Chapter 97
The story continues off the page
The Last Dance Before Midnight
A masked dragon asks the lanternwright for one slow dance
Two men watched the village from a distance.
“So that's Hestia Village.”
“Yes.”
“Can it really change this much in just a few months?”
The large man expressed his amazement.
The Far East, where no one ever set foot.
Seeing a proper village standing on land so close to the border was a moving sight.
“Didn't they say that establishing a new village on this land was impossible until just a few years ago?”
“It was impossible. That's how poor people's perception of the Far East is.”
“How is that possible?”
“You can only call it good business sense. With the full support of Pascal Trading Company, the Iorga side's declaration of alliance, and even the southern region of Halim added to the mix, isn't it practically alchemy?”
“Alchemy…… Well, this is a place where money is gathering, so it certainly lives up to the name.”
Transforming such a barren wasteland into a place piled high with gold was astonishing, to say the least.
“And all of it has been accomplished under the name of Ferda Valdrova.”
“He's a dangerous man. If he continues expanding his power like this, our plan will be in trouble.”
“Hmm……”
The man quietly looked down at the village.
Watching his back, the large man made a suggestion.
“What if we revealed ourselves even now?”
“No. That wouldn't fit our plan.”
He replied coldly, his judgment as sharp as a blade.
“What we need in the first place is Valdrova's isolation. What would happen if we openly stepped forward and destroyed Hestia Village?”
“Wouldn't they lose their rallying point?”
“No, they would rally. Just as they did during the Dragon-Demon War.”
The Dragon-Demon War.
The man who heard those words calmed down as well.
There was no event more humiliating to the demons than that one.
“The notion of legitimacy is frightening in human hands. Humans once gathered under the banner of eradicating demons. Even now, when only remnants remain, they are still trying to eradicate those remnants.”
“Indeed.”
“So we must leave them alone. So that future generations lose their wariness of demons.”
The man murmured as though reciting a poem.
“Peace rusts swords, peace wears down walls, and peace dulls human beings.”
The large man agreed with the plan as well.
Yet he could do nothing about the anxiety settling in his chest, so he asked the man a question.
“Even so, won't their power keep growing if we leave them alone?”
“Of course. That is something we cannot overlook either.”
Destroying them would ruin the larger picture, while remaining hidden would only strengthen their rallying power.
Everything had begun when Ferda Valdrova accepted the engagement proposal.
“So perhaps it wouldn't be a bad idea to sow a few seeds?”
The man revealed a hand hidden within his robe.
His fingers were extremely thin and white.
One finger drew a vertical line through the air.
A brilliantly colored, wavering rift opened in front of him.
What emerged from it was a wolf.
-Grrrr……
No, they were monsters shaped like wolves.
They slowly emerged from the rift one by one and lined up.
They all had eyes devoid of reason, yet they were obedient.
They waited like puppies treating the robed man as their master.
The man gave an order in a courteous tone.
“Wipe them out.”
-Woof! Woof!
The monsters dashed away the instant they heard the man's command.
Filled with nothing but the malice to destroy, the creatures charged toward Hestia Village.
* * *
“War footing! Assemble all soldiers and notify the adventurers! I repeat: we are now on a war footing! All civil servants are to evacuate the residents, and all soldiers capable of fighting are to assemble!”
Isabella, who held authority as the commander in an emergency, shouted the order.
“How many are approaching?”
“Fifteen.”
“Fifteen……”
Isabella was busy sending telepathic messages to summon everyone.
Meanwhile, Erika kept her mouth shut and stared at the ground.
‘Strange.’
She pulled back a little and took in the situation as a whole.
‘A sudden monster appearance. And fifteen of them at once.’
She reviewed the recent incidents and circumstances.
Even if it meant making somewhat far-fetched leaps, she did not hesitate to seek the answer that best fit this situation.
‘Perhaps……’
Erika looked at Isabella and spoke.
“Bella! You'll be all right without me, won't you?”
“You aren't going to join the battle?”
“There must be someone behind this monster invasion. I'm going to find that instigator.”
Five telepathic messages kept piercing Isabella's ears.
She replied with a deeply furrowed brow and a fierce glare.
“The children of Great Iorga are watching our backs. Do not worry.”
“Thank you.”
Erika calmly assessed the situation and spread out a magic circle.
Unlike ordinary humans, who could draw only a single magic circle, five circles revolved around her.
That was the power of Erika, the famed Blue-Eyed Tower Master and leader of the Blue Dragonspawn.
Multicasting.
She could cast two spells at once and prepare five spells simultaneously.
Erika manifested the first magic circle.
“Go, and become my eyes.”
The mana condensed in the magic circle scattered in the form of dozens of blue sparrows.
Imbued with motion-detection and mana-detection magic, they tracked anyone whose movements seemed suspicious.
True to her title, the Blue Eyes who watched over all magic, no one could escape their pursuit.
The eyes of the sparrows, which spread through the forest beyond the village in an instant, caught something.
“Found you.”
Erika immediately spread one of the magic circles she had prepared on the ground.
It was a teleportation spell.
She instantly set the coordinates and dropped down above the blue sparrow caught by the detection magic.
What had been visible only as a form of mana began to come clearly into view.
Erika did not hesitate.
She had decided to treat anyone who unleashed monsters as a demon without exception.
She immediately cast the spell she had prepared at the visible target.
“Banding Time.”
A high-level spell that slowed time in a designated area to an extreme degree.
A mage of Erika's caliber could even stop time entirely.
Everything affected by the spell stopped where it stood.
Two spells remained.
She fused the two magic circles, creating a new geometric form.
That bizarre magic was something only Erika could wield.
Elemental Demolition.
It was a destructive and savage spell that used the repulsion between two opposing elements to blow away everything in the area.
Though it was destructively excessive, Erika did not care in the slightest.
It was not excessive against a demon that had once tried to rule the continent, nor did she intend to leave its remnants any opening.
Yet Erika's sixth sense sharpened as she prepared the spell.
The enhanced five senses of a dragonspawn.
Something within her field of vision reacted sensitively.
‘Impossible.’
Time had literally stopped.
Nothing within the area should have been able to move.
Yet she did not blindly trust her rational judgment.
That was the correct decision.
Something had flown toward her from within the space where time should not have been flowing because of Banding Time.
A large black object with a ferocious face extended a hand as large as a cauldron lid.
Erika immediately understood when she saw that hand.
The moment it caught her, she would die helplessly.
The vicious hand grabbed her leg.
No, it grabbed the spot where an afterimage remained.
She had already escaped the danger with teleportation magic.
Erika descended to the ground and corrected her stance.
Rather than prepare another magic circle, she first had to analyze what had just happened.
‘Was the time-stop spell nullified?’
The trembling leaves and crawling insects had all lost their color and stopped in place.
The magic was still functioning.
Yet there was one thing moving within that space.
A man wearing a gray robe over his head.
He alone ignored everything and looked at Erika.
‘How is that possible?’
The usual way to stop Banding Time was to cast a resistance spell.
Yet there had been no sign of resistance even when it activated.
Everything had stopped, leaving her defenseless.
That was why she had attempted to land a decisive blow.
How could he move alone within frozen space?
“You seem quite surprised.”
The man's voice rang clearly in her ears.
“You are a descendant of Great Iorga and the Wisdom of the Twelve Expedition, so this cannot be your first time facing demons.”
The man's voice sounded mocking.
Erika came to her senses and assumed a composed expression.
“Indeed. It is surprising that I can still be surprised by anything.”
“That is good news. It seems we have not regressed, after all.”
A moment later, the large man who had flown into the sky landed on the ground.
Kwang!
The reverberation of the ground was as deep as the weight of his body.
The man knelt behind the robed man.
Without turning around, the robed man asked him,
“Did you fail to catch her off guard?”
“Her assessment of the situation was faster than I expected.”
“Of course it was. Our opponent is one of the Twelve Expedition and the master of the Blue-Eyed Tower. It would be strange for her to be caught helplessly.”
The eyes of the man hidden beneath the robe peeked out.
Black eyes that gleamed like obsidian, and red pupils.
The ease and contempt contained within them stirred Erika's deep anger.
‘I should kill them both……’
But reality was not so easy.
The price of failing while casting high-level magic was too great.
The magical backlash had not merely cost Erika mana; it had scattered the mana within her body as well.
‘It can't be helped.’
She would set human magic aside for the moment.
Erika cautiously reached a hand behind her.
The canteen fastened to her belt.
She was opening its mouth.
Pop!
The instant it opened, the water inside flowed along her finger.
The water filling it became a ring surrounding Erika.
One of the large man's eyebrows rose.
“What is that ring of water?”
“The Iorga command not only magic, but water as well.”
“Hmph. What can you do with water?”
When the large man scoffed, Erika held out her hand.
Some of the water ring became droplets and floated above Erika's palm.
“I can do this.”
The instant she snapped her finger, the droplets became bullets and flew in a straight line.
The large man thrust out a hand to block the water bullets.
“Huh?!”
The water-pressure bullets cleanly pierced him and bored into his heart.
“Gah!”
They pierced through his chest and out his back, then flew on to pierce the young man standing behind him.
However, they could not break through the magical protection surrounding his body and bounced away.
“Grrr…… What was that? From mere drops of water……”
“Didn't I tell you? The Iorga command water and magic. When it is magic wielded by their leader, it is only natural that it can pierce your skin.”
“You should have told me that sooner.”
“Didn't you prefer to experience things firsthand?”
The large man wore an expression of astonishment.
Yet Erika was even more astonished to see the two of them chatting so calmly.
‘I fired with the intention of killing them both……’
Her droplets boasted lethal power.
When they pierced the heart, the target should have been twisted apart and reduced to pieces by their rotational force and water pressure.
Even demons whose bodies were several times stronger than a human's could not avoid fatal injuries.
Yet the demon who had been pierced treated it like a minor wound, as if he had merely been stabbed somewhere, and sprang to his feet.
‘And I couldn't even pierce the demon behind him.’
The simple magical protection wrapped around his body was that powerful.
‘For a remnant of the demons to be this powerful……’
At least Noblesse-class.
And a Noblesse-class demon close to the Emperor class at that.
Now that both Banding Time and Elemental Demolition had failed, Erika had no means left to rely on.
‘I have no choice but to retreat and prepare.’
She spread out a teleportation magic circle.
The magic circle manifested and enveloped Erika's body.
Yet her body did not teleport.
“Cough!”
Instead, blood burst from her mouth and poured out.
She staggered in pain, coughing blood without knowing why.
‘My organs…… It feels as though they've been twisted.’
She knew what the side effect was.
It was a phenomenon that occurred when one used imperfect teleportation magic.
‘Did I construct the magic circle incorrectly?’
That was impossible.
Erika had lived for over a thousand years and used teleportation magic hundreds of thousands of times.
She was so proficient that she could draw a teleportation magic circle in her sleep and move somewhere else.
‘That means the man used some sort of trick.’
She had stupidly fallen right into it.
Erika looked at the man with a furious expression.
“Did you think you would be able to leave as freely as you entered?”
A deep smile could be heard in his voice.
She should have responded with anger or remained cold, but all she could do was lean forward and groan.
“Since you have greeted me so enthusiastically, I suppose I should return the favor.”
He raised a finger from within his robe.
His hand was not black, but pure white.
The finger pointed before him and drew a vertical line.
A multicolored rift opened and spat out the contents within it.
-Krrk.
-Krrk.
They were monsters modeled after wyverns.
They flapped their wings and rose into the air.
There were more than twenty of them, at the very least.
For Erika, who had been driven into a corner, the situation was utterly hopeless.
The man's finger pointed at Erika.
“Take her life.”
-Kyeeet!
The wyverns all flew toward Erika at once.
It was then.
A heavy gust of wind swept toward them.
An object so large that it blocked Erika's vision became a barrier between them.
The wyvern monsters were killed in a single blow.
Kwang!
As it struck the ground, a cloud of dust surged upward.
Erika opened her eyes and looked at the object.
It was an axe.
A war axe with a blade so large it looked as though it had been made for a giant.
Erika recognized the axe's owner.
She had a petite frame despite wielding such a vicious axe.
Yet she was a silver-haired girl with martial prowess great enough to earn her the title Nightmare of the Frost Giants.
“Greetings, Lady Erika.”
It was Luri Silverwind.
“I heard you had visited the territory, so I came running straight here. Was I intruding unnecessarily?”
Erika wiped the blood from her mouth with her index finger.
“I seem to have shown Lady Valdrova's maidservant an unsightly spectacle.”
“I do not mind. But from now on, it would be better if you carried yourself a little more properly.”
There was no need to question Luri's words.
Erika had sensed someone walking toward them.
A man in a jet-black suit, with gray hair and blue eyes.
He was tall and slender, and his graceful bearing was immediately apparent.
Yet no one could think of him as weak.
His eyes were fixed unwaveringly on the enemy, making him seem as though he had an entire army at his back.
Ferda Valdrova.
He stood beside Erika with an imposing bearing.