Oblivion Legion (5)
There were several forces capable of dealing damage to monsters, yet among them existed powers that held a supreme advantage against such creatures.
The most famous of these was divine power. Even so, divine power was a gift granted only to a vanishingly small fraction of humanity—less than one percent of the entire population. Simply being able to wield it was enough to guarantee a path as a cleric. Ordinary believers and lower-ranking clergy could only demonstrate faith and devotion; the vast majority of them could never truly command the sacred.
Next in renown after divine power came the holy relics—artifacts that only a chosen handful, the Heroes themselves, could wield. Their numbers were vanishingly few, yet the fame of the Heroes had made them legendary in their own right.
Setting aside those two publicly celebrated powers left one remaining force: the power of the spirits.
That was precisely why the spirit mage Letisia could fill the role of the party’s primary magical firepower in Erinn’s group.
Most spirits, however, possessed hard limits on the power they could output—even when their contractor’s mana overflowed. Against a monster as formidable as Eris, they often failed to land meaningful blows. At the very least, one needed a Great Spirit to inflict proper damage. Yet spirits of that caliber rarely lent their strength to humans, which left most spirit mages struggling to handle monsters beyond a certain level.
Here, though, things were different.
If a Great Spirit could deal damage, what of an existence that stood above even that?
If the king of all spirits herself took the field, and if a vast reservoir of mana stood ready to support her…
“Kyaaaaaaah!!!”
Even a powerful monster had no choice but to suffer catastrophic wounds. Eris felt as though her entire body were being carved apart; she was forced to retreat in a frantic scramble, reduced to a wreck in the blink of an eye as she staggered backward.
“Kh… what the hell… is this…?”
Nothing like this had been in the intelligence she had received. She had heard that Hero Erinn’s party included a spirit mage, but—
“Why is the Spirit King here…?!”
She had never been told that the woman was contracted to the Spirit King. Of course she hadn’t. Outwardly, surprisingly few people knew that Letisia was the Spirit King’s contractor.
The reason was simple. Letisia never went around advertising the fact, and for the sake of efficiency she rarely called upon the Spirit King even in battle. Even when she did summon her, recognizing that the spirit was the Spirit King herself was no easy task. One might sense that something was different, yet unless one was a spirit mage—or already knew the truth in advance—it was nearly impossible to tell. Great Spirits could already take human form, so casually distinguishing the Spirit King from a Great Spirit was beyond most people.
Of course, there were those who recognized her at a glance. They were simply the minority. And the heroes who had colluded with Eris this time—Leite and Yula—had known the party only by name; they had never actually cooperated with Erinn’s group.
The existence of the Spirit King had never been part of Eris’s plan. That was why, when the barrier had gone up moments earlier and she saw that Letisia had not entered it, she had assumed it would not matter.
A variable like this…
It was a fatally dangerous variable.
Spirit King. The title was not merely because she was the leader of the spirits. She was their representative and sovereign, yes—but she was also the strongest among every spirit that existed, and that was why she bore the name.
No Great Spirit, no matter which one was brought forth, could match Elysia’s true power. The great lord Eris served—the Demon King himself—had once listed her among the beings capable of killing him.
Of course, the full, world-shaking might of a Spirit King who could stand against the Demon King could never be drawn completely into this realm. Even so, the danger had been acknowledged.
Naturally, that power was lethal even to a Legion Commander. The Spirit King possessed strength on an entirely different plane from ordinary spirits.
Eris hastily pulled herself together. Watching her, Elysia clicked her tongue.
“Mmm, still a pity… She recovered so quickly.”
Elysia turned her head with a graceful swirl and looked at the exhausted Letisia.
“Letisia, won’t you try increasing your mana capacity a little more?”
“Do you think that’s as easy as it sounds…?”
“For you it wouldn’t be impossible. Train for another twenty years or so…”
“Haa… The Oath of Fanaticism will vanish long before that.”
“Mm, I suppose that’s true as well.”
Elysia smacked her lips in regret.
“If I could have used just a little more power, I could have finished her cleanly.”
Eris flinched. She knew all too well that the Spirit King’s words were no joke—they were the absolute truth.
To think the rumored contractor of the Spirit King was that woman…!
Eris raised her mana. With a barrier that should never have fallen now shattered and the Spirit King herself present, there was no room left for leisure. Now that the plan had gone awry, there was no reason to remain here.
Oblivion Legion Commander Eris activates [Subspace Movement]
She would not be able to unleash another attack of that magnitude anyway. Bearing the Spirit King’s power was no easy burden for a contractor.
“Trying to run?”
“…Why don’t you try and stop me?”
Elysia snorted. With her power she could have prevented Eris from fleeing at all and butchered her on the spot. But doing so would place a dangerous strain on her contractor Letisia’s mana. Knowing she could not move freely, Eris still dared to provoke her—and Elysia found it contemptible.
Then Letisia spoke as if soothing her.
“It’s all right. And she won’t be able to escape anyway.”
Letisia said this while glancing to the side.
“Albrecht, I’m counting on you.”
“…Don’t worry.”
Albrecht stepped forward, his expression hard as stone.
“She absolutely won’t get away.”
“…!”
Just before Elysia’s power had crashed down on her earlier, Eris had felt the protective mana around her body scatter. Only belatedly did she realize that the culprit was none other than Albrecht.
But it was already too late. The transfer magic she had been on the verge of completing lost its mana in an instant and collapsed, its form dissolving. The incomplete spell’s mana scattered and was bound fast by Albrecht’s own power.
“It was you…!”
Eris seethed with rage. That a mere human—and one who looked utterly unremarkable at that—had obstructed her path at every turn was an insult to her pride.
The rank of Legion Commander was not something one attained through mana alone. Eris’s pure combat strength was already enough to overwhelm most heroes.
Even the stats visible to Albrecht’s eyes made that clear.
Traits:
— ???
The traits remained hidden, but the stats themselves were visible. Why the stats of a Legion Commander would show at all was a mystery, though Albrecht suspected it had something to do with how much stronger he himself had become.
In any case, Eris’s stats were overwhelming, befitting a Legion Commander. Her strength surpassed Erinn’s, her agility exceeded Clara’s, and her vitality outstripped even that of the monster Caesius. Her mana, too, far outclassed both Erinn and Letisia.
If a monster like that targeted Albrecht, he would be finished before he could even react. And Eris did exactly that.
“If only you’re gone, this whole situation…!”
She would be able to properly activate her curse, and the disadvantageous tide would reverse in an instant. She still had no idea how a human could suppress her mana, but there was no time to dwell on it.
Eris spread her hand wide, lengthening her nails into long, razor-sharp blades. They looked capable of piercing a human torso in a single thrust—perhaps even harder than steel.
One thing was certain: they were more than enough to punch through Albrecht’s body and end his life. And with Eris’s speed, there was no way Albrecht could react in time.
Yet Albrecht did not release his hold on Eris’s mana. If anything, he poured every last scrap of his mana and concentration into the effort.
“Let go of me!”
Eris roared as she kicked off the ground in a single explosive motion. Her body shot forward like an arrow, closing the distance to Albrecht at a speed that defied imagination.
Before Albrecht could even register it, Eris was already right in front of him. At this rate she would easily take his life.
But then—
KAAAAANG!!!
A pure-white Holy Sword barely caught Eris’s claws, holding firm without being overwhelmed by raw strength.
“The Hero…!”
It was Erinn. After forcefully shoving Eris back, she wiped a faint sheen of cold sweat and forced a casual tone.
“…Really~ doing something so dangerous~♡”
“I didn’t exactly have anywhere to retreat to.”
Albrecht’s deadpan reply left Erinn momentarily speechless. If she hadn’t come to block that strike, his head would have been flying. How could he sound so calm?
“You… you know you were done for if I hadn’t made it, right~?”
“I know. That’s why I stayed still.”
“…What?”
Albrecht spoke as if it were the most natural thing in the world.
“Because I knew you’d stop her. If I moved from here, this thing would have escaped for sure.”
“….”
“And there’s no way you wouldn’t realize that.”
Erinn closed her eyes for a brief moment, then let out a short, incredulous laugh. She raised her mana with force. She had burned through most of it only moments ago, but now she had no choice but to push herself and draw up whatever she had recovered.
After all, it wasn’t just anyone—Albrecht was putting his trust in her…
“Ha, seriously……♡”
Clinging to a consciousness that threatened to blur from mana exhaustion, Erinn called out to her party.
“Guys~.”
“…Yeah.”
“Leave the curse to this dummy, so don’t worry about it…”
At her words, every member of Erinn’s party finished preparing for battle.
“We’re taking that thing down right here, no matter what~.”
“…Understood.”
“Puhaha! Hell yeah!”
Freya answered simply as she raised a vast surge of divine power. Ser-Aria briefly clamped a bottle between her lips, then released it and nocked an arrow to her bowstring. Clara poured murderous mana into her daggers and spoke in a low voice.
“…I won’t let her get away.”
Eris let out a hollow laugh.
“You lot… against me?”
Her expression hardened as she raised her mana once more. Even after blocking Erinn’s strike and losing control of a portion of her power, she still had plenty left.
“There’s a limit to empty bluster. With a half-powered Spirit King and just yourselves, you think you can do anything to me?”
That was a Legion Commander.
“I’ll slaughter every last one of you.”
She revealed the overwhelming strength befitting a general who commanded one of the pillars of the Demon King’s army.