In the underworld, the Mage Kingdom of Isengard. This is the land once ruled by the Mage King, Gibram Zain Isengard.
　I defeated a crazy old cyborg who revived an ancient civilization's decisive battle weapon called Hecatoncale and destroyed his own country as well.
　I had no interest in Isengard after that, nor did I know what happened to that country after the Mage King's death.
　But now, I heard that Isengard has been devastated. What happened to it?



　A curious phenomenon had occurred only two weeks earlier. A strange phenomenon had occurred just two weeks earlier: golden snow had fallen all over Isengard.
　The snow had stopped soon after, but in the days that followed, people began to fall unconscious, one after another. They suffered from high fevers and moaned, and in a short time became emaciated and died. The people were horrified by this unknown disease. Many towns and cities had suffered such a tragedy.
　But the tragedy of Isengard did not end there.
　When they were about to bury a man who had died of illness, a golden flower suddenly burst through his head and blossomed.
　And then the bodies with flowers on their heads rose up and began to attack people one by one.
　Such incidents are said to have occurred in various towns and cities. Zombies with golden flowers on their heads are said to be strolling through the streets of the city, looking like they own the place.
　This phenomenon did not take place in the whole of Isengard, but mainly in the northern part of Isengard.
　When Silhouette-san told me the name of the town in the center of the phenomenon, Jeane, I finally remembered that time.
　That was the place where the mutant had appeared a few months ago, and the ostrich-shaped mutant that had appeared then had stabbed its head into the ground several times just before it disappeared.
　Perhaps that strange behavior was the cause of the series of events.
　Thinking that, I took Yumina, Sakura, and Sue, who were free to do so, and came to that place at that time, crossing the world's barrier with [different space transfer] to that place.

''What is this...!

　A huge golden tree appeared in front of us as we shifted, and it was clearly not a plant, but a huge tree that must have been over a hundred meters tall.
　It was clearly not a plant, but a tree of a metallic sheen. Even the leaves were like thin metal.
　Large. There were a few trees on Earth that were over a hundred meters tall, but this was the first time I'd seen one like this.
　Because it was golden, the light reflected off of it diffusely and made my eyes flicker. It's not just a tree, it looks like a cypress, a pine tree, a rose or a bamboo grass. It was as if the metals that imitated various plants were mixed and intertwined to create a single giant tree.

'Fuyao-san, this is...!
Yeah, it's probably the same thing as a mutant.

　As I answered Yumina beside me, I was still convinced that the ostrich-type mutant from that time must have planted something like a seed here.

Could the tree itself be a mutant?

　Sue mentions a question she's been thinking about. I've never seen a plant-type Frase before. The mutants were originally created by embedding the evil god factor into the flames. If there are plant-type flames, then it's not surprising that there are plant-type mutants.

''This guy is the golden snow.......probably not snow, but something like spores that were scattered around Isengard on the wind.
...Mushrooms?

　Sakura tilts her head and frowns. Well, Sakura didn't like mushrooms. You can't get big. Like the old plumber with the beard.

'I think it's close enough. Humans who were exposed to it bonded with mutant spores, which turned them into zombies...'

　It's not so much zombification as it is mutationization. So humans have become mutants, just as the Frays have become mutants.

'Mutants are 'soul eaters'. The reason why some people developed the disease and others didn't is probably because humans with more negative emotions are more likely to conform to the mutants.

　In fact, Silhouette told me that almost none of the mutated humans were children. Negative emotions like anger, hatred, and stress must be stronger in adults.
　In the slums of big cities, child zombies also appeared. I wonder if such things are influenced by the environment?
　The town of Jeane, which is just around the corner from here, also seems to have been razed, but a third of them became mutants, a third were killed by it, and the remaining third fled the town.
　Mutated humans don't have much fighting power. It wouldn't be difficult to defeat them themselves if there were golems of the fighting type. However, if there were a large number of them, that would be difficult as well.
　The mutant bodies that had destroyed the town of Jeane had moved on to other towns in search of more sacrifices. It was like a cheap panic movie, but from the point of view of the person being attacked, it was no joke.

''We can't just let this stuff go, can we? Winter Night!　Let's just get rid of these trees!

　As Sue says, in order to prevent further damage, it's best to make this thing disappear as soon as possible. But if it's this big, I have no idea where the nuke is located.

The worst case scenario is that it could be underground... hmm?

　I look up and see something near the top of a huge tree. Although it was difficult to see due to the golden foliage, it was as if I could see something blood red for a moment mixed in with the golden color....

''[Long-sense]

　I skipped my vision and caught it. About eighty meters up, a red core existed in the trunk of the tree, as if surrounded by golden thorns.
　It seems that this large tree is also a mutant species.
　Unlike other mutant species, the nucleus is visible, but it's quite large. It's about four meters in diameter?
　If this large tree was a mutant, then this might be an advanced species.
　Cherry Blossom and Suu seemed to have finally found the nucleus after scrutinizing it too. It's hard to see, but the existence itself is somehow visible because of the different color contrast.

''Destroying that nucleus?''
Sounds pretty easy, doesn't it?

　I don't think we were reacting to Sue's words, but suddenly the ground we were standing on cracked open and a number of golden thorns shot out of it.
　Countless thorns, like whips with thorns, attacked us from all directions.

''【Teleport】!

　I pull the three of us together and transition and escape from the spot with an instantaneous movement.
　In an instant, we completed our transition to a place several hundred meters away from the giant golden tree.
　I can see many tentacle-like thorns moving from the base of the giant tree in the distance. That was a close call.
　I knew that if they couldn't move, they would have some kind of defense, though. I didn't expect it to come from the ground. I thought it was going to rain down on me like razor blades of leaves. Or maybe spiked berries like chestnuts would fall.
　But that thing is pretty thick........ If that thing gets too close, there's a good chance it'll get tangled up in your frame gear. If that's the case.........

Yumina, can you help me out?
'Yes, sir. Leave it to me. It's nothing, really.

　Yumina takes the phone out of her pocket and touches an app on the basic screen. The name of the app is "Storage". It's a function that I've [enchanted].
　Yumina called up a certain item that she had stored from the "Storage" app.
　The silvery white frame gear that appears in front of us. It is a specialized long-range sniper's frame gear, Brünnhilde, which is Yumina's specialized machine.
　As Yumina climbed aboard Brünnhilde, she readied the long-range rifle on her back and aimed it at the giant tree mutant in front of her.

''One shot is a must.''

　Brunhilde's finger pulls the trigger. A crystal bullet made of crystal wood shot out and flew straight to the golden giant tree.
　The silver meteor didn't miss its target and successfully shot the red core of the golden giant tree. The 【Explosion】 that was applied to the bullet is activated and blows the nucleus into tiny pieces of wood.
　The huge tree whose nucleus was shattered crumbles out like a building that was blown up and dismantled, and then loses its shape with a rattle and a cloud of dust.
　Eventually, black smoke rose from the golden wreckage that had turned into a golden wreckage, and it began to dissolve into mush. It's a sickening sight no matter how many times I see it.

''Is it safe now?''
Well, that's a start.

　I answer that to Sakura.
　Now there should be no more people turning into mutant species bodies. Now it's just a matter of what to do with the remaining mutant species bodies throughout Isengard....
　When I call up the map and search for them, I see that the mutants are still spreading everywhere, mainly in the north.
　How do I get rid of this........ It's too big to use ranged magic, and since the mutant species also has the characteristics of Frase in the first place, their magic will be absorbed.
　I think [Meteor Rain [Meteor Zapper]] would be an effective physical attack, but that's an indiscriminate attack....... It's meaningless if it blows up both the town's residents and the town itself.

''Huh?''

　As I groaned as I looked at the map, the pins displaying the mutant species body disappeared one by one from the screen in front of me. Huh?
　The mutants are gone?

What do you mean?
You killed a large tree mutant and the others are gone?

　Su and Sakura look at each other. I can only assume that in the circumstances....
　Yumina, who had come down from Brunhilde, looked into the screen where the mutant bodies had disappeared and pondered.

'Could it be that the mutants that appeared in the town were controlled by that giant tree...?

　I see. I guess you could think of it that way. Just like the Soldat, the commander is the giant tree that gives orders, and the soldiers who follow him are the mutants who took over his body.
　It makes sense to me that the golden flowers on the heads of the corpses acted as a so-called receiver. The fact that it can no longer be recognized as a mutant species body by the [Search] means that it may have dissolved just like the giant tree.

'Let's go to Silhouette-san's place for now. There might be a lot of information gathered there.

　When I said that, Yumina blatantly frowned at me. ........What's the matter?

''It's not a good idea to go to the 'Gekkoukan [over there]'........ Su is there, and all sorts of things are not good...?

　Ah..........
　It's true that bringing a twelve year old girl into a brothel is a problem....... No, when I say that, it was barely out with Yumina and Lou before, though!

'Why can't we have a strawman?'

　Sue goes into the question. Give me a break. I don't want to go to the trouble of explaining the business details of a whorehouse. Even if I explain it softly, it will only make Suu have more questions, and sometimes it's not an answer.
　Even though she's my fiancé, I'm still going to tell a younger girl, "It's a place where men pay to have women do erotic things to them! It's hard to say, indeed. I guess our erotic maids and Dr. Erotic's s*x education or something like that have given me some knowledge.

''And for now, I'll contact Silhouette-san. Yumina, Sakura, I'll leave the explanation to you!
What?
That's not fair, Your Majesty.

　With two accusing glances at my back, I picked up my phone and stepped away from everyone for a bit.




　Cantare, a commercial city located in the north of the Strain Kingdom. It's the capital where the brothel "Gekkoukan" is located, and it's also the capital where the intelligence organization "Black Cat" that handles all kinds of information is based.
　We are waiting for someone on the open terrace of a cafe in a corner of the capital.
　Before the tea we ordered arrived, the person came to us.

'I'm sorry to keep you waiting,'
No, I'm sorry you had to come.

　She has a beautiful face and a bewitching smile that would make any man fall in love with her. She is the boss of the Black Cat, Silhouette Lily, aka Silhouette Lily, and she is our partner in this world. She's our partner in this world.
　Silhouette-san takes her place at our table and orders a drink from the waiter. All the while, I'm afraid of the men in black who are standing upright and intimidating the people around them, guarding them!

First off, I'd like to thank you. They're putting an end to what's happening in Isengard, one by one. Is that you?
So the mutants are gone after all?
A mutant?　Oh, you mean the corpse brought back to life by the demon flower. That's right. Apparently, about an hour ago, all the corpses suddenly melted into mush and disappeared.

　It seems that all the mutant species have disappeared. We also explained to Silhouette-san about the Golden Giant Tree, and that settled it for the moment........

''I feel a little guilty about it. If only we had figured out that mutant species earlier...''
You don't detect anything on the tablet?
I heard it wasn't there. Why is that?

　The sensing plate is a magic tool that senses the sound of emergence transmitted from different spaces and quantifies the location, time and number of emergence of the flames or mutant species.
　
　When I explained that to Silhouette-san, she nodded her head in agreement. Since it had already appeared, of course there was no sound of it appearing.
　I also introduced Sakura and Sue to Silhouette-san, and when she found out that they were both my fiancées, she teased me again, just as she did the other day. But Yumina and I were the only ones who were upset, while Sakura and Soo, who didn't have much knowledge of such things, were often very upset.
　Silhouette-san, who had been teasing us for a while, suddenly remembered and opened her mouth again.

'Come to think of it, I heard from Est of the 'Red Cat' on the phone. Is it true that you taught the girls magic?
Magic?　Yes, I certainly taught it, but...

　At that moment, I was at a loss for words when I saw Silhouette-san's eyes twinkle oddly. Ah, this is a bad flow.

''Uh, well, magic is something that can only be used with aptitude, so...''
Can you check it out for me?
Hi....

　There is no way I could disobey Silhouette-san who is smiling at me, so I had no choice but to answer her.
　While getting jit eyes from Yumina and the others sitting at the same table, I put out a piece of the magic stone on the table. No, it can't be helped. I'm indebted to you for a lot of things, and you're going to continue to help me.
　In my mind, I was thinking that if I didn't have the aptitude, I wouldn't have to deal with any trouble, but it's only at times like that that that I get betrayed. Silhouette-san had an aptitude for the dark attribute.
　Well, I guess it's easier than teaching the other attributes. Of course, I don't want to teach you even ancient magic, so I'll just summon magic.

''Summoning magic?　Like an errand boy?
'Right. The truth is, the person I call out to is random... well, it's all up to luck. If I can help, I'll be able to meet some of your requests. Do you have any summons you'd like to see?
That's true. It's a good idea to go with a cat type. It should be strong enough to be a bodyguard, but is that too much to ask?

　Hmm........well it's not impossible to call them out. It's just that with Silhouette-san's amount of magical power, even if you sign a contract with her, you can only call her out for a few minutes at most, so I just wondered how it would be for a bodyguard.
　Well, I can do something about that, though.
　At any rate, I can't call him out here, so I transferred to an unpopular place on the outskirts of town.
　I summoned Amber from the surface world to here and drew a magic circle on the ground. I asked Silhouette-san to focus her magic power and mixed the spiritual power of Amber with her magic power. This should be able to call her in.
　The black fog that was floating in the magic circle explodes and clears up. What appeared in the center of the magic circle where the fog disappeared was a pitch-black black panther that seemed to have converged with the black fog from earlier.

It's been a long time.''
"Long time no see. You're looking good, too.

　A black panther conversing peacefully with amber. Is it a conversational type? According to Amber, this black panther is a species called 'Lightning Panther', and as its name suggests, it controls lightning bolts.
　I took out the collar with the silver medallion on it from 【Storage】 as Amber told me what was going on and said she would gladly accept the contract.

''What's that?''
'It's just a collar. But since my magic power is stored in the medal, I can keep the summoned beast out here. This should be enough to be Silhouette-san's bodyguard.

　I approached the black panther to put a collar on him, but the defensive wall of the magic circle prevented me from doing so. Ah, I see. I can't come out unless Silhouette-san signs a contract.
　When Silhouette-san gave him the name "Shade", the black panther slithered out of the magic circle and I put the collar on him again. This will not cause any problems.

''Well that's great. I can have a conversation with this girl in my mind.
'It's a reminder. We can have a conversation at some distance.

　Well, that doesn't make him a bodyguard, though.
　Unlike Amber, Shade doesn't seem to be able to change into a so-called mini-type, so Silhouette-san is going to be walking around with a big black panther now. It's going to stand out, this one.

You're not going to be conspicuous enough in the past, either. On the contrary, I'm just grateful that this little guy doesn't attract any bad bugs.

　Mr. Silhouette is unperturbed, patting Shade's head. Is that how it is?
　For a while, Silhouette-san stroked Shade along with Su and Sakura, but eventually she turned to me and clapped one of her hands with a pop.

''Oh yeah. There's someone I want you guys to meet, can you meet him?　I happen to be in this city.
'Someone you want me to meet?　Who is it?
"The greatest man in the land.

　Silhouette-san smiled mischievously at us, and we had to give her a scowl.