Toward the Second Tower (1)
We had pitched the tent and were sleeping inside when a sudden racket started up outside.
"Ugh, what... why is it so loud...?"
I rubbed my eyes and opened the tent flap—and what filled my vision was a sky blotted out by harpies.
"Wh-what is this?! Hyeonseok! Yeonseo! Wake up, now!"
When I urgently shook them both awake, Yeonseo rubbed her eyes and spoke.
"Haaawn~ What on earth is it this time...? If it's nothing, I swear I won't let you... off...? Hmm? Why do I sense magic beasts...?"
"It feels like magic beasts are swarming in—we need to get out there!"
"Haa. I should've known better than to think we'd get a proper rest. I'm going first."
Leaving Yeonseo as she bolted out ahead, I approached Hyeonseok, who was still asleep, and shook his shoulder.
"Hyeonseok, wake up! We need to go outside—Kyaaah!"
Still half-asleep, Hyeonseok suddenly pulled me into his arms and kept right on sleeping while holding me tight.
Wrapped in his embrace, a ticklish sensation bloomed low in my stomach—not unpleasant at all, but something restless and aching that left me burning.
"W-wait! Hey! Wake up already...!"
I headbutted his face, and only then managed to free myself from his arms.
But the moment I got free, what I felt was regret.
Why am I like this right now...? Ugh... my period's almost over, so why does my stomach keep...?
"Ugh... that hurt...! Charlotte...? Why are you like that? Are you hurt somewhere?"
"Hnnngh, it's nothing...! More importantly, there are magic beasts outside, so... let's go, now."
As I left the tent with Hyeonseok, I felt a damp stickiness in my underwear, but it wasn't the time to worry about that. I used Holy Fire to dry it away and immediately ran toward the harpies.
"Kyaaah~ Why are there magic beasts here?!"
"The kids! Get the kids first! Children, hurry over here!"
"Waaah, Teacher...!"
"Hic... sob... I-I'm scared...."
"Summon! Chaos Series Australis! Media! Borealis!"
Yeonseo began summoning beasts in the form of centaurs. Australis held a massive longbow, Media a recurve bow, and Borealis a crossbow.
"Fire!"
At Yeonseo's command, the summons loosed their shots as one. Australis's arrow was enormous, and with a FWOOM! it punched straight through a line of harpies as it flew. Media fired in rapid succession, quickly cutting down the approaching flock. Ice began to form along Borealis's crossbow bolts, and after a moment the loosed bolt flew toward the harpies and then exploded, freezing them solid.
"Yeonseo!"
Hyeonseok called out as we arrived together. Yeonseo was barking orders at her summons in frustration.
"You two, why are you so late?!"
"Sorry—I kept sleeping. What's the situation?"
"I'm holding them off to some degree, but with so few fighters, it's getting a bit rough."
"I'll head up into the sky and try to draw them off. Yeonseo, keep them in check with your summons and help people evacuate."
Wrapping wind around his body, Hyeonseok took off, then unfurled that wind into a whirlwind that trapped the harpies inside.
"Then I'll help get people to safety."
"Yeah. I'm going with Hyeonseok to take down the harpies, so take care of yourself too, Yeonseo."
"Sure, sure~ I'll hear why you were late after this is over~"
"W-wait! Hey!"
I watched Yeonseo hurry off with her summons to help the people, then snapped back to focus at the sound of the harpies. I drew Durandal and was about to charge when something steel came flying at me. I threw myself backward and looked up.
There, flapping two pairs of steel wings, a six-armed magic beast was watching us while leading the harpies.
"Is that... that magic beast...?"
I'd thought we'd only meet it near the tower—that we'd have to go there to find it. I never expected it to appear right in front of us.
And seeing it not driving the harpies away but commanding them made its identity even clearer.
The wings were metal, but their shape resembled the ones Han Jin-o had possessed—only now there was an extra pair. Its body had grown larger, but the tattered rags it wore were unmistakably the same clothes I'd seen on him before. Its arms had multiplied to six, and looking closer, it seemed to be gripping something massive and metallic. Its legs were bent in a slightly reverse-jointed fashion, and below the knees they had transformed into birdlike talons. Its face was hidden behind hair, so I couldn't see it properly, but its mouth was torn open all the way to the cheeks.
As I watched, the corners of its mouth suddenly lifted. It beat its wings hard and dove toward me at high speed from the sky. I scanned the surroundings, then quickly moved toward an area without people.
If that massive body started thrashing around, fighting while protecting nearby civilians would introduce far too many variables. Fortunately, the area around our tent had no buildings and no people—perfect for fighting that giant creature.
"Alright! Let's do this!"
When the creature landed, the ground around its feet cratered with a BOOM!, cracks spiderwebbing outward with a sharp CRACK.
"Grrrrk... K-kill... Grrrk—"
"What... it still has some intelligence left?!"
It clutched its head with two empty hands, then charged, swinging the road sign and its post—sharply torn on a diagonal—that it gripped in its remaining hands.
"Ignition! Flamberge! Shoot!"
I quickly created the maximum twelve flaming swords I could and launched them to stop its movement, but the creature wrapped its metal wings around itself like armor and charged straight through. The spots that had been hit glowed red-hot, but it kept coming as if nothing were wrong.
"Tch! Not enough, huh?"
The creature that had closed in on me brought the sign and post down together. With a KRAAANG!, the ground cratered and dirt and stones went flying. I jumped back and dodged the attack, but a small flying fragment nicked my cheek, and blood began to seep out.
The stinging sensation and the warmth of blood flowing—even for me, tanking a blow from that massive blunt weapon head-on would be quite a stretch. The moment I formed Flamberges and floated them around me—
With a whoosh, a post came swinging from the side. I blocked it with a Flamberge, but immediately a sign came flying from the opposite side, and I raised Durandal.
Durandal, imbued with holy power, melted through the creature's sharp sign with a shhhk, splitting it in half. The free half went flying far into the river and sank with a hiss.
But right away, metal rods gripped in the two lower arms came swinging at me. Attacks from both sides—left and right diagonals. I drew Curtana and formed a dome-shaped barrier around myself to block the strikes, then expanded the field to fling them away. In the moment the creature staggered, I swung Durandal from lower left to upper right while firing Flamberges to pin its feet.
Its middle left arm was severed clean off, and with a thud the arm holding the post slammed into the ground along with the post itself. I immediately gathered the Flamberges into Durandal, forming a blade of pure flame—Gluon—gripped the sword with both hands, and brought it down.
But the creature was faster than I'd expected. Using the distance I'd shoved it back, it spread its wings and retreated rapidly, so I only managed to shear off the tip of a wing.
"Tch, I underestimated it...!"
It hurled the remaining sign and post at me. I batted them aside one by one with Durandal as I tried to close in, but the creature was already flying off toward the distant tower.
"Haa... it wasn't so strong I couldn't beat it...!"
Feeling a twinge of frustration, I left the departing creature behind and headed toward Hyeonseok and Yeonseo.
When I reached them, the place had already become a graveyard of harpies.
"You two okay? Any injuries?"
"I'm fine. I was only defending from the inside anyway. But Hyeonseok..."
Yeonseo lowered her head as if to say Hyeonseok was badly hurt, and my heart plummeted. I shook her shoulders hard.
"Where is he?! Is he badly hurt?!"
"W-wait, stop..."
"Ah, sorry... So where is Hyeonseok? We have to go now...!"
"Huh? Did you call me?"
"Huh?"
Hearing Hyeonseok's voice, I turned around to find him standing there with only a few scrapes. My heart, which had dropped and then started racing, gradually slowed. I sank to the ground in relief.
"What... you're fine... Thank goodness..."
"Pfft—kh—"
Yeonseo clutched her stomach, laughing at the sight of me.
"You... you tricked me?"
"Tricked you? What are you talking about? I was just about to say something and paused to catch my breath. You're the one who jumped to conclusions."
At Yeonseo's slight smile, heat rose to my head and I was about to give her a piece of my mind when—from the direction of the greenhouse came a crash and a harpy's screech, followed by a man's scream.
We raced to the greenhouse, but there we found a boy already holding Vincent.
"Uncle Vin! Wake up! Uncle!"
"Pedro... remember... take responsibility for the power you hold..."
"Uncle!!"
I ran forward, pushed the boy's hands aside, and began healing with holy power.
"U-um... is Uncle going to..."
As the boy fretted and asked me, Hyeonseok beside him put a hand on the boy's shoulder.
"Don't worry. With Charlotte's healing, he'll be fine. More importantly, are you hurt anywhere?"
"No, I'm okay. But who are you all...?"
"I'm Kang Hyeonseok. The blank-looking noona next to me is Seo Yeonseo. And the noona treating him right now is Charlotte."
Listening to their conversation, I continued treating Vincent—but something felt off.
What is this energy... wait, could it be...?!
"Hyeonseok, could you take that boy and go get the Director for a moment?"
"Huh? Sure. Pedro, right? Come with me to see the Director for a bit."
"Huh? Yes. Okay. Please... take good care of my uncle."
Once the two had left, Yeonseo sat down beside me and spoke quietly into my ear.
"Is something wrong?"
"I treated the wound, but because of a strange energy, it might take some time for him to regain consciousness."
"Strange energy?"
"Mm... I never mentioned it, but the pills contained the energy of an evil god I destroyed in another world."
"Haa. Why does everyone who comes from other worlds bring something weird with them?"
"Th-this isn't my fault! I clearly... I clearly destroyed it...!"
"Yes, yes. Good job, baby. So how does that affect treating Vincent?"
"Who are you calling baby...! Haa. The same energy that was in those pills is in Vincent's body right now. He wouldn't have taken a pill, so it must be the magic beasts' doing."
"Really? Hmm, but there weren't any particularly special magic beasts... except for the one you fought, that is."
"I don't know either. But maybe even among the harpies, there was one that carried that energy."
"I don't get it. How is that possible? Wait—are you saying the transformed Han Jin-o did it with the harpies?"
"What kind of thing is a girl saying?! No—I mean they probably fed the harpies pills or did something similar, the same way they made Han Jin-o like that."
"So we need to find the one carrying that energy?"
"Yeah. The evil god's energy is unique—I have to take it into myself before I can purify it."
Yeonseo's eyes went wide, and she grabbed me by the collar.
"Hey! What the hell does that mean? You have to take it into yourself? Are you crazy?!"
"I don't have a choice. The evil god's energy is so unique that I can only purify it after I've taken it in myself."
"So... are you okay?"
"Don't worry. I'm fine. It hurts a little, but not more than I can handle."
"Alright. I'll keep this to myself. If Hyeonseok heard, he'd never let you do it."
"Thanks. When the Director gets here, help me get our stories straight. Okay?"
"Fine. Haa, you really are reckless."
"Heheh, I'll take that as a compliment."
Before long, Hyeonseok and Pedro returned with Director Ryu Jinseong, and we moved Vincent to the medical area to monitor his condition.
With the thought that attacks from magic beasts that would be hard to treat properly—like this one—might happen again, the magic beast raid came to an end.