Apostle of the Evil God (4)
The moment Joy saw the magic power coalescing in the assailant's hand, the first word that came to mind was a simple one: die.
Block it. Counter it. Deflect it.
Not one of those words could even form in her head. Because she knew it was impossible.
How could anyone stand against a force like that?
There was no elaborate formula, no elevated technique — and yet the man's magic was, in and of itself, an overwhelming act of violence.
Faced with him, Joy could do nothing but despair.
But Lucy was different.
Even staring down that monstrous magic, she was smiling as she stepped in front of Joy.
Her condition was a wreck.
Her body, smeared head to toe in blood.
Her arms and legs, trembling so badly it seemed simply standing upright was her limit.
Her mana, so drained she couldn't even summon the shield she'd always produced so effortlessly.
Not a single thing about her was intact.
And yet she smiled.
Rising to her feet as if it were nothing, she gazed at the magic gathering in the assailant's hand.
Then she spoke.
"Hey, Airhead Lady. It's fine."
What do you mean, it's fine?
There's no way we can block that magic!
We're both going to die!
After accomplishing nothing at all, we're going to die like dogs right here!
So how can you possibly say it's fine?!
Joy had a thousand things she wanted to scream at Lucy.
"Trust me."
And every single one of those complaints simply died, snuffed out by the words Lucy spoke next.
Under normal circumstances, she would have dismissed them as empty bravado.
She'd have assumed they were thrown out carelessly, just to put her at ease.
And yet, somehow—
The words that left Lucy Aln's mouth were so profoundly dependable that Joy found herself nodding, her eyes fixed on Lucy's back.
Before long, the assailant hurled his magic.
It was violence of a scale that seemed intent on erasing this entire back alley from the face of the world, and it came hurtling straight toward Lucy.
In that instant, Lucy drew something from inside her coat and thrust it forward.
A strange, geometric magic circle unfolded around her, and from it formed a barrier of deep blue.
The barrier looked flimsy beyond belief.
The amount of mana sustaining it was vanishingly small — how could it possibly hold?
And yet, astonishingly, the assailant's spell failed to pierce it.
Like darkness shying away from light, the black magic simply curved aside and passed around the blue barrier.
What on earth is this?
As Joy stared wide-eyed at a scene that could only be called a miracle, Lucy tilted her head back toward her and flashed her usual insufferable grin.
"Told you it'd be fine, didn't I? Hm?"
"...Yes."
The Scroll of Magic Distortion.
The effect of this item was extraordinarily simple.
With the space where the scroll was unfurled as its center, every spell that flew into a certain radius was made to veer off course and miss.
Hearing that, you'd think it sounded like a cheat item — and in practice, it absolutely was one.
Something feels off about that, you say?
It's a cheat item, what do you want from me?!
Yes, it had its drawbacks. The activation window was short. While the effect was up, no one inside the circle could use any magic. There was a carry limit, so you could only ever hold one. It deflected even your own mid-tier enchantments along with everything else. And unless you went through underworld contacts, it was flatly unobtainable.
But even accounting for all of that, the fact remained: it was broken.
Being able to nullify a single threatening spell from the enemy — do you have any idea how enormous that advantage is?
Once you got past the early game, it was practically a mandatory boss-fight item.
It was a lifeline — the one thing that could save your party from a wipe the moment you failed to read a pattern.
And that broken item had, once again, done its job flawlessly.
As the colossal mass of magic that had been about to crush the world slowly dispersed, Nakrad's face came into view beyond the blue barrier.
He was grinding his teeth, but the man had no cards left to play.
Make no mistake, by this world's standards he counted as a powerhouse — but he wasn't strong enough to bulldoze every hardened veteran hanging around Soul Academy.
Case in point: the barrier magic granted to him by his god had been shredded in under three minutes. That tells you everything, doesn't it?
Once Tariki regains his power, the story might be different — but for now, the guy's nothing more than a high-level ganker stomping lowbies.
Hey. You had your chance, pal. You should've taken my head with your own two hands while you had it.
Why half-ass it with magic?
Was watching me squirm so infuriating that you wanted to bury me in absolute despair first?
Ha! In that case, congratulations — you just got thoroughly played by a mesugaki, you idiot.
When I flashed him a smile, Nakrad's brow twitched, but instead of trying anything else, he rose back into the sky and flew off elsewhere.
Knowing the story, I could guess — he'd slink off to lick his wounds somewhere, I was sure of it.
The moment I stopped watching him go, the lingering effects of the magic faded and the blue barrier dissolved.
The smell of blood hanging in the air. The stench of scorched earth. The taste of dust.
My vision was clouding over, the ringing in my ears refusing to stop — and somewhere through it all, I could hear Grandpa and Joy calling my name.
Behind their voices, countless footsteps came rushing in from every direction.
So this was the end of the incident?
The instant relief washed over me, everything I'd been forcibly shoving to the back of my mind came crashing down on me at once.
There was no longer any reason to keep holding on. I let myself be swept under by that wave — and lost consciousness on the spot.
The last thing I saw was the sight of several message windows popping up before my eyes.
"Lady Aln?!"
Watching Lucy crumple forward, Joy lunged and caught her in a desperate grip.
No. No, no.
I haven't even begun to repay what I owe you. It can't end like this.
I know you're a difficult, insufferable person — but don't you dare be selfish now.
Don't you dare leave me carrying this debt alone!
Just as Joy reached out with trembling hands to check on Lucy, someone else's hand touched the girl beside her.
Startled, she stumbled backward — even as she clutched Lucy tightly against her, as if she would never let her go, no matter what.
But the figure there was no enemy.
It was a priest, dressed in white vestments.
"I am a priest of the Church of the Chief God."
He showed Joy the necklace hanging at his throat, meeting her eyes.
"I must examine your friend's condition. Would you lay her down on the ground, please?"
"...Yes. Of course."
The moment Joy carefully lowered Lucy to the ground, the priest began casting his magic.
As Joy glared at him, praying with everything she had that Lucy would be all right, someone else approached from the side.
"Lady Partran."
Only when she turned her head did Joy register the people standing behind the priest.
Academy professors. Guards. Church clergy. The battle-mages stationed on campus.
It looked as though every combat-capable soul on the Academy's streets had been gathered into one place.
And speaking for them all was one of the Academy's professors.
"What exactly is—"
"Am I being interrogated right now?"
Even when Joy spoke in her gentlest register, most people found her difficult to deal with. So what do you imagine happened when that same young lady went dead serious, meaning every word?
Even the professor, a man who had weathered every kind of storm the Academy had to offer, found himself at a loss, stammering into the silence she had created.
Watching the priest examine Lucy within that silence, Joy spoke again the instant his spell finished.
"How is she?"
"Lady Partran. It pains me to say this, but..."
Seeing the priest trail off, Joy drew in a deep, bracing breath.
So it's bad, then.
Of course it is.
She walked a tightrope with death itself.
If she came out of that completely unscathed, it would make even less sense.
"She's perfectly healthy. There are some residual marks, but that is all."
"I'm sorry — but she collapsed just now!"
"She is sleeping."
Saying this, the priest gestured for Joy to listen to the sound of Lucy's breathing.
Joy thought it was absurd — but she leaned in and did as she was told anyway.
Astonishingly, the sound was as peaceful as the soft, contented snoring of a small child napping in the afternoon sun.
"Ha."
Caught between exasperation and relief in equal, contradictory measure, Joy's legs simply gave out beneath her, and she sank to the ground where she stood.
"Please. Never scare me like that again."
When I woke up, I was staring at an unfamiliar ceiling.
No, wait. Not unfamiliar. Joy got knocked out a while back, and I visited her then.
Anyway — I came to staring up at the infirmary ceiling, sat up, and tried to piece together why I was here.
Let's see. I went to the plaza today to watch the main quest kick off, and...
Ah. Right. I ran into Nakrad and got treated like absolute garbage.
Well then, obviously I'd end up here.
But hold on — considering the state I was in back then, my body feels weirdly fine?
I know I was fighting while healing myself with Mercy of Armadi, but there's no way that was a perfect heal.
Perplexed by this impossible reality, I tilted my head and gave my own cheek a sly pinch.
Ow. Definitely hurt.
Thankfully, this was no dream.
Reassured by that fact, I was looking around for someone to explain my situation when the door burst open and someone strode in.
It was Karl.
The moment our useless puppy laid eyes on my face, his expression froze solid — and then, without a word, he marched over, dropped to one knee, and slammed his forehead against the floor.
"My Lady! I beg you — take the head of this disloyal knight!"
What is it with you now? Things were chaotic enough already.
"No matter what anyone else may have commanded, it was my duty to stand at your side, and yet I—"
Oh. So it's about that?
No, buddy, I'm the one who left you behind. How is that your fault?
'Karl. It's okay.'
"Noob. It's okay."
Huh? Huh?! Huhhhh?!
Why did I just call Karl 'Noob' instead of 'Incompetent Dog'?
Did something change with the Mesugaki skill?!
"You have removed the word 'dog' from my title. As I thought... I have disappointed you, My Lady."
It should have been something to celebrate, but I had no room to appreciate it — because Karl, convinced that the change in my name for him was a sign of his failure, had started spouting complete nonsense.
Trying to talk him down as he cracked the infirmary floor with his forehead was, mentally speaking, more exhausting than facing down Nakrad.
Wait. Don't tell me you actually liked the dog part?!
"My apologies, My Lady..."
Having barely managed to calm Karl down, I finally got the full rundown of the situation from him.
Thankfully, his days of delivering knightly reports made his explanation short and clear.
The appearance of the Evil God's Apostle had been confirmed. The personnel guarding the streets had pursued his trail until the barrier went up. After dispelling it and pushing inside, they had found Joy and me. We were protected, and a portion of the forces were still tracking the Apostle's escape.
"Also — the weapon you were wielding, My Lady, is currently in the Church's custody."
So THAT'S why Grandpa's been dead silent — he's not with me right now.
Why on earth did the Church take my weapon?
"The mace had fallen to the ground, and no one other than the Saintess was able to lift it."
Ah. Right — it's a soulbound weapon tied to my Divinity trait. Nothing to be done about it, then.
I'll just have to go collect it from Phoebe later.
Aside from that, there were no other developments.
Once Karl had finished his report, I sent him out with a word of thanks for his trouble.
He didn't want to leave my side, but there was nothing to be done about it.
If he's glued to me, I can't check my rewards in peace, can I?
After ushering out Karl — who gazed back at me with the pitiful eyes of a puppy seeing off its master — I turned my attention to the flood of message windows hovering in front of me.
The one sitting at the very front read:
Joy Partran's affection level has surpassed 70!