We finally succeeded in cornering the mastermind Dark Elf.
Karubene pointed his sword at the mastermind Dark Elf and gave an order.
“Stop this attack immediately.”
The man immediately gave the order as commanded. The surroundings fell silent for a moment. Crowzley then rushed over, pushing his way through the silence.
“Are you alright? Is this guy the leader?”
Karubene shoved forward the man he had been dragging and threw him in front of everyone.
“This guy insulted me by calling me a demon. Extract information from him, and then cut off his tongue at the root.”
Crowzley then dragged away the man lying on the ground. In response, the Dark Elf warriors who had been surrounding them slunk away.
With the mastermind man groveling and begging for his life behind us, we began searching the village. Philiana, Nina, and Cecilia, who had been injured in the battle, had already returned to the Satyr village with Pauline and Piyo.
Afterward, we discovered various magical tools, books, and letters in what appeared to be the man’s house.
“Hey, Arisugawa, look at this.”
When Sharin called me over and I went to see, there was a huge pile of jewels stacked like a mountain. The crystal ball I had seen before was also there. It seemed that the hellhounds had been summoned by this.
“Let’s bring that magician back again.”
Sharin gave me a strange look at my suggestion. We went back and brought back the old Dark Elf who was being escorted.
“Uh, uh, what do you need?”
“Open the gate to Hell again.”
The man made a face similar to Sharin’s at my command.
“Th-that… it uses a lot of magic power, and it’s a bit impossible right now.”
I ordered the reluctant man to open it, by force if necessary. Reluctantly, he began to channel his power into the large pile of jewels.
The jewels reacted to the man’s magic, glowing and being absorbed into the crystal placed in the center. Soon, crackling sounds began to emanate, and the surrounding temperature rose rapidly due to the emitted heat.
Thick smoke billowed from the crystal, which had absorbed the power, and eventually, a door leading to Hell opened from the small dark cloud.
“Arisugawa, what are you going to do with this?!”
Amidst the tremendous noise and heat, Sharin shouted at me. I jumped out of the house and quickly opened the cage where the dogs were. I urged them to come out, and the weakened dogs followed me meekly.
“Go back to Hell!”
Together with Sharin, I threw the cowering, listless dogs into the small hole that had appeared in space. Then, with a loud bang, the hole immediately closed.
The magician collapsed on the spot as if his battery had run out. The crystal had a large crack, and the surrounding jewels had melted into a sludge.
“Th-this… Arisugawa, you… this means you can’t go back now.”
Sharin looked at me sadly, holding up the broken crystal.
“Well, it can’t be helped. I’ll look for another way. Besides, I don’t know if he could open the door to my original world.”
I felt a little disappointed, but this was the best course of action for now. I felt like I had thought something similar before.
