#050 Traces
#050 Traces
At first, when his master suddenly broke into a sprint, Lucius thought nothing of it.
Surely, wherever his master was headed, there would be enemies.
Since his master was the sort of person who would go to dangerous places on purpose, there was surely a very dangerous enemy to the south, not the north.
And that prediction was not wrong.
SKREEEE—!!
A colossal enemy appeared from the south.
At the appearance of such an enormous foe, Lucius felt his breath catch in his throat.
A Sandworm.
A being so vast in size that it seemed impossible to fight by any conventional means.
He knew the name, but the enemy was so enormous that it seemed as though it might swallow the entire city whole.
However.
Against that Sandworm, he somehow did not feel like he would lose.
If he used the Wind Holy Sword.
If he used the Holy Sword's power, he could surely bring down the Sandworm.
Because the Wind Holy Sword possessed power strong enough to slay a Black Dragon.
Lucius recalled the scene he had seen before in the illusion.
The Wind Hero.
The one who had stirred up a golden storm and displayed overwhelming power against the black Demon-King Dragon.
Perhaps that had been a Hero of a previous generation.
The sight he had witnessed must have been the Holy Sword Hero fighting against the Great Demon King Belphegor.
Considering that mighty power and skill, a Sandworm was no great obstacle.
'Finally.'
Despite the danger, Lucius felt a momentary thrill.
If his master commanded the Holy Sword Release.
He could cut down that Sandworm in a single blow and, at the same time, become the hero who saved the city from it.
Any man, if he possessed the power to become a hero, would naturally long to become one.
If he could go beyond being a mere Holy Sword Wielder and become a true Hero, a true champion.
His master would surely praise him even more.
At the stage being set for him to shine, Lucius clenched his fist.
And then.
"......Ah."
He soon realized how utterly complacent that thought was.
Crunch, crunch.
People were dying.
While he had been lost in his own desire to become a hero, those caught in the Sandworm's mire were being sucked into its stomach.
"N-no, stop...."
Lucius's gaze naturally turned toward his master.
Unlike Lucius, who had only been agonizing over how to use his power against the Sandworm.
His master was.
Crying.
Though tears were not streaming down, her eyes were wet and trembling faintly.
She was Undead, so she probably could not shed tears—but perhaps the mana flowing through her body was spilling out like tears.
Even if that were so, it was clear his master had suffered a great shock.
"......."
After that.
Lucius's body moved on its own.
He extended one foot forward, lowered his upper body, gripped the hilt of the iron sword at his waist even harder, and turned his head forward.
What came to mind was speed.
Riding the currents of the wind, running through the empty air, he would reach the enemy like a gale at the speed of light.
His movement would be like a thunderbolt.
If he let his body ride the wind's flow and surged forward—
No.
'He' had not done that.
The Hero who had faced the Demon-King Dragon had not done that.
He... the wind....
"Lucius!!"
In that instant, Lucius's body leaped forward before he knew it.
Was his master controlling him?
No, that was not it.
But the moment he heard his master's scream-laden voice, his body moved on its own.
Ride the wind?
It was already too late.
His feet had already pushed off the battlement railing and leaped, and his body was already high in the empty air.
If he stayed still like this, he would plummet downward.
However.
-Remember.
A voice began to reach him, as if someone were whispering.
-It's not about riding the wind as you run.
A voice both familiar and unfamiliar.
It was like the voice of his master whispering to him in his inner mind before she had given over her body.
'If I'm not riding the wind as I run, then how?'
This was not for landing.
This was not for showing off.
He had to reach that enormous Sandworm even a little faster and save the people.
-You already know the answer, don't you?
He knew the answer?
'I do?'
The voice wanted Lucius to draw out the answer himself.
As if his master were teaching him.
No—his master was still teaching him.
She might be a mother bird feeding him the answer like food, but a mother bird eventually teaches her young to fly and hunt on their own.
-I am a guide.
His master said.
-I am someone who advises from beside the path you walk. I cannot decide the path you will walk for you. Because you are you.
-Listen well.
-The path you walk is, itself, your path.
"......!!"
The view before Lucius's eyes changed.
His body, which had seemed to be slowly descending, was now surging forward, and Lucius's body was already running ahead.
Running through the empty air.
Running across the sky as though it were the ground.
He was not riding the wind—he was becoming the wind itself and running.
That speed was, truly, a gale.
"Uwoooooh——!!"
TAP—!
Lucius took a great stride in midair.
There was no foothold, but he stepped on the wind flowing beside him and leaped forward even faster.
ROOOOAR—!!
The Sandworm opened its maw wide and turned its head toward Lucius.
Inside, countless people were being swallowed into its stomach along with the earth, and Lucius gripped his trembling sword even harder.
Thump.
His heart pounded.
At the same time, the ring on his left ring finger pulsed as well.
Something—instinct—was pulling him onward.
Whoosh.
Faster than Lucius's body, a golden wind stretched forward and carved a path.
Was he supposed to follow that?
Was that really the answer?
It was the right answer.
That was not natural wind.
'A path I can walk!'
The path Lucius would take forward—his own power was showing it to him.
Lucius's infinite potential.
Golden winds branching out in dozens of directions.
Some flowed past the Sandworm's maw toward its neck, while others circled completely around the Sandworm and aimed for its tail.
Among them, the place Lucius chose was—
Straight ahead!
"Secret art!"
Following where instinct led.
"Crimson Lotus Rush!!"
Lucius raised his sword and leaped toward the diagonal line above the Sandworm's head.
And then.
"Uwoooooh————!!"
With the blade held at a slant to the side, he aimed at the Sandworm's head and ran.
To the Sandworm's tail.
The Sandworm's body began to split along Lucius's blade as though being filleted, and Lucius ran all the way to the end and landed on the ground.
Boom!
The Sandworm's tail flew backward.
Lucius, still in his landing stance, flicked his sword lightly to the side.
At the same time.
SPURT────!!
Blue blood poured from the Sandworm's severed cross-section.
SKREEEE....
The Sandworm let out a death-throe scream.
Boom————!!
With a powerful tremor, it slammed its head into its own mire.
"......."
Lucius turned his head blankly.
The people still unharmed.
The life signs still remaining inside the Sandworm.
And.
With tearful eyes and a bright smile, gripping the edge of the wall and gazing at Lucius—the red-haired witch.
"......."
Well done.
Her lips were clearly forming those words.
And then.
"!!"
His master vaulted over the battlement railing with one hand and leaped down, just as Lucius himself had done moments earlier.
At the sudden move, Rosemas—who had been standing blankly behind his master—jumped after her to try to catch her, but his master swung her staff and landed lightly with gravity magic.
"...Ah."
Undershorts.
Lucius felt relieved that she had landed safely.
His master pressed down her hat with one hand and ran toward Lucius.
"Master! I—"
The witch ran toward the Sandworm with an urgent expression.
Lucius was left awkwardly holding out the hand he'd reached toward his master.
"......."
However.
"U-ugh...."
"S-save me...!!"
"......As expected of you, Master."
Watching his master run toward the people inside the Sandworm, Lucius could not hide his smile.
Look.
At that back.
"We have to hurry and save them!"
Indeed, that figure was the ideal he ought to chase after.
With a joyful heart, Lucius followed behind his master.
* * *
CLANG!!
Every time the crows flapped their wings, black whirlwinds battered the magitech barrier.
CLANG-CLANG!
The protective shield made of mana was pierced by the crows' flying feathers, and its outer wall was shaved away by the black whirlwinds, gradually crumbling.
At this rate, the magitech barrier would soon collapse, and then the humans atop the wall would be caught in the black whirlwinds and torn to shreds.
But the humans' resistance was no small matter either.
"Fire——!!"
RATATATAT.
The defenders brought magitech rifles and all manner of ranged attack weapons, laying down a curtain of fire in the air.
Not only Normance's guards, of course—the adventurers who had gathered to join the raid also intercepted the monstrous birds with one heart and one mind, lending their strength.
"Die, you monstrous birds!!"
"Not a single feather will enter Normance!"
These were people who had gathered for the raid from the start.
No matter how numerous the crows were, as long as those gathered for the raid poured out their full strength, damage was inevitable.
"Commander! The humans' resistance is fierce! Twenty percent of the Black Raven unit has been shot down!"
"...We do not retreat."
Malphas spread his wings wide to the left and right.
"This battle is a feast for the Demon King! It is the process of preparing a ritual to offer humans as sacrifices for his true descent! Even if we die here, the Demon King will revive us!"
"However—"
"Commander!! Something, from inside—"
The inside of the magitech barrier flashed with red light.
Malphas urgently turned his head toward the light, but—
KABOOOOM!!
Red flames erupted from within the barrier and covered the sky.
The enormous flames scattered in all directions, engulfing Malphas's legion in an instant.
"Wh-what?!"
"How foolish, Demonfolk!!"
TAP—!
The red-haired woman who had leaped out over the barrier herself—
"Y-you crazy...! Coming onto the battlefield naked!!"
"Hahaha! I am not naked!! Your eyes deceive you!"
Wrapped in red flames like clothing, she aimed a likewise red sword at Malphas and shouted.
"I am the Flame Hero, Bareness! I will cut every last one of you down right here!"
"A H-Hero...!! A Holy Sword Hero, damn it!! This isn't what we were told!!"
Malphas reached out toward his soldiers and charged at Bareness.
"I will buy time! Everyone, retreat!"
"Too late!! In the name of the Azure Moon Goddess!!"
FWOOSH.
Flames erupted from the red Holy Sword and began to blaze in the shape of a crescent moon.
"Burn, flames of hell! Inferno Blaster!!"
Red flames like brimstone covered the sky.
* * *
"Wow."
Incredible.
Lucius killed the Sandworm.
'As expected of Lucius.'
I grabbed the battlement railing and leaped down.
With light Levitation magic, I stepped gently onto the ground just before landing, then ran forward excitedly.
"Master!! I—"
"We have to hurry and save them!"
Before anyone else could claim it, I had to find it first.
Something that might spare me half a year's worth of lifespan—or let me unleash Grand Mage-level magic in one go.
'Looting!!'
Toward that Sandworm's Mana Stone!