Chapter 97
Chapter 97
“Come, Excalibur.”
I lightly grasped at the empty air and summoned the holy sword.
“……?”
Normally, immediately after that, I should have felt a heavy sensation settle into my hand together with an auspicious light that illuminated the darkness.
But no matter how much time passed, my hand remained nothing but empty.
“Excalibur?”
Thinking perhaps it hadn’t heard my call, I called its name again, but the surroundings were so quiet it was almost embarrassing.
“What the…….”
Originally, a holy sword was summoned when its master revealed their name to the world, yet Excalibur showed no sign of appearing despite my calling it several times.
But I couldn’t just stand around blankly forever.
The enemy was positioned right in front of me, constantly aiming for my throat.
Swaeaeaeik-!
From within the shadows stretched by the moonlight, I sensed a sharp killing intent.
Already on guard, I lightly kicked off the ground and flipped my body in midair to evade it.
“Ts.”
The bastard didn’t give me time to retrieve the sword it had let go of.
The continuous attacks were sharp enough to make my brow furrow, relentlessly driving me back without pause.
If it had been me before the academic festival, I would have struggled to adapt to this speed and stealth, but now it was different.
Shiiik-!
A single stream slicing through the air.
The killing intent felt from the tip of the blade aimed at me was vivid even in the darkness.
I had taken a hit from the unexpected ambush, but that was all.
Thanks to one of my traits, Super Recovery, the bleeding had stopped long ago.
My labored breathing calmed once more, and my physical abilities returned to normal.
Whirik.
I lightly deflected the blade that came in aiming for my heart this time.
Then I grabbed the bastard’s arm and twisted it in an instant.
“……!”
The sword that had pierced my chest rolled across the ground.
The bastard clutched its arm, twisted in the opposite direction, and hastily retreated from me, but the tide had already turned.
“…Weaker than I thought?”
Demons were fundamentally superior in physical ability.
Even if it was an individual specialized in assassination or stealth like Alice, I was wondering if it hadn’t been far too easy for its arm to break, when a strange woman’s voice sounded from behind me.
“Of course it is. It’s just a low-ranking demon I brought along for fun, and it’s not even the main body.”
At the presence that seemed to rise up from the shadows of the drooping foliage, I slowly turned my head.
Blood-red hair as if soaked in blood, and dark brown skin.
Its ears were unnaturally long for a human, and a bewitching aura swirled in its eyes.
Perhaps the words about it not being the main body were true, because the body of the one that had been fighting me until just moments ago faded away into the air.
Soon after, another demon of the same appearance appeared behind the woman, carrying Randolph’s body slung over its shoulder.
“So it’s not an ordinary Dark Elf.”
Judging by appearance alone, I might have thought it was a Dark Elf differing from Chris only in skin color, but the aura emanating from its entire body was unmistakably demonic energy.
It was probably a high-ranking demon that had descended upon the body of a Dark Elf offered as a sacrifice.
“I didn’t expect to meet such a good man like you in a place I came to for light entertainment.”
She licked her fingertips with a seductive gesture.
Then she snapped her fingers and whispered.
“Capture him alive, my darlings.”
At the same time, countless arms began to surge up from the shadow stretched out beneath my feet.
“Ugh?!”
Startled by the grotesque sight you’d only see in ghost stories, I kicked off the ground and rushed near the sword stuck far away, pulling it free.
“…What the.”
What rose up from my shadow was so bizarre that I was momentarily left speechless.
Its body had the form of a Shabel Tiger, one of the beast-type monsters, but it was densely covered all over with what looked like human arms.
“Isn’t it beautiful? It’s a chimera made by tearing off the arms of the humans who lived here. You could say it’s a work worth commemorating, in its own way.”
Chimera.
The moment I heard that word, I realized the reason people had been going missing in South Yorkshire.
Demons didn’t need meals in the usual sense.
Their source was demonic energy, and human blood and flesh were nothing more than luxury foods.
But this thing had attacked people simply to create such a grotesque chimera, using them as materials.
It wasn’t that I felt some righteous anger.
Rather, a physiological disgust welled up, like when you see something filthy like sewage or trash.
“…Why kidnap Randolph? Were you planning to use him as material for a chimera too?”
I raised the edge of my sword and threw the question at her.
I wanted to cut her down in a single stroke right away, but this side was dealing with a hostage.
I couldn’t move recklessly as I pleased.
“Randolph? Ah, is that this child’s name? How cute.”
She stroked Randolph’s head as he was held by her subordinate.
Then, with a deep smile, she spoke.
“Unfortunately, perhaps because the body I went through all the trouble to descend into belongs to a filthy Dark Elf, it doesn’t suit me very well. I was wondering what to do, when I happened to find a decent sacrifice here. So I thought I’d kidnap one while giving things a little shake.”
“A sacrifice.”
She said something that would make Leysias fly into a rage if she heard it, all too calmly.
I glanced toward the castle, but still felt no presence at all.
“…When have I ever relied on someone else’s help.”
“What?”
At my quietly muttered soliloquy, she tilted her head.
In response, I let out a sigh and raised my sword.
Up until then, she had worn a relaxed expression.
She seemed to think of someone like me as nothing more than a brief amusement, but that perception flipped in an instant.
Uwoong-.
I released the momentum I had been holding back until now.
The pressure of reaching Sword Master swept in all directions and pressed down on my enemies.
At that, the woman spoke with a stiff expression.
“…Sword Master? In a place like this?”
“I also came here just to have a little fun, so I guess it’s mutual coincidence.”
High-ranking demons were independent entities.
Unless they built up a faction, they didn’t bother dragging subordinates around.
But as she had said, that thing was probably not in a normal state because it hadn’t adapted to its body.
That was why it brought along low-ranking demons that used shadows and had them attend to it.
If I’d had Excalibur, I could have dealt with all of them easily, but even without it, it wasn’t really a problem.
“Have you been keeping me beneath you this whole time? You hid your presence because you didn’t know what might appear behind you, and now you’re acting all arrogant and running wild—it’s laughable.”
“…Stop him, until I fully take root in this body.”
She issued an order to her subordinate and disappeared back into the shadows.
Since even my senses couldn’t grasp it, the inside was probably a separate space.
“Then to dig into that place, do I have to take you down first?”
The shadow demon, of course, didn’t bother answering me.
It merely raised its killing intent to carry out its master’s command.
If the one earlier had really been a clone, then the aura coming from the main body was no joke.
The woman had called it a low-ranking demon, but at the very least, it wasn’t weaker than the ones I’d met in Britain.
Grrr-.
Unfortunately, it seemed my enemies weren’t limited to just one.
The moment the woman vanished into the shadows, grotesque chimeras that looked like mixtures of various monsters began revealing themselves one after another, as if to take her place.
“Come at me, you riffraff.”
But I didn’t particularly care.
I even let out a laugh as I provoked them.
Swaeaeaeik-!
Dozens of chimeras charged at me with killing intent.
I simply swung my sword slowly in response.
Uwoong-.
A blazing light gathered atop my blade.
It wasn’t the auspicious holy radiance that poured forth from a sacred sword like Escalibur, but the sharply honed aura blade was more than enough to shatter the bodies of the chimeras that bared their fangs at me.
The air was instantly covered with chunks of flesh and droplets of blood, but that wasn’t the end of it.
Shiiiiiik-!
Offering the chimeras as sacrifices, the shadow demon’s sword aimed for an opening in me with a sharpness on an entirely different level from before, targeting my heart.
I lightly reached out my hand toward it.
Thud.
“……!”
My hand, covered in aura, caught the sword that was stabbing toward my chest without much difficulty.
The demon twisted its body while letting out a futile breath, but before it could do anything else, my sword swung first.
Slice.
Its severed limbs spilled down onto the ground along with the chimera flesh.
I brushed off the hand that had caught the sword, then stepped forward to stand before the demon that had collapsed and was writhing on the ground.
“Bring it out.”
“…….”
Despite a sword being aimed at its neck, it remained silent.
“Hm…….”
At that, I let out a low hum.
Up until now, I had learned magic from Gawain and at the Academy, but I only knew the basics.
In particular, the mechanisms of demons were completely different from those of humans, so I couldn’t meddle carelessly.
I tried calling System Assist just in case, but it was quiet, just like with Excalibur.
Fortunately, that concern didn’t last long.
Swaeaeaeaeik-!
A bolt of lightning streaked toward us from the castle.
It soon fell behind me with a heavy vibration amid a cloud of dust, then approached me as a long cloak fluttered.
“Am I late?”
The Count of Sheffield asked, panting roughly.
I shook my head at that and pointed to the demon lying on the ground.
“Randolph is inside a shadow barrier this thing created. I don’t know how to open it—should I try killing it?”
“I will do it.”
With an unhesitating answer, the Count of Sheffield swung his arm.
Dozens of magic circles appeared, and from one of them, golden chains emerged and bound the demon’s body.
Pshhk.
Without hesitation, he pierced the demon’s chest and tore out its heart.
Soon, pitch-black demonic energy crawled up his hand and covered his arm, but he paid it no mind and began casting.
‘Is he controlling the demonic energy himself to open the shadows?’
I couldn’t help but admire the sight—something even a fairly skilled mage wouldn’t dare imitate.
Even in that moment, the demonic energy continued to erode his body.
Even so, to save his son, the Count of Sheffield endured the surging pain and completed the spell.
Uuuwoong-.
Soon, the shadows opened, and Randolph’s figure, collapsed on the ground, rose up to the surface.
Bang!
The Count of Sheffield immediately crushed the demon’s heart he was holding.
Then he ignited bright yellow flames and burned the demon’s corpse, and with the chains that had bound the body, he bound his own arm.
“……?”
Perhaps he had overexerted himself, because he walked toward his son while breathing roughly.
But I had no choice but to grab his shoulder.
“…Your Highness?”
The Count of Sheffield looked at me with a puzzled expression.
In response, I pointed around us and answered with a hardened face.
“The demon that went in together with Randolph is nowhere to be seen.”
“That’s.”
He immediately spread his mana widely ahead of him to search for any presence.
But like me, perhaps he found nothing but wild beasts, because he frowned slightly.
“…Ah, Father?”
A hoarse voice rang out through the darkness.
As Randolph regained consciousness, the Count of Sheffield hurriedly tried to run to him, but once again I grabbed his shoulder.
“Your Highness!”
The Count of Sheffield urgently pointed at his son.
At a glance, his condition didn’t look good.
He begged me to let him take him back quickly for treatment, but I shook my head and pointed at the boy.
“Look properly again. Does that still look like your son to you?”
“…Ah.”
Blue flames took hold in the Count of Sheffield’s eyes.
Only then did he finally realize the anomaly, and he staggered backward with a low groan.
At the same time, a chilling laugh burst out from Randolph’s mouth.
He slowly raised his body and grinned.
“I was planning to get rid of one of you first since there were two annoying pests, but you’re quick to catch on. Did I talk too much?”