Chapter 58
Ruril had been poisoned.
However, there was one problem.
This wasn't an ordinary toxin; it was found in the lair where the boss lived, making it far stronger than the poison that had afflicted the Hero at first.
The Hero had been unable to control his lust and remained erect, so it was obvious what would happen when Ruril, who was even weaker than him, was afflicted by an even stronger poison.
She would rush at anyone indiscriminately to satisfy her desires.
“Ngh..”
Things had gone wrong in every possible way.
According to the original plan, we would first confirm the locations of the monster and the Demon King's army, deal with the monster, and then immediately deal with the army without giving them time to react. But a momentary error in judgment had put Ruril in danger.
I had trusted Ruril's skill and left the task to her, but things were different when dealing with a boss monster. Most monsters that had lived for a long time possessed skills of their own, and as it happened, the monster we had encountered this time was exactly that kind of monster.
That was why the monster could detect Ruril despite my concealment magic.
“Hero.. What do we do..?”
Cecilia asked with an anxious expression.
The Hero answered with a frustrated expression.
“We have to push ahead. Yesterday was fine, but if we don't do it today, we may not be able to catch them anymore.”
He had already released the holy sword's power to its limit.
No matter what, the Demon King's army was still the Demon King's army; there was no way they could fail to notice that the Hero had released the holy sword's power.
They would try to flee as quickly as possible, so we had to catch them before they escaped, defeat the entire Demon King's army, and rescue the people.
This wasn't the only place where people were turned into demons, but it was large enough to be called their main base, so destroying it would have a tremendous effect.
According to the game's setting, the technology still hadn't been passed on, so I knew that this truly had to be done now or never.
“We have to hurry! They'll get away!”
It wouldn't take them long to abandon the base.
Naturally, since it was a base conducting important research, there had to be a magic circle leading to the Demon King's castle.
If they merely organized the research materials and escaped to the Demon King's castle through it, it would be a complete defeat for us.
We had to get there quickly and wreck the place before they could report the research results.
In the actual game, once the Hero's identity was discovered, a time limit appeared; if we destroyed the magic circle before it expired, the time limit vanished. There was no doubt about it.
So the Hero seemed intent on pressing ahead.
The Hero looked toward me.
“Lumia. Can you use teleportation magic?”
Teleportation..?
Of course, I could use teleportation magic, but there was one problem.
My mana was nowhere near sufficient.
Even teleporting just myself consumed a great deal of mana. If I tried to teleport several people over a long distance—not just a few meters or even a few dozen—all my mana would be drained before the spell could even activate, turning me into a dried-up mummy.
I shook my head to show that it was impossible.
“Ah..! Mana..!”
It seemed I had been able to use teleportation freely before I regressed.
Even so, for him to ask so casually..
Although that place was extremely far away, he couldn't possibly go alone and leave all of us here.
I'd said before we came here that we should all do it together, so I couldn't back out now.
While I was wondering what to do, the Hero suddenly drew the holy sword from its sheath.
“Hero?”
Instead of answering Cecilia, the Hero made light pour from the holy sword.
“..?”
Why was he suddenly releasing the holy sword's power..?
Huh?
What was this?
Suddenly, I felt vitality surge through my entire body.
I should never have been able to lift Ruril before, yet now I felt as though I could do so with sheer strength alone—what was this feeling of omnipotence?
“This..!”
Cecilia's eyes widened.
Ah, now I understood.
This was one of the Hero's release skills: Hero's Blessing.
It was a skill that temporarily doubled the stats of every party member. Since it simply doubled every stat, my mana had doubled, too.
It was a simple skill, but its performance was overwhelming.
No wonder it was a Hero's skill.
Cecilia, too, seemed amazed by the blessing cast on her.
“How is it? With this, you can do it, right? Please teleport us to the place I designated earlier!”
“..!”
Right. With this, I could do it.
I hadn't been able to use teleportation because I lacked the mana, but with this much mana, I should be able to use it once.
Had he really planned this far ahead?
As long as I remembered the location, teleportation was easy.
My magic didn't require calculations, after all.
When I used the mana increased by Hero's Blessing to cast teleportation, a huge chunk of that added mana was consumed, and my vision twisted.
We emerged in front of the Demon King's army's base—the place we'd briefly visited to confirm its location.
No sooner had I finished casting the spell than all the strength left my body, and I sank down where I stood.
Cecilia, who was beside me, caught me with a flustered expression as my strength gave out.
The Hero also seemed startled and started toward me, but stopped when he saw that Cecilia had already caught me.
“This.. I'm sorry. I asked too much..”
It couldn't be helped.
I shook my head to show that he needn't worry.
The Hero looked down at me with a complicated expression, then exhaled and opened his mouth.
“Everyone, can you give us buffs and blessings?”
With the holy sword raised, he asked Cecilia and me for blessings and buffs.
No way..
Was he planning to do it alone..?
...
Yes. In our current situation, that was the right answer.
Teleportation had made it difficult to use any other attack magic, and the exhaustion caused by my depleted mana made it hard even to move. Cecilia had enough power to fight demons, but with Ruril and me unable to move, someone had to guard us..
Would he be all right..?
Given the level of power he had displayed against that monster, it was hard to imagine him being defeated easily. Still, this was a base of the Demon King's army, and anything could happen.
Naturally, I couldn't help worrying about him.
Even so, the Hero was right.
If I let him go like this, not only would the Hero's purpose—saving people—be undermined, but everything that followed would become even more troublesome and dangerous.
If that's the case..
“God.. Grant me the courage to defeat the enemy..”
Cecilia prayed to God and granted us her blessing, while I squeezed out all the mana I had left and cast every buff I could.
Once my mana was completely depleted, I lost even the strength to remain seated and collapsed where I was.
“Are you all right?”
Cecilia caught me before I fell and asked.
“Oh, right. You can't hear..”
Actually, I could hear, but..
I smiled bitterly.
I was so short on mana that I couldn't even use telepathy anymore..
Still, I could tell what she was saying by reading her lips, so after waiting a moment, I nodded.
Perhaps because she thought I'd understood, Cecilia smiled faintly, lowered herself to sit in the grass, and placed Ruril's head and mine on her lap.
It was a lap pillow.
I had never expected to receive one from Cecilia.
It felt a little strange.
“Go, and come back safely, Hero.”
“...”
“We'll wait here.”
At Cecilia's words, the Hero hesitated.
He was probably worried about us, but as far as I knew, there was no need to worry. Cecilia was practically powerless against ordinary people or monsters without demonic energy, but against monsters with demonic energy—or demons—the situation was different.
Against such foes, Cecilia's power made her overwhelmingly strong.
That was what it meant to be a saintess.
And with the blessing the Hero had personally cast on us, there was nothing to worry about.
The Hero reluctantly nodded, then left to exterminate the rest of the Demon King's army.
The extermination was over in an instant.
Since the location was hidden, it was only natural that it wasn't guarded by particularly powerful enemies.
Looking down at the demons being exterminated by the Hero before they could escape through the magic circle, I felt conflicted.
Though they were demons, they looked no different from humans on the outside, so I felt somewhat repulsed.
How should I put it.. It felt like a massacre..
However, any revulsion I felt disappeared almost immediately when I saw the people who had been tortured and left lying there naked, or who were still being tortured.
Right. No matter how similar they looked to humans, they were demons in the end.
The fact that I was even thinking this way was absurd.
That was what I thought.
I had to think that way.