The carriage raced through the sky once more.
Ruger was still the first to board and still took the same corner. As the wizards were picked up one by one, they all sat where they had before, as though everything that had just happened had been a dream. Yet some things were different. The red-haired wizard from the Holy Judgment Wizards boarded and closed his eyes without expression, resting. Wizard Zorn also had his eyes shut as though dozing, but Ruger knew he was probably tinkering with his new little toy.
That demon must have regretted not dying at his hands.
Ruger glanced at the quiet, focused Wizard Zorn. Still, that regret was only temporary. As Zorn had said, he would raise it into a demonic pet independent of its original body. Once the process was complete, it might change its mind. It might even thank him-thank Wizard Zorn, its master.
Had Ruger killed that hand, its original body might soon have grown a new one somewhere in the Abyss. In Wizard Zorn's possession, however, recovering it would probably be difficult. That fleeting flash of terror had even made Ruger feel that the demon might lose this hand forever.
Ruger sat there, smoothed the creases in his robe, and immersed himself in studying his spell again.
This time, however, neither his study nor his meditation was satisfying.
He had only alternated once between contemplating the spell and meditating when the carriage began to change its angle, signaling its descent.
At that moment, Ruger also realized that they were still over that enormous island. Perhaps all their initial targets were here, under control after the Foreign God Oversight Council's investigations. Now they would deal with them one by one. But dealing with these people was a minor matter; what truly mattered