Chapter 255
Chapter 255
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 255
Chapter Title: The Knights' Secret Weapon 9
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The mages and goblins were escaping through the underground passage beneath the water mill.
The water mill had been built higher than the water level to avoid flooding when the river rose, and below it were shafts to transmit power along with maintenance passages for servicing those shafts. They were fleeing through one of those maintenance passages.
"There! Goblins!"
Camilla, who had not yet entered the water mill, shouted as she attacked the mage with her shortbow.
"Interesting!"
The mage deployed a barrier of force.
The arrows Camilla fired collided with the barrier of force and stopped.
"You pathetic human wench dare to mock me? I'll kill you."
The mage turned a vicious glare toward Camilla, who had attacked him. His yellow eyes, like those of a snake, gleamed with murderous intent.
But Camilla snorted.
"You dare hurt my little sister?!"
"?!"
Only then did the mage notice the familiar talismans wrapped around Camilla's arrows and panic.
They were the lightning talismans used by the Northern Aragasans. Were there unexploded talismans left? And they were wrapped around Camilla's arrows just like that?
'She picked up my talismans and recovered them? No, they would have exploded if she mishandled them. How can this wench handle my talismans?'
While the mage was astonished by Camilla's quick thinking, the talismans began to explode.
-Bazzizizik!
The talismans detonated, and electric sparks enveloped the mage and the goblins.
"Kkieeek!"
The goblins screamed and collapsed. The electric shock also reached Izmira, whom the goblins were carrying, jolting her awake.
"Huh?!"
"Have you gone mad?! Aren't you here to rescue this knight?"
The mage flicked his tongue as he deflected the charging electric shocks with a barrier.
He had the head of a dog, but his eyes were those of a reptile with vertical pupils—a beastman revealed himself.
"A kobold, huh."
As Bernard formed hand seals, flesh and blood surged from the bodies of the goblins struck by lightning and shot toward the kobold mage.
But the kobold mage countered by forming his own hand seals.
"Oom!"
A shockwave centered on the kobold mage spread out, scattering the incoming blood and flesh.
However, Camilla's attack flew in once more.
This time, she fired a stone from her sling.
The kobold mage deployed another barrier of force to block the arrow, but for some reason, the stone Camilla fired pierced the barrier and exploded right in front of the kobold mage.
A blinding flash and deafening roar stole the kobold mage's sight and hearing.
"Krack!"
"Hoo?"
Bernard watched intently.
"A magic stone. A mana stone."
"Was there such a thing? They must have had all their belongings confiscated during the body search when joining the pilgrimage group, right? And there was no place to resupply mana stones afterward."
"It's a secret."
Camilla said that as she loaded another stone into her shortbow and fired.
-Tak!
The stone hit the blinded and disoriented kobold mage square on the head, drawing blood.
"Ugh!"
The kobold mage pulled a scroll from his robes and unfurled it.
His sight and hearing had not yet returned.
Above all, with his sense of balance disrupted by the shock, he couldn't simply flee. One wrong step and he'd tumble to his death.
"Damn it all! Forcing me to use even this!"
The scroll burst into flames, drawing circles of fire in front of and behind the kobold mage.
And from within those circles of flame, a massive monster the size of an ogre appeared.
"Ugh?"
"Everyone, be careful! This is a demon summon!"
Izmira, now conscious, issued a warning.
She tried to undo the black iron chains binding her, but she couldn't use her angelic power.
Unable to move, she could only kick her relatively free legs to retreat backward as the demon approached.
The demon resembled a bear with its skin flayed raw. Magical flames flickered and flowed over its skinless muscles in place of skin.
Two barbaric, menacing horns protruded forward from its head. Lightning and flames were etched into their surfaces like tattoos, proclaiming it no natural creature.
Its tail, extending from the end of its spine along its back, was nothing but bare bone without flesh, evoking the image of a torturer's whip for flaying a prisoner's meat.
Flames spread across the ground with every step the demon took.
"Ah, this one's pretty strong."
Just looking at it sent instinctive fear creeping in.
"Better to attack the summoner!"
Camilla hurled her sling at the mage, but the summoned demon shielded him with its body.
The stone from the sling struck the demon, but its massive body's flaming skin repelled it.
"Not even a dent?"
Camilla groaned.
"Should I use it...?"
At that moment, the demon's horns glowed, and six burning lumps of coal floated up beside its head.
"Ah, that's a very powerful spell. No choice, then."
Bernard grumbled as he drew a magic wand from his sleeve and manipulated it with fluid gestures like painting a picture.
Water jets began surging up from the river.
-!!!!
The demon uttered something incomprehensible to humans, and the flaming coals flew forth.
At the same time, the water streams Bernard had summoned flew toward the flaming coals.
Six streams of fire and six streams of water collided like hydras biting at each other's throats, twisting and clashing.
A steam explosion erupted with a deafening roar.
'This bastard. Not just a simple blood mage?'
Camilla was taken aback by Bernard, who calmly traded spells with the demon.
"Blood or water, it's all the same."
Bernard said that as water was drawn up from the river, forming orbs of water around him.
The demon's horns glowed again, flames rising before both horns, unleashing a powerful beam of fire in a straight line.
Bernard fired water streams from his water orbs to counter the demon's flame beam.
Each clash between the water streams and flame beam boiled the water, spewing steam.
"Urk! What the hell are these guys?"
The mage, finally recovering his sight and hearing from the flash and shock, was shocked by Bernard's power as he matched the demon spell for spell.
He too began chanting to join the fight...
"Ah, that's a problem."
-Puk!
Suddenly, a massive longsword pierced through his back and out his chest.
Azadin, who had emerged from the mill, had ambushed the kobold mage with his Seramite longsword.
"Kuhak!?"
Azadin raised the sword he had thrust into the kobold mage.
-Kwaduduk!
The Seramite longsword sliced through the kobold mage's ribcage and emerged. Blood sprayed like a fountain as the kobold mage collapsed.
Lungs spilled from the severed ribcage—a fatal wound with no chance of survival.
-Krurrr!
With his summoner's life ended, the demon growled, created its own circle of flames, and stepped through it.
"Azadin!"
"You all did well. You okay?"
"Yeah, thanks to you."
Camilla glanced at Bernard.
Despite casting such magic, Bernard wasn't even breaking a sweat, merely coughing a bit as usual.
"Hmm. Impressive. Very impressive, all of you."
Izmira rose, still bound by the chains.
"Black iron chains, huh?"
Azadin tried to undo the black iron chains binding her.
There was no lock; they were simply wrapped in a frictional bind, yet Izmira couldn't move an inch. Astonishing.
Azadin gripped the separated black iron chains, swung them, and hurled them at a nearby tree pillar.
The chains wrapped around the tree pillar with a swish and stuck fast.
Trying to undo them in that state didn't release easily.
"Pretty good chains."
Azadin realized these black iron chains were an incredible treasure.
They restrained even a Celestial with ease, and were convenient to use—just throw and they ensnared.
'I need to be careful; the enemies might have more of these.'
Azadin pocketed the black iron chains and turned to Izmira.
"Well then... Glad you're safe, Lady Izmira. Care to explain what happened?"
"Ah, Sir Azadin. Thank you for your aid. Without you, I would have been kidnapped for sure."
"You're an angel, right? One made within the Salvation Knights."
"Embarrassingly, I take the form of an angel, but I'm not a true one. My true nature is a top-secret matter even within the Salvation Knights, so I shouldn't have revealed it..."
"Better to reveal it than get captured. Don't worry too much about exposing yourself before all those Firegliff citizens. It was an act of God, after all."
Azadin said shamelessly.
"Ah, what I meant was whether it's okay to reveal the secret to you, Sir Azadin. But you're right. It's already out to the Firegliff citizens."
"Yeah. That big a secret, huh? But your enemies predicted your powers and abilities and came equipped like this, so they already knew. You sure that secret's safe? Not like every Hubris denizen knows it already?"
Azadin pulled out the black iron chains to show her.
He also thoroughly looted the kobold mage's belongings: magic talismans, a staff, and money.
"The enemies approached us using the city murders as a pretext. There were doppelgangers too. And the Northern Aragasans. Oh, what happened to them, by the way?"
As Izmira asked, everyone looked at Azadin.
Azadin shrugged.
"They got away."
'He let them go.'
Everyone thought so but didn't press.
No, it was more accurate to say they couldn't press.
Those who knew how terrifyingly skilled Azadin was had no desire to question him over something trivial.
Only Izmira seemed perplexed.
"Pardon? They took my sword. It's a Seramite longsword. I can't lose it."
"Luckily, I got your sword back. Hold on."
Azadin said that and shook his hand. Then, Izmira's Seramite longsword dropped from the sky with a thud.
"Huh?"
"......"
Bernard chuckled at the sight.
Jann, the platoon leader hiding nearby, had tossed Izmira's Seramite longsword on Azadin's orders.
"What did you do?"
"My magic. Here."
"Magic? This?"
"You wouldn't know imperial magic. Don't ask for details. It's classified."
Azadin brushed it off vaguely, but Izmira truly trusted him. This was the second time Azadin had appeared in her crisis to save her. Doubting him now would be utter ingratitude, so Izmira instantly resolved to trust Azadin completely.