"I'm an elf. Have you heard of them? We can use magic. Even magic that allows us to
heal people."
The boy's face lit up as I pulled the helmet back on. "You… You can fix Mama?"
I nodded, and approached the woman behind him.
After casting a healing spell on the woman's head and making sure the bleeding had
stopped, I began removing the bricks so I could examine her leg. It looked broken, and
would probably need a more powerful spell.
"Are you sure you're an elf, mister? I heard that elves are cunning people who stole
their powers from God."
I was taken aback by the boy's statement. Apparently, this is what the Hilk church was
teaching its followers. "Are you saying you've never met a cunning human?"
The boy thought for a minute before shaking his head.
I'd be willing to bet someone specific had come to mind.
"Say, for example, there was a thief. If that thief were a human, would that make all
humans thieves? Are you or your mother thieves? It's the same thing."
"Mama and I ain't no thieves!" the boy shot back angrily.
After finishing with my healing magic, I looked over the woman's leg and nodded. It
should be all right now.
"Thank you so much," the woman said.
"Beyond the wall is relatively safe. Keep out of sight and make your way out of town."
The woman slowly stood on unsteady legs and bowed her head. I glanced down at the
worried young boy and cast a healing spell on him as well.
"Keep her safe, boy."
The boy watched the magical glow fade with great interest and responded with a firm
nod. He took his mother's hand and led her out of the square and down the road. A
few moments later, they were gone.
That had taken longer than I anticipated. I needed to get up onto the roofs and get my
bearings.
***
Two dark shadows dashed across the rooftops of the buildings of Tagent.
Leading the way was a cat-eared man dressed all in black and wrapped in a dark cloak.
His bright red eyes and pale complexion made him look like a ghost. A young cat girl
dressed in similar black ninja garb followed a short distance behind him.
Her azure eyes were fixed on the man's back as she darted across the crumbling roof
tiles, desperate to not lose sight of him.
The man she chased was someone she'd once considered a brother. They'd both lost
their families. They'd lived and trained together. He'd doted on her like a sister, and
she'd admired him as if he were her real brother.
One of the six great fighters of the Jinshin clan, Sasuke was also one of the youngest
members to ever assume that role. However, the Sasuke she was pursuing was no
longer the man she'd once known.
It was nothing short of a tragedy that she'd finally find the man she'd been looking for
in a state like this, devoid of any life. He was undead, a man no longer of this world.
Jealous of the living, he could do nothing but dispense death.
A corpse without a soul… or so they said.
But Chiyome had to believe that the man she'd once known was still inside. From
getting yelled at by Master Hanzo to eating flour dumpling soup, they'd done
everything together. She refused to believe that that man was gone.
"Wait up, Sasuke!"
Chiyome used her ninja skills to throw some water shuriken at Sasuke's feet, but he
immediately responded with shuriken of his own, knocking them away.
Sasuke's split-second pause, however, was all the time another figure, a mammoth of
a man, needed to close in from the opposite side. He came in fast with a right hook, his
arm looking like it was made entirely of metal.
"Goemon?!"
"Muscle to stone, concussive fist!"
Sasuke launched into the air and did a somersault right as Goemon's fist came crashing
down, taking him out of the massive man's reach.
The roof exploded beneath Goemon's fist as if it'd been hit by a bomb, throwing bricks
and dust everywhere.
Chiyome yelled at him. "What're you doing, Goemon?! What if you'd hit Sasuke?"
Goemon glared at Chiyome. "You know it as well as I do. Sasuke was one of us, but now
he's a member of the undead. Do you want to see him bring further disgrace to his
name?"
The normally silent man's voice boomed, his eyes wide.
Chiyome looked back and forth between Sasuke and Goemon.
Sasuke picked up on her hesitation. A moment later, he had both blades out from the
sheaths at his back and was rushing in to strike.
Chiyome evaded the first slash and blocked the second with her own blade, but Sasuke
caught her square in the stomach with a powerful kick, sending her flying backward
and crashing onto another roof.
"Hyauuk!"
The young ninja spit blood from her mouth and lurched to her feet, but Sasuke was
already closing in fast. All she could do was watch blankly.
Goemon appeared behind Sasuke, his body now fully engulfed in bronze as he tried
running the other man through. However, Sasuke mostly managed to dodge the attack,
catching only a glancing blow that threw him off balance. While still in mid-air, Sasuke
pulled several metal shuriken out of his pocket and threw them.
Changing direction in mid-air was one of Sasuke's special techniques. It was almost
unnatural how he pulled it off.
One of the shuriken missed Goemon and made its way straight toward Chiyome's
chest.
"Instead of throwing it at the target, think of it like extending your arm toward the
target."
These words echoed in Chiyome's head as she remembered the day when Sasuke had
taught her how to properly throw a shuriken. He'd trained with her until late into the
evening.
The image of young Sasuke sprang to mind as her eyes focused in on the man coolly
dispensing death. The clang of metal on metal resounded in the air, and Sasuke's
shuriken tumbled off the roof, down to the stone path below.
The shuriken had bounced off a woman's long blade, her white hair whipping in the
wind.
"Step back, Chiyome! It's too dangerous. Goemon and I will take up the fight."
Ariane turned her gaze toward Sasuke, stepping between him and the young ninja girl.
Unfortunately, two dark giants chose that exact moment to make their presence
known. They let out an awful shriek that echoed throughout the town.
"Greeeeaaaaauuw!"
Both of the giants had their eyes fixed on Sasuke as they brought their massive stone
axes down in his direction.
The roofs shook violently whenever the giants ran, making it difficult to move. The
giants, however, paid this no mind, and swung their axes with reckless abandon into
the surrounding buildings. They relentlessly crushed homes beneath their feet,
causing a landslide of bricks all around them.
The giants lost their footing on the ruins, tumbling to the ground and taking Goemon—
his body still encased in metal—down with them in the wave of destruction.
Ariane used her earth spirit magic to create a platform beneath her feet to escape the
destruction, while Chiyome dove to a nearby roof just in time.
Sasuke, who, only moments before, had been fighting against the three of them, leaped
high into the air, flipped around, and glanced down at the destruction with disinterest.
After landing on another rooftop, he bounded off again to make his escape.
Before he could, however, several metal, star-shaped disks flew through the air and
embedded themselves in his foot. Sasuke lost his concentration at the sudden pain and
lost his balance, crashing hard into the roof and sending a cloud of dust high into the
air.
"Chiyome…"
"Chiyome!"
Goemon and Ariane turned toward the person who'd thrown the shuriken, the
surprise evident in their voices.
"Are you all right? You don't need to push yourself."
Chiyome just shook her head, brushing off Ariane's concern. "I've got this. I'm
Chiyome. When I accepted the role that came along with that name, I knew it would
be my job to see my allies off. Ariane, can you hold the giants back?"
A stiff smile came to Chiyome's face as she glanced toward the two giants struggling
to stand.
"No problem. Not only will I hold them back, I'll put them down while I'm at it!"
Ariane shot a confident grin toward Chiyome before bounding down the mountain of
rubble. She practically glided, not getting caught even once as she drew her sword and
held it high, her golden eyes locked straight ahead.
Her body began emitting a faint, scarlet glow as she quietly recited a chant.
"Holy flame, heed my call. Rise up, rain down, and return everything to the dust from
whence it came."
Multiple red balls began forming around Ariane as she chanted. They took off like
glimmering butterflies, dancing about, as if they had minds of their own. The flaming
butterflies obeyed Ariane's command and fluttered toward the dark giants.
One of the dark giants let out an immense roar and swung its axe toward Ariane. The
axe struck the pile of rubble below, sending pieces of debris flying everywhere and
momentarily obscuring its vision in a massive cloud of dust.
The dark giant tried waving the cloud of dust away. Instead, however, its hand erupted
into flames, looking like a giant torch.
"Grauuuuuwl!"
It held its burning arm tight and fell into the pile of rubble, smashing more houses as
it thrashed about.
Despite the giant's efforts to quench the flame, it only grew stronger as it burnt its way
up the giant's arm.
Moments later, a pillar of fire burst out of the dark giant's mouth, eliciting an unearthly
scream of agony. Its massive eyes went blank as the flames began eating them as well,
burning butterflies floating out of the now-empty sockets.
The butterflies continued multiplying and returned to Ariane, who carefully
orchestrated their movements with her sword, like a skilled conductor. They gathered
below her, the red glow growing even more intense. Even her snow-white hair looked
as if it were ablaze as it fluttered in the wind, reflecting the swarm of fiery butterflies.
Whether the remaining giant was sentient enough to understand true fear was up for
debate, but if it could, that had to be what it was feeling now.
The giant started reversing course on its stubby legs.
"Your fear of fire proves that you're nothing but an animal!"
A sadistic smile graced Ariane's face as she sent the swarm of butterflies after the
fleeing giant.
While Ariane was busy creating hell on earth, Chiyome shuddered at the thought of
how her companion must look when angry.
Ah, right. She'd told Ariane that she would stop Sasuke on her own.
The dark giant was now burnt to a crisp, filling the air with the unmistakable scent of
charred meat. She could feel the unnatural heat wafting off the giant-turned-torch.
Chiyome took a deep breath and slowly let it out, trying to clear her senses. Suddenly,
everything around her began feeling much more vivid. Goemon stood a short distance
away, blocking Sasuke's escape route.
A loud clang broke the silence as Chiyome blocked a shuriken flying out of the dust
cloud straight toward her. It was the shuriken she'd thrown at Sasuke.
A split second later, Sasuke came diving out of the shadows after the shuriken.
Chiyome anticipated this and coolly deflected the first blow with her short sword
before striking out with her own horizontal slash. She easily ducked out of the way of
Sasuke's second thrust.
Sasuke parried Chiyome's strike with one of his own blades before bringing the other
down toward her undefended torso, hoping to cleave her in two.
Right at that moment, two water shuriken flew straight toward Sasuke's feet from out
of the rubble. He bounded into the air and twisted around, dodging one of them, but
he wasn't quite nimble enough to avoid the second, which struck his already injured
foot.
Undead were generally incapable of feeling pain, but that didn't mean they didn't
suffer from the physical limitations imposed by an injury. Just as one couldn't grasp
anything with a broken arm, it was impossible to move deftly on injured feet
regardless of whether or not you felt pain. Though he didn't show that he was affected
at all by the injury, in either his expression or movements, the impact on his endurance
and stamina were clear.
Chiyome held up her short sword and locked eyes with Sasuke.
A feeling she couldn't quite put into words began welling up inside her. But no matter
how much she knew that she couldn't afford to think about such things, her thoughts
kept drifting back to them.
After shaking her head to clear her mind, Chiyome began performing several gestures
with her hands.
"Body to water, liquid wolf fang!"
Water began pooling at her feet, forming into two mounds that slowly took the shape
of wolves. However, these wolves were a fair bit smaller than the ones she'd used
during the assault on the capital of the Rhoden Kingdom.
Sasuke pointed one of his swords and drew the other back in a well-practiced move
that could strike down a foe in a single, powerful strike.
Chiyome unleashed her two aqua wolves on Sasuke, following close behind them
while keeping an eye on Sasuke's movements.
The wolves dove toward Sasuke just as he swung.
Sasuke's initial blows went straight through the first aqua wolf, though his second
attack blew it away.
Sasuke's swords began glowing as a gust of wind whipped around them, making his
attacks all the more powerful.
Chiyome and the remaining aqua wolf flanked Sasuke on either side, and she pressed
in on the attack.
The remaining aqua wolf dove at Sasuke's back, only barely missing as Sasuke ducked
away and swung his sword toward the beast.
At the same moment, Chiyome closed in from the other side. Sasuke missed the wolf
and launched another strike at Chiyome. She dodged, and let loose with another
shuriken.
Sasuke avoided the shuriken this time by twisting his body out of the way. He thrust
his sword up into the neck of the remaining aqua wolf as it dove in toward him.
Suddenly, he felt another wolf, this one smaller than the first two, bite down hard on
his arm and thrash about.
Due to its small size, it was hardly able to inflict more than a flesh wound.
While Sasuke was distracted by the bite, Chiyome threw her short sword straight at
his face. He deflected the blow, but she had anticipated that.
After all the time they'd spent training together on driving an enemy back, striking
when they least expected it, and feinting, Sasuke could easily read Chiyome's intentions.
With the blade temporarily blocking Sasuke's view, Chiyome took the opportunity to
close in on him and get within reach of his injured foot. Even she was stunned that
she'd pulled it off.
All of their training had led them here, with her hand on his foot.
In that moment, Chiyome and Sasuke locked eyes—azure and red fixed on one
another. Chiyome's lips trembled as she stroked the foot of the man who'd once called
her his little sister.
His flesh was cold, as if blood had stopped flowing through it long ago. She gritted her
teeth in determination.
"Body to water, bloodstream hell needle!"
A spike-shaped object formed in Chiyome's right hand and drove itself into the wound
in Sasuke's foot.
Sasuke's foot began deforming and bloating as countless spikes of water tore out of
his body, making him resemble a giant porcupine.
The clear water took on a red tinge as it mixed with his blood. His body convulsed
violently, then he collapsed, the spikes vanishing.
Sasuke lay unmoving on the ground, his eyes closed. Chiyome looked down at him in
silence as tears welled in her eyes. A single teardrop found its way down her cheek
and fell onto Sasuke's face.
"Sasuke… brother. Why didn't you use your ninja techniques and fight back?"
Under normal circumstances, Sasuke would have undoubtedly relied more heavily on
his wind abilities. And yet, he'd only used the most basic of his techniques. Even his
sky-walking technique had felt… half-hearted.
She never would have been able to beat the Sasuke she'd once known.
Chiyome caught a glimpse of movement under the fallen man's eyelids.
"It… wouldn't be right… to fight… against your sister… like that…"
His voice was a hoarse whisper, barely audible over the flames crackling around them.
But Chiyome recognized it as the voice of her beloved brother.
An unrelenting stream of tears poured down Chiyome's cheeks.
"Sasuke! Hold on, I'm going to get Arc! He can heal you, I know it!"
As Chiyome stood up, however, she found her path blocked by Goemon. She shot a
defiant glare up at him.
"Healing magic cannot bring back the dead. Say your goodbyes, Chiyome."
The young ninja let out a choked sob as she turned her gaze back toward Sasuke.
"Don't… cry, Mia. I'm glad that… it was… you who stopped me."
"Rowe… Rooooowe!!!"
Tears flowed freely down her face as she pulled her brother closer, ignoring the
wounds covering his body, in an attempt to catch every word.
Sasuke's face curved into a gentle smile at the feeling of her warmth. "Goemon, please
watch after her."
The large man closed his eyes and nodded solemnly.
Sasuke's body drooped as the last remnants of energy left him. In a matter of moments,
all trace of movement had ceased, as if he'd fallen into a deep, deep sleep. His body
began turning into a fine dust.
"Watch… the church…"
"I don't understand! Sasuke! What does that mean?!"
Chiyome looked down in desperation at the scattering remains of her brother. Alas, he
offered no answers as his disintegrating body was carried away by a strong breeze.
Chiyome held tight to a red, diamond-shaped crystal as she watched the particles
dance in the air. The gem in her hand was all that remained of him.
***
I looked around at the town of Tagent from my rooftop perch and let out a sigh.
"Where did you guys go? I can't find anyone."
Using Dimensional Step, I teleported around the town, looking for my friends. But so
far, all that greeted me were the ever-present flames, slowly eating away at the town.
Whenever I ran across any skeleton soldiers, I destroyed them from the rooftops with
a magical attack. But I quickly realized that there were quite a few of them. I must've
destroyed at least a hundred already.
I also slayed another dark giant while I was at it.
Though not ideal against multiple opponents, Sword of Judgement was the perfect
attack for tearing through a single giant right at their weakest point. I tried not to think
too hard about where I was stabbing them though.
Minimal effort, maximum effect.
"Kyii!" Ponta was trying to tell me something.
"Huh, what's that, buddy?"
I glanced around, finally spotting a dark giant standing atop a roof.
Seeing that hulking mass atop a building was a sight to behold. I had no idea how the
building was supporting its weight.
The vast majority of buildings in Tagent were around three stories tall, making it easy
for the six-meter-tall giants to disappear in their shadows. Staring off at the sea of
rooftops made it impossible to really see anything going on in town.
Another issue I faced was the shoddy construction of the roofs, and the fact that I was
wearing a full suit of armor. On more than one occasion, I'd fallen into a building as
the roof gave out beneath me. At the very least, I could always blame the damage on
the giants, although it had probably been a poor idea on my part to climb up here in
the first place.
I focused on a location behind the dark giant.
"Dimensional Step!"
In an instant, I was standing 300 meters away from where I'd been moments ago. I
drew my sword as I stared at the giant's back, preparing for a surprise attack.
"Sword of Judgment!"
A rune appeared under the giant, and a large sword of light appeared at the center,
shooting straight up through the giant's crotch and out its large, gaping mouth.
As soon as the sword splintered and disappeared, the giant's colossal body tilted to
the side, and tumbled off the roof, hitting the pavement below.
Looking down, I could still see signs of life as it struggled to breathe.
Hordes of skeleton soldiers flooded the narrow alley and approached the fallen giant,
thrusting their weapons into its body.
"I've got no idea what they're doing here…"
The first time I'd seen them, the skeleton soldiers had been attacking the citizens and
local guards.
I'd already figured that the dark giants were led here by Sasuke in order to lay siege
to the town of Tagent. It made enough sense that he would put together a plan to lay
waste to the humans. However, that still begged the question of why and how he'd
disappeared, only to return undead.
Though, to be honest, a part of me didn't want to be suspicious of Chiyome's long-time
ally.
Assuming that he'd led the giants here to destroy the town, and was also responsible
for the skeleton soldiers, it didn't make sense that they would attack the giants.
Things don't always go as planned, though.
If you released a tiger and a wolf on the same prey, it's more likely than not that the
tiger and wolf will end up fighting each other instead.
Even more confusing, though, was the fact that the skeleton soldiers simply walked
past the townsfolk on occasion, without bothering to attack.
Perhaps some of them were human after all?
All of the soldiers I'd destroyed so far had attacked either humans or mountain people,
though, so I didn't worry about destroying them. Still, I couldn't wrap my mind around
what was going on in this town.
The giant ceased all movement after the skeleton soldiers' assault. With that task
complete, they marched off in search of another target.
I kicked a roof tile down toward them. It hit the pavement below, shattering with a
loud crash. But they only glanced at it before continuing on their way.
It didn't seem like there were any humans among them. Sure, they'd responded to the
sound, but they made no effort to identify where the tile had come from.
"This just keeps getting stranger and stranger."
Before I could give it more thought, I heard another giant's cry off in the distance.
It was already well into the evening, and the sun was hanging low in the sky.
The dark giant screeched again, this time followed by the desperate screams of humans.
Ponta turned in the direction of the sound, its tail wagging gently. I turned, too, trying
to identify the source of the sound.
Up ahead, at the center of the town, I saw a massive building that looked nothing like
the rest.
It was flanked on either side by towers that shot high into the sky. It had a rather
unique construction to it, and looked remarkably similar to a building I'd seen back in
Leibnizche, in the Holy East Revlon Empire.
I figured they were both churches of the Hilk religion.
The last time I'd seen a building like this was when I summoned forth a demon and
pretty much reduced the church to rubble. Glancing around, I caught sight of several
dark giants marching down the road, closing in on the church. At their feet, I saw little
dots scattering out of their way—townsfolk running for their lives.
I turned my attention away for a moment to look up at the darkening sky. Once night
fell, it would become infinitely more difficult for me to use my teleportation magic.
The original plan had been to slip into the town unnoticed among the chaos and free
the enslaved mountain people, but I couldn't just leave the dark giants to run around
freely, causing havoc.
Well, havoc had already been caused. But I didn't want to see it get any worse.
From where I stood, I counted seven dark giants assembling around the church.
I took a deep breath, drew the Holy Thunder Sword of Caladbolg with my right hand
and hefted the Holy Shield of Teutates with my left.
"Kyii!"
Sensing that it was time for battle again, Ponta dropped down from my head and
wrapped itself around my neck like a scarf. I brushed its fluffy tail aside to keep it from
obscuring my vision.
"Off we go."
I let out the breath I'd been holding and used Dimensional Step to teleport me atop
one of the buildings inside the church grounds. It gave me a good line of sight over the
surrounding area.
The church was larger than any other building in town and immaculately decorated,
though its design was still more reserved than the churches I'd seen back up on the
northern continent. Probably the most unique feature was the large wall that enclosed
the church grounds.
Back in my world, I couldn't recall seeing any churches surrounded by walls, given that
the whole point of a church was to be open to all. It seemed a bit odd to me. But this
was a different world. Back before the town had exploded in size, the church might
have been designed as an evacuation point in the event of a monster attack.
In front of me, I watched as people flooded through the church's entrance.
Anyone who showed even a moment's hesitation was snatched up and thrown into
the mouth of one of the pursuing dark giants. I could hear the awful sounds as they
crunched down.
Just watching the scene unfold was enough to make me sick to my stomach.
Unfortunately, even those who did make it past the church's walls weren't necessarily
safe. The dark giants were already aggressively swinging their stone axes into the wall.
More crashes. More screams.
The dark giants lumbered through the hole they'd bashed in the wall and began
screeching as they stomped on the people in the courtyard as if they were ants.
I couldn't get a clear look from where I stood, but the screams I heard told the whole
story.
My sword hand trembled. Was this… fear? Why?
I remembered what I'd done for the fallen woman earlier. I dropped my sword, took
off my helmet, and touched my face.
It wasn't that of a cold, hard skull.
I let out a sigh as the tips of my fingers touched flesh.
Apparently, the effects of the spring water hadn't worn off yet. So this emotion causing
me to pause in the face of giants was… real. The feelings of fear surfaced whenever I
returned to my elven form, and that was causing my feet to betray me and keep me
from moving forward.
I squeezed my fists several times, trying to force the fear down.
No matter how overpowered this body of flesh and blood might be, without the proper
experience and training to prepare the soul, it was like a weapon left in cold storage. I
laughed weakly.
"Kyii?"
Ponta looked up from my neck, concern clear on its face.
"It's okay, Ponta. This will be a good exercise for me. If I plan to face my foes as an elf,
I'll need to prepare myself for combat."
Though I was speaking to Ponta, the words were more for me. I put my helmet back
on, closed my eyes, and banged on my forehead several times with my fist.
"I'm ready."
I made a brief list of skills that could be useful in the upcoming battle, then retrieved
the Holy Thunder Sword of Caladbolg from the roof with an energetic yell.
For my first target, I picked one of the dark giants a little farther into the courtyard,
away from the others. Getting the drop on your enemy was one of the essentials of
combat. Now that I thought about it, the very first battle I'd gotten into, when I first
appeared in this world, had also relied on the element of surprise.
It seemed a bit easy, considering all the power I could harbor, but I thought it best to
build up my experience slowly.
I held my sword at the ready and focused on a spot behind the dark giant.
"Dimensional Step!"
In an instant, I was standing atop another roof, staring at the giant's back. Holding my
sword up, I readied my next attack.
Just then, I heard a man's voice booming from within the church grounds.
"Now just wait a minute here! You leave my house alone, you hear me?!"
The voice shook the very ground beneath me and left me with a deep sense of unease.
And yet, there was also something incredibly immature about it, which only
contributed to how uncanny it sounded.
"You've got me real mad now! I'm going to rip you to shreds!"
The eerie, immature voice echoed around me. A massive explosion tore through the
air as part of the church's wall blew away.
The panicking masses, and even the dark giants that were munching on them, all
looked over in surprise.
Amid the slowly dispersing cloud of dust stood a hideous, indescribable form that
somehow managed to make the dark giants look cute by comparison.
The best description I could come up with was that it looked vaguely like a scorpion
with the face of a caterpillar. Its massive body was pale white, and it was about ten
meters long. It looked rather squishy. Countless human heads, tortured expressions
on their faces, covered the body of the creature. I could faintly hear moans escaping
their lips, as if they were still alive. The whole thing was supported by innumerable
pale, white human legs running along its stomach like fine hairs. The legs caused the
creature to undulate as it slid its body along.
The back of the creature was curled up like a shrimp. At the tip of the raised section
was a body that looked like a cross between a frog and a man. This appeared to be the
source of the voice I'd heard earlier. A large, fleshy mass grew out of the frogman's
back with a multitude of long, multi-jointed arms sprouting out of it. Each of the hands
carried a hatchet, club, mace, or some other weapon.
It was truly a creature of nightmare.
The disturbing scorpion-caterpillar launched its raised section toward a nearby dark
giant, the innumerable arms descending on it with weapons drawn, but I knew the
dark giant's stiff fur did a good job protecting it from being harmed by most normal
weapons.
The giant pulled up its axe and tried fighting back, but it was only a few moments
before it dropped to the ground from its injuries.
The large scorpion-like creature opened its immense mouth lined with hundreds of
teeth. It looked like a giant alligator as it swooped in and swallowed the dark giant
whole, a sickening squishing noise filling the air as its mouth closed.
Even given its immense size, I was amazed to see the scorpion-caterpillar swallow a
dark giant whole. I could hardly believe my eyes.
I briefly considered the possibility that maybe there was someone else out there who
could also summon demons and was trying to protect the townsfolk, but I knew in my
heart that the world wasn't that kind.
After taking down the dark giant, the creature slithered toward some of the humans
cowering in fear nearby. It opened its mouth again and chomped down on them.
I realized that this was no angel of the church, but yet another of the many indescribable
monsters that inhabited this world.
The people quickly descended into panic, which was a pretty reasonable reaction.
I heard them scream and flee in terror as the bizarre creature called after them.
"Aww, but being like this makes me soooo hungry."
He sounded so casual as he spoke, inhaling people with his large mouth, like a whale
might suck up krill. It was a scene of indiscriminate carnage.
After seeing their comrade taken down, the rest of the dark giants descended upon
the massive creature. However, the result was the same each time: They, along with
the other humans running for their lives, just ended up as another snack in the
creature's belly.
The faces howling in agony along the creature's body increased.
All I could do was watch as the large, pale creature wriggled forward on countless legs,
its frog-human body gazing at the carnage in front of it.
"Kyiii…"
Ponta's worried cry brought me back to reality.
"Sorry about that, Ponta."
The scene only got worse as a swarm of skeleton soldiers swept in, chasing after the
refugees who'd escaped to the church.
It didn't do me any good to try and make sense of the situation right now.
If the tiger clan ran across this creature, it wouldn't end well for them.
Fortunately, the creature still hadn't noticed me. I still had the element of surprise.
I began waving the Holy Thunder Sword of Caladbolg, its blade slowly taking on a light
blue glow. With a smash, I brought the blade straight down into the ground.
"Sword of Judgment!"
The scorpion creature was looking in another direction, so I was sure everything was
about to play out perfectly.
Despite putting in even more power than usual, in order to make sure I'd finish the
thing off, as soon as the rune appeared underneath the creature, the faces that lined
its body let out moans of agony, and it quickly skittered out of the way. The sword of
light shot straight up into the air, totally missing its mark.
I was impressed at how fast a thing that size could move.
The frog-man looming over the creature seemed to be steering it around like some
living vehicle—a kind of demon go-kart.
I silently cursed as I readied myself for my next attack. Unfortunately, the creature had
finally caught sight of me. That didn't take long.
The creature undulated as it moved, turning its massive body toward me.
"Who dares oppose me?! All right men, destroy him!"
His eerie voice rang in my ear like that of an impetuous child. The countless legs lining
its belly trembled as the creature came toward me at full speed. Yep, I'd been found.
"Holy Shield!"
I took off in a sprint, shield at the ready as I called forth my defensive spell.
At nearly the same instant, the multi-armed creature descended upon me. I could hear
its blows smashing against my glowing shield as I slashed out with my own sword,
lopping off several of the incoming arms.
Fortunately, the pale flesh had nowhere near the defensive abilities of the giants, and
my weapon easily cut through them.
"You jerk! You big, fat, stupid jeeeeeeerk!"
The creature was clearly annoyed as it began throwing a fit. Deciding on another
strategy, it rushed at me, trying to crush me.
I was able to dodge the attack with a quick teleport. The creature turned frantically
from side to side, trying to see where I went.
Apparently, his view was fixed, and he could only look in the direction his body was
facing.
In that case, I should be able to just attack it from behind, constantly moving out of its
line of sight and attacking again.
I readied my sword once more and called forth another of my skills, this time a fast,
short-range technique.
"Holy Ray Sword!"
I swung my glowing blade down, sending out a beam of light in a straight line toward
the creature's feet. It let out a loud, wailing cry.
The creature slumped to one side as it turned to face me. There was something rather
nauseating about how it moved.
"You jerk! You bastard! You, you, you… I hate you!"
The frog-man attached to the back of the creature continued screaming a variety of
epithets at me as it lunged in once more. I wasn't really interested in fighting this thing
face to face, though.
I dodged the attack and unleashed another Holy Ray Sword, but this time I was only
able to lop off a few more legs as it deftly moved out of the way.
I glared back at the thing, silently hurling similar complaints back at it.
The massive creature seemed to grow in size, the faces lining its body bloating, their
mouths going wide. In unison, they each vomited up a pale, amorphous mass around
the size of a grown man.
These vomited lumps of muscle began twitching about in a grotesque manner before
standing up under their own power. They looked like eels that had embedded
themselves deep in the sea floor, wriggling about as they searched for food.
Numerous tendrils began growing out of the sides of these writhing creatures before
they started crawling along like inchworms.
They squirmed about in bizarre fashion for a short time before bounding into the air
like fleas, flying right toward me.
"Yeagh, ewww!"
I used my shield and sword to block and chop down the numerous masses of flesh that
came flying at me.
Everywhere I looked, all I could see was more of these writhing creatures. I couldn't
get a fix on a location to teleport to.
None of the incoming enemies were particularly strong on their own. They posed little
individual threat, but there were just so many of them… and they were disgusting to
boot.
I wasn't making any progress, so I decided to use one of my Magus area-of-effect spells.
"Flame Viper!"
Flames began licking around my feet before turning into a column of fire surrounding
me. A flaming snake rose up from the column and began torching the monsters.
At least they weren't resistant to fire, as far as I could tell.
My surroundings looked like a sci-fi movie, the landscape covered in the charred
remains of alien larva.
Now that I was ready to get back into the fight with the creature itself, I discovered
that it had its large, alligator-like mouth wide open, an ominous sound echoing out
from deep inside. The wailing of the faces embedded in its skin increased in pitch.
"Veeveeeeveeeveeveeeveeaaaaaaaaugh!!!"
The sound on its own was enough to make me feel uneasy, but the volume made it all
the worse. My legs wobbled, then gave out on me entirely, sending me to my knees.
Ponta slipped off my neck.
"Ngah, does he have debuff spells too?"
I used my sword like a cane to support myself, running through the litany of recovery
spells I knew in an attempt to ward off the debuffing effects.
"Uncurse!"
"Anti-disease!"
They seemed to have at least some effect, since I felt my strength come back to me.
Just to be on the safe side, I used the recovery spells on Ponta as well.
I let out a yell to focus myself and turned toward the creature, ready to face it headon. Once I got a look at it, however, I immediately understood the purpose of its
debuffing attack.
New fleshy-looking objects were growing out of the creature's stomach. It looked like
it was regenerating before my eyes and growing new legs.
Its regeneration wasn't fast by any means, but this whole situation didn't look good.
Back in the game, enemies that had regeneration abilities usually needed to be
attacked by multiple people, all timing their attacks perfectly to prevent the monster
from regenerating. Right now, it was only me.
I felt like I was fighting the boss all on my own.
Of course, the solution was simple: I needed to keep attacking the creature and not
give it any time to regenerate.
While my mind ran over my options, he lunged again, attacking with his many arms.
I knew that I'd already lopped off quite a few arms at this point, but I didn't seem to
be making any progress in reducing the number. This was bad. I might need to make
a run for it and find a better place to make my stand.
I glanced around at my surroundings, desperately trying to come up with a plan. The
square was now blanketed in darkness, which severely limited where I could teleport
to.
I really didn't want to do this, but I didn't have many other choices. I teleported to the
farthest place I could see. This would at least give me a little breathing room.
"I'm really sorry about this, Ponta, but I'll need you to fly around on your own for a
bit!"
"Kyi? Kyiii!"
Ponta tilted its head inquisitively before sliding off my neck and onto my head. From
there, it called up a gust of magical wind, spread the membranes between its legs, and
took off into the air.
Good.
I watched Ponta for a moment before turning my attention back to the creature.
Next up, I needed to summon one of my demons—one I'd never used before.
"Come forth, Guardian of Time! Aion, I summon you!"
A large rune appeared on the ground beneath my feet and began glowing. It looked
like the inner workings of a clock with intricate springs and cogs all moving together
in unison.
The rune began warping, and a giant snake with the head of a lion appeared in the
center of it.
The snake-lion coiled itself around my feet and moved up. To anyone watching, it must
have looked like I was being attacked by a giant snake. But all was going as planned.
The lion head made it all the way up to my shoulder and flashed its fangs at me. Then
it bit my neck. My armor flashed, taking on a snake-lion design as flames flickered out
from the gaps.
This was one of the Summoner class's top-tier demons, Aion. Upon summoning forth
Aion, it would lock the player's status for a full three minutes. It was a rather unique,
though abnormal, skill.
It was a little hard to describe what locking a player's status actually meant, but in
short, it basically meant that for three whole minutes, the player wouldn't take
damage from attacks and wouldn't consume any magic. You were essentially
invincible.
It wasn't without its downsides, however.
First off, you had to achieve a fairly high level in the Summoner class before you could
learn it. Even then, despite all that hard work you put in, using this demon was actually
pretty inconvenient for most Summoners.
You see, Summoners could only summon one demon at a time.
Sure, you could use as much magic as you wanted in this invincible state, but a
Summoner primarily relied on demons for its attacks, which it couldn't use when their
status locked.
Compounding that was the fact that it used a lot of magic to summon forth Aion, which
made sense, considering its effect. Even adding in a mid-tier, magic-based class, it'd
probably take more than three minutes before you were able to make up for all the
magic you'd consumed to summon it.
Therefore, in order to properly make use of Aion's abilities, you'd need to have another
high-level class, one that could unleash powerful offensive attacks, as either your main
or secondary class.
Even though I was able to use any skill I'd ever learned here, back in the game, you
were limited to skills belonging to either your main or secondary classes. With
Summoner taking up one of those, and another dedicated to offensive capabilities,
your player character would be heavily weighted on offense.
Basically, this demon was reserved for gaming addicts.
"All right, let's wrap this up! Don't leave a single ember left burning!"
I looked up to see the creature heading straight toward me, its countless legs wriggling
along its stomach like little hairs. Pulling up my sword and shield, I readied myself for
the attack. Though Aion prevented your health from dropping in the game, I actually
wasn't sure what kind of effect it would have in reality.
Being overconfident definitely wouldn't do me any good, but I figured that, for now,
I'd just ignore any incoming attacks and launch an assault of my own.
While several of the arms were able to strike direct blows on me with their weapons,
I didn't feel any pain other than the sensation of being knocked back. At the very least,
the demon's abilities seemed to be working.
However, I was unsure how much time was actually passing, so I wouldn't be able to
make use of the full three minutes. That would be a problem.
Even though I was able to nullify the impact of the creature's attack, I was still no
closer to my objective.
I needed to do everything I could to weaken the creature as much as possible before
my time was up.
"Sacred Seal!"
Hot flashes of light sparked off my blade as I called forth one of my offensive Paladin
skills. Forcing my way through its frenzied attack, I brought my sword down on the
creature's torso.
A trail of light hung in the air as I swung my sword, the blade finding its target and
chopping off a chunk of the creature's body.
"Oooooooooooww!!!"
This was the most powerful skill I had against the undead. Fortunately, it seemed to
be quite effective. While the skill was active, even normal attacks would have the same
effect, making it a rather useful technique as far as magical abilities were concerned.
I hadn't summoned Aion just for this, however. I had bigger plans.
The creature was drawing back now, in an attempt to protect itself, but I didn't let up.
"You're done for! Cross Advent!"
This was an area-of-effect spell from the Priest class. A bright circle of light appeared
in the air above the creature before transforming into a giant, glowing cross. It looked
almost like Jacob's Ladder, going all the way down to the creature's head.
"Oooowww!!!"
The creature began bubbling and evaporating where the light struck it, tendrils of
smoke rising into the sky.
It leaped back as the pain grew too much to bear, landing on top of several giants and
killing them instantly before crashing into the wall of the church, sending down a
landslide of rubble.
But I wasn't about to let up the attack now.
I launched into another flurry of strikes against its body using Sacred Seal before
calling forth another Cross Advent the moment the cooldown ran out and I could cast
it again.
The snake-lion design on my armor began fading just as the creature's body started
sizzling away and turning into an amorphous lump of pale flesh. It was an awful sight,
like a bunch of human bodies mashed together.
"Kyii!"
"Hah! Looks like I did it!"
Ponta landed on my head to offer up words of encouragement. I turned my gaze away
from the lump of flesh to survey my surroundings. The church had been pretty much
destroyed in the battle.
At least this time it wasn't my fault. Or at least, that's what I told myself as I turned my
gaze back to the mass of melting flesh.
Just what was that creature anyway?
Also, where were Ariane, Chiyome, and Goemon? Were they okay?
I turned around, leaving the wreckage of the church behind me as the survivors stared
at the remains of the creature, dumbfounded.
The threat over here was pretty well pacified, so I figured it was time to meet up with
the rest of the group.
I glanced up at the star-filled sky and sheathed my sword.
The fires still burning throughout Tagent were like streetlights as I walked along, my
heart full of doubts about whether I'd actually be able to meet up with Ariane and the
others.
"Hmm… maybe I should just head out of town and wait with Houwe? That might be
easier."
"Kyi?"
Ponta responded to my rhetorical question with an inquisitive mew of its own,
wagging its long, cottony tail excitedly as it spotted something that caught its interest.
"Kyii! Kyiiiiii!"
I caught sight of three figures heading toward me.
It was Ariane, Chiyome, and Goemon. I let out a sigh of relief. Now we could finally get
out of this place.
I waved at Ariane as she crossed the open square toward me. "Ohh, Ariane! Did you
have any trouble?"
Ariane simply let out a heavy sigh and shook her head.
As we closed the distance, I noticed that Chiyome's eyes were cast down. She hadn't
said anything yet. Even her usually perky cat ears were lying flat atop her head.
Back when we'd first entered the town, she'd taken off after Sasuke. I leaned in and
whispered to Ariane, "What happened with Sasuke?"
She only shook her head silently.
Chiyome's ears twitched slightly, as if responding to what I'd just asked. She slowly
opened her hand, revealing a glowing red diamond.
I'd seen something like it before. It was a pledge spirit crystal—a treasure cherished
by the Jinshin clan, which allowed a person to become one with a spirit by pledging
themselves to it, giving them the ability to use powerful techniques. Chiyome had one
embedded within her as well.
Since Chiyome was holding it in her hand, that had to mean…
I locked eyes with Ariane. She nodded.
Chiyome spoke at last, in a hushed tone. "The last thing Sasuke told me was to watch
out for the church… then he was gone."
I looked back at Ariane and Goemon, but all they could do was shrug.
"Watch out for the church"? What did that mean?
I looked back over my shoulder at the church grounds where I'd battled the giant
creature. Sasuke had called forth the undead and used giants to lay waste to the town.
Did the church have something to do with all this?
But if that were the case, then why would the church stage the attack within its
grounds? Though, to be fair, we couldn't assume that the church was acting as one.
I scratched my chin and frowned.
Back where I came from, every religion was made up of multiple denominations and
factions, so it was entirely believable that there might be no central, solid consensus
at the core of the Hilk. Could this be a case of in-fighting?
I shook my head, trying to clear my thoughts and unravel this tangled ball of yarn. But
I wouldn't be able to find any answers right now, no matter how much I thought it over.
Without knowing what they were after in the first place, it was impossible to figure
out the reasons behind their actions.
Besides, it was probably best for the elves and mountain people to stay away from the
church in the first place, considering that their teachings insisted the elves were
"usurpers" and the mountain people had been "cast out of humanity." There was more
than enough reason to steer clear. All this meant was that we'd want to be a little more
cautious in how we conducted ourselves going forward.
But for now, we should head out of town and make our way back to Chieftain Houwe.
I gazed up at the church. Flanked by the two towers, it resembled a tombstone against
the night sky. I tore my gaze away to look back at the group.