Chapter 319: translated
I Killed the Demon King. It Was a Mistake.
Episode 319
Raven and Gloria did not hastily engage with those creatures.
Fighting in an unfamiliar place with unfamiliar monsters would only result in experiencing unusual variables firsthand. There were surprisingly many places to escape to.
The City of Sin was densely packed with concrete buildings, as the name ‘city’ suggested.
However, what differed from ordinary cities was that the buildings were all tall rectangular structures with unknown purposes, and most of them were damaged. Gloria and Raven climbed a high-rise building that had been broken in half.
"Huff... Huff..."
Raven was out of breath, and her legs were trembling. If she could have used magic, she would have somehow managed to climb using support magic, but using magic now would certainly attract the golden humans' pursuit.
At that moment, they heard someone climbing up from the bottom of the building. Judging by the footsteps, it was definitely the golden humans.
Gloria offered her back to the exhausted Raven.
"Get on my back, Lady Raven."
Raven had no choice but to get on Gloria's back. Gloria carried Raven and climbed the stairs in an instant. She moved so quickly that Raven's hair became disheveled.
Reaching the top of the broken building, Raven and Gloria peeked outside cautiously, holding their breath. The golden humans, covered in rust and moss, were searching for Gloria and Raven with an eerie gleam in their eyes.
From the way they were intensively searching this area, it seemed they roughly knew that Raven and Gloria were here.
"...What exactly are those things?"
Gloria's question dispersed with the dust of the ruins.
However, there was no one around to answer her question. Raven carefully observed the golden humans.
'Magic waves are flowing.'
The fact that magic waves were flowing meant that these creatures were monsters animated by magic.
However, their appearances varied. Some were wearing shabby clothes, while others were wearing diving suits.
The common factor was that they all carried gleaming weapons in their hands.
'...Is it because of those weapons?'
Magic waves were flowing from their entire bodies, but the main source was those weapons. Those weapons must be what was controlling the golden humans.
Raven held up Moonflower.
If it was true that Cheche had entered here in the past and come out, it must know the exit. Or at least how to escape this situation.
Raven looked at the golden humans through Moonflower. The weapons in the hands of the golden humans were all wrapped in identical language inscriptions.
Though she couldn't understand the exact meaning of the inscriptions, it was clear that they were controlling the golden humans.
'As I thought, those weapons are the cause.'
Small magic threads extended from each weapon wrapped in inscriptions.
Those threads rose high into the sky and all converged at one place. It was the white pillar supporting the center of this City of Sin.
And that white pillar was wrapped in indecipherable language inscriptions.
'It seems that whatever is controlling the golden humans is inside that.'
Tap! Tap! Tap!
The golden humans who had been following them had apparently caught up to the vicinity.
"Let's head toward that white pillar first."
"If we go there, will we be able to find Sir Caesar?"
Raven looked at Gloria. Her magic waves were trembling anxiously. It seemed her separation anxiety had resurfaced due to the unexpected incident that separated her from Caesar.
"We'll definitely meet him. He's absolutely not someone who would die easily."
"...That's right. Sir Caesar won't die."
Gloria stopped thinking about Caesar and calculated in her head how to get to the white pillar.
Her trembling subsided as she focused on a clear objective.
"Then, Lady Raven, I think you should enter Kos."
Kos scribbled with a pen on a notepad, seemingly displeased.
[Why should I offer my body to Raven?]
"Are you going to keep acting childish? I can jump across buildings, but Lady Raven can't. And Master told us not to use magic under any circumstances."
If they used spatial movement magic, all the patrolling golden figures would likely rush toward them.
Since it was important to reach that pillar without being detected, Kos' help was necessary.
[Tsk, fine.]
Kos left Gloria's body and settled onto Raven's. Kos adjusted her size to fit Raven's body.
"Let's go."
Gloria and Raven jumped across the buildings.
***
Caesar emerged from the lake. A golden fish was hanging from Caesar's shoulder.
"Phew, I thought I was going to die."
The fish was twisting its body while biting Caesar's shoulder. But a single bite was nothing to worry about, unlike if there had been dozens.
Caesar flicked the fish, dropping it to the ground. Then he stepped on it.
Crunch!
Caesar examined the cross-section of the fish. One might expect mechanical parts inside a fish completely covered in metal, but inside was a small jewel.
This jewel was a relic of Grezawa, the City of Sin, containing Grezawa's curse.
Though he didn't know the exact name of the curse, those afflicted by it would have their entire bodies turn to gold and become soldiers guarding the City of Sin for their entire lives, like those golden fish or golden humans.
Caesar picked up the jewel. Of course, like now, relics possessed by golden monsters could be taken once the curse had dissipated.
The reason Caesar guided Raven and Gloria to this City of Sin was to collect useful relics like this.
This place was like a lucky stage in gaming terms, where useful relics could be found in abundance. Caesar looked around.
"...It certainly is large."
The sky was supported by a massive dome-shaped concrete structure, and the entire city was surrounded by a moat.
The most impressive architectural feature in this city was the enormous pillar in the center.
The pillar, which was almost as tall as a magic tower, perfectly supported the center of the dome. Adventurers who arrived here would surely be drawn to the building in the center, circling around like moths attracted to moonlight.
Caesar looked toward the moat. Golden fish in the moat were glaring at Caesar with fierce eyes. They seemed ready to tear Caesar to pieces like piranhas the moment he entered the moat.
Click! Click! Click! Click!
"You can glare all you want, I'm not going in there."
There might be a way to recover relics from those creatures, but the relics they had swallowed weren't particularly valuable.
At best, they might be elemental stones. Rather than wasting time catching those creatures, it would be much better to secretly catch one golden human and take their relic.
Caesar threw the recently deceased friend into the moat. The creatures seemed to become even more enraged, thrashing about violently.
More importantly, he needed to find Raven and Gloria first.
'My body still feels a bit stiff...'
Caesar's physical condition wasn't good because he had used Storm's Eve earlier.
But that didn't mean he could leave Raven and Gloria alone. Caesar took a deep breath and used the Clear Field.
Clear Field Form 1
Air Flow
Caesar's senses became extremely sensitive, allowing him to perceive the entire City of Sin at once.
'Found them.'
Before long, Caesar spotted Raven and Gloria jumping across ruined buildings. Raven was wearing Kos, who seemed to be moving on her behalf.
'They shouldn't go there.'
Raven and Gloria were heading toward the enormous pillar in the center of the city.
That pillar was the most dangerous place in the City of Sin. If they entered without Caesar, they would 100% be beheaded.
At that moment, Gloria and Raven's footsteps became urgent. Golden humans were also jumping across buildings, pursuing Raven and Gloria.
'Damn, they've been spotted.'
It seemed he would need to move quickly.
***
Gloria swung her greatsword at the golden human rushing toward her.
Bang!
The golden human's combat ability was more impressive than Gloria had anticipated. Even though Gloria had swung her sword with full force, instead of being knocked back, the golden human grappled with her.
"Argghhh!"
Knowing they would certainly be surrounded by golden humans if they delayed, Gloria couldn't afford to waste any more time. If these creatures could bleed, she could have used the Blood Moon's effect, but there was no way to use the Blood Moon's ability against creatures made of gold.
At that moment, Kos jumped in and kicked the golden human's torso.
Thud!
The creature tumbled down along with another golden human that had been targeting Gloria from behind.
"Gloria!"
When Raven extended her hand to Gloria, she passed the greatsword to her. It would be impossible for someone with Raven's strength to wield such a weapon.
But Kos was different. Blood flowed from Kos' body, completely soaking the Blood Moon with blood.
Baaaang!
With an explosion, all the surrounding golden humans were blown away. Raven felt a chill down her spine from the exhilarating sensation coursing through the greatsword.
Is this the world that knights lived in?
While analyzing enemies with cool rationality was good, the pleasure of crushing and blasting enemies with overwhelming power wasn't as bad as she had thought.
At that moment, a golden human rushed toward Gloria. Gloria grabbed the golden human's wrist and slammed it down.
Crash!
The ceiling collapsed, and the golden human fell straight to the ground below.
The golden humans rushing from below were buried under the debris. There was no reason to celebrate eliminating a few golden humans.
The golden humans had already multiplied into a horde and were closing in on Raven and Gloria from all directions. In the midst of the frantic chase, they had arrived at the center of the city.
The massive, pristine white pillar supporting the entire dome loomed over Gloria. The golden humans were the more pressing concern. Each golden human was as powerful as an ordinary knight.
Of course, they lacked discipline and weapon-handling techniques, but the golden aura overlaid on their weapons was terrifyingly sharp and powerful.
At that moment, a spear flew toward Gloria's back.
"...!"
The spear came so suddenly in the chaos that she couldn't prepare for it. Kos was with Raven, and so was the greatsword.
In a situation where she was about to be inevitably pierced, a shield emerged from Gloria's lower back.
Clang!
The spear couldn't completely penetrate the shield and stopped halfway, trembling.
"Lady Raven!"
"I know. We shouldn't use magic."
Raven created ice spears and shot them in all directions at the golden humans. The golden humans hit by the ice spears froze in place along with the spears, unable to move.
"But given the situation, I think it's right to just use magic freely now."
They had avoided using magic to prevent being detected by the golden humans. But now that they had been exposed so thoroughly, there was no reason not to use magic.
"Kos! Go to Gloria."
As soon as Kos separated from Raven's body, Raven immediately held up her wand.
A wand is like an extension of oneself to a wizard. The suitable branch, core material, size, elasticity, and grip, everything is a personalized custom creation.
In other words, it is correct to say that there are as many wands in this world as there are wizards.
"I can properly test my newly changed wand this time."
While Raven was contemplating how to use the phoenix feathers she received from Arang, she thought it would be good to make them into a wand. She devoted herself to making a wand with the phoenix feathers while traveling from the demon realm to Homigraph or spending time in the magic tower.
Raven's wand slashed horizontally. Then, three magic circles were instantly drawn where the wand had passed. The magic circles glowed red and completely absorbed into the wand.
All magic, regardless of whether the phenomenon is simple or complex, can only produce one effect per spell.
For example, if shooting an ice spear, one spell creates the ice spear, and another spell shoots the created ice spear, thus, a total of two spells occur consecutively for the magic to manifest.
Therefore, the more complex the intended magic, the more magic circles overlap and thicken, and the difficulty of the magic increases exponentially. The wand is precisely the tool that helps with this.
Wizards implant various spells into their wands and use them as needed for assistance. Simple throwing, spreading, or ignition spells are implanted in the wand according to the wizard's preference. The reason Raven mainly uses cooling and supporting magic is because cooling and supporting spells are basically implanted in this wand.
However, while researching the phoenix feathers, Raven discovered that beyond having a simple magic circulation structure, the phoenix feathers automatically maintain the implemented magic.
In other words, it meant that she could repeatedly implant and delete new auxiliary spells in the existing wand at any time. Moreover, the number of feathers Raven had was three. Raven could now add three more spells in addition to the cooling and supporting magic she had already imbued in her existing wand.
Raven swung her wand toward the sky. Immediately, seven magic circles overlapped and were drawn in the sky.
The cooling, adhesion, transformation, and ignition magic stored in the wand, along with the amplification, enlargement, and falling magic computed in Raven's mind, were drawn.
Originally, magic with seven overlapping magic circles would require at least 10 minutes of computation even for Raven. But the time it took Raven to draw the magic was only 10 seconds.
"...Good heavens."
Huge ice picks crashed from the sky. Each was about the size of Gloria's waist and fell so fast that if hit, one would not even be able to gather their bones.
The golden humans raised their weapons to block the ice picks.
Clang!
Most buckled and fell as soon as they received the ice. But it didn't stop there. The ice stuck tenaciously to the bodies of the golden humans and then burst into flames.
Ding! Ding!
The golden humans quickly heated up from the hot ice chunks and melted away. The melted golden humans mixed with each other. The treasures they were holding also melted and rolled on the floor.
"The effect is quite good."
Since it was the first time using it in actual combat, he didn't know how it would turn out, but the magic manifestation was smoother than he had thought.
Given that even such large-scale magic computations worked properly, it was worth trying one-man support magic. The biggest drawback of one-man support magic is that once the magic is manifested, one cannot use other magic, let alone move from their position.
However, using the phoenix feathers, it seemed possible to move or even perform double casting.
Ding!
At that moment, the pillar groaned softly. To be more precise, it seemed as if something inside the pillar groaned softly.
Eventually, a single golden glowing eye began to slowly emerge from the large door in the pillar.
What pierced through the darkness was, surprisingly, a human.
The wavy light blue hair and the golden headband placed on it made the woman mysterious, and her snow-white skin and light pink lips made her appear more enchanting.
However, the more one's curiosity and appreciation of her beauty deepened, the more the thin, sharp, pure white sword in her hand felt out of place.
"@#$%^@#."
The woman raised her sword, pointing precisely at Raven and Gloria.
Neither Raven nor Gloria could understand what the woman was saying.
However, what was certain was that the woman was not friendly toward Gloria and Raven.