Chapter 161 – The Great Summoning Formation (1)

Stuttgart had changed considerably from before.

A rampart several times higher surrounded the city. Perhaps because many people who left the city had returned, the city looked quite lively.

Though watchtowers stood everywhere and barricades were set up in many places, hope showed on people’s faces.

Unlike before, mutants mingling and moving around with ordinary people wasn’t a strange sight here.

Seeing the city that had drastically changed from before, Sun-woo’s admiration came naturally.

The city Sun-woo last saw was a half-destroyed city filled only with hopeless gloom.

The place Sun-woo was summoned to was the building that was once this city’s headquarters and where Sun-woo’s party arrived by spatial movement recently.

The building that was close to half-destroyed was fairly repaired and now became the place where the leadership governing the city stayed.

Sun-woo and Caroline, who were summoned to a large room on the building’s second floor, and flame ability user Clara were having a conversation.

“So you’re saying Hayden fell behind or was captured.”

At Sun-woo’s words, Clara agreed with an exhausted expression.

Clara had a face covered in wounds and pale as a sheet.

It seemed she had quite a difficult fight during that time.

“Yes. Thanks to Hayden, only I could barely escape.”

The reason Caroline summoned Sun-woo was because of Clara’s story that Hayden fell behind.

“Moreover, the place where Hayden and Clara’s party were discovered seems completely different from other contamination zones. The defense is so severe that I had no choice but to call you, Mr. Sun-woo.”

At Caroline’s words wearing military uniform instead of a suit, Sun-woo requested Clara again.

“Please tell me what happened in detail.”

At Sun-woo’s request, Clara gathered her thoughts then opened her mouth.

“Based on intelligence that a huge facility was being built in the Empire’s west, Hayden and I, along with several ability users from our underground city, moved there for reconnaissance.”

Clara recalled the recent time with Hayden.

***

One day earlier, the Empire’s western wasteland.

Dry land dyed a murky color.

Five people appeared in the wasteland close to a desert.

“Spatial movement is always difficult.”

Shortly after.

Hayden, who settled his churning stomach, looked at the other people getting themselves together and spoke.

“You’re the first one to be fine, yet you say such things!”

Though Clara grumbled with a sulky voice, Hayden only smiled at her.

“Ugh, my stomach already feels bad, and now I have to see romance too.”

At the two’s appearance with petals seeming to fly, the other two frowned as if their stomachs felt very bad.

Then the spatial ability user who caught his breath spoke to the party.

“Then I’ll return. And I’ll come back to this place at the promised time tomorrow.”

“Thank you for your work. I’ll ask for your help next time too.”

At his words, Hayden expressed thanks, and the spatial ability user disappeared from that spot with an exhausted face.

It might have been better to move together with a spatial ability user in preparation for danger, but spatial ability users were too busy and also too precious a resource.

“Let’s depart.”

The party, for whom this wasn’t the first time, immediately moved their steps toward the west.

This was the closest place to the target point that the spatial ability user had visited.

They still needed to walk west for several more days.

However, there was no way the return time would match if they walked like that.

After checking the ground mixed half and half with sand and soil, Hayden took out cloth that might be used as a tent roof from his backpack and spread it on the ground.

“Ugh, the ride comfort is the worst…”

Though the party who had traveled with Hayden before grumbled, they settled on the cloth Hayden spread out.

They all grabbed something like rings on the cloth, and Clara, who got on last, hugged Hayden’s waist tightly from behind.

“Maybe the ride comfort is bad because of that behavior.”

Ignoring the other party member’s grumbling, Hayden infused telekinesis into the cloth laid on the ground, and the cloth gradually hardened and began moving forward.

The cloth carrying Hayden’s party began racing across the ground, cutting through sand like a magic carpet.

“Aaah, I’m gonna throw up!”

Carrying the party’s screams from behind.

After running for several hours like that, the ground completely turned to sand.

The party entered the middle of the desert.

If they had walked normally, the speed would have slowed further, but the telekinetic carpet with nothing in the way became even faster.

The people riding on the cloth had expressions of catching their breath.

“My goodness. Now you don’t even get tired. I’ve seen many telekinesis ability users, but Hayden, I’ve never seen a monster ability user like you!”

Fortunately, the desert wind wasn’t that hot. One party member shouted loudly, feeling good while receiving the pleasant wind.

“Perhaps nearly the strongest among ability users? Except for those strangely changed guys, there probably aren’t many who can beat Hayden?”

The man sitting next to him chimed in with his words.

Hayden shook his head at their words.

“There are many frightening people besides me. I’m nothing compared to them.”

Several people came to Hayden’s mind.

“Are you talking about those humans in other worlds? But those people are like that because they lived long. At your growth rate, Hayden, won’t you surpass them soon?”

However, Hayden knew someone growing even faster than himself.

“If brother Sun-woo saw, he’d be surprised. But more than that, it seems we’ve arrived.”

In the party’s eyes, a pillar of red light began appearing in the distance.

***

“…That’s how we arrived at the target. The security was very severe, but Hayden raised a lot of sandstorms with telekinesis so we could approach closely. Where that red light rose, a truly bizarre and frightening scene unfolded.”

Clara, who was speaking, trembled slightly as if that scene came back to her mind.

***

“Crazy! How could they do such a thing!”

Hayden’s party, who were buried halfway in sand with only their faces exposed while looking ahead, were all pale as sheets.

The scene before their eyes was filled with red.

The pillar of red light shooting into the sky rose from a huge and bizarre pattern carved on the ground.

Hayden could tell. That pattern was a type of magic formation.

The place where the pattern was drawn looked like part of ruins that collapsed long ago.

Several pillars with only skeletons remaining stood among the sand, and a circular stone floor with a diameter of several dozen meters revealed itself above the sand.

The pattern was drawn large enough to fill that stone floor.

In the center of the circularly drawn pattern, the corpse of a gigantic monster along with monsters and animals’ corpses, and people’s corpses were lined up in a certain form.

The pattern looked like it was drawn with blood flowing from the corpses. It wriggled like flowing blood vessels, and each time the pillar of light shot into the sky shook.

Around the pattern, about ten magicians wearing black robes stood in a circle chanting incantations.

***

“The party, angered by that sight, tried to attack but Hayden stopped them. Since he thought he couldn’t handle it either, he cautiously suggested retreating, but pursuit caught up during the withdrawal process.”

Clara continued speaking.

“The sandstorm made with telekinesis also flew away in the black-robed man’s hand, and other companions lost their lives to the sword of the man running on sand without leaving footprints. Though Hayden used telekinesis to block attacks and carried me while fleeing, they didn’t stop pursuit.”

Eventually, they succeeded in escaping to the place promised with the spatial mover, but they couldn’t shake off the tail that followed.

“Leaving me at that place, Hayden decided to lure the trackers. He said if he doesn’t return by the time the spatial mover arrives, ask Caroline to summon Mr. Sun-woo.”

Clara looked very anxious with worry about Hayden now.

“After returning, Miss Clara immediately rushed over and informed me, and I summoned Mr. Sun-woo with the summoning stone.”

Caroline finished the story afterward, but Sun-woo seemed deep in thought and not listening to her story.

“Mr. Sun-woo?”

When Caroline called Sun-woo again, Sun-woo frowned and raised his hand to her.

“Could you wait a moment?”

At Sun-woo’s restraint, Caroline nodded with surprised eyes.

Sun-woo questioned Clara again.

“About the magic formation… no, the pattern and corpses you saw there, could you explain in more detail? Things like the arrangement method and types of corpses.”

At Sun-woo’s words, Clara forcibly recalled that situation and explained.

After hearing all her story, Sun-woo placed his hand on his skull ring with a serious expression and began drawing up his ability.

A summoning ring created by a summoning mage who was powerful in the past.

It was a ring containing countless memories of the summoning mage.

“Damn. I hoped it wasn’t.”

Shortly after, Sun-woo, who removed his hand from the ring, let out a low lament.

And Sun-woo began telling the two women looking at him with serious expressions what he confirmed.

“That pattern is a summoning magic formation. It’s the magic formation that mages from dimension Gamma use when first summoning lifeforms from other dimensions.”

“Is it something that calls monsters or such?”

“The method is correct, but the types summoned are a bit different. This was content that was only theoretically possible so they never even confirmed it… Damn.”

Now Sun-woo also seemed infected with Clara’s anxiety.

“A gigantic magic beast at dragon level and the blood of numerous mages and knights. And the worst summoning magic that dozens of high-level mages call with incantations.”

Sun-woo’s words continued.

“Here it’s a demon lord’s main body summoning magic formation substituted with corpses and blood of giant monster-level and contaminated ability users. It’s theoretical summoning magic only possible in places full of magic energy… Previously I didn’t know if magic energy was the same as contamination, so I just passed over it.”

Clara, who didn’t know what kind of existence the demon lord was, had an expression that she understood well.

However, Caroline, who had heard from Sun-woo, became stiff like Sun-woo.

“You mean contaminating the world wasn’t the end?”

Sun-woo nodded.

“About the level of groundwork for invasion… or perhaps environmental improvement work for migration…”

Sun-woo, who spat out absurd words, soon came to his senses.

“Fighting the demon lord is impossible, but we need to find Hayden. If we can destroy the summoning formation before the demon lord appears, that would be good too. Let’s hurry.”

Sun-woo headed to the first floor of the building where the spatial ability user was with a hardened expression.

There, the spatial ability user, gravity ability user Diane, and the Black Knight were waiting for him.