About ten minutes had passed since they left Egginis.
As soon as the Necro Golem slowed its pace, Rei continued to provoke it with spears.
Normally, being subjected to the same attack repeatedly would make it obvious that it was a provocation, but perhaps because Dailas, who served as the Necro Golem's core, truly had no consciousness, it showed no concern whatsoever no matter how many times such attacks were carried out. It kept falling for the provocation and chasing Seto.
(So Dailas really has no consciousness? But when we were leaving Egginis, it looked like it was hesitating quite a bit... What's really going on there?)
Rei couldn't tell whether Dailas's consciousness still existed or not.
Or perhaps that hesitation itself was Dailas's last shred of consciousness? That was what he thought.
"Gurur."
While Rei was deep in thought, Seto purred.
It was probably asserting that it wanted to attack soon.
From Seto's perspective, it had endured attack after attack from the Necro Golem in the middle of Egginis without being able to counterattack.
Attacking carelessly would cause rot fluid to spill from the wounds, so that was only natural.
That was exactly why Seto had endured without making any real attacks, but now that they were about ten minutes away from Egginis—and off the highway as well—it was only natural for it to think it could attack soon.
"That's right. Given the current situation, it's fine to attack. Here, even if poison smoke arises, it probably won't reach Egginis."
It had been about ten minutes of travel at considerable speed for the roughly twenty-meter-tall Necro Golem.
There was already a considerable distance from Egginis, and Rei judged that attacking the Necro Golem here would pose no problem.
"That said, that rot fluid and poison smoke probably affect us too."
Rei's body was the crystallization of the Zephyle Clan's technology, and Seto was a being created through Beast Magic using Rei's vast magical power.
Thinking of it that way, it would be difficult for half-hearted poison to cause harm... or so one would normally think.
However, just because it was probably fine didn't mean he wanted to go out of his way to inhale poison smoke.
Moreover, that poison smoke possessed such vicious potency that those who inhaled it would immediately vomit blood and die.
"Gurururu!"
Seto let out a cry as if to say it would be fine.
While Seto excelled at direct attacks, it was also skilled at long-range attacks using skills.
That was why there was no shortage of means to attack the Necro Golem.
Seeing Seto's demeanor and judging that it would be no problem, Rei dismounted from its back so as not to get in its way.
Since it had been flying near the Necro Golem's face, the altitude was naturally close to twenty meters.
Rei descended—fell—toward the ground from that height, but Seto showed no concern whatsoever for Rei's state and charged straight at the Necro Golem.
From Seto's perspective, it probably didn't think Rei would get injured from falling from this degree of altitude.
...In fact, there had been a few times when Rei descended from nearly a hundred meters, the altitude at which Seto usually flew, but Rei had never been injured by it.
As if to demonstrate that, Rei used his Sleipnir boots to kick the air several times mid-fall, reducing his falling speed so that he made almost no sound when he landed on the ground.
"Now then... whoa, Seto's really going at it energetically."
When Rei looked toward Seto from the ground, he saw it attacking the Necro Golem using various skills—Ice Arrow, Water Ball, Wind Arrow, Fire Breath, Lightning Breath, Rock Spear, Acid Breath, and so on.
The sight of Seto venting the frustration of being completely unable to attack inside Egginis, as if to say it had had enough, was a true display of its full capabilities in terms of skills.
Many of Seto's skills involved direct attacks, so it wasn't using all of them, but.
Naturally, a large amount of rot fluid was flowing from the wounded parts of the Necro Golem's body, and that rot fluid produced green poison smoke upon touching the ground.
However, Seto was attacking from a sufficiently distant location, so the poison smoke couldn't reach it.
It was continuing its attacks fully aware that it was upwind.
"Now then, I can't just let Seto attack forever... I'll attack too."
Muttering that, what Rei retrieved from the Misty Ring was Death Scythe.
Normally he would also have the Twilight Spear here, but this time he planned to use only magic, so it was just Death Scythe.
Alternatively, if he were only doing a ranged attack, throwing the Twilight Spear was an option, but in that case the Twilight Spear would get coated in rot fluid, which was not a welcome outcome for Rei.
There was no doubt that it was better to attack the Necro Golem using magic.
"Flame, thou art an existence forged of flame. Gather, together with that fire. Spread thy wings with great wings of flame!"
As he chanted that incantation, flame gathered on Death Scythe's blade... and eventually took the shape of a bird.
"Phoenix that conquers the sky!"
And the magic activated.
The bird made of flame flew straight toward the Necro Golem.
Toward the Necro Golem, which had taken significant damage from Seto's skills, the flame bird moving as Rei willed eventually crashed into its massive body.
In an instant, the Necro Golem's torso was pierced by the flame bird, and simultaneously the flame burned its body.
As a matter of course, rot fluid spilled from that wound, but the moment it emerged, it evaporated from the heat of the flame and became green poison smoke.
If anyone had been nearby, that poison smoke would have been extremely dangerous.
However, since both Rei and Seto were attacking from a distance, neither the rot fluid nor the poison smoke posed any threat.
"It seems to have had an effect. Then, I'll keep going."
Under Rei's control, the flame bird crashed into the Necro Golem head-on once more, and in the next moment it burned in a larger flame than before.
Watching the Necro Golem, Rei began chanting an incantation again.
"Flame, with my magical power as the source of thy strength, become arrows that burn all to ash, and rain down ceaselessly, relentlessly, like rain, like a storm."
As he chanted that incantation, countless Flame Arrows were created above Rei.
Their number, approximately five hundred.
"Shower of Flame Arrows!"
As the magic activated, those five hundred Flame Arrows flew toward the Necro Golem.
Given that the Necro Golem was nearly twenty meters in size, there was no difficulty at all in finding a target.
The Necro Golem was so preoccupied with dealing with the flames burning its own body that it didn't notice the countless Flame Arrows Rei had unleashed at all... and in the next moment, a massive number of Flame Arrows pierced its body.
Naturally, the Necro Golem being attacked by Rei's magic was also continuing to take attacks from Seto.
The consecutively unleashed Flame Arrows and Seto's attacks.
The Necro Golem, subjected to both, could be said to be in the worst possible situation.
Though that was presumably the natural outcome from the moment it made an enemy of Rei and Seto.
Flames erupted from where the Flame Arrows pierced, burning the Necro Golem's body.
The power of a single Flame Arrow was considerably lower compared to the flame bird.
However, there were nearly five hundred Flame Arrows.
Looking at it overall, the Flame Arrows' power was clearly greater.
Not only that, Seto flew around the Necro Golem while using skills one after another—starting with Fire Breath—that would not weaken the power of the flames produced by Rei's magic.
The Necro Golem's body was fundamentally made of corpses.
...In reality, there was suspicion that it had absorbed not only corpses but also various things like building rubble, but even so, its outward appearance was of corpses... more accurately, a state with muscles exposed, and that was precisely why flame attacks were highly effective.
(Purification... no, my Flames of Purification probably wouldn't work.)
Rei could use Flames of Purification to some extent, but it consumed a large amount of magical power, and it was only effective on ordinary corpses.
He couldn't possibly believe it would be effective on corpses absorbed by the Necro Golem.
"Then... Seto, a big one's coming!"
The Necro Golem's entire body was already completely enveloped in flames.
Rot fluid was leaking from every part of its body, but the instant it emerged outside, it evaporated and turned into green poison smoke.
Despite being in such a state, perhaps because it was not a living creature but a Necro Golem... or because Dailas was still alive but had no ego, or because Dailas was encased in corpses and didn't feel the heat.
Rei couldn't tell whether there was a reason or not, but regardless, it was an unmistakable fact that the Necro Golem was still moving.
If it were a normal living creature, having its body burned to that extent would have left it unable to move and burned to death, and it wouldn't have been strange at all.
That was precisely why Rei decided to use a powerful spell as a finishing blow.
Whether Rei's voice had reached it or not, Seto fired a Rock Arrow at the Necro Golem and then moved away.
Given Rei's words telling it to take shelter, Seto must have judged that it was an extremely powerful spell.
And indeed, that judgment was not wrong.
The attack Rei was about to unleash was clearly a high-tier spell among the Flame Magic he could use.
Seeing that Seto had retreated, Rei began chanting an incantation for the third time.
"Flame, devour my magical power and reveal thy form. Become giant, grow large, grow! Devour, devour, devour. Show thy aspect of destruction as flame, and become a star of ruin."
Devouring Rei's magical power, the fireball grew larger.
However, its size knew no bounds, devouring the tremendous magical power Rei possessed one after another, growing by that much.
And before he knew it, that fireball had reached dozens of meters... or perhaps close to a hundred meters in size.
As the fireball that could be described as a second sun was completed, Rei activated the magic.
"Star of Ruin."
Slowly... but surely, the second sun fell toward the ground.
The Necro Golem, with its entire body being burned, must have also judged that such a fiery existence was dangerous.
It tried to move while still burning... but it was already too late.
The second sun that descended made impact against the Necro Golem... and in the next instant, created a scorching hell on the ground.
That scorching hell brought a temperature rise of nearly ten degrees even in Egginis, which was sufficiently far from the point of impact.
It was now the season that could be called early autumn, with late summer having ended.
The daytime temperature was still somewhat hot, but it had become considerably cooler compared to midsummer... yet that coolness reverted to midsummer in an instant.
Perhaps it had become even hotter than midsummer... no, it might have been even hotter than that.
In the midst of that, although Rei was at a certain distance from the Necro Golem, he was still in a fairly close position, but thanks to the Dragon Robe, he didn't have to feel that heat.
As for Seto, as an A-Rank monster gryphon, such a spell used right beside it would be one thing, but as long as it kept a certain distance, it would be fine.
"Phew. From the look of it, it seems to have been quite effective."
Rei muttered that, but if anyone had heard that muttering, they would have retorted that after dropping a fireball that could be called a second sun, there was no way it wouldn't be effective.
That was how high the power of the magic Rei used was.
"That said... even so, better safe than sorry. Something that eerie and troublesome might have actually survived that attack, and that would be no joke."
Muttering that, he began chanting an incantation for the fourth time.
"Flame, manifest in thy body destruction, one of thy rightful forms. Thou art that which burns all to ash, erases, and annihilates. Bring great destruction, and become a sacrifice for new rebirth."
Along with the chanting of the incantation, a massive fireball rose up.
Up to that point, it was the same as before, but the power itself was considerably lower than the previous spell.
...Even so, it was still at an unbelievable level of power by normal standards.
"Scorching Hellfire!"
The magic activated, and the unleashed fireball headed toward the Necro Golem, which continued to burn within the scorching hell... and struck it.
The power of that flame, with Rei's magical power condensed within it, was high.
It dealt damage to the Necro Golem that made the scorching hell even more vicious by another stage... and within that scorching hell, its figure that had been thrashing about at first gradually burned as time passed, eventually turning to charcoal, then to ash... its form steadily grew smaller, and ultimately everything burned away completely.