Chapter 109
Chapter 109
The monster legion stopped as if on cue, halting right at the very edge of the range of arrows and siege weapons, facing us in a standoff.
“Looks like they’re trying to request a commander duel.”
One of the soldiers whose morale had soared because of me sneered as he raised his sword.
As he said, if they were to request a commander duel, the Majin would probably come out personally.
It would have been a perfect opportunity to take the enemy commander’s head in one stroke, but regrettably, what stepped forward was not a Majin.
Thud, thud, thud, thud!
House-sized golems began to walk out from far in the distance.
It was not rare for golems to be used in siege warfare.
Rather, as weapons that simultaneously possessed overwhelming offensive and defensive power, they were frequent regulars whenever walls or gates needed to be torn down.
“W-what is that…….”
Someone standing beneath the watchtower spoke in a voice tinged with unease.
The golems had the crude, bulky shape that was commonly seen.
However, the pitch-black aura coiling around them felt abnormal, and it seemed that everyone standing on this battlefield sensed that fact on their skin.
“Golems reinforced with demonic energy, huh.”
There were as many as twenty demonic-energy-reinforced golems.
Soon, they began to take slow steps forward, making the ground quake.
As those things, exuding overwhelming mass and eerie energy, started approaching them, agitation began to spread atop the walls.
‘They’re not as monstrous as Gremory’s from South Yorkshire, but they’ll be troublesome.’
A golem would not stop moving until its core at the center was destroyed.
With that size and output, no matter how many ordinary soldiers there were, it would be difficult.
At the very least, it would take dozens of knights who had reached the Expert realm to make it worth attempting.
I wanted to avoid revealing myself as much as possible until the Majin stepped in, but if things went wrong, it seemed I would have to move sooner than expected.
However, the Leipzig side also seemed unwilling to be pushed around so easily, and they poured an offensive toward the golems advancing on the walls.
First, thrown weapons centered around catapults rained down on the golems.
The archers who followed aimed for the relatively thin legs in order to reduce their mobility.
But since they were golems with high resistance to physical attacks, those strikes dealt only negligible damage.
Realizing that their attacks were ineffective, the soldiers retreated according to their commander’s orders, and the ones who filled the gap were the territory’s mages wearing dark brown robes.
“[O, vibrating thunder of destruction!]”
“[Let the flames of ruin bloom…….]”
All kinds of magic shot up into the air.
Blue lightning bolts fell from the sky, and ice arrows pierced the golems’ bodies.
Flames that spread while riding a fierce storm burned their bodies, and waves of earth shook the ground, binding their steps.
“Ooooooh—!”
Cheers erupted atop the walls at the clearly visible marks left behind.
The golems’ bodies cracked apart here and there, and some even melted down under the flames.
By nature, magic could not be used repeatedly in short intervals like firing arrows.
Still, the fact that it dealt heavy damage to the vanguard golems was highly significant.
However, that cheering was only brief.
“…They recover that fast?”
A golem whose body had been partially destroyed stopped in place for a moment.
Then it absorbed soil and gravel from beneath its feet, filling in the damaged areas.
“It seems they not only have excellent defense, but also possess anti-magic properties.”
A knight standing in the watchtower spoke with a grave expression.
The soldiers on the walls were pleased, but originally, the golems should have been mostly destroyed or at least rendered immobile by the mages’ attack just now.
Instead, only parts were damaged, and their frames were intact.
The demonic energy wrapped around their bodies was probably drastically increasing their resistance to magic and helping restore the damaged parts.
“Knights, forward.”
At the count’s command, the knights capable of handling aura lined up at the front.
It looked as though they were prepared to engage in close combat if necessary to stop the golems from destroying the walls.
But the monster legion was not that far away.
If those things began moving in earnest, they would reach right before us in an instant.
“…Ostia?”
A good idea suddenly came to me, and I stepped forward to the front of the watchtower.
Petra looked at me with puzzled eyes.
She would not know that I could use magic.
She probably thought my application for a double major had simply come from curiosity.
“Count, I’ll take care of the golems.”
“…Your Highness?”
The count, who had been issuing orders with a hardened face, now wore the same puzzled expression as his daughter.
Without answering, I raised my hand toward the sky and spoke.
“[O flame that annihilates evil and burns sin, scatter your brilliant light upon this place, here and now.]”
Normally, a mage of the Count of Sheffield’s caliber would need several minutes of preparation, along with a complex and high-level spell formula and chant, but with the help of system assistance, I did not need any of that.
“Prometheus’s Flame.”
As I snapped my fingers to finish the chant, a large chunk of mana drained out of my body.
I rummaged around my waist, took out a mana potion from my subspace pouch, drank it, and then looked up at the sky.
Zzzzzzzzzzzz-.
More than a dozen magic circles composed of metaphysical symbols began to be inscribed in the sky.
The golems continued to move steadfastly to break the walls even in the midst of that, but they had no choice but to stop as a shower of blue sacred flames began to fall from there.
Fwaaaaaah-!
Perhaps because I was not yet accustomed to that magic, the range and scale were smaller than when the Count of Sheffield had used it, but it was more than enough firepower to cover the ground where the golems stood.
Kugugugung-!
All twenty golems were soon engulfed in blue flames and burned away.
Each of them hurriedly fixed their legs to the ground and tried to absorb soil and gravel to restore their damaged parts like before, but the speed at which Prometheus’s Flame devoured the demonic energy was far faster.
“Hoo…….”
The mana that had drained away was replenished again through the potion.
Petra, who had been staring at me blankly, opened her mouth with a shocked expression.
“Ostia, when did you learn magic…….”
“My bloodline is exceptionally noble, you know.”
When the worldline twisted, anomalous developments occurred.
Until recently, I had been barely managing just to endure it, but now, it was different.
“If they throw a changeup at us.”
Then I would respond with cheats.
Beyond the field filled with the monster legion, there stood a single antique-looking tent that did not match the crude surrounding scenery.
Inside that tent, wide open toward the battlefield, five men and women were seated, and they all shared one thing in common: their irises were pitch-black.
Those inside the tent rolled their jet-black irises and sharply yellow pupils around as they surveyed the battle situation.
Among them, the only woman, unlike the others, spoke with an indifferent expression while grooming her nails.
“Why don’t we just bulldoze through? Was there ever a need to make such a fuss in the first place? If we’d just killed that fat lord, this crude territory would’ve collapsed easily.”
“Tsk, Isabel. Have you already forgotten Lord Agares’s command? He wished for as much despair and resentment as possible to bloom in this land. That’s why we even let the lord go in the first place—so we could plant a demon’s seed in his body and test it.”
The ash-haired man sitting across from her let out a twisted sneer as he rebuked her.
Isabel frowned and replied.
“Azazel, I’ll follow quietly since Lord Agares appointed you as the one responsible for this operation, but honestly, I don’t get it. Is it really necessary to go through all this trouble, even smashing the teleport gate…….”
“That’s enough. Doubting His will is not proper.”
As their voices rose, a white-haired man sitting in a corner laughed heartily and stepped in to stop them.
Isabel turned to him with narrowed eyes.
“…Are you sick with some dying disease that makes you unable to stop drawing that damn holy sign? Way to make it obvious you’re from the Holy Kingdom.”
“Naturalness is something that settles in from daily life. For someone like me, who has infiltrated the Holy Kingdom under Lord Agares’s orders, this is the clearest way to carry out that command.”
“…You crazy bastard. Try acting that dignified even in front of people who are dying. And stop with that art nonsense and that filthy dissection show already.”
At those words, the white-haired man’s eyes narrowed.
Isabel glared back without backing down, but she had no choice but to turn her gaze away at Azazel’s words.
“Alright, enough. Let’s begin. The seed we planted in that lord inside should be sprouting by now, and demonification should be starting. It’ll be a chaotic situation. Well, he’s probably already dead, but that’s fine too.”
As he stood up and exited the tent, the others followed behind him.
“Descart.”
At Azazel’s call, a bald, muscular man with dark brown skin nodded and stepped forward.
Snap.
As Descart snapped his fingers, the ground swelled up and twenty golems were created in front of them.
They shook the earth as they crossed through the monster horde and immediately began advancing toward the walls.
“Once we smash the walls with Demon Soldiers and release the monsters to rampage, despair and resentment will bloom just as Lord Agares said.”
Demon Soldiers were golems made of demonic energy, and they were Descart’s primary magic.
Before becoming a Majin, he had been a Fifth Class mage who specialized in earth-element magic.
However, he ultimately failed to break through the wall above that level and fell into despair.
Descart gave up on being human and became a Majin to tear down the wall that blocked his path.
In the end, by becoming a Majin, he entered the Sixth Class and grasped the title of Archmage in his hands.
Demon Soldiers were a new type of golem he had created after becoming a Majin.
Like conventional golems, they were strong against physical attacks, and thanks to the demonic energy covering their entire bodies, their resistance to magic was also significantly increased.
Of course, because they used demonic energy, they were weak to holy power, but there was no way someone with holy power capable of blocking Archmage-class magic would exist in a place like this backwater.
“…Huh?”
As if mocking that thought, more than a dozen magic circles were drawn above the heads of the Demon Soldiers advancing toward the walls.
Soon, bluish flames began to fall from there, quickly covering the golems’ bodies.
“There seems to be a fairly skilled mage there…….”
Descart let out a sneer.
No ordinary magic could ever bring down his Demon Soldiers.
It was just that the flames the opponent had raised were not ordinary magic.
Kugugugung!
The Demon Soldiers, which had racked up countless achievements without revealing themselves until now, began to collapse far too easily and helplessly.
Descart quickly realized the severity of the situation, stopped them, and focused on restoration, but the blue flames devoured the demonic energy even faster.
“…What is this.”
It was a situation Descart could not understand.
What kind of flame could dare burn his golems.“
“That man, is it.”
The gazes of the five Majin followed the fluctuations of mana toward the watchtower above.
It was quite a distance away, but everyone present here were powerful beings who had transcended human limits.
Seeing Leios’s face was no problem at all.
“…Oh my.”
At that handsome appearance, Isabel’s eyes widened.
Until now, she had been grooming her nails with an indifferent attitude.