But soon, they knew that size was its only merit and nothing else. It had the usual fairy fountain, fairy walnut trees that grew like roadside trees, and a multicolored flower garden.
Since there was nothing special in there, Ryuuichi and Co left the plaza immediately.
ăUwaa~~, thereâs nothing at a~ll.ă
Kyouko spoke with a bored look on her face. The scenery that spread before them was a wasteland with nothing but red-brown soil.
If one was speaking about the most outstanding thing about this wasteland was none other than the huge tower from where they came from. In short, the place where the huge fairy plaza was located.
The fairy plaza was located on the second floor of the tower, the first floor was where the huge, circular entrance was located. They found empty rooms but every single one of them was deserted and nothing left behind in there.
Since they couldnât find anything in the tower, they had no choice but to travel in the wasteland.
But around one hour later⊠If one was speaking about a change in the wasteland, it was a gigantic cliff that was towering far above them. It was as if theyâre currently walking right in the bottom of its valley.
ăThis, when will we arrive?ă
ăWho knows, looks like it will take quite a while.ă
If Ryuuichi said so, then he must be right. In fact, there was almost no change or whatsoever even after they walked for almost thirty minutes along the valley.
""
It was a boring and tedious walk, and just when Kyouko started to yawn due to boredom, a change occurred.
ăI~~, KIKI~~!ă
The ones who appeared while raising monkey-like cries were grey human-shaped monsters. But they werenât actually a grey monkey since a pair of wings were growing from their backs.
ăA~h, I get this feeling that Iâve seen them somewhere before. They look like gremlins, right?ă
ăThey ainât Gargoyle, huhă
It has stone-like grey-colored skin and an ugly devil-like face. Their huge, bat-like wings seemed to be integrated with their arms.
Since there was no temple or church around this area, they guessed that the monsters might be stone statues that moved around with magic like a puppet, or else, they might actually be monsters.
But then, since they bared their hostility towards Ryuuichi and Co the latter had no leeway to ponder over the formerâs ecology, it was the time to show the former whoâs the boss. The number of gargoyles that appeared was ten. It seemed they were gliding down from above the cliff.
ăYo~sh, letâs beat âem up~ă
Kyouko simply couldnât wait to test her new toy. She decided to aim for the gargoyle that kept screaming âGIIGIIIâ as if trying to intimidate them with her golden revolver.
ăăTera Sagitaăă
The sound of explosion resounded in the valley as her revolverâs percussion hammer struck the bullet chamber with a âDOON!â. The thing that was fired from the gunâs muzzle wasnât a red spark but ăTera Sagitaăâs magic circle.
ăTera Sagitaăâs orange magic circle which appeared on the tip of the revolverâs muzzle right after the percussion hammer struck the bullet chamber was destroyed right in the next moment, as for the result, it look like muzzle flash instead.
And then, the ăTera Sagitaă fired by Kyouko rushed toward the gargoyle at breakneck speed right from the front and drilled a huge hole in its chest. The gargoyleâs body popped off with a deep, thick sound.
In addition, the gargoyle that was flying behind the first one also had a wind hole drilled into its body.
ăOOOH, itâs double kill.ă
ăWOAH, Thatâs rad.ă
Kyouko felt the same way as Jury-Mary.
ăThank you Tendou-kun, this gun looks retro but is really strong!ă
The most surprising thing about the gun wasnât limited to its power, it had a terrifying rapid-fire feature too.
Kyouko went trigger happy with her new weapon.
As a result, she kept firing ăTera Sagitaă whose invocation speed became much faster than before. Since it was in the form of a revolver, properly speaking, the rapid-fire rate should be as much as the number of bullet chambers, which was six, but perhaps because what she fired was magic, she could keep firing her magic as long as she had mana.
In short, there was no lag from reloading, she could keep firing her magic much faster than before as long as she had mana.
But then, even with those advantages, she still had a hard time hitting the moving enemy. But, the thing that fired wasnât a bullet, it was magic, her own magic.
As she gained combat experience, Kyouko had developed some sort of intuition when she fired her ăTera Sagitaă towards her enemy. When she fired her magic, it didnât just fly in a straight path, it flew as if she was directly controlling it like her own limbsââ At the very least, Kyouko learned that trick by instinct.
In short, she wouldnât miss if her enemy was the kind that could only charge from the front.
ăI-I DID IIIIIIT!!ă
Kyouko raised a victorious cry. Jury-Mary also gave their blessings to her achievement.
ăThis should be enough for a while.ă
Ryuuichi left the matter of disposal of the small fries and looked at the trio of gals that were cheering joyfully.
They didnât find materials that needed to be collected from gargoyleâs carcasses.
When Kyouko beat the first gargoyle, they already knew that it wasnât made from stone, it was a genuine monster made from flesh and blood. But of course, their skin was in fact as tough as rock, defense-wise, theyâre tougher than goma.
But then, no matter how hard their skin, theyâre no match for the current Tendou team. Both Jury and Mary could easily decapitate them without even using their martial arts.
Though theyâre not that powerful, the number of incoming gargoyles kept increasing the more they advanced.
ăIt seems weâre about to arrive at their nest.ă
It was obvious at the sight of the increasing number of gargoyles. But the reason Ryuuichi said that clearly was simply because the nest was right before them.
There was nothing to say about gargoyleâs individual power, but theyâre a huge threat when attacking in great numbers. Though Ryuuichi kept his large stride forward as if there was nothing to worry about, Kyouko and Co who followed him from behind raised their vigilance to the maximum.
And just as Ryuuichi had said, they found the nest. Or something that was supposed to be their nest, the reason they couldnât see the nest until now was simply that it was too gargantuan.
ăUwaa~, this is really dangerous right?ă
The scenery that was waiting for them when they arrived at the end of the bottom of the valley was a basin in the form of gargantuan mortar. It could be described as a super massive antlion larvae pit.
In addition, there was a rocky mountain right in the center of that pit. It was around 100 metres high. Those rocky mountains which were almost round in shape had numerous giant, pointed, spire-like rock pillars on it instead of trees. Amongst those spires, the one in the center was the highest one which resembled Tokyo tower or sky tree.
In addition, countless gargoyles were crawling around those pillars or towers.
It was a mystery how so many monsters bred and lived in that kind of place that was devoid of any vegetation and water. But then, it was fairly obvious at a glance that theyâre not starving and ready to rush at anyone who dared to come closer to the rocky mountain.
ăThis number is too much, isnât it?ă
ăI donât think we can fight all of themâŠă
The trio of gals leaked a weak sigh upon seeing the sheer size of the gargoyle army. On the contrary, Ryuuichiââ
ăThat one is dangerous.ă
The trio couldnât hide their shock since this was the first time Ryuuichi actually said those words.
But it was only natural for him to feel that way. Nevertheless, the trio of gals who thought that Ryuuichi was referring to the number of the enemy, failed to understand the true meaning behind Ryuuichiâs remark.
Ryuuichi said ăThat oneă. He was clearly referring to one being instead of that countless gargoyle.
It wasnât a slip of tongue, it was an indisputable fact. The existence that he regarded as dangerous wasnât the gargoyles, it was another single, more overwhelming, and gigantic existence.
ăTo think that there was such big guy.ă
ăEh?ă
ăWhat, do youâŠă
That moment, the gargoyles flapped their wings. All of them were raising a dissonant chorus. But their chorus stopped at once.
The next moment, a thunderous roar shook the air. To be exact, it even shook the ground.
The rocky mountain moved.
At first, everyone thought it was just their eyes tricking them. But then, they realized that the slight tremor wasnât just a mere tremor, they couldnât help but understand that the earthquake happened because of a gigantic being started to move.
Yes, the rocky mountain which was supposed to be the nest of the gargoyle was moving on its own.
Something of a gargantuan size was coming from the bottom of earth along with a deep reverberating roar. It was thick, long like a treeâs rootââ But it turned out to be only the head of that giant.
Its shining red eyes was a definite proof of them as a living being. Beneath the soil and sand that was falling from its skin was metal-like, shiny, bluish-white scales. Rows of sharp teeth were peeking out from its slightly opened jaws. Though its long tongue wriggled like a snakeâs, its sheer size was in fact comparable with the tail of an adult dragon.
The thing that came out was a super-sized snake-like head.
And then, the out of standard-ultra-sized monster whose size was clearly far bigger than the serpent which made humans look so small appeared from the mountain. The snake was glaring at Ryuuichi.
ăYou guys, step back⊠no, go back to fairy plaza.ă