How a Wizard Survives (55)
How a Wizard Survives (55)
Everhart's armor had been torn to shreds by the combined assault of Wizardvein and Einhold.
But the demon shook off the fragments without much concern.
Hidden beneath the steel shards were thick, grotesque tentacles.
The sheer, pointless variety was absurd.
Not a trace of consistency.
By now, I had to assume he possessed true shapeshifting.
"You Einhold and Wizardvein jesters! Do you think you can stop me without that wretched fortress wall!"
A tentacle lashed out viciously, about to slam into Hector Einhold.
A sharp flash of blade sliced it cleanly away.
Having just entered the fray, I clicked my tongue at the pressure that exceeded all expectations.
This bastard, what kind of mana is that...
We had barely managed to establish melee range, but...
Everhart's specialty was not brawling.
Judging by the state of the earlier victims, the demon could use magic that warped the senses.
Obviously, getting hit even once in close combat was dangerous.
Normally, magic that directly affects an opponent like that should fail against Magic Resistance.
Even more so in a many-against-one fight like this!
But the title Grand Duke of Demons was no empty boast.
His mana reserves were so immense that our mana was being gradually nullified.
A real monster of a bastard.
Everhart was a demon at the threshold just below Highest-Rank.
There was only about one tier between him and Chainfist, yet I hadn't expected him to be this strong.
Still, this time we were fully prepared. Inquisitors from the neighboring kingdoms had come as reinforcements.
"Jaeger, stay on guard!"
Reinhardt, unaware I possessed Magic Resistance, shouted.
I led with my adamantite sword and actively used the Spider Boots to constantly evade.
We fought in close quarters, practically brushing against the demon's body.
Slashing and dodging without pause, supporting one another.
"Adamantite... you came well prepared!"
The accumulating damage finally seemed to trouble Everhart, and he began fighting in earnest.
The demon moved over a dozen tentacles simultaneously, targeting Reinhardt.
Reinhardt crushed several with Rejection Magic and deflected others with his sword, but it clearly wasn't enough.
"Damn!"
"No!"
The Einhold family head and Hector hurried to support him, but...
Everhart's move was a feint.
In situations like this, you always target the weakest first.
Perhaps because fighting is innate to demons, they don't go easy on even the strong.
Having foreseen that, I was already moving a beat ahead.
And my prediction was right.
When I deflected the tentacles flying at the Einhold family head with my sword, they recoiled as if burned, writhing in pain.
No matter how you looked at it, this man was the weakest among us.
"Urk..."
Everhart glared at me fiercely and retaliated in irritation.
I evaded the demon's reach and slashed again.
Luft also plunged his sword deep from within the shadows.
There were too many eyes watching right now for Ultimate Mimicry.
My Ultimate Mimicry was slower than my teacher's; the instant my mana entered him, the demon's own magic would counterattack.
That was inevitable, because Everhart was constantly radiating his magic everywhere.
So Ultimate Mimicry could be sealed like this too...
The battle continued, as if dancing upon a blade's edge.
I heard Angelica's signal from behind.
"Family Head!"
"Everyone clear!"
The Eight Swords of Einhold, who had been swinging their swords moments before, hastily withdrew.
As Reinhardt and I pulled back with them, a tremendous pressure bore down on Everhart.
The demon screamed in agony but couldn't easily break free.
"Graaaagh!"
Joint magic mustered by the Einhold mages, gravity amplified dozens of times, pinned the demon firmly in place.
"Open fire with the crossbows!"
Fwababang!
At Katrina's command, the Heretic Inquisitors' volley erupted.
Arrows launched at an extremely high angle accelerated, propelled by the gravity field that could suppress even a High-Rank Demon.
As Everhart howled in agony, Demonic Beasts and Demon Thralls hurled themselves forward in desperation.
"Trash..."
"Hyah-ha!"
The Heretic Inquisitors responded bravely, but some of the Demon Thralls managed to reach the Einhold family members.
Consequently, Everhart broke free of the gravity restraint.
The demon tried to close the distance to Princess Alina, but we refused to allow him.
The mages who had been preparing a major technique unleashed it at last.
"Go!"
"Yes."
Hector's sword flew in lightly, then shifted its nature with crushing weight.
A tentacle tried to strike me, but the magic of the family head and Luft forced it back.
Reinhardt also exerted his Rejection Magic to its fullest.
But Everhart drastically altered his body shape and swatted Reinhardt away.
He was desperately trying to eliminate the most threatening enemy, if only for a moment!
For the first time, the demon felt his life genuinely threatened.
Just before the tentacles struck and sent him flying, Reinhardt threw me his sword.
Since he had converted the magic he was preparing into defense, he likely wasn't in grave danger.
"Jaeger!"
Shhk.
I caught Reinhardt's sword in my left hand and assumed a dual-sword stance once more.
Everhart, disconcerted by the bewildering whirl of twin blades, attacked, but...
The strength of Dual Swordsmanship isn't merely the number of attacks.
Wielding two swords like this lets you block attacks that normally can't be blocked and pierce defenses that can't be pierced.
A path opens that never existed with a single sword.
Slash! Cr-r-rack...
The two adamantite swords perfectly parried the tentacles' onslaught, then mercilessly hacked away.
Perhaps because I couldn't rely on armor in this fight, the second sword felt especially welcome.
Everhart, having spilled vast quantities of blood across the garden floor, could endure no longer and decided to retreat.
The demon hadn't exactly invaded Reshutal with a death-or-glory resolve.
"Ah, Alina! Your profit... Remember my curse, all of you! The curse of Everhart, Grand Duke of Demons!"
"Shut your bullshit mouth!"
Rejection Magic and Gravity Magic poured down, but it wasn't enough to hold the demon back.
Even so, every Demonic Beast and Demon Thrall he had brought had been destroyed.
We could only watch in hollow silence as the demon leisurely escaped.
"Re-repelled! We repelled a High-Rank Demon!"
"Is everyone alright?"
"Are we actually alive right now?"
When I asked that while checking if my heart was still beating, Reinhardt gave a faint, amused snort.
In truth, it had genuinely been dangerous.
Had Everhart fought seriously, I might not have died, but I would certainly have been forced to use magic.
Alina, standing at the very center of all this devastation, was only now being escorted deeper into the palace.
Her eyes, following Everhart's departing form, were hollow.
"Forget the curse. After all that..."
"Who knows. Though it doesn't seem to be without effect, does it?"
Hector Einhold said, gesturing with his chin toward the delegations from the neighboring kingdoms.
Regardless of Prince Marcel's personal intentions, the royals from the neighboring kingdoms were already in an uproar, demanding the marriage be annulled.
If the ceremony were forced through now, the probability of becoming Everhart's target was extremely high.
It made sense. A High-Rank Demon had sworn in his own name and made a spectacle of the threat; naturally, they were terrified.
Reinhardt ignored their display and gave me an order.
"Jaeger. Get yourself examined inside right now. I'm not sure if the adamantite sword alone provided proper resistance."
"Ah, understood. Here."
I returned his sword and moved indoors with Katrina.
Katrina belatedly voiced her concern for me.
Her own armor was a wreck from fighting the Demon Thralls.
"Are you unharmed? You weren't hit by magic, were you? One adamantite sword wouldn't have been enough."
"You're right."
"What?"
"I was hit by Lust Magic earlier and I can't calm dow—aaagh!"
She apparently didn't like this joke, because Katrina yanked my ear with all her strength.
I belatedly reassured her.
"Each time his magic entered me, I countered it with Rejection Magic. I only circulated it inside my body."
"Th-that's possible? The demon seemed to be continuously casting magic throughout the entire battle..."
"Even so, he unconsciously adjusts the strength. Once you grasp the pattern, it is simple—like matching the mana frequency and canceling it out."
Ever since the fight with the Enfeeblement Demon Diego last time, I'd been pondering this in various ways.
The magic and mana of demons are so transcendent that they simply ignore most ordinary mages' Magic Resistance.
Even a Lowest-Rank Demon could do that much, so I needed a countermeasure.
Once the chaos subsided, the neighboring delegations hurried home at a pace just short of flight.
The marriage was broken off.
The terrified king decided to lodge the Heretic Inquisitors within the palace itself.
"Surely we won't have to keep sleeping and eating here..."
"He'll calm down after a few days."
Everhart too had only escaped with his life and suffered considerable losses.
First, the Demonic Beasts and Demon Thralls had been heavily expended.
Demon Thralls could supposedly be recycled, but preparing new bodies for them wasn't free either.
And beyond that, Everhart himself hadn't escaped injury...
Once today's news spread, he might even face invasions from other demons.
Within this misfortune, it was fortunate that no one had discerned Princess Alina's true nature.
I only knew because I was fully aware of the entire context.
Other people were probably still in the dark.
Everhart hadn't openly called her his daughter, either.
That evening, I was predictably assigned a position near the princess.
Alina had been silent ever since the incident.
Her maidservants didn't dare speak to her either.
As I stood my solitary watch, relieved that I had safely carried out my teacher's mission, the door slid open quietly behind me.
It was Alina, now a tragic heroine straight out of a fairy tale.
"Excuse me, would you come in for a moment?"
I glanced around the corridor, then gave a small nod.
The moment the bedroom door closed, Alina's slender body crumpled to the floor.
She wore a sheer, whisper-thin nightgown.
Yet today, Alina was so pitiful and pitiable that I felt not even a flicker of desire.
"I'm such a fool for hoping, even for a moment, when that monster appeared. I thought my real life was finally about to begin..."
Perhaps because it had all been too hard and too painful.
Alina poured out her lament to me, someone who could never really be called an ally.
Everyone, at some point, wonders if they are special.
A truth I also know very well.
But few people had ever had that hope denied as cruelly as Alina.
I genuinely pitied her.
"I told you. You can live however you want to live."
"... Are you really a demon? As strong as you are, and without a contractor or a Demon Thrall either."
At my consolation, Alina gave a hollow laugh.
Like a thief reflexively hiding his own tracks, I swiftly made my excuse.
"Being alone is comfortable."
"You cooperated perfectly well earlier. Well, fine."
Alina straightened herself, then knelt before me.
And she spoke earnestly.
"I beg you. Please kill Everhart. In return, I will give you everything. Without killing him, my freedom is impossible, anyway."
"Understood."
"Huh?"
Alina was briefly flustered by my immediate acceptance.
I had no reason to hesitate.
It was something I had already sworn to, many times over.
"Every last demon will die, anyway."
"Of all the..."
"Getting frightened now?"
"No. I welcome it, too!"
Under the bright moonlit night, we clasped each other's hands firmly.