Horn (3)

Countless people were coming.

Ranks of armor advanced at a slow, relentless pace. The white plate worn by Horn's soldiers caught the blue cast of the night sky and glowed with a soft, silver sheen.

"Confirmed. Those are Horn's forces."

A soldier peering through a telescope reported.

"Do not cast detection magic. Conserve your mana for now."

The people who had hurriedly clustered together began drifting back to their posts. So those were the mages. Their dress was far more varied than the soldiers'—someone swaddled head to toe in white, someone else practically advertising I am a mage with every stitch they wore.

A few of the outfits looked vaguely familiar. Or was that only my imagination?

"We wait."

I might as well watch how the mages of this world fought in earnest. Redrago had said the attack would be completely one-sided.

"Looking at them like this, there really are a lot."

The column of armor that had crested the horizon resembled a swarm of ants—ants marching in formation.

"We strike once they've almost finished crossing the valley. That will be the perfect moment."

The day faded. In the end the only light left to the world was the moon and the torches the Horn soldiers carried.

How long did we wait? A thunder of footfalls began to reach us. They were still advancing even after nightfall. At that pace they truly would have reached Sepia by dawn.

Iron clashed against iron. Heavy steps shook the earth. When were we going to strike first? They were already this close.

The thought had barely formed when Redrago's voice cut through the dark.

"Now—!"

Sepia's mages began chanting as one.

"Fire Ball—!"

"Icicle Lance—!"

"---/-$"

Mixed among them were spells I could not understand. Louder shouting did not make a spell stronger—that much had been proven—so why was everyone bellowing at the top of their lungs?

The pitch-black valley blazed open under the light of the Fire Balls, as if the sun itself had dropped into the gorge. The spheres did not leave their casters' hands; they hung there, flooding the valley with light. At that size, these were no weak mages. ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠They were holding the light so the others could aim cleanly.

Icicle Lances followed. Countless spears of ice streaked forward at a terrifying speed. They punched through armor and buried themselves in soldiers' bodies; a few struck heads, and those men dropped with soft, final thuds.

Holding the Fire Balls in place must have reached its limit. Considerably large ones tore free and hurtled toward Horn's ranks. Even at that size, from the enemy's perspective it must have felt like the sun falling out of the sky.

The Fire Balls struck. Flame bloomed and swallowed Horn's soldiers whole. Sparks leapt to the surrounding trees, and the valley brightened further under the burning wood.

They had struck first with magic, but to my eyes the enemy force hardly seemed thinner.

Thirty thousand really was a lot.

"Mmgh... Kh..."

While the mages kept dumping mana in a frantic torrent, a familiar voice reached my ears—one I had heard at the guild. What was her name… Lena?

The figure dressed in clothes anyone would call a mage's robes was Lena. I had failed to recognize her under that enormous hat, different from the one she had worn at the guild.

A magic circle bloomed above her head and shone blue. From it poured an enormous volume of water, white as a waterfall, crashing down toward Horn's forces.

"Mmm... Mm..."

Lena chanted again. The soldiers soaked by the water froze solid where they stood. She must have cast so quickly that the shape of the first waterfall held as the water turned to ice.

She had bound Horn's feet.

A mage who could throw large-scale magic that fast. Lena was stronger than I had expected.

"Tiable. I'm counting on you."

Redrago sent the signal.

Should I use magic as well?

"I have to kill those people."

I muttered it in ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠the language I had originally spoken. Choosing a spell myself would be less effective than this.

A spell I did not even know activated.

These were the first words I had spoken with the intent to kill. What kind of magic would answer them?

My heart pounded.

We had dealt Horn a considerable blow. If the enemy force had brought mages of their own, the damage would never have gone this far.

And if it was Tiable's magic—how powerful a spell would she unleash?

Tiable muttered something. Another string of sounds I could not understand. Demon magic, without a doubt.

I knew little of magic, yet even I felt something wrong settle into the air. The atmosphere around Tiable shifted. Though no wind blew, the air itself began to gather toward her.

A moment later, a black sphere formed in the sky. A sensation like the one from before drifted through the air again. The sphere seemed to drink every color around it; only the space it occupied was unnaturally, absolutely black.

"Lord Redrago—I've never seen this spell. Is it safe?"

Even the mages had never witnessed it.

Scarcely any time passed before something pulsed inside the sphere, as if beating against its own shell—as if it possessed a will and was beginning to move.

Then an enormous mass of tentacles burst from the sphere and shot toward Horn's soldiers. Following them with the eye was nearly impossible.

Could I have blocked those tentacles? Almost certainly not.

Every tentacle that uncoiled from the sphere punched cleanly through a single heart, one soldier after another. Bodies fell without even a scream, collapsing toward the ground.

In Hiades Valley, the only sound left was the clatter of empty armor.

Tiable's mana reserves were said to be immense, and it showed—the black sphere showed no sign of fading, and the tentacles raged without pause. Among Horn's ranks, the fallen began to outnumber the standing.

It was no longer a battle. It was a slaughter. The mages who had been casting could only stare, blank and unmoving. Redrago and Sepia's soldiers likewise made no move to advance; they could only watch the tentacles thrash.

Sepia's soldiers held back for fear that if they stepped forward, those same tentacles might punch through them as well. Redrago held back because he was thinking that bringing Tiable had been the right decision after all.

Time passed, and the black sphere began to shrink.

Even an astronomical well of mana will run dry if you keep a massacre going like this.

"iZiE-KM-A"

Tiable spoke another incomprehensible formula.

At once the trees around her withered at a visible rate. Even the pale stone lost its color and turned black.

This is the same sight as the place where Tiable once cast her detection magic.

Land from which every spark of life has been stripped.

Redrago shouted in urgency.

"Get away from Tiable—all of you!"

A zone of dead land spread outward with Tiable at its center. As it grew, the black sphere swelled again, and the tentacles recovered their fury and resumed the slaughter.

By the time roughly two-thirds of Horn's force lay on the ground, the remaining soldiers began to move strangely. No more of them were falling—yet their ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠numbers were visibly thinning.

Horn's army was fleeing.

The war had not lasted even thirty minutes.

Once the last of the enemy withdrew, Tiable's magic seemed to wind down of its own accord. The tentacles retracted into the black sphere; the sphere shrank and vanished. Against earlier fears, Tiable had blighted the ground around her—but she had not lost control.

Thanks to Tiable, the war had been won with almost no effort. And yet something felt wrong.

Where had all of Horn's mages gone? Why had Horn attacked with a force like this at all? The soldiers who had done nothing but die were almost pitiable.

I could not begin to understand the thinking behind Horn's incomprehensible command.

"It failed, ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠then?"

"Horpe."

The woman with reddish-purple hair—Tilia—spoke sweetly, then bit his name out like a threat.

"I told you that if you destroyed Sepia, it would be your last, didn't I?"

"Why didn't you send the entire army?"

"…Last."

Horpe only kept murmuring the word last, his eyes empty.

"Broken already."

She looked down on him with open contempt as he repeated the same word over and over, then scowled at the motionless king who offered nothing more.

"Now I have to go smash Sepia myself."

"Destroy it without anyone finding out a demon was involved? That's asking a bit much, don't you think?"

"This is all your fault. So annoying."

Tilia kicked Horpe.

"Ugh—what a pain. What a pain."

With that, Tilia vanished.

Only Horpe remained, sprawled on the floor of the empty room.

"Lord Redrago—what in the world is that monster?"

"If you had something like that, why bother calling us at all?"

"A child that young casting magic of that level… I can't think of anything but a demon."

"A demon?"

Redrago listened to the barrage of questions in silence. Only when the talk turned to demons did he open his mouth.

"What matters right now is that the girl—Tiable—fought for Sepia."

"Whether Tiable is a demon, a human, or something else entirely is not important."

"Later. I'll explain later."

Whether the mages were persuaded by his words, or simply cowed by the burning look in his eyes as he spoke them, no one could say.

They all went quietly back to their places.