Five Priests and One Necromancer
“We don't have much time. I'll explain right away.”
While scouting the surroundings, Simon had discovered a Creature—the scouting automata used by priests. With that thing on their trail, it was a foregone conclusion that the priests were coming after them.
Their target, without a doubt, was Sasha—the girl marked as a Saintess Candidate.
Fortunately, the conditions favored their side. It was nighttime, and the forest terrain made a search difficult.
So Simon devised a strategy: split into two groups and scatter.
The gist of it was this. First, Seywir's illusion magic would conjure a fake carriage to draw the priests' eyes, and while they were occupied, Sasha and the rest of the group would run for their lives and escape through the forest.
“Y-you're thaying I should go off to die?!”
Seywir leapt up the moment he heard the plan.
“Well,” Simon said, smiling around the words, “you're about to receive a punishment that'll make death seem like the better option. From both Vengeance and Kizen.”
“...Ugh!”
“If you cooperate with us this time, I'll report to Kizen that you performed your duties properly as a mentor.”
Unless Seywir intended to abandon the Dark Alliance entirely, there was no other choice. In the end, he accepted Simon's plan.
“I'll go with him.”
Dick volunteered to keep watch over Seywir.
“You sure about that?”
“Eh, if we leave this guy alone, it's obvious he'll clear out his illusions and run off to live for himself. Somebody's gotta tail him.”
Simon's expression turned serious.
“You could end up in danger too.”
“Ah, don't worry about it! I'm confident I can keep this one body of mine alive somehow.”
When it came to sheer survival ability, truly, there was no necromancer as trustworthy as Dick.
Simon and Meilin nodded, and Camibarez spoke with a worried look on her face.
“You have to come back safe, Dick!”
“You know it!”
Soon they were moving according to plan. They dumped the carriage into a nearby lake, and the horses were led into thick brush, where Meilin laid a sleep curse over them to keep them from being found.
Dick tore the mana engine off the boat and attached it to a cart pulled from his subspace. Then Seywir cast an illusion over the cart, transforming it into a carriage—indistinguishable from the real thing.
“We're off! See you alive!”
The fake carriage carrying Dick and Seywir rumbled away. Simon's group began moving with Sasha in tow.
Meilin ran at the front, with Camibarez and Sasha behind her, and Simon took the rear, watching for any sign of Efnel pursuit.
“Cami, focus only on protecting Sasha.”
“Yes, Simon! I'll do my best!”
Camibarez activated her trusty dark magic, Blood Silk. She wrapped Sasha's injured legs in a carpet of woven blood and floated her through the air as they ran.
“Meilin, if the priests get close, peel off and intercept them.”
“Okay. And you?”
“Same for me. The moment I spot Efnel, I'll be the first to break away. If I'm not there, assume I'm fighting a priest.”
Meilin nodded.
It was Simon who had exposed Seywir's true identity, and Simon who had found the Creature, so this time they had decided to follow his lead from start to finish.
And so they set off.
The darkness-steeped forest gave off an eerie, unsettling air. With no telling when or where Efnel—or a monster—might spring out at them, everyone ran with their nerves wound tight.
“Sasha, are you uncomfortable at all?”
At Camibarez's question, Sasha nodded that she was fine. Camibarez nodded back, then turned her head to look at Meilin.
“The priests could come straight at us, right?”
“Hmm, hard to say. If any of them have the ability to sense presence or Jet-Black, maybe. But this is still our best option.”
She glanced back over her shoulder.
“Isn't that right, Si—huh?”
The two girls froze in shock. At some point, Simon—who had been running at the very back—was gone.
“He—he's already gone after them?!”
Ta-da-da-dash!
Da-dash!
Five priests were racing across the open field, holy power blazing around both legs.
Four of them were girls in Efnel school uniforms. The fifth was a middle-aged man in work clothes, orange hair whipping behind him as he ran.
“Commander, are you sure they came this way?”
At Lirinet's question, the commander, Figaro, nodded.
“Yes, my Creature confirmed it. It appears they're traveling in the carriage the gang members were using.”
Lirinet rested her chin on her hand with a thoughtful hmm.
“It's getting late, they've just been through a fight, and the sky's gone dark—so they'll start setting up camp soon enough. If we catch them sleeping, they'll be easy to deal with.”
“Unfortunately, Kizen has likely already realized we're closing in,” Figaro continued.
“One of our Creatures was taken down, after all.”
“Sloppy work!”
“Haha, my apologies for the imperfection.”
Just then, all five pairs of feet stopped dead in the middle of the field at once.
“Hmm—so it's true that Kizen knows we're chasing them. And yet.”
Lirinet gave a hollow laugh and pointed.
“You're alone?”
At the edge of the darkness-drowned forest stood a single boy, hood drawn low over his head.
He had stopped as though nailed to the spot, staring straight at the Efnel group.
The Efnel girls wore expressions of pure incredulity.
“Is this some new form of suicide?”
“Creepy.”
“I guess it's true what they say about necromancers having scrambled brains, sisters.”
A lone boy in a brown robe, standing in the path of five priests.
Even facing down a five-on-one situation, the boy looked utterly calm. He even had his arms crossed, waggling his fingers as if to say come at me.
But the sheer confidence of it—
...something's off.
Truthfully, it made them reluctant to approach.
“Could it be a trap?”
At Lirinet's question, Commander Figaro shook his head.
“I sense no other presence nearby. It seems he simply has enough confidence in his own skill to come out alone.”
“He's insane.”
Lirinet coiled holy power around both hands. A white aura rippled in her palms.
“No time to waste! Go!”
The five priests kicked off, silver trails streaming from their feet as they charged.
Simon didn't make any big movement. He slowly lowered his stance and raised his right arm.
Bone Armour.
Bone fragments flowing out of his subspace wrapped Simon's right arm without a single gap.
Ta-da-da-dash!
Only Lirinet, running dead center, suddenly accelerated, streaking forward like a single bolt of light. Simon swung his fist head-on to meet her.
KWAAA-AAANG!
Fist struck fist with a thunderous crash. Their clothes whipped violently, and the surrounding trees shuddered.
And in the moment the two stood fist to fist, the other priests stepped on their holy power and leapt—sailing clean past both of them.
“Ah.”
Simon turned to look behind him, eyes wide.
“I see you have time to spare to worry about the others.”
The moment Simon saw Lirinet's opposite hand spread open, he hastily fell back.
Holy lances poured down in a volley and skewered the ground.
“I don't know what your scheme is, standing here all by yourself, but all five of us being held up like this—we're dancing to the tune of your intentions.”
Chwe-eck!
She extended her clenched fist and smiled.
“Was I wrong?”
Simon scratched his head, looking almost put out.
“Efnel students are smarter than I expected.”
“!”
At those words, Lirinet's face flared with emotion—then, realizing it was a cheap provocation, she swiftly recovered her composure.
“Under the Neutral Zone accord I'll restrain from lethal force—but I'll make sure you never flap that mouth again!”
“Hmm.”
Holding his standoff against Lirinet, Simon recalled Farahan's lessons.
—If you know what your opponent's major is, that alone grants you a wealth of information.
Simon's gaze dropped to her hands. The light wrapped around them like boxing gloves made of pure radiance, flickering as it swelled and shrank, swelled and shrank.
She hasn't just coated her fists in holy power. That's Healing magic—Holy Burst.
Healing was a discipline devoted to tending patients from the rear and supporting combatants, but with the march of the times, offensive spells designed to fight necromancers had naturally developed alongside it.
And the most effective offensive technique in Healing was Reverse Healing—channeling holy power into an enemy's body to trigger not recovery, but rampant cell division, destroying them from the inside out.
A single touch and his organs would be shredded. It went without saying that it would be even more devastating against a necromancer with Jet-Black flowing through his veins.
And on top of that—
Simon could see Lirinet wrapping her own body in a violet-hued Blessing.
He remembered what Farahan had taught him.
—A kind of doping effect. It wrecks the body, but in exchange grants tremendous strength and speed. It's one of the forbidden white magics, permitted only to healers. Healers can mend their own bodies as they fight, so they bear none of the risk.
Knowledge shaped what the eye could see. As Simon began drawing a magic circle to counter with a curse, Lirinet charged.
“!”
On pure animal instinct, Simon flung himself sideways.
The attack wasn't from the front.
Tuk! Tuk! Tuk!
It came from behind.
From the rear, a cascade of triangular holy projectiles rained down.
“Kgh!”
Simon tumbled and cartwheeled, dodging in a desperate scramble. Up in the branches of a tree, he caught a glimpse of a girl with twin braids and freckles grinning down at him.
The frontal charge was a feint. The real attack was at my back!
“Quick reflexes.”
All four of them had only pretended to leap past him—from the very start, Efnel's plan had been a two-on-one.
“You didn't really think we'd just leave an enemy standing there all alone, did you?”
The freckled girl touched down on the ground and thrust out both arms.
Again and again came the tuk! tuk! of triangular holy bolts flying in, while Lirinet closed in from Simon's flank, fist swinging.
“Kgh!”
In an instant, he was boxed in from both sides.
The moment Simon dodged the freckled girl's holy projectiles and leapt backward, Lirinet—doggedly on his heels—hammered her fist into his abdomen.
Chwaeck!
A flash burst from her Holy Fist. Simon's eyes went wide, and a strangled “Kehak!” tore from his throat.
“It's going to hurt so much you'll wish you were dead!”
As Simon staggered and dropped to one knee, the freckled girl, leaping down from above, hurled a holy bombardment down at the motionless Simon.
KWAA-AANG!
KWANG!
Simon's body vanished beneath the holy light. That much should have been more than enough to put him out of commission—but they wanted to be certain.
The two girls exchanged a look, then simultaneously charged at Simon through the smoke.
Teong!
Puk! Pu-uk!
The smoke cleared.
Simon stood frozen, a dazed look on his face.
Lirinet's Holy Burst had detonated dead against his chest, and at his back the freckled girl had sharpened her holy power into a blade and driven it clean through, its tip jutting out of his chest.
The focus drained from Simon's eyes.
“Got him!”
“Acting cocky, and look where it got you.”
Down for the count. Completely.
But the instant the two girls began withdrawing their holy power—
Grab! Grab!
“?”
“Huh?”
Two hands seized them roughly by the backs of their heads.
And then—
CRACK!!
Their foreheads collided dead center with bone-jarring force.
“Ack!”
The freckled girl, her skull rocked by the tremendous impact, rolled her eyes back and collapsed on the spot, out cold.
And Simon, standing between the two of them, wore an expression that went beyond calm—it was downright languid.
...Honestly, should I have pursued acting as a career instead?
“Ow-ow! What the hell? I definitely hit you with everything I had!”
Lirinet staggered back, clutching her forehead, her face contorted.
The freckled girl lay crumpled on the ground, and Simon strode toward Lirinet with long, even steps.
“H-how—how is this possible! You were definitely hit with holy power—!”
Simon charged, Jet-Black rising around him—no questions asked, no answers given.
At that moment, Lirinet's pupils dilated.
The wind had torn back his hood, revealing the boy's blue hair streaming free.
Ah!
Lirinet remembered the advice Lethe had given her when they arrived at the Neutral Zone.
—If you ever see a blue-haired boy from Kizen on a mission, assume you're already dead and run.
Watching Simon raise his palm toward her abdomen, Lirinet's eyes went wide.
—If you get caught by him, someone like you will genuinely die.
It was HIM!!
With a look of utter desolation, Lirinet stared at the dark magic manifesting against her own stomach.
Hong Peng Original — Chwita
TU-KWAAAA-AAAK!
Lirinet's body, bent into the shape of a folded letter, blasted backward—shattering several trees in a row before it finally came to a stop.