The Mithril Warrior's Whip
The black mage raised his staff and chanted. ──Rise as a God (Dd.f xa m nTr).
──Krrrrrrk!! Dozens of rock golems erupted from the ground. They looked far stronger than the earth golems. The moment they were born, they received a buff from the giant golem’s black-magic aura and began to change.
“GOGOGOGOGOGO──!!!!”
“Goooooooooooooooo!!”
──Crack-crack-crack!! The golems turned pitch-black. In less than ten seconds, a squad of rock golems was complete. The black mage burst into laughter, staff in hand.
“Kuh-kuh-kuh-kuh! KWAHAHAHAHA!! Are there any mages left who can use area attacks? If there are, try it! Knoumuth and I will personally come kill you!!!”
“That son of a bitch.”
All I could offer in return for his cruel declaration was a curse. The clever bastard had been saving his forces until he could deal with any mage capable of wiping out his army in one strike. Maybe it was because he hadn’t gone insane from the side effects of black magic yet—his tactics were far too rational for a typical black mage with no regard for life. I couldn’t think of any way to break through this situation.
“……Nord.”
──I froze. My eyes met Franc’s. Without a single word, we understood each other. She had already done more than enough by staying this long. Neither of us wanted any greater loyalty than that. Asking someone who could still survive to die with us would be far too shameless.
“──Tirsi. Larilura.”
I was about to tell them to run first. If my eye contact with Franc had happened just a few seconds earlier, I probably would have. But the words never left my mouth.
──Fwoooooooosh!!!
My head turned on its own toward the enormous mana rapidly approaching from outside the barrier.
──Thud!!
The figure that had charged forward like a missile kicked off the ground and leaped. The jump was so powerful that even if a landmine had exploded beneath her feet, she wouldn’t have reached that height.
The desert snake moves as one (r-Hr.i ir.kwi mi sA-tA n smt).
A short incantation in the Narmer-Nile tongue! It felt completely different from the black mage’s ominous chanting. The woman swung the whip in her hand.
──Swish-swish-swish!!
The whip danced like a serpent, extending to an enormous length and releasing sky-blue aura!!
──BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM!!!
Four flashes of the whip, wrapped in light as thick as my waist, and the rock golems that had just been born on the wasteland exploded as if struck by artillery. The power was absurd. Yet the attack felt strangely familiar. My eyes nearly popped out of their sockets.
──Step.
The sky-blue-haired woman landed almost without a sound. Standing amid the remains of golems that had existed for barely two minutes, she spotted the distant black mage and muttered.
“Found you.”
──Crack!!
The lowered whip scraped across the ground. The strongest adventurer in Sargadis had arrived.
***
The Sekhmet Guild was an adventurer guild that originated in Narmer-Nile. Since ancient times, Narmer-Nile had been a nation blessed with abundant resources and vast plains. That geographical advantage became the foundation upon which the people of Narmer-Nile built their country. The problem was that it wasn’t only virtuous humans who flocked to fertile land. Black mages lurked in every corner of the territory, along with countless monsters! The history of Narmer-Nile was also a history of struggle to protect the nation against enemies that threatened peace. And the Sekhmet Guild was an adventurer guild founded in that blood-soaked land. It was only natural that they specialized in monster extermination.
──However. Even if we expanded the scope all the way to Narmer-Nile, where their headquarters was located──how many people had ever been permitted to wear a Mithril plate? It was the rank right below Master Class, the qualification needed to found one’s own guild! That was the position of the Mithril Class.
──Fwoooooosh!!!
So I wasn’t surprised. Not by the fact that Nefertiti, a Mithril-class adventurer, had escaped the black mage’s trap alone, nor by the fact that she had charged straight at that giant golem without hesitation.
──Shrrrrrrk!!!
Nefertiti’s riding whip, short like a cavalry crop, extended to a terrifying length with every swing. The whip wrapped in thick aura lashed at the black mage like a rampaging serpent.
──BOOOOOOM!!!
A roar like a jet crashing! The aura serpent struck the black mage’s body, but he didn’t even fall from the golem’s shoulder. The same blue barrier that had blocked the thief’s arrows activated.
You came!! Nefertiti──!!
The black mage blocked the whip’s attack and burst into wild laughter. His robe’s hood came off, revealing his distorted face. ‘That bastard is ugly as hell.’ A huge lump had grown on his forehead, and half his face was grotesquely collapsed.
Nefertiti half-closed her eyes as she retracted the whip.
Abidus. I won’t let you get away this time.
Try it!! Today is the day you either become my golem, or I get devoured by your snake!!
The black mage raised his staff and chanted. His earlier habit of shouting loudly as if wanting to be heard was gone; now his incantation was fast and quiet.
──Flash!
After finishing the chant at incredible speed, the black mage changed the barrier. The sky barrier turned red and the ground barrier disappeared. The giant golem’s body darkened and its mouth opened wide. The sight stirred a vague sense of dread and chills, like looking out at the night sea from aboard a ship for the first time. Malevolent mana that instinctively repelled living beings! Black magic.
“FOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO──!!”
The giant golem roared. It seemed to have absorbed all the mana that had been strengthening the smaller golems.
──Fwoooooosh─!!
“Kyaaak?!”
“Shit?!”
The change in the barrier also affected the idiots who had been watching blankly. The now-red barrier began to shrink in range, indiscriminately dragging in everyone still inside!
“Waaaaah!!”
“Kyaaaaah?!”
Even Larilura and Tirsi, who could have escaped the blue barrier, were unable to pass through this one and were pulled in! We were swept along like mosquitoes helplessly pushed into a closing net, tumbling all the way to within a hundred meters of the giant golem.
──Swish!!
The idiots were dragged close enough to look up at the golem. Nefertiti glanced at the Gold-class adventurers.
“Sorry. You’re in the way.”
“──Our apologies!”
Treated like obstacles, they retreated without the slightest hint of resentment.
“Philips!! Treat Jackson’s wounds!! The rest of you, fall back with me!! Don’t interfere with Lady Nefertiti’s battle!!”
“Yes!!”
The idiots answered loudly and scrambled backward. Our party was swept along with them. No one was foolish enough to disobey orders after witnessing that battle.
──BOOM!!
Rumble-rumble!!
The giant golem swung its fist at high speed, like a runaway truck. Despite its thirty-meter size, the punch was so fast the tip of its fist blurred. The combination of mass and speed tore the ground Nefertiti had dodged into a crater.
──Shrrrrrrk!!
Crack!!
Nefertiti counterattacked. Her aura serpent flashed like lightning and struck the golem’s elbow.
──Bang!!
The arm exploded. But Nefertiti’s expressionless face twitched. The destroyed arm of the giant golem regenerated in less than two seconds. While attacking with the regenerated arm, the black mage shouted mockingly.
KWAHAHAHA!! Do you like it, Nefertiti!! Knoumuth is a custom model I made just for you!!
……I’ll just keep attacking until it falls.
Nefertiti swung her single whip in rapid succession. A fierce barrage of lashes struck the giant golem’s entire body.
──Rumble-rumble-rumble!!!
It was an exchange that felt like the sky was splitting and the earth was collapsing. The sonic boom of the whip tearing through air was chilling, and the thirty-meter golem rampaging like a tsunami was so unrealistic it broke all sense of perspective.
Having fallen back with the other adventurers, I watched their battle and felt something was off.
‘He’s not attacking the black mage himself?’
What came to mind was the mage who had been attacked earlier. He had somehow survived and was receiving treatment from a priest nearby. The black mage had definitely used magic to defend against his attack. Yet he had only used the blue barrier against Nefertiti’s attacks.
‘There’s only one difference.’
Whether the attack was magic or not. Even though Nefertiti’s whip was wrapped in aura, it didn’t work. Then perhaps that blue barrier was a shield that only increased physical defense?
‘The sky barrier was the same.’
Some people could pass through the sky barrier freely while others couldn’t at all. I didn’t know what criteria it used to allow passage, but there was no reason to deliberately let people escape. The situation was different from when it had let the Silver-class team’s survivors go. From the tone of their conversation, Nefertiti and that bastard knew each other. If the reason a Mithril-class like Nefertiti was in this rural city was because she had been chasing him, then what if this entire trap, which had taken so long to set, had been prepared solely to lure in and kill Nefertiti?
‘If that’s true…… this is dangerous.’
Not just dangerous—extremely dangerous. The black mage was at least Mithril-class. Since he was trading blows head-on with Nefertiti, there was no doubt. That kind of opponent had spent time preparing countermeasures specifically to kill Nefertiti. The regenerating golem and the physical-resistance shield were probably preparations to nullify Nefertiti’s attacks. And the red barrier was a trap activated to ensure he wouldn’t let Nefertiti, who had come to kill him, escape. Ever since he started shrinking the range, no one could get out!
‘Shit. We’re screwed.’
The other guild masters still hadn’t escaped the forest trap. After killing both Nefertiti and the guild masters, it was obvious the black mage would charge straight into Sargadis! More importantly, we were trapped inside this barrier too! If Nefertiti lost, even a seven-year-old could tell we’d all be turned into tomato juice in a one-versus-many!
──BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM!!
The giant golem pounded the ground like a meteor shower! Nefertiti dodged and struck back by a hair’s breadth against those wide-range attacks.
You’re still fast!! With you as the soul engine for my golem, it would be first-class!!
The black mage stood boldly on the rampaging golem’s shoulder and spoke greedily.
Nefertiti!! Become mine!! If you become my golem, I can ascend to the Hexagram’s Seat!!
……I’ll send every black mage to the ledger of the dead. You, and the rest of Immortalis too.
KWAHAHAHA!! What an arrogant dream!! Dream it inside my golem until the end!!
I could understand the words, but they were full of unfamiliar terms. Still, there were expressions I recognized.
‘Soul engine?’
My mind cleared. Black mages meant undead. And undead meant necromancy. I had forgotten because the golems were so ridiculously overpowered. Normally, black mages used undead as their main forces rather than golems. Was that only to avoid the side effects of black magic? Even so, something felt off. If he only made golems, there would have been no need to learn black magic in the first place. Even a mage with a broken personality wouldn’t touch black magic unless they were completely insane.
‘──What black magic does he mainly use?’
I thought about why the golem could use magic. If it was like Ring-ring No. 3, with magic circles engraved inside, then the side effects would affect the black mage who activated them. Because the mana used to cast magic came from the caster themselves. The side effects of black magic applied to living creatures. That was why living beings had no aptitude for darkness and negative mana.
‘Then──what if it’s an already dead “soul”?’
Wasn’t that what he meant by “soul engine”? If it was Nefertiti’s soul, a Mithril-class, it would be possible to create a golem capable of using even more powerful black magic!
“……In that case.”
If that was true, then I also had a way to turn this situation around. I closed my eyes and focused.
──Whirrrrrl!
The mana of the runes inside me opened its eyes.