I glanced at my wristwatch.

[04:57]

Truly, five minutes was all it took. The ground was littered with the bisected plant and countless fragments of corpses. And in the center of it all stood a solitary Hong Yeon, holding a blood-soaked sword.

'...I'll give it to her. She's earned it.'

Afterward, Squall's team members finished off the stragglers, sprinkling a white, powder-like substance from sacks. It was a chemical similar to an herbicide, and as they gently spread it, the living field began to shrivel rapidly.

Hong Yeon, who had been rampaging for five minutes straight, returned to rehydrate and rest. But she didn't look so good. She had her head buried between her knees.

'Looks like she saw something, too.'

To be honest, I had also seen the living field while fighting at Plant A. I immediately understood why Colonel Frederick had been so adamant about not looking down.

The living field was formed from the vomit of taves monsters, and its main ingredient was flesh. What kind of flesh could there be in Africa? Animals from the savanna, and people.

When I looked down, the first thing I saw was the face of a giraffe with its eyes closed. It was too large to have been properly digested, remaining as a lump. I also saw a human arm bent at an odd angle and a shattered leg. The sight of these undigested chunks forming the writhing living field was enough to make me want to vomit just thinking about it.

"You okay?" I asked cautiously.

She gave a small nod. "Yes. I'm fine."

Still, as time passed, the color gradually returned to her face. I patted her back a couple of times and approached Squall, who was on his radio.

"Captain Squall. What's the situation?"

"I just reported to HQ that we eliminated Plant B. HQ has ordered us to come to the walled city of Kisowa immediately. But…"

"But?" I prompted him.

Squall sighed. "The situation seems dire. With centurion commanders joining the offensive, the barrier wall is on the verge of being breached, and some sections have already fallen. If this continues, the countless civilians in Kisowa will end up as part of the living field on the ground."

We couldn't let that happen.

"We don't have time for this. Let's go," Hong Yeon said, shooting to her feet as if she'd had the same thought.

I nodded and looked at Squall. "From now on, Hong Yeon and I will head to Kisowa at top speed. Captain, you lead your team and follow separately."

"Yes, understood."

Like a true soldier, he asked no questions. Squall immediately led his team into the forest. Now it was just Hong Yeon and me.

"Are we running?" she asked.

"Nope, we're flying."

I activated the wing golem. A pair of three-pronged mana wings unfurled.

"That looks like it's for one person."

"It can be used for two."

I stood in front of her. Still not getting it, she wore a puzzled expression. For her sake, I extended both arms forward and bent my knees slightly.

She was too stunned to speak.

She tilted her head. I silently maintained the posture and gave my arms a little up-and-down wiggle. At some point, her blank face turned beet red.

"N-N-No way! I'd rather die!"

"'Rather die' is a bit much, don't you think?"

I flicked my wrists, miming the motion. In response, she took a step back with a look of disgust, then hugged a nearby tree and shouted, "No! I'd rather just die here!"

...It backfired.

"Do you have, like, a fear of men? Or a phobia of physical contact?"

"Of course not!"

"Then why?"

"H-How could I… in that… that position…! With… with you…! I don't even want to imagine it!"

This was a pretty violent rejection. Her composure was as fragile as glass, and since I was here at the Association President's request, I had a duty to take care of it. I tried to think of an alternative, but nothing came to mind. A piggyback ride was out of the question due to the structure of the wing golem. I had to somehow get her into that one position she found so embarrassing.

'Ea, what should I do?'

"Searching portal site. Searching for 'princess carry.' Search complete. One of a girl's romantic fantasies. Therefore, it is surmised that Hong Yeon is not a girl."

'...Never mind.'

I let out a light sigh and looked at her. "If you don't want to, I guess there's no choice…"

I said, then lunged like lightning, slipping my left arm behind the legs of the off-guard Hong Yeon. Once she was in my vast, ocean-like embrace, she would surely change her mind—

"Freeze."

The tip of a sword was suddenly in front of my face. Startled, I fell flat on my butt.

"Don't come any closer. I will actually stab you."

I failed. Her expression had gone beyond a shy girl's reaction to that of someone encountering a pervert on the street.

"To lunge at her like that when she said no. It is surmised that the Tower Master is not normal either."

'Hey. Whose side are you on?!'

Hong Yeon slapped her reddened cheeks, composed herself, and said, "We don't have any more time to dawdle."

"You know that well! So just let me—!"

"Let's use this." She pulled something that looked like a chain, glowing with a faint blue light, from her subspace pocket. "It's a mana-restraining chain for capturing demonkin."

"So what are you going to do with that?"

* * *

'Chzzzt!'

"This is HQ-7! Requesting immediate backup!"

"Three monsters have broken through into the streets!"

The city's barrier wall was barely holding, thanks to reinforcements. But the enemy had also brought their centurion commander, widening the gap in troop numbers again. It was only a matter of time before it was breached.

Hong Yeon and I were flying rapidly toward Kisowa with the wing golem activated.

"...You know, though."

I was flying with the wing golem, holding onto the chains with both hands. Hong Yeon was dangling from them.

"Is this really the best we could do?"

"Yes. This is the best," she said firmly.

"Don't you think we look a little ridiculous?"

"Appearances are not important. The fact that we are flying toward the scene in a fast and efficient manner is what's important."

"...This is insane. Seriously."

We crossed over the mountains, and soon the city of Kisowa came into view. My jaw dropped. There were far more monsters swarming there than I had seen from the helicopter. On top of the city's barrier wall, soldiers were firing machine guns and resisting by plunging bayonets into the bodies of charging monsters. It was an incredibly perilous sight.

It was clear that the moment the monsters broke through that wall, the countless civilians in the city would be mixed into vomit and spread across the ground.

I activated the communication function of my earpiece. "This is Kim Yusin, rank 3. I have arrived at the HQ with Hong Yeon, rank 3."

"This is HQ. We appreciate your work. Special ops team one is preparing an escape route, so you two should also prepare for retreat…"

"No. Separate from the retreat preparations, we're going to the barrier wall to stop the monsters."

I began to swing the chains in my hands like a pendulum. Adding Aiolos to the mix, Hong Yeon's body swung widely from side to side.

"I'm going to drop a bomb into the enemy's camp."

I calculated the distance with Deva's Eye. The monsters were starting to spot us and preparing to launch ranged attacks.

"Ready?"

"Yes!"

"Remember. Your only objective is the centurion commander. Leave the city's defense and the small fry to me."

It was a reckless strategy, if you could call it that. But it was the only way.

I threw the chain with all my might, and simultaneously, her body dropped into the heart of the enemy formation.

"This is HQ! What exactly do you mean by a bomb—!"

I just smiled. If that wasn't a bomb, what was?

As Hong Yeon flew toward the centurion commander in the middle of the countless monsters on the battlefield, a massive red ripple spread from her body.

The bodies of the monsters caught in the vast mana storm were sent flying through the air. She didn't hold back, unleashing all her mana as she charged the centurion commander.

The low-rank, mass-produced monsters were torn to shreds just by colliding with her body. From the sky, it looked like a red shark fin had suddenly risen from a black sea of monsters, cutting through it at will.

Right, no need to worry about her.

Now alone, I pushed the wing golem to its maximum speed. Attacks flew up from the ground, but I had cleared the fifth-floor trial. I easily dodged them with high-speed flight and moved to the right end of the city's barrier wall.

Spreading my arms to either side, I flew rapidly along the top of the wall. At every point I passed, golem balls tumbled onto the ground.

"Issuing golem activation command upon deployment."

"Utilizing recently updated function. Autonomous combat protocol engaged."

The golem balls burst, and the golem blueprints, mana stones, and compressed mud formed into mud golems. The moment they took shape, the mud golems began to crush the monsters trying to climb the barrier wall mercilessly.

"Whoa, what was that?!" a soldier yelled.

"Are those on our side?"

'Chzzzt!'

"This is HQ. That is an allied hunter's ability! Do not be alarmed and protect those mud monsters!"

Mud monsters? Eunsol would be heartbroken if she heard that. I flew quickly from the right end to the left, laying down golem balls along the entire defensive line. That should buy us some time. They should be able to hold until the golems collapse.

I moved back to the center of the defensive line.

'Whew.'

There were so many. I was so sick and tired of monsters. Hong Yeon was cutting through the horde and fighting the centurion commander, but there were so many of them that she didn't seem to be making much progress yet.

'Even if she takes out the centurion commander, something has to be done about all these monsters.'

"Give the command, Tower Master."

'Let's try that.'

I let out a long breath. I pressed a device on my shoulder to put the wing golem in hover mode. I didn't want to waste a single bit of concentration. My body was warmed up, and the engine was running. I quickly entered a state of mana immersion. The loud noises faded as I focused more and more on myself.

'Some critics dismiss fifth-order elemental magic as meaningless. If third-order magic, with its strength in sustainability, is looked down upon compared to second-order, then fifth-order magic is dismissed as being unrealistic before its efficiency is even considered. The foundation of the fifth-order ecosystem is 'rampage.' While powerful, it has fatal risks to its efficiency, stability, and the caster's mental state, which is why it has been all but abandoned in the modern era.'

Even 'The Fundamentals of Magic' mentioned the inefficiency of fifth-order elemental magic. It was an outdated form of magic that disregarded efficiency and stability, focusing only on power.

But sometimes in life, there comes a time when you have to push yourself and use this heinous power.

'Placing the main magic circle.'

Using Deva's Eye, I placed a provisional magic circle beneath the ground where the monsters were swarming.

'Setting up four linked sub-magic circles around it.'

The main magic circle was just the trigger, the 'gate' through which the magic would manifest. The main formula processing would happen within these four sub-magic circles.

"Fifth-order magic circle ready for activation."

'Let's move to the rampage phase.'

"Yes, Tower Master."

The four sub-magic circles began to shake, starting to push the main magic circle into a rampage. It was a very strange feeling. Every time the sub-magic circles trembled, my own perception of my surroundings, linked to the circles, began to tremble as well.

'Ugh!'

The shaking grew more intense. It kept shaking to the point where I thought, 'This can't be right.' My stomach churned. My vision spun. It felt like riding a gyro drop at maximum speed, then being flipped upside down, going back up, and coming down again, endlessly. I was just floating hundreds of meters in the air, but the swarming monsters far below would rush toward me and then recede in a nauseating loop.

"Tower Master! Your concentration is rapidly collapsing!"

'Ugh, I can still hold on! Find a solution! Quickly!'

Ea executed Multi-Casting to its extreme. She attached four auxiliary magic circles to each of the four sub-magic circles to distribute the processing load, but it couldn't stop this insane vibration.

'Agh! Shit! This is seriously not right!'

I wanted to have a word with the author of 'The Fundamentals of Magic'. This wasn't just unrealistic magic. It was suicide magic! Honestly, this was the first time I felt like a magic circle was trying to kill me. The mana in my entire body was vibrating, and my very consciousness was on the verge of shattering.

"Tower Master! You must stop the magic!"

'No!'

Stopping now would only cause a mana backlash. Hey. How much longer do I have to hold on? Isn't it time yet? Huh? Please!

[You have acquired the Rampage Resistance trait.]

It finally appeared! This damn trait! The trembling of my magic power, which had been pushed to its limit, subsided slightly.

[The Rampage Resistance trait has reached Lv.2.]

It became a little more bearable. The sensation of my body disintegrating into powder shifted to feeling like it was being cut into pieces. Right. It still hurt like hell.

I gritted my teeth and squeezed out every last drop of concentration to finish the remaining formula.

"Watch out!"

"The ground is shaking!"

The soldiers below were suddenly in an uproar. Was it really shaking? Or had my dizziness suddenly become contagious?

I shifted my gaze to where the main magic circle was. The ground was rising.

"H-Huh?!"

"What is this?!"

The ground the monsters were standing on swelled up like a mountain, and the monsters tumbled down in droves. From the cracks in the uplifted ground, a crimson light flickered. While everyone was gaping at the rising earth, a smile spread across my half-conscious face.

I did it. The great disaster magic, renowned for having the greatest firepower among the infamous fifth-order spells.

<Volcano Ground>

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