Rei, Seis and Set headed for the east district covered in purple fog, taking about 30 minutes from where the Lord"s residence was located. Coming so far, they hadn"t seen any moving people, occasionally they saw some residents who had been paralyzed and had fallen to the ground.
(They had probably only come in light contact with the fog and were gradually paralyzed……or were they brought here and then left behind for some reason.)
「……Those people, about them, we"ll bring them to Diarog as our highest priority after we handle the fog.」
Following Rei"s gaze, Seis murmured when he saw the figure of a 20 year old woman who had fallen to the ground. Rei didn"t intend to blame the residents of Baar, but as the guild master, Seis probably felt silently blamed.
「I don"t mind. Considering the state of that fog, it is a bit unreasonable for me to leave. Besides if you or I can deal with the fog, there"s no problem.」
「……I see. I want do something……no, I will absolutely do something about it.」
Muttering to himself to strengthen his resolve, he suddenly presented his left hand, which wasn"t holding his cane.
There were two magic items in his hand. One was a Necklace of Resonance that he had previously described. It was a necklace with a circular, 5cm diameter object that was made out of some kind of magical black metal. The other was a dagger inside a sheath.
「Dagger of Flowing Water?」
Yes. It was the Dagger of Flowing Water that was the originally to be rewarded for investigating the cause of Magic Fever.
「Mm. Normally, the rewards is given after the request is completed. However, this request wasn"t made through the guild. Even if I give it to you as pre-payment, there is no problem. In addition……」
Seis looked towards the eastern district, which they were heading towards.
「I"ve been a mage for a long time, but this is the first time I"ve seen such a phenomenon. Because of that, I may suffer an embarra.s.sing defeat here. I wanted to hand it over first.」
「……I will receive it gratefully.」
Seis"s determination to deal with the fog could be seen in his eyes. Seeing his determination, Rei gave a small nod as he accepted the Dagger of Flowing Water and the Necklace of Resonance.
「Regarding the Necklace of Resonance, the white one I"m wearing is dedicated to receiving magic power, the black one I gave you is dedicated to sending magic power. The thing I would like you to keep in mind is that you can"t use any magic while wearing that necklace. When you try to use magic, magic power is automatically sent to me through the necklace, so be careful. Well, to be exact, it would be correct to say that if you tried to cast a spell while wearing it, the magic power it would have used would be sent instead.」
「I see. Then, should we give it a test?」
「Mm. As expected, it would be hard to ask you to do it for the actual task right away, it will also be better for me.」
Seis agreed with Rei"s words. After glancing at it, he stored the Dagger of Flowing Water into the Misty Ring and wore the Necklace of Resonance.
And the moment he focused on the magic power inside his body.
「Heh. ……I see.」
Rei muttered at the unexpected feeling of something leaving his body.
However, next to him, Seis had no time for that.
「T-This……Rei, please slow down your magic power. If I"m not casting a spell, I can"t take in that much magic power.」
Groaning in pain, Seis called out to Rei.
Looking at his body, even Rei could see that he was filled with magic power……no, it seemed to be overflowing. To give a comparison, it would be right to call him like a balloon that had been blown to its limits.
Seeing Seis like that, Rei hurriedly removed the necklace.
The magic power that had been almost been flowing into Seis"s body without limit finally stopped. Seis gave a big sigh of relief.
「……As I expected, should I say. I knew you had an enormous amount of magic power, but to think it was actually that much. Directly absorbing that magic power with my body, I am surprised again.」
「My apologies. Are you okay? I was just doing as I usually do.」
「Mm. For now. But as for the Necklace of Resonance I gave you, I would be grateful if you don"t put it on until I need to cast a spell. As long as I only take in magic power then, my body will be fine. ……Seriously, I wonder if I could have done better when I was still an adventurer. I didn"t think I would feel my decline at such a time.」
Despite sighing, in his mind, Seis thought that it was good that they tested it before actually using any magic.
「Gururu~」
Set, who was watching the two of them, gave a cry as he turned to look towards the city"s east.
Rei and Seis nodded at each other at that cry and continued forward.
「……This is, also.」
Reaching the boundary of the fog, Seis muttered involuntarily.
Before his eyes was, of course, the purple fog. Even from where they were looking, several people had fallen down in the area covered with fog.
Fortunately, the mist had stopped spreading after a certain distance. Thanks to that, the number of people suffering from paralysis was considerably less than what Seis had expected after hearing about it.
「Guild master.」
「Ahh, I know. Let"s finish this up quickly.」
Nodding, Seis concentrated his magic power into the cane in his hand.
Confirming that, Rei put on the Necklace of Resonance and started sending magic power to Seis.
「Guh!」
With far more magic power than before, Seis breathing was stifled for a moment before he began to cast his spell while enduring the magic power Rei pa.s.sed him.
『With my magic as the source, bring forth before us the great wrath of the spirits of wind. Bring wrath according to my will. Bring wrath according to my power. Bring wrath according to my magic power.』
Keeping in mind that he had received additional magic power from Rei, Seis casted his spell slower but with more care than when using ordinary magic.
The wind that flowed around his cane, his partner for many years, was slow at first. It didn"t even have the strength of a breeze. But each time he spoke a line of his incantation, its force increased. Furthermore, with the enormous amount of magic power flowing from Rei, the force of the wind gradually increased.
Not knowing where to stay, the wind eventually grew into a tornado 10m in height, sucking in all the surrounding air.
『Sylphen Frenzy!』
And, the magic was activated.
The huge tornado that suddenly appeared in the eastern district began to suck up the purple mist that was in the surrounding area as it started to move according to Seis"s will. And the direction he moved it in was of course towards the source of the fog, the eastern storage facility where the fog was thickest.
(……Amazing)
Rei muttered while continuing to send magic power.
What was amazing was that despite making such a large tornado, he had hardly damaged the city.
If it had been an ordinary mage, creating such a tornado would naturally affect the houses in the surrounding area. However, Seis was a talented mage with years of experience. The tornado he had created had barely destroyed any houses.
Of course, not everything was undamaged. Walls were scratched and windows were broken. Some house had collapsed due to the considerable number of years since it had been built. However, for a tornado of this size appearing inside the city, the damage caused was at a level where it could be ignored.
「G-Guh-……」
Of course, not even Seis could do this that easily. No, rather, large amounts of sweat were appearing on his forehead.
Even though it was already difficult to control magic power precisely, Seis was also manipulating the enormous amount of magic power being sent over by Rei.
Nevertheless, should it be said that as expected of a mage serving as a guild master, it was not enough to disturb his control of the tornado,
As the tornado headed towards the storage facility, it rapidly gathered the vividly purple fog in the area. The tornado that had been close to colourless was already dyed a light purple.
「Gururu~」
Contrary to Seis, who was sweating heavily, Rei continued to send magic power without feeling any fatigue in particular. He continued while stroking Set lightly, who gave a cry as he looked worriedly at Seis.
Normally, sending that much magic power to Seis would result in the person fainting. Even so, Rei didn"t show any signs of fatigue, probably due to the enormous amount of magic power inside his body.
Originally, the distance to the storage facility was only a few minutes walk, but because their speed was slow as they gathered the fog, they kept walking for about 10 minutes. Rei eventually saw the eastern storage facility, where the dungeon core had been present until a while earlier.
「……Rei, I"m going to destroy the roof of that building now. In other places, I could collect the fog into the tornado with the power of slyphs, but the storage facility that is source of this all is too large to extract all the fog from the entrance alone.」
「I understand.」
「I will move the mist gathered by the tornado up into the sky and then carry it out of the city. After that, I would like you to burn it up using you fire magic. It seems its something that can"t be dealt with naturally.」
「……Yes.」
Rei took out the Death Scythe from the Misty Ring while nodding and prepared himself to use magic at any time.
Seis looked carefully at the huge scythe, exceeding 2m, that suddenly appeared in Rei"s hands with a surprised expression.
Aside from the size of the scythe itself, he was surprised that he had such a high quality magic item as the Death Scythe.
The cane that Seis possessed, was made from the branch of a high ranked monster that was over 500 years old, called an Elder Treant. However, if he compared it to the Death Scythe Rei had, he was sure that the Death Scythe was a superior magic item.
(Where did he get that from……no, now is not the time.)
Regaining control of his magic, which he had faltered slightly with, Seis looked towards the roof of the storage facility.
「Here I go!」
Together with a short cry, the tornado thrust itself at the storage facility, destroying its walls, roof and the next moment, the storage facility itself.
At the same time, the tornado gather all the fog that remained in the building as its colour rapidly deepened.
A lot of barrels containing distilled spirits that were inside the the storage facility were caught in the tornado, but in a sense, that was good for Rei. The alcohol content of distilled spirits was higher than than normal alcoholic drinks due to distillation. In other words, it meant that it made the fog easier to burn.
While checking that he was still sending magic power, he put his hand on the Necklace of Resonance to take it off at any time in order to use his magic.
After all, he couldn"t use magic while wearing this magic item. In a sense, it was an item that could be considered a mage killer.
「Ha, ha, ha, ha……」
While taking several breaths at the magic power Rei was sending over, Seis used the tornado to desperately suck up all the fog present in the repository. After a few minutes, seeing that all the fog had disappeared after being sucked in by the tornado, he turned to look at Rei.
Seeing Rei nod silently, with the last of his energy, he pushed the tornado up into the sky and moved it outside the city.
It was a scene that would be impossible for natural phenomenon. But it was possible because it was done with magic. Rei unintentionally held his breath and gripped the necklace lightly.
And……
「Now-!」
Seis gave a shout. Hearing his voice, Rei took of the Necklace of Resonance and threw it to the ground before jumping onto Set. Set immediately flew up without him needing to say anything and started flying towards the dark purple tornado.
At the same time, Rei started casting a spell with the Death Scythe in hand.
『Flame, show me your destruction as what you should be, you shall burn everything away, erase it and extinguish it. Bright forth great destruction and use that as a sacrifice for revival. 』
A fireball appeared at the tip of the Death Scythe with his spell. It sucked up Rei"s magic power and grew, increasing its size suddenly. As soon as the fireball the Death Scythe held reached 1m in diameter, he made a large swing from Set"s back……and the next moment, he activated his magic.
『Scorching h.e.l.lfire!』
At those words, a huge fireball flew out, flying vigourously towards the purple tornado.
The fireball was large due to the magic that place an emphasis on power, so its speed wasn"t fast. But even so, the tornado of purple fog could do nothing against it. The next moment, it all disappeared while scattering vast flames into its surroundings……no, rather, it was all burned up by the flames.