Chapter 98
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The Last Dance Before Midnight
A masked dragon asks the lanternwright for one slow dance
“Tower Master Erica.”
“Regent Waldrova.”
“Are your internal injuries severe?”
Ferda did not cast her a glance.
It was to preserve her dignity as a tower master.
Erica widened her eyes and straightened her posture.
“They aren't severe enough to hinder me.”
“Understood.”
Ferda briefly acknowledged her and assessed the enemy's strength.
He saw the wyverns flapping their wings, along with a large man and a relatively small man.
The small man stared at Ferda and spoke.
“You are Ferda Rosnova. It is a pleasure to meet you.”
Ferda corrected the man.
“Waldrova.”
“You were raised by the Rosnova family, yet you struggle to escape your roots? How pathetic.”
The man sneered.
But Ferda was no greenhorn who could be swayed by such provocation.
“Wolf monsters poured into Hestia Village, and now there are wyvern monsters here…… Seeing you unleash monsters wherever you please, I suppose you are also the one behind the incident in Halim?”
“That is correct. Aren't you grateful?”
“Why should I be grateful to you?”
“Didn't you achieve great merit in Halim and even obtain a branch of the World Tree struck by Heaven-Defying Lightning?”
The man calmly recited a fact he had told no one.
Ferda did not let himself be swayed and provoked him instead.
“Sounds like a defeated dog comforting itself.”
“Ha-ha! Put that way, I suppose it does. It is true that I underestimated you and your companions far too much. I fought intending only to kill Chancellor Bernard, yet I failed to do even that.”
“Are you planning to target him again?”
“Unfortunately, there is no need. The thing I wished to destroy seems to have already fallen into your hands. So rest easy.”
“Why would you think I'd believe you?”
“Why? Because I am already above your head, so I have no need to lie. For example……”
He swept a finger imbued with mana across the ground.
A gust of wind rose, sweeping the fallen leaves from the ground up into the air.
“You could even pretend not to know about such a shallow trick despite being aware of it.”
The ground was cleared, revealing what lay beneath it.
A shadow extending from beneath Ferda's feet was chanting a spell.
“What a laughable trick.”
Snap!
The man snapped his fingers.
At the same time, an explosion occurred where the shadow hand had been.
Boom!
The shadow hand shattered into pieces and scattered.
“Urgh!”
Though its power did not seem lethal from the outside, the reality was different.
Had it been a real hand, it would have been destructive enough to tear through magical protection or armor like paper.
“Oh-ho.”
The man showed interest.
“I have heard that Barbatos's shadow art can be controlled like one's own hands and feet, but because it reproduces their sensations, the pain is felt in the same way. Yet you are reacting as though your hand were being pulled away after being burned, rather than experiencing the pain of having it severed……”
The man analyzed Ferda.
Ferda neither answered nor reacted to his words.
Instead, as the man had done, Ferda tried to discern the magic as well.
‘What magic was that just now?’
Ferda recalled what had happened moments earlier.
The explosion that occurred when the man snapped his fingers.
No, it had not been a simple explosion.
At a glance, it looked like an explosion, but it was not one.
‘It was…….’
Ferda focused on the scene.
He slowed time and peeled the scene apart frame by frame, vividly recalling its movements.
‘It was magic that distorted a point, not an explosion.’
Space had warped for an instant as though being sucked toward a single point in the air, then snapped back into place.
‘Magic that breaks objects by warping a point.’
Once he had explained it clearly, Ferda could identify its source as well.
Only one person could wield that magic.
A name that had vanished into a single line of history.
“You are the Warp Demon.”
The Warp Demon.
At the mention of that name, the man exclaimed in admiration.
“Oh-ho. You saw through my identity with that one observation?”
Erica, his ally, was equally surprised.
She had naturally known that he was a Noblesse-class demon, but she had not seen through his identity.
That was only natural, because the Warp Demon should not have existed.
“If you are the Warp Demon, you must be the first Noblesse-class demon to be killed by the hero, correct?”
The man readily admitted it.
“That is correct. The demons of that time had no wariness toward humanity. Thus, they died pointlessly at the hero's hands.”
“Then how are you alive?”
“It is simple. Back then, there was only a hero overflowing with passion, but lacking both you and Erdes.”
He meant that the hero lacked the caution and delicacy possessed by mages.
That had left room for resurrection.
“I never imagined that demons would be waiting for a distant future like this.”
“Indeed. I did not particularly wish to reveal myself either. But I had no choice.”
The Warp Demon's eyes turned toward Ferda.
“Because there was something that bothered me.”
Bothered him.
In other words, it should have been something unpleasant.
Yet the Warp Demon's lips curled upward instead.
“Do emotions become twisted when one becomes a demon? You do not seem to know when to laugh.”
“Demons feel joy as well. It is simply different from the sort of emotion that makes you obsess over trivial things as humans do.”
“Is returning everything to nothingness something great?”
He nodded at Erica's question as though the answer were obvious.
“It is His great will, and thus my greatest joy.”
“Then hurry up and disappear so you can greet the ones who went ahead.”
Crackle!
A bolt of light flew toward the Warp Demon.
But it bounced away without piercing his magical protection.
It was a Lightning Bolt fired from Ferda's grasp.
“Do you intend to kill me with something like that?”
“No. Once the Tower Master's magic failed, I knew it would not work.”
Erica realized something at his words and turned her head toward Ferda.
“……Were you watching over me?”
Her expression held a hint of reproach, as though asking why he had not hurried over to help.
But Ferda had a reason as well.
“When you were about to blow away the entire area, how could I not assess the situation?”
“Th-that is true, but……”
“Were you out of your mind, planning to blow away an entire part of the Grand Duchy?”
When Ruri complained, Erica fell silent.
Now that she was seriously injured, her emotions had been getting the better of her.
“It is nice to see you so triumphant after assessing our strength. However……”
He wore a subtle smile as he continued.
“I do not wish to fight you. How about we part on good terms?”
“This is the territory of the Grand Duchy. You made a mess and now plan to run away?”
“Hmm, in that case.”
He swept his finger through the air.
“Why don't you try stopping us?”
Another rift in space tore open and spewed out its contents.
It was a familiar sight to Ferda.
But the number differed from what he had seen in Halim.
No fewer than five rifts opened in various places, spewing out what lay within them.
Some of them headed toward Ferda and his companions, while others turned toward Hestia Village.
At the same time, the Warp Demon and the large man tried to throw themselves into the rifts.
There was no way to stop their escape when he could barely move his feet.
No, it might be possible if Ruri intervened.
She was the daughter of a silver dragon, famed for its supreme speed.
However, if Ruri intervened, all those monsters would head for Hestia Village.
It was doubtful whether the people in the village could handle all those monsters.
“Lord Ferda.”
Ruri looked up at Ferda.
Her eyes, visible beneath a poorly worn mask, wandered uncertainly.
“Go. Protect what your master wishes to protect.”
“What about your safety, Lord Ferda?”
“Don't worry. I'm here.”
Although Erica had suffered severe internal injuries, the ring of water around her body remained perfectly steady.
“Understood.”
Ruri picked up her axe and spread her wings.
Whoom!
A fierce gale flew relentlessly forward and swept over the monsters heading toward Hestia Village.
A silver flash darted through the forest, leaving only brutally slaughtered corpses in its wake.
“How many should I handle?”
“I am quite capable of handling them alone.”
“Then I will watch your back.”
Their opponents were monsters that had lost their reason and were filled with nothing but instinct.
Every blow was threatening, but their attacks were monotonous.
The more monotonous an attack was, the easier it was to see through, and Erica's water droplets readily found and pierced their vital points.
‘So this is Iorga's magic.’
They were impossibly gentle on the outside, yet once they left her hand, they were harder and more lethal than any metal.
They did not merely pierce their targets.
The rotational force carried within them twisted and burst apart the insides of anything they passed through at a vital point.
Even while facing a large number of enemies, she wasted not a drop and felled everything with a single strike.
‘Is this the Warp Demon, the one who makes even opponents like these struggle…….’
Thinking calmly,
it was as if the demons had set them free, rather than Ferda and the others failing to catch them.
At last, she finished clearing away even the final monster that had charged them.
Erica sensed the life around her once more and confirmed that it was safe.
“Phew……”
Then she sank down on the spot.
There was no room for composure.
“Are you all right?”
“My life is not in danger, but I will need to focus on restoring my mana for several days.”
“Can you stand?”
Ferda held out his hand.
“Thank you.”
Erica took his hand.
It was a callused hand, unlike a mage's.
Erica had touched this man's hand before.
It was then.
At the same time, something flowed along his hand and into hers.
Erica knew what it was.
That mana that had humiliated her.
“Eek!”
Erica recoiled.
She let go of Ferda's hand and sank back to the ground.
“……What is the matter?”
Her face flushed bright red.
What did he mean, what had happened?! The moment he took her hand, he had tried to send mana into her again! The shameless pervert! He had been trying something lewd with her again!!
She wanted to shout that, but she did not dare.
Ferda wore a face of genuine confusion, as though he truly knew nothing.
She was certain that she would be the only one made to look like a fool.
“Ahem, ahem! It is nothing. I think it would be better for me to cultivate my mana like this. Please watch the surroundings for me.”
“Understood.”
Erica sat cross-legged and closed her eyes.
The circuits within her body revolved, building mana in time with her heartbeat.
In the darkness behind her eyelids, the battle she had fought only a few dozen minutes earlier came vividly to mind.
‘So that man was the Warp Demon, one of the Seven Calamities of the Demon King.’
The Seven Calamities.
They were those who stood at the very top of the Noblesse class, directly below the Emperor-class Demon King, and had become legion commanders.
Even after exchanging several moves and sensing his mana, she had not guessed his identity at all.
She had known only that he was Noblesse-class.
It could not be helped.
She had been forced onto the defensive and had needed to focus entirely on the battle.
She had not had enough room to see through his identity as well.
But even that excuse could not comfort her.
She was the mage once known as the Wisdom of the Twelve Heroes.
She had already fought the other six Calamities and even found ways to break through against them.
‘And Regent Ferda realized it in a single moment.’
He had seen through the man's identity while withstanding a single attack.
That fact would not disappear simply because she denied it.
‘I was outmatched in mana as well.’
Although she had not been fully prepared, it was difficult to say what the outcome would have been.
If Ferda and Ruri had not appeared and she had faced that man alone, would she have won?
‘Damn it.’
She savored that frustration inwardly.
Though she could not know for certain because she had not seen the battle through to its end, Erica could not ignore the helplessness she had felt.
And then
‘This is so damn embarrassing.’
The fact that she had made a fuss and shouted all by herself was more painful than the agony of having her organs twisted.
She bit her lip and pounded her fists against her thighs.
‘Ugh, you idiot. Idiot! Why don't you just die already!’
Ferda watched her swallow her anguish and thought:
‘Her internal injuries must be quite severe.’
A little while later, someone flew over to them.
Ruri returned, carrying the vicious axe.
“I dealt with everything that was heading toward Hestia Village. They say things are being brought to a close on the Hestia Village side for now without needing assistance.”
“Good work.”
“It is not over yet. We need to clear away the monster corpses.”
“Burnel will be pleased.”
The forest was filled with the monsters' corpses.
The green blood and purple flesh gave off an alien and ominous feeling amid the natural surroundings.
“I will clean up this area.”
The speaker was Erica, sitting cross-legged.
“There is no need for you to do that.”
“There are many of them, and if we do not clean them up thoroughly, some areas could become contaminated, you know? That sort of thing requires magic. After cultivating a little longer, I will have enough mana to clean them up.”
“Understood. Then I leave it to you, Lady Erica.”
It seemed that the matter had finally been settled, but it had not.
Kuuung—!
A loud sound rang out.
The source was none other than Hestia Village.