That night, a meeting was held at the inn after a long time.
Since Isaac was out on a raid, the results of the meeting were to be conveyed the next day.
“Hmm. I think that method might be possible.”
“After all, we can’t use it near the village anyway.”
To stop the constant influx of monsters, Aila came up with a scheme.
The plan was to organize a separate unit to lure the monsters to the plains and wipe them out.
The problem was that there was no way to lure the monsters.
Monsters that had flooded into the forest near Pyson Village were moving toward the village.
If they waited in the plains, they would encounter only a small number of monsters.
Tooler suggested that they should wait for Isaac to return, acknowledging that his strategy had its limits.
Although Tooler was from an enemy nation, he recognized Isaac’s abilities when it came to strategy.
The siege warfare strategy currently being employed at the village walls was also one of Isaac’s ideas from before.
Previously, the raid team had just been wandering around the forest taking down monsters.
This was the result of Isaac’s conclusion that fighting from the castle walls would be much more advantageous.
All night, the sounds of battle against the monsters could be heard near the castle walls.
When morning came, Isaac and the raid team returned to the inn.
It felt like the battles were growing increasingly fierce with each passing day.
The returning raid team was in a complete state of disarray.
“Do the monsters seem stronger than last time, or is it just my imagination?”
“It’s because there are more of them.”
As Isaac conveyed the plan considered during the previous day’s meeting, he said he would think about it for a moment.
In the meantime, I had gone out for the morning raid.
Since Jere hadn’t shown up, I took on the role of casting magic on the first group of monsters.
Hitting the monster horde with magic once provided significant help for the remaining battles.
Even if there was no severe damage, the wounds would eventually lead to death during the fights.
I wondered if it was possible to turn lightning into a sword like the Wind Sword.
If I could hold and swing lightning in my hands, there would be no more powerful weapon.
I tried several times, but I could never grasp the lightning.
Even if I could hold it, it was a bit straining on my body to keep it in my hands for extended periods.
Eventually, I found the most efficient method was to channel the lightning into a dagger.
It was a technique Isabel had used in the past.
As I swung the dagger infused with the power of lightning, the monsters struck by it were electrocuted.
If lucky, a few nearby ones would also get shocked and their movements would become noticeably sluggish.
“Wind Cutter.”
Rough winds scattered in all directions, and the monsters repeatedly collapsed helplessly.
At one moment, I felt something strange.
As I quickly returned to the front of the castle wall, other members were gathering there as well.
Though there was still time to retreat, everyone was sensing something was off.
“When did the small monsters disappear?”
“Yes. They’re all medium-sized now.”
It seemed Tenji had also picked up on the oddity.
Looking at the monsters from the castle wall, they were maintaining a certain formation.
“Looks like someone is giving them orders.”
“Do monsters have that level of intelligence?”
“There might be some that do.”
Monsters wielding spear-like weapons led the front line, while arrows rained down from behind.
“Let’s return to the village!”
The tide of battle had changed.
With the castle gate securely locked, a defensive battle was unfolding.
Isaac, who had exited the inn late, climbed up to the castle wall to observe the situation.
“This feels like the real war is just beginning.”
Swoosh!
The arrows shot by the monsters flew into the castle wall.
“Over there!”
From a considerable distance, a large monster emerged from the ground.
A creature reminiscent of a mole let out a grotesque sound, causing the other monsters to move in unison.
“That one looks like the leader.”
“We need to block the gate!”
As Isaac shouted urgently, iron bars dropped across the gate, and the iron door closed.
“It was created just in case, but I never expected it would be used,” Tenji said while looking at the iron door.
“Is there anyone in the village who can use magic?”
“How could there be a magician in our village?”
There were only a few people in Pyson Village, including us, who could use magic.
The magic from the mercenaries in the raid team and myself, along with Jere, was of a lower level compared to what was needed.
“Ririan, please attack them with appropriate magic.”
“But it’ll damage the forest, right?”
Isaac hesitated for a moment before asking her to use it.
While casting magic was fine, getting the villagers’ consent was also somewhat necessary.
“It doesn’t matter. As long as the castle wall is safe, we can repel the monsters’ attacks at any time.”
The advantage of the thick forest was only enjoyed by the monsters rather than the residents of Pyson Village.
Tenji represented the villagers’ stance, saying they had no lingering attachment to the forest.
“Alright.”
I didn’t even think about power control.
I stretched out my hand, aiming for the location of the leader monster.
Refined mana flowed naturally from my palm, and a magic circle unfolded in front of me.
As I ignited the magic circle, a fireball shot out and quickly flew toward the giant monster.
Whoosh!
“That level of attack doesn’t seem to have much effect.”
Everyone had a look of great disappointment after seeing my magic.
This wasn’t magic I was using to show off.
The mana contained within that fireball was substantial.
When the fireball hit the leader, a massive magic circle spread above it.
“Flare.”
From the magic circle unfurling in the sky, streams of fire began to pour down.
The monsters beneath it jumped around to dodge the fiery rain.
The orderly formation collapsed, and the pouring flames began to slowly incinerate the forest.
“Wind Sword.”
I swung the Wind Sword to prevent the flames from spreading toward the village.
Meeting the wind, the fire flared more violently and spread quickly.
What unfolded afterward was a hellish scene.
Monsters, set ablaze, ran about wildly or rolled on the ground.
Among them were those recklessly charging toward the village while on fire.
However, they couldn’t withstand the attacks from the village archers and collapsed right there.
“Was that enough?”
“Quite sufficient.”
Waiting for the fire in the forest to extinguish would likely take several days.
The magic circle in the sky hadn’t disappeared yet.
It would remain until the mana contained within it was depleted.
While the situation outside the castle walls was grim, the village felt almost like a festival.
There were reports that the monsters rushing in because of the flames had changed direction.
Once the forest burned to the ground, it would be easy to notice when monsters approached.
“Is this the end of the raid?”
“We can’t relax yet. The large monster might still be alive.”
That magic had once melted the demons in one go.
Even if it was still alive, it must have sustained significant damage.
Once that one was dealt with, the surrounding monsters would become disorganized again.
For now, it was a good thing that we had considerably reduced the number of monsters.
The raid team was able to go to bed early after a long time.
During that time, the village was at a level that the existing guards could sufficiently defend.
I went to look for the house where Jere was staying.
Since he wasn’t out in front of the angel statue today, I wondered what was going on.
The door wasn’t locked, so I walked right in and heard noise from upstairs.
If it was Jere, he could easily be talking to himself.
I heard mumbling, a little louder than usual, as if he was having a conversation with someone.
Soon, I heard a somewhat familiar voice.
“So, you can become an angel?”
“Yeah. Will you help me?”
The structure of the second floor was similar to the first.
There was a table set in the middle with chairs around it, and there sat Jere and Isabel facing each other.
“What are you trying to do by sweet-talking a clueless kid?”
“What am I doing?”
“I just heard you talking about becoming an angel as I came up.”
“So, I’m asking for consent.”
It seemed Isabel hadn’t answered yet.
“Guess I’m not going to do it.”
“Oh really? I guess I’ll have to leave it to someone else then.”
It seemed like a somewhat suspicious experimental proposal.
As Jere took Isabel out of his house, I asked him in detail what he had suggested.
“He asked if I was thinking of becoming an angel.”
“What method is it specifically?”
“He just asked me that.”
Jere had a goal of resurrecting an angel.
However, the question about Isabel becoming an angel seemed a bit odd.
“Even if it looks ordinary, the research being done is definitely not ordinary.”
While there were suspicious points, there was no harm in having him as an ally.
However, I felt uneasy since I had yet to see any concrete results from his research.
When I returned to the inn, everyone was in the middle of a meeting.
They seemed to be discussing what to do after the fire went out.
Isabel and I left the meeting and went straight upstairs.
After all, it would just be a matter of cleaning up the remaining monsters.
Complicated operations or plans weren’t necessary.
“By the way, I’ve never used transformation once.”
“Save it as much as you can. You might need it someday.”
Though I called it transformation, it seemed more like rapid growth.
In any case, we wouldn’t be able to go outside the village for a day or two.
I thought it would be nice to learn magic during the time we had left.
As I entered the room, I carefully took out the horn I had tucked away in my clothing.
Focusing my mind, I called out after a long time, and a drowsy voice replied.
“Are we going now?”
“No. I just contacted you to learn some magic.”
“What kind of magic?”
I explained the magic I had in mind to the Demon King.
“Hmm. There’s someone else who’s better at that than I am.”
The Demon King, who seemed capable of using any form of magic, recommended someone else.
“Who is it?”
“It’s a person named Clayman, but he’s dead now. You can meet him in a place called Rowland.”
“What good is it to meet someone who’s already dead?”
“Well, he’s dead, but he’s alive.”
It was an odd way to phrase it, but the Demon King simply concluded that I could meet him in a place called Rowland.
Since it wasn’t a place I could visit in a day or two, I decided to go there once the raids ended.
Instead, I pulled out a book I hadn’t been able to read due to lack of time and opened it.
All the other spells except for Flare were written in this book.
Elemental magic could transform into various forms of weapons.
The most powerful of these was undoubtedly the compressed mass.
While the basic form was a sphere, it was written that if you compressed it to its limit and exploded it, it could destroy a city.
Most people on the Xaihum Continent would dismiss it as a ludicrous claim, but I already knew such a technique existed.
