Chapter 626 – Return from the Central Hub

Having been caught in the two consecutive Great Magic spells, it seemed most of the remaining enemy forces had been annihilated.

Taking advantage of this, Grace and the others all emerged from their defensive positions, scattering the remaining Tears as they advanced toward us.

“I’m going to the Paladin. Everyone else, please support Theodore.”

“Yes!”

Claudia said this loud enough for Caduceus to hear.

I see. It seems Claudia has business with the Paladin’s remains. At the same time, she appears to be worried about me too. In that case, I should probably either join the others to make it easier for them to move or wait near the Paladin.

There are only a few Tears left, and they’re at a distance. It would be best not to join the cleanup, but instead wait near the Paladin and deploy a Defense Field and such.

“Theodore-sama!”

As I was constructing a new defensive position, Ashley came running over on Lavigne.

“Yeah, we won. Well, I don’t think the injuries are as bad as they look.”

“Yes…!”

Ashley had a worried expression, but she immediately began examining my wounds.

It seemed I had been cut on the side of my forehead during the fight with the Paladin. Maybe a piece of metal had flown at me during the blast. She wiped the blood that had run down my cheek and sealed the wound with Healing Magic. Then she also treated the broken capillaries in my arms from the recoil and strain of the two Great Magic spells colliding.

She seemed to check for internal abnormalities through magical resonance, and after examining the general areas, she breathed a sigh of relief.

“I don’t think there are any issues with your bones or internal organs. It seems your muscles have taken some strain, though.”

“Mhm, thank you, Ashley. And sorry for worrying you.”

“Not at all. I’m just glad you’re safe.”

Saying this, Ashley smiled. It didn’t lead to us hugging like usual.

Probably out of consideration for Grace’s condition and the current situation. And since the Tears haven’t completely disappeared yet, I can’t exactly place a Seal either.

“Are Grace’s injuries okay?”

“Ah… yes. My wounds have already closed. The dress hasn’t regenerated yet, but the injuries… have cleanly disappeared.”

Grace seemed a bit dazed from the smell of my blood, but when I spoke to her, she let out a small sigh before smiling. Hmm. It seems dealing with the aftereffects later will be quite troublesome. When I wrapped her in a Wind Magic Field to block the smell of blood, she seemed to regain some composure.

“I’m fine too. Ignis is probably okay as well. We’ll need to inspect it later, though.”

“Mhm. Likewise, no problems. Irmhild and Seraphina are fine too.”

Rosemary and Sheila said. Marlene also nodded repeatedly, indicating that she and her summoned beasts were fine.

Once the situation assessment was complete, Claudia faced the Paladin with her hand outstretched and said,

“I’ll secure our safety now.”

With those words, a Magic Circle spread from her feet. The Paladin’s body began to glow—and that light raced out to cover the entire sector.

Then, the remaining Tears stopped moving. They ceased coming toward us and scattered in various directions as if they had lost interest.

“The Paladin is a Guardian with a somewhat special position. You could say it was in charge of leading the Moon Ship’s security forces before the labyrinth monsters went on a rampage.”

“…In other words, since the Paladin ceased functioning and control returned to Claudia, the Tears and Centaur Knights stopped attacking us.”

“That’s right. Monsters will still appear during future core explorations, but we won’t have to worry about large armies of Tears or patrols anymore.”

That’s a relief. It seems unrelated types like Chameleons, Star Sorcerers, and Bone Troopers are a separate matter.

“What about bringing the Paladin over to our side, like with Alpha and Belius?”

“That would be… difficult. The defense system is directly connected to the Last Guardian as well, and there’s a possibility it could be repaired and control taken back.”

“The Paladin itself has a strong aspect of moving as controlled. While it is a special Golem for base defense…”

I see. So it’s one of those direct subordinate Guardians that only knows how to fight, as Claudia mentioned. In that case, the correct approach is not to repair it, but to create a grace period until the labyrinth reconstructs itself.

So, I’ll plan to collect the Paladin’s remains as intact as possible, analyze them, and acquire any usable technology, Spell Formulas, and such.

I destroyed it quite spectacularly, but the head and chest areas are still intact, so we should be able to extract reference-worthy technology from the core parts.

Anyway, now that the Tears have calmed down is the perfect time to collect various things. Just one more push, so to speak.

Just to be safe, I’ll apply a Sealing Technique to the Paladin’s remains to prevent any accidental reactivation.

For the Tears, we’ll collect the weapons, armor, internal mechanisms, etc., that are in relatively good condition, and perform Magic Stone Extraction on those in poor condition.

For Bone Troopers, we’ll collect the Crystal Lances and convert the rest into Magic Stones. This part is the same as when we first fought them.

I’ll take responsibility for cleaning up the area scattered by Magnetic Vortex, and collect the Paladin’s right arm, blades, detached armor, and such from within it.

“What should we do with the Centaur Knight’s main body?”

“We’ve collected the weapons and armor, right? I think the same series technology will probably be useful for analyzing the Paladin too, so let’s collect it whole.”

“Understood.”

Grace nodded and went to transport the remains of the Centaur Knight’s main body.

“There isn’t much worth collecting from the Star Sorcerers.”

Rosemary said. Only the pierced Star Sorcerer’s main body and Staff remain, after all.

I had her show me the Staff. When I lightly channeled magical power into it—several satellites floated up around me as if to guard me.

“Ah. This might be useful.”

“It seems the number it can create is limited, but it looks handy for self-defense.”

Probably, judging from the magical reaction, when magical power is sent to the Magic Stone at the tip, it creates and controls satellites. The Staff part is likely just decoration to make it easier to handle. We could remove the Magic Stone and convert it into a different form of Magic Tool. As for the Sorcerer’s main body… the damage is extensive. Magic Stone Extraction seems better than processing it.

Thinking this, I performed Magic Stone Extraction and obtained a fairly large, high-quality Magic Stone. I’m quite looking forward to thinking of ways to use it.

“What about this?”

Sheila came floating over using Levitation, carrying the Chameleon monster that had been moving like an assassin or ninja.

“Hmm. What should we do about this? What about the hidden weapons?”

“Collected them!”

Seraphina smiled and showed me the Dagger the Chameleon had been using, holding it as if it were a Longsword.

Hmm… In that case, it’s probably best to convert it into a Magic Stone, right? Among the monsters from the core, it’s somewhat biological, but somehow… from various perspectives, I can’t imagine it being edible.

Everyone seemed to share the same opinion, so when I performed Magic Stone Extraction, I was able to collect a fairly large one from this one too. As expected of a core monster.

“The Tears’ armor is welcome as materials, isn’t it? We were able to collect a large amount of high-quality Metal.”

Irmhild smiled.

“That’s true. The workshop won’t be able to use it all, so we’ll probably deposit the excess with the Royal Castle.”

Well, I suspect it will be distributed from the Royal Castle to the Dwarf masters in the South District. They’ll likely melt it down and reforged it into weapons or armor.

It’s unfortunate that some items became impossible to collect because they were caught in the two Great Magic spells.

And so—after completing various lootings and material collections, we escaped the labyrinth core via Claudia’s teleportation.

Princess Stephania and Sion’s group had apparently been waiting at the labyrinth entrance so they could rush to our aid if needed. We rejoiced at our safe reunion with everyone, and when we emerged, it was nearly dusk.

We contacted them via Communication Device and mobilized soldiers to transport the massive amount of materials to the Royal Castle and workshop, and then we too headed to the workshop by carriage.

“Ah… I’ve calmed down a little now.”

During the carriage ride to the workshop… somehow, I was in a state of being hugged and having my hair stroked by Grace and Ashley from both sides.

In Grace’s case, she probably had significant aftereffects from using her Vampire powers for regeneration and from getting intoxicated by the smell of my blood when I was bleeding. She needed to resolve that.

From Ashley’s side, she was leaning her cheek against me… well, I was basically being indulged by both of them during the carriage ride.

With the fatigue from defeating the Paladin, being enveloped by their body heat, soft sensations, and the scents tickling my nostrils, my thinking was becoming somewhat paralyzed…

“Please make time for everyone else later too.”

“Yes, I agree with that request as well.”

Grace laughed as she said this, and Ashley nodded.

Ah… My fiancées have an agreement about being fair in these matters.

“Alright. Then, once we arrive at the workshop, I suppose.”

At my response, Rosemary hid her face with her feather fan and turned away. Claudia closed her eyes with slightly reddened cheeks, and Marlene smiled happily with a beaming expression.