Chapter II: A Looming Shadow
Sounds of battle filled the dimly lit
underground room. Explosions and the steel of swords were illuminated by the
faint green light. The fighting was so fierce that it shook the walls around
them. At times, the reverberations could even be felt by those far out of sight
of the combatants.
Silver blades of light, fireballs, flaming
spears, wind blades, and water jets flew in every which direction, a never-ending
barrage of projectiles. Frantic yelling, the sounds of bodies slamming against
bodies, and battle cries all mingled together into a chaotic cacophony. The
once quiet room had been transformed into a raging battlefield.
“Light that tears through all creation, Wind
that erodes time itself, rage like a thousand flower petals and coalesce into a
blinding storm— Heavenrend!” In the middle of all the fighting stood Kouki
Amanogawa, the hero. With a flick of his wrist, countless blades of light shot
out of his holy sword. A dozen of the bat-like creatures flying at him were
shredded to pieces. They were reduced to chunks of flesh in a flash, without
even a chance to defend themselves.
“Vanguard, ten more seconds!”
“Roger!” The party was facing off a veritable
army of huge ant-monsters, giant bats, and massive sea anemone-like things with
wriggling tentacles. All in a circular room only thirty meters in diameter.
Eight tunnels led into the room. It was from there that the monsters continued
pouring in.
The hero’s party was currently exploring the
89th floor of the Great Orcus Labyrinth. The party’s vanguard was composed of
the Hero Kouki, his childhood friends, the Monk Ryutarou Sakagami and the
Swordmaster Shizuku Yaegashi, the Heavy Knight Jugo Nagayama, the Fighter
Daisuke Hiyama, and the Spearmaster Reichi Kondou. Lastly, though he wasn’t
technically part of the vanguard, the Assassin Kousuke Endou flitted around the
battlefield, picking off targets.
The highly trained vanguard expertly repelled
the wave of monsters, keeping the more vulnerable rearguard safe. Meanwhile,
the rearguard called out a count for how much longer it would take for their
next magical barrage to be ready.
A few of the bats managed to fly past the
vanguard, but the ever-reliable Barrier Master kept them at bay with a magical
wall.
“O momentary squall, form an impassable,
invisible wall! Rebuff all who approach— Storm Bulwark!” Suzu Taniguchi
summoned an offensive barrier to shield the back line. But as the wall of
raging wind was invisible, the bats didn’t notice it. Heedless of Suzu’s magic,
they charged at the rearguard, thinking only of how they would tear these puny
humans to shreds.
Just before they reached the group, they ran
into the wind wall. As they did so, the wall began to bulge outward. Dozens of
them rammed into the wall, none of them able to pass through the swirling
gusts.
Once all of the bats were trapped the bulge
reached a breaking point and exploded outward. The resulting blast of wind sent
the bats flying back.
The impact was powerful enough to obliterate a
few of the bats on the spot. Those that survived the blast died a few seconds
later when they slammed into the walls with bone-shattering force.
“Heh! You’re not getting past me that easy!”
Suzu’s shout was loud enough to be heard over the din of the fighting. Just
then, the members of the vanguard unleashed some of their strongest attacks.
Their goal wasn’t to defeat the enemies in front of them, but to immobilize
them long enough that they could get out of the way.
“Get back!” At Kouki’s command, the vanguard
retreated a few steps.
A second later, the rearguard’s magic hit the
crowd of monsters. Their timing was perfect. A massive fireball slammed into
the monsters, throwing them in disarray. At the same time, a tornado sprouted
from the ground, tearing through their ranks. Stone spires jutted out from the
floor, impaling those unlucky enough to still be on the ground. Icicles with
points as sharp as knives rained down on the battlefield, skewering everything.
Nature’s ferocity tore through the army of
monsters, leaving no survivors in its wake. The whole attack lasted only a few
seconds. But in those scant few seconds, over 90% of the monsters had been
killed or mortally wounded.
“Perfect! Let’s mop up the rest of them!” The
vanguard surged forward once more, thoroughly eliminating the few survivors. It
didn’t even take five minutes to finish off the weakened enemies. Even after
the last monster was dealt with, they didn’t let their guard down. The party
remained vigilant for enemy attacks while congratulating each other on a battle
well fought.
“Phew, the 90th floor’s up next... We’ve
gotten strong enough to kill the monsters here without too much trouble...
Looks like our training mission’s almost over.”
“But that doesn’t mean we can take it easy.
There’s no telling what kinds of monsters and traps are waiting for us on the
next floor.”
“You worry too much, Shizuku. We’ve easily
cleared floors no one else has ever made it to. We’ll wipe the floor with
anything that comes at us, even if it’s demons.” Ryutarou smiled confidently as
he brushed Shizuku’s worries aside. He gave Kouki a fistbump, who returned it
and smiled back at him.
Shizuku sighed, frowning. She massaged the
wrinkles that had formed on her forehead. Sadly, she’d gotten used to cleaning
up the overconfident duo’s messes. Every time she looked in a mirror she
worried her frown wrinkles had become permanent. But even so, she didn’t stop
looking out for the rest of the group. Despite her attitude, Shizuku was kind
at heart.
“Hiyama-kun, Kondou-kun, I’ve finished healing
you two... How do you feel?” Kaori started doing her job while the rest of the
party was talking to each other. Namely, healing all of the injured members.
She was the group’s Priest after all.
Among their 15-person labyrinth conquest party
there was one other healer in the group. She split the work with Kaori, and
they set about healing everyone.
“Yeah, it doesn’t hurt at all. Thanks,
Shirasaki.”
“Y-Yeah, I’m fine now. Thanks.” Hiyama replied
absentmindedly as he stared at Kaori’s face. It was obvious he was smitten with
her. Kondou was blushing to the tips of his ears too. As they were vanguard
fighters the two of them often found themselves on the receiving end of Kaori’s
healing. Despite that, they still hadn’t gotten used to talking to her.
Kondou’s attitude could be explained away by
puberty, and his awkwardness was almost endearing. However, the kinds of gazes
Hiyama gave Kaori were far from normal. There was a darkness in his eyes that
clouded over his pupils from time to time. And recently, that darkness had been
growing stronger. But even those who were close to him, such as Shinji Nakano
and Yoshiki Saitou, hadn’t noticed this subtle change in Hiyama.
Kaori accepted the two boys’ thanks with a
smile and walked off to heal the rest of the party.
A short distance away, the party’s other
healer, Ayako Tsuji, was finishing up healing Nagayama. She was wearing her
trademark hair clip, which exposed her somewhat large forehead. Once she was finished
she sighed and wiped a bead of sweat off her brow. As Nagayama was the party’s
Heavy Knight, he often took the brunt of the enemies’ attacks. Thanks to that,
healing him was harder than healing the others.
The rearguard members of Nagayama’s party, the
Geomancer Kentarou Nomura and the Invoker Mao Yoshino hadn’t been injured. That
accounted for all of Nagayama’s party... Tsuji suddenly felt someone tug on her
sleeve. She turned to see Endou showing off the gash in his arm, tears in his
eyes. It didn’t look too deep, but it probably hurt a lot. He’d been patiently
waiting his turn the whole time, but as always no one had taken notice of his
presence and he’d been left forgotten.
“Crap,” Tsuji blurted out, but it wasn’t as if
she’d forgotten about her friend.
Kaori couldn’t help but smile at the pair.
After making sure no one else needed healing, she heaved a small sigh. Then,
she turned to look at the dim passageway heading forward, a hint of sadness in
her eyes.
“......” Shizuku knew what the cause of her
best friend’s melancholy was with a single glance. Kaori was worried. In
another ten floors they would reach the end of the labyrinth, at least as far
as they knew. And so far, they hadn’t found a single trace of Hajime.
She was still hopeful, but the despair was
beginning to creep up on her. Kaori had sworn to herself she’d only believe
Hajime was dead when she saw it with her own eyes. But every time they went
down a floor without finding anything, her outlook grew bleaker. Moreover, it
had been four months since Hajime had tumbled into the abyss. No matter how
strong her will was, even she couldn’t keep her negative emotions at bay for
that long.
She gripped her white staff tight, as if
clinging to it for support. Unable to bear seeing her like that, Shizuku opened
her mouth to say something. But before she could, the class’ most energetic
girl, Suzu, ran up to Kaori and hugged her from behind. It was as if she hadn’t
even noticed Kaori’s dispirited expression.
“Kaorin! Forget about those fools, heal me~
Come on, heal me~”
“Hwah! Suzu-chan, what are you doing!? And
besides, you’re not even injured!”
“Am too! My poor glass heart’s been broken! So
spoil me! Let me have some of those soft boobs of yours!”
“Wh-Wha... No! Hey, stop that! Yaaah!
Shizuku-chan, help meee!”
“Haaah, haaah, how about this? Does it feel
good? You’re pretty sensitive down— Bwah!?”
“Haaah, cut it out, Suzu. That’s too much
stimulation for all the poor boys.” Shizuku delivered a sharp chop to the back
of Suzu’s head, and she fell to the ground. She often acted more like a
perverted old man than the teenage girl she was. However, Shizuku was too late
to save the dignity of the boys in the room, who’d all gotten erections.
Eri Nakamura, Suzu’s friend, smiled awkwardly
as she watched Suzu roll around in pain.
“Uuu~ Thanks, Shizuku-chan. That was
embarrassing...”
“There there, everything’s fine now. I’ll be
here to get rid of any perverts that try and attack you.” Kaori clung to
Shizuku, who gently patted her head. This had become a pretty common scene
recently.
As she ran her fingers through Kaori’s hair,
Shizuku examined her expression. Kaori was busy watching Eri nurse Suzu now
though, and her earlier somber expression was nowhere to be seen. At least for
now, she’d been distracted. Shizuku mentally thanked Suzu for her timely
intervention.
“There’s still ten more floors. Hang in there,
Kaori.” Shizuku squeezed Kaori’s shoulder and looked her in the eyes. “Don’t
break on me now,” her gaze seemed to say. Realizing how pathetic she must have
looked, Kaori slapped her cheeks and looked back at Shizuku. Her gaze didn’t
waver.
“You’re right. Thanks, Shizuku-chan.” Once
again, Kaori realized just how much she relied on Shizuku’s support. As she
expressed her thanks, her gaze softened. Shizuku too, dropped the intensity
from her glare and nodded.
To everyone else they looked like passionate
lovers staring into each other’s eyes, but neither Shizuku nor Kaori noticed.
They didn’t notice Kouki looking around awkwardly, either. After all, they only
had eyes for each other.
“Do you think... I could protect him now?”
“Definitely. I know you can. You’re stronger
than you were back then. I mean, look, your level’s even higher than Captain
Meld’s. Hehe, but you know, he might have gotten even stronger than you. He was
the one who saved us back then too.”
“Fufu, jeez, Shizuku-chan...” Shizuku had just
meant it as a joke, but in truth, Hajime had grown far stronger than either of
them could have imagined. Though they wouldn’t come to learn that until later.
As Kouki and his party’s stats had long since
eclipsed that of Captain Meld, he and his knights were waiting on standby in
the 30th floor. They remained guarding the magic circle they’d discovered that
connected to the 70th floor. As of now, they ranked among Tortus’ strongest
humans. Their stats were:
Kouki Amanogawa Age: 17 Male Level: 72
Job: Hero
Strength: 880
Vitality: 880
Defense: 880
Agility: 880
Magic: 880
Magic Defense: 880
Skills: All Elemental Aptitude [+Light Element
Proficiency] [+Speed Casting] — All Elemental Resistance [+Increased Light
Resistance] — Physical Resistance [+Improved Healing] [+Impact Mitigation] —
Composite Casting — Sword Mastery — Herculean Strength — Supersonic Step —
Foresight — High Speed Mana Recovery — Sense Presence — Sense Magic — Limit
Break — Language Comprehension
Ryutarou Sakagami Age: 17 Male Level: 72
Job: Monk
Strength: 820
Vitality: 820
Defense: 680
Agility: 550
Magic: 280
Magic Defense: 280
Skills: Close Quarters Combat Proficiency [+Body
Strengthening] [+Partial Strengthening] [+Focused Strengthening] [+Penetrating
Strikes] — Supersonic Step — Physical Resistance [+Diamond Skin] — All
Elemental Resistance — Language Comprehension
Shizuku Yaegashi Age: 17 Female Level:72
Job: Swordmaster
Strength: 450
Vitality: 560
Defense: 320
Agility: 1110
Magic: 380
Magic Defense: 380
Skills: Sword Proficiency [+Improved Slashing
Speed] [+Improved Drawing Speed] — Supersonic Step [+Continual Steps] [+Steel
Legs] [+No Tempo] — Foresight — Sense Presence — Invisibility [+Illusionary
Attacks] — Language Comprehension
Kaori Shirasaki Age: 17 Female Level: 72
Job: Priest
Strength: 280
Vitality: 460
Defense: 360
Agility: 380
Magic: 1380
Magic Defense: 1380
Skills: Recovery Magic Affinity [+Improved
Proficiency] [+Increased Casting Speed] [+Image Supplementation] [+Piercing
Spells] [+AoE Proficiency] [+Remote Healing] [+Improved Status Effect Recovery]
[+Reduced Mana Consumption] [+Improved Mana Efficiency] [+Chain Casting]
[+Multicasting] [+Spell Retention] [+Effect Multiplication] — Light Magic
Affinity [+Speed Casting] [+Improved Proficiency] [+Increased Spell Duration]
[+Chain Casting] [+Multicasting] [+Spell Retention] — High Speed Mana Recovery
[+Meditation] — Language Comprehension
Kaori’s recovery magic and light magic skills
had been honed to the limit. Especially her recovery magic. Among the four,
Kaori had started with the least amount of skills, but with the addition of her
derivative skills, she now had more than even Kouki.
She’d trained harder than anyone to make sure
that this time she wouldn’t fail to keep her promise. This time, she’d protect
Hajime. Her strength was the result of ceaseless training. She’d even lost
sleep to practice her magic.
“I’d like to keep going... Are you guys good?”
Kouki awkwardly tried to get Kaori and Shizuku’s attention. Ever since he’d
seen the two of them hugging in Kaori’s room, Kouki’s behavior had become odd
at times. Kaori hadn’t really paid it any mind, but Shizuku had easily read
what was going through his mind. She glared at Kouki, her eyes clearly spelling
out “Don’t jump to any weird conclusions, you moron.”
Kouki pretended to ignore her glare and
started gathering the rest of the party up. They’d already explored most of the
89th floor. The passage they were heading down now was the only place they
hadn’t mapped.
After ten minutes of walking, the party
discovered the stairs leading to the 90th floor. The group descended down the
dim spiral staircase, warily examining their surroundings for traps. Ten meters
worth of steps later, they found themselves on the 90th floor.
Every ten floors usually marked a turning
point, so the party remained extremely vigilant as they stepped into the
passageway. However, as far as everyone could tell, the 90th floor was no different
from the 89th. They quickly started mapping out the area. Even if the overall
structure of the labyrinth hadn’t changed, they were bound to meet stronger
monsters. They couldn’t let their guard down.
At first the party’s search progressed
smoothly. Despite that, one by one, the party members began to grow suspicious.
“What the heck is going on?” The party arrived
in a large empty room, and Kouki finally voiced the suspicions that had been
growing in the back of his mind. Everyone else stopped and nodded. Confused
expressions flitted over everyone’s faces.
“How have we not seen a single monster even
after exploring so much of the floor?” Excluding a few side paths, the party
must have covered half of the floor already.
So far, they’d always run into monsters strong
enough to at least slow them down on each floor. Normally it took them around
two days to map out half of a floor.
This floor they’d managed to get through half
of in just three hours.
At first Kouki had assumed they were lying low
and observing the party from afar, but no matter how many times he tried to use
Sense Presence and Sense Magic, he didn’t find anything. Something strange was
afoot.
“This is really starting to creep me out. Does
this floor just not have monsters?” The others started muttering to each other,
but no one could come up with a plausible explanation. Their confusion only
grew.
“Kouki. Maybe we should head back for now. I
have a bad feeling about this. And it’s possible Captain Meld might know
something that’ll help.” Shizuku was clearly worried.
Kouki hesitated for a few seconds. He too had
misgivings about continuing on like this. If they were intent on proceeding
cautiously, the best course of action would indeed be to go back.
However, at the same time he didn’t want to
head back just on some baseless premonitions. Besides, whatever obstacles they
faced from here on out, they’d probably be able to overcome them with their
strength. After all, they’d been able to clear out the 89th floor with ease.
As Kouki was waffling, Endou started scouting
out the room. Spotting something, he stooped down and called out to the group
in a nervous voice.
“Guys... this is... blood, right?” He ran his
finger across the ground and held it up for everyone to see. Kouki started
scrutinizing the walls and floor. As he did so, he noticed something.
“It’s kind of dark so it’s hard to tell,
but... there’s definitely blood splattered all over this room.”
“Man, this is... a lot of blood...”
Nomura and Nagayama stared grimly at the blood
plastered over the walls. Both of them were now on high alert.
Everyone’s faces paled.
“Amanogawa, I think Yaegashi-san has a point.
We should leave. This is monster blood. And it’s fresh.” Endou’s voice was
uncharacteristically assertive. However, Kouki still wasn’t convinced.
“Judging by the amount of blood here, whatever
monster it was that did this killed every other monster on the floor... But
even if there’s something that strong here, we have to defeat it to move
forward, right?” Nagayama shook his head. His size rivaled Ryutarou’s, but he
was a far more cautious person than him. On top of that, he was good friends
with Endou. Nagayama was inclined to trust in his judgment. He had all of his
senses heightened to the max in case of a surprise attack. However, he was
hoping to retreat without a fight.
“Amanogawa, listen to me. There’s no way
monsters only lived in this room. We should have found traces of them on our
way here too. But we didn’t. In other words...”
“Whoever attacked these monsters was trying to
hide their tracks?” Shimizu finished his sentence, and Nagayama nodded.
Realizing what that meant, Kouki stretched out his Sense Presence as far as it
would go, cautiously searching for enemies.
“It’s possible there’s monsters that
intelligent down here, but... it seems more likely this was the work of a
person. And the fact that the bloodstains here haven’t been wiped away means
they didn’t manage to cover their tracks in time, or that—”
“This is the place we wanted to lure you to.”
An unfamiliar woman’s voice echoed throughout the room. It was a husky, hoarse
voice. Everyone drew their weapons and turned to face the voice at once.
Footsteps rang out on the stone floor as a
young woman with fiery red hair walked into the room from the other side. Her
skin was swarthy, and her ears tapered to fine points.
The students’ eyes opened wide in surprise.
They recognized those particular characteristics, if not the person. They’d
never seen one in person before, but they knew from Ishtar’s lectures what race
she belonged to. According to the Holy Church, she was mankind’s greatest
enemy. In other words...
“A demon...” One of the students muttered
quietly. A cold smile formed on the demon lady’s face.
She looked over the shocked party of students.
Her eyes were the same fiery crimson as her hair. She was dressed in something
that resembled the biking suits that motorcyclists wore. The black suit hugged
her body, emphasizing her ample curves, even in the dim light.
Kondou, Nakano, and Saitou all blushed, though
they knew that now was neither the time nor the place for such thoughts.
“I take it you’re the hero? The one dressed up
in that ridiculously sparkly armor?”
“I-It’s not ridiculous! Besides, a demon like
you has no right to criticize me! What’re you even doing in this place!?” His
somewhat overblown reaction could probably be chalked up to how shocked he’d
been to see a demon here, but he managed to recompose himself and ask what
everyone was wondering.
The demon lady ignored his question and shook
her head in exasperation.
“Well, you certainly are straightforward.
Really though, this is the ‘great hero’ they want me to win over to our side?
Unbelievable. Well, I guess orders are orders.” With an annoyed sigh, she
addressed Kouki once more.
“You, the one in the stupid shining armor. How
about joining our side?”
“Wh-What? What do you mean... join your
side!?”
“Slow on the uptake I see. Literally what I
said. I’m inviting you to join us, the demons. I promise we’ll treat you better
than the humans have.” The students were so stunned by the offer that it took
them a second to comprehend it. Everyone turned to Kouki, waiting for his
answer. He wiped the befuddled look off his face and glared angrily at the
demon.
“I refuse! Do you honestly believe I would
betray my comrades, and my fellow humans!? I see now that you demons are as
evil as the stories say! You may have come here to persuade me, but it was
foolish to come alone. You’re outnumbered here. Surrender quietly and come with
us!” Kouki’s yells reverberated throughout the chamber, but the demon didn’t
even flinch. Instead, she narrowed her eyes and carefully observed Kouki. She
didn’t seem too perturbed by his refusal. In fact, she tried offering even more
favorable conditions.
“What if I said you could bring your comrades
with you? Do you still refuse?”
“My answer won’t change. No matter what you
offer me, I won’t betray the humans!” There wasn’t even an ounce of hesitation
in his reply. Offended that the demon had even offered, he raised his sword and
started pouring mana into it. The holy sword began to glow with white light.
His stance made it clear there would be no more talking. If
she won’t surrender, then I’ll take her by force!
The demon didn’t react to Kouki’s response,
but Shizuku and Nagayama did. They both clicked their tongues and carefully
watched the demon and the area around her. Nagayama quietly mouthed
instructions to Endou. A second later his presence vanished.
Both Nagayama and Shizuku had hoped Kouki
would play along. Even if he’d had to lie, their priority had been to escape.
But before they could tell him as much, he’d already antagonized the demon. Now
they had no choice but to prepare for the worst.
No matter how reputed demons’ magic skills
were, neither Nagayama nor Shizuku were naive enough to think she’d actually
come alone. Especially as they didn’t think a single demon was capable of
wiping out all of the monsters on a floor this deep, and then hiding all traces
of it afterward too. If she was, then humanity would have long since been
annihilated.
And to top it all off, she wasn’t in the least
worried about facing a group of humans capable of reaching the 90th floor. If
they’d gone to the pains of covering their tracks, it made sense that they’d
laid an ambush for them. In which case, fighting here was not to the students’
advantage.
This was no longer the Great Orcus Labyrinth.
It was enemy territory! A second later, Shizuku’s worst fears were proven true.
“I see. Well then, I have no need of you. I’ll
have you know, my orders weren’t to bring you over no matter what. They were
simply to convert you if it seemed possible. If the situation calls for it,
we’re allowed to eliminate you. Don’t think we’re soft enough to leave our
opponents alive. Lutos, Habel, Enki. It’s time to hunt!” There was a loud bang,
and Shizuku and Nagayama were suddenly blown backward. They grunted in pain as
they slid across the ground.
“Ah!?”
“Gah!?”
They had no idea what had just hit them. At
the woman’s command, the space to the left and right of Kouki began to bend and
warp. Something tumbled out of that rift in space and
headed to the dumbfounded rearguard at high speed.
Only Shizuku and Nagayama, who’d been on guard
the whole time, managed to see the surprise attack coming.
Shizuku quickly held her sword and sheath in a
cross formation in front of her to guard, while leaping backward to soften the
impact of the blow. However, the strength of the attack was far beyond her
expectations. Whatever it was that hit her broke through her guard, sliced open
her stomach, and slammed her to the ground hard enough to knock the air out of
her lungs.
Meanwhile, Nagayama used his Body
Strengthening and Diamond Skin skills to raise his base defensive stats. The
two skills combined made his body a far more reliable shield than any metal barrier.
Most things would have found it difficult to break through that human fortress.
Still, that something managed to blow through
his defenses and ravage his arms. Blood splattered the ground as he was blown
backward. He only remained standing because Saitou, who’d been standing behind
him, was able to catch him.
There was a sound of shattering glass as the
makeshift barrier Suzu had put up the instant before the attack was
obliterated.
The rearguard had been targeted too. Suzu
hadn’t sensed the attack coming like Shizuku and Nagayama had, but she’d
instinctively realized that she needed to erect a barrier the moment Shizuku
and Nagayama had taken their stances. Or perhaps it had been the wealth of
experience that had told her that, and not her instincts.
Either way, she’d clearly made the right
decision. Without that barrier, Tsuji and Yoshino would have been ripped to
shreds.
As it was, the shockwave from the barrier
breaking flung Suzu further back into the rearguard.
Luckily for her, Eri was there to catch her.
That helped Suzu avoid taking any direct damage, but her body was still
temporarily paralyzed from the blow.
The three somethings instantly launched a
follow-up attack. Shizuku, Nagayama, and Suzu were all down for the count, and
the remaining party members were unable to mount any kind of defense in time.
Just as it seemed all hope was lost—
“Holy light protect us! Holy Blessing, Divine
Veil, Sacred Shields!” Kaori fired off three light spells at once with barely
any incantation.
The first spell was an intermediate rank
healing spell that she’d cast on Shizuku and Nagayama, Holy Blessing. It was
one of the few healing spells that could target multiple people from a
distance.
Pale violet light rained down on the two
figures groaning on the ground, healing their wounds at unnatural speeds.
Her next spell was targeted at the three
invisible creatures. Like with Shimizu and Nagayama, pale violet light began to
eclipse them. Thanks to the light, their outlines were visible to everyone for
the first time.
This was her second spell, the intermediate
rank healing spell Divine Veil. The amount of healing it provided was minimal,
but so long as the spell was active it continued to passively regenerate the
target’s health while enveloping them in the caster’s mana. She’d used the
second of those effects to indirectly expose the three creatures’ true forms.
The monsters outlined in pale light had the
heads of lions, the legs and claws of dragons, the tails of snakes, and the
wings of eagles. In other words, they were Chimeras. Chances were the
camouflage they used was their special magic. It not only hid them from sight,
but it also erased any trace of their presence. It was quite the dangerous
skill, but it seemed they couldn’t completely hide themselves while in motion.
That was why the space around them looked warped when they had attacked.
However, even with that it was obvious to
Kaori that her classmates couldn’t compete with those monsters. Shizuku and
Nagayama, two of the party’s best fighters, had been incapacitated in a single
blow. Their strength was on a completely different level from the monsters
they’d been fighting on the last floor.
“Graaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!” The three Chimeras
roared angrily and struck once more with their lethal claws. It seemed being
revealed hadn’t bothered them in the slightest.
The Chimeras’ claws closed in on Shimizu,
Nagayama, and Suzu like death’s scythe itself. However, just before reaching
their targets, they found their attacks redirected. Shining shields of light
had diverted the trajectory of their swipes.
This was Kaori’s third spell, Sacred Shields.
It was the advanced version of the basic light spell, Holy Shield. Sacred
Shields allowed the caster to deploy multiple Holy Shields at once.
Barrier Masters like Suzu used this spell to
supplement their usual barriers. As each individual shield was weak, they
generally stacked them on top of each other to create layered defenses.
Kaori, despite her proficiency in light magic,
was no Barrier Master, and so couldn’t use the spell in the same way. Instead,
she’d positioned the shields at the perfect angles to deflect the Chimeras
attacks, rather than block them outright. The way she’d masterfully used the
enemies’ strength against them felt more like an advanced martial arts move
than a magic spell.
This was the result of all the training she’d
done. She’d sworn never to lose anyone precious to her again, and she wasn’t
about to break that promise now. Thanks to Kaori’s herculean efforts, she
managed to keep all of her party safe.
Enraged at having their attacks deflected, the
Chimeras made to strike again. Kaori had only managed to buy her teammates a
second. In the end, her efforts were still nothing more than the futile
struggling of a weakling.
But that one second she’d gained made all the
difference. Kouki had no intention of letting her efforts be in vain.
“Get off of Shizuku!” With the one second
she’d bought, Kouki used his Supersonic Step to interpose himself between
Shizuku and the Chimera. He’d moved fast enough that he’d left afterimages in
his wake. His holy sword shimmered in the air as he swung at the Chimera’s
neck, aiming to decapitate it.
At the same time, the other students made
their move.
“Like I’ll let you!” Ryutarou thrust his hand
toward the Chimera targeting Nagayama. Figuring he didn’t have time to rush all
the way over, he’d instead opted to use his gauntlet artifacts’ special
ability, and fire off a shockwave. He gathered his mana into his gauntlets.
Still, Ryutarou wasn’t the only one to strike.
“Swallow them whole, O crimson mother— Flame
Tide!” Eri stuck out a hand and cast her spell with barely an incantation. This
was the first time she’d cast a spell this powerful, and the first time she’d
redacted an incantation. As the name suggested, Flame Tide was an intermediate
rank fire spell that summoned a wave of fire the caster could freely control.
Even agile enemies had a hard time dodging this spell.
Kouki’s sword swung down at the Chimera faster
than human eyes could follow, all the force of gravity behind the swing.
Ryutarou’s shockwave shot out of his hand with the force of a cannonball,
aftershocks trailing in its wake. Eri’s crimson wave of death surged forward,
reducing everything it touched to ash.
However—
“Graaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!” There’d been more
enemies waiting in the wings. Just before their attacks landed home, two new
shadows suddenly appeared and charged at Kouki and Ryutarou.
“Ah!?”
“What the!?” Chills ran down their spines.
The two shadows reached their targets and
swung down their heavy metal maces.
Kouki nimbly twisted his body out of the way,
using the centrifugal force of his swing to accelerate his dodge. Meanwhile,
Ryutarou brought up his left fist and blocked the mace outright.
Kouki lost his balance and tumbled to the
ground, while Ryutarou was blown away by the shadow’s follow-up punch. The
monsters that had caught Kouki and Ryutarou by surprise were two two-meter tall
giants that looked like Bulltaurs. But Bulltaurs, like Orcs and Ogres, tended
to have pig-like, disgusting faces. These two giants that had attacked Ryutarou
and Kouki had much more intelligent features. They looked like what one might
get if they took a Bulltaur and refined its face into something more pleasant.
And both their strength and their speed was far greater than that of any
Bulltaur’s.
“What the hell are these things!?”
“Damn it, where do they keep popping up
from!?”
Kouki and Ryutarou were confused and
overwhelmed by the powerful monsters that had appeared out of seemingly
nowhere. Just then—
“Gah!?” Endou cried out in pain as he slammed
into the ground between the two of them.
“Endou!?”
“Ngh, be careful everyone! There’s more we
can’t see! They’re everywhere!” Endou held a hand over his stomach as he
shouted out his warning. He’d been hurt pretty bad.
At Nagayama’s command, Endou had gone
invisible using his Assassin skills and tried to launch a sneak attack on the
demon. However, the situation had progressed faster than he’d expected. He’d
been so surprised by the monsters’ attacks that his concentration had slipped
and his invisibility had been dispelled for a moment. Because of that one of
the monsters had managed to spot him and ram into him from the side. When he’d
been hit, he’d noticed that the monster who’d struck him was the same kind of
Chimera as the ones that had attacked Kouki seconds before. Furthermore, he’d
realized there were Chimeras next to the Super Bulltaurs, and that they could
go invisible too by touching the Chimeras’ manes.
In other words, all of the monsters could, and
had, borrowed the Chimeras’ power of invisibility. There was no telling how
many enemies were hidden from them. That was how the demon had been able to
wipe out all the monsters on the 90th floor.
As if to prove Endou’s statement, monsters
suddenly appeared next to Eri as well.
There was a massive whoosh of air, and her
Flame Tide suddenly collapsed in on itself before being completely snuffed out.
It was as if someone had made a hole in the atmosphere itself, and it was
sucking everything inside it.
“No way...” The shock of having a massive
spell like that wiped out in the blink of an eye was too much for Eri. She
stared blankly at the spot her flames had been in.
The monster who’d destroyed her flames
appeared in that same spot, seemingly as if from thin air. It resembled a
massive, six-legged turtle. The shell on its back was glowing bright red, as if
it had absorbed all of Eri’s flames.
The turtle then opened its mouth, and its
shell glowed even brighter. Shimmering red light started gathering in its
mouth. It looked like a laser ready to fire.
“N-Not good.” Eri’s face paled. She’d just
cast a spell, so she didn’t have time to cast another. However, her best friend
had recovered enough to help out once more.
“I’m not done yet! Undying holy light, be my
shield forevermore— Sacred Shields!” Twenty barriers of light instantly sprung
up in front of the pair of them just as the turtle released its red-hot laser
beam. The shields were all angled at 45 degrees, so as the beam punched through
each one, more and more of its volume was directed upward.
However, this attack was even more powerful
than the Chimera’s swipes had been, so Suzu’s barriers were all pulverized.
Biting her lip, Suzu continued chanting. For
every shield that was destroyed, she raised a new one. Living up to her name of
Barrier Master, Suzu just barely managed to keep the turtle’s ray of death at
bay.
The entire floor shook as the turtle’s beam
slammed into the ceiling, sending chunks of molten rock raining down below.
“Dammit! What the hell are these things!?”
“They’re so freaking strong!”
“Fuck! It’s do or die, guys!”
Hiyama and his party had recovered their wits
as well, and they too leaped into the fray.
“Nagayama-kun! I’ll cut them down, you protect
the rearguard!”
“Just leave it to me! Take them down, Yaegashi!”
Both of them had been fully healed now, and
they were ready to launch a counterattack.
Shizuku charged at the Chimera closest to her.
She moved so fast that even her afterimages left afterimages. There was a loud
whoosh, and in less than a second Shizuku was behind her quarry. She drew her
katana with superhuman speed, slashing at the Chimera’s rear.
Her No Tempo skill made it impossible to read
her movements. It wasn’t just her speed that made her hard to follow, but also
the lack of any sort of pattern to her actions. On top of that, her
sword-related skills had made her slashing and drawing speeds even faster. Most
creatures would be cut down by a slash like that without even knowing what hit
them.
This was one of the Yaegashi-style’s signature
moves, Vacuum Slash. A technique where the wielder held the sword in its
scabbard until the last moment, building up as much force as possible. Then,
they released that force all at once.
True to its name, Shizuku’s sword moved so
fast that it felt as if it was cutting through air itself. There was a single
silver flash, and the Chimera’s tail was severed at the base.
“Graaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!” The Chimera roared in
pain and turned to slash at Shizuku. However, its paws passed through thin air.
Shizuku had already circled around to the other side. This time she sliced
through both of the Chimera’s wings.
“Ngh!” She was whittling down its strength
with shallow, speedy attacks. However, Shizuku didn’t seem happy about that at
all, probably because her attacks weren’t connecting as well as she’d wanted.
In truth, she’d been hoping to cut through the Chimera’s torso with her first
slash, but the tail had gotten in her way, so she’d been forced to change
targets. Her second attack was also supposed to have been fatal, but the
Chimera had managed to twist out of the way in time, resulting in only its
wings being chopped off.
The Chimera wasn’t able to keep up with
Shizuku’s speed, but it still managed to react fast enough to avoid lethal
blows, so not only was it able to erase its presence, it also possessed an
agility that was close to Shizuku’s. This was the hardest foe they’d faced yet.
Shizuku had planned on finishing this Chimera off quickly and going back to
help her comrades, but it seemed that wasn’t going to be happening.
Her next series of attacks all failed to kill
the Chimera as well, instead only inflicting shallow wounds. Worse, the Chimera
was starting to get used to Shizuku’s speed. Shizuku could feel panic welling
up within her. Plus, that wasn’t even the worst part.
“Kraaaaaaw!” The Chimera in front of Shizuku
was enveloped in dark red light. The murky mana swirled around its wounds,
healing them instantly.
Kaori had long since dropped her Divine Veil,
as it wasn’t helping too much. And even if she hadn’t, it wasn’t strong enough
to heal wounds like this instantly. Still wary of the Chimera, Shizuku turned
to the direction of the screech she’d heard.
There was a white, two-headed raven perched on
the demon’s shoulder. One of the raven’s heads was looking right at the Chimera
in front of Shizuku.
“She’s got monsters who can heal, too!?” It
had taken everything Shizuku had to even injure the Chimera, and now all that
hard work was undone in an instant. Her chances of victory had been slim to
begin with, but with the raven’s healing there was no hope at all. Shizuku
screamed at the unfairness of it all.
A quick look around the battlefield told her
that the rest of her comrades were in similarly dire straits.
Kouki had managed to land a fatal blow on the
Super Bulltaur that he’d been fighting, but the raven’s second head had
instantly turned to heal it before the Super Bulltaur died. Its healing powers
were fearsome enough that it could bring allies back even from the brink of
death.
Ryutarou and Nagayama were struggling as well.
Ryutarou had managed to beat the other Super Bulltaur to a pulp by smashing its
stomach and breaking its limbs, but before he could land a finishing blow the
raven had turned to heal it as well. Nagayama had dealt quite a bit of damage
to the one menacing the rearguard, but that was also healed back to perfect
condition. The situation was looking rather dire for the hero’s party...
“Looks like you’re having a hard time. How
about it? Feel like joining our side yet? If you give up now, I might still be
willing to let you.” The demon folded her arms and watched as Kouki and the
other struggled to keep the monsters at bay. Her cold stare made it clear that
she already knew what his answer was going to be, though. And, of course, Kouki
didn’t defy expectations.
“Like hell we will! Your petty threats won’t
work on us! Just you watch, we’ll beat you and your monster army! Take this—
Limit Break!” He angrily swatted back the Super Bulltaur’s mace and activated
his most powerful skill.
Limit Break continually drained his mana, but
in exchange it tripled all of his stats. However, the skill literally pushed
his body past its limits, so he couldn’t maintain it for long. Furthermore, it
left him drained and exhausted once the skill was over. He’d be lucky to have
even half his original strength left once the skill wore off. Though this skill
was his trump card, it came with dire consequences that needed to be taken into
consideration.
Kouki had activated it here because he knew he
needed to kill these monsters fast, or his party’s morale would drop. The
strength of the monsters, as well as the raven’s healing had left him with few
other options.
Blinding white light wreathed his body. The
Super Bulltaur charged again, completely unperturbed.
“Light of judgment, smite mine enemies— Holy
Blade!” Kouki ducked under the Super Bulltaur’s attack and swung his
light-infused sword up from below.
He’d done a similar attack a few minutes
before, but it had only managed to wound the Super Bulltaur back then, not kill
it. However, his stats were tripled now. And so, he cut through the Super
Bulltaur like it was butter.
A second later the two halves of the Super
Bulltaur’s body thudded to the ground. Kouki used the momentum of his swing to
rush forward, directly at the demon woman.
There was nothing left protecting her from
him. Skilled at magic though they may be, Kouki doubted this demon could do
anything to stop him now. He’d cut down the two-headed raven and that would end
the battle. At least, that’s what everyone thought would happen. Just then—
“Graaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!”
“Wha—!?” The space around Kouki warped in five
different spots. Five invisible Chimeras let out a ferocious howl and charged
at him. Kouki wheeled about in surprise as they closed in on him from all
sides.
He ducked under the attack coming at him from
the front while cutting down the Chimera to his right. He trusted his holy
armor to protect him from the Chimeras to his left and rear.
It succeeded, but just barely. The one on the
left cuffed him on the shoulder, sending him careening into yet another
Chimera. The right one raised its paws and slammed them down on his shoulders,
forcing Kouki to his knees.
“Ngh!” Gritting his teeth, Kouki grunted in
pain. The Chimera’s fangs bore down on him, and he just barely managed to keep
them at bay with his sword.
The claws digging into his shoulders limited
Kouki’s movements, and despite being in Limit Break, he couldn’t squeeze out
enough strength to break free.
“Sanctified flowers, pave the path to victory—
Plenary Blessing! Radiant Prison!” Kaori cast her spells the moment she saw
Kouki get hit.
Plenary Blessing was a single-target
intermediate rank recovery spell. It was a more potent form of an earlier spell
she’d cast, Holy Blessing. Just healing Kouki would have been pointless though,
as the Chimera had him pinned and would just hit him again.
That was why she’d also cast the intermediate
rank light spell, Radiant Prison. As its name suggested, Radiant Prison sealed
its target in a cage of light. Her target was Kouki. Bars of light rose up
around him, pushing the Chimera away.
With the Chimera removed, Plenary Blessing was
able to heal Kouki without interruption.
At the same time, Suzu and a few other members
of the rearguard fired off a barrage of spells at the remaining Chimeras near
Kouki. They’d managed to gain enough of a respite against their own opponents
to unleash a single volley. However, as Kaori’s Divine Veil wasn’t covering
them anymore, they had had a hard time aiming their spells. Due to that, and
the distance between them, their volley wasn’t as effective as they’d hoped.
Still, it bought the front line enough time to
regroup. Fully recovered, Kouki raised his sword high and cast one of his
strongest spells.
“Astral Unleash!” Four shockwaves of light
exploded out from Kouki’s blade. This was his favorite technique. The Chimeras
sensed danger and quickly tried to leap out of the way. However, Kaori wasn’t
going to let that happen.
“Divine Shackles!” Now it was her turn to show
off her most prized spell. Chains of light rose up around the Chimeras’ feet,
wrapping around their legs, necks, and torsos. With their strength, the
Chimeras could easily break free, but Kaori had still succeeded in stopping
them for a few seconds.
Those few seconds were all it took for Kouki’s
shockwaves to reach the Chimeras and make mincemeat out of them. Kouki turned
around and pointed his sword at the demon.
“Sorry, but if this is the best you’ve got,
it’s nowhere near good enough. There’s nothing left protecting you now!” The
demon stared at Kouki with an incredulous expression on her face. “If you have
me on the defensive, why waste your time stating the obvious? You should’ve
just gone straight for the attack,” it seemed to say.
Kouki found it infuriating that even after
being pressed so far, the demon still seemed so composed.
He’d taken out all of her Chimeras and Super
Bulltaurs. Part of why he was so annoyed was because everything she’d hit them
with until now had been surprise attacks.
That coward! All she ever does is use petty
tricks and sneak attacks, while she watches safely from behind her monsters!
“I don’t recall ever saying this was my best.”
“Your bluffs won’t work on me!”
“You’ll see for yourselves whether it’s a
bluff or not. Now that I’ve seen how strong you heretical apostles are, I have
no use for you anymore.”
“What do you—”
“Kyaaaaaa!”
The demon irritably flicked a strand of hair
out of her eyes. At the same time, Kouki heard a scream behind him.
The sight that greeted him as he turned around
was the stuff of nightmares. Five more Super Bulltaurs and Chimeras had
suddenly sprouted up from nowhere. Worse, new monsters had popped up too. Black
four-eyed wolves and black cats with tentacles sprouting from their backs
menaced the rest of the party. One of the cats slammed its tentacles into
Nomura’s flank as he watched.
“Kentarou! Dammit, you’ll pay for that!”
“Ayako, pull yourself together! Heal him!”
Endou quickly launched an attack on the cat’s
tentacles the moment he saw Nomura go down. He angrily slashed down with his
daggers.
Meanwhile, Yoshino started yelling at the
dumbfounded Tsuji to start healing her comrade. Yoshino’s rebuke brought Tsuji
back to her senses, and she began casting healing spells on both Endou and the
collapsed Nomura.
“What!? There were still that many monsters
left!?” Kouki’s jaw dropped open in surprise.
“The Chimera’s special ability is Camouflage.
It can hide itself and anything it touches. That kid over there even tried to
warn you about it. Though, even he wasn’t able to figure out just how many
monsters I had hidden here. Now then, I suppose it’s time for the final curtain
call!”
“Ah!?”
The students were being pushed back by the
sudden onslaught of monsters. Kouki dashed back to try and help his comrades.
Now that the secret was out, the demon had no reason to hide her forces. More
and more monsters started dispelling their Camouflage, and joined the fray.
Dozens of wolves and cats appeared from the space behind the demon and charged.
“Gwaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!” Before he could make it
back to his allies, Kouki found himself surrounded by a wall of tentacles.
He swung his sword in a giant circle, cutting
down the tentacles. One of the cats jumped at his face, and he swung down at
it. Since it was mid-leap, he was sure it wouldn’t be able to dodge out of the
way.
“I’ll start with you!” Kouki roared. However,
the cat jumped aside in mid-air, and Kouki’s sword swung harmlessly through the
air. This went far beyond Kouki’s expectations. It then leaped forward again,
its wickedly sharp claws headed straight for Kouki’s neck.
He barely managed to duck his head out of the
way in time, but in doing so he ruined his stance, and was unable to defend
against the four-eyed wolf that came at him from behind. Thanks to his armor
and Limit Break skill, the wolf’s tackle didn’t do any real damage to him.
Instead, it sent him flying backward to his comrades. Which, fortunately, he’d
been trying to do in the first place.
The horde of insanely powerful monsters
surrounded Kouki and his comrades.
It was only thanks to Kaori and Tsuji’s
nonstop healing that all of the students were still alive. The front line was
still barely holding, but as it was, they had no way out of this predicament.
Kouki tried to cut down their numbers while
his Limit Break was still active, but the monsters came at him in formations of
five and employed hit and run tactics. They weren’t letting him get a decisive
blow in.
Even Shizuku’s speed had been sealed. The
agile cats worked together with the wolves, who possessed the special magic
Foresight, to keep up with her even when she was using No Tempo. Though she
managed to get a few cuts in anyway, none of them were fatal.
“Crap... This is really bad!”
“Fuck! What are we supposed to do!?”
Despair started to color the students’ faces
as they continued fighting. The final nail in the coffin was when the demon
herself joined the battle.
“O great golden-eyed drake, slumbering deep
beneath the earth, lord of all creation, your curse pierces through even the
blackest darkness. Bring forth an everlasting seal of darkness, from which
nothing escapes. Fear, despair, anguish, swallow it all and leave emptiness in
your wake. All will fall before your stern visage. Destroy your enemies and
return them to the earth— Dark Gaol!” As she finished chanting, a swirling gray
ball of mana gathered into her hand and flew across the room to where Kouki and
the others were.
It didn’t travel all that fast. Every one of
the students was a high enough level that they could have dodged it. However,
when Nomura saw it his face paled. He was barely conscious thanks to that
earlier attack, but he knew he had to warn his friends. Coughing up blood, he
shouted a warning to his comrades.
“Oh no! Taniguchiii! Put up one of your
barriers! We have to stop that sphere!”
“Huh!? O-Okay! Reject all malice and let this
be a holy ground that denies thine enemies passage— Hallowed Ground!” Suzu
shortened her chant and hurriedly cast a high level light barrier spell. A
shimmering dome covered the party. As Hallowed Ground separated a particular
area from other areas and not people from people, the monsters within the dome
remained.
Moreover, Hallowed Ground consumed a massive
amount of mana. Normally, Suzu reserved this skill for the most dire of
circumstances. And Nomura’s desperation had made it clear that demon’s ball was
one of those circumstances. That was why she’d picked the strongest spell she
knew.
The swirling gray sphere slammed into the
barrier. It possessed a force far greater than its appearance would imply. Suzu
gritted her teeth and burned through her mana at a prodigious rate as she
struggled to keep the sphere from breaking through.
At the same time, the monsters’ movements
suddenly changed. A group of them broke off and headed for Suzu, almost as if
the demon was commanding them.
“Suzu!”
“Everyone, protect Taniguchi!” Eri started
casting like mad, trying to keep the encroaching Super Bulltaurs at bay. Across
from her, Saitou, Yoshiki, Kondou, and Reichi all heard Nomura’s shout and
rushed over to cover Suzu.
So long as Hallowed Ground was active, Suzu
couldn’t move. The black cats took advantage of that weakness and nimbly
slipped through the gaps in the party’s defenses. Nomura laid his hand against
the ground and summoned spikes from the earth, hoping to impale the cats, but
they zigzagged through the air, avoiding the spikes, and lashed out at Suzu
with their tentacles.
“Taniguchi!”
“Aaah!?”
Nomura called out a warning, but it was too
late. The tentacles pierced through Suzu’s stomach, thigh, and right arm.
Before she could even scream, the cats swung their tentacles sideways, throwing
Suzu to the side.
She hit the ground so hard the breath was
knocked out of her throat. Blood littered the ground where she lay. As she
sucked in a ragged gasp, a searing pain ran through her body.
“Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!”
“Suzu-chan!”
“Suzu!”
Eri and Kaori called out to Suzu, clearly
panicked. Kaori quickly began casting a healing spell, but Suzu’s barrier faded
before she could finish.
“Everyone, get away from that sphere!” Nomura
desperately called out to everyone, but this was the same spell that had
managed to compete evenly with Suzu’s Hallowed Ground. Nomura’s warning was too
little, too late.
The gray sphere hit the ground without a
sound. It broke apart where it landed, smoke expanding from the point of
impact.
Saitou, Kondou, and Nomura all tried to run
over to Suzu. The gray smoke enveloped all four of them. The monsters nearby
had all leaped out of the way ahead of time, so they weren’t affected.
The gray smoke expanded out even further,
swallowing the rest of the students.
“Heed my call, O wind— Wind Blast!” Kouki
instantly unleashed a gust of wind to blow the smoke out of the room. Magically
created smoke like that wouldn’t normally be so easy to dislodge. Still, Kouki was under the effects of his Limit Break, making his magic
stronger. He was able to push the smoke out into the hallway, albeit with some
difficulty. However, when the smoke cleared, the sight that greeted them was
completely unexpected.
“No way! Suzu!”
“Nomura-kun!”
“Saitou! Kondou!”
The four of them had been turned to stone.
Saitou and Kondou had been completely petrified, while Nomura, who had thrown
himself above Suzu had only his left half petrified. For her part, Suzu had
only had her legs petrified.
Saitou and Kondou hadn’t even had time to
react before the smoke had hit them. Their faces were still frozen in
dumbfounded shock. Suzu had fainted from the excruciating pain that had
accompanied having her legs petrified.
Nomura managed to remain conscious, but just
barely. He gritted his teeth and groaned as the petrified part of his body
seared in pain.
The reason Nomura had resisted the
petrification better than the others was because he was a Geomancer and
possessed the highest resistance to earth magic out of all of them. He’d been
aware of how dangerous the spell was in the first place because it was an earth
spell he’d recognized.
More specifically, the high rank earth spell,
Dark Gaol. It spread a cloud of smoke that petrified anything it touched.
Worse, as long as any part of someone was hit by the petrification, it would
slowly spread until they were completely frozen. The only way to stop it was to
put up a barrier strong enough to repel it, or blow the smoke away before it
touched anyone. However, only a high rank barrier would be able to hold it off.
Furthermore, it required an extremely powerful wind spell to be dislodged.
“You bastard! How dare you!” Seething fury
dripped from his words. The light surrounding him shone brighter than before.
He was more than ready to charge straight at the demon.
However, Shizuku’s words stopped him.
“Kouki, wait! We have to retreat! You need to
secure our escape route!”
“No way! You want me to retreat after she did
that to our comrades!?” He glared angrily at Shizuku, but she wasn’t fazed by
his attitude and calmly glared back at him.
“Listen to me! Kaori can still heal them, but
it’ll take her time. And if we wait too long, it might be too late. We need to
retreat and regroup! And now that we’ve lost half our party, if you jump out to
attack now, the rest of us won’t be able to hold out! We’ll all die!”
“Ngh, but...”
“Besides, your Limit Break’s going to run out
soon, isn’t it? How long do you think you can last without it!? You can’t lose
your cool here! Everyone’s angry about what happened, but we’re done for if we
let that get the better of us!”
Kouki ground his teeth in frustration. It was
then that he noticed the blood dripping from the corners of Shizuku’s mouth.
She was just as angry as him, if not more.
Still, even though she was so frustrated that
she’d bit her lips until they’d bled, she hadn’t lost sight of what needed to
be done. If she could, she’d pound that demon into a pulp, but she knew that
wouldn’t save her comrades.
“Fine! Everyone, we’re retreating! Shizuku,
Ryutarou, cover me for a bit!”
“You can count on me!”
“You got it!”
Kouki raised his sword up high and started
chanting. He hadn’t used this spell earlier because it had such a long
incantation. On top of that, it wouldn’t have been enough to defeat the enemy.
However, it was the perfect spell for opening up an escape path.
Chanting left him defenseless, so he’d asked
Shizuku and Ryutarou to guard him. Of course, that meant they had to fight the
monsters he’d been holding off until now on top of their own foes. They fought
valiantly, but every second they suffered more injuries. They wouldn’t be able
to hold out for long.
“Hmph, do you honestly believe I’ll just let
you flee?” The demon commanded her monsters to circle behind the party’s rear.
At the same time, she started chanting another spell. This time, her hand was
pointed directly at Kouki.
And it was then that something unexpected
occurred.
“Graaaaaah!”
“What!? How!?”
Five of the Chimeras, which were supposed to
be her allies, suddenly turned on her. She instantly shortened her incantation
and changed her target to the monsters bearing down on her. A dust storm
whipped up around her. Grains of sand coalesced into blades and sliced through
two of the Chimeras. The remaining three let the wind push them back, saving
them from the whirlwind of sand blades.
She stared at them in surprise. Why are they attacking me!? Then, she realized that all of
the Chimeras were gravely injured.
“That damn brat...” The monsters that had
turned on her were all ones that had been cut down by Kouki. They should have
all been dead, and indeed the demon didn’t sense any life coming from them.
Suddenly, she remembered a certain branch of magic that allowed people to
manipulate the dead.
“I won’t let you touch Kouki-kun!” Eri waved
her hand like a baton, and the dead Chimeras moved to surround the demon.
“Tch! A Necromancer! No one told me they had
one of those!” The demon had actually done a rather thorough investigation of
Kouki and his party before laying this trap. None of her reports had mentioned
anything about there being a Necromancer in his party.
Eri’s usual aversion to necromancy had
actually ended up saving them in this critical juncture. Though she was a
Necromancer, she’d been too scared to actually use her necromancy skills.
However, now that their backs were to the
wall, she’d had to conquer that fear. She glared at the demon, skillfully
manipulating the three Chimera corpses. It was hard to believe this was her
first time using necromancy. She kept the Chimeras circling just out of the
demon’s attack range, but close enough that they still posed a threat. Her goal
wasn’t to defeat the demon, but rather to buy time.
“Suzu-chan, hang on! I’ll heal you!” Kaori
cast both Plenary Blessing and Consecration on Suzu.
She was the one closest to death out of all
the party members, which was why Kaori had focused on her first. Consecration
was an intermediate rank light spell that removed status effects from the
target.
Petrification in particular was a very potent
status effect, and it was taking even Kaori some time to heal it. Plenary
Blessing instantly closed up the holes in Suzu’s arm and stomach, but she’d
already lost a lot of blood. She needed a proper rest or her life would be in
danger. And once her legs were unpetrified, Kaori needed to close up the wound
there as well.
While Kaori was tending to Suzu, Tsuji began
unpetrifying Nomura. Thanks to Nomura’s naturally high earth resistance, his
healing went quickly. Tsuji had already succeeded in restoring his left leg.
As she was healing Nomura, Tsuji glanced over
at Kaori and bit her lip. Though she was an accomplished Priest as well, it was
obvious that Kaori’s skills were far greater than her own.
Not only was she healing Suzu, who’d been hurt
far more than Nomura, she was able to cast recovery spells on Shizuku and
Ryutarou at the same time. On top of that, she was even providing support with
her Binding Blades of Light and Divine Shackles. Tsuji doubted she could manage
even half of that.
Shirasaki-san is amazing...
Compared to her, I’m just... No, now’s not the time for self-pity! Though she hated herself for not being more useful to her companions,
she couldn’t afford to let herself be distracted right now.
Nomura wanted to offer some words of
encouragement, but he also knew there was no time for sentimental chit-chat.
Still groaning in pain, he spat out an incantation.
With their battle power reduced, and Kouki no
longer fighting, the students were hard pressed. Hiyama, Nakano, Nagayama, and
Endou were all covered from head to toe in blood, and their movements were
growing dull. Eri had her hands full protecting Kouki and the two healers. At
this rate, the party would collapse in a few more minutes.
Had it not been for the hope Kouki’s gleaming
blade gave everyone, they would likely have given up already.
Finally, the moment they’d all been waiting
for arrived.
“Take this— Divine Deluge!” A single beam of
light shot up into the sky. As it hit the ceiling, it burst apart, sending
shards of light hurtling toward the ground like a meteor shower.
Divine Deluge was a light spell that targeted
multiple monsters from above. It wasn’t a terribly powerful spell, and was
usually just used to clean up hordes of weak enemies, but with the help of
Kouki’s Limit Break, the spell’s might increased to the point where it could
kill even monsters found on the 50th floor.
Unfortunately, the monsters the demon had
brought with her were far more powerful than that. The most it was able to do
was slow them down.
Still, that was all Kouki needed. As long as
it kept them pinned down for a few seconds, they’d be able to escape.
The demon was still busy dealing with Eri’s
three Chimeras.
After making sure the demon was still
occupied, Kouki then activated the second effect of this ridiculously long
spell.
“Gather!”
The rain of light that had been keeping the
monsters at bay stopped, and began returning to Kouki’s sword. It was a truly
awe-inspiring sight, watching a veritable meteor storm of light fly into the
holy sword.
Once all the light was back with him, Kouki
pointed his sword at the monsters blocking their escape and shouted the name of
the spell’s second form.
“Holy Shooting Stars!” The countless points of
light shot out at once, bombarding the monsters. This spell didn’t have the
same destructive might as his trump card, Divine Wrath, so it was unable to
completely destroy the monsters in front of him.
He would have preferred to use Divine Wrath,
but the incantation was too long. He knew Shizuku and Ryutarou wouldn’t have
been able to hold out for that long.
Though, there was something Holy Shooting
Stars had that Divine Wrath didn’t.
As the shards of light slammed into the
monsters, they burst in a thousand shimmering explosions. It was as if Kouki
had fired a cluster bomb into the horde of monsters. The monsters were unable
to defend against the continual bombardment, so they were blown away.
“Graaaaaaaaah!” They screamed in pain, their
eyes closed against the blinding light.
The harsh light crippled their vision. Holy
Shooting Stars secondary ability was that it blinded its targets. Unable to see
properly, the monsters flailed about.
They weren’t in position to guard an escape
route anymore. Kouki and the others were saved.
“Everyone, run for your lives!”
At Kouki’s command, the party began to flee.
Nagayama carried the petrified Kondou and Saitou, while Endou carried the
unconscious Suzu. Nomura’s left arm was still petrified, but he endured the
pain and ran.
“Tch! Don’t let them escape! All of you,
attack!” The demon ordered her remaining monsters to attack while she continued
fending off the Chimera corpses. The monsters quickly dashed off in pursuit.
The Chimeras, four-eyed wolves, and black cats were all agile creatures, and
they closed the gap in an instant.
Nomura grinned through his pain and turned
around, his right hand pointed at the army of monsters bearing down on them.
“You’re not the only one who can use earth
magic here! Have a taste of your own medicine— Dark Gaol!” Nomura fired off the
same gray sphere the demon had a few minutes prior.
It exploded in front of the charging monsters.
When the demon had cast the spell, her monsters had all instinctively leaped
out of the way. He’d guessed that the demon had taught them all to be wary of
that specific spell, which was precisely why he’d chosen it. He figured it
would buy them the most time.
His guess proved to be correct. The moment
Nomura had thrown out the gray sphere, the monsters had all come to a halt and
swiftly leaped back. The petrifying smoke also doubled as a smokescreen, hiding
Kouki and the others from view.
Endou called upon the last dredges of his mana
to use a skill that hid their tracks and erased their scent. It was one of his
derivative skills, “Stealth.”
The monsters angry howls faded into the
distance as the party ran. Humbled and defeated, Kouki and the others trudged
up the stairs leading to the 89th floor. Their faces were a mixture of
frustration at how badly they’d suffered defeat, and happiness at escaping
alive at all.
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