Chapter 16
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 16
Chapter Title: Northern Duke (9)
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After killing the griffon and green light entering the final passage, the maze began to melt away.
The view before their eyes shifted, revealing the staircase they had first entered.
"Don't tell me it failed..."
"Doesn't look like it."
The duke quickly ascended the stairs, and a blood-red sky came into view.
People were bustling around a temporary tent next to the fourth-floor entrance, preparing to evacuate.
I carefully dismounted from the duke's back.
"The sky changed from inside the dungeon..."
In the original story, this period was depicted in fragmented flashbacks of the duke's past after he became the Northern Duke.
I knew the most important scenes, but not every minor connecting detail.
"Inter-floor assimilation phenomenon. Extremely rare, but not impossible."
The duke revealed the truth to me as I pondered.
"It seems the third floor is trying to transform into the fifth. Hurry back to the camp."
Due to the sudden occurrence, the temporary tents and supplies were abandoned.
People grabbed essential combat items like magic stones and retreated to the encampment protected by high walls.
Upon returning to the encampment, Ray came running through the chaotic crowd.
"What the hell! Eric! Did you solve it?"
Ray was still clutching the paper inscribed with ancient script as she yelled at me.
"Is that important right now? And use proper speech."
I flicked her forehead hard.
"Ow! That's what our dad used to do—no! Is proper speech important right now...?"
As her speech normalized, I smiled.
"In battle, our position is by the duke's side. Since you're fourth circle, they want you using your head more than fighting."
"Ugh... If only we had spare magic stones..."
"Did you ask the duke if he had processed magic stones for ancient magic?"
"Huh?"
Even without a specialist in ancient magic.
A procession this size would likely have them prepared just in case.
"Sigh, the chief mage is over there. Go ask."
Ray dashed off to the Northern Duke's chief mage.
Fortunately, she received a small box confirming they had some, and returned to me.
"Look at this! If the monsters came out, we'd have wiped them... sir."
Opening the box revealed a dozen magic stones emitting white light.
"Will we even get to fight?"
We were required to prepare for battle, but this place boasted nearly the entirety of the North's military might.
Hundreds of elite knights, dozens of combat mages.
Three hundred A-rank mercenaries who had hunted magic beasts for decades.
We headed toward the central command tent in the encampment.
Perhaps to secure visibility, the tent had been dismantled, leaving only a large table.
Centered around that table, the Northern Duke and what appeared to be his command staff were engaged in heated discussion.
"Any new physical laws confirmed?"
"Weapons and equipment are fine."
"Provisions and supplies are normal."
"Aura and magic are functioning normally."
"Doesn't seem like the physical laws have changed. Any word from the scouts?"
"The existing magic beasts have vanished. We'll report as soon as anything else is confirmed..."
"Your Grace! Magic beasts are incoming!"
A knight on watch atop the walls leaped down and ran toward the command post.
"Eric, Ray—to my side. Chief mage, begin."
As we moved to the Northern Duke's side, the command area centered on the table began to rise.
In an instant, it towered higher than the walls.
Looking down, rocks were surging up from the ground.
"This is a seventh-circle mage..."
Ray let out a low groan.
"If you're impressed by this much, I'll be disappointed."
The chief mage smiled, having overheard Ray.
Turning my gaze to the horizon, a black writhing mass blackened the skyline.
Looking in other directions yielded the same: black dots densely filling every horizon.
"Mid-to-high-grade magic beasts. Prepare the hexagonal formation."
"Yes, sir!"
The elderly knight who had guided us at the entrance leaped down.
The knights sprang into action at his command.
The tents filling the encampment vanished, leaving open space except for the one housing the duke's daughter.
The magic beasts had drawn close enough to identify by type.
Orcs, ogres, trolls, centaurs...
Countless mid-sized magic beasts charged chaotically toward the encampment.
"Chief mage."
"Yes."
The towering rock walls and command post, over ten meters high, lowered to five meters.
At the same time, new walls rose within the cleared encampment space.
In moments, the interior transformed into a small maze.
Aura-clad knights filled the maze corridors.
"Northeast! Entry beginning!"
"Southwest! Entry beginning!"
Magic beasts entered the narrow maze one by one.
Beasts and knights separated by a single wall.
The knights thrust swords into narrow slits in the walls, aura-infused blades piercing through.
One by one, the magic beasts fell.
Like a massive mixer grinding away.
The maze filled with dying magic beasts.
"They're climbing the walls!"
With paths blocked by other beasts ahead, some began scaling the rock walls.
Steel arrows rained down on the climbing beasts.
"Five silver per beast, right?"
"The duke's summons are the best."
"Shoot before they climb and you forfeit the silver! Conserve arrows!"
In the maze center, atop the rock outposts conjured by the chief mage, A-rank mercenary archers took positions.
The beasts surrounding the encampment dwindled rapidly.
Less a battle than mechanical hunting.
A one-sided slaughter.
The plain, once filled with beasts, cleared out.
As the dead beasts dissolved into light.
In under an hour, the plain was pristine.
But the blood-red sky showed no sign of reverting.
"Now the real ones are coming."
The Northern Duke murmured impassively, gazing at the plain.
Beyond the vast plain, potent demonic energy spread.
A familiar aura I'd encountered once before.
The encampment erupted in clamor instantly.
"Silence, all."
The duke's aura-laced voice echoed across the camp.
"A top-grade dungeon appears not just anywhere, but in my annex."
He didn't speak loudly, yet his voice rang as if whispered in every ear.
"My daughter, resting in the annex, was found cursed from the dungeon."
Every Northerner knew this tale.
Yet none dared contradict the duke.
"All the other servants dead, only my daughter survived. Mere coincidence?"
The duke's gaze turned to the mercenaries.
"No A-rank lacks the wits for such basic deduction. You all suspected as much."
Only then did realization return to the mercenaries' eyes, clearing their confusion.
"Twenty gold to survivors, fifty to the dead. As A-ranks, you've heirs set, yes?"
"Hah! Where do dayfly mercs have such things? Hey! I'll drink well to your memories, so die plenty!"
A man with a red lion tattoo on his neck chimed in after the duke.
'Red Lion Mercenary Corps. The North's strongest in the original story.'
The Northern Duke chuckled dryly, gripped the greatsword on his back, and pointed north.
"The archdemon is mine. Handle the rest."
From the north, thousands of spider beasts over a meter tall charged the fortified encampment.
"When will the Lightning Dome spell be ready?!"
"Five minutes left!"
"Aerial assault from the east!"
A man in a blue robe shouted.
I turned my gaze east.
Dozens of spiders simultaneously shot webs into the sky.
Nothing visible in the air.
Yet the spiders flew, diving into the encampment.
"Keep firing!"
A-rank archers loosed steel arrows relentlessly, but it wasn't enough.
The moment spiders flew toward the encampment.
"Now."
Spiders slammed into an invisible barrier and plummeted.
"Phew..."
I exhaled after erecting a mana barrier that blocked every incoming spider without fail.
Glancing around, I saw the front lines crumbling perilously.
"H-Help... Aaagh!"
A knight whose stance broke had his throat lunged at by a spider.
I erected a wall in front of him.
"Huh?"
"Get up quick!"
The spider's fangs were halted by the transparent wall.
My barrier shattered in under five seconds.
But in that time, the lines reformed, and knights regained their footing.
"Too many spiderwebs on the rocks!"
"Flame mage unit!"
At the chief mage's shout, flames ignited along the rock walls.
Fire that burned only the webs and vanished.
Astonishingly precise mana control, but no time to admire it.
The battle had raged over an hour.
People grew weary, yet the spiders filling the plain showed no sign of thinning.
"Fuck... Just spiders are this bad, and when the archdemon..."
"The archdemon leading an army? Like something out of ancient texts..."
"No pointless chatter—focus on the fight!"
The chief mage scolded the conversing mages.
But even his expression wasn't bright.
"Mana stones remaining?!"
"About half consumed!"
In the ceaseless onslaught, the once-plentiful mana stones dwindled.
"Wha— Aaaagh!!!"
A man's scream echoed from the opposite side.
Turning, I saw a man ensnared in webbing, dragged airborne.
He fell amid spiders outside the fortress.
Swarmed and vanished from sight.
"Tch."
A flame mage clucked his tongue and hurled a massive lava blob at the spot.
In certain death, ending suffering was unspoken protocol.
The first casualty, an hour into the battle.
But no time to dwell—next beasts approached.
"Aerial assaults from west and north!"
"Lightning Dome ready!"
"Cast it!"
As spiders shot webs skyward again.
The lightning spell enveloping the encampment activated.
Spiders plummeted from the sky, charred.
Powerful electricity arced in a semicircle around the camp.
"Five-minute duration! Clear corpses and rest!"
"I'll handle it."
Unlike dungeon beasts, spider corpses clogged the maze paths.
The seventh-circle archmage cast, and they sank into the earth.
"Damn, if we just had a hill..."
Open plains without obstacles hindered earth mages.
Manipulating subsurface rock was inefficient.
"How long for the next Lightning Dome?"
"Thirty minutes now."
"It was twenty earlier. Can't speed it up?"
"It's taxing on the body..."
My mana barriers withstood spider attacks only three times.
Pouring more mana might extend it, but...
'What I can do is limited anyway. I'm support at best.'
The mana stones from the duke were depleting fast.
In this endless battle.
I used mana as efficiently as possible.
"Eric... Don't I need to fight too?"
Ray approached, tugging my sleeve.
"I've got a plan. Just wait."
I didn't nitpick her informal speech.
Before battle, I'd asked her to conserve mana.
Ray hadn't cast a single spell yet.
"Ugh..."
Ray whined uncomfortably.
Standing idle while others fought desperately for their lives wasn't easy.
But for my plan, Ray's ancient magic was essential.
"Lightning spell down in thirty seconds!"
"Already?"
Mercenaries lounging in respite stood, readying themselves.
They held for now, but attrition was evident.
The Northern Duke, who had conserved strength for the archdemon, rose.
"I'll join from the next wave."
"But the archdemon..."
"No point if we're all dead before it arrives."
The lightning enveloping the camp faded.
Gazing at the spider-filled plain, people reformed ranks.
"What...? Why aren't they moving?"
A bowman with arrow nocked muttered absently.
The lightning was gone, but spiders stood frozen, staring at us.
"The boss has arrived."
The Northern Duke whispered lowly.
The next instant, spiders filling the plain parted, forming a path.
Along it strode the archdemon on eight legs.
Spider below, but an eerily human-like body atop amplified the grotesqueness.
Eight eyes on the feminine face's head gleamed red.
"A-Archdemon..."
An unknown man's voice echoed across the camp.
The being that would later ravage the eastern continent in the demonic invasion.
The archdemon Arachne, lord of all spiders.
The eastern great plains' nightmare, the cavalry's bane, had descended into the dungeon.