Chapter 352: translated
I Killed the Demon King. It Was a Mistake.
Chapter 352
The Cork magic tower is not just a simple magical research facility.
Since the birth of the Imperial Nation, all magicians have been educated in that magic tower, and it is the cradle of magicians who have made it a virtue to pass on their teachings to future generations.
Seeing their cradle of themselves, their disciples, and their masters crumbling miserably, the first thought that came to the magicians was one.
"Protect the magic tower!"
"The magic tower is under surprise attack!"
The reason magicians are conducting a defensive battle is not because they have special feelings for Homigraph or Sapientia, nor is it because of a sense of justice to protect people.
It is to protect the magic tower where the research and teachings of their masters, as well as their own research, are all stored.
"Do, don't leave the front line!"
"There are still devils remaining! If you flee, you will be strictly punished by military law!"
The officers tried to hold back the magicians, but it was meaningless. The magicians' attention was already focused on the collapsed magic tower.
"Move aside! Without the magic tower, there is no Homigraph!"
"All my research materials are in there!"
"My experimental data is more important than these trivial matters! My magic is magic that will change the world!"
Jerry burst with rage.
"These damn magicians!"
Jerry was infuriated by his own complacency in thinking that they would have transformed into obedient soldiers through the Demon Realm War, and by his own powerlessness in failing to prevent the surprise attack on the magic tower.
Jerry seemed to know why the magic tower had collapsed without receiving a report. He already knew from Margrave Pruna that all defense lines had been helplessly breached due to devils with fins and gills.
That's why he had deployed a large number of magicians along the Eileen riverbank and asked Margrave Pruna, who had fought devils before, to protect it, but even that was broken through.
Was it because Jerry underestimated the devils, or were the devils' abilities far superior to what Jerry had thought?
Jerry felt as if the responsibility for the collapsed tower was his own fault for establishing the defense operation.
Slash!
A devil suddenly appeared in the command tower where Jerry was.
The devil with long, sickle-like forelegs beheaded all the staff members in the command post.
"Shadow Reaper..."
It was the nickname of the devil that Caesar had warned him about before Caesar went missing.
He had heard it was a devil specialized in infiltrating through shadows and disrupting the rear or assassinating commanders. He had heard that to counter them, magicians needed to constantly cast detection and restraining spells, but with all the magicians fleeing to the magic tower, there was no way to stop them.
Rolling!
The head of the communications officer Charlie touched Jerry's feet.
"Aaaaargh!"
Jerry drew his sword and charged at the devil.
Though it had been a long time since he abandoned his mediocre talent and entered the path of a commander, Jerry never forgot that he was a knight.
Not being afraid in front of the enemy and resisting until the last moment. Jerry held onto the duty of a knight and charged at the Shadow Reaper.
Slash!
Jerry cut the Shadow Reaper.
One of its forelegs flew off and stuck into the ground. But at the same time, Jerry's right hand also flew off. Jerry's legs buckled momentarily from the burning pain. To be precise, it wasn't because of the pain, but despair that broke Jerry's knees.
The Reaper stood in front of Jerry with its remaining foreleg raised.
"Ah, Lord Caesar."
The Reaper's blade mercilessly aimed for Jerry's neck.
Clink!
At that moment, sparks flew from the sickle.
The Shadow Reaper tried to swing the sickle with force, but it didn't move forward as if caught on something.
"How did you hit that?!"
"I don't know! I was in a hurry so I just shot first and asked questions later!"
Jerry turned his head toward the direction of the voices.
There stood Giggs, Pesson, and Olivia.
Giggs had fired a sling launcher.
Boom!
When the Shadow Reaper's leg got caught in the sling launcher, Giggs immediately pulled. The Shadow Reaper lost its balance and fell over.
"Move!"
Jerry instinctively moved away from the Shadow Reaper.
Pesson pulled the trigger. The launcher Pesson held didn't fire a sling stone.
Instead, red flames like dragon's breath flew toward the Shadow Reaper.
"Aaaaah!"
The Shadow Reaper, engulfed in magical flames, immediately turned into a lump of charcoal and disappeared.
"Nice!"
"After replacing the magic stone with a better one, the performance is quite good!"
"Is this really the time to be chatting so leisurely?!"
Olivia pushed aside Giggs and Pesson who were high-fiving and approached Jerry.
Olivia tore her clothes and tied them around Jerry's arm.
"...Thank you."
"I see you're still conscious enough to talk."
When Olivia pulled the cloth tightly to stop the bleeding, Jerry swallowed his groan.
His rationality seemed to return with the sharp pain.
"That weapon... Is that a magic tech weapon?"
"Yes, it is."
"I never thought it would be good enough to kill a devil. How many do you have?"
"Not that many. We were just about to start production at the factory when this happened. Still, all blacksmiths should have one each."
Blacksmiths climbed up to the command tower, each carrying unique magic tech weapons. Some were as small as pistols, some were so large they had to be shouldered, some were strange gauntlet-type weapons that couldn't be called launchers, and some were shaped like swords or spears.
"...Are all those bizarre things magic tech weapons?"
"They're all prototypes. We made everything we had been conceptualizing over the past 2 months on our way to Homigraph."
Olivia said as she helped Jerry stand up.
"We are all blacksmiths, but we're no different from wizards. Of course, we have the disadvantage of only being able to do one type of magic."
Pesson said while changing the magazine.
"So what should we do? Unlike wizards, we have balls attached so we don't run away. What should we do? Should we kill them all?"
"No."
Jerry picked up the sword that had fallen to the ground.
"We'll retreat to Sapientia."
"What?! Run away with these amazing weapons?"
"Homigraph is hopeless. We need to establish a new defensive line centered on Sapientia now."
"You're saying we should just take it and endure? How long do you think we can hold out in Sapientia?!"
"War is more than half morale."
Jerry looked at the soldiers fleeing in fear.
The knights were fighting hard, but engaging in urban warfare against devils who had already broken through Homigraph's main gate and were ravaging the city was tantamount to suicide.
"This defensive battle is already as good as over. We need to evacuate with Lady Raven first and hold out in Sapientia."
"Hold out? Are you saying we should wait for support from the Eileen Empire in this situation?"
"No. There's only one person we need to wait for."
Jerry looked at explosions occurring here and there.
In this desperate situation where wizards were fleeing and the city was being ravaged, there was only one hope to rely on.
"Lord Caesar."
***
Bassago walked on top of the collapsed Cork Magic Tower.
The feeling of walking on top of the collapsed pride of wizards was more enjoyable than he had thought.
"Yes. This is it."
The devils they call are the ultimate form of evolution bestowed by magic.
Despite being able to have a body free from disease and pain, transcending the limitations of human experience, the reason these wizards refused was probably because they knew not anyone could become one.
The only human who can enlighten these ignorant and pitiful beings is Bassago and Bassago alone.
As Bassago brushed back his hair, he felt two small horns the size of fingernails on his head.
Then Bassago's elevated excitement suddenly deflated.
"......Denver."
He recalled his recent humiliating begging for his life to survive. The humiliating image of himself, with his eyes plucked out, unable to say anything, just squirming like a worm, kept coming to mind, stabbing his heart.
How could he escape from Denver's grasp?
Magic rained down on Bassago, who was lost in thought. Bassago hid himself under a pool of decay to avoid it.
'The number of wizards has increased.'
It seems that as soon as they saw the Cork Magic Tower collapse, the wizards rushed to Sapientia.
A fireball exploded into the pool of decay where Bassago was hiding. The pool oxidized and disappeared in an instant.
Bassago moved to another pool that he had connected elsewhere.
"Tsk."
Bassago felt his power weakening.
Normally, there would have been no reason to dodge such pathetic attacks. The first ability that Denver eliminated from Bassago was the power of resurrection.
By removing the ability to use decayed things as hosts to resurrect, he had no choice but to be careful with his body.
"There should be some kind of black pool nearby! Destroy it with fire magic!"
Bassago couldn't believe his ears. If Bassago had a weakness, it was fire magic. The countermeasure was much faster than expected.
'What is this?'
Bassago thought it was a bit strange, but he didn't care much.
The tide of battle was already favorable to Niflheim. Looking at the current situation, it might be quicker to destroy Sapientia than to uncover the secrets of the Arch family.
Bassago headed toward the Valentine Tower, which was relatively easier to deal with.
Alchemists have much lower combat abilities compared to the Gale Tower, which studies elemental magic.
At most, they would probably just throw potion bottles containing bizarre magic. Bassago raised decayed corpses from the swamp of decay.
Familiars, wizards, and knights that Bassago had killed earlier rose, their rotten bones clattering. As expected, the Valentine Tower was guarded by alchemists. Bassago sneered at the potion bottles the alchemists were holding.
"You who turn away from the truth despite receiving magic's blessing. Your blessing is truly wasted."
Bassago pointed to beneath his feet.
"If you bow your heads at my feet now, I will spare you."
As soon as Bassago finished speaking, a man approached, floating in the air. With a frail body that looked like it would collapse if pushed slightly, his skin was such a dark gray that one couldn't tell what disease he might have.
"Ho, so not all of you are unwise. Who are you?"
"I'm called Smir."
"Oh, Smir."
Isn't this quite a famous alchemist? An eccentric genius alchemist who insisted on creating medicines comparable to potions without using alchemy magic.
Of course, from Bassago's perspective, he's better known as the alchemist who created Bufonemiton, which became the basis for the Night Maker.
"I understand your anguish. Do you wish for your frail body to be healed?"
"That is something I have always wished for."
"Then accept the blessing of the horns. Become a Main like me. Then you will walk again, and you will no longer suffer from disease."
"Among all the wizards in the entire Valentine Tower, there is probably no one more brilliant than me."
Bassago gave a sinister smile.
"That's what all wizards think."
"At the same time, he was also a magician who dreamed of the impossible. A world without sacred water. A world where all diseases could be cured solely through hospitals and medicine, without potions."
"What a futile dream you had. So......"
"I always thought that was impossible and set my limits. I hid in the deepest basement of the magic tower and focused only on pharmaceutical research. But Caesar proved that choice was wrong."
Smir held up his wand.
"Caesar changed the world. He turned this land into a city of doctors and wiped away the miserable tears of the holy women. This was possible not because he, like me, swallowed his fear of the impossible and hid in a room like a rat, but because he threw his whole body against the laws, common sense, and the garbage-like desires of the rulers and broke them."
"Now, thanks to Caesar, Sapientia and Homigraph were about to be transformed into medical cities that would open a new era of treatment. But you......"
Ash-colored magic flowed from Smir's body.
"You trampled this land with your contaminated feet and crushed it. This is not a land where devils like you dare to enter. Sapientia and Homigraph were meant to be cities that would prove humanity could triumph over disease."
"You, you don't want to become my servant?"
"That's right! I hate you. You are no different from a germ that has invaded this city, which is as clean as a sterile room!"
The potion bottle in Smir's hand shattered.
As the broken potion bottle seeped into Smir's hand, the surrounding magic trembled violently.
"Get out of our city! You devil!"
Smir's magic combined in an instant.
It was a superhuman speed that an ordinary magician could not achieve. Ash-colored fireballs fell from the sky onto the heads of Bassago's minions.
The minions were touched by the Ash-colored fireballs but endured steadfastly without a single scream.
However, the absence of screams did not mean there were no problems with the minions. The corrupted familiars were consumed by the flames one by one and collapsed.
"This guy...!"
Bassago hurled a swamp of corruption at Smir. A flame barrier appeared in front of Smir. The liquids could not penetrate the flame barrier and evaporated instantly.
Bassago deployed his minions.
"Tear that damned one to death!"
The alchemists used telekinetic magic to throw potions high into the sky. And they shattered them.
When the potions met the air, they caught fire, stuck to the minions of corruption, and collapsed in an instant.
"What......"
They were all purely fire magic. How on earth did they prepare and use only potions imbued with fire magic in advance?
"You all..... How do you know about me?"