The Tiger's Den (1)
I knew that Marbel was behind the famine crisis, but I had no idea exactly how much he'd profited from it, or how long the list of his other crimes might be. Handing him over to Kalman would satisfy my curiosity and eliminate an annoying rival all at once. A true two birds, one stone.
“We have to leave right now. There's no telling how much longer Father can hold out in the Demonic Realm.”
“Irene, you stay here and continue the investigation.”
“Understood.”
Irene answered with grim resolve. I pressed my palms together and recited the incantation, and with a soft burst of air, my body transformed into a great white-feathered bird. The Lesser Peng — a minor version of the Great Peng — had grown considerably larger since ascending to the Manifestation Realm. At this point, calling it the Lesser Peng felt inadequate; it was more like a Middle Peng now.
“The Young Master turned into a bird…!”
Irene sank to the ground in shock. Kalman mounted me with the practiced ease of a man climbing into a saddle, and Ruby hopped up right after him. Once I confirmed that one human and one dragon were settled aboard, I beat my wings with all my strength.
Everything on the ground below shrank to the size of ants. I split the sky above the city and drove north without pause.
Below, I could see refugees stretched in a long line along the road — apparently fleeing Andrassy County. With so many people running south from the north, there were, curiously, a fair number heading the opposite way, climbing north from the south.
Adventurers, they were called — lunatics who went kicking over grave markers with their own two feet.
After about an hour, we were looking down on Andrassy County from above. The county served as a buffer zone between the Esterzy direct territories and Stormrock Fortress. Its thriving mining industry brought a steady flow of people and no small measure of prosperity.
Now, however, it had been transformed into a full-fledged military city. The walls bristled with defenders, cannons, and every manner of mechanical apparatus for holding a siege.
“Count Andrassy means to hold his castle. Wise of him.”
I agreed.
If the Count had marched out with his army, I'd been fully prepared to fly over there and lecture him into the ground.
As we flew farther north, the demon army finally came into view. It wasn't large — a detachment of some two or three hundred fast-moving monsters.
“We'd best steer clear of the main force, Iden.”
He didn't need to tell me; that had been my plan all along. I adjusted our course to give the demon main body a wide berth.
Even far from the main force, demon detachments were swarming everywhere. It looked as though they meant to swallow the northern half of the county whole.
“…Flying breeds.”
Kalman's warning came sharp. “Duck!” he barked. At some point a massive flying monster had latched onto our tail. Its whole body was sheathed in scales, and a single wing was larger than my entire torso.
“I'll intercept.”
Kalman drew his sword, and a pillar of blade-force surged above my head.
“Left!”
I banked hard to the left, and Kalman swung, cleaving the pursuing monster clean in two at the waist.
“One more!”
This one was a smaller breed, and far faster than the last. I twisted my body again, and Kalman mercilessly shredded the creature whose attack had missed.
“Screeee!”
The next one Ruby roasted to a crisp with a gout of flame.
“Let's head for Stormrock Fortress. We should switch to traveling on foot from there.”
The swarming gnats were too much of a nuisance. Unable to fight in my newly transformed state, I'd only be putting my passengers through the wringer at this rate.
I flew at high speed with the clouds beneath my feet, and before long Stormrock Fortress came into view, still boasting its magnificent silhouette. I set Kalman down atop one of the fortress spires and returned to my true form.
“Not a single trace of battle.”
Kalman was right — the fortress was pristine, as good as new.
“My esteemed senior brother ran away before he even fought the demons.”
“That man swore he would take your head if he ever became Duke.”
“Looking at the state of this fortress, I'm starting to think I should take his head first.”
We stood side by side at the edge of the spire. Through the open gates, demon infantry poured in without end. The howls of monsters great and small made my ears ring.
The invasion force's numbers were truly staggering. The remnants of Demon Count Grimscale alone could never account for it — it seemed at least three or four demons of count rank or higher had joined in.
“Are you certain Duke Esterzy is still alive?”
“…I am.”
I added one more thing.
“If Father had fallen, we'd have heard about it somehow.”
“That's true.”
Just as I had brought back Grimscale's head, if the demons had toppled the Shield of the North, they would never have wasted the opportunity. They'd have hoisted it on a pike or done something equally theatrical to crush our morale.
I hated even imagining it, but that was war for you.
“So what now? You're not planning to punch straight through the middle of the enemy army, are you?”
“We have to seal the gate. If the enemy grows any larger, Count Andrassy won't be able to hold out.”
“They'll have smashed the mechanisms so the gate can't be closed.”
“I have a way.”
I hurled myself off the edge of the spire. Riding the wind down in a gentle glide, I landed lightly in front of the monster legion.
“Krrk?”
The monsters flinched. A foul stench stung my nose. Their confusion lasted only a moment — then they split their jaws wide and roared in fury.
“A human!”
“Kill it!”
I unleashed Blazing Heavens with both hands. Two massive pillars of fire began tearing wildly through the monster legion.
“Gwaaaah!”
“Kieek! Kieek!”
The monsters screamed as they crumbled to ash. For one-against-many battles, nothing beat Daoist arts. I rained fire on everything within sight, and a moment later Kalman landed beside me. With him joining in, the demon ranks began collapsing at a rapid pace.
“Kalman, buy me a little time.”
“How much is 'a little'?”
“A little!”
I pulled out a bundle of talismans and scattered them freely around the gate's front and rear defenses.
Seven-Star Linked Formation.
The very same formation that had held back the Seven Pillars. I had grown stronger since then, and the power of the illusions had doubled accordingly. Now the demons would have to wander an endless desert of sand to pass through a gate that stood wide open before their eyes.
While I laid the Seven-Star Linked Formation, Kalman built a small hill out of monster corpses. He worked his blade-force without pause, yet his breathing never faltered.
But the enemy soldiers kept growing larger and stronger, and demon officers wielding faint traces of sword-qi began to appear among them. The longer we stalled, the worse it got for us.
“This way!”
I bolted straight toward the depths of the Demonic Realm. Kalman followed easily on his own two legs, no spell-casting required.
“Do you know where we're going?”
“Roughly.”
Father had moved his army to mop up Grimscale's remnants, so the place where the Steel Guard had been routed would be somewhere near Grimscale's territory.
My guess proved correct. Before long we came upon the body of a Steel Guard soldier. It had been crushed horribly, but he had been human, and a knight.
Farther on, the true battlefield opened up before us. The corpses of demons, monsters, and knights lay tangled at random across the broad plain.
“They were hit by a pincer attack from all sides.”
Kalman said.
“And it looks like a large number of Grade 3 or higher giant monsters were mixed in. Even Duke Esterzy would have struggled to respond to that.”
“Something's off, though.”
Giant monsters were slow by nature — that was the price of their size. How had the demons known Father's route and moved the giant monsters accordingly?
And that wasn't the only thing bothering me.
— If you're on your way to report to the Demon King's castle, pass my words along well. I did not feign ignorance of the mobilization order out of any treachery.
Demon Count Grimscale had said the Demon King had issued a mobilization order to his high-ranking nobles. The demons, he'd claimed, were wracked by internal strife over this 'False King' business.
Then where had all these troops come from? It didn't look like only one or two high-ranking demons had descended. Had the mobilization order suddenly been lifted?
“…Iden.”
Kalman called to me.
“Look ahead.”
A man stood tall in the very center of the battlefield. He wore no armor, and held a longsword in his right hand. His hair was black, and two horns curved upward from his head.
“Looks like a demon straggler.”
He was no ordinary demon. He was clearly one of high rank — that proud, unbothered bearing, trampling the corpse-strewn ground as if to show it off.
We approached the demon, and he noticed us. The moment his gaze touched us, a crushing pressure rolled over us, enough to steal the breath from my lungs. Beside him, Grimscale had felt like a common foot soldier.
“He's descended.”
Kalman said, his voice rigid.
“Fight at full strength from the start.”
The demon smiled, and black smoke hissed up between his lips.
“…Hold on.”
I studied the demon's features closely.
“I know this demon, Kalman.”
“You know him? What in the world is that supposed to mean?”
Kalman frowned. I knew how ridiculous it sounded. But it was true — I really did know this demon. The demon raised his right hand toward me with a casual gesture.
“He's my swordsmanship tutor.”
“…What?”
“Father once assigned a demon as a private tutor.”
Kalman's expression said it all: he couldn't decide whether the real problem was a duke who assigned a demon to tutor his son, or a demon who actually went ahead and taught him.
“Caroi.”
“It's been a while, Iden.”
Caroi approached, and we faced each other across ten paces.
“What brings you here?”
Knowing him was one thing; it wasn't as if I knew everything about him. Running into him here, of all places, at a time like this, was enough to give me a headache in more ways than one.
“I wonder that myself. If I had to put it into words, I'd call it a long-standing bad debt.”
“It wasn't you who attacked Father, was it?”
“I'd like to say no, but I can't. Drek and I are tangled up in a thoroughly sordid way, you see. The moment I saw you, I half wondered if all of this wasn't Drek's scheme after all.”
“Do you know where Father is?”
“I wouldn't say I don't—”
Caroi suddenly swung his sword. It was a lightning-fast strike no eye could follow.
“Kieek!”
Even as the monster rising at my feet was split in half, I fired off Thunderbolt Heaven's Arrow. The bolt reduced the monster appearing behind Caroi to a lump of charcoal.
“You've gotten quite strong without my knowing.”
Caroi quipped, dusting off his hands.
“At that level, you're no obstacle. Follow me.”
“Where to?”
“We find out from here, don't we?”
Caroi crouched down. He had apparently been tracking Father's trail. I couldn't help wondering just what kind of cunning it had taken for Father to command a demon this powerful.
“You're not seriously planning to follow this demon.”
Kalman said skeptically.
“Even if we split up, we'd end up meeting at the same place anyway.”
Caroi dipped a finger into the blood soaked into the ground. He stuck out his tongue, tasted it briefly, then straightened up.
“…Not far.”
“You found it?”
“That way.”
Caroi pointed to a tall mountain rising to the northwest.
“The lair of the Black Dragon Ulkaard. A place even the demons dare not touch.”
That was Father for you. In the midst of a desperate crisis, he had apparently retreated into the territory of a Grade 1 monster to avoid the very worst outcome.
The only problem was that the place he'd fled to, escaping the fox, happened to be the tiger's den.