The Deceptive Vanguard
“Don’t tell me you planned this?”
—To some extent, yes. I heard from her that you were an exceptional ally, one of those who defeated the Demon King. Even if she is strong, it would have been difficult for her to protect me while fighting alone. I’m truly grateful you arrived in time.
It felt like I’d been had, but there was nothing I could do about it.
“Let’s deal with this first, then talk at length.”
—I appreciate the assistance.
The polite thanks somehow sounded shameless, but I set the matter aside for now and headed out of the cave. The Puppet Crows and wolves bared their claws and fangs at the approaching threats, visibly uneasy, while Duramino Cordos pawed the ground in agitation.
Though I couldn’t see them yet, the sound of footsteps echoing from every direction and the intense presences transmitted through my summons left no room for doubt.
With a gesture, runes once again floated in the air. Morotai’s name crossed my mind out of habit, but I didn’t summon him. He would certainly have been helpful in this situation, yet I had no desire to see that ridiculous face or his gleaming armor right now.
Space tore open, and from the black rift emerged a long, black creature nearly twice the height of an adult man.
It stood on two hooved feet, its long, razor-sharp claws glinting. Its entire body was covered in black fur, and a single enormous eye dominated its face.
The creature’s name was Cardorukude. In an ancient tongue long forgotten, it meant “the one who must not be looked back upon.” It was one of the many Huanma that preyed upon the fears of living beings.
—……
An unintelligible language. But there was only one thing the creature truly desired: a cruel and malicious game.
“A great battle is about to begin. Enjoy yourself to your heart’s content. Just don’t use my allies as sacrifices.”
With a sickening laugh, it nodded. If one could even call that sound a laugh.
I had been forced into contracts with many summons against my will, but this one was by far the worst. It had crossed into this world with no connection to the Demon King’s resurrection or Nix’s arrival, turned an entire mountain village into hell for its own amusement, and toyed with the people there.
Under normal circumstances we would have killed it, but to save the villagers whose souls had been trapped, we had no choice but to forcibly brand it with a contract seal. Hoping it might prove useful someday, we banished it back to the Phantasm World with the condition that it could never return to the surface except through the contract’s summoning.
Yet that wasn’t the only reason it was the worst. The problem was the repulsive malice that flowed through our soul resonance.
Some degree of discomfort during summoning was common among Huanma-type entities, but this one was special. Its malice was pure—untwisted, untainted. It was an emotion no ordinary being could ever possess, and simply being connected to it allowed that blackness to slowly crawl up my soul.
Even so, its existence would be useful, just as I had once anticipated.
The presences and sounds grew stronger, and the urge to call forth more summons kept rising, but unfortunately, I had few expendable summons left. After losing most of my consumable summons in the final battle, I had made no new contracts except with the Black Wyvern.
A chorus of savage roars echoed through the valley. Each was different, yet all carried deep fury beneath them. At last, the monster horde appeared on the far side of the valley.
They were a chaotic mix with no common traits in species or form. Giant forest trolls, enormous spiders, goblins wielding stone axes, massive beasts that looked like a cross between dogs and cats, multi-legged monkeys, horned gorillas, and gigantic bees that resembled humans. Countless other monsters of every shape and size followed behind them. Some I had fought during my travels, others I had only read about, and the rest were completely unfamiliar.
How could such diverse monsters act in perfect unison? They weren’t swarming from all directions; they advanced in formation from a single direction. This was clearly no ordinary situation.
“Cardorukude.”
I sent it forward first. Numbers meant nothing to it. With another unpleasant laugh, it stepped ahead. Its ominous black form gradually faded and vanished into the air.
At the same moment, the monster army’s advance slowed.
Huanma were generally not powerful in direct combat. They deceived, mocked, and drove their victims to self-destruction. Their power was not the childish act of overlaying illusions onto reality. They connected an opponent’s mind to the illusory world they created, trapping the soul within. Unless certain conditions were met, the captured souls would remain imprisoned in that illusion forever.
I strengthened my connection with it. Through the link, its malice surged far more rapidly and intensely into my soul, momentarily cutting off my breath. Could anyone truly imagine pure malice? It was not envy. It was not jealousy. It was not hatred. Those emotions were merely twisted or mixed together; no matter how strong, they remained mere feelings.
But this was different. It was something accepted as naturally as breathing, before one even became aware of it. It was not a simple emotion. It belonged not to relative realities but to an absolute concept that existed only on the plane of cognition.
Maintaining my sanity within such pure malice was unpleasant and exhausting, yet I had to do it. Strengthening the connection allowed me to link with the illusory world Cardorukude had created and the monsters trapped inside it.
Because maintaining my own mind within that illusion was difficult, I couldn’t forcibly brand them with contract seals through the link. However, using Cardorukude’s power, I could still control them all for a short time.
By planting a few illusions and misconceptions using their fear and rage, it became trivial to annihilate or scatter the entire enemy force—even if only temporarily—regardless of their numbers.
“……!”
Beyond the connected monsters’ consciousnesses, I sensed other connections. They were thin, like long threads, yet strong enough never to break. Most importantly, their ends did not lie within the illusion but extended outward.
“……!”
The halted army resumed its advance. The monsters’ minds and souls were clearly trapped in the illusion, yet those external connections were guiding them.
“…I see. So that’s how they could move like that.”
I severed the resonance with Cardorukude. Breaking all those connections with my own power was impossible. This wasn’t simple mind control or domination; it was a sharing of consciousnesses, making the links far stronger.
Raising the soul resonance further might have allowed me to reach the ends of those threads beyond the illusion, but it was far too dangerous. The only consolation was that the main souls themselves were trapped in the illusion, causing their movements to become stiff and unnatural.
“No choice, then. Wipe them all out.”
At my command, the summons lunged forward. Duramino Cordos charged with its massive body, and the wolves leapt with fangs bared. The Puppet Crows’ movements were somewhat sluggish due to their slower bodies, but it didn’t matter.
They weren’t meant for close combat anyway. The crows lowered their bodies, pressing both hands to the ground, and black pools of liquid formed on the earth—the same kind from which they had first crawled forth.
The liquid itself was lethal poison, but more than that, it carried a curse. I strengthened my connection with the Puppet Crows and chanted spells through their mouths and mana. Using the ancient witch spells and power still lingering in their bodies and minds, I manifested a forgotten curse that even the oldest black witches no longer remembered.
I felt the air currents shift throughout my body. Ominous spells and mana coiled around me, and through the resonance, unfamiliar emotions rose through my chest and head. A different malice from Cardorukude’s—twisted, mixed, imperfect emotions. A thirst for power, jealousy, rage. And black envy.
Within those emotions my soul was exalted, and through that exaltation the Puppet Crows’ mana grew stronger. Finally, the crows lifted their heads to the sky and let out low cries from between their beaks.
The curse was complete, and its effects manifested immediately. Though the monsters had already been moving with an unnatural sluggishness, those that had been fighting the wolves and Duramino Cordos began to collapse one by one, screaming in agony.
Black spots appeared across their bodies, rotting and festering as black liquid oozed out. This ancient curse, known as “The Forgotten Future’s Visitor,” rotted the enemy’s flesh. Curses normally had little effect on those with strong mental fortitude or mana, but with their souls trapped by Cardorukude, they had no mental strength left to resist, and their individual mana was weak.
Not every monster was cursed at once, but as long as the Puppet Crows’ mana lasted, the curse would persist and claim more victims.
“That settles the first wave.”
Countless monsters still remained, and the battle with my summons continued, but the first engagement was over. There was no way I could lose in this situation.
Of course, it wouldn’t end here. Even with large numbers and rare monsters mixed in, the force contained few mid-tier monsters at best. Whoever—or whatever—was connected to these monsters’ consciousnesses couldn’t possibly have only this much power.
“A vanguard?”
No, the numbers were too great for that. And advancing from only one direction despite having such numbers was also strange. Considering that escape was impossible anyway, it might not have mattered much, but it was certainly inefficient from a tactical standpoint.
Moreover, the fact that they had deliberately revealed their presence so noisily before the attack…
“Everyone, return!”
I activated the return dimensional array and sent Duramino Cordos and the wolves back into the forest. Their original territory was elsewhere, but unfortunately there was no auxiliary array there, so I had to send them with Duramino Cordos for now.
Then I immediately turned and sprinted into the cave. It wasn’t that another force was coming. This was simply a diversion.
—…What?
Erill and Granbipra were bewildered by my sudden return, but I had no time for explanations. Holding the crystal, I placed my hand on Erill and Granbipra’s egg, and in the next instant we arrived in Denatel’s Library.
I hadn’t separately dismissed the Puppet Crows and Cardorukude, but with the mana link to their summoner severed, they would have automatically returned to their original worlds.
“Wh-what’s going on!”
The sudden teleportation and the appearance of the giant egg and Erill left Rofena visibly flustered. Erill and Granbipra were equally surprised—especially Erill, who reacted with shock and fear upon seeing Rofena.
“Erill. Calm down. It’s all right.”
Strengthening the soul resonance was enough to soothe her.
—Oh? What is this place?
Granbipra, by contrast, seemed more interested in the new space.
“I apologize for bringing you here so abruptly, but there was no time for leisurely explanations.”
—It’s fine. But why here…?
“Wait a moment, Anak! What on earth is happening? And why did you bring that phoenix and the egg here?”
“Please wait. I’ll explain when I return.”
Using the crystal, I returned to the original cave.
“…I hope I wasn’t wrong again.”
I took out the orb of light once more, but the cave was far calmer than expected. Of course, without the summons blocking the way, the monsters’ presences were much closer, but there were no other changes.
“I was certain…”
I had been convinced the monster army outside was a feint—that they would either collapse the cave entirely or launch a surprise attack through the tunnels. That was why I had moved Granbipra and Erill to Denatel’s Library.
The reason I had deliberately returned was because the crystal’s return point was always fixed to the last location used. If the cave collapsed and return became impossible, it would automatically switch to the previous location—the inn room. I wanted to avoid the embarrassing situation of suddenly reappearing in an inn room whose occupancy status was unknown, especially after having already checked out.
Yet there was no sign of anything happening. A sinking feeling washed over me.
Well, either way, I had to move outside first. Whether my prediction was right or wrong, staying here would only trap me inside the cave.
Stepping out, I found the monster horde already nearly upon the entrance. For a moment I considered summoning again, but instead I dashed in the opposite direction from the approaching monsters. With no guarantee my prediction was wrong, lingering here was dangerous, and with Granbipra already moved, continuing the fight was pointless.
As I ran, I inwardly hoped to hear the sound of the cave collapsing, but no such sound came.
“Lately, things just keep going wrong.”
Excuses about being rusty or losing my edge were getting old. Over the past few days, far more things had gone according to plan in both battles and pursuits than had gone wrong.
“There’s probably no other reason.”
The title of Second-Best Strategist had never been a particularly good one, but at this rate even that would be hard to maintain.
It was almost laughable how pointless my earlier hesitation about extinguishing the orb of light had been. The monster horde made no attempt to pursue me. Thanks to that, the distance between us widened easily despite my less-than-impressive running ability. They were still visible, but running further was meaningless, so I stopped and looked down at the crystal again. It was time to return.
Granbipra seemed relatively calm, but both Erill and Rofena would be uneasy—especially Erill, who feared Rofena.
Just as I was about to speak the final phrase to the crystal, I heard the sound of the cave collapsing. The wind blowing through the valley carried fine dust that brushed against my skin. By the time I realized I was inwardly cheering at the sight, I had already returned to Denatel’s Library.