The three-person team led by Aoko welcomed a fourth member: the magic swordsman Zelgadiss.
As the dutiful grandson of the Red Priest Rezo, Zelgadiss immediately agreed to Aoko's invitation to join their group without any hesitation when he heard they were planning to take down Rezo. He was ready to give the lofty great priest a good beating.
"Rezo's base is located here," Zelgadiss said, pulling out a map. "It's in the center of this wasteland, inside a very ancient tower."
"It's quite far from where we are now..." Aoko said as she examined the map's scale. "We can stay in this town for the night and then head to Rezo's tower."
"This town has been abandoned," Zelgadiss shook his head. "But if we're just camping out, there are still some relatively intact buildings in the ruins of this town that we can use."
"Wait, I think I know this tower!" Lina Inverse said thoughtfully, stroking her chin. "If I'm not mistaken, this tower has been around for over a thousand years..."
"Huh? Lina, are you saying Rezo is over a thousand years old?" Gourry asked, confused. "Isn't it kind of wrong for us to beat up an old man?"
"You idiot, Gourry!" Lina jumped up and smacked him on the head. "I said the tower is over a thousand years old, not the guy occupying it!"
"Then what was the purpose of building this tower?" Aoko asked, extracting the key information from Lina's words and posing her question.
"...It might be that Rezo is trying to resurrect Shabranigdo," Lina said after a moment of silence.
"According to certain magical texts, that tower was a place used by the followers of the Fire Dragon King during the War of Gods and Demons to seal fragments of Shabranigdo," Lina explained. "If Rezo's goal is, as Zelgadiss suggested, to amplify magic using the Philosopher's Stone to heal his eyes, then this might not be as simple as it seems."
"You're saying Rezo plans to unseal the tower and make a deal with Shabranigdo to have the Demon King heal his eyes?" Aoko quickly pieced the information together and concluded.
"Exactly," Lina nodded with a serious expression. "Healing someone's eyes with white magic—if it doesn't work initially, no matter how much you amplify it, it still won't work. The method itself is fundamentally flawed."
"So the only option would be to change the method and seek the help of the Demon King to fulfill his wish for sight, right?" Aoko completed Lina's train of thought.
Lina silently nodded, her expression grave as she looked at the others. Her meaning was clear without needing further explanation.
"...It seems this is no longer just about revenge," Zelgadiss said helplessly. "If we don't stop Rezo, our world might not see the light of tomorrow."
"Huh? Huh?" Gourry was confused. He hadn't quite followed what Lina and Aoko had been discussing. "Is that Shabra-something really that powerful?"
"Shabranigdo is the King of all Demons in this world," Lina explained. "And the ultimate goal of demons is to return to the void, to the embrace of the Lord of Nightmares."
"The Lord of Nightmares?" Aoko asked curiously. "Is that the king of all demons?"
"No," Lina shook her head. "If anything, the Lord of Nightmares is said to have created everything in the legends—worlds, humans, and even demons. It is the mother of all things."
The Root.
The concept of the Root quickly formed in Aoko's mind. As a magician, she was well aware of the significance of such a thing. If this world had a creator like the Lord of Nightmares, even if it wasn't the Root itself, it would be something very close to it.
However, unlike the Nasuverse, Lina's description implied that the Lord of Nightmares seemed to be a personified existence.
Some might argue that Void Shiki in the Nasuverse could be considered the personification of the Root, but that wasn't quite accurate. It would be closer to the case of Aozaki Aoko and Ryougi Shiki in the Nasuverse—where a person's body could access part of the Root's authority, but their personality would still belong to the physical body.
In the case of someone like Ryougi Shiki, once you removed her male and female aspects, what remained in her body was a personality tied to the Root's authority. That's why in her original timeline, she appeared as the most feminine version of herself, as her body was entirely female.
"So no matter what, we have to go," Aoko concluded. "This way, we can avoid anyone having second thoughts before we achieve victory."
"Bring your subordinate along too," Aoko said after a pause, addressing Zelgadiss. "Given the situation, every extra person adds strength. If Lina's guess is correct, Rezo might go to desperate lengths and drag us down with him."
Zelgadiss nodded and began using communication magic to contact Zolf, his subordinate. Meanwhile, Aoko and the others carefully discussed their next steps.
After spending the night in a cave, the group of four, including Zelgadiss, set off for the abandoned town marked on the map. Zelgadiss's subordinate, Zolf, would meet them there.
However, the situation was not as they had initially predicted. The abandoned town wasn't deserted—it was bustling with activity.
"There are so many monsters here!" Lina said, looking through the telescope Aoko had taken from her backpack. "What should we do now? Should we fight our way in?"
"These creatures look familiar," Zelgadiss squinted, trying to identify them. "These guys... they might all be Rezo's subordinates."
"Then it wouldn't make sense not to deal with them," Aoko said, stretching and getting ready. "Opportunities to divide and conquer like this don't come often. Let's take them all out now so we'll have an easier time when we reach Rezo's tower."
"Good point!" Zelgadiss agreed. "I know these guys well enough, so let me tell you about their weaknesses!"
With Zelgadiss acting as an inside informant, Aoko's team easily crushed the monsters in the abandoned town. With Aoko's overwhelming power and buff spells, the other three also performed far above their usual strength.
But things don't always go as planned. Just as they were about to finish clearing the town, a new enemy appeared—a far more formidable one than the rest.
For the first time since arriving in this world, Aoko faced a demon, a member of the race who prayed for the world to return to the void.