned golems.
"But... those golems might get absorbed by the Necro Golem too... It's coming!"
Rei had been watching the ground from the sky, but sensing a presence approaching from behind, he shouted.
Naturally, Seto—possessing far sharper senses than Rei—detected the Necro Golem's approach even before Rei's warning. By the time Rei shouted, it was already flapping its wings to climb higher.
Almost simultaneously with Seto's ascent, the Necro Golem burst through a nearby building from a side road—one that, while fairly wide, was still narrower than the main street.
"Kyaaaaaaaaah!"
Its appearance was that of a giant humanoid with no skin. Its face was nothing more than a mass of flesh, a lump of meat—which only deepened the revulsion of anyone who laid eyes on it.
Its massive body had stood roughly ten meters tall when Rei first encountered it. In the brief interval since, it had grown to about eleven... and now it had swelled to nearly fifteen meters.
Given such an eerie golem, it was only natural that those who saw it screamed.
But screaming alone would have been fine.
The truly worst part was that the Necro Golem had revealed itself by smashing through a building.
What Rei found worst, though, was not the destruction itself.
If it were only a matter of buildings being destroyed, Robel and Dwanda had already promised compensation. In that sense, it wasn't something Rei needed to worry too much about.
...There was a chance that people who hadn't evacuated were still inside those buildings, but choosing not to flee was their own decision. While it left a bad taste in his mouth, he couldn't afford to dwell on it now.
No—the worst part was that destroying the building had wounded the Necro Golem's body.
And from those wounds, rot fluid seeped out. Wherever it touched the ground or the rubble, it produced billowing green poison smoke.
"Run! If you breathe that green smoke, you'll die!"
From atop Seto, who had gained altitude, Rei shouted toward the ground below.
Whether his voice reached them, or simply the sight of the Necro Golem's grotesque form spurred them on... either way, most of those still on the main street broke into a run.
If they'd just fled from the start, it wouldn't have come to this.
So Rei thought, but right now, his priority was to lead the golem along the main street and drive it out through the main gate.
Once it was outside the city... factoring in the poison smoke, if he could get it a reasonable distance away, defeating it wouldn't be difficult for him at all.
"Wait, you've gotta be kidding me!? You idiots, stop!"
Rei had been working to lure the Necro Golem along, but at the sight of several figures charging straight toward it, he cried out involuntarily.
From their appearance—longswords and spears in hand, clad in leather armor—they were most likely adventurers.
...If they were Egginis adventurers, many of them would have known about the current situation. But some might have happened to be unaffiliated, completely uninvolved in the incident. Or they might not have been Egginis adventurers at all—instead, hired escorts for merchants or nobles visiting the city on business.
Especially in the latter case, they would know nothing about Egginis's circumstances. They might have simply stumbled upon what looked like a rampaging golem and tried to claim the credit.
Rot fluid dripped steadily from the Necro Golem's body, and green poison smoke already hung thick in the surrounding air.
Despite Rei having just shouted from the sky that it was poison, they charged toward the Necro Golem as if they hadn't heard a single word.
Watching them, Rei wondered—did they have some kind of countermeasure against poison? Or could they use light magic to disperse the smoke?
But such hopes were swiftly shattered. The moment the adventurers closed in and entered the poison smoke's range, their movements stopped dead. They doubled over, vomiting blood.
"They charged in without any plan at all? Idiots!"
Whether they hadn't heard Rei's shout, or had dismissed it as exaggeration—he couldn't say. But there was no denying that the reckless adventurers' gruesome deaths drove home the danger to everyone else on the main street.
Was that their intention? ...No, surely not. Nobody would bet their own life on something like that.
In terms of teaching others about the Necro Golem's threat, the adventurers' action wasn't entirely wrong. But if asked whether someone would deliberately die just to warn others, Rei would have said no.
Which meant the far more likely explanation was that glory-seeking individuals, completely ignoring Rei's words, had attacked the Necro Golem on their own.
Regardless of the reason, thanks to those adventurers, those who now truly grasped the Necro Golem's threat began moving to put as much distance between themselves and it as possible. They started to move, but...
"I'd really prefer it if they stopped fleeing toward the main gate, though."
Seeing a fairly large proportion of the fleeing crowd running in the direction of the main gate, Rei muttered under his breath.
He was planning to lure the Necro Golem toward the main gate. Given that, he wanted anyone fleeing to head in any direction other than that one.
Otherwise, even if they escaped, the Necro Golem would simply chase after them.
The reason so many instinctively fled toward the main gate was probably because they believed that once outside it, the Necro Golem wouldn't follow.
...In reality, Rei fully intended to let the Necro Golem out through that very gate.
Even so, shouting at people terrorized into flight not to head toward the main gate—such words would never reach those in the grip of panic.
More importantly, Dailas was still inside the Necro Golem.
Based on its behavior so far, it was hard to believe any shred of intellect remained in him. But if Rei shouted about luring the creature toward the main gate, there was a real possibility it might react.
That was exactly why he couldn't afford to say such things carelessly.
"Which means... all that's left is to leave it to luck... no. Before that, it'd be better for Seto and me to keep provoking the Necro Golem so it doesn't go after anyone else. Seto, I know it's tough, but can you handle it?"
"Gruu!"
In response, Seto purred as if to say, Leave it to me!
Without hesitation, Seto dove from its high altitude down to a lower one—straight toward the Necro Golem.
The creature's head had no eyes, nose, or ears—only a mouth. Yet it was clearly tracking Seto, attacking the gryphon as it descended. Somehow, it was aware of its surroundings.
The Necro Golem naturally sensed Seto closing in. It thrust a hand upward and launched a volley of tentacles.
"Grurururu!"
Seto dodged the swiftly extending tentacles with a beat of its wings, then dove straight toward the Necro Golem... right in front of its head, it banked at a near-right angle, redirecting its plunge into a lateral flight.
This time, instead of tentacles, the Necro Golem swung a massive fist at Rei and Seto.
Seto evaded with another flap of its wings.
Normally, dodging an enemy's attack and immediately delivering a counterstrike would have been the natural move. But doing so would inevitably scatter rot fluid in all directions—so Seto's role was strictly provocation.
Riled by the taunt, the Necro Golem unleashed another tentacle strike...
"Wait, Breath too!? Seto, leave the Breath to me. Magic Shield!"
Whether it was learning Seto's movements or not, the Necro Golem had forced Seto to evade with a tentacle strike—then opened its mouth, aiming exactly where Seto had dodged.
Rei was confident Seto could evade the Breath as well, but apparently judged that simply sitting tight would be too dangerous.
Drawing the Death Scythe from the Misty Ring, Rei activated the Magic Shield skill.
Two Shields of Light materialized simultaneously... and caught the Necro Golem's purple Breath head-on for several seconds.
As the Breath tapered off, one Shield of Light shattered.
"One left, huh... Right. To keep provoking it, dive back in one more time. I'll block the first attack with Magic Shield—after that, it's on you, Seto. The collateral damage is worse than I expected. I want to pull its attention toward us even a little."
A glance at the surroundings confirmed that many buildings had already suffered damage from the Necro Golem's movements.
Not just from its attacks, either—simply brushing against a building with a hand or foot while walking past was enough to bring structures crashing down. Such incidents were occurring constantly.
Beyond that, there were already people dead—kicked and sent flying by the moving creature, or trampled underfoot.
At nearly fifteen meters tall, the Necro Golem devastated everything around it just by walking.
Rei felt the weight of it, but in this moment, the only thing he could do was get the creature to the main gate as fast as possible.
"Gruu!"
From Rei's words, Seto seemed to sense something as well.
Letting out a sharp cry, it banked on its wings, turned, and dove straight back toward the Necro Golem.
Now then, what'll it throw at us? Honestly, any attack is fine by me... but if the goal is to hold its attention, I'd love for it to come with its strongest move—the Breath. Then again, the Breath was just blocked by Magic Shield. So how will it respond?
Rei's question was answered immediately when the Necro Golem wound up its right fist.
In other words—it had decided to punch him.
From Rei's perspective, a powerful blow like that was not a bad outcome at all.
He thrust the remaining Shield of Light forward... and in the next instant, the Necro Golem's right fist came crashing down.
A deafening roar.
The fist of a creature nearly fifteen meters tall.
A direct hit would have pulverized flesh, shattered bone—sent jagged fragments stabbing through skin without anything strange about it.
But that conventional, certain death never arrived.
The Necro Golem's swung fist never touched Rei or Seto. It was caught—almost effortlessly—by the Magic Shield.
Perhaps not expecting its blow to be stopped so easily, the Necro Golem froze for an instant.
But in the very next moment, it unleashed nearly ten tentacles simultaneously from its chest.
By then, however, Seto and Rei were already gone.
Seto had flapped its wings and darted sideways—timed perfectly with the shattering of the Shield of Light. It had read Rei's intentions and acted on them.
"Alright, Seto. We've got its attention. Let's keep moving!"
"Grururu!"
Seto let out a sharp cry in response, then flew toward the main gate while maintaining its distance from the Necro Golem.
Among those still lingering on the main street, a few caught sight of Seto in flight and stared, transfixed... but only for a moment. Shaking off their awe, they scrambled to put as much distance between themselves and the nightmare unfolding behind them.