"A message from Frieren?"
"From Serie," Zenith chuckled. "South Hero, take a look at where Serie is right now."
South Hero's little mustache twitched. His ability was the magic to see the future, not some grand astrology. How was he supposed to know where she was?
"Don't be so rigid. If I say we're going to find Serie next, then no matter what happens or what obstacles get in our way, finding Serie is the ultimate outcome. Can't you just take a peek at that?"
Orcini's eyes lit up. That made a lot of sense. Anchoring the result directly and then observing the future—how was that any different from making your wishes come true?
South Hero was dumbfounded. *'My ability can be used like that? How did I not know?'* Subconsciously following Zenith's logic, he cast his magic. Instantly, his mana poured out like a floodgate had been thrown wide open.
"Don't panic." Zenith pulled out an Attuned Diamond and placed it on him. It wasn't until the mana in the fifth Attuned Diamond had nearly bottomed out that the massive drain finally stopped.
"She's in the Magical City of Äußerst," South Hero panted heavily. The inner lining of his shirt was soaked with sweat, and his hair clung to his cheeks. "What a terrifying mana consumption... but this method actually works."
It worked, sure, but this was absolutely not a magic meant for human use in any conventional sense.
Zenith had once compared his mana values to standard unit metrics. An ordinary person in a normal, magic-less world required about 5 points of energy just to sustain their basic life functions.
While the simplest light-blade throwing knife might only cost 1 point of mana, that didn't mean 1 point was a small amount.
Magic was a technique with a notoriously low energy utilization rate. Simply using mana to telekinetically move a rock 100 meters might consume around 2 points.
Meanwhile, a person relying purely on physical stamina to carry that same rock wouldn't expend that much energy even if they worked tirelessly for ten days straight.
A qualified apprentice mage or warrior could store over 100 points of mana in their body, and crossing the 500-point threshold meant they could hold their own. That old mage who used to follow Orcini around was roughly at that level.
As for elves, they were a completely different story. Their incredibly long lifespans allowed their mana accumulation to reach absurd heights. Zenith conservatively estimated that Frieren's total mana capacity, if fully unleashed, would hit around 6,000 to 7,000 points. Serie's was harder to pin down, but it was undoubtedly measured in the tens of thousands.
In other words, using the magic to see the future by anchoring a specific outcome would instantly drain dry a genius mage like Serie, who had trained for thousands of years.
"Anyway, let's set off for the Magical City first. Delaying will only invite trouble."
South Hero rested for a moment before returning to normal. Although warriors didn't rely much on mana, having such a massive amount suddenly extracted from him was no small ordeal.
Without Zenith around, he probably wouldn't ever use it like that again. Besides, if Zenith hadn't asked, he never would have attempted such a stunt in the first place.
Regardless, Zenith was the man who had saved his life. Spending these past few days constantly recalling and feeling the lingering power of Saber's holy sword, he felt his own strength could reach an even higher level.
The journey from here to the Magical City was by no means a short one. If they traveled on foot—whether human legs or horse legs—they'd probably just be eating the dust left behind by Himmel and Frieren.
So, Zenith planned to fly. Not with some slow, sluggish flight amulet. No, Zenith was going to bulldoze this entire area and build a makeshift airport right on the spot.
Portals weren't restricted to a single fixed size. In reality, you could build them as large as you wanted; fitting a private jet through one was a piece of cake.
"We won't be delayed at all. A sharpened axe doesn't delay the woodcutter. Just wait for me to flatten the terrain, and then I'll whip up a high-speed vehicle."
South Hero and Orcini didn't say much. After witnessing that horde of Iron Golems earlier, they both knew just how miraculous Zenith was. Trusting him was the only logical choice.
To level the terrain, Zenith brought out his Mana Blaster for the first time in a while. Although he could cast the relevant magic barehanded, that required mental calculations. Zenith was very confident in his mana control, but his math sucked.
For something like an airport, if the runway was built full of potholes, they'd probably crash and burn before even taking off. It was better to rely on the stable output of the blaster.
Switching to beam mode, a blazing white annihilation beam shot a hundred meters forward from Zenith's hand. As he swept it across the landscape, every tree in sight was instantly reduced to dust.
After a few hours of busywork, he had cleared a flat area two kilometers long and wide. On top of this foundation, he stacked three layers of Smooth Stone. With that, a crude but functional runway was complete.
"It's nothing short of a miracle," Orcini remarked. "What kind of magic is this? If we could use this method to build city walls and towns, human society would become unprecedentedly prosperous."
"It's the kind of magic anyone with hands can do." Zenith didn't really know how to explain it. This was just his basic ability, an instinct as natural to him as breathing or walking was to a normal person.
It wasn't even magic. If he had to put a name to it, it was more like an authority—a simplified, bootleg version of the Authority of Creation.
A massive portal activated, its bottom edge perfectly flush with the runway to ensure the plane wouldn't experience any severe bumps while taxiing.
He selected a Gulfstream G450, configured with a five-passenger business class layout, a range of 6,750 kilometers, and a maximum cruising speed of Mach 0.85.
Zenith introduced this technological marvel from the modern world to the group. "It'll take us less than two hours to reach the airspace above the Magical City. Since they don't have an airport for us to land at, we'll just jump out of the plane when we get there."
The flight attendant and the captain expressed that this method was a bit too extreme for their tastes. At their strong insistence, Zenith humanely equipped the two SPW staff members with Totems of Undying.
"If you ignore the noise and the confined space, this flying vehicle is absolutely perfect."
Even a noble scion like Orcini couldn't find any faults with it. Taking a sip of whiskey on the rocks, he leaned back into the leather sofa and sighed with emotion.
"Etiquette training, swordsmanship training, military training... in this era, even nobles don't get many opportunities to just enjoy themselves."
It wasn't that this world lacked hedonistic noble brats, but chivalry and the spirit of sacrifice still dominated the mainstream. Under the crushing pressure of external threats, the human race was unprecedentedly united.
What Orcini wanted was simple: glory and power, followed by drinking himself into a stupor while clutching his medals until the day he died. But the prerequisite for all that was defeating the Demon King.
As long as he defeated the Demon King, all of this would be his rightful reward, and no one could say otherwise. *'I fought so many battles, bled so much blood, and brought peace to the world—can't I enjoy myself a little after all that?'*
In contrast, South Hero was much more elegant. Unlike Orcini, he was a man with high-class pursuits—even if his actual behavior was shockingly identical to Orcini's.
"Oho, we made it. I can already feel Serie's astonishing mana."
The subsonic private jet quickly arrived in the airspace above the Magical City and began to circle. From this altitude, the magnificent Magical City looked like a glass bead embedded in the earth.
Zenith called out to the other two to get ready to jump. "Prepare to open the cabin door! Let's experience what it feels like to skydive from thirteen thousand meters without a parachute!"
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