Chapter 75
Chapter 75
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Translator: uly
Chapter: 75
Chapter Title: Demon Extermination (??), Arrival (4)
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Even before the signs of battle appeared, someone had already predicted it.
The first to detect the demons' karma were the half-human, half-demon skirmishers of the reconnaissance battalion.
Though most of the trees had been burned away by wildfires, the Raviere Mountains were vast. They were the finest assassins, capable of ambushing and annihilating enemies with superhuman senses across this massive range.
They leaped between trees without even rustling the grass. Kunde, at the front, immediately signaled back to the main force.
Upon receiving the skirmishers' report, the Alliance headquarters immediately issued a mountain-wide alert via telegraph lines and communication crystals.
Hooksclo Captain Adalbert Aubes, who sprang into action like lightning, arrived at the command post to find a middle-aged man scowling arrogantly.
"You're ridiculously late, Adal. Don't tell me you were off screwing around in some village."
"Better than holing up in your room scribbling in magic books on a fine day like this. Hm... Is this the full telegraph report?"
Commander of the Blue Moon Combat Mage Corps, Valerie Peterzen. As he casually dropped the magic book from the desk, Adalbert checked the report on the enemy invasion.
"Mateus?"
"Goliath? He's already out. Sending Hooksclo too?"
The Alliance's member organizations mostly unified under a single command structure, but twelve specific units retained the freedom to decide their own deployment regardless of circumstances.
Adalbert, weighing the enemy's scale, the current gaps in his knights' ranks, and the possibility of diversions, declared he would send ten Hooksclo knights to the front.
"Just ten? They said dozens of witches in the sky."
"It's enough. They won't fight till dawn anyway."
"Hm... Hey, you there! Anyone around!?"
"Yes, sir! Loyalty! Gelherht, apprentice from Alkaid Magic Tower! The messengers have all left...!"
"Never mind that! You know how to operate the communication crystal, right!? Get this sent out!"
"Yes, sir! Right away!!"
The operational orders, bearing both men's signatures, were rushed out by the boy to the entire mountain range.
Soon, beacon fires blazed, and flares lit up the skies. Beneath the inky black heavens, the demon army revealed itself.
Leading them were curse bombs scattered by witches riding staffs.
— Kyahahahaha!!!
— Hahahaha!!!
Powders inducing hallucinations and phantom pains spread across the battlefield. Immediately after, mid-level monsters—deathworms—burst through beneath the walls.
Boom! The ground collapsed with a roar. Waiting mages swiftly piled up earth and stone with magic.
"Gaaah!!"
"Hold your positions! Don't fall back!"
"Sachsen Knights!! Hurry and evacuate the wounded!"
"We need magic support! Now!!"
"Don't let the fires go out! Launch every familiar you've got!"
The demons' ambushes in the darkness were lethal. They needed neither sun nor fire.
Each time massive monsters beyond human scale battered the walls, each time invisible curses and poisons spread, an unprecedented terror gripped the battlefield.
The only thing that could reverse such a tide was magic.
"Hooksclo!!!"
"""Yes, sir!"""
"Take to the skies!"
The Hooksclo Knights' <Formation Flight> began. Witches circling the skies fled in panic, only to be cut down from behind.
Blue Moon's large-scale magic, <Moonlight Cannon>, then swept the field. In the blinding daylight-like glare and searing white magic, several mid-level monsters melted away entirely.
Splat, whoosh!!
Adalbert, turning one night witch to ash, surveyed the vast battlefield under the open sky.
The walls weren't badly damaged. But the concern was the relatively overlooked tail of the mountains—the Greenwood Forest—where proper defenses weren't fully established.
That area was mostly manned by regular soldiers and civilians wielding swords instead of sickles, not knights or mages. If high-ranking dark mages or large monsters attacked, casualties would be severe.
'Let's see... Hm?'
A faint glint entered his eyes as he watched the forest. Amid the vigilantes moving under Paris's command, he spotted magic being cast.
The direction was a bit off from tension, but it was a solid display of elemental magic with firm fundamentals.
The recent stragglers included some decent firepower, it seemed.
As he breathed a sigh of relief—something massive charged on all fours toward the caster.
Flash Rhino. A mid-level monster wrapped in thick hide, with jagged horns protruding from its forehead.
Thud! Thud! Trees around it snapped like reeds. The ground quaked enough to reach Adalbert's position through the air.
Tsk. He clicked his tongue softly and raised his blade to intercept the rhino. But before his magic could connect, something halted the beast's massive bulk.
Kaboom——!!!
Dust and explosions drew every eye on the battlefield. The rhino's horn—capable of piercing gates like battering rams—was gripped by someone, its neck twisted grotesquely.
Diving low in haste and squinting, he couldn't hide his shock at the man spitting amid the dust.
"Bare-handed...?"
The man had stopped the monster's charge without armor, without magic.
My cheeks burned. My throat stung. Tuning my remaining mana with my racing mind, I endlessly scanned the battlefield.
Screams of agony from the left, the ground rupturing from the right.
Liv felt her senses expand to every cell in her body as she unleashed <Lightning Bolt> at the demon before her.
Crackle!!
Black skin, long tail. But the blood was red.
Guilt over killing squeezed her chest briefly—until an explosion nearby hurled her light body into the air.
Kaboom!!
Her ears rang fiercely. Her legs wouldn't move right. Instinct screamed her life was in danger.
Liv looked up at the sky where the bomb had fallen before checking her wounds. A distant witch was checking if she was dead.
She aimed the magic tool grabbed from camp and cast. The wobbling witch on her staff was impaled by a Hooksclo knight who locked on target, turning to ash.
Only then did she exhale raggedly and inspect her throbbing legs. Fortunately, burned red but not snagged on nearby branches.
"Hah, hah, hah..."
Exhaustion. Anxiety. Impatience. Loss.
And fear.
As she fumbled for her next spell, a familiar silhouette appeared.
Backing up to a tree stump, Liv unleashed <Wind Slash> at the figure closing in.
Slash!
Torn palm. Bleeding palm.
As that palm gently enveloped her, Liv finally startled and burst into tears.
"Ah, ah, uh... Hic."
"It's okay. Everyone's like this at first."
"Ah, bo, boss... I'm sorry... Sniff!"
"It's over. Breathe deep. Mages can overcome shellshock just by keeping mentally steady."
"Hah, haa..."
"Your leg's hurt. Should I call a priest?"
She shook her head vigorously. She didn't want to leave Louis. Distance from him felt like surrendering to battlefield madness again.
"Got it. Stay put like this."
Thankfully, he hugged her shoulders firmly, as if used to this.
When the trembling didn't stop, he hesitated, then placed his wounded palm—cut by her own magic—on her stomach.
"Sob, hic..."
"You'll get used to it soon. Don't worry."
She didn't want to get used to this.
"We have to survive and go home. Right?"
Swallowing sobs, Liv nodded.
The dawn after survival always brought a quiet hush. Priests purifying, groaning wounded, exhausted rookies collapsed...
The defensive line after the Demon King Army's retreat was a scene of devastation. Watching battle-hardened mercenaries wipe blood from blades and hunt for booze, I headed to Liv's tent.
The infirmary tents were full. Her leg burns weren't severe, so after priestly treatment, she lay curled in her tent.
The blanket rose to her chest with each breath. Tidying her closed-eyed hair, I worried if Liv could overcome this battlefield.
It's the one you chose. Tough it out with grit against evil. Too risky to say. Maybe leave the mountains altogether.
But knowing her, she wouldn't abandon her father and flee. Plenty to mull over.
"Mm..."
As I pulled up the slipped blanket while she stirred lightly, I sensed someone outside.
More precisely, the surprised greetings from those outside.
Paris? Lifting the flap, an unexpected figure spoke.
"Are you the one who took down the Flash Rhino yesterday?"
Hooksclo Captain Adalbert Aubes. The swordmaster Whitelett raved about, a veteran of decades on battlefields.
"Yes."
I nodded, and he glanced at Liv beside me before getting to the point.
"Straight talk: Want to join the Alliance?"
Gasps erupted from onlookers watching us. Alliance meant Hooksclo enlistment in practice.
But I shook my head without hesitation, still holding Liv's hand.
"No."
"Why?"
Reasons aplenty, but even to me, they'd sound like lame excuses.
First, I couldn't use Hooksclo's entry requirements: <Shadowless Manifestation>, <Formation Flight>, <Tactical Machine>, etc., even on pain of death. My only allowed magic was what Terra taught.
Second, I had no desire to serve under a Hooksclo future where a mere Whitelett led.
No reason to play house with their clique—my style was skirmisher-close anyway.
"...I won't answer."
It sounded rude, but surprisingly, Adalbert nodded. Eyes fixed on Liv, not me, he continued.
"Family?"
"No."
"Friend then?"
"Not that either."
"...I see. Protecting what's dear on the battlefield is always key."
What nonsense.
"If you change your mind, come to command. Use this for your wife's treatment."
He left a healing potion and departed. Back then, commoners married young, so he'd misunderstood.
'Not a bad seed, though.'
Picking up the potion and turning, I spotted something odd about sleeping Liv.
'Wasn't the blanket pulled all the way over her head before?'