Chapter 101: Existence (3) |
The Inquisitor unconsciously turned her head at that uncomfortable feeling coming from behind her. The first thing she could see were the priests praying with her.
What she saw next was a blade hurtling toward the priests.
She tried to pick up her shield, which she had placed on the floor beside her. However, even if she did that, it would be too late. The keen judgment she’d gained through several practice battles made her aware of that.
So, what should she do?
“Come!”
Believing in the armor she wore, the Inquisitor stood before the priests to block the attack. This amazingly light armor made it possible.
Bam!
The forearm she’d raised as a shield clashed with the blade of an axe. It didn’t break, but the recoil pushed her forearm back a little.
“That’s!”
The Inquisitor lowered the hand that hadn’t collided with the axe’s blade. She withdrew her mace from her belt, intending to use it to strike the enemy's head.
“Shh.”
In an instant, something seemingly emerged from the shadows to take complete control of that large man.
They kicked the back of his knees to adjust his height, grabbed his chin to fix his face in place, and slit his throat with a blade. Actions all performed simultaneously. Blood poured out.
“Kerg, gag.”
He precisely cut through the carotid artery. The Inquisitor could tell by the amount of blood spurting out of the man before her.
The next thing she did was identify the person who did this. A dark green cape that appeared almost black when viewed in the dark, and ears poking out of it. It was the troublemaker.
“What happened…?!”
“What happened? The bastards you noticed finally showed their true colors. I’m not sure yet whether they are in league with the Demons, but considering they targeted you, a priest with nothing to do with this, it’s likely–”
“Demonic Energy!”
As soon as the attacker’s life was cut short, her face froze at the sight of some black powder flying in the wind and a burst of Demonic Energy.
Until then, she’d only ever felt some slight discomfort, but for some reason, she could now actually feel some Demonic Energy.
“An intruder?!”
“But how?”
“Are you okay?!”
Immediately after the Demonic Energy scattered into the air, the surrounding soldiers noticed the attacker. It was as if that Demonic Energy had been concealing him.
“Get those guys…!”
That was dangerous. The Inquisitor tried to move to escape from that place, intending to deal with all those from whom she felt discomfort.
Rumble.
But at that moment, she heard part of the city wall collapse. Since she’d stopped praying, some of her blessings had been destroyed.
“…!”
It might have been a coincidence, but it may have not. That was what held her back. The Inquisitor slightly bit her lip.
“Sandworms!! Two Sandworms are approaching!!”
To make matters worse, she felt the earth shaking below them. Sand Rat. It was a Demon with a body length of up to 20 meters, and its characteristic was that it moved by burrowing through the ground.
It was the biggest enemy of city walls built only on the surface.
“I will take care of those guys, so you just stay here and pray.”
“…! How will you…?”
“I’m a lot better at killing people than you, right?”
“…!”
She opened her eyes wide at that troublemaker’s words. For a moment, this person who’d suddenly emerged from the shadows seemed especially threatening.
“Mister Knight has climbed up the castle wall, so please keep that in mind. Oh, and please give me some holy relics. If anyone asks, I have to tell them I was ordered to kill those guys.
And that feeling definitely wasn’t wrong.
The Inquisitor clenched her fist before her before finally taking something out and throwing it toward him.
Catch.
“Thanks.”
She then returned to her spot. An even more intense blessing than the one before enveloped the city walls.
* * *
The Deathbringer walked back the way he came, recalling the locations of those guys.
And at where he was supposed to be stationed, he caught Kankan, who was fighting even harder than before.
“What?!”
“Let’s go hunt down some traitors.”
“What are you saying? Sandworms are coming our way!”
It seemed he had been so focused on what was happening before him that he didn’t know what was happening in their own lines.
He grabbed Kankan and forcibly dragged him along.
While the Demon Knight was playing a very active role, the fight was only growing more intense. Few people would notice their absence.
Those who did wouldn’t have the power to stop them because the Demons were attacking non-stop, or they would go silent when shown the holy relic he’d received.
“Traitors?”
“Those guys. The ones like the Martial King.”
“…!”
“Not only did they try to attack the priests, but Demonic Energy was also detected coming from them. We can’t put this off anymore just because some Demons are coming our way.”
Kankan might be very talented, but even his absence wouldn’t make much of a difference so long as it wasn’t the Demon Knight who left.
On the other hand, when it came to hunting down traitors, someone this strong was indispensable. Killing them in one hit would minimize damage and allow for swift action.
“Your job is simple. Let me know about those guys I have no information on and handle any head-on confrontations.”
Furthermore, Deathbringer wasn’t that confident in head-on fights. He needed at least one person who could cover for him in that aspect.
“Okay.”
After some explanations, Red Mane immediately understood his role. It was nice having someone so easy to communicate with by his side.
“Then let’s go immediately. We have to kill everyone within these walls, including the Martial King.
“…!”
The hunt had just begun.
* * *
* * *
Uwah. There were just too many Demons. Seriously.
With such thoughts in my head, I continued to swing my sword. I’d used [Bombard] a bit too much and my Arcane Power was reaching its limits, so I couldn't use any of my skills.
It didn’t really matter since I could still easily cut through those guys, though I still felt some resistance in my wrist.
Slash!
I tore apart another harpy and wiped my face. Because of how many things I’d killed, blood was splattered all over it.
The blood on the back of my hand and fingers gathered into droplets and flew away with a single gesture.
Kyaaaak!
“Tsk.”
At that moment, even more of those things came flying. One of them, rushing at me like a cannonball, almost crushed part of the wall before it could even reach me.
However, I wasn’t willing to sacrifice some of my life force for more Arcane Power.
I cut that cannonball bastard in half. The vertically bisected body separated and fell on either side of me.
The wall imbued with many blessings was quite strong, so it didn’t collapse when that cut-apart body fell on it. I didn’t know what would have happened had it landed behind the city wall, but it likely wouldn’t have mattered much since a lot of corpses were already piled up there.
Kyaaaaaaarg!
Another one landed on the wall, its mouth filled with flames. It seemed like it wanted to spit out some fire after its rough landing.
However, this wall wasn’t just sturdy.
I mean, I lost one HP every three seconds, so what would happen to those guys?
Sizzle!
The moment the wall touched its skin, steam began rising from it, burning the creature’s body. Although not powerful enough to instantly melt the thing, it was more than enough to hurt those Demons.
That thing trying to spit out some fire crumbled, its attack delayed by half a beat. It was enough time for me to pull out my sword and cut off its head.
Bam!
The severed head fell over the wall.
“Haah.”
But seriously, for how long did I need to fight? I felt like I’d already killed quite a few…
I glanced at my surroundings.
While walking up and down the wall, I’d prioritized dealing with Demons that could potentially destroy the wall, so I couldn’t see any more big ones for now. There were still a lot of flying Demons left in the sky, but I only killed those that came close or tried to attack me.
On the ground outside the walls… Wow, what was going on down there? I couldn’t really do anything about those on the ground and had just left them alone, so the guys down there seemed pretty busy.
Some of those things were trying to climb the walls, digging their claws into it. In particular, they persistently targeted areas that were already showing some damage.
Boom!
Still, the walls remained intact, and the wizards were steadily taking out those bastards. So, it would be only a matter of time. Things would turn out fine.
“Sandworms!! Two Sandworms are approaching!!”
As long as a mid-boss or something equivalent to a boss didn’t intervene, that is.
“I thought it would be easy.”
Just when I thought things would turn out fine and I could safely beat this event without the boss appearing, two boss-like monsters appeared. I didn’t even need anything to tell me to understand that much.
Ruuuumble.
Those things even had the characteristic of moving through the ground. I clicked my tongue as I looked toward the burrowed-through earth.
I couldn’t kill those things. Firing a [Slash] from up here down to where they were would take a lot of Arcane Power. And [Bombard] consumed an insane amount of Arcane Power, as well.
[Arcane Spear], on the other hand… I didn’t know exactly how much damage it would cause after penetrating through all that soil. Despite having not seen the enemy's appearance yet, I’d bet their skin was pretty tough, considering they were burrowing through the ground at that speed.
I suspected it would be pointless. It would be better if I didn’t even try.
Going down to kill them… even if I ignored the Archmage’s request, that would be a bit unreasonable. There wasn't just one, but two, and a lot of people were around that area. Most importantly, I didn’t have any more Arcane Power left.
I could kill most Demons without any Arcane Power, but killing this kind would probably be impossible.
Ruuuumble.
The Sandworms were coming even closer every second. The end goal of their rough movements, enough to push their Demonic Energy to the surface and send other Demons flying, was clearly the wall gates.
I wasn’t sure how intelligent those Demons were, but that was obviously some kind of ploy.
Ah, now that things were like this, they should just open the gates a little. If they did, I wouldn’t have to use my skills left and right like this!
Having such thoughts, I wanted to either sit or lie down. I could do nothing with my own power, so I just hoped the situation would improve by itself.
Bang!!!
However, reality was flowing differently from my hopes.
Ultimately, I had to stand by and watch the gates get smashed to pieces while unable to touch those things. The only consolation was that the city had expected the gates to be smashed to pieces to begin with.
“Kill them!”
“Don’t let them get to the shelter!”
That was a consolation because, by assuming that this would happen, their subsequent response was very fast.
That meant the wizards could immediately fill in the gaps caused by the gate’s destruction with earthen walls, and the manpower stationed throughout the city could immediately fight against the Sandworms.
It was just that every time those giant monsters moved, the damage done to the buildings increased immensely.
Hmm, should I also go down? I thought about that briefly while tearing off the head of a Gargoyle attacking me and throwing it toward a Wyvern.
I wasn’t so sure about going outside the walls, but since I would be going into the city, I wouldn’t be breaking my promise, and I’d already taken care of the monsters that could destroy the walls.
The only ones left were outside of the walls… However, others could handle them just as well. Even if they managed to cause some damage, it wouldn’t be as bad as what those Sandworms could do.
Above all, it would be more efficient for me to handle the boss and have the others deal with the mobs rather than lots of people dealing with the boss and me alone handling all these mobs.
“Haah.”
Okay. I should go help. There wasn’t just one of them, but two.
Since they were far apart, even if I was a little low on Arcane Power, my life wouldn’t be in danger if I fought one. It shouldn’t be a problem for me to deal with just one.
With these thoughts in mind, I wrapped what little Arcane Power I still had left around my legs, preparing to descend to the ground below.
> [You seem to be in a good mood, given that you’re seriously holding yourself back like that. I thought you’d at least show some kind of reaction to this.]
“…!”
Had I known this would happen from the beginning, I wouldn't have done that, though.
> [I deliberately chose a moment when you would be the angriest to show up, but unfortunately, it seems that didn't work out as planned.]
“You…”
I slightly held out my hand toward that person with a beauty one would usually only see in Hollywood. Another Demon approached me, unable to read the mood, and got pathetically torn apart by me.
However, the other party showed no kind of reaction to that.
Of course, they wouldn’t. If they would react to something like that, they wouldn't be standing here in a Greek-style linen robe atop this wall.
No, their clothes aside, how did they even get up on this wall? Unless they were supremely confident in their skills, no one would dare stand here without protection.
> [For you to not even recognize me… Looks like you've become completely useless now, Gretchen.]
Even more concerning was that I couldn't even sense their presence. That was dangerous. Cold sweat ran down my back.
Thankfully, the other party willingly initiated a conversation first. If they didn't, I might have only noticed them after they stabbed me in the back.
Scrape.
‘Kill them. Right now.’
I continued to think, the slight scraping of metal ringing in my ears.
Didn't they just say I ‘didn't recognize’ them? They even spoke as if they were looking down on Gretchen.
I was pretty sure none of the 72 Knights, who were far lower in rank than a Great Demon, would say something like that…
“You're Sloth.”
> [Ah, I guess you haven't become that useless yet.]
Hey. Archmage, are you watching? Your summoning spell was successful. The Great Demon has appeared.
Scrape.
‘Kill them immediately.’
Ignoring everything else, I focused entirely on the opponent before me. They might be a Great Demon boasting incredible power and stats, but they were still a step below the final boss. However, I couldn't afford to lower my guard before them.
Of course, their strength had probably been balanced out according to the plot's progression. Naturally, they had to!
Even if I couldn’t defeat them in this setting, they were still one of our targets. I couldn't just let my guard and tension down.
Usually, these named characters were much stronger than the bosses that appeared alongside them.
> [Well, this is fine, I guess. Considering I had to move because of you, I don't plan to end this easily. There's no way you can exert your original strength in that suppressed state of yours. How fortunate.]
…Still, I hoped they would go easy on me. My only sin was getting stuck in this game without any way to get out, so couldn't they be a bit gentler with me?
> [Now then, let us enter your deepest nightmare.]
Gyaaaag.