Chapter 216: The Tin Knight and The Singing Bones (4)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 216: The Tin Knight and The Singing Bones (4)
The Scarecrow spoke.
“First, as a prerequisite, it’s impossible for us to reach the Tower of Protection ‘quietly.’ There might be survivors from this battle that we missed, and even if there aren’t, an elite unit of this caliber would certainly have a regular communication network.”
The Tower of Control would grasp the situation immediately and undoubtedly send a pursuit team.
Therefore, she said, they had to shake up the board before that happened.
“Let’s spread the information far and wide. A method like a song would be even better. It’s difficult to convey overly detailed content, and it could tarnish the honor of the Friedel people, so it should be as brief as possible while still stimulating people’s imaginations.”
The uninformed public would wonder what on earth was happening and start spouting their own theories, while the upper echelons of the magic towers, who knew the situation, would turn their suspicious gazes toward the Tower of Control, demanding to know what was going on.
Control would have to focus its attention on suppressing the commotion and dispelling the suspicions of the other towers, which would in turn reduce the resources they could pour into the chase.
“Of course, even with this, it’s impossible to completely manipulate them to our will. It will depend on how competent the Tower of Control is, but the end will surely come down to a clash of power.”
Their opponent was one of the four heads of the Magic State.
To expect such figures to be meekly led along by their plan was to view the world with far too much naivety.
The role of a strategist was to set the stage and arrange the scene.
Achieving victory upon that stage was the duty of those who remained.
“—I did my best to make it as you ordered, but don’t expect perfection. This kind of thing is an alchemist’s specialty, not a necromancer’s domain.”
While the hallmark of a necromancer is creating undead from corpses, in reality, it’s rarer than one might think for the undead to retain their exact living form.
It’s only natural. To begin with, it’s hard to find a corpse buried in a grave that’s perfectly intact from head to toe.
A missing limb or two is a best-case scenario; in worse cases, it’s easier to find the parts that are present than the ones that are missing.
So what do you do with the missing parts? What else? You fill them in with something else.
A head from Hans, a torso from Toms, arms from Jones, legs from Max, and if it’s still not enough, you fill in the blanks with mana.
Therefore, the ability to process and reassemble the forms of corpses is essential for a necromancer, and Dorothea, as a skilled practitioner, had properly mastered that skill.
And now, the result of her work was properly attached to the carriage.
A long spine stretched through the center of the carriage. Supporting that spine, arm bones extended from the floor like a tripod.
At the front was a grooved, conical spearhead (the Tin Knight called it a drill), made from the toughest parts of animal and human bodies, with teeth as its primary material.
At the rear was a propeller made of bone and membrane, reminiscent of a bat’s wings.
From a distance, it was one thing, but up close, its gruesome visuals were enough to make one either flee in a fit of terror or be compelled to draw their sword, shouting, ‘You evil necromancer! You’ve finally shown your true colors!’ The Tin Knight, however, was simply overjoyed.
[The ‘Tin Knight’ says this is more than enough!]
Just as he had in the battle against the Witch of the West, the Tin Knight gripped the long rod with both hands.
In truth, connecting the drill and the propeller to the same rotating axis was hardly a rational design.
If the drill and propeller were linked this way, the moment the drill made contact with something and its rotation slowed, the rotation of the propeller, which was responsible for propulsion, would also weaken.
But in this world, there was a power called mana that could overturn such inefficiency.
And the Tin Knight was more adept than anyone at wielding that mana with skill.
Grip.
Mana extended from the Tin Knight’s hands, seeping into every corner of the drill-propeller, reinforcing its insufficient strength.
An application of sword energy, tightening its grip on the central axis like a vise from within his hands, began to rotate violently.
FWOOOOSH!
A wind so fierce it created a sandstorm erupted from the rear, and the carriage began to race forward with terrifying momentum.
Screech, creak, the carriage began to scream.
Even this high-class carriage, far superior in durability to an ordinary one, couldn’t withstand the impossible and produced an ominous noise.
But its effect was undeniable.
The distinct salty smell of the sea, which they couldn’t sense before, now filled their noses, and the coastline, once invisible, was now reflected in their eyes.
“Multiple enemies ahead! At least three hundred! And their numbers are growing!” Adelaide, who was on the carriage roof with a rope made of Rapunzel’s hair tied around her waist, shouted continuously.
“Incoming attacks!!”
Flames, ice, wind.
Dozens of attack spells painted the sky in a myriad of colors.
Because they were moving at such a high speed, only a fraction of the attacks were aimed correctly, but that fraction alone was enough to destroy the carriage.
If the attacks hit, that is.
“—”
Adel steadied her breath.
Mana flowed between her two feet planted on the roof, stabilizing her body as if with glue.
She swung her sword at a giant fireball, two meters in radius, flying toward her.
BOOOOM!
Not the blade itself, but the wind pressure generated by the sword tore the flames apart.
Adel’s physical abilities, honed through repeated training, had already reached the same realm as a champion of the arena.
The chunk of ice exploded the moment it touched the tip of her sword, and the blades of wind were split by the slash of her two-handed sword.
However, their enemies were not to be underestimated.
Realizing that direct attacks on the carriage had poor accuracy and little effect, the enemies instantly changed their response.
RUMBLE RUMBLE RUMBLE!
Vibrations echoed from all around, and the ground in various places rose up like walls.
Worse, as if to prevent them from destroying or bypassing the walls, more and more walls rose up, blocking every possible route to the coast.
“They’re so damn persistent,” Dorothea muttered, looking fed up.
Blocking a single paved road was one thing, but completely altering the topography of an entire coastline was a feat possible only for a magic tower.
And even that much power was but a fraction of what the Tower of Control possessed.
While once again realizing what she had made an enemy of, Dorothea put even more strength into her gut and shouted.
“If the carriage stops and those guys get to attack us at their leisure, it’s over! Keep moving, no matter what!”
[The ‘Tin Knight’ insists that a true drill can pierce even the heavens, so these petty obstacles are not walls!]
*
“What the hell are those things?”
At the rear of the battlefield, in the temporary command post, Skoll muttered in disbelief.
Putting everything else aside, the fact that the ones she thought would take at least twenty minutes to reach the coast had shown up in just five was already shocking.
It was a good thing Hati’s familiar had spotted them just in time; otherwise, they would have had to hastily form a defensive line only after the enemy was right on top of them.
In that sense, one could say the heavens had sided with the siblings Skoll and Hati, but the problem was that even so, she had no confidence they could stop the enemy’s charge.
Thanks to their insane rampage, over ninety percent of the attack spells they fired hit the wrong place, and the few attacks that seemed to connect were all cut down by some little swordswoman on top of the carriage.
Skoll clicked her tongue in annoyance and commanded.
“Cut the attack magic that isn’t even hitting and block their path with walls. Now!”
“Yes, ma’am!”
The order was transmitted in an instant, and the land in the surrounding area began to be torn up.
Some gathered the nearby earth to make it swell up, while others created walls directly out of mana.
It was a moment that revealed the Tower of Control’s characteristic hodgepodge nature, with no clear distinction between schools of magic, but Skoll couldn’t care less about that.
‘Whether they try to go around or make a U-turn to go back, the carriage’s speed will have to decrease. That’s when we have to shatter it with concentrated fire.’
At first, she had thought of capturing them alive to ask about their objective and other comrades, but after seeing the abilities they displayed, she changed her mind.
A sense of crisis washed over her—if she went easy on them, she might lose them.
Hati seemed to feel a similar sentiment.
“…It’s a shame the terrain around here is so solid. If it were soft ground, I could have used water magic to create a bog and force the carriage to a stop.”
“You have to give up what you can’t have. Better to crush them than to let them get away.”
“You’re right.”
The two siblings simultaneously drew upon their mana.
They were ready to unleash their attacks the moment the carriage hesitated, even for an instant.
The carriage and the walls grew closer.
The carriage and the walls grew closer.
The carriage and the walls—
—Why aren’t they stopping?
The moment that question crossed the siblings’ minds.
The runaway carriage smashed straight through the wall in front of it.
And the next one, and the next.
“Wh-what is that, what the hell!”
Regardless of Skoll’s panicked shouts, the carriage’s charge did not stop.
If they had faced a single, massive, thick wall, they might not have been breached so helplessly, but the walls the mages had deployed were dozens of barricades stacked in layers.
Before the Tin Knight’s drill, they were torn apart like paper. The carriage barely even slowed down.
“…This won’t do.”
After spitting out those words with a grave face, Hati’s body was carried by the wind and flew into the air.
Clinging to his familiar, he approached the carriage at high speed and, consuming a vast amount of mana, wove a spell.
ROOOOAR!
Under the clear, bright sky, a hurricane formed without any warning.
Skoll, joining a moment later, added a new spell, and blades made of ice mixed into the storm, swirling together.
“Wh-what!?”
“L-Lady Skoll, help—Gack!”
The mages caught in the hurricane’s range were sucked into its center and turned into a spray of blood.
For the two of them, it was a necessary evil, as giving their allies time to escape would mean letting the carriage get away as well, but for those who were hit, such reasoning was irrelevant.
Even the girl on the roof, who had blocked all sorts of attacks until now, seemed to judge that she couldn't do anything about this, and tension crept into her expression.
The girl seemed to lower her body for a moment, then disappeared into the carriage.
Skoll sneered, thinking it a futile act.
If they were facing a normal gust of wind, hiding inside the carriage might have been enough to avoid it, but an attack deliberately unleashed by two 4th-rank mages held the power to pulverize that pathetic carriage along with its contents.
They did not know.
They did not know that the black witch inside the carriage had placed her hand on the Tin Knight’s back.
Immediately after, from the drill part at the front of the carriage, thread-like strands of sword energy began to gush out.
At first, the sword energy indiscriminately shredded the surroundings, but soon it began to rotate, enveloping the entire carriage.
If before only the front of the carriage was a drill, now the entire carriage looked as if it had transformed into one.
Finally, the drill and the hurricane collided.
And as if it were the most natural thing in the world, the hurricane was pierced through.
The siblings’ faces contorted with rage and shock.
“Tch!”
“What is this…!”
The siblings drew upon even more mana to avoid being defeated, but even so, they could not stop the carriage’s momentum.
They were able to hold the carriage for a mere three seconds, and immediately after, they were thrown back by the backlash of their magic dissipating, coughing up blood.
The remaining mages also unleashed their own spells to stop the carriage, but it nonchalantly shook off the interference and reached the coast.
Skoll, without even thinking of wiping away the blood streaming down her face, shouted.
“Stop them! No matter what, they can’t cross the sea in a carriage!”
Whether they swam with their bare hands or borrowed the power of the rare flight magic, they would have to get out of the carriage eventually. That would be their chance, she urged her subordinates.
However, her wish was not granted.
The speeding carriage vanished as if it had disappeared into thin air, maintaining its momentum.
And in its place, a raft of unknown origin suddenly appeared on the sea.
The knight in heavy metal armor landed in the very center of the raft. In his hands, he still held the drill and propeller, which looked as if they had just been detached from the carriage.
The golden-haired girl who had been swinging her sword on the carriage roof now landed next to the knight, holding two different women in her arms.
After setting the two women down on the raft, the golden-haired girl snapped the drill part off the bizarre-looking spear the knight was holding.
Gripping the cone, which was taller than she was, the girl turned her gaze and glared at the shore.
The silver hair of the siblings, Skoll and Hati, was clearly reflected in her purple eyes.
The giant drill flew through the air.
The familiars, sensing their masters’ crisis, tried to block the mass of terrifying weight with their bodies, but it was a futile act.
CRUNCH. The sound of bone and flesh being crushed.
At the horrific sight of the mages who carried the noblest blood of the Tower of Control being crushed like tiny insects, all the other mages froze.
Even as the propeller in the knight’s hand began to spin again, carrying the raft forward, not a single one of them could open their mouths or move.